Fate/Pseudo Night
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Chapter 5
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Illya sits alone in her room. She contemplates what she saw last night.
She didn't mind the all powerful Servant that were there, no. She was sure that Sitonai herself had a chance. After all, one divinity cannot stand up to three, right?
No, she was focused on the actions of the boy.
She saw how he shielded the Tohsaka Master with his own body, causing him to get injured. She saw how he hugged his Servant in a feeble attempt to protect her from the clashing Noble Phantasms.
She saw a boy with no regard for his own safety.
It was just as Sitonai described him. That he was selfless. That he was foolish.
She stares in the mirror for a few moments before standing up and leaving her room. She walks through the beautiful but empty halls of this castle.
Downstairs, in the main lobby, Sitonai is there. She's sitting down, playing with her polar bear, Shirou. It's odd enough that she chose to name a bear after her brother, but for her to ride Shirou into battle like a steed is somewhat comical and frightening.
Sitonai looks up to see Illya in her winter attire. Sitonai stands up so she can talk to her properly. "Oh. Are you leaving?"
She already knew the answer to that question, she just wanted to hear it from herself. After all, she would have done the same thing as well.
Illya nods before heading out through the main gate. "I trust that you won't leave this place, Alter-Ego?"
Sitonai smiles gently and nods.
Illya simply stares at her before she walks out of the castle and heads towards the city. It will be quite a long walk.
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In a dream…
Everything was on fire. The red waves of heat flowing and bending to the wind. The back gusts of smog would swim to the sky, blocking the stars. The earth beneath crumbling under the weight of the bodies piling up.
There was no grey sky to be found. No flicker of hope. No sign of any joy. There was only brutality, sin, destruction, chaos. There was only death. Death to the sinners, death to the people, death to everyone.
Kama didn't know what to feel when she saw all this chaos and blood. There was nobody fighting and everybody was trying to survive.
Each time they did, they failed.
Rubble would crush them, the fire would take them, the smoke would suffocate them.
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This was humanity's own sin going against them. She felt it in the air that the fire was magical in nature, inhuman at thought. It sought out any living being and smothered them in their own sin, bathing them in fire and smoke, drowning them in ash and boulder.
This was another form of love.
A tough love. A love that shows humanities sin. A love that exposes them to their own nature. Kama laughs as she sees this destruction with odd feelings swirling inside her. A love that…
Kama chuckles in disgust.
What was this place even? It's revolting too.
Her eyes wander over the destruction till she sees…
"That's…"
… a small boy with red hair and bronze eyes as he walks through the fire. His hands covering his ears, his eyes dried of tears, his breathing growing slower and slower.
The boy is about to die.
No, that observation is wrong even for Kama.
The boy is already dead.
She's overcomplicating what's going on with the world with her view of love, or the fact that love comes in every shape or form.
What's happening in front of her is a story and quite a simple one at that.
In order for the body to live, the mind of the boy had to die. Even she understood that much as the boy struggled to walk.
His family burned away in the flame, his past buried under the rubble, his identity shrouded in smoke. Everything about the boy, has already died. The calamity that's happening around him took all that away and left this walking husk behind.
Kama observes for longer. It was obvious what was going on.
As a Servant, she's not supposed to experience the past of her Master, but she chalks it off to his inability as a mage that this happened or the fact that she botched the summoning by kicking the blonde out of the way.
So, the boy experienced the hate of the world. The loss of love, the absence of affection, the fading of emotion.
She can't comprehend it.
She only knows how to love and she hates it. Her job as a Goddess demands that she only knows and spreads it. It cost Kama her life and absolute suffering as she was burned away by Shiva's third eye. She can never forget the heat of being erased, how her entire structure of her being was lit on fire, how she was being erased just like that.
Perhaps she and the boy were similar in that regard…
The boy fell down. She sees it. He raises his hand to the sky. It's a purposeless action. They boy is already slowly fading away from life.
The boy was meant to die here. The boy was meant to be forgotten after suffering all the ash and flame. All the screams and cries. All the evils of the world.
But the action had meaning. A man rushes in to grasp the boy's hand.
"You're alive! You're alive!" The man said in tears as he helps the boy up. Kama sees this interaction and is stunned by what was happening.
Love.
It was love in such a pure form.
No, she was mistaking it again. This isn't love.
Happiness. Pure happiness from the man's face as he tears disgracefully fall from his face as he holds the boy's hands tightly.
Almost as if the man was saved instead of the boy.
The boy looks up and stares at the man.
Jealousy stirred in the boy's heart.
After all,
Could the boy smile like that one day?
Kama could only ponder as the dream was coming to an end.
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Shirou grimaces as he sits up. He opens his eyes to realize his in his bed, in his room, in his house.
"What… happened?"
"I wasn't there for that, but your Servant revealed her identity. Seems like whatever she did, took a lot of mana out of you so you fell asleep dead tired right after. Must be the blood loss, rush of energy and adrenaline for the entire night and loss of mana. I'm surprised you're even alive."
Shirou immediately looks around and sees Tohsaka looking at him. Wearing her red dress, black skirt and staring at him with her crimson eyes and smug smile.
"What is it, Emiya? You're staring at me a bit too long." Tohsaka says with a blush. This was a clear attempt to tease him rather than actual embarrassment.
"Tohsa… no. Ishtar?"
She smiles. "Oh? I thought I disguised myself well by wearing her clothes and ribbons instead of my usual garb and crown. What gave me away?"
Shirou looked away blushing. "I… It was your eyes. I remember hers were blue. So as soon as I saw the red, I thought you weren't her."
"I'm surprised you noticed things like that. Oh? Don't tell me you actually like her?" Ishtar teases bearing the smuggest of grins.
Shirou's blush intensifies as he stares at her in shock. "L-Like?!"
Ishtar laughs at the expense of Shirou as she stands up. "Well, that's enough teasing for today. My Master told me to report when you would wake up." She begins to float as she opens the door and leaves.
"Couldn't she just… walk…?" Shirou tries to stand up but winces as he looks at his arm.
That's right.
What Kotomine had told him, what he had seen and experienced were all real…
It flashed in his eyes. The swords flying everywhere, the impending doom the man in gold clashing with the Goddess of beauty and the fear of their climactic battle.
Shirou breathed out at the thought of how powerful that Goddess was, and he was just speaking to her too.
There is no way there will be no casualties in this war. He saw the sheer strength that the Servants had, even his own. There are three alone that can cause a planetary extinction event. It's even more frightening that most of them use the faces of people he knows.
The fights he's seen aren't of warrior to warrior. These were reenactments of legends, grand tales of the clashing of Gods, the resurrection of literal mythology. There's a big part of him that hopes that the other fighters aren't as strong or as destructive as Ishtar or Gilgamesh.
He doesn't want anybody to die. He can't let that happen.
However, that's impossible. Eventually, people will be dragged in and involved.
He sighs as he stands up and opens the door. He won't get much done if he just contemplates and sits down. He'll have to talk with the others about what's going on.
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There's a heavy silence in the room as Shirou entered the kitchen. As soon as he opened the door, it felt like there was a sudden increase with the strength of gravity in the room.
Kama's staring at Ishtar, Tohsaka's looking at Sakura and occasionally glaring at Ishtar, Sakura looks uncomfortable as she prepares breakfast.
Before Shirou could say anything, he gets patted on the back.
"Jeez, that's a lotta tension going on here. Thought after last night we would at least be on speaking terms here." Muramasa chuckles as he enters the room as well.
Ishtar glances at Muramasa. "Just because we allied last night, does not mean we'll be allies again you know? After this we could most likely be enemies."
Muramasa raises an eyebrow. "But I don't think that could be possible right now miss."
"And why is that?" Kama asks as she tilts her head backwards to stare at Senji.
He frowns. "You all saw what that golden Servant is capable of. And while you all are strong; I think it's safe to say that you're both out of energy after the stunts that were pulled last night just trying to survive."
He points towards Ishtar. "You may have gotten the strength of a Command Seal to help boost you, but even I can tell you're drained dry. That Noble Phantasm was really something else. It ain't gonna do you any good pretending nothing happened."
He then glances at Kama. "As for you, people don't just pull universes out of existence and act like nothing happened afterwards. It's amazing that you're alive even considering how little prana your Master can provide for you."
He then glances at Sakura and Tohsaka. "And I don't know the history between you two, but what I do want to prioritize is my Master's safety. To do that, it would be best to ally with the both of you."
He then just points back at Shirou, "He can be the peacekeeper in this household between the Masters while I do that for the Servants."
"Wait why me?"
"They'll be guests at your house after all. Weren't you taught to treat them well?"
"Yeah but.."
"Then that should settle it."
Kama scoffs. "That settles nothing. We never agreed to-"
"Ka… no, Assassin, wouldn't it be better if we just allied together?" A surprising voice of reason comes from right beside her.
Sakura looks around and voices out her own opinion. "It's true that most of us are weak right now and it can be taken advantage of. At least with each other, we know what to expect and how much we can trust each other."
Sakura just wanted Shirou to be safe. After seeing what happened last night, she saw how injured he got. She doesn't want to see anything like that again.
But will she still accept him?
She hid the fact that she was a magus from him after all this time. She hid the fact that she had been violated and still hasn't told him about that. She's scared that he won't accept a broken and filthy girl like her.
She buries those fears for now. This may not be how a magus behaves, but this is how she'll choose to behave. She has already betrayed the Matou family thanks to Muramasa. Not only that, but Shinji supposedly has a Servant now. She doesn't know how he got one, but he is a Master and will most likely target Shirou.
She lets out a breath as she promises to herself to protect him from her family.
Speaking of family, Rin twitches her hand. She looks at Sakura before sighing. "Normally, I would suggest the same thing too." Her attention focuses on her command seals. "Speaking purely from a tactical stand point, I am the person who is second when it comes to being disadvantaged. With Shirou coming in first."
Shirou winces at the jab but understands where she is coming from.
He is after all the least experienced magus of the group who only knows reinforcement and projection. He may have a little physical training and some knowledge of swordplay from his time at the dojo with Fuji-nee, but he's outclassed by Rin who knows more magic than he does. For sure she would already have a plan in case of a situation like this. He might even be weaker than Sakura as it's established that she too is a magus.
"But you have to have an endgame for this Saber. Why are you suggesting this alliance in the first place?" Rin asks suspiciously. She crosses her arms and stares at Muramasa.
It's a logical conclusion to be suspicious of him too. From the brief conversations they have held, she can see that Muramasa is his own character. While he bares Shirou's face and holds a couple of similarities, it doesn't mean that they are completely the same. Muramasa would have his own end goals here.
As a magus, she needs to be wary.
It is not because he is the Servant of her sister.
Rather, it is because he is the Servant of a potential foe.
Ishtar raises her eyebrow and sighs mentally. 'Honestly, this whole situation with her and her sister is quite complicated.'
Ishtar after all, can relate to this situation.
She shudders at the sudden thought of Ereshkigal being summoned instead of her. What on earth would she do in a situation like this?
Muramasa shrugs. "I already told you. I honestly just want what's best for my Master. Her safety is the most important thing to me right now." Muramasa then glances at the ceiling for a second before glancing down. "If you're talking about goals other than her safety, then I actually do have some. For starters, it would be to patch that relationship between you two."
You could hear the pin drop in the room as soon as he finished that last statement.
Rin's eyes widen and her jaw slackens.
Sakura is in a similar position as Rin but her mouth isn't as open.
Ishtar is struggling to hold in her laughter at the simplicity of Muramasa's brain.
Kama ignores the whole thing and is playing with an orange on the table, watching it roll back and forth between her hands.
Shirou nods. "I see. I'm not the only one that saw that huh."
Muramasa chuckles as he slaps the back of Shirou again. "I knew you had a good eye on ya kid! Must be why you take after me… or I take after you…? Eh, whatever!"
It seems they are similar when it comes to being airheaded.
"Hey, wait a mi- ", Rin wants to stop Muramasa but he continues on.
"Another reason I got is that I like this kid." Muramasa says as he rubs Shirou's head. "Took quite the shining to him. From what I've seen of him; he's proven to be an interesting individual."
Shirou thinks about what he did back that night. All he did was cover for Kama and she did the rest of the work. The Servants are the ones who mainly did something. Rin was able to support her Servant more than he ever could. Sakura's Servant was able to protect all the Masters prior to that Noble Phantasm clash.
"…"
Actually, he's been useless. His Servant would have protected them with that skill of hers even if he didn't jump in to protect her. He couldn't even protect himself from that Lancer.
Kama on the other hand, still had her thoughts linger on that dream she had. While as a Servant, she shouldn't be able to dream, it was probably possible due to her botching up the summons. That and her Master not even being a proper one who couldn't summon a Servant correctly.
She glances at the boy for a bit.
He is simple, yet broken. It is probably thanks to the fire that he doesn't care for his own life. It's already quite evident with how he was acting yesterday. When he called her out while she was fighting Lancer, when he saved Saber's Master from getting hit by the flying swords, when he hugged her to protect her from the clashing Noble Phantasms, even if it does nothing at all. Actions speak louder than words, and it shows how suicidal this boy is.
"Eeeeh. So, you're thinking of protecting your own host huh?" Kama says in a bratty manner, when her mind is elsewhere. "Wow. How noble of you."
Muramasa gets a tick in his head. "Another good reason would be to smack some respect into the both of ya."
Ishtar and Kama glare at him.
"You know that we have a limited tolerance for that sort of thing? Keep that up and you'll be punished." Ishtar says with a smile that was anything but innocent beneath the surface.
For once, Kama agreed with Ishtar as they both stare him down.
Muramasa on the other hand, just glares back at them. "I ain't backing down from this. And right now both of you are weak enough for me to get away with smacking you a couple of times."
Kama scoffs. "Yeah, as i-"
Bonk.
Bonk.
""OUCH!"" Both Goddesses yelled as they held their heads in the hopes of bruises not being formed on them.
Muramasa had projected a hammer and smack the both of them on the head. "See?"
Ishtar's eyes change from red to gold. "Oh, I am so gonna get you one of these days Muramasa!"
Kama on the other hand begins to grumble. "If Muramasa is this violent then it makes sense why Parvati is. My host is attracted to his host and she probably took lessons on violence from him. That's why she's so brutal on me."
Muramasa raises an eyebrow at Kama's comment. "What was that?"
Kama just waves her hand. "Nothing, it doesn't involve you entirely and it isn't that important. Unless you want some alone time with me so-"
Bonk.
"WHY DID YOU HIT ME AGAIN?!" Kama yells as a bruise comically swells from her head.
Muramasa sighs as the hammer disappears from his hand. "I ain't gonna let you turn this place into an orgy house Kama. And I'm doing my best to keep that kid safe from the damage you might cause his health." Murmasa points to Shirou as he said 'kid'.
Shirou on the other hand was contemplating the entire situation while Muramasa's argument continue with the divine duo.
He glances at Rin who has a troubled expression on her face. Having his crush over was going to be difficult enough, but as someone who doesn't know magecraft, he'll probably have to learn a lot from her. However, her behavior and attitude shows that she might not like it here. He hopes that she doesn't eventually end up becoming his opponent.
He then changes his focus from Rin to Ishtar. He doesn't think too badly of her, but her display of strength with her Noble Phantasm definitely made him fearful of her. After all, it looked like she was dropping an entire planet at the golden Servant, Gilgamesh.
His thoughts then change to Muramasa, who has an interest in him. He isn't sure why yet since he has not done anything noteworthy to be noticed by him. Muramasa is strange in that regard, but he feels like he can trust him. It's not because they share the same face, but it seems like they share the same goal.
His thoughts now wander over to his own Servant. He saw her become an entire universe. That alone could make him fearful of her. Yet, somehow, he isn't. Is it because she is influencing him or is he not all that disturbed by seeing a million copies of her? He doesn't know the answer himself.
Shirou glances at Sakura last. Currently, he doesn't know where their relationship stands at this point. The reveal that she too is a mage is already much. He never really gave it any thought last night because of the rush of the situation, but now that he's had time to think, what will happen to each other now?
Shirou sighs. He honestly hopes that they can keep the relationship they had prior to last night intact. Hopefully, not too much would have changed. While he is curious on the relationship between Sakura and Rin, he feels as though he isn't equipped or knowledgeable enough to tackle that topic. He probably doesn't even deserve to interfere but he still wants to help them out. He'll talk through all this complicated stuff with everyone later after they settle with the housing arrangements with everyone as the Servants are now treating it like it's final.
Other than that… what's the worst that can happen now?
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Elsewhere on a certain manor…
A young blue haired boy begins coughing out blood and some strange slime. His right arm limp and his left arm supporting his body.
"My oh my. Are you sure you're alright Master?" A jovial voice said. It was the sound of someone so young and regal, someone straight from fantasy and felt like an aspect of a dream. It honestly didn't suit the environment around it.
A raspy voice echoed throughout the chamber of worms. It was in contrast with the youth that was displayed earlier. The tone is vastly different too as it was deeper and sounded like it was more experienced with age. This was a voice that was right at home. The boy glanced at his Servant who was simply eyeing the worms.
"I'm fine, Rider. It will take some getting used to. Although I am surprised to see you so interested in my worms."
The Servant chuckled silently. His focus on the worms disappeared as a singular moth flew towards him. The Servant extends his index finger to let the moth land on it. "It's nothing much. Although I find their figure relatable in some way." The moth whispers something into the Servant's ear before flying away.
The boy walks up the stairs. Command seals are burned onto his right hand. "Let's leave, Rider. We have some work to do."
The Servant's grey hair flickers as a small gust of wind blows past him. If the boy stayed any longer, he would have missed the sinister grin that was on the face of the Servant. A flash of innocent gold corrupted into a muddied black.
Well, not that it would have mattered to the boy anyway.
After all, they were similar in that regard.
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AN
For those unaware of it, Chapter 2 is fixed. I will be naming chapters from now on. Also, what the fuck happened to this website when it comes to submitting stories? I had to submit this thing twice as it would glitch out to that code shit.
Also, a thank you that I was not able to say in chapter 2, but I would like to thank Pallan Minerva for giving me advice more than a year ago. I haven't written fanfiction in a while, but I have been writing small shorts and funny stories in private servers. Even if I am at fault for not writing these fanfictions in a it, I'm still thankful he lent out a message to me when I asked him for help when I did.
Anyways, have a nice day y'all.
Thanks for reading and hope y'all enjoyed it. If not, then thank you for your time.