Chapter 02: Summoning Ancient Heroes
"Wake up, Kariya."
Kariya Matou woke up from his nap, eyeing Byakuya as he entered. "Nii-san...? What time is it?"
"It's already noon, you idiot." Byakuya kicked his brother's leg before settling into the couch. "I've already fed Sakura and taken her to school."
"Oh, thanks..." Kariya yawned as he stretched. "I owe you one."
"I'd really prefer that I didn't hear that from you." Byakuya scoffed. "Ignoring that I've put you as Sakura's father, you're the only reason that everybody bearing our surname has a better chance of living now."
It'd been a year since Kariya had saved Sakura and killed Zouken, which had helped more than just the two of them. Byakuya was still an alcoholic but not as bad as before, Sakura herself was on the slow road to recovery and still referred to the Matou brothers as 'uncles', although Byakuya occasionally hinted that she was seeing Kariya more and more as her father figure, and Kariya himself seemed to have gained a better sense of purpose caring for Sakura.
At least the few times he didn't have to go off-world for Lantern business.
He didn't know when exactly he'd switched from mentally referring to Sakura as 'Aoi's daughter' to 'his daughter', but nobody really corrected him when he said so at that PTA meeting.
(Nobody knew to the contrary, but the point still stood.)
"Besides," Byakuya reached out to grab Kariya's hand, raising it up so that the little brother could see the forming marks on the back of it. "We need to figure out what we're gonna do about this."
They were currently faint, but even Kariya knew the significance of half-formed Command Seals appearing on him. "I have no reason to become a Master anymore."
"Too bad, the Grail doesn't give a shit." Byakuya shot back. "You know how it goes. One Master per the Founding Families, three extra random magi and finally, one without magus upbringing to spice things up. That's how it's always been according to Zouken. The Grail might have passed us up if you hadn't come home, but that's clearly no longer the case. If you think that this won't draw enemies here, you're a fool. Well, worse of a fool than usual."
"So what's your plan, then?" Kariya pulled his arm free. "I've already told you everything I could about my job. What will I gain from summoning a Servant?"
"Extra protection." Byakuya instantly pointed out. "Unless we give decisive proof of our participation, there will be all kinds of eyes on us. With a Servant, you can use them to protect Sakura, and me by extension ('Of course.' Kariya rolled his eyes.), whenever you yourself are unable to. And if you lose, it's guaranteed that we'd lose their interest as well."
"So the very act of participating... is a smokescreen?" Kariya frowned as he thought it through. To be honest, the idea wasn't that bad. Even without the looming Grail War to worry about, there had been news of that serial killer in town, which in turn had compelled Kariya to stay out late in hopes of catching him.
As a Green Lantern and new parent, he couldn't ignore the monster that was making a habit of leaving the corpses of children in their wake.
"If something does happen, we would need the extra muscle..." Kariya hummed as he thought of the dangers. While he had his ring, he could ask the Servant to covertly guard Sakura during the time he couldn't. As for Byakuya...
"Well, I guess I should protect you, too." Kariya huffed as he got to his feet and stretched. "I'll get started on it."
Byakuya sighed in some relief before getting up as well. "Father should have something useful in his study. I'll go get it."
Kariya tsked. "I knew I should've burned all of that stuff ages ago."
"Hehe..." Waver Velvet looked up to his Command Seals, smugly smiling at his accomplishment before he sat up to admire it some more. "I've got Command Seals, too!"
He then happily held his right hand close to his chest, cheerfully falling back on his bed. "The Grail chose me! The Grail acknowledged my merit!"
Waver laid down, basking in the achievement before he suddenly sat up straight, completely serious. "I can't just sit around and be happy. I have to prepare for the summoning of my Servant!"
He'd just been granted the right to stand upon the stage, after all. He needed to find an ideal area for the summoning, prepare for the Witch Hour the next day, get the-
"Glyph mediums!" Waver smacked his head. "I can't believe I almost forgot! I need them to draw the summoning glyph!"
It did take a while to properly secure them, so much so that he only had a few hours of rest before he had to wake up to the sounds of his newly acquired roosters.
"The sixth grade girl who went missing in Fuyuki City two nights ago, Miki Nishimoto, was found unconscious this morning at the outskirts of the woods in Fukuyama district. Close by was a brutally beaten man who had been tied to a nearby tree." A news reporter reported from the television inside the kitchen with the headline titled, 'Serial Killer in Fuyuki City'. "Given the circumstances, we suspect him to be the serial killer responsible for the..."
"Good morning, Waver." The elderly man greeted Waver as he entered the kitchen.
"Morning, Waver-chan." The elderly woman greeted Waver as she set up their breakfast.
"Good morning, Grandpa... Grandma." Waver sleepily slumped into his seat, grateful that the translation spell was still working fine.
"Fuyuki's getting unsafe these days. At least they finally caught that bastard." The elderly man commented on the news. "Anyway, Martha, those roosters have been really loud this morning. What's going on?"
"There are three roosters in our yard." Martha answered.
"In our yard?"
"That's right. I wonder where they came from." Martha agreed with his confused husband before turning to Waver. "Waver-chan, do you want some coffee?"
If Waver had been less drowsier, he would've probably been able to avoid the trouble that followed.
"Waver-chan, what happened to your hand?!"
Hearing what she said, the young Master looked at his hand and slightly gasped as how he'd carelessly left his Command Seals out in the open. "Crap!"
"That mark." Martha stated.
"Mark?" Her husband asked now a bit curious himself.
"That mark wasn't there yesterday." The elderly wife noted as she walked up to Waver to have a good look at it. "Is this a tattoo or something?"
As soon as Martha checked on his hand, Waver shouted in annoyance, which startled her a bit and took a step back. "Geez! I wish you two wouldn't keep noticing the most unnecessary things..."
"Wh-What's wrong, Waver?" The elderly man asked, slightly surprised and worried.
"Waver-chan?" Martha also said surprised and worried about Waver's tone.
"Nothing's wrong." Waver sighed as he poured a cup of coffee while casting a little spell of sleeping hypnosis into it. "Come on, have some coffee. I've put lots of milk in it. Don't you both like coffee?"
Waver finished and pushed the steaming cup forward, allowing the rolling patterns to captivate the couple. In a second, they both passed out, Martha collapsing the ground (thankfully she first fell on her knees than on her side to cushion the blow) while the husband fell unconscious on his chair.
Waver took a deep breath and sighed. "Must I really cast another spell to make them think I'm their grandson, back from being a foreign exchange student abroad?"
The sound of roosters crowing reminded Waver of another problem. "I'll have to find an explanation for those roosters I got, too."
"I can't believe they actually found the scabbard of that legendary sword." Kiritsugu Emiya said with a hint of awe in his voice as he surveyed a beautiful blue and golden scabbard with runic symbols written on it. "There isn't a single scratch. Is this sheath really 1,500 years old?"
"The object itself is a type of Conceptual Weapon." His wife answered. "It won't rust or degrade like normal physical objects do. Just like in the legends, it heals its bearer's wounds and stops their body from aging. Of course, that's only if it's supplied with the prana of its 'original owner."
"That's just like you." Irisviel sighed in amusement as she watched her husband walk away from the shrine. "A tool is always a tool, right?"
"That goes for Servants, too." Kiritsugu offhandedly said, which made his wife blink in confusion. "No matter how famous the Heroic Spirit, a Servant is nothing but it's Master's tool once summoned. Anyone who lets their fantasies get ahead of them will never emerge from this battle victorious."
After all, to let such a thing happen was to allow everything Kiritsugu had done to come this far become meaningless.
"And that's why Lord Jubstacheit decided that this scabbard was just the relic for a man like you." Irisviel said with a small smile.
"Is that what you believe?" Kiritsugu asked, which surprised his wife again.
"Are you not satisfied with his present?"
"Of course, I'm satisfied." Kiritsugu mused with a snort as he sat down on of the pew. "Acht did well. I doubt the other Masters have a trump card as powerful as this."
"Then, what's wrong?"
"Given the relic's strong connection to it's owner, the Heroic Spirit that will respond to our summon is obvious." Kiritsugu explained as he sat in one of the many pews around. "The legendary King of Knights, Arthur Pendragon."
In just speaking that name and title, Kiritsugu couldn't help but feel the shiver that ran down his spine. Judging by the look of awe on Irisviel's face, he knew it was the same for her. "How compatible I am with him is a secondary concern."
"But as the wielder of {Excalibur}, surely he must be the strongest Saber-class Servant." Iri interjected.
"That's right. I'll have a Servant far stronger than any other." Kiritsugu agreed. "The question is how to properly utilize that strength. To be honest, I'd honestly feel a lot more compatible with a Caster or Assassin."
"Worrying about that before you even summon them won't help. We don't know what the King of Knights will even be like."
Irisviel turned to face the sheath, gently running her fingers across it. "Furthermore, no matter your tactics, once he learns of your ideals, your dream... I'm sure he'll understand. Just like I do."
'I don't deserve a woman like you in my life...' Kiritsugu stayed silent as he looked at Irisviel von Einzbern, one of the very few people in the world who knew almost all things about him and loved him regardless. When he thought of her inevitable fate... "That's it. I've found my strategy..."
"Oh?" Irisviel hummed. "What did you think up?"
"The best way I can utilize the strongest Servant." Kiritsugu gave his wife a confident smile as he got up. 'The best way I can push back your fate.'
"Uncle Kariya?"
Kariya blinked and turned away from the open window to regard Sakura. "Hey, Sakura."
"Uncle..." Sakura fretted before speaking again. "Uncle Byakuya said that there's going to be an important ceremony tonight."
"Yeah, I know." Kariya nodded in affirmation. "I'm not going off-world, but there will hopefully still be some time to be with you some more."
"I see..."
"Hey, Sakura-chan." Kariya said with a smile on his face. "Once I'm done with all of this, why don't we all go somewhere and have some fun? With your mom and sister while Byakuya and Shinji come along? Since Zouken put you two in separate schools, you haven't had the chance to see Rin since then, right?"
"I don't have anyone I can call my mom or sister…" This made the Green Lantern frown at what she said. "Grandfather said I should think that they never even existed."
"Zouken is gone. You don't have to do a single thing he says anymore." Kariya strongly declared after kneeling down to hug her, hating how a year of his death still hadn't quite dislodged Zouken's hooks in his daughter. "After the Grail War, we're going to see Aoi-san and Rin-chan, even if I have to break Tokiomi's jaw for that to happen."
Kariya was kinda hoping that the chance would happen.
"I could see them again?" Sakura asked as she hugged back.
"Yeah, you will." Kariya confidently answered. "No matter what, I will ensure it."
Later, Kariya looked down at the Summoning Glyph at his feet, purple from a special liquid from one of Zouken's possessions.
"You memorized this summoning spell, right?" Byakuya asked he flipped through the book before putting it away and stepping back.
"Yeah." Kariya replied as he stood before the glyph. "Anything else I should know?"
"Is a simple ritual like that enough to summon a Heroic Spirit?" Irisviel curiously asked her husband as she held the scabbard.
"Surprisingly, yes." Kiritsugu answered as he finished the preparation of his Summoning Glyph, but unlike most of the others, this one was created from mercury. "Summoning a Servant doesn't require an elaborate evocation. The Grail is what does the actual summoning. As a Master, my job is to anchor the Heroic Spirit to this world once it appears and give it enough prana for it to take physical form."
Kiritsugu gave his glyph one last look before nodding in satisfaction as he got up from his knee. "That should do it. Iri, place the relic on the altar. Our preparations will then be complete."
"Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill!"
Blood was spilt from the dead rooster unto the soil as Waver just about finished creating his own Summoning Glyph, his relic on a stone alter before the ring. Satisfied, he tossed the drained rooster to a pile of the other dead ones.
"Repeat five times, but destroy each when filled!"
"Let silver and steel be the essence."
Tokiomi Tohsaka chanted in his chamber, with both Kirei Kotomine and Risei Kotomine standing behind as witnesses.
"Let the Archduke of Contracts be the foundation. Let Schweinorg be the ancestor I pay tribute to. Let a wall be risen against the wind that shall fall. Let the four cardinal gates close. Let the three-forked road from the Crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate."
"Heed my words! My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny!"
As Waver chanted, his glyph started to glow as a sign of response from the Throne of Heroes.
"If you heed the Grail's call and obey my will and reason, then answer me!"
"An oath shall be sworn here!"
Kiritsugu's Summoning Glyph glowed brightly in the cathedral, with Irisviel wincing as the billowing wind increased in pressure.
"That I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven! That I shall have dominion over all vices of all of Hell!"
"For no matter how high the heaven or deep the pit!"
Kariya's Summoning Glyph took a green tint, surprising Byakuya at the sight as Kariya's ring glowed in resonance as the chant was modified.
"No evil before you shall ever be acquit! To those who demand that the innocent submit! Thou shall engulf them all in the Emerald Light that you shall emit!"
"From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power, come forth from the ring of restraint, Guardian of Scales!"
Tokiomi finalized with the Command Seals on his hand burning red as the Summoning Glyph before him turned from white to a searing gold.
The Summoning Glyph before Waver turned scarlet before erupting in a pillar of prana, sparks of electricity shooting off upwards as the column of mana somehow split cleanly in half like a lightning bolt had shot down from the heavens to cleave through a tree.
The Summoning Glyph before Kariya blazed purplish green before erupting into a pillar of prana that filled the entire pit with menacing lightning and smoke.
The Summoning Glyph before Kiritsugu brightened into a sky blue color with hints of gold in the air before erupting with wind powerful enough to shatter the windows.
As the sky cleared and allowed the moonlight to fall upon him, Waver gasped as he fell onto his butt in exhaustion with a stunned look that switched to a smile of success.
Before Waver was a gigantic man standing more than two meters in height. He had large muscles, a dazzling flow in his eyes, and burning red hair and beard. He wore bronze armor, with cuffs and greaves with white-furred fringes that left his arms and thighs unprotected and wore a thick red and decorated mantle with a fluffy white fur collar.
KING OF CONQUERORS
Rider: Iskander
"We've won this battle, Kirei." Tokiomi said with full determination in his voice as he and the two priests gazed upon his Servant. "Victory is ours!"
Before them was a dignified man in golden armor, with golden hair that pointed straight upwards as it refused to be shackled by the laws of gravity, his handsome face with eyes as crimson as blood that gave off a mysterious radiance that would make humans wither under his gaze.
KING OF HEROES
Archer: Gilgamesh
The wind and light finally died down as Irisviel gasped at the Servant that had been summoned.
"Who...?" Kiritsugu was just as lost for words.
Before him was a teenage girl with her short golden hair tied into a bun at the back of her hair while a stray strand jutted forward from the crown, piercing green eyes while adorned in a feminine blue dress with steel gauntlets, boots and shining armor with Fae runes inscribed on it.
KING OF KNIGHTS
Saber: Artoria Pendragon
It had worked. There was a Servant there in the mist. The throbbing on the back of his hand and in his ring attested to that much. A Servant to fight the Grail War. A Servant to help protect his family.
"Hello, my dear mage..."
It was still shrouded in smoke, thick with whatever magic it was exuding, but a gauntleted hand with burst out of the darkness and opened their hand, palm up with feminine fingers exposed. The velveteen whisper was spoken both in his mind and outwards at him.
"A Master who speaks of justice so strongly... yet possesses such kind loving eyes..."
The hand hung in the air between them as the rest of the figure appeared out of the smoke. A youthful woman, virtuous and glamorous with her long black hair. A very buxom figure beneath a sensually deceiving purple bodysuit that truly well-fitted plate mail with tight gauntlets and grieves, elbow and knee-length respectively. The figure stood before him and stretched out her hand further.
Hesitantly, Kariya put his hand in the gauntlet and felt her fingers close gently around his own, feeling his ring hum in ascent.
"I ask of you... are you willing to command me?"
THE MYSTERY SLAYER
Berserker: Minamoto-no-Raikou
KingVessel: Yup, I think I did good! Please review! Also if you read it well, I'm sure you'll have noticed that a certain other Master and Servant pair's gonna be different~