There is no shortage of those, but there is no shortage of crying children as well.
—
Blood and fire.
It was a recurring thing in your life, no matter how much you wished it wasn't. Screams, shouts, cries and wails. That was familiar as well, but there were other sounds, newer sounds. Bodies writhed in mud, wet thick splashes sounding through the air as they tried to crawl, as they stumbled, as they stabbed and killed each other. The clash of steel on steel, the agonized howls of pain as blades found their mark, the dying cries of horses.
You stood upon a mountain of bodies… you were the only one standing there. Your heart pounded, your breath quickened.
The battlefield was bathed in red, a bloody sunset casting light over the landscape. It revealed a wide battlefield, filled with mud, blood, and corpses. Men writhed within it, some standing, others fighting on their knees, others not moving at all or doing little more than groaning. They were knights, once, men at arms and other such things. But their colors were ruined, caked in mud and blood and worse things as they wrestled with each other. There was no formation, no reason to this place, a far cry from anything you had ever heard of knights battling knights. This was mud, blood, and barbarity.
Men ripped off helmets, plunging daggers into necks. Others were forced down into the mud and drowned, arms and legs flailing, desperate to grab onto one last second, one moment of life. A whinny drew your gaze, a man being dragged off a horse, daggers plunging into his body as he fell, his horse writhing and screaming as the same blades turned onto it in a mad fury. Arrows flew through the air, their feathers whistling as they plunged into the battlefield with seeming abandon.
And all the while, in the distance, a castle burned. Smoke rises from it high into the heavens, making this place more akin to a hell, then a battlefield. You stood amidst the chaos, on a mound of still bodies, piled so high that you were perched above it all. Torn and bloody banners flattered in the wind about the 'hill', held in place by the weight of bodies more than the firm grips of hands. You recognized none of them, crosses, crowns, horses and shields. The symbology meant something once, you were sure, but now it was as much a tombstone for the dead as anything else.
"Find the king!"
A shout carries, louder than the rest, and you cast your gaze past the hill, a man stood there, heading a group of knights. Blood covered him, as it did his blonde hair, so light it was almost white. His gaze turned to the hill, then… he looked past you like you weren't even there. Waving a bloody stump of an arm, he lead the men off, and you watched, transfix-
"Mo…ther."
A quieter voice, almost so quiet that you couldn't make it out over the shouts and screams grabs your attention.
You turn your head, looking for the speaker. It was a woman, and growing weaker with every word.
"Where... are you... mother?"
… There. Laying on the top of the hill was a woman, she was… she was…
Berserker?
Your servant laid there on her back in a pool of her own blood. A lance was stuck through her chest, pierced straight through the armor and pinning her to the ground. Her armored gauntlets clutched at it, but were not attempting to remove it, at least, not anymore. Her glassy, unfocused eyes looked up to the sky, tears running down from them and turning red as they mixed with the blood that covered her.
You rush over, leaping over the bodies until you come to a crouch next to her.
"Ar…thur." She whispers, her gauntlets shaking as she grips the lance. "Where… are you… Arthur?"
You almost asked if she was alright. Almost. You didn't know how you could help. You didn't know what to do. You couldn't save her, you couldn't heal people. You force yourself to breathe, to ignore the screams and the fire. It is difficult, damned difficult. But you force yourself. "What is your name?" you ask, trying to get her attention.
Green eyes drift towards you.
Ghhk.
That was the sound that escaped your throat as a sword stabbed out and pierced. It was held in her gauntlet, blood running down it. She stared at you, tears running down her face.
"I… am… Mordred."
Was the last thing you heard as your head rolled off your shoulders.
—
Your hand shoots to your neck… and you find your head still attached. You were back in your bedroom, the light was off, unusual as you had left it on as you fell asleep. But it was now firmly night, with moonlight pouring in through the window to illuminate you and a now groaning Ayako. The woman wiggling in the bed for a moment before rolling over, and tucking herself in further, having apparently taken nearly all of the blankets during the night.
Letting out a slow breath, you force yourself to calm.
… Then you hear a heavy breathing that belongs to neither you nor Ayako. Turning your head slowly past your girlfriend, you see a figure standing by the edge of the bed. Berserker stands there, blood dripping from the hole in her chest onto the floor. Her sword is held in both of her hands, raised above the bed and moments awaiting from plunging down into Ayako.
Her eyes are manic, wide and bloodshot, and tears stream down them with abandon.
Then she plunges the blade down.
You-
—
Please note.
A bad end for Ayako is not a bad end for Shirou. Her death does not cause a vote redo.
"Why did you speak my name to him?" Medea says, her voice almost a growl… but not quite. She wouldn't quite ever be that bold, not to her.
Circe smiles, it wasn't a smile, not in any true sense of the word. But her lips did curl up regardless. "Why did you barge into my room without asking permission?"
Medea crosses her arms, her hood was down, exposing the anger on her face. "You had no right."
"Did I?" Circe asks, blinking slowly. "My apologies, here I thought he was your Master. Is a Master not entitled to know about his servant?"
"And how do you think he'll react to discovering his servant is the Witch of Betrayal?" Medea hisses.
Circe's 'smile' drops, and with a sigh she rises slowly from where she had been sitting upon the couch, the book, and the alchemy she had been working on momentarily forgotten as she stood to face her pupil eye to eye. "Why I don't think he'll much react at all, I don't believe the boy is the type."
"You don't know him."
"And do you? My former student?" Circe asks. "I have been whisking him away to my island as he sleeps, I have been teaching him, and he has met 'you' on multiple occasions there. He knew who you were. Tell me, did you ever discover him trying to find out more information about you?"
Medea says nothing for several moments, staring at Circe. A tense silence passed between the two of them, Medea glaring, Circe exposing nothing. "I believed you to be dead."
Circe smiles again, this time a fair bit more genuine. "I have my ways, and look at you my dear pupil. Plotting and keeping secrets as usual, have you even spoken to the young man at all? About anything?"
"I am his servant, nothing more. I simply desire to win this war and obtain my wis-"
"Medea, you may lie to him, you may lie to Hekate. But you will not, lie to me." Circe says, and in the space between words she had crossed the distance between herself and Medea. "He has been very kind to you, hasn't he? The poor boy doesn't know how much you've latched onto him already."
Circe lets out another breath, taking a step back. "He could have asked anything about you, he never did. I suppose he thought you might open up and speak with him. I do not believe you have anything to fear by him knowing something so simple as your name."
"Or perhaps he sees me simply as a servant, as is proper."
"Medea, you are projecting your trauma enough that it could have been used as an anchor for the Argo. Do you wish to continue lying to yourself?"
Medea bristles, "you regardless had no right to reveal my secrets to him."
"I have revealed nothing more than what he already knew, and, as far as I am aware, he knows nothing of your past. Keep it from him if you wish," Circe straightens up, now smiling far more broadly. "You shall not keep me from my goal regardless."
Medea eyes her former teacher warily. "And what is your goal?"
"Him, and your happiness as well.." Circe replies. "He's polite, patient, kind, and surprisingly in good control of himself. Fate brought you and him together, and brought him to me as well. I am not one to squander such an opportunity. You tried yourself, you showed as much on your face during our talk on the couch, such remarkable restraint indeed. You must break this shell you've built around yourself, Medea."
"He's taken." Medea growls.
"And I am Greek." Circe replies, her grin now far beyond what any human face should be capable of. "We invented love. Restricting it to two people is simply… pathetic. Truly."
Medea opens her mouth to reply.
A scream interrupts, female, young, and nearby.
Then both witches were gone, the only sign of their presence being a solitary feather, falling to the ground.
"STOP!" You scream the word so loud your throat stings, your hand shoots forward, the seal on your wrist glowing. The room is bathed in a crimson light, and Mordred goes rigid, her muscles shaking and blood erupting from her lip as she bits into it.
But not before planting the blade a full inch into Ayako's side. Ayako's scream drowns out your own, a howl of pain as the wide and sharp blade lodges itself into her. Blood pours out of the wound, drenching the blade and the bed. Ayako thrashes, widening the wound, her hands moving to grip the blade on instinct.
Then things get truly chaotic.
The door opens, but nobody enters. Instead, appearing just behind Mordred are Circe and Caster. Caster's staff was raised, pressed against the small of Mordred's back, while Circe's was pressed against her neck. You see the veins along Mordred's neck bulge for a moment, then, like a ragdoll she goes limp. Falling backwards into the arms of… Archer? The man stands there, appearing much like the two witches did, his arms hooked underneath Mordred's arms as he lifts her up and away from Ayako.
With a squelch the blade pulls free, and Ayako tumbles to the floor, bleeding sliced up hands clutched against her side as she wails in pain. You fall to the floor after her, grabbing Ayako and pulling her hands away from the wound, her nails digging into your skin as she fights you on instinct. You reach down and rip the school shirt away, revealing a puncture wound a good half foot wide and gushing blood.
Then you are shoved, Circe, despite her dainty frame, pushes you away from Ayako easily and plants her hands onto the wound. Caster, following just after her, places her hand against Ayako's forehead. The twin applications of magic seal the wound and put her to sleep, though Ayako and the floor was still covered in a good amount of blood.
You want to be upset about Caster knocking people unconscious repeatedly, you really do. But you are also very distracted at the moment. Men and women fill the room, guns drawn. Some point their weapons at the servants, others point them at the floor. Confusion the order of the day as the room goes from two people to twenty in a matter of half a minute.
You study the closed wound on Ayako a moment longer, then turn your attention towards Berser… Mordred. She is still held in Archer's arms, her sword held limp in her hand as tears stream down her face. Her eyes are bloodshot, and her face is covered in blood from where she bit clean through her own lip. With a clatter of metal against wood, the sword falls from her hands, blood flying off of it to paint the floor and the walls in yet more of the ichor. Her head turns, looking down at Ayako, and her left hand stretches forward, fingers splayed out, reaching for the girl. "Father… why? Father…"
"Master, please explain what happened." Caster says slowly, carefully, her eyes never leaving the Berserker.
You frown. "I dreamt I was on a battlefield, Mordred was there, and upon finding her she… killed me, then when I woke up she was standing over the bed about to stab Ayako."
"I would say she succeeded in that endeavor." Circe says, standing from where she had been crouched over Ayako. She stares down at her hands for a moment, both drenched in blood. Then, they are covered… in what is almost like a haze, before they return to focus completely clean.
"It is a small miracle she didn't target you again outside of the dream, Shirou, you cannot control this servant. You must either allow me to put her on a magical leash, or you command her to kill herself." Caster says, turning her head to look at you, her tone allowing little argument.
"I can't do that, Caster." You reply firmly, staring back.
"You can, easily. You could command me to kill myself and I would do it without having any ability to fight it, you could do the same to her and remove her as a danger." Caster says, gesturing to the sobbing Berserker.
You turn your attention back to Mordred. She was sobbing, saying the word 'father' over and over like it was a mantra. She was no threat, not at the moment. But you knew she could be, you saw her when she fought that monster, you… could barely even communicate with her. No, you couldn't even do that. She barely acknowledged your existence and half the time you had no idea where she even was.
She was a risk, she killed you, she attempted to kill Ayako.
…
But she was also clearly not in control of herself. "No, but keep an eye on her for me. How long will Ayako be out."
Caster's eyes close for a moment, and from the way her lips move you can tell she rather desperately wants to say something but is fighting the urge. Letting out a slow, controlled breath. She opens them again to focus on you, the anger gone. "She will be awake in the morning."
You nod, then, bending down your gingerly pick up Ayako and deposit her back onto the bed. Her sleep seemed unbothered, which was a relief, though she would need a change of clothes before school.
… But more than that you were likely going to have an awkward conversation when she awok-
"Shirou." A voice, firm, male, familiar, but with a tone you didn't recognize speaks up and draws your attention like a sudden lightning strike. You turn your head back to see Raiga standing in the doorway, lightly leaning on his cane.
"Come with me, boy." Raiga says, then turns and begins making his way out of the room.
"Raiga, I-"
Raiga pauses, turning his milky eyes back towards you. "That was not a request."
You stare after him a moment, then, shooting an apologetic glance towards Caster you follow after the man.
—
Raiga's room was in itself a reflection of the man. That was not always true of people as one might expect, it was something you had experienced more than once. Especially after spending a good deal of time hanging out with Shinji over the years. Raiga wielded a lot of power, Raiga was wealthy, Raiga was old. All of these things about Raiga were true. Yet of all of those things, the room that Raiga lived within only matched that last description of the man. Every room in the mansion was European in style, rich carpets, tall beds, like a callback to the Japan of your great grandfather's time where everyone was trying to emulate another, distant nation.
Raiga's room wasn't like that.
Tatami floors sunk beneath your feet as you entered the space, and you found yourself in a small room, roughly the size of your bedroom back at the house Kiritsugu left you. It was undecorated beside a sword stand sitting upon a dresser, but any threat those swords resting upon it would hold was somewhat diminished by the small army of pill bottles surrounding them. His bedroll was a mess on the far end of the room, hurriedly left just a few minutes ago, and, heedless of you, Raiga moves to sit down at the opposite end of a small table. He doesn't sit formally, his legs instead cross underneath him, and, using his cane, he points to the opposite end of the table for you to sit.
You move to sit across from the man, and Raiga leans back for a moment before producing a pipe. Lighting it idly using a lighter set on the table, he draws in deeply before focusing on you again. "What is your plan here boy?"
Does he mean regarding Mordred? "I'm having Caster keep an eye on he-"
The narrowing of Raiga's gaze causes your jaw to click shut without a single word from the man. He stares at you for a few moments, then shakes his head from side to side. "If you don't know what I'm asking, why answer?" Raiga sighs, gazing down at the table for a moment, before his milky eyes find my own again. "These servants are dangerous things boy, everything magic is."
"Taiga mentioned you knew about magic, how?" you ask.
Raiga smiles. "I worked with your father and his associates. Along with the church. I have no connection to that world, if you are curious, at least, I am not under their thumb. But they respect my boundaries and I tolerate theirs." Raiga takes another drag from his pipe, and the smile drops from his face. "But my granddaughter is involved now, and my men are dying, and blood is being shed within my house. This has made things… difficult, as you might understand."
He sets the pipe down onto the table with a click, then, he leans forward. "What is your plan to resolve this 'war' so that things return to peace in Fuyuki?"
You… aren't sure, you were still making sense of it, all of it. You understood its purpose, but you had no desire for the prize. It was a race you didn't sign up for and had no desire to win. The only thing you wanted out of this was for no-one to get hurt, and that was something you had already failed at utterly.
The scream of Raiga's men haunted you, and the ring of Ayako's was still lodged in your ears.
Raiga lets out another sigh. "I did not expect you to have the answer. You never had the drive your adoptive father did."
You bristle.
Raiga smiles, slightly. "That is not a bad thing. In the morning Ayako will likely be scared and confused, you'll need to look after her. Kiritsugu… never had that ability. I also expect you to apologize to Taiga for dragging her into all of this."
Then the smile drops again, his face goes neutral, and Raiga sits up very straight. The change is… slight, but the effect is clear. The old man was gone, your honorary grandfather was gone, this was the Patriarch of the Fujimura clan facing you now. "What happened tonight will not be happening again. You have a loose animal in this house, and I am trusting in you to keep an eye on her."
"I-" You begin.
Raiga ignores you. "I've lost good men already. Damn good men. I'm just about ready to declare war on the magical half of Fuyuki over it."
You must have looked concerned, as Raiga was smiling again.
"Tell me boy, how does a mage setup a workshop in a city or location where another mage resides?"
You pause for a moment, processing the sudden change in subject, then answer. "A mage has to ask permission of the local authority to do so."
Raiga smiles a touch wider. "And have you ever pondered who the local authority in Fuyuki was? It isn't the church, and it isn't the Tohsaka family. Not that the latter didn't try more than once to… usurp that position. Nor does it belong to the Zouken. Do you understand what it is I'm telling you?"
You nod.
"Good. A bullet kills a mage just as easily as it does anyone else. That was a lesson I am grateful your father never taught you however." Raiga moves his hands to his knees, the 'grandfather' returning. "Shirou, keep your servants under control and keep my granddaughter out of danger. Can you do that for me?"
You nod once more, not finding your tongue much working at the moment.
"Very good." Raiga replies. "I do not wish to get involved if I don't have to. But I will, if it becomes necessary. I could end this war tomorrow, but I do not wish to deal with Clocktower politics. You will leave now."
You don't argue, you don't question or speak. You simply stand up, bow slightly, then exit the room.
—
You awoke before Ayako did, not by much mind. But the point remained the same. You had had the bedsheets replaced so that neither of you were laying in blood, one of the few problems with the situation you could actually fix, and, with the morning sunlight just barely coming in through the window behind you, you watched as Ayako's eyes slowly opened.
She wasn't exactly a graceful riser, her eyes scrunched focusing on you, trying to process exactly what her eyes were seeing. Her hair was a mess, and… she had left a fair bit of drool on the pillow. But, as she slowly came to terms with where she was-
Her hands shot to her side as she sat up. Fingers tearing at the brim of the shirt and lifting it up to reveal clean flesh with no sign of a wound. The bloodstain remained on the floor, and the specks of blood still decorated the wall. But as for Ayako herself, she had nothing in the way of injuries. She stares at the wound, poking at and stretching the skin, then she looks at you in abject confusion.
"You're fine." You say quietly.
"I got stabbed!"
"Yes, and you were healed."
Ayako's face adopts a look of sheer confusion. "Wasn't that one of the magic people!?"
"Yes, tha-"
"Then why would she stab me?!"
You let out a breath. "I'm still trying to figure that out myself."
"There's no way that can be safe."
You bite your tongue. "It isn't, but I'm having Caster keep an eye on her for the moment. I'm sorry Ayako."
Ayako opens her mouth to respond, then apparently thinks better of it and says nothing. She drops her shirt, her gaze instead moving to the pool of dried blood on the floor. "What… what put me to sleep?"
"Caster's magic."
Ayako looked back towards you, there were a thousand questions she wanted to ask, you could tell by her expression. But instead. "Shirou I'm… I'm going to get back to the house, I need a fresh change of clothes before school."
"Raiga could provide you a ride." You offer.
Ayako slips off of the bed, her hand moving to her side again. Then she looked back towards you, her face was scared. But not towards the idea, she seemed scared to be here. "No Shirou… I'll… I'll just see you at school." Then, without another word she walks out of the room, leaving you in a painful silence.
—
The morning passed swiftly, something you were deeply, deeply grateful for after the events of the night. You found Mordred in Caster's room in the morning, staring at a wall like it held all the secrets of the universe, she didn't speak, she didn't react to your presence, she didn't do… anything at all. She simply stood there like a statue. Caster helpfully informed you that once she had stopped crying, shortly after they had moved her out of your room to begin with, it had been all she was doing.
It was something you had seen before with the woman, and now it only confused you more.
After that it was a simple breakfast, with Archer being his usual friendly self, Mata Hari assisting, and both Circe and Caster sitting to either side of you, rather close you note. After that it was off to school, and, hopefully, normalcy.
Taiga broke off at the entrance, having to get to and prepare Homeroom before you had Sakura put your things away. The fact that she was bandaged rather heavily didnt seem to remove her desire to teach. But then, your hands were still mostly useless as well. Sakura had offered to feed you this morning before Circe stepped in. Speaking of which, the girl had spent the morning nearly glued to your shoulder as you enter the school. She said little, but then, Sakura was never much for heavy conversation. You simply enjoyed the silence, your thoughts bouncing between what Raiga said, what Mordred did… and that expression on Ayako's face as she left.
You hoped you'd see her today, to check up on her once more.
But, as you walked through the halls with Sakura in tow, you rounded a corner, and… much to your surprise, you found yourself staring at-
[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...
You knew this woman. This… girl, and the shocked look on her face matched your own. It was a face you had only seen once, but you would never forget it. Even if it had changed since you last saw it. Unlike when you had last seen her, now she was dressed in the academy uniform of your school, hiding all of her body except for her face and hands. But her face, while similar, had changed. Her skin was clammy and pale, scars littering it, some light, some deep and jagged and fresh. Deep purple bags sagged underneath her eyes, and her hair was… haphazard, unevenly cut and laying about all over the place.
Her eyes though, were the same gold as before, and they stared up at you. The woman was nearly your height, and her hand raised to touch your face.
You flinch back from the contact, more out of instinct than anything else. And like a retreating snake the girl yanks her own hand back, but she continues staring, her mouth opening, saying nothing for several moments before she finally speaks. "It's… you?"
Sakura looks remarkably confused as she looks back and forth between the two of you. "Shirou? Who's this?"
The girl reaches forward again, only to stop halfway as a hand wraps around her wrist, holding it in place like a steel bar. You jump, turning your head to the side to see Assassin in a teacher's uniform. You didn't even notice she was there a moment ago, but now she was close enough that her shoulder was brushing against your own. Assassin smiles down at the girl, though… there is very little mirth in it.
"Assassin?" you say, as quietly as you can manage. "What are you doing here?"
Assassin's eyes flick over to you, but she doesn't release her grip on the girls' wrist. "Taiga asked me to watch over you, and I've been looking for other masters as well. This accounts for both."
Assassin flips the girls wrist in her grip, revealing the back of it to you. It's scarred, just like her face is. But the complicated red seals on the back of her wrist show like a fresh tattoo.
Your eyes narrow, and you start to speak before Assassin cuts you off. "Why don't we all just have a nice talk for a moment." She's still smiling… only now there's actually some mirth to it.
The girl looks at Assassin, but before she can say anything Assassin is dragging the two of you towards an unused classroom, Sakura doing her best to keep up.
—
It was one of the second year classrooms, one of many in the school that actually went unused. It wasn't that the school was in a poor area for students, or that the building wasn't up to spec. Just… the school, like a lot of places within Fuyuki, found their 'business' far less after the fire, between youth dying so they were unable to attend, and plenty more just flatout leaving the city. It wasn't the only school in town that had unused space within it. It also didn't help that compared to a lot of places in Fuyuki, the academy was relatively out of the way. Surrounded by houses, but those were primarily made up of elderly residents that wanted to live outside of downtown. There, of course, the highschool and university were doing fine.
Sakura stood next to you near the entrance of the classroom, the privacy curtain pulled down over the door window to provide you some semblance of security against prying eyes. Assassin was sitting on the desk, one leg resting atop the other as she rested on her hands, staring at the girl from your dreams just a few feet away.
The girl in question was clutching her hand, hiding the seals from view.
"Do you know her Shirou?" Assassin asks, her eyes turning to you.
That's an interesting question. You knew of her, you had gotten yourself killed saving her. But you didn't know her name or even why she was here. You had thought it was a particularly odd dream at the time, but then, your dreams had been nothing but odd now for the past week. And some were more real than most. That dream, however, was a mystery amongst mysteries. Your dreams had been nothing but dreams of the past, or… not really dreams at all per what Circe stated. But the girl, it was less a dream than a premonition. You had thought it was the Fuyuki fire at first, but for the petrified students.
You knew them. You knew all of them, by face if not name. Which meant that the dream you had involving this girl was either a portent of the future, or something else entirely. But the point remained. You knew her, if only vaguely. "I don't, not really. But I saw her in a dream." You stare at the girl, and find your gaze matched. Her eyes flit over your face, studying you, like she was unsure if you were real. "What's your name?"
The girl moves her eyes away and draws in a breath. "Fujimaru Ritsuka."
… The name meant nothing to you, though Sakura was now staring at you rather hard you note.
"I'm not involved in this Grail War." Fujimaru continues.
"Isn't that convenient~" Assassin… says. You would consider it speech, but it held no emotion, none of the mirth from before. No anything truly. It had a lilt to it, nearly everything she said did. But it was just there. "You don't go to this school, and yet you just happen to be here to run into Shirou. You are a master, but you aren't in the Grail War."
Fujimaru looks back towards Assassin. "Mata Ha-" Then her jaw clamps shut, her eyes widening.
Assassin's smile, something that looked more painted on than something tangible drops. With a creak of wood she separates herself from the desk, moving to stand just a few inches away from Ritsuka. "Yes?"
Ritsuka clenches her eyes shut, then shakes her head from side to side, her unkempt hair waving with abandon. "The command seals are for my own protection, I'm searching for the grail."
"You're trying to get it without becoming involved in the war?" Sakura asks.
Ritsuka looks past your shoulder towards Sakura, and… she studies her for several seconds, her gaze squinting. Sakura shies back, taking more cover with your body.
"There's… something wrong with the grail that may be messing up things in Fuyuki." Fujimaru finally says.
"What's messed up?" you ask. "The monster running about? The random people getting killed?" Annoyance seeps into your tone, but at the moment you didn't much care for pleasantries either. You were growing rather tired of the 'mystery' of your life lately.
Fujimaru blinks. "I've… I'm still looking into it, I've only been here for a whielfl…" Her voice slurs, and her head sinks a bit.
Then it lifts, being pulled gently to look up at Assassin, the brunettes face just scant inches away from the redhead. Fujimaru's eyes cloud up, any light in them fading away as they haze over, and she stares dumbly up at Assassin, her mouth falling slack.
"You will answer my questions, alright?" Assassin asks, smiling once more as a sweet scent fills the room.
Fujimaru makes no sound beyond a faint gurgle.
"Good. Now, where's your servant?" Assassin asks.
"Dooooon't know…." Fujimaru responds. "Lost… her…." Her tone is slurred like a drunk, and her body is swaying to the point you are fairly certain it is Assassin's touch alone that is keeping her up.
"Why did you react to Shirou like that?" Assassin asks, leaning closer.
"Saw… him… die." Fujimaru slurs.
Sakura stirs beside you, and so do you, but for a different reason. You didn't know the girl, but you didn't agree with what Assassin was doing either. She hadn't actually done anything to you, and as much as you wanted answers. Was this right?
No, no of course it wasn't. You couldn't even pretend it was. Stepping forward, you push Assassin's hands away from Fujimaru's face. It was a clumsy effort, you less extricated and more battered aside, causing Fujimaru's head to fall to where her chin bounces off her of chest, and causing Mata Hari to stumble slightly… from surprise and likely nothing else. "If she wanted to attack me, she could have, easily. Everyone else in this Grail War besides Sakura and Taiga has so far." You square yourself up, standing between Fujimaru and Assassin as the servant takes a step back. "She was surprised to see me, if that was an ambush she did a very very poor job of it."
"I was merely retrieving information Shirou," Assassin responds, her expression flat, perfectly flat in fact. Her tone was without emotion or inflection, a far cry from her normal rather bubbly self. You were seeing all sorts of new sides to Assassin today, but then, you hardly knew the woman, you doubt Taiga did either. That wasn't a slight against Taiga, but things had simply moved too quickly, and Taiga was rarely one to get to know people in general. Despite her… general attitude, the woman tended to not interact with people outside of class, friendly, but not with friends. Social, but not with a social life.
"I understand, and I'm thankful you were there in case something went wrong, but you were hurting her." You respond.
"I'm… fine." A tired voice says from behind you.
You look back towards the girl in the chair, and find tired, slightly glazed eyes looking up at you. They are focused for just the briefest of moments before her head falls again. You stare at her for a moment, before turning your focus back onto the Assassin. "What's wrong with her?"
Assassin meets your gaze. "Nothing, she'll be fine momentarily. I have… ways of making people tell the truth Shirou, without harming them in any capacity."
"Your touch, or your scent?" you ask.
Assassin smiles. "Yes. Both. The scent lowers the guard, the touch frees the mind."
So Taiga's servant brainwashes people. Fantastic, yes, that's something else you needed to deal with. Who knows what she has been up to and… you let out a breath, forcing yourself to calm down as you rub your forehead. "Fine, fine. Assassin… I don't rightly know what's going on anymore, but please restrain yourself from that. If you can't take orders from me then I'll happily ask Taiga about it."
"My task is information gathering Shirou." Assassin replies.
"No, your task, like every other servant, is to give me a headache." You snap.
Assassin blinks in apparent surprise at your tone, and Sakura turns her head to look at you with some shock.
You continue, uncaring. "I've got Mordred stabbing people while we sleep and causing chaos over the city. I've got Med… Caster asking me to abandon people, I've somehow managed to drag Taiga into this and Ayako nearly died." You raise your hands. "I don't care if I get hurt, I didn't want to get involved in this Grail War and didn't want anyone close to me to be involved either, so if me getting hurt means they get out of this okay? That's fine. But a good dozen of Raiga's men burned to death for reasons I never got. Now I have the second person appearing from my dreams in as many days, and while I would like information, I'd rather not have a servant brainwash them to get it."
"I'm on your side Shirou." Assassin says, smiling.
"And?" you ask. "So's Caster, I disapprove of some of her ideas too. I trust her, I trust you because of Taiga. But I don't know you, Assassin. She didn't attack me," you then look back towards Fujimaru, lowering yourself to a crouch as you do so that you are eye level with the girl. "But that doesn't mean I don't want answers either. We're not brainwashing her, but we're not letting her go without some answers either. I don't trust anyone with command seals at the moment that I don't know personally."
Fujimaru's eyes have lost their glazed quality, it seems like Assassin said, there was no real damage there, and your gazes meet, amber eyes meeting amber eyes. "What did you mean by there being something wrong with the grail?"
Her eyes were tired, far more tired than they were in the dream, and that's not even accounting for the numerous scars that lined her face. But her voice carried weight to it as she spoke. "I'm from the future. I've been sent back to fix an error in the timeline, things that are happening here… weren't supposed to happen. I've been looking for the source of the issue and I think it's the grail, but I've been unable to locate it. In addition, I was separated from my servant, this is… the second time I've had to come to Fuyuki to do this."
Her eyes flit to the side, and she lets out a long and slow breath. "It's a lot to take in, isn't it."
"I believe you." You reply.
Her gaze snaps back, wider than before. "I… didn't expect you to."
"You say something has gone wrong in Fuyuki? I believe you, there is no way anything going on here was planned by anybody. It has to be messed up, I refuse to believe anything organized by the Church and the Mage's Association can function this poorly." You stand back up. "And my dreams have been real lately. Disturbingly so." Your hand moves to idly rub at your neck, you had felt it at the time, the decapitation. You didn't expect it to hurt, frankly, you didn't expect it was something that caused any feeling at all.
But the pain had admittedly been quickly replaced by sheer terror and panic, as that blade plunged down. "What happened then, before, was that another timeline? And will it happen here?"
Fujimaru shakes her head from side to side. "That… was a different timeline. It was this war going worse. I can't promise… you'll live, but you won't die like that. Or… I haven't seen any sign of that servant."
"She's around, just about half the size and she doesn't carry a scythe." You reply, causing Assassin to give you a very pointed look. You ignore it.
Fujimaru's mouth curls, and she looks you up and down. "Slightly taller than you, wears a purple blindfold?"
You nod your head.
Fujimaru smiles, something that causes the scars on her face to fade somewhat. "She's fine then, we've met… in the future."
You say nothing, but raise a hand and point at the Assassin in the room.
"I've worked with her before, I'm… sorry for almost revealing your identity."
Assassin stares at Fujimaru for several seconds, then walks across the room to lower herself to Fujimaru's eye level. Then, to your surprise, she smiles. "You've been through a lot, haven't you?"
Fujimaru looks away, saying nothing. So you take the opportunity to speak once more. "Where are you staying?"
"I found an unused place in the school I've been staying at. I'm fine, right now I just want to find my servant, I haven't seen her in days."
"What happened that you lost her?"
Fujimaru frowns. "When we came here… shifted. We were separated, when I arrived she wasn't anywhere I could see. I was… near a park I think."
There were dozens of parks in Fuyuki, so that did little to narrow things down, but it was a start at least. "Where have you looked so far?"
"Only in the immediate area," Fujimaru says quietly. "I didn't want to wander around town in the middle of the Grail War."
You open your mouth again to speak, only for a hand to pull you back. You turn your head to look, only to find Sakura there, and you don't struggle as she takes you across the room so that you and her are standing near the door. Then she puts her head right next to your ear. "Shirou, what are you doing? Why are you trusting her so quickly?"
… You look back to Fujimaru, the girl was looking at the floor again. "I saved her life." You say simply. "She was in danger and I helped her… In another time, I guess. I don't trust her. But I believe what she is saying, and I'll do what I can to help her."
"But… why are you helping her? Shirou, she's another master."
"Because it's a bad decision," you reply, looking Sakura in the eyes as you speak. "And so far those have gotten me this far." You must have raised your voice, because Sakura flinches back. "Sorry, Sakura." You say quietly. "But she has information, and if she wanted me hurt, I would be, you saw how surprised she was to see me."
Sakura looks back towards Fujimaru, "are you sure, Shirou?"
"I'm not, but I need to get to the bottom of all of this, I'll be asking you for help if you will…" you raise your hands, smiling. "I can't even eat lunch by myself today."
Sakura looks down at the bandages, and smiles herself. It's a stricken smile, to the point where it almost looks like she would rather be doing anything else than smile at the moment. But you'll take it regardless.
Stepping back away from Sakura, you walk over to Fujimaru. This wasn't a great plan, but it was a plan, and you needed to start making those instead of just letting things happen to the people you cared about. "We'll look for your servant tonight."
Fujimaru blinks, looking up at you in abject confusion.
"We are?" Sakura asks.
You nod. "Raiga told me to get this sorted, and it's a mess at the moment. If she says this war is corrupted I believe her." You look back towards Sakura. "I would be willing to bet the source of this mess is whatever that corruption is." You then refocus on Fujimaru. "I'm taking you back to the house tonight."
"You are?" Fujimaru asks. Mimicking Sakura.
Then you turn your gaze to Assassin. "You're good at information gathering, could you ask Taiga if you could help out finding this servant of hers?"
Mata Hari stares at you, saying nothing for several moments. Then she smiles. "I could ask, what do you have in mind?"
—
[] [Search the parks] Starting with the one you found Caster in, it was as good as any, if exposed.
[] [Search downtown] It was adjacent to the parks but far larger, but you had eyes you could count on, assuming you convinced Caster and Circe anyway. Of course, bringing Mordred around would be a bad idea likely, she just destroyed a building there.
[] [Head to the Castle] It was a longshot, but maybe Illya knew something.
[] [Ask Kirei] He was almost certainly the source of that attack, if he wasn't, then he was doing a very poor job of 'jurisdiction'. But he also was seemingly keeping tabs on things.
"My sister." You say quietly. The concept was still… odd to you, but you believed her regardless. She knew too much about your father. "My sister lives in a castle outside of town, Caster knows the way there."
"Your sister?" Sakura says, raw confusion in her voice. "Shirou, you've never mentioned a sister."
"That's because until a few days ago I wasn't aware she existed, then her servant kidnapped me so that we could get to know each other better." You reply dryly. It was just one of many confusing things that had happened to you recently. Many, many confusing things. "I want to check on her, and ask for her help."
"That… your sister kidnapped you?" Sakura asks, disbelief in her voice. "And you want to go back?"
You look back towards Sakura. "It makes as much sense as anything else has in this war. In her case it was merely her way of saying hello."
You shake your head, controlling yourself. Your inner thoughts were seeping out. Allowing yourself to relax, or try to relax in any case, you return your focus on the scarred girl. "Do you want to come with me? I'm looking for your servant regardless."
Fujimaru opens her mouth like she wants to say something, then she closes her, her gaze searching your face for several seconds before she nods.
You sigh. "Good, we'll find her and get this sorted out."
Straightening yourself up, you move to adjust your uniform, then glare down at your bandaged and burned hands. Frowning, you lower the hands again, it was… just too much this week. "Are you actually participating in classes?" you ask, looking at Fujimaru.
Fujimaru nods once more. "For appearances."
With the amount of scars she had, it was a surprise you hadn't heard students talk about her until now. But then, you had both no idea what class she was in, and you hadn't been exactly a model student lately either. Still, that made things at least somewhat simpler. Few things were, these days. "Right, come to the archery club after school today. I'll come get you."
Technically you had club duties today.
But you were rather useless at the moment as far as hands went, and beyond that… seeing Ayako seemed more than a little awkward at present. You wanted to make things up to her, but you weren't exactly sure how to best apologize for letting someone get stabbed. It seemed a bit more than a card from the local convenience store could make up for. You couldn't exactly blame her if she was nervous even being around you, given that Mordred was still living in that house.
It was just one of many problems you were dealing with at the moment. And, like most of them, it wasn't one you had an easy answer for either.
… But you were going to try regardless.
Fujimaru, not knowing your thoughts, continues on. "Alright."
You smile. "Thank you," then you turn your attention to Sakura. "Can you head to class without me? There's someone I need to talk to."
Sakura blinks, confusion on her features once more. "Sure?"
—
It took effort to open the door to Class 2A, but you managed. It was still a good half hour before homeroom started, but it was near full regardless, students milling about, talking amongst themselves, or simply sitting at their desks waiting for the morning rituals to begin. You didn't pay much attention to any of them, instead you focused on the woman sitting near the front of the room, chin resting on her hand as a member of the track team talked to her.
Ayako's eyes flitted towards the door at the sound of it opening, then widened at the sight of you. It was a look of surprise at least, not anger. That gave you some solace. There were many things you could have said that wouldn't have caused an uproar, wouldn't have spread yet more rumors, but you were rather blunt. "Ayako, can I speak to you privately?"
The frantic whispers that caused were ignorable, the embarrassment on Ayako's face, wasn't.
—
She followed you up to the roof, something you were rather grateful for. The cold was something you were far less grateful for, but at the moment, you were too distracted by mixed emotions and worry to really pay much attention to it despite the fact that your jacket was now sitting in your locker. Ayako had followed you with nary a word as you lead her through the school building and up onto the room, and as you watched, she closed the door behind you both, leaning against it. Her eyes met your own for a moment, and then look away. "What do you want to talk about Shirou?"
The upcoming test. What else could you possibly be here to talk about? You debate saying that and you almost do, but you rein in your emotions. She doesn't deserve that.
"Last night." You say bluntly.
Ayako's hands dart to her side the moment the words leave your lips, and a stricken look crosses her face. "I'm… fine." She says, though she doesn't sound sure of it even to herself.
You let out a long and slow breath, trying to figure out what you can say to that. "Mordred is…" There was no gentle way to put this. "She's insane."
Ayako's looks back towards me, but says nothing.
"She's a berserker, she has no control over herself, and she barely seems to be there at all mentally."
"Why are you keeping her around then?"
Why were you? It was a good question, but it only had one answer. Pity. "Because she's not in control of herself. She's broken, crazy, sometime's she's an entirely different person, lively, actually talkative, but those moments are few and far between. But I want to help her if I can." You shake your head from side to side, thinking on the few hints of Mordred's personality you've actually seen. "She's hurting, and I'm not going to simply abandon her."
"Shirou, she stabbed me."
"And if she ever does anything like that again I'll kill her myself." You reply. "But as I said, she's not in control of herself, and as her master I have to take care of her."
"And what if she goes after you?" Ayako asks, crossing her arms.
"Then I'll deal with it, it wouldn't be the first time I've been attacked in this 'war'." You frown, "there's a reason people don't talk about this. The magic. It's dangerous. Beyond just keeping secrets for greed, telling someone about it that doesn't have any ability does little more than put them in danger."
"So? You going to wipe my memory or something?" Ayako asks.
You shake your head. "I couldn't, and don't want to regardless. But I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to distance yourself from me either. I just wanted to apologize for dragging you into this mess to begin with."
"Doesn't seem like it would make much of a difference if I did Shirou." Ayako fires back, an annoyed tone in her voice. "My brother has already been attacked, and I got stabbed. It took me an hour to convince my mom that I not only wasn't out doing drugs all night, I also just had a really bad nosebleed that explained the stains on my clothes."
"I'm sorry, Ayako." You say. "I truly am."
Ayako sighs, lowering her head to look at the ground, her arms falling to limply rest against her sides. "I know, that's part of the problem. That crap about you helping everyone around school extends to everyone else, doesn't it?"
"If I can help someone, I will. It's something the right thing to do." You reply. "Servant, human, magus."
Ayako's head lifts, a quizzical look on her face. "Magic… people aren't human anymore?"
"We are," you clarify. "Just because of what we can do, and how we tend to live, a lot of people tend to separate Magus from everyone else. I don't really, but a lot of people look at it differently."
"But you just did," Ayako counters.
"Because I've already met one Magus in this war who does, and expected me to fight her immediately." You reply. That morning with Sakura was less than pleasant, even if it ended well.
When was the last time you had a pleasant morning anyway?
Ayako doesn't say anything, and a silence passes between you before she straightens her shoulders and walks over so that only a foot is left between the two of you. "So that's it then, you're keeping that… thing around, and I'm just gonna have to deal with her being around."
You blink, "you're going to keep coming around?"
Ayako's eyes narrow. "What, you thought I was just going to run away? Who else is going to look after your stupid ass? Miss Taiga? Sakura? She couldn't fight her way out of a paper bag. Besides, it's not like the wound was permanent, and I still owe you for my brother."
"I don't want you to put yourself in danger just because you think you owe me Ayako." You reply.
"I'm not dating you because you saved my brother. That was just… an easy excuse Shirou. Besides, no matter what, I'm involved in this anyway, aren't I? The whole city is."
You nod your head.
"So what do I gain by just running away from you?" Ayako asks. "Besides, you still owe me a nice dinner. I expect you to be putting all the work into this relationship to make up for involving me in this magic stuff."
"But you just said that you wer-"
A finger is pressed against your lips, silencing you as Ayako grins. "Shirou, a girl is allowed double standards. Now," pulling the finger away she darts forward and plants a kiss against your cheek. She pulls away a second later, grinning and blushing. "We've got to get to class don't we?" Then, spinning on her heels she walks away towards the door, leaving you standing there.
…
You don't think you understand girls.
—
Besides the fact that Taiga looked more like a mummy than a proper teacher, the day went without incident. And, much to your relief, she told precisely nobody at the school why she was injured. Something you were rather grateful for, and, for that matter, surprised by.
You didn't see Fujimaru again during the day, but come the evening she was indeed waiting at the Archery Club building, and from there…
—
"So we're looking for her servant," you say, leaning back against your bed.
The 'meeting' you had called had involved everyone you knew in the building save for Raiga. Fujimaru was sitting, rather awkwardly you admit, on the bed itself, her fingers tapping together in her lap as a group of masters and servants stare at her.
"Are you… certain of this course of action master?" Caster asks, in a tone you were learning to recognize.
It was the tone she used when she was questioning one of your decisions with gusto, but was too polite to do it publicly. "For now, yes." You reply. "I believe what she told me."
"As do I," Assassin says, smiling.
"And you wish to seek out the girl who kidnapped you again, because you believe she may somehow have a lead." Caster continues.
"Yes." You answer. "That, and I just want to check up on her in general."
"I don't need to stress why this is a bad idea, do I?" Caster says.
A giggle draws the eyes of everyone in the room. Circe, who had been leaning against the wall near the door steps away from it, a slight skip to her step as she moves across the room. "I think it's a fine idea. Unless you wish for a rematch against that ranger servant? Or perhaps you wanted to work on your wards, and didn't plan on joining him?"
"Of course I'll be going with him," Caster hisses. "That does not make it a good idea."
"Seems like a fine plan to me," Archer's voice speaks up. "We have the numbers to find anyone easily. I can join Mata Hari in her search of the city in the meantime. With your permission of course, Master." Archer finishes, looking at Sakura.
Sakura blinks, realizing that the conversation was now focusing on her. "Go ahead, I'll be going with Shirou."
Archer smiles broadly, then nods, patting Sakura on the shoulder all the while.
"I still can't believe that Kiritsugu had a daughter." Taiga says, the mummy frowning. "He never told me."
"He never told me either," you say, "so that makes two of us."
"It's more common than you think," Assassin says, smiling impishly. "When are you leaving, Shirou?"
You tilt your head towards Fujimaru. "As soon as she has had a chance to bathe and eat. Can you show her around Taiga?"
Taiga grins. "Just leave it up to big sis~"
With that, everyone filtered out of the room, Caster being last, leaving you to your thoughts as you figured out how you would deal with Illya: and Fujimaru, and Ayako, and Sakura and… everything else you suppose. It was a lot to handle all at once, especially when you didn't have working hands.
Still, you were going to get to the bottom of all of this.
It took a good hour and change before you finally left, and in that time-
—
Choose two, winners are based on the number of times they are voted for, not by plan. Time for that bonus vote!
You missed having hands. That was the prevailing thought running through your head as you sat on your bed. It was still a good hour before you planned to leave, the rest of the house was a hive of activity. But for the moment you were sitting on your bed, processing the day, and staring at your hands. You could actually feel them now, and they weren't even in pain any longer. You could just barely wiggle your fingers within the gauze mittens you were wearing, and you had been doing your best to stretch and move them so they don't get sore, while still doing your best to keep the bandages tight. You were morbidly curious what they looked like at this point, but you wouldn't dare remove the bandages Circe put on. Not that you could by yourself.
*Knock Knock*
You look up toward the door, and without a word from you it opens. Revealing Sakura's servant. This is the first time you had seen the man dressed casually, gone was the black armor he favored. Instead he was wearing a simple pair of pants and a tight shirt. He smiles as your eyes met his, and he raised a hand in a wave. "Sorry, didn't think to ask if you were decent."
You were, but then, you were used to servants not much caring at this point either. "It's fine. Something wrong?"
Archer shakes his head, then fully enters the room, closing the door behind him as he does. "Just wanted to check on you. My master talks about you a fair bit."
You smile back, for multiple reasons. "Sounds like Sakura. She has always worried about me. But I'm doing fine."
The man continues walking, eventually coming to a stop at the wall just near the bed, then he leans his back against it, crossing his arms over his chest as he looks down at you. "She's not here, so why don't you tell me how you are really feeling?"
You stare up at him, processing that for several moments before speaking. "What do you mean?"
"Your mood has changed recently, Sakura's pretending not to notice." Archer replies.
You let out a breath, then slowly shake your head. "Things have been moving too quickly lately, and I'm just trying to keep up."
Archer smiles again, it's a friendly reassuring thing surprisingly. "I'd say you're doing a good enough job, the only casualty so far is your hands."
"And Sakura's family, and Raiga's men." You counter.
Archer goes silent for several moments. Then speaks in a far quieter voice. "A grail war is never a clean thing."
"It wasn't something I wanted to be caught up in to begin with, but now I have little choice." You say, "how's Sakura doing?"
"It may be better that you ask her that yourself, but she's doing the best she can…" Archer's face becomes briefly stricken, the cool facade he seemed to favor cracking for a moment. "She's just trying to pretend things are normal, she's going to need your help."
"I'll help her however I can," you reply.
Archer shrugs his shoulders. "I know, it was just worth repeating. She's going through a lot at the moment, and she doesn't want to be part of this war either."
"I know she doesn't, I worry about her constantly."
"I know that too." Archer says, grinning. "Just keep an eye out on her, and be wary, that Assassin has been talking to her lately."
You blink. "Taiga's servant? Is… that a problem?"
"... Perhaps," Archer says after a moment. "But I shouldn't keep you any longer, you have guests after all."
You blink, staring up at the man, then… he's gone, disappeared without flash or showmanship. A second later, Mede- Caster is standing just in front of you, her robes up, hood drawn up over her head, and a rather familiar glower on her face. "Master, you are an idiot."
"Good evening to you as well, Caster."
"Seeking out the woman who kidnapped you is foolish. Bringing in so many enemy masters to live with you is foolish, and trusting…" Caster grits her teeth and looks away. "Master, trusting her is foolish as well."
There were many different 'hers' you knew of. But… you knew what Caster was talking about regardless. "I already told you I trusted you, Caster."
"You know who I am." Caster hisses.
"Your name, yes. And I know you were a student of Circe, and I know you've had to deal with a lot. But I don't know your story, Caster."
"And tell me Master. Why, after learning the name of your servant, did you not look into them? It can provide you nothing but an advantage, I am your servant by the seals on your hand, not out of loyalty."
You simply stare at her, not wanting to particularly comment on something that… wrong.
"I do not understand why you did neither mention it, nor look up my legend." Caster says after several long, silent moments. Her eyes finding their way back to your face.
"If all of my life's details were in a book, written by another hand than my own, I wouldn't want someone to form their opinions of me from it either. Beyond that, I hardly trust mythology to begin with. I figured you would tell me when you were ready, or you never would… and that was fine as well."
You shake your head from side to side. "I didn't summon you, Caster. I found you, and helped you. I haven't regretted that."
"You, who has spoken of the Grail War with such disgust?"
"I would do it again if I needed to, yes Caster." You say firmly. "I regret getting involved in this war, but I don't regret helping you for a moment. You needed it, and I was there."
"Shirou, you are kind and a fool, but I sincere-"
You push yourself to your feet, at your full height you had a good few inches on the woman in height, and she shrank back slightly from the suddenness of your movement. "I don't regret it, Caster. I'll say it as many times as you need to hear it. But I don't care that helping you led to danger, or that you have some… mysterious past." You close your eyes and shake your head. "I never asked you, I never asked Circe. I was just trying to help you and survive."
Caster lets out a rather pained sounding laugh, and you open your eyes again to see that she has lowered her hood, a rather open expression of pain on her face. "Master… Shirou, that is idiotic, I have no reason to be trusted."
"Maybe." You admit. "Maybe not. But you needed my help and that was enough. I don't care who you used to be Medea. I've never bothered giving it much thought, I've seen snippets of it, both from when you were younger than me and older. But I've never once let it color what I've thought of you."
"Shirou, that doesn't make sense." Medea counters.
"Does it have to?" you ask. "There's a lot about Sakura I don't know, and Taiga. I just found out I had a sister recently, my father felt I didn't need to know about it." You let out a breath. "Does it really matter? Why should I be worried about your past with all the mess we've found ourselves in now?"
Medea stares at you, "you…" She closes her own eyes, and lets out a long, slow, deliberately controlled breath. Then she looks at you again. "I was born in Colchis… it's… called Georgia, now."
—
Medea was sitting next to you now on the bed, her hands in her lap, red from the wringing she had been continually doing now for the past half hour as she spoke to you. She spoke quite a lot, far more than you had ever heard her do so before. And she spoke honestly at that, something you had heard even less. You, comparatively, had said little, for there was little for you to say in any case, it was your time to simply listen.
"And then you discovered me in the park, after I slew my previous master." Caster says, looking down to the floor. Her makeup was completely ruined at this point, having started to run when she talked about her brother. She turns her head towards you slowly, her expression unreadable. It was a miserable look, eyes puffy, cheeks wet, and… as she stares at you, she gains an expression of what almost looks like fear, or trepidation in her eyes.
You can't find yourself judging her for much of any of it. She made mistakes, but so did everyone else in her tale… and if she hadn't killed her previous master, you would have made the attempt yourself. "You had to deal with a lot." You say quietly. "If you don't mind me asking Medea, what do you want with your wish?"
Medea blinks slowly, her eyes widening. Then she looks towards the door. "I… don't really know."
That was a lie, you could tell by the tone of her voice for once. But you don't comment on it. "I'll support you however I can, this… none of what you told me changes anything Medea. I don't particularly think you are at fault either, but I'll see this war to the end so th-"
You find you can no longer speak, as something has sealed your lips. You blink, then realize that faster than you could process Medea had crossed the distance between the two of you, and, tilting her head, had planted her lips against your own. Her eyes were closed, and you froze, not quite sure what to do as she wrapped her arms around your back and hugged you tightly to her.
She removes herself a moment later, a thin line of saliva connecting your two lips before she wipes it away with her hand. Then she smiles. "You speak far too much master, and yet little of any value."
Then she was gone, leaving you with multiple, interesting feelings, and the taste of grapes on your lips.
You found yourself smiling a moment later. It was good that she was feeling better, though the fact that she kissed you would take some time to process. And you would have to figure out exactly what she meant. Whether it was meant to be romantic, or whether she was just grateful, you couldn't say at the momen-
Then you heard a giggling, below your bed.
"Ohohohoh, she likes you~"
Your eyes dart down, and as you do so. A pair of familiar hands dart out from underneath the bed, grab the metal frame, then push. Allowing a familiar redhead to peek out. Circe was grinning from ear to ear, her eyes glinting in the light of the room.
"Circe?"
Her grin gets wider. "The one and only grand witch, yes~. She likes you piglet."
"Why are you underneath my bed?"
"Why aren't you?" Circe asks. Then pushes her way the rest of the way out from underneath your bed. Standing up, she dusts herself off, then faces you again with a wide grin.
"I…" You close your eyes for a moment, processing. Then you force yourself to relax. "I think Medea wants to strangle me to death."
Circe shrugs. "My student is dealing with a lot of iiiinteresting emotions."
"How… long were you down there?" you ask.
"Long enough." Circe replies in a sing-song tone. "I wanted to hear that adorable little conversation of yours."
You aren't going to argue about things like 'privacy' with Circe, given that she had been kidnapping you now for some time anyway. So instead you change the subject. "Why are you actually here? I can't do magic practice with my hands messed up."
Circe's smile drops slightly, becoming something much more natural. "Can't I simply visit my adorable little piglet?" she leans forward, tilting her head and giving you a view straight down her dress.
You look away, and Circe giggles, skipping over to sit on the bed next to you. "That's why I'm here, actually. I wished to check your hands."
You slide slightly to the side to give her the room to work, stretching forward your hands all the while. Only for Circe to instead slide around to your back. You watch, transfixed as she drapes her legs over yours, and her hands run down your chest before finding their way to your wrists. You open your mouth to say something, anything. But your thought process is halted as she presses herself against you, molding parts of her anatomy to you, and in the brief space of time it takes for your brain to come back to functioning, the bandages have unwound themselves, falling to the floor to reveal.
… Red but otherwise undamaged hands.
"Fascinating." Circe says. Her hands continue traveling, her fingers interlocking with your own and experimentally flexing. They feel… sore, but normal.
"A moment Shirou, I think I see something here…" Circe says, and you say nothing as her fingers run back from your hands, to your chest, and then just rest there above your heart. Her hands then begin to slowly move in circles. "... Ah. I see…" Then she leans forward, and you twitch as her breath tickles your ear. "Someone has been taking good care of you I see~"
"What?"
Circe giggles again, her hands moving up towards your face, then she gently turns your head so that you are looking each other in the eyes. "Oh, something you'll find out in due time. And you little piglet are blushing~"
You open your mouth to respond, only to get a second pair of lips pressed against it. Medea was forceful, yet chaste. Circe was… not. She pulled back against you, molding herself even further against you as her tongue darted into your mouth. She lets out a pleased moan, then pulls herself back.
"Ci-"
Her fingers press against your lips. "Ayako, yes. Don't worry piglet, she's invited~"
Invited… what?
Then she scoots back, and, placing her hands behind her head, falls back against your pillow. She wiggles there for a moment, making herself comfortable, then turns her head to grin at you. "So, now you can partake in some training before we leave. Yes?"
"I was hopi-"
"You were hoping to be trained by me? How wonderful!"
"No, I-"
"Yes, I know you can't possibly repay me for my generosity~"
You stare down at the witch, and she waggles her eyebrows at you in response. She snickers a moment later. "So very tense piglet, you and that little girl." Pressing her hands against the bed she sits up again, hugging her knees as she comes to a stop. "But I shall train you again, time on the island does work a bit… different, after all." Her smile becomes impish once more, a teasing glint in her eyes as she stares at you. "Do you have any requests for this grand witch?"
Well, it's about time for this to happen in Shirou's life. As for those frustrated by Archer last chapter, don't worry, his time'll come. He's acting a bit odd though, isn't he?
This quest also simply exists to convince people to play Age of Mythology. Is it working?
—
"Do you have any requests for this grand witch?" Circe asked, and it was an interesting question. It was a question that you knew many magus in existence would kill people over, and had, repeatedly. This whole grail war started because of something similar, the only difference between them is that Circe at least made sense.
The fact that the woman who seemed to have an obsession with pigs was making the most sense in this town frustrated you to no end. Medea kept secrets, Sakura was as quiet as she ever was, Ayako was extremely determined, Archer was dodging all attempts at really talking to the anyone, Taiga was… Taiga. You had a time traveler involved, and somehow a 2000 year old woman you met a week ago was someone you truly felt like you could speak your mind to regarding magecraft.
Not that you didn't trust anyone else you mentioned, but something about Circe just made you feel more comfortable talking about magecraft. But then, she was your teacher, far more than Kiritsugu ever was. The one time Medea had trained you she had spent the time calling you a fool, she had fixed your magic circuits, something you were deeply grateful for, but Caster seemed to know little of… teaching. But this was more than just ancient Greek and standing by a brazier, this was something you had never heard of before now.
"I have a question actually, something I was hoping you would know the answer to."
Circe grins, then dives down onto you, her arms wrapping around your head as her lips plant against your own. The witch lets out a pleased hum, and you have a moment to process you kissing her again when you feel yourself fall into the bed. Your fall through the sheets and the mattress, the grinning face of Circe looming abo-
*Splash*
Your back slaps against water, and what was once a witch and a roof has been replaced by a night sky. But not one you recognized. The stars were there, as was the moon. Only it was spinning, the stars danced amongst themselves, and the moon was copied thrice, each spinning around each other in a different color of white, red and purple. Each shone with an impossible light, coloring the water around you.
You looked at this for but a moment, before a wave crashed over you, bathing you in saltwater and tossing you end over end in the deep. Your body is pulled this way and that, your limbs flailing as you try and right yourself, control your direction, do anything. But it's entirely useless, and you force yourself to be calm, forcing your limbs to go still.
It is only then the waves cease, and you find yourself blinking, ignoring the stinging sensation in your eyes as you find yourself staring down at Circe's Island. It sat there on the bottom of the seafloor as you had always seen it, golden fields of grain, rolling hills, and a sunny day illuminating everything. Only now it was underwater and seemingly miles below.
The island apparently didn't care about that fact. You move your arms experimentally, finding you could once again move of your own free will in the water, and you begin to turn around, only for a strong force to slam against your back and send you hurtling towards the seafloor, and the island by extension.
You hurtle towards it, your hands moving to your mouth, trying to keep yourself from screaming and inadvertently losing your air. And in the span of that action, that moment, that microcosm of time, you were there. Laying back on the beach, staring up at a blue sky, your clothes dry, and your hands held uselessly over your mouth.
"Oh try not to be so dramatic piglet."
You snap your head to the left to see Circe standing just beside you. She was dressed in… a remarkably different outfit than she had been just a small infinity ago. Gone was the white dress, instead it had been replaced by a white labcoat, large enough on her frame that it went all the way down to the sandy beach. It was open, completely unbuttoned, revealing a white halter top and a pair of… rather short shorts. Her wings were gone, allowing her hair to flow down her back in a pair of ponytails only slightly contained by a golden hairband she was wearing. Said outfit however, did only slightly more to preserve her modesty than her previous outfit did. With her entire stomach being exposed, and the shorts so low they nearly gave away the whole show.
But then, from your brief time knowing Circe, she had precious little in the way of modesty anyway. She was also grinning further now, and you realize you had been staring and dart your eyes away.
Only to find her standing directly in front of you, which was rather odd as you don't recall her moving.
"Shirou, it's perfectly normal to be entranced by this grand witch's beauty~" Circe teases.
"Sorry, your outfit just surprised me." You reply.
Circe giggles, planting her hands on her hips and jutting her chest out. "This is my new teaching outfit, I found some magazines in that new domicile of yours. What do you think?"
You were not quite sure what to say, so you simply stare at her before nodding your head.
Circe tilts her own head, then smiles once more. "Good enough, now, what did you want to ask?" A pointing stick appears in her hand, and she points it down towards your crotch before slapping it against her hand. "And I'll take that as a compliment~"
You cross your legs, then swallow. "The only magecraft I knew, was what little my father taught me, and what you showed me. I can use the two spells you gave to me, and I can strengthen and make simple objects via projection. But I was able to copy Brihanalla's bow, and I have no idea how."
Circe's smile drops. "Show me this 'Projection.' It is unfamiliar, at least by that term."
You stretch forth your right hand, then run through the steps in your mind. A brief pain surges, before fading away. Activating your magecraft had become remarkably less painful since Medea played with your circuits, something you were deeply grateful for. It is a simple image, something you were familiar with, an old wooden handle, chipped, attached to a blood lovingly sharpened and cared for. It was in your hand a moment later, a simple, half-foot long carving knife you used for meals. Or had, anyway. It had been left behind in the old house.
"It's the one magecraft I have any talent for, I can make, analyze, and strengthen objects. But my projections…" You grab the tip of the blade carefully with your other hand, then, bending your arms, you snap the metal in two. The twin halves fall to the ground in the sand, they remain there, as blades… and things you knew well tended to last years, despite being poor quality. "They are of poor quality. I did something similar with her bow, but that was miles beyond anything I've been able to make up to this point."
"I do recognize this magic, simple as your take on it may be." Circe murmurs, then bends down to pick up the broken blade. "Tell me, do you recall anything from when you did it?"
You don't even flinch from her describing your magecraft as simple. That was something you had accepted a long time ago. But as for the rest of it. "I'm not sure, I saw the woman's weapon then… it was in my hands. Along with a good deal of pain. At the time I was, what's the best way to put this. I felt like I knew the weapon, but what that knowledge was I couldn't tell you. That evening in general is a blurry mess at this point."
Circe sighs. "That is to be expected. After my grand entrance anything other would be swept away to broken memories like dandelion seed in a storm wind. But. I want you to think my dear piglet, was anything running through your mind?"
You pause, concentrating. That whole evening was a blur of shouts, screams, and flashing faces.
…
"I thought about the phrase you taught me."
Circe giggles, and you look up to see the witch beaming. "Perfect. Then it would seem my little plan worked."
"Plan?" you repeat, now feeling more out of the loop than normal.
"All in good time my dear little student," Circe says, then she lowers herself down onto her haunches so that she was eye-level with you. "But I will say for now that you took my lessons to heart, and you have a very interesting magecraft. It is but one of several reasons I wanted to train you."
"I recall having several options at the time," you reply.
Circe tilts her head. "And yet you would have never chosen anything else, my dear Shirou."
You go silent at that. Not quite sure what to say, but she speaks for you.
"I am a witch Shirou, and witches break the rules." Circe says, smiling again. "What precisely that means will become more clear to you in the near future, but we shall continue your training this evening. As you are practicing an art that is rare, and liable to kill you if you use it without proper training. But we can practice with it."
She then shifts further, moving herself… onto your lap. She glances down for a moment, grins, then focuses once more on your face. "Now, you have some skills as an archer boy, but that is not where your magic is focused." Moving her hands to the sand, she grips it, the material sifting through her fingers before, with a small burst of flame from one hand, and an audible sound like groaning wood from the other. She produces two objects. The first is a blade, short with a simple hilt colored gold. The blade only protrudes maybe slightly more than a foot out, and the only interesting thing about it was the fact that the blade was blood red.
The second option is a bow, and a long one at that, different than any you had ever seen before, it was easily taller than you were, with a thick string and an odd warp to the bow. It bent forward, then back towards the tip.
The flames die, the groaning stops, and she places the object to either side of you. "This blade belonged to a rather frustrating woman named Enyo. The bow belonged to a frustrating bastard of a man."
"But both shall be fit for our purpose," Circe continues. "You shall take both of these, study their material, and practice with them. We shall continue doing this every night from here on out until you understand them to a closer extent than your own limbs. Do you understand me?"
You nod your head.
Circe smiles once again, though this time it has a bit of malice. "Good, now, prepare for pain, little piglet."
—
You lay back on your bed exhausted, your muscles aching. She hadn't actually harmed you, but a few hundred reps with a blade, a style of fighting you had no experience with, had done a number on you. She had then happily given you a bow with over a hundred pounds of draw weight and simply told you to do your best.
You had, for what it was worth, but it did little to quell the ache in your arms. You weren't sure what it was all meant to accomplish, as she had shown you little magecraft. But you weren't going to question Circe, not after all that she had done for you. At the very least, as you laid back on the bed, only a few seconds having passed since her 'visit', you found it very easy to fall asleep, and with it… a… dream?
—
It was a giggle that awoke you, and you blinked, slowly, taking in the sudden change in environment. You were… laying on your back, that wasn't unusual, most people laid on their back when they were in bed. Only you weren't, not anymore. Instead you were staring up at the roof of your classroom at midday. Nor were you, to your alarm, wearing clothes.
Another giggle, and your eyes darted to the side, to see… a familiar face.
It was a giggle that awoke you, and you blinked, slowly, taking in the sudden change in environment. You were… laying on your back, that wasn't unusual, most people laid on their back when they were in bed. Only you weren't, not anymore. Instead you were staring up at the roof of your classroom at midday. Nor were you, to your alarm, wearing clothes.
Another giggle, and your eyes darted to the side, to see… a familiar face. It was Sakura, her usual sweet smile on her face. It was something that had always managed to calm you, something you had grown used to seeing, and, indeed, looking forward to seeing almost everyday. Sakura was dear to you, as dear as just about any person was, and you only wish you had more time to check up on her and make sure she was okay after everything that had happened. But things have been busy lately, too busy.
Sakura, however, at this moment was not a calming figure however. As she was naked as the day she was born. Her beautiful purple eyes caught the light as she moved towards you, anatomy you had… admittedly thought about on more than one occasion on full display as she moved. You knew Sakura was more developed than most of the students in the school, but to have it this bluntly shown to you did much to take your mind off things. You watch as she approaches, then lowers herself onto her knees.
Almost on instinct you back away, only to find yourself pressing against a desk. "Sakura? What's going on!?"
Sakura pauses for a moment, her arms to either side of your waist. "I love you, Shirou." Sakura says, her smile widening. Then she moves forward again, then lowers herself further, her breasts pressing against your chest, her face just inches away from your own. "I've always loved you." She smelled wonderful, heavy of perfume. Sakura normally didn't wear any, but you were too distracted to pick out the intricacies of the smell regardless. Instead you watch, silent, overwhelmed, as Sakura leans her head down and plants her lips against yours. Her hands snake around your head, holding you there as she gently prods your lips open with her tongue.
You open your mouth to gasp, more in surprise than anything, and she takes the opportunity to dive in. Her tongue tickles your own for a moment before she lets out a low moan that causes your entire body to vibrate and what was hard to get only harder. Her legs twist, rubbing against your anatomy, and she holds the kiss for several eternal moments longer before pulling back. Her tongue darts out to snap the line of saliva connecting the two of you, and her eyes bore into your own. "What do you think of me Shirou?"
You find you can only stare for a few moments, lost in her eyes. Then she moves her legs again and the world snaps back into focus. "I… always cared about you Sakura." Was it more than that? You couldn't say, you had never given much thought to it. Ayako surprised you, this was yet somehow still more surprising.
But was it?
You knew Sakura liked you, despite your reputation at school you weren't a fool. But you weren't really someone worth loving either. But this situation as a whole didn't make sense, why were you at school? Why were you naked? Was this a dream?
Such thoughts only last but a moment longer before she shifts herself again, her breasts pressing against your face. "It's going to be alright Shirou, you don't need to worry about anything else." Sakura whispers.
You couldn't see anything, and for some reason your hands were responding to your requests to alleviate that situation either. You were too overwhelmed by… everything. That only got worse as you felt her shift, then a jolt shot through your body as her hand wandered down your chest towards your cro-
"No." A new voice spoke.
A loud smack sounds out, and Sakura violently flies off of you. You watch in mute horror, tracking her as she goes through several desks before slamming against the blackboard. It cracks, along with the wall behind it, sending down a shower of material down onto her. She looks up a split second later, seemingly unhurt. Her eyes lock onto you, then she grins, and at once you realize you are no longer looking at Sakura. Merely something wearing her face.
Then she was gone, she didn't fade, or move. She simply ceased to be, one moment she was there, the next she was completely gone from sight, the only sign she was ever there atl all being an imprint upon the dust and debris now littering the ground.
"Truly my Master? Truly?" a familiar annoyed voice asks.
You turn your head back to see Caster standing just a foot in front of you staff in hand. Her hood was drawn down, but it did nothing to hide the deep frown on her face. "Can you not remain safe even in your dreams?"
"What… was that?" you ask.
"Not Sakura, if you are curious. Another servant I would imagine, extracting mana, or information, or both." Medea says coldly. "I would have hoped you would have been more alert. Try and be more careful."
"I thought I was dreaming," you reply defensively.
"You are, someone let something through the wards I set up." Caster growls. "Try and be less excited about it, my master." Medea says, her head tilting slightly downwards.
You move your hands to cover yourself, only for her staff to dart out and stop your movement. You look back up towards her, only to find that she has disappeared as well. Then you felt her press against your back. You look back, and find her face just a short distance from your own. Her hood was still down, shielding her face, but the frown was gone. "Caster?"
Her hands had been moving forward, but then still. The one moves back to pull down her hood. "It's Medea."
You blink, opening your mouth, only to find yourself suddenly gritting your teeth as her gloved hand wraps around your anatomy. You lurch forward, and her other hand pulls you back against her. Then it grabs your head, turning it gently back before she plants her lips against your own. A rush of sensations overwhelm you once more, and this time in two different directions. One caused by her hand pumping your shaft, the other by the shockingly gentle kiss he was giving you despite that.
Her head pulls back, and you find yourself transfixed by the simple smile on her face. "Think of this as payment."
You twitch as the second hand comes around to join the first. "You… don't owe me anything."
The smile grows, "quiet Shirou."
Then she rapidly begins to move her hands up and down, and against your will you find yourself molding against her, gasping. Caster giggles into your ear, increasing her tempo and decreasing it depending on how you move. "Just relax boy. Let this witch take care of you."
Then she leans forward, her teeth capturing your ear as she pumps yet harder.
Your back goes taut, and your vision flashes as she turns you to putty in her grip. What was this?
What was-
You tighten again, and then go boneless in her grip, your eyes slamming shut as you release into her gloves. You open your eyes again a moment later, feeling more than a little woozy. You watch as her hands leave your softening member, then move to her face where she experimentally… licks what you had left on your hand.
Caster's eyes narrow. "She was right, it is a good source." Caster says quietly.
You stare at her, not sure what to say. Even if you knew what to say, you aren't sure if you could.
Caster's eyes flick back to you, and smiling, she pokes you in the forehead.
—
You awakened to sunlight once more, this was a far less panic inducing sight however. As this was morning sunlight, and you were back on a familiar bed, in your familiar nightwear, in a familiar room. You move a hand to your chest, your heart was pounding, and you knew damn well why. What even… was all of that? Someone broke into your dream, apparently, then Medea dealt with it, then… Medea…
Wait, morning?
Weren't you going to leave last night?
You push yourself up in the bed, looking towards the window. The sun had only just begun to rise, painting the skyscrapers of downtown Fuyuki a brilliant gold. It was maybe, from your guess, six in the morning. Early, but still a good dozen hours behind schedule. Did Fujimaru already leave? Did Taiga? Di-
"Calm down piglet." A giggling voice says, interrupting your panic.
You turn your head towards the center of the room to see… Circe, dressed in her usual robes. She's standing just beside a small metal cart, itself topped with a small bowl and a small glass. A green bottle sitting just beside it with a corked top.
"We did leave without you my student, if you were wondering." The witch pushes the cart towards the bed, and, once it makes a stop at the edge. She gently takes the bowl up and into her hands. "Once Fujimaru laid down in bed, she was asleep almost immediately. She herself only awoke scant minutes ago. So, at Taiga's insistence we will instead be moving out this morning. Archer for his part, along with Assassin went out during the night regardless for scouting, if you must know."
"I have classes today," you reply. Trying to figure out how to fix your schedule now.
"Taiga is preparing work for you, and has declared to the school that you are quite under the weather."
You blink. "Taiga is… getting me out of schoolwork? That isn't like her."
Circe's eyes narrow. "I do hope you aren't accusing me piglet. If you must know, she recognizes that this must be solved, and quickly at that."
Still not like her. But then, Taiga had been showing all sorts of new sides of herself lately. You twist yourself around, moving to take the bowl out of Circe's hands. Only for the witch to pull back, denying it from you.
You blink, then look to her face.
"I made the Kykeon, I feed you the Kykeon."
You start to interject, but faster than you can track she takes a spoonful of it and shoves it into your mouth.
…
It's good.
She pulls the spoon back a moment later, grinning at you all the while. "Now, you shall eat this meal. Shower and prepare yourself, then we shall go out together to meet this sister of yours."
You nod your head, then open your mouth obediently as she moves another spoonful towards it. You found it more than a little demeaning, but you weren't going to argue with Circe either, not after all she had done for you up to this point.
The meal as it was only took a few minutes to eat, and she then filled you a glass full of what was… possibly grape juice. Then moves to sit on the side of the bed. "So tell me piglet, did you have a nice dream?"
You pause, having been halfway to lifting the cup to your lips. "Circe?" you ask, your tone enough to get the message across.
"I only assisted," Circe says, now grinning from ear to ear. "If you must know, the silly girl made the move herself."
You didn't need to know that. "Who was it that… visited?"
Circe leans forward. "Who indeed? Not even I know everything piglet~"
Then she was gone, leaving behind nothing but a feather resting upon your bed.
She was lying, that much was obvious. But you weren't going to call her out for that, either.
—
You were pleased to note that Fujimaru, even after only one night, had lost a good deal of the baggage underneath her eyes. Indeed, the woman was slightly slouched as she stood in the courtyard of the Fujimura estate, apparently still half asleep despite resting for nearly twelve solid hours. It was a chill morning, with snow coming down fairly rapidly, and you had a sneaking suspicion that, and the thermos of coffee in her hands was all that was truly keeping her awake at the moment.
The rest were doing far better at least. The servants were spread around, none apparently bothered by the cold. Though you do note that Circe had wrapped what looked to be a particularly fancy… poncho? Around herself. It was of the same material as the dress she normally wore, so you were unsure how exactly it was keeping her warm, but it did hang all the way down from her neck to her ankles.
Sakura meanwhile was dressed in her usual jacket and standing just beside you, a healthy blush on her cheeks from the early morning cold. As for Taiga… well, she had already gone to school. With a distinct warning from her that if you managed to get hurt heading to Illya's she would kill you herself.
You were fairly certain she wasn't kidding.
"So that's it then. Mordred is staying here, Circe and Caster are going with me and Sakura to Illya's castle, while you two continue searching the city."
Archer nods. "I'll be keeping an eye out regardless, if you run into any trouble I'll know."
That did somewhat make you feel better, but with that monster still about… and that other archer. Well.
It was hard to feel secure these days.
Assassin and Archer disappear from view, the two of them beginning their mission to find that monster, and any information they could dig up about that archer you fought at the church. Leaving you with Fujimaru, Sakura, Circe and Caster. The latter you note hadn't said a word to you this morning, you really wish she would, as things felt remarkably awkward between the two of you. Though she, at least, seemed to be in a good mood.
You take a step forward, then stop, remembering something. "Sakura?"
The girl in question pauses, having been walking after you. She looks up instead, purple hair waving in the winter wind. "Yes?"
Your hand flexes at your side, idly debating the best way to do this. Then you let out a breath and fully turn around to face her. Reaching forward you wrap your arms around her, bringing her up against your chest as you draw her into a hug, your chin resting on top of her head. Sakura squeaks, going rigid in your grip.
"I know things have been rough for you lately, and I wanted to thank you for helping me so much lately."
"Shirou I-"
"If you ever need anything Sakura, please just let me know. Alright? I'm here for you."
Sakura goes silent, then, ever so gently, reaches up to wrap her arms around your back. "Yes… I will."
Then you separate, and you smile down at Sakura. The girl's rosy cheeks had now turned into a full blush, and you couldn't help but feel more than a little embarrassed.
But the smile on her face was more than worth it.
—
You could have flown, with two servants it would have been fairly simple. But Circe had specifically requested you walk through the city. It wasn't something you particularly minded, being only an forty-five minute walk from downtown to the outskirts where the forest began. But it still came as a surprise. Circe, for her part, could only state that it was 'important' that you all did so. And despite Medea glaring at her she refused to clarify that further.
At least however, it was a pretty morning. Fuyuki in general was always at its most beautiful during winter, the city slowed down. Forgetting the hustle and the bustle that usually came with being a modern town. There was less traffic, less people, less… life, you supposed. It was something you were always fond of, and you could say you honestly enjoyed walking in silence with the four women. Sakura remained beside you the entire way along with Fujimaru, while Caster stayed slightly behind. Circe, for her part, remained in front, her head moving from storefront to storefront, seemingly interested in all the modern world had to offer.
You never bothered asking her what she actually knew about the modern world come to think of it. "When was the last time you left the island Circe?"
The witch glances back, a somewhat awkward smile on her face. "Oh, not for millenia now. Much too dangerous."
"Dangerous? How?"
"Quite simple master," Caster replies for you. "She's an anomaly, and the root is determined to fix those whenever they appear."
Fujimaru snorts, and you glance over at the woman. Your eyes meet, and the scarred mage just gives you a smile and shrug. "It's a long story."
You don't understand, but you smile back. Returning your attention to Circe a moment later. "Well, I appreciate your presence regardless."
"I know~" Circe replies, humble as always.
It was a short walk from there to the edge of the forest. How long it would take to get to Illya's castle you couldn't say. But it only took you stepping onto the path to realize something was… wrong.
It was a simple dirt path, barely more than one that might be used by deer, at the very edge of town where the most remote, and poorest houses resided. You were, by all accounts, in the middle of nowhere.
But you weren't alone either.
Beyond just the presence of the four magus around you, there was another, a heavier presence, hidden until moments ago by design. Sakura lurched, a hand shooting to her mouth, and Fujimaru gained a pained look on her face as it washed over you. It was a clawing, pulling thing, demanding you submit, you kneel, you lay down and die. You stumble, your shoes digging through the snow and into the dirt as Circe snaps out a hand to catch you.
You look up at her, only to find her looking past you towards the city. "What… is it?" you ask, fighting the nausea you were feeling.
"The bait worked perfectly." Circe says. She sounded different now, far more curt, with the usual song-like tone to her voice completely absent.
You swallow, fighting the weight pressing down on you, and turn around.
She stood a hundred yards away, motionless as a statue just at the edge of the wood. It looked like… Rin's servant. Only it… she was wrong. Her armor was a deep black, an impossible black that seemed to take in all the light around it, only allowing the barest hint of form to be visible. Her skin was pale, deathly like a corpse, and her blonde hair had lost much of its hue.
And she was staring directly at you with inhuman yellow eyes.
You felt it again then, the clawing, the sickening malaise demanding your obedience. Fujimaru staggers for a moment, then plants her foot into the ground, staring at the servant. Sakura, for her part, stumbles down onto her knees, one hand sinking into the snow. You reach down to steady her, and in that moment, she moves, sword raised.
You had only a second to think.
—
Rin's servant, something is wrong with her. But what?
[] [Try and find Rin] If this is her servant, then she should be nearby.
[] [Fight] It was two servants on one, with three magus acting as backup.
[] [Retreat towards the castle] Try and make it to Illya's castle. You don't know how far away it is.
[] [Retreat towards the city] Archer said he was watching out for you, but this will likely put innocents in danger.
You felt it again then, the clawing, the sickening malaise demanding your obedience. Fujimaru staggers for a moment, then plants her foot into the ground, staring at the servant. Sakura, for her part, stumbles down onto her knees, one hand sinking into the snow. You reach down to steady her, and in that moment, the servant, sword raised. Moves.
She crosses the distance quickly, too quickly, a black light following her as she disappears from one spot to appear in another. She was mere feet away from you now, her sword swinging with a baleful black trail that left no light behind.
Then there was a flash.
And the light returned.
A brilliant wall of purple appeared between you and the swordswoman, pulsating and flexing. The sigils upon it you recognized, some of the same marks Medea used. You wanted to look for her, to see exactly where she was, but you didn't have the chance. The wall flexed, the magic screaming like tearing metal as the Swordswoman's swing wouldn't be denied. The wall cracked, unable to flex further. And half on instinct, half on sheer panic you yanked Sakura, pulling the woman to the side as the barrier exploded with the sound of breaking glass. The sword continued its movement, carving through the air with the sound akin to a jet screaming overhead before it sliced clean through the tree that had been just behind your head.
Then the knight turns, golden eye glinting beautifully. But there was no emotion there, no… anything, really. It was cold, passionless, you weren't even sure if she was breathing. You open your mouth to call for Caster, but don't get the chance. The ground explodes beneath the black knight, dirt erupting a dozen feet in the air.
*BANG*
The ground in front of her explodes with a barrage of magical energy, forcing her to the side. Then a lance of green light pierces the air, inches away from her breastplate and filling the scene with the scent of something acrid and dead. The knight turns, and you chance a glance to see Medea and Circe standing side by side, both with their staffs raised. Then they blast as one, magic shooting out to slam into the knight with sound akin to a thunderclap. You watched, transfixed by the magic as it screams through the air.
The knight doesn't try to dodge.
It slams into her, forcing her back, her feet digging into the earth. The magic forces her back a good ten feet, then it halts, and the woman stands there, sword held in one hand, smoking rising from her chest. She looks down, one hand moving to the breastplate. Then, with the sound of metal scraping against metal… scrapes at it, the smoke dissipates and reveals nothing but a black soot mark a moment later. Then her expression changes, for the first time you had seen her. She smiled. "Is that all?"
"To suddenly attack without the slightest introduction is quite rude, I have half a mind to curse you." Circe says. Stepping to the right as she does so.
Medea, for her part, steps left, making her way closer to you.
"Pathetic." The swordswoman says slowly. Then she was gone again. The only warning you got was a rush of air between you and Caster.
You leapt back on instinct, magic circuits activating.
You weren't fast enough, not even slightly. The swordswoman appeared in your midst, blade swinging through the air. You yank your arm up, gritting your teeth as you strengthen the material of your jacket. The blade slams into your arm, rocking your entire body and sending you flying back, your grip on Sakura lost as you tumble over the snow and crash into a tree. A horrific pain shoots up your arm, your fingers spasming. But you don't let yourself become distracted, you can't.
"Caster, the castle!" you shout.
The swordswoman moves again, blade dragging through the snow before she raises it above her head.
"Gandr!" Sakura screams.
A beam of black light crashes into the side of the knight, and to your horror she doesn't even stumble. You raise your own arm, the spell releasing just as the blade comes down. "Αερο!"
The blast of wind slams into the knight, but she doesn't slow, she doesn't stop, she doesn't trip or stumble. The blade swings down, and you begin to move, to scramble, but a hand snatches you to the side instead. Wind whistles by your ears as you find yourself flying back deeper into the forest, a tight arm wrapped around your chest as the tree you were laying against utterly ceases to exist. You look back to see Caster grimacing, her staff swinging around to point at the knight.
Beams of purple light erupt from it, blanketing the ground in rippling explosions. Then Caster turns, removing the battlefield from view, and allowing you to see that Circe is just ahead, Sakura held in her arms. "Master, this is a Saber class, we must flee." Caster says. "Where is our destination?"
You look ahead, but only see trees. "I don't know," you admit with some frustration. "But we have to get to the castle and away from her. Illya will help."
"You have no proof of that, master." Caster replies.
"Do you have any better ideas?" you ask.
"Mast-" Caster begins, only to get cut off as a weight fills the air. It's the malaise from before, only now heavier, it… seeps, fogging your mind. Your breath catches in your throat, your thoughts slow, and all thoughts of the castle, of the battle, of everyone's safety fades as only one word, one concept, one order fills your head.
Kneel.
She was your king. Why weren't you kneeling?
You turn your head back, just in time to see the end of the world approaching. An impossible black light was tearing through the forest, uprooting trees and causing the ground to turn to glittering onyx glass. You watch, transfixed, as Caster leaps to the side. The beam continues onwards, narrowly missing you by scant feet as it carves through the woods. It finally stops a few hundred feet again, leaving a gaping wound in the forest of flaming trees and falling ash.
"Come my ser-" Caster begins. Only to be interrupted by a familiar figure.
Black light erupted from the blade as it stabbed forward towards Caster's head. Caster whipped her head to the side, her staff swinging upwards to parry the blow. The blade twists, then carves down, yanking the staff out of her hand before her armored foot shoots out to crash into Caster's chest. Caster lets out a strangled breath as the two of you crash into the ground.
"Medea!" Circe shouts out.
You hear the cry of a hawk, and you open your eyes to swimming vision. You blink, finding yourself partially buried in a snowbank. Then you shoot upwards, adrenaline taking over. You had to find Medea, you had to find the castle. You turn your head at the sound of armor crunching. And you watch as black blade sails towards your head.
You stare at the servant.
You don't feel it, even as your head separates from your shoulders.
Thank you, oh gracious king.
—
Shirou died, having never found the castle.
—
[Bad End]
"Kihahaha! Oh that was great! A bumbling idiot running through open woods looking for a fairytale castle. It's just like a pathetic human!"
"While… it was perhaps ill advised, it was certainly better than dragging the fighting into the city. I can only hope god wi-"
"God? No, he will try again, and fail and fail and fail again like the pathetic little human he is. Why, if he wasn't so much fun to watch I'd do it myself. But then, that Swordwoman does seem interesting… and like mother."
"It's difficult, isn't it? But you just have to keep trying. Perhaps things will be different this time around, and perhaps… new things will become available."
"Do they really deserve a break? You saw what they've been doing."
"They? I… assure you I have no idea what you're talking about."
"... Sure."
—
[] [Try and find Rin] If this is her servant, then she should be nearby.
[] [Fight] It was two servants on one, with three magus acting as backup.
[] [Retreat towards the city] Archer said he was watching out for you, but this will likely put innocents in danger.
[] [Summon Mordred] You had two command seals remaining.
[] [Retreat towards the castle]
—
Yes that vote being there means exactly what you think it means about Rin. Choose wisely.
