Sidestory: Outside Observations
DISCLAIMER: Lunar Legend Tsukihime, Fate/Stay Night, and all related characters and concepts are the creation and property of Kinoko Nasu and TYPE-MOON, along with whomever they’ve happened to license them to, such as Geneon, Funimation, A-1 Pictures and Netflix.
This is a not-for-profit, just-for-fun project.
Avalon Castle, Phantasmagoria Island (Grail Works, Ltd. Headquarters)
Outside the boundaries of time and space
“Well . . .” Ilya said uncertainly, “that happened.”
She drew looks from the rest of the gathered females—specifically, Akiha Tohno, Sakura Matou, Rider, Hisui Fujou (and once more, the Einzbern heiress wondered at the surname—she’d swear there was a magus lineage by that name) . . .
All they needed was Arcueid’s presence, and they’d have the entire “Council of Little Sisters,” as a certain half-drow druid (at the time) had jokingly called them, present. Not that anyone besides him had ever called them that (and never again within earshot of Akiha), but Ilya, for her part, kind of liked it—and it did fit. After all, Rider was a younger sister, if not precisely little, as was Arcueid (even if she never talked about her family); and she might really be the older sister, but she had adopted Shirou as her onii-chan . . .
(Besides, she was technically omnipresent and running the place—she belonged in all groups by default. That was her excuse, anyways, and she was sticking to it.)
Regardless, having brought it to their collective attention, Ilya spent several minutes bringing them up to speed—helped by the fact that she could project scenes as they’d happened to do so. After she’d caught them up to the specific moment she’d been referring to, Ilya saw several expressions whose uncertainty and unease matched her own—and one whose expression decidedly did not.
“. . . My apologies for the assumption,” Akiha said, in a polite tone that gradually grew colder as she continued speaking, “but he was about to reveal our existence, was he not—despite being the one who was most adamant about the potential risks of doing so? Dangers from both elements on our own world with less-than-benign motives, as well as exposing ourselves and the world at large to those which are far more dangerous?”
“He was,” Ilya allowed, “as regards the second part of that statement. As to the first—”
“I cannot fathom what other conclusion he might have been leading to,” the Tohno heiress pointed out. “In which case, I have to question whether it’s in our best interests to continue to allow him to work ‘in the field’—or indeed, to associate with him at all?”
“Perhaps such a reaction is unnecessary, Akiha-sama . . .?” Hisui offered.
She sounded uncertain, which was something of a novelty when considering the maid’s usual surety of purpose and professional demeanor. She’d most often reminded Ilya of a younger, more colourful Sella.
In response to the question, the noble girl shrugged noncommittally. “I have no real history of interaction with him; my ability to judge is therefore limited. I know that he was initially a client whose appearance and nature would not allow him to return to his home—”
“Later revealed as a plot of outside factors, and since concluded satisfactorily,” Ilya pointed out.
“His efforts to aid our collective cause since then have been erratic in their effectiveness, as I understand it,” Akiha continued.
“That was one spell,” Ilya pointed out, “which relied entirely on random chance, and was influenced by the subject’s own karma. Really, I think Saber overreacted, there—she was still capable of taking on a human form, after all.”
From the corner, Rider made a noise of acknowledgement that might be construed as agreement. Her experience was somewhat different, after all; she’d become a monster, yes (much like Saber had seen herself, afterwards), but she was never human. How the Servant might react to the ability to become human, to shunt those troubling aspects of her nature away, Ilya could only imagine. Given the choice, she might even prefer to become a dragon over the Gorgon—at least certain species could be reasoned with, even benevolent, as opposed to being uniformly mindless, bloodthirsty monsters.
“He was good at healing magic,” Sakura offered. “Nee-san grumbled about how it took her an expensive jewel containing ten years’ worth of prana to restore Sempai during the War, after Lancer . . .” She trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence, instead saying, “And according to that ‘rulebook,’ Kurai could do the same thing up to eight times a day.
“She muttered something about ‘stupid Age of the Gods magicians who don’t realise how good they have it,’ I think—she was kind of hard to understand,” the purple-haired human said apologetically. “I wondered if maybe she’d been drinking, but from what she did say, I don’t think she’d started yet.”
“My onee-san said he worked wonders with her herb garden, too,” Hisui said hesitantly. “He was ‘quite knowledgeable about exotic breeds,’ I believe were her exact words.”
“All right,” Akiha allowed, “so his prior incarnation was useful—”
“Even if he regarded modern society and the state of the environment as being a literal living hell, by his religion’s standards,” Ilya pointed out.
“At least, in a limited capacity,” the heiress finished, as though the Grail spirit hadn’t interrupted her, following up with, “I understand, however, that his present circumstances are different . . .?”
“He hasn’t given us much information, mostly due to lack of time,” Ilya began, “but the summary is that he’s now a divinely-empowered shapechanger with a two- to three-thousand-year lifespan.”
“. . . Which could be potentially problematic,” Akiha allowed, after a moment’s thought. “One would think that the former quality would mitigate the problems with the latter, but if it is at all quantifiable on a genetic level . . .?”
It had been an early worry of hers, back in the days when she’d first learned about viruses and mutation in health class; the idea that her unique bloodline could, for example, warp a strain of the common cold into something far worse. Thankfully, her father had clarified that the Tohno bloodline was only partially beholden to the rules of genetics, being as much or more a spiritual phenomenon as a physical one.
It explained many things about her nature; for example, how she’d easily been able (at six!) to splinter her life force, and graft it to Shiki . . .
“I don’t know,” Ilya said. “Though from the easy familiarity he had when speaking of ‘Lunar Exalts,’ I expect that he does.”
“Which is at least partially why we retained his services in the first place,” the Japanese heiress acknowledged, “but more an argument for keeping him confined to base, acting as an information hub and mission coordinator.”
“Trying to give him my job, Tohno-san?” the Grail spirit inquired archly.
“Merely, as I said, attempting to justify the risks of our continuing association, based on his past and current behaviour,” Akiha replied frostily. “If he cannot be trusted to operate professionally outside the office, and is redundant within it, then—”
“But he’s doing what Sempai wants!”
Sakura reddened as all eyes turned to her, but didn’t apologise for her outburst. Instead, she pressed on—albeit in a quieter tone, and without looking up from the tea table.
“That girl is at the end of her rope. The organisation she belonged to has cast her out—yes, she seceded along with her family, but the Clock Tower won’t welcome her back if she tries to claim a change of heart. On top of that, her family head has betrayed her, and whether he intended to from the beginning or not is almost irrelevant now—she’s lost the backing and support that was shielding her from reprisals by the Association. They’ll want an example to be made, so that other, more well-connected and powerful magus bloodlines don’t think to try the same thing; and as the Yggdmillennia heir, she’s the highest-ranking survivor left.
“It doesn’t matter that there are older, more experienced magi involved,” Sakura said. “She has the title; in their world, that makes her the prize—or at least, the biggest, most visible target.”
“She’s right,” Ilya said solemnly. “My family had to do some politicking, after the Fourth War, to protect Onii-chan from reprisals for Daddy’s actions—because he was an Emiya, after all. The last one left.”
Left unspoken was the fact that the Einzberns had done so because she wanted to punish him herself, and Ilya was not about to lose that target for her outrage to idiots who’d only lost someone stupid enough to compete against her father in the Holy Grail War. It was history, and largely irrelevant to the discussion at hand.
“Even the original order of events, as he told them to me, would likely end in her dying,” the Grail spirit said thoughtfully.
At multiple puzzled looks, she explained, “She was supposed to get her magic circuits removed, so that she could walk again, and live as a normal girl. And of course, even though there are the deaths of at least fifty Enforcers to account for, no magus would be so petty as to kill a normal girl for crimes she had either an unwitting or unwilling part in . . .”
At that last part, Ilya’s tone was so dry it should’ve instantly evaporated the tea in the room. More tellingly, none of them attempted to refute her statement. Sakura, Akiha and Hisui had no experience with the Clock Tower, specifically, but more than enough with magi (in the former case) and supernaturally-charged political manoeuvring (in the latter two) to agree with her point of view. Rider’s view of humanity in general was just as negative; unlike some Servants, she hadn’t turned into an omnicidal monster for the fun of it.
“. . . They would want to make certain that, if nothing else, she didn’t let anything slip,” Akiha allowed. “At the very least, memory erasure—that is a function that both the Association and the Church can perform, if I recall correctly . . .?”
Ilya nodded. “And they might let her marry into another established bloodline—without her circuits, she’s useless as a magus, but as breeding stock . . .”
Scowls went around the room.
“Even then, though,” Ilya said dispassionately, “she’d have to both possess some remarkable biological potential, like high-quality or high-quantity circuits, or a Sorcery Trait, as well as marry into a family with enough influence to weather potential reprisals.”
She shrugged. “Compared to what Yggdmillennia did, and what I know of her, I really don’t see it happening.”
“. . . Which brings me back to my point,” Sakura said gently. “She has nothing; just her fiancé—whom they both know that can’t protect her—and whether she realises it or not, that’s a lie, too.” Her face fell as she added that last, before she continued in a near-murmur, “Short of actually winning the Grail for herself, and wishing just right—which at this point will be almost impossible to accomplish—she has no way out, and no hope of one . . .
“And when that happens to someone,” she challenged them, staring at Akiha specifically, “a Door is supposed to always be open for them.”
“He’s just jumpstarting the process—offering it before she hits the absolutely lowest point,” Ilya mused aloud. “I didn’t consider it that way . . .”
“And there’s some merit to the position,” Akiha allowed, after a moment’s thought. “In light of such mitigating circumstances, I’m prepared to allow that the action be set aside—this time. Nevertheless, I think it worthwhile to consider the long-term practicality of allowing our continued association, because if circumstances like these are going to be commonplace when dealing with him, then however useful he may be, he may also be a liability we cannot afford.”
“. . . Well, according to his Servant, we’re probably stuck with him for at least one more mission,” Ilya teased. “After all, he still has to travel to her universe, and then go back in time to deal with her past self, for whatever reason . . .”
Akiha stared at the Grail spirit in disbelieving silence for almost a full minute. Finally, she ground out four words in response.
“I rest my case.”
Later, Ilya sought out Akiha alone, curious.
“You pushed rather hard for his expulsion,” the Grail spirit remarked. “That’s kind of odd, considering you haven’t interacted with him much; really, you barely know him at all. . .”
“It was what I believe Tohsaka-san would have argued,” Akiha said simply. “Of all the ‘magi’ in the group, she strikes me as being the most practical. And in her absence, among the company we were in, it simply fell to me to be—‘the devil’s advocate,’ I believe is the phrase.”
Ilya mentally allowed that. Hisui was unlikely to voice an opinion that disagreed with her mistress, Sakura was devoted to Onii-chan (and his wishes, by extension), Rider was Sakura’s Hisui, and she didn’t really care . . . And of them all, Rin would probably take the most logical, pragmatic view of the situation surrounding their client of many names and existences, even if she’d likely be outvoted.
“For what it’s worth, I truly do believe this is a concern we should address,” the heiress continued. “I simply have no personal stake in this, beyond how it affects the organisation as a whole.”
Ilya nodded, before returning her attention to the situation. The nice thing about being halfway onto a higher plane of existence and anchored in a faerie dimension was that you could play games with relativistic time and your perception of it, if you knew how—as such, she could spend a while having discussions like these, and still pick up on events in the mission timeline exactly when she’d left off viewing it . . .
Tokyo International Airport
July 5, 2004
Astraea was aware of what was going on around her. Under the current circumstances—both in terms of the time and of her nature—she was aware of nearly everything. She simply chose to pay her present surroundings no mind. It wasn’t pertinent to her mission; and beneath her notice in general, anyways.
(Strangely, her host seemed to agree with the attitude in general.)
Instead, she focussed on the War—and the stars . . .
Justice was her purview, of course; it was part of why she’d been selected for the Ruler class. However, as her name implied, Astraea was also a goddess of the stars. At first glance, the two did not seem, perhaps, to have much in common. However, when one considered the poetic saying, “The night has a thousand eyes,” the connection became more easily apparent.
In her capacity as a goddess, all that took place within the hours of darkness—those acts that humans wished to have concealed—were hers to see, and judge. As a Ruler, this vision essentially functioned as consequence of her natural Authority, and in the same capacity as Revelations had for Jeanne d’Arc, albeit in a more restricted capacity than she was used to. As a Servant, Pseudo- or otherwise, Astraea was far less than she’d been as a deity; this was not a complaint, simply fact. However, given that its focus was on Trifas and its Grail War in general, that was sufficient for her purposes.
Likewise, the Grail’s information package on the War itself had included records of Jeanne d’Arc’s tenure; this provided much-needed context for what she could see—even as it made those sights all the more alarming.
The incursion of a foreign Divine Spirit, one apparently outside of Gaia’s influence, would have been bad enough; that there was also apparently a Ruler who had abandoned their calling? Unforgivable! And this one had not only attempted to usurp her predecessor’s authority, but had, through means of his Servant, actually slain her?!
Oh, yes—Shirou Amakusa Tokisada was very high on her list of people to deal with. Though she had little doubt how the scales would be balanced in his case, he would face them, and she would weigh him, nevertheless; then, she was certain, he would face her sword . . .
. . . But he was hardly the only issue with this Great Holy Grail War; still, arguably the only one who vied for Tokisada’s position as her primary target was the Divine Spirit and his entourage. Whatever he’d intended, his appearance, to say nothing of his efforts, had brought chaos into the War; most obviously, though not limited to, the manifestation of “Castlevania” . . .
The other major target she could see was the other irregular Servant class, and her Master—the first, for what she represented (the Grail’s data on Foreigners was not pleasant), and the second, for what he was: to wit, a traitor. To the Grail War Ritual as a whole, to his faction, to his Servant—he had entered the War with no intention of participating, essentially, and that was as great a violation of the spirit of the rules as any of the others’ literal violations!
Moreover, from what the night and Jeanne had gleaned of him, he positively reeked of secrets; even at a distance, he struck Astraea as the sort of slimy, scheming type that thought themselves oh-so-clever as they sowed destruction and discord all about them, little caring about the costs of their plans. No doubt, he had some “brilliant” plot afoot, like Tokisada, just waiting to rain ruin and devastation on the common people, whilst he sought the kind of thing the theoi had punished mankind for from their inception.
Astraea would force him upon her scales, let all those secrets weigh him down—and pry them out of him with her sword, if necessary, until the pans balanced out.
Inasmuch as she was meant to be impartial (and her honour as a goddess demanded that she live up to that), she found that a small part of her was nevertheless looking forward to that—
“There you are,” her host’s sister said, in a relieved tone. “The pilot contacted me, when he couldn’t find you—”
(A lie,) Astraea’s divine senses informed her, causing her to frown. (She told the pilot to route all communication through her, rather than me.)
A minor, but forgivable offence, the Roman goddess decided. After all, she didn’t really want to bother with anything not directly related to the Holy Grail War—and the gods had employed priestesses for just such purposes. Astraea herself had been no exception.
“The good news is, the plane’s ready to go,” the mortal said in an apologetic tone. “The bad news is, incoming weather conditions have grounded all outgoing flights for at least the next twelve hours.”
“. . .WHAT?!”
Writer's Notes: Apologies for any errors I missed - 90% of this ended up being written today, so it's a bit rushed. :D Nevertheless, enjoy! :)