Nasuverse Fate/Prismatic Chaos
- Thread starter Alyeris
- Start date
This part got rated as 'acceptable' over at Beast's Lair, so I will just post it. It was a bit rushed though so I'm cringing as I look over some of the sentences.
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4-2
It was beautiful day that greeted Sakura as she opened the curtains to her room. The sun was shining, and a few wisps of white cloud were all that obscured the view of the azure sky. Under such conditions, the scenery that was visible from this high up hotel room was a spectacular one, and Sakura stopped to appreciate it.
Located as it was on the outskirts of Shinto, the hotel had a good view of the ocean which was the basis of much of Fuyuki's trade. The cool blue of the sea stretched far out into the horizon, meeting the light azure sky in the distance. It was a refreshing sight. One that reminded a person of just how large the world really was. The thought struck a chord in Sakura's heart, and she was finally able to appreciate the fact that she was free, or rather free as any human could be.
The thought led to another, and Sakura's violet eyes were shadowed as she looked down at her hands. It was hard for her to imagine that she had killed someone last night. She knew intellectually that she had done it, and she was not unprepared to carry the weight of her sins, but it was just difficult to truly understand in her heart that she had killed another being. Perhaps it was because of the nature of the one who had been her victim. Zouken was not someone who could be considered fully human if one had any idea of how he had lived so long. It was also possible that her lack of comprehension came from just how easy it had been. Matou Zouken had been a figure of terror in her life for so long that she cringed instinctively when she thought about him, even now she was nervous as she took a look around the room to make sure she was alone. For such a man to have perished so simply was far different from how she had imagined any confrontation between herself and him would go. Regardless of such details however, the fact remained that a life had been snuffed out last night, and she had been the one to carry out the act.
Did she regret it? No, she couldn't say she did. That was a mark against her humanity she supposed, but what was one more stain upon her soul? Innocence? Purity? She had lost those long ago. If that was the price for her freedom, it was one she had paid in full long before she had even begun to contemplate her rebellion.
Sakura breathed in deeply and put on a smile. It was too fine a day to stay all gloomy, especially as it was the first day in more than ten years that she was free to spend as she wished
A sudden beeping surprised her, her heart jumping at the unexpected noise. When she turned around however she was chagrined to find that it was only the alarm going off to tell her that it was time to wake up. Realising what that meant, Sakura smiled a little sheepishly and corrected her earlier thought in her head.
It was her first day free of Zouken's influence, but she was not completely free yet. There was that tiresome little place called school to attend first.
-x-x-x-
Neatly dressed in a school uniform that Kotomine had somehow obtained for her in the space of time between the mansion burning down and her arrival at the hotel, Sakura got off the bus and made her way towards the school. She was relaxed enough to enjoy the feel of the cool breeze against her face, and more than a few of her fellow students were surprised at how different she was from usual.
As Sakura got closer to the front gate however, her cold persona returned as she considered the task before her. Today was an important day for her, and she could not afford to make any mistakes.
Rin's attack on the Matou mansion had actually been a completely surprise for Sakura, who had been undergoing an operation at the Church to remove the last of the worms that Zouken had placed within her. Just why Rin had suddenly decided to attack the Matou family was a mystery, but it meant that the confrontation between herself and her estranged sister might occur before she was fully ready.
Truth be told, she didn't really have a plan to use against Rin. Her original plans for this Grail War had been to use the opportunity to find a way to rid ZoukenÆs influence from her life. Not a very great ambition, but even this was a gamble that would have been unimaginable for her to take just a few years ago. The seeds of her rebellion had been sown two years ago though, when she compared for the first time the difference in the way that her sister and herself were living. At first it had just been a simple complaint in her head. A short protest at the unfairness of the world as she watched Rin laugh with her classmates during the athletic festival while she sat by herself and tried to ignore the pain of her ætrainingÆ from the night before. This voice at the back of her head had grown as she continued to see Rin at school, the older girlÆs bright and happy school life a stark contrast from her own depressing daily routines. SakuraÆs jealousy, if it could be called that, only grew worse when she noticed Kirika, taking the role that she so desired at RinÆs side. Finally, her anger at the world reached a point where she decided that she wanted to do something, anything to change. With her fires of her spirit revived from the cool embers they had been burned down to, she had proceeded to throw herself at life with hopes of finding a way to break loose, a goal which she had achieved through this Grail War.
Though she was unaware of it herself, Sakura had changed a lot during these last two years. Most prominent among the changes had been her gain in confidence, a positive change to her personality that had been greatly accelerated in recent days as she gained certainty that she could rid herself of the monster in her life. She now thought in ways that she would never have considered before. A good example of this was the way she had decided that she was going to challenge her complexes head on by proving herself against her sister and her apprentice. Though still unsure, she had begun to draw upon the plans she had set in place to use against Zouken in order to apply the same pressure against Rin. It was not as if she had anywhere else to use them anyway, not after Rin had thrown her plans into disarray by charging into the Matou estate to take out Zouken herself.
The only problem with this idea however, was that she was not yet ready to do anything. Her servant was still in her foolish brotherÆs hands, doing gods only knew what. She would have to recover Rider if she was to do anything, and she needed to do so before he did anything silly such as activating the ward that he had ordered Rider to construct around the school. Her alliance with Caster was questionable as well. She still was not sure why Caster had been so willing to help her, nor did she understand the meaning of the strange smile the servant had worn during their meeting. Talking about suspicious people however, no one could be more deserving of her doubts than the enigmatic priest at the church.
Sakura had first met Kotomine when she approached him in secret to ask about the location of a reliable person who could carry out delicate spiritual surgery. She had done so under the assumption that the mediator of the Grail War would have some connections to the Association, more than her anyway. The Matou family was somewhat of a recluse from both the modern world and the world of the mages, which meant that she had been unable to locate any such person among the lists that she had been able to access at home. She could not put out a request herself either, as Zouken would realise that she was up to something if she was to do so. Approaching the Church mediator had been something of a gamble, but it was one that had paid off for her.
When she first approached the tall and imposing priest who had greeted her at the churchÆs door, she had been a little worried that he would find out the truth about her status as a master and tell her to go away. Thankfully, it seemed that the Book of the False Attendant had worked as it was supposed to, as the man did not say anything to the effect. She had wondered at the time if he was just unable to detect such things, but any such thoughts had been proved silly as Kotomine revealed himself to be a proficient mage in his own right, especially at the type of surgery that she required to be carried out.
A man of the cloth being a mage was strange enough, but the way that he had worked on her behalf was more than enough to earn both her thanks as well as her suspicions. Kotomine had been the one to tell her CasterÆs location, revealing the location to her as he suggested that she seek the servant out in order to obtain help for the surgery. Revealing such secrets so willingly to a relative of a 'master' had been strange enough, but when Sakura learned that he had used up his familyÆs crest in order to carry out the operation she had been dumbfounded. The crest of a mageÆs family was more valuable than even the lives of the family members themselves, even if they were one use ones like KotomineÆs, it was unimaginable that someone would use up their entire family crest to heal someone that they barely knew. When asked about this the priest had told her that it was only his duty as a priest to save the innocent, but said this with a villainous smile on his face that made Sakura even more suspicious of him.
Whatever the reason for the priests help was, Sakura had to be grateful for now as it would have been hard or almost impossible to gain her freedom without him. She would eventually have approached Caster herself, but by her own admission the servant of the spell was not a specialist when it came to spiritual surgery. If she hadn't known that Kotomine could carry out the operation however, she would not have been able to pull the truth out of the servant, and it was possible that the terms under which she was able to obtain the servant's help would have been far harsher. As it was, she had been required to give up what she knew about Rin and Kirika's servants, as well as having to persuade her brother to work with Caster as the 'master' of Rider. In return though, she had received the potion that allowed father Kotomine to remove Zouken's worm vessels from her heart by putting her body into suspended animation. Caster had also been the one who made the crystal ball that allowed her to fool Zouken until the last minute. All in all, it was a worthwhile trade.
It was possible that Caster knew by now the truth of the arrangement between her and Shinji, but Sakura was not too worried. The strength that Kirika's servants had revealed last night meant that it was unlikely that Caster would do anything to risk the alliance right now, and even if she took steps to kill Shinji and take the Book of the False Attendant herself... It would be a bit sad, but she wouldn't be broken if Shinji died at Caster's hands. Rider could also be recovered in such as situation using the stronger connection with Rider that her own command seals offered, so there was no great loss.
Which still left the problem of what to do right now, as she had to survive a day in Rin's vicinity with nothing but her wits and what magical skills she had managed to pick up in two years of self-study. Rin's personality meant that it was unlikely that she would do anything overtly hostile when there were civilians around as there were here at school, but it wasn't a sure thing. As Rin had displayed a willingness to attack and kill Matou Zouken, who had not been a master of this Grail War, it was impossible to know how far her aggression against the Matou clan stretched. If she had found out something about the Grail War that Zouken had hidden, it was possible that she had also found out about her status as a master. If so, it was not unthinkable that Rin would confront her as she had before, as a potential hostage against Shinji if nothing else if that was the extent to which she had uncovered the truth.
Sakura sighed as she sat down at her seat, having come all the way to her classroom while she thought about her current position in this Grail War. She was ready and willing to face Rin, just not right now. Her best bet then was to try and avoid Rin for today, and always keep to areas where there were other people around.
As the bell rang and the last of her classmates shuffled in, Sakura decided to forget about her concerns for now and focus on the lesson. It wasn't as if Rin was about to march into this room right now after all. She could afford to relax a little.
-x-x-x-
Just a few hours later, as the students of the school started to eat their lunch, Sakura was on the school building's rooftop deeply regretting her underestimation of how straight-forward Rin could be.
"To think that she would march into the room as soon as break started..." Sakura whispered despondently to herself.
"What did you say, Matou-san?" said the reason for her regrets.
Sakura looked up to see Rin looking at her curiously, and took heart in the fact that at least there didn't appear to be any open hostility in that gaze.
"Nothing, Tohsaka-san," Sakura replied coolly, regathering her composure. "What is it that you wished to talk about? I assume it has something to do with your indiscriminate attack upon our family last night?"
Sakura purposefully put a hint of contempt and suspicion into her last sentence. She had thought about why Rin might want to meet her in such a public space, and now that she was in front of her she had managed to narrow down the possibilities to the only one that made sense.
This was probably a declaration of war on Rin's part, or a warning at least to keep out of her way as she went after Shinji if she still thought he was the Matou master. If the former, Sakura was pleased as it would mean that Rin considered her worth acknowledging at least as an opponent. If the latter, well at least it showed that she might still care a little. Regardless, if fit Sakura's purposes to not let herself be intimidated here, and in the event that she had been revealed as Rider's true master, she was prepared to use this opportunity to deliver her own declaration of war.
Having reasoned out Rin's actions, Sakura was slightly confused when Rin appeared to flinch upon being reminded of her attack on the Matou estate. Or at least Sakura thought it was because of that.
"Uh... Uhmm... About that," Rin mumbled nervously, further confusing Sakura. "Uhm... Did you manage to recover any of your things? I mean, your clothes? I see you are wearing your uniform... So... You got your clothes out at least, right?"
With Rin looking at her expectantly, Sakura found herself wondering about the motives behind Rin's question. Her clothes? How did it matter in any way whether or not she had gotten her clothes out? Had there been a mystic code amongst her clothes that she hadn't known about? It was a ridiculous thought but that was about all that Sakura could come up with right now.
"Uhm... No, Tohsaka-san, I couldn't," Sakura replied hesitantly. "The mansion was completely burned down by the time I got there, which I assume was your doing if father Kotomine's version of events is anything to go by." Sakura paused to wonder why Rin looked like somebody had stabbed her with a needle before she continued. "This uniform was obtained for me by father Kotomine, and about the only clothes I have right now. Is that all you wanted to know?"
Rin looked even worse now, covering her face with one hand as she muttered something under her breath. Puzzled by the way this conversation was going, Sakura was forced to wonder if she had been off about the reason for this meeting, but still could not come up with any explanations beyond her initial ones.
Rin shook her head, and straightened up again. "Ahem. Let me apologise first of all, Matou-san. I admit I caused more damage than was necessary last night, and I promise that I will recompense you for any losses of material property."
Sakura nodded absently in response to Rin's statement. This was more like it. Rin's words were in line with how Sakura had imagined the perfectionist mage might behave if she believed that she was an outsider in this Grail War. If so, it was not strange that Rin would feel a duty as caretaker of Fuyuki to repair any damages to Sakura's property.
Considering this, Sakura understood that Rin had not found out anything about the connection between Rider and herself. Or at least she didn't think so. That was fortunate, as it meant she would still have the advantage of surprise when she decided it was time to confront Rin.
"Thank you for your offer, Tohsaka-san, but it's really not necessary," said Sakura. "We have enough assets apart from the mansion and its contents that I can replace my belongings easily enough. May I ask though, what reason did you have for attacking our family in the first place? I seem to recall telling you that our family is not involved in this Grail War."
The question that Sakura had tossed out to confirm her suspicions appeared to take Rin off guard again, as the normally composed girl suddenly froze and her eyes began to dart back and forth wildly like a child who had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
"Haha... Ha... Uhm... About that... Ha ha," beads of sweat appeared on Rin's brow as she laughed nervously, and Sakura wondered yet again just what was going on.
"Tohsaka-san?" Sakura gently called Rin.
"Yes!" Rin replied loudly as if startled. She then appeared to remember where they were and what they were doing, as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Whew... I'm sorry about that pitiful display just now. I would appreciate it if you just forgot about it," Rin told her once she had regained her composure. "I will get onto the topic now."
Finally, Sakura thought as she worked to tighten the tension in her mind that Rin had loosened with her strange antics.
Thoroughly calm now, Rin stared directly at Sakura as she explained the events of last night.
"As you are aware, last night I attacked the Matou family and killed Matou Zouken, the head of the family." Rin narrowed her eyes slightly before she continued. "While that was not my original purpose for visiting the Matou family last night, I was left with no choice but to act following my investigation of the mansion. What I mean is that under my rights as the head of the Tohsaka family and my authority as the second owner of Fuyuki, I judged that Matou Zouken had perverted the path of the mage, to such an extent that immediate action was required. I have begun to fill out a report for the Association, and this marks the extent of my actions against the Matou family for now."
Sakura had frozen up when Rin revealed that she had investigated the mansion, and how what she had found had been offensive enough that she had immediately acted to remove the one behind it. Rin's choice of words was a slight shock to Sakura, as it reminded her that she too was one of the results of Zouken's experimentation. A sense of disgust and self-loathing filled her as she remembered what she had undergone at the old monster's hands, and at the same time she feared what Rin might think of her right now. She had to know a little about what had happened in that basement workshop. It was impossible for any self-respecting mage to mistake the purpose of that room. If Rin thought that place was so filthy as to demand immediate purification, did that mean that she thought that she was tainted as well? That she had been dirtied beyond redemption?
From that wavering position, Sakura's thoughts travelled further, and she found herself growing a little angry. If Zouken's experiments were so wrong, why hadn't she moved sooner? Yes, there was the principle of non-interference between mages of different houses, but surely she had to have known a little of what the Matou path of magic involved? Why hadn't she looked into the matter sooner? Was she so unimportant that Rin couldn't find the time to make just one visit to the Matou mansion?
As Sakura hid her rising emotions behind a mask of icy indifference, Rin kept on speaking, unaware of Sakura's thoughts.
"According to my knowledge, Matou Zouken's death means that there are now no practising mages in the Matou family, am I right?" Rin waited for Sakura to give her a slow nod of confirmation. "Yes, well. That brings us to the real reason I called you up here."
This was it, Sakura thought, her mind colored by the negative thoughts that had risen to the surface as she was reminded the unfairness of her life. Rin was about to tell her leave Fuyuki for the duration of the Grail War, or something along those lines. It was a dismissal, nothing more. A casual order from a mage to a commoner to leave their vicinity in order to get rid of a potential annoyance. Well, if that was so, she wasn't about to sit still and take it. It was rash, and more than a little silly considering her vulnerability right now, but Sakura made up her mind to declare war against Tohsaka Rin here and now. Waiting for Rin to speak the fateful words, Sakura readied the switch of her mystic eyes, intending to use every card she had available to get across to the arrogant mage before her that she was no longer just another ignorant sheep to sweep aside and forget about.
"I speak now as the sixth head of the Tohsaka family," Rin said slowly and forcefully as Sakura watched her like a hawk. "As the Matou family no longer possesses the capacity to continue to travel on the path towards the Origin, I formally request that you rejoin the Tohsaka family, Matou-san. No, Sakura-chan."
"I - ..." As soon as Rin finished speaking Sakura opened her mouth to make her intentions clear, but froze up as Rin's words penetrated the red haze in her head.
"... Uhm... What?" Sakura mumbled as her head went blank. What had Rin just told her?
"I understand that this might be a bit sudden Sakura-chan," Rin said nervously, but with growing confidence. "But, I would like to take this opportunity to become a family again, and I hope that you will feel the same way."
Sakura felt numb as Rin smiled at her warmly, only now realising that Rin was calling her by her first name, something that she couldn't remember her doing since that day so long ago when she had been given the ribbon she still wore in her hair. Was she dreaming? This couldn't be real. Could it?
"..."
"... Sakura?"
"..."
"... Uhm... Do you need some time to think about this, Sakura?"
This had to be a dream.
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4-2
It was beautiful day that greeted Sakura as she opened the curtains to her room. The sun was shining, and a few wisps of white cloud were all that obscured the view of the azure sky. Under such conditions, the scenery that was visible from this high up hotel room was a spectacular one, and Sakura stopped to appreciate it.
Located as it was on the outskirts of Shinto, the hotel had a good view of the ocean which was the basis of much of Fuyuki's trade. The cool blue of the sea stretched far out into the horizon, meeting the light azure sky in the distance. It was a refreshing sight. One that reminded a person of just how large the world really was. The thought struck a chord in Sakura's heart, and she was finally able to appreciate the fact that she was free, or rather free as any human could be.
The thought led to another, and Sakura's violet eyes were shadowed as she looked down at her hands. It was hard for her to imagine that she had killed someone last night. She knew intellectually that she had done it, and she was not unprepared to carry the weight of her sins, but it was just difficult to truly understand in her heart that she had killed another being. Perhaps it was because of the nature of the one who had been her victim. Zouken was not someone who could be considered fully human if one had any idea of how he had lived so long. It was also possible that her lack of comprehension came from just how easy it had been. Matou Zouken had been a figure of terror in her life for so long that she cringed instinctively when she thought about him, even now she was nervous as she took a look around the room to make sure she was alone. For such a man to have perished so simply was far different from how she had imagined any confrontation between herself and him would go. Regardless of such details however, the fact remained that a life had been snuffed out last night, and she had been the one to carry out the act.
Did she regret it? No, she couldn't say she did. That was a mark against her humanity she supposed, but what was one more stain upon her soul? Innocence? Purity? She had lost those long ago. If that was the price for her freedom, it was one she had paid in full long before she had even begun to contemplate her rebellion.
Sakura breathed in deeply and put on a smile. It was too fine a day to stay all gloomy, especially as it was the first day in more than ten years that she was free to spend as she wished
A sudden beeping surprised her, her heart jumping at the unexpected noise. When she turned around however she was chagrined to find that it was only the alarm going off to tell her that it was time to wake up. Realising what that meant, Sakura smiled a little sheepishly and corrected her earlier thought in her head.
It was her first day free of Zouken's influence, but she was not completely free yet. There was that tiresome little place called school to attend first.
-x-x-x-
Neatly dressed in a school uniform that Kotomine had somehow obtained for her in the space of time between the mansion burning down and her arrival at the hotel, Sakura got off the bus and made her way towards the school. She was relaxed enough to enjoy the feel of the cool breeze against her face, and more than a few of her fellow students were surprised at how different she was from usual.
As Sakura got closer to the front gate however, her cold persona returned as she considered the task before her. Today was an important day for her, and she could not afford to make any mistakes.
Rin's attack on the Matou mansion had actually been a completely surprise for Sakura, who had been undergoing an operation at the Church to remove the last of the worms that Zouken had placed within her. Just why Rin had suddenly decided to attack the Matou family was a mystery, but it meant that the confrontation between herself and her estranged sister might occur before she was fully ready.
Truth be told, she didn't really have a plan to use against Rin. Her original plans for this Grail War had been to use the opportunity to find a way to rid ZoukenÆs influence from her life. Not a very great ambition, but even this was a gamble that would have been unimaginable for her to take just a few years ago. The seeds of her rebellion had been sown two years ago though, when she compared for the first time the difference in the way that her sister and herself were living. At first it had just been a simple complaint in her head. A short protest at the unfairness of the world as she watched Rin laugh with her classmates during the athletic festival while she sat by herself and tried to ignore the pain of her ætrainingÆ from the night before. This voice at the back of her head had grown as she continued to see Rin at school, the older girlÆs bright and happy school life a stark contrast from her own depressing daily routines. SakuraÆs jealousy, if it could be called that, only grew worse when she noticed Kirika, taking the role that she so desired at RinÆs side. Finally, her anger at the world reached a point where she decided that she wanted to do something, anything to change. With her fires of her spirit revived from the cool embers they had been burned down to, she had proceeded to throw herself at life with hopes of finding a way to break loose, a goal which she had achieved through this Grail War.
Though she was unaware of it herself, Sakura had changed a lot during these last two years. Most prominent among the changes had been her gain in confidence, a positive change to her personality that had been greatly accelerated in recent days as she gained certainty that she could rid herself of the monster in her life. She now thought in ways that she would never have considered before. A good example of this was the way she had decided that she was going to challenge her complexes head on by proving herself against her sister and her apprentice. Though still unsure, she had begun to draw upon the plans she had set in place to use against Zouken in order to apply the same pressure against Rin. It was not as if she had anywhere else to use them anyway, not after Rin had thrown her plans into disarray by charging into the Matou estate to take out Zouken herself.
The only problem with this idea however, was that she was not yet ready to do anything. Her servant was still in her foolish brotherÆs hands, doing gods only knew what. She would have to recover Rider if she was to do anything, and she needed to do so before he did anything silly such as activating the ward that he had ordered Rider to construct around the school. Her alliance with Caster was questionable as well. She still was not sure why Caster had been so willing to help her, nor did she understand the meaning of the strange smile the servant had worn during their meeting. Talking about suspicious people however, no one could be more deserving of her doubts than the enigmatic priest at the church.
Sakura had first met Kotomine when she approached him in secret to ask about the location of a reliable person who could carry out delicate spiritual surgery. She had done so under the assumption that the mediator of the Grail War would have some connections to the Association, more than her anyway. The Matou family was somewhat of a recluse from both the modern world and the world of the mages, which meant that she had been unable to locate any such person among the lists that she had been able to access at home. She could not put out a request herself either, as Zouken would realise that she was up to something if she was to do so. Approaching the Church mediator had been something of a gamble, but it was one that had paid off for her.
When she first approached the tall and imposing priest who had greeted her at the churchÆs door, she had been a little worried that he would find out the truth about her status as a master and tell her to go away. Thankfully, it seemed that the Book of the False Attendant had worked as it was supposed to, as the man did not say anything to the effect. She had wondered at the time if he was just unable to detect such things, but any such thoughts had been proved silly as Kotomine revealed himself to be a proficient mage in his own right, especially at the type of surgery that she required to be carried out.
A man of the cloth being a mage was strange enough, but the way that he had worked on her behalf was more than enough to earn both her thanks as well as her suspicions. Kotomine had been the one to tell her CasterÆs location, revealing the location to her as he suggested that she seek the servant out in order to obtain help for the surgery. Revealing such secrets so willingly to a relative of a 'master' had been strange enough, but when Sakura learned that he had used up his familyÆs crest in order to carry out the operation she had been dumbfounded. The crest of a mageÆs family was more valuable than even the lives of the family members themselves, even if they were one use ones like KotomineÆs, it was unimaginable that someone would use up their entire family crest to heal someone that they barely knew. When asked about this the priest had told her that it was only his duty as a priest to save the innocent, but said this with a villainous smile on his face that made Sakura even more suspicious of him.
Whatever the reason for the priests help was, Sakura had to be grateful for now as it would have been hard or almost impossible to gain her freedom without him. She would eventually have approached Caster herself, but by her own admission the servant of the spell was not a specialist when it came to spiritual surgery. If she hadn't known that Kotomine could carry out the operation however, she would not have been able to pull the truth out of the servant, and it was possible that the terms under which she was able to obtain the servant's help would have been far harsher. As it was, she had been required to give up what she knew about Rin and Kirika's servants, as well as having to persuade her brother to work with Caster as the 'master' of Rider. In return though, she had received the potion that allowed father Kotomine to remove Zouken's worm vessels from her heart by putting her body into suspended animation. Caster had also been the one who made the crystal ball that allowed her to fool Zouken until the last minute. All in all, it was a worthwhile trade.
It was possible that Caster knew by now the truth of the arrangement between her and Shinji, but Sakura was not too worried. The strength that Kirika's servants had revealed last night meant that it was unlikely that Caster would do anything to risk the alliance right now, and even if she took steps to kill Shinji and take the Book of the False Attendant herself... It would be a bit sad, but she wouldn't be broken if Shinji died at Caster's hands. Rider could also be recovered in such as situation using the stronger connection with Rider that her own command seals offered, so there was no great loss.
Which still left the problem of what to do right now, as she had to survive a day in Rin's vicinity with nothing but her wits and what magical skills she had managed to pick up in two years of self-study. Rin's personality meant that it was unlikely that she would do anything overtly hostile when there were civilians around as there were here at school, but it wasn't a sure thing. As Rin had displayed a willingness to attack and kill Matou Zouken, who had not been a master of this Grail War, it was impossible to know how far her aggression against the Matou clan stretched. If she had found out something about the Grail War that Zouken had hidden, it was possible that she had also found out about her status as a master. If so, it was not unthinkable that Rin would confront her as she had before, as a potential hostage against Shinji if nothing else if that was the extent to which she had uncovered the truth.
Sakura sighed as she sat down at her seat, having come all the way to her classroom while she thought about her current position in this Grail War. She was ready and willing to face Rin, just not right now. Her best bet then was to try and avoid Rin for today, and always keep to areas where there were other people around.
As the bell rang and the last of her classmates shuffled in, Sakura decided to forget about her concerns for now and focus on the lesson. It wasn't as if Rin was about to march into this room right now after all. She could afford to relax a little.
-x-x-x-
Just a few hours later, as the students of the school started to eat their lunch, Sakura was on the school building's rooftop deeply regretting her underestimation of how straight-forward Rin could be.
"To think that she would march into the room as soon as break started..." Sakura whispered despondently to herself.
"What did you say, Matou-san?" said the reason for her regrets.
Sakura looked up to see Rin looking at her curiously, and took heart in the fact that at least there didn't appear to be any open hostility in that gaze.
"Nothing, Tohsaka-san," Sakura replied coolly, regathering her composure. "What is it that you wished to talk about? I assume it has something to do with your indiscriminate attack upon our family last night?"
Sakura purposefully put a hint of contempt and suspicion into her last sentence. She had thought about why Rin might want to meet her in such a public space, and now that she was in front of her she had managed to narrow down the possibilities to the only one that made sense.
This was probably a declaration of war on Rin's part, or a warning at least to keep out of her way as she went after Shinji if she still thought he was the Matou master. If the former, Sakura was pleased as it would mean that Rin considered her worth acknowledging at least as an opponent. If the latter, well at least it showed that she might still care a little. Regardless, if fit Sakura's purposes to not let herself be intimidated here, and in the event that she had been revealed as Rider's true master, she was prepared to use this opportunity to deliver her own declaration of war.
Having reasoned out Rin's actions, Sakura was slightly confused when Rin appeared to flinch upon being reminded of her attack on the Matou estate. Or at least Sakura thought it was because of that.
"Uh... Uhmm... About that," Rin mumbled nervously, further confusing Sakura. "Uhm... Did you manage to recover any of your things? I mean, your clothes? I see you are wearing your uniform... So... You got your clothes out at least, right?"
With Rin looking at her expectantly, Sakura found herself wondering about the motives behind Rin's question. Her clothes? How did it matter in any way whether or not she had gotten her clothes out? Had there been a mystic code amongst her clothes that she hadn't known about? It was a ridiculous thought but that was about all that Sakura could come up with right now.
"Uhm... No, Tohsaka-san, I couldn't," Sakura replied hesitantly. "The mansion was completely burned down by the time I got there, which I assume was your doing if father Kotomine's version of events is anything to go by." Sakura paused to wonder why Rin looked like somebody had stabbed her with a needle before she continued. "This uniform was obtained for me by father Kotomine, and about the only clothes I have right now. Is that all you wanted to know?"
Rin looked even worse now, covering her face with one hand as she muttered something under her breath. Puzzled by the way this conversation was going, Sakura was forced to wonder if she had been off about the reason for this meeting, but still could not come up with any explanations beyond her initial ones.
Rin shook her head, and straightened up again. "Ahem. Let me apologise first of all, Matou-san. I admit I caused more damage than was necessary last night, and I promise that I will recompense you for any losses of material property."
Sakura nodded absently in response to Rin's statement. This was more like it. Rin's words were in line with how Sakura had imagined the perfectionist mage might behave if she believed that she was an outsider in this Grail War. If so, it was not strange that Rin would feel a duty as caretaker of Fuyuki to repair any damages to Sakura's property.
Considering this, Sakura understood that Rin had not found out anything about the connection between Rider and herself. Or at least she didn't think so. That was fortunate, as it meant she would still have the advantage of surprise when she decided it was time to confront Rin.
"Thank you for your offer, Tohsaka-san, but it's really not necessary," said Sakura. "We have enough assets apart from the mansion and its contents that I can replace my belongings easily enough. May I ask though, what reason did you have for attacking our family in the first place? I seem to recall telling you that our family is not involved in this Grail War."
The question that Sakura had tossed out to confirm her suspicions appeared to take Rin off guard again, as the normally composed girl suddenly froze and her eyes began to dart back and forth wildly like a child who had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
"Haha... Ha... Uhm... About that... Ha ha," beads of sweat appeared on Rin's brow as she laughed nervously, and Sakura wondered yet again just what was going on.
"Tohsaka-san?" Sakura gently called Rin.
"Yes!" Rin replied loudly as if startled. She then appeared to remember where they were and what they were doing, as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Whew... I'm sorry about that pitiful display just now. I would appreciate it if you just forgot about it," Rin told her once she had regained her composure. "I will get onto the topic now."
Finally, Sakura thought as she worked to tighten the tension in her mind that Rin had loosened with her strange antics.
Thoroughly calm now, Rin stared directly at Sakura as she explained the events of last night.
"As you are aware, last night I attacked the Matou family and killed Matou Zouken, the head of the family." Rin narrowed her eyes slightly before she continued. "While that was not my original purpose for visiting the Matou family last night, I was left with no choice but to act following my investigation of the mansion. What I mean is that under my rights as the head of the Tohsaka family and my authority as the second owner of Fuyuki, I judged that Matou Zouken had perverted the path of the mage, to such an extent that immediate action was required. I have begun to fill out a report for the Association, and this marks the extent of my actions against the Matou family for now."
Sakura had frozen up when Rin revealed that she had investigated the mansion, and how what she had found had been offensive enough that she had immediately acted to remove the one behind it. Rin's choice of words was a slight shock to Sakura, as it reminded her that she too was one of the results of Zouken's experimentation. A sense of disgust and self-loathing filled her as she remembered what she had undergone at the old monster's hands, and at the same time she feared what Rin might think of her right now. She had to know a little about what had happened in that basement workshop. It was impossible for any self-respecting mage to mistake the purpose of that room. If Rin thought that place was so filthy as to demand immediate purification, did that mean that she thought that she was tainted as well? That she had been dirtied beyond redemption?
From that wavering position, Sakura's thoughts travelled further, and she found herself growing a little angry. If Zouken's experiments were so wrong, why hadn't she moved sooner? Yes, there was the principle of non-interference between mages of different houses, but surely she had to have known a little of what the Matou path of magic involved? Why hadn't she looked into the matter sooner? Was she so unimportant that Rin couldn't find the time to make just one visit to the Matou mansion?
As Sakura hid her rising emotions behind a mask of icy indifference, Rin kept on speaking, unaware of Sakura's thoughts.
"According to my knowledge, Matou Zouken's death means that there are now no practising mages in the Matou family, am I right?" Rin waited for Sakura to give her a slow nod of confirmation. "Yes, well. That brings us to the real reason I called you up here."
This was it, Sakura thought, her mind colored by the negative thoughts that had risen to the surface as she was reminded the unfairness of her life. Rin was about to tell her leave Fuyuki for the duration of the Grail War, or something along those lines. It was a dismissal, nothing more. A casual order from a mage to a commoner to leave their vicinity in order to get rid of a potential annoyance. Well, if that was so, she wasn't about to sit still and take it. It was rash, and more than a little silly considering her vulnerability right now, but Sakura made up her mind to declare war against Tohsaka Rin here and now. Waiting for Rin to speak the fateful words, Sakura readied the switch of her mystic eyes, intending to use every card she had available to get across to the arrogant mage before her that she was no longer just another ignorant sheep to sweep aside and forget about.
"I speak now as the sixth head of the Tohsaka family," Rin said slowly and forcefully as Sakura watched her like a hawk. "As the Matou family no longer possesses the capacity to continue to travel on the path towards the Origin, I formally request that you rejoin the Tohsaka family, Matou-san. No, Sakura-chan."
"I - ..." As soon as Rin finished speaking Sakura opened her mouth to make her intentions clear, but froze up as Rin's words penetrated the red haze in her head.
"... Uhm... What?" Sakura mumbled as her head went blank. What had Rin just told her?
"I understand that this might be a bit sudden Sakura-chan," Rin said nervously, but with growing confidence. "But, I would like to take this opportunity to become a family again, and I hope that you will feel the same way."
Sakura felt numb as Rin smiled at her warmly, only now realising that Rin was calling her by her first name, something that she couldn't remember her doing since that day so long ago when she had been given the ribbon she still wore in her hair. Was she dreaming? This couldn't be real. Could it?
"..."
"... Sakura?"
"..."
"... Uhm... Do you need some time to think about this, Sakura?"
This had to be a dream.
4-3
Covalent bonds, carbon atoms, and multi-dimensional refraction phenomena. Kirika's thoughts were in chaos as she sat through a chemistry lesson trying to sort out some of the more shocking revelations of the last five days.
In an expanse of time less than a week long, Kirika's world had undergone serious shifts. Rin having a sister that she had never said anything about to start with, Rin killing somebody, and servants that defied all the laws of magic to trespass on the realm of True Magic with physical ability alone. When she considered that these were but the latest in a series of mind-breaking events, it made her wonder if there would be anything left in this world that could surprise her by the time this Grail War finished.
Having thought that, Kirika instantly recognised the notion as a silly one and shook her head ruefully. Of course there would be surprises. It was the little and great unexpected marvels in one's days that made life worth living in the first place. For all she knew, she too had a sister out there somewhere.
"..." Kirika stopped and stared blankly at the notebook in front of her. Thinking about the way Kiritsugu had behaved, the idea was actually not that farfetched. In the end however, she laughed weakly to herself and dismissed the idea as unlikely at best.
Not all surprises were so pleasant though. One particular example troubled Kirika's thoughts now as she remembered the discussions from last night and early this morning. The thing that bothered her was the fact that Rin had killed someone. From what she had said, the old man was a mage himself, and Kirika knew from what Rin and Kirei had taught her that the first resolution that a mage had to make was to be ready to face death at any time. Nevertheless, the revelation that Rin had it in her to ruthlessly kill someone had shocked her when she found out about it. More so because she knew from experience that Rin was not someone who regarded human life lightly.
When she had revealed her discomfort to Saber and Lily this morning, Saber had subtly admonished her for her weakness. Lily hadn't said anything, but from the awkward smile on her face as Saber had spoken it was clear that though she thought differently to her twin, she couldn't disagree completely. Was she really the one that was wrong then? To have hoped to get through this war without anyone being killed? Saber had said that she needed to understand that this was a war, not a play where no one died for real. That was true, and she had believed that she understood, but this first death had shaken her resolve more than she had thought possible.
Kirika sighed heavily and bowed her head so that her long hair veiled her face, an action which drew the attention of her classmates nearby who wondered why the usually cheerful girl seemed so down today. Issei in particular kept shifting in his seat as he threw glances at her, as if he wanted to jump up and go over to her in order to comfort her. Kirika's classmates were not the only ones to notice though, and the teacher stopped to comment on her attitude.
"Emiya-san, is there a problem?" asked the strict middle-aged man who was responsible for this class.
Lost in her thoughts, Kirika didn't respond to the question, and continued to scribble absently on her notebook as the teacher's brow began to crinkle with displeasure.
"Emiya-san!" the teacher called out forcefully. "Are you paying attention?"
At the repeated call, Kirika became aware that someone was calling her, and straightened up quickly when she realised it was the teacher.
"I'm sorry, Sakabata-sensei," Kirika apologised hurriedly as she remembered she was in the middle of class. "What was it you just said?"
The teacher's salt-and-pepper eyebrows twitched as he realised that Kirika hadn't been listenting to him. With any other student he would already have lost his temper, but Kirika was well known around the school as a diligent student and so he decided to confirm his suspicions.
"I asked if there was a problem, Emiya-san," he repeated for Kirika.
Unable to say anything in her defence, Kirika bowed her head in apology. "No there isn't, Sakabata-sensei."
The chemistry teacher tapped his gaunt finger against the blackboard as he frowned in obvious displeasure.
"In that case, Emiya-san," he finally said, making up his mind as to what to do. "Do you mind telling everyone what the difference is between a sigma bond and a pi bond?"
"A sigma bond and a pi bond? Uhm..." Kirika's doll like face regained its usual serenity as she cleared her mind to rifle through her memories for the required information. "A sigma bond is the strongest type of covalent bond, formed by overlapping between atomic shells. Pi bonds on the other hand describe a weaker type of bond that forms... When two orbital paths overlap? Sorry, sir, but I can't remember that last part."
Somewhat surprised that Kirika knew the answer to the question, the chemistry teacher dispelled his anger and filled in the part that Kirika's description lacked.
"Pi bonds mostly form between electrons on the P orbitals of atoms, and you are correct to say that the bonds form when orbitals overlap, although this overlap is generally on two nodes of the orbital unlike a sigma bond," placated, he decided to let Kirika go with just a short warning. "It's good to see that you are keeping up with the material, but please pay attention to the lesson, Emiya-san."
"I will, Sakabata-sensei," Kirika replied firmly.
The rest of the lesson passed by without incident, and Kirika found the material pleasant for once as focusing on the lesson meant she didn't have to struggle with the emotional tangle in her head. Soon enough however, the bell rang, and Kirika was left with her thoughts again as everybody began to get ready for lunch.
"Hah..."
Lacking the energy to move from her seat, Kirika sighed as she put her face down on her desk in a move that Rin would have told her off for had she seen it. Her self-appointed teacher in matters feminine was strict that way, not allowing any behaviour that she regarded unladylike if they were in public. It was somewhat hypocritical of Rin that she blatantly ignored this rule if she felt like it, but after six years it was as much habit for Kirika as was wearing girl's clothes. Right now though, the muddled feelings in her heart that she couldn't bring herself to care.
Her uncharacteristic lifelessness provoked a flurry of whispers from the other students, many of whom had already been curious after the odd episode during the chemistry class. It was a strange point about Kirika however that while she was on good terms with everyone in the class, there was no one who could confidently say that they were close to her. This was not usually evident, but in cases like this where there was the potential for awkwardness, the lack of deep relationships showed as no one ventured near.
In the end, it was Issei who moved. Urged on by the girls who supported his cute crush on Kirika, he got up and headed towards Kirika's seat to the jealous gazes of the other boys, many of whom were regretting their lack of initiative in siezing this chance to get close to one of the flowers of the school.
Issei gulped as he got close to the objection of his infantile emotions, who hadn't noticed him as she seemed lost in thought. Opening his mouth to call her, Issei stopped as he realised he had no idea what he was going to say.
"..."
"Hau..."
"..."
"... Hmm?" Kirika became aware of Issei's presence, and straightened up, brushing the loose strands of her silky hair out of her face as she turned to face him.
"Hello, Issei-kun," Kirika greeted him with a smile that melted his heart. "Did you want to say something?"
"..." Issei was silent, what clumsy words he had formed in his head scattered to the winds after he was exposed to Kirika's smile.
Though she could have taken the silence strangely, Kirika simply continued to look up at Issei expectantly. The realisation that Kirika was waiting for him to speak was what finally broke Issei from his spell, and he blurted out the first thing that came to his head.
"Nice weather we are having, isn't it?" he squeaked, causing some of the girls to drive their heads against the nearest hard surface in frustration.
"Yes, it is isn't it?" Kirika replied kindly, she wasn't so completely clueless as to not realise that this wasn't the real subject and encouraged Issei to speak with another warm smile that lit up her golden eyes.
Not realising at all that she was the cause for Issei's flustered demeanour.
"Ha... Ahem. Uh, well, that is," Issei tried valiantly to hold himself together in the face of Kirika's relentless assault upon his thought processes. "Ah, yes! Uhm, I was going to ask you if you were feeling alright Emiya-san."
"Hmm?" Kirika wondered why he would ask that before she realised that her behaviour had been a little unusual today, and looked down at the desk as she allowed her copper hair to half veil her face again.
"It's nothing really, Issei-kun," she told the concerned young man. "I just have some things on my mind."
Reminded again of the strain she felt as a master in the Grail War, Kirika's face was shadowed as she drew small circles on the desk top with the end of her dainty finger. It would have surprised many people who thought they knew her that though the skin of her hand looked as if it unblemished, it was in fact covered with thin lines from the damage that she had taken while training her martial arts. It was only thanks to Rin's almost obsessive care to treat each wound that the scars were the tiny lines that they were.
Seeing Kirika's depressed state, Issei was not the only person in the room to feel a tug on their protective instincts. He was however the only one who was close enough and mentally unbalanced enough by his attraction for Kirika to do what he did next.
"Would you go out with me as a pre-condition to marriage, Emiya-san?" Issei said hurriedly as he put his hand on top of Kirika's. As soon as the words left his mouth, his brain caught up to the conversation, and Issei turned white as he realised what he had just done.
Issei's sudden confession had taken everyone in the class by surprise, and it took a while for everyone to register what he had just said. When everybody had processed it though, there was a sudden silence that filled the room for an instant before a huge uproar started. The girls were shrieking with excitement as the time they had been waiting for since the year started finally came, and the boys were shouting at Issei for daring to violate the sacred agreement that all the males and some of the females in the class had signed in regards to Kirika.
As for Kirika herself, she was frozen in shock as she ran through Issei's request in her head to try and find the misunderstanding that had to be in there somewhere. Over and over, she considered the words, and assigned possible meanings to them. In the end however, the results kept on boiling down to one irrefutable conclusion.
Ryuudou Issei, president of the school council and son of the head priest at the local temple.
- Had just asked her to be his girlfriend.
"... Eh? Eh?" Kirika's eyes began to roll in panic as she tried to think up a response to this out-of-the-blue combo attack.
Issei too was on the verge of panic as his embarassment battled with his relief at having finally gotten his feelings towards Kirika out. Red-faced and sweating, he nevertheless kept his eyes on Kirika as he awaited the reply that would either condemn him to the dark depths of depression or raise his spirit to heavenly heights.
Kirika's cherry red cheeks reflected the growing heat inside her head as her brain overclocked itself in its calculations as to how to respond. The calls and cheers from the girls around the room for her to accept were not helping matters.
Warning - self-concept dimensions destabilised. Memory/Reality disjunction. Shatterglass Refractorium pattern propagation 80 per cent over safe limits.
The fact that somebody had asked her to go out with them was not something that Kirika had really ever thought would apply to her. In the last few years since she had been turned into a girl by the Kaleidostick, she had come to accept the role of a girl, but had never truly thought about what that would mean until she started to get her periods three years ago. That had marked a transition point for her in the way she regarded herself, and it was then that she had completely accepted the fact that she was a girl now. Somewhere in the back of her head however, her previous identity as a boy had survived. It was this sub-conscious perception of herself that was responsible for Kirika coming to be called Miss Naivete by her classmates.
Since her acceptance of reality, Kirika regarded herself and behaved as she had been taught by Rin. In other words she carried herself as a girl of good breeding would in public. Mentally however, while 'Kirika' was the one who made all the decisions, 'Shirou' still controlled the functions of the Id and the Ego. This congruence of two mutually exclusive self-identities had created a strange equilibrium in Kirika's mind. The end result being that she was literally unable to perceive another person's attraction for herself.
Friendliness and caramaderie was okay, and Kirika's open nature meant that she was able to fit easily enough into any group. Anything beyond that however encountered her mental barriers, and was misinterpreted or completely unnoticed. A good example of this was her total obliviousness towards the heated looks that a lot of the male population at the school threw her way. When others mentioned such things to her, she laughed it off saying it was impossible for such a thing to be true. Direct approaches did not work either. Many brave souls had fallen before Fortress Shirou as they charged at her with love letters and Valentine's chocolates, each and everyone of them unable to persuade Kirika that their affections were anything more than a joke.
Technically, Issei's confession right now should have ended the same way, with Kirika complimenting Issei for his good attempt at cheering her up. The fact that it was Issei who had just confessed however was what had opened up that first little chink in Kirika's formidable mental walls.
Kirika had been around Issei for a while now. Fate conspiring to put them in the same class through Junior high as well as for their time up till now in Homurabara. Though Issei didn't realise it himself, his constant battles with Rin and his caretaker role over his classmates meant that he was in Kirika's presence more than almost anyone else in her life. Though he had yet to cross the line from friend to family, Kirika had come to value his presence over the years, and by now was very aware of his earnest approach to everything in life. This knowledge of Issei's earnesty lent itself to Issei's confession, allowing a potential cupid's arrow to finally penetrate into her mind.
The effects were instantaneous. Kirika was forced to consider his confession, and how she felt about it. Consulting her feelings in the matter only made things worse as she realised that the range of emotions that had been stirred up by Issei's words were so chaotic that they were impossible to comprehend. This led to further thoughts as to why this was so, and for the first time in three years, 'Kirika' and 'Shirou' perceived each other.
Was she a girl? Or was she a boy? 'Kirika' argued the former while 'Shirou' proclaimed the latter as the truth of her being. Superficially she was a member of the fairer sex, and 'Kirika' took this irreversible fact to mean that form should shape spirit. 'Shirou' on the other hand was firm on the fact that the spirit one was born with was the core of one's being, and that spirit overruled form. It was an unending tug-of-war that started up in Kirika's head as two sides of her identity that she hadn't even suspected to exist began to argue.
"... Kirika-chan?" Issei asked uncertainly, his hopes rapidly sinking as Kirika's solemn silence continued. It was the first time that he had called her by name since she had given him permission at the start of last year.
Kirika heard Issei, but she still hadn't come up with an answer. How could she? Issei's question demanded that she first answer the question of who exactly she was, a tangled problem that she had no idea where to start unravelling.
"... I'm sorry, Issei-kun, but could you please let me think about this for a while?" Kirika finally said as she regained some of her thought capacity. "This is all a bit sudden, and..."
Her answer made everyone groan, and Issei choked back a cry of some unknown emotion as Kirika gave him a strained smile. He felt gutted, but took heart in the fact that at least it hadn't been an outright refusal.
"No, that's alright Emiya-san," said Issei, returning to the more formal method of address. His voice a bit strangled as if he was having difficulty controlling his emotions. "I guess it was a bit unthoughtful of me to surprise you like that, especially with such a forceful confession."
Kirika chuckled nervously in response as she thought about what Issei had said. What was it? Go out with him as a pre-condition to marriage? The almost ridiculously passionate words brought a drop of sweat to Kirika's brow as her conflicted mind went over what the implications might have been had she unconsciously replied yes.
"Yes, that was rash of me," Issei muttered, almost to himself as if he was trying to hypnotise himself into believing it. "I suppose I must have been hoping to sweep you off your feet like Souichirou-san did with his fiancee. Hmm, I must find out exactly how he did that."
"Wait, are you talking about Kuzuki-sensei?" Kirika asked in disbelief, latching onto the topic both out of curiosity as well as a desire to talk about anything other than herself. "The Kuzuki-sensei? The one who never smiles?"
Issei was apparently just as eager to avoid the topic of the confession as well, as the words started flowing. "Yes, surprising isn't it? Souichirou-san apparently met her a while ago while he was out, and they fell in love. She's currently staying with us at the temple right now until they marry because their romance apparently led to her running away from her house. I never expected such a thing from Souichirou-san, but there you go."
"Wow," Kirika blinked as she brought up an image of the stern teacher in her mind. "I would never have imagined that Kuzuki-sensei to be such a romantic. What does his fiancee look like?"
"Oh, she's very beautiful," Issei told her, but then followed that up with a slight frown. "In fact, it's a little problematic as all the younger monks-in-training keep getting distracted by her. I suppose it's understandable though. It's not everyday that you see such a beautiful foreigner."
Kirika's ear caught an unexpected word and she looked at Issei questioningly. "Foreigner?"
Issei nodded. "Yes. Apparently she's a noble who came here after she was tricked by some scoundrel of a man. I think she said she's from Greece or somewhere around that region.
Memory connection. Caster - Female, Human. Spellcraft. Divine Words - Geographic Origin - Ancient Greece. Identified words. Atlas, Hyperion, Aegis.
Memories of last night's battle at Ryuudouji temple popped up in Kirika's head, and she frowned in consternation as she realised that Caster was a woman, and that the spells she had used were Grecian in origin. How she knew that last part was a mystery, but her instincts told her that it was true. Adding what Issei had just told her to that information, she rapidly came to a conclusion.
"Tell me something, Issei-kun. Has Kuzuki-sensei been doing anything unusual at night recently," Kirika said slowly as she carefully shaped her words. If Kuzuki-sensei was Caster's master, it wouldn't be strange for Caster to have placed a geas on Issei to prevent any leaks of information. She had to be careful to avoid any such trigger as she delved deeper.
She must have phrased things in a too roundabout manner though, as Issei went bright red.
"At night? Ahem. I did happen to hear some strange noises from his room. Ahem," Issei coughed and put his hands together in a Buddhist prayer position. "Must clear my mind of extraneous thoughts. Evil thoughts, begone. Evil thoughts, begone."
"Huh? Huh?" Kirika wondered why Issei was acting like this, and then understood what he had meant. "Huh?! I don't mean that! What I meant was if there's been anything unusual recently at the temple?!"
"Hmm? Oh," Issei put his hands down and looked at her quizzically. "Why didn't you just say so? Hmm, I haven't noticed anything strange. Oh wait, hang on. Matou-kun has been coming up to the temple recently. Apparently his family and Souichirou's san's fiancee's family are old acquaintances."
Kirika nodded absently before she realised what was wrong in what Issei had just said.
"Wait, Matou-kun? You mean Sakura's brother?" she asked as she leapt to her feet.
"Uhm, yes," Issei replied, surprised by Kirika's sudden interest. "He came up last night as well to bring them something. I'm not sure when he went back down though."
Kirika's mind was whirling as she put together the dots. Shinji had known about Caster, that was obvious from the information he had told her. What he hadn't said was anything about meeting Caster personally. That in itself was a cause for suspicion, but Rin had said that the Matou's were an old mage family, heavily involved in the construction of the Grail system. From her observation of Matou Shinji, she knew that he was no different from any other fit young man, but was it so unlikely that coming as he did from such an old house he couldn't have found a way to become a master. If he was involved in the Grail War himself, then everything suddenly made sense. From her lingering suspicions as to how he had found such accurate information against the servant who was naturally best suited to foil such attempts, to the unexplained appearance of Rider at the mountain last night.
Hang on a second, then what about Sakura? Kirika thought about the fact that the two were brothers and sisters. Rin had said that they weren't actually siblings by blood, and that in fact Sakura was her sister, but there was the very likely chance that ten years together had created a bond of some sorts between Sakura and Shinji. Sakura was also known to be quite obedient when it came to Shinji's immature demands as well if Archery club rumours were anything to go by. In that case...
Kirika's blood chilled as she remembered Rin saying that she was planning to have a face to face meeting with Sakura today. If Shinji had lied about being involved in the Grail War, then what about Sakura? Even if she wasn't the Matou master, she was just as capable of becoming a mage as Rin had been. Rin had said that Sakura didn't appear to have grown up as a mage, but what if it was all an act?
Truly alarmed now, Kirika quickly glanced about the room. She couldn't see Shinji anywhere. Come to think of it, she didn't remember seeing him today.
"Issei-kun? Have you seen Matou-kun today?" Kirika asked quickly.
"No, I haven't," Issei told her in a somewhat disgruntled tone. Why was she asking about the playboy? "I did hear that there was a fire at his house last night, so it might be that he's busy sorting that out."
Kirika considered the suggestion, and then made up her mind. She had to go to Rin. With two masters and their servants possibly here at the school, it was too risky to leave her alone to meet Sakura.
Grabbing her bag, Kirika looked at the clock. It had already been a while since lunch started. She had to hurry.
"Uhm, Issei-kun, I think I will go eat lunch now," Kirika said as she checked her physical and mental condition. Fitness, check. Prana, overflowing as usual. Servants?
Opening up the line between her and her servants, Kirika let out an urgent call.
Saber, Lily, come to the school at once. I am heading for the rooftop, so look for me there.
The situation as she perceived it was serious enough that had she possessed any spare command seals, she might have used one right then and there. As it was however, she was thankful that Saber and Lily had refused to let her come to school today unless they were nearby. While she had refused to have them come onto school grounds, they should be sitting at a nearby cafe from where they shouldn't take too long to arrive. The only question was whether or not that would be too late.
"Talk to you later, Issei-kun," she said as she rushed out of the classroom, leaving an off-kilter Issei in her wake.
Running for the rooftop at a speed that had one very familiar athletics club member call out for her to join the club, Kirika had just made it onto the second floor when the world suddenly went red.
-x-x-x-
Matou Shinji was not a very brave soul. It was not a trait that was normally apparent in him, but when faced with challenges beyond immediate comprehension or solution, it was not uncommon for him to not know what to do.
This weakness of his character had caused him to almost break down when he discovered that the Matou residence had been raided, the mansion burnt down, and his grandfather killed. Matou Zouken's passing was a great shock to Shinji, in whose mind Matou Zouken was a source of fear and obedience as he had been for most members of the extended family. Matou Zouken had ruled the clan with an iron fist for as long as anyone could remember, and for such a figure to have perished left Shinji in a state of panic as he wondered if he was next.
The thought was not too strange for him to have. Caster had informed him that it was Tohsaka Rin who had carried out the attack, and Shinji knew from experience how strictly Tohsaka followed the code of a mage. If she had decided to declare war on the Matou family, it was unquestionable that she would seek to finish the deed by killing the most important person (at least in his mind) among the members living here in Fuyuki.
His twitchy mood was a stark contrast from the face he had shown at the beginning of last night, shouting with elation as Rider and Caster appeared to have cornered Saber. That excitement though had quickly faded as Saber revealed just why those of her class were considered the most powerful of the seven classes of servant that were summoned by the Grail. With one attack from her noble phantasm she had cleared the area of the dragontooth soldiers that had been impeding her movements, and had then proceeded to easily subdue Rider before she was called away by her master.
Shinji had been surprised by how easily the tables had been turned, and words could not have described his frustration at how weak his servant was compared to that magnificent sword wielder. This was another cause for his emotional unstability right now, as he might have found confidence in his servant had Rider proved herself to be strong enough to protect him adequately. Weakened as she was by the transfer of mastery from Sakura to Shinji however, she was clearly no match for Saber, and Shinji was dissatisfied by this. Not realising, or refusing to accept that much of the reason for this was himself.
Even worse, Rider's exertions during the battle coupled with Shinji's indiscriminate use of her prana in order to create shadow familiars by which to spy on the battle meant that she was so depleted that it was becoming difficult to even maintain physical shape. The uncertainty that this had planted in Shinji's heart had bloomed forth when he found out that Rin had killed Zouken, and had found a source of nourishment in Caster, who had eagerly siezed a chance to strengthen her control over the foolish boy.
Caster was well aware of the fact that Shinji was behind the creation of the bounded field around the school, and had idly mentioned in passing that Rider might regain some of her usefulness should he activate it and use those inside as a source of nourishment. Who knew? Tohsaka Rin and Emiya Kirika were students as well. Might they not be caught in the trap as well? The words had been accompanied by a hypnotic suggestion for Shinji to carry out the act, and then return to the mountain, but there was no way for Shinji to know that. Instead, he listened, and thought himself brilliant for having planned ahead for just this eventuality.
As soon as he had made up his mind, he had hurried to the school with Rider in tow. Getting there just as the chemistry lesson he should have attended ended, he had frightened a few first years with the light of madness in his eyes.
Going into the Archery dojo where the centrepiece of the bounded field rested, he had then proceeded to order the reluctant servant to activate the ward that she had set up.
Blood Fort Andromeda.
- A demonic noble phantasm that recreates the temple where the monster Medusa used to live. Turning the space inside into a palace of darkness where natural light could not reach, it's red light was well matched to its purpose of slowly digesting alive all living things that it contained in order to supply Rider with prana.
As the red light deepened, Rider grew visibly stronger, and when a message arrived from Caster saying that Tohsaka Rin and Emiya Kirika were inside the school building, Shinji realised that he had succeeded. All he needed to do now was stand here, and wait for his foes to perish in the face of his might.
"Hahahahaha. Hahahahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shinji laughed maniacally.
Standing behind him, Rider watched him with her expression mostly hidden by the visor across her eyes, but it was impossible to mistake the disapproval she felt. For one thing, the centre of the ward was too far away from where most of the people were for her to absorb their prana quickly. His pitiful magical power was no help here as it hindered her efforts rather than helped. At this rate, it was far more likely that the enemy masters would arrive here before she was finished than it was that she could complete the job without interference. Her idiotic master however didn't seem to realise that, being drunk on the power that he was feeling from the Book of the False Attendant which allowed him to mimic spellcraft by drawing on her prana.
Rider sighed softly as Shinji continued to make a fool of himself. She hadn't thought she could miss Sakura any more than she already did, but Shinji was proving her wrong with every second that he drew breath. She almost wished that an enemy servant would come by already to put her out of her misery.
Covalent bonds, carbon atoms, and multi-dimensional refraction phenomena. Kirika's thoughts were in chaos as she sat through a chemistry lesson trying to sort out some of the more shocking revelations of the last five days.
In an expanse of time less than a week long, Kirika's world had undergone serious shifts. Rin having a sister that she had never said anything about to start with, Rin killing somebody, and servants that defied all the laws of magic to trespass on the realm of True Magic with physical ability alone. When she considered that these were but the latest in a series of mind-breaking events, it made her wonder if there would be anything left in this world that could surprise her by the time this Grail War finished.
Having thought that, Kirika instantly recognised the notion as a silly one and shook her head ruefully. Of course there would be surprises. It was the little and great unexpected marvels in one's days that made life worth living in the first place. For all she knew, she too had a sister out there somewhere.
"..." Kirika stopped and stared blankly at the notebook in front of her. Thinking about the way Kiritsugu had behaved, the idea was actually not that farfetched. In the end however, she laughed weakly to herself and dismissed the idea as unlikely at best.
Not all surprises were so pleasant though. One particular example troubled Kirika's thoughts now as she remembered the discussions from last night and early this morning. The thing that bothered her was the fact that Rin had killed someone. From what she had said, the old man was a mage himself, and Kirika knew from what Rin and Kirei had taught her that the first resolution that a mage had to make was to be ready to face death at any time. Nevertheless, the revelation that Rin had it in her to ruthlessly kill someone had shocked her when she found out about it. More so because she knew from experience that Rin was not someone who regarded human life lightly.
When she had revealed her discomfort to Saber and Lily this morning, Saber had subtly admonished her for her weakness. Lily hadn't said anything, but from the awkward smile on her face as Saber had spoken it was clear that though she thought differently to her twin, she couldn't disagree completely. Was she really the one that was wrong then? To have hoped to get through this war without anyone being killed? Saber had said that she needed to understand that this was a war, not a play where no one died for real. That was true, and she had believed that she understood, but this first death had shaken her resolve more than she had thought possible.
Kirika sighed heavily and bowed her head so that her long hair veiled her face, an action which drew the attention of her classmates nearby who wondered why the usually cheerful girl seemed so down today. Issei in particular kept shifting in his seat as he threw glances at her, as if he wanted to jump up and go over to her in order to comfort her. Kirika's classmates were not the only ones to notice though, and the teacher stopped to comment on her attitude.
"Emiya-san, is there a problem?" asked the strict middle-aged man who was responsible for this class.
Lost in her thoughts, Kirika didn't respond to the question, and continued to scribble absently on her notebook as the teacher's brow began to crinkle with displeasure.
"Emiya-san!" the teacher called out forcefully. "Are you paying attention?"
At the repeated call, Kirika became aware that someone was calling her, and straightened up quickly when she realised it was the teacher.
"I'm sorry, Sakabata-sensei," Kirika apologised hurriedly as she remembered she was in the middle of class. "What was it you just said?"
The teacher's salt-and-pepper eyebrows twitched as he realised that Kirika hadn't been listenting to him. With any other student he would already have lost his temper, but Kirika was well known around the school as a diligent student and so he decided to confirm his suspicions.
"I asked if there was a problem, Emiya-san," he repeated for Kirika.
Unable to say anything in her defence, Kirika bowed her head in apology. "No there isn't, Sakabata-sensei."
The chemistry teacher tapped his gaunt finger against the blackboard as he frowned in obvious displeasure.
"In that case, Emiya-san," he finally said, making up his mind as to what to do. "Do you mind telling everyone what the difference is between a sigma bond and a pi bond?"
"A sigma bond and a pi bond? Uhm..." Kirika's doll like face regained its usual serenity as she cleared her mind to rifle through her memories for the required information. "A sigma bond is the strongest type of covalent bond, formed by overlapping between atomic shells. Pi bonds on the other hand describe a weaker type of bond that forms... When two orbital paths overlap? Sorry, sir, but I can't remember that last part."
Somewhat surprised that Kirika knew the answer to the question, the chemistry teacher dispelled his anger and filled in the part that Kirika's description lacked.
"Pi bonds mostly form between electrons on the P orbitals of atoms, and you are correct to say that the bonds form when orbitals overlap, although this overlap is generally on two nodes of the orbital unlike a sigma bond," placated, he decided to let Kirika go with just a short warning. "It's good to see that you are keeping up with the material, but please pay attention to the lesson, Emiya-san."
"I will, Sakabata-sensei," Kirika replied firmly.
The rest of the lesson passed by without incident, and Kirika found the material pleasant for once as focusing on the lesson meant she didn't have to struggle with the emotional tangle in her head. Soon enough however, the bell rang, and Kirika was left with her thoughts again as everybody began to get ready for lunch.
"Hah..."
Lacking the energy to move from her seat, Kirika sighed as she put her face down on her desk in a move that Rin would have told her off for had she seen it. Her self-appointed teacher in matters feminine was strict that way, not allowing any behaviour that she regarded unladylike if they were in public. It was somewhat hypocritical of Rin that she blatantly ignored this rule if she felt like it, but after six years it was as much habit for Kirika as was wearing girl's clothes. Right now though, the muddled feelings in her heart that she couldn't bring herself to care.
Her uncharacteristic lifelessness provoked a flurry of whispers from the other students, many of whom had already been curious after the odd episode during the chemistry class. It was a strange point about Kirika however that while she was on good terms with everyone in the class, there was no one who could confidently say that they were close to her. This was not usually evident, but in cases like this where there was the potential for awkwardness, the lack of deep relationships showed as no one ventured near.
In the end, it was Issei who moved. Urged on by the girls who supported his cute crush on Kirika, he got up and headed towards Kirika's seat to the jealous gazes of the other boys, many of whom were regretting their lack of initiative in siezing this chance to get close to one of the flowers of the school.
Issei gulped as he got close to the objection of his infantile emotions, who hadn't noticed him as she seemed lost in thought. Opening his mouth to call her, Issei stopped as he realised he had no idea what he was going to say.
"..."
"Hau..."
"..."
"... Hmm?" Kirika became aware of Issei's presence, and straightened up, brushing the loose strands of her silky hair out of her face as she turned to face him.
"Hello, Issei-kun," Kirika greeted him with a smile that melted his heart. "Did you want to say something?"
"..." Issei was silent, what clumsy words he had formed in his head scattered to the winds after he was exposed to Kirika's smile.
Though she could have taken the silence strangely, Kirika simply continued to look up at Issei expectantly. The realisation that Kirika was waiting for him to speak was what finally broke Issei from his spell, and he blurted out the first thing that came to his head.
"Nice weather we are having, isn't it?" he squeaked, causing some of the girls to drive their heads against the nearest hard surface in frustration.
"Yes, it is isn't it?" Kirika replied kindly, she wasn't so completely clueless as to not realise that this wasn't the real subject and encouraged Issei to speak with another warm smile that lit up her golden eyes.
Not realising at all that she was the cause for Issei's flustered demeanour.
"Ha... Ahem. Uh, well, that is," Issei tried valiantly to hold himself together in the face of Kirika's relentless assault upon his thought processes. "Ah, yes! Uhm, I was going to ask you if you were feeling alright Emiya-san."
"Hmm?" Kirika wondered why he would ask that before she realised that her behaviour had been a little unusual today, and looked down at the desk as she allowed her copper hair to half veil her face again.
"It's nothing really, Issei-kun," she told the concerned young man. "I just have some things on my mind."
Reminded again of the strain she felt as a master in the Grail War, Kirika's face was shadowed as she drew small circles on the desk top with the end of her dainty finger. It would have surprised many people who thought they knew her that though the skin of her hand looked as if it unblemished, it was in fact covered with thin lines from the damage that she had taken while training her martial arts. It was only thanks to Rin's almost obsessive care to treat each wound that the scars were the tiny lines that they were.
Seeing Kirika's depressed state, Issei was not the only person in the room to feel a tug on their protective instincts. He was however the only one who was close enough and mentally unbalanced enough by his attraction for Kirika to do what he did next.
"Would you go out with me as a pre-condition to marriage, Emiya-san?" Issei said hurriedly as he put his hand on top of Kirika's. As soon as the words left his mouth, his brain caught up to the conversation, and Issei turned white as he realised what he had just done.
Issei's sudden confession had taken everyone in the class by surprise, and it took a while for everyone to register what he had just said. When everybody had processed it though, there was a sudden silence that filled the room for an instant before a huge uproar started. The girls were shrieking with excitement as the time they had been waiting for since the year started finally came, and the boys were shouting at Issei for daring to violate the sacred agreement that all the males and some of the females in the class had signed in regards to Kirika.
As for Kirika herself, she was frozen in shock as she ran through Issei's request in her head to try and find the misunderstanding that had to be in there somewhere. Over and over, she considered the words, and assigned possible meanings to them. In the end however, the results kept on boiling down to one irrefutable conclusion.
Ryuudou Issei, president of the school council and son of the head priest at the local temple.
- Had just asked her to be his girlfriend.
"... Eh? Eh?" Kirika's eyes began to roll in panic as she tried to think up a response to this out-of-the-blue combo attack.
Issei too was on the verge of panic as his embarassment battled with his relief at having finally gotten his feelings towards Kirika out. Red-faced and sweating, he nevertheless kept his eyes on Kirika as he awaited the reply that would either condemn him to the dark depths of depression or raise his spirit to heavenly heights.
Kirika's cherry red cheeks reflected the growing heat inside her head as her brain overclocked itself in its calculations as to how to respond. The calls and cheers from the girls around the room for her to accept were not helping matters.
Warning - self-concept dimensions destabilised. Memory/Reality disjunction. Shatterglass Refractorium pattern propagation 80 per cent over safe limits.
The fact that somebody had asked her to go out with them was not something that Kirika had really ever thought would apply to her. In the last few years since she had been turned into a girl by the Kaleidostick, she had come to accept the role of a girl, but had never truly thought about what that would mean until she started to get her periods three years ago. That had marked a transition point for her in the way she regarded herself, and it was then that she had completely accepted the fact that she was a girl now. Somewhere in the back of her head however, her previous identity as a boy had survived. It was this sub-conscious perception of herself that was responsible for Kirika coming to be called Miss Naivete by her classmates.
Since her acceptance of reality, Kirika regarded herself and behaved as she had been taught by Rin. In other words she carried herself as a girl of good breeding would in public. Mentally however, while 'Kirika' was the one who made all the decisions, 'Shirou' still controlled the functions of the Id and the Ego. This congruence of two mutually exclusive self-identities had created a strange equilibrium in Kirika's mind. The end result being that she was literally unable to perceive another person's attraction for herself.
Friendliness and caramaderie was okay, and Kirika's open nature meant that she was able to fit easily enough into any group. Anything beyond that however encountered her mental barriers, and was misinterpreted or completely unnoticed. A good example of this was her total obliviousness towards the heated looks that a lot of the male population at the school threw her way. When others mentioned such things to her, she laughed it off saying it was impossible for such a thing to be true. Direct approaches did not work either. Many brave souls had fallen before Fortress Shirou as they charged at her with love letters and Valentine's chocolates, each and everyone of them unable to persuade Kirika that their affections were anything more than a joke.
Technically, Issei's confession right now should have ended the same way, with Kirika complimenting Issei for his good attempt at cheering her up. The fact that it was Issei who had just confessed however was what had opened up that first little chink in Kirika's formidable mental walls.
Kirika had been around Issei for a while now. Fate conspiring to put them in the same class through Junior high as well as for their time up till now in Homurabara. Though Issei didn't realise it himself, his constant battles with Rin and his caretaker role over his classmates meant that he was in Kirika's presence more than almost anyone else in her life. Though he had yet to cross the line from friend to family, Kirika had come to value his presence over the years, and by now was very aware of his earnest approach to everything in life. This knowledge of Issei's earnesty lent itself to Issei's confession, allowing a potential cupid's arrow to finally penetrate into her mind.
The effects were instantaneous. Kirika was forced to consider his confession, and how she felt about it. Consulting her feelings in the matter only made things worse as she realised that the range of emotions that had been stirred up by Issei's words were so chaotic that they were impossible to comprehend. This led to further thoughts as to why this was so, and for the first time in three years, 'Kirika' and 'Shirou' perceived each other.
Was she a girl? Or was she a boy? 'Kirika' argued the former while 'Shirou' proclaimed the latter as the truth of her being. Superficially she was a member of the fairer sex, and 'Kirika' took this irreversible fact to mean that form should shape spirit. 'Shirou' on the other hand was firm on the fact that the spirit one was born with was the core of one's being, and that spirit overruled form. It was an unending tug-of-war that started up in Kirika's head as two sides of her identity that she hadn't even suspected to exist began to argue.
"... Kirika-chan?" Issei asked uncertainly, his hopes rapidly sinking as Kirika's solemn silence continued. It was the first time that he had called her by name since she had given him permission at the start of last year.
Kirika heard Issei, but she still hadn't come up with an answer. How could she? Issei's question demanded that she first answer the question of who exactly she was, a tangled problem that she had no idea where to start unravelling.
"... I'm sorry, Issei-kun, but could you please let me think about this for a while?" Kirika finally said as she regained some of her thought capacity. "This is all a bit sudden, and..."
Her answer made everyone groan, and Issei choked back a cry of some unknown emotion as Kirika gave him a strained smile. He felt gutted, but took heart in the fact that at least it hadn't been an outright refusal.
"No, that's alright Emiya-san," said Issei, returning to the more formal method of address. His voice a bit strangled as if he was having difficulty controlling his emotions. "I guess it was a bit unthoughtful of me to surprise you like that, especially with such a forceful confession."
Kirika chuckled nervously in response as she thought about what Issei had said. What was it? Go out with him as a pre-condition to marriage? The almost ridiculously passionate words brought a drop of sweat to Kirika's brow as her conflicted mind went over what the implications might have been had she unconsciously replied yes.
"Yes, that was rash of me," Issei muttered, almost to himself as if he was trying to hypnotise himself into believing it. "I suppose I must have been hoping to sweep you off your feet like Souichirou-san did with his fiancee. Hmm, I must find out exactly how he did that."
"Wait, are you talking about Kuzuki-sensei?" Kirika asked in disbelief, latching onto the topic both out of curiosity as well as a desire to talk about anything other than herself. "The Kuzuki-sensei? The one who never smiles?"
Issei was apparently just as eager to avoid the topic of the confession as well, as the words started flowing. "Yes, surprising isn't it? Souichirou-san apparently met her a while ago while he was out, and they fell in love. She's currently staying with us at the temple right now until they marry because their romance apparently led to her running away from her house. I never expected such a thing from Souichirou-san, but there you go."
"Wow," Kirika blinked as she brought up an image of the stern teacher in her mind. "I would never have imagined that Kuzuki-sensei to be such a romantic. What does his fiancee look like?"
"Oh, she's very beautiful," Issei told her, but then followed that up with a slight frown. "In fact, it's a little problematic as all the younger monks-in-training keep getting distracted by her. I suppose it's understandable though. It's not everyday that you see such a beautiful foreigner."
Kirika's ear caught an unexpected word and she looked at Issei questioningly. "Foreigner?"
Issei nodded. "Yes. Apparently she's a noble who came here after she was tricked by some scoundrel of a man. I think she said she's from Greece or somewhere around that region.
Memory connection. Caster - Female, Human. Spellcraft. Divine Words - Geographic Origin - Ancient Greece. Identified words. Atlas, Hyperion, Aegis.
Memories of last night's battle at Ryuudouji temple popped up in Kirika's head, and she frowned in consternation as she realised that Caster was a woman, and that the spells she had used were Grecian in origin. How she knew that last part was a mystery, but her instincts told her that it was true. Adding what Issei had just told her to that information, she rapidly came to a conclusion.
"Tell me something, Issei-kun. Has Kuzuki-sensei been doing anything unusual at night recently," Kirika said slowly as she carefully shaped her words. If Kuzuki-sensei was Caster's master, it wouldn't be strange for Caster to have placed a geas on Issei to prevent any leaks of information. She had to be careful to avoid any such trigger as she delved deeper.
She must have phrased things in a too roundabout manner though, as Issei went bright red.
"At night? Ahem. I did happen to hear some strange noises from his room. Ahem," Issei coughed and put his hands together in a Buddhist prayer position. "Must clear my mind of extraneous thoughts. Evil thoughts, begone. Evil thoughts, begone."
"Huh? Huh?" Kirika wondered why Issei was acting like this, and then understood what he had meant. "Huh?! I don't mean that! What I meant was if there's been anything unusual recently at the temple?!"
"Hmm? Oh," Issei put his hands down and looked at her quizzically. "Why didn't you just say so? Hmm, I haven't noticed anything strange. Oh wait, hang on. Matou-kun has been coming up to the temple recently. Apparently his family and Souichirou's san's fiancee's family are old acquaintances."
Kirika nodded absently before she realised what was wrong in what Issei had just said.
"Wait, Matou-kun? You mean Sakura's brother?" she asked as she leapt to her feet.
"Uhm, yes," Issei replied, surprised by Kirika's sudden interest. "He came up last night as well to bring them something. I'm not sure when he went back down though."
Kirika's mind was whirling as she put together the dots. Shinji had known about Caster, that was obvious from the information he had told her. What he hadn't said was anything about meeting Caster personally. That in itself was a cause for suspicion, but Rin had said that the Matou's were an old mage family, heavily involved in the construction of the Grail system. From her observation of Matou Shinji, she knew that he was no different from any other fit young man, but was it so unlikely that coming as he did from such an old house he couldn't have found a way to become a master. If he was involved in the Grail War himself, then everything suddenly made sense. From her lingering suspicions as to how he had found such accurate information against the servant who was naturally best suited to foil such attempts, to the unexplained appearance of Rider at the mountain last night.
Hang on a second, then what about Sakura? Kirika thought about the fact that the two were brothers and sisters. Rin had said that they weren't actually siblings by blood, and that in fact Sakura was her sister, but there was the very likely chance that ten years together had created a bond of some sorts between Sakura and Shinji. Sakura was also known to be quite obedient when it came to Shinji's immature demands as well if Archery club rumours were anything to go by. In that case...
Kirika's blood chilled as she remembered Rin saying that she was planning to have a face to face meeting with Sakura today. If Shinji had lied about being involved in the Grail War, then what about Sakura? Even if she wasn't the Matou master, she was just as capable of becoming a mage as Rin had been. Rin had said that Sakura didn't appear to have grown up as a mage, but what if it was all an act?
Truly alarmed now, Kirika quickly glanced about the room. She couldn't see Shinji anywhere. Come to think of it, she didn't remember seeing him today.
"Issei-kun? Have you seen Matou-kun today?" Kirika asked quickly.
"No, I haven't," Issei told her in a somewhat disgruntled tone. Why was she asking about the playboy? "I did hear that there was a fire at his house last night, so it might be that he's busy sorting that out."
Kirika considered the suggestion, and then made up her mind. She had to go to Rin. With two masters and their servants possibly here at the school, it was too risky to leave her alone to meet Sakura.
Grabbing her bag, Kirika looked at the clock. It had already been a while since lunch started. She had to hurry.
"Uhm, Issei-kun, I think I will go eat lunch now," Kirika said as she checked her physical and mental condition. Fitness, check. Prana, overflowing as usual. Servants?
Opening up the line between her and her servants, Kirika let out an urgent call.
Saber, Lily, come to the school at once. I am heading for the rooftop, so look for me there.
The situation as she perceived it was serious enough that had she possessed any spare command seals, she might have used one right then and there. As it was however, she was thankful that Saber and Lily had refused to let her come to school today unless they were nearby. While she had refused to have them come onto school grounds, they should be sitting at a nearby cafe from where they shouldn't take too long to arrive. The only question was whether or not that would be too late.
"Talk to you later, Issei-kun," she said as she rushed out of the classroom, leaving an off-kilter Issei in her wake.
Running for the rooftop at a speed that had one very familiar athletics club member call out for her to join the club, Kirika had just made it onto the second floor when the world suddenly went red.
-x-x-x-
Matou Shinji was not a very brave soul. It was not a trait that was normally apparent in him, but when faced with challenges beyond immediate comprehension or solution, it was not uncommon for him to not know what to do.
This weakness of his character had caused him to almost break down when he discovered that the Matou residence had been raided, the mansion burnt down, and his grandfather killed. Matou Zouken's passing was a great shock to Shinji, in whose mind Matou Zouken was a source of fear and obedience as he had been for most members of the extended family. Matou Zouken had ruled the clan with an iron fist for as long as anyone could remember, and for such a figure to have perished left Shinji in a state of panic as he wondered if he was next.
The thought was not too strange for him to have. Caster had informed him that it was Tohsaka Rin who had carried out the attack, and Shinji knew from experience how strictly Tohsaka followed the code of a mage. If she had decided to declare war on the Matou family, it was unquestionable that she would seek to finish the deed by killing the most important person (at least in his mind) among the members living here in Fuyuki.
His twitchy mood was a stark contrast from the face he had shown at the beginning of last night, shouting with elation as Rider and Caster appeared to have cornered Saber. That excitement though had quickly faded as Saber revealed just why those of her class were considered the most powerful of the seven classes of servant that were summoned by the Grail. With one attack from her noble phantasm she had cleared the area of the dragontooth soldiers that had been impeding her movements, and had then proceeded to easily subdue Rider before she was called away by her master.
Shinji had been surprised by how easily the tables had been turned, and words could not have described his frustration at how weak his servant was compared to that magnificent sword wielder. This was another cause for his emotional unstability right now, as he might have found confidence in his servant had Rider proved herself to be strong enough to protect him adequately. Weakened as she was by the transfer of mastery from Sakura to Shinji however, she was clearly no match for Saber, and Shinji was dissatisfied by this. Not realising, or refusing to accept that much of the reason for this was himself.
Even worse, Rider's exertions during the battle coupled with Shinji's indiscriminate use of her prana in order to create shadow familiars by which to spy on the battle meant that she was so depleted that it was becoming difficult to even maintain physical shape. The uncertainty that this had planted in Shinji's heart had bloomed forth when he found out that Rin had killed Zouken, and had found a source of nourishment in Caster, who had eagerly siezed a chance to strengthen her control over the foolish boy.
Caster was well aware of the fact that Shinji was behind the creation of the bounded field around the school, and had idly mentioned in passing that Rider might regain some of her usefulness should he activate it and use those inside as a source of nourishment. Who knew? Tohsaka Rin and Emiya Kirika were students as well. Might they not be caught in the trap as well? The words had been accompanied by a hypnotic suggestion for Shinji to carry out the act, and then return to the mountain, but there was no way for Shinji to know that. Instead, he listened, and thought himself brilliant for having planned ahead for just this eventuality.
As soon as he had made up his mind, he had hurried to the school with Rider in tow. Getting there just as the chemistry lesson he should have attended ended, he had frightened a few first years with the light of madness in his eyes.
Going into the Archery dojo where the centrepiece of the bounded field rested, he had then proceeded to order the reluctant servant to activate the ward that she had set up.
Blood Fort Andromeda.
- A demonic noble phantasm that recreates the temple where the monster Medusa used to live. Turning the space inside into a palace of darkness where natural light could not reach, it's red light was well matched to its purpose of slowly digesting alive all living things that it contained in order to supply Rider with prana.
As the red light deepened, Rider grew visibly stronger, and when a message arrived from Caster saying that Tohsaka Rin and Emiya Kirika were inside the school building, Shinji realised that he had succeeded. All he needed to do now was stand here, and wait for his foes to perish in the face of his might.
"Hahahahaha. Hahahahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shinji laughed maniacally.
Standing behind him, Rider watched him with her expression mostly hidden by the visor across her eyes, but it was impossible to mistake the disapproval she felt. For one thing, the centre of the ward was too far away from where most of the people were for her to absorb their prana quickly. His pitiful magical power was no help here as it hindered her efforts rather than helped. At this rate, it was far more likely that the enemy masters would arrive here before she was finished than it was that she could complete the job without interference. Her idiotic master however didn't seem to realise that, being drunk on the power that he was feeling from the Book of the False Attendant which allowed him to mimic spellcraft by drawing on her prana.
Rider sighed softly as Shinji continued to make a fool of himself. She hadn't thought she could miss Sakura any more than she already did, but Shinji was proving her wrong with every second that he drew breath. She almost wished that an enemy servant would come by already to put her out of her misery.
4-4
The air around Kirika suddenly flared with light as the prana that continously flooded her circuits reacted against the savage pull of the active ward. When it settled down, Kirika was alarmed to see that all around her the normal students of the schools had collapsed, some of them entering into convulsions as the ward ravaged their bodies and minds.
For an instant Kirika considered stopping to try and help them, but training and reason overcame instinct and she hurried up onto the third floor. With her limited healing skills it was unlikely she could do much good, and it was no use helping one student when there were so many at risk. The best option here was to meet up with Rin and work together with their servants to find the person behind this crazy act.
Upon reaching the third floor however, Kirika was forced to stop. Not because of any problem with her legs, but because of an unexpected presence in the hallway before her.
"Kuzuki-sensei," Kirika muttered as she spotted the potential master and enemy.
"Emiya is it?" the infamously expressionless history teacher noted as he approached her. "I assume that you are after the person behind this act."
Kirika didn't say anything. To say yes here was to declare hostilities and lose time against an opponent she knew nothing about. A risky proposition at best, it was a risk she couldn't afford to take when Rin was potentially in danger above.
It might have been that in her haste she betrayed something of her intentions, but Kirika flinched as Kuzuki coolly turned his eyes to the stairwell and the stairs leading up towards the rooftop.
"Something up there is it?" Kuzuki said in his characteristically dry but heavy voice.
As the thin but somehow intimidating man began to make his way to the stairs, Kirika steeler herself and jumped forward to bar his way. If Kuzuki-sensei really was a master, it was far better that she stop him from joining whoever was on the roof rather than joining the fray herself in his wake. Rin had Archer with her, so it was likely that she would be able to fight back against any attack, and her own servants were supposed to arrive soon too. All she needed to do was hold Kuzuki-sensei here until Rin got free.
"I see," Kuzuki said when he realised Kirika's intentions. "I suppose that you too are a mage? Caster told me to prioritise Tohsaka, but she also told me to retrieve you if possible."
Having said that, Kuzuki took off his glasses and took up a simple fighting stance. It was a simple act that took less than a second, but all of a sudden Kirika felt like a frog before a snake. The reaction was not from killing intent, because Kuzuki's killing intent was unnaturally faint. Instead the fear came as all her instincts warned her that this was not someone to take lightly. Those instincts had saved her more than once, and Kirika was not about to ignore their message.
"Trace, on," dropping her bag, Kirika quietly intoned her switch phrase in order to project her usual twin dao.
As soon as she had opened her mouth however, Kuzuki had begun to move. It was only a combination of instincts and reactions drilled into her by the unnaturally fast Kirei that allowed Kirika to dodge that first attack. Even so, she did not escape, as Kuzuki immediately followed the attack up with a flurry of blows that slipped past her hastily erected defence to strike her like hammers.
"Kuh," Kirika coughed blood as she flailed her arms to force Kuzuki to step back lest he be cut by her swords.
Barely five seconds had passed since the initiation of hostilities, but Kirika was already in a mess. Kuzuki's attack had come at angles that to Kirika's mind should not have been possible, and her defence had been of almost no use at all. Had her instincts not been moving her body at full drive, it was possible that she might even have died. All the attacks had struck areas of the body that were considered fatal points in martial arts and Chinese medicine. If they had connected cleanly Kirika would have perished, but her instincts had allowed her to move slightly every time, and the damage had been reduced as the hits came in off-center from their targets.
Load reflection parameter - EMIYA. Reflection integrity, 9 per cent.
There was no time for her to rest as Kuzuki again pressed in. This time however Kirika wasn't just standing there and taking the hits. Quickly calculating the best way to defend herself, she struck out at Kuzuki's shoulders to cut off his weird movements at their point of origin. Or at least that was the plan. As fast as she moved with her circuits boosting her reflexes, Kuzuki was simply far more experienced than her and easily denied her the opening. The difference in height was a problem here as Kirika's 158cm tall frame, while respectable for a girl her age, offered her nowhere near the reach that Kuzuki could get with his 180cm body. In terms of pure speed Kirika was one step ahead of Kuzuki, and this allowed her to survive his attacks. On the offense however that advantage was negated by the difference in height, and Kuzuki gained two steps in his favour from being able to read her movements.
Reeling from a hit that had come out of nowhere to rock the back of her head, Kirika leapt back as far as she could manage in order to buy some time to think. It was a break she sorely needed, as her condition was such that she could not afford to fight much longer, let alone on such one-sided terms as up till now. A quick assessment as she was in the air told her that she had internal bleeding around her guts, and a cracked rib or two. Her neck and head were in bad shape too, with blood coming out from where the more delicate flesh had been gashed open by Kuzuki's attack.
At full boost, Kirika could jump about 4 metres in any direction from a near standing start. She had thought that this would be enough to surprise Kuzuki, but she was surprised in turn when a huge blow caught her on a barely raised guard, just as her tip of her toes reached the ground.
Lifted off her feet again, involuntarily this time, Kirika was smashed back into the wall of the corridor. The impact was not that great, but the shock of the hit froze her for a moment, which was an instant too long against her opponent.
"Kyaa!" Kirika screamed in pain as Kuzuki managed to catch her shoulder with a clean hit, dislocating her left arm. Soon afterwards, her screams only intensified as Kuzuki's hand grabbed hold of her long hair, pulling her towards him with irresistable force.
Integrating memories. Revised reflection integrity at 21 per cent. Eye of the Mind (True), High Speed Analysis, Overload - Enabled.
Focusing through the pain, Kirika's mind spun as she fought to find a solution to her predicament in the miniscule space of time she knew she had before an attack she couldn't defend against finished her off. Crossing off available options at a lightning pace, Kirika identified one possible method, and her body instantly responded with a speed that should have been impossible without the decades of training that were required to build in such reflexes.
Raising her still functioning right arm, she brought the steel dao foward just in time to intercept Kuzuki's lashing fist. It was only a temporary diversion, but it was enough for Kirika to duck her head so that her hair was stretched tight. In that position, she brought her dao across, and cut the strands that Kuzuki was holding in order to free herself.
This was not the end, and Kirika's prana stampeded down her dislocated left arm to fill the dao in that limp hand before it dropped to the floor. Kirika then rushed away from the spot as fast as possible, and smiled as Kuzuki followed her, just as she had planned.
Behind Kuzuki, the dao that had been dropped suddenly splintered as the prana that had been poured into it overcame its structural integrity. The reproduced sword then promptly exploded in a fiery burst, scattering metal shards in a confined radius. A radius within which both Kuzuki and Kirika existed. Kirika however was relatively sheltered from the splash over by the bigger body of Kuzuki, who she had managed to interpose between herself and the explosion. Her opponent was not so lucky, and appeared stumble as the metal fragments hit him. The damage was not fatal by any means, being limited by the short duration which Kirika had available to her as she over-charged the sword. It was enough though for Kirika to distance herself enough from her stoic opponent to regain her bearings.
Parameter - EMIYA, Reflection integrity at 27 per cent. Error: Possibility disjunction. Pattern correlation below levels required for parameter loading to continue. Searching for alternative options. WARNING - mentality destabilisation at 2 per cent and rising. Alternative parameter located. Initiating cross-reference with Parameter - ******, in order to stabilise connection.
Pain overwhelmed Kirika's senses as she diagnosed her own condition by running prana through her nerves. Her nervous system had been forged into circuits by Kiritsugu's somewhat unorthodox training methods, and by scanning the flow of prana she could get a general idea of how much damage she had taken. The feedback from her quick inspection wasn't a good one. Her circuits themselves were in relatively good shape, but the damage to her left shoulder had effectively sealed that arm, and the damage she had accumulated was slowing the response of the rest of her body to her orders.
Looking across at the history teacher trying to kill her, she saw that he had taken far less damage overall, and even most of that from the blast just now. At this rate it was clear that she would not be able to survive another exchange. Another trick with overloading wasn't going to work either, as she no longer possessed the physical capacity to get clear of the blast after she released it. If she was going to win this she was going to have to pull something out of the hat, now.
"Kuzuki-sensei, why are you doing this?" Kirika gasped out as she voiced a question that had hung in her head since this fight started. It was also a ploy to buy time, but he didn't need to know that.
Kuzuki had been flexing his arms and legs, checking out the damage to his own body before trying to approach her again. Upon being asked this question by Kirika however, he stopped, and gave her a look that she thought might hold a trace of curiosity.
"Are you referring to this thing that has surrounded the school, Emiya?" Kuzuki asked her. "If so, this is neither my doing nor Caster's."
"What?" Kirika forgot about her pain and fighting for a moment as she looked at the taller man incredulously. "Don't lie. If the servant of the spell isn't behind a ridiculous ward like this than who could be?"
"I am not a mage myself, so I'm not aware of the particulars," Kuzuki admitted without any change in tone. "Caster did say however that Matou Shinji's servant was going to do something today. If you are looking for the cause of this than you should try to locate him."
Kirika wasn't sure whether or not to believe Kuzuki, but had no time to dwell upon the fact before the mysterious teacher suddenly frowned slightly and turned straightened up.
"As you say, Caster," Kuzuki said out loud, and then he suddenly turned and ran away towards the other end of the school building.
Surprised by this turn of events, Kirika was wondering what had happened when the windows nearby were smashed in, admitting Saber onto the scene.
"Master!" Saber cried out upon seeing Kirika's condition.
Upon catching sight of her servant, Kirika sighed in relief and fell to her knees.
"Just in time, Saber," she said weakly. "Where's Lily?"
"Lily is with Rin and Archer right now," Saber told her as she knelt down to check Kirika's wounds. "We met them outside just as we arrived at the building."
"Outside?" Kirika groaned as she realised she had almost carried out a heroic last stand for nothing.
"Sit still, master," Saber admonished her as she ripped Kirika's shirt to make a bandage for the worst of her open wounds. It was the best she could do as she did not know any healing magic herself.
"Kirika," Kirika muttered as the tension began to drain out of her.
"Excuse me?" Saber paused to look at her.
"Call me Kirika already," Kirika reminded her. "If somebody was around to hear you call me master they might mistake me for kind of pervert or something. Gyah!"
"This really is not the time, master," Saber said stubbornly as she tightened the makeshift bandage a little tighter than necessary. "Now, you might want bite on something master. I'm going to-."
Saber abandoned whatever she was about to say as she leapt up in response to something. Kirika wondered if Kuzuki had come back, but then realised that the sound had come from above. Turning to look in that direction, she saw an unexpected face that made her raise an eyebrow.
"Matou-chan?"
"Emiya-san," Sakura murmured from her position on the stairs.
Remembering her suspicions from earlier, Kirika was about to ask Sakura if she knew anything about the current situation when Saber suddenly darted across her line of sight. There was a flash of light immediately afterwards, and Kirika's vision went dark as an explosion rocked the corridor.
-x-x-x-
Tohsaka Rin was enraged. Not only had her touching moment of reunion with her estranged sister had been interrupted, but somebody had been stupid enough carry out such a blatant act of thaumaturgical terrorism in her territory. Driven by righteous fury, she had quickly located the cause of the problem with Archer's help, and if she had her way the idiot responsible would soon be unable to do anything but lie in bed for the rest of his life.
"Shinji, you idiot. What do you think you are doing?!" Rin shouted as she followed Archer into the dojo where Lily had already engaged Rider.
"Toh-Tohsaka?!" Shinji stuttered as he saw her enter with her servant. "Why aren't you unconscious like all the others?!"
Rin frowned. Her pride had been smirched by an idiot like this?
"I am the 6th head of the Tohsaka family, Shinji," Rin said slowly. "Did you really think that I would be so pitiful a mage that I would not be able to control my own prana?"
"Wha-what? Rider, what's going on? Why isn't she affected?" Shinji cried out, so panicked that he couldn't hear what Rin was saying.
Ignored by Shinji, Rin's temper only grew worse. Turning to Archer, she gave him an order. "Archer, make sure that Rider doesn't interfere. I will take care of Shinji."
"Got it," Archer replied as he summoned his bow.
Outmatched in every way, Rider had been holding her own against Lily by means of keeping her distance and using the walls and ceilings like some crazed jumping spider as she attacked. She was in the midst of yet another acrobatic stunt when the first of Archer's arrows rocketed through the air towards her. It was only by a fluke that Rider was left unharmed as the chain she had been lashing at Lily scattered the concentrated salvo.
"Tch," Rider clicked her tongue in frustration as she tried to pull back, only to be cut off by Lily this time.
Had it been up to Rider, she would have escaped as soon as Lily entered the dojo. Her master however had ordered her to 'stop Saber', and the compulsion of the book he held meant that she could not disobey him without being crippled. Left with little choice, she had started to fight, but now she regretted not disobeying Shinji in the first place.
Rider checked her condition as she just barely dodged another strike from Lily. Her prana levels, while nowhere near full, had recovered enough that she could dare to use her eyes. She would have preferred to be able to summon her steed, but with the prana she had available that was a little too much to ask of her current master.
In the meantime, Rin had already started to make her way towards Shinji. The almost hysteric wannabe mage was wide-eyed as Rin strode towards him, crest shining with a blue light that matched the determined cerulean of her eyes.
"I-I'm not afraid of yo-you Tohsaka!" Shinji cried out, his shaky voice betraying his true feelings. "I can cast spells now! So stay back!"
Drawing upon Rider's prana through the Book of the False Attendant, Shinji cast the most powerful offensive spell that he could. Claws of shadows formed and scythed at Rin as Shinji waved his hand, but were easily brushed aside by Rin with just a simple burst of prana.
"Oh please, Matou," Rin grumbled. "You are disgracing your family's name if you think being able to use a mystic code makes you a mage. Especially if you can't even use it properly."
A large part of Rin's contempt came from the fact that the 'spell' that Shinji had just used had contained enough prana to be a threat to her if used correctly. The spell's construction was so poor however that Rin had been able to rip it apart just by blowing a bit of her prana into it.
"Ahhhhh! Tohsaka!"
Shinji lost it as Rin walked closer and closer, and began to toss out the shadow claws one after another. A sigh of disbelief escaped Rin as she saw that Shinji's hadn't learned from what he had just seen, and she dispelled the claws the same way each time until she got within one metre of the manic idiot, striking distance for her.
"Hyah!"
"Kuh!"
Shinji let out a strangled gasp as Rin's fist caught him in the stomach and lifted his entire body up into the air. Amazingly, he didn't let go of the book, and still had it in his hands as he fell onto his back, choking for air.
"Weakling," Rin said contemptuously. "Even Kirika takes a punch better than you."
Noticing the book, Rin guessed that this was the item responsible for Shinji being able to do what he had done, and she was about to take it from him when the air suddenly changed. An oppressive weight settled upon her, and when Rin turned around to see what had caused the change, she was immediately struck by a stiffness in her limbs that she hurriedly dispelled by awaking all her circuits.
"Petrification?" Rin whispered incredulously as she saw that Archer had been frozen in place, while Lily appeared to have been affected by the same lethargy that had affected her.
When she saw that Rider had taken off the band that covered her eyes, Rin realised who had done this, and her eyes became filled with alarm.
"Mystic eyes of petrification? That means..."
Standing before the suddenly much more threatening Rider, Lily shifted her shoulders as if to get rid of a stiffness in her muscles, then took a deep breath. When she breathed out again, a sudden wind began to blow through the dojo as she expelled prana in order to counter the effect of Rider's eyes.
"I never expected to see a legendary figure such as you here," Lily said with a smile as blue white lightning crackled across her armor, her prana reacting against the petrification. "How is it that you were summoned as a servant, Medusa?"
Seeing no reason to answer Lily's question, Rider merely crouched down lower in order to get a faster start to her peculiar movements. At the same time however, she seemed almost envious as she saw the prana that Lily was pouring out like water from a tap, sighing softly as she quickly glanced at Shinji who was still prostrate on the ground.
Rider knew that she had little chance in a drawn out battle. Her master was already disabled, and although Archer had been affected by her petrification, it looked as if he would soon be free of it as his master poured prana into him (not that she was jealous, of course she wasn't...). The best option for her then was to distract this white Saber and escape with her master. That seemed like it would be a little difficult with the way Saber was completely focused upon her, but it was the only real choice she had.
Mind made up, Rider threw one of her nails forward like a striking viper. The simple attack was easily foiled by Lily, but the attack had given Rider the initiative, which the acrobatic servant used to lash out at Archer's master with her other nail. This forced Lily to move to intercept the attack, and Rider used the slight opening that was created to capture Lily's leg with the chain that connected the two nails that were her weapons.
Lily's movements were instantly restricted as Rider pulled on the chain with her Monstrous Strength. Balance destroyed, Lily landed on her side as she tried as best as she could to resist the chain's grasp. This was no easy feat, as Lily's strength was not that high. Rider's strength was lower, but the Monstrous Strength that her identity as Medusa granted her allowed her to at least temporarily overpower Lily.
Driving one nail into the dojo floor, Rider darted forward and threw the other nail into the sturdy wooden support a little distance from her. By doing this she made it so that Lily could not move from her current spot without freeing her leg. It was only a temporary measure that could not last, but Rider judged it to be enough for her needs and was about to go to her 'master' when his voice sounded out across the room.
"Rider! S-stop at once!" Shinji wailed.
Rider turned her head, and frowned as she saw that Archer's master had pinned Shinji by the back with her foot. Her right hand had one finger pointed at Shinji's head, and Rider could feel that the prana gathered there was enough to smash apart Shinji's head like an over-ripe pumpkin.
Distracted by Shinji's predicament, Rider was just a little too late to respond to Lily's sudden attack. Rider's failure was due to the fact that she had underestimated the destructive power and speed that Lily's prana burst skill granted her. In one swipe, the white Saber class servant had severed the chain that bound her, and had used the momentum to dart forward and strike at Rider.
Rider's reflexes allowed her to survive the attack, but only just. Caliburn gauged a wide gash into Rider's stomach as she leapt back, and when the servant of the steed fell to the ground, it was clear that she wouldn't be getting back up again any time soon.
"Farewell, Rider," Lily said as she lifted Caliburn to finish off the other servant. "I wish you better luck next time."
Unable to move, Rider's fate was like a candle before the winds. There was a strange force at work in this Grail War however, which acted every time a servant was about to be retired. In this instance, Rider's salvation came in the form of a sudden tingling of Lily's senses. Whirling around, Lily was able to see a barrage of purple tinged arrows of light fly towards her and Rin. Her senses registered each of the arrows as a B rank offensive spell. Powerful enough to hurt her through her anti-magic which was slightly weaker than Saber's, and more than anything Rin could handle unprepared. Realising this, she dived at Rin, and managed to interpose her body in front of the arrows just in time to prevent Rin from getting hit.
The hits rocked her through her armor and inherent defence against spellcraft, sending her and Rin flying out into the practice yard. It hurt, but it wasn't enough to do more than slightly phase Lily. As soon she was sure Rin was safe Lily got back up, ready to hit back at whoever had ambushed them. Archer too was on guard, his petrification freed as Rider was disabled and his magic resistance worked away at the curse.
Contrary to Lily's expectations however, there was no new opponent. Instead, an empty space decorated by a pool of blood marked the place where Rider had lain, and a hazy picture of sorts had appeared in the air. Frowning at this strange turn of events, Lily looked at the picture, and as the image grew clearer she found herself letting out a gasp of disbelief.
"Saber?! Kirika?!"
"Sakura?!" Rin cried out from beside her.
For in the picture, there stood a bloodied and battered Saber. Her once pristine silver armor was now dented and cracked, and her golden hair was matted red with blood. She stood in front of Kirika, clearly guarding the young mage who was worse off if anything. Across from them stood an unexpected gathering. Caster, whose robed figure Lily vaguely recognised from the night before, stood beside a tall man who against all odds appeared to have driven Saber into a corner if the blood on his gloves came from where she suspected it to come from. This was all the more shocking to Lily and Archer because if their suspicions were correct, the man was Caster's master. Rin on the other hand was shocked by the sight of Sakura standing at Caster's side, her hand on Rider as she cared for the servant's wound.
As Rin kept staring in disbelief, Sakura looked up. Their eyes met, and Rin saw that Sakura wore an expression of pain and indecision. Increasingly confused, Rin was about to ask what was going on when Shinji suddenly started to speak.
"It's her! This was all Sakura's doing!" He shouted, pointing at Sakura across the mystic window. "She told me to do it! I was only pretending to be Rider's master! She set up all of you along with Caster!"
Looking from Shinji back to Sakura, Rin was astonished to find that Sakura seemed agitated by the accusation. Carefully looking only at Rider, she did not meet Rin's eyes again, her face shadowed by newly apparent grief and shame.
"Sakura?" Rin called out. "Shinji's lying, right? You can't be Rider's master."
Even before Sakura raised her head, Rin knew that the evidence was against her. For Rider to have disappeared like that could only have meant that her master had used a command seal to order her back, and that could only mean...
"... I'm sorry, nee-san," Sakura said slowly with glistening eyes as the red started to fade from the world, signifying the collapse of the bounded field that had caused so much havoc. "Rider's master..."
Rin didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to accept such a reality. Not when she had been so close to getting her sister back. Time however stopped for none but a True Magician, and truth was a cruel mistress. Regardless of Rin's wishes, destiny moved on.
"... Is me," Sakura said with painful finality.
As Sakura smiled at her sadly, Rin felt herself go weak in distress. Both sisters were close to tears, but in this situation there was no time to make allowances for their pain.
-x-x-x-
When the bounded field around the school first activated, Sakura at first thought something had gone wrong with her eyes. It was with growing horror that she realised what had happened, the hellish color of the sky an unmistakeable sign that her servant's noble phantasm had gone to work.
When she had looked back at Rin, her sister had already begun to look around in order to try and figure out what was going on. It was only with great effort that Sakura stopped herself from telling Rin about Rider right then and there. The reason for her hesitation was the thought that if she did so, she would have to explain how she knew. This would inevitably reveal the fact that she had lied previously when she had told Rin that she wasn't involved in this Grail War. Not a very serious thing in itself, especially if she stopped Rider, but Rin's request to restore their relationship had temporarily removed Sakura's ability to think things through calmly. She was terrified of doing anything to upset Rin right now, afraid that any such move would shatter this tentative bond that she had dreamed of for years.
So it was with a complicated heart that she kept her silence as Rin and Archer consulted each other as to the cause and solution to the problem. Had she been able, Sakura would have ordered Rider to stop and go away so that she and Rin could continue their discussion, but she was too far away from Rider to overpower the Book of the False Attendant. If she was to restore her rights as a master, she would have to go and find Rider, but that would require her to go away from here. Not something she wanted to do before she could deliver her decision.
When Archer finished his analysis of the bounded field and informed Rin, Sakura was displeased to see that Rin appeared to only then remember about her. Jealousy filled her as she was reminded that Rin would place duty before her, even as common sense said that it was only to be expected. It could be that she had misinterpreted the look that Rin had given her then, but the following conversation had watered the growing doubt in her heart.
"Uh... Sakura? This won't take too long, but..." Rin had said apologetically.
"I don't mind, Rin," Sakura interrupted her with a warm smile that didn't match the turmoil in her heart. "Go take care of things. Just... Answer a question for me before you go."
"A question?" Rin blinked, then shrugged. "Of course. What is it?"
Sakura had taken a deep breath then, nervous as to how Rin might answer.
"Am I the most important person to you right now?" Sakura had asked, slightly red-faced due to the nature of the question.
Sakura's breath had hitched as she saw Rin freeze, as if the question had thrown her and required a second consideration in her head. When the answer did come, Sakura's anxious mind looked at every little thing, interpreting everything from the way that Rin looked at her to slight inflections in her voice to try and discern the truth behind the words.
"What are you talking about, Sakura?" Rin asked her with a amused chuckle. "Of course you are important. You are my sister. Now, just stay here and wait for me, okay?"
Liar, Sakura had thought then as Rin jumped over the side of the building with Archer. Liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar.
If she was so important, couldn't she wait just a little longer for her to come up with an answer? If Rin really cared, why was she leaving her here without anything to protect her? If the fact that she was her sister was so significant, why did Rin's eyes look so confused as she had spoken? And, if Rin was really serious about this...
... Why couldn't Rin tell her that she was the most important person in her life?
Sakura felt hot as she began to hyperventilate, her body responding to the disturbance in her heart. It was something that had become more common after her operation last night, but Sakura's familiarity with the symptoms that the Matou crest worms could cause meant that she was not really aware of this. She did however know that this was bad for her, especially with the bounded field leeching away at her energy like this.
Calming herself, Sakura began to think things through more even-handedly as her agitation settled down a little. It was going too far to say that Rin was a liar. The circumstances were bad after all, and it was not proper to ask Rin to be perfectly focused on the original topic when so many lives were at risk. She was also probably overthinking matters when it came to Rin's answer to the question. After all, if Rin respected Sakura's ability to resist the effects of this ward, there was no reason to suspect that Sakura would not be safe here when the only hostile servant was the one they had gone to face. It could be taken as a sign of confidence in her that she had left her here. The confusion in Rin's eyes could also have been because of the distraction from the situation. If she wanted to get a proper answer, she really should have asked the question at a proper time.
Explaining everything for herself, Sakura calmed her unsteady emotions, but was unable to let go of one niggling doubt.
Why hadn't Rin been able to tell her that she was the most important person to her? She was her only living direct relative wasn't she?
She was still going over that thought over and over again in her head when a loud crack split the air. Peering over the edge of the roof, Sakura was just in time to see one of Kirika's Saber's dive through the windows of the third floor while the white Saber charged towards the Archery dojo.
After seeing this, Sakura felt her head grow cold as she realised that Rider would soon be facing at least two servants. She had seen Rider after last night, and knew that there was no way that she could come out victorious in this situation, even within the bounds of the ward. She could also feel through their connection that she was still in the school grounds, presumably in the Archery dojo where Saber had gone. What was Shinji thinking? If he had any sense he would have moved from the spot as soon as the bounded field came up. Rider could absorb the gathered prana from anywhere within the ward, and it made no sense for him to stay where he was like that in Rider's weakened state.
Then again, if Shinji had any sense he wouldn't have activated the ward in the first place.
Thinking about what would happen soon, Sakura felt herself torn between two choices. One side of her screamed for her to just sit tight where she was. She had nothing more to gain from the Grail War, and once Shinji and Rider were gone there was nothing to keep her involved. Another side of her however reminded her about her servant, who since she had been summoned had obeyed her without a word, and had been a kindred soul in the few days before she had handed over mastery rights to Shinji. Sakura did not know why, but she felt a twinge in her heart as she thought about leaving her faithful servant to die. Could she really do that?
There was another, darker voice as well that whispered into her ears. Could she really afford to let Rin confront Shinji? This when there was a chance that he might reveal her secrets before he died. Didn't she need to go and make sure that if he died, he did so quietly?
Sakura's anxiety grew, until finally she could take it no longer. Unable to take the shortcut down to the field like Rin had, Sakura ran for the stairs in order to head for the place where Rider was. Whether to save her or to condemn her, not even she could know.
Almost as soon as her trip started however, she was forced to stop. Coming down to the third floor, she was startled to find there Emiya Kirika and her servant. Kirika was a mess with blood staining her tattered clothes and hair, the red colour vivid against her porcelain skin. Even in such a condition, Sakura couldn't help but think that Kirika attracted attention. Not because of her usual serene grace and warm inviting expression, but because of the fiery pride and stoic determination that Sakura could see in her eyes and the way that she carried herself.
It's her, the voice inside her head suddenly whispered. She's why Rin couldn't say that you were the most important person to her.
Sakura froze as an unexpected urge to hurt the girl in front of her rose up in her heart. The voice continued to whisper as well, feeding that black emotion. It said that if she got rid of Kirika, she would naturally become Rin's most important person. What better time was there than now when she was hurt so badly? Sure, the servant was there, but it couldn't be that hard to find an opportunity. All she had to do was tell her about Rider at the dojo, and convince Saber to let her take care of Kirika in the meantime.
As these thoughts flashed through her head, Sakura was suddenly brought back to reality as Kirika called out her name.
"Matou-chan?" the girl she admired and hated exclaimed softly.
"Emiya-san," Sakura murmured, uncertain as to how she felt right now.
Before Sakura could say anything else, a flash of light lit the corridor as Saber suddenly moved to intercept something. A loud explosion followed, the noise deafening her as the force of the blast knocked her painfully onto her backside. Distracted by the pain and made deaf, it was a while before Sakura noticed that Saber had begun to fight, and when she finally did she was startled to see who it was against.
"Kuzuki-sensei?" Sakura murmured in disbelief as she recognised her ethics teacher.
Sakura had known of the relationship between Kuzuki and Caster, recognising that they were master and servant when she confronted them for their one and only meeting. She had not however been able to sense anything from him that indicated he knew anything about thaumaturgy. Upon this evidence she had believed him to be a master that the Grail had picked out of a lack of candidates, with no useful skills to speak of as a combatant. In that case however, what in the world was she seeing now?
Hands covered by black leather gloves, Kuzuki-sensei was overwhelming Saber with a series of blows that managed to slip past Saber's defences like magic. Each hit impacted the slight servant's frame like a cannonshell, and Sakura could see the metal of Saber's breastplate actually cave in every time Kuzuki-sensei's fist hit it. With thaumaturgically reinforced steel giving way like this, it was no surprise that Saber herself was getting off worse. Already half her face was covered with blood, a deep gash on her brow pouring forth the red liquid.
"Saber, watch the back of your head!" Sakura heard Kirika cry out suddenly.
Sakura wondered what Kirika was talking about, but her curiosity was soon answered as she saw Kuzuki's hand suddenly change direction in mid-strike to strike at a spot completly different from the original target area. Kirika's warning had been just in time as Saber narrowly avoided a hammerblow to the weak area at the base of the skull. She still got clipped though, and was unable to recover in time to block another huge blow that finally broke through the stressed metal of her breastplate.
"Good afternoon dear," a feminine voice suddenly spoke from behind Sakura, startling her. "It's good that I found you."
"Caster-san?" Sakura wondered out loud as she recognised the speaker. "What are you doing here?"
"To make sure my master is safe of course," the robed woman replied. "Oh, and you need to hurry and retrieve Rider, dear. Your foolish brother had placed her into a situation that she can't get out of."
"Rider? But -," Sakura's voice cut out in a hiss of pain as she felt a burning sensation on her left hand. When she looked down she could see that her command seals had come to life again, and realised what had happened.
"Hurry dear," Caster told her in an insisting tone. "If you don't do something she's going to die."
Staring at the returned markings on her hand, Sakura struggled with her decision for a moment, wondering what was the best option here. Before she realised what she was doing however, she found herself issuing a command.
"As your master I order you, Rider. Appear before me!" she said hurriedly.
A weight that she hadn't known she had borne was lifted off Sakura's shoulders as Rider appeared in front of her in a cloud of glittering lights. The vague relief turned to worry however when Rider collapsed, a pool of blood forming around her almost immediately.
"Rider!" Sakura cried out as she knelt down beside her servant.
Sakura quickly wrenched open the connection between them as she put her hand on Rider. Casting a healing spell, she was surprised when much more prana than she was capable of supplying flowed down her circuits. She was wondering what was going on when a faint green light caught her attention. Looking down, she saw that it was coming from her pocket, and it was then that she remembered the stone that Kirika had given her.
"How interesting," Caster said as she came up to look. "Where did you obtain that stone in your pocket Sakura dear?"
Sakura had looked up as Caster came over, and now her eyes darted to the side as she was reminded of whos the stone's original owner had been. Caster followed that gaze, and let out a faint exclamation of surprise as she saw Kirika.
"My, my," Caster remarked as she looked the wounded master over. "So many interesting young woman these days."
The servant of the spell than stopped, frowning as she noticed something that made her lips curl into a delighted smile.
"Master, please stop there," Caster requested unexpectedly.
Waving a hand at the air, Caster summoned a strange hazy window of sorts. Sakura didn't pay it much attention at first, but when she took a second look she was horrified to find that Rin was looking at her from the other side of the window.
"Sakura?!" she heard through the deafening silence in her head.
What to do? How to respond? Caught in a compromising situation for which there could be no satisfactory excuse, Sakura was on the verge of panic as Rin's expression slowly darkened. If the conversation earlier had been a dream, than this had to be nightmare.
Matters only became worse as Shinji suddenly spoke up, and Sakura felt in herself for the first time a deep wish to kill Shinji in the most painful way possible. Regardless of what Shinji's fate might be however, it was undeniable that his accusations had struck Rin deeply. Sakura felt her expression crumbling with pain as she saw the light of suspicion and doubt enter her sister's eyes. The wavering blue orbs asking of her the truth as to Shinji's words.
It would have been so easy here for Sakura to deny Shinji's accusations. Her conscience however prevented her from doing so. It had been her weakness that had allowed Shinji to demand mastery of Rider from her. It had been her plans that allowed Shinji to keep control of her servant, using him as a foil to keep herself safe and out of sight. It was also her lack of care that had led to Shinji going out of control like this. Had she remembered the fact that Shinji was liable to break under the stress of the war, she would have known to take back Rider's mastery as soon as possible. In that case, none of this would have happened. She would have been able to rejoin Rin as her family member with nothing to burden her but the scars upon her own soul and body. Now however her hands were stained with the blood of her classmates, teachers, and every other person who had been hurt or killed by the vampiric power of Rider's bounded field.
The guilt weighed upon her like the pressure of the dark depths, and Sakura realised that she could not deny the truth of the matter to try and life to Rin. Doing so would only make things worse.
"Sakura?" Rin called out to her. "Shinji's lying, right? You can't be Rider's master."
"... I'm sorry nee-san," Sakura replied quietly as tears of frustration and pain began to escape her rapidly crumbling control. "Rider's master..."
A tear dropped onto her hand as she bowed her head in shame and grief. To Sakura it looked like a drop of blood, one of many that stained her soul and body as the tears began to flow.
"... Is me," Sakura finished in a voice empty of emotion. The joy she had felt earlier that day had turned to ashes on her tongue, and the flicker of hope that she had woken up with was snuffed out with her words. Dark and empty now, the only emotion she felt in her heart was the heavy and painful weight of despair.
______________________
End of Chapter 4
The air around Kirika suddenly flared with light as the prana that continously flooded her circuits reacted against the savage pull of the active ward. When it settled down, Kirika was alarmed to see that all around her the normal students of the schools had collapsed, some of them entering into convulsions as the ward ravaged their bodies and minds.
For an instant Kirika considered stopping to try and help them, but training and reason overcame instinct and she hurried up onto the third floor. With her limited healing skills it was unlikely she could do much good, and it was no use helping one student when there were so many at risk. The best option here was to meet up with Rin and work together with their servants to find the person behind this crazy act.
Upon reaching the third floor however, Kirika was forced to stop. Not because of any problem with her legs, but because of an unexpected presence in the hallway before her.
"Kuzuki-sensei," Kirika muttered as she spotted the potential master and enemy.
"Emiya is it?" the infamously expressionless history teacher noted as he approached her. "I assume that you are after the person behind this act."
Kirika didn't say anything. To say yes here was to declare hostilities and lose time against an opponent she knew nothing about. A risky proposition at best, it was a risk she couldn't afford to take when Rin was potentially in danger above.
It might have been that in her haste she betrayed something of her intentions, but Kirika flinched as Kuzuki coolly turned his eyes to the stairwell and the stairs leading up towards the rooftop.
"Something up there is it?" Kuzuki said in his characteristically dry but heavy voice.
As the thin but somehow intimidating man began to make his way to the stairs, Kirika steeler herself and jumped forward to bar his way. If Kuzuki-sensei really was a master, it was far better that she stop him from joining whoever was on the roof rather than joining the fray herself in his wake. Rin had Archer with her, so it was likely that she would be able to fight back against any attack, and her own servants were supposed to arrive soon too. All she needed to do was hold Kuzuki-sensei here until Rin got free.
"I see," Kuzuki said when he realised Kirika's intentions. "I suppose that you too are a mage? Caster told me to prioritise Tohsaka, but she also told me to retrieve you if possible."
Having said that, Kuzuki took off his glasses and took up a simple fighting stance. It was a simple act that took less than a second, but all of a sudden Kirika felt like a frog before a snake. The reaction was not from killing intent, because Kuzuki's killing intent was unnaturally faint. Instead the fear came as all her instincts warned her that this was not someone to take lightly. Those instincts had saved her more than once, and Kirika was not about to ignore their message.
"Trace, on," dropping her bag, Kirika quietly intoned her switch phrase in order to project her usual twin dao.
As soon as she had opened her mouth however, Kuzuki had begun to move. It was only a combination of instincts and reactions drilled into her by the unnaturally fast Kirei that allowed Kirika to dodge that first attack. Even so, she did not escape, as Kuzuki immediately followed the attack up with a flurry of blows that slipped past her hastily erected defence to strike her like hammers.
"Kuh," Kirika coughed blood as she flailed her arms to force Kuzuki to step back lest he be cut by her swords.
Barely five seconds had passed since the initiation of hostilities, but Kirika was already in a mess. Kuzuki's attack had come at angles that to Kirika's mind should not have been possible, and her defence had been of almost no use at all. Had her instincts not been moving her body at full drive, it was possible that she might even have died. All the attacks had struck areas of the body that were considered fatal points in martial arts and Chinese medicine. If they had connected cleanly Kirika would have perished, but her instincts had allowed her to move slightly every time, and the damage had been reduced as the hits came in off-center from their targets.
Load reflection parameter - EMIYA. Reflection integrity, 9 per cent.
There was no time for her to rest as Kuzuki again pressed in. This time however Kirika wasn't just standing there and taking the hits. Quickly calculating the best way to defend herself, she struck out at Kuzuki's shoulders to cut off his weird movements at their point of origin. Or at least that was the plan. As fast as she moved with her circuits boosting her reflexes, Kuzuki was simply far more experienced than her and easily denied her the opening. The difference in height was a problem here as Kirika's 158cm tall frame, while respectable for a girl her age, offered her nowhere near the reach that Kuzuki could get with his 180cm body. In terms of pure speed Kirika was one step ahead of Kuzuki, and this allowed her to survive his attacks. On the offense however that advantage was negated by the difference in height, and Kuzuki gained two steps in his favour from being able to read her movements.
Reeling from a hit that had come out of nowhere to rock the back of her head, Kirika leapt back as far as she could manage in order to buy some time to think. It was a break she sorely needed, as her condition was such that she could not afford to fight much longer, let alone on such one-sided terms as up till now. A quick assessment as she was in the air told her that she had internal bleeding around her guts, and a cracked rib or two. Her neck and head were in bad shape too, with blood coming out from where the more delicate flesh had been gashed open by Kuzuki's attack.
At full boost, Kirika could jump about 4 metres in any direction from a near standing start. She had thought that this would be enough to surprise Kuzuki, but she was surprised in turn when a huge blow caught her on a barely raised guard, just as her tip of her toes reached the ground.
Lifted off her feet again, involuntarily this time, Kirika was smashed back into the wall of the corridor. The impact was not that great, but the shock of the hit froze her for a moment, which was an instant too long against her opponent.
"Kyaa!" Kirika screamed in pain as Kuzuki managed to catch her shoulder with a clean hit, dislocating her left arm. Soon afterwards, her screams only intensified as Kuzuki's hand grabbed hold of her long hair, pulling her towards him with irresistable force.
Integrating memories. Revised reflection integrity at 21 per cent. Eye of the Mind (True), High Speed Analysis, Overload - Enabled.
Focusing through the pain, Kirika's mind spun as she fought to find a solution to her predicament in the miniscule space of time she knew she had before an attack she couldn't defend against finished her off. Crossing off available options at a lightning pace, Kirika identified one possible method, and her body instantly responded with a speed that should have been impossible without the decades of training that were required to build in such reflexes.
Raising her still functioning right arm, she brought the steel dao foward just in time to intercept Kuzuki's lashing fist. It was only a temporary diversion, but it was enough for Kirika to duck her head so that her hair was stretched tight. In that position, she brought her dao across, and cut the strands that Kuzuki was holding in order to free herself.
This was not the end, and Kirika's prana stampeded down her dislocated left arm to fill the dao in that limp hand before it dropped to the floor. Kirika then rushed away from the spot as fast as possible, and smiled as Kuzuki followed her, just as she had planned.
Behind Kuzuki, the dao that had been dropped suddenly splintered as the prana that had been poured into it overcame its structural integrity. The reproduced sword then promptly exploded in a fiery burst, scattering metal shards in a confined radius. A radius within which both Kuzuki and Kirika existed. Kirika however was relatively sheltered from the splash over by the bigger body of Kuzuki, who she had managed to interpose between herself and the explosion. Her opponent was not so lucky, and appeared stumble as the metal fragments hit him. The damage was not fatal by any means, being limited by the short duration which Kirika had available to her as she over-charged the sword. It was enough though for Kirika to distance herself enough from her stoic opponent to regain her bearings.
Parameter - EMIYA, Reflection integrity at 27 per cent. Error: Possibility disjunction. Pattern correlation below levels required for parameter loading to continue. Searching for alternative options. WARNING - mentality destabilisation at 2 per cent and rising. Alternative parameter located. Initiating cross-reference with Parameter - ******, in order to stabilise connection.
Pain overwhelmed Kirika's senses as she diagnosed her own condition by running prana through her nerves. Her nervous system had been forged into circuits by Kiritsugu's somewhat unorthodox training methods, and by scanning the flow of prana she could get a general idea of how much damage she had taken. The feedback from her quick inspection wasn't a good one. Her circuits themselves were in relatively good shape, but the damage to her left shoulder had effectively sealed that arm, and the damage she had accumulated was slowing the response of the rest of her body to her orders.
Looking across at the history teacher trying to kill her, she saw that he had taken far less damage overall, and even most of that from the blast just now. At this rate it was clear that she would not be able to survive another exchange. Another trick with overloading wasn't going to work either, as she no longer possessed the physical capacity to get clear of the blast after she released it. If she was going to win this she was going to have to pull something out of the hat, now.
"Kuzuki-sensei, why are you doing this?" Kirika gasped out as she voiced a question that had hung in her head since this fight started. It was also a ploy to buy time, but he didn't need to know that.
Kuzuki had been flexing his arms and legs, checking out the damage to his own body before trying to approach her again. Upon being asked this question by Kirika however, he stopped, and gave her a look that she thought might hold a trace of curiosity.
"Are you referring to this thing that has surrounded the school, Emiya?" Kuzuki asked her. "If so, this is neither my doing nor Caster's."
"What?" Kirika forgot about her pain and fighting for a moment as she looked at the taller man incredulously. "Don't lie. If the servant of the spell isn't behind a ridiculous ward like this than who could be?"
"I am not a mage myself, so I'm not aware of the particulars," Kuzuki admitted without any change in tone. "Caster did say however that Matou Shinji's servant was going to do something today. If you are looking for the cause of this than you should try to locate him."
Kirika wasn't sure whether or not to believe Kuzuki, but had no time to dwell upon the fact before the mysterious teacher suddenly frowned slightly and turned straightened up.
"As you say, Caster," Kuzuki said out loud, and then he suddenly turned and ran away towards the other end of the school building.
Surprised by this turn of events, Kirika was wondering what had happened when the windows nearby were smashed in, admitting Saber onto the scene.
"Master!" Saber cried out upon seeing Kirika's condition.
Upon catching sight of her servant, Kirika sighed in relief and fell to her knees.
"Just in time, Saber," she said weakly. "Where's Lily?"
"Lily is with Rin and Archer right now," Saber told her as she knelt down to check Kirika's wounds. "We met them outside just as we arrived at the building."
"Outside?" Kirika groaned as she realised she had almost carried out a heroic last stand for nothing.
"Sit still, master," Saber admonished her as she ripped Kirika's shirt to make a bandage for the worst of her open wounds. It was the best she could do as she did not know any healing magic herself.
"Kirika," Kirika muttered as the tension began to drain out of her.
"Excuse me?" Saber paused to look at her.
"Call me Kirika already," Kirika reminded her. "If somebody was around to hear you call me master they might mistake me for kind of pervert or something. Gyah!"
"This really is not the time, master," Saber said stubbornly as she tightened the makeshift bandage a little tighter than necessary. "Now, you might want bite on something master. I'm going to-."
Saber abandoned whatever she was about to say as she leapt up in response to something. Kirika wondered if Kuzuki had come back, but then realised that the sound had come from above. Turning to look in that direction, she saw an unexpected face that made her raise an eyebrow.
"Matou-chan?"
"Emiya-san," Sakura murmured from her position on the stairs.
Remembering her suspicions from earlier, Kirika was about to ask Sakura if she knew anything about the current situation when Saber suddenly darted across her line of sight. There was a flash of light immediately afterwards, and Kirika's vision went dark as an explosion rocked the corridor.
-x-x-x-
Tohsaka Rin was enraged. Not only had her touching moment of reunion with her estranged sister had been interrupted, but somebody had been stupid enough carry out such a blatant act of thaumaturgical terrorism in her territory. Driven by righteous fury, she had quickly located the cause of the problem with Archer's help, and if she had her way the idiot responsible would soon be unable to do anything but lie in bed for the rest of his life.
"Shinji, you idiot. What do you think you are doing?!" Rin shouted as she followed Archer into the dojo where Lily had already engaged Rider.
"Toh-Tohsaka?!" Shinji stuttered as he saw her enter with her servant. "Why aren't you unconscious like all the others?!"
Rin frowned. Her pride had been smirched by an idiot like this?
"I am the 6th head of the Tohsaka family, Shinji," Rin said slowly. "Did you really think that I would be so pitiful a mage that I would not be able to control my own prana?"
"Wha-what? Rider, what's going on? Why isn't she affected?" Shinji cried out, so panicked that he couldn't hear what Rin was saying.
Ignored by Shinji, Rin's temper only grew worse. Turning to Archer, she gave him an order. "Archer, make sure that Rider doesn't interfere. I will take care of Shinji."
"Got it," Archer replied as he summoned his bow.
Outmatched in every way, Rider had been holding her own against Lily by means of keeping her distance and using the walls and ceilings like some crazed jumping spider as she attacked. She was in the midst of yet another acrobatic stunt when the first of Archer's arrows rocketed through the air towards her. It was only by a fluke that Rider was left unharmed as the chain she had been lashing at Lily scattered the concentrated salvo.
"Tch," Rider clicked her tongue in frustration as she tried to pull back, only to be cut off by Lily this time.
Had it been up to Rider, she would have escaped as soon as Lily entered the dojo. Her master however had ordered her to 'stop Saber', and the compulsion of the book he held meant that she could not disobey him without being crippled. Left with little choice, she had started to fight, but now she regretted not disobeying Shinji in the first place.
Rider checked her condition as she just barely dodged another strike from Lily. Her prana levels, while nowhere near full, had recovered enough that she could dare to use her eyes. She would have preferred to be able to summon her steed, but with the prana she had available that was a little too much to ask of her current master.
In the meantime, Rin had already started to make her way towards Shinji. The almost hysteric wannabe mage was wide-eyed as Rin strode towards him, crest shining with a blue light that matched the determined cerulean of her eyes.
"I-I'm not afraid of yo-you Tohsaka!" Shinji cried out, his shaky voice betraying his true feelings. "I can cast spells now! So stay back!"
Drawing upon Rider's prana through the Book of the False Attendant, Shinji cast the most powerful offensive spell that he could. Claws of shadows formed and scythed at Rin as Shinji waved his hand, but were easily brushed aside by Rin with just a simple burst of prana.
"Oh please, Matou," Rin grumbled. "You are disgracing your family's name if you think being able to use a mystic code makes you a mage. Especially if you can't even use it properly."
A large part of Rin's contempt came from the fact that the 'spell' that Shinji had just used had contained enough prana to be a threat to her if used correctly. The spell's construction was so poor however that Rin had been able to rip it apart just by blowing a bit of her prana into it.
"Ahhhhh! Tohsaka!"
Shinji lost it as Rin walked closer and closer, and began to toss out the shadow claws one after another. A sigh of disbelief escaped Rin as she saw that Shinji's hadn't learned from what he had just seen, and she dispelled the claws the same way each time until she got within one metre of the manic idiot, striking distance for her.
"Hyah!"
"Kuh!"
Shinji let out a strangled gasp as Rin's fist caught him in the stomach and lifted his entire body up into the air. Amazingly, he didn't let go of the book, and still had it in his hands as he fell onto his back, choking for air.
"Weakling," Rin said contemptuously. "Even Kirika takes a punch better than you."
Noticing the book, Rin guessed that this was the item responsible for Shinji being able to do what he had done, and she was about to take it from him when the air suddenly changed. An oppressive weight settled upon her, and when Rin turned around to see what had caused the change, she was immediately struck by a stiffness in her limbs that she hurriedly dispelled by awaking all her circuits.
"Petrification?" Rin whispered incredulously as she saw that Archer had been frozen in place, while Lily appeared to have been affected by the same lethargy that had affected her.
When she saw that Rider had taken off the band that covered her eyes, Rin realised who had done this, and her eyes became filled with alarm.
"Mystic eyes of petrification? That means..."
Standing before the suddenly much more threatening Rider, Lily shifted her shoulders as if to get rid of a stiffness in her muscles, then took a deep breath. When she breathed out again, a sudden wind began to blow through the dojo as she expelled prana in order to counter the effect of Rider's eyes.
"I never expected to see a legendary figure such as you here," Lily said with a smile as blue white lightning crackled across her armor, her prana reacting against the petrification. "How is it that you were summoned as a servant, Medusa?"
Seeing no reason to answer Lily's question, Rider merely crouched down lower in order to get a faster start to her peculiar movements. At the same time however, she seemed almost envious as she saw the prana that Lily was pouring out like water from a tap, sighing softly as she quickly glanced at Shinji who was still prostrate on the ground.
Rider knew that she had little chance in a drawn out battle. Her master was already disabled, and although Archer had been affected by her petrification, it looked as if he would soon be free of it as his master poured prana into him (not that she was jealous, of course she wasn't...). The best option for her then was to distract this white Saber and escape with her master. That seemed like it would be a little difficult with the way Saber was completely focused upon her, but it was the only real choice she had.
Mind made up, Rider threw one of her nails forward like a striking viper. The simple attack was easily foiled by Lily, but the attack had given Rider the initiative, which the acrobatic servant used to lash out at Archer's master with her other nail. This forced Lily to move to intercept the attack, and Rider used the slight opening that was created to capture Lily's leg with the chain that connected the two nails that were her weapons.
Lily's movements were instantly restricted as Rider pulled on the chain with her Monstrous Strength. Balance destroyed, Lily landed on her side as she tried as best as she could to resist the chain's grasp. This was no easy feat, as Lily's strength was not that high. Rider's strength was lower, but the Monstrous Strength that her identity as Medusa granted her allowed her to at least temporarily overpower Lily.
Driving one nail into the dojo floor, Rider darted forward and threw the other nail into the sturdy wooden support a little distance from her. By doing this she made it so that Lily could not move from her current spot without freeing her leg. It was only a temporary measure that could not last, but Rider judged it to be enough for her needs and was about to go to her 'master' when his voice sounded out across the room.
"Rider! S-stop at once!" Shinji wailed.
Rider turned her head, and frowned as she saw that Archer's master had pinned Shinji by the back with her foot. Her right hand had one finger pointed at Shinji's head, and Rider could feel that the prana gathered there was enough to smash apart Shinji's head like an over-ripe pumpkin.
Distracted by Shinji's predicament, Rider was just a little too late to respond to Lily's sudden attack. Rider's failure was due to the fact that she had underestimated the destructive power and speed that Lily's prana burst skill granted her. In one swipe, the white Saber class servant had severed the chain that bound her, and had used the momentum to dart forward and strike at Rider.
Rider's reflexes allowed her to survive the attack, but only just. Caliburn gauged a wide gash into Rider's stomach as she leapt back, and when the servant of the steed fell to the ground, it was clear that she wouldn't be getting back up again any time soon.
"Farewell, Rider," Lily said as she lifted Caliburn to finish off the other servant. "I wish you better luck next time."
Unable to move, Rider's fate was like a candle before the winds. There was a strange force at work in this Grail War however, which acted every time a servant was about to be retired. In this instance, Rider's salvation came in the form of a sudden tingling of Lily's senses. Whirling around, Lily was able to see a barrage of purple tinged arrows of light fly towards her and Rin. Her senses registered each of the arrows as a B rank offensive spell. Powerful enough to hurt her through her anti-magic which was slightly weaker than Saber's, and more than anything Rin could handle unprepared. Realising this, she dived at Rin, and managed to interpose her body in front of the arrows just in time to prevent Rin from getting hit.
The hits rocked her through her armor and inherent defence against spellcraft, sending her and Rin flying out into the practice yard. It hurt, but it wasn't enough to do more than slightly phase Lily. As soon she was sure Rin was safe Lily got back up, ready to hit back at whoever had ambushed them. Archer too was on guard, his petrification freed as Rider was disabled and his magic resistance worked away at the curse.
Contrary to Lily's expectations however, there was no new opponent. Instead, an empty space decorated by a pool of blood marked the place where Rider had lain, and a hazy picture of sorts had appeared in the air. Frowning at this strange turn of events, Lily looked at the picture, and as the image grew clearer she found herself letting out a gasp of disbelief.
"Saber?! Kirika?!"
"Sakura?!" Rin cried out from beside her.
For in the picture, there stood a bloodied and battered Saber. Her once pristine silver armor was now dented and cracked, and her golden hair was matted red with blood. She stood in front of Kirika, clearly guarding the young mage who was worse off if anything. Across from them stood an unexpected gathering. Caster, whose robed figure Lily vaguely recognised from the night before, stood beside a tall man who against all odds appeared to have driven Saber into a corner if the blood on his gloves came from where she suspected it to come from. This was all the more shocking to Lily and Archer because if their suspicions were correct, the man was Caster's master. Rin on the other hand was shocked by the sight of Sakura standing at Caster's side, her hand on Rider as she cared for the servant's wound.
As Rin kept staring in disbelief, Sakura looked up. Their eyes met, and Rin saw that Sakura wore an expression of pain and indecision. Increasingly confused, Rin was about to ask what was going on when Shinji suddenly started to speak.
"It's her! This was all Sakura's doing!" He shouted, pointing at Sakura across the mystic window. "She told me to do it! I was only pretending to be Rider's master! She set up all of you along with Caster!"
Looking from Shinji back to Sakura, Rin was astonished to find that Sakura seemed agitated by the accusation. Carefully looking only at Rider, she did not meet Rin's eyes again, her face shadowed by newly apparent grief and shame.
"Sakura?" Rin called out. "Shinji's lying, right? You can't be Rider's master."
Even before Sakura raised her head, Rin knew that the evidence was against her. For Rider to have disappeared like that could only have meant that her master had used a command seal to order her back, and that could only mean...
"... I'm sorry, nee-san," Sakura said slowly with glistening eyes as the red started to fade from the world, signifying the collapse of the bounded field that had caused so much havoc. "Rider's master..."
Rin didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to accept such a reality. Not when she had been so close to getting her sister back. Time however stopped for none but a True Magician, and truth was a cruel mistress. Regardless of Rin's wishes, destiny moved on.
"... Is me," Sakura said with painful finality.
As Sakura smiled at her sadly, Rin felt herself go weak in distress. Both sisters were close to tears, but in this situation there was no time to make allowances for their pain.
-x-x-x-
When the bounded field around the school first activated, Sakura at first thought something had gone wrong with her eyes. It was with growing horror that she realised what had happened, the hellish color of the sky an unmistakeable sign that her servant's noble phantasm had gone to work.
When she had looked back at Rin, her sister had already begun to look around in order to try and figure out what was going on. It was only with great effort that Sakura stopped herself from telling Rin about Rider right then and there. The reason for her hesitation was the thought that if she did so, she would have to explain how she knew. This would inevitably reveal the fact that she had lied previously when she had told Rin that she wasn't involved in this Grail War. Not a very serious thing in itself, especially if she stopped Rider, but Rin's request to restore their relationship had temporarily removed Sakura's ability to think things through calmly. She was terrified of doing anything to upset Rin right now, afraid that any such move would shatter this tentative bond that she had dreamed of for years.
So it was with a complicated heart that she kept her silence as Rin and Archer consulted each other as to the cause and solution to the problem. Had she been able, Sakura would have ordered Rider to stop and go away so that she and Rin could continue their discussion, but she was too far away from Rider to overpower the Book of the False Attendant. If she was to restore her rights as a master, she would have to go and find Rider, but that would require her to go away from here. Not something she wanted to do before she could deliver her decision.
When Archer finished his analysis of the bounded field and informed Rin, Sakura was displeased to see that Rin appeared to only then remember about her. Jealousy filled her as she was reminded that Rin would place duty before her, even as common sense said that it was only to be expected. It could be that she had misinterpreted the look that Rin had given her then, but the following conversation had watered the growing doubt in her heart.
"Uh... Sakura? This won't take too long, but..." Rin had said apologetically.
"I don't mind, Rin," Sakura interrupted her with a warm smile that didn't match the turmoil in her heart. "Go take care of things. Just... Answer a question for me before you go."
"A question?" Rin blinked, then shrugged. "Of course. What is it?"
Sakura had taken a deep breath then, nervous as to how Rin might answer.
"Am I the most important person to you right now?" Sakura had asked, slightly red-faced due to the nature of the question.
Sakura's breath had hitched as she saw Rin freeze, as if the question had thrown her and required a second consideration in her head. When the answer did come, Sakura's anxious mind looked at every little thing, interpreting everything from the way that Rin looked at her to slight inflections in her voice to try and discern the truth behind the words.
"What are you talking about, Sakura?" Rin asked her with a amused chuckle. "Of course you are important. You are my sister. Now, just stay here and wait for me, okay?"
Liar, Sakura had thought then as Rin jumped over the side of the building with Archer. Liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar.
If she was so important, couldn't she wait just a little longer for her to come up with an answer? If Rin really cared, why was she leaving her here without anything to protect her? If the fact that she was her sister was so significant, why did Rin's eyes look so confused as she had spoken? And, if Rin was really serious about this...
... Why couldn't Rin tell her that she was the most important person in her life?
Sakura felt hot as she began to hyperventilate, her body responding to the disturbance in her heart. It was something that had become more common after her operation last night, but Sakura's familiarity with the symptoms that the Matou crest worms could cause meant that she was not really aware of this. She did however know that this was bad for her, especially with the bounded field leeching away at her energy like this.
Calming herself, Sakura began to think things through more even-handedly as her agitation settled down a little. It was going too far to say that Rin was a liar. The circumstances were bad after all, and it was not proper to ask Rin to be perfectly focused on the original topic when so many lives were at risk. She was also probably overthinking matters when it came to Rin's answer to the question. After all, if Rin respected Sakura's ability to resist the effects of this ward, there was no reason to suspect that Sakura would not be safe here when the only hostile servant was the one they had gone to face. It could be taken as a sign of confidence in her that she had left her here. The confusion in Rin's eyes could also have been because of the distraction from the situation. If she wanted to get a proper answer, she really should have asked the question at a proper time.
Explaining everything for herself, Sakura calmed her unsteady emotions, but was unable to let go of one niggling doubt.
Why hadn't Rin been able to tell her that she was the most important person to her? She was her only living direct relative wasn't she?
She was still going over that thought over and over again in her head when a loud crack split the air. Peering over the edge of the roof, Sakura was just in time to see one of Kirika's Saber's dive through the windows of the third floor while the white Saber charged towards the Archery dojo.
After seeing this, Sakura felt her head grow cold as she realised that Rider would soon be facing at least two servants. She had seen Rider after last night, and knew that there was no way that she could come out victorious in this situation, even within the bounds of the ward. She could also feel through their connection that she was still in the school grounds, presumably in the Archery dojo where Saber had gone. What was Shinji thinking? If he had any sense he would have moved from the spot as soon as the bounded field came up. Rider could absorb the gathered prana from anywhere within the ward, and it made no sense for him to stay where he was like that in Rider's weakened state.
Then again, if Shinji had any sense he wouldn't have activated the ward in the first place.
Thinking about what would happen soon, Sakura felt herself torn between two choices. One side of her screamed for her to just sit tight where she was. She had nothing more to gain from the Grail War, and once Shinji and Rider were gone there was nothing to keep her involved. Another side of her however reminded her about her servant, who since she had been summoned had obeyed her without a word, and had been a kindred soul in the few days before she had handed over mastery rights to Shinji. Sakura did not know why, but she felt a twinge in her heart as she thought about leaving her faithful servant to die. Could she really do that?
There was another, darker voice as well that whispered into her ears. Could she really afford to let Rin confront Shinji? This when there was a chance that he might reveal her secrets before he died. Didn't she need to go and make sure that if he died, he did so quietly?
Sakura's anxiety grew, until finally she could take it no longer. Unable to take the shortcut down to the field like Rin had, Sakura ran for the stairs in order to head for the place where Rider was. Whether to save her or to condemn her, not even she could know.
Almost as soon as her trip started however, she was forced to stop. Coming down to the third floor, she was startled to find there Emiya Kirika and her servant. Kirika was a mess with blood staining her tattered clothes and hair, the red colour vivid against her porcelain skin. Even in such a condition, Sakura couldn't help but think that Kirika attracted attention. Not because of her usual serene grace and warm inviting expression, but because of the fiery pride and stoic determination that Sakura could see in her eyes and the way that she carried herself.
It's her, the voice inside her head suddenly whispered. She's why Rin couldn't say that you were the most important person to her.
Sakura froze as an unexpected urge to hurt the girl in front of her rose up in her heart. The voice continued to whisper as well, feeding that black emotion. It said that if she got rid of Kirika, she would naturally become Rin's most important person. What better time was there than now when she was hurt so badly? Sure, the servant was there, but it couldn't be that hard to find an opportunity. All she had to do was tell her about Rider at the dojo, and convince Saber to let her take care of Kirika in the meantime.
As these thoughts flashed through her head, Sakura was suddenly brought back to reality as Kirika called out her name.
"Matou-chan?" the girl she admired and hated exclaimed softly.
"Emiya-san," Sakura murmured, uncertain as to how she felt right now.
Before Sakura could say anything else, a flash of light lit the corridor as Saber suddenly moved to intercept something. A loud explosion followed, the noise deafening her as the force of the blast knocked her painfully onto her backside. Distracted by the pain and made deaf, it was a while before Sakura noticed that Saber had begun to fight, and when she finally did she was startled to see who it was against.
"Kuzuki-sensei?" Sakura murmured in disbelief as she recognised her ethics teacher.
Sakura had known of the relationship between Kuzuki and Caster, recognising that they were master and servant when she confronted them for their one and only meeting. She had not however been able to sense anything from him that indicated he knew anything about thaumaturgy. Upon this evidence she had believed him to be a master that the Grail had picked out of a lack of candidates, with no useful skills to speak of as a combatant. In that case however, what in the world was she seeing now?
Hands covered by black leather gloves, Kuzuki-sensei was overwhelming Saber with a series of blows that managed to slip past Saber's defences like magic. Each hit impacted the slight servant's frame like a cannonshell, and Sakura could see the metal of Saber's breastplate actually cave in every time Kuzuki-sensei's fist hit it. With thaumaturgically reinforced steel giving way like this, it was no surprise that Saber herself was getting off worse. Already half her face was covered with blood, a deep gash on her brow pouring forth the red liquid.
"Saber, watch the back of your head!" Sakura heard Kirika cry out suddenly.
Sakura wondered what Kirika was talking about, but her curiosity was soon answered as she saw Kuzuki's hand suddenly change direction in mid-strike to strike at a spot completly different from the original target area. Kirika's warning had been just in time as Saber narrowly avoided a hammerblow to the weak area at the base of the skull. She still got clipped though, and was unable to recover in time to block another huge blow that finally broke through the stressed metal of her breastplate.
"Good afternoon dear," a feminine voice suddenly spoke from behind Sakura, startling her. "It's good that I found you."
"Caster-san?" Sakura wondered out loud as she recognised the speaker. "What are you doing here?"
"To make sure my master is safe of course," the robed woman replied. "Oh, and you need to hurry and retrieve Rider, dear. Your foolish brother had placed her into a situation that she can't get out of."
"Rider? But -," Sakura's voice cut out in a hiss of pain as she felt a burning sensation on her left hand. When she looked down she could see that her command seals had come to life again, and realised what had happened.
"Hurry dear," Caster told her in an insisting tone. "If you don't do something she's going to die."
Staring at the returned markings on her hand, Sakura struggled with her decision for a moment, wondering what was the best option here. Before she realised what she was doing however, she found herself issuing a command.
"As your master I order you, Rider. Appear before me!" she said hurriedly.
A weight that she hadn't known she had borne was lifted off Sakura's shoulders as Rider appeared in front of her in a cloud of glittering lights. The vague relief turned to worry however when Rider collapsed, a pool of blood forming around her almost immediately.
"Rider!" Sakura cried out as she knelt down beside her servant.
Sakura quickly wrenched open the connection between them as she put her hand on Rider. Casting a healing spell, she was surprised when much more prana than she was capable of supplying flowed down her circuits. She was wondering what was going on when a faint green light caught her attention. Looking down, she saw that it was coming from her pocket, and it was then that she remembered the stone that Kirika had given her.
"How interesting," Caster said as she came up to look. "Where did you obtain that stone in your pocket Sakura dear?"
Sakura had looked up as Caster came over, and now her eyes darted to the side as she was reminded of whos the stone's original owner had been. Caster followed that gaze, and let out a faint exclamation of surprise as she saw Kirika.
"My, my," Caster remarked as she looked the wounded master over. "So many interesting young woman these days."
The servant of the spell than stopped, frowning as she noticed something that made her lips curl into a delighted smile.
"Master, please stop there," Caster requested unexpectedly.
Waving a hand at the air, Caster summoned a strange hazy window of sorts. Sakura didn't pay it much attention at first, but when she took a second look she was horrified to find that Rin was looking at her from the other side of the window.
"Sakura?!" she heard through the deafening silence in her head.
What to do? How to respond? Caught in a compromising situation for which there could be no satisfactory excuse, Sakura was on the verge of panic as Rin's expression slowly darkened. If the conversation earlier had been a dream, than this had to be nightmare.
Matters only became worse as Shinji suddenly spoke up, and Sakura felt in herself for the first time a deep wish to kill Shinji in the most painful way possible. Regardless of what Shinji's fate might be however, it was undeniable that his accusations had struck Rin deeply. Sakura felt her expression crumbling with pain as she saw the light of suspicion and doubt enter her sister's eyes. The wavering blue orbs asking of her the truth as to Shinji's words.
It would have been so easy here for Sakura to deny Shinji's accusations. Her conscience however prevented her from doing so. It had been her weakness that had allowed Shinji to demand mastery of Rider from her. It had been her plans that allowed Shinji to keep control of her servant, using him as a foil to keep herself safe and out of sight. It was also her lack of care that had led to Shinji going out of control like this. Had she remembered the fact that Shinji was liable to break under the stress of the war, she would have known to take back Rider's mastery as soon as possible. In that case, none of this would have happened. She would have been able to rejoin Rin as her family member with nothing to burden her but the scars upon her own soul and body. Now however her hands were stained with the blood of her classmates, teachers, and every other person who had been hurt or killed by the vampiric power of Rider's bounded field.
The guilt weighed upon her like the pressure of the dark depths, and Sakura realised that she could not deny the truth of the matter to try and life to Rin. Doing so would only make things worse.
"Sakura?" Rin called out to her. "Shinji's lying, right? You can't be Rider's master."
"... I'm sorry nee-san," Sakura replied quietly as tears of frustration and pain began to escape her rapidly crumbling control. "Rider's master..."
A tear dropped onto her hand as she bowed her head in shame and grief. To Sakura it looked like a drop of blood, one of many that stained her soul and body as the tears began to flow.
"... Is me," Sakura finished in a voice empty of emotion. The joy she had felt earlier that day had turned to ashes on her tongue, and the flicker of hope that she had woken up with was snuffed out with her words. Dark and empty now, the only emotion she felt in her heart was the heavy and painful weight of despair.
______________________
End of Chapter 4
5-1
An endless world.
With no structures or geological features to bar the eye, the water covered surface that Kirika walked upon stretched out endlessly as far as she could see. Every step she took sent ripples across the thin layer of water that now sat motionlessly on the perfectly flat surface of this domain, but the mark they made was soon lost in the sheer vastness of this mysterious land.
Here and there, odd items rested that drew one's eye. A sword here, a stack of books over there, and a bed of wild flowers to the left of her that could have come out of any pasture. There was no sense or order to this chaotic arrangement, and to try and interpret it was to invite madness. Knowing this better than anyone, Kirika ignored the odds and ends that dotted the landscape as she continued to walk with no goal in mind but knowing she had to go somewhere.
A thought struck her though as she went in what she assumed to be a forward direction. There was no source of illumination here but for the faint starlike lights in the dark sky, yet she could see perfectly. The realisation woke her memories, and for the first time Kirika was able to completely comprehend the fact that she was looking at her own mind.
"Wow," she mumbled as she looked around. "It's gotten a lot better than before, but still, what a mess."
Shaking her head in chagrin, Kirika wore a faint smile as she continued onwards. There was nothing she could do about the mess right now, or at least that's what her instincts told her. Something more was needed, a trigger that could change the world she perceived inside her own head. For some reason she thought that trigger might be related to the dark heavens above. There was just something about the starscape overhead that struck as being simply wrong. A change here felt like it could be the most natural thing in the world.
Eventually, Kirika found what she hadn't known she was looking for, her eyes lighting up as she spotted another figure in the distance. A stranger, at first she wondered why he looked so familiar, but soon realised that he looked remarkably similar to someone she had seen before.
Herself. Or rather, himself, as she had been a he the last time she had seen that face in a mirror.
Shirou, as Kirika named her apparent doppelganger in her head, stood silent before a pair of huge broken mirror shards, for lack of a better term. The two shards were each a different shape, and they were showing different pictures inside their trregularly shaped surfaces, of which Shirou was only looking at one.
Within the screen, a land lay at peace. The faces of the common peoples were alive with smiles, and golden seas of grain filled the fields, but all was not well. Beneath the peaceful veneer, shadows of greed and hate were slowly spreading across the kingdom. Nowhere was this more evident than in the capital, where poisonous tongues spun their webs of intrigue, aiming to bring down the figure who blocked their dirty ambitions. In doing so they foolishly forgot that he was also the only thing that was holding this fragile kingdom together.
For a while, the corruption could not spread. Wiser than any of the greed-addled nobles, the grand mage that stood by the king's side turned all their plots against them. There were also those who had little skill in the crafting of poisonous words, but possessed souls bright enough to cower the darkness, even as they swung their swords to safeguard the kingdom. This gathering of the greatest knights of the realm effectively forbid all attempts by the greedy to try and sieze what they wanted by force.
As time passed however, the forces that had sheltered the king from the daggers at his back grew weak or disappeared altogether. His greatest advisor, kidnapped and imprisoned by the fairies. His knights, some of whom were so disillusioned by his inhumanity that they left the court, and the rest, scattered to the winds in search of the cup that could grant all wishes. One by one, the king's ally disappeared, until finally only a few faithful followers remained in a court that had been suborned by his worst enemies.
Turning away from the grim picture of Saber sitting in a court filled with those who were eager to see her dead, Kirika looked to the screen that hung in the air across from this one.
In this window into the past, a much different memory was displayed. The beginning was the same, the land finally at rest after years of war. The kingdom celebrated the arrival of peace, and every town and village was filled with the joyful cheers of the people. In Camelot too, secure in the knowledge that at least for a time there were no threats on the horizon, the hall was filled with laughter as the guardians of the kingdom put down the heavy burdens of duty for a while.
All but one of them that is.
At the centre of the hall, Arthur sat solemnly in strange contrast to his surroundings. His thoughts had turned to the night before the last battle, when he had rescued a babe from the flames, only to stand by helplessly as the infant died despite the best care the healers could offer. Though regretful, it was not something that he would normally have dwelt upon. Tragic deaths happened every day, and it was in order to prevent as many of them as possible that he had taken up the role as king. This time however, the images would not leave his head. He was constantly reminded of his helplessness to help the infant, and this led him to wonder.
How useful was he really if he could not even save an innocent life as it faded right before his eyes?
That first thought led to another, and before long he was wondering if he had been right to make the choices he had in leading the war against the kingdom's foes. It was all very well to abandon the few to save the many, but in doing so had he sacrificed something greater? How could the people believe in the kingdom if they held within their hearts the fear that maybe the next time, it would be them who were foregone? Could they believe in a king who made such decisions, when even he himself had begun to doubt?
The air around Arthur grew heavier as a pillar of his beliefs began to shake. So lost was he in his thoughts that he did not notice the fact that the feasting hall had become quiet, the only noise the music of the minstrels as they attempted to fill the sudden void. Knights who just moments ago had been roaring with laughter were now looking at each other and whispering. Their hushed conversations were not about any displeasure they might have felt at the king throwing cold water over their celebrations, but more around the sheer shock that many of them felt upon seeing him in such a state.
For many of them, it was the first time since they had sworn service to their lord that they had seen him display his emotions so openly. An occasional show of grief, or a brief moment of shared caramaderie on the battlefield, these things they had seen. Never before however had the king let himself be seen like this, vulnerable, mortal.
Just like the rest of them.
That first feast after the long years of war marked a turning point in the history of the isle. Some would say later that it was this moment that doomed the kingdom of Briton, the kingdom's fate sealed as its king abandoned perfection for human weakness. Indeed, there were many troubles for the land as Arthur began to regain his humanity. Not least of all the chaos that came about when Arthur gave up his mask to reveal her true self as Arturia. The fragile peace was shattered by this revelation as discontent nobles and vengeful enemies used her deception as an excuse for rebellion and war.
Through it all however, Arturia was happy. It was not to say that she didn't look back on her choices sometimes to wonder what might have happened had she kept going as she had. She had regrets, just like any other human, but she no longer had to shoulder such burdens alone. True friends and followers now stood at her side. A few of her knights had left after her divulgance, but most had stayed to swear fealty anew upon the banner of the lily she had adopted as a symbol of her new resolve. The only thing that she was remorseful about was the unnecessary pain that her subjects suffered due to her decision, but the people supported her, charmed by her looks and warmth.
And so, Briton's flame shone against the darkness of the age. All the more brighter because of its precarious state.
The images stopped there, with Lily in the white and silver armor she had adopted as she reclaimed the name she had been born with. Looking at that picture Kirika was struck by how different the expressions the two versions of the same person were. In the other screen the image of Saber had her frozen with a look of absolute resolve on her face that awed Kirika even as it discomfited her due to the zeal it implied. Lily on the other hand looked relaxed but confident, a slight smile on her lips reflecting the mirth in her eyes as she laughed at some tale told by a knight at her side. In fact, she looked so comfortable that Kirika was led to wonder why Lily had been summoned. After all, the servants that the Grail called were those who had died with regrets. After seeing her story however Kirika did not feel that Lily had wanted to change anything in particular about her life. In that case, what was the wish that Lily hoped to be granted by appearing in this day and age? Was there something she did not know yet that had caused Lily to change her mind?
"You know, you are not supposed to be here," a voice interrupted her thoughts.
Surprised, Kirika turned around to see that her unexplained doppelganger had broken his silence to speak to her. He had been so quiet until now that she had almost forgotten about his presence, but now that he had spoken, she decided to ask that which she had wanted to ask ever since she saw him.
"Is that so? Then what about you? Who are you to say that I can't explore my own mind?" Kirika asked in a deliberately provocative tone.
'Shirou' raised an eyebrow, his honey coloured eyes that were a mirror to Kirika's own slightly peeved as he stared back at her.
"I'm you," he told her. "Or at least, who you were supposed to be."
This time it was Kirika's turn to raise an eyebrow. What did he mean by that? Her encounter with the Kaleidostick had changed her life, yes, but how could he say that he was her when... A possible explanation came to her, and Kirika looked at her alternate self with a complicated expression marring her finely shaped face.
"Don't you mean to say, you are what I could have been?" she asked 'Shirou', somehow knowing that this was the right answer.
'Shirou' frowned at that, as if offended by the suggestion. From his silence however Kirika could tell that she had been right in her guess, as no version of her that called themselves Emiya would offer up a lie when it came to such important a question.
"In another world, yes," he finally admitted. "I'm not so sure about the mechanics myself, but the possibility was always there, just beyond the boundary between this world and the one next door."
"So, you are not me?" Kirika asked, a little slow when it came to comprehending what was being said.
"No, I am you," Shirou replied. "Just not Emiya Kirika, just as you are me, but not Emiya Shirou."
"... I don't get it," Kirika admitted. "What is it that you are trying to say?"
"Nothing really," Shirou sighed. "I just wanted to make myself known when I could. So that you know that I was here. So that you remember when the time comes."
"When the time comes?" Kirika frowned. "What time is that?"
"You will know soon enough," Shirou said with a shrug. "Cracks have started to appear already, so it won't be too long before you find out."
"Cracks?" Kirika asked, wondering why this self-proclaimed 'self' of hers was speaking so cryptically.
In this case however, it appeared he had been speaking literally, as he pointed up at the sky at something. Following his finger, Kirika looked up at the dark sky, and was surprised to see that there were indeed cracks in the starlit void that covered the heavens.
"... What is that?" Kirika muttered.
"Don't ask me," Shirou grumbled as he stood up. "All I know is that when those cracks spread, something is going to happen. So be ready for that, and remember me would you?"
Leaving that message, 'Shirou' began to walk off. Still confused by many things, Kirika would have followed him, but was unable to as the world began to fade. The last thing she saw before everything turned black was 'Shirou' walking off into the distance, a lonely figure amidst the crazed garden of items that was her mind.
-x-x-x-
She was waking up at night a lot these days, Kirika thought as she sat up on her bed.
She was still confused by the strange conversation she had exchanged with... Herself? If this continued she was going to be a good candidate for the looney bin. How could he/she know things that he/she didn't know himself/herself? Ack, now the language that was needed to describe the situation was giving her a headache too.
Distracted by her surreal experience, it was a while before Kirika remembered what had happened earlier that day. When she did, it was with great astonishment that she realised that her body was completely healed. The damage she had taken hadn't been light, and she was actually surprised that she had been able to wake up like this at all. Moreover, there weren't even any bruises she could see, telling her again that somebody had gone to great trouble to take care of her. She wondered if that person had been Rin. The last thing she remembered had been the explosion, and so she had no idea what had happened next. Judging by the fact that she was alive though, they must have been successful to a degree at least.
Getting out of the bed, Kirika changed from the pyjamas that had been put on her into a casual outfit composed of a pair of jeans and a loose white cotton shirt. All done, she was about to go out when her image in the mirror stopped her.
Turning on the lights to take a closer look, Kirika flinched as she saw the damage that had been done to her hair. The lustrous copper strands that had fallen down nearly to her waist had been truncated near her neck, leaving only two tails that fell down around her ears. The cut hadn't been smooth either, the uneven fringe betraying how roughly she had hacked it away. Her hairdresser would have fainted had she seen it, and Kirika herself was a little gutted as well after five years of having the importance of hair care pounded into her. When she thought about that, Kirika immediately felt as if a heavy weight had struck her, both because of how thoroughly she had been brainwashed and because of the dread she felt at the thought of the fuss that Rin was going to make.
Regretful, but what was done was done. Recovering completely Kirika decided that she needed to at least even her hair out if she was going to be fit to be seen in public. Tracing a pair of scissors, she went to work, and soon enough she had tidied it up to her satisfaction. The hair at the back of her head now tapered into a slight point where it fell down just below the base of her neck, and the two tails at the sides were left alone. Rin was going to be annoyed enough already, and she didn't need to add to that by cutting off what longer strands she had left. Besides, it didn't actually look too bad.
Decent now, Kirika opened the door and headed for the lounge to see if anyone was there. Rin had taken to spending the nights in the lounge recently as everyone gathered to go over the day's events. As she only went to her room to sleep, Kirika figured that she would find her friend and mentor there as usual.
Contrary to her expectations, Kirika was surprised to find that only Saber was in the lounge, with no sign of Rin or the other two servants anywhere near by.
"Kirika?" Saber said as she spotted her. "Is it okay for you to be up and about?"
"I'm fine, see?" Kirika replied cheerfully as she swung her arms about as a demonstration of her fitness. "Not even any bruises anywhere. Looks like I'll have to apologise to Rin for making her take care of me again."
Saber looked at Kirika dubiously at this claim, and blinked as she saw that it was true.
"That's odd," she told Kirika. "Rin did tend to your wounds, but the marks were still there when we put you into bed. Do you possess a healing artefact of some sort?"
Kirika tilted her head. "Really? That's strange. I don't have anything of the sort. I thought that Rin had healed me."
Saber's face became grim.
"I'm afraid Rin was too shocked to do that," Saber told her. "She retained enough of her spirit to heal your wounds and mine, but she went straight into her room afterwards and has stayed there since."
"What?" Kirika looked Saber up and down. "You were wounded? Rin? What happened after I fell unconscious?"
Saber proceeded to tell her about the events of that afternoon, sheepish when she mentioned how she had been driven into a corner by Kuzuki, and sad as she detailed Caster's intervention and Sakura's confession.
"Wait," Kirika stopped Saber in order to absorb the shocks that had come one after another. "So you are saying that Sakura was Rider's master all along, as well as being Caster's ally, and that they basically challenged Rin to battle? Matou Sakura? "
Saber nodded. "To be precise Caster invited Rin to come to the temple if she wanted to talk more, but as you well know, the temple is firmly under her control."
"Yes, and after last time Caster is bound to have strengthened her defences," Kirika felt a headache growing as she thought about it. "Seeing as Lily nearly lost one on one with Assassin, I don't see us getting inside very easily."
The mood in the lounge grew gloomy as the two of them realised that there was no easy solution to this problem. There was the option of using Saber's Excalibur in order to blow through the defences with brute force, but upon discussion they had ruled out its use due to the its flashiness and the presence of people upon the mountain. The question of what to do about Caster had actually been something that they planned to discuss tonight with Rin and Archer. With Rin all depressed like that though, it didn't look as if they would be making any plans tonight.
Thinking of Rin, Kirika realised she had something to do.
"Saber, is there anything more that I need to know?" she asked her servant.
"No, that's everything Kirika," Saber replied as she looked at Kirika with her green eyes. "Archer and Lily are outside keeping watch, but that's everything."
"Okay, in that case I think I will go talk to Rin," Kirika notified Saber. "I will be in her room if you need anything."
"Very well," Saber stood up. "Take care of her Kirika. Rin looked quite bad when she went up to her room."
"Don't worry, I will," said Kirika before she stopped at the door to the lounge. "Oh, I almost forgot. It's good to see that you finally kept your promise."
"Promise?" Saber mumbled, confused. "What promise?"
"You promised to call me Kirika, remember?" Kirika told her. "Keep it up."
Only just realising that she had been calling Kirika by name since the conversation started, Saber's face went red as Kirika ducked out of the lounge in order to go to Rin's side.
-x-x-x-
Knock, knock.
"Rin? Can I come in?" Kirika asked through the closed door.
No answer. It looked like Rin was worse off than Kirika had thought. Not too strange under the circumstances. If Saber's version of events had been correct, Rin had just had her hopes of regaining a family member dashed by the very person she had sought to reunite with. Though Rin was far more mature than many people her age, she was still only a teenager. Kirika would have been more surprised had Rin not been effected by the revelation.
"Rin? Are you awake?" Kirika tried again.
"Go away Kirika," a muffled reply came. "I want to be alone for now."
Tired and lifeless, it was not the Rin that Kirika knew that replied to her question. Stepping back from the door, Kirika considered what to do next. There were really only two choices. Ignore Rin's wishes and go in, or leave her alone as had been requested. If she did go away now though, it was obvious that Rin would spend a sleepless night agonising over what had happened. Her tendency to try and keep all her problems to herself made sure of that. This habit of Rin's was a byproduct of her childhood years, where she had been forced to make all her decisions for herself in the absence of any reliable adults. Kirei didn't count here, as no one who knew the man would ever willingly go to him for advice.
Hmm? Wait a moment. Who else did they know who they could go to for advice? Taiga was out by default, and... And... Grandpa Raiga? The manager at the shop where she worked part-time?
Kirika made a mental note to herself that as soon as the Grail War was over, she would have to make some more friends, or at least acquaintances. Having no one to turn to for advice except for Kirei wasn't something that a human could be proud of.
Anyways, while Rin would be alright even if she left her, as her best friend and apprentice Kirika could not tolerate her being in unnecessary pain. Kirika knew from experience that in times like this it helped to be in the company of others, if only to feel another person's warmth.
"I'm going in, Rin," Kirika told Rin as she made up her mind.
Putting her hand on the handle, Kirika found that it was locked as she had expected. Closing her eyes, she looked inside herself to find her circuits, and whispered the phrase that would activate them.
"Trace, on."
Error - Parameter conflict. Mental dissonance at 18 per cent. Error - Concept misalignment.
Kirika let out an involuntary gasp as a stab of pain struck her, like an icicle being driven into her spine. Pain she had expected, as the act of opening her circuits using the training method Kiritsugu had passed on was peculiar that way. This time however the pain was worse than usual, and she almost lost control of her suddenly rampaging circuits before she forced them back under control.
"Ugh," Kirika groaned as she tasted blood in her mouth. "Must not be fully healed yet."
Blaming the damage she had taken earlier that day, Kirika forgot about the pain and concentrated on the metal construct under her hands. Analysing the structure, she was surprised by how much faster it seemed to go. This was true even when she ran through all the possible tumbler combinations for the ones that would open the door.
Letting herself into the room she often shared with Rin, Kirika closed the door behind her and made her way to the bed. She was able to see that Rin truly had been affected by this incident, as she had crawled into bed without even changing her clothes. For Rin this was highly unusual, as she stuck rigidly to the Tohsaka family motto of doing everything elegantly, and going to bed with your clothes on was anything but elegant.
"I told you not to come in," Rin grumbled as Kirika drew near. She had her face turned away from the door and did not bother to turn around to look at Kirika.
"As if I could leave you alone like this, dummy," Kirika griped as she climbed onto the king sized bed to rest next to Rin. Supporting her upper body with one arm, she sat on her left side as she began to stroke Rin's soft black hair with her right hand.
"Stop it," Rin told her, but Kirika ignored the half-hearted protest and continued to slowly run her hand across Rin's head. After a while, Rin sighed, and Kirika could feel Rin's body go limp as she allowed herself to relax.
They stayed like that for a few minutes, saying nothing but taking comfort in the other's presence after the tough ordeals of the day. Both of them had spent a portion of their childhood alone, with few people to turn to, and at moments like this they were reminded how wonderful it was to have someone next to you that could share in your emotions.
"You know," Rin broke the silence. "I wonder if this is all my fault."
Kirika said nothing, and let her continue. It was best for Rin to get everything out right now.
"I should never have left Sakura alone for all these years," Rin said despondently. "When I was younger I tried to go see her every once in a while, but the adults always stopped me. They said that I shouldn't disturb her so that she could settle into her new family, that she would only be sad if I was to appear before her. I guess it must have stuck, because I stopped trying after a while."
Rin curled further into herself, and the air around her grew darker as she sank deeper into her memories of the past.
"The first time I saw her after she was taken by the Matous was in junior high," said Rin. "When I first spotted her I nearly dropped everything to run to her. Actually, I think I would have if Shinji hadn't appeared then to drag her away." There was the sound of grating teeth, and Kirika began to stroke Rin's head again to calm her sudden anger. "Now that I think about it, Shinji must have known about what that old monster was doing to Sakura. She was cold back then too. So different from the Sakura that I remembered. That's probably why I kept my distance from her initially. I couldn't put together that emotionless doll of the Matous with the Sakura in my memories who always had a smile on her face."
Rin let out a heavy sigh, as if she deeply regretted her actions back then.
"That change should have told me that something was wrong. That I needed to find out just why Sakura had become like that," Rin said quietly. "Instead, I just looked the other way and told myself that she wasn't my sister any more. Typical me isn't it? Always messing up at the most important time. I can't believe it took me so long to discover what they were doing to her. Do you know what I found at the Matou mansion, Kirika? A torture room. That's the only thing you can call it. They were taking her down there so that their bugs could feed on her. They were feeding her to insects every day and I didn't do anything about it!"
As she got to the end of her tirade, Rin rolled around so that she now looked up at Kirika's face. There were tears of frustration and rage in her eyes, and Kirika tenderly wiped them away with her thumb as she caressed Rin's face to comfort her.
"You couldn't have known, Rin. So don't blame yourself," Kirika finally spoke. "You are the one who told me that mages do not attempt to find out about each other without good reason, and you are too good a mage to disobey your own teachings."
"Sakura's my sister," Rin insisted. "What better reason could I have for looking into the Matou's affairs? I messed up Kirika. I ruined her life."
Kirika sighed and raised up Rin's body so that she was now hugging her from behind. Wrapping her arms around Rin's slender waist, Kirika rested her head on Rin's shoulder so that her lips brushed against Rin's ear.
"It wasn't your fault Rin. The only ones to blame here are the Matous," Kirika counselled her depressed friend and mentor.
"Really?" Rin asked bitterly. "It doesn't look like Sakura agrees with you. If she doesn't blame me, than why did she decide to join Caster?"
Kirika paused to think about Rin's question. She had thought that strange when she heard about it from Saber. She trusted in her senses, and to her instincts Sakura's eyes hadn't been those of a vengeful spirit. If anything, the emotion in those eyes as she had looked at Rin had been one of longing.
"Are you sure about that?" Kirika asked Rin back. "If she was taken advantage of by the Matous like you said, I wouldn't be too surprised to find that she was forced to participate in the Grail War. She is the last mage they have isn't she? I mean, Shinji couldn't summon a servant in a million years, and that naturally means Sakura was their only candidate. As for her alliance with Caster... Did she actually say that she wanted to fight you? Or are you just interpreting the situation as you saw it? I don't know myself, so I can't say anything about what happened, but Sakura didn't look like someone who was after vengeance."
There was only the sound of the ticking clock in the room as Rin thought back to the situation at the school. Kirika kept quiet in order to let Rin think, and took a moment to enjoy Rin's warmth as she leaned her body against her friend's.
"Now that you mention it, I never did get to hear any explanations from Sakura," Rin said with a hint of her usual energy in her voice. "She disappeared too quickly for that."
Kirika smiled. Her job was almost done, Rin could take it from here herself.
"See?" Kirika told Rin. "Before you start judging yourself, have a proper conversation with Sakura. I'm sure that you can work things out between you two."
"You are right," Rin admitted amusedly. "Now, the only question is how to arrange such a talk with her. If she's with Caster, they are going to be holed up at the mountain. With three servants there it's going to be a hard nut to crack."
"Why not just do what you usually do, Rin?" Kirika said in a cheeky tone. "I mean, since when have you cared about making plans and all? Just charge in there and drag her out."
She must have gone a little far with her teasing, because Rin stiffened in her arms and turned around to stare at Kirika.
"Kirika," Rin said with an uncomfortably familiar beatific smile. "Are you saying that I'm an idiot who only knows how to charge at a foe?"
"Huh?" Kirika was frozen like a frog in front of a snake. "When did I say that? All I said was that your plans all end in a charge anyway - hup!"
Kirika realised she had babbled and shut herself up, but too late to avoid Rin's retribution.
"Hoh?" Rin smiled pleasantly as she grabbed hold of Kirika's cheeks. "So, I'm a brute am I? A violent maniac? Is it this naughty mouth that's saying these things about me? And while we are at it, what did you do to your hair?!"
"Muuuu, Riiin," Kirika's words were mumbled as Rin pulled at the soft skin of her cheeks hard enough to cause pain.
"Hah," Rin sighed and let go off Kirika's cheeks. She looked on with a warm look in her eyes as Kirika muttered under her breath and rubbed at her red cheeks. Then, as Kirika was about to stand up, she suddenly leaned forward and lightly touched her lips against Kirika's.
The contact was so sudden that for a moment Kirika didn't realise what had happened. It was only when she saw Rin's brilliant blue eyes right in front of hers and felt something moist run across her lips that Kirika scrambled back, not realising that she had run out of space on the bed to move on.
With a loud thump, Kirika fell onto the carpeted floor. Abandoned, Rin stared on blankly for a while before she began chuckling at Kirika's antics as the other girl rubbed her hip where she had fallen on it.
"It's not funny, Rin!" Kirika protested with a red face. "What was that?"
Rin smiled as she looked at Kirika out of the corner of her eyes. An oddly seductive gesture Kirika thought.
"I don't know," Rin said as she leaned back on the bed. "What do you think it was Kirika?"
Kirika sighed. It was nice to see that Rin's spirits appeared to have been revived, but it was so typical of Rin to tease her like this as soon as she came out of her mood.
"Whatever, Rin," Kirika said as she shook her head in resigned acceptance. "I'm going to make dinner so come out after you've changed and washed up. You haven't eaten yet have you?"\
Rin shook her head to head to say that, no, she hadn't. Kirika nodded at that, and left the room, smiling in satisfaction at having cheered Rin up.
Back in the room, Rin stayed unmoving on the bed as she ran her fingertip across her lips. She had acted playful, but she herself had no idea what had happened just now. Her kiss had initially been intended to be just a light peck to lift the mood, but as soon as their lips had touched she had stopped thinking and let her body do as it wished. If Kirika hadn't broken free of her daze to move away when she had...
"Hah... Hah..." Rin let out a hollow laugh as she realised what she had almost done. "Mum, dad? Sorry, but I think your daughter might be bi-sexual."
Having said that to her parents in heaven in a moment of weakness, Rin immediately regretted ever giving voice to such a thing and clutched her head in shame.
-x-x-x-
"La-di-da-di-da~."
Kirika was moving busily about the kitchen as she got out the things she needed to make dinner. After setting out all the tools, she went over to the fridge to retrieve the ingredients. When she opened the fridge door however, she suddenly stopped, her eyes going blank for a second before she blinked and shook her head.
"Hmmm, no eggs," Kirika said to herself as she closed the fridge door. "Looks like I will have to go and get some."
Going back to her room, Kirika pocketed her wallet and went back down. She was headed for the door when Saber spotted her and called out to her.
"Kirika? Where are you going?" Saber questioned as she wondered over.
"Just going out to get some eggs," Kirika told her. "The shop's just down the street and... I'm in trouble again, aren't I?"
Arms crossed, Saber was tapping her foot as she glared angrily at Kirika.
"Ki-ri-ka," Saber slowly pronounced each syllable of her name. "Are you saying that you were about to go out alone? Without even mentioning anything to anyone?"
"Sorry!" Kirika apologised as she bowed her head. "Uhm... Do you want to tag along?"
"Master!" Saber's returned to her more formal form of address for Kirika as she lost her temper. "Caster could be spying on us even as we speak! You can't just wander out at this time of day to -."
"I'm making Frittatas," Kirika appealed to Saber's appetite to avoid the lecture that was coming. "Eggs, mushrooms, and potatoes, topped with my special sauce!"
"... Ahem. I suppose it would be okay if I came along," Saber suddenly changed tack.
"Great," Kirika straightened up. "Let's go then. The sooner we get there the sooner we can get back."
With a slightly reluctant Saber in tow, Kirika led the way out, and spotted Lily standing out in the garden amidst the flower beds.
"Kirika?" Lily called out as she saw them. "Are you going out?"
Kirika nodded. "Just to the shop down the road to buy some eggs. Saber's coming with me so you don't need to worry."
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Bribed with food again were we Saber?"
Saber bristled at the insinuation, all the more because it was true. "I was not! I'm just following Kirika to keep her safe!"
"Really?" Lily smiled and looked to Kirika. "In that case Kirika, can you give me double servings of whatever you are making? Saber here doesn't seem to need it."
"Lily!" Saber quickly jumped in as her share was threatened. "Just because I wasn't bribed, doesn't mean I don't want my fair share."
"Relax, Saber," Kirika chuckled. "Everybody's going to get the same amount. Lily's playing with you."
Back to her senses, Saber realised this to be true and blushed at how easily she had been shaken. It bore thinking on. She was far too relaxed lately and this was just another sign of that.
"We will be back in a bit Lily," Kirika told Lily as she headed for the gate. "Do you want anything from the store?"
Lily's eyes flashed. "Buy some more of those chocolate biscuits please. There aren't any more in the cupboard."
Kirika stopped, and turned around with a frown on her face. "None? But there were six packets!"
Lily suddenly looked busy as she muttered something about needing to check for possible familiars, and Saber began to whistle an unfamiliar tune. Realising what this meant, Kirika wondered just what was with the servants that she and Rin had summoned. One was the heroic spirit of cooking, and hers were supposedly versions of the King of Knights, but from their behaviour at home they seemed more akin to kings of the dinnertable.
-x-x-x-
A few minutes had passed since Kirika and Saber went out when Archer suddenly appeared next to Lily. She had felt him coming and so was not surprised, but did note that he seemed a little worried about something.
"Lily," Archer called her before she could comment on the fact. "Have you seen Kirika and Saber? They are not in the house."
"Those two?" Lily relaxed as it wasn't anything serious. "They went out to the store to buy some eggs. They should be back soon."
Archer appeared to accept that, but then suddenly stiffened as he spun back to look at her.
"Did you say that they went out to buy eggs?" he asked her quickly.
"Yes," Lily replied. "Why?"
Archer's frown deepened. "Because there are plenty of eggs in the fridge. How could Kirika have missed them?"
Lily's eyes went wide at the implications of Archer's question. The Kirika that she had seen over the last few days was familiar enough with the kitchen that it was hard to imagine that she would miss something so basic. In that case-
"Hah-!" Lily suddenly gasped and fell to her knees.
"Lily?" Archer quickly bent down to support her. "What's wrong?"
"Kirika," Lily whispered, her voice suddenly weak. "I can't feel Kirika anymore."
Archer's eyes went wide as the worst case scenario in his head was realised. He quickly went back into the house to fetch Rin, and together with Lily they went out in search of Kirika and Saber. When they reached the scene of the problem however, the only person they found was Saber, kneeling on the ground as she screamed out her rage at not being able to protect her master.
An endless world.
With no structures or geological features to bar the eye, the water covered surface that Kirika walked upon stretched out endlessly as far as she could see. Every step she took sent ripples across the thin layer of water that now sat motionlessly on the perfectly flat surface of this domain, but the mark they made was soon lost in the sheer vastness of this mysterious land.
Here and there, odd items rested that drew one's eye. A sword here, a stack of books over there, and a bed of wild flowers to the left of her that could have come out of any pasture. There was no sense or order to this chaotic arrangement, and to try and interpret it was to invite madness. Knowing this better than anyone, Kirika ignored the odds and ends that dotted the landscape as she continued to walk with no goal in mind but knowing she had to go somewhere.
A thought struck her though as she went in what she assumed to be a forward direction. There was no source of illumination here but for the faint starlike lights in the dark sky, yet she could see perfectly. The realisation woke her memories, and for the first time Kirika was able to completely comprehend the fact that she was looking at her own mind.
"Wow," she mumbled as she looked around. "It's gotten a lot better than before, but still, what a mess."
Shaking her head in chagrin, Kirika wore a faint smile as she continued onwards. There was nothing she could do about the mess right now, or at least that's what her instincts told her. Something more was needed, a trigger that could change the world she perceived inside her own head. For some reason she thought that trigger might be related to the dark heavens above. There was just something about the starscape overhead that struck as being simply wrong. A change here felt like it could be the most natural thing in the world.
Eventually, Kirika found what she hadn't known she was looking for, her eyes lighting up as she spotted another figure in the distance. A stranger, at first she wondered why he looked so familiar, but soon realised that he looked remarkably similar to someone she had seen before.
Herself. Or rather, himself, as she had been a he the last time she had seen that face in a mirror.
Shirou, as Kirika named her apparent doppelganger in her head, stood silent before a pair of huge broken mirror shards, for lack of a better term. The two shards were each a different shape, and they were showing different pictures inside their trregularly shaped surfaces, of which Shirou was only looking at one.
Within the screen, a land lay at peace. The faces of the common peoples were alive with smiles, and golden seas of grain filled the fields, but all was not well. Beneath the peaceful veneer, shadows of greed and hate were slowly spreading across the kingdom. Nowhere was this more evident than in the capital, where poisonous tongues spun their webs of intrigue, aiming to bring down the figure who blocked their dirty ambitions. In doing so they foolishly forgot that he was also the only thing that was holding this fragile kingdom together.
For a while, the corruption could not spread. Wiser than any of the greed-addled nobles, the grand mage that stood by the king's side turned all their plots against them. There were also those who had little skill in the crafting of poisonous words, but possessed souls bright enough to cower the darkness, even as they swung their swords to safeguard the kingdom. This gathering of the greatest knights of the realm effectively forbid all attempts by the greedy to try and sieze what they wanted by force.
As time passed however, the forces that had sheltered the king from the daggers at his back grew weak or disappeared altogether. His greatest advisor, kidnapped and imprisoned by the fairies. His knights, some of whom were so disillusioned by his inhumanity that they left the court, and the rest, scattered to the winds in search of the cup that could grant all wishes. One by one, the king's ally disappeared, until finally only a few faithful followers remained in a court that had been suborned by his worst enemies.
Turning away from the grim picture of Saber sitting in a court filled with those who were eager to see her dead, Kirika looked to the screen that hung in the air across from this one.
In this window into the past, a much different memory was displayed. The beginning was the same, the land finally at rest after years of war. The kingdom celebrated the arrival of peace, and every town and village was filled with the joyful cheers of the people. In Camelot too, secure in the knowledge that at least for a time there were no threats on the horizon, the hall was filled with laughter as the guardians of the kingdom put down the heavy burdens of duty for a while.
All but one of them that is.
At the centre of the hall, Arthur sat solemnly in strange contrast to his surroundings. His thoughts had turned to the night before the last battle, when he had rescued a babe from the flames, only to stand by helplessly as the infant died despite the best care the healers could offer. Though regretful, it was not something that he would normally have dwelt upon. Tragic deaths happened every day, and it was in order to prevent as many of them as possible that he had taken up the role as king. This time however, the images would not leave his head. He was constantly reminded of his helplessness to help the infant, and this led him to wonder.
How useful was he really if he could not even save an innocent life as it faded right before his eyes?
That first thought led to another, and before long he was wondering if he had been right to make the choices he had in leading the war against the kingdom's foes. It was all very well to abandon the few to save the many, but in doing so had he sacrificed something greater? How could the people believe in the kingdom if they held within their hearts the fear that maybe the next time, it would be them who were foregone? Could they believe in a king who made such decisions, when even he himself had begun to doubt?
The air around Arthur grew heavier as a pillar of his beliefs began to shake. So lost was he in his thoughts that he did not notice the fact that the feasting hall had become quiet, the only noise the music of the minstrels as they attempted to fill the sudden void. Knights who just moments ago had been roaring with laughter were now looking at each other and whispering. Their hushed conversations were not about any displeasure they might have felt at the king throwing cold water over their celebrations, but more around the sheer shock that many of them felt upon seeing him in such a state.
For many of them, it was the first time since they had sworn service to their lord that they had seen him display his emotions so openly. An occasional show of grief, or a brief moment of shared caramaderie on the battlefield, these things they had seen. Never before however had the king let himself be seen like this, vulnerable, mortal.
Just like the rest of them.
That first feast after the long years of war marked a turning point in the history of the isle. Some would say later that it was this moment that doomed the kingdom of Briton, the kingdom's fate sealed as its king abandoned perfection for human weakness. Indeed, there were many troubles for the land as Arthur began to regain his humanity. Not least of all the chaos that came about when Arthur gave up his mask to reveal her true self as Arturia. The fragile peace was shattered by this revelation as discontent nobles and vengeful enemies used her deception as an excuse for rebellion and war.
Through it all however, Arturia was happy. It was not to say that she didn't look back on her choices sometimes to wonder what might have happened had she kept going as she had. She had regrets, just like any other human, but she no longer had to shoulder such burdens alone. True friends and followers now stood at her side. A few of her knights had left after her divulgance, but most had stayed to swear fealty anew upon the banner of the lily she had adopted as a symbol of her new resolve. The only thing that she was remorseful about was the unnecessary pain that her subjects suffered due to her decision, but the people supported her, charmed by her looks and warmth.
And so, Briton's flame shone against the darkness of the age. All the more brighter because of its precarious state.
The images stopped there, with Lily in the white and silver armor she had adopted as she reclaimed the name she had been born with. Looking at that picture Kirika was struck by how different the expressions the two versions of the same person were. In the other screen the image of Saber had her frozen with a look of absolute resolve on her face that awed Kirika even as it discomfited her due to the zeal it implied. Lily on the other hand looked relaxed but confident, a slight smile on her lips reflecting the mirth in her eyes as she laughed at some tale told by a knight at her side. In fact, she looked so comfortable that Kirika was led to wonder why Lily had been summoned. After all, the servants that the Grail called were those who had died with regrets. After seeing her story however Kirika did not feel that Lily had wanted to change anything in particular about her life. In that case, what was the wish that Lily hoped to be granted by appearing in this day and age? Was there something she did not know yet that had caused Lily to change her mind?
"You know, you are not supposed to be here," a voice interrupted her thoughts.
Surprised, Kirika turned around to see that her unexplained doppelganger had broken his silence to speak to her. He had been so quiet until now that she had almost forgotten about his presence, but now that he had spoken, she decided to ask that which she had wanted to ask ever since she saw him.
"Is that so? Then what about you? Who are you to say that I can't explore my own mind?" Kirika asked in a deliberately provocative tone.
'Shirou' raised an eyebrow, his honey coloured eyes that were a mirror to Kirika's own slightly peeved as he stared back at her.
"I'm you," he told her. "Or at least, who you were supposed to be."
This time it was Kirika's turn to raise an eyebrow. What did he mean by that? Her encounter with the Kaleidostick had changed her life, yes, but how could he say that he was her when... A possible explanation came to her, and Kirika looked at her alternate self with a complicated expression marring her finely shaped face.
"Don't you mean to say, you are what I could have been?" she asked 'Shirou', somehow knowing that this was the right answer.
'Shirou' frowned at that, as if offended by the suggestion. From his silence however Kirika could tell that she had been right in her guess, as no version of her that called themselves Emiya would offer up a lie when it came to such important a question.
"In another world, yes," he finally admitted. "I'm not so sure about the mechanics myself, but the possibility was always there, just beyond the boundary between this world and the one next door."
"So, you are not me?" Kirika asked, a little slow when it came to comprehending what was being said.
"No, I am you," Shirou replied. "Just not Emiya Kirika, just as you are me, but not Emiya Shirou."
"... I don't get it," Kirika admitted. "What is it that you are trying to say?"
"Nothing really," Shirou sighed. "I just wanted to make myself known when I could. So that you know that I was here. So that you remember when the time comes."
"When the time comes?" Kirika frowned. "What time is that?"
"You will know soon enough," Shirou said with a shrug. "Cracks have started to appear already, so it won't be too long before you find out."
"Cracks?" Kirika asked, wondering why this self-proclaimed 'self' of hers was speaking so cryptically.
In this case however, it appeared he had been speaking literally, as he pointed up at the sky at something. Following his finger, Kirika looked up at the dark sky, and was surprised to see that there were indeed cracks in the starlit void that covered the heavens.
"... What is that?" Kirika muttered.
"Don't ask me," Shirou grumbled as he stood up. "All I know is that when those cracks spread, something is going to happen. So be ready for that, and remember me would you?"
Leaving that message, 'Shirou' began to walk off. Still confused by many things, Kirika would have followed him, but was unable to as the world began to fade. The last thing she saw before everything turned black was 'Shirou' walking off into the distance, a lonely figure amidst the crazed garden of items that was her mind.
-x-x-x-
She was waking up at night a lot these days, Kirika thought as she sat up on her bed.
She was still confused by the strange conversation she had exchanged with... Herself? If this continued she was going to be a good candidate for the looney bin. How could he/she know things that he/she didn't know himself/herself? Ack, now the language that was needed to describe the situation was giving her a headache too.
Distracted by her surreal experience, it was a while before Kirika remembered what had happened earlier that day. When she did, it was with great astonishment that she realised that her body was completely healed. The damage she had taken hadn't been light, and she was actually surprised that she had been able to wake up like this at all. Moreover, there weren't even any bruises she could see, telling her again that somebody had gone to great trouble to take care of her. She wondered if that person had been Rin. The last thing she remembered had been the explosion, and so she had no idea what had happened next. Judging by the fact that she was alive though, they must have been successful to a degree at least.
Getting out of the bed, Kirika changed from the pyjamas that had been put on her into a casual outfit composed of a pair of jeans and a loose white cotton shirt. All done, she was about to go out when her image in the mirror stopped her.
Turning on the lights to take a closer look, Kirika flinched as she saw the damage that had been done to her hair. The lustrous copper strands that had fallen down nearly to her waist had been truncated near her neck, leaving only two tails that fell down around her ears. The cut hadn't been smooth either, the uneven fringe betraying how roughly she had hacked it away. Her hairdresser would have fainted had she seen it, and Kirika herself was a little gutted as well after five years of having the importance of hair care pounded into her. When she thought about that, Kirika immediately felt as if a heavy weight had struck her, both because of how thoroughly she had been brainwashed and because of the dread she felt at the thought of the fuss that Rin was going to make.
Regretful, but what was done was done. Recovering completely Kirika decided that she needed to at least even her hair out if she was going to be fit to be seen in public. Tracing a pair of scissors, she went to work, and soon enough she had tidied it up to her satisfaction. The hair at the back of her head now tapered into a slight point where it fell down just below the base of her neck, and the two tails at the sides were left alone. Rin was going to be annoyed enough already, and she didn't need to add to that by cutting off what longer strands she had left. Besides, it didn't actually look too bad.
Decent now, Kirika opened the door and headed for the lounge to see if anyone was there. Rin had taken to spending the nights in the lounge recently as everyone gathered to go over the day's events. As she only went to her room to sleep, Kirika figured that she would find her friend and mentor there as usual.
Contrary to her expectations, Kirika was surprised to find that only Saber was in the lounge, with no sign of Rin or the other two servants anywhere near by.
"Kirika?" Saber said as she spotted her. "Is it okay for you to be up and about?"
"I'm fine, see?" Kirika replied cheerfully as she swung her arms about as a demonstration of her fitness. "Not even any bruises anywhere. Looks like I'll have to apologise to Rin for making her take care of me again."
Saber looked at Kirika dubiously at this claim, and blinked as she saw that it was true.
"That's odd," she told Kirika. "Rin did tend to your wounds, but the marks were still there when we put you into bed. Do you possess a healing artefact of some sort?"
Kirika tilted her head. "Really? That's strange. I don't have anything of the sort. I thought that Rin had healed me."
Saber's face became grim.
"I'm afraid Rin was too shocked to do that," Saber told her. "She retained enough of her spirit to heal your wounds and mine, but she went straight into her room afterwards and has stayed there since."
"What?" Kirika looked Saber up and down. "You were wounded? Rin? What happened after I fell unconscious?"
Saber proceeded to tell her about the events of that afternoon, sheepish when she mentioned how she had been driven into a corner by Kuzuki, and sad as she detailed Caster's intervention and Sakura's confession.
"Wait," Kirika stopped Saber in order to absorb the shocks that had come one after another. "So you are saying that Sakura was Rider's master all along, as well as being Caster's ally, and that they basically challenged Rin to battle? Matou Sakura? "
Saber nodded. "To be precise Caster invited Rin to come to the temple if she wanted to talk more, but as you well know, the temple is firmly under her control."
"Yes, and after last time Caster is bound to have strengthened her defences," Kirika felt a headache growing as she thought about it. "Seeing as Lily nearly lost one on one with Assassin, I don't see us getting inside very easily."
The mood in the lounge grew gloomy as the two of them realised that there was no easy solution to this problem. There was the option of using Saber's Excalibur in order to blow through the defences with brute force, but upon discussion they had ruled out its use due to the its flashiness and the presence of people upon the mountain. The question of what to do about Caster had actually been something that they planned to discuss tonight with Rin and Archer. With Rin all depressed like that though, it didn't look as if they would be making any plans tonight.
Thinking of Rin, Kirika realised she had something to do.
"Saber, is there anything more that I need to know?" she asked her servant.
"No, that's everything Kirika," Saber replied as she looked at Kirika with her green eyes. "Archer and Lily are outside keeping watch, but that's everything."
"Okay, in that case I think I will go talk to Rin," Kirika notified Saber. "I will be in her room if you need anything."
"Very well," Saber stood up. "Take care of her Kirika. Rin looked quite bad when she went up to her room."
"Don't worry, I will," said Kirika before she stopped at the door to the lounge. "Oh, I almost forgot. It's good to see that you finally kept your promise."
"Promise?" Saber mumbled, confused. "What promise?"
"You promised to call me Kirika, remember?" Kirika told her. "Keep it up."
Only just realising that she had been calling Kirika by name since the conversation started, Saber's face went red as Kirika ducked out of the lounge in order to go to Rin's side.
-x-x-x-
Knock, knock.
"Rin? Can I come in?" Kirika asked through the closed door.
No answer. It looked like Rin was worse off than Kirika had thought. Not too strange under the circumstances. If Saber's version of events had been correct, Rin had just had her hopes of regaining a family member dashed by the very person she had sought to reunite with. Though Rin was far more mature than many people her age, she was still only a teenager. Kirika would have been more surprised had Rin not been effected by the revelation.
"Rin? Are you awake?" Kirika tried again.
"Go away Kirika," a muffled reply came. "I want to be alone for now."
Tired and lifeless, it was not the Rin that Kirika knew that replied to her question. Stepping back from the door, Kirika considered what to do next. There were really only two choices. Ignore Rin's wishes and go in, or leave her alone as had been requested. If she did go away now though, it was obvious that Rin would spend a sleepless night agonising over what had happened. Her tendency to try and keep all her problems to herself made sure of that. This habit of Rin's was a byproduct of her childhood years, where she had been forced to make all her decisions for herself in the absence of any reliable adults. Kirei didn't count here, as no one who knew the man would ever willingly go to him for advice.
Hmm? Wait a moment. Who else did they know who they could go to for advice? Taiga was out by default, and... And... Grandpa Raiga? The manager at the shop where she worked part-time?
Kirika made a mental note to herself that as soon as the Grail War was over, she would have to make some more friends, or at least acquaintances. Having no one to turn to for advice except for Kirei wasn't something that a human could be proud of.
Anyways, while Rin would be alright even if she left her, as her best friend and apprentice Kirika could not tolerate her being in unnecessary pain. Kirika knew from experience that in times like this it helped to be in the company of others, if only to feel another person's warmth.
"I'm going in, Rin," Kirika told Rin as she made up her mind.
Putting her hand on the handle, Kirika found that it was locked as she had expected. Closing her eyes, she looked inside herself to find her circuits, and whispered the phrase that would activate them.
"Trace, on."
Error - Parameter conflict. Mental dissonance at 18 per cent. Error - Concept misalignment.
Kirika let out an involuntary gasp as a stab of pain struck her, like an icicle being driven into her spine. Pain she had expected, as the act of opening her circuits using the training method Kiritsugu had passed on was peculiar that way. This time however the pain was worse than usual, and she almost lost control of her suddenly rampaging circuits before she forced them back under control.
"Ugh," Kirika groaned as she tasted blood in her mouth. "Must not be fully healed yet."
Blaming the damage she had taken earlier that day, Kirika forgot about the pain and concentrated on the metal construct under her hands. Analysing the structure, she was surprised by how much faster it seemed to go. This was true even when she ran through all the possible tumbler combinations for the ones that would open the door.
Letting herself into the room she often shared with Rin, Kirika closed the door behind her and made her way to the bed. She was able to see that Rin truly had been affected by this incident, as she had crawled into bed without even changing her clothes. For Rin this was highly unusual, as she stuck rigidly to the Tohsaka family motto of doing everything elegantly, and going to bed with your clothes on was anything but elegant.
"I told you not to come in," Rin grumbled as Kirika drew near. She had her face turned away from the door and did not bother to turn around to look at Kirika.
"As if I could leave you alone like this, dummy," Kirika griped as she climbed onto the king sized bed to rest next to Rin. Supporting her upper body with one arm, she sat on her left side as she began to stroke Rin's soft black hair with her right hand.
"Stop it," Rin told her, but Kirika ignored the half-hearted protest and continued to slowly run her hand across Rin's head. After a while, Rin sighed, and Kirika could feel Rin's body go limp as she allowed herself to relax.
They stayed like that for a few minutes, saying nothing but taking comfort in the other's presence after the tough ordeals of the day. Both of them had spent a portion of their childhood alone, with few people to turn to, and at moments like this they were reminded how wonderful it was to have someone next to you that could share in your emotions.
"You know," Rin broke the silence. "I wonder if this is all my fault."
Kirika said nothing, and let her continue. It was best for Rin to get everything out right now.
"I should never have left Sakura alone for all these years," Rin said despondently. "When I was younger I tried to go see her every once in a while, but the adults always stopped me. They said that I shouldn't disturb her so that she could settle into her new family, that she would only be sad if I was to appear before her. I guess it must have stuck, because I stopped trying after a while."
Rin curled further into herself, and the air around her grew darker as she sank deeper into her memories of the past.
"The first time I saw her after she was taken by the Matous was in junior high," said Rin. "When I first spotted her I nearly dropped everything to run to her. Actually, I think I would have if Shinji hadn't appeared then to drag her away." There was the sound of grating teeth, and Kirika began to stroke Rin's head again to calm her sudden anger. "Now that I think about it, Shinji must have known about what that old monster was doing to Sakura. She was cold back then too. So different from the Sakura that I remembered. That's probably why I kept my distance from her initially. I couldn't put together that emotionless doll of the Matous with the Sakura in my memories who always had a smile on her face."
Rin let out a heavy sigh, as if she deeply regretted her actions back then.
"That change should have told me that something was wrong. That I needed to find out just why Sakura had become like that," Rin said quietly. "Instead, I just looked the other way and told myself that she wasn't my sister any more. Typical me isn't it? Always messing up at the most important time. I can't believe it took me so long to discover what they were doing to her. Do you know what I found at the Matou mansion, Kirika? A torture room. That's the only thing you can call it. They were taking her down there so that their bugs could feed on her. They were feeding her to insects every day and I didn't do anything about it!"
As she got to the end of her tirade, Rin rolled around so that she now looked up at Kirika's face. There were tears of frustration and rage in her eyes, and Kirika tenderly wiped them away with her thumb as she caressed Rin's face to comfort her.
"You couldn't have known, Rin. So don't blame yourself," Kirika finally spoke. "You are the one who told me that mages do not attempt to find out about each other without good reason, and you are too good a mage to disobey your own teachings."
"Sakura's my sister," Rin insisted. "What better reason could I have for looking into the Matou's affairs? I messed up Kirika. I ruined her life."
Kirika sighed and raised up Rin's body so that she was now hugging her from behind. Wrapping her arms around Rin's slender waist, Kirika rested her head on Rin's shoulder so that her lips brushed against Rin's ear.
"It wasn't your fault Rin. The only ones to blame here are the Matous," Kirika counselled her depressed friend and mentor.
"Really?" Rin asked bitterly. "It doesn't look like Sakura agrees with you. If she doesn't blame me, than why did she decide to join Caster?"
Kirika paused to think about Rin's question. She had thought that strange when she heard about it from Saber. She trusted in her senses, and to her instincts Sakura's eyes hadn't been those of a vengeful spirit. If anything, the emotion in those eyes as she had looked at Rin had been one of longing.
"Are you sure about that?" Kirika asked Rin back. "If she was taken advantage of by the Matous like you said, I wouldn't be too surprised to find that she was forced to participate in the Grail War. She is the last mage they have isn't she? I mean, Shinji couldn't summon a servant in a million years, and that naturally means Sakura was their only candidate. As for her alliance with Caster... Did she actually say that she wanted to fight you? Or are you just interpreting the situation as you saw it? I don't know myself, so I can't say anything about what happened, but Sakura didn't look like someone who was after vengeance."
There was only the sound of the ticking clock in the room as Rin thought back to the situation at the school. Kirika kept quiet in order to let Rin think, and took a moment to enjoy Rin's warmth as she leaned her body against her friend's.
"Now that you mention it, I never did get to hear any explanations from Sakura," Rin said with a hint of her usual energy in her voice. "She disappeared too quickly for that."
Kirika smiled. Her job was almost done, Rin could take it from here herself.
"See?" Kirika told Rin. "Before you start judging yourself, have a proper conversation with Sakura. I'm sure that you can work things out between you two."
"You are right," Rin admitted amusedly. "Now, the only question is how to arrange such a talk with her. If she's with Caster, they are going to be holed up at the mountain. With three servants there it's going to be a hard nut to crack."
"Why not just do what you usually do, Rin?" Kirika said in a cheeky tone. "I mean, since when have you cared about making plans and all? Just charge in there and drag her out."
She must have gone a little far with her teasing, because Rin stiffened in her arms and turned around to stare at Kirika.
"Kirika," Rin said with an uncomfortably familiar beatific smile. "Are you saying that I'm an idiot who only knows how to charge at a foe?"
"Huh?" Kirika was frozen like a frog in front of a snake. "When did I say that? All I said was that your plans all end in a charge anyway - hup!"
Kirika realised she had babbled and shut herself up, but too late to avoid Rin's retribution.
"Hoh?" Rin smiled pleasantly as she grabbed hold of Kirika's cheeks. "So, I'm a brute am I? A violent maniac? Is it this naughty mouth that's saying these things about me? And while we are at it, what did you do to your hair?!"
"Muuuu, Riiin," Kirika's words were mumbled as Rin pulled at the soft skin of her cheeks hard enough to cause pain.
"Hah," Rin sighed and let go off Kirika's cheeks. She looked on with a warm look in her eyes as Kirika muttered under her breath and rubbed at her red cheeks. Then, as Kirika was about to stand up, she suddenly leaned forward and lightly touched her lips against Kirika's.
The contact was so sudden that for a moment Kirika didn't realise what had happened. It was only when she saw Rin's brilliant blue eyes right in front of hers and felt something moist run across her lips that Kirika scrambled back, not realising that she had run out of space on the bed to move on.
With a loud thump, Kirika fell onto the carpeted floor. Abandoned, Rin stared on blankly for a while before she began chuckling at Kirika's antics as the other girl rubbed her hip where she had fallen on it.
"It's not funny, Rin!" Kirika protested with a red face. "What was that?"
Rin smiled as she looked at Kirika out of the corner of her eyes. An oddly seductive gesture Kirika thought.
"I don't know," Rin said as she leaned back on the bed. "What do you think it was Kirika?"
Kirika sighed. It was nice to see that Rin's spirits appeared to have been revived, but it was so typical of Rin to tease her like this as soon as she came out of her mood.
"Whatever, Rin," Kirika said as she shook her head in resigned acceptance. "I'm going to make dinner so come out after you've changed and washed up. You haven't eaten yet have you?"\
Rin shook her head to head to say that, no, she hadn't. Kirika nodded at that, and left the room, smiling in satisfaction at having cheered Rin up.
Back in the room, Rin stayed unmoving on the bed as she ran her fingertip across her lips. She had acted playful, but she herself had no idea what had happened just now. Her kiss had initially been intended to be just a light peck to lift the mood, but as soon as their lips had touched she had stopped thinking and let her body do as it wished. If Kirika hadn't broken free of her daze to move away when she had...
"Hah... Hah..." Rin let out a hollow laugh as she realised what she had almost done. "Mum, dad? Sorry, but I think your daughter might be bi-sexual."
Having said that to her parents in heaven in a moment of weakness, Rin immediately regretted ever giving voice to such a thing and clutched her head in shame.
-x-x-x-
"La-di-da-di-da~."
Kirika was moving busily about the kitchen as she got out the things she needed to make dinner. After setting out all the tools, she went over to the fridge to retrieve the ingredients. When she opened the fridge door however, she suddenly stopped, her eyes going blank for a second before she blinked and shook her head.
"Hmmm, no eggs," Kirika said to herself as she closed the fridge door. "Looks like I will have to go and get some."
Going back to her room, Kirika pocketed her wallet and went back down. She was headed for the door when Saber spotted her and called out to her.
"Kirika? Where are you going?" Saber questioned as she wondered over.
"Just going out to get some eggs," Kirika told her. "The shop's just down the street and... I'm in trouble again, aren't I?"
Arms crossed, Saber was tapping her foot as she glared angrily at Kirika.
"Ki-ri-ka," Saber slowly pronounced each syllable of her name. "Are you saying that you were about to go out alone? Without even mentioning anything to anyone?"
"Sorry!" Kirika apologised as she bowed her head. "Uhm... Do you want to tag along?"
"Master!" Saber's returned to her more formal form of address for Kirika as she lost her temper. "Caster could be spying on us even as we speak! You can't just wander out at this time of day to -."
"I'm making Frittatas," Kirika appealed to Saber's appetite to avoid the lecture that was coming. "Eggs, mushrooms, and potatoes, topped with my special sauce!"
"... Ahem. I suppose it would be okay if I came along," Saber suddenly changed tack.
"Great," Kirika straightened up. "Let's go then. The sooner we get there the sooner we can get back."
With a slightly reluctant Saber in tow, Kirika led the way out, and spotted Lily standing out in the garden amidst the flower beds.
"Kirika?" Lily called out as she saw them. "Are you going out?"
Kirika nodded. "Just to the shop down the road to buy some eggs. Saber's coming with me so you don't need to worry."
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Bribed with food again were we Saber?"
Saber bristled at the insinuation, all the more because it was true. "I was not! I'm just following Kirika to keep her safe!"
"Really?" Lily smiled and looked to Kirika. "In that case Kirika, can you give me double servings of whatever you are making? Saber here doesn't seem to need it."
"Lily!" Saber quickly jumped in as her share was threatened. "Just because I wasn't bribed, doesn't mean I don't want my fair share."
"Relax, Saber," Kirika chuckled. "Everybody's going to get the same amount. Lily's playing with you."
Back to her senses, Saber realised this to be true and blushed at how easily she had been shaken. It bore thinking on. She was far too relaxed lately and this was just another sign of that.
"We will be back in a bit Lily," Kirika told Lily as she headed for the gate. "Do you want anything from the store?"
Lily's eyes flashed. "Buy some more of those chocolate biscuits please. There aren't any more in the cupboard."
Kirika stopped, and turned around with a frown on her face. "None? But there were six packets!"
Lily suddenly looked busy as she muttered something about needing to check for possible familiars, and Saber began to whistle an unfamiliar tune. Realising what this meant, Kirika wondered just what was with the servants that she and Rin had summoned. One was the heroic spirit of cooking, and hers were supposedly versions of the King of Knights, but from their behaviour at home they seemed more akin to kings of the dinnertable.
-x-x-x-
A few minutes had passed since Kirika and Saber went out when Archer suddenly appeared next to Lily. She had felt him coming and so was not surprised, but did note that he seemed a little worried about something.
"Lily," Archer called her before she could comment on the fact. "Have you seen Kirika and Saber? They are not in the house."
"Those two?" Lily relaxed as it wasn't anything serious. "They went out to the store to buy some eggs. They should be back soon."
Archer appeared to accept that, but then suddenly stiffened as he spun back to look at her.
"Did you say that they went out to buy eggs?" he asked her quickly.
"Yes," Lily replied. "Why?"
Archer's frown deepened. "Because there are plenty of eggs in the fridge. How could Kirika have missed them?"
Lily's eyes went wide at the implications of Archer's question. The Kirika that she had seen over the last few days was familiar enough with the kitchen that it was hard to imagine that she would miss something so basic. In that case-
"Hah-!" Lily suddenly gasped and fell to her knees.
"Lily?" Archer quickly bent down to support her. "What's wrong?"
"Kirika," Lily whispered, her voice suddenly weak. "I can't feel Kirika anymore."
Archer's eyes went wide as the worst case scenario in his head was realised. He quickly went back into the house to fetch Rin, and together with Lily they went out in search of Kirika and Saber. When they reached the scene of the problem however, the only person they found was Saber, kneeling on the ground as she screamed out her rage at not being able to protect her master.