The night passed, and soon, morning arose. Shirou had decided that, despite the time sensitive nature of the issue, bringing it to Reines' attention after waking her up in the middle of the night was not exactly conducive to any amount of goodwill.
Instead, he, Waver and Gray were now waiting to meet her as she made her way towards the cafeteria.
As she had been doing for the past twenty minutes.
The blonde had been slowly making her way towards them this entire time. It just so happened that she would spot someone that she had to talk to. Elves, the elderly from Cato's retinue, even a random JSDF member. The moment she saw them, she would immediately strike up some conversation, and with a bit of Reinforcement on his ears, Shirou could only internally groan.
Why the hell would she even want to know about farming techniques, other than to annoy her adoptive brother.
And annoyed he was. This was Waver's third cigar already, and it wasn't even lunch.
By the time that Reines finally sat down, it was alongside Gray admonishing the Lord for starting his fifth cigar.
"Sir, please! There are children here!"
"You might want to listen to Gray, brother." Reines gave a sly smirk, "Who knows, you might be responsible for the early corruption of the youth here."
"Reines, please." With a sigh that belied the years he had spent dealing with her antics, Waver extinguished the cigar. "Let's focus on the matter at hand." He nodded towards Shirou.
"Oh, we're doing this now?"
From the rafters - which they had now, after they had upgraded the cafeteria tent into an actual wooden structure - came the voice of Rory. Shirou steadfastly did not look up. He had known that the Apostle was up there for a while now, and had made the unfortunate mistake of seeing her from down below.
While she was standing directly on top of him.
He could hear the chokes as the JSDF who had looked up swerved their heads away.
A soft landing, in spite of the massive scythe, was his signal to turn and look at Rory. With almost unnatural grace, she sat down, not at all impeded by the scythe.
"So, my brother told me that you needed to speak to me." Reines shifted her form, and Shirou understood that the time for her teasing had passed. He was no longer speaking to Reines, but Lady El-Melloi about a supposedly important matter.
"Yes." He motioned for them to the door, a signal that they needed to do this privately. Soon enough, the five of them had made their way to a secluded room, one that hadn't been assigned to anything yet.
Tracing a table and several chairs, Shirou decided that there was no way to sugar coat things. He pulled out the cloth-wrapped Crest Worm and unfolded it. In that instant, he could spot that Reines' eyes immediately shifted to a bright red.
"This is from our world." She didn't ask. It was a statement of fact, if only one that the magi had noticed. Normally, when Reines came in contact with large amounts of magical energy, her Mystic Eyes would flare up. That was not the case with magic and magecraft from this world.
All around them, they had been exposed to the magecraft of the inhabitants of this world, and not once did Reines' eyes do anything. Even now, where Lelei in the corner had been performing some magecraft to help distribute food, did not make them react.
Up until he had shown her the Crest Worm, nothing in this world had triggered her eyes. Therefore, the easiest conclusion to reach was that this was part of their side of the Gate.
"Familiars of Zouken Matou, someone that I had suspected crossed over to here when the Gate first opened."
"Matou?" This time, it was Waver who asked the question, Rory listening intently, "Of the Fuyuki Grail War?"
"The very same."
"I see." Waver clicked his tongue as he turned to Reines, "Do you recall the research I did on the Fuyuki Grail System?"
"I recall your mutterings, yes."
"Zouken Matou was one of the only magi in the city I wasn't certain of. His son had, according to records compiled by the Church, participated in the Fourth Grail War, though I never encountered this Kariya Matou personally."
Reines looked at Shirou, a calculating gleam in her eye, "I assume that this is the Matou family magecraft, then? Honestly, I can't think of a reason why this would be an issue. Grotesque as these may be, these familiars are hardly out of the norm."
"It's the circumstances of who is controlling them that is the issue." Shirou nodded towards Waver, "Assume that your research is more or less the truth, with one major difference: Zouken himself is not who he appears to be.
"If we were to go back and look at the records, the original Grail War was created by three families, Einzbern, Tohsaka, and Makiri. Whereas the other two would continue on, the last one would eventually turn into the Matou, after their head died of old age and had to be passed on." He pulled out the book that Zelretch had given him.
It was in pristine condition, despite Shirou having taken to carrying it wherever he went. No matter how much dirt and grime, how hot dragonfire was, the book looked like how it was back when he had first received it.
"That is a lie. Zolgen Makiri never died. The Makiri and Matou magecraft revolves around familiars, yes. In doing so, Zolgen found a way to constantly keep himself alive, by parasitizing the bodies of others, and then subsuming their form into a facsimile of his own. A sort of pseudo-immortality through the consumption of others."
There was a barely perceptible roll of her eyes when Reines spoke, "That doesn't mean much. There have certainly been worse magi that the Clock Tower doesn't bother with."
"Yes, but not one that has the capability of destroying the planet already in his hand."
That got the attention of not just the three other Clock Tower representatives, but also the Apostle.
Shirou gave a grim smile as he continued, "The corrupted Grail, the reason why the Fourth Grail War ended the way it did. Makiri has a shard of it. I'm of the assumption that he intends to start another one, or at the very least, use it to try and achieve true immortality. Keyword being 'try'."
"And when he does, the corrupted Grail will spill out the way it did back then, only this time, no one has any idea where it will happen." Waver finished his fifth cigar and was already starting his sixth.
"I appear to be the only one here that doesn't understand things." There was a hint of annoyance in Rory's tone as she stared at the four others, "Would someone explain to me what this 'Grail' is, and why it's such a big deal?"
Shirou turned his attention to Rory. "The Holy Grail, in our world, is an artifact created by the three founding families of the Fuyuki Grail Wars. It's supposed to grant any wish to the victor of the War. However, over time and through various conflicts, it became corrupted."
"Corrupted?" Rory's interest seemed piqued.
"Yes," Shirou continued, "the Grail's original purpose was twisted. Instead of granting wishes, it became a vessel for a massive, destructive force. During the Fourth Grail War, this destructive power was unleashed, causing catastrophic damage."
Reines chimed in, "And if Zouken Matou, or rather Zolgen Makiri, as Emiya suggests, possesses a piece of this corrupted Grail, he might be able to use it to cause similar destruction here. Or worse."
"Definitely worse." The book was placed in front of him, "This came from Zelretch himself. A parallel timeline that came close to birthing Angra Mainyu, All the World's Evils. All due to Makiri's meddling. Had it all been successful, it would've meant the birth of a Beast of the End."
All four heads snapped towards him, various levels of horror dawning on each of them. He couldn't say that he hadn't felt the same way. He had asked Zelretch, all the way back, what would've happened had Sakura and Angra Mainyu been successfully merged.
The answer was simple.
The Beast of Retribution. A calamity of such magnitude that it would swallow half the planet in its curses before the Alaya would even be able to respond with sending in anything of note.
That Zelretch already knew of it implied that it had already happened in another world.
And now, the very same monster that had the very real capability of that was loose, and now actively stretching farther and farther, with them having no idea what else he was doing.
It was terrifying.
Reines broke the silence, her tone serious and devoid of her usual playful banter. "If Makiri is as dangerous as you say, then we cannot afford to wait." She narrowed her eyes at Shirou.
"Why the hell didn't you tell us this earlier? This isn't exactly something that should be kept to yourself."
"I wasn't entirely sure that it would've been an issue, to be honest." Shirou scratched the back of his head, annoyed at himself, "It wasn't a foregone conclusion that Makiri didn't just die of old age. His method of immortality degrades the more he uses it, and even according to the Wizard Marshal, he usually just fades away after the Grail Wars."
"...Fine, I'll accept that for now." Reines' eyes shifted back to blue as Shirou bundled up the Worm and handed it to her, "But I expect clarity from now on. Full reports, including hypotheticals, understood?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Now, onto you, Miss Apostle." The Lady shifted her gaze to the Apostle, who looked more worried than Shirou had seen her, "You know of Beasts of the End? You reacted quite strongly there."
"Of course, who wouldn't know of them?" Rory scoffed, but a deaf man could hear the underlying worry there, "Beasts are of a different breed entirely. We've had to deal with them a couple of times, and each time, a catastrophic loss of life is the price we pay."
"You've dealt with them? How?" Waver's eyebrows were raised as far as they could go, as was Shirou's own. If this world could survive a Beast, and several by the sound of it, then it was possible that they could use whatever they did as a failsafe for their own.
They were disappointed when Rory shrugged apologetically, "I don't know the details of how they did so, unfortunately. There've been stories about it happening back around two thousand years ago, but I'm afraid I'm only 961. I can try and contact Lord Emroy, though I make no promises."
"...961? Years old?" Gray muttered with furrowed eyebrows.
"At any rate, should you need my blade, know that I'll gladly join you." Rory gave a smile that did nothing to ease Shirou's discomfort at realizing just how ancient truly was. There was only so much he could glean from Tracing, and a sense of time was not one of them.
They split off soon after, with Reines, Waver and Gray going off to start contacting whoever they needed to, and Rory to who knows where.
It left Shirou alone. Alone to think.
Yes, all of the things he had said were true. Not a single lie left his lips.
Only, he had left out one thing. It wasn't that much of an issue. It all had to do with why he had been procrastinating for so long with his reports. Why didn't he tell anyone anything until he was forced to.
It was personal.
Zolgen Makiri was supposed to be his responsibility. He was the one that hadn't seen the horrors that Sakura had endured. He was the one that left her there for years on end, suffering endlessly.
He had wanted to deal with him by himself. To settle the guilt that he felt.
It was greedy, selfish.
And human.
Morosely, Shirou chuckled humorlessly. He stared up to the ceiling. Thoughts of conversations with Rin, the years of trying not to be Archer, and yet, falling again and again into the same pitfalls that the Counter Guardian had fallen into.
'Who would've thought it would take something like this for me to start being selfish?'
A/N: I also want to say again that I post a chapter weekly, according to a schedule. It goes Chronal Anomaly Living Life. If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.
Thanks to my newest patron: Isak and Fireblade.
And a special thanks to: FireRogueWolf25, brutalcrab and Tassimo.