Fate/Chaos Spiral
Author's Note: Merry Christmas, one and all! Here's my gift to the fandom. I hope you enjoy The first installment. This is the story that Letters From Tohsaka Was leading up to, and initially, where I wanted to start two years ago. It's much better in its current incarnation in my opinion, but I'll leave that for you to decide.
And now, with no further interruption, I am proud to present:
Fate/Chaos Spiral
Chapter I: Welcome Back
Atop a mountain of corpses, a woman with a mountain of regrets knelt, having come to terms with her sins. After everything that happened, she had finally done something good. Something that she truly felt proud of when she had completed her task, even if it had ended with such a similar conclusion to that which had come before. A finale that had once left her drowning in the deepest depths of her despair and self-loathing.
But she could see now that from the very beginning, the War had been a farce. It wasn't worth fighting for a Grail that could only grant wishes borne from the darkest thoughts humanity was capable of producing.
She smiled.
"I'm sorry… Gawain, Bedivere… Lancelot, Kay… everyone…" she turned to look at the treacherous fool that lay beside her in that intimidating armor of red and silver. "Even you, Mordred. None of you…deserved this. At least…I'll never again try to solve this catastrophe…at the expense of another world."
She looked at the sword, embedded point down in the bloodstained earth before her. It gave her victory, just as promised, just at a greater cost than she had been prepared to pay. Yet she had known it all beforehand, and taken it up anyway.
The girl absently wondered where Morgan was. Her half-sister. She wanted to remove the king from the throne, but…
"I'm sure… she never wanted this either."
Perhaps if they found each other now, they could reconcile? No, they were more likely to attempt to kill each other again. Their values were far too different.
From somewhere below, she found she could hear a voice.
Someone alive amidst all this destruction? It seemed impossible. Was it calling to her? She tried to listen, but she could barely understand the sound of her own voice anymore, much less that of another. She slumped forward. It surprised her that she could ever have forgotten. What a strange thing to forget… that she was approaching death's door.
Soon… it would be over. The story of the girl who sacrificed everything about herself to be the perfect King. It would finally come to an end. And for one agonizingly long moment, she found that she was terrified. She didn't want to die! She hadn't even lived to see her twentieth year! There was so much… so much that she was capable of accomplishing… If she had only been able to understand others.
But this wasn't a battle she could win. She had been dealt a mortal wound.
It was time.
…
* * * * *
Taiga left quickly enough, having to get to Homurahara before classes started.
By the time she left, Rin was itching to get started. However, before she did that, there was one thing she needed taken care of. Specifically, she gave Sakura a meat shield. It's name was the Weasel, and no one would miss him if he got his head blown off, and he totally didn't throw a fit of resentful abuse in her directing After she said all of that out loud.
"In all seriousness though, Shinji Matou, if anything happens to Sakura while I'm still in Fuyuki, if any harm at all comes to her, I will hold you responsible. If she gets hurt, you get hurt. If she dies, so help me, I swear on my very name that you'll follow her to the afterlife in very short order. Are we clear?"
She received a terrified nod. Thus did Shinji become Sakura's new bodyguard in a curious and sudden instance of roll reversal. He didn't dare argue. She had actually used his name for the first time in years, and she wouldn't even use it in front of their teachers back when they were in high school. She meant every syllable of that threat.
As Rin had explained to Shirou on plane ride over, she wanted to transplant the essentials from her father's workshop into Shirou's storage shed, and to that end, she had started cleaning out various bits of metal detritus that Shirou had used to practice his magecraft. Shirou fetched a broom and a feather duster, and handed them off to Rin, who began sweeping up while he moved stacks of boxes as per her instructions. They didn't need to remove everything, just a few stacks and the junk littered across the floor. This took the better part of two hours. An odd sensation prickled at the back of Rin's mind when she was inside the shed, but focused as she was on her own and Shirou's tasks, she couldn't quite place it.
Meanwhile, Shinji, having given up on his argument with Sakura from earlier, had gone back to his computer and was writing code furiously, his hands jabbing at the keyboard hard enough to make loud clicking noises, but not so hard as to damage the keys. Sakura was cleaning up from breakfast.
Rin made to walk further inside to move another box, and felt her foot brush along a groove in the floor.
"What did I just—" she looked down to see a curved live carved into the floor, along with a few intricate designs. Whatever it was, it was covered by boxes, but Rin had a pretty good idea what she had just found. She recognized that pattern, but moreover, she remembered what that odd sensation was.
"Hey, Shirou? Help me move these."
He turned to look at her as she struggled to push the large stacks. He joined in her effort, pressing his back against it and pushing with his legs. And slowly, one pile of boxes began to move. Rin looked down at the floor and smirked. Of course she had been right.
"Did you know this was here?" she leered up at Shirou. He found himself shivering as though the temperature had dropped below zero.
"Yes?" he tried to say.
"Ugh, you are such an idiot sometimes!" she let out an ever-suffering sigh. "Well, as long as we're here, we may as well try and summon a Servant for you."
They devoted about half an hour to getting the boxes obstructing the circle out of the way. It was unlikely that they would actually be a problem, but nevertheless, it didn't hurt to make sure. A clean workspace was a safe(ish) workspace.
"What about you?" Shirou asked after they had gotten a significant number of boxes out of the shed.
"What about me what?"
"Summoning a Servant for yourself," Shirou reminded her of what they had been discussing earlier.
"I have a summoning circle in my own house, so I'm going to use that one," she said, suddenly pausing.
"Actually, since you don't have a catalyst, you should probably wait until your mana is at its peak, so you'll have a better chance of getting a good servant. What time are you at yo—"
She was utterly stupefied when Shirou completely ignored her suggestion, walking over to the still partially covered circle.
"Wait, what the hell are you doing?!"
"Don't worry, I got this."
"No you don't! You don't know anything about summoning a heroic spirit! You told me yourself that summoning Saber was an accident!"
"Look, I know there's absolutely no way you'll believe me, but what if I told you that I know I'll summon her again?"
"What?" she gave him a look.
"I'm being completely serious," he said, "I don't know why, or how, but I'm sure that I'll summon Saber again."
"You are completely out of your damn head," she seethed. Shirou could practically see steam pouring out of her ears.
"Just trust me. Please. Just this once. If it doesn't work, then it'll serve me right for being so arrogant. If it does… well, then we have Saber again."
"You're an idiot. You were still memorizing the incantation on the plane ride over here!"
Shirou smiled at her.
"Don't worry. I promise, I will summon Saber."
He projected a dagger from his reality marble and held it over his hand.
"Uh, stop! You don't have to do that!" Rin yelped.
Shirou looked at her quizzically. "I heal pretty quickly, so it shouldn't be a problem…"
"Yeah, but I have powdered silver, and that'll work just fine too. I don't want you to do this, but if you're going to do something incredibly stupid, at least do it without bleeding all over the place."
She dug around in her bag of gems, pulling out a thick glass flask of the aforementioned substance and handed it to him.
"This is your first actual summoning ritual. You realize what you're doing is tantamount to suicide if you want to keep people from dying in this Grail War?"
Shirou took the sparkling dust and scattered it on the floor.
"It won't be. I can feel it. I can't explain it, but I know I'll get her. For a fact. I'm that sure it'll work."
"Hmph," she looked away hautily, "Watch it be some deranged loon. Caligula would serve you right."
Shirou rolled his eyes.
The dust began flowing through the grooves in the floors and the circle began to glow with an otherworldly light.
* * * * *
Even as she felt herself drifting away, something tugged her back. Sharply at first, but steadily losing its bite.
The clouds above her parted ever so slightly, and angel stairways descended, illuminating the carnage around her. It felt like…
"████"
It was a different voice. Someone other than the person crying out below her at the foot of the hill. This time, she couldn't hear it, but she could understand it. Someone was calling out to her. She reached up toward the sky with her waning strength.
A third time? Why? There was no point, was there? She had made peace with her decision. It wasn't as though she needed to answer the call either.
Another pang of terror struck her. It only lasted a fraction of a second, but that was all the time she needed to make her decision. Perhaps if she survived the coming conflict, she could…
No. It wouldn't do to make plans that far in advance. But by the time she thought that, she already felt the ground beneath her feet slip away.
She supposed she would find her answers in due course. The world around her faded. She knew what to say. The words felt far too natural coming from her mouth.
"I ask you," she said as the world resolved around her again… "Are you worthy, to be—"
…And left her in some astonishingly familiar surroundings…
* * * * *
He saw the scabbard in his mind's eye, rotating in a void.
He continued his incantation, and for a moment, Rin realized he fully meant what he was saying.
I hereby swear that I will be all the good in the world.
That I will defeat all evil in the world.
Those verses were practically Shirou Emiya's mission statement. To a certain degree at least. Moments later, he completed the summoning ritual. The light turned blue, but it was so blindingly bright that neither Shirou nor Rin could tell.
Then something became visible. The silhouette of a young woman in armor. The light began to dim, revealing a regal blue dress, thick gauntlets and a shining silver cuirass.
"I don't believe it," Rin breathed.
Shirou, having been closer to the light was still unable to see anything.
Amidst the ocean of blue, Rin saw a shock of gold, and two points of green.
In front of him, Shirou could see the sword, just waiting for him to grasp it. To join him again, just as before.
He reached for it.
The sword reached back.
Before his eyes even had time to readjust, Shirou felt the gauntlet grasping his hand. It could easily have been someone else, but he knew, even if he couldn't quite see her. He knew. And Rin's gobsmacked utterance only confirmed his success.
"I ask of you…" came a familiar voice, "are you worthy to be— …Shirou?!"
He knew that voice. Even after five years, his memory of it had been perfect. It was so good to hear it again.
It was strange to think that this girl had been part of his life for approximately a week, and yet she had left an impact on him more than equal to many people he'd known all his life. He scratched the back of his neck, a grin playing at the corners of his mouth.
“Well, I guess. I mean, I hope I am, because I don’t know how to be anyone else.”
He finally saw her, in all her resplendent glory.
He turned to shoot a triumphant smirk at Rin, whose expression was beyond priceless, wide eyed, her mouth open wider than he had ever seen it. She was looking from him to the King of Knights, pointing at Saber like she was some sort of miracle. Which, technically speaking, wasn't inaccurate.
"I'm glad to see that one of us finds this amusing," said Arturia, "Not that I find this arrangement disagreeable. Far from it. Merely that it is so far beyond unlikely that it approaches the realm of impossibility."
Rin took a deep breath, swallowed hard.
Shirou nodded at Saber, looking for a moment at the command seals that had appeared on the back of his left hand, and turned back to Rin. Just for a moment.
"Told you," he said.
Tohsaka didn't say anything. There was a noise coming from the back of her throat that would be best described as a cross between the sounds of a slowly deflating balloon, and a tired yet agitated cockatiel.
Whatever it was, it was long, drawn out, and confusing Saber.
"Shirou, has something happened to Rin?"
"I think I just did something that doesn't compute by summoning you. She was beyond certain I couldn't."
Saber broke eye contact for a moment.
"To be fair, neither did I, and I've only just arrived… again." She looked back up and stared intently at both mages, as though examining them for some fine, yet very specific detail. "You don't appear to be very much older than you were when we last saw one another. How much time has passed since we destroyed the Grail?"
"Around five years," Shirou answered, "why do you ask?"
She smiled, a sly glint in her eyes.
"Because, Shirou, by my admittedly rough estimation, I last saw you facing off against Archer… rather, Gilgamesh, around two hours ago."
Shirou nearly choked on his own saliva.
"Huh?"
"My perception. I returned to the moment before I was summoned, and then I was summoned once again."
"That's actually the first thing I've heard in the past five minutes that's made any sense," Rin grouched.
"I can't wrap my head around it," Shirou winced in concentration.
"Think of it this way: You have a magic box. Inside the box time slows to a crawl, while outside it continues as usual. If you go into the box at one point, when you come out, it could be several minutes later.
"One minute in the box could equal ten minutes outside. Or one minute inside could be over a year outside."
"I may need some time to process that," he confessed.
"I don't mean to pry, but seeing as you're still alive, I take it you defeated Gilgamesh?"
Shirou grinned.
"He could barely even touch me."
"What did you use to win? If you don't mind me asking."
"Nothing. Just a nameless sword with no magical properties. I did a feint and dived at him behind Rho Aias. I used my momentum to chop through his right arm at the shoulder. Probably the reason I won, actually, because the weapon he'd pulled the moment before was just… anathema. It didn't even make sense. Forget not being able to copy it, just looking at it was like driving a spike into my skull.
"I managed to keep him from retrieving it and slashed him across his chest. He actually tried to commit suicide, instead of giving me the satisfaction of killing him.
"Before he could though, I don't even know what happened. The Grail… it… it did something… tried to suck him in. Or at least that's what it looked like. He managed to grab me with some sort of chain to try and escape. And then… well…"
Saber didn't say anything. She just tilted her head to the side curiously, as if to say 'go on.'
"I heard Archer tell me to move over slightly, and then an arrow lodged itself dead center in Gilgamesh's forehead."
"But… Archer died, did he not?"
"I think he came back in his capacity as a Counter Guardian. Combat the Grail, or something like that. But, whatever the case, he was the same old Archer."
"You sound unenthused."
Shirou rolled his eyes.
"I can't really deny that. I hate his guts."
"Archer was literally just, well, you but older," Rin snipped before a smirk worked its way onto her face. "His guts are your guts."
Saber covered her mouth and nose with her hand to stifle a chuckle. This still seemed to agitate Shirou considerably however, and she looked up at him apologetically, though still wearing a wide smile.
"Oh, come on, that barely passes for humor," he complained.
"Look, Saber, we're about to head out to my house," Rin interjected, hoping to get back on track, "do you still have your casual clothes?"
"I would expect otherwise, though I can always check."
Saber closed her eyes, focused, and her armor vanished, leaving only her blue dress, breeches and boots. She shook her head. Shirou decided they'd have to do without her for the time being, but Saber had vetoed that plan when it was barely more than halfway out of his mouth. A few more minutes of discussion brought them to a familiar conclusion: They'd have to borrow some of Rin's clothes again. Fortunately there were plenty of those back at her house, but to get there, Saber would likely need to borrow something else, so that meant that before they could leave, Rin had to at least start unpacking in one of the guest rooms, and get some stuff out of her suitcase. And that required her to lug her suitcase all the way across Shirou's admittedly large house.
After a few minutes, Rin returned carrying some more modern accoutrements, discovering that Sakura had met Saber while Rin was in her room, and had greeted her far more amicably than she had last time. At least Shirou could say he understood why that was this time around.
The clothes Rin gage her weren't quite what Saber was used to, but the black blouse and jeans were enough to get her out if the house without people gawking at her. She took a moment to go out into the hallway and change clothes, something she managed to do startling quickly at barely even one minute.
The moment she reentered the living room, something nearby roared and Tohsaka looked around wildly for whatever monster had made the noise, rolling up her left sleeve. Shirou on the other hand merely blinked and walked into the kitchen.
"If it wouldn't be too much trouble?" Saber asked timidly, just as Rin caught on.
Sakura giggled despite herself. Then she was distracted when she felt a draft, and found that one of the doors had been left open. As she went to close it, she caught a glimpse of the courtyard, and noticed several stacks of boxes had been pushed out of the storage shed. Out of curiosity, she decided to have a look inside. It would only take a moment.
* * * * *
As per Saber's request, they were now sitting in the living room eating an early lunch.
Sakura had joined them earlier, clued in to the lunch plans when she heard the sound of dishes being moved about. She was just watching the dynamic between the three of them for now however. She tried to get a feel for what her chances were, but it was difficult. They could cooperate even while arguing. They chided each other, Rin being particularly merciless, but there was still a lot of affection. Observing from a judgmental perspective was making Sakura's head feel…very not good. There was definitely a word for that, and it was a pretty common one too, she was sure of it, but for some reason her brain had decided that it had done enough work and apparently language was on break. She eventually decided to just listen. And the moment she did, she could already feel the headache going away. Oh right, that word she was looking for was 'awful.'
"You're telling me that you heard her calling to you?" Rin asked, her voice dripping skepticism.
"I didn't say that. I said that I felt like she was calling out to me. I didn't hear anything. It was more like… you know how sometimes a person brushes past you and they don't quite touch you, but you sort of feel something going by? It was like that."
"You're being extremely vague. What you're saying doesn't make sense."
"I'm rather uncertain as to how accurate your testimony is," added Saber. "However, I am nevertheless pleased with this outcome."
"Excuse me," piped Rin, "but there's something that I have to say really quick. I've been holding it in since he summoned you, but I feel like I'm going to crack at any moment."
Neither the Servant, nor her Master knew how to respond to her. What did that even mean? Tohsaka was known to be impulsive on occasion, but why was she making an announcement out of it?
She took a deep breath. Then started dancing around Shirou like he was some sort of religious totem.
"You did it, you did it, you actually freaking did it! I didn't believe you could, and then you proved me wrong, which never happens, but oh my god, you freaking DID IT!"
She took another deep breath, and adopted a more dignified stance.
"Can you please keep it down! Some people are actually trying to work here!" Shinji growled.
"Like I care about a weasel playing around with a giant calculator. ("That's it, I am done here.") Okay, glad I got that out of my system. The first one of you to tell anyone about this little episode dies. The second person… also dies."
She ignored Shinji as he slapped his laptop closed and stalked out into the courtyard hallway.
"You make a very convincing argument," Shirou answered, deadpan.
"I am so serious right now, you have no idea."
"Yeah, yeah, I wasn't questioning that."
She gave him a suspicious look.
"Just know that I'm watching you. Always. Watching you."
"Do you really have to make things weird?"
"Weird, maybe, but no one and nothing in this world will ever be weirder than you."
"That seems like an unfair statement," noted Saber.
"Life isn't fair—" Rin started with a grin only for it to expire on her face, as she saw the disappointed stink eye Saber had briefly directed at her.
"I'm well aware of that fact."
Though Shirou's mana capacity had improved over his time at the Clock Tower, he was still unable to provide her with the mana she needed on his own. That being the case, he had still made several strides forward. Of particular note was that she was able to use her anti-fortress Noble Phantasm without immediately vanishing, though the kind of frantic cooking he would most certainly be required to do after the fact was as much a deterrent as any.
Before they finished eating, Shirou remembered that he had missed asking her something vital. Or at least, it felt vital to him.
"Oh, r-right, I almost forgot, Saber. I, well, Rin told me who you were…er…are… a while back. I-I just wanted to know if you'd prefer it if I called you by something with more of an honorific? Like a 'Your Majesty' or something?"
Saber actually went bright red at the mention of said honorifics. Oddly enough, she also hung her head, letting her bangs hide her eyes from view. If Rin didn't know better, she would have sworn that Saber somehow felt ashamed of her position.
"I'd actually like it most…if you could avoid bringing up my kingship, if at all possible."
"Then when we're around friends, maybe just, uh, actually it feels kind of strange to call you Arth—"
"Arturia," she corrected, smiling, and lifting her head to look back at the two mages. "That will be fine. Nevertheless, I have no qualms with Saber either. I admit, I've gotten rather used to it over the past few weeks."
Meanwhile, Sakura looked thoughtfully at the summoning circle she had found in the storage shed earlier.
"Hmmm…"
* * * * *
Shinji left the living room behind. He had gotten used to aggravation, but ever since the Holy Grail War—the previous one since there was evidently a new one because one clusterfuck just wasn't enough—Rin Tohsaka was nothing short of intolerable to him. He couldn't tell whether he'd grown complacent, or whether the annoying quirks she had as a mage had just hit him with a vengeance after going so long without dealing with it. They were almost the same thing as was the result, so it really didn't matter until he got a motherfucking aneurysm. Once, he would have kicked Sakura against the wall for ten minutes, taking all his pent up anger out on her, but that was before she returned the favor by saving his sorry ass over and over again. He really hated that he had become so dependent on her. At least that freakish vampire Servant hadn't come in. Maybe she needed to be invited to get into the house?
No… that was as ridiculous as it was superstitious. What the hell was… What the hell was his dunce of a sister doing in the storage shed?
Sakura noticed Shinji step into the shed behind her, carrying his laptop under his arm. She was mostly just staring at the circle on the floor in front of them though.
"Are you pining for him in here aga—Oh no!"
Oh. So he noticed. Darn.
"No, don't do it. Don't do it, moron! You heard Tohsaka; if something happens to you, I'm a dead man. This definitely qualifies as something happening to you!" he snapped.
"I know. But, this is a Holy Grail War," Sakura protested. "We're in danger no matter what. This will only make things safer."
"If you go through with this, I swear to god, I will punch you, screw what that bitch said!"
"But I—"
"Think about it, Sakura, doing this just puts a big flashing red target on your back. You can still avoid that," he skulked in a circle around her, prompting her to fidget with discomfort. "If you summon something here, you might as well start wearing a giant sign saying 'tear my lungs out.' Avoiding Grandfather's Servant will become the least of your worries. You'll be in danger constantly.
"But you can avoid all of that," he hissed. "All you have to do, is walk. away. Right now."
Sakura giggled. Not her dangerous, unstable giggle either. It was genuine laughter. Shinji's 'stressed' face tagged out and was replaced by his 'damn that Tohsaka' face. He never thought that Sakura would be able to embarrass him.
"What's so funny?" he growled, "And think carefully about your answer."
"You're like the devil, Shinji, don't you think?" she smiled, "Maybe more like the little one who stands on a person's shoulder opposite a little angel?"
Shinji moved on to his 'I hate my life' face. He'd keep it on for a while. It'd probably be useful in both the short and long term.
"I don't even need to guess who the angel standing on your other shoulder is," he grumbled. "Wait, don't—"
"It's Senpai."
"—say it…" he groaned. Too late. "Look, I will seriously punch you if you go ahead with this!"
It seemed as though that was the wrong thing to say. In fact, it seemed to solidify her resolve.
"No. I have to—" she twitched. "—to do this."
She stood up straight. Almost proudly even.
"I'm going to help my sister!" she declared.
She…really believed in what she was doing. That it was the right thing. Well, maybe if she hated herself a little less, she'd at least be a little less irritating.
She moved to bite down on her hand. She didn't have a catalyst, so her own blood would have to do, but she stopped before her hand was half-way to her mouth. She twitched again.
Wait.
Those weren't twitches. Those were spasms!
Shinji went pale enough to earn the jealousy of a ghost.
"Oh, shit," he groaned.
Sakura retched, then her legs gave out. She supposed it was that 'other' time of the month as she slid to her knees in front of the circle. Another retch, and she vomited up altogether too many crest worms. At least they were dead and not squirming around, but it was still pretty horror-movieish.
Then what Shinji was afraid would happen came to pass. The circle lit up, eerie red light pouring from the intricate patterns. The crest worms began to melt into a bloody soup which slid into the carving, as though it was devouring them.
Sakura, still nauseated, could only think of one thing.
The words! What were the words?! It had to be now!
She knew what she had to say already; it was there somewhere in her memories. She just had to find it!
"For… for the elements…" she choked before forcing herself to continue, "For the elements… silver and iron… and in the name… of the third family!" she didn't stand up. She could barely hold herself up on her hands and knees, but she forced herself to speak clearly.
Her recitation was halting and most certainly flawed, but she managed to get through the entire ceremony.
The glow reached its blazing finale, and then slowly dimmed back down to nothing.
Which is exactly what appeared before them. Nothing had happened. Nothing at all.
They waited for a few more moments, but it was in vain.
"Well, I said I was going to hit you, so now I will," he pulled his arm back, "you're insane, and—"
He stopped short as he suddenly found his fist caught in a merciless vice grip.
"I don't know who you think you are," said a terrifyingly familiar voice, smooth as a snake's, with a barely perceptible accent, "or what you think you are doing. But I shall give you only one warning: You will never again attempt to lay a hand on my Master, or I will teach you how the rabbit feels when the wolf plays with its food."
Shinji knew this woman. He would recognize the outrageously long violet hair and that strange blindfold anywhere.
It was hard to forget someone when you watched one of your teachers punch her hard enough to snap her neck and twist her head all the way around twice.
"R-R-Rider?! But, it's me! You know who I am, you were my Servant!"
"That would have been an existence apart from my own. I apologize if I do not remember you, but as things stand, that girl is my Master, and you are little more than a snack. And likely an unsatisfying one."
"Rider…don't hurt him," Sakura moaned.
"You both seem to know me, though I'm afraid my memories of past summonings are not as easily recovered as they are by certain other servants. I apologize. I will need to get to know you again from a blank slate, Master," she knelt before Sakura.
"That's…okay," she whispered. Why was everything fuzzy? Uh oh. She needed to tell Rider—
"The owner of this house… and my sister. They have their own Servants… Please don't…don't…hurt…"
"Master?!" she heard her Servant call out to her, but she was just so…
…she couldn't…
…
* * * * *
With Saber prepared to leave, all three of them headed to Rin's house. It was mid-afternoon when they arrived.
Before doing anything relating to the protection of their city, Rin decided that there was something she wanted to try out. She had given Shirou a tour of most of her house when they had started dating, showing him just about everything there was to see with the exception of several rooms; noteworthy exceptions being her father's workshop in the basement, the washrooms (it was good enough for him to know where they were, she didn't need to walk him through them), and of course, her bedroom.
She had decided she wanted to see what would happen if she removed an item from that list. She was going to remove two actually, but one in particular.
"Saber, would you mind waiting in the study for a few minutes?" she asked. "I just need to borrow your Master for a bit."
"Very well. I trust you will not allow any harm to come him."
Rin smirked.
"Not any lasting harm."
"Wait, what?" Saber jumped to her feet, wide eyed.
"You've got nothing to worry about, Saber," Shirou said reassuringly. "She's kidding. I hope," he added as an afterthought.
Rin then took hold of his wrist and led him up the stairs, leaving the somewhat bewildered knight behind them.
"So, you've seen most of the place already, but I've been dying to show you in here from the moment we got back."
She opened the door to her room and led him inside.
There was no visible change on his features. If anything, Shirou seemed to be evaluating the contents of the room.
She felt her bag of jewels and her pendant rattling around uncomfortably in her pocket, and set them down on her end table next to that evil alarm clock.
"There's kind of a lot of empty space for a bedroom," Shirou said curiously. She frowned with one corner of her mouth, a slight blush coloring her cheeks.
"Yeah, well you're one to talk!" she tossed back.
"Point taken. Actually now that I think about it, it's less that there's a lot of empty space, and more that it's just a very big room. I mean, the colors are nice. It's very… you, I guess, with all the red. And the curtains are nice too, but it's still so huge. Don't you feel lonely going to sleep in a room like this?"
Well, if that wasn't an invitation, what was?
"Not particularly," she said, "But I suppose that I could do something to remedy the possibility."
She grabbed the front of Shirou's jacket and fell backwards onto her bed, giving him a quick peck on the lips while he was still off balance. Her pendant slipped out of her pocket and she caught it just before it fell, hastily placing it on her night table.
"Is now really the time?" he asked. Though his tone was that of annoyance, it was impossible for him to hide the smile on his face. Victory was hers. She went in for a kiss. He dodged.
"I do like your choice in furniture though. The canopy bed is probably something I'd like if I were able to sleep above floor level."
Rin momentarily stopped trying to make out.
"You know, I was disappointed that you weren't embarrassed by coming in here, but I think you just made up for it," she snickered, "because that may be the most feminine thing I've ever heard you say."
"Why would I be embarrassed? I come into your room every other morning to wake you up. Why would it feel different just because it's in another house?"
Before Rin could respond to that, he added, "The bed'd probably be nicer with curtains to match the ones on the windows."
"Emiya, are you sure you aren't a lesbian?"
"What?"
"Perhaps you don't understand the vernacular. You see, a lesbian is a woman who is interested in other women, and as you're obviously a chick—"
"Oh, shut up!" he groaned.
"How can I when you just jump right into these traps? And you're so cute when you're blushing."
"Yeah, yeah…"
"If you're finished sexually assaulting my Master, would you mind returning to the matter at hand?"
"Yikes!" Shirou nearly jumped out of his skin as he and Rin both turned bright red. He took a deep breath. "It's… it's not assault, Saber. We've been dating for over a year now."
Saber was the one to blush this time.
"Yes, I had assumed. I apologize, I had jumped to a false conclusion that the two of you had gotten into an argument because I heard a few loud exclamations."
She asked if they would prefer that she leave then alone.
"It's probably a good thing that you got us when you did, actually," said Rin. She straightened out her shirt, which had begun riding up her body. "We are here for a reason after all. Though, I have to ask, how did you come to the conclusion that I was assaulting him. He was the one on top."
Saber blushed again, "You did have your hands around his collar."
Rin blinked. That was actually a good point.
Once she had also shown around her father's old workshop, they spent the day packing up items that Rin expected she would need over the course of her stay at the Emiya household and preparing for the summoning ritual that would take place that night, or perhaps more accurately, the following morning.
With help from Shirou and Saber, she had carried several bags, boxes and other containers full of gems loaded with magical energy up the stairs from the basement and into the front hall, transferring the contents of each container into suitcases. It wouldn't do to go walking around in public carrying several large, open crates full of jewels or strange-looking equipment, for obvious reasons. They went back and forth between their houses several times.
The hours dragged on and on, every tick made by the clocks in the house making Rin more anxious to get started. She nearly lost her restraint and performed the ritual at midnight, but eventually, the time came.
It was two o' clock.
If there really was a war about to start, this was where things truly began.
She held a number of jewels in her right hand and as she raised it over the summoning array, they slowly began to melt.
The liquid crystal began to drip into the grooves in the floor, flowing through them at a steady pace, and the circle began to glow with an otherworldly light.
"For the elements silver and iron, and for my great Master, Schweinorg:
Close the four gates.
Come forth from the crown and follow the forked path that leads to the kingdom.
Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.
Repeat five times,
But when each is filled, destroy it.
Set.
Heed my words:
My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny.
If you heed the Grail's call and obey my will and reason
Then answer my summoning!
I hereby swear, I shall be all the good in the world.
That I shall defeat all evil in the world.
Seventh heaven, clad in the great words of power
Come forth from the binding circle, thou guardian of the scales!"
As Rin completed her incantation, she looked at the back of her right hand, where her command seals had appeared. She looked around for her servant. For a moment she didn't see anyone, but then, with a shimmering flourish, a woman in gleaming azure and silver armor appeared before her. Her turquoise hair reached almost all the way down to her knees, and seemed to flow around her like a cape. But it was her eyes that were most striking. They were like windows to the night sky, and held an intangible sadness. What drew Rin's attention next was the large spear she held in her right hand with a vaguely heart-shaped blade.
The heroic spirit stood by silently, evaluating Rin as much as Rin was evaluating her.
"If I may ask, are you to be my Master in this conflict?"
"Yes, that is correct. And you're a Lancer, if your weapon is any indication."
"Indeed."
Behind her, Shirou let out the breath he'd been holding.
"And why do you sound so relieved?" Rin asked.
"You're going to kill me for reminding you now instead of five minutes ago. See, I'm just kind of glad it slipped your mind that your pendant would ensure that you summoned Archer. And you left it in your room. I'm actually a little surprised that you didn't get him anyway."
Rin stated at him blankly, a blush slowly creeping up her neck and onto her face. She trembled furiously, clenching and unclenching her fists.
"I'd break your face for being a total scumbag, but…" she looked away. One deep breath. Then another. Her voice was nearly in a whisper, "But it was my mistake. I should have remembered, so it's on me."
"That's surprisingly mature of you, Rin," Saber acknowledged.
Rin spun around and just barely stopped herself from grabbing the collar of Saber's breastplate.
"Are you saying I'm immature?"
"Not at all, merely that you tend to display rather… aggressive behavior when confronted with your own deficiencies."
"That's not calling her immature?" asked Shirou, cringing slightly.
Saber blinked.
"My mistake. Rin, please accept my apologies," she said, giving a short bow.
Rin was about to try and make social commentary about having been bowed to by a king, but she was more eager to continue grilling Shirou, so she asked Lancer if she would wait just a few minutes before they introduced themselves properly. Lancer agreed, and Rin turned back to her boyfriend.
"So, why didn't you remind me, Shirou?"
"It's nothing against you. I just don't want to give my competition a leg up after I've already defeated him."
"Competition? What kind of idiotic thing is that to say?"
"It's not idiotic. You liked Archer more than you like me. Of course he's my competition."
Saber's eyes said she was horrified, but her mouth said she was stifling a laugh.
"So, if you really loved me, wouldn't you have done the opposite?"
"Let's just say that I've found something that I like, and I'm not going to roll over and let an asshole have it."
"I'm playing the objectification card."
"Well I'm playing the I hate Archer's guts card!"
"That has nothing to do with it! Also, his guts are your guts."
"Yeah, yeah, I remember from when you told me this afternoon," Shirou deadpanned.
Lancer looked at Saber.
"Is she dissatisfied with me, do you think?" Lancer seemed ever so slightly troubled by the thought.
Saber shook her head. "From my experience with her, she's prone to very brief episodes of hysteria, but she's more than ready to accept you as her Servant."
The two Masters in the room abruptly stopped arguing when Shirou abruptly held up a hand, and Rin fell silent on impulse.
"Is everything alright? Did you hear something?"
"No, not really. Everything's fine, actually. It's just… I noticed something."
"So you cut yourself off in the middle of a sentence a second ago," Rin snipped, "because you 'noticed something?' Care to tell me what that 'something' might be?"
The answer she received this time was even less straightforward than the last. Hell, he answered her question with a question of his own, and boy was it random.
"Well, Tohsaka…" Shirou looked around at the cramped, dark study, "are you sure that this is your entire basement?"
There were a lot of possibilities that Rin had considered when she thought about what he was going to say. This was not in the list, nor the backup list. It actually took her a few seconds to process what she was hearing.
"Beg your pardon, come again?"
"Is this your whole basement?" he repeated. "It's just that… well, you've got a really big house. So why would the basement be smaller than my storage shed?"
And with that, he had thrown her for yet another loop. Because not only did that make sense, she had never even thought about it before, and she really, really should have.
While considering what Shirou has asked her, she caught a few snippets of a conversation being held by Saber and Lancer. Perhaps it was only appropriate that they were talking about food. From the few bits and pieces she could hear, her new Lancer was something of a heavy drinker.
"I, uh… never really thought much about it," she said, focusing on the task at hand, "but I have to admit you've actually got a point."
With a nod, he strode over to a wall, and asked one last question.
"Do you want me to have a look?"
"I can't see the harm in it. Knock yourself out, I guess."
Placing a hand on the wall, Shirou closed his eyes and whispered the incantation that all present company (with one nktabme exception) had grown so accustomed to hearing.
"Trace On."
Within seconds of having analyzed that one wall, he was walking over to one of her father's bookshelves. He pulled a book away, or appeared to try. It came halfway out before there was a heavy clunk and the shelf swung open to reveal a hidden room.
Rin couldn't decide whether to be impressed, or just annoyed that she hadn't found this room herself in all the years that she's lived here.
"Well, I could say I'm not curious, but I'd be lying," she sighed, and was surprised to see trepidation in Saber's eyes.
For now, she ignored it. Shirou's eyes were asking if she wanted to venture inside. She nodded, joining him as e he stepped into the darkness beyond. She pulled a gem out of her satchel and it began to glow with a soft, ethereal blue light revealing…
Tohsaka's jaw dropped. The room was huge. It definitely fit the outline of the rest of her house. And the most shocking part…
…was that it was completely, painfully, infuriatingly empty.
"What the hell…?" Tohsaka whispered.
She could see outlines on the wall that were slightly less dusty, indicating the former presence of furniture that must have been there. She could imagine shelves, desks, workbenches, all sorts of mystical tools that must once have been here. And they were all just…gone.
"What. The. Hell…" she whispered again. She wasn't even angry. She was just… disappointed in herself for not having found this place when it was still a treasure trove.
"Hey, Tohsaka, I think I've found something," Shirou beckoned her over to the opposite side of the room, where he'd been looking around by the light of some tiny flashlight-thing on his keychain. He didn't sound very enthusiastic. And she quickly discovered why.
"That son of a bitch," she snarled.
Scattered all over the floor in a remote corner of the cellar were a pile of black keys. And there was only one man in Fuyuki who used those who would ever have had occasion to visit her house.
"Kirei you thieving piece of shit!" she hissed. "He's still taunting me even after he's a charred pile of bones!"
That was when she noticed something sparkle underneath the pile of inactive handles. She dug through them for a moment and was astonished at the sight that greeted her.
"Or maybe you didn't take everything," she muttered.
She knew this thing. It's shape, it's color, the jewel embedded atop its head. She remembered how her father had carried it with him all the time.
"A cane?"
"My father's. He never needed it to walk, but… well, you know, a touch of class, and all that." She picked the rod up and passed it from hand to hand, testing its balance. "And of course it's a mystic code on top of everything."
"A mystic code? What does it do?"
"Well, for now…" she extinguished the light from her jewel and gave her father's cane a quick twirl, prompting the ruby at its head to produce a vivid scarlet light. She smiled softly at the object that she remembered being large enough to be a full-sized wizard's staff. Now it barely even reached her navel. It had really been a long time.
"Heck why not, I'll keep the black keys too. No sense letting a whole pile of perfectly good weapons go to waste. Thank you, Kirei for once again being an arrogant bitchnugget and leaving me with these charming new toys."
"Well, I'd say that was rude, but if he tried to kill you, like you said he did, he probably has that much coming to him.
"Hold on a minute…" Rin muttered. She suddenly went wide-eyed as a brilliant idea struck her. She tore out of the workshop, rushing past an even more bewildered Saber (and Lancer), scrambling up the stairs to her room and grabbing her pendant. Then she jumped the stairs, rushed out the front door and tripped over something that seemed to vanish in the next instant. No, she did not just trip over her own feet!
"Master? You seem to be in a rush," Lancer noted, joining her and helping her back to her feet. "If you need immediate transport, I could get you to where you want to go. I am an exceptionally fast Servant, even among the Lancer class.
"Is that so?" Rin rubbed her lower lip with one finger. "Then I need to get back to Emiya's house on the double."
"Very well, Master."
Lancer scooped Rin up in her arms.
Rin sighed. It just wasn't the same…
And then Lancer broke into a run… no wait. Rin looked down and realized that the Servant wasn't running at all. She was literally flying several feet above the ground! And Lancer hadn't exaggerated; in fact, she had definitely undersold her abilities. Her agility was phenomenal. Rin had to brace herself to keep from getting nauseated. She was at the front door to the Emiya house within ten minutes, but despite not having run at all, she found the ride had left her out of breath.
Rin hurried to the door and knocked. Shinji let her inside. She pushed past him, tossed her shoes aside and scrambled to the living room, hoping that Sakura would be there.
She was, but…
"Oh, sonofabitch!"
"I take it that these are some of the people I've been instructed not to eliminate?" said a familiar looking Servant with incredibly long purple hair.
"Rin, is–is something wrong?"
"It's nothing, Sakura," she answered dejectedly, "nothing at all…"
Meanwhile, back at the Tohsaka residence, Shirou found himself wondering something.
"Is something the matter, Shirou?" Saber inquired.
"No. Not really. It's just… Rin shouldn't have needed her pendant anyway. It may be a catalyst for Archer, but Archer, having the same pendant, in a way has a catalyst for her."
"You mean to say that your future self should have appeared for Rin regardless of her catalyst?"
Shirou nodded.
He didn't know what it was, but he did know enough to be able to tell that something wasn't right here. Not right at all.
* * * * *
Roughly thirty-six hours earlier…
A woman in a violet robe, eyes hidden beneath a deep hood, stood before Luvia.
“I ask of you now, girl; are you worthy of calling yourself my master?” the woman continued, smiling with the corner of her mouth.
Violet lipstick? Luvia noted, Who would ever wear such a thing?
“Why, yes I am.” she answered, “My, I’m glad to see you catch on quickly.”
She began to notice a chill in the room. It hadn’t been nearly this cold before she had performed the summoning rite. The woman frowned beneath her hood.
“It would have been ever so tiresome to have a Servant who needed to have things explained to him,” she said, gliding around behind Luvia to whisper over her shoulder, “Now wouldn’t it?”
With that as her only warning, a skeletal hand ripped its way out of the floor, followed by an arm. Luvia shrieked as skeletal creatures began pulling themselves out from beneath the floorboards with an unholy rattling noise. A thin fog began to condense around them as the temperature in the room began to drop more steadily. Though the woman’s hood hid her eyes completely, Luvia was overcome by the sensation of being carefully watched by a cunning predator.
“I assure you that you have no need to instruct me, little miss,” she continued to speak over Luvia’s shoulder. “And don’t be frightened of my dragon tooth warriors. They’ll never attack you as long as you possess your command seals, and as a magus, you’re skill is… adequate. At least for a child.”
"How dare you!”
The woman’s lips twitched upwards ever so slightly, and the skeletons’ bones clicked together as they shuffled closer.
“How dare I? I wonder?” she drawled, “Perhaps if you were to pay more attention, you’d have sensed the difference in our abilities. In comparison to myself, your capacity as a mage barely warrants so much as a glance, much less any true attention.”
Luvia’s eyes narrowed, trembling with fury.
“That said, I will admit that I have an unfair advantage over you, being a heroic spirit, and one from the Age of Gods at that.”
Taking a deep breath, Luvia answered with as much dignity as she could manage.
“I take it that this means you belong to the Caster class.”
“Indeed I am.”
As angry as she felt, Luvia knew that there were still a few formalities that needed to be taken care of.
“Very well, so you’re a Caster and have all the strengths and weaknesses associated with that class of Servant. What else should I know about you? Do you have any proficiencies or deficiencies that I should know about?”
Once again, the invisible eyes watching her began boring holes into her soul. Caster’s brief smile had vanished and her lips were now set in a neutral line.
“Perhaps we should get to know each other better before I start telling you what makes me tick.”
“Hmph. Have it your way then. My name is Luviagelita Edelfelt, heir to the Edelfelt family.”
“Mind your tone, little girl, lest I be forced to teach you a lesson in manners.”
Folding her arms across her chest, Caster took to drifting around the hotel room, keeping her eyes, locked on her master. She also dispelled her dragon tooth warriors, knowing that for the time being, she needed to conserve her mana. One by one, the skeletal monsters dissolved into black mist and vanished.
“I—You… Argh!” Luvia ran her hands through her glorious curls with obsessive fervor as the frustration she felt continued mounting. “I thought Servants were supposed to be obedient!”
“We are, dear. You just need to focus on the bigger picture here. I’ve no intention of insulting your pride. Even the difference in our skill levels has no reflection on your ability as a mage.
“I merely meant that as a spellcaster, I am beyond comparison,” once again, Caster let a smirk appear on her lips, holding it for a few moments before letting it drop.
“You’re that good, are you?”
“Yes I am, and I say that without exaggeration. Only a handful of sorcerers throughout history could ever hope to match my skill as a mage,” she paused, putting a hand to her lower lip in contemplation.
“And who might these powerful sorcerers be, Servant?”
“Oh my, do you honestly expect me to lower myself to the extent of listing a parade of equal or superior mages?”
"Humor me. I'll agree to a compromise; you need only name three."
Caster's face went through several expressions before settling on a sly grin.
"Very well, you ask for three superior mages, and you shall have them. Above all, King Solomon himself. Merlin for another. And Morgan Le Fey for a third. Are you satisfied?"
Luvia folded her arms across her chest and grimaced.
"Well played, Caster."
"You should have specified that I not name historical figures who would be considered the paragons of the art."
“At any rate, you seem to have no shortage of confidence in your abilities. But I’ve been burning with curiosity for more than long enough. Who are you, really?”
Caster’s expression, at least what Luvia could see of it, didn’t change, but her tone indicated that she was satisfied.
“I’ve been called many things, but aside from Caster, my favorite is the name I was born with. You may call me Medea.”
“Medea,” the smile that took over Luvia’s face was reserved, but she was quite obviously thrilled. “I can see where that confidence comes from. The witch who brought heroes to…their…knees…"
The temperature of the room, only just having returned to normal, plunged. Caster’s mouth was twisted into a scowl as she lunged across the room toward Luvia, stopping inches from her face. Her cloak billowed out to her sides like a pair of bat's wings.
“Little girl,” she said, her tone smoldering in contrast to the chill in the room. “Call me what you like, but if you value your continued existence, you will never refer to me as a witch ever again. Do we understand one another?”
“Y-Yes! Yes! M-my deepest apologies!” Luvia gasped, shocked by the aura of sheer terror Caster had given off. “I promise, I’ll never call you…that… ever again, whether you’re present or not. Not for the rest of my life.”
The room’s temperature abruptly returned to normal, and Caster nodded, taking a slow breath to calm herself.
“That will do. That will do just fine,” she said, “My apologies, Master. I assure you that my temper isn’t lost easily. I happen to have an… unfortunate history with men who’ve called me a witch. You do seem to be a decent girl. Perhaps a little naïve, but who isn’t at your age?
“I’ll admit, you do remind me of another girl I once met. An enemy Master in a previous Holy Grail War, if a few secondhand memories aren't completely flawed. I think I found her to be an unbearable little tart. Perhaps my perspective is biased by my opposition toward her, but you seem to lack the qualities that made me dislike her so much.”
Luvia didn’t like admitting that she had anything in common with that lowborn upstart, but she was still curious, even if it was also incredibly unlikely.
“This girl you refer to,” she began, “Her name wouldn’t happen to have been Rin Tohsaka?”
Caster broke out in a grin, her shoulders trembling until she couldn’t contain her glee any longer and laughed. It was a diabolical laugh, but it did seem appropriate in the context of their conversation. For the first time, Luvia felt just the faintest bit of warmth in that invisible gaze.
The sorceress allowed her laughter to run its course and then glided into the easy chair in the corner of the room and with a flick of her hand toward the kitchenette, made the kettle fill itself and set itself down on the stove.
“Miss Luviagelita, was it? You seem to be quite the interesting young woman. I expect that we’re going to get along splendidly.”
"Miss Luvia will be fine. No need to trouble yourself with my full name."
Luvia was beside herself. Not only had she summoned an incredibly powerful Servant, but the wit… er… sorceress even knew and disliked her sworn nemesis among her peers at the Clock Tower. Things couldn’t possibly get any better!
Hmm…”
“Are you sensing something, Caster?” she asked, checking on the tea.
“Nothing of great importance. Nor can I be certain,” Caster noted, “as my scrying crystal is still foggy. However, it appears as though that our mutual friend has just tripped over a stray cat.”
Luvia grinned like a bottle imp.
Life was just so wonderful.
Author's Note: There was a second thread posted in error a bit earlier. Sorry about that. It was not intentional. Technically, this is the second thread, but when I was doing my last minute editing, I was not yet aware of what had happened. I'd like to thank the mods for taking the other one down, it was rather embarrassing.
Originally Posted by Hymn of Ragnarok
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