Fate/Clusterfuck (Fate/Stay Night)

[Erien]

I can't post the image from patreon due to... rules. You know the ones. But I can post this amazing piece done by the amazing Clinickcase for this story! Update later this week (probably).

Spoiler

 

[Erien]

View: https://youtu.be/v0knwEYRufQ


[Mana Transfer - Another Way]

Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!

—

"Aren't you going to touch me?"

It was a hell of a question to be honest, and as she had you pressed against the wall you had very little choice in the matter. You had never had sex, hell, you had never had a girlfriend, and Medea coming onto you like this all at once was more than enough to send every inch of your body into overdrive. There was a very loud, very horny part of your brain that was demanding you grab ahold of Medea by the shoulders and succumb to whatever the hell she wanted. But another, quieter… yet far stronger part of your brain won out, the part that recognized that there was something wrong about all of this.

You move your hands to grasp her by the shoulders, doing your best to only look Caster in the eyes. "If… you need mana, is there other ways? It doesn't seem like you want to do… this."

Medea looks up from where she had been sliding down your pants, a skeptical look on her face as she searches your own. Something that does, admittedly, do wonders for your libido now that she's no longer seemingly focused on seducing you. "I am offering my body to you, is that not enough?"

You shake your head. "It's… well, it's lovely, really. But you don't seem to want this… and I didn't save you just to have sex with you, and I don't consider it a reward anyway." You squeeze your eyes shut as Medea stands back up. "You're beautiful… but I don't want to do anything you aren't comfortable with."

You open your eyes a few seconds later, only to freeze as you find Caster's face a few inches away from your own. "Close your eyes boy."

You close your eyes, still pressed against the wall. You hear little else but her breathing, it causes a shiver to run through your as you feel her breath against your neck. With your eyes closed you could focus on… other things, namely the swell of her breasts against your own chest, the feeling of her leg rubbing against your own. And the faint but present scent of lilac.

Any further thoughts however, are wiped out as you feel her lips press against your forehead, anything after that, however, was a mystery to you. As you collapsed to the floor like a doll.

—

Medea… Caster, elected to stay at the house as you went to school that morning. She had informed you that she had some work to do around the building. If you had to guess, it likely had something to do with those weird hand gestures you had seen the day before. Regardless, she seemed in a remarkably pleasant mood, especially considering how she seemed as morose as a borrowed cat until recently. Still little in the way of smiles, but she was at least there for breakfast and was amicable, if not a chatterbox.

You had awoken in your own bedroom, fully dressed thankfully, and had slept until your alarm. The only sign that Caster had done anything at all was a brief spell of lethargy that went away with breakfast. She had, apparently, drained your mana via a command spell and a… regular spell she had decided not to describe to you. Either way she had mana now, which was good… if you got run over by another freight train shaped like a spearman you would rather you have some method of dealing with it other than a particularly large rock.

… It did nothing for your mood however to now have the second night of three where you hadn't fallen asleep naturally. You couldn't help but worry this was doing something rather poor to you physiologically. But then, magic. You assumed it was bad for you regardless. The fact that your magic training felt like someone was welding a two-by-four into your spine was proof enough of that… you should probably ask Caster about that actually, she would likely know a better way, or any way at all that didn't involve screaming.

You were just happy she was wearing clothes when you saw her in the morning. She was beautiful, frankly she was the most beautiful thing you had ever seen in your life. Circe was voluptuous and tall, and more than a little flashy and showy. But she was also extant in only a dream. Medea was real, in all sorts of fascinating ways your teenage body appreciated and desired to worship. Servants were just… unfair.

"Shirou! Good morning!" a familiar voice calls out to you, breaking you from your thoughts.

You glance up from where you had been watching your feet to see Sakura standing at the intersection just a few blocks from your house and yours. The Matou household and your own were equidistant to the school, which mean for the last several years you had been walking to the school together with Sakura. To your relief, she was smiling.

"Morning Sakura."

Sakura's smile widens, and she moves to walk beside you. "Has everything been alright? Since the… servant attack?"

There was an undercurrent of worry in her tone. No, that's wrong. There was a tidal wave of worry in her tone barely held in check by a cracking floodwall.

"Haven't had anything happen since," you lie. A lot of things had happened, just none of them had tried to kill you.

Well.

Caster tried to kill you, but that didn't involve being beaten to death by a hulking monster. "It's been peaceful, besides Taiga working me to the bone yesterday," you reply.

Sakura lets out a giggle, her hand moving to cover her mouth. "She was rather upset with you."

"That's putting it mildly, yes." You reply, frowning. "Not like I chose for all of this to happen."

"Well, you did go out of your way to save Caster."

You frown even more deeply. "Was I not meant to? She needed my help."

Sakura purses her lips, but says nothing for several minutes as you both continue walking. You head through the shopping area, a faint awkwardness passing between you that is quickly replaced by quiet peace. Around you are students, with Homurahara academy being the largest school around, it saw the largest amount of students, and there was something comforting being around so many people again.

The last few days had been rather nerve wracking in that regard. "You hear anything regarding Minori?" you ask.

Sakura doesn't respond, and you turn your head to look at her. She had her gaze focused on one of the displays, a row of computers lined up facing outwards towards the street. Each displayed the same image, a pink… background of some sort, with a rotating flower along with text that read… "Hack successful?" you repeat. "New ad campaign?"

Sakura tilts her head, staring at the screen. Then shrugs her shoulders. "I haven't heard anything about Minori. Ayako will certainly know."

Yes. Ayako. His older sister and your boss as far as archery was concerned. You had spent most of Saturday cleaning all the archery supplies then handed them off to Taiga. "She'll probably be cross with me for missing practice…" you say with a sigh.

"Probably, but you had a good reason at least?" Sakura offers.

"That's rarely if ever been a good excuse to her," you reply. "She's still better than Shinji in that regard, but Ayako can be a tyrant as well."

Sakura frowns at the mention of her brother, then lets out another giggle. "They both need you at least. When was the last time you missed the target?"

"... A year ago," you admit. You had given thought of quitting the sport all together, you had nothing more to grow with doing it, you were… basically perfect at Kyudo. But Taiga had been rather firm in her insistence that you needed a hobby besides fixing stuff around the school.

"She can't stay mad at you for very long if you keep doing that," Sakura replies.

"She can, since she's bound and determined to be better at it than me," you say with a sigh. "With any luck she won't be waiting for me at the gate at least.

—

"I'll go ahead to class," Sakura says. The violet haired girl speed walking past you into the school grounds… and past Ayako.

Sakura was abandoning you, you will remember that for later.

Ayako was standing at the gate, her arms crossed underneath her bust and a ticked off expression on her face. The other students gave her a wide berth as she glared at you, and, like a man walking towards his execution. You stepped up towards your club manager. "Good morning, Ayako."

Ayako's eyes narrowed, her brown hair shifting in the morning breeze as she stared up at me. You had known Ayako for years, sometimes as a friend, usually as a one-sided rival. Her looking like this wasn't unusual, though looking like this so early in the morning was. "I need to borrow you, archery club. Now."

With that she turns around and walks off towards the archery building, leaving you to stare after her for a moment before you follow along. A few of the students wish you well, a few more wonder what it was exactly you did to piss her off. The archery building was apart from the rest of the school, not far, but it was its own building near the fence. As you follow along Ayako opens up the door and slips inside.

Following her in, you spot the freshly prepared archery supplies sitting against the far wa-

"Close the door," Ayako commands.

You do so, awkwardly standing just in front of it with your bag held in one hand. Ayako stood just in front of her, her hands clenched at her sides and her gaze firmly on you. She was no longer glaring, instead she just seemed rather… tense. You have only a few moments to process that, before her hand shoots out to grab you by your collar. She yanks you forward and down, pulling you into a… chaste kiss?

Ayako's eyes close, and her other hand moves around behind your neck to hold you there. You stand there, still, not sure what to do for several seconds. Before Ayako pulls away, a heavy blush on her face with her eyes half lidded. She stares into your eyes for several seconds more before she steps back, straightening up and wiping her lips with the back of her sleeve. "Minori said you saved him from a mugger, consider that a… Thank you."

Oh. He remembered you helped? You thought he was unconscious. You don't say that of course, in fact, you don't say anything as Ayako looks away towards the wall. "You could… you did a good job taking care of the archery equipment, and I owe you one. Maybe we could meet up for… a dinner, or something, sometime. I prefer older guys, but you aren't bad."

You process that, then feel your own cheeks start to burn up. Ayako likes you? Well, you sort of felt she had a crush in the past, but you had never looked into it because you frankly couldn't see why anyone would find you attractive. "Are… you asking me to be your boyfriend?"

Ayako's eyes snap back towards you. "Is that a problem if I am!?"

"N-no?" you reply.

"Then what's your answer?"

—

This does not lock any romance route.

[] [Yes]

[] [No]

 

[Erien]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNGf2bv3Imc


[Yes]

Thanks to @Armoury for the beta! And thank you all for reading, the fun begins now.

—

"I… uhm, yes?" you reply, almost instinctively. You were still partially trying to process the request. This had put you more than a little on the backfoot, you weren't aware that Ayako had a crush on you, or even any interest in you in general. She was a friend, a good one at that, but you had never given it much more thought than that despite knowing her for years now.

Ayako smirks, attempting to look at least in some way smug. It's slightly hampered by the heavy blush on her face, and the fact that she can't actually keep her eyes on you. Instead she is busy studying the wall, to be fair, you had been looking at it yourself for similar reasons. It was a truly fascinating wall that was far and removed from the awkwardness of the current situation.

"Good! That was… the correct thing to do, yes! I'll expect you to take me to dinner at some point!" Ayako says, pointing a finger at me. Her face is firm, smug, and proud. It lasts all of two seconds before her eyes dart to the wall again and she rather hurriedly steps back out of the archery range. Leaving you by your lonesome.

You let out a slow breath, misting in the cold winter air. Then you move your hand to your lips, trying to process what just occurred. You… aren't sure why she would like you, besides you just being a member of the archery club. You were friends, but she had never shown any interest in you until now. Was it just because you saved her brother? You'd hate it if she was doing this just as a means of paying you back.

It wasn't something that needed to be paid back to begin with. It was just the right thing to do, it's something… you'll need to figure out how to ask later. Lowering your hand, you glance out towards the snow-filled archery range. Then make your way back outside and onto the school grounds. The large open field that separated the buildings were covered in a fine layer of snow as well, though that had been mostly pushed aside by students walking. Adjusting your bag upon your shoulder, you follow in the tracks others have left behind, making your way into the warmth of the school…

You had a meeting to get to.

—

"Issei, you there?" you call out, sliding the door to the student council room open.

"I am, you're late this morning Emiya." Issei replies.

Pulling the door fully open reveals a room made up of little more than pushed together tables, a whiteboard, and several storage lockers. Sitting in the middle of it, going over a small mountain of papers was Issei. A friend of yours, for a long while now at that. You enjoyed his more… serious personality, being raised in a temple tends to cause that.

He was, also you note. The only one present in the room. "Where are the others?"

Issei almost frowns, almost, but keeps his lips taut. "They… have their own hours."

Your eyes flit over to the mountain of papers beside him. And you say nothing, but he catches your look regardless.

"It's fine, Emiya. This isn't a problem I can't handle."

Issei was a plain man, at least in personality. With his looks he was about as popular with the girls as another friend of yours was. Though, unlike Shinji, Issei never went out of his way to stand out either. It's part of the reason he was by far the most efficient member of the student council, he just quietly got things done. Perhaps it was part of his monk training, school was just a facet of his life to finish before he shaved his head and worked in the temple full time.

You had never asked, nor did you care to. "What am I doing today?" you ask instead.

Issei frowns. "Well, normally I'd invite you to sit and have tea with me, but you are late. So I'll just get right to business." Taking a sip of tea, the frown disappears from his face before he focuses on me once more. "The school's budget is… unbalanced."

"The athletic clubs getting all the funding again?" you ask, almost rhetorically.

Issei nods. "I've been trying to balance it, but there's nothing I can do for the shortage of heaters this winter."

You turn your head towards the broken pile of heaters sitting against the far wall. "I should be able to fix them, how many others are there?"

"Three here," Issei replies, then pulls out a paper from amidst the middle of the stack. How he knew it was precisely the one he needed you have no idea, perhaps he didn't, and was merely attempting to look organized.

"Two more in clubs upstairs, the petitions for new ones are multiplying."

You make your way over to one of the stoves, running your hand along the metal surface. "Well, they are old but easy to understand."

"You think they can be fixed?" Issei asks.

You stare at it, then look at Issei. "Mind giving me a moment to concentrate?"

Issei blinks, then nods, taking his tea and stepping out of the room. "Of course, just called me when you are finished."

You smile, he stopped asking when he realized you were always correct about these things, though it had taken some convincing the first couple of times. You didn't dare reveal your magecraft, it was one of the few things besides… what you were about to do, that your father beat into you.

You tilt one of them, your magic channeling through your hand and into the material. 'Tracing', the only thing your father really taught you. It had little flashy purpose, far from the fireballs and miracles that you had ready about. But it allowed you to understand what was wrong with things, and that was hardly something to scoff at. It allowed you to fix Taiga's… your Television yesterday, and today?

"I'm good," you call out a minute later.

Issei steps back inside, the look on his face wording his question.

"It's just a shorted connection, replacing that should make it last until next year at least." You reply, looking back at Issei with a smile.

The Buddhist grins. "Fantastic, reliable as always, Emiya."

You grin back, then get to work. Well, at least as much work as you can do, before you have to head up for the morning classes.

There you lose the smile.

As you meet your… other, friend.

—

"Oh? Look who decided to show up for school. Couldn't think of any more excuses Emiya?"

You glance over as you crest the top of the steps to reach your floor. There, just outside the classroom, stood Shinji Matou, Sakura's older brother and, to some extent, a friend of yours. He had a smirk on his face, his arms crossed over his chest. You had known him for a long while, and while he had certainly always been… abrasive, he had only become an out and out pain in the past year or so.

"I wasn't making any excuses, Shinji," you reply. Stepping to the side so other students can move past you towards the classroom.

"Of course not," Shinji replies, raising his hands in a shrug as he shakes his head from side to side. "Regardless, don't start getting ideas like you are too good for school or something Emiya, just because my sister follows you around doesn't mean you are anywhere near popular."

You bristle. "Believe me Shinji, I know I'm far from being you."

Shinji's smile dips for a moment, before he decides to take the statement at face value. "Well, if you are behind on your homework I can help you of course."

You shift the bag on your shoulder. "Got it all done yesterday," you reply.

Shinji's face curls up into a frown, removing any ounce of the playboy look he so carefully cultivates. "Well, don't come crying to me later when the Tiger scratches all over it in red pen."

You roll your eyes, but say nothing further as Shinji dips into the classroom. You move to follow after, but pause as you spot someone staring at you from further down the hallway, and, involuntarily your heart starts to pound within your chest. Rin Tohsaka stood, standing in the middle of the intersection just by the next set of stares, staring at you. She seemingly didn't even notice the crowd around her. Her blue eyes were locked onto your own, and a small smile was present on her face.

You blink, then look behind to see if there was something that had caught her attention behind you. Nothing beyond students making their way into classrooms, you look back… only to see that she was walking off, her bag held behind her as she made her way to her own classroom.

… What was that about?
Shaking your head, you made your way into the classroom.

True to form, it was school. Which meant women fawning over Shinji, normal lessons for you. And Taiga being a general goofball. To your relief she didn't draw attention to the fact that you had returned, you don't think you would have been able to come up with a more in depth excuse than you had 'overslept', which. While true, it did not look particularly grand when it came to the long list of reasons students had hand crafted to avoid being taught by Taiga.

Instead, you were able to actually focus on your schoolwork. Enjoying… something resembling normalcy for the first time in a long while. Taiga droned on and on, slipping between personal stories and the actual lesson of the class, Shinji glared at you from time to time… and your lips still tingled.

—

The classes end like every other day. There are many kinds of students, ones that stick around for clubs. Ones that hurry home. And ones that just hang around because they have nowhere better to go. You suppose you weren't in any of those categories.

"Sorry, Emiya." Issei says apologetically. "We really don't have time to wait any longer, with the cold snap coming. Do you have time today?"

The boy had gone as far as bowing to you outside the classroom as you had started to leave. You… did have plans, it had taken some work, but you had managed to make it so that you could do your work at the bar along with taking time with the archery club. But that meant you rarely if ever had time for distractions after school itself.

With Kiritsugu being dead for five years, you had to work to pay off the living expenses. Otoko was understanding at least, you showed up to Copenhagen as you could to help with the stock and clean the place. So you could just not show up if something happened, but you rather needed the money.

But…

"Fine." You reply.

It was something you started, and it was something you should finish… and regardless, you had to clean the archery club as well. It was going to be a long night. With luck, at least, Caster wouldn't worry too much. "Just tell me what needs to be done. I'll clean the archery club after."

Issei looked truly grateful.

—

It was seven at night when you finished putting away the mop. Issei had left a good hour prior, with the last of the heaters fixed… and a small amount of bandages on both of your hands, that task was done. But part of your making things up to Ayako was cleaning the archery club, and if it wasn't before practice tomorrow evening there would be absolutely hell to pay.

Hence why you were walking, more than a little tired, out of the archery club at seven in the evening.

It bears repeating that it was seven in the evening and you were still on the school grounds. Just in case there was anyone listening, they could know how annoyed you were about it. You didn't mind being the schools 'repair wizard', but it ate up a lot of your time.

It's cold, damned cold. And it's only worse with the wind blowing as harshly as it is, your cheeks go numb upon contact with the air, and you let out an involuntary shiver. It was dark as well, the moon was hiding behind the clouds, at least it was peaceful… with it being past curfew all of the students had long since gone home. You were an hour past curfew yourself, and it would be another half hour at least until you walked through your front door to a heated table and a warm soup.

*CLANG*

You blink, looking up from where you had been trudging towards the exit of the school grounds. Something like crashing metal sounded out through the air, followed by another, then another. A… feeling filled you then, possibly fear. But you found yourself moving towards the sound regardless. You round the corner to the schoolyard, then pause.

Your mind stops completely.


View: https://youtu.be/66DW--mbGI8


Standing just a few dozen feet away from you is a woman, she's dressed in silver armor, placed over a dress of blue. In her hands she grasps a sword, or, at least what you momentarily thought was one. Her hands are in a grip like she was holding one, but where one would be is only air. Her hair is blond, done up in a bob, and she is staring across the school grounds towards-

You stumble back.

The monster from before.

It was drooling onto the ground, a thick, viscous fluid as stared at the woman in blue.

Crack

Your heart stills as you regain your footing, and you glance down to see a branch you had crushed underfoot. You look back up again, only to see the monster a foot away from you, a maniacal grin on its misshapen face.

The woman in blue lets out a noise of alarm, and you watch, mesmerized, unable to move as the monster's hand reaches out towards you.

Then another arm wraps around your waist and you find yourself flying up into the sky.

You flail almost on instinct, watching as the monster's hand grabs nothing but air. In the time you had to process that you were moving, you had already gone a good fifty feet in the air, and you jerked your head back to see Caster glaring down at the monster.

"Do not flail master, we must leave."

"What are you doing here!?"

Medea frowns towards you a moment, then jerks to the side as the beast leaps after you both. It narrowly misses you, but the sound as it flies by to crash on a nearby rooftop is like standing beside a train skipping the station at full speed.

"If you must know, I arrived thirty seconds ago, curious as to your delay. I see now my arrival was fortuitous." Caster explains. Then wraps her second arm around your chest.

Then. You both are gone in a moment, suffused by magic.

—

You blink, finding yourself suddenly standing in the midst of your courtyard. Roughly at the same spot you saw Caster waving her hands just yesterday. You stumble forward, falling out of Caster's grip and narrowly avoiding falling face first into the snow in the process. Then you feel Caster's hands shove against your back, and you really do fall face forward into the snow.

The sound of lightning fills the air, and you jerk yourself around to see your roof exploding. Beams of purple light shoot out of the roof tiles into the air. And you find yourself staring up as the monster, having apparently cleared the two mile distance between the school and your house in the time it took you to process where you were. Falls through the air. The beams of magic slam into it, leaving smoking holes where they impact, but they do nothing to slow it, hell, they seemingly do nothing to harm it, as the damage does nothing to hinder the thing.

Caster leaps back, grabbing you by the front of your shirt, and you let out a dignified yelp as the monster crashes down, sending a torrent of snow a dozen feet into the sky. The force of the impact is enough to send both you and Caster hurtling back, though with her grip you don't tumble, merely slide as the beast gets its bearing.

It was smoking, holes punched clear through it from Caster's magic, and that was far from the only wounds it had. Deep cuts and gashes ran across its body, a foul purple liquid oozing out to paint the snow the color of rotten meat. The beast stank, overpowering even the scent of magic in the air. It smelled of carrion and sweat, and its heavy breaths turn to steam in the air as its eyes snap towards the two of you.

Then it leaps forward, spear outstretched.

Your own body was moving on instinct before the beast ever moved. Your weapon, a piece of discarded roof tile held in your hands, exploded as it blocked the thrust of the spear. Turning into fragments of ceramic that peppered your body. The reinforcement of the tile was all that kept you from taking that spear through the chest. And the beast lets out a howl of what was possibly delight.

You moved without thinking. Grabbing onto Caster's hand and yanking her back, running, somewhere, anywhere. Plans? Where? Ice cold fear filled you as the beast howled an echoing, layered cry like a dozen screaming voices that bounced around the courtyard and caused your brain to twinge.

You made it halfway across the courtyard towards the shed before you suddenly realized a slight flaw in your plan. You didn't even feel the pain, there was just a… twitch of agony that shot up your body as you suddenly lost the ability to walk forward. Distantly, you heard Caster let out a shriek… but you could hardly hear her. You glanced down, a spear was pierced through your chest, and you had but a moment to process that before you were flung forward. By Caster? By the monster? You didn't know. You tumbled through the snow, landing on your back in the shed, the taste of iron filling your mouth.

"Grk." You said, brilliantly, jerking your head up to see out the shed. Caster stood at the entrance, floating there, her hands raised as purple, beautiful butterfly wings erupted from her back.

Was she protecting you?

That… that wasn't right.

You were supposed to be… protecting… her?

Yes.

That's right.

You have to save her.

You can't die here.

You can't die here.

That just wouldn't be fair. Circe said you had to take care of her.

You just… had to get… up…

But why was that so hard?

Your hands pushed against the floor, but there wasn't strength there, only pain, pain rapidly filling your body and becoming all that you could think about. Your vision wavered, and you bit your tongue, forcing the world to stay in focus.

No, you couldn't die here.

You couldn't!

Then the beast roared, and the shed filled with a red light.

—

Hatred.

It was… a good emotion, it kept you driven. It was all you understood these days. Hatred led to bloodshed, bloodshed led to death. Death… death led to everything you ever wanted, it was your goal. Your sole, driving purpose. For there were no others. There was no greater meaning in this life or any others, no heroes, no kings, no family.

There was only death, betrayal, and madness.

If you weren't fighting, what else was there? A pointless, shunned existence? A shadow, meant to perform their duty and little else?

No.

No you wouldn't accept that.

You would kill.

You would maim.

You would slaughter.

There is no meaning, not anymore. It is just mindless savagery, and they would all die. The innocent, the guilty, the loyal, the traitors, the strong, the weak. They would…

They would…

Die… by your hand.

Yes.

That's right.

Your hand…

But… who the fuck even were you, anyway?

—

The monster's spear was sailing towards Caster, the woman conjuring a shield that would have likely been unable to stop it, not fast enough, not strong enough. You watch as the world slows down, as your breath hangs in the air.

As a sword slams into the spear and sends it uselessly against the wall of the shed.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Od7R6eAtY


A screaming blur then slams into the creature, one moment standing in the middle of a circle of magic. The next shoving an armored elbow into the monster's stomach. The spearman bellows a warcry, skidding across the snowy ground of the courtyard. The new figure is a woman, blonde of hair, the same shade even as the last you saw. Wearing silver, bloodstained armor across her entire body sans her head, her eyes, green, are bloodshot and manic. She lets out a cry of her own, bestial and crazed, then leaps forward.

Her sword stabs out, one hand on the pommel the other on the grip. The monster's spear swings up, battering the blade aside, then reaches a gigantic hand out to grab at the woman. Only for your view of them to be blocked momentarily by Caster rushing into the shed.

"Shirou?!"

You try and speak, only for more blood to erupt from your mouth.

Caster moves immediately, getting down onto her knees at your side as her hands move to your chest, freeing you once again to look at the battle. They stand at opposite sides of the courtyard once again, your house… Medea's room in fact, caved in from where one of them had apparently crushed it.

The newcomer, the woman, was laughing maniacally, and it was only then from this angle that you could see… she was bleeding, very heavily. A gigantic hole was in her stomach, clear through, easily half a foot in each direction and pouring out blood. Surrounding the wound was a golden light that drifted off into little specks in the air, blocking any view of her innards, but she was bleeding from it regardless. It was clean through her armor and flesh, giving you a view straight through to the monster on the other side.

It charged again, towards you, and the shed for that matter. Its spear raised to swing like a club. The woman's blade meets it, then again, and again. Their weapons clashing against each other with a sound akin to an avalanche, their forms blurring as they move too fast to follow. Roars mingle with laughs, and they separate, both leaping back a half dozen feet before charging again.

*Crash*

Only for the monster to go tumbling face first into the snow, snarling. Heavy chains of metal were wrapped around its legs, and you jerked your head to find the source being a woman standing atop the manor wall. She was… otherworldly, just like everything else this evening. With long purple hair that shifted in the breeze and a blindfold over her eyes.

Your eyes snapped back to the fight as the swordswoman lets out a roar, and you look just in time to see her blade slamming down onto the creature, its head separated from its shoulders to roll off into the snow. The chains dissipate at nearly the same moment, and you look back to see the blindfolded woman gone, leaving nothing but… your halfway destroyed house, a giggling, blood covered woman slowly turning to look at you. And Caster, standing up now that the wound on your chest was closed.

Caster stands, facing the swordswoman, a perfectly flat expression on her face.

The swordswoman, for her part, walks with a slight limp, seemingly unbothered otherwise by the massive gaping wound in her sternum. Her armor was dented and battered, red blood mixing with red paint across it. And you realize she isn't helmetless… part of one is still there, sticking up in chunks around her neck from where it looks like it exploded. Her sword, battered as well, is dragged along on the ground behind her as her giggles slowly quiet, then cease. Her smile doesn't disappear however, it's a crooked, almost manic thing, and she lifts the sword to rest it against her shoulder as she stops at the threshold of the shed.

She looks down at you, crumbled on the floor.

"You my master?"


View: https://i.imgur.com/P1Qn1Ah.jpg

—

[To be Continued]

 

[Erien]

View: https://youtu.be/rhhw0bFR9l4

—

You stare at the ring, it is a small, plain thing. Undecorated besides a single solitary gemstone of blue, the same shade of blue as your eyes. You turn the thing over in your hands. You had an eye for jewelry, you had an eye for all the fine things in life. But despite the plainess… it was beautiful. It caught every light in the room as you studied it, the gold flawless, without mark or sign of a jeweler's tool, and the gem was perfectly cut and seemed to go on forever, so intricately was its craftsmanship.

But you weren't one to accept such a gift lightly, you were a Magus, and nothing came without equal cost. Though you did certainly deserve to have it. You glanced back up at the servant, how Marisbury, that fool, had managed to summon such a being you have no idea. You frankly don't even know where he got the mana, but he did, and had hardly stepped out of his workshop ever since, instead relying on his servant to speak for him.

It had rapidly become welcome, due to its kindness if nothing else, but this was different. It had approached you, and offered you a… gift. This was not unusual, but that he had hardly spoken to you before was. You had plenty of suitors of course, you were one of the greatest magus of your generation after all. Your eyes glanced down at the ring again, your eyes getting lost in the gold.

"What… is the meaning behind this gift? Surely you are not asking me to marry you?"

The servant, Oberon, smiled. His blonde hair, a far paler shade than your own, shimmering in the evening light. You stared into his eyes, only catching what he was saying a moment later. "-was a gift. There is no higher meaning behind it," he says. His voice comes back into focus as you force yourself to listen. Oberon smiles, a brilliant but simple smile. One speaking of wisdom and kindness.

Of course he was wise to bring such a gift to you. But… "Everything has meaning," you reply. "This is… beautiful, the finest craftsmen in London could not make such a thing if they had a year's time. Why do you give it to me?"

Oberon doesn't shrug, or even move much at all. For some reason you think such an action is beneath a creature as perfect as he is. "I create things, it is in my nature, and this ring was the right one for you. I do not make such things with a specific person in mind, I merely find who they belong to. And this is yours." He says, smiling a touch wider.

It… is the right one for you, and you do deserve gifts. You smile back at the man. "Well, I thank you. The house of El-Melloi is grateful to receive this gift." Then you slip the ring onto your finger.

It fits perfectly.

 

[Erien]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Od7R6eAtY

[To be Continued]

Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!

And so it only gets weirder for Shirou.

—

"You my master?" the woman asks, her voice halfway between a manic laugh and a snarl. The crooked grin on her face doesn't help, nor does her being covered in blood aid in alleviating the confusion of the moment. She was a… what you would generously call a rough figure, between the destroyed armor, the bloodshot look in her eyes, and the blood covered sword bouncing on her shoulder, she caused your brain to scream danger.

She was a servant, that much was obvious. But you weren't aware that you could summon one while having another. But then, you knew very little about how magic, or the war in general worked to begin with. The woman exuded a pressure, a weight that pressed down against you and caused the air to taste of iron. You push through it, and start to speak.

"I-"

Your words are interrupted as a second, heavier weight falls over the area. Your words choke in your mouth as your lungs constrict. Your hand shoots to your chest reflexively, and your heart beats painfully in your chest as something causes your body to rock with adrenaline. You were on your feet, you don't know how, your senses were screaming at you to run, but your legs would not answer.

Past the swordswoman, a gurgling sound makes itself known, and the three of you look all at once to see the monster standing. It doesn't stumble, doesn't stutter, despite the fact that it was missing a head. The eyes dotting its body lock onto you, specifically you, terrifyingly you. Before its giant hand grabs the discarded head. Lifting it above itself for a moment, it calmly presses it against the stump of its neck, and as your stomach churns at the sight, the flesh reknits itself, twisting and growing as it locks the head back into place.

It's eyes, the proper ones, if one can even describe them as such on its malformed face. Lock onto you, then it launches itself. The dirt and snow of the yard explodes outwards, sailing over the fence and onto the street as it clears the distance between itself and the shed. A loud clang sounds out as its momentum is halted, the blonde swordswoman holding her sword up with two hands to halt its spear. But it does nothing for the sheer momentum of the air caused by the creature just moving, the shed rattles and screams in protest, the metal bending.

A tug on your arm causes you to turn your head, Caster was standing there, a stricken look on her face.

"Master, we must lea-"

You could figure out what she wanted to say, but the rest of it was lost to history as the monster roared. A layered, echoing, deafening noise that caused the shed to lift out of the ground and crash against the fence behind it. The swordswoman stumbles back, then swings her sword against as the spear of the monster thrusts forward. She barely knocks it away with a clang, causing it to bury itself into the dirt. She follows up with no hesitation, her sword stabbing straight through the monster's chest.

It doesn't notice.

Or rather. It doesn't seem to care. It's not staring at her anymore, nor is it staring at you. Instead all of its eyes are gazing out towards the west. It steps back, the sword in its chest sliding out of it with a waterfall of blood. Then it leaps, disappearing from you in less than a second as it crosses the night sky. It was in your yard for roughly fifteen seconds. In that time it destroyed the east wing, your shed, part of your fence, and survived having its head chopped off.

And then, like nothing ever happened, it was gone.

You let out a breath, then turn your head back towards Caster. "Are you al-"

"Shirou!" a voice that was not Caster's drowns you out.

That… can't b-

Snapping your head back towards the front of the building you watch as… Rin lands, held in the arms of the blue swordswoman from earlier. She's… why is Rin here? That doesn't, no. What? She has a look of barely constrained panic on her face, that almost immediately turns to shock as the blue swordswoman roughly tosses her off to land in the snow. "Master, you must leave!" the swordswoman calls out.

A laugh fills the air, and you turn your head to see the other blonde. The one that you had apparently summoned, laughing. A gauntlet was resting on her face, a manic crazed grin on her face as she announced her apparent joy into the air. She drops it a moment later, staring at the other swordswoman across from her. "Oh, this is just perfect!" the one in red says, then she leaps forward, her sword raised above her head.

The one in blue narrowly shifts out of the way, the downward strike colliding with the front wall and causing it to explode out into the street. The one in red swings around, causing sparks to fly from the sidewalk as the sword scrapes along the concrete, her blade slamming into… air just in front of the blue swordswoman, a stricken look on the one in blue's face. "Come on, Father!"

Rin, for her part, was still in the snow, looking up at the battle now going on just a few feet away in utter confusion.

You were moving without even thinking, breaking free of Caster's grip to run across the yard to grab Rin. You made it a few feet, before your breath violently exploded out of your lungs. The cause was the same thing that was currently making it impossible for you to move any further onwards, a thick and heavy metal chain wrapped around your torso. You have only a moment to look down at it before you are snapped back, hurtling through the air.

Caster lets out a noise of shock and alarm, turning to watch as you sail over the back fence and over the small houses that surround the estate. You fly for about a second, before a hand grabs you around the midsection and clutches you. Jerking your head back, you find yourself standing… or rather being held above the branch of a tall pine tree. The purple haired woman from before was holding the same chain you saw her trip the monster with, only now it was wrapped around your chest.

"Good evening," the woman greets, looking directly at you despite the… blindfold covering her features. She had a small, almost amused smile on her face.

"Master!" Caster calls out.

You catch a glimpse of Caster flying through the air, spells forming around her in the night sky.

The woman currently binding you clamps a hand over your mouth, then hurtles back. The wind shrieks past your ears as she does her best to make a fighter jet look slow. You couldn't parse exactly how fast you were moving as she leapt from building to building. But Caster rapidly becomes little more than a faintly purple speck in the distance as she easily makes a mile between you and the house in the time it takes you to think about what is happening.

You twist in the chains, trying to wriggle or do anything. But you can't move beyond your legs, which kick futilely in the air. Your arms were bound at your side, and her hand was still clamped over your mouth. The only thing you had left…

You twist your hand, if you could summon Caster… you could save Rin.

Such thoughts are put on pause however, as you feel something sharp press against the base of your throat.

"If you use your command seals, I shall cut your throat open," the woman warns.

…

—

[] [Summon Caster]

[] [Try one of the spells Circe taught you]

[] [Go Still]

 

[Erien]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q22ZJNhq6VI

[Thy will be done, Grandfather.]

This is concurrent with the last chapter.


—


*Sakura POV*


This isn't right. That was the thought going through your mind. The thought screamed in your mind, tearing, scraping, begging to be let out of your lips. But you said nothing. You couldn't say anything. Your body wasn't your own, your will wasn't your own, and your lips only moved to say what you had been taught to say.


"Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone." You say, your hand outstretched over the circle. "The ancestor is my great master Zouken."

You close your eyes, feeling your body jerk as the summoning circle alights. The force of it is enough to cause you to almost lose your footing. But you continue. "The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulates." You draw in a breath, feeling your circuits churn to life. Shinji stood behind you, watching, eager to receive his servant. Zouken did nothing, a neutral expression on his face, but his desires were obvious.

"Shut…fill."

"Shut…fill."

"Shut…fill." You close your eyes again, the red light of the circle becoming too much. Your thoughts drifted as you repeated.

"Shut…fill."

"Shut…fill."

Soon, you would summon a servant. Soon… that servant would be used to…

"Repeat every five times."

"Simply, shatter once filled."

You clench your fist. Shirou would…

"I announce."

You open your eyes slowly, taking in the sight of the room. This… pit. The air was dancing with magical energy, casting an already cruel room into a shade of evil you had never seen before. "You are under me, my fate, and doom is in your sword. In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you accept this feeling, this reason, then answer me."

Shirou…

You're sorry.

And there was an answer.

—

*Taiga POV*

The forgotten homework you were holding was dropped without a thought. Then…

You ran, harder than you had in years. Arms pumping at your side as you sprinted down the sidewalk towards the manor. It burned, flames leaping up into the sky. The gate was barred and closed, you leapt over it, crashing through the front door a moment later to enter a hell of fallen timber and flames. Smoke clogged the air, choking and turning everything into a haze.

"Sakura!? Shinji!?" You call out, then almost immediately break down into a cough. The heat was intense, the old timber going up like matchsticks.

You move forward, through the foyer and into the hall, then scream. Slumped against the wall… was part of somebody. An arm and a spray of blood painted the wall, the limb laying limply on the floor with no sign of the rest of him. "Shinji!?"

Your stomach churns, but a sound dragged your attention further on. It sounded like… "Sakura!"

Running down the hall, you turned towards the sound. It led down, past a staircase that sat partially collapsed. Flames running up the supporting pillars to lick at the ceiling. Past it was an expansive stone room, and in the center of it, laying motionless was Sakura. You moved forward again, only to let out a yelp as with a crash a mound of timber fell down to land just ahead of you. Crushing the staircase and utterly blocking the path forward.

The heat was intense, too intense, you attempted to move forward to move the timber, or do anything to get around it. But the heat beat you back. "Sakura!" you shout out over the roaring flame.

She doesn't move, doesn't stir. Doesn't do anything to show that she heard you.

… Damnit.

Gritting your teeth, you shove yourself forward. Ignoring the searing heat as you bash through the lumber. It gives with a groan, and you tumble through it, clothes aflame to land on the stone. You roll with your landing, then leap to your feet, discarding your burning jacket as you sprinted towards your student.

There was more blood here, not on her miraculously. But it painted the surroundings. Boiling and churning in the heat and flame that surrounded you both. You slid onto your knees, nearly colliding with Sakura, then you turned her over. Her face was covered in soot, but she was otherwise fine. You tucked one arm underneath her, then looked up again. "Shinji!?"

You did not receive an answer.

Sucking in a breath, you lifted Sakura up and off of the ground, then turned back.

*Crash*

Just in time to see more timber fall and utterly crush the staircase, leaving a ten foot gap between the basement and the first floor. You jerk your head around, looking for a window, or another exit, or anything. But there was nothing.

You clutch Sakura against you, then run towards a far stone wall. Getting low, you kneel, covering Sakura with your body as the smoke collects overhead. Help had to be coming.

It's just…

There would be someone to come help.

Distantly in the room, there was a red light as a circle, just nearby where Sakura was laying lit.

And you received an answer.

 

[Erien]

[Yer a Wizard Shirou]

Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!

Happy Valentine's day!

—

No, you couldn't simply let it go like this. You had to get back there, you had to help Rin. You didn't know who or what you had apparently summoned. But it was dangerous. And the further you got away from the house, the less you could help Rin, the less you could help Caster.

You scream into the woman's hand, your voice muffled and producing no understandable sounds. She glances down at you, moving the hand away for a moment, "too tigh-"

"Αξι-"

That was as far as Shirou Emiya got before the knife, almost instinctively, went through his throat.

Perhaps casting Greek magic around a woman cursed by the Greek gods was a poor decision.

If it was, however, Shirou would never know.

—


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO_7NhhKbHs

---



"Hello to all you pitiful questers! You got him into trouble, again, and he died, again! Fate has a looooooot of bad ends, but you don't need to seek them all out, you know that? It adds a bit of extra work for the writer, and while I do hate him, as I do all you pitiful humans. It does make things drag on a bit~"



"But if they don't, they may miss optional scenes and extra story details. Oh, but that just means more work for the author!"



"Shirou's lot in life is to die, like all of you worthless humans. Whether he does now or later is none of BB-chan's business! But, I do suppose you can get a hint. Especially since I'll be making my grand appearance soon!"



*Ahem* "Right, well, this servant doesn't seem wholly hostile. Perhaps a more light touch is needed? It is written in the tale of Genji tha-"



"I was still speaking!"



"To all of you worthless ingrates, I'll just do a bit of tweaking for you. Be grateful! And keep in mind for next time, this may not work out so well, un-der-stand?~"

—

You scream into the woman's hand, your voice muffled and producing no understandable sounds. She glances down at you, moving the hand away for a moment. Then chants… something before you have a time to scream out your spell…

Then things go rather dark.

—

You dreamt…

Pick two, popularity takes it. Not a plan vote.

And yes, I said two!

[] [Of a Bloody Catastrophe]

[] [Of a Weeping Woman]

[] [Of Circe's Home]

[] [Of a Prison Cell]

[] [Of a Nameless Isle]

[] [Of a Girl Saving Humanity]

 

[Erien]

[X] [Of a Weeping Woman]

[X] [Of a Girl Saving Humanity]

Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!

—

You scream into the woman's hand, your voice muffled and producing no understandable sounds. She glances down at you, moving the hand away for a moment. Then chants… something before you have a time to scream out your spell…

Then things go rather dark.

—

Then things are… rather less dark, instead, your world is lit by an orange flickering that casts a schizophrenic light on everything. You blink, your eyes adjusting, and you find yourself no longer in the air, no longer being held, in fact, you find yourself standing… somewhere that was definitely not Fuyuki. You stood upon a beach, not the one of your hometown, and not the one of Circe's land either. But it was… familiar, the scraggly plants, the deep blue waters turned nearly black by the night, and the snow capped gray mountains in the distance were all vaguely familiar by now as being European. Or, at least, vaguely Grecian.

Your mind however, was not able to focus on that scenery for incredibly long, as your ears perked up at the sound of a sobbing woman. You turn left, away from the crashing waters, to see the source of that orange flickering light. A-

A town was burning, flames pillaring into the sky as screams echo in the distance. For one, brief moment, you had nothing but the sound of crying and that of water. And then, seemingly just by acknowledging it, a terrible moment came to pass. A village, not a large one, built in a similar style to what Circe lived in was aflame. Crashing timbers and yells of fright filled the air as trees lit, crops burned, and animals ran. You could see figures distantly sprinting, fighting the flames, running out of buildings alight. It was chaos, a familiar… sickening chaos.

Then you hear the sobbing again, and you tear your gaze away despite yourself. Looking far closer to see… Medea. She stands on the sands, staring out into the distant horizon, ignoring the flames and screams behind her. Her eyes are vacant, with heavy tears running down them to drip onto clothes. Her hair was matted with… blood, it appeared, streaks of it dripping down onto her face and onto the sand, painting the white a dull brown all around her. In her hand was… some form of knife, jagged and misshapen like a lightning bolt.

The blood upon her wasn't near all of it, bodies laid around her, decorating the sand. Men, women, children. A good half in all, none moving, but each had deep wounds decorating their bodies. Most, at a panicked glance, had the same shade of hair as her, with some blonde mixed in as well.

Drip drip.

The knife dripped blood onto the sand, held in a grip so tight her fingers were bleeding. She didn't notice.

"Caster?" you say softly.

You take a step forward, or, make an attempt to. Only to find your feet rooted on the spot, the sand you were standing in holding tight to your feet.

"I want to go home…" Caster's voice speaks up, so quiet you almost think it was an illusion. "Why can't… I go home?"

"Caster!" you shout. Struggling, the sand was like a living thing, crawling up your leg and crushing it.

You collapse forward, something snapping in your legs as the sand grows fingers to dig into your flesh. Then it tugs, yanking you back in the sand. Your fingers slam into the beach, tearing rivets in the ground as you are pulled back into the Earth. "Medea!"

Then, only then does Caster look up towards you, only for her hands to jerk to her chest, grabbing onto a blade now protruding from it. Appearing like a wraith or spirit, a man with blonde hair now stands behind her, a blank expression on his face as he wrenches the blade back, slicing Caster's hands to ribbons in the process.

The woman pitches forward onto the sand, and you try and crawl forward, wrench your legs free. Do anything, but the last thing you see if the man standing over her before you are yanked fully into the ground

—

You cough, sputtering, puking out wads of sand that aren't there as you kneel over the… asphalt. Your body ached, your legs throbbed, your throat felt raw, and your fingers were bleeding. But you were… fine. Then you looked up to see if Caster was there, and you were far, far less than fine. Your eyes stung immediately from the smoke that surrounded you, but you hardless noticed. As in front of you was…

Homurahara academy.

Or, at least, it used to be. Your heart chilled despite the heat around you, a sickening feeling spreading throughout your entire body. As, what was just earlier today a building you were working in, was now in ruins. Chunks were missing from the walls, from the ground, entire sides of the building were just gone. Through the windows and across the grounds were raging fires that engulfed the building. Just ahead of you, no more than three or four feet away from the edge of the street. Were your classmates,

Were.

They were petrified, frozen in a moment of time, shock and horror etched onto their now forms made of… stone? This… couldn't be happening. Not again, not in Fuyuki, again. Your mind flashed with scenes from that night, and you scrambled to your feet, your fingers scraping against the asphalt and concrete as you forced yourself upwards towards the first student. They were… you couldn't tell. Where their head had been was now just a bloody stump of a wound that ran down onto the gray like a macabre waterfall. Something had ripped it off, or broken it, but whoever the student was, they were far from alive.

Bile filled your mouth, then erupted unbidden, your hand clamping over your mouth as you puked out what little lunch you had eaten earlier in the day onto the ground. You found yourself there, on the ground. A puddle of blood was on the ground from where the student had been decapitated, and your manic, wide-eyed expression was staring back at you.

As was a skeleton, illuminated by the flame reflecting off of its bones.

You jerk to the side, rolling through the blood as sparks fly off the ground. In the skeleton's grip was a wicked looking, jagged black blade that just narrowly missed you. The skeleton turns its head to look at you, your eyes meeting the empty sockets of its skull. A growl made of chattering bones sounds out from its unhinged jaw. Then it lunges again.

You scoot back, your feet digging into the ground as you try to slide across the rough asphalt road you had landed on. The skeleton raises its blade to slam down, and you jerk your own hand up. "Αερο!" the spell comes out of your throat, less the careful conjuration of a magus, and more the desperate scream of a teenager trying not to be killed in the burning remains of his hometown.

But your circuits come to life nevertheless. A blast of wind slams into the torso of the skeleton, causing it to bend backwards until with several snaps of breaking bones the torso is violently ejected backwards away from the rest of the body, causing the rest to fall to the ground with a clatter a moment later.

You'd catch your breath, or even just take a moment to process that. But what you saw ahead of you was…

There was a small horde of the things, climbing over crashed cars and ruined streets. Pouring out of the buildings that surrounded the school to get to you. But that wasn't what you were focused on. It wasn't the bodies. It wasn't the scent of blood. It was the smoke and flame, it was all you could see for miles into the distance as Fuyuki burned, again. It was a memory you had held all of your life, it was your earliest memory. Now it had returned with a horrible clarity. Only before… only part of Fuyuki was ablaze, the screams, the shouts of agony. The people dancing within the fires, the heat peeling away at their flesh around you. Now? Now there was nothing but silence and a dead city. The only noise being that of the clattering skeletons running to end you.

Had they done this? Or was it something else.

Did it matter? Soon they would be on you, and nothing you had been taught could even deal with that many. Was there even anyone here to help? Would anyone even be here to help you? No. You couldn't think about that at the moment, pressing your hands down against the asphalt you pushed yourself back up onto your feet. Then you ran, sprinting through the streets as more and more of the skeletons crawled out of the buildings. Your feet skidded across the asphalt, slipping in the gas, oil, and… worse things as you leapt over rifts in the asphalt from where it has been torn open.

The world around you becomes a blur as you sprint through the west-end of Fuyuki, trying to find someone, something, anything.

And then you hear it, distant, like a bell. But it becomes more and more pronounced the farther you run.

Clang.

The sound of clanging metal and shouts of effort. You pump your legs faster, ignoring the flames and skeletons around you. Trying to get to something that resembled a sign of life in this hell you had wandered into. You leap past a skeleton reaching out to you, its body covered in viscera. Then land just in front of the bay, you jerk back around to blast it. Only to find… it, and the rest just standing there. Staring at you. They all stopped as one, their jaws clicking and their bodies swaying from side to side, but they weren't moving forward any longer.

Clang.

You looked ahead to see… two girls and a monster. The two girls were closest to you, one with pink hair and one with a bright orange not dissimilar to your own. The pink one was swinging a gigantic shield around, while the other was standing just behind her, watching the ongoing fight.

What they were fighting was… another woman, but impossibly tall. A good ten feet or higher, with long purple hair and a black dress. In her hands was a long, wicked looking scythe that was swinging with abandon in front of her to slam against the shield. The girl with pink hair was being pushed back repeatedly, but she held it up regardless.

You started to run again. You had no idea what was going on in Fuyuki, you had no idea if this even really was Fuyuki. But someone was in danger. That was reason enough. The woman with the scythe swings it around again, knocking the girl with the shield off balance and to the side. Then, with a wicked laugh she charges forward, bringing it to bear onto the orange haired woman. You dive, tackling her out of the way and onto the pavement.

The scythe screams overhead, narrowly missing you. And you find yourself staring down at the girl, she herself looking up at you in abject confusion. "A… who?"

"Master, a survivor!" a voice calls out from behind you. It was then quickly followed up by a shout.

You turn your head to look back, only to suddenly feel rather weightless all of a sudden. You blink, then look down as you are raised off of the ground by a scythe jutting out the front of your chest. It was… surreal, and strangely, without pain. You looked back down to see the orange-haired girl looking at you in complete horror.

Then you are flung.

You don't feel much of anything after that.

—

You feel… warm, a comfortable warm. Not the warmth caused by flame, the warmth caused by… thick blankets on a Winter's morning. It was joined in addition by the scent of… pancakes? How lovely, Taiga must have cooked a breakfast for you.

Wait.

No.

That didn't make sense.

You snap your eyes open to see-

—

Yes this has consequences.

[] [A Purple haired woman]

[] [A… maid]

[] [A young girl with snow-white hair]

 

[Erien]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHQ_L_bA2gY

[] [A young girl with snow-white hair]

Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!

—

Your eyes snap open, and the first thing you feel is… confusion. As you find yourself staring up at the roof of a four poster bed. You had seen one before, in a museum, but had never laid in one. That in itself was unusual. Beyond that the room you were in was… odd, it wasn't Japanese in the slightest. Floral pattern wallpaper, marble pillars holding up the roof. A wood burning fireplace decorated by a gilded mirror, and little stuffed animals placed around the room. It was, in appearance, the room of a little princess. In a castle straight out of fairytales.

"Grhm." You grunt. Your mind feels… clouded, and your body feels heavy. You could feel your blood moving through your veins throughout your body.

Your nose twitched again at the smell of pancakes, and you turned your head to see… a little girl. She was wearing a purple dress and a white skirt, and between that, her bright red eyes, and her snow-white hair there was something… otherworldly about her. Not in any horrific way, or what you felt from time to time on Circe's island. No, this was like she had been plucked from a storybook and put in front of you. She was sitting on a wooden chair, a small smile on her face. Just beside her on a little table was a plate of steaming pancakes and… orange juice?

"Good morning, Shirou." The girl says, her voice soft and pleasant.

Was it… morning? Your eyes glanced towards the end of the room towards the windows, where, indeed, soft rays of light were coming in. Then you jerked yourself up in a sitting position, your mind snapping back into focus. How did she know your name? Where were you? Why were your hands tied up!?

You stare down at the ropes binding your wrists together. Your mind whirring, the last thing you remember was… getting kidnapped by the woman with purple hair. Before that there was… Rin showing up with a servant, and you… Your memories were a blur, a mess of images and sounds all crashing into each other as you try to desperately push through the haze.

You shake your head from side to side, then turn your focus onto the little girl. "Do we… know each other?"

The girl smiles a touch wider. "I know you, Shirou… Emiya. Do you know my name?"

You stare at her. She rather stood out, it's not a face you would easily forget. But you didn't recognize her.

"I don't." you reply. Then you move to adjust yourself on the bed, but find the bindings on your hands make the task rather difficult. The ropes were tight, far too tight for you to break. "Why am I tied up?"

"So you can't run away of course! That wouldn't do at all." the girl replies, smiling beatifically. "Do you not like being tied up?"

"I… can't say that I enjoy it," you reply.

The girl giggles. "Well, I could just throw you in the dungeon as we do the rest of our enemies."

You don't know if she's kidding. Frankly you are afraid to ask. This whole situation was… surreal. You tug your wrists again, but the rope barely budges. When you last were… conscious, Rin was in danger, as was Caster.

The girl's eyes flit to the ropes. "Even if you broke free you would never get away from the castle, we're surrounded by miles of forest in all directions. Why don't you just give up and eat breakfast? Or is your servant that important to you?"

You take in a breath, then parse your situation. When you were last conscious, Rin was being chased off by a… second servant of yours? You were still unsure, your house was partially demolished. Then you were kidnapped, and if the sequence of events were what they appeared to be… "She is. Are you the master of the servant who kidnapped me?"

The girl blinks, then nods. A look of surprise flitting across her face before she gets out of her seat to give you a curtsy, her fingers delicately lifting up her skirt as she bows her head towards you.

"Illyasviel von Einzbern." Her head then lifts, her eyes meeting your own. A rather expectant look is on her face. The standoff lasts for several seconds, before she drops the skirt, standing straight once more. "Do you know who I am?"

You shake your head slowly.

The girl's eyes widen, and a manic twitch goes across her face for a moment before she closes her eyes and lets out a slow breath. She shakes her head from side to side, the glittering white hair waving around her. Then she smiles once more, unlike before however, this smile was obviously forced. "That's… fine. Please eat, I will be back shortly."

Then without another word she walks past the bed and out the door in the room, the wood hitting the frame with a slam. You stare after her for a moment, then turn your head back towards the plate sitting on the table. You had no idea where you were, who that was, why you are here… but you are damn hungry. You wanted to go after the girl to ask what was wrong and if you could help, but she seemed… a little upset. And you had enough practice avoiding people that were upset at you for reasons you didn't understand. It usually ended in pain, physical or emotional.

Scooting across the bed, you gingerly grab the fork with your bound hands and take a bite.

It's… good.

You aren't sure why that surprised you. A fairly loud portion of your mind was screaming at you for stopping to eat when there was a chance people needed you. But… your stomach aches, mana drain? You weren't sure, all you knew was that the food was ambrosia that was quickly wiping away the pain your stomach was announcing.

"Surprisingly calm, aren't you? Is that bravery? Or just a brave face I wonder." A soft voice speaks up just a few feet in front of you.

You snap your head up as the purple-haired woman fades into view. Literally. Her expression was flat, with a blindfold over her eyes to make it doubly hard to read her. You jerk back, the fork clattering down onto the floor as your back hits the bed.

That causes the woman to smile. She steps forward, leaning over you, her purple hair blocking your vision to either side as she hovers just a half foot or so above your own face. "Interesting…"

You don't respond, instead you ball your hands. You doubt you could do much, but at the very least you could get a jab into her stomach then run if she planned on killing you.

The woman leans back again, one hand moving to her hip. "Are you worried about your servant?"

You pause, staring up at the woman. It wasn't a question you expected. Frankly, you didn't know what you did expect. This had been so far a very weird morning. But you also didn't see any point in lying. "Yes." You answer.

The woman smiles wider. Then take another step back. "Then allow me to make you an offer. I can guide you out of the castle. But after that you are on your own. Or… you can stay here. Illya means you no harm after all.

You highly doubt that, but you don't say that aloud. "Am I really supposed to believe you'll just let me out of here?"

The woman flicks her wrist up, and with the sound of snapping fibers the ropes around your wrist falls away. Cut cleanly through. "I am not letting you do anything. I was asked to bring you to the castle, what you do after is of course up to you. Though Illya will be upset if you flee."

—

[] [Flee]
You have to help Rin and Caster.

[] [Stay]
You feel like this is a trap.

---

Once again sorry for the short length, today was the first time in a while that I was able to eat, brain is still... fuzzy.

 

[Erien]

[Stay]

Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!

—

You… don't have a lot of options. A certain, very loud and desperate part of your brain was screaming at you to leave. To make a break for it. To get back to the house and help Caster and Rin. That was your purpose in life, your goal, that was what you were saved for to begin with. You had to help people.

But…

You didn't know where you even were. Even if you got out of here, even if the servant was lying. You had never seen anything close to this near Fuyuki. Even a glance out the window showed a thick, snow covered forest as far as the eye could see. With precisely none of it resembling the surroundings of Fuyuki in any way. Were you still even in Japan? You had no idea, you had no idea how long you were even unconscious. The one thing you had at the moment, the one thing that kept you at least somewhat anchored, was the fact that your command seals were still present on your wrist. Which meant, hopefully, that Medea was still alive. Whether that meant anything regarding the second servant you had no idea, but for now… you would trust in Caster.

You look back towards the other servant, you had a sense the woman was studying you despite her apparent blindness. "I don't wish to stay, but I don't know the way back. And Illya seemingly wanted me here for a reason, and I want to know why."

"Do you not care about your servant?"

You glare at the woman. "Of course I do. But I also trust her, and I assume Illya doesn't plan on keeping me here forever. I don't trust you enough to believe you wouldn't stab me in the back the moment I stepped outside this mansion."

"Harsh words." The servant says, amusement in her voice. "Bravado?"

You don't answer, instead just stare at the woman. Then she fades from you, turning into little motes of golden light before she is gone completely from view. Leaving you alone in the pastel colored, gaudy child's room with naught but a plate of pancakes for company and your own thoughts.

—

They were good pancakes, but now that you had gotten your senses fully back in order you were about ready to find out what was actually going on in this… mansion. Pushing yourself off of the bed you make your way through the room towards the large and heavy wooden door. It was a good seven feet tall and looked thicker than every wall in your house combined. But, much to your relief you find it unlocked.

It swings open with a long, drawn out creak, and you find yourself looking out into not a hallway, and… as you slightly were expecting you didn't find yourself staring into the maw of a torture chamber either. No, you were staring at a garden. Reds, purples and white flowers decorated out of season green grass. Despite the open air above, there was no snow here, it piled on the roofs surrounding the garden, but none fell directly onto it. Each bed was decorated in addition by little statues and fountains, giving an austere, European air to the entire scene that was hilariously out of place when compared to where you were fighting just a short… hopefully just a short time prior.

The courtyard garden itself was a long rectangular thing, with a gazebo on one end, and a veranda overlooking the forest on the other. Surrounding it on all other sides was the building. A tall, multistoried building made of yellow brick and capped by tall and regal towers. It wasn't a mansion, it wasn't a manor. You had somehow managed to find yourself in a castle. Then, movement catches your eye. Standing up from where she had been hidden behind the flowers was a woman. She was dressed head to toe in… some form of maid outfit, and her eyes, blood red, meet your own for a moment before she wanders over to a different section of the flower bed to start pulling weeds, a wicker basket slung underneath one of her arms.

You walk forward, your shoes clicking against the stone paving of the garden. It was… warm, that was the first thing you noticed as you moved. The snow falling in the air should have made this cold, even more so with the sheer amount of stone around. But it was… pleasant, almost spring-like in temperature here. You come to a stop a few feet away from the woman, the maid you suppose pulling at weeds with machine-like efficiency.

"Where am I?" you ask.

The woman pauses, then turns her head slowly to look at you with an interesting expression. Namely that she didn't have one to speak of. She wasn't looking at you flatly, she wasn't even making a show of being neutral. She just had no expression. No light in her eyes, and no curve to her lips.

"The Einzbern Mansion," the maid replies.

"Where… is that?" you ask.

"Germany." The maid replies quietly, then returns to picking weeds.

Your breath halted, shortly followed by our heart as you processed that statement. What!? How long were you ou-

"That was a joke," the maid follows up. "Please watch your step around the flowers."

You look down to see that you are still standing on the steps, though your heart is currently attempting to go for a walk on its own going by the pounding.

"That was also a joke." The maid said, still no inflection in her tone.

You draw in a deep breath, forcing yourself calm over the course of several seconds. If kyudo taught you anything it was how to do… that. Then you focus on the woman again. "Are we still in Japan?"

The maid looks up at you from her work, then slowly nods.

"Where's Illya?"

She raises a pale finger to point past you towards the gazebo, where indeed on closer inspection you could make out Illya through the gaps of the wood. You couldn't tell what she was doing or if she was looking your way. But another maid was present there, staring directly at you.

"Thanks." You say, then leave the maid behind to walk over.

The gazebo, like everything else here, was fancy. White wood, intricately carved with golden decoration inlaid all over it. A white marble table sat in the center of it, next to which Illya sat on a white and gold chair, a tea set steaming into the air in front of her as she eyed you. You came to a stop at the entrance of the thing looking into it. Illya was as you last saw her, though her expression was painfully flat. A deliberate controlled expression like royalty looking down upon their subjects, careful to show nothing.

The maid standing just to her right however, made no such effort. She was near identical to the other one down to the paleness of the skin and the color of the eyes. The only change was that this one was remarkably more… svelte, would be the polite way to put it. She was, in any case, outwardly glaring at you, her eyes narrowed.

"So you are staying?" Illya asks.

"I would think your servant told you that already," you reply. "You seemed to know who I was, I wanted to know why."

Illya tilts her head slightly, her white hair shifting behind her. "I didn't expect you to leave your room so early. Do you not care about your servant mister?"

… She worded that exactly as the purple-haired servant did. You give the same answer. "I trust my servant to be safe and fine, if I could help her right now I would. But I don't know where I am or what is going on." You close your eyes then shake your head. "She is strong, and if you wanted me dead I would be already. Your servant easily got away with me, killing me would be… easy." You step forward into the gazebo, coming to a stop just across from Illya with the table standing between you. "You brought me here for a reason, I want to go back home. But I want to know why you wanted to meet me. Is it because I'm another master? I was hoping you weren't one, not someone so young."

You didn't know if the servant was just under her employ or lived with her. But the girl was making no effort in concealing the command seals on the back of the hand that rested on the table. Confidence? Or a warning. You couldn't say, you also were fairly sure it didn't matter.

Illya is staring at you, blinking slowly. An awkward few seconds pass before she lets out a sigh, her gaze falling to the table. "My father was Kiritsugu Emiya."


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSydVlRWfhc

You hear the words, but for a moment, you don't understand them. That's…

No.

Could you say you were surprised? Almost certainly yes, but was it something impossible? No. Kiritsugu never talked about his past, at all. He never talked about his family, never talked about his life before he met you. The only things you knew about Kiritsugu was that he was a magus and a hero. If he had another child… well, if he had a child. You weren't his flesh and blood despite how he treated you. You were surprised he never even mentioned Illya, if she was even telling the truth.

"I wasn't aware he had any children." You say slowly.

Illya blinks, looking very confused. "You are… Shirou Emiya?"

You nod your head. "He adopted me. He found me in the Fuyuki fire and rescued me, but he never talked to me about his past." The most he had ever done was leave on trips a lot when you were far younger, before that was beyond his health and ability. But he never even mentioned…

Anger flits across Illya's face, her hand twitching on the table. Before she lets out a slow breath. Reaching into a pocket of her jacket, she produces a small photograph and sets it out onto the table. On it was… her, in the center of the picture. Above her was another woman almost identical except for age and height, her chin resting on top of Illya's head as she wrapped her in a hug. While standing just beside them with a small smile on his face was Kiritsugu Emiya. You stare at it, at the man. His face was missing most of the lines you had known him to have, he seemed… happy.

You lean over the picture, taking in the details. This was more than you had ever known about Kiritsugu, more than you had ever expected to know. You had a little sister? That was…

Wonderful.

You look up towards Illya, a small smile on your face. "Did you bring me here so that we could meet?"

Illya smiles then shakes her head. "I originally brought you here to kill you. But my servant convinced me to talk with you first."

… The ease at which she said that concerns you. But then again… she likely had a rather poor opinion of you if you didn't even know she existed. "Well. I'm happy you didn't." Then you reach out a hand and place it on top of her head, smiling all the while. "I'm happy to meet my little sister."

Illya goes cross-eyed, staring up at the hand owlishly. Then she lets her eyes fluttered close, letting out a soft hum. The maid just to her side is now glaring at your hand, and perhaps you were taking this in a bit too quickly. A… lot had happened these past few days, perhaps that's why you were accepting this so easily. But another part of you was just simply happy to know more about Kiritsugu, and to have another member of your family. It was a lot to take in, and you were basically going on autopilot at the moment. But then, as you noted.

Your life has been weird lately.

"Are you… involved in this Grail War?" you ask.

Illya's eyes open again, a faint pink coming to her cheeks as she moves her head away from your hand. "Yes, I have a wish of my own."

You stare into each others eyes, saying nothing for several more awkward moments. You didn't expect this when you woke up today, how could you? While it seems this entire conversation wasn't going perhaps the way she expected.

She looks away a few seconds later down at the table. "Would you like… some tea?"

You smile and nod, moving to sit next to her. "Could you tell me about Kiritsugu? He never talked to me about his past."

Illya frowns for a moment, then shakes her head. "He…" She can't seem to figure out what she wants to say.

"Well, why don't you tell me about yourself?" you say, speaking up while she is struggling.

Illya looks at you, then smiles.

—

It was an hour later when you felt the twinging in the back of your skull. You had gone through several cups of tea, and the awkwardness had long since been replaced by a happy smiling little girl that seemed wholly interested in every little tale you had to tell her, her chin held up by her hands as she smiled at you. You were in the midst of telling her a story of how Taiga had once accidentally set Kiritsugu on fire when the pain became too much of a distraction. It was… a tickle, and then a pinch. Something pulling and poking at the back of your brain and causing your hands to shoot towards it in discomfort as pain lanced through you.

"-irou?!" a faint, familiar voice calls out in your mind, bouncing around like a violent intrusive thought.

Illya lets out a sigh, pushing herself up from the table as you wince once more. "She's almost through the barriers, unfair. It would take a first-rate mage a month to even begin getting through the communication barrier." She then clasps her hands behind her back, smiling beatifically at you. "It's been a good morning, but now it's time to go."

You open up your mouth to respond, but another, calm and familiar voice speaks up from just behind you.

"Is it time?"

You look back to see the servant from before standing just an inch behind your back, her gaze fixed on Illya.

"Yes, we'll speak again, big brother." Illya says.

Then you feel a hand press against the back of your skull, and you realize for the third time in as many days you were about to be knocked uncon-

—

You awaken to… birdsong. You open your eyes slowly, groaning. A grogginess fighting against you as you force your senses to come back. It felt like you had just slept for twenty hours, and knowing your days lately you quite possibly had. Your vision is a blur, a mess of white and gray for a second before things come into focus. You were… just outside of your home, past the backyard fence. You could see straight through it in places, holes in both it, the front fence, and the house for that matter showing clear in the daylight the damage from the battle of the night before. Blood caked the ground where the monster fell, as did bits of masonry.

You were pressed against a tree, tucked tightly into a thick, woolen blanket. So tightly you had to almost fight to extricate yourself from it. It was as you were doing so that you heard a voice shout for your attention, and you looked back up to see-

—

[] [Caster?]

[] [Taiga!?]

[] [Ayako!?]