Cruel and unnecesarily angsty. I like that.Originally Posted by pureauthor
She also had clues towards that guess, so it wasn't a blind guess.Extra!Rin totally guessed the Extra MC was an NPC!
Cruel and unnecesarily angsty. I like that.
She also had clues towards that guess, so it wasn't a blind guess.Extra!Rin totally guessed the Extra MC was an NPC!
Spoiler:
That really would be unnecessarily cruel. You might even break him
"Everything in creation is flawed. Humans don't need to be mentioned. Air, intent, and even time. My eyes can see the death of things. They're special, like yours. So I can kill anything that lives. Even if that thing is God."
Spoiler:
The man has said that to be a character in his work is to suffer.
“Love will be cruel to who it entices — love will have its sacrifices.”
— Carmilla Theme
"Evil isn't the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as Evil, maybe more so, and it's a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against Stupid. That might actually make a difference."
―Jim Butcher, Vignette
I can see this being a very fruitful line of thought to pursue.
Shirou: Hey, Tohno, why is your hand disintergrating?
Shiki: Huh - Oh crap! I was supposed to be home half an hour ago!
And so on and so on...
Actually, Aoko doesn't know anything about this:
Recall what Aoko said when Shiki first entered the Chapel. (Chapter 3). She hadn't seen hide nor hair of him since the Broken World.
And then here, after Shiki meets his other self: (Chapter 22) Extra!Shiki asks GW!Shiki how Aoko is doing.
More accurately, to be a protagonist in my works is to be repeatedly kicked in the teeth.The man has said that to be a character in his work is to suffer.
Not that anyone else is coming out of it smelling like roses in this particular story.
ALSO: Update in two days... ish.
YAY UPDATE!
With each day, one draws closer to death,
With each day, one expends more of one's life,
With each day, one obtains more memories,
With each day, one gets closer to losing them all.
It is merely karma for his bedroom jackassery in Tsukihime!
in the end we will make thoughtcrime impossible, for there shall be no words to express it
#THELEGENDNEVERDIES
[01:05.15] <@Spinach> I can flash gang signs faster than Sasuke can perform ninjutsu and I rap like Medea's High Speed Divine Words.
Chapter Twenty Eight: Cur/Se/lfless
*~*
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
*~*
...
... ?
... Who? I...
... I... voice... that... voice...
Consciousness was slow in coming to the boy. A substantial part of him simply wanted to return to silence and slumber, to let the blackness pulling at him claim him again.
But the voice continued to pull. To tug. A feeling desperation and fear...
And a sense of familiarity.
Who?
He tried to open his eyes, tried to see what it was all around him - only to realize suddenly that he didn't have eyes.
Or a body.
He was a formless being... that could nevertheless hear a voice calling out to him.
How?
Silently, he dug through his memory. His mind was apparently the only thing left to him, so he had best use it. What had been the last... ?
And then he remembered.
A setting sun painted the colour of blood. The smoking ruins of a city with cracked, shattered rubble strewn all across the cityscape.
Cries of terror and of pain.
And... him. Shiki Tohno.
Lying on the ground, limbs twisted and broken. Blood pooling around his still form. A chill that slowly spread from his fingers to the rest of his body.
His last living memory - of a pair of shining red eyes, wide with shock and horror, looking down at him as he closed his own eyes for the last time.
That's right... I... died.
He had died. How long ago? It felt like it had only been a moment ago.
And for that matter, where was he? Without any body and only his consciousness, he couldn't tell anything about his external surroundings.
Were there any external surroundings? Was this simply where anyone who died ended up?
He didn't know. He couldn't tell. He-
AHH! The voice pounded through his head now, an agonized yell that called to him on a primal level. He recoiled - or tried to - even as the familiarity of the voice finally registered in his head.
Arcueid! No mistake. There could be no mistake. The person calling to him... the one who was in pain... was Arcueid.
She was asking for his help. Instinctively, he tried to reach out to her. But of course he couldn't do that. He couldn't reach out at all.
Argh. What's with this?!
If he was nothing more than a dead consciousness, then how could Arcueid contact him? And how was he supposed to help her?
Arcueid! Damn it... Focusing, he tried to see... to know. To connect to Arcueid, who had called him - wherever she was. Arcueid! Can you hear me?
Focus.
Concentrate.
Straining as much as he could, he mentally reached out to her mind, reach her consciousness. As he struggled and pushed, a sudden thickening feeling flooded his mind.
...What? The sensations coming from Arcueid felt... strangled, somehow. Dulled and blunted, as if Arcueid herself were having trouble focusing. Damn it! Arcueid! Arcueid, can you hear me?
And, then, suddenly, he found his mind linked with Arcueid... with her consciousness.
And then they came..
Images, memories and thoughts flooded his mind in a sudden, chaotic deluge. Quickly, Shiki tried to sift through them, tried to process all this sudden information into something her could comprehend. And as he began to understand, began to be able to see her memories and experiences for what they were, he found himself shocked.
These images... these memories... they were...
What's this? That never happened... Images of him, Shiki, fighting alongside her against monstrous creatures he had never seen before. The two of them, sitting side by side in a restraurant he didn't recognize. Some images were familiar, others not, but more and more...
Who...? You... you're not... Arcueid?
No... that wasn't right.
You're not... not the Arcueid I know.
And then suddenly all that was ripped away, replaced only by sudden, gnawing emptiness.
An emptiness that appeared to have a presence all of its own.
And before he could say anything a presence and a voice, soft but filled with a terrible strength behind it, filled his thoughts.
"You are not supposed to be here. You are not the one I sought."
Shut up! Arcueid! Trying his best to shove the voice out of his mind, Shiki reached his consciousness out again, trying to reach out to her.
"..." The presence departed as suddenly as it had appeared.
And then bright light - light? he could see again? - pierced through the darkness, and Shiki found himself crumpled on to a hard stone floor, gasping for breath - he could breathe again, he had lungs, a mouth - one hand clutching his old, worn knife.
After taking a moment to collect himself, he looked up, pushing himself up on his arms that hadn’t existed a moment ago.
A school building, seemingly like any other, loomed over him. And all around him were people in uniforms, walking to and fro.
*~*
“This place? Tsukumihara Academy, what else?” the student gave Shiki an odd look before heading indoors, leaving Shiki to scratch his head and stare around the place.
Nothing about his current location made any sense. He was somehow in the middle of a school somewhere, with most of the people being regular students. But how had he ended up here?
And where was Arcueid? He didn’t even have any confirmation that she had been anywhere in the vicinity of this place when her voice had reached him. But if he ran off, he ran the risk of leaving her behind.
For that matter, why was he suddenly alive again? He’d seen his fair share of strange things in his time, but the ability to willoneself back to life was not something he could claim to have ever experienced.
Well, that could be figured out later. After taking a glance beyond the school gate (where, oddly enough, the entire cityscape looked rather blurry and indistinct), he turned and headed into the school. Might as well start the investigation at a place he was at, after all…
He received a few odd glances from students as he stepped into the interior of the building – he supposed his own navy-blue uniform stood out somewhat against the others, who were clad in some light brown uniform that Shiki thought looked rather awful.
*~*
Stepping out into the sunlight, Shiki sighed and folded his arms.
Whatever this place was, it wasn’t an ordinary school.
And for that matter, the city outside wasn’t ordinary either. Walking out to the school gates, Shiki looked out at the city that stretched away. Beyond a certain distance from the gates, everything was frozen – cars stayed where they were in the streets, people were locked in midstep, even the leaves of the trees didn’t sway at all.
He found himself unable to look at the scene for very long, and swallowing he turned away to focus once more on the school.
This entire situation was surreal. Here he was, stuck in the middle of some strange school in the middle of an isolated void, trying to find an Arcueid whose experiences were different from the one he knew, with absolutely no idea of when or where this was all occurring.
That and the fact that he was apparently back from the dead somehow. Couldn’t forget that.
Maybe he was hallucinating the whole thing and this was all some fever dream as he lay on the brink of death.
Yeah. Maybe.
The hallways inside Tsukumihara were quiet – most of the students still appeared to be in class. Shaking his head, Shiki wandered somewhat aimlessly through the hallway. Where was he supposed to go now?
“… confirmed her presence here.” the voice halted him in his tracks just as he was about to pass the stairwell.
“You’re certain about this, Julius?” the voice that spoke in reply was young, almost childish sounding.
“There’s no mistaking her,” the voice that was apparently Julius replied. “It is definitely Rin Tohsaka.”
A sigh. “Well, I suppose we should have expected as much. This is the Holy Grail War, after all.”
Shiki frowned. Holy Grail War? What was that about?
“Yes. Still, she managed to see through the implanted memories in an astonishingly short amount of time.”
Implanted memories?
“Well, I suppose that’s to be expected of a magus of her talent,” a soft chuckle. “Besides, it’s not like they went through a lot of trouble to disguise the true nature of the place. Once you know where to look, the whole illusion falls apart.”
As the conversation continued, Shiki leaned against the wall, a frown on his face as he considered everything he had just heard. Well, that this wasn’t an ordinary school was obvious enough. But what was this about a ‘Holy Grail War’?
Answers. He needed answers.
But where to look?
“You should not be here, young one.” Another quiet voice from behind him, and Shiki whirled.
Standing there was a stern-faced man, dressed in the dark blue robes of a priest. As Shiki watched, he folded his arms.
“Tell me, what are you looking for?”
*~*
“I see,” the man – Kirei Kotomine – smiled thinly, an act that merely made him seem all the more disquieting. “Then you are what they would refer to as a Cyber Ghost.”
Shiki made no reply. So I am really am still dead after all. Well, that part was a little too good to be true.
“And what will you do, now that you know this? Will you simply allow yourself to be deleted and to return to silence? Or do you wish to partake in the struggle for the Holy Grail?”
“The Holy Grail…”
“Indeed,” Kotomine shifted his gaze to watch the masses of people now walking the corridors, most heading towards the schoolgates. “This environment – this world – had been created for the specific purpose of holding the Holy Grail War. All you see before you are either candidates for participation or facilitators to aid in keeping the war running.”
Would Arcueid be there too? But… she sounded like she was being forced into something. Out loud, he said, “So if I want to remain here, I’ll need to become a part of the War.”
“That is correct.”
“… You don’t mind a dead person participating?”
“No, of course not. There is nothing stopping a cyber ghost from competing for the Holy Grail.” Something about the way Kotomine said that line instantly put his senses on alert. But… that was still something that could be figured out later.
“Fine,” Arcueid’s around here. I’ll need to at least stick around long enough to figure out how to help her. If it means participating in this War, so be it. “So what do I have to do?”
“I am afraid I cannot tell you.”
“Huh?”
Kotomine stood and began walking away. “As Mediator in this war, my job is to facilitate the smooth running of this war. I cannot help you win it, young one. And now, your task in the preliminary round is to discover just how to qualify for the Holy Grail War,” just before he left the corridor, he turned back to face Shiki, that same thin smile on his lips. “Best of luck to you, young Master.”
*~*
Night had fallen, and most of the students had left the school. Where to exactly, Shiki had no idea, but after seeing the frozen world beyond the boundaries of the school, he didn’t exactly feel comfortable with leaving the place.
As far as he could tell, he wasn’t alone – several others had opted to remain behind in the school, and from the snatches of conversation that he had picked up, it was those who had apparently shaken off their false memories – mostly of them being students.
Why whoever was in charge of this thing (apparently the Moon Cell?) had decided to give them false memories was an entirely separate affair. Not important. Shiki had his own memories right now, and that was what was important.
He had to admit that he was coming into this with more than his fair share of handicaps. For one thing, he didn’t have the slightest idea about what the Holy Grail War entailed – something about summoning Servants? Something like that. Second, while he knew – or could make a reasonable guess – that Arcueid was here somewhere, he had no idea what had currently happened to her.
Well, maybe he could spend the next day searching the school for her? Although the way Kotomine had spoken to him made him think that there was some sort of time limit involved in this preliminary round.
He bit his lip. Well, it wasn’t like he hadn’t gotten himself involved in problems he didn’t really understand before. And he’d gotten out of it all right too… most of the time.
Right now, he should probably get some rest. With a sigh, he slumped back against the bench, closed his eyes, and –
Arcueid?! Shiki jerked up again – or tried to. Suddenly he realized that he had once again lost any control of his body, and was merely a mind once more.
Arcueid, where are you?Concentrating, he tried to reach out to her once again.
Argh! A sudden assault of pain on his senses, and Shiki recoiled.
The voice was growing distant, fainter now.
What… ? Servant? God? Arcueid! Frantically, Shiki tried to reach out to her again, but there was a brief sensation of being torn apart, and then suddenly he was in his body once more, spread-eagled on the cold stone floor of the school, gasping for breath.
*~*
Present
“And that’s how it was,” the other Shiki continued tonelessly. “That’s how I learnt that Arcueid had become a Servant.”
“She was able to communicate with you through her mind?” Shiki closed his eyes and sighed. “… How would that work?”
“I don’t know,” the other Shiki admitted. “But…” He closed his eyes.
Shiki simply looked at him.
“This is just a theory… but I think it was her pain in the first place that called out to me, and woke me up from where I was… well, being stored, for lack of a better term,” he swallowed. “That’s why I could feel her crying out.”
“I…” Shiki trailed off before looking up at his counterpart. “Hey… how did you die?”
A startled blink, and then Shiki sighed. “Tell me, Shiki, do you know about the Broken World?”
“Eh? Er… I think I heard Sensei mention it once.”
“So it never happened in your world? Well, good for you then,” Shiki’s eyes grew distant. “In this world, apparently all the mana went away sometime in the 1980s. As far as I know, even people like Sensei weren’t able to figure out what happened to cause it. But, well, that’s beside the point.
“It was… two years after I’d first met Arcueid. We’d decided to visit Tokyo… I can’t even remember the reason anymore – I think I just wanted to show her the sights. While we were there, Tokyo suffered one of the worst earthquakes ever on record,” he paused. “Well, based on what I learnt from history, earthquakes and all sorts of natural disasters just became more frequent after the loss of the world’s mana. Maybe that’s what it used to keep the disasters at bay. I don’t know.
Anyway, I said that ‘Tokyo’ was hit, but that was just my view at the time. Later, when I had the chance, I looked it up and saw that earthquakes had struck almost simultaneously across every major fault line in the world,” there was a bitter laugh. “Hell, I’m still not sure that’s geologically possible. The worst natural disaster in recorded history, people running around claiming it was the End of Days… and of course, they decided to name it the Broken World incident.”
“Was that…?”
The other Shiki blew out a sigh. “We survived the initial shock relatively unscathed. We were trying to help free some of the people trapped in a nearby building – I was killing most of the rubble in the way – when the aftershock hit,” his laugh was humourless. “My reflexes only failed me once, but apparently that was enough.”
“…”
“I still don’t know what happened to Arcueid – my Arcueid, I mean,” the other Shiki said after a long moment. “As far as the records will tell me, she hasn’t died. Maybe she’s still wandering the world, learning more about it. Maybe she returned to the Millennium Castle and went back to sleep. I don’t know.”
Shiki pushed his glasses up his nose. “And… you don’t want your life back? If you made it to the Holy Grail, you could-“
“We always knew,” the other Shiki’s voice was soft. “You and I. We knew we didn’t have long for the world. And that was why we resolved to enjoy life. Every moment of it was something precious,” he closed his eyes and smiled. “And that’s why I’m okay. Even if my time was short, I had fun. You still have your future. And so I’ll help you to reach it.”
“And die in the process?”
“I told you. I’m already dead. The only reason I came back for this short while was to help Arcueid,” he took a deep breath. “And if you’re there, and you’re the one she’s looking for… then I don’t need to worry.”
Another long silence descended upon the two of them until Shiki turned to leave.
“… One more thing.”
Shiki turned back to look at his counterpart, who was leaning against the wall, staring at the ground.
“Back near the beginning, I could hear Arcueid calling me every time I went to sleep. But her voice kept growing softer and more garbled. I couldn’t hear her anymore by the end of the first week,” he looked up into Shiki’s eyes. “Whatever this Mad Enhancement is doing to her, it’s been getting worse.”
Shiki took a deep breath and nodded once. “All right.”
*~*
Moon Cell, Digital Tsukumihara Academy, Room 3-A
Quiet Night – In The Room
As she sat there in the moonlight, she observed her Master with worried eyes.
He was obviously tormented by something his other self had revealed to him earlier, but she didn’t know what it was.
And she still didn’t feel comfortable enough to ask him about it.
Finally, she coughed once. “Praetor?”
“Hm? Oh, Saber… what is it?” There was a quality of exhaustion to his voice that Saber was certain had not been there before.
“Praetor… you should rest. We have another long day tomorrow. We’ve yet to find the Triggers…” she trailed off, unwilling to press too much, too soon.
But her Master nodded once. “Yeah… I should do that.”
A few minutes later, her Master had settled himself down on his bed, his eyes closed.
She watched him for a long moment, listening as his breathing gradually became deep and regular.
For a moment, there was absolute stillness in the room.
And then, swallowing hard, Saber stood from her chair and left the room.
*~*
Chapter End
*~*
How much of a pain in the ass was it to get that speech running properly, you ask?
Don't ask.
Another heads up that I’m not like to have the time to update for a good while. Maybe the weekend, but that’s not a guarantee.
Worst case scenario, which I dearly hope does not come to pass, I won’t be able to update until the end of the month.
In any case, I hope you enjoy this.
Two words:
Mind fuck.
Gotta love Mad Enhancement.
My Fanfics. Read 'em. Or not.McJon01: We all know that the real reason Archer would lose to Rider is because the events of his own Holy Grail War left him with a particular weakness toward "older sister" types.
The plot thickens. Man I was not expecting the Broken World incident thingy. Is that like something from Notes?
Earthquakes.
No, massive terrorist attack in Fate Extra. Highly plot relevant and spoileriific to the game and the canon protagonists.
My Fanfics. Read 'em. Or not.McJon01: We all know that the real reason Archer would lose to Rider is because the events of his own Holy Grail War left him with a particular weakness toward "older sister" types.
Ah. Thank you. I still haven't got the game. But I do want to try it out. It sounds like it could be fun.
Well that was... something all right.
Tried to make sense of the garbled text but gave up after the 4th one.
Year 1
Salt Corner
I get bits and pieces, at that size - and I can guess the rest from Shiki's responses.
*chuckle* Silly me - I read "Broken World" and immediately thought, "They dropped the remains of a space colony on Earth? Since when did Type-Moon get Gundams?" *shakes head* One of these days, I've got to get around to watching a walkthrough of Fate/Extra. I know they exist.
And I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. I will wait as patiently as I can for your return.
“Love will be cruel to who it entices — love will have its sacrifices.”
— Carmilla Theme
"Evil isn't the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as Evil, maybe more so, and it's a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against Stupid. That might actually make a difference."
―Jim Butcher, Vignette
Is this when I point out that I am making a Fate/EXTRA Let's Play or...
Year 1
Salt Corner
I step away for a few hours and I come back to a Control Panel full of updated threads. Sheesh.
Shinryu: A few hours? Try three-quarters of a day.
Summary: in which Shiki dies, Arc goes insane, Kotomine is helpful, and Saber walks away.
Miscellany~
A living portrait, a forgotten portrait... and Yoshi.
Only if you didn't talk during it - not that it matters, I can't get YouTube to give me sound these days, anyways.
“Love will be cruel to who it entices — love will have its sacrifices.”
— Carmilla Theme
"Evil isn't the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as Evil, maybe more so, and it's a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against Stupid. That might actually make a difference."
―Jim Butcher, Vignette
It's actually a Screen shot type let's play. Swing by the Events & Gathering forums or follow the link on my signature. Now we return to your scheduled fic discussion.
Year 1
Salt Corner
Once Arcueid gets out of this she is going to murder the fuck out of any Berserker she runs into in the future entirely as a matter of principle.
Nah. The name 'Broken World' is something I (think I) came up with on my own.
Well it's not supposed to be that easy to figure out. It's Arcueid's brain on crazy, after all.
Maybe that was the true nature of the terrorist attack in Fate/Extra! Dropped space colonies.
That turned into earthquakes.
I'd pay way more attention if you did more Saber stuff, you know?
Kotomine's helpfulness always comes at a price. Can you spot the Exact Words?
Part of the scheduled fic discussion involves my inability to quickly schedule more fic!
Last edited by pureauthor; March 19th, 2012 at 01:54 AM.
It's in the cards. Maybe after I finish the Caster/Rin route. Depends on what the people want.*
*Or what I feel on the mood for.
Year 1
Salt Corner
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