[X] Plan Sewage Talk
Once again, you find yourself thick in the dark of the sewers under Mitakihara. You've readied your bow, but keep it close to your chest and without an arrow, in order to more easily manoeuvre it in the tunnels. That's probably not the wisest choice you could have made, but with Archer and his two short swords at the ready, as well as Matou Sakura and Medusa – Medusa especially, with each step she takes, her body is like a coiled piece of spring steel, ready to snap – encircling you, you think you'll be fine.
Matou Sakura guides your way, letting flickering balls of light illuminate the path in front of you. "The spirits are restless," she says, glancing her head back and forth. "I know I'd probably just be stating the obvious if I mentioned how evil this place felt, but…"
"But you can't help it," Archer says, finishing her sentence for her. "This place is so soaked in curses that it's supernatural."
It's a good thing you, Archer, and Assassin went through these tunnels when you did, because now their walls are draped in a thick curtain of black, strands of web spun from Grief lain by Sidonia's monstrous spider familiars. Had you not acted when you did, all this Grief would have seeped into the soil, and things would be even worse now for the citizens of Mitakihara than they already are.
You crinkle your nose as a foul stench washes over you; it isn't the smell of Grief, thankfully, just regular sewer garbage. It doesn't seem like you're deep enough into the tunnels for the miasma to be very thick. You would say that you breathe a sigh of relief at the thought, except your every breath is still made laborious by the Grief strung up on the walls regardless.
At least you can still breathe at all, you remind yourself, knowing that if a thick miasma of Grief were to roll in, you'd be on the ground choking in seconds.
"How do you do it?" you ask, walking up to Medusa's side. She turns her head towards you, but her eyes are already obscured by her blindfold, so you're forced to use the titch movements of her facial muscles to gauge her reaction. "You've got so much more sensitive… Uh, senses, than I do. How can you stand being down here when it smells so foul?"
"By not focusing on it." Medusa's face remains a blank stone mask; no way to gauge her thoughts as she speaks. "I was already prepared for this fight knowing I would be denied my senses of smell and hearing," she says. Ahead of her, Matou Sakura stops, and makes a motion with her hand for Medusa to do something. She leans her body so that her hand makes brief contact with the wall. It sizzles as her bare flesh comes into contact with strands of Grief, and she grimaces, but she holds her hand there as long as she needs to before she's able to say "This way is clear, for now. We can afford to let our guards drop for another… Three-hundred meters, or so. There's a bend in the tunnel after that where we should bring our guards back up."
You mouth a silent "Thank you" to Medusa, before Matou Sakura makes another motion with her hand, this time for you to join her at the front. "I'm sorry I was distracted talking to Hijiri-san earlier," she says, "Because there's actually something I had wanted to bring up with you earlier. It's about Twardowski's Mirror."
That book again: "What is it?" you ask. What did Matou Sakura find this time? "Did you find a way to stop Sidonia from performing her summonings?"
Matou Sakura shakes her head. "We're already doing all we can by keeping Twardowski's Mirror and the shard of Dáinsleif out of her hands," she says. "No, actually what I found is more to do with what else Sidonia would be able to accomplish using it. In addition to the diagrams I found that look like grandfather's notes on summoning servants, I found a number of diagrams that look like they're related to the binding of Elemental spirits. Sidonia only has access to Fire spells at the moment, correct?" You nod your head; short of her manipulation of curses, fire is the only other thing you've seen Sidonia use in mass quantities. "With Twardowski's Mirror, it's entirely possible that Sidonia might be able to bind to her will spirits of other Elemental alignments, like Water, Earth, or Wind, effectively giving her access to spells that use all four of the major Elements. What's more-"
You hear a noise echo in the distance. It sounds foreign, alien, not like the sounds the spiders usually make. Your body tenses up as you raise your guard, and Matou Sakura waits, several seconds, confirming that nothing is coming around the corner to attack you before continuing. "What's more, I found one diagram in particular that I'm concerned with."
"More so than the possibility of Sidonia summoning a servant?"
Matou Sakura shakes her head. "No, that's still the most concerning part of her interest in Twardowski's Mirror. But it's still concerned all the same." Illuminated by the light from her spirit-flames, Matou Sakura holds her two hands out, pointer fingers extended on each hand. "See, there are actually two schools of thought where spiritcraft is concerned; Eastern, and Western. Most of the Matou family's research is centered in the Western tradition, but there's still some decent information on Eastern tradition spiritcraft in our family library. Grandfather took an interest in comparing the two when he moved the family to Fuyuki, and he took very detailed notes on the differences. I'll spare you the long and complicated explanation, and only mention what's relevant to our discussion here. In Eastern spiritcraft, there's the idea of the Pentagram; mastery over spirits representing the five Chinese Elements, Water, Earth, Metal, Fire, and Wood."
Matou Sakura turns her head backwards towards Archer, asking him "You said that Tomoe-san's Element was Wood, correct?" Archer nods his head, and Matou Sakura turns back to you. "Tomoe-san's Element comes from the Eastern tradition, then."
"So… You found reference to an Eastern tradition spiritcraft technique in Twardowski's book?" you ask. "Why is that concerning? It's not unheard of for information to spread from one country to another; and besides that, didn't Twardowski write that book using knowledge he got from the Devil? Why would he care about mixing traditions?"
"You're right, it's not entirely unheard of for information from one culture to cross over to another," Matou Sakura says. "Even in the Western tradition, there's something similar; the idea of an "Average One" who is attuned to all five Elements exists in Western traditions of magecraft. Sister is an Average One, in fact. But the Pentagram goes even further than that. It isn't just attunement to all five Elements; it's a complete mastery over them. Domination, even; bending the elements to your will so completely that you can even change the alignments of Elemental spirits. Take these, for example."
Matou Sakura gestures to the tiny balls of spirit-fire illuminating your path. "These are Fire spirits. They're easy enough to make with some fuel and a bit of oxygen; that's just basic chemistry, and sister says it's the basis for Shizuki-san's transmutations." You nod your head, and Matou Sakura gestures to one in particular, motioning for you to take a closer look, where you see a tiny leaf, burning in the flame's center. "I can't take that leaf out; that's the fuel I'm using to anchor the Fire spirit to the oxygen around it. If I try, it'll just move to wherever I move the leaf. If I try to make a Fire spirit using just oxygen, with nothing else for the spirit to focus on or use as fuel, then I'd make a Wind spirit. A drop of water would get me a Water spirit, and some dirt or a small rock would get me an Earth spirit. But I couldn't change their Elemental affinity, no matter how hard I tried. Neither could Sister."
"But someone who had mastered the Pentagram could, right?"
Matou Sakura nods her head. "Someone who had mastered the Pentagram could take this little Fire spirit, and turn it into a Water spirit if they wanted to. Or an Earth spirit, or a spirit of Wood or Metal. The fact that something like the Pentagram, which doesn't really exist in Western traditions of spiritcraft, is sitting right there on the pages of Twardowski's Mirror, concerns me, because it means that not only could Sidonia have access to spells of any Elemental affinity she wished, but she could also change their Elemental affinity at will. She'd be hard enough to fight with access to more than just fire, but if she could change her spells' affinities at will…"
"So why not just destroy the book, then?" you ask. "If you're worried about how hard Sidonia will be to fight if she's able to master this 'Pentagram' through Twardowski's Mirror, then why not just destroy it? It'll be impossible for her to get her hands on that way."
Matou Sakura stares at you for several long seconds. "I understand your concerns, Akemi-san," she says. "Truly, I wish that were an option. It would make our lives so much easier. But as a mage and a scholar, I cannot in good conscience bring myself to destroy one of the most valuable tomes of spiritcraft ever known to mage-kind. So few were ever printed, and the copy you retrieved from Sidonia's workshop may very well be the only one left in existence. I've been working my way through it, and even I don't know just how much information about spiritcraft might be lost forever if I destroy it. I can't destroy it."
You aren't convinced. On principle, you can understand and even respect the argument Matou Sakura is making. But as you turn your head back towards Archer, and try to imagine Minako, all by herself and at the mercy of Sidonia's genocidal ambitions if you fail tomorrow – you cannot fail tomorrow – you find yourself disagreeing with Matou Sakura in practice.
But also, the fact that Matou Sakura went through all that effort to explain something she found while doing research for you, and explaining the risks of that discovery falling back into Sidonia's hands, makes you feel that much worse for not bringing anything of equal substance to the discussion. "So, um… I know this isn't really related, but…"
Again, you turn your head back towards Archer. You know Matou Sakura has been good about this so far, but you just want to make sure there isn't an possibility of trouble in the future. Not that you need any more trouble than you've already got. "How did you end up falling in love with your version of Emiya Shirou?"
"Because he was there for me when no one else was," Matou Sakura replies. "When I was younger, the Matou household was… Not a very nice place to be. It still isn't, but it's gotten better since I took over as the head of the house, but back then…" Matou Sakura shudders, and you recall in scant detail the things Archer told you about the Matou. "Senpai was friends with my brother, though, and one day, he hurt himself while he was working and needed someone to help him do things around the house. I… The more time I spent around him after that, the more I could feel myself falling for him…"
"Sometimes, he'd notice me. Other times, it was like he only had eyes for Sister or for Saber. I have memories of so many different iterations of that War, that I'm not even sure which ones were real or not. But the love I felt – that I still feel – for Senpai is real. It has to be."
So she's also like you; falling in love with the first person to show her compassion and friendship. You almost feel bad for her, knowing that her Emiya Shirou is in love with Tohsaka-san. "I'm sorry that you can't be with him," you say. "I know what it's like to love someone because they were the first person to give you a chance…" Madoka… You miss Madoka so much. It isn't enough to know that you and she can get back together after you've defeated Sidonia – your punishment notwithstanding – you want her now. You want to feel her touch, her warmth, her kisses, now.
"I know it's not much of a consolation," Archer says, approaching from the rear of the column to place a hand on Matou Sakura's shoulder. "But I was genuinely proud of that boy when he decided to set his ideals aside in order to save you. It's the reason I was willing to give up my arm for him, back then." There's a story Archer never told you before. "Does he still have my arm?"
Matou Sakura shakes her head. "No," she says. "He… Had? A puppet body that Aozaki made him, but now that everything's all screwed up from whatever Sister did to split the timeline the way she has, I think… I think Senpai has his own body again. I don't know." A sneer falls over Matou Sakura's face, and in a cold tone she adds "But I bet Sister would know. She'd know all about Senpai's body~ They haven't even seen each other in a whole year, too-!"
"Master-" Medusa shushes Matou Sakura, placing a hand on her shoulder. Immediately, Matou Sakura goes silent; so do you and Archer. "Something is coming. I can feel it."
And then a giant spider showed up.
[ ] Wat do?
