Emiya II
The last bit of the melon skin was pushed from into the small bin that had been laid around for food waste. Apparently a staff would come through this medieval style hotel, and remove the waste soon. It was the same for the chamber pots and used linens. All would be cleaned for the high level of coin it cost to keep these rooms. Cu had stayed here for a week before and was a good enough renter that when they had arrived earlier that morning, with enough coin to pay for another week, the owner of the facility had gladly accepted the coin, and allowed the two of them to lay Colan down, and gave Emiya a place to return once he managed to gather the ingredients he had needed for their meal. The grunt of affirmation for his request of some funds had been the first thing that Cu had said to him since Emiya had knocked out Colan.
On some level, Emiya didn't blame the hound.
"I hope the food was to your liking," Emiya looked over at the growing boy. He was taller than Connla had been, though he wasn't sure. He had only seen Connla once, and even then he had been dodging a massive demon thorn. But Colan looked much like one would expect the son of Cu Chulainn to look like. He had spiky head of blue hair, though unlike his father he seemed to cut it shorter. He was also lithe where his father had always seemed to Emiya, even during his days as a that boy, to be a muscle bound berserker. And while Cu's goodly blood had passed some of his reddish eye color, it was more mixed, rather than the deep crimson of Cu himself. Almost seemed purple. Burgundy was probably the best color he could think of to describe his eyes. The boy, clearly still nervous of the man who had both defeated his father in combat and knocked him out so easily, fidgeted under his gaze, before nodding.
"I enjoyed it very much, Lord Emiya," he said. Emiya felt the sides of his mouth shoot upward. He turned, and felt them rise even higher as he saw Cu slam his face in his hands.
"Why did you say that?" Colan only began to fidget more once he heard that, raising his hands up to his father. He had clearly only been trying to be polite to a comrade of his father. Emiya almost felt guilty about how much fun he was going to have with the Hound of Ulster using this boy.
Almost.
"Looord Emiya," he rolled the title aloud like a sweet dough, molding and shaping it in his mouth, "yes, I like the sound of that," he gave a chuckle, "Loooooooord Emiya," he rolled the dough back again, to make sure all the air bubbles had been removed, "Again, I ask where you gained these manners and appreciations, because clearly it could not come from that reprobate you call a father."
"Don't talk about Da like that!" Colan stood, glaring at the tall man not a moment before he had been cowering beneath, "My father is a man of great honor. He has taught me the importance of manners. Without manners he says, we are but dogs. Manners allow us to show the higher intelligence of minds."
"Really," Emiya couldn't contain his own bark of a laugh, just as Cu could not contain another groan, "he said that? Your father?"
"Yes. My Father."
"Then does he speak of chivalry then?"
"Of course he does," Colan stated it as a matter of fact, and Emiya almost felt his knees buckle.
"Ha-He does," Emiya composed himself as best he could, trying, and he was quite sure failing, to conceal his laughter, "he does. Well then, does he speak of treating women respectfully?"
"Whenever we meet are to meet a lady," Colan nodded to himself, so absorbed in the conversation that he failed to realize his father nearly bent completely sideways, his face covered by both palms, "he informs me of proper manners."
"Even when it is a lady in a brothel?"
"We never go to the brothels."
Emiya felt his smile fall. He looked over at Cu again, and suddenly saw that Cu had removed his hands from his face, looking him directly in the eye. Emiya felt his eyebrow raise slightly. Cu, at first looked slightly indignant, bending back up to his full height. The Irish hero looked Emiya directly in the eye and almost spit what he said next.
"No matter how much you joke, I've never been Fergus," Cu sniped. Emiya snorted, remembering the musclebound swordsman's penchant for…frolicking among the staff of Chaldea during their first stint as Servants. It had been a good thing that Servants could not conceive children, or there could have possibly been around two dozen Fergus juniors wandering the halls of that Antarctic facility. Cu did not need to say aloud the exploits of his Uncle, "I am an honorable man."
"Who has two sons, neither of which came from his wife," Emiya said flatly, and that caused Cu to slouch. The shame somewhat surprised Emiya, he hadn't really seen it before besides in America. He raised his hands, in an attempt to mollify his comrade, "You are not Fergus, but you are a man of whims and appetites."
"I had…any appetite of prostitution robbed of me long ago," Cu finally admitted. Emiya didn't need to look hard to guess that Cu was looking at his son. Emiya nodded slowly, not wanting to push the issue.
'Colan's mother being a prostitute makes sense,' Emiya continued to nod, looking over the young boy, 'She likely died, and Colan was all alone. He took the boy in, and now probably doesn't want to deal with any extra baggage that might occur if he returned to the brothel.'
"Our appetites are always changing," Emiya smiled again, before placing his hand on the top of Colan's head. The boy flinched again, though Emiya continued while trying to forget why that reaction was not unwarranted, "But that is why it is good that your father has given you these manners. These rules and customs allow us to rule our appetites, rather than be ruled by them. Though it is also important that we take in the lessons of our lives to help us grow, often, they enforce those manners, as you can see why our ancestors created them in the first place."
Colan simply nodded at that. And, out of the corner of his eye, Emiya caught the smile on Cu's face. Cu nodded at his son, and then looked out wistfully. Perhaps he was imagining the boy's mother, and wondering what she'd think of him. He'd seen that look a few times from Kitsurugu when he'd been speaking of his wife. The fool never had the chance to meet Irisveil, but Emiya himself had become acquainted with the woman in Chaldea. Though he had never fully her attempts to forge their "Family" fully back together again.
It just wouldn't have been right.
"Anyway, you two should remain here," Emiya said, "I need to go out into the city, do some reconnaissance work."
"Rec-"
"Scouting," Cu told his son quickly, before glaring at Emiya. There was still part of him that seemed to resent Emiya for trapezing into his new life, and he wasn't about to let him get away with riling up what he saw as right, "Do try and use words that won't get the city guard looking at you as though you are some kind of foreign spy."
"Ah, but I am a foreign spy," Emiya laughed, which got a groan from Cu, "Or at least something to that effect."
"What will you be looking for," Colan asked.
"Information on the rest of our comrades," Emiya nodded at Colan, "There are eleven others like your father and I, and we need to find them and arrange for all of us to get home," he then quickly made sure to add, "all fourteen of us. You included of course."
"Home," Colan turned back to his father, "I thought you said our home was the North."
"The North Pole?" Emiya asked, only to be interrupted by Cu.
"A Kingdom in a far west continent," the Hound explained, though there was an almost wistful longing in the back of his voice. Emiya could almost see a longing in the back of his comrade's eyes, something that he recognized from their previous conversations about Ulster, "It was where I was born, and where I was planning on eventually returning with Colan in a few years. We had been forced to make the long way round, due to…issues going back straight west," the wistfulness had disappeared, and in its place was a general discomfort that clung to his words.
"I see," Emiya considered the city that Cu had mentioned when they had fought earlier, Lys. Perhaps that was in the way of returning home, "Well, no Colan not that home. Our Master has a fine house that I am sure you will find quite comfortable."
"Mast-"
"Not what you think," Cu said quickly, clearly uncomfortable with the thought of the more traditional use of the term, "More like a Master at Arms or a Master of the Household, rather than some master of slaves."
Colan nodded as did Emiya. That explanation, while actually a bit farther off than what their contract with Ritsuka was actually like, would probably be easier to digest for Colan, and honestly their Master at times treated their partnerships more like that anyway. After settling out those matters, Emiya marched his way out of the main door. He then turned back, and looked back at the two.
"I will make dinner later, anything you would like Colan?"
"Oh," the boy turned back to Cu, who nodded at his son, "I would like some rabbit meat. We rarely get to eat it, but last time we were in Qarth a few days ago, we found a few merchants who brought some smoked meat from the west," Cu himself seemed to smile at that.
"Yeah, rabbit's good," a wolfish grin covering his face. Emiya nearly shook his head, but decided against it, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself. He would have groaned if he didn't want to have to deal with another argument already.
'Pack of dogs I swear.'
"Hasenpfeffer it is then," Emiya turned back and waved, walking out into the small hall that lead to the stairs out of their building. Despite everything, he actually was mildly impressed that Cu had managed to afford a set of rooms that was several stories off the ground, and fairly nice as well. He didn't even bother to look back at the two behind him, "See you all in a few hours."
As he left the room, he felt his smirk return as he heard-
"Hossenf-"
"A rabbit dish."
"Is this good?" Emiya watched the "Dornish Red" in his hand swirl from one end of the bottle to the other, "You are the third stall to have this wine, but I have yet to hear if this is a good vintage."
"Of course, of course," the stall owner, waving his hand from his side and thus allowing his shining red, silk robe to dance in the air, smiled, quickly pushing himself across the wooden table, the coins and papers on it scattering, and a few small clumps of grapes falling into the street, "you are a man with a keen eye. This is of a fine vintage, first produced some thirty years ago from the gardens of Sunspear. To have it here is a miracle, but I am Jaron, master merchant. And I shall give you ser, this bottle for a very nice price, seven silver."
'Bullshit,' Emiya swirled it again.
"Seven silver you say," Emiya continued, "Seven Silver! By the gods!" Emiya held the bottle up, "This man," he waved his hand at Jaron, "is suggesting that he is a great merchant. Yet he apparently offers authentic Dornish wine for-"
Jaron slapped his hand over Emiya's mouth, and with wide eyes, pulled him down, "Yes, yes, quite the deal, quite the deal, let us talk a bit more closely," Jaron somehow produced a knife, and held it at Emiya's chest. He then whispered in Emiya's ear, "Listen stranger, your white hair and bronze skin is of one not from this city. You think you are clever but I can tell you are not a member of any of the guilds. Buy this wine loudly or I shall gut you."
"Really," Emiya smirked, before reaching up his left arm in a circular motion, and catching the merchant's hand. He then twisted, causing the man to shriek, and then drop the dagger so it clanged on the ground, "Not only are you a shit merchant, it seems you happen a shit thug too," he then moved his right arm in and caught Jaron's elbow, pushed upward, and lifted the man into the air. Finally, he caught the man's elbow with his right arm moving up swiftly, turned Jaron in the air, and slammed him down on the stall. The wood cracked, and dozens of the bottles of wine rolled off. He looked down on Jaron, and shook his head.
"A recommendation, next time you threaten someone stronger than you, bring bigger guys," he let out his fiercest sneer at the downed merchant, whose head seemed to rock back and forth in a horrific daze.
"Uoohu," Jaron groaned. Emiya turned to another merchant, one directly across the street from Jaron, this one a female, and felt his cheeks light up suddenly, and focused his eyes upward. She was a pretty Qarthi girl, with palish skin and long elegant hair, though not as wealthily dressed as old Jaron, "Do you happen to have a good Red wine?"
The girl looked at him, at first nervous after moving his eyes from the downed man on the stall, felt some confusion as she saw his face for a second. For a moment, he could tell she was trying to piece together the sudden change in his demeanor, and for the life of her, she couldn't tell. Finally, she recognized that Emiya was desperately trying to keep from looking downward from his position, and looked down at herself.
She then stopped, looked back up, and her mouth curled upward. She bent over, curling up like a cat, "My word, you are quite the strong man aren't you?" She pushed herself forward so he almost had to look down in order to look her in the eyes, "I have seen many strong men around here, but very few could lift up someone that…indulged."
"Yes," he grumbled, realizing she had him. He continued to refuse to look down, and she just smirked as she noticed that. It meant he couldn't look her in the eye, and thus she could use that to her advantage. He had been able to avoid the Qarthi custom of female dress when he had been moving among the crowd, but…well…
It is a bit harder having to talk to a half naked woman about wine prices than it was a fully clothed man. 'Curse my Japanese politeness,' he thought as the woman rubbed her face, and smiled more broadly, 'Curse it.'
"Oh, I'm sure I have something that you will find more than to your liking," the smirk on her face only became more feline. She reached under her stall, and pulled up something and slammed it on the table, with the distinct sound of a glass bottle hitting wood, and a slosh of some liquid moving around in it, "I cannot promise it to be from Dorne itself, but we have the same grapes, on an island not far from here, from a beautiful vineyard," she leaned upward, almost so her body was on top of his, "Of course," she pushed herself forward so Emiya could almost feel her body touch his. Almost, "This wine is of high quality, and been fermenting for many years. It shall cost…" she let out a breath in his face, "What is fair."
'Curse it.'
Emiya growled as he handled the food in his container. He was still sore from the pretty penny that girl had gotten from him for the wine, but he had managed to get a good price on basically everything else. It was honestly fascinating exactly what he was able to find in this city. He had originally thought to start with a base of an old Hasenpfeffer, and build from that, but he had found almost everything he had needed. Dry pork for the bacon, currant jelly, shallots, peppercorns, bay leaf, garlic…everything he would need for the stew like rabbit dish. It really was a city of merchants, and he could totally believe that there was a legendary guild of spice traders if he had managed to get his hands on rosemary and thyme.
But still…
'Why on Earth do all the women around here walk around half naked,' he knew that some cultures had allowed women to walk along half naked, but a culture like this usually didn't allow men to show their best chests so openly in public let alone the women. It didn't even seem to serve any cultural purpose, beyond allowing women that were merchants to pull one over on either prudish or licentious me.
'At least the more flippant servants cover themselves more,' He thought of some of the females servants, a few who instead of not wearing very covering clothing either, but he shook that off. Girls like Ushiwaka and, a while after he had first met her, Boudica, tried to wear more covering clothing when they were not actually in battle, as they simply wore so little for battle to allow them to fight with greater agility. Though Boudica and clothing had been a touchy subject that he tried to avoid talking about.
'Moving on,' Emiya shook his head further to try and refocus on his surroundings, and as he did so, he again felt the back of his neck spasm in a bit of disgust, 'This whole freaking city seems obsessed with being as creepy as possible. I mean, the largest set of defensive walls basically shows scenes from the Kama Sutra. Even very sex positive cultures wouldn't usually put out pornography where their youngest would see it every day.'
'Then there is that Bronze Archway a bit back there,' he remembered the image of two bronze snakes rising from the ground before meeting above the road, their scarily accurate anatomy shown to be in the act of mating, 'That is a massive waste of time and money, spending that much money on something like that,' plenty of cultures had massive showy decorative monuments. Almost none of them actually were to show snakes in intercourse.
"It's almost like a pastiche of some kind of weird Eastern Fantasy," he said aloud to himself, glad that no one around really seemed to pay attention, "Like, it has a general idea of how a culture forms, about different customs and history, but without actually understanding how they develop, and just throwing a bunch of tropes together."
Emiya couldn't help but remember a time the boy had been visiting Rin in London while she had been studying magic at the Clocktower. He had gone with her and Luvia to an old book shop to recover something of ancient magecraft that had accidentally been lost there. While the two Magi bickered with one another over who would actually get to buy the book, and thus return as the "most triumphant", Emiya remembered seeing a book on the "Mystical Orient". He had only flipped through the pictures for a few moments, but this Qarth seemed to have some of the same trapping as that old 19th century pulp.
"Is this world perhaps constructed," he wondered, considering it, "Maybe some mad Western Magus decided to create this as some kind of weird fantasy world in a massive reality marble," He remembered one of Master Fujimara's books. The boy had spent much of his free time, when he wasn't practicing, and failing, to play his guitar, "some kind of wannabe Tolkien maybe?"
He stared out over the crowd, and despite himself, sighed. Obviously, something was going on here. This world had been strong enough to snatch twelve servants from the ship, and transported them back in time somehow. It had given them new bodies and new memories, and somehow, he remembered the boy Colan looking up at him in concern for his father, the ability to reproduce. All of these things should not happen, but he'd been slapped in the face with them, so he would have to deal with it. Emiya would have to be careful moving forward, which meant that no matter what, he could not let his own discomfort over some of these customs force him to not complete his mission.
'No matter how pervy some of these customs are,' he pushed himself further down the walkway, towards the rooms Cu had managed to buy. As he walked down the causeway, he passed through hundreds of different peoples, and made good time. He passed the merchants and customers, the slaves and freedmen, the young and old. Despite how weird this all was, even he could not deny just how many people seemed to be living here. And there was something relaxing about the cosmopolitan nature of Qarth. He was about to turn into the front door of the "hotel", he felt something in his pocket.
A piece of metal that had remained standing still.
'The compass,' he thought, slowly set down the bags of supplies, and pulled out the tracking device. It would always take him to the nearest missing servant, for some reason, when a servant was within about fifteen yards it didn't point to them anymore. But, when he had gone out on his own, it had been pointing back at Cu. But now, it was moving, not towards Cu, but towards another servant.
'If this other servant is closer than Cu now,' He thought, realizing how close his next target must be, 'I have to go and," he then looked down at his bags, 'Shit.'
"Pardon ser," There was suddenly a short man in front of him, inside the atrium of the complex. He did not share the pale skin of the general Qarthi. Indeed, from some of the scars across his hands, Emiya would guess that he was a servant, if not a slave. He pushed down his general discomfort with the practice, and picked up the bags of supplies.
"Excuse me, I am in the set of rooms on the third floor," Emiya handed the bags to the servant, moving quickly, hoping against hope he did not lose this signal again, "Please take these up, and inform them that I am off on meeting with one of our comrades. Tell them I shall be back soon," Emiya stopped, and pulled out two gold coins, "for your troubles."
"Thank you so much kind ser," the slave accepted the coins and the bags, though for some reason, he still seemed distant, as though he wasn't really speaking to anyone at all. Emiya was about to question that, when the servant followed up with, "I shall take these to the third floor."
"No, no, thank you," Emiya pushed those thoughts from his head, a need to find this other servant overcoming the strange servant. He then rushed out of the building, and pulled out his compass. He adjusted it, and sighed in relief. It was still pointing away from the hotel, and thus Cu. That meant it was still locked on this missing servant. He pushed forward, though it meant he was having to push through a crowd of hundreds of people, all for the hope that he might catch this comrade. If he could do this quickly, he'd be a one sixth of the way through his mission, and he would have another set of hands for the rest of the trials he would face.
'I really hope I actually gave the food to one of the workers,' Emiya groaned to himself, 'Cause if I gave it to some random passerby, I just lost our dinner and some good money.'
He put the entire incident behind him, because now, he was on the hunt. And soon, he knew he would be one step closer to completing his mission. Because he was about to find another of the missing servants.
He had not found another of the missing servants.
Emiya starred up into the slowly appearing moon. The sun had not fully set, but he could see the moon itself in the background of the reddish-yellow sky. It had been about an hour of searching, but he had not found the servant, and in his chase, he had missed them. He had wanted to move to the rooftops and try and chase them that way, but had been too worried about causing a scene by climbing and jumping around. It had likely meant that he had lost the chance to catch that servant today, as he could see that the compass was pointing back towards the hotel. He had actually been moving around not in a straight line, but in an almost wave pattern, and from his calculation ended about two miles away from the hotel, a bit closer to the docks of the city, and the great ships coming in and out of the port of Qarth.
Emiya looked around, and tried to see one last time if there was anyone he could recognize, before he shook his head, 'I'll try again tomorrow,' he turned back, and began on his way back towards Cu. The shadows around him began to grow longer, and he noticed that the crowds that had been surrounding him in his pursuit and his shopping were beginning to disperse.
The smaller crowds allowed him to take stock of his situation. At the moment, he knew that there was another servant besides himself and Cu in the city, and that was good. They were in the right place, and that should mean that within a couple of days, he would have already saved two of the servants.
On the other hand, it also meant that he had already spent around three days looking for his comrades. He didn't remember exactly how long excursions would take when Ritsuka would lead missions into the singularities, but he had a feeling that this was already getting to be about the average of half a mission. That meant that he was maybe a sixth of the way done, and would likely be going way over any original mission. And that was ignoring the fact that if his intuition was right, then the other servants would likely be spread across two continents, if not even further.
He thought of Ritsuka, barely able to breath after having a black key pierce his lung. He thought about the exhausted and battered staff of the Storm Glider. He thought about the ancient creature that had declared war on his friends and comrades. He thought of the slimy smile across the face of Kirei Kotomine. He thought about the faces of his missing comrades.
He thought about Artoria.
...
He needed to move quickly.
'I'd have liked to send Cu back,' he thought darkly, 'But he'd probably just make things worse if he was worried about Colan,' he groaned, 'Honestly, how is it the fact that he's actually a better person here make me hate him so much more,' he raised his hands up as he thought, and it was only years of discipline that kept him from mouthing out loud, '"Oh, I'm a good father now. I'm not going to abandon this son like I abandoned everyone else in my life" freaking jackass.'
As he moved down the road, back towards the hotel, he again felt the tug of the compass. He pulled it up, and saw that it was moving back and forth. It meant that the two servants were relatively close.
'That doesn't make any sense,' he considered, 'I know I'm not that close to the hotel, at least a mile away,' he looked back down as it shot back and forth, 'Did Cu come out and look for me?' he thought, 'Why would he come looking for me? There is no way he and Colan would leave that place unless they thought something had gone wrong.'
Even for all Cu's arrogance, he wouldn't be out searching if he thought Emiya was off trying to complete an actual mission. He held the compass, and decided on a weird idea. He would try and split the difference, and see if he could keep it moving back and forth. That way, maybe, just maybe, the could meet up with Cu and the other servant at the same time.
He kept trying as best as he could to keep the compass in its strange frantic movement. Every time it would stick towards where he guessed Cu was, he would move back in the direction that would allow him to be closer to the missing servant. This would cause the compass to swing wildly again. And when it would be too focused on the missing servant, he would repeat the same in the opposite direction. The tedium of doing this made the process long, but it hopefully meant that he would be able to reach both at the same time. It would also allow Cu to back him up in trying to convince this other servant together, rather than rely on his own personal knowledge.
As he pushed further and further down the alleyways, the streets grew darker and emptier. Night had truly fallen over Qarth, and while there was some nightlife in Qarth, it was not here, in the homes and stores and warehouses that came close to some of the older docks. More and more, Emiya was beginning to feel like this was not making sense, and as he made it to one of the last major roadways before the shore itself, he came to a decision.
'Something is clearly wrong with Cu,' He thought, 'There is no way he'd be moving like this to the docks on his own,' nodding at this, as soon as he hit the causeway, he pushed down in the direction towards Cu. As he did so, he suddenly saw a large group of men walking down an alleyway and into the main road.
It was a party of around a dozen men. Many of them were large, though they ranged from tall to short, with a few looking like nothing more than merchants waddling along with their hired hands. But just as quickly, Emiya could see that on the shoulders of two of them, were two bodies, one tall, one short.
He didn't even need to guess who they were.
"Stop!" He shouted, projecting Bakuya and Kanshou into his hands and charging down the street. One of the figures in the middle of the group waved his hand, and eight members of the group formed a line to meet them, while the man in the middle and the two carrying Cu and his son stormed down towards the docks. The blockade of men pulled out weapons, and stood in front of Emiya with military precision. Emiya smirked, and looked over.
'Okay,' Emiya smirked, preparing to make a quick hop and jump to a better angle, 'Just have to take the right angle, and I can get past these losers and save Cu and Colan,' he almost let out a growl, 'how the hell did they let themselves get captured,' He then made his jump, and landed on the wall next to the group forming the blockade, 'Now just push some reinforcement magic into my legs, make the push an-'
He slipped.
'Wha-' He then fell forward, and while he managed to pass the group, he was on the ground. He forced himself back to his feet, and then turned, about to force his way after Cu, when he dodged to the right to avoid a spear that had been. He dodged to the right, but that pushed him away from the road that Cu had been dragged down. Two of the men put themselves between Emiya and his targets. Emiya growled, and dodged another spear thrusting towards him. He then twisted to avoid a scimitar, and then slashed with Kanshou, causing the men to fall back. But as he pulled his blades into a defensive position. In only a few seconds, the entire crowd had surrounded him, their weapons pointed at him.
"Well," a familiar voice came from one of the men. Emiya didn't even have to see, as he heard from one of the cloaked men the familiar voice of the merchant who had attempted to swindle him with that bad wine. Jaron pushed himself forward, his knife in his hand, waving it at Emiya's neck, who moved his blades to block the weapon. He looked down the street, and saw that the three escaping targets were heading towards the docks.
"I don't have time for this," he growled, "I'll give you all five seconds to get out of my way, or else, I'm going to gut every single one of you," he felt his teeth grind together more when he heard a particularly corse laugh come from Jaron, "I mean it, drop your weapons."
"Why, there are eight of us, and one of you," Jaron hissed, playing with the blade in his hand. Emiya slowly looked around. He sighed, and in his mind, he began to prepare himself, "You were able to catch me earlier with some strange trick, but not here. What power do you claim to fight eight men at once?"
"I am the bone of my sword-"
The air changed, and Emiya felt the magic surging through his body. Immediately the group began to step back, as sparks began to shoot around him. Even Jaron, almost seemed to fall over himself, as the winds of the world shifted around the an they had surrounded. As the seconds passed, the world seemed to transform into one of—-
SCCREEERRRRCCCKKKKK
The transfer stopped. Emiya barely kept himself from screaming. He felt his knees bend, and nearly buckle, as the pain ripped from his arms all throughout the rest of his body. He caught himself, and stared.
'Wha-what the fuck was that?' he looked around, and pushed himself back up into his fighting stance. The men around him, previously nervous at the lightning and the magic, seemed confused. That was before Jaron let out a great belly laugh. Emiya could see the man's stomach jiggle behind his robes, before he stalked closer, licking his tongue across the blade of his knife, a wolfish look in his eyes.
"Whatever trick that was, it will not work," he held the knife closer as he stalked forward. The other men, more cautious, moved forward as well, though their weapons were always trained far more on Emiya as a protective measure. Emiya ground his teeth.
'If I can't call on my Reality Marble,' he thought of the realm of swords and giant gears, his great smithy of weapons, 'Then this will get tricky. Especially since it created a scene,' He pushed forward Kanshou and Bakuya, aiming at some of the men's necks, 'I will have to move quickly or-'
"Excuse me," a relaxed female voice cut through Emiya's thoughts. He stopped, and tried to look around, only to see that the woman was obscured by one of the large men. The entire crowd turned to look at where Emiya supposed the woman would be. He saw a rather large hat from where he was standing, but couldn't see much else, so large the man in front of him was, "Excuse me, I must ask that you cease your fighting for the moment. Brawls such as this ar-"
And he recognized the voice.
"Xuanzang?"
The legendary monk from the Journey to the West, Xuanzang Sanzang, suddenly twisted herself sideways, allowing for him to see her from behind the massive body of the thug. He saw her long black hair and soft plum eyes, she was only a half dozen yards away, and also saw them light up incredibly brightly. She suddenly waved at him from her near sideways lean, "EMIYA! OH GOODNESS, IT IS SO GOOD TO SEE YOU! I KNEW I WAS SENSING SOMEONE FAMILIAR!" she then tapped the man in front of her, "Excuse me, that is my friend who is about to maul you, would you please let me say hi?" The man, somewhat dumbly, nodded, and moved to the side. Emiya, in stunned silence, felt one of his hands begin to be shaken up and down, Bakuya being ignored as it moved along the rhythm.
"It has been so long since I have seen anyone I truly recognized," the bubbly monk's smile widened as she almost shook Emiya himself up and down. She was in a version of her main outfit, though the shirt was more a robe than a tunic. It had the added effect of only showing her cleavage, a slight bit more modest than what he knew she usually wore, "It's been so long, and I've been wand-"
"Oh, is that a pretty girl I see," Jaron stepped closer, his knife coming up, "I see you have a pretty thing with you. Perhaps if you hand her over, we can come to-"
"Oh," Xuanxang pointed at Jaron, "I suppose if you are here, then that likely means that these are actually people deserving of a fight," Emiya, still mildly struck dumb by the sudden arrival of another servant, one with what seemed to be her memories in tact, nodded dumbly, "Oh, then I can end this quickly. He is the leader of this gang, correct?"
"Of course," Jaron declared, making a small forward bow, "I am Jaro-"
"Perfect," before they could blink, Xuanxang was standing right in front of Jaron. She pulled her left leg back, and swung it forward, connecting directly with his bowed low jaw. Emiya almost heard the teeth crack as his mouth slammed shut, and then he stepped back, as he saw Jaron fly some fifteen feet into the air, over the thugs behind him, and slam with a great thud into the ground behind them. The world stopped, and everyone just stared at her. Then they slowly looked over at Jaron, who was not moving, "I believe we have no further business, anyone object."
The armed men looked at one another, and then placed down their weapons, and slowly made their way away from the two servants. Emiya certainly felt sweat begin to develop on the back of his head, though part of him couldn't help but wish that he every group of low grade thugs had either the cowardice or prudence to leave when it was quite clear how outclassed they were. In all honesty, he had come to see the loyalty some had shown their superiors far less as valor than outright stupidity.
Especially after he or another of the servants had sent some of their comrades to the great beyond.
Xuanzang sighed, shaking her head at Jaron, before bowing before the body laying on the ground. Slowly, she brought her hands up into a symbol of Bhuddist respect, and underneath her breath let out a prayer for the Buddha himself. Though he was not especially Bhuddist himself, he felt a small comfort at the familiar reverent symbol. It was, despite the utter strangeness of her sudden appearance, good to see one of his fellow servants acting so…normal.
For lack of a better word.
"May you find peace that escaped you in this life," she picked herself up, before returning her view to Emiya. Despite the solemn task she had just performed, she had returned to her usual bubbly demeanor, "And once again, it is good to see you."
"Yeah," Emiya just stared at her. Despite the complete shock of her arrival, and the feeling that she was at least partly responsible for the day long goose chase he had been on, 'At least I know who the other servant was besides C-'
"SHIT! CU!"
"What!" Xuanzang jumped back, "Cu is in this plane too?"
"Yeah," Emiya pointed at the docks, trying to see if he could find his other companion. He then shook out his head, and pulled out the compass. Because of being so close to Xuanzang, it immediately went towards the docks rather than at her. He grabbed Xuanzang's arm, and began to drag her in pursuit of the spearman, "Good, still have a track on his location. We got to find him."
"Is something wrong?" the monk asked, her eyes beginning to bore into him.
"Someone kidnapped Cu," Emiya admitted, sweating a bit at her intensity, "I don't know how, but they-"
"What are we waiting for then?" Emiya suddenly found himself running towards the docks, his arm nearly having been ripped out of its socket as the girlish monk shot forward. Where before he had been pulling the girl along, now she was in a full sprint, and he was having to use all his might to keep his feet touching the ground, and not being dragged through the air. He had never been too aggravated by his relatively low strength for a servant. At times like this though-
It only took a minute for them to arrive at the docks itself, and Xuanzang looked around rapidly, concentrating her eyes as she attempted to see that a small junk had just taken off one of the closest docks. She looked back at Emiya, and pointed towards the dock. Emiya held up his compass towards the ship, and felt it pointing towards it. Emiya growled to himself, before nodding back at the monk. Quickly, he looked around, and looked down at one of the many docks.
"There," he pointed, and Xuanzang's eyes swung down towards a specific pier, where a small boat with a few pairs of oars sat alongside the sides of the vessel. Xuanzang nodded, and the two rushed over to the solitary boat. Emiya saw the set of ropes holding the small ship to the dock, and sliced them apart with Kanshou. Xuanzang then pushed the boat out from the dock, it getting a surprising start, and before long, they and their boat were several meters out from the dock.
Emiya maintained his gaze on the junk that was holding Cu. Xuanzang was rowing the boat, and with her great strength, they were already making progress. He saw that they were getting closer towards the junk itself, already halfway out into the harbor, when he raised his hand.
"Let's try and be quiet, I don't know if they have anything that might sink the boat."
"Of course," Xuanzang slowed down somewhat, but they were making good progress. It was still late at night, and the kidnappers likely didn't want to make sail until they were sure they could do so with the sun being their guide. They could take their time being slow, "Though, should we not be worried about Cu. What if something happens while we are away."
"No," Emiya shook his head, "They could have killed him already if they managed to tie him up. We should be able to take some time. Then we can board, and deal with them ourselves."
The monk nodded at that, all the while continuing to row the boat forward. Emiya kept his eyes locked on the junk. As time ticked by, the slowly but surely came closer to the ship. Emiya continually lowered his hand, and Xuanzang had slowed her pace as they got closer. Soon, the sound of the rowing was completely overwhelmed by the lapping of the waves alongside them. Emiya kept his eyes on the ship's side, waiting to see if he saw any guards spot their little vessel.
He finally took some time to look over his returned companion. Xuanzang, like he noticed before, was wearing a moderately more modest version of her normal outfit, with her side and arms mostly covered with long white cloth. But he could tell, with each row, that her arms were actually more muscular now than they had been when he last remembered seeing her. They hadn't been close, but she had like his cooking back at Chaldea, and he'd seen enough of her to at least be shocked with how her slight frame didn't demonstrate her innate strength.
Now, in this world, it was obvious how muscular she was. Her long flowing robe did little to hide the muscles of her arms, and he noticed the veins along her feet, which led to more stout legs. Her face was still the same, in fact, unlike Cu, she didn't even seem to be a different age.
'If I remember correctly,' Emiya thought, 'She was summoned as a twenty-two year old,' he considered her soft face, 'She honestly looks about the same now. Not thirty like Cu,' he bit his thumb for a second, 'How is she this young. And how did she already know who she was?'
"Is something wrong," there was a slight frown on Xuanzang's face, and worry in her voice. Emiya raised a finger to his lips and she nodded. He gazed up again at the ship, and once again saw the coast was clear.
'I'll have to ask her about it later,' He decided, 'She does seem more fully a servant than Cu…or even me right now. If we can find out how she did it, then maybe we can figure out how to better get the rest of our comrades back,' He raised his hand, and she stopped. Their boat continued to float towards their target, but slower. They were close enough now, that their little vessel would come up to the junk and rest on its side without having to make any more noise.
Xuanzang laid down the oars onto her side, and turned around. Just as they were about to hit the side of the larger ship, Xuanzang caught the wood, and allowed them to glide up alongside it. She turned her head to Emiya, and nodded at him. Emiya looked around, and spotted a rope attached to the side of the ship. He projected Kanshou into his hand and tossed it, slicing the rope, and causing it to fall loose right above their heads.
As Emiya recalled his blade, Xuanzang had grabbed a hold of the rope, and pulled on it. As it remained taught and tied to the top, she raised up her hand and gave Emiya a thumbs up. She pushed herself up onto the side of the ship, and began to climb it with the help of the rope. Emiya grabbed the rope as she began her climb, and prepared himself for what came next.