Pest Control
'Could I have known about this before today?'
That was the question that rang out in Shirou's mind over and over and over again, completely drowning out everything else.
Guilt and self-recrimination raged in his breast, his stomach was coiled so tightly it hurt, and unbridled fury threatened to burst through his perilously thin self-control any second now.
Shirou was angrier than he'd ever been before, and it was all because of what Shinji had just said.
Sakura, his childhood friend, that gentle, ever-sweet, loving, kind, and amazing girl, had Crest Worms implanted in her.
Actual, living, breathing Crest Worms. The familiars of the Matou-family. Accursed creatures that consumed the flesh and power of their hosts. Foul parasites that had horrifically killed Kariya Matou during the Fourth Grail War. Disgusting crawlers that even Kiritsugu in his prime considered 'one of the worst things he'd ever seen'.
Those things were currently living inside of Sakura?!
What foul beast could have even considered doing that to such a kind girl?! What demon of a man could be responsible…?!
Zouken.
Of course. Who else could it be than that foul worm, the derogatory nickname far more fitting for the monster than Shirou had ever suspected?
He wasn't just abusing Sakura, he was torturing her, while Shirou stood by and watched, not even realising what was going on.
Still frozen in place, Shirou barely noticed how his rage, more intense than anything he'd ever felt, began reshaping the world around him.
His power began to leak out, forcing Shinji to stumble back from the sudden pressure, whirlwinds formed all around them, thunderclouds, blacker than the night, appeared in the sky, and even the ground itself quaked.
But even as a red mist descended in front of his eyes, Shirou knew what he had to do.
He needed answers, and he was going to get them.
Now!
Before he realised it, he had thrown himself at Shinji, throwing him backwards against a tree and lifting him up by the throat as he had done with so many criminals before.
Fortunately for both Shirou and Shinji, the redhead was able to reign himself in just in time, stopping himself from crushing his friend's neck on the spot.
Instead, he pulled the blue-haired teen close to his face, until their noses were almost touching, and roared his question.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?"
Every bit of cropped up frustration and anger resounded through that roar, and it should surprise absolutely no one that Shinji's ears began to bleed from it.
The blue-haired teen didn't even notice though, his mouth slack and his eyes wide as saucers, seemingly unable to form any sort of coherent thought or sentence as he was held in the air, only able to stare at Shirou in stupefaction.
Shirou, losing his patience with the silent, dumb look, shook him a few times, and that seemed enough to jumpstart the teen's mind again.
"Emiya! You're a Magus?!" Was the first thing he asked, probably not even having registered Shirou's earlier question, a glint of terror appearing in his eyes as that little fact sunk in.
"YES!" Shirou snarled, not having the patience to be interrogated. "Answer my question!"
"You are a Magus." Shinji repeated, the terror in his eyes increasing steadily. "You, of all people in the world, are a Magus?"
"What of it?!"
"You are the nicest person I know. Probably the nicest, kindest person anyone knows. Most of the guys at your school think you are a doormat and frankly, I don't disagree. How are you a Magus?"
"That is irrelevant!" Shirou hissed. "Tell me! Tell me what you meant with Crest Worms!"
Shinji looked at him with eyes full of terror, before his body suddenly stopped shaking and the terror made place for realisation, as if he was having an epiphany.
"Y-Yes, I'll tell you." He mumbled, before raising his voice, a triumphant note in it. "I'll tell you everything!"
And so he did. He told Shirou every single thing he knew.
How the Matou-family had lost its magic over the years, eventually resulting in the failure named Shinji, who had no active Circuits at all, and how his mother had to pay with her life for that failure. How Zouken, in his desperation for an heir, had decided to adopt a child from another Magus-family, that being the Tohsaka-family, who had an extra daughter they wanted to be rid of at the time.
Shirou almost dropped Shinji at that last bit, his eyes widening to comical proportions as he let the words sink in.
Sakura had once been a Tohsaka?
Sakura had been a Tohsaka, who had been given to Zouken?
Shirou gritted his teeth even harder at that knowledge, the knowledge that Tohsaka Tokiomi had trusted Zouken with his very own daughter... The man was an even greater fool than Kiritsugu had described him as.
Well, that, or a typical Magus who could not care less for his second daughter. A man who already had an heir and was only too happy to be rid of any problems a second child may bring, regardless of what happened to said second child.
Then Shinji continued his story, telling Shirou of the 'training' necessary to made Sakura into the perfect Matou-heir. How she hadn't stopped screaming for three days upon first being thrown into the wormpit located under the house.
"Zouken wanted to break her, to turn her into a doll that exists only to follow his every command, so he made sure to mould Sakura's very cells into that of a Matou with his worms. He took away her life, tortured her, forced her to isolate herself from others. He did everything he could to shatter her will." Shinji hissed, looking disgusted and enraged.
"And he was damn close to succeeding back then, before you came along. If it hadn't been for you and Mitsuzuri supporting her, she would have given up on ever escaping that hell. Now though, Zouken has threatened to kill you both if she doesn't distance herself from you, and she is almost back to where she began."
Shirou's chest began to constrict painfully when he heard that.
Shinji also revealed that her hair and eyes had become purple, and that her own Element had switched to the Matou-Element over time. Changes that Shirou knew to be far more intrusive than they seemed at first glance.
What kind of familiars were Crest Worms that they were able to do something like that?
"Crest Worms are the familiars of the Matou-family." Shinji told him after Shirou asked. "They are implanted into the body, through every opening they can find to crawl into, if they don't just make one themselves."
"?!"
"Yes, that's what I said." Shinji confirmed after seeing Shirou's shocked expression. "They are rape-worms, rape-worms that act as Magic Circuits. They consume Sakura's Od whenever her circuits are activated and turn it into an aphrodisiac. Her Circuits are activated whenever she feels the slightest bit of lust, so with the worms turning her power into lust-enhancers…"
...Shirou realised the implications that statement a second after it was spoken.
The worms consumed Sakura's Od and turned it into an aphrodisiac, which in turn would enhance her lust and force her to produce more Od, which would be turned into an aphrodisiac and so on, resulting in a positive loop, all the freaking time. That was not sustainable, not without an outside source of power to prevent Od-exhaustion.
There was only one method Shirou could think of that could have been used for supplying Sakura with the power she needed, even if the implications of that method made his stomach turn.
When he laid the question before Shinji, Shirou got the answer he had been dreading.
"Yes, Emiya. You are correct." Shinji said, his voice hollow and his eyes holding a look of acceptance and guilt. "I have not only been complicit in Zouken's torturing of Sakura through my inaction, but I am also her extra source of power, which means exactly what you think it means."
Even though all signs had pointed towards it, Shirou found himself dumbstruck by Shinji's words, his mind racing as he realised just what Shinji had said, just what that meant for Sakura…
…
His self-control snapped.
An inhumane, rage-filled howl escaped from his mouth, his rational thoughts disappearing behind a veil of rage as he flung Shinji backwards against the tree.
Shirou kept howling, shouting his rage to the heavens, as he started punching nearby trees into splinters with lightning-coated fists. Thunderclaps sounded in the sky, lightning bolts came down everywhere at once, and gales of wind sent everything not anchored to the ground flying into the air.
When all the trees in reach had been destroyed, Shirou's attention turned back to Shinji, who was just getting up from where he had been thrown, his back against a tree as he struggled to get to his feet.
Shinji himself saw the rage in his friend's eyes, the incredible, all-compassing rage that went beyond anything he had ever seen, bringing to mind the tales of the Berserkers from the Holy Grail War.
It was clear to Shinji what Emiya was about to do.
He didn't try to flee however, nor did he beg. He was ready to accept judgement from his old friend, for the unforgivable crimes he had committed.
So when Shirou pulled back his fist, still coated in lightning, closing in on Shinji with unbridled anger in his eyes, the blue-haired teen held his ground, closed his eyes, and waited for the blow that would end his pathetic life.
It never came.
Despite the immense rage that had taken hold of his mind, Shirou found himself unable to hurt the person who had been his friend for so long, the older brother of one of his most treasured people in the world.
So at the last possible moment, Shirou stopped, his fist an inch away from Shinji's nose, only the incredible air-pressure generated from his swing touching the boy.
Shinji himself felt the immense gale of wind the swing produced, but he was surprised when he found himself still alive afterwards.
Cautiously, after a few seconds of silence, he opened his eyes again, only to find that Emiya had suddenly disappeared, only the huge storm hanging over the city and the many destroyed trees proving he had been there at all.
He was honestly quite confused at this turn of events. He had been sure that he was a dead man, yet he still lived?
Emiya spared him…?
…
Then Shinji looked behind him, and his heart stopped beating for a second.
The tree was gone.
Like, actually, completely gone, roots and all, ripped out of the ground and reduced to splinters, just from the air-pressure of the blow.
If this was a sample of Emiya's power as a Magus, then…
…Then he might stand an actual chance at killing Zouken.
For the first time in years, Matou Shinji dared hope. He dared hope that his sister might be freed from her torment, that the Matou would cease to exist, and that his old friend would vanquish that monster.
He dared hope that the nightmare they had been living in for years would finally end.
There was still a possibility that Shinji would be dead by tomorrow, should Emiya decide he was going to deliver justice after all, but as long as Sakura was happy, Shinji had no problems with that.
"Good luck, Shirou." He whispered with a small, hopeful smile, before the events of the past minutes finally caught up to him, and he fainted right on the spot.
The Sin Unpardonable.
A Warrior's Lament.
Warrior's Madness.
A state of being in which the power of the one experiencing it was boosted ten times. All ratings across the board were multiplied tenfold. Strength, speed, endurance, magical power, everything.
At the same time however, logical reasoning would become impossible. All rationality would disappear, in exchange for the incredible boost in fighting-ability.
It was a skill, or rather a curse, that belonged to Asgardian royalty, very similar in principle to Madness Enhancement, giving incredible power in exchange for a loss of sanity and reasoning for as long as the skill was active.
The state of Warrior's Madness was reached through incredible anger, blinding rage, and insurmountable fury, often only experienced during the greatest of battles or the most traumatic of circumstances.
Thor himself had experienced Warrior's Madness on several occasions, often during incredible battles that seemed hopeless, after hours and hours of fighting when his exhaustion began to catch up with him and his enemies kept assailing him without end.
It was different with Shirou however.
Shirou was not someone who could become sufficiently angry during a fight, or desperate enough upon losing, to attain the state of Warrior's Madness.
In most, if not all situations, he did not value himself enough. He did not see himself as deserving of life, so he could not reach the stress-levels necessary for Warrior's Madness during battle. Not when he was the only one in danger.
It was, of course, entirely different when others were involved. Shirou lived his life for others and would never accept anyone dying or suffering around him as long as he could do something to prevent it, even more so when it concerned someone he loved.
After years of watching Sakura suffer quietly because she didn't want to bother him, after years of seeing her put herself down because she didn't see herself as worthy of anyone's love, after years of standing by helplessly, he had already been close to snapping.
The conversation with Shinji had provided the last push, and Shirou was Mad. Indescribably mad, mad enough to reach the legendary state of Warrior's Madness.
His sanity mostly gone, his reasoning having disappeared, and his self-control in tatters, the redhead did not think about laws or rules anymore. All that mattered now was killing, no, utterly destroying Zouken and saving Sakura from her nightmare of a life.
Shirou tore through the air, lightning bolts crackling around him as thunder boomed. His bolts were coming down throughout the entire city, yet with Mjolnir's influence, they were directed just enough to prevent anyone from being hit.
Rain poured down, the streets slowly flooding and the visibility being reduced so much that even Shirou, wreathed in lightning and wearing his armour in full splendour, was barely visible from more than a street-length away.
The wind was howling through the streets, hard enough to blow over anyone foolish enough to not have sought cover. Small trees were uprooted, and larger trees had their branches torn off in the immense violence.
Safe to say, any Crest Worm outside of Zouken's territory did not survive for more than a few seconds after Shirou began his rampage through the city.
With his focus on the Matou-estate in the distance however, Shirou completely missed the one person who had not sought cover from the sudden storm, but had instead ran out onto the street upon sensing the Magical power Shirou was throwing around.
That person was Yomaura Taya.
The former Magus could only stare in part awe and part fear at the streak of lightning shooting past her, the immense thunderclap following in its wake almost deafening her.
There was no doubt that this was her target, that this was Rakurai. She knew instinctively that it was him flying there, wreathed in an aura of lightning.
The spectacle filled her with despair, yet with an incredible effort, she managed to push that emotion back down. No matter how powerful Rakurai was, she would face him all the same, for the sake of her family.
At the other side of the city, too far away from the centre of the action to see anything, Tohsaka Rin was leaning out her window, trying to see as much of the sky as she could, even as her entire upper body became soaked from the rain.
She knew that this was the doing of the unknown Magus who had given her the gems –he was the only one in the city whose identity and specialities she did not know after all– but she had no idea why he was doing this.
What was the use of covering Fuyuki-City with a storm? What was his purpose?
She didn't know, and she didn't like it at all.
She liked it even less that she clearly didn't stand a chance against him.
But then what was she supposed to do?
Sakura had been having the worst time of her life during the past days.
It was like those horrible years just after her adoption by the Matou-family, but worse.
She'd finally been allowed a glimpse of a better life, to experience how it was to have a family that cared about her unconditionally, only to have it ripped away from her by the same thing that had made her life so horrendous in the first place.
Zouken. Her torturer. The beast in human skin who had forced her to give up on her newfound family, lest he killed them all.
She didn't doubt for a moment that he could and would follow up on that threat. No matter how old and pathetic he appeared, he was still a Magus, and that gave him an immense advantage over most other people.
So even if it pained her, even if it pained the others, she had to turn her back on them, for everyone's sake.
It was for the best.
She was again lying in the pit, undergoing her training, with her grandfather standing over her. Her emotions had long since been shut off, and she was just a doll now, with no intention of ever going back from that.
Shinji had been there too, upstairs, when grandfather dragged her to the basement. Her foolish Nii-san had even thrown himself at Zouken, trying to stop him, but Zouken had used Magecraft to throw him aside.
She hoped her brother was okay, but with everything shut off, she couldn't bring herself to really care.
"Huurgh!"
The sudden groan of agony caused Sakura's eyes to turn upwards, at her grandfather, who was holding his hands against his chest as he wheezed and coughed, his walking stick falling to the ground as he stumbled around.
"M-My worms." He coughed out, a black substance spatting out of his mouth. "W-What's happening to my worms?"
Sakura blinked once, before looking down at her body, a very vague note of interest in her eyes.
It would seem to her that the worms were doing just fine.
But what was causing grandfather pain then…?
'CRASH'
Zouken just about jumped in surprise, almost falling into the pit. Even Sakura felt her heart skip a beat at the sudden sound coming from upstairs.
Was Nii-san home?
'CRASH'
"Arghk." Zouken wheezed out again, almost falling to his knees. "T-The B-Bounded F-F-Fields. Wha-What's happening to them?"
For a few moments, Sakura did not comprehend what her grandfather just said, or what the implications of that statement were, before it dawned on her just what it meant.
The Matou-estate was under attack!
As she allowed the slightest bit of hope to enter her heart, her grandfather was muttering non-stop about breached defences and worthless protections. Suddenly however, his mumbling came at a complete stop, as his eyes narrowed to slits and he uttered one word in a voice filled with both contempt and terror.
"Emiya."
Sakura lifted her head up to stare at him, not believing her ears. Why would he mention her Senpai at a time like this?
Was Senpai the one attacking the house?
She gulped, praying to everything up there that it wasn't Senpai, while Zouken gained a malicious glint in his eyes.
"I have a good idea of why he is here, and he might just succeed in killing me, but I think I will deny him his little victory." Zouken hissed, before Sakura suddenly felt pain spread all over her body, pain far worse than anything she had ever felt before, as every worm inside of her suddenly started writhing in her flesh, making her scream in agony. "Even if I die here and now, it won't be a victory for-"
'BOOM'
The door to the basement exploded.
A figure stepped through, slightly obscured by smoke yet still easily recognisable.
The pain wracking her body stopped as Zouken lost focus, yet Sakura could hardly be bothered to notice that.
She knew the figure that had just entered. She knew him better than anyone else, or at least, she had thought she did.
It was Shirou!
Yet it was a version of him that Sakura had never seen before.
His kind smile was completely absent, his face instead contorted in a rage so intense that the plum-haired girl instinctively knew he was no longer rational in any way.
He wore very impressive armour with blue lines running along its surface, obviously Magical and Enchanted.
Arcs of lightning were running over his entire body, crackling aggressively. His eyes were completely blue, electric blue, with sparks coming out of them at random intervals.
Lastly, there was the aura of oppressive power that suddenly filled the basement, causing her grandfather to stumble and even pressing some air from Sakura's lungs.
Her emotions were still shut off and muted, yet when confronted with this… impossibility, shock filled her entire mind, as she gaped at the man who had been her hero for as long as she had known him.
Then her Senpai lifted his hand, and fired a white beam of energy at her grandfather, striking him full-on.
Zouken's tortured death-scream echoed through the basement, as the old Magus was ripped apart bit by bit, molecule by molecule, atom by atom, in a few moments that for him seemed to be stretched out to an eternity of incredible agony.
That was the point where Sakura fainted, the shock too great for her to bear, her vision going black as her Senpai slowly approached her, his electric blue eyes the last thing she saw.
Shirou was finally doing what he should have done months ago.
Taking Sakura away from the Matou.
The worms outside of Zouken's Bounded Fields, already few in number because of his culling of the past weeks, died first, all of them, not a single one able to escape his rage, no matter how deep they burrowed.
The Bounded Fields around the garden of the Matou-estate were no match for a Mjolnir swung with ten times the strength Shirou would normally possess, along with ten times the amount of the Mysterious Power Shirou would normally channel through it.
They broke like glass, their age and power, impressive for Modern Times, nothing before Shirou's might.
The worms in that garden, now exposed to his wrath, died immediately, bolts of lightning coming down the moment the Bounded Fields collapsed, killing every worm and reducing all other life in the garden to ash.
Shirou continued smashing himself a way inside, his destination being the wormpit in the basement.
As he passed through the halls, lightning was emitted from him in all directions, the worms inside the house dying by the hundreds, until not a single one was left.
By the time Shirou found the door leading to the basement, the only worms left alive were those making up Zouken's body, those in the pit, and those inside Sakura herself.
Shirou arrived just in time to hear Sakura scream in pain, the distress in her voice causing him to forgo subtlety altogether, disintegrating the door with a lightning bolt.
Once inside, Shirou saw exactly what he had been dreading: Sakura lying in the pit, worms all around and over her, with Zouken standing on the edge, his form hunched over as he looked at the redhead in absolute terror.
Everyone inside the basement, Sakura, Zouken, and the worms, were frozen by his sudden presence, not moving an inch out of fear of drawing his attention to them.
Shirou didn't waste a moment and fired a beam of the Cleansing Power straight at Zouken, watching emotionlessly as the man was torn apart, painfilled atom by painfilled atom.
That was the moment Sakura fainted, the shock being too much for her to handle.
The red-haired Magus paid no heed to this however, immediately firing off another beam at the pit, at both Sakura and the worms surrounding her.
The great thing about the Cleansing Power was that it only destroyed what Shirou considered to be unnatural. Sakura did not fall under his definition of unnatural, so she was unharmed. The worms were destroyed upon contact however.
Unfortunately, that still left the worms that had been planted inside of her body.
Shirou jumped into the pit, coming down in a crouch next to the girl, not even registering her nudity in his Madness.
But even though he was Mad, Shirou did, instinctively, know what to do.
He placed a hand on Sakura's head and the other on her right-breast, where her heart was located. The normal Shirou would have blushed up a storm at touching Sakura's naked chest, but the Shirou in Warrior's Madness did not bat an eye as he started channelling the Mysterious Power, eradicating the pests inside of her body.
The individual worms were destroyed easily enough, and all the damage they had wrought was promptly repaired by Shirou's Healing.
The one worm right next to her heart was more stubborn however, an aura of immense corruption hanging around it.
That aura did not save it from Shirou's wrath. He had to channel the Mysterious Power to its absolute limit, heating up his body to ridiculously high temperatures, but he managed to destroy it in the end.
Its destruction was marked by the faint echo of a scream that sounded suspiciously like Zouken, but Shirou didn't even register it.
Sakura was free of corruption.
Even the Corrupted Shards of the previous Grail, which had been brought into her years ago along with the worms, had been purged by the Mysterious Power.
What was left after that however, were an Element and Origin that had been changed forcibly in the past, Magic Circuits under great strain, and a great amount of the Mysterious Power seeping into those Circuits.
What that incredible, impossible mix would mean for Sakura herself, only time could tell.
A final burst of Healing then came from Shirou's hands, fixing the last of what was wrong with the girl, Shirou's own skin now splitting and bleeding as the amount of power he was channelling became too large for his body to contain.
His body was groaning in protest, but Sakura was safe, so he didn't care.
His fury however did not abate after healing his friend, not at all. Zouken had died far too easily, far too painlessly. Shirou had wanted to make him suffer far more when he stormed into the basement earlier, but with Sakura still infected by the worms, he couldn't risk killing the man slowly.
With a roar of anger and frustration, Shirou lashed out at a nearby wall of the basement, breaking off enormous chunks of rock and almost causing the ceiling to collapse, until he realised that he was endangering Sakura by doing so.
Still raging mad, he ran upstairs instead and obliterated every piece of furniture that he could find. Tables, closets, chairs and benches, bookshelves, everything was smashed to splinters and shards as Shirou let out his rage.
It was an impressive display, yet one that Shirou would look back on in shame. Losing oneself to anger like that was not something to be proud of, even if it was caused by a curse.
Eventually though, his rage ran out abruptly, allowing Shirou to calm down.
The Madness fell away, his sanity and rationality returning to him piece by piece, until Shirou could focus again on his true purpose.
His thoughts were still a jumble and his cognitive abilities remained low for now, but at least, he was capable again of tasks more complicated than 'obliterating everything in sight'.
Tasks like 'getting Sakura back to the Emiya-estate as soon as possible'.
Once he got back in the basement however, when he saw her fragile form, his emotions overwhelmed him again, though this time it wasn't rage.
He fell to his knees next to the plum-haired girl, tears streaming out of his eyes as he hugged her close to him, pressing his face into the top of her head, muttering apologies all the while, as he let out his self-hatred and the immense regret for leaving her in this hell for so long.
"I'm sorry." He whispered. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, so, so sorry."
For a while, he held her like that, until he got his emotions under control.
That, however, was also the moment he realised the position he was in, and just what he was doing to his dear friend.
He was hugging Sakura, who was completely naked and also unconscious, to his chest. He was currently holding her like a stuffed toy, as if it was totally normal to hold a bare girl in his arms.
Words could not describe how inappropriately he was acting. Taiga would have his head for this if she ever found out.
Being a gentleman, Shirou did not throw her away in shock, nor did he drop her. Rather, he materialised the cape that was normally a part of his armour, but that he always let out because of its impracticality, and wrapped it around her securely.
Having properly covered his friend, he was about to rise again, only to be stopped by a wave of exhaustion hitting him, his limbs almost unresponsive as his body protested against having to do even more.
Shirou also noticed now that his arms were shaking, and that they felt completely raw and uncomfortably hot. His head felt as if it was about to burst, as if someone was stabbing a knife in his eye and was slowly twisting it around, and his legs were in a very similar state to his arms. His throat was parched, and his Magic Circuits were dangerously overheated.
The worst of it however, was the almost drunken-like state Shirou found himself in. It was like his thoughts were being clouded, as if he was thinking through an exhausted haze.
Clearly, for all that Warrior's Madness was empowering, it had one hell of a drawback after it was over.
He had known of Warrior's Madness before this night. It had in fact been one of the first things Mjolnir had warned him about after it had arrived in his hands, but he hadn't expected it to be this dangerous.
He truly and sincerely hoped he wouldn't ever encounter another situation that would force him to use it.
He was able to push himself up eventually, drawing on his extensive experience with handling pain, Sakura still safely held in his arms as he staggered up the stairs and out of the house.
With Sakura in his arms, Shirou could not fly or run, but walked instead, to prevent jostling her too much. Fortunately, the rain made sure that the streets were empty, as Shirou did not want to know what would happen if someone saw him carrying a naked girl around.
Eventually reaching and entering the safety of his own house, Shirou quickly took Sakura to the bathroom. After cleaning her up for a bit there, he dressed her in one of Irisviel's old gowns, before laying her on a futon in the guestroom.
He was grateful that the remnants of Warrior's Madness allowed him to mostly shut down his mind during those bits, or it would have been the most embarrassing time of his life, handling a girl's naked body like that. Not just any girl either, but Sakura, one of the most beautiful girls in existence.
After he had closed the door of the guestroom behind him, intent on letting her sleep as long as she wanted, he suddenly remembered Shinji, who was either walking through the city now, or was still in the park.
He wasn't exactly happy with the blue-haired teen at the moment, but he wasn't about to let him spend the night on the streets either.
A quick trip to the park where they'd had their confrontation revealed that Shinji had fainted at some point in time and was now lying unconsciously in the rain.
Shirou picked him up and took him to his house, where he laid him down on the couch after drying him off. He also added a pillow and a blanket. Shinji could sleep there for the night and Shirou would hear him out tomorrow.
That concluded his business. With both Matou-siblings in his house and Zouken very much dead, Shirou was finally done.
Unfortunately, that left him free to think, and with his thoughts, came the incredible, crippling feeling of guilt.
He had been blind. For years and years, he had been almost wilfully blind to what transpired in the Matou-household.
The situation had been worse than he could ever have suspected, with actual torture taking place, Zouken playing his cruel mindgames on a daily basis, and Sakura and Shinji having no one to rely upon as they were slowly driven to the abyss.
He had noticed nothing, closing his eyes because he didn't want to interfere in family matters, because he thought no one would harm Sakura, because he didn't want to get involved if they didn't want him to.
What nonsense. Meddling where you weren't supposed to was the very essence of being a hero. A hero helped those who needed it, noticed it when someone needed help.
He had been an incredibly poor hero over the past years, that was certain. Flying off to other places, always looking for evil to fight, yet utterly failing to see the evil in his own home.
What use was it to achieve incredible victories elsewhere, if you returned to find your home in shambles?
He would have to ask the siblings for forgiveness, for his failings and his blindness. He didn't deserve it, but at the very least, he should apologise to them.
For now however, he should go to bed. There was nothing he could do now, and he really needed sleep.
Swaying slightly on his feet, Shirou eventually reached his bedroom, where he fell down on his futon, too exhausted to change his clothes.
He fell asleep immediately, his exhaustion catching up with him after going far past his own limits.
Even though he didn't know it, even though felt like he had failed, it was undeniable that he had achieved a great thing today. He had finally ended the evil worm burrowing under his home, and in doing so, had saved the figurative princess and her brother.
Sakura and Shinji were safe and Zouken was no more.
The world had just gotten a little brighter.
Large, ancient eyes narrowed in curiosity as they stared towards Fuyuki-City. The owner of those eyes had just seen something amazing take place there, and they couldn't help but wonder what would follow.
They were glad that the Matou-girl had been saved so early on. That happened so few times in this universe that every time it happened was cause for celebration.
The being knew they weren't supposed to pay such close attention to the heir of Thor, but they couldn't help themselves. Just sitting here in a higher dimension that even the Kaleidoscope couldn't enter, endlessly staring down and recording everything that happened in this universe, got tedious after a while, even to someone like them.
Their brothers and sisters always had their favourites in the universes they were supposed to watch over, so why couldn't this being do the same?
Granted, their kind wasn't supposed to interfere at all with the beings of the universes, but that rule was more of a guideline anyway. It was important that Thor's heir would rise to become a protector of the Omniverse, so perhaps they could help him along.
The narrowed eyes widened again, the frown disappearing as a small smile appeared.
"I'll be watching you, Emiya Shirou."
Very nice to write this.
Short chapter, but the aftermath comes next, so there wasn't much to say here besides the rescue itself, and even that was dragged out (in my opinion at least).
Yes, Zouken is dead, or at least reduced to a non-sentient piece of Soul that will never form a conscious again and will disappear over time. He won't be coming back for any surprises if you think that. Dead is dead.
Sakura and Shinji are finally safe. We've waited for a long time, but they are now, everyone cheer loudly.
I believe this is now one of the rare stories where Zouken is actually disposed of before the Grail War even comes close. Awesome, no one likes him anyway.
I also want to say that Warrior's Madness is going to be an extremely rare occasion. It literally took years for Shirou to reach it in this chapter, so don't expect to see it back all that often.
Do remember Discord if you haven't, though again, it is not required, and questions can be PM'ed to me.
This chapter was beta-read by crazylich79, liamrodhudson331 and Woggie. Many thanks to them.
Omake:
A dragonman, clad in armour dark as the night, faceless but for the eerie glow of his eyes walked over the beaten path of the mountain.
His wings were spread behind him, their membrane inscribed with countless illuminated runes. There was no doubt that this was a Beast of the highest order, a danger to all that lived in the Modern age.
Its name was…
Nick!
He was stomping towards a certain building, grumbling inaudible words of discontent. He was leaving craters behind his wake, large craters, every one of them in the shape of its mighty paws.
Eventually, he arrived at the building he had been heading towards and went inside. Immediately, he sat down in front of what appeared to be a being, made of mud, and pressed his hands together in a praying manner.
"Grail-Kun! Grail-Kun! Lich and Joaco are facing against each other in a War! They will tear this world apart! Please. Grant me help in ending this chaos!"
The Mud Being stood silently, not even a single peep coming from it, its eyes gleaming in bloodthirst and glee. It wasn't used to prey coming to it so readily, but it also wasn't going to pass up on the opportunity.
It wondered just how long it could be getting away with this.
Dark energy started swirling in front of it. It kept swirling and swirling until...
'THUD'
An ordinary kitchen knife fell from the swirl and landed blade first on the ground, right in front of the Dragonman.
"Fine then..." Nick rumbled, understanding what this meant. He got up and took the knife with his hands.
"Off with their heads it is~"
And Grail-Kun laughed, having found yet another victim of the Great Knife War.
Omake supplied by Nick Terakidan.
Ted, having finally killed Zouken, leaves the stage.