Among the ranks of the First Legion and its thralls, it is whispered that the skies of Cysgorog reveal the thoughts of their liege, if one has the knowledge required to parse their unearthly currents without succumbing to madness.
Like everything about the Dark Angels, this is equal part truth and lie, and both are used by Tzeentch as instruments of manipulation. As the mightiest being on the daemon world, Lion El'Jonson's very thoughts shape the planet whether he wishes it or not, and as the sons of the Daemon Primarch anchor their own demesnes with sorcery to prevent them from being dissolved, the heavens are most often where his will manifests, forming patterns of eldritch lightning akin to the electrical discharges that occur in the brain meat of lesser beings.
Yet at the same time, even Lion El'Jonson is subject to the whims of the Changing God. His power, his will, his emotions and thoughts : all of them are but playthings to ever-cruel Tzeentch, strings with which the Great Deceiver makes its favorite puppet dance. And so, the skies of Cysgorog reflect whatever it is Tzeentch wishes them to at any given moment.
However, to every damned soul on the planet, from the mighty Dukes in their infernal strongholds to the lowest mutant scum toiling in the all-encompassing mists, the present mood of the Daemon Primarch is obvious. A storm is raging across the daemon world, one of such potency as has rarely been witnessed even by the First Legion's shadow-shrouded record-keepers. Already, thousands of slaves have perished, as lightning bolts the size of Imperator Titans plunge down from the shrieking heavens, while their masters take refuge in their strongholds and, hidden behind thick walls and wards of great potency, try to divine the cause of their master's wrath.
One among the Dark Angels will soon learn the source of Lion El'Jonson's displeasure. He is Balthasar, Lord of Rites, one of the nine Grand Masters of the Dark Angels – leaders of the First Legion, slaves who think themselves slavemasters.
Summoned by the will of his gene-sire, Balthasar climbs the endless, shifting steps leading to the top of the Daemon Primarch's tower, from which he sees all and knows all that transpires within Cysgorog. The winds of the eldritch storm lash out at him, tearing at the scrolls that hang from his armor, forcing him to focus on the ascent lest he slip and fall – for there is no railing, no barrier between the spiralling steps and the yawning void. It would not be the first time a Grand Master has died this way, Balthasar knows, and though he cannot think of any reason why his Primarch would want him dead, perhaps the reason for the storm is that he's somehow erred in his service to Tzeentch and earned the Lion's displeasure.
Finally, his muscles burning with exhaustion that would kill a mortal man several times over, the Grand Master reaches the top of the spire. There, the Lord of Rites, whose subtle manipulations have brought the damnation of entire star systems and the ruin of Sectors, prostrates himself in supplication, for he knows that his enthroned lord can unmake him with but a word.
For nine long minutes, he lies there, silent, his forehead pressed against stone that was woven from the very will of the Master of the First Legion when they came to this daemon world after the Terran defeat, wondering if this is it, if all his service to the Dark Angels and their divine patron has brought him here to die for some failure he cannot conceive of.
Then, at last, Lion El'Jonson speaks :
"Balthasar."
To hear his name spoken by the Architect of Fate's favoured instrument is both blessing and curse, this Balthasar knows well. For while the attention of Tzeentch can bring great glory, so too can it bring utter ruination, all according to the Great Conspirator's unknowable plan.
The Grand Master raises his head to look upon his ascended gene-sire, but still does not speak.
"Corswain has been found," says Lion El'Jonson.
Despite the years of mental conditioning as an Aspirant, despite all his training and mastery of the secret arts, despite the ages of being a plaything of Tzeentch and thinking himself a champion, it takes a moment for Balthasar to understand the words of his sire, such is how unexpected they are. For centuries (though time means even less on Cysgorog than elsewhere in the Eye of Terror), the Dark Angels have wondered what became of the First Archduke after his disappearance following his punishment by the Lion for his treachery and attempted usurpation.
Many think him destroyed, his essence annihilated as the just reward for his hubris, his fate a lesson to all who would even think of turning against the anointed chosen of Tzeentch. Others think him imprisoned in the Crystal Labyrinth, reduced from a lord of the First Legion to the toy of the meanest Neverborn, as an eternal illustration of how none, regardless of their station and power, are beyond the reach of Tzeentch.
Now, the Lion's words reveal the truth : that wherever Corswain went, it was somehow beyond the sight of the Daemon Primarch himself. And this revelation changes everything the Lord of Rites thought he knew of the First Archduke's downfall – once again reminding him that all that he thinks is true is subject to the Architect of Fate's will.
"He thought himself hidden from me," the Daemon Primarch continues, delivering yet more revelations to Balthasar. "Safely concealed behind a Veil that blocks even my sight. But nothing can be hidden from the Warp forever, and so he has been revealed to me at last."
Lion El'Jonson gestures with a hand made of shadow, mist, and the universe's darkest secrets. Despite the many barriers the Grand Master has built to protect his thoughts from intrusion, knowledge pours into Balthasar's mind like water into a jar, the gates of his mental stronghold parting open without question before the Daemon Primarch's authority.
He sees the shade of the First Archduke, cowering within a mortal vessel, staring up at the Daemon Primarch in terror – then the portal through which he is beheld shuts down, a desperate and futile attempt to evade his rightful judgment.
It is not the truth. It is not how it happened. It is not, even, how Lion El'Jonson remembers it, for Tzeentch amuses itself by manipulating the fallen son of the Emperor's thoughts and feelings, not his memories. But it is how Balthasar interprets it. Such is the bond between the Daemon Primarch and his sons that they cannot, ever, see any weakness of their liege, their minds skipping over any evidence to the contrary and constructing whatever explanation is required to maintain this self-deceit. Only Corswain was immune to this gift-curse of the Great Deceiver, for reasons known to none but the Architect of Fate.
"You will gather a host." It is not a command, nor is it a promise or prophecy. It is simply the will of Lion El'Jonson, and through him that of Tzeentch, and so it shall come to pass. "You will perform whatever rites are required to pierce through this Veil that concealed him from me and has now closed again around him. You will find him, break him, and bind him – and then you will bring him to me, that I may deliver upon him my judgment anew. And as you do so, you will claim all that is hidden alongside him which can be made to serve the purposes of Great Tzeentch."
Balthasar renews his obeisance, pressing his forehead back against the stone that is not stone, just like the roiling skies above Cysgorog aren't the void. Already, his mind is whirring, going through his expansive networks of contacts, allies, and enemies – not that such terms aren't often blurred within the First Legion, as is only fitting of the Traitor Legion sworn to the Great Conspirator – deliberating which ones to bring onboard, whether to assist him or as an opportunity to dispose of them.
"As you command, so shall it be, my lord."
November 28th, 2004 – Fuyuki City
Taiga Fujimura was worried. No, scratch that : she was afraid, scared, on the verge of full-blown panic, and she felt she had good reason to be. The last few days had been hectic to say the least, and she was reaching the end of her temper and patience – which everyone who knew her would agree weren't that long to begin with.
First, there had been a sharp increase in criminal activity across the city, which had led to her grandfather imposing a curfew on her, even though she was an adult and could damn well take care of herself. That meant she couldn't visit Shirou and Sakura anymore, even though she had just learned that the two lovebirds were housing not just Miranda-chan, the daughter of one of Kiritsugu's acquaintances, but also Kiritsugu's daughter, along with her maids and her bodyguard, who was herself a relative of Miranda-chan.
She really should have been there as well, to get to know Illya-chan and chaperone the teenage boy living with a bunch of beautiful girls, but her grandfather had refused to listen to reason when she'd tried to convince her. Sure, Shirou was more mature than most boys his age (in fact, the only other one she knew who was remotely as reasonable as him was Issei-kun, and as a teacher, Taiga knew plenty), but he was still a teenager. But she'd given in eventually, recognizing that this was one of the few times she wouldn't be able to change her grandfather's mind.
Then, while she was at school working with the rest of the staff to decide how to handle the ordered shutdown next week, she'd been all but abducted by a bunch of her grandfather's men who had showed up at school, gone right to the staff room, and carried her off to one of the Fujimura family's safehouses. Taiga had almost kicked all of their asses, but then they had told her that the family's headquarters had been attacked by terrorists, and that her grandfather wanted her to be safe.
Explaining what had happened to her colleagues was going to be so awkward. They all knew she was related to the city's single Yakuza group, but everyone had always pretended that wasn't the case, even though her grandfather was the reason she'd been able to get a teaching license and been assigned to Fuyuki in the first place (not that she was a poor teacher, and she'd punch anyone who implied otherwise – Gramps had just needed to intervene to make sure those stuffy bureaucrats looked past her ruff exterior to the soft, caring personality underneath).
And then, while she was trapped in a small apartment with a pair of bulky, grim-looking men keeping watch, she'd heard over the news that the reason Kuzuki-san hadn't shown up at the staff meeting (the first time she could remember him being late) was because the same terrorists who'd attacked her family home had struck at the Ryuudou Temple, where he – and one of Shirou's friends who was also one of her students – lived.
She'd called the Emiya residence when the sun had (finally) risen, but nobody had picked up. At this point, she'd told her bodyguards they could either accompany her as she went to check on her (unofficial) little brother, or she would go alone after breaking as many of their bones as it took. Wisely, they'd chosen the first option.
Taiga knew Shirou had followed in his dad's footsteps – and she knew what Kiritsugu's job had been, before he'd adopted her ward and retired from the business. It really hadn't been that difficult to put it together : even if she was something of a ditz, she was still the heiress to the only Yakuza family in Fuyuki, and she'd been raised seeing her grandfather's work.
She knew that Kiritsugu had been an assassin, who had retired after adopting Shirou in order to focus on raising him. It was hard for her to reconcile the man she'd known with the one Gramps had described to her, but she knew Gramps wouldn't lie to her about something that important. What she couldn't accept was the notion that Kiritsugu had trained Shirou to follow in his footsteps as a killer for hire, though. The very idea of Shirou as some kind of hitman was patently ridiculous to anyone who had met him.
On the other hand, she could envision Kiritsugu training Shirou to fight so that he would be safe if people from his father's past came after him, and Shirou deciding to use that training to help keep other people safe. Which was why she worried her little brother might have gotten himself in trouble.
"SHIROU !" she shouted as she slammed the door open. "Are you … okay …"
Taiga's voice trailed off as she took in the scene before her.
Good news : she'd found Shirou, he was alive, and there weren't any visible injuries or bandages on him. Furthermore, everyone she expected to see was here at the dinner table, and none of them looked like they were hurt either. Bad news : he was pale and clearly exhausted, which meant that whatever had gone on last night, he'd definitely been involved in it somehow.
Very, very confusing news : there was a bunch of beautiful women of varying ages sat at the dinner table with him. Which wasn't surprising in itself, but the fact that Taiga didn't know several of them was.
There was Sakura-chan, of course, and Tohsaka-san and Miranda-chan. Illya-chan was here too, with Amelia-san and her two maids. So far, so good : Taiga would have been shocked if Shirou had let them leave while the city was in lockdown.
Then there were three purple-haired girls who weren't Sakura, one of whom looked older and had a body straight out of the kind of magazine students weren't supposed to bring to school but kept sneaking in anyway, while the other two (who looked completely identical to Taiga's eyes) seemed to be around Illya-chan's age. And there was a woman who looked like Amelia-san's twin sister, but with paler skin and hair, and striking yellow eyes.
They all stared at her, the silence broken only by the noise of the three Watson women continuing to eat. The two pale ones – Miranda-chan and her older-looking doppelgänger – were apparently wholly unconcerned by her arrival, and while Amelia-san did glance in her direction, she didn't stop eating either. Which, alright, Taiga would be the first to admit Shirou was a really good cook, but that still seemed a bit much.
"Hello, Fuji-nee," said Shirou weakly. "Hmm, I can explain ?"
"Explain," Taiga repeated dumbly, her eyes still moving from one unexpected person to another and back, before settling on Shirou. She was vaguely aware that her escort, after following her inside the house just in case, were now beating a hasty retreat back outside, leaving her alone to deal with the situation. "Yes, an explanation would be good."
"Well, hmm, you see … It's complicated ?" He looked around, clearly asking for help and receiving none. Even Sakura-chan merely smiled and shook her head.
"Master," said one of the purple-haired young girls, "you are on your own on this one. You should clean up your own messes."
'Master' ?! What kind of kinky play was her adopted little brother getting into now ?!
"Shirou ?" she asked, calmly. For some reason, though, her little brother flinched away from her.
"It's not what she's making it sound like !" he hurried to say, before glancing at the girl who'd just spoken. "Euryale, please stop phrasing things in a way that people will misunderstand."
Before Taiga could say anything else, the other girl (who looked exactly like the first) said :
"He helped our sister free us from a creepy old man who was holding us in a house outside the city and had a thing for being inside children's bodies. Then, he promised to take care of us."
Taiga paled, while her mouth opened and closed, words failing her.
"That sounds really bad when you say it like that," sighed Shirou.
"And the truth wasn't ?" challenged the girl, who looked remarkably calm for someone who'd been in such a traumatizing situation. Taiga could only assume she was doing her best to project a strong façade, the poor girl.
"Well, no," Shirou agreed reluctantly. "If anything, it was worse. But still, I'd appreciate if you didn't traumatize my guardian."
"Shirou," whispered Taiga. "What the fuck ?"
"The man in question was involved with the whole terrorist mess that's been going on," Shirou explained. "Sakura found the girl's sister, Medusa-san," he gestured toward the tallest purple-haired beauty in the room, "and she needed our help to rescue them, which we did, getting Euryale and Stheno out of there."
"And you didn't go to the police, or to Gramps, because … ?"
"The man in question was very wealthy and influential in his homeland, to the point that getting the authorities involved would only have put my sisters into danger," the tall purple-haired woman explained. "I tracked him down to his lair in this city with Shirou's help, but after that, I rushed straight in without thinking, and Shirou had no choice but to accompany me to keep me safe. Without his help, I fear I might have ended up in that bastard's clutches as well."
"Well … that's … okay, I guess I can't blame you then," Taiga said, before turning back to her ward. She hadn't missed the fact that Medusa hadn't mentioned what had happened to the bastard in question, and she knew enough from her association with her grandfather's business not to ask. "But you can't keep getting involved in that kind of stuff, Shirou. What would Sakura-chan and Illya-chan do if something happened to you ?"
"That's a low blow, Fuji-nee," he winced.
"I'll use whatever methods I need to if it means you stop throwing yourself into danger !" she insisted. "Especially with what's going in Fuyuki right now !"
"You don't need to worry about that, Fuji-nee," the redhead tried to reassure her. "The situation has been solved and the perpetrators dealt with – there won't be anymore issues."
Oh. Of course he had, the absolute moron.
"… Shirou. I just told you to be more careful."
Shirou blinked, as if just now realizing he'd dug his grave even deeper.
"That was last night !" he hastily explained. "And I didn't have a choice ! They had taken everyone from the Temple hostage : things would have been really bad if we hadn't gone to rescue them !"
"We ? Who is this 'we', mister ?!"
"We weren't going to let Shirou go out and face those responsible for the recent disturbances on his own, Fujimura-sensei," replied Miranda, her face a mask of cool composure marred only by the faintest hint of a smile as she glanced at Shirou. "We accompanied him into the lair of these criminals and helped him deal with them."
"Why would you …" Taiga began, before remembering that the Watson family was supposedly related to one of Kiritsugu's old colleagues. Right, that would explain it. "Wait, did you say something about the Temple ?!"
"Yes, we found and rescued them all, Issei included," said Shirou, nodding reassuringly. "They were roughed up, but they should recover. We brought them to the school and called the police : they should all be in the hospital now."
Taiga felt conflicted. On the one hand, as a responsible adult and guardian she should tell Shirou off for doing something so dangerous. On the other hand, she was deeply relieved that Issei-kun and Kuzuki-san were alright, and proud of her little brother for putting an end to the threat to the city (she didn't, not even for a moment, entertain the thought that he might be lying about that – the very idea of Shirou lying to her was ridiculous).
"That's … okay. You did good, I suppose. Now," she added, her gaze sharpening, "let me check that you're really alright."
Ignoring Shirou's protests, she started checking him for any sign of concealed injury, not bothering to drag him to another room beforehand. Since clearly Shirou's self-preservation instincts weren't working properly, maybe getting embarrassed in front of all his female friends would get the lesson Taiga was trying to impart through her little brother's thick skull.
As Fujimura-sensei left to check on Issei and the monks at the hospital, promising to come back soon, Rin let go a sigh of relief. The woman was a fine enough teacher, and part of Shirou's family, but she was still … a lot.
They were lucky Rin had remembered Shirou's friend was still unconscious in one of the guest rooms when they had dragged themselves back home in time to have Rider (gently) carry him to the gymnasium where the rest of the monks were, with a note for the Conglomerate operatives who had taken over the area to make sure the official story was that he had always been with the other kidnapping victims. Having him still in their home when Shirou's guardian had come would have made things even more difficult to explain.
As it was, the avalanche of news had distracted her enough that she'd forgotten to ask about the whole 'Master' thing. Hopefully Archer and Assassin would be more discreet in the future, or else Shirou's reputation with his guardian was going to take quite the hit, especially as Fujimura-sensei wasn't exactly great at keeping secrets, which was somewhat surprising given her family's business.
In any case, now that the Tiger of Fuyuki had left and they had checked the residence's wards were still up, they could talk about Magecraft openly. They hadn't had time to do so before, since once they had woken up, everyone had been too hungry to think about anything but food.
"I told El-Melloi that he could share what he knew with his sister, the Archibald heiress, and Vice-Director Barthomelloi," Rin explained once they had finished cleaning up and were all sitting in the living room, with everyone pretending not to see Sakura leaning against Shirou on one side, while Saber did the same in the other and Illya sat in her brother's lap – or, at the very least, pretended not to be envious. "I also told him that we would arrange for him to be able to come back to Japan to discuss things in person."
And, now that the Tohsaka Head had time to think back on it, her blood suddenly ran cold at the realization that the Lorelei Barthomelloi was involved in this mess now. Oh, God, she was going come here in person to make her displeasure with the situation known, wasn't she ? Rin could feel her blood pressure start to rise at the mere idea of meeting the infamously severe Vice-Director of the Association.
"Then we should start with this, to avoid problems later," said Shirou. Within a moment, the three Fuyuki Masters had accessed their connection to the geas contract between them and El-Melloi, and activated the clauses that would let him return to Fuyuki.
That was one worry off Rin's shoulders : having a Lord of the Clocktower die of a magical heart attack on the way to see them due to a breach of contract would have made things very awkward. But she still had plenty of causes for concern left, and one of them needed to be addressed right away.
"I have a question," Rin asked. "We were all too tired to think about it last night, but how are the Servants still here ?"
"That's a good point," said Lancer, frowning in confusion, closing and opening her fist as if checking she was still solid. "Our existences were sustained by the Greater Grail, even in its corrupted state. With the War over and the system destroyed, we should be gone, as our summonings have fulfilled their purposes. I mean, you Masters are powerful, and we haven't been fighting or doing much of anything since the Grail was destroyed, yes, but still … How do you all feel ?"
"I don't feel any increased strain on my Circuits," noted Shirou, frowning as well. "And you're right, Lancer. With the contract that exists between us Masters, I should definitely have felt something change now that we're sustaining six Servants without the Greater Grail's support."
Win or lose, yesterday should have been the Servants' last day on this world – well, unless Pretender won, in which case they would all have wished it were, but that was a nightmare Rin didn't want to think about right now. Although she hadn't said it out loud, that had been part of her reason for letting Rider sleep with her boyfriend the day before : she figured she owed Rider that much.
Working together, Rin and Sakura could maybe support one Servant, and Illyasviel could probably do it on her own as a result of her 'enhancements'. And Shirou, of course, was Shirou : no more needed to be said. All together, as long as the Servants didn't use their abilities, it didn't stretch the bounds of possibility that they could support even the six Servants present in the room.
But they still should feel the drain on their mana reserves, and they weren't. There was still a small drain, but it was the same as before. And while Rin wasn't going to say she was unhappy the Servants were still here, even if three of them had slept with her boyfriend, one was being teased by her own Master about following suit, and the last two were a pair of annoying teases, she couldn't help but wait for the other shoe to drop.
Magecraft followed the rule of equivalent exchange : you couldn't get anything without paying the appropriate price, and the equivalent of six Servants wasn't going to be something small.
"Are we sure the Grail is gone ?" she asked, going for the most obvious possible explanation.
"I don't know much about the inner workings of the summoning system," said Saber, "but Kor Phaeron managed to manifest the Grail as a cup before being struck down, so the accumulated mana stored by the Greater Grail should be expended, at least. But the cavern collapsed right after when I used my Noble Phantasm on the Grail, so I didn't have the time to take a good look around."
"Given you barely made it out carrying Senpai ahead of the collapse, that's perfectly understandable, Saber-san," said Sakura. "Getting out alive was your most important priority."
"Illya, you are the one who knows the most about the mechanisms of the Grail," said Shirou, causing his adopted sister to preen with pride at the compliment, despite the situation. "Can you track down where the mana sustaining our Servants is coming from ?"
"I should be able to," frowned the silver-haired girl. "Give me a moment."
She closed her eyes, and her hair began to float and glow as she channelled prana through it. As a descendant of one of the Three Families which had constructed the Greater Grail, Rin had a good idea of what she was doing : she was exerting her authority as the Lesser Grail and a Master (which could have been a stroke of genius or a stupid decision on the part of the Einzbern, though given how quickly she'd joined Shirou Rin leaned toward the latter) to inspect the complex arcane construct which enabled the Heaven's Feel Ritual across Fuyuki.
The fact that Rin herself couldn't have done it without getting physical access to the system (and good luck with that, given the cavern had collapsed) was yet another mark of how much the Tohsaka family had lost with her father's death and Kirei's blatant mismanagement.
Which, now that the fake priest's true allegiance had been revealed, suddenly made a lot more sense. Rin wasn't sure how much of Kirei's actions had been motivated by wanting to sabotage her so that she couldn't interfere with the Black Grail's plans and how much had been for his own petty amusement, but she had no doubt both had played a part.
Also, she needed to contact the Church too, didn't she ? Kirei had been the organization's representative in Fuyuki, after all. Explaining to the Exorcists that one of their own had been subverted by an infernal entity of world-ending power was going to make for an interesting conversation, she could already tell.
After a few moments, Illya's spell dissipated, drawing Rin's out of her grim contemplations and back to the problem at hand.
"Well, the good news is that Lancer isn't connected to the Greater Grail anymore," the half-homunculus began, "and I'm going to assume the same is true of the other Servants. The link is completely gone : I presume it collapsed along with the Greater Grail when Saber used her Noble Phantasm inside the cavern and destroyed the corrupted Grail."
"Alright. What's the bad news ?" asked Shirou.
"It's not so much bad news as it is confusing news." Great, like they needed more of those. "Lancer is definitely still drawing mana from an external source, but it's a lot closer to us than the leylines' conjunction point."
"How much closer are we talking about ?" asked Rin.
"In this room with us." Illya replied, her eyes darting around. "But I couldn't find it …"
"Would it happen to have anything to do with this ring ?" said Saber, reaching across Shirou's lap to seize his left forearm and bring it up.
Rin looked down at Shirou's hands, and blinked in surprise. Saber was right : there, on Shirou's left index, was a ring which definitely hadn't been there before – Shirou didn't wear any jewellery, as it got in the way of his work be it as a spellcaster or as a general busybody. Outwardly, it was a simple band of metal, but when Rin (very carefully) activated her enhanced perceptions, it started to glow with the telltale sign of some serious enchantment.
Somehow, apart from Saber, they had completely failed to notice its presence until now, which was either a sign of how exhausted they all still were, or very, very bad, since it would mean something had affected their minds to keep them from noticing it. And with who was in the room, anything which could manage to pull the wool over their collective eyes was something to be wary of.
"Saber, since when have I been wearing this ?" asked Shirou, sounding understandably cautious.
"Since our fight against Pretender," replied the Servant nonchalantly. "I noticed it on your hand while carrying you outside."
"And you didn't think of mentioning it before ?" asked Rin sharply. Saber met her gaze unflinchingly.
"We were all a little preoccupied at the time," she pointed out. "And besides, I recognized it as one of the rings on Kor Phaeron's fingers – specifically, the one which blew his hand off after Shirou had shot him with a magical arrow. My instincts told me it wasn't a danger to him, and if Illya's analysis is correct, then I was right."
Grumbling and without bothering to ask permission, Rin walked to Shirou's side, Sakura kindly moving out of the way. She took her boyfriend's hand out of Saber's grasp and brought it up so that the ring was right in front of her eyes, before gingerly touching it directly and intoning :
"Strukturanalyse."
Her Family Crest flared, the spell activated, and information about the ring began to pour into Rin's mind. At first, she only got the most basic details – dimensions, weight, that sort of things – but then, as if a switch had been thrown, the trickle of information turned into a veritable flood, and she ended up needing to cut off the spell before her brain overloaded. As it was, she ended up with a spiking headache, and had to catch herself on the table to avoid collapsing.
"Rin ?! What's wrong ?" said Shirou, already moving to support them.
"I'm fine," she said, not entirely truthfully. "Just … bit of a migraine, that's all. More importantly, I know what this ring is." The knowledge was part of the information package she'd just received, and would likely need days to process completely, if she ever managed it in full.
"It's one of Solomon's Ten Rings," she said, causing Illya, who had been raised in a proper Magus family, to freeze. "You know, the ones which were supposedly given to him by God, and let him command the Demon Pillars ? It's one of those."
"Oh," said Shirou.
Rin's boyfriend briefly glanced down at the ring, his eyes flashing, before turning away, his face twisted by a pained expression as he too was overwhelmed by the resulting flow of information. Which, considering what Rin knew he was capable of, meant that either he was still recovering, or the ring was even more powerful (and thus dangerous) than she thought.
"El-Melloi told us the Animusphere Head tried to summon Solomon, didn't he ?" asked Rider. "It would make sense he'd use one of the King of Mages' rings as a catalyst, even if he ended up getting Kor Phaeron instead."
"I thought Fuyuki was chosen as the location of the Grail War because it was built at a confluence of leylines which could be tapped to fuel the Servants," frowned Saber. "And it took the work of three Magi families to build the Greater Grail in order to make that work. Now you're telling me that little ring is enough to do the job by itself ?"
"Yes," deadpanned Rin. "That's what I am telling you. There is a reason Solomon is called the Mage King and Founder of Magecraft. I'm not actually surprised it turned on Pretender at the last moment like Saber said : an artefact of such age and power would have all kind of defenses, and once Pretender was too distracted to keep them in check with his own power, they must have activated."
"So what you are saying is that this will get the Association into a frenzy if word gets out that Senpai has something like this in his possession," said Sakura, typically more focused on the danger this might bring to her family than on the incredible arcane discovery in front of them.
Rin snorted. "Oh, yes. Definitely. And I would say it's more a matter of 'when' word gets out rather than 'if'. Japan might be a backwater in the eyes of the Clocktower's elites, but something like what happened will definitely draw a lot of attention, and if we can't hide the Servants from Fujimura-sensei, then we shouldn't even bother trying to hide them from the Association. Lord El-Melloi and Lady Barthomelloi will know, there's no way around it, and eventually word will leak out to other people. And once people hear about them, they'll ask themselves how we can possibly sustain their presence, and when they investigate …"
"They'll find out about the ring," finished Shirou. "You think we should prepare to defend ourselves from Magi trying to steal it ?"
"Its value is … look, I don't even want to think about it," said Rin. "I have no idea how much the Animusphere Head spent on acquiring it, but in the eyes of the Association, it's definitely worth more than this entire city put together. So, yes, we are definitely going to have to deal with thieves."
She didn't bother suggesting they give it up. It was the only thing sustaining the Servants, and she knew her companions enough to realize none of them would consider that acceptable – even Illya would sooner take on the entire Association than give up on Lancer.
"Are you sure we can't just ask El-Melloi and Barthomelloi to keep quiet about it ?" asked Sakura. "We just helped save the World, after all."
"I'm afraid it won't be that simple," said Lancer, showing that she was the one out of the three versions of King Arthur present who had ended up with the political experience. "Precisely because of how close we came to an apocalyptic situation, there will be many factions looking for answers – or, failing that, a scapegoat they can blame for the whole thing. The Vice-Director might be willing to classify the details, but that will only make others think there is something worth hiding in the first place, and in my experience, most Magi are greedy in the extreme when it comes to magical objects, especially those of such great age and potency."
"But this is Japan," said Shirou. "We are far from the Association's centers of influence. Do you think the Conglomerate might be willing to help us ?"
"That's …" Rin paused, before admitting : "I don't know. It's worth a shot, although we'll probably need to tell them about the ring, which will create another source of potential leaks."
"We will have to risk it, because we aren't going to have time to waste disposing of every two-bits Magus coming to Fuyuki thinking he can make it big by stealing the ring," said Shirou.
"What do you mean ?" asked Rin, already dreading the answer. She had thought that, after saving the World from the corrupted Grail, the worst they would have to deal with were Clocktower politics (which were already more than dangerous enough on their own, even with the firepower of six Servants on their side).
Shirou proceeded to tell them everything that had happened after they had been forced to split up, rather than the succinct summary of 'we found Pretender, he activated the Grail, Shirou manifested his Reality Marble, we killed Kor Phaeron, I blew up the Grail' which Saber had delivered after emerging of the cavern carrying her unconscious Master right as it collapsed behind her. The fact that Pretender had been able to summon corrupted copies of the Third and Fourth Wars' Servants was terrifying : if he'd used that ability in combination with the Pillars, they might have been in trouble.
But then, she reflected, if Kor Phaeron had been smart, he would have arranged to face them with all the Pillars he had available at once, and Gilgamesh present to assist. Instead, his obsession with turning Shirou to his side and the ritual considerations of his scheme had helped them win.
Eventually, Shirou reached the end of his tale, and described what Saber and him had seen through the rift in reality that had opened after Pretender's defeat.
"That's why I think we're going to need the firepower a bunch of Servants gives us," said the redhead. "Because …" Shirou hesitated, but continued : "because he saw us. Lion El'Jonson, Corswain's Primarch. He saw us, at the last moment, before Saber's Noble Phantasm destroyed the rift created by the Chaos Grail."
Despite knowing that the threat had been stopped by Saber, the thought that a monster like that had almost been brought into existence by the corrupted Grail after its puppet had been defeated made Rin shiver with belated dread. Then Shirou kept speaking, and things got much, much worse.
"Why do we need to worry about him ?" Rin asked. "He's just part of that alternate universe Corswain and Kor Phaeron were pulled from by the Grail after it got contaminated by Angra Mainyu in the Third War. Sure, if he had made it through the rift and materialized, things would have been bad, but from what you said it didn't happen, and now that the Grail is destroyed, there is no risk of something like that manifesting through the Second Magic … unless a Reflection of Zelretch decides to intervene, but you said one helped you overcome Pretender's Noble Phantasm, so that's unlikely."
"No, Rin, you don't understand. That was your theory, and it was the best one we could think of. But that doesn't mean it was correct." Shirou's face was as serious as Rin had ever seen it, and she could also see the fear behind it – whatever he'd seen in that last moment in the Greater Grail's cavern had shaken him. "What I felt when El'Jonson looked at me … he was real, Rin. I don't know how that's possible, but I know it's true. And if he is, then that means the rest of Corswain's memories are real too – an entire galaxy of horrors and endless, bloody warfare, under the laughter of cruel gods. And, more importantly, he knows I exist too. I don't think he knew what happened to Corswain after he punished him for his rebellion, but now he does, and he won't ignore it. If nothing else, his master won't let him."
… ah. Right. Rin had almost forgotten that, for all the bullshit Shirou was capable of, the Dark Angel from which he drew his power had still been far from the most dangerous entity from that nightmarish reality his visions showed. Corswain had been powerful even there, yes, but prior to his attempted betrayal, he had answered to the Daemon Primarch of the Dark Angels, Lion El'Jonson – and then, above that, there was the Dark God of Lies, Betrayal, Magic and Ambition, Tzeentch. An entity whose power, from Shirou's inherited memories, dwarfed those of any of the divine beings who had been active on Gaia during the Age of the Gods, though at least Tzeentch couldn't manifest wholly into the material universe and needed its daemons to do it in its stead.
"That … that's really, really bad," said Illya, who had read Rin's notes compiling Shirou's visions of this other reality from which the Dark Angel, Pretender and his infernal minions had all come from, and looked as worried at the prospect as Rin felt. "That universe was interesting to read about, but I wouldn't want to live there, and if you're right, then we all do," the young albino continued – a feeling Rin agreed with whole-heartedly. "Existential horror aside, if you're right and that … that monster is real and out there, then what do you think we should do ?"
Everyone in the room looked concerned. They all knew at least the broad outlines of Shirou's visions, and they had fought creatures from them only last night – creatures that Rin now realized were the very daemons from Shirou's visions of the Realms of Chaos, where the Dark Gods' servants waged war against each other, with Corswain having served as a captain of Tzeentch.
"We need to prepare," said Shirou. "Even in the best case scenario where what I saw really was just a conjuration of the Second Magic and I am panicking over nothing, between the investigation, the Servants and the ring, it's best we shore up our fighting force as much as we can."
That made sense to Rin. She also didn't miss the fact that, while Shirou was saying that he might be wrong, he didn't think that was the case at all. Hopefully that was the trauma of his mental fusion with the Dark Angel talking – even if Rin didn't like thinking of it that way. They had just avoided one apocalypse : she really didn't want to think there was worse waiting in the future for them all.
"First," he continued, "we need to do something about Illya's condition. Having a copy of Avalon inside her is a useful stop-gap to keep her alive, but that's all it does. It can't solve her issues, merely keep her from dying from them, and it makes her dependant on me to maintain the copy and Lancer to keep it working properly by being near her."
"I don't have a problem with that," said Illya, a comment which didn't surprise anyone at the table, except maybe Shirou.
The half-homunculus had latched on her adopted brother nearly as hard as Sakura herself had years ago, and a lot quicker too. Why exactly her boyfriend was so attractive to hurt women, and what it said about her, Rin very resolutely decided not to think about right now.
"It's a massive weakness that our enemies are sure to take advantage of if we don't address it," said Shirou patiently. "All it would take is for us to be separated or you to be affected by some kind of dispelling field that can overcome my Projection, and you will be crippled. That's not acceptable, Illya."
"Then what do you propose we do about it, Onii-chan ?" Illya challenged him. "Like it or not, this is how I was made by the Einzbern."
"But it isn't how you were born," Saber cut in. The Servant's yellow eyes were fixed on Shirou, and, whether through their link or because of her own tactical insight, it was clear she had an idea where he was going with this. "Shirou is suggesting that we go to the source of the issue, so to speak."
"That's right," Shirou confirmed. "Once things have settled down in Fuyuki, I think we should pay a visit to the Einzbern and … politely ask them for their assistance."
"I sincerely doubt they will be willing to give it," said Lancer, who didn't sound at all disappointed at that fact. "It was clear that they didn't expect Illya to survive the Grail War."
"Then, if politeness doesn't work, we will have to be more forceful," said Shirou blandly.
Oh, great, thought Rin. They were going to destroy another ancient and esteemed Magi family. She really, really wasn't looking forward to that discussion with El-Melloi and the Vice-Director.
Slowly, painfully, Kamido opened his eyes. The last remnants of his nightmare – a half-forgotten, blood-red face with blazing eyes – faded away, replaced by the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling.
His head was killing him, and not in the same way it did after a night of hard drinking with the boys. No, this was an entirely different kind of pain : the kind you got after getting beaten up to within an inch of your life by someone who was bigger, stronger, and meaner.
He took a deep breath, and immediately regretted it as it brought a spike of pain in his chest. The air was full of the smell of antiseptics and other stuff that he didn't know the name of.
He'd been in a hospital enough time in his life to recognize that he was in one now, but that only brought more questions. What had happened to him ? He had been reporting at the headquarters about their efforts to protect their affiliated businesses from the spike in violent crime of the last few weeks, he remembered that much clearly. Then … an attack ?
Yes. The more he thought about it, the clearer his memories got. The headquarters of the Fujimura Group had been attacked by a bunch of armed men in nondescript clothing and what had to be military gear, with eyes wide with what had to be the use of some heavy drugs, given the complete lack of care for their own lives and poor trigger discipline they had shown. They had overwhelmed their defenses and started going around killing people. He remembered dragging the Oyabun and a bunch of the help into the bunker, before calling Emiya for help, and then … well, he was alive, so obviously the kid must have come in time to save his bacon.
How exactly Emiya had been able to deal with a bunch of armed goons, Kamido had no idea, and he felt it was better if he didn't know. To this day, he had no clue how the kid did half the things he did, and like his mentor in the Yakuza had always told him : 'the less you know, the shorter the interrogation'. He was just glad Emiya was on their side.
There was the sound of a door opening, and he turned his head (immediately regretting it as his body punished him for his hubris with what felt like a pickaxe through the forehead) to see a nurse enter. Her eyes widened as she saw him awake, and she rushed to his side.
"Please don't try to get up, Kamido-san," she told him. "You were brought here with cracked ribs and a concussion. We did everything we could to treat you, but we need to check that there wasn't any long-term damage."
"I'll be good, ma'am", he assured her – or at least tried to. His voice came out as a dry croaking sound, and he realized he was feeling really, really thirsty. She must have noticed, because she immediately went to get him a glass of water, which he drank gratefully, the tepid liquid the best thing he'd ever tasted.
The nurse went to get a doctor, who ran a few checks on him and (mercifully) increased the dosage of his painkillers, turning his pounding migraine into a more tolerable headache. Then he asked him if he felt able to talk to some people who had been waiting for him to wake up.
"Sure," said Kamido, who was nothing of the kind but wanted to get that part over with as fast as possible. "Can I just get some more water before, if I'm going to have to talk ?"
As it turned out, he could, and a few minutes and a couple more glasses of tepid water later, two men walked in. One of them was wearing a police uniform, and Kamido recognized him : as one of the Oyabun's trusted lieutenants, he was familiar with the face of nearly every police officer in Fuyuki. This one, Kenji, had been on the force for nearly three decades, and in all that time had done his best to keep things quiet in the city. He wasn't exactl corrupt, but willing to look the other way when it came to some of the Fujimura Group's less glamorous activities so long as it kept the peace.
The other man was wearing the kind of tailored suit you'd expect to see an executive wear, and Kamido's instincts immediately pinged him as the more dangerous of the two. He didn't see any insignia or other emblem on his clothes, which only put him further on edge. He told himself that if he was going to be disappeared by the Men in Black, they would've done it before he woke up.
"Good morning, Kamido-san," said the policeman.
"Good morning, Kenji-san," replied the bedridden Yakuza. At that point, the smart thing to do would have been to keep his mouth shut and pretend that the other man wasn't there. Unfortunately, Kamido hadn't ended up in the Yakuza by doing the smart thing, so he bluntly asked :
"Who's the suit ?"
"Nobody you need to concern yourself about, Kamido-san," the still unnamed man replied smoothly. "I am merely here to ensure that the terrorist threat to Fuyuki has passed, and to help the city recover from this crisis as smoothly as possible."
Some kind of spook, then. Kamido wasn't up to date on how exactly Japan's intelligence community worked these days – that stuff was way over his head – but it made sense that they'd respond to the kind of trouble that had shaken Fuyuki recently. As a matter of fact, Kamido was kinda pissed off they were only showing up now. Or maybe they had been here all along, and were only showing themselves in the open now to help with the clean-up ? It wasn't like he knew how these things were supposed to work.
"Okay," he said out loud. "What about the others who got caught in the attack ? How many of them are in this building ?"
Left unsaid was the question 'how many are in beds, and how many are in the morgue', but clearly both men were experienced enough to understand his meaning anyway.
"I'm afraid several of your colleagues perished in the attack," said Kenji, sounding genuinely regretful. "However, you'll be relieved to know that the terrorists failed to breach the old bunker : Raiga Fujimura and the others who were hiding inside are safe. However, we've questions about what happened, Kamido-san."
"I thought you might. Well, I've got nothing to hide," he shrugged, shamelessly lying through his teeth. "Ask away, officer."
This wasn't the first time Kamido had been grilled by the cops, although it'd been a few years since the local law enforcement had bothered. If they started to push, Kamido fully intended to stop talking until he got a lawyer in the room with him : the Fujimura Group had several on call, both for the boys and to help the people under their protection when they got any kind of legal trouble and couldn't afford competent legal assistance. He wasn't going to get the kid in trouble by revealing his connection to the Yakuza, that was for damn sure.
Fortunately, he didn't have to go that far. The pair bought his story about him falling unconscious in the middle of the fight and assuming the rest of the Fujimura Group's 'security forces' had managed to repeal the terrorists on their own. In fact, they were so willing to accept his story that it made him suspicious : he guessed the Oyabun had already started making moves to cover up what had really happened, and the pair was only here to make sure he didn't say anything that went against it and in order to make the investigation look thorough.
Well, that was fine by him.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Kamido-san," said the spook once he was done telling his version of the events. "We would appreciate if you stayed within the city for the next few weeks, until this whole mess has been handled. Just in case we end up having some more questions for you, you understand."
"I'm not going anywhere anytime soon anyway," he said, gesturing at himself laying down in the hospital bed. "And once I get out of here, you'll know where to find me."
"That we will, Kamido-san," replied the spook with a smile that was just the wrong side of sinister. "That we will."
After a few more pleasantries, the policeman and the spook left, leaving Kamido alone.
"… I should probably call the kid and tell him about this," the Yakuza muttered to himself.
Which meant he needed to convince a nurse to let him use a phone before they dosed him up again and he fell unconscious for who knew how long, and either get them to leave him alone in the room while he called be vague enough that nothing outright incriminating was overheard – all while still under the effect of the painkillers already flowing through his body.
Great. Well, nobody had ever claimed that being a Yakuza didn't come with its fair share of interesting challenges.
AN : Surprise ! It's back !
Gods, I really struggled with this chapter. It has been in the works for nearly a year, and it really shouldn't have been. I can only assume that's because the story is so different from my other works : the conversations in this chapter were probably the worst case of writer's block I have ever encountered. And then, of course, the longer you spend away from a story, the harder it is to come back to it (for instance, I had completely forgotten that Saber had noticed the ring on Shirou's finger in the last non-Interlude chapter and had to hurriedly edit that part).
In the end, I had to brute-force it, and I'm not quite satisfied with how the chapter ended up, but at this point I really just want it to be done with so the story can advance again. I'm hoping the publication of Lostbelt 7 on FGO will be enough to kick this story back into gear, and now that AYGWM is completed I should have more time to spend on this, but I make no promises. Maybe if I can avoid having so many characters talking together at once in the future ? We shall see.
Still, thank you to everyone for sticking with this story so long despite no updates, and sorry again for the long, long delay. I do promise that I won't abandon this story without telling you - it might go on hiatus, but I won't let it die without finishing it. I have read entirely too many great fanfics only for them to abruptly stop to do that to you.
Zahariel out.