"Right..." Shinji whimpered just a little, as the image of ones guts being vomited out came to mind. It was not a pleasant image, nor was he entirely sure why, exactly, it was so clear, but he shoved it from his head. "How do you know my name, anyway?"
"How do I know your name?" The Kyuubi repeated. "Well, that's a secret, isn't it?" She hummed to herself, her feet bouncing against the ground as she popped another bit of fish into her mouth, before offering Sheba a piece. "Fish?"
"Uh… sure." Sheba nodded, taking the piece and nibbling on it. For a long moment, it seemed like she wouldn't answer the question at all, before the Kyuubi simply sighed and gave a somewhat morose smile.
"I divined it." She finally answered. "I figured someone would have to be coming to this place, so I divined who was coming."
"This place." Astolfo mused. "You mean the Singularity, right?"
"Yes." The answer was quite simple. "After all, the humans who were killed in the future surely wouldn't just roll over and die. Otherwise, this time would have vanished like a popped bubble." She made a short popping sound with her mouth, motioning with a hand. "Since that didn't happen, humans must have chosen the wish to survive."
"You seem to know more then you should." Sheba muttered, eyes narrow. The Kyuubi just laughed, patting the Caster on the head.
"Don't worry. I won't say too much. Deal?" She answered, smiling all the while. "I know many things, this is true, but I doubt you came here to reminisce." She paused, just for a moment. "Wish knowing how to cook translated into actually cooking, though."
"So you knew we were wet?" Shinji asked. The Kyuubi just nodded.
"Wet, miserable and hungry, yes. Though your friend is far more miserable." She answered mysteriously.
"Friend?"
"I believe his name is Idael Archibald. He decided to pick a fight with my beloved. It went poorly."
"Idael is not our friend." Shinji spat, but the Kyuubi just giggled.
"So you say, so you say." She mused, popping another piece of fish into her mouth. "Perhaps your perspective will change, perhaps it won't." The group fell silent for a long moment. It almost seemed like it was a heavy miasma over the mood.
"Uh… thanks for the food." It was not the best ice breaker Shinji had ever used, but the Kyuubi just giggled.
"No one has ever done that before." She admitted. "I suppose I must have done it right this time."
"This time?" Sheba's tongue was perhaps far too sharp, as the Kyuubi just bowed her head.
"My beloved does not eat my cooking." She admitted. "The last time had him green for a week." Sheba's eyes seemed to grow two sizes wider, as she looked at her now empty hands in worry. Shinji just shrugged. If they got food poisoning at this point, there was no helping it.
"Well, what should we call you?" Astolfo asked. "Kyuubi does not seem appropriate for the occasion." The Kyuubi just nodded at his words.
"No, it does not." She admitted. "I was called as a human because my beloved wished it, so Misukume would be the appropriate name." She nodded twice, as if she was reassuring herself. "Yes, that will do."
"Well, uh… Misukume..." Shinji almost stumbled over his words. How did one appropriately address a former beloved of an emperor? "Did… the other two come?"
Who the other two were needed no clarification between the two Japanese. Misukume's lips twitched just slightly, the girl hiding it behind her hand.
"Sutoku-kun is in my beloved's thrall, for lack of a better way to put it." She admitted. "He was one of the first to come through the Rashomon. Really, we should have known better, it was always going to be a bad idea to open the Rashomon right on top of the palace." She paused, just briefly, rubbing her nose. "As for Shuten-chan? She's probably playing king in the mountains still. I felt her arrive, but I haven't seen her. No doubt Ibaraki-chan came to keep her in line."
"So two of the three came here as demons." Shinji muttered. "Is that right?"
"Well… yes." The answer was quite blunt. "Though I suppose you could say Shuten-chan was not. She was called as a Servant, for better or worse."
"Shuten-Doji is a Servant!?" Shinji couldn't help it, his voice raising several octaves. Sheba just rolled her eyes.
"Only the most truly evil creatures might fail to get onto the Throne, Shinji." She noted. "And those evils are the evils that heroes are summoned to kill. It's actually pretty hard for someone of deeds not to make it."
"Yeah, pretty much. Heck, there's even extra thrones for other things of note that for whatever reason don't qualify as Heroic Spirits." Astolfo quipped. "There's one for Gods, for instance. I suppose it'd be safe to say that's where you would normally reside, Misukume?"
"Yes." She hummed just briefly, popping more fish into her mouth. "Well, yes and no. This version of me does not exist anywhere outside of actual history. It's just an image of the me that my beloved fell in love with, a snapshot of time. The me on the Throne of Heroes is Tamamo no Mae, better known as the Kyuubi to you. The me on the Throne of Gods, on the other hand..." She trailed off, giggling. "Well, she is even more unreasonable then your friend here." The jab at Sheba was obvious, the Caster simply turning away with a huff.
"Sun gods are all jackasses." She grumbled. Misukume nodded her agreement.
"That isn't wrong."Her voice was quite soft. "Amaterasu is quite unreasonable at the best of times. She would no doubt look at our current situation and decide eating us would be an easier solution. She would be just as great a calamity as the one who ended humanity." Even so, Misukume did not seem too bothered by that fact. Perhaps it was because the likelihood of a deity just appearing was pretty much nil.
"So Shuten-Doji is a Heroic Spirit." Shinji noted, ticking off a finger. "You can be one too. What about Emperor Sutoku?" Misukume did not answer for a long moment, simply staring into the fire.
"Sutoku-kun is not on the Throne of Heroes." She admitted. "Nor is he on any other throne. Summoning him is very difficult. You see, Sutoku-kun is cursed that he will never truly die." Leaning back, she pulled a jug of what looked like sake from somewhere, and began pouring some cups. "I suppose you will need to be told. After all, what is recorded and the truth are often different."
"He's the Dai-tengu of the three great monsters." Shinji muttered. "What is there to know?"
"Quite a bit, I'd imagine." Sheba mused, glancing at Astolfo. The paladin just sighed.
"He belongs on the other side, doesn't he?" He noted. Misukume just nodded.
"Yes. His grudges in life turned into a curse on his deathbed. He never truly died, living on as an accursed half-bird. Calling him a tengu is perhaps an insult to the tengu in some ways." She noted, passing Sheba the first cup. "Those grudges grew after his death, until he became the centre of a maelstrom of malice. Much like my beloved, he was considered a demon in human flesh, but in Sutoku-kun's case, that curse took on a life of it's own."
"And so he became a monster." Astolfo nodded. "Can he be defeated? Or is killing him impossible?"
"No Japanese hero has managed it." Misukume noted. "But you are not Japanese. I have faith in you, regardless, though I think both you and I know the answer to the question of if he can be killed." Astolfo's face said it all. If killing the Dai-tengu was even possible, they certainly weren't going to be the ones who succeeded. Another cup of sake was passed, this time to Astolfo, who accepted it wholeheartedly.
"So Kiyomori is an honorary member of these three great monsters?" Sheba asked. Misukume just giggled.
"No. The Genji would direly like him to have been, but there is nothing demonic about the powers he possessed. I should know, I'm the one who taught them to him." Misukume answered. "Peoples memories are a powerful thing, though. The nature of his power has changed with the perception of him, but he is not like the three great monsters. His grudge was weak in life, and even in death, any curse he could have left was gone by the turning of the generations."
"That isn't how it goes in the Heike Monogatari." Shinji noted. Misukume sighed, handing him the final cup of sake.
"That is true. He was, after all, the dastardly villain was he not? Villains must have a suitably grand or karmic exit." Misukume's voice made quite clear what she thought of the idea, but she did not continue it. "Regardless, he is as human as you or I, if you ignore the Servant part."
"Yet he summoned a demon army."
"We summoned a demon army." Misukume corrected, raising a hand as she took a drink of her sake. "I'm the one who actually deploys the Rashomon, thank you."
"Then you're a Servant?" Astolfo asked. Misukume gave a negative grunt at that.
"No. I was called alongside my beloved, but I don't bear the traits of a Servant. I eat and sleep, much like you. Heroes bring about miracles; I am the miracle that follows my beloved wherever he may go."
"So he's the Servant and you're just here." Sheba muttered. "It reminds me of something, but I can't put my finger on what…"
"It isn't that dissimilar to you, child." Misukume noted. Sheba flinched at that. "The main difference, is that I have my own body, while you share yours. Is that not the case?" Sheba's gaze went to the fire, a cold, hard thing that looked quite out of place.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"That is your choice." Misukume nodded, drinking again. "Regardless, I summoned the demon army, not Kiyomori. That is exactly what your enemy was looking for, I'd imagine, since they waited until I'd done so to strike."
"Wait, Kiyomori wasn't called here to create the Singularity?" Astolfo sounded almost shocked. "But he's a usurper, if anyone would have..." Misukume's face just looked sad.
"Quite ironic, isn't it?" She noted. "But no, Kiyomori was protecting the emperor when the enemy struck." Her gaze fell to Shinji for a long, hard moment. "Should he be here to hear this?"
"Shinji is safe." Sheba noted. Shinji just looked between the two woman.
"Is something wrong?"
"No." They both said it entirely too fast, yet Shinji had no idea how to continue the line of questioning. If nothing else, it was clear something was being hidden from him. Perhaps because it would be frighteningly easy to get it out of him.
"It's name was Forneus." Misukume noted. "A demon god, if you will. I'm not sure who it was that was carrying it, but it was a member of the royal court. We were under attack before anyone really knew what was going on. Kiyomori used the Grail to activate the Rashomon, and the enemy counterattacked."
"With what?" Astolfo sounded like he was dreading the answer. Shinji wasn't sure he wanted to know what it was, either, as Misukume pulled down the right shoulder of her clothes. Along her shoulder, surrounded in a ring of Japanese characters, was a rotten, splotchy bruise. Shinji could feel the colour leave his face.
"They used the Primordial Sea." Sheba noted, almost clinically. "It's what destroyed most of Chaldea, too. The first attack is through the Primordial Sea. The second is through servants of the enemy. There usually isn't anything left for a third attack."
"Yes." Misukume nodded. "I was the lucky one. I know the correct arts to seal it before it becomes a problem. My beloved wasn't so lucky." Sheba almost shivered at that.
"Does he still have the Grail?"
"Yes. It's sealed inside his flag, where he can't get it." Misukume noted. "I have the key." She nodded to the sacred sword sitting in the corner of the cave. The Murakumo.
"Well, even bad news has silver linings." Sheba grumbled. Shinji just raised an eyebrow.
"What is the primordial sea?" He asked. Astolfo was the one who ultimately answered.
"The sea of life is from a time when the world was new." He admitted. "It's the remnants of a creature who did not wish to die. Those that are touched by it become corrupted to its purpose."
"What, kill all humans?"
"Kill all living things." Sheba corrected. "The Sea of Life is not so discriminatory. The Holy Grails must be connected to something with links to being a god of evil, for it to be able to spew that." She paused for a long moment. "I do wonder where the idea for those things came from. The model of Holy Grail I see is always the same kind as Fuyuki's. I wonder..." She trailed off. Shinji just shook his head.
"So the demons are in the same boat?" He asked. Misukume shrugged.
"I doubt you'd need to use it, to be honest." She mused. "The things contained in the Rashomon were not meant to be left out for long, but I can't seal the Rashomon again without my beloved's help."
"And they started killing everyone."
"Yes."
That certainly put a damper on things. To win, they would have to defeat Kiyomori. That much was certain. Yet at least they had a better idea of what to do.
"This Forneus, whe-" Whatever Shinji was about to say was cut off, as a trio of small, green lights flittered through the cave, small little creatures with wings. Sheba stared for a long moment.
"Faeries?"
"Pixies, I think." Astolfo muttered. Misukume just lifted one to her ear for a long moment, before letting out a sigh.
"Well..." She muttered. "I don't know… how..."
"What happened?" Shinji asked. Misukume just sighed.
"Shuten-chan is heading towards Kyoto soon, though she is the only one." She answered. "It would appear sir William is dead." A long moment passed, as she drew something out of her sleeves and threw it on the fire. "You are running short on time." She muttered. "The demons have chased your friend from Kyoto."
"Our friends?" It did not take a genius to realise who she was talking about. "Einzbern and Idael?"
"And about three hundred people." Misukume noted. "I suppose I should have more faith in Masamune-kun, but he is a bit hot-headed at times."
Shinji just bit his lip.
[ ] Return to the camp. It would need defending.
[ ] Rush to the forest and alert Heine.
[ ] Head to the north. There was no point returning yet if there was no army to defend with.
[ ] Head to the shrine on the mountain and attempt to call back the restless dead.
[ ] Write in.
