"All weapons armed and ready, prepared for descent whenever you command, Captain."

The voice came through the speaker built into the flight helmet as the man reached forward and flicked two switches up, his eyes flicking down to the control panel for only the briefest of moments as two lights lit up orange.

The sound of rushing wind outside the cockpit seemed both nonexistent and cacophonous at the same time, yet it still paled in comparison to the sound of his heart beating in his ears and the feeling of it in his throat. Grey clouds rushed past the wings of the J-11 and ghosted over its wings and fuselage as he punched a smooth, thin hole all the way through.

The sound of static made his fingers tense around the controls on momentary instinct before he took a long, deep, breath in.

"1500 meters until we're expected to intercept the target, Captain. Descent is recommended."

"Affirmative, all pilots begin steep descent following my movements. Keep your eyes peeled and triggers prepared."

The jet tipped its wing in one direction and began its descent, followed by the 23 other jets of the 364th Chinese Fighter Squad in near-perfect uniformity. Beneath the thick grey cloud cover they dove, their engines roaring for all to hear as their Captain led the way and they followed.

As they descended, the sounds of the battle below began to become vaguely hearable. Explosions and buildings rupturing joined alongside the sound of mortars and artillery fire even as high up as they were.

The captain burst out of the thick, low-hanging clouds in a trail of grey, followed closely by the rest of his squadron. The sight of Hangzhou burning itself into their minds as their jets straightened out from their descents.

Sparkling gunfire rained from the lone ship in the harbour, bouncing off the scales of the true, living, and breathing dragon as it tore through a building, letting it crumble and topple onto what the pilots could plainly see was a military encampment within the city.

Creatures of red, grey, and green rushed through the streets of the city. Cutting down civilians and military and getting gunned down by that very same military at the exact same time.

"Demons…" The voice was but a whisper, a horrified realization of the truth carried unwittingly over the communication channel of the squadron.

They had known of the dragon, its appearance well publicized long before the government could even hope to shut it down, even the demons had been known about, but the sheer number of them that invaded the streets only served to show the severity of what they were flying into.

Three arcing lights fired into the sky, illuminating the city in all its haunting destruction as another five projectiles fired high, striking the largest gatherings of the demons and detonating.

Buildings crumbled and the wind howled with the carried sounds of explosions, the multi-coloured 'sky' of the mystic tear washing over them as they dipped further towards the ground.

"Target in sight. All weapon usage is hereby authorized." The captain hit three more switches on his control panel, readjusting his grip on his center stick as he felt a thin layer of sweat suddenly form over his palms.

His heartbeat grew louder in his ears as he heard the affirmatives from his squadron over the radio, his gaze locked onto the dragon and only the dragon as the bullets of the warship bounced off its scales in a dance of sparks and death.

With its wings flapping to keep itself aloft, the long neck of the scaled behemoth turned to peer up at the approaching craft. Its burning yellow eye seared itself into the captain's mind.

It was staring at him. It was staring at him. It was hundreds of meters away and it could see him. It was still so far away that he couldn't even see its eyes, yet he knew what they looked like. He knew the shade of the monsters' irises. He knew the hatred that raged in its globes. He knew the power that surged in its body.

"BOLIN!" The shout over the radio, crackled and hoarse, snapped the captain out of his daze with a gasp.

Craning his head to the side, the captain watched the 13th fighter in the unit spiral out of the air and crash into the side of a nearby building. A ball of fire consumed Bolin and the J-11 as the jet shattered into thousands of subsonic shards of metal and bombarded the streets below, tearing through demons and humans alike.

"Tã mã de! Demon heart failure!" A curse of his own left the captain's lips at the hissed explanation over the radio.

It was all the fault of this crack in the sky. The Dragon. The Demons. The deaths. It was all that crack's fault. It wouldn't leave until the dragon was dealt with. The dragon that was staring at him, the dragon that he knew could see the hatred in his eyes.

"Cào nǐ zǔzōng shíbā dài!"

The captain entered into a steep decline, bullets blurring across the city's skyscape to hit the thick scales of the dragon. Sparks filled the darkened sky as the creature of legend inhaled deeply and roared.

Lights, whatever ones still functioned nearby, flickered and spluttered. Buildings cracked and crumbled. The winds picked up and threw humans and demons alike hundreds of meters in every direction.

Missiles hurled themselves ahead of the captain as the rest of his squadron joined in on his attack with a synchronous cry that turned the radio to naught but splutters and static.

The dragon began to inhale, blue light illuminating its chest and neck as thin, gaseous streams of blue appeared from the air around the creature leading into its mouth.

The 13 missiles struck the mythical creature dead on and detonated, consuming the buildings and streets below in balls of fire and catastrophic shockwaves that shore concrete from rebar and asphalt from earth.

It was only instinct that had the captain rolling his aircraft down and to the side, before the shine of blue even appeared from the depths of the smokescreen and the beam of power that tore through half of his squadron in an instant.

Explosions lit up the distance as the beam continued well past the city limits and struck the sides of some mountains nearby. The remaining fighter jets curved into their own flight patterns and the gigantic form of the dragon cleared the bounds of the smokescreen, another roar tearing itself from its throat as it raced after the remaining 11 pilots.

Another missile struck its side, detonating in a crack of compressed, superheated air yet again. But the dragon continued undeterred.

The fighter it was chasing aimed for the heavens and abused the throttle for all that it was worth, only for the dragon to cleave the fuselage of the aircraft, and the pilot as well, into five twisted, demented shards with its claws.

Twisting its wings and changing the pattern of its wingbeats to flip and re-orient itself midair the dragon's slit pupils traced the flight patterns of the remaining 10 jets, a blue glow illuminating its chest once more.

XXXxxxXXX

The captain cursed as shards of glass and debris pelted the underside of his aircraft as yet another beam of blue tore its way through the skies, igniting the streets and turning them to naught but slag and dust.

"All remaining pilots, use all remaining missiles, leave nothing left!"

The responses he got were sickeningly low, 24 pilots reduced to a measly 6 in less than a minute of engagement. A fault all that dragon's own. A fate that could have been avoided if the dragon simply just died.

More lights of red and orange illuminated the darkened city as four more missiles hit home, the cheered elation over the radio disappearing in a stomach-emptying cry of terror and static as the dragon twirled out of the sky above the jet and tore clean through it. Flames and smoke licked at its scales as it roared and its wings beat with renewed vigor, its teeth closing around the left wing of another jet in an instant and tearing it off like wet paper.

The captain felt something in his mouth crack with how hard he grit his teeth together, his vision going momentarily blurry with tears as he let two of his own missiles fly, striking the dragon true on its chest.

The others may not have seen it, but he had. Their missiles were doing something. Chipping and wearing away at its scales, particularly on its chest. Another one or two in that same spot and it would be vulnerable, they could kill it, they could avenge their fallen brothers!

Another beam of blue tore its way through the darkened sky as the dragon roared in fury. The remaining four pilots, however, were prepared for this by now and took quick evasive action, twirling and nosediving out of its prospective arc as the dragon whipped its head to the side mid-attack.

"C-Captain I'm not feeling so-…" Two orbs of liquid rolled down the captain's cheek and the centre stick in his grip groaned as his fingers tightened.

"Stay with me! Don't you dare give up! We have it on the ropes!"

"I-It's getting whoozy. I-I'm feeling r-real….s-shleepeh…."

"HAOYU, DON'T YOU DARE FALL ASLEEP!"

A building to the captain's right lit up in bright orange before beginning to topple towards the earth, the world through the captain's eyes going blurry for a moment yet again as his face went red.

"YOU BASTARDS!"

The dragon and the third remaining jet flew towards each other, missiles glancing over the scales of its shoulders and arcing into the background as bullets bounced and deflected in a cone around the creature.

The noses of both entities collided with the force of locomotives, crumpling the multi-million-yuan jet and pilot inside faster than the pilot even got to react and shattering the jet into yet another cone of smoke and metal shards to silhouette the rampaging form of their enemy.

The burning yellow eyes of the dragon latched onto the form of the captain's jet as it beat its wings with purpose once more. Its gaze weighed down on the man even as his eyes flicked between what was ahead of him and his control panel, not daring to take the time to try and look back.

They were close, they were so close, he just needed to open an opportunity for Chen to hit that thing with another missile and they could take it out. That's all they needed. If he could avoid getting torn to pieces and line the shot up properly then-

"Captain. It's been an honour."

From above the dragon, like a stone thrown by the gods themselves, the second to last pilot of the squadron slammed into the back of the dragon in a hail of bullets and explosions. Their jet rained on the streets below in a shower of metal shards and sparks to join their compatriots as the dragon roared and yet continued its previous path.

Tilting his jet up, the captain climbed closer and closer to the heavens, disappearing into the thick –now black– cloud cover above the city, followed closely behind by the dragon. Its claws ripped through the jet as easily as a hot knife went through butter.

Tumbling through the air, still strapped to his seat, the captain breathed heavily as he scrambled around for his parachute cord. The howling winds and low rumbling of the dragon were all the more evident now that he didn't have the protective, sound-dampening cover of his cockpit.

He'd done it, he'd done it! He'd managed to escape from the clutches of that vile beast.

Of course, he had had to sacrifice his jet to do so but even then, it was an unprecedented victory in the wake of a terrifying, merciless loss. With his heartbeat in his ears and pain emanating from the tooth that he had cracked in his mouth, he fumbled for the metal handle of his parachute cord. His gaze craned up as his fingers finally grasped the handle properly.

Looming over him, blotting out any slight rays of light that may have been able to penetrate the clouds this high in the sky, was the dragon. Its maw wide open and nearly entirely covering the captain, seat and all.

Faster than he had ever moved in his life, the man's hand went from the pull cord of the parachute to the pistol strapped to his side. The barrel pointed into the esophagus of the creature as its jaw snapped shut, perfectly tearing him and the seat in two.

XXXxxxXXX

Later that Night, Matou Estate

"Are you worried that she's going to escape, Master?" Medusa let her blindfolded gaze wash over the petrified silhouette of Francesca.

Still, she stood, a moment frozen in time from that terrible night a week and a half ago. Her expression still one twisted in anger and fear with a hand reached out.

Annoyingly it was that very same hand which kept being the first to break down the curse of petrification placed on her by the mystical eyes of the gorgon queen.

The reason for that was rather simple, despite the relatively low level of danger that Francesca herself posed to nearly the entire Square Table at this stage, her Od levels and the output of her circuits were in a league of their own. Able to make even Rin and Luvia pale in jealousy in its sheer quantity and outpacing even the generationally gifted heir that was Shirou.

Illyasviel may be an even match for her though, especially as of late.

Because of all that raw power, though, Medusa's petrification had a hard time sticking and had to be continually reapplied to keep her from breaking free completely and causing who-knows-what chaos in a world that very, very much did not need that right now.

But for right now she stood, petrified and harmless, in a blood-red Bounded Field within the empty, decrepit basement of the Matou Estate at the orders of her Master.

The thought of pairing together Blood Fort Andromeda with her petrification for a single person felt like overkill, in Medusa's opinion, but she couldn't deny its effectiveness at keeping the absurd Od capacity of the ancient woman in check.

If it also aid in keeping Medusa fed and powered? Then that was just a happy side-effect.

"Somewhat." Sakura spoke quietly, her gaze wandering the old, empty walls that had once held so many of her grandfather's hideous familiars.

Among a myriad of other things, but mainly the worms in her opinion.

"Senpai is set to wake up any day now and I can't have anything going wrong when he does." She smiled minutely as she walked around the petrified form of Francesca, checking for any potential chips in the petrification that may have formed without their knowing.

"Things are already messed up enough as it is, I can see where your worry comes from." Medusa crossed her arms and leant back against the nearest wall.

"Between Olga's vision, the Goddesses inside us, and everything happening in the world I'm worried that Senpai is going to wake up and immediately try exerting himself again. Anything I can do to minimize that, I'm going to."

"What a dedicated maid you are, Master." Medusa joked, getting a small giggle from the girl in question.

"Well, it's all for Senpai after all. I don't believe I'd be anywhere near as good of a maid to anyone else, as grandfather discovered."

"Please don't speak of him." Medusa shuddered a little. "The memory transference has shown me all that I need to know of him."

"Is it that bad?" Sakura held her hands behind her back and gave her Servant a worried look.

"It's only been a few memories, admittedly, but even just thinking of him now sends a shiver down my spine. I think if I met him alive right now, I wouldn't be able to hold myself back."

"…Medusa he was made of bugs."

"You know that that isn't what I meant, Master." Sakura could feel the pulse of prana from her Servant in conjunction with her annoyance, only getting the thinnest of smiles from the purple-haired girl in response.

"Apologies, Rider. I just couldn't help myself."

"I believe there are laws against that at this time, Master. Especially when the recipient is sleeping."

"…"

"…"

"Touche." Sakura acquiesced with a blank face and a nod before giving one final look towards Francesca and nodding firmly to herself.

"Everything looks up to par, so let's leave here, Rider. It's getting late."

"Lead the way, Master. I'll be right behind you." Medusa said, her voice beginning to echo as she faded into translucency and then finally to invisibility entirely.

XXXxxxXXX

The Next Morning, Muramasa Estate

Sakura sat quietly on one of the couches in the living room of the estate with a cup of tea in hand. Rin sat to her right alongside Morgan and Angelica sat to her left.

The three of them, obviously, had tea placed down in front of them as well but they had yet to partake in any of it. And after she had put so much work into making it as well.

Ungrateful was what they all were, her Senpai would have at least taken a sip by now.

"So, if I'm understanding this right, you wish to place the Ainsworth house under the vassalage of the Muramasa clan?" Rin repeated, a little baffled by what she had just heard.

Rin had, of course, known that the Ainsworth head –in the wake of Darius' death– had an offer to make them when she had scouted the girl for the information-sharing dinner the night before. But she never would have guessed that it would ever be something like this.

Was she a bit miffed that it was Shirou's house and not hers that was getting this offer? Quite a bit. But it was Shirou that Angelica had done her business with in the past and she had just spent an entire dinner listening to how she was a potential flight risk so Rin also couldn't exactly fault her for that decision.

However, she was absolutely going to milk this situation for all that it was worth. Because she was dating Shirou, and had no plans to stop, and therefore anything that Shirou got, so did she.

So really this whole situation was just a net positive for her, and definitely not her conning a poor young maiden for all that she was worth.

"That's correct." Angelica nodded; her hands folded over her lap in a startling similarity to Sakura's own position when she wasn't holding a teacup.

"Alright, mind filling me in as to why?"

"I am not a leader, in fact, my brother often said that I had more in common with the dolls of the family than any of the pureblooded, biological members. I was an assistant, defender, and vanguard to my brother my entire life, I know nothing else except that position."

"So, you're utterly incapable of giving orders?" Morgan paraphrased, getting a short hum from the young woman as she tilted her head from one side to the other.

"I can give orders as a commander, I suppose. But leading a family, especially outside of a fight, is beyond both my ability and my comfort."

"So, you're just using Shirou for your own comfort." Rin summarized, arms and legs crossed, and her gaze narrowed on the woman in front of her.

"Yes. Is that a problem? As his vassal, he can use me in any way he wishes in return." Angelica spoke softly, a hand placed over her chest with her fingers just barely ghosting the fabric of her shirt.

"Not a bad choice, I do have to say. She's aware of her strengths and faults and how best to play them. A keen strategist." Semiramis praised her through their mental connection.

'I realize that, but it's still dangerous to suddenly have her around Shirou, especially with everything her brother did and what he caused.'

"While that may be true, the story she's told checks out and fits with what we've discovered so far. Politics is always about risk assessment."

'That's true. I'll be keeping an eye on her though.'

"You would be a fool not to."

"No, that's not a problem at all. But you must understand that family vassalage isn't simply just something you agree to over a handshake." She smiled and clapped her hands beside her face.

"I understand that a great amount of work will go towards making this a reality and a binding contract will be a requirement." Angelica spoke, clearly having expected this. "And as an additional benefit, I brought the remains of my family's artifact as requested."

That final sentence was directed right at Morgan as she lifted a bag placed at her side and placed it on the table between them, opening it to show the cracked and broken remains of The Orb.

"Oh? Fascinating." Morgan made a swirling motion with her hand, the shards, and pieces of the orb rising into the air and moving over to her as she observed them all with a keen eye.

"Anything of particular note?" Rin questioned the woman at her side, getting a small noise in return.

"It's a peculiar artifact. It seemed to be a container of imaginary space before it was shattered."

Angelica blinked a couple of times at this, both in surprise over the sudden revelation of The Orb's inner workings but also from the sheer speed with which the legendary magus was able to figure it out.

"However, I can tell that it was imperfect even before this damage was done to it." She explained, lifting one of the largest chunks into the air so that everyone could see it. "See that clouding in the glass right here? That was caused by imperfections left in during the crafting of this item. Over time it would have led to destabilization of the Imaginary Space inside the item and ultimately, based on what you've described, complete destabilization of your family's technique."

"It had already reached that point." Angelica revealed simply, her eyes fixated on the imperfections within the artifact. "On some days just trying to activate the technique felt like I was swimming through tar."

"Understandable, stress on the sphere would have only accelerated its decline as the Imaginary Space within was clouded and corrupted."

'….Oh, I've got an idea!'

"I'm finding a distinct lack of abusing her curves in here. Are you even a hot-blooded female?"

"Are you sure that keeping her around Shirou is a good idea?"

Rin blinked a little, taken back just a bit by the…possessiveness(?) in the Goddess' voice.

'Don't worry about it. I've got a way to keep her in line.'

"How about this, Angelica." Rin suddenly spoke aloud, dragging everyone's attention to her, just as she was looking for. "As part of your agreement to become a vassal of the Muramasa clan, I'll add in a clause to give you something new to direct your family's Magecraft through."

"If that is at all possible I would highly appreciate it to be a greater asset to Shirou Muramasa."

"Of course, what kind of girlfriend would I be if I wasn't looking out for Shirou?" She smiled and laughed, keeping her thoughts unspoken at least for the moment.

After all, what better way to look after her boyfriend than to make sure that the moment Angelica, or anyone from her family, tried to betray him they would be defanged via destruction of their artifact?

She hoped that it wouldn't come to that, after all, it would be a piece of cake to use their talents for her own ends just by asking Shirou nicely or making it worth his while as well. But if that's what she had to do to keep her boyfriend safe–

The twin-tailed girl's fists balled up so tight that her own nails began to draw blood from her palm.

–Then so be it.

XXXxxxXXX

Artoria slowly opened her eyes from her position still leant against the wall of Shirou's room at the foot of his bed, her eyes drifting from the floor to her master, and then back to her hand.

It was only a phantom sensation of the 'dream' that she had that night, brought about through her mental link with the still comatose blacksmith to her left, but even now she could feel the fatigue in her hand from how tightly 'she' had held her blade in her mental battle with the three goddesses.

She had heard about the event from the three of them, in their own points of view and what they had been trying to do in the meantime, but to see all of that from Shirou's point of view….Well, she understood why he had done what he had and gone to the lengths that he did now.

It was an odd peculiarity of the Servant summoning ritual, the memory transference, that Artoria was almost certain was deliberately put into the system to try and make the masters and servants bond more.

In some cases, like her and Shirou, it worked wonderfully well. In other cases, like her and Kiritsugu, it only served to alienate the two of them even more as their ideological standpoints clashed.

Even before the Battle of Kings, she had begun to get closer to her Master, she could admit that. However, after the Battle of Kings, and the memories that she had 'experienced' the night before, she only felt her closeness to him grow ever stronger.

The failure he had felt upon realizing that he had tried to murder his still-alive girlfriends, while not exactly the same, struck incredibly close to the King's heart in a strange parallel to her realization about Berserker's identity in the fourth Holy Grail War. The numbness that had filled him when he had thought that his girlfriends had died reminded her painfully of what she had felt when she and Mordred had dealt the final blows to each other, and she had looked out to the burning wreckage of her kingdom.

Finally, the joy he had felt when his girlfriends had fully regained control of themselves and herself, alongside the other Servants, had appeared reminded Artoria only of the joy she had felt when Alaya had appeared before her to offer her that deal. A chance at saving her kingdom and righting the wrongs of her past, the ultimate victory in the Pendragon's eyes.

Through those similarities she found herself empathizing with Shirou even more than ever before. Which was yet another log in the fire that fueled her overprotectiveness of the teen in the wake of his fight with the goddesses.

Morgan had claimed that she was being paranoid and Scathach had said that trying to take up the duty of guarding Shirou entirely alone wasn't something that she had to do. Artoria disagreed on both fronts.

Scathach may have been the strongest amongst the Heroic Spirits now since she had well and truly incarnated into this current day, but that also meant that she would be far more useful in helping to deal with the monsters and spirits that only seemed to increase by the day. Whereas Artoria was almost one-hundred percent certain that if she wasn't here to guard Shirou, her sister would have tried to do something that she would really rather not think about right now.

So, with one last clench of her slightly numb fingers, Artoria steeled her resolve yet again to see her guard duty of Shirou out until the end. She hadn't been able to protect or even help him at all during the Yggdmillennia's siege or the Battle of Kings, but she could absolutely do so right now.

XXXxxxXXX

"Stupid homunculi, all that work put into their creation, and they can't even plug a tube in properly." Kristiina Edelfelt groaned to herself, firing a gandr at the homunculi in question and not even blinking an eye as the bottom half of its leg blew off and it screamed in pain.

With a painful-sounding thump, it hit the ground and wailed, synthetic blood oozing out of what remained of its calf, only getting a crinkle of the Edelfelt's nose and a narrowing of her eyes as she placed a hand over her lower face.

"One of you come clean this mess up and remove this defect!" She snapped her fingers and pointed at the injured, wailing homunculus.

Dutifully two other homunculi stopped their task to come over and complete her orders, letting Kristiina finally walk away with a roll of her eyes and a scoff.

Wherever this place was that Morgan had dropped her off at a few days ago, it at least had what she needed to survive and continue her own private research. However, that wasn't good enough for her, not when her Servant was dead, her chance at the Holy Grail was gone and that stupid idiot Shirou Muramasa was stuck in the clutches of her sister and the other whores he kept around him.

So that's where she currently found herself, using the homunculi already residing at this facility, in all their quickly made, unintelligent glory, to recreate a particular method of homunculus creation that she had seen in the memories of her Servant.

Quickly she looked down at the perfectly cut gemstone that hung from a necklace around her neck, the sparkling lights within it only serving to make her squint and click her tongue in annoyance.

She hated having to bring back that witch for any reason, but it was pretty much her only option at the moment. And this necklace she had been left with was the key to that, seeing as it had a perfect copy of Morgan, soul and all, engraved inside.

Kristiina was, of course, only taking a guess on that final part, but she knew that it at least had something to do with bringing Morgan back, and thus was valuable.

A blush spread over her cheeks as she placed a hand on the side of a perfectly clear glass tube, staring at the two balls of lumpy, misshapen flesh inside the bubbling fluid inside.

"Oh, my children, just wait a little longer. Soon you'll be able to walk the world…"

This level of homunculi knowledge and experience, it had to be said, was not something that Kristiina herself had cultivated. No, this knowledge and experience had come purely through her limited memory transferences with the legendary witch.

The mistake that Kristiina made in all of this, however, was that she assumed that those memories had been coincidental. Her mistake had been in, even subconsciously, underestimating the thaumaturgical knowledge of her Servant.

Which, if nothing else, was the story of her life starting from the moment that she had summoned her. The poor crystalline princess, trapped and warped beyond recognition by her sweet, 'faithful' familiar until all that was left was a monster.

Morgan Le Fay's favourite type of play.

XXXxxxXXX

Scathach yawned slightly as she sat upon the corpse of an Oni, a rather small one considering what she knew and had heard of their legends, but an Oni nonetheless.

More and more spirits and mystical creatures were gracing the surface of this Texture with each passing hour and soon enough she was worried that dragons beyond just the Tear's Guardian would begin making their way through.

If that happened, unless it was met with, quite frankly, an absurd counteroffensive from humanity the moment that any of them tried then the survival of the human race was all but guaranteed to collapse. And even then, the fallout of such an offensive was sure to ruin the survival chances of humanity even further than it already was.

However, Fuyuki had proven a way forward for the survival of humanity, ironically enough considering they caused this whole issue in the first place.

A way forward which came in the form of evolving and adapting with the times, the refusal to just let people keel over and die and honestly, genuinely try to work with the weirdness of the new world to prevail.

The sharp sound of a clap below her drew her gaze to the sound, seeing two members of the Fujimura group clapping their hands together over the corpses of various smaller yokai. A bloody katana in the free hand of one and an iron-studded club in the hand of the other.

"Any casualties?" One of them called out, hopping the ankle of the Oni that Scathach sat upon to approach some of the other Fujimura group members.

"Not this time! However, we do have some injuries." A middle-aged man grunted, jabbing his thumb toward two younger members with bandages wrapped around their arms and torsos that had a few splotches of red over them.

"I'll take care of those." Scathach said, sliding down the rotund belly of the Oni and kicking off right at the bottom to clear its arm and approach them quicker.

"Thank you so much, your help has been invaluable." The middle-aged man spoke sincerely, getting a soft smile from her and a wave of her hand.

"Don't worry about it. Next time if you see me in the area just leave a skirmish like this to me, I don't need any assistance with something of this size."

She could hear the murmurs that sprung up around her as a rune sprung to life over her hand and healed the two injured yakuza. However, she didn't bother listening to them, already aware of the kinds of things that they were saying.

As a magus she was already a unique existence to these people, who had lived only in the world of modern humanity until extremely recently. As a Heroic Spirit and one alive and unburdened by the restrictions of a Class Container at that, she transcended even that rarity.

A mystical beauty, an unparalleled warrior, a monster that made Oni look like children in comparison, a woman cloaked in death. Those titles and more she heard more and more around her as she helped the people of Fuyuki, and all they made her feel was despair.

Yet again she was ahead of a curve, an existence that transcended the humans around her, a warrior that couldn't be matched by anything or anyone.

In the back of her head, she heard the sweet alluring whisper of death yet again, something that she hadn't heard in quite a while, at least as her Servant self. The embrace of something that she couldn't have that sounded so sweet.

What kind of existence was this? To live only as a figure larger than life with no challenges or excitement. To live in a body that did not age and a body that did not decay.

Of course, she did not chase death in the hope of freeing herself at the soonest opportunity, she loved humanity and was too duty-bound to ever do so, but that familiar, creeping depression was something that she couldn't help but sink into slowly. A cold, clasping embrace that she was all too familiar with and unable to escape.

"Scathach, are you there?"

The sound of her communication totem snapped her out of her thoughts with a silent blink of her eyes, her hand grasping it from her side and lifting it to her mouth in a quick, smooth motion.

"I am, the skirmish I was dealing with has been slain, anything to report Gray?"

"No casualties on my end but I've begun noticing something strange."

"Are you keeping me in suspense on purpose?" Scathach scoffed good-naturedly, resting her weight on one leg and rolling her eyes. "What have you noticed? Any peculiar spirits?"

"No no, nothing new or unique, but I've noticed both allies and enemies blades alike seem more….effective within the last day."

"Effective in what way?" She felt her fingers tense around one of her biceps and her gaze narrow on the ground as she spoke into the totem.

"Enemies and allies blades alike are cutting into things easier than they're meant to be, and have been previously. Not to mention that the edge alignment of the blades is getting harder to ruin and their durability is rising."

"That's certainly not natural, or a case of placebo. At least not based on what you've said, give me a moment." Scathach mused, looking up and pointing at one of the yakuza around her.

"You there."

"H-Huh? Yes Ma'am?" He squeaked, pointing at himself cluelessly.

"Humour me for a moment, hit that railing there with your blade." She ordered, pointing at the hand railing nearby.

"I- if you say so." He muttered, clearly confused over her request but willing to trust in her considering the power and skill that she had displayed over the battle that they had just finished.

Approaching the railing, the man tried to zone out the cheering and jeering of his comrades around him, his fingers nervously readjusted around the hilt of his blade as he raised it up.

He didn't want to fuck up his blade so soon after he had just gotten it –it had even been upgraded with magic!– but the woman in black had told him, specifically, to do this and who was he to say no?

Closing his eyes and gulping, the man swung down, blinking with wide, owl-eyed confusion as he felt his blade go all the way through the railing. Oh sure, it wasn't exactly buttery smooth, there was quite a bit of resistance, but the fact that his blade actually went through the railing and didn't suddenly have a giant portion of the edge blunted and curled on itself was an honest to goodness miracle in his eyes.

"It's not your imagination, blades are actually more effective." Scathach spoke slowly into her totem, trying to figure out why this might be the case even as she did so.

"Good, I was worried that I was going insane when I started to notice it. Any clues?"

"None so far, and nothing that I can think of either."

"Whatever it is, if Shirou was awake, he'd surely be– Wait. You don't think…?"

Scathach felt a chill go through her body, not of disgust or fear but one of pure excitement as the unsaid realization reached her mind at the exact same time as it seemed to reach Gray's.

XXXxxxXXX

"Ugh…"

Everything was soft and he could feel a breeze, soft yet just enough to ruffle his hair a little. His body hurt all over yet not really, a phantom sensation of his last waking moments overlayed onto his current form.

For some reason, despite his eyes still being closed, he could almost see the world around him. More than that, he could see even outside his house. Down the street, the next neighbourhood over, the edge of town. He could 'see' all of it. In a clarity both crystal clear and impossible to parse the visions invaded his mind, like children eagerly babbling to their father about something in an effort to be praised.

And with a cracking open of one of his eyes, it all ended. As if it had never existed in the first place the visions and sight disappeared, replaced only with the sight of his ceiling.

Slowly sitting up he tried to piece together the most likely series of events following his collapse, how much time had passed, what the outcome was, things of that nature. So exhausted was he, mentally, that he couldn't even try and throw himself into fight or flight.

Ironically, the best option considering that it actually forced him to keep things slow and focused instead of acting on adrenaline and instinct.

Lifting one hand, seemingly made of both tungsten and feathers at once, he used the heel of his palm to rub one of his eyes, finally looking up from his blanket to see the silent, wide-eyed look from Artoria. The woman stood at the foot of his bed with her arms crossed and her back, and weight it seemed, rested against the wall.

Something seemed to flash through Artoria's eyes, relief or shock if he had to guess, and her expression only slackened a centimeter more.

"Hey, Artoria." His voice came out quietly, soft and hoarse from misuse, a small grin spread his lips as a flash of mirth flashed through his eyes. "How've you been?"

XXXxxxXXX

Side Story: A Petal Unbound by Time

"Sir Kay," Artoria, a small girl of only about eight or nine years of age, if Shirou had to guess, dressed in simple, slightly tattered clothing, looked up at the elder boy. "Do we have to camp out here tonight? Isn't it dangerous with our catches?"

Shirou, vaguely translucent and watching from the sidelines, couldn't help but agree with the child's guess. He knew that this was a memory of Artoria's, but so far it had only been a fairly regular hunting trip between her and her 'elder brother' Kay, with nothing of particular interest occurring.

He knew that memories like these shouldn't be something that he should be seeing, that's not the point of the memory transference. He should be seeing things of importance, things of grand note in the history or story of Artoria's life, not a regular hunting trip.

Though getting to see Artoria displaying a wide variety of emotions as a child was a welcome change and made him glad that she was, to a much lesser degree, doing the same after he had summoned her.

"Nonsense! Not when the illustrious I am here!"

However, if there was any reason that Shirou could think of for being shown this memory, it was the silver-haired, cloaked, man that sat to Artoria's right at the fire of their campsite.

"You haven't done anything the entire time." Artoria grumbled with a pout that was, in all honesty, incredibly cute.

"Agh!" The cloaked man clutched his heart and fell backwards, yet even as he did, the hood over his head never shifted an inch, keeping his face shrouded in a shadow that was hardly natural.

He wished that Artoria could have called that out so that Shirou had some kind of explanation, but unfortunately despite her confusion Artoria was only a small child and she trusted her elder brother, so she let it go easily enough.

"Don't be like that Artoria." Kay laughed, "He asked to come along, and he's helped us track down the boar's, you can't be mean to him for helping."

"I guess you're right…" Artoria mumbled, twiddling her fingers and looking at the ground.

'Huh, so even as a child she didn't like to lose arguments. I guess some things never change.'

"Haha, it's alright Sir Kay, I'm made of thicker stuff than to be brought down by such a simple comment." The man, who had only asked to be called 'Marin', laughed as he sat back up and waved the man's worries off.

Shirou wasn't sure what it was, but something about him just kept setting Shirou's instincts into overdrive, as if there was more that he just wasn't seeing.

"Actually, Sir Kay. Do you mind if I have a private talk with Artoria for a moment? Five or so minutes."

"A private talk?" Both Kay and Artoria looked at 'Marin' in confusion, since it was the first time that he had asked for anything even close to this.

"Yes, I just have a couple questions for her that I want her true thoughts on without her elder brother affecting her answers. Can you grant me this one request?" He asked, clapping his hands together and holding them in front of his face.

"Hm…" Kay looked between 'Marin' and Artoria unsurely, but eventually relented upon Artoria's determined expression and nod. "Alright fine, I'll do a short perimeter check, yell if he does anything bad alright Artoria?"

"Understood!" Artoria nodded enthusiastically, saluting to her elder brother as he sighed, gave one final look to 'Marin' and walked away.

"So, what did you want to ask me-" Artoria jerked as if she had been struck by something, her body slouching a little and her expression drooping in sudden, extreme, lethargy. "S-Sir…..Marrr….."

Shirou himself jerked in surprise at the sudden turn of events, wondering what the hell was happening and most importantly why?

"Haaaah, finally." The cloaked man sighed, grabbing the hem of his hood with both hands and flipping it back to reveal his face finally.

Artoria now sat slouched forward with her eyes half-lidded and dazed, her mouth parted ever so slightly as she seemed to be in some strange state halfway between sleep and awareness.

"I promised not to approach our little 'prince' here until later on, but I just couldn't help it." The man explained to thin air, "Besides I had a message that I had to get to you without ruining everything. I hope our hunting trip hasn't been boring so far, Shirou?"

In an instant Shirou leapt back, his hands in a loose guard despite knowing that this was a dream and that he couldn't affect or interact with anything in it and vice versa.

But he also hadn't expected something within the memory to call him out by name, either, so who knows what rules were still in effect.

"Don't bother answering, it's not like I can hear you right now." The man chuckled, twisting his head left and right as if trying to find where Shirou stood. "But you can hear me, and that's all I need."

"Who the hell..?" Shirou muttered to himself, slowly relaxing out of his wary stance but still tensed on instinct.

"I suppose introductions are in order first, I'm the grand mage, Merlin."

Suddenly a lot of things made sense, and yet didn't at the same time.

"Don't worry, my message is only short, I don't want Kay or Artoria getting too suspicious of me." He grinned and knocked his own head with his second knuckles before turning to look directly at the half-asleep form of Artoria.

"I'm sorry."

Shirou blinked and leant back a little bit, shocked and very, very confused by the start of the legendary mages statement. Sorry? Sorry for what?

"I'm doing my best to teach Fou the value of humanity, but I feel that my efforts are all for naught currently. Little bastard just keeps biting me whenever I try to teach it something." He grumbled, shaking his hand as if he had just been bitten.

Merlin knew Cath Palug? He'd been trying to teach Cath Palug? What the hell?

How was Shirou meant to react to that? What was he even meant to do with that knowledge?

"If things continue this way, a Beast will be born that I was unable to stop, and that you'll have to deal with. Or already have, I suppose." Merlin chuckled almost morosely, trailing two fingers down his face in the exact pattern of the faint scar left over from Shirou's 'battle' with Cath Palug five years ago. "Despite what you may hear about me, I'm putting my all into trying to teach them the values of humanity. Not doing a good job though."

Was Merlin just using this chance to apologize for not being able to stop Cath Palug? Sure, he understood that such a thing was incredibly dangerous for the future of humanity but surely the man hadn't gone through all this effort just for that.

"What else do you have to say…?" Shirou muttered to himself, crossing his arms and squinting his eyes at the man.

"Things are going to come to a head soon, things that humanity will need every bit of strength that they can muster to break through without Gaia snipping our timeline. So, along with my apology I have a suggestion for you, Shirou."

Small, brilliant flowers began to bloom throughout the campsite that the two of them sat in, one appearing in the open palm of the man himself.

"That gaping hole in the sky, its not just a way for the Reverse Side to invade your home, it's a two-way gate, albeit not allowing humans through." He admitted with a sheepish grin and another bonk of his own head with his other hand.

Shirou felt his eye twitch at the mans demeanour, for such a serious conversation the man really didn't like to stay serious for prolonged periods of time.

"Don't get distracted, little King." Merlin teased, getting another jolt from the young man in question. "Human's may not be able to go through, but Servants aren't technically humans anymore, remember?"

Shirou's eyes widened and the fairy letters within his irises spun lazily, their hue glowing ever so slightly brighter.

"Have them come to Avalon, find me and aid in my escape from Vivian's clutches. I have wrongs that I must right, not just to humanity at large but to others as well." His gaze turned slightly forlorn to the half-asleep form of Artoria, "I ask this of you as a favour, Shirou. Please."

Shirou was silent for a moment before he sighed and scratched his head with one hand, resting his weight on one leg.

"Fine, fine. I can't exactly deny you'd be useful."

"Hah! I can only guess what you've said but you agreed, right?" Merlin grinned goofily, getting a humoured roll of the teen's eyes. "As a thank you, keep these words in mind."

All the flowers in the campsite, and Merlin's hand, withered and died in an instant, Shirou's pupils dilating ever so slightly at the look in Merlin's eyes as he seemed to stare directly at Shirou.

"Time's Cycle is not invincible, nor is it fool-proof. Trust in your creations and don't let your head cool. Allow the ego of a King to fill you entirely, if only for once, and siege a territory like you're meant to."

Shirou's mouth opened and closed once, the teen unable to find words to say in the wake of such an ominous and confusing prophecy.

"Pretty cool right?" Merlin grinned goofily once more; the evidence of the flowers gone entirely as he pulled his hood back up. "But that's all I have to say for now. I hope you enjoy the rest of our trip."

"I'll see you again, Shirou Muramasa. Hopefully next time we can have a proper conversation, hm?"

XXXxxxXXX

So!...I got carried away with the length of that side story, it really puts the 'story' in side story huh?

I had the idea for it and went "Oh yeah that's perfect" and then sorta just ended up writing an entire scene instead of something short to tack on at the end. My b.

I tried doing something different with the opening scene and tried to push my descriptive, atmospheric writing to its limits, but I don't think I did an amazing job at it. Hopefully it managed to get the vibe I was hoping for across because I'm very much running into what I think is a "Perfection is the enemy of good" situation with that scene but I'm not certain.

In other news Shirou is finally awake after three chapters of having him out of commission and people are going to have a variety of reactions to that. Mostly some variety of "Fuck" with different punctuations at the end and perhaps some italics too.

As for irl stuff. In the span of this month, I've gone from having a casual job to a full-time job to no job at all and now back to that casual job. Somehow, I stumbled into a near-on Black Company irl, managed to get out and then my only income for about two weeks was from (technically) the donation site that shall not be named thanks to my original story.

Speaking of, I've decided to try and pursue writing as at least a pseudo-professional career through my original stories so alongside Young Swordmaster's Journey I'm also planning out a second fantasy story using some ideas that I couldn't put into YSJ. So, if any of you like my works beyond just Fate and want to check them out, I highly recommend doing so!

Shill Corner:

Discord: ctMzhq3 OR plasmaassassin
Original Story: Young Swordmaster's Journey (Found on Royal Road)

REVIEW REPLIES:

Vadrulesall: Understandable, have a nice day.

Garyt237: the scene's just write themselves as well, its such a great part of the story XD

Spedyalarm: Dude I'm seriously dreading the planning phase of that fic.

TheFailedSuccesor: Juries still out on that one.

Voidicus: Yeah, the vindication I felt when I saw that was unparalleled.

Darklight of the 0 arcana: If this particular branch became a visual novel, I know multiple people who would lynch me because of how much canon I look dead in the eyes and shoot in the head.

Adro-sama: Illya's personality did change a little bit. And Morgan tried to wake Shirou up alongside some other stuff.

Jokerprice: We'll just have to see how things play out. Also see my reply to Darklight for what I think would happen if this got an anime adaption XD

Temsen: that was the goal!

Lord Naruto: Alright I'm going to have to bring this up multiple times because a lot of people came to the same conclusion because I'm a dumbass. Morgan wasn't trying to drug Rin and Artoria. I never even considered how that would look while writing it but now that it's been pointed out I can't unsee it and I can't believe I made such a mistake. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter though.

VersatileDuoluo: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and that's perfectly understandable.

Tyracus: Yeah, there's quite a lot of fun and goofy scenes in this chapter and I quite enjoyed writing it (despite how long it turned out jesus christ) and the little sister war is just beginning. Run and hide before it consumes everything in its destruction.

DRaG0Ns: that's the plan.

Zheelo: Oh, trust me, it's affected Shirou.

Just a bored Highschooler: horrified screaming, probably.

Rajo: I hope you enjoyed the start of this chapter then, cause I worked pretty hard on it. And hearing that you enjoyed the chapter and found it funny and well written is a load off my back for sure. I genuinely thought people would hate it just for being a recap chapter.

Odinori: Smart.

Michael Morningstar: The people that said that my UBW is too strong can go suck it.

Zukafew119: Hello again! Kama's introduction was something I did pretty deliberately from a writing perspective specifically to shift the dialogue and story-telling up a bit to get the 'enemies' perspective, so I'm happy you liked it. Also Morgan's voice talking to Olga did happen in the chapter as she was sprinting. And yes, Olga was incredibly adorable when she played innocent after shooting Illya. Yes that was a typo, I'm very annoyed that me and all the beta's missed that. So thank you. The thing about Scathach being revived was more just an easy way to explain it, though you are correct in saying that it isn't technically correct. As for the other deaths worldwide, the mana from the tear is spreading over the entire world but its basically gushing out onto everything beneath it first, like pouring water out of a bucket. The mana around the rest of the world is rising, causing people to die, but its not as high and dangerous as when the tear is directly on top of somewhere. I'm very happy you enjoyed this chapter and having to make you split it into two comments again gave me a good laugh. And thank you, I'm glad that I can write chapters without needing Shirou there now XD

REVIEW REPLIES OVER!
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and how this arc and unfolding so far. Now as I bid you all farewell for a month, I want you to know that if a single TYPE-Moon employee ever sees this fic I think I'll genuinely curl up into a ball and start joker laughing. I am only partially joking.