Chapter 1: I summoned a strange man into my basement... what now?
Chapter Text
It was dark. Sakura could only frown as Zouken led her down into the depths of the basement. The worms weren’t out which was only the smallest of comforts. She could only frown deeper as she saw a blood sigil carved into the basement floor. Her eyes closed as she finally realized what was going on. She was being told to summon already.
“I’ve decided to get ahead of the competition. I expect you to do your part. We can skip training since this is more important.” Zouken chuckled darkly.
“Yes… grandfather.” Sakura muttered.
She raised her arm and forced her prana to the surface allowing the ritual to take place. It wasn’t exactly something she wanted to do but the lack of worms forced her on. She recited her pledge and the light flashed out.
“Servant Rider, come to answer your summons.” A voice called out from the burst of light.
A male with black hair, blue eyes and a dour look on his face looked around. In less than a second a glowing sword flew from his hand and hit Zouken. Before Sakura could say anything, Rider grabbed one of the worms and forced a gun down its throat.
A single shot rang out and she lost consciousness.
Ritsuka looked down at the gore that now laid before him. The origin bullet and divine construct craft essence shattered upon use. Still the monster he saw was dead… now came the problem of his master.
She was the girl who was the vessel for Parvati. Kama. She was also BB. He didn’t know how he felt about that. Regardless, her command seals were still glowing and the insects that were there were melting due to the origin bullet.
“I suppose we’ll have to get to know each other later, master.” Ritsuka muttered before picking her up in a bridal carry and walking upstairs. He would find her room eventually.
It was quiet. The screaming of the house had faded a long while ago. He had seen a young man there as well… though he was unconscious as well which was strange. Still he eventually found a girl oriented room and placed the young lady in bed. She still was breathing and her pulse was strong so he was sure that things would be explained soon enough.
It was strange, certainly, to be summoned. He had never thought that he would have ended up as a heroic spirit in any context. It didn’t seem feasible yet, here he was. Summoned and ready for combat.
He was a Rider? His mount… was the Storm Border? Unexpected, but welcome. He had several noble phantasms. The Storm Border was his mount and noble phantasm and capable of unleashing Excalibur styled blasts. It could also dive into void space but had a long charge up time which he could charge up beforehand. His version of summoning could also be used like a noble phantasm, and if he met a pseudo servant’s host, he could empower them.
Ritsuka stared at his Master. She was young looking. She also seemed to be forced into this war if what he saw was anything to go by. Well, he would make the offer. It was the least he could do. Though being a Rider was such a weird thing. He was sure he would have been more akin to a Ruler seeing as he knew that Greater Grails were nothing but trouble.
‘Maybe something wrong is going on here…?’ Ritsuka hummed in thought before fading to spirit form. He would keep a silent vigil over his Master.
Sakura groaned as she woke up. Her chest had hurt a while ago… up until it didn’t. The wriggling she sometimes felt was also gone… up until she turned to the side of her bed and puked. She couldn’t help it, the horrible things she was feeling needed to get out of her.
It took several minutes before she could see straight once more. Lying in the puddle was the desiccated remains of a worm one she knew had been attached to her heart. It didn’t make sense how she expelled it but she wasn’t going to look the gift horse in the mouth. It was dead… deader than dead.
“He’s dead…” Sakura could only grimace.
It was complicated. She was free, yes. But she hadn’t been saved by the one who she wanted to be saved by. She had been saved by someone else. She didn’t know how to feel about it. She was content that he was gone but with how quick it was done, she was left a bit shell shocked.
“Rider?” Sakura called out.
“Yes, Master?” Rider answered from the seat next to her bed. “You called.”
Sakura stared at the figure before her. He was dressed more like a mage, or a commander of a ship. The white uniform was crisply made, not a single button out of place. His eyes were a deep blue, his face seemed familiar but she didn’t comment on that fact. It was the smile that took her off guard.
He smiled at her, happy to be called on. She wasn’t exactly someone who would bring happiness to others but she didn’t voice those opinions anymore.
“What… what happened?” Sakura started… stopping when she didn’t know what else to ask at the moment.
“Well, I probably killed a monster completely. Had to use my craft essences but I got him. Origin Bullet destroyed the magic circuits completely, probably destroying his soul. The house screamed and so did you for that matter, then I carried you to your room. I can only assume this is your room because it was the only room that seemed to be for a young lady.” Rider spoke at length. “Then I waited for you to wake up. I noticed the young man who lived here tried to come into the room… I kicked him out before he could really say anything.”
“Oh, thank you Rider.” Sakura answered. She didn’t know what else to say. It was delivered in such a no nonsense tone that she didn’t really know how else to respond. “I… I guess I summoned you.”
“You did. As I said Rider, summoned to your side.” Rider chuckled as he performed a mock bow. “I did not look like much but I am here to help save the world. Like I usually do.”
“Eh?” Sakura muttered so quietly that she wasn’t heard. “Save the world?”
“Yes. I am someone who actually has saved the world. I know it sounds impossible but it is true.” Rider mentioned.
“But… Why did you save me?” Sakura whispered under her breath.
“Because I decided to. I take it you hate that it was done so easily, as if by a whim rather than planned out meticulously.” Rider scratched his cheek. “Unfortunately, I won’t take it back. You deserve to be saved, to be happy regardless of what you might feel about that stance. So I took matters selfishly into my own hands and decided for you. You didn’t seem like the type to ask anymore if that gaze you’re giving is anything to go by.”
Sakura turned away, staring at her hands. She couldn’t refute the sentiment. She was just so tired of wishing for hope. Wishing to be saved, she had even tried to place her hopes on her Senpai, which had gone almost nowhere. It had given her a haven but it hadn’t solved anything. She turned back to him, the earnest look was poisonous. It was filled with hope. And hope was a poison she had seen before, when her uncle had been devoured after being a failure.
How many sleepless nights did she have as those insects fed on her soul? How many days did her screams mean nothing while she endured? She had seen what had happened to Uncle Kariya. He had promised so much… but it had meant nothing in the end. Even her own Senpai couldn’t save her. He had given her a place to be safe but it was a stagnant reprieve from endless torture and that was it. She had only been worth something because of her body but the person who had been torturing her was actually gone. He was actually dead by some twisted sense of fate and she was expected to just… move on?
Indignation rallied in her heart for how presumptuous those words sounded, how filled with hope they were. It sickened her deep inside that such words were said to her especially. Hope had died once already and she had thought to have hope through her Senpai which had been wasted. Her tormentor was deader than dead. The worm she had in her body was gone and nothing was wriggling inside her anymore. The sense of wrongness was gone but her indignation and pessimistic outlook remained bubbling in her gut. She had finally found her voice for it.
“What… What do you know about that!? What do you know about suffering!?” Sakura started screaming almost incoherently as the dam she built up around her emotions burst. “I wasn’t worth saving in the first place!”
Rider said nothing. He just stared her down, glaring at her. Even as her vitriol kept her screaming, even as tears blinded her, her servant didn’t back down. When her magecraft burst out and disintegrated a few of her pillows, he still kept glaring her down. Sakura turned first.
Rider stood up and forced her to look at him.
“You are worth the effort to save and that is final.” Rider stated. “I will fight for humanity. You are a human in need and in front of my eyes. I fought and saved you… now you need to figure out what to do next.”
“But… the Grail War…?” Sakura tried to ignore her own suffering.
“I don’t want it.” Rider mentioned. “I’ve never needed it. I merely answered a call for help no matter how small that voice was.”
Sakura curled in on herself. As much as she wanted to desperately accept that she didn’t want to believe in hope. Years of abuse had taken their toll and she wasn’t up to feeling any sliver of hope.
“I suppose I am the first servant to be summoned… would you like to bolster your stake on this side?” Rider mentioned.
“Huh?” Sakura looked confused.
“It’s… part of one of my noble phantasms. You could wield the power of a servant if you wanted to.” Rider mentioned.
“I could… be okay…?” Sakura carefully stated.
It sounded too good to be true. In her addled mind dealing with the Grail War made sense. The necessity of having more on her side would help…
“But I could only summon you…” Sakura mumbled.
“Ah, I can solve that.” Rider mentioned and pulled out a small golden crystal that quickly formed into a grail before morphing back into that crystal. Then he placed it into his chest and she was no longer supplying him with her prana.
“Wha-!?” Sakura gasped.
“I earned a few of those grails. These can only be used as mana batteries. I have two more on me I can use so if you’d like to do this we can get another on our side.” Rider shrugged. “I leave this up to you Master.”
Sakura didn’t say anything. She was a bit overwhelmed by the reveal. Her command spells really didn’t mean much in this situation but the ability to make herself capable…
“What do we do?” Sakura questioned.
The idea was dangerous. She didn’t even know what she was really walking into. Still, the thought of being strong enough to not be walked over anymore was too enticing.
Sakura led Rider back down to the basement. She had seen Shinji who had attempted to yell at her only for Rider to slam him against the wall knocking him out. It was… excessive but Zouken wasn’t around anymore and she didn’t want to live like that anymore.
Rider began carving a new symbol over the symbol that had been in the basement. It was different than the summoning sigils that Zouken had drilled into her head.
“Okay… stand in the center and I’ll recite my noble phantasm. Ah… also hold on to this.” Rider stated before handing her a small lotus flower.
“A lotus…?” Sakura stared at the beautiful flower. It contrasted so heavily at how ugly she felt she looked like.
“Shall I?” Rider asked and Sakura nodded.
“Chains of time, chains of space. Let nothing hold you from my side. What once called you forth, called you once more. Allow my voice to guide you. Light of FATE!” Rider chanted as the light forced its way up once more.
Sakura felt something come in… and with the fact she knew it was coming, allowed it within. Compliance was all it needed and Sakura was flooded with knowledge. Knowledge and power coursed through her body.
“Servant, Assassin. Kama has come to answer your summ- Ritsuka…?” Kama’s cold tone broke into one of longing.
“Hey Kama. Long time no see.” Ritsuka gently smiled.
Sakura didn’t control her body at that moment something the other told her would happen. She allowed it… the tone the new servant used was something she could completely agree with.
The Assassin leapt into the Rider’s arms burying her face into him. Tears unbidden by the host dropped relentlessly as she repeated his name ad infinitum.
Sakura could feel the smoldering flames within all for her Rider’s sake. Love… pure burning love was what came crying out from her tone. That it was reciprocated made her own prospects of love seem dismal. Sure, Rider was amazing in his own rights.
He had destroyed the monster that had tried to claim her life. He had made sure that no more abuse would come from her brother… at least for the moment. Now she was also powerful enough to take the reins of her own life.
Sakura tensed as Kama immediately went to kiss Rider and stopped her. Kama grumbled slightly but acquiesced to the command. It took a few moments to work something out and eventually Kama’s specialty came into play.
Sakura felt the power drain from her as another body came into being. Now that she could see Kama more clearly… she could tell that her body was being used as the basis and to its full potential.
Her curves were a bit more pronounced. The purple of her hair had paled to a lilac or lavender softness… and her clothing was very bold.
“Is this better?” Kama asked her host, looking at her closely as she did so.
“Yes, I’m sorry about that I just… don’t know him that well?” Sakura mentioned, hoping to not offend her other servant. Rider didn’t look bothered at all.
“Oh don’t worry… you will.” Kama smiled, her eyes darkened slightly and the smirk grew. “Now if you’ll excuse me.”
Before Sakura could say anything about the situation, Kama leapt back at Rider pinning him to ground and making out with him on the spot. Sakura did her best to ignore the other servant grinding down on the now noticeable bulge on display. She quietly rubbed her own legs together before heading back up stairs.
She didn’t notice the smaller Kama following her just in case she needed help. Teenage Kama, however, focused entirely on Ritsuka except for a single line.
‘When you want a ride… just tell me Master.’ Kama mentally stated over to Sakura.
Sakura gulped slightly and closed the door to the basement. She didn’t need the temptation for the moment… All she needed was some rest.
The second and third servants of the war had been summoned. Rider and Assassin. The war was coming within a few months and with three of the seven called, the other participants would eventually be called forth upon this Grail War.
The priest looked around. He didn’t know why but he felt that things had gotten changed somewhere but for the moment he ignored it. He needed to finish assisting his guest with his food.
The enforcer wasn’t due into the city until the week before the war was due to start. The heiress of the city was waiting for the best time. The magus who heard of the war was still getting his resources together. The homunculus had already summoned Berserker. And the would be hero of justice had no idea what the hell was going on.
Chapter 2: I got convinced to include my sister... what now?
Summary:
Sakura awakes to find her Assassin coming around to discuss things more fully. Rin notices that someone new is hanging around Sakura and worries even though she shouldn't. Ritsuka doesn't really try to do anything too crazy yet.
Chapter Text
Sakura awoke. It had actually been a peaceful sleep. She hadn’t been yelled at, assaulted by Shinji, or felt the wriggling in her body that constantly wanted to make her tear her skin open and finally feel relief of some sort. Now… It was quiet. It was peaceful.
It was such an alien feeling that she immediately hated it as soon as her eyes opened. Due to her always being on guard, she had never even dreamed of peace except when her uncle was still around.
It hadn’t saved him at all.
It was at that moment that the Assassin came floating into her room. That was another headache in the making. It didn’t help that she looked exactly like her albeit plumper in certain aspects… It was surprising how good her body looked, a bit older, a bit fuller. Though she didn’t like how she looked at the moment. Her clothes, if they could be called that, were barely hanging onto her frame, her hair was a disheveled mess and Sakura was certain that a certain fluid was leaking onto the hardwood floors.
The fact that Assassin turned to her with a smug satisfied smile made her frown… even though it was marred by her blush.
‘If you ever want a ride master. He does have an EX rank in riding.’ Kama smugly thought to her master.
“Please… it’s too early.” Sakura sighed.
“Of course Master. I suppose it’s time to come to terms with whom you’ve summoned, seeing as I have taken the Assassin spot of this war.” Kama quickly restored her form… though she didn’t erase what she was given. “You may call me Kama, God of Love. Here to answer the call for help.”
“I- thank you for coming.” Sakura quickly changed her words. “What… what are we?”
“We. We are a combination known as a pseudo servant. You may not know this but sometimes those on the throne are far too powerful to manifest here even with a Grail War occurring. So we sometimes figure out loopholes with which we could break those rules. We, “ Kama pointed to Sakura and back to her a few times, “ are very much connected on a mystical wavelength of bonds and compatibility.”
“We are?” Sakura was confused. Even studying as she was forced to, she never knew such things were even possible.
“Indeed. As much as you might hide it, we are both sick and tired of being put down. We hate how some fools can smile while we reap the discontent that continually spews out of their rotten mouths.” Kama’s eyes flashed red for only a moment, but Sakura could feel the sheer malice with every word that dripped out of her tongue. “We share that inner hatred all too easily… however, with how I’ve been summoned. Well, I suppose I don’t feel that way.”
“Because of Rider?” Sakura intuitively guessed.
“ Yesss… ” Kama moaned the word as slowly and sensually as she could. She quietly coughed. “Keep that to yourself. I don’t need the other servants knowing I fall to pieces whenever Fujimaru is around.”
Sakura just nodded. She wasn’t even sure the other servants had been summoned yet. Also she wasn’t about to go out of her way to talk to them.
Their talk had made her keenly aware that she was sharing a body now and that made her nervous.
“Will I be… fighting?” Sakura questioned, biting her thumb in worry.
“No. When combat is initiated I’ll be creating a separate body with which to fight. That way you won’t be harmed.” Kama spoke instantly. “It would be better if we were synchronized for combat but with the mana I’m receiving from you, tainted as it may be, I can manage.”
‘What!?’ Sakura instantly thought. “Tainted!?”
“Oh… you didn’t know?” Kama quietly polished her nails against her breast plate. “This grail has been tainted ever since your third war if what Rider remembers is true. He learned it from that, what was his name, El-Melloi the second or something when he was alive.”
Sakura gasped slightly.
“Yeah. Though you’re in luck. As hard as it might try to do something to us, we’ll be impossible to actually take on.” Kama’s smile grew dangerous. “Poor little Avenger is as good as trashed.”
“I see… I’ll defer to you then Kama.” Sakura gulped. Her nerves were frayed and she couldn’t believe how blasé she was being about the Grail War being a lie.
“Oh no, no, no. You’ll have to take part as well. As far as I’m concerned if you leave me to my devices I’d probably laze around and do nothing at all. For the moment, I’ve already made this house my territory now. So long as we’re in this house, it is my universe. Rider is recalling whatever he can about bounded fields and creating a few new ones to hide the fact that we’re here. After that he’ll see what else he can pull out of his inventory to make it so no one notices me within you.” Kama laid out the plan.
“That seems highly dangerous.” Sakura could point out the only thing wrong with the plan.
“This isn’t your home, is it?” Kama tilted her head as if the question didn’t need to be answered.
Sakura looked away. It wasn’t. It was a prison.
“No. It isn’t.” Sakura answered after a few seconds of contemplation.
“Then it should be fine. We’ll be watching over you from now on. Also that little asshole attempted to come into this room during the night. So I smacked him unconscious once more. If he doesn’t stop I’m going to break his bones until he understands.” Kama mentioned almost offhandedly. As if it wasn’t that much of a concern.
“O-oh, okay.” Sakura muttered.
Sakura quietly made breakfast. She left something for Shinji… even if Kama didn’t see the point of it. Rider came as well and helped her cook, cutting the ingredients while Kama lazed about in a chair. Though it was clear that Kama was staring wistfully at Rider the entire time.
“So I remember having this. It’s a weird talisman that one of the casters made that hides magical energy. Honestly, it’s the best I’ve got since I’m merely a Rider so I have to ration my craft essences for whatever may happen.” Rider mentioned.
Sakura could only nod. When the meal was done Kama returned within Sakura’s body and took the talisman and stuffed it within her vest pocket.
Shinji carefully crept down the stairs as she quickly washed the dishes they had used. Taking notice, she waited for him to say something. Instead all she got was a glare.
“Nii-san.” Sakura muttered.
Shinji kept quiet. The glare he perpetuated was only mitigated by the sweat dripping down his face and the fear in his eyes. For only a moment, his eyes darted to Rider. He didn’t say a word.
“Goodbye Nii-san. I’ll be going to school now. Grandfather isn’t going to be around anymore.” Sakura stated and left, Rider faded a moment after leaving the young man to stand there alone.
Shinji faltered and slunked to the ground, defeated. His usual bravado of emotionally battering Sakura had shattered since last night. If it wasn’t one person knocking him into a wall hard enough to knock him out, it was the other two times that had knocked the physical fight out of him.
He also knew that Sakura was telling the truth. The sounds of insects buzzing around, or the indescribable harsh chuckle of the old man hadn’t returned since the house began screaming. At first, he wrote it off as wishful thinking.
He wasn’t the only one who hated Zouken Matou. However, he had never in his wildest imaginings ever thought he would be gone. Unfortunately, that thought made him realize that the Matous as a mage family were now fully dead. Their crest had been within all those worms… and now they were dead and the crest was gone.
His hatred of Sakura coming in to take his birthright had burned anew when that thought rose from his mind. But, now… now he couldn’t do anything to the bitch. She had summoned a servant for the war and then a second had answered as well.
It was too much to bear. He tossed the plate of food that waited for him on the table to the floor intent on forcing Sakura to clean it up later. It was petty but he didn’t have many other opportunities to act.
“ Clean it up. ” A voice growled from the darkness of the hall. “ Now. ”
“W-who’s there!?” Shinji nearly squealed.
A small stuffed toy of a monster came out. It looked like a man but the large metal spear it was holding made it very clear it was a familiar.
“ That doesn’t matter. Now clean it up. Or else! ” The toy growled.
Shinji was about to argue with the familiar, until it smacked his cheek with the spear. The cool feeling of metal made him realize very quickly that it wasn’t going to play around.
With a harsh grumble, Shinji gathered what he could and cleaned up the mess under the watchful glare of the doll.
School was… the same as always. However, Sakura was forced to take part in archery once more at the behest of Kama. It had been months since she had taken part and the suddenness of it had caught Ayako off guard.
“Really!? You’re finally taking part with us!?” Ayako kept herself from screaming but it was clear she was happy for the occasion.
“Yeah… it’s something I’ve been thinking of recently.” Sakura stiffly rubbed her arm. It had been as recent as an hour ago in fact. The slight grumbling that she hid in her heart was ignored by Kama who urged her to shoot.
“Okay, I’ll go get your bow.” Ayako rushed off before Sakura could say anything.
‘Is this necessary?’ Sakura frowned as their conversation continued mentally.
‘Yes. What I’ve come to understand is that you’ve been avoiding doing things because of your, I barely could call them as such, family. So as far as I’m concerned. Fuck them. ’ Kama succinctly stated. ‘You will live your life. You will enjoy it. Regardless of whether or not you believe you deserve it. As far as I’m concerned you and I do deserve it. So pick up your bow and show them what you can do.’
‘How do you even know about this?’ Sakura adjusted the bow to her specs as she once did so long ago.
Back then when she had joined to get closer to someone, she had never tried to do more than that. She had even hamstrung her own ability when Shinji started getting worse.
Fwip fwip fwip
The arrows flew straight and true, striking the targets without much trouble.
‘Good work Master. I can see why we fit so well together. Even if that isn’t my class at the moment.’ Kama seemed to clap even though she was remaining in her body.
‘What are you doing?’ Sakura felt weird.
‘Repairing your body. Since the crest worms died I’ve been making sure your magic circuits remain up to par with my divine core. You received a lot of damage. I am repairing it.’ Kama idly stated.
Sakura clenched her jaw and felt her fists tighten. Admittedly it was a gesture she didn’t know how to handle. She didn’t even think it was possible for such a thing to happen… However, it was clear she didn’t know as much as she possibly could have.
Amongst the praise of the club members that had come, Sakura could only give them a waning smile. Shinji hadn’t shown up to ruin the moment. Shirou hadn’t shown up to praise the moment. It was overall a lackluster moment.
‘I’m satisfied, master. Once we return home I shall show you about the imaginary element you seem to possess. While it’s only something I have because of our connection I do have knowledge about it due to my summonings to other worlds.’ Sakura could feel Kama’s viciously cruel smirk as she packed things in once more and headed home.
Through it all she had forgotten going to Shirou’s house completely.
The magecraft work was quickly shown. The mental framework had taken root and while Sakura was nowhere near casting it, she did have the fundamentals down.
“You’ve never been trained as a mage, have you?” Rider asked as she looked over the notes Kama had written for her.
Sakura looked up at her first servant. His soft blue eyes seemed to be scanning her. Attempting to analyze her in full.
“I was not.” Sakura muttered. “Is that a problem?”
“Only if you think it is.” Rider replied. “I was also a horrible mage in life. I was trained to be better, stronger, and wiser though.”
“And you want me to do what? Train? For a grail war happening in less than a month?” Sakura nearly scoffed. Instead it came out as concerned.
“If you’d like? I’m pretty sure I could make you physically capable before then. Also with Kama repairing your body we could get you as somewhat capable of fighting on par with most masters probably.” Ritsuka shrugged. “I’d have to drag you into my realm to do it though.
“If I say yes, will I be able to face Tohsaka-san?” Sakura bluntly asked.
“Yes, if you’d like that to be the goal.” Rider answered. “I don’t know who that is in particular but I’ll do my best so you can do your best in turn.”
“…fine, please take care of me.” Sakura muttered.
“ What was lost, what was gained, allow us to travel through the void to our future, Storm Border. ” Ritsuka chanted out and Sakura was dragged away into a large bounded field, a reality marble.
“You should warn a girl when you do something like that.” Kama groaned as she floated down. She was quietly eating a bag of chips that were bought at her behest, read as whining.
“Makes it more memorable if I do something like this.” Rider stated as he pointed at Sakura.
Sakura was quiet. Below her was the massive hill of a ship floating in the void. She turned her head to and fro, taking in every detail of the futuristic ship. It looked more akin to something out of a sci fi novel rather than how a plane or jet would look.
“Now… let’s see how well we can train you.” Rider chuckled as he gained Sakura’s attention.
“Yes. Let’s.” Kama smirked as she put the potato chips away in her vajra, and set foot on the deck.
Sakura was acutely aware that she was in over her head.
It had taken some time but he had done it. The marks had appeared on his hand and now what the time to summon. From the light, there stood a woman covered in a dark blue cloak from head to toe
“Caster, a pleasure.” The mage welcomed the witch before him.
“I suppose so.” Caster answered.
Medea of Colchis had entered the war.
Berserker, Rider, Assassin, Caster. Half the servants of the war have been summoned.
It had been two weeks. In little more than a week the grail war would be commencing. At this point it was suspicious.
Rin Tohsaka looked carefully out of the corner of her eye. It was a difference she couldn’t overlook.
‘Sakura…’ Rin despondently tried to rein that feeling in. She was a magus. The second owner of the city of Fuyuki. Sentiments weren’t going to help here.
Sakura had changed. The light in her eyes had returned. She was also a bit stronger than usual. Though for some reason she couldn’t feel her mana. The other change was Shinji who looked completely despondent. He ignored Sakura completely and did everything in his power to avoid her.
She knew that it was only a matter of time and that the more she waited, the less of a chance she would have to summon a Saber servant to help her win the war. The Tohsaka honor hinged on her summoning a Saber to win the war.
She shook her head. She needed to focus on the real concern.
Rin normally didn’t get involved with Sakura… it had been a defense she had built up. Sakura had to be happy. It was the only thing that made sense since she had abandoned her. She clenched her arms tighter as she walked home alone.
She kept those feelings sealed away. She couldn’t handle it at that moment.
Rin stopped in her tracks. Standing next to Sakura was a new boy. A boy who wasn’t Shirou Emiya.
The white hair and blue eyes were a far call from normal. And the sheer flow of mana coming from him could only be…
His eyes caught hers. He tilted his head and understanding washed over him.
He was another magus… and he was making a deal with the Matous! That had to be it. The fact that Sakura nodded during their hushed whispers led her to that point. Though even reinforcing her hearing didn’t let her catch much of anything.
That left her only one avenue. She would follow them.
Through the night time streets Rin was forced to ask herself some very difficult questions. Questions that she didn’t want to really answer. After all, she was a Tohsaka… Sakura was a Matou. There would be a conflict of interest now. Her internal feelings over the need to truly be a magus. And the time was fast approaching that she wouldn’t be able to shirk that responsibility any longer.
That left her pondering whom they had summoned. While she didn’t have much hopes for anything challenging, a Grail War was something she didn’t truly get until after everything had gone to shit for her family.
As Sakura walked off towards the Matou home, which was merely two blocks away she had lost sight of the guy.
“Where’d he go?” Rin growled out.
“Where did who go?” A male voice asked.
“That guy who was hanging around Sakura. He was right there.” Rin frowned as she looked around.
“Oh, I think I saw him sneaking up on a creepy person who was following them.” The male voice stated.
“There was a stalker going after Sakura!?” Rin gasped. “Where did he go?”
“It was actually a girl. A girl with twin tails.” The male voice sounded really close to her.
“T-twin tails…!?” Rin nearly shouted out. Her calm facade was frayed and holding on by the tattered strings. “You're behind me, aren’t you?”
“Yup. I’m leaving it to merely figuring out why you're following us. If you answer me I’ll head off.” The male mentioned.
“You’re with Sakura. Alone. At night here in Fuyuki. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to be concerned since I don’t know who you are.” Rin muttered, her arms crossed. She still kept up her pushiness.
“Why do you care?” Ritsuka asked. “You’ve been following us the entire time even though all we've been doing is talking with each other. So why do you care? At all even?”
Rin went silent. It was too personal.
“You’re a mage. Why wouldn’t I be concerned?” Rin retorted, deflecting any personal inkling in her tone.
“And? The man asked. “That doesn’t answer why you’re concerned. Maybe I should tell Sakura about this.”
“No! Wait!” Rin barked out.
“You care. So why don’t you show it?” The man sighed. She could feel him shaking his head at her in disappointment. “Anyways stop following us. If you actually want to talk like an adult, send a familiar if you’re so inclined to meddle.”
Rin was quiet as the man disappeared as quickly as he appeared. Even as she turned around to find him, he was nowhere in sight. She could feel her teeth clench, pissed off that she was in such a position in the first place. She stormed off for home after that encounter…
And possibly considered an actual dialogue with that guy. As the second owner, of course.
The familiar was already in place. While it wasn’t something she used very often, the Amethyst Owl was a Tohsaka specialty. The amethyst used in its creation had been passed through the family for a long time. Admittedly, she never really used it until now but it was an important heirloom of the family… probably.
She sent the owl out towards the Matou house while they were at school. It was obvious the man that was working with Sakura was probably acting like a guest. So she needed to make sure she was on top of things with both the location, time, and leverage.
She had two of the three already but leverage was nearly nonexistent. She didn’t know his name. She didn’t know where he came from. She didn’t even know why he worked with the Matou family.
‘Probably Zouken, he found someone who fits his criteria for a son in law. His magical reserves were expansive.’ Rin pondered as she continued to play her part at school. Though it was becoming clear that Sakura was starting to bloom at school.
Strangely, she had been avoiding Shirou… which was unheard of. It had gotten to the point that Ms. Fujimura talked to her. Though that conversation went nowhere fast. All she had to do was wait.
‘Master, there’s a weird owl that landed here. It left a message for Rider. I think it was made of jewels…?’ Kama stated. She had left a body at home to keep an eye on things… also to make sure to make the house something someone would try to enter.
‘Owl…? Oh! That’s… why would Rin send that familiar to the house?’ Sakura thought.
Sakura had gotten used to speaking with Kama telepathically. It seemed to be her preferred mode of communication when they were out and about.
‘Let’s see… ah, she wants a meeting with Rider. Something about why he’s staying in the Matou home. Lots of official sounding words… insinuating that he shouldn’t be around you… concern hidden by magus dealings.’ Kama trailed off.
Rider had mentioned that. A bubbling of anger boiled in her chest though she didn’t feel the wriggling of the crest worms inside her. She could actually process her emotions without losing control.
Years had gone by. Years of horror that had once seemed to be without end, only now was the concern being shown. Though Kama had mentioned that they had suffered in silence… which kept the anger from going any farther than an annoyance.
‘My… sister wants a meeting?’ Sakura quietly admitted.
‘With Rider, yes.’ Kama stated. She sounded bored. ‘I say let him, maybe he could convince her to join us. Force the issue and make her actually talk with you.’
‘Kama… I don’t think it works that way.’ Sakura sighed.
‘Better than doing nothing. Otherwise we’d have to go against her. Ritsuka still can’t remember who was in this war. His memory isn’t missing but timelines could be wildly different… though given that the two of us are here that should be a given.’ Kama idly muttered.
‘Who was supposed to be here…?” Sakura idly wondered.
‘Hm… he says Medusa and Sasaki Kojirou.’ Kama answered quickly. ‘So, the meeting?’
‘Fine. But can you go with him?’ Sakura sighed. While she wasn’t too keen on talking with Rin, her heart yearned for that connection to be restored.
‘I suppose in a sense of being there. Sure master. I can be with him.’ Kama pondered.
When the plans were all said and done, Sakura watched Rider head off with a colorful parrot on his shoulder. He even used some sort of magecraft to color his hair white. That had gotten the anxiety that was plaguing her earlier to finally subside.
“A parrot?” Sakura could only ask.
“It is my mount in myth Master.” Kama chuckled mirthlessly. Her eyes were unfocused, looking off into the distance. From the short two week crash course she had been given, she could tell when someone was piloting a familiar. With that said, she sat on her bed and waited to hear the news.
Rin stared at the figure before her. He was the same man that had been around Sakura. While she was reluctant to invite such an individual within her home, she needed to figure out where they stood with one another. He had made his disappointment clear enough when they finished speaking.
And there he sat, wearing a crisp clean suit that wouldn’t look out of place at a yakuza meeting. It was concerning to a degree. His deep blue eyes mirrored her own and had the individual had black hair she would have mistaken him for her gender bent clone.
Rin also noted the familiar on his shoulder that hadn’t moved an inch since entering the building. It was staring at her. Rin could only infer that Sakura probably already summoned something and the parrot was one of its familiars… probably.
There were too many unknowns.
“So your note was received. We’ve had our meeting. Have you decided on the point?” The man mentioned as he waited for a response.
“You are assisting the Matou with summoning, aren’t you?” Rin blurred ahead to her main question, ignoring the question for the moment.
“And?” He stated.
“Why didn’t you come to the Tohsaka first? We are the ones in charge of Fuyuki.” Rin asked.
“Because it was the head who facilitated my invitation.” He answered. “Your point? I’ve already done my part with the Matous having a divine class servant.”
“What!?” Rin nearly barked out.
“They paid well in advance though I merely gave them the catalyst.” He mentioned so casually, resting his hands behind his head.
Rin bit her thumb. Frustration marred her face given that he blatantly mentioned something that should have been secret. Had she not panicked, Rin probably would have noticed that the man was smirking at her. She didn’t have the funds to pay the man, her own finances could barely afford the jewels she used for her magecraft.
“Perhaps I could make it worth your while to assist me as well.” Rin stated, however she didn’t take on a flirty pose. She merely crossed her arms like a business woman would.
“For?” The man asked.
“Favor with the Clock Tower. I know I can get my teacher to put in a good word for you.” Rin added.
“I’m already a Cause within the Clock Tower.” The man answered just as quickly.
Rin stared in shock.
‘He’s higher than me even though he looks so young!?’ Rin felt a small twitch in her eye. Aside from the white hair, the man before her looked barely a year older than her.
“I have several jewels I could use to pay for your services.” Rin hastily mentioned, though she looked in pain from even suggesting a thing.
“I don’t use jewel magecraft and I have plenty of money already.” He answered.
Rin felt her lips mold into a line. Her emotions had gone cold.
“Is there anything reasonable that would permit me to acquire your assistance?” Rin growled out slightly. “My body isn’t one of those things I will state right now.”
The man looked at the parrot which chirped twice and bobbed its head in a counterclockwise circle. He nodded and closed his eyes, considering his words carefully. From her perspective, she was lucky enough to even get this far.
Rin didn’t know how stubborn this mage would have been given how strong his magical energy seemed to be. The added facts of being a Cause, one level lower than her teacher, made her nervous. There were few mages who had ever reached such a high rank and the mage before her was an unknown beyond all the unknowns.
‘At the very least he’s not asking for my body for the moment…’ Rin idly thought.
“What’s your relation to Sakura Matou? Answer me that and we’ll see where we go from there.” He opened a single eye and stared at Rin.
“She…,” Rin started, stopped and clenched her fists, “She’s my sister.”
“And what would you do to actually reconnect? Since it seems very obvious just from the two weeks I’ve been here that you have no idea how to handle interpersonal relationships.” He bluntly stated without a shred of mercy.
“Hey!” Rin shouted. “I was following my father’s orders so I don’t cause trouble for her!”
“It would have been much better had you meddled.” He muttered bitterly at that sentiment.
“What!?” Rin gasped.
“Not my place to say and I doubt she’ll ever talk about it. Now answer my question.” His narrowed gaze focused intently on her.
“I… I… can you really help with that…?” Rin stubbornly muttered, unwilling to push the words out of her mouth.
“That depends on you.” He laid back against his chair and waited. He wasn’t smiling either.
That left Rin with a conundrum on her hands. The man before her was a powerful mage… and answering anything to the tune of whatever it takes was tantamount to suicide. Nothing was off the table and there was no telling if the mage in question was able to enforce the verbal agreement as a geas.
Unfortunately, he hit just the right buttons that she stubbornly held onto even into her descent of learning magecraft. And far be it for her to deny that she was lonely. Too lonely with her only contact within Fuyuki being that lousy priest. The quiet of the house could be alleviated… but the price was very high.
Rin wouldn’t be intimidated. She would face this mage without too much trouble after all, even if she was agreeing to something she could never take back.
“I’ll… do whatever it takes.” Rin grimly muttered. The parrot squawked in surprise.
“If you’re sure -“ He started only to be cut off.
“I’m sure already. Just say your terms.” Rin growled, crossing her arms and huffing.
“So we are in agreement, you’ll acquiesce to my conditions no matter what?” He asked once more. At that point Rin was positive that she was throwing herself into the deep end. And the man held his hand out to her.
Rin kept quiet at first. She grimaced. She was pretty sure that shaking his hand would form a geas. Reluctantly, she raised her hand and grasped his, shaking it firmly.
“I’ll agree to the terms.” Rin muttered. She knew it was a deal with the devil. There was no tingle of mana even as their hands were in connection. Still she was so certain that the contract was in place. “So we’re all in an alliance then… will you explain more now?”
“What do you know about the history of the Holy Grail Wars here?” He asked.
“Enough to know that it will grant the wish of the winner… how will we solve that in the end?” Rin wondered aloud, clearly trying to hint that she was still dubious of their alliance.
“I don’t want it and Sakura, well, I don’t think she needs it anymore.” The man stated. “Admittedly there is a reason for that.”
“What?” Rin gave him a flat look.
“Yeah. Why would I want a corrupted cup anyways?” He tilted his head in confusion.
“What the hell are you talking about!? The grail isn’t corrupted!” Rin stood up, shouting in protest.
“Why do you say that?” He asked. “Have you ever examined the Greater Grail?”
“That… that’s beside the point! There’s no way that we wouldn’t have noticed that all our hard work was meaningless. You’re probably just lying to demean all the hard work that we’ve put into this ritual!” Rin shouted even more.
“Did you know who the Einzberns summoned in the Third Holy Grail War?” He asked almost as suddenly, the calm certainty in his tone was disturbing.
“What do they have to do with this…?” Rin was confused.
“When they participated, they summoned an Avenger during the third war. Due to their… let’s just call it what it is, stupidity, they summoned what they thought was a god. Angra Mainyu, the Zoroastrian God of Darkness, was not what they expected. He was the weakest servant in their war… and he was killed almost immediately. However, due to how he was summoned he ended up trapped in the grail.” The man explained. “During the fourth war he nearly managed to be born into a true All The World’s Evil. That caused this large blaze to wipe out a large portion of the city of Fuyuki.”
“N-no way… that’s impossible. Any of the founders would have…” Rin trailed off.
“Zouken would have? I highly doubt he would care. The Einzberns would? They are sick and tired of losing all the time. As for those of the Tohsaka…? Well, I’m waiting to see how you decide to act on this.” The man shrugged. “As much as I talked with El-Melloi the second, he scrounged up so many details of the past war just to figure out why his war ended with a giant blob of darkness and the light of Excalibur destroying the construct before it could manifest.”
Rin’s eyes shot wide open. There… there was the tangible link she could believe in. As much as her teacher didn’t enjoy having her around due to all the chaos that she got into with Luvia, he was also blunt to a goddamn point. Unfortunately, that meant that what she had been told was most likely the truth.
A dead father, a broken and then dead mother and an estranged sister. That was what the Holy Grail War had gifted her. The tears threatened to fall, she clenched her eyes and shook her head. Her fury wiped them out.
“Fine… I’m in. What do I need to do?” Rin scowled, crossing her arms. Her determination had pushed her into going all the way with her deal.
“I require your body.” The man stated immediately.
“Wait, what!?” Rin screamed.
It had taken thirty minutes just to get Rin to calm down enough to listen after her tirade of insults and derision had stopped. She had gotten the wrong idea for the most part. Even reinforced, her arms did no appreciable damage to the man before her… who’s name she still didn’t know.
“Fine! Fine.” Rin tapered off a particularly feral growl. “Before you explain that… What's your name? I’ve been calling you man in my head the entire time.”
“Ritsuka Fujimaru. You’d probably never find me anywhere within the records of the Clock Tower though.” Ritsuka chuckled. “Anyways, where’s your summoning circle? If we’re going to be in business I need to help you now.”
“Follow me, I put it in the basement.” Rin sighed, her anger quietly dissipated on the trek downstairs.
It was a quiet jaunt, one devoid of sounds. It was more concerning that he was behind her the entire time and made no sound. Every footstep had been measured and had she not heard him humming, she would have assumed that she would end up dead.
The room was spacious for a mage’s workshop. It held all the telltale signs of jewel magecraft, books written by Hohenheim, and even a few magical furnaces. On the floor was the symbol that Ritsuka had seen carved where he was summoned until he modified it for his own version.
“So we’re waiting until one in the morning since that’s when mana in the area will be at its strongest.” Rin explained as she watched Ritsuka ignore her and start messing with her summoning circle. “Hey! Wait a minute! What are you doing!?”
“Getting things ready. Why would I need to wait for mana in the area when I’m the one channeling the spell for you.” Ritsuka stated.
“Oh?” Rin looked sheepish, which was quickly shunted off her face into a pensive scowl.
“Did you forget we’re in an alliance or something?” Ritsuka asked.
“Well, no. But still, I worked hard on that.” Rin argued. “It took me a week to get the right consistency of the catalyst blood.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Ritsuka waved off. “You’ll be fine.”
It took a few more moments… and Rin was getting curious about what was being carved over her circle. The runes didn’t match completely. It was almost like he had been using a derivative instead of the Matou based summoning circles. While interesting, she didn’t feel it warranted marking up her already perfectly set circle.
“Here.” Ritsuka stated, handing her a lapis lazuli styled bracelet.
“The catalyst.” Rin nodded. It was fairly worn and seemed to be incredibly magical. The gems were shining brightly which did catch her eye quite well. “So I place this in the circle.”
“Nope.” Ritsuka mentioned before picking Rin up and placing her in the circle. “Stay put here.”
“W-what!? But why do I need to be in the circle!? Wouldn’t that mess up the ritual!?” Rin panicked.
“This will strengthen it. But you need to stand in the circle. You’ll find that this is a perfect opportunity to get a stronger servant.” Ritsuka stated.
Rin still looked nervous but the prospect of strength kept her from bolting. The agreement she made also stayed her feet from moving.
“So, this is a concern. Are you going to be reckless with your command seals?” Ritsuka asked after Rin had stopped squirming.
“Huh? I wouldn’t be so stupid to do something like that.” Rin scoffed, forgoing her nervousness for indignation.
“I ask because I am helping you summon a divine class spirit. They are highly resistant to command seals which would force you to use two just to make a dent. Don’t do something like that. That would be a sign that you have no idea how to be a master to me.” Ritsuka bluntly explained. The look on his face was bereft of mirth.
“I get it… but a divine class spirit? How did you manage that? I’m pretty sure that the grail doesn’t allow that level of servant.” Rin pondered.
“Why do you think I redrew the circle?” Ritsuka answered. “Now I have one more thing to state.”
“And what’s that?” Rin looked confused, and also at the end of her rope.
“You may also call me Rider.” Ritsuka mentioned before the circle lit up.
“What!?” Rin shouted before the light blinded her, forcing her to stand still. She was certain that the geas would activate if she stepped out of the circle.
Rin overestimated what Ritsuka could do. There was no geas, there was no mental influence and there were no contracts in effect. All that was holding Rin back was the honor of her words.
“ Chains of time, chains of space. Let nothing hold you from my side. What once called you forth, called you once more. Allow my voice to guide you. Light of FATE! ” Rider intoned as the light grew brighter. There was no explosion or sudden crashing upstairs.
The Tohsaka luck hadn’t been involved within the summoning process. She hadn’t messed up with the time because it had been taken out of the equation. Instead she had gotten a servant that wasn’t from a messed up ritual.
Meanwhile…
He waited to be summoned. His red mantle flowed in the nonexistent wind. He knew he would be summoned to that same time and place. It was a miracle to have that memory but he knew that he would be able to stop his younger self from being a complete and total idiot.
The light flashed above ready to take him… only to fizzle out and dump him unceremoniously back in the throne.
Archer stared up to the skies in horror. His goal was forever out of his reach. He would be forced to fight forever more. His scream echoed up into the void. It didn’t heed his cries. Once again they would float endlessly in the void.
Elsewhere, a crazy goddess piloting her fancy bow was whisked away. The catalyst and the name of who summoned her were dancing quietly upon her lips.
Before Ritsuka was the same girl, a familiar face with fiery red eyes ready to give her speech once more.
“My name is Ishtar and you - Ritsuka!? What - how are you summoning me!? What!?” Ishtar stared at the young man.
“Hi Ishtar, long time no see. I’m a servant now. I was summoned but I think you should let your host talk as well. It’ll be easier if you do so.” Ritsuka chuckled as Ishtar quickly pooled her power and created a body for her servant container in the same shape as the girl.
Rin slumped down, landing on her butt. She was dazed but the command seals were slowly burned into her hand. When she looked up, she was certain that Rider had pulled out a mirror. It was her… in quite the scandalous outfit. She wanted to scream and immediately use her command seal to force her to cover up. The warning she received was the only reason she didn’t raise her hand up.
“What!?” Rin groggily screamed.
“Ah, so there's my host. Listen closely, you have now summoned Ishtar, Goddess of Beauty, and the one who governs over fertility, destruction and war. I expect you to uphold such magnanimity for allowing you to summon me.” Ishtar haughtily stated.
“What she means is that she’s glad to meet you and hopes she works well with you.” Ritsuka translated.
“Hey! Don’t steal my thunder so easily!” Ishtar cried out floating around before wrapping her arms around Ritsuka’s neck… in a loving embrace. “Hmph, as always you’re too laid back even if I like that about you.”
“Hey! Don’t use my body to flirt!” Rin, breaking the shock that washed over her, stood up and pointed accusingly at the goddess.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll watch myself.” Ishtar waved off the concern. “It’s not every day I get summoned as an Archer for a Holy Grail War. And with Ritsuka around as a bonus.”
Rin stared at the goddess. She was confused. She was overly affectionate with a human, who turned out to be another servant. But the lack of recognition of his name made it impossible to figure out why they knew each other so… intimately.
“Let Rin be in charge most of the time Ishtar. Gotta hide in plain sight before the grail war starts. All I know is that Assassin, Rider and Archer have been summoned.” Ritsuka explained.
“Okay.” Ishtar sighed. “At least my host is extremely compatible. I would hate to be fully in charge and have my mistakes thrown in my face.”
Ishtar giggled. She entered Rin once more but didn’t take hold. Ritsuka handed her a talisman.
“Rin, tomorrow you and Sakura will meet. You’ll discuss things with your servant. Also keep that on your person. It’ll hide your servant's signature.” Ritsuka explained. “And before I forget. Welcome to our alliance.”
With those words finished, Ritsuka walked upstairs leaving Rin alone with her thoughts and concerns.
‘Well, looks like we’ll get along well. I look forward to working with you.’ Ishtar seemed to give off a small wink before she faded into the background.
“What the fuck is going on here!?” Rin screamed to the heavens. She didn’t know what had happened and she deeply disliked it.
Chapter 3: I let my Rider do whatever... what now?
Summary:
Copious amounts of things happen and slowly the war comes to a start.
Chapter Text
Insufferable. That was the thought zooming through Rin’s brain as she once again heard the wanton thoughts of Ishtar trailing off on what it meant to be chosen as the vessel of a goddess. It was also the fifteenth time she wanted to shoot herself with a gandr curse that morning. When she had made the deal she was ecstatic. The chance for power beyond the norm in a grail war was a boon even if she didn’t get the Saber she wanted.
She was seriously regretting everything that was being thrown in her way now.
She was under a geas alliance now. (She wasn’t.)
Her servant favored Rider immensely. Far more than just liking him if the ways she usually clung to his frame were anything to go by.
When her command seals appeared she had to be told that due to having a divine core she could ignore command seals to a degree. That was another blow to her carefully crafted plan of winning the grail.
That the grail had become corrupt with clear evidence from the Fuyuki Fire and Rider’s apparent eyewitness account, which she pondered was dubious, the grail was non viable.
She was merely laying in bed that morning. Less than two weeks before the beginning of the Grail War.
“Oh Master~” Ishtar chirped as she floated into the room… looking extremely chipper for some reason.
“What is it, Ishtar? It’s the weekend.” Rin mumbled as she covered her head with her blanket. She was certain that her strange dream would disappear soon.
“Oh I know, but I was wondering why you would do so. Surely a magus would be studying their craft or being busy with some barbarous act.” Ishtar smugly stated.
“Is there a reason you need me up?” Rin sighed, pulling the covers off to face her day once more.
“We are meeting your allies today, aren’t we? Perhaps you should mentally prepare yourself?” Ishtar giggled.
“Damn…” Rin growled. “Who told you that?”
“Ah you know, a goddess knows.” Ishtar swayed back and forth.
Rin finally noticed something. While seeing her own body was slightly worrying, it made it easier to detect any anomalies that might show up. Rin could feel a twitch forming as she finally noticed the disheveled look gracing Ishtar’s hair and something leaking down her thigh.
“Were you with Rider!?” Rin nearly screamed out.
“Of course. I’ve known Rider for a long time. I relish anytime we get to meet again.” Ishtar haughtily explained, quickly pushing one of her legs further behind her. “Only a fool would not keep Rider as a close ally.”
Rin could feel her teeth grinding. It was weird to hear that entirely because it threw more pieces into her puzzle. And that puzzle had gone from a hundred pieces to a thousand pieces. It also felt weird to know that a goddess was using her body to seduce a servant like that.
She didn’t know whether to be proud or enraged at that point.
“Did you have to do that?” Rin growled, barely keeping her temper in check.
“Yes. Rider is a loved one. Someone who deserves such attention. He earned it when he was alive.” Ishtar stated, her tone immediately jumping back to god like in that moment… before going back down to giddiness. “Also he’s a great lay. Did you want to try it, Master?”
“No!” Rin blushed at that thought.
‘ While he wasn’t bad looking, I’m not looking for a god damn booty call!’ Rin’s cheeks continued to flare up.
“You sure Master? I'm pretty sure we could double team him so that he falls for us completely.” Ishtar pointed out. “Getting an edge over the competition would help immensely.”
“What are you even talking about!?” Rin rose up.
“You really think the Assassin isn’t thinking the same thing as well? We’re both Love Goddesses.” Ishtar stared down Rin forcing her anger to fade, if only slightly. “Her host seems to be on a closer note at the moment and I’d rather not be the bottom of this totem pole.”
“What are you even- wait, Sakura is entertaining that idea!?” Rin gasped out.
“I don’t know. All I know is that Assassin has thrown out the invitation and she has not said no. I’d rather we not get put off to the side, hence why you noticed my appearance.” Ishtar crossed her arms. “In war, all assets should be made use of. The temple which is this body should be worshiped by the worthy, and only those who have proven themselves.”
“I don’t… you know what, fine. If Rider is such a big deal then he can prove himself and if he does I’ll humor one go. And only one go.” Rin grumpily muttered. She wasn’t holding her breath that such a thing was possible.
She had seen his stats. Aside from his Endurance and Luck, he was merely a glass cannon. A speed bump that would falter when the war began. She was assured that she was correct in her assumptions.
Unbeknownst to the magus scion, the Tohsaka luck would be at her demerit at this moment.
Sakura stared up at her adult body once more. The implied happenings that she had noticed the first night were far more pronounced.
“Uh… Assassin… why…?” Sakura started to speak. She didn’t even know what to really ask.
‘Why are you more disheveled than last time? Why are you riding Rider so much? Why does it look like the adult me is so happy to do so…?’ Sakura didn’t say anything at first. She had stopped herself once more due to not being sure on how to react.
“Why are you coming in so late?” Sakura finally settled on saying.
“Well, you know how it goes. Deep talks can get quite intense. ” Kama stated, stretching out languidly even while floating only a few centimeters off the ground. Sakura once again remained blinking. “Also I had to keep an eye on our… ally.”
The disgust evident in Kama’s tone told Sakura all too much about how she felt.
“If only we could have gotten the underworld shut in, at least it would be easier to settle the totem pole.” Kama snorted.
“To-totem pole?” Sakura repeated.
“Yeah. So while I don’t think I’ve elaborated Rider was always top of the pole slamming down on us servants with kindness and other bullshit… which unfortunately worked too well.” Kama grumbled. “So a few of us figured out ways to get into his good graces. To clarify, riding him till my hips give out isn’t one of those things.”
“But I thought…” Sakura started.
“We didn’t start out like that Master. I tried to corrupt or kill him. He was stronger than that and managed to survive even though he was human. No special powers. No true destiny waiting in the wings. He won. Then he summoned me and things changed. I take it you haven’t seen it through your dreams…?” Kama questioned, looking down on Sakura more closely.
Sakura froze. She could recall small snippets, of course. It was just surprising to see how… threatening and powerful she could look.
…only to lose at the last second because they were too confident.
It was the one thing she took away from the first set of dreams she had. She had to not let herself give into impatience or anger. At the very least, she was taking into account that particular problem given that Rin was involved.
The next set of dreams were… a little personal. Kama would lounge, only to answer Ritsuka’s call. Then they would spend time together. It was mundane… almost pointless little moments. And Sakura craved them all the more for her own happiness. Hands were held, headpats were granted, and hugs were given. Unconditional love with none of the linings of society getting in the way.
Even as she expected the kind of raunchy memories that Kama seemed to be making up with Ritsuka now… they never seemed to come up. Even with their beach adventure on full reveal, Kama was weak against the earnest care she was given.
Sakura craved that for herself. It was her deepest darkest desire… However, she had wanted it from Senpai. That… didn’t seem to be happening any time soon given how the war was going. School should have been the time to at least try to make up these plans…
Sakura could never get a word in when everyone else kept taking his attention away.
She even had an inkling that Senpai had seen her wandering around with Ritsuka already. That thought made their eventual meeting seem sour… though not as much as she thought it would.
‘Am I really considering agreeing with Kama and seeing what Rider can offer…?’ Sakura didn’t shudder but she didn’t smile either.
It was a strange case she was in. Rider was her savior. Zouken hadn’t reformed ever again. The insects that were once there had decayed quickly and boiled away into nothingness. Shinji no longer hurt her, he had been put in his place and her servants had made absolutely sure of it.
And in Rider’s biggest case, she was getting her sister back… even if she still felt some resentment for her.
Already a hero had answered her deepest calls even though it was apparent that he had no clue who either of them actually were. Their names meant nothing. Their lineage meant nothing. He just saw someone in trouble and rushed into help. Only… he had actually succeeded where others had failed.
Sakura remained conflicted throughout her inner turmoil. His success was the problem… because she had wanted someone particular to do it.
Now that excuse was gone and she didn’t exactly have the drive to take what she wanted. There were thoughts, imaginings really, of her boldly declaring what she wanted and getting it. However, years of abuse and horrors had already crushed her spirits in that matter. She was dirty and tainted…
Unfortunately, her servant was speaking to those emotions and making too much sense given her life experiences. Still, she held out hope that nothing bad would happen that would crush that route…
“Master, you’re drifting.” Kama spoke up. “Thinking of the what ifs and the could be’s. You know… there’s something special I could do if I share with you all the feelings I’ve had with Rider…”
Sakura froze, staring up at Kama’s wicked looking smirk. It wasn’t malicious… However, it didn’t exactly ease her concerns.
“I am a love goddess, you know. So I could let you experience everything he’s done to me at once. It would certainly ease your concerns and stop you from overthinking things. Take exactly what you deserve, a loving relationship.” Kama quietly whispered into Sakura’s ear. She had even seen her get close which revealed just how distracted she had gotten. “Of course, as my host, I wouldn’t force this on you. If you ask for it, I shall answer. I don’t exactly like doing my love god schtick but I’ll make an exception for you.”
Sakura clenched her hands together as if in prayer.
“What… what makes you say that?” Sakura gulped. Anxiety coursing through her veins.
“Oh nothing master. Take it as the musings of a goddess of love trying to help out. Just don’t expect me to use my arrows. That kind of love is delusional if I have to do it for you.” Kama answered cryptically. “I suggest you get ready. Apparently, tonight we’re having a discussion with Archer’s Master.”
“O-okay…” Sakura quietly exited the room and headed to the bathroom. She hadn’t even noticed when a smaller Kama charmed Shinji and made him smash his head against the wall into unconsciousness.
Ritsuka wandered the streets of Fuyuki, his disguise of white hair still up. Honestly, he had never expected to be back in this particular world. This one was extremely different in many ways. First off, it was morning. The people wandering the streets kept to themselves and he merely walked around like he belonged. Though the fact he was wearing the Homurahara school uniform probably helped him blend in.
And with that he trailed across the city, taking shortcuts to switch from spirit form and back when it was convenient. In truth, he had been going out of his way to identify the leylines that made up the city. The one by the river was an enticing area given the fact that he remembered using it to hold off Artoria during that strange event. However, it wasn’t the one he had noticed was a pretty good place to set up a base.
From what he could remember, when they had gone through the first singularity, there was a special leyline somewhere near the temple. Waver had also mentioned it when they needed to go further in depth with the original El Melloi. So he trudged up the stairs with nary a complaint.
It was quiet, peaceful, and seemingly full of activity. Priests and initiates wandered around doing their natural activities. Honestly, the mundanity almost made Ritsuka decide to sit down and watch them go about their days.
‘How long has it been since I’ve had something this mundane happen around me.’ Ritsuka watched the one particular guy who seemed to be complaining about that succubus Rin Tohsaka… only to be ignored when he rambled on about his worry over someone named Shirou.
“Wonder if that name matches Muramasa’s host?” Ritsuka idly whispered to himself.
At the moment it didn’t really matter. He didn’t really need to worry about people not involved in these matters. So with his, admittedly meager, magical senses, he looked around for the leyline in question. He didn’t need it to maintain his existence given that grail construct in his body. He did, however, need to make sure no one could control said leyline. It would make the temple an unassailable fortress of sorts.
“Let’s see… come on out guys.” Ritsuka called out as three stuffed animals came out of his storage.
The first was a small Cu Alter plushy… with a wicked looked metal spear that coiled up to a barbed point. The second was a small matryoshka styled doll with glowing blue eyes. The final was a small sheep doll that seemed to have been modified with a metal appendage it was resting on.
“ What is it? Wait… how the fuck!? ” Mini Cu nearly shouted out… only for Viy to stop his volume.
“Oh… well, I died. Now I’m a servant in the Rider class.” Ritsuka quickly explained. “If I was in a different class I think I could get Mash with me… though I’m not sure which class.”
“ That’s… that’s not the problem! ” Mini Cu growled loudly. “ Forget it. What’s up boss? ”
“This leyline here needs to be guarded. I was gonna connect you three to it and keep it from being used by anything else.” Ritsuka explained. “Honestly, this place would be a good fortress if I was being more serious about this holy grail war. I think it might be the corrupted one that Waver always talked about.”
“ Fine… just figure out a way we can stay here without getting messed up from the elements. ” Mini Cu grunted as he looked around the area.
The woods were thick and surprisingly the leyline was behind the temple and not within. So Ritsuka quickly took out the Damascus dagger he owned and started carving into one of the trees. With how strong he was as a servant, it didn’t take long to make the large crevasse where the three could remain.
After two hours setting up a bounded field and connecting the three to the leyline, Ritsuka waved to the three farewell, before heading back to his main base.
Ritsuka only had one problem in mind. He had no idea who the other servants that were part of this war actually were, aside from Medusa and EMIYA. The other servants never mentioned their own exploits very often, even when asked.
“Still, I at least have somewhere to fall back to if we need to regroup. Let’s see… Kama and Ishtar are, for the most part, on my side. I managed to convince Ishtar’s master at least and my own, would it be former, master already seems to be much happier now.” Ritsuka counted on one hand as he traveled down the steps of the temple.
“Ho Ho… what is this I see before me.” A haughty, extremely arrogant tone called out as Ritsuka’s foot hit the bottom of the steps. “To think one of you would come out this far already. Encroaching upon that which doesn’t belong to you and in broad daylight.”
“King Gilgamesh.” Ritsuka answered, looking a bit bewildered. “I thought you were only summoned in the fourth war, not the fifth…”
“So the mongrel at least knows his better when he sees them. At the very least it spares you from a swift execution.” Gilgamesh announced. The fact that there were no witnesses around made the situation more suspect by the moment.
The streets were bare and no one seemed to be traveling towards the temple. Ritsuka peered slightly behind his back, even with the gongs in the background no one was heading down the steps. Gilgamesh hadn’t even tried to fire a random sword at him which was somewhat comforting.
“Good to know. So how was your day, my King. Hopefully, they haven’t thrown more paperwork your way, those tablets always looked heavy.” Ritsuka spoke up.
“Quiet, Mongrel. Such work was tantamount to the importance of my work… which begs the question of why you know so much.” Gilgamesh shouted, then narrowed his gaze into contemplation. His eyes shined for a moment.
“Well, Siduri showed us how many tablets you went through. It looked cumbersome to have everything carved in stone but understandable for the time of Uruk.” Ritsuka mentioned.
“Hm, I see. Quite the traveler, aren’t you. To have the gall to yell at me.” Gilgamesh let a rare smile grace his face. “Make this interesting then. From what I can tell your stubbornness would prove a boon for the future.”
“I mean… for the grail? Seems kind of pointless to me. I’d rather find my answer for myself nowadays.” Ritsuka admitted, crossing his arms behind his head. He was still waiting for the final shoe to drop. “I’m more than content with saving those who don’t have a voice even if it seems wasteful.”
“Hmph, your own selfish path. You’ve carved out something interesting, I expect something interesting to happen.” Gilgamesh harrumphed and turned away.
Ritsuka watched as the modern day Urukian King traveled off to who knows where. He remained at the foot of the steps for a while given the setting sun. It was a problem he didn’t know about until this very moment. The fact that Gilgamesh had revealed himself made Ritsuka sweat.
‘Did he have to take me seriously from the very beginning…?’ Ritsuka grumbled mentally. ‘And Ishtar is here… I really should have gotten Ereshkigal to answer maybe.’
“Gonna have to find a place where we can fight without destroying the whole god damn town.” Ritsuka sighed, trudging back along the paths towards the Matou household. He was supposed to be part of the conversation, in whatever capacity that they thought would be useful. “Oh god… am I gonna have to drag them into my reality marble…?
Later that night…
The meeting was being held within the Matou household. Shinji was once again knocked out to keep from making an ass of himself and the tension was pretty high.
Rin was slightly skittish. She was in an unfamiliar territory and Ishtar floating smugly around probably wasn’t giving her much reason to calm down. The fact that she flew dangerously close to Rider didn’t help things either.
Sakura was tense. She didn’t look at Rin aside from the few glances whenever she looked towards Kama or Rider. She felt her contract with Rider had been voided and he was now subsuming magical energy from elsewhere. She didn’t seem to be willing to be the first to break the silence. Kama floated just as close to Rider, only keeping a bit of distance so long as Ishtar did as well.
Ritsuka peered at the two. The title of master didn’t seem all too impressive given how lackluster the two were acting. Though he didn’t have much experience around other masters within a civil setting. He still looked expectantly at the two, hoping either one would take the first step.
Rin didn’t exactly stare at Sakura. Her gaze would drift down, unable to fully look up at her. Her eyes tightened and a grimace took over her face. She looked guilty, though of what he couldn’t tell.
Sakura glanced everywhere but Rin. She didn’t fully lock onto Rin but the sharpening of her eyes told Ritsuka all he needed to know. There was a deep seated resentment hidden behind her gaze. Something that probably occurred due to her life until he was summoned.
Of course, there wasn’t much he could say about it. He was still missing pieces that he could use to mitigate or intercede between the former sisters. He wasn’t actually sure why they weren’t sisters in the first place but that wasn’t something he could solve yet. So… like always it was time to lead by example.
“I’m glad the two of you could come to this meeting. I take it we’re all on the same page?” Rider spoke up, gaining the attention of the two.
“Same page? I was merely told a theory. It doesn’t mean I’ll believe it without proof.” Rin answered immediately, which Ishtar quietly chuckled into her palm. Rin glared at the servant who whimsically floated behind her, lounging without a care in the world.
“I did tell the truth. You can check the grail yourself if you want, seeing as there’s a path to it through Mount Enzou. I’ve even secured the route there by the temple.” Rider answered just as quickly.
“You went there!?” Rin nearly shouted.
“Yup. I remember the way anyway. I could have just blown it up and put a stop to this corrupted war but I figured that would be too much.” Rider quietly placed his hands behind his head.
“But… you… are you stupid!? You’d stop all servants from existing here!?” Rin yelled, getting to her feet. There were words left unspoken though. Words that chilled her to the core.
‘You’d forgo your wish entirely…’ Rin felt the grimace she wore grow even worse.
Rider wasn’t someone who even wanted the wish or cared for making a name for himself. He truly and utterly believed that the grail was corrupt and was willing to destroy it completely to stop it.
Unfortunately, that made it impossible for Rider to be lying… something Rin hated to even think about.
“He is telling the truth.” Sakura spoke up for the first time. “If he wasn’t I’d doubt he would ask us to hold this meeting.”
“I… he… grrr… I had to make sure he wasn’t lying. He isn’t even a heroic spirit we can find anything about, you know.” Rin growled back, losing her edge as she was forced to speak with Sakura.
“Be that as it may, that is our goal. I will be allying with Rider.” Sakura stated. “I… I would hope you would agree to an alliance since the grail is corrupt.”
Rin bit her bottom lip, lost in thought. The war was pointless in a sense. She couldn’t gain glory to her family name if the prize was so useless. Her father’s goal would have been destroyed… admittedly, the longer Sakura was in front of her the more she hated her father’s decisions. Given that she had ended up completely and utterly alone with no one but the priest to look to for help. Well, bitterness was also built up in her soul.
And Sakura… well, Sakura was a whole other problem that Rin had no idea how to process. She couldn’t even look her in the eye most of the time.
Ishtar had forced her to look into a mirror and ask herself how she was going to talk to the Assassin's master. She couldn’t even string more than a few broken statements. Ishtar had laughed at her, almost making her waste a command seal because of how embarrassed she was. The taunting of wasting a seal because of that made Rin reconsider… if only because she didn’t want to come off as incompetent with a divine servant.
“I… fine. I’ll agree. I’m pretty sure not all servants have been summoned so we don’t have to work together until the war starts, but an alliance is fine.” Rin grumbled.
“I see… that’s good then…” Sakura answered.
“It’s just because if we’re all together someone will notice. Seeing as Rider’s master isn’t around he can act as our go to for information.” Rin quickly pointed out, all because Sakura looked saddened by that answer.
“That should work out well. I think five servants have been summoned, however, aside from Assassin and Archer, I have no idea who else was summoned.” Rider mentioned. “Aside from that, as soon as the last two are summoned, everything will start.”
“So we’re allies then.” Rin sighed, crossing her arms with her leg over her knee.
“Allies… yes.” Sakura nodded, more to herself than Rin.
“Well, yes. The plan is a go.” Rider nodded.
Three servants remained quietly atop the rooftops. Rin had reluctantly been coerced into taking Sakura with her to their old family home. Ishtar and Kama made a very compelling argument that Shinji had been trying to mess with Sakura too much. That had been enough for Rin to angrily grab Sakura and drag her to her room for as much clothing as she had.
Ritsuka watched as Rin reluctantly grabbed Sakura by the hand and dragged her back to her home. Ishtar and Kama, however, wrapped themselves around Ritsuka and glared at each other.
“So… what do you know about them?” Ritsuka asked no one in particular.
“Sakura Matou, formerly Sakura Tohsaka, was given to the Matous. You saw how she was treated and my personal goal is to see her at least having a happier life.” Kama spoke up first. “Though she has resentment for Rin Tohsaka, it wouldn’t be to the point of murder at the very least.”
“Rin Tohsaka, the second owner of Fuyuki, is a lonely girl with no family due to the choices of her progenitors. She hates that this is her life but magus pride forces her to continue down the path. She would need to be pushed to the utter brink to finally figure out how to make things up to Sakura from what we collectively figured out.” Ishtar huffed.
“So, not easy. I take it you two are fine with the fact I summoned you to take the slots that would have been taken.” Ritsuka mentioned while the two sisters below crested a hill and disappeared from sight.
“I have no complaints.” Ishtar coyly smirked. “Seeing as you’re the one who made it possible for us to be here.”
“Figured you were always a fool for love goddesses. Summoning the two of us even though you know how fickle the two of us are.” Kama smirked evilly.
Ritsuka didn’t answer. He merely laid back dragging the two goddesses with him. His hands trailed down their bodies, squeezing their asses just because he could.
“ I missed you both very much.” Ritsuka solemnly answered.
He quietly pulled the two close and alternated a deep kiss to both of them.
Kama went first due to her being summoned first. The kiss was deep, passionate and destroyed her usual attempts at being evil. She would constantly deny that hearts appeared in her eyes and that she started grinding against Ritsuka’s leg.
Ishtar followed. She wasn’t as bashful but the direct attacks usually made her falter too much. She didn’t even try to stop him from claiming her lips as he usually did when she had managed to corner him for her times.
“You’re a right bastard, aren’t you?” Kama growled out. She didn’t even try to get away rubbing her cheek against Ritsuka’s broad chest.
“To be fair, Ritsuka has always been a right bastard. Getting several love goddesses together for an impromptu orgy should have clued you in.” Ishtar chortled, rubbing her own cheek against his chest.
“I forgot that. Thought that you decided to choose the best way to die at the time.” Kama grumbled.
“Still salty he pounded you and your copies into a coma?” Ishtar teased.
“Like you're any different, ending up in a puddle with your back hole gaped wide open for all to see.” Kama challenged back.
Ishtar and Kama both froze up, eyes turning to pinpricks and mouth wide open with their tongues sticking out. Ritsuka had cut off the fighting the way he usually did when Kama and Ishtar decided to work together.
Ritsuka had snaked his hand into their bikini briefs and pushed his longest finger directly into their assholes.
“No fighting or I’ll be deciding to show both of you how much I remember of our time in Chaldea.” Ritsuka stated before pulling his fingers out.
“Fuck…” Ishtar breathed heavily.
“Damn it…” Kama moaned breathlessly.
“Don’t leave us like this.” Ishtar grumbled.
“Yeah… don’t.” Kama agreed.
“Fine. Let’s make sure Shinji is locked up and we’ll use one of the rooms here.” Ritsuka sighed as the three got up and entered the house.
When Shinji was secured, they entered the main bedroom. It was strangely cleaner than they would have imagined, as if no one had been around to use it. Regardless, it was useful for their purposes. And neither Master realized just how much their Assassin and Archer got into when alone with Rider.
Five days before the war…
Bazett McFraga Remitz walked with purpose. Following closely behind her was her fellow enforcer from days long ago. Kirei Kotomine followed quietly as they found a way off leyline which they could use.
“Thanks once again for helping with this. I know you have to remain impartial and all that but it helps to know where things are.” Bazett answered as she began drawing the circle on the ground of the house they were in. Abandoned for a long time and bereft of any neighbors to be witnesses.
“Think nothing of it. I still remember you from long ago. A senior to his junior, is it not fine for me to indulge this little trip.” Kirei answered, his tone was mirthless but never patronizing. “Though you have been summoned for a war it seems. Is that necessary?”
“Yeah… I can’t talk about it but the Einzberns seem to be a big problem for this war so I’ve been asked to keep things from getting out of control. As far as I know, mind you.” Bazett quietly stated. There had been other concerns since the flames that came out of the last war and lords like El-Melloi were up in arms about the war. Something else was wrong and the Einzberns had merely been the scapegoat they could use to get into this war.
“Indeed.” Kirei answered. It was both a thing she liked and hated about the man. He didn’t ask too many questions or be difficult about topics, but he also didn’t show much care for things even if they were important. It was what made him a good enforcer, even if it wasn’t his vocation anymore.
“I’ll begin.” Bazett muttered, placing her catalyst on the sigil.
As the light faded, a man in blue spandex and a cocky smirk stood there. He was about to greet his master when Kirei jumped into action and ripping the arm with her command seals clean off her body.
Cu Chulainn grumbled as he greeted his new master while the master who summoned him lay on the floor bleeding out. Being ordered to leave, Cu could only get off a small rune which would stem the bleeding for a while. It wasn’t his specialty but it was all he had at the moment.
As the two left Cu noticed someone was watching the two leave. Of course the burst of magical energy was obvious but it looked like the voyeur was a bit different. White hair, blue eyes and a small familiar floating around him.
Kirei hadn’t noticed. Cu didn’t say a word tapping his spear against his shoulder and shrugging his head towards it. The young man nodded and faded.
‘Servant, huh? Sorry Master for that. Hopefully, that one will watch out for you.’ Cu mentally grumbled to himself. He hated what happened but with the seals in place he couldn’t exactly argue anymore.
As they left the area, he took one look back at the building and saw the servant enter. At the very least his worries would be assuaged.
Ritsuka entered the building to the smell of blood. Seeing Cu, with a spear no less, made it clear that those times that Cu and EMIYA fighting each other was personal. Which meant that Medea also knew the two were suspicious. So that made Cu the Lancer, EMIYA the Archer, Medusa the Rider, Medea the Caster, Sasaki Kojirou was the Assassin. That left the Saber and the Berserker unaccounted for.
Those thoughts ended as the body on the ground looked really bad. Her arm was completely torn off. And he also knew who she was…
“Crap… Bazett, hold on.” Ritsuka rushed forward and grabbed the torn arm and pushed the two stumps against one another. With his free hand he summoned a shadow servant of Asclepius and got to work healing.
Bazett was in shock from the injury. It took close to three hours just to reconnect the arm with the shadow Asclepius being extremely meticulous in the ministrations. It seemed to be making sure the nerves would recognize the connections to the arm.
“There we go. There we go. You’ll be fine.” Ritsuka quickly stated as he used his own mystic code spells to heal her. It didn’t wake her up though. “I’ll take you to safety for now but I'm gonna have to make sure you don’t do anything stupid when we get there.”
Ritsuka quietly picked up the unconscious Bazett and moved off for the Matou home. It wasn’t a perfect place but with Sakura staying in the Tohsaka home for the moment, it wouldn’t bother her too much.
Three days before the war…
Medea rushed away from the burning lab. Her former master had been killed by Lancer after she annulled their contract. Lying on the cold ground, she could only bemoan the fact that that idiot couldn’t get it through his stupid head that she could have done things in a simplified manner.
Now she was dying with a spear wound through her chest for no reason. She hated that her summoning had left her with a Master who was so arrogant about his own importance. It didn’t matter anymore.
She looked up… a man was looking at her. He looked mostly empty. And with nary a word he picked her up and carried her off to safety.
Ironically, Lancer had done a real shit job in killing her.
Two days before the war…
Illyasviel von Einzbern quietly walked around her castle. There was time before the war to head out and find the source of all her hatred finally. Berserker was in fine form after all. Nothing would stop her from dealing with her “brother”.
Meanwhile…
Rin and Sakura had done their level best but the moments where they ate together were awkward and full of regrets on both sides. Had it not been for Kama and Ishtar also being there to keep the conversation going, they probably would have festered away with anger.
The conversations that did happen… at least closed some wounds. No tears were shed over Tokiomi… at least on Sakura’s end. Rin still cared for father even if the scant recalling of what Sakura sometimes mumbled under her breath caused that love to wither somewhat.
All she knew was that insects were bad… and she never wanted any elaboration.
The reason for those silences stretching out so far was all due to her own guilt. Something had happened… something extremely bad and she hadn’t done anything for years. The only reason she hadn’t thrown herself to Sakura’s mercy was the last pieces of pride she had as the second owner.
Rider had wondered if that even counted for anything important seeing as the last owner let a serial killer roam around Fuyuki and kill several kids. Rin hated that that had actually happened and she couldn’t refute it as a lie. The love for her father was minuscule at this point all because she couldn’t understand the reasoning for that decision.
Rin could only sigh. That was only the smallest bit of her problems. There had been a fire a while back, burning a rich man’s home to the ground. Said man was a mage. That made it her problem as the second owner.
Even then that was merely the beginning of her personal problems. Sakura had asked about their mother… and that spiraled out into chaos. Strangely, it had closed the gap between the two somewhat. Their combined tears broke more ice than their usual conversations went.
It didn’t mean that everything was better.
All it meant was that they had stopped avoiding each other on purpose. It was a work in progress.
Night of the beginning of the war…
Shirou Emiya quietly fixed up the heating unit he was asked to look over. It had been a request by Issei but it wasn’t until now that he had time to finish it. His nerves felt like fire pokers had skewered each end and pinned them together in a conflagration of constant searing pain.
It wasn’t until he started leaving that he noticed something was wrong.
In the courtyard of the school, he saw a man wearing blue spandex fighting against a shadow that seemed to be controlled by another man with white hair and blue eyes in a suit that felt eerily familiar. The shadow seemed to put the blue man on edge as he quickly tried fighting it off.
And as he turned to run away, he knocked over a mop that had been carelessly left behind.
The blue man took notice and the only reason Shirou got away as fast as he did was because the shadow wouldn’t let him get away. The man even raised his hand and shot a blast of dark energy at him. The shock continued as the blast actually managed to hit him.
The last thing Shirou saw before he rushed into the school was the sight of the man in the suit looking at him.
Shirou lay in a heap on the third floor. His body felt heavy and lethargic. He was pretty sure he saw Tohsaka standing over him. However, she was also standing next to someone who looked like her… in a completely scandalous outfit of sorts.
“Really Emiya, you had to be here now…” Rin scowled, a deep groan exhaled from within.
“You know we have to take care of witnesses.” Another voice out of sight called out. It sounded like the man in blue spandex.
“I’ll do it my way. Aren’t you still running from Rider?” Rin smirked.
“Oi! Shuddup! He’s not that scary!” Cu barked out.
“Then why is it that when he pulled out that short girl with the revealing look did you panic and rush off?” The floating Rin asked. He could feel the coy smirk wafting off her.
“I don’t know how he does it but that Rider is trouble.” Cu grumbled. “It’s even worse that you’re already working together, Archer!”
“Sticks and stones, Lancer. And my sticks and stones are larger than yours.” The now named Archer giggled.
“Aw, shit…” the voice rushed off, breaking a window from the sound of it.
“Well, he’s finally gone. Can’t believe we have to let him go…” Rin grumbled.
“It’s part of the plan.” Archer answered. “Now…”
“Right. Emiya, try not to stay after school from now on.” Rin groaned.
There was a burst of light.
Shirou walked down the path home. He had finished the heater unit which had taken far too long. The sun had set and Taiga was probably waiting for her food. It was going to be a real mess.
As he passed an intersection he didn’t notice the short girl with blood ruby red eyes and impossibly white hair staring directly at him. Nor the mound of muscle that towered over her.
“Hm… not tonight Berserker, not tonight.” Illya muttered, watching the young man ignorant of the further world walk home with nary an inkling of what was going to happen to him.
Chapter 4: My Rider found Berserker... what now?
Summary:
Someone finally gets involved and dealing with that fallout is far more dangerous than it should be.
Chapter Text
Ritsuka just stared at the mountain of muscle down in the streets. It had been his idea to keep an eye out for this Shirou Emiya at the insistence of Rin. For some reason, Sakura had been adamant about not going near him… and through her mumbling he could only catch the words, can’t involve senpai, under her breath.
Though given the looks that Illya had given Shirou… well, that was a moot point entirely.
And what a trip that had been. All these people resembled pseudo servants he knew explicitly. Though it was strange to see this happening in this manner. He had not really participated in a real Holy Grail War, ever. He had only taken part in sham wars and the like.
That Heracles and Gilgamesh were part of this war made his skin crawl. There was too much power here, and having Ishtar made it much worse. She would sense if Gilgamesh was around quickly. And being who he was, he was most likely going to warn her about doing that…
“So… what to do now…?” Ritsuka stared down before him.
Heracles was a threat. A threat that would require him to actually go out there and fight him. More likely than not, Heracles was going to have his Godhand NP. He did have a Hydra Dagger with fresh poison. The problem was stabbing him in any meaningful manner. He had an idea to get around that limitation but it was ballsy and more than likely left him getting ripped in half..
“Well, I guess I should… “ Ritsuka was about to get Kama and Ishtar to help him, when he noticed the blue spandex king hopping around roofs towards Shirou.
“Go help Shirou out.” Ritsuka sighed. “Whoever your master is Cu, they’re a real jerk.”
Hopping down, he sent a small familiar dove over to Rin and Sakura. He was glad that Semiramis had given him one of her doves, which he named Pierre, to him. As a familiar he could will it with his magic to go where needed and convey the messages he required.
Cu kept quiet as he kept track of Shirou. Though the reason for him doing so baffled Ritsuka. He was certain that whomever was ordering Cu to do this knew that Rin had erased his memories of that night.
Before Ritsuka could send out a shadow to help, another voice called out to him.
“Hey Oniisan! Care to play!” Ritsuka looked down, the tiny homunculus child stared up at him.
“Now?” Ritsuka asked as both Cu and Shirou escaped his sight.
“Of course. We should have fun whenever we can, right?” Illya’s eyes felt manic. She stared at him with a fierce smile.
“Illyasviel von Einzbern, you should be in bed, not galavanting around the city streets at night.” Ritsuka quietly joked with the young girl. Her smile wavered, before being replaced with a more genuine smile.
“Oh my, Oniisan, you’re such a naughty boy, hitting on a child.” Illya smirked, staring at the boy intensely.
“We both know you’re eighteen.” Ritsuka challenged her.
“Hmph, finally a guy who knows what they’re talking about. But you need to talk to me… now.” Illya glared, her eyes flashing with what seemed to be a magecraft of some sort.
“I don’t think that will work on me.” Ritsuka muttered as he moved his arms up and down.
“Tch.” Illya clicked her tongue. “Anyways, let’s play Oniisan.”
“You want to go on a date at this time?” Ritsuka tilted his head.
“Yes I want to- “ Illya caught her words, a very tiny blush on her face. “Mou! Oniisan is a silver tongued weasel, isn’t he?”
“To be fair… playing shouldn’t be used to signify a date. I would take it very seriously.” Ritsuka mentioned.
Throughout this time, Ritsuka could feel Heracles’ gaze upon him. It wasn’t hostile yet… in fact, it felt like he was confused. Illya’s hostility was extremely low given that he teased her in a way that treated her like an adult.
“Hmph… Oniisan is a horrible flirt. First it was the Matou heir, then the Tohsaka heir, and now you’re going after the Einzbern heir as well?” Illya snorted. “Sorry Oniisan, but if you want to be my lover, you have to be something special. And from where I’m standing I don’t have that feeling from you.”
“You don’t even know me.” Ritsuka stated, hands behind his head.
“Oh Ho! So that’s why you’re trying so hard to get me to go on a date. Picking the best heiress or just being rejected by the other two. Hmph, I say. Hmph.” Illya harrumphed twice for emphasis.
“Twice even. That’s quite the low blow.” Ritsuka feigned being shot through the heart.
“Don’t worry Oniisan, maybe when I see you actually worth it, I’ll consider your proposal for a date.” Illya waved it off. “For now I’ll retreat. It’s not that important at the moment.”
“If you say so.” Ritsuka muttered.
He could have brought up the fact she was following that Shirou guy, but it felt like a mistake waiting to happen. So Ritsuka did what he did best. Talk.
“So why don’t you tell me about yourself, the young lady with the sad lonely eyes.” Ritsuka stared at her.
“You’re quite persistent, aren’t you?” Illya groused. A reluctant smile appeared on her face. “I don’t exactly hate it, but you are picking the worst timing. Hmph, I’ll let you off the hook for now. See you later Oniisan.”
And with those words, Illyasviel von Einzbern walked away. The mass of muscles that was next to her picked her up and jumped off into the distance. Ritsuka took a deep breath.
‘ I’m so not ready to deal with Heracles. Not even remotely. And she distracted me while Cu went off to do something to Shirou…’ Ritsuka groaned, running a palm down his face. ‘ Oh… oh shit… ’
Shirou stumbled back, barely dodging the swipe of a spear. He didn’t even know why he was being targeted. He didn’t even remember what had happened to him last night.
The man in blue spandex looked disquieted to actually be doing this. Even when Shirou had picked up a paper tube and reinforced it, it barely let him parry a few strikes. He knew that the spear wielder was taking it easy on him… then kicked him out of the house into his storehouse. A small drop of blood was coughed out.
A bright flash of light came up. It was in the moment that he saw her before him. She was beautiful. A voluminous figure in blue wearing silver armor, a sword upon her hip. Her piercing blue eyes looked down at him.
“I ask of you, are you my master?”
Ishtar and Kama quietly flew through the skies. It had taken a very firm hand and Sakura’s disappointed face to force Rin not to charge in with them. When the message had appeared Rin and Sakura had both nearly charged out.
Kama and Ishtar sat the girls down and mentioned how stupid that plan was and while Sakura had acquiesced due to not feeling confident of her ability to help meaningfully, Rin did not.
Rin shouted and argued that she was the master here and that she was going out there. Ishtar asked if she could fly. The indignant silence that followed made all the difference and she reluctantly agreed.
They had also taken to casting a small glamor around them so that they wouldn’t look like their host at Ritsuka’s insistence. The two goddesses had almost scoffed at such an idea when they realized that it would probably make Muramasa’s host act weird. As annoying as it was, they complied with the suggestion. They didn’t want the drama.
High above the two watched as Lancer attacked the homestead. Yet the two did nothing at first.
“He’s dodging pretty well?” Ishtar wondered as she lay upon Manna, unconcerned of the play by play.
“I guess? War wasn’t my forte. Also I think my host wants me to be active and stop this from getting out of hand.” Kama sighed.
“Same. I mean, if this guy turns out to be a master, you’d think they’d be pragmatic about it and let him fall.” Ishtar muttered. It was a legitimate tactic for war to let other parties wipe each other out.
“I get that, but you can still smell that lingering stench of love in the air. Revolting really but it’s their reason. Neither is going to get anywhere at this rate.” Kama shook her head. “Let’s get down there.”
A bright light stopped them and before either could speak, a blue knight stepped out of the busted open shed.
“So we found the master of Saber.” Kama mused. “And my master is cursing now.”
“Same. I mean, we don’t have to kill him. We could just send him off towards a suicidal attack given how stubborn that Artoria is.” Ishtar swung her head back and forth in a singsong manner.
Ishtar was amused at the very least. It also gave her information. As much as Chaldea could give her a hard time for not thinking things through, she was still a patron of war. She knew something was up with the way Cu Chulainn was fighting. He wasn’t trying as hard as he did when they were in Chaldea. She had seen what he could do when his back was to the wall. He had carried Ritsuka through Challenge after Challenge. That stupid cockroach defense was infuriating sometimes.
“Oh, he’s using his noble phantasm.” Kama pointed the glowing spear out.
“Didn’t she have a high luck stat though? Or Intuition? I don’t remember, it’s been a while since we went through Chaldea.” Ishtar hummed, a frown marring her face.
“Looks like it grazed her shoulder.” Kama idly mentioned.
“Did he really just say something like that? I know it’s grammatically right, but it makes him sound dumb.” Ishtar groaned.
“Looks like he’s leaving… Do we still need to intervene?” Kama groaned.
“Probably, otherwise Ritsuka will have to talk them into joining us. We already know that this grail is tainted.” Ishtar groaned as well. “And that bounded field is probably the only reason that he’s not been found earlier.”
The two quietly swung down to street level, hovering above the ground. As soon as they got close to the door, Artoria jumped over the wall and attempted to slice at Ishtar.
Ishtar answered her attack with a small harrumph before knocking her into the wall with Maana. Artoria pulled herself out and kept swinging her sword… only to be blocked effortlessly by Maana. It almost felt as though she was wasting energy just to swing her sword. Kama stared at the scene, placing her head on her hand as if she was leaning on a table.
Artoria’s eyes widened. Forced into a defensive pose, she started gathering mana for her blade… only for Shirou to yell out for her to stop.
The command seal flared and that was the end of that. Artoria lowered her blade, chastising her Master for making her stop when she was facing two servants. Shirou had no idea what was happening.
“Did you get… Saber was summoned?” Ritsuka called out as he rushed up to them.
“So you’re the master of one of these two servants?” Artoria called out, while her sword had been forced down she still attempted to be in control of the conversation.
“Nope, I control Rider. This is Archer and Assassin.” Ritsuka answered. “We’re working together.”
Artoria shuddered. Already outnumbered and out matched given that her master was surrounded. She wasn’t even receiving a reliable source of mana. It was a nightmare.
“You,” Ritsuka pointed at Shirou, “need help, don’t you?”
“I… yes, I don’t understand what any of this is.” Shirou admitted, admittedly, it was reluctantly given. His eyes were untrusting at the moment.
“Archer.” Ritsuka stated.
“My Master is on their way to explain right now.
“I’m returning to my Master, then.” Assassin muttered. “She doesn’t want to have this conversation.”
“Fair enough. I’ve also got to go check something.” Ritsuka sighed. “You should wait inside, Archer’s master will knock.”
“I suppose so… and Archer?” Shirou tested the word on his lips, still confused.
“I shall wait here for her. It looks like Saber is going to be difficult about these things.”
“I’ll come back later to discuss things with you as well, if necessary.” Ritsuka admitted.
“Yes, you do that.” Shirou looked into Ritsuka’s eyes. Ritsuka gave him a flat look for trying to look intimidating. He was already dead, so threats didn’t work on him.
Shirou seemingly noticed, faltering shoulders signifying his reluctant acceptance of not intimidating him. Ritsuka quickly took his leave. Someone was trying to mess with the leyline at the temple.
Medea cursed once more as her magical abilities were thwarted once more. Every time she tried to set up a presence those infuriating familiars would push her back from connecting. The floating Russian doll especially annoyed her given that it seemed to cancel out her effects whenever Souichirou attempted to charge forth.
This would force her to block an attack for him because the spear-wielding familiar attempted to skewer him. It didn’t help that his martial arts weren’t as effective against the small targets. He was floundering somewhat whenever the small doll would open its eyes.
What infuriated her more were the small Sphinx cubs that seemed to be lurking in the brush. The moment she had almost settled in, they shot her with energy beams that forced her to break connection or risk being overwhelmed. The appearance of the high level phantasm left her in desperate need to retreat and find a way to restore her mana.
As much as she loved Souichirou for helping her in her darkest moment, she couldn’t give him the command seals she stole from Atrum. He wasn’t a mage by any standards even though he was more than qualified. The very notion made this unfair to her but the resigned grimace on her face made it clear that she had accepted this possibility.
“This isn’t working out well…” Souichirou muttered.
“It really isn’t.” Medea growled.
The temple would have been the best place to set up her workshop. It was the most defensible place in Fuyuki when it came to this grail war. The entire mountain repelled spirits from entering through the woods and the only entrance was the Tori gates. She would have had to get something to guard it but that plan was looking more infeasible by the second. It didn’t help that the small plush with the spear looked almost like the Lancer who nearly killed her.
“Looks like a lot of trouble.” Ritsuka muttered as he stood next to Medea and Souichirou.
“It is. I can’t even tell who placed these familiars here. They’re from all different areas of the world.” Medea growled out.
“There’s not much more I can do either. Against people I would have a large advantage. But against these toys… I can’t angle my swings right.” Souichirou sighed.
“Yeah. That’s rough. These things were made as guards and while they usually wouldn’t be able to handle a servant outright, they seem to be holding well against you two.” Ritsuka pondered. “Mana troubles or something?”
“I am not compatible.” Souichirou sighed. “We have tried but the process didn’t take.”
“Oof, that really sucks.” Ritsuka hissed, as if struck.
It was at that moment that the two seemed to realize that someone was right behind them… someone who knew what and who they were. Not only that but the two of them had revealed just how powerless they were at the moment. Medea cringed at her sudden loss of awareness. Souichirou dropped his hands to his side, seemingly ready to strike out.
“I’ve been watching you fight. I think I could copy what you do by now.” Ritsuka mentioned, noticing the tension building in the man’s posture. “A school teacher from the high school huh?”
Souichirou relaxed his body completely. The fight had left him for the moment. His years of training took those words in the worst possible direction. Medea shuddered. Not only had a servant almost killed her after getting her freedom, but now another had cornered her completely.
“You are…?” Medea growled out.
“Rider.” He answered. “Ritsuka Fujimaru. The name would mean nothing to you so I can give it regardless.”
Medea scowled beneath her hood. The name had meant nothing to her. There were no heroes she knew by the name, even with the knowledge of the grail being poured into her mind. This was it… she had lost so completely and utterly that there was no hope left.
“Make it quick… just, leave him be.” Medea collapsed to her knees. The mana composing her body had finally reached its limit. She couldn’t fire off any other spells and she didn’t want the only man to help her to die.
“I can’t let him do that.” Souichirou turned to face Rider. He wasn’t buffed anymore but that didn’t matter to him.
“Stop Souichirou! Please! Please just… stop!” Medea cried out.
Souichirou didn’t listen. He charged forth and Rider shot him with a magic bolt. He pulled out a long cord of rope and tied him down, reinforcing said rope with his magical energy.
“So… Medea, how are you?” Rider asked as he stood before her now.
“Are you just drawing this out to make me suffer… are you that sadistic of a servant?” Medea glared up at Rider. She could pull out her dagger and corrupt his contract… she was about to do so when…
“Not really. I mean I’m pretty much my own master now so I haven’t really decided what to do with you.” Rider admitted.
‘Of course… the one servant who’s in melee range and he doesn’t have a fucking master. This is just perfect…’ Medea mentally groused. She couldn’t summon Rule Breaker anyways given the lack of mana left in her.
“You need a master.” Rider stated. “I have experience as one.”
“You have to be kidding me…” Medea glared up at him.
“Nope. Unless you want to die doing absolutely nothing.” Rider shrugged.
Medea hated this with every fiber of her being. The young man before her was a servant… not only that, he was his own master. The how’s and why’s of it flooded her mind. The fact that Souichirou was not in danger from his own pride muddled her decisions even further.
“You think I would degrade myself to do something as stupid as that!?” Medea nearly spat at him, only the smallest of doubts had stopped her from doing so.
Rider gave her a flat stare. He was unamused by her reluctance. She growled once more and grabbed his hand. The contract was forged and three command spells appeared on Ritsuka’s hand… just like old times.
“Thanks. Didn’t know if placing my familiars here would have been useful. I was just blocking a potential enemy nest.” Ritsuka admitted.
“What!?” Medea roared, standing in abject confusion that he had only caught her off guard by sheer luck.
Even with mana flowing into her, she could tell that he was ready to act if she did anything. Souichirou had adjusted his body into a sitting position as she turned to him. His passive face seemed to nod to himself.
“I suppose we’ve found you a master.” He stated.
“I’m sorry Souichirou-sama.” Medea grumbled under her breath.
“So first order, I guess hide out with that guy for now until I need your help. Maybe make some trinkets that could help deal with Heracles or Gilgamesh.” Ritsuka ordered… causing both to receive a blue screen.
“What!?” Medea cried out, the happiness on her face warred with the sudden realization that two of the participants within the war were demigods of high station.
“Yeah. Berserker and I think an extra Archer. Though with the grail being corrupted I doubt that’s all there is.” Ritsuka shook his head. “Right, to inform you, the grail has been corrupted since the third war and will never grant the wishes you want without taking a large pound of flesh for it. I mean the world is ending badly.”
“What!?” Medea repeated, her eye twitching madly.
“It might kill him since he’s not a mage and would most likely charge into danger.” Ritsuka pointed at Souichirou.
Medea growled out, tears in her eyes as she turned to Souichirou. Without a word she undid the rope and immediately cast a spell over his eyes. They glazed over, and Souichirou ambled out of the forest.
“Listen here. I am only temporarily erasing his memory of me. Once we deal with this bullshit, I will go to him immediately with or without your permission. I may have to be your servant to survive but I won’t be your servant. Do I make myself clear!” Medea all but screamed.
Tears streamed down her cheeks and her eyes were puffy and red. She had done something she would never want to do but if she was being dragged into this bullshit… for a contest she wouldn’t win… then she was going to get out of this with as much dignity as she could.
“That’s okay. For now, I’ll take you to my base.” Ritsuka smiled, raising his hand out to Medea. Her arms faltered to her side and with the most reluctant of groans, she grabbed his hand.
Had she been in the right mindset, she would have realized that the chant he used was one of his noble phantasms. Had Medea not been completely infatuated she would have realized that she was in a void, on a completely science fiction type ship constructed with magecraft and science fusing into one.
Ritsuka took her to a sizable workshop, with a strange pod that seemed to be holding a girl… whose arm was being reattached.
“Do you think you can help her heal? I managed to get things set up so she wouldn’t die but that doesn’t mean I have all the power to bring her back to consciousness. Just don’t let her out of the pod if she does wake up. We need to talk to her and thoroughly interrogate her.” Ritsuka admitted.
“Of course… fine. Master…” Medea added with a sharp sigh. The word master feeling wrong on her lips.
Medea was left alone at that point. There was no sign he was even on the ship. Left with little else to do and the sudden barrage of information that was flung in her direction, along with her split second decision to send Souichirou-sama away, she wasn’t in the best of moods.
Unfortunately, she could exactly plan a daring escape or destruction of the ship. Her command spells went off to Rider and his familiars were sitting with her on the ship. They didn’t say anything… but they watched.
Medea didn’t trust Rider at all. He was too confident, too self-assured. However, unlike Jason, he was extremely prepared and had no sign of fear even when she had tensed up to shoot him with her spells.
She had been on fumes at that point but it would have set him back probably.
She would figure out a way to come on top once she had her chance. With beasts like Heracles as her opponent, she couldn’t betray him… yet.
As the Witch of Betrayal, she would have the last laugh.
Mini Cu shook his head. Medea was far too expressive, it was the same exact way her Chaldean counterpart had acted when she was thinking something wicked to do to Jason. He sent the message and Ritsuka merely sighed.
She still assisted with the healing but Ritsuka mentioned talking to her later.
Rin hated that, after being told of the danger that was out there, had to race off for Emiya to talk to him about the Holy Grail War. It was a god damn embarrassment that even though she had kept him from remembering the fight, he still managed to get attacked by the same guy… again!
‘Honestly, if he was going to be a problem then it would have been better just to kill him outright. Lancer is a threat and whoever his master is, is out for blood. Rider might know and is busy biding his fucking time.’ Rin pondered.
As much as she had to agree with Rider, because of the geas that she was obviously under, she didn’t know why he was being so quiet about the details of who was in the war. His answer of waiting until all the servants are together didn’t make much sense.
Still, she put it aside because now was the time to handle Saber’s master… which happened to be Emiya. That… had been a blow to Sakura and her ego.
Sakura had shook herself into the fetal position and tried to not believe it wasn’t true. Kama quashed those thoughts and Sakura laid on the couch and covered her eyes.
As for herself, well, she wasn’t in the best mood. Even summoning a goddess did little to quell her saber supremacy. Also learning that Emiya was a mage made things much more sour for her. She was the goddamn second owner of Fuyuki, yet a magus familiy had hidden themselves under her nose.
It was infuriating in the short term.
So here she was, nearly midnight and walking out without her servant. All to explain the war to a complete novice as far as she knew. She could have thrown this all on Kirei, but for some reason Rider told her not to… which made the gears turning in her mind go haywire.
‘Was the priest also doing something in this war… even though he’s the overseer…” Rin attempted to throw that nugget of wisdom in the fire… but she couldn’t get rid of it.
For years, she knew he was a shitty priest with a shitty attitude but he had been her father’s apprentice. While that wonder and love didn’t really cover her father as well anymore, she didn’t know what to think about him.
Kirei Kotomine had just been a guardian of sorts, someone to help take over the business side of things until she came of age. He had the business sense of a slug and wasted most if not all the Tohsaka fortune. Her patents with the Mage Association had been the only reason that she still had money to pay the bills.
“Took your time master? I take it that it’ll be just us for the moment.” Ishtar called out, slipping out of spirit form.
“Yes Archer… just us unless Rider plans to join us from his little excursion.” Rin pouted.
“I’m here… I didn’t think it would take you this long to get here.” Ritsuka called out, landing before them.
“How…?” Rin looked around.
“I jumped upon the rooftops. Servants are very fast after all.” Ritsuka answered. “Before I forget, I called myself the master of Rider. So I guess refer to me as such while in his presence.”
“Fine. Are you explaining or am I taking him to get registered at the church.” Rin crossed her arms, annoyance colored her tone.
“Probably take him to get registered. You already met the master of Rider so it should be fine for you to speak on such things. And when you get back, when we have a chance, I’ll talk about all the servants and masters in this war.” Ritsuka stated.
“Why didn’t we do that first!?” Rin growled out, her voice getting harsh.
“Because if you knew what I know now, you’d be dead before we could do anything.” Ritsuka answered in a nonchalant tone. “I’m not saying this to offend or disparage. I mean literally, you would have been killed even before I could draft up plans. I already took care of Caster on my way back. So Lancer and Berserker are the only big threats. Maybe Saber if we do this wrong.”
“Grr… fine. I’ll make my speech light. And why isn’t she coming?” Rin grumpily asked.
“She doesn’t want him involved. Since he’s involved she doesn’t want to be around to be seen as an enemy. It’s complicated I guess.” Ritsuka shrugged. “I don’t know the interpersonal relationships of everyone. I know the servants and masters and that’s my depth of knowledge here.”
“Fine… fine… let’s just, get this over with.” Rin sighed, her frustration at not knowing being overwhelmed by the necessity of waiting. Rider’s geas had made her far too pliable. (There was no geas, Rin was merely overestimating Ritsuka.)
Before the Meeting…
Shirou was overwhelmed. He now has a foreigner in his house that appeared in a blinding circle. His secret keeping of magecraft had been completely exposed. And he was pretty sure he was out of tonkotsu cutlets which while not as important, was still devastating all the same.
“So… who are you?” Shirou started out.
“I am Saber. You are my Master.” Saber answered as if that explained everything.
“I don’t… I don’t understand what you mean. What do you mean by Master?” Shirou scratched the back of his head.
“Are you not a magus? Should the concepts of a Holy Grail War not be one of the subjects that is mentioned?” Saber quirked her brow, confusion evident on her face.
“My old man didn’t really teach me, I had to learn on my own.” Shirou sighed.
“And why did you jump out after chasing away… Cu Chulainn, was his name?” Shirou questioned further. The name was something he heard of once but it had been merely in passing.
“There were servants surrounding us, Master. Do you not see the danger of being surrounded by two servants with another waiting in the wings while their master supervises. Archer, Assassin and Rider are all in alliance. With Lancer already calling us enemy, I don’t see us surviving unless we get an ally of our own. Caster or Berserker… either way, it was diplomatic that they wanted to chat instead of fight.” Saber passionately explained… which still went over Shirou’s head.
“Maybe we can form our own alliance?” Shirou cautiously stated.
“That depends on Rider’s predilection. It’s clear that he’s the mastermind for this. Allowing Archer and Assassin to do the heavy lifting while he handles the background.” Saber shook her head. “Cowardly, but effective.”
“Without meeting them, I don’t know if I could call Rider cowardly.” Shirou slumped slightly. “Either way we have a meeting with Archer’s master…”
“Yes. Allow me to do the talking Master. I should be able to negotiate our side’s stance.” Saber placed a fist against her chest.
“What is our stance exactly?” Shirou could only ask, his thoughts reeling with these new terms and circumstances that went far beyond what he thought.
“That we shall stand on our own two feet. With that said, it will let us find and hopefully broker an alliance with Caster and Berserker before we can be overwhelmed.” Saber stated.
“And if that doesn’t work?” Shirou looked dubiously at Saber.
“Then I’ll defer to your orders Master. While we are in a tough position, if it isn’t tenable then compromises will have to be made.” Saber groaned slightly.
Knock knock
“They’re here, promptly even. I shall make sure to look imposing.” Saber mentioned.
“I really don’t think that will help.” Shirou sighed. “I’ll get the door.”
It took a few moments for Shirou to lead Rin and Ritsuka to the living room where Saber sat at the table. Ishtar, still in disguise, floated around and settled between the Rin and Ritsuka. It was quiet.
“So… Emiya, you are a mage then?” Rin crossed her arms, her eyes closed in thought.
“I… my old man said I needed to keep that secret.” Shirou mentioned.
“Be that as it may, as the Second Owner of Fuyuki, I need to keep an eye on any magi that have entered the city. It wouldn’t do well to have someone dangerous enter to cause harm.” Rin grumbled.
“Second Owner?” Shirou asked.
“Do you really now know what that means? That is one of the most basic ideas that magi learn when they begin magecraft.” Rin stared down Shirou, who kept his ground but still withered under her glare.
“I… wasn’t taught exactly. I had to figure these things out on my own.” Shirou muttered.
“Are you crazy!?” Rin shouted, hands on the table as she roared at him. Saber looked like she wanted to intervene but here eyes remained on Archer and Rider’s master.
“It’s fine! I know what I’m doing. I know that being a magus means you walk with death.” Shirou shouted back.
“Do you even have magic circuits working right!?” Rin shouted back.
“Yes I do. I just convert a nerve into one and that’s how I use it.” Shirou confidently mentioned.
“Idiot! Fool! Stupid! That’s atrophying your circuits and killing yourself at the same time!” Rin shouted… which made Shirou falter.
“I could probably fix that.” Ritsuka spoke up when it was clear that Rin was fuming at the moment.
“That is convenient, Rider’s master.” Saber answered in turn. “To have a cure that so happens to be so readily available.”
“It’s not really a cure. It’s me shooting magical energy into him and letting his body get used to it. Probably should wait to do that until everything is discussed.” Ritsuka pondered aloud. “Also my name is Ritsuka Fujimaru. Much more convenient to say.”
“Quite. While we are thankful for your acquiescence of discussion over combat, the reason you are here eludes us.” Saber continued.
“Oh, yeah. We are in an alliance. Gotta stop something bad from happening. Which is why we will be asking you to join us. I’ve already dealt with Caster and I think Berserker and his master want your master dead or worse.” Ritsuka explained his views… which caused Saber’s eyes to widen in shock.
“W-what!? Why would they want to kill me!?” Shirou shouted out.
“Reasons, I’m still figuring them out or know about them already. I’ll explain if you’re taking part in this war.” Ritsuka mentioned.
“War? Are armies coming to take apart Fuyuki!?” Shirou stood up, looking determined to do something.
“Why are you standing up?” Rin could only stare. “We haven’t even explained anything yet and you’re jumping up to do something?”
“I… uh, right. Please explain what this is all about.” Shirou quickly sat back down. The quick look to Saber made it clear that he was in charge, her eyes looked haunted that her plans had been shot down without even being able to take root.
Rin quickly explained about the Holy Grail War, the concept of servants and masters and how the church oversaw the entire operation. She also mentioned how things were only supposed to happen at night to keep mundane people from witnessing the mysteries of the world. She also stated that she needed to take him to the church to get the deeper explanations since he was a complete novice.
“Right now?” Shirou muttered.
“It’s the best time, we could go in the morning provided Saber can go into spirit form right now.” Rin stood up.
“I cannot.” Saber answered just as quickly. “It feels like something is wrong with my summoning.”
“Of course there is…” Rin grumbled. “Find something for her to wear over her armor then. We need to get this done now.”
“Give me a minute, I’ll find something.” Shirou stood up and raced into his house to find something.
The silence was palpable.
“Well, that’s all seven servants summoned.” Ritsuka muttered. “All that’s left is a fight.”
“It should be fun.” Ishtar giggled as she floated around him.
“Fun, do you truly think war is fun?” Saber scowled up at her.
“It is one of my domains. A goddess has to keep track of what humans do after all.” Ishtar sniped back, taking pleasure in Saber’s shocked expression. “Assassin thinks so too, she is a goddess as well.”
“But, deities shouldn’t be able to be summoned by the grail…” Saber could only release a sharp gasp.
“There’s exceptions. We just happened to find it.” Ishtar coyly smiled.
Saber kept her face as neutral as possible. Her worries about the future of this war and how she could possibly win dwindled. Two goddesses meant that they were being fed a large reservoir of mana, compared to the trickle that was being fed to her. Now that she knew her own Master required him to have his magic circuits flooded in order to open them fully…
‘Have I been played, this entire time? Rider and his Master took care of Caster before I could extend an olive branch to them. Berserker was an oversight I couldn’t have foreseen, but to be so disadvantaged before being summoned… ‘ Saber pondered. ‘Not to mention the lack of magus capabilities that my master lacks. I am truly the underdog here… ‘
Saber said nothing more. There wasn’t much more she could do at the moment and she needed to keep her own reserves from fully burning out. Even with her draconic core producing a trickle of mana, she wouldn’t be able to rely on it for more than one or two activations of her noble phantasm.
“So you need to take him somewhere?” Ritsuka asked, turning to Rin.
“Yes, since he’s joined as a master, he’ll have to tell the supervisor of the war which is an hour walk from Miyama Town.” Rin grumbled. “Let’s head out now. It’s about… an hour walk from here, we’ll have to cross the bridge as well. That shitty priest should answer most of your questions, then we’ll fill in the gaps.”
“Found something. It should at least cover her armor for now.” Shirou came waltzing in, carrying a yellow raincoat.
“Well, good luck on your trip. I’ll head out ahead and watch for any bad guys or something.” Ritsuka immediately stood up and walked out the door. The yellow raincoat was a hilariously out of place object to use to hide someone’s appearance and he didn’t want to laugh out loud at Saber for this.
Ishtar had no compunction to hold back her laughter.
“Seriously? It would be better to have her astralize her armor and put a long coat over her instead.” Ishtar kept laughing which annoyed Saber.
“You want to say that to my face, Archer!” Saber stood up.
“Sure. Why don’t you just go into spirit form instead? It would be less demoralizing than wearing that.” Ishtar caught her breath.
Saber didn’t say anything. She seemed to freeze at that option but didn’t rise to counter.
“I would do nothing as cowardly as that. I am to remain on call since my master is still learning.” Saber carefully stated. A stern glare came from her visage.
Ironically, Rin who would have caught the obvious lie, was completely distracted by her servant and didn’t catch that obvious omission of info.
“Forget that, we need to move now. Or did you not want to know anything about what was going on?” Rin shouted above the laughter, seemingly staring into Archer’s eyes.
With a simple chuckle, the goddess went into spirit form and left the three figures in the living room alone.
The parrot sat motionless outside before flying to Ritsuka’s shoulder.
“Might need your help at the church, if things go screwy. I don’t think Heracles left for home if her master is the kind of person I think she is.” Ritsuka muttered to the parrot.
The parrot tilted its head and tapped its talons in a specific manner. Ritsuka nodded along, carefully deciphering the message Kama wanted to send. Her eccentricities were well known to him by this point. It gave a few more taps before it went silent once more.
“I know she doesn’t like it but she’s got to get involved now. There’s literally no excuse at this point.” Ritsuka sighed.
Another selection of taps from talons was sent out.
“I’m sorry that she’s confused right now, but if she wants to affirm things then the best thing to do is confront these things. The monster is no longer around, and the things holding her back have no weight to them anymore.” Ritsuka gave the parrot a sad smile. “It’s going to be rough but she needs to know we might not be here all the time to keep her safe.”
The parrot nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Kama had summoned her familiar back. He looked towards the direction of the Tohsaka home, seeing a small purple dot floating with another small purple dot.
“Huh, looks like she found her nerve.” Ritsuka muttered.
Rin was still perturbed. That was the only thing she could call it. Walking with Emiya had made her realize how unprepared he truly was and how easily he had been hidden by his adoptive father. Rin hated that she hadn’t discovered him earlier even though they went to the same school.
To compound upon that annoyance, was the frustration with her choice in servants. Archer was everything she could have dreamed about seeing that she was top tier in every way shape and form. Ishtar was also an annoying loudmouth who boasted of their beauty and prowess almost any chance she got and lorded over others for her prowess. It was like looking into a fun house mirror given that her body had been used as the medium for her existence.
She truly wished that she had tried to summon Saber, however, her short sightedness and desire for the best drew a different straw.
Their conversation was short and impactful, and meandered through nothing.
Honestly, Rin should have been more attentive of the situation but seeing as Ishtar smacked Saber aside without too much trouble… she felt at ease for some reason. It didn’t help that Emiya mentioned perverts or the like.
“Emiya… servants, remember?” Rin gave the boy a flat look.
“Oh.” Shirou numbly stated.
“What is Shirou saying?” Saber called out.
“He’s worried about people trying to take advantage of us or something.” Rin explained.
“But I’m the one here to protect him.” Saber quickly stated.
“I know that. I just don’t know what’s going through your head though.” Rin stared down Shirou who grumbled slightly.
“It’s nothing.” Shirou sighed.
“Anyways, prepare yourself. That shitty priest is a real trip sometimes.” Rin sighed. “Also Archer, can you remain at a good vantage point when we get to the church. I don’t know why but I feel like it will make things easier.”
“Hai hai.” Ishtar chuckled. Saber seemingly watched where she was going by the lingering trail of her mana.
“And there’s Ritsuka… and Assassin.” Rin mumbled.
As if by call, the two turned to greet their waiting party members.
Rin felt relief that Sakura wasn’t around. That would have made things weird, she was sure of that.
“Hello. We’ll be out here on lookout.” Ritsuka waved.
Assassin looked completely bored with this but kept gazing off elsewhere. It was amazing to Rin that both Archer and Assassin still had their disguises on. She had expected only temporary things but they were still holding strong regardless of their usage.
‘Deities are truly on another level…’ Rin pondered.
“I shall also wait outside.” Saber mentioned.
“Why Saber?” Shirou asked just as bluntly.
“I’m merely here to guard you. Since you’re going to the church and no farther then I shall stand guard.” Saber answered just as succinctly.
“Well, okay Saber. I trust you.” Shirou nodded more to himself than her. She gave a small smile and turned away to join the others. With those words the two entered.
Inside the church…
Shirou and Rin looked around, the dark confines of this holy place were smothering in some sense of the word. It took a few moments before the lights turned on and a man strolled from the darkness.
His eyes were focused, but dead to the world. He wore a simple priest uniform with a silver cross necklace around his neck. A blue overcoat covered his black attire.
“Hm, Rin. I’m surprised you’ve come even though you’ve already summoned your servant. Shouldn’t you be planning rather than galavanting around the city?” Kirei asked, a barely concealed smirk on his face told her just how he truly felt.
“That’s not important. I’ve brought the Master of Saber who wants to learn more about the war going on.” Rin dismissed his words with choice words of her own. “Shirou Emiya is the last Master of this war.”
“Emiya…” Kirei shifted entirely to the young man.
From there, the three talked about the object of the Holy Grail War, how the vessel was filled and what was required of them to manifest it. Questions of the nature of the legitimacy of this vessel were raised and debunked. Shirou couldn’t believe anyone would actually do something to attain this.
Then the nature of the fires that burned Fuyuki were brought up and the consequences that they brought with them. Kirei appealed to the young man.
“Even you too, can have your wish finally granted.” Kirei allowed his voice to boom.
Shirou shivered on the spot. It was a dark wish, one that was lusted for due to his own life being what it was. The ability to save someone, to attain the same joy he saw from the one who saved him.
With those words exchanged Shirou affirmed himself as the seventh Master of the war.
“Yorokobe Shonen! Fight for that which you crave!” Kirei praised, though a twisted gut wrenching sickness came from his words.
Shirou was light headed after everything said and done. The revelations of the fires that washed over his nightmares, the holy grail war, and the problems with everything that came afterwards.
“Remember, once you set foot outside of this church, you are no longer allowed in unless you relinquish all rights to your servant.” Kirei mentioned more to Rin than Shirou.
“Yeah yeah, I get it. It’s not like I have a reason to come back.” Rin groused, stomping out with Shirou in tow.
Outside the church…
Ritsuka hummed to himself, pulling out a few colored rune stones and began juggling them. He could only do three at the moment seeing that he never actually practiced this skill while alive.
“Must you fool around Rider’s Master? We have to remain vigilant.” Saber chided the young man.
“It’s fine. I already know all the masters and servants in this war by their true name. So this is me just waiting for things to happen.” Ritsuka stated.
“W-what!?” Saber took a step back, rallying her spirit once more she fought off that fear. It wasn’t true… it couldn’t be.
“You really should calm down and relax. It’s not that bad.” Ritsuka stated.
“How could I relax when you clearly know more than you should?” Saber nearly shouted.
Both Kama and Ishtar shrugged, uncaring about that tidbit. Artoria could only realize that whomever Rider and his Master were, they were the true threat of the Holy Grail War.
“And the others…?” Artoria cautiously asked. She didn’t expect an answer, after all they were merely allies of convenience. They would come to blows when all was said and done. Even with their paltry show of force to work together, she knew it would come to a battle in the end.
“Berserker is Heracles, Lancer is Cu Chulainn. There’s a few complications with the roster. I won’t say Rider’s name because it’s obvious. Archer and Assassin will tell you if they want.” Ritsuka mentioned. “And Caster is also one I won’t say but that’s because she’s still around… in fact, gimme a few minutes.” Ritsuka stated before walking away towards the tree line.
Artoria paused and looked at the sky. The sheer bluntness and admittance of two of the opponents was… mind boggling. She peered at Assassin and Archer who merely smirked at her.
“And you two?” Artoria shook her head, not expecting anything but asking regardless out of audacity.
“Say your name and we’ll say ours. I mean we already know but that’s probably rude to say out loud.” Assassin smirked widely, a sadistic twinkle in her eyes.
“Same on my end.” Ishtar giggled. “It’s very obvious, Excalibur wielder.”
Artoria clenched her fist. There really weren’t any secrets left to hide. The harsh sigh that exited her lips made her realize that this war would be nothing more than a bust.
She was outnumbered, outgunned, and outmatched. So audacity was met with the same bluntness.
“Artoria Pendragon. That is my name.” Artoria mentioned.
“Ishtar.” Archer stated.
“Kama.” Assassin smirked.
“And Rider…?” Artoria could only gulp, hoping that audacity would win out in the end.
“He’ll tell you when he’s ready or you work it out in your head.” Kama chuckled. “Maybe you won’t, even if it’s very obvious.”
“I’m back.” Ritsuka stated. “I had Caster enhance me a bit just in case. Did you have fun talking with one another?”
“Indeed. Our little Saber finally spoke aloud her name.” Kama mocked slightly.
“Artoria.” Ritsuka nodded. “It’s very obvious.”
Artoria grumbled about the unfairness of it all. She needed to figure out things with her own Master, given the mountains that laid before them. She would have to wait for his magic circuits to be awakened before she could do all that.
The doors opened, letting the two masters walk outside into the cool night air. Shirou was resolute in his stance, seemingly walking with more purpose than usual. He peered at the two floating servants who seemed to be talking with Ritsuka… who seemed right at home with them.
It was… strange. It seemed so easy to watch someone get along with strangers so easily. He quietly pushed those thoughts aside. It wasn’t something to really worry too much about. He was just another master who seemed to be pretty well put together.
“All done?” Ritsuka asked.
“Yeah, we’re done here. Really don’t care for that muscle priest in the first place after all.” Rin scoffed, folding her arms across her torso.
“You really don’t like him.” Shirou commented.
“Not at all.” Rin shot back. “He’s a difficult person to deal with and he always has this know it all look whenever he smirks at you.”
Rin devolved into grumbling and strangling the air. Shirou could only falter slightly as his viewpoint of the school idol changed completely.
The walk back was quiet. Assassin faltered behind but due to the distance, no one actually paid much attention to her. The small talk that was made didn’t amount to much as the small group walked through the bare streets without too much trouble.
Unfortunately, as they reached one of the larger undeveloped stretches of land, there was something waiting for them. Or someone, to put it lightly.
Standing at the end of the street was a short girl wearing a purple coat and large fur hat. Her pale skin seemed to shine in the moonlight, and after bowing she opened her ruby red eyes for all to see.
Illyasviel von Einzbern stood there calmly. Even with everyone arraigned before her, Heracles manifested and stared everyone down. That mountain of muscle and stone didn’t growl, didn’t roar, but stood there… menacingly.
“Good evening, all of you. My name is Illya. Can Shirou-nii come out to play right now?” She asked sweetly, her eyes seemed to glow sinisterly. They bore directly into Shirou who took a single step back while Artoria stepped forward.
“What is that little girl thinking…?” Shirou asked.
“Shut it Emiya, she’s an enemy right now.” Rin barked out, gritting her teeth in fear.
“Looks like Heracles is here. That’s really bad.” Ritsuka muttered. “Also she’s eighteen.”
“She’s eighteen!?” Shirou nearly shouted.
A tick mark appeared on Illya’s forehead. Ritsuka ran his palm down his face and Rin pinched the bridge of her nose. Shirou, noticing the consternation at his reply, rubbed the back of his neck. He didn’t think he said anything wrong.
“It seems I have plenty of things I need to discipline you on, with my Berserker handling all the more painful implements I suppose.” Illya growled out. “My Berserker is Heracles, the strongest in the world, so get them Berserker!”
It was less than a millisecond that Shirou and Rin blinked, and Heracles was barely stopped by Saber. Archer swooped in, ramming Maana into him and sending him skidding back. Assassin had taken a moment for some reason and charged her vajra into his back forcing his knees to bend slightly. Heracles roared into the night and ignored the biting pain in his back to clash blades with Saber once more.
“You two need to stay back unless you have a way to use spells.” Ritsuka quickly mentioned it to them.
“I have something.” Rin grumbled. “Will it even do anything to him?”
“I… I don’t have any spells to actually use.” Shirou mumbled in disbelief.
“His Noble phantasm is called Godhand. It protects from any attack that’s below rank B and gives him twelve to thirteen lives… will your attack do that?” Ritsuka took a deep breath.
“Not a chance… I don’t even have a gem powerful enough to do that!” Rin complained.
“Then stay back and stay alive. We’re allies so we’re covering our weak points.”
Heracles swung faster, sparks flew from Saber’s invisible sword while Archer and Assassin peppered him with small attacks to force him to fumble. It didn’t work as well as it should. The arrows that Archer released barely even scratched Heracles. Assassin’s vajra did actual damage but it only drew trickles of blood from whatever wound they caused.
“Where the hell is Rider?” Rin loudly complained.
“Taking care of a different problem.” Ritsuka answered. “It’s the only reason that this problem is manageable.”
“Shit…” Rin held a palm against her mouth. Her gaze seemed focused on the battle before them. She wasn’t sure exactly but it didn’t feel as though Ishtar had been trying hard. Neither did Assassin but she wasn’t sure.
Saber looked very elegant and capable in battle even if she wasn’t exactly receiving the proper mana connection at the moment, something that Rin took umbrage with. They could fix that problem after they survive… if they survive.
‘Honestly, this war has been a headache in a half. I’m under a geas possibly, my past has been forced into my face, and one of my allies is cryptic and the other is useless for the moment…’ Rin bit her thumb in frustration. ‘I don’t even want to think about my sister right now…’
Heracles grabbed Archer, slamming her into the pavement. Kama drove her vajra into the small of his back in a downward motion, drilling him into the pavement as well. Through it all Illya remained at a distance, her eyes locked with Ritsuka who hadn’t stopped watching her.
Saber jumped upon Heracles, planting her sword into his head thanks to all the distractions that had been given. Heracles gave one more roar before his eyes turned dark. Saber quickly pulled her blade out and jumped back near the three masters. Ishtar pulled herself out of the ground and floated a safer distance away, as did Kama.
“Fufu… it seems like I underestimated all of you. Perhaps I should have been more careful.” Illya spoke above the dint of battle. Her smirk never left. “Congratulations, you’ve cleared step one. How about the others?”
The glow of Heracles' eyes burst open. The wounds he received burned and cauterized themselves and his skin went a much darker tone. Steam emanated from his open mouth as he glared at Saber.
“As you can see, Berserker is the strongest in the entire world! I will not stop tonight, I have waited too long to get what I want!” Illya shouted her eyes never strayed from the group, however, they did pan from target to target.
While Shirou was her main target, she would also get the other male master. He had mocked and solicited her too easily. He would either make good on that promise or have his guts pulled out and strung up like a puppet. Neither would escape the ire she felt over the multiple years of loneliness, of torture.
“Smash them all Berserker! Kill them! Kill them!” Illya cheerfully screamed. The disconnect from his vicious smile and the words she spoke threw Shirou for a loop.
Heracles slammed the slab of stone he called a weapon down upon Saber. Her legs only buckled for a moment before Shirou took a few steps forward. He wouldn’t stand back while a girl was in trouble.
“Don’t do that.” Ritsuka stated. “You’d get in the way and get Saber killed as well.”
“Urk…” Shirou paused. He could feel his gaze on him.
“What you need to do is watch as a master because there is literally nothing you can do at the moment to affect this battle. She wants you dead, and tossing your body into that, accomplishes that. She has been staring at us the entire time, because she does have spells she can use which I am keeping aware of with my familiars.” Ritsuka mentioned. “So don’t rush in because you see a girl that only looks in trouble. She isn’t alone.”
The vajra slammed up from below, knocking Heracles' chin up. The sudden shift allowed Saber to push his blade back and leave a large gash across his chest. It wasn’t much but it did give some space to their fighting.
“How annoying…” Illya growled, her hair lit up. “Engel’s Song: Angel’s poem!”
Several wireframe birds flew out of her hair and flapped themselves around her.
“Tohsaka?” Shirou asked.
“I can take out one or two but we’ll need to keep moving.” Rin stated.
Ritsuka locked eyes with her again… making her scowl. A small whistle came from Ritsuka as three cubs jumped out of the aether and rushed after her.
Her sharpened gaze forced the birds to attack the cubs. They pounced around making it hard for her to get in her shots. Rin scowled but took aim and fired a few shots. At least one of the birds were destroyed, but Illya quickly brought them back to form.
“I… I can’t just sit here.” Shirou grumbled.
“When we survive this I am opening your magic circuits and forcing you through training until you puke blood… I mean it.” Ritsuka stated as another familiar appeared and watched Shirou. Mini Cu looked annoyed but remained next to him, spear at the ready.
“That… that seems excessive…” Shirou looked nervous.
“If you want results or feel like you’re doing something… that’s the bare minimum to actually contribute right away.” Ritsuka muttered. His eyes were still focused entirely on Illya. She looked frustrated as her focus remained on him.
Berserker let out a grand roar and knocked Saber aside, a sickening crack rang out and her main arm hung limply at her side. Kama and Ishtar were forced forward with Ishtar taking point… only to not realize her main target wasn’t them anymore.
Heracles had received the mental order. And Ritsuka was forced to look away from Illya. His large stone slab he called a blade was falling down on him. Ritsuka raised his finger and shot out his Gandr spell, the blade stopped millimeters from smushing him on the spot.
Kama and Ishtar took their respective weapons and knocked Heracles back at the same time. His body flew all the way… to where Illya used to be standing. She was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’d she go?” Rin cursed. Her eyes trailing around the area.
“Grab Shirou and run. She wants him.” Ritsuka stated.
“Grr… Emiya!” Rin shouted… only to notice that Shirou was standing eerily still. His gaze was unfocused and glazed over.
Illya stared up at him. Her eyes flashing as she looked into his eyes. A smirk on her face told them exactly how she felt.
“I got you~” Illya sang out. “Berserker!”
The roar came without warning as Heracles knocked Ishtar and Kama away. Ritsuka picked up a snowball as Heracles landed. It was a stupid plan but it would at least make him chuckle all the same.
“Looks like I will win tonight.” Illya mentioned with a small smile on her innocent face. She curtsied just to rub in the fact.
“ Switch. ” Ritsuka pointed at Shirou and he instantly switched places with the snowball.
Illya looked absolutely livid. Her eyes turned to pinpricks as she stared at Ritsuka who was now holding the dazed out Shirou.
“Hmph… I suppose you are worth my time.” Illya coldly muttered. “I’ll let you off with a warning today.”
Kama and Ishtar both fired off a token shot towards the two. Heracles lifted his weapon and slammed it onto the ground creating a large dust cloud. As the dust cleared, Illya and Heracles were nowhere to be seen.
“What the hell happened!?” Rin shouted out. Had they been on any of the busier streets, her voice would have woken the neighborhood.
“That was pretty good for a spar… right?” Ritsuka muttered.
“A spar!? We were on the defensive the entire time.” Rin complained.
“And we succeeded in stopping her from completing her plan.” Ritsuka shot back. “Honestly, that was the best case scenario. Also very glad that Heracles didn’t immediately go after us from the start. We would have wasted so much energy just to keep him from wrecking us.”
“Gods… this is infuriating. And Emiya? Is he fine?” Rin grumbled under her breath.
“He’s alive. I’m pretty sure she was trying to hypnotize him. Since he doesn’t have his magic circuits available, he couldn’t load his system with od to counter the effects.” Ritsuka tilted his head back and forth. “We’re probably going to have to put him through the ringer to get him up to par.”
“Great. And are you finally going to actually talk about the details about this war?” Rin scowled at Ritsuka.
“Yup. Since it’s started in earnest, we can fully get into it.” Ritsuka nodded. “Sakura will have to join in though. I haven’t been training her for her to sit on the sidelines.”
“She gets… no, never mind. We’re doing this in Emiya’s home then?” Rin sighed.
“Yeah, now where’s Saber?” Ritsuka looked around.
“I am here.” Saber stated, she walked towards the group. Her arm was hanging at a strange angle.
“Let’s heal that up then.” Ritsuka faltered. “Can you set it back into place?”
“A moment.” Saber sighed, stabbing her blade into the ground. She grabbed her arm and with some difficulty pushed it back into place. She merely grimaced the entire time she did so.
“ First Aid. ” Ritsuka held his hand over the wounded arm as a green light emanated from his hands.
The wound receded but didn’t fully disappear. It wasn’t perfect but it managed to give her feeling back to her arm. Moving her arm tenderly, Saber did her best to sheathe her blade once more. The feeling of a job done and her master’s safety was comforting at least… even if she only had the barest of hands in it.
“I didn’t even get to use my plan… not that I was ready…” Ritsuka grumbled.
“I’ll head back first then.” Kama grumbled. She flew off and went into spirit form.
‘Probably to take Sakura back.’ Ritsuka nodded. “Let’s take this guy back then. He’s been hypnotized.”
Unfortunately, Shirou had been zapped by Illya’s mystic eyes of binding. So Ritsuka held him over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. He had tried to keep his eyes on the Einzbern heir; she was dangerous. Even he could tell when she was playing.
‘Ironically, me defying her impressed her enough to consider that date ploy. I didn’t even mean to go that route but I didn’t want to fight Heracles alone.’ Ritsuka mentally grumbled.
Rin was also muttering her complaints as Ishtar flew alongside her before fading to spirit form as well. Saber quietly walked alongside them, her eyes roving between the two. They were both dangerous in their own way… especially Rider’s Master. He had a spell strong enough to force a servant to stop in place.
She ran through her intuition all the variables she had seen. Every addition was a subtraction to her chances. Their multiple forces divided her resolve to actually win this war and finally, finally get her wish. It would take an act of god… or the mercy of the devil at this point.
‘Maybe when my master has his circuits activated, we’ll have a chance. I’m… I’m sure of it.’ Saber hoped.
It was two in the morning when they finally made it back to the Emiya household. Rin’s grumbling had finally simmered to incomprehensible muttering. Ritsuka deposited Shirou in the only room that looked lived in. Saber had accepted two more uses of First aid before the two left for the night. She quietly sat in a seiza position near his bed. Ritsuka followed Rin, who seemed more annoyed than insulted now.
“Are we going to discuss this?” Rin sharply mentioned.
“What in particular? Be specific because I can’t read minds. I can tell the intent but that’s from years of dealing with servants.” Ritsuka stated.
“Why did we go through that much trouble for him?” Rin grumbled, taking a more pragmatic stance on the situation.
“Sakura didn’t want him to die, you didn’t want him to die and I didn’t want him to die. Teaching him and activating his circuits keeps him from killing himself faster.” Ritsuka listed, using his fingers to keep track of it. “Also having someone to take care of Saber who is predictable is always a good thing.”
“I suppose… but why did he summon Saber when I could have summoned Saber.” Rin pouted, placing her fists on her hips.
“He had better compatibility, and probably a catalyst that connected him better to Saber.” Ritsuka guessed. “It’s hard to say when you go based on complete compatibility instead of catalysts. That’s one of the reasons that mages lose in a grail war. They aren’t creative with their choices and fall into the pit trap of only believing that they are the only one who is right. That their plans are the only plans that matter. It’s something that causes the mages that fight in a grail war to fail… epically even.”
“That feels very suspicious… and I don’t know if you mentioned me.” Rin scowled even harder.
“You didn’t try rushing in so you have my esteem.” Ritsuka nodded, looking away.
Rin blushed, only for a moment, before turning away and grumbling once more to herself.
‘He did stop Heracles, Master~’ Ishtar mentally sent. ‘I remember when you said he had to do something impressive for you to consider it.’
‘I told you I’ll think about it. Now cut it out!’ Rin grit her teeth in frustration.
The silence was deafening while the two made it back to the Tohsaka home. Sakura was outside, waiting for the two while Kama lazily floated by her.
“Is… is everything alright?” Sakura wondered aloud.
“Well, everyone survived but Heracles is still out there. His noble phantasm Godhand gives him extra lives and makes him immune to whatever killed him last. We’re in luck that it was a sword stab probably empowered by a mana burst so Saber can use her own phantasm to kill him again.” Ritsuka quickly explained.
“Fighting Heracles is annoying.” Kama sighed.
“We don’t have multiple more ways to kill him either. I have enough strength that I could kill him twice. Maybe three times if I time my attacks right.” Ishtar explained.
“Same for me. At most I think between the lot of us, we could potentially kill him nine times.” Kama shook her head. “That’s not including Saber.”
“She only has two ways given that she doesn’t have any of her other noble phantasms with her.” Ritsuka mentioned.
“Wait, do you all know who she is already!?” Rin nearly shouted.
“Yup.” The three responded.
“It doesn’t really help though. We don’t have any of her weaknesses, unless you want to force her into the water. She can’t swim.” Ritsuka chuckled. “However, we have to be careful about the killing of servants. With the grail corrupted, too many would cause it to manifest and eventually kill everyone around its manifestation.”
“Ugh… I’m done for tonight. Tomorrow we’ll have to go see Emiya before school… to make sure he’s not being stupid.” Rin grumbled before walking into the house.
“Um… Rider?” Sakura stepped forward, ignoring Rin’s annoyed mutterings.
“Yes?” Rider stood up straight, paying utmost attention to her.
“Did… does Senpai have to be involved?” Sakura muttered.
“Yup, if what I pieced together from my life, then yes. This is something that has to happen because he’s too wishy washy when it comes to life. He was staring constantly at Saber for some reason. I don’t really get it though. She seemed exasperated with how everything was going.” Ritsuka calmly explained.
“I see… thank you Rider.” Sakura slumped before walking inside as well.
“I think the two of us will be busy tonight, Ritsuka. Lucky you, you won’t be overwhelmed tonight.” Kama smirked before fading away into spirit form.
Ritsuka scratched his cheek and jumped onto the roof before entering his reality marble to keep an eye on Medea.
Rin sat at the edge of her bed in her room. Ishtar floated along waiting for her to speak first. She was very magnanimous for allowing her master to figure things out first.
“How are we going to deal with these things? I mean if we were having so much trouble with the Einzbern girl, why didn’t we just take her out?” Rin complained.
“Ritsuka said we shouldn’t. Also, he mentioned that if you were going to yell at either of us, I should mention that whoever is the Einzbern representative will become the lesser grail which is how the Greater grail will actually activate.” Ishtar recited from memory.
“I’m still gonna yell because he should have told us that! He’s holding too much back when we’re allies!” Rin pouted, crossing her arms and huffing in anger.
“Would you have believed him?” Ishtar asked.
“What does that have to do with this?” Rin grumbled.
Ishtar stared at her, shaking her head in disappointment. Rin scoffed, hung her head and let out a deep sigh. She covered her eyes and fell back on her bed.
“Okay! I get it, I probably wouldn’t have believed him.” Rin grumbled out.
“I do know he wants to make sure that all allies are together before he talks. Less need to go over info again if he does. That’s just smart when it comes to war, and this is war.” Ishtar sighed. “It is my domain after all.”
“Will I even be able to bring honor to the Tohsaka name with this?” Rin whispered out.
“Does it even have any? I’m genuinely curious given that you’ve been having nightmares about Sakura.” Ishtar prodded.
“That…” Rin started.
“Our link is strong given that you are also a host for me.” Ishtar stopped her argument before she could say anything.
“It’s… complicated. I don’t even think I know what really happened and I’ve been running away from finding out… because if I found out…” Rin sucked in a deep breath. “Would I even love my family anymore?”
“Better than living a lie I would guess but I am a perfect figure already so who knows how that works.” Ishtar giggled.
“What about that weird ATM machine you made?” Rin wondered aloud.
“We shall not bring that up. Ever.” Ishtar went still and completely ignored Rin after all that.
Sakura sat in her room… her old room in the Tohsaka manor. It was a wild feeling that left a simmering rage in her lower belly. Everything was just the way that she had left it, or how they left it. The blankets had been changed at least.
Kama floated nearby, checking her nails. She looked completely uninterested in what was going on. Her eyes, however, glanced at her whenever she noticed.
“Did… did I do that right?” Sakura whispered under her breath.
“Not really. You should have been like the others and standing with them.” Kama bluntly explained. “It would bring you legitimacy of growing stronger. Admittedly, having me carry you within view was somewhat brave… if incredibly stupid. You do remember that Lancer was still out there.”
“I… I guess I messed up.” Sakura peered down, unable to look Kama in the eye.
“I’m sorry for being blunt about this. I just need to emphasize your safety Master. Yes, I do love Rider and I do do stupid things when he’s around but I’ve made it clear that your safety comes first.” Kama quietly floated closer to Sakura, picking her chin up to force her to look her in the eyes. “However, you need to put yourself out there. To show that you’ve grown. It wasn’t a long time, but you’ve gotten better.”
“But Senpai…” Sakura growled out.
“Was there and nearly got himself killed doing something stupid. Ritsuka kept him from doing so.” Kama idly mentioned, once more in a blunt tone.
“He’s… not that bad.” Sakura defended.
“I’m sure he isn’t. But I haven’t seen anything worthwhile at the moment. It doesn’t help that for some reason he was giving off affection towards Saber.” Kama sneered. “It was gross that he was pushing for that.”
“Huh?” Sakura was shocked. Her mouth opened in a gasp, and her eyes had turned to pinpricks.
‘That… that can’t be true…’ Sakura thought.
“Yeah. For some reason it was a whole love at first sight thing. You always see those pop up in teenagers. They’re dumb like that.” Kama sighed. “In truth I don’t even think he really knows what he wants. So what do you want to do, Master? I don’t like using my arrows because it’s akin to mentally brainwashing someone but if you’re that distraught…”
“No! I mean… no, Assassin. I don’t think I could stomach that.” Sakura shouted… and shrunk in on herself. “That’s… “
“Unbearable. But love is fickle and happens whether we want to or not. The thing about it is that for goddesses or gods that hold dominion over it, we’re more akin to shepherds. We don’t monomaniacally hold sway over love. Remember Aphrodite and her idiocy with the Trojan War, completely her fault because some idiot chose her path for love.” Kama complained. “And let’s not even get started on Ishtar and her attempts at love. That was a riot as well when we were summoned.”
“I don’t… understand but okay Kama.” Sakura struggled to get the significance. She could tell that love was complicated… but her life had left that well sort of dry.
“Regardless… you will be joining in when we discuss everything. That means being around him and him learning what you are.” Kama explained, crossing her arms at the young woman who went stock still.
“I… I have to? But… couldn’t you just be my stand in?” Sakura almost begged.
“No. You have to be strong and be able to stand on your own two feet. While it might not make much sense, we’re not going to be here forever, probably. So making it so you are stronger is my personal goal since I don’t want or need the grail.” Kama shrugged off the notion that she’d handle everything. She was still lazy after all. “Otherwise, what was all that training good for? What were all those hours as we got you to stand up for yourself if this is the thing that breaks you?”
“I know… I know, it’s just I don’t know how lying to him for all these years helps?” Sakura grunted, pouting as she grumbled.
“See. The fact you’re pouting and grumbling instead of being demurely browbeaten into submission means that you have gotten better. Now is the time for you to figure out that you are capable of being on your own. That you don’t need to be saved anymore.” Kama nearly shouted, her voice raised and demanding.
“Is it bad that I wished I would have been saved by him?” Sakura mumbled.
“Yes. He wasn’t going to save you because you never asked for help and from what I could see, unless you explicitly said something, you were shit out of luck.” Kama growled out.
“Ok. I’ll go.” Sakura surrendered. “I’m just not used to this.”
“Well now's the time to get used to it. It’s reality and even when this war is over, you will be capable and able to fight back, even if I have to leave a fragment behind just to make you fight back.” Kama scowled down at her master. “There’s no going back now. Everything has changed ever since that walking worm died, from what Ritsuka said, and it’s time to grow up. You are no longer a tragic heroine. You’ll come into your own and be better than you used to be.”
“Y-yes.” Sakura tried her best to pump herself up.
“Damn, did I hate having to be the positive force for once. Master, don’t make me be the one to cheer you up like that again. If you need motivation I’ll just get Rider here to show you a good time. He was the one who cheered everyone up.” Kama stated in disgust.
“K-Kama, that’s not…” Sakura started only for Kama to fade into spirit form leaving her alone with her thoughts.
Sakura was left to stew in those thoughts, wondering exactly what she could do.
Illya grumbled and stewed as she entered her room. Leysritt and Sella had quietly gotten dinner ready and let her eat within her room. While she did eat her thoughts were all focused on the complete failure that came from acquiring Shirou. He needed to be punished.
Kiritsugu had abandoned her for that… thing. Since he was dead, it made sense for the debt to go to him.
“Tomorrow, Berserker will win. He is the strongest in the world.” Illya reassured herself.
Though that wasn’t the only thing that pissed her off. It was only for a second, but she saw exactly how Rider’s Master truly looked like.
For the barest of seconds, his little camouflage spell faded. His hair wasn’t white, it was a clear brownish black. And it resembled Kiritsugu to a T. The only difference has been his deep blue eyes.
Ritsuka, it was the name she had been told. She didn’t know if he was an illegitimate child or a cloned form of her father but the sight of him made her feel strange. Part of her wanted nothing more than to carve his organs out and put them into a teddy bear she could use for target practice with her magecraft. It was partly what she was going to do to Shirou.
The other side, the smallest of ideas, wanted nothing more than to hug him. Make him explain why she had been left to stew within the Einzbern Castle… even though she knew he wasn’t Kiritsugu. Anything to feel like one of her parents was around… anything to have that.
“Gods, I’m a mess…” Illya muttered. She was looking down at her clothes when she said that. They were immaculate and clean. “A real big mess… yup.”
She went to bed shortly after. Her body couldn’t take long outings without long hours of sleeping.
The three heirs that held dominion of the Holy Grail War all fell into an unrestful sleep. New things would be learned within the coming days and none of them truly new how bad things could get.
Chapter 5: Calm before the Storm... What Now?
Summary:
Three girls have nightmares and thoughts. One boy gets a rude wake up call and the story continues while the Goddesses scheme.
Chapter Text
The night had passed, and the three heiresses could hardly say that they enjoyed their sleep. Each had gone through their own tribulations of dreams and nightmares.
Sakura continued to follow the fantasy, where she and Shirou would actually understand one another. The cold bucket of reality washed that away when she saw him standing and walking away with Saber. It was infuriating.
The first moment she had been told about the sight from Kama, she had wanted to vomit. Everything she had gone through, everything she had suffered for, meant nothing to Shirou. She knew that it wasn’t his fault, that she didn’t tell him in the first place. It didn’t make the anger any more rational.
Of course, her dream Kama quietly sat upon the Rider’s, Ritsuka’s, lap. She was engrossed in her little ministrations as their tongues lashed against one another without a care in the world. It was only when they broke away that Kama urged her to come closer.
Sakura was frustrated and tired. Even in a dream she was a second wheel… she wouldn’t stand for it anymore.
Sakura immediately hopped onto Rider’s lap and locked lips with him. It was sloppy, passionate and liberating. She was going to take her prize for enduring all the shit she had gone through now. Had she been lucid, even in her dream, she would have noticed how Kama smirked at the sight.
Servants didn’t dream. They had no need for and when they did sleep, it was merely a memory in play. They could however enter dreams if the dreamer had a strong enough emotion to latch on to. For Kama, Sakura was the biggest dreamer.
She was constantly trying to dream bigger even if the world had beaten her down. They had gotten more frequent as time went on while training. Even if Sakura hadn’t realized it, Ritsuka had been making himself a much bigger part of her life. No matter how little she wanted to think of it, she had made him a solid rock to anchor herself to.
Sakura quietly fled back to a dreamless sleep, but it was more content than it had been. Kama was slightly disappointed that it ended with making out… but she could be patient for this. Her Master and Host needed someone to be the rock in her life, to have their goal be a family instead of being a hero.
Kama knew that what Sakura needed wasn’t a hero. She needed someone to love her, even through her distaste for doing her job, she knew that that's what Sakura truly needed. Of course; being lazy didn’t preclude Kama from deciding to… share the bounty.
Kama’s shadowed eyes glowed red and her smirk grew sharper by the second.
Rin was stuck in a nightmare. She screamed at the now shattered image of her Father as he sent Sakura away. She could only wallow at the sight of her mother who remained unmoved by the sight, followed by the lack of awareness during the funeral. The sting of Kirei acting so aloof that she didn’t even know if anyone actually cared.
Then there was silence. There was nothing but a void where her room was. The house was empty, and two graves could be seen through one of the windows. Rin stared at them, then turned away in disgust. There were no tears to shed, nor words to say. Whatever positivity she had cultivated had been torn down within a few seconds.
She could see that deranged orange haired freak who stole Miki. The one she found… because her father couldn’t be asked to do so. She couldn’t excuse it. It was a fact her father did nothing.
Rin ambled down the dream hallways, the pictures showed moments of her childhood. They amounted to nothing but a mask she wore to everyone she met. There were no genuine relationships she had confidence in. Even Ayako felt more like a convenient accessory she could use to hide just how much the magus lifestyle had cost her.
Though she couldn’t hide anymore when finally confronted by Sakura. She stared and Rin faltered. She couldn’t hide it behind masks. She couldn’t turn haughty and deflect. She didn’t even think about following the Magus way and killing off problems. Thus she was forced to confront it, and her nightmares gained new ammunition.
Ishtar flew through the dream, it was hard not to when Rin was being so loud with her thoughts. It was just sad how much her host could burden herself with when Rin was supposed to be a free bird like she was. With nothing for it, Rin quelled the voices if only somewhat. The extras that popped up were popped off by a barrage of gem shots.
Rin managed to quell the worst of it. Ishtar could only smugly smile when that happened. However, Rin suddenly focused on Ritsuka and her dreamland went crazy.
There wasn’t any cohesion to her emotions. Curiosity colored by envious thoughts. Anger tinged with worry. Interest roped by wariness. Ishtar could only muse about what it meant.
She knew that Ritsuka had called her a tsundere. Obviously that came because of her host, not from her. (And Ishtar’s awareness wouldn’t even try to connect it to her.)
Rin was uncertain of her feelings. When she looked again, the emotional storm got stronger around Sakura’s construct and weaker around the Shirou construct. Ishtar knew the reason why, if her understanding of him using his nerves as magic circuits was right.
He was a suicidal fool most likely, from her limited view, and was killing himself every time he tried to emulated whomever taught him. In that case, she could understand the loss of esteem. None of the three seemed to have adjusted as well as Ritsuka had, however, she didn’t know the trials and tribulations that the three had already gone through before. Rin’s was barely coming into focus for her now, and it made her mentions of getting laid ring all the more true.
Rin Tohsaka was a stressed out bitch who needed to take the edge off before she lost herself to overwork and eventually died like Goldie did. Ishtar couldn’t contain it anymore and laughed wildly.
Gilgamesh slammed a sword through a wall of the church basement. Something had irked him and he couldn’t tell what it was. Squinting his eyes, they didn’t tell him what happened but that was most likely a headache in the making. So he did as he was most likely to do.
He ignored it and drowned another glass of wine. It obviously wasn’t important enough.
Illya hated dreams. Every night was the same, for the most part. She sat idly on Kiritsugu’s shoulders as they looked for walnuts growing in the garden. The figure she could tell was her mother, stood idly by but had her eyes covered in shadow. The games would go on, Kiritsugu cheating and Illya magnanimously forgiving him since it was obvious he couldn’t match her skills.
Then Kiritsugu raised a gun and shot her mother.
The shock would usually rouse her from the dream, but this time it didn’t. The black mud that poured from her mouth kept Illya locked in place as she no longer was on his shoulders. Between him and her stood the mountain of muscle, Heracles, teeth bared in fury. Kiritsugu wouldn’t last much longer than thirty seconds.
Illya stood there covered in blood. The spray from Kiritsugu coated her entirely. A crazed smile appeared on her face as she finally got her revenge… tears fell unbidden. They wouldn’t stop. She fell to her knees. It wouldn’t stop.
The dream continued as she killed the red headed step child that had no reason to be adopted. The tears continued to fall and now she was screaming. Illya faltered and stopped responding. Her body felt heavy, incapable. Her arm fell off. A leg twisted and snapped. The blood covered her face, the ruby red glow of her eyes only visible due to chance.
The dream continued until Heracles screamed once more.
“Good work.” Ritsuka praised Medea who finally finished repairing Bazett’s ripped-off arm.
“It wasn’t that difficult.” Medea coolly replied. It was simple… but with Ritsuka as her master, she needed to keep somewhat composed.
The stitches that held the arm in place were gone and the scars that had once surrounded her arm were gone. Medea had even gone the extra mile and made certain that the necrotic skin that had started to form was replaced. Ritsuka had gone out of his way to find several pig carcasses given that pigs have similar enough muscles to humans. She was hopeful that Circe would never find out about this given how much she loved piglets.
“I’m probably going to leave her here for now. The stasis pod will keep her locked until we’ve finished up the war.” Ritsuka admitted. “She’ll be a dangerous opponent in any war given that she’s a user of the Fragarach.”
“The Fragarach? You mean the weapon of the Sea God Manannan, the one that always allowed him to attack before another attack hit?” Medea surmised.
“Yup. I confiscated them off of her. Also undid the runes on her gloves and coat. This will at least make it easier to fight her if she does try anything stupid.” Ritsuka sighed. “Which she’s most likely to do. It’s almost a guarantee.”
“I… would like context.” Medea spoke up, stepping forward.
“About?” Ritsuka asked back. “Context is important.”
“How do you know all this?” Medea slammed her hands down on the small counter that separated her from him. A cup of coffee had been placed in front of the two. She hadn’t taken a drink.
“Well, I know the combatants of this war. I took part in a world saving mission when alive and now I’m a heroic spirit. I was expecting to be a Ruler given that I don’t care much for grails, but here I am as a Rider. Also my name wouldn’t even help you figure out anything about me. It happened in a different timeline at a later date.” Ritsuka chuckled as Medea parsed through his explanation.
“That makes me want to question even more things!” Medea screamed out.
She half expected to be put in her place. After all, magi were scum. Regardless of his class, he was obviously a magus given how much he knew about grail wars and her style. He didn’t. It would have been a relief if said boy wasn’t the one who made her toss Souichirou away. Admittedly, it saved his life completely… but it didn’t change that she was denied someone who actually gave a damn about her.
“Probably? I mean I’d have questions too but for now we don’t have much time for that. We need to deal with Heracles. I’m like… ninety nine point nine percent sure he’s going to come after us all tonight.” Ritsuka rolled his wrist, getting the kinks out. “I mean I could just drag everyone in here, but then we’d have nothing but broken houses to come back to when we’re done.”
“Heracles is a god amongst men, and while I don’t share his fervor for praising Heracles, he is almost impossible to stop.” Medea pointed at Ritsuka, as if dotting her point.
“Yeah, Godhand is tough but simple to get around.” We’ve pretty much figured out how to kill him enough to get around all those lives, we just need at least one extra to get through it all.” Ritsuka chuckled.
“You killed him once yesterday. You said impalement I think.” Medea groused.
“Through the head.” Ritsuka nodded and seemed to pantomime planting a sword into the ground.
“Was that necessary?” Medea narrowed her gaze at Ritsuka. He was acting too much like a goofball now.
“Entirely. It makes perfect sense.” Ritsuka, in his most serious tone, nodded resolutely.
“I worry. I worry so much because I now know my master and the Rider of this war, being one in the same, are both children. Children who haven’t left their dreams behind.” Medea pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘And it’s endearing to a fault.’
Medea hushed her thoughts. She didn’t need to bring more scrutiny to her actions… even if she was certain Rider wasn’t actually paying attention to her. The same couldn’t be said for the familiars. They were in constant contact with him from what little she could glean about them. They were the security, to make sure that she played the game.
“Woo! Childlike wonder!” Ritsuka cheered. Medea sighed and just wanted this war to end before her little brother got in trouble again…
‘Who the hell is my little brother!?’ Medea quickly buried that thought and went back to checking her patient. The enforcer, as Ritsuka called her, was under heavy sedatives so as to keep her from going deep into shock before she could make sure the arm was fully healed.
‘Maybe… I could use her…?’ Medea idly pondered, before scrapping the entire plan given how useless she would be without her tools. She would have to wait for a more auspicious occasion.
“She’s not going to get back up for a week, probably. Problems with having your arm torn off by someone you trusted.” Ritsuka put his hands behind his head. “She’d probably be super strict given that she was hired by the Clock Tower to make sure the grail isn’t used wrong.”
‘You are ruining this for me Rider!’ Medea mentally cried out.
“You are the most aggravating master I’ve had to work for…” Medea growled out.
“Wouldn’t that be the last master you had?” Ritsuka pondered aloud.
“Shut up already!” Medea shouted out before heading for her room on the Storm Border.
It frustrated her to no end. Every time she had decided she would betray Rider, he would bring up something that would exasperate her to no end. The moment she thought up a plan, somehow he would have already stopped her.
Attempting to capture the temple, he had set up guard familiars. Setting up a dragon bone warrior army, her spells fizzled within the Storm Border. Attempting to bring out Rule Breaker, he cut off his connection and she ran out of mana. Medea was trapped… which left her only one avenue to go down.
She needed to play ball. Yet, she hated every second of it because of that.
The morning light broke through the gloom of the night sky rousing all participants of the grail war from their slumber. Rin woke up feeling groggy regardless, even as Ishtar poked and prodded her to get up. Sakura woke up disheveled and restless with a heavy blush, while Kama smirked knowingly into her eyes. Illya shot up in fear, Heracles looming over like a protective bear.
As the three got up for their day, Ritsuka exited his marble and wandered over to the Emiya residence. It was time to deal with that particular problem.
Artoria breathed as she sat near motionless within the dojo that Shirou had provided. While it kept her grounded and mana proficient, she was still incapable of actually taking any mana from her Master. His circuits weren’t working and they still hadn’t been activated yet.
“What am I even doing…?” Artoria sighed.
She couldn’t win this. She was so heavily incapacitated by circumstances that her intuition couldn’t see a path to victory. That had crushed her spirit in a way she had never felt before.
For what felt like centuries, she had been striving constantly to save Camelot. All to undo her mistakes, but it was getting harder and harder to see a path to victory. It didn’t help that this war had servants that not only knew who she was, but that they were far more capable of dealing with her if necessary.
The Archer effortlessly knocked her aside. The Assassin was always vigilant. The Rider, while not present, exposed her completely. The Caster was held carefully by the Rider and enthralled to his cause. The Berserker hated her Master and was trying to kill him. The Lancer would also kill her Master.
There were no allies. There were no paths where she could win. And even when his circuits were activated, she still would be up against all the other servants. Artoria sighed once more… and twitched towards another direction. The master of Rider had come in.
“Hello, I’m here to handle the issues Shirou has been facing.” Ritsuka chuckled as he closed the door behind him.
“Should you really be sneaking in?” Artoria scowled.
“No, but it’s happened and that’s that.” Ritsuka shrugged. “Still lacking mana? I mean even if you have a dragon core it’s barely capable of keeping up.”
“I dislike that you bring up things so casually.” Artoria scowled even deeper.
“And? You are kind of an open book. It’s pretty easy to read you. Are you still trying to undo your rule?” Ritsuka casually brought up, placing his hands behind his head as he did so.
“How do you know that!?” Artoria stared, keeping any shock from showing on her face. Her charisma being the only thing keeping her from breaking her stance.
“Iskandar and Gilgamesh used to talk about how they were disappointed in you. Though it was only when they were really drunk at the time.” Ritsuka shook his head back and forth. “It’s a bad wish anyways for a grail. Especially since you probably don’t know anything about how the world works.”
“Who are you to say what I do is wrong!? I need to undo my mistakes, to save my people!” Artoria shouted out.
“But that really doesn’t save anyone. Camelot falling is a quantum locked situation. That means that what happened is locked in the timeline and not even a grail could undo it. It would just lead to the timeline being erased by the world. Even worse if you decided to make an actual utopia. Those timelines get cut off completely because they stagnate and waste energy.” Ritsuka explained, casually stretching himself. “Merlin talked to me about it a bit since he liked watching my journey. He’s very annoying from time to time.”
Artoria stood silently. Bombshells went off one after another. Her heart stopped in her chest as she took step after step towards the master before her. He stared her down while she tried to find the deception. She needed to find any trace that every word out of his mouth was a lie.
“You… you lie… you must be…” Artoria struggled to find the words as her gauntleted hand grabbed Ritsuka’s shirt.
“Why would I? It’s my job to handle problems caused by grails. It’s what I did when I was doing my job and probably if I end up on the Throne of Heroes, it’s what I’ll do when I’m dead.” Ritsuka tilted his head. “I mean, not even the grails are omnipotent. They can only grant a wish based on what you know. If you want to save the world it needs to know how you would do so. It’s even worse given that this grail is so heavily corrupted it would just kill, kill, and kill some more.”
Artoria nearly stumbled to her knees. With how she was being explained the intricacies of timelines, she wondered just how inconsequential her wish really was. Her eye twitched, the only break in the armor was her composure.
“Do you remember the little girl that we fought who controlled the Berserker?” Ritsuka randomly asked.
“W-what about her?” Artoria numbly asked.
“Irisviel’s daughter is in a bad place, wouldn’t you say?” Ritsuka tilted his head.
“Iri…” Artoria whispered. “But she should…”
“It felt like her whole body was modified to make sure Heracles can keep going.” Ritsuka muttered. “It’s going to make it hard to deal with her given how the Einzberns were usually used to create the lesser grail.”
“That’s…” Artoria fell to her knees.
“Well, I’ll leave you with that. I need to activate Shirou’s circuits.” Ritsuka stated. “You… should come to terms with what you’ve learned. I mean, you could take it all as a lie if that makes you feel better.”
Artoria didn’t answer. She watched him enter the house and her usual knight like tendencies to protect the household faltered. He was already in the house and she was stuck in the dojo, reeling from the sudden information that she received.
“Merlin… is that what you meant, when you said that there was a price to pay for being King?” Artoria mused.
Her mind turned back to Irisviel… and the daughter that was left behind. She looked down at her hands, for some reason she could see blood on them. A single blink and it was gone.
Artoria lamented her loss. The loss of ignorance that had propelled her forward. Now… now she had to figure out what she was going to do, since this grail was a bust and corrupted in fact. The shining city of Camelot was no longer covered in its silver sheen. It was now a copper haze that really made her think about how things went.
She sighed… she would talk with her master later… and perhaps talk about Kiritsugu if she could stomach it.
Ritsuka found Shirou. He was asleep, which was to be expected. A sly smile appeared on his face as three Sphinx cubs came out of the aether. A single pointed finger and Shirou cried out in shock as they pounced upon him and woke him up in the funniest ways possible.
“Uwah!” Shirou screamed out. He tumbled onto the floor and looked up in shock.
“Morning. It’s five am and time for us to actually accomplish something right now.” Ritsuka stated.
“Did it have to be like that!?” Shirou shouted slightly.
‘This guy… he’s been calling the shots this entire time and I’m pretty sure his prowess is the reason Sakura hasn’t been around. This stupid looking playboy is doing something, I just know it.’ Shirou’s more… intense thoughts were quietly packed away. He didn’t have any reason to antagonize someone this early in the morning.
“No, but this is fun and honestly one can’t live their life always putting themselves down. You don’t accomplish anything with that mindset except digging your own grave.” Ritsuka stated seriously. “And by that I mean being turned into a pile of meat off on the side of the road that everyone just drives past. Roadkill! That’s it. Like roadkill.”
Shirou grimaced after each detail. He was absolutely sure that his path wasn’t wrong… the problem was that every word he heard wasn’t making him sound right.
“Okay, ready for your magic circuits?” Ritsuka asked.
“Yeah, I’m -“ Shirou nodded and suddenly went stock still.
His body completely stopped moving and magical energy had been shot through his system and knocked him out. Shirou writhed and went through seizure-like motions as his body had its magical circuits reawakened. The fact he had burnt a few of his circuits when he was gambling his life away using his nerves left him with a few less circuits but he didn’t die at the very least.
For an hour Ritsuka made sure he didn’t bite his tongue off, pushing one of his belts into his mouth so he would uselessly chew through the leather. Saber had rushed in after ten minutes and though she looked annoyed, she helped keep him from hurting himself. At six he finally regained his senses and laid in his bed. He was looking around wildly and trying his best to focus.
‘Pain… that is all I feel. It’s like my skin is on fire and I’m not exactly dealing well with it. Everything is like molten lead has been poured down my veins and enveloping my body. It’s too extensive. The mana infusion is killing him in ways I can’t even fathom. This asshole… but even then, he’s not smiling as he did this. His intense gaze has constantly been focused on his mouth. It got to the point where he got one of my belts and stuffed it into my mouth just to stop my teeth from completely breaking. It’s infuriating and I can’t even fully fault him for this. Whatever it takes to gain my circuits… and even then… the flames I see in my nightmares are so much worse…’ Shirou’s thoughts raced, breaking the sound barrier with how fast they went. It was his coping method given his body wasn’t exactly paying attention to him at the moment.
“Well… I can finally feel mana flowing to me.” Saber scowled. “That was reckless.”
“It is what he wanted, to be fair. Though I probably should have got one of the others to wake up his circuits. Hindsight I suppose.” Ritsuka shrugged.
‘ I didn’t want it like that, jackass.’ Shirou mentally grumbled. Spitting out the belt, he worked his mouth a bit before he was willing to speak aloud once more.
“I… are my circuits open?” Shirou called out.
“They are. Master, you have done something foolish once more. You actually must take care of yourself, otherwise anything you do will not matter.” Saber chided Shirou before she whispered something under her breath. “Not that I can really speak…”
Shirou felt he had missed something but he couldn’t really understand what was said. His thoughts were still muggy and his body was billowing steam from his magic circuits actually discharging energy out.
“Is that supposed to happen?” Shirou gulped slightly. It ached to move even that much.
“Yup. It’s just your body releasing energy in the most efficient way possible. If you were extremely unlucky then you would have thrown up blackened bile or purged yourself through the other two exit points of your body.” Ritsuka explained. “This is the normal way by the by. Best way was throwing it up. At least you just need to take a shower like this.”
“It’s that dangerous!?” Shirou could only balk at the admittance.
‘I could have died from that!? I know you already mentioned that my nerve to circuit transfer thing was killing me but it surely wasn’t as bad as this was!?’ Shirou’s thoughts would have betrayed him, if his thoughts and mouths were fully connected.
“Nope. Usually it would just activate your circuits for a good thirty seconds but since I’m really strong, it’ll probably last a bit longer for you. Think of it like a super boost.” Ritsuka pondered things. “Admittedly, this is the first time I’ve actually had to activate circuits. Mine were activated by accident and then my parents taught me how to activate and deactivate them.”
Shirou kept quiet about that. His father, Kiritsugu, had not wanted him to do that but when the door had been breached open. Well, he was given little instruction before Kiritsugu passed. A missed opportunity and he couldn’t tell if it was bad timing or if he didn’t want him to follow his path. Neither was good in his eyes.
“Well, we have to figure out how you stay home today. Since Illya will probably come back tonight to finish her job.” Ritsuka muttered. “We’ll meet up today for the mission.”
And with those words, Ritsuka exited the door and left. Saber remained over her master and sighed.
“Well, I’m feeling energy from you now Master.” Saber stated.
“He left so quickly… I didn’t get to ask him about her…” Shirou grumbled.
“Illya von Einzbern is the daughter of Kiritsugu Emiya and Irisviel von Einzbern.” Saber answered.
“Saber?” Shirou just stared in shock.
“I, unfortunately, have not been as forthcoming as a knight should. Though with your defenses strengthened now… I might as well speak of my experiences.” Saber sighed. “I once thought my intuition would see me through, but it seems following blind faith to one’s own thoughts and paths can lead to being tossed off one’s horse.”
“Did… did you know my dad?” Shirou calmly asked.
“Indeed. He summoned me during the Fourth Grail War. And it seems that… he was correct in his actions.” Saber grumbled. “Though I do not remember him having a male child. And the other woman who followed him died shortly before the end of that war.”
“O-other woman!?” Shirou nearly gagged on his tongue.
“He really didn’t tell you anything, did he?” Saber sighed, looking at her Master and the lost look on his face.
‘What do you want me to say…? Even at our closest he never mentioned anything about his life before me. He always looked away in pain and I know Taiga-née’s family is part of the Yakuza. I know he had special dealings with him. But what do you want me to say to that!? The Old Man never even told me he was married, but it explained why he disappeared every month.’ Shirou carefully parsed out his thoughts and realized that he couldn’t give a satisfactory answer so he decided to probe for information.
“What… what did you know?” Shirou cautiously asked.
“If I remember correctly, he was a killer. He cared not for honor, or keeping his word. He found ways around them. A Master I fought against managed to get him to agree to do nothing to them and they would leave. He had the other woman shoot them to get around his words.” Saber took a deep breath as she recalled that moment. “Kiritsugu Emiya was someone who would do anything to completely make sure a potential threat was taken care of.”
Shirou immediately threw up. He had managed to get the waste basket before he did so but it didn’t change the fact that he lost it. He wanted to scream, to deny, to do something that would make it not true. He couldn’t though. It wasn’t a lie, it was something that Saber had seen happen.
‘Dad, who were you… why couldn’t you have told me what you did? You looked so defeated and when I came into your life, you finally looked content, not happy though. There was always something in your eye that I could never place. A sense of emptiness that you masked to the best of your ability.’ Shirou still felt sick.
“I’m beginning to realize just how right Lancer had been.” Saber sighed. “Anyways, Kiritsugu was an uncompromising man who tried to shoulder the weight of the world on his shoulders… and did everything wrong.”
“I… wha… What did he do?” Shirou could only ask in muted horror.
“I didn’t really understand it at first, but I do know that he and his partner were close… I think her name was Maiya Hisau. She helped him set up ambushes to take out the other magi in the war. She didn’t survive though. No one really survived that horrible situation.” Saber growled.
“The… the Fire of Fuyuki? That… that was his fault!?” Shirou nearly collapsed.
“Surprisingly no… I didn’t understand it at that moment, but I’m starting to get why he ordered me to do that. We destroyed the corrupted grail. However, that led to the evils spilling out. Exploding when I had to use my Noble Phantasm against it. Then my life ended there as well.” Saber stated.
“Dad stopped it…?” Shirou could only look up at Saber from his position.
“Ah… hm… in the barest of interpretations. I remember standing in those flames against the Archer of that war. I could have won, if I fought head to head, I would have claimed the grail and finally be done. Then he used his command seals to force me to destroy the grail. At the time… I felt nothing but despair. That my goal, that was so close within my reach and was about to be grasped, was viciously torn from my fingers and cast into oblivion.” Artoria mused, her frown had deepened. “To learn later that it is a corrupt item that would never give me my wish… and that even if I did make my wish it would be torn out of my grasp just as easily. I understand him all too well now, even if I dislike how he acted.”
‘She… I… what do you even say to that. He saved the world, but the cost… The Flames of Fuyuki are something that haunts my dreams. I can still see the red skies choked by smoke and the numbness invading my torso. The billows of ash from those that fell invading my lungs. The acrid smoke burning my skin and leaving me near dead. I still remember that face of relief, the face of someone who was saved. But my old man was the cause… his actions. What do you even say to that? My… my path isn’t wrong but how do you go from there when the foundation is built on assumptions and my own interpretations.’ Shirou stared, his gaze locked on the nothingness of the wall.
“I do not know where to go from here.” Saber solemnly stated. “My wish will never be granted because I now know the requirements for such a wish. And I can not see a path where we come out on top. That doesn’t even matter because it’s clear from the other three that the Greater Grail must be destroyed. Berserker and Lancer have both made their desires known. Your death is theirs.”
‘I never even did anything to Lancer, but it’s clear that he’s not doing it because he likes it. He’s more like a dog that barks to whatever order he was given. As for Berserker, well, the less said the better since it’s clear that my… sister wants me dead for some reason.’ Shirou pondered as Saber seemed to be mulling over things.
“And Caster?” Shirou had to ask.
“Completely under the Rider’s control right now. With Heracles being the Berserker… we need everything we can get our hands on.” Saber sighed. “We have allies, but their intentions put us at an impasse. The Servants and Masters are all on the same page when it comes to this matter.”
“I mean… I get it. Even if I was given the chance to undo something, I wouldn’t take it. I wouldn’t even be who I am if those things didn’t happen. Who would Shirou Emiya be if I did take a wish like that? What’s to say that I would even exist if that wish came to be because who I was then, isn’t who I am now.” Shirou muttered… his emotions were broiling beneath the surface.
‘I don’t even think of myself as that Shirou anymore. He died in those fires and going back to undo them isn’t going to change me back to how he was.’ Shirou could only shake his head in disappointment.
Saber stared at her Master. Admittedly, such lines would have turned her frothing mad because it was a direct slam against her wish, however, her wish would not come true. She knew this grail was corrupt. She also knew that her past was now quantum locked as a necessity to the continuation of humanity.
She would endeavor to ask the two divine spirits. They obviously knew more, and while the Master of Rider appeared to be a knowledgeable mage, she wanted a second opinion. Maybe, just maybe, her hopes wouldn’t be completely dashed.
“You wouldn’t want to stop all that from happening Master? The horrors that the flames caused back then. I passed just as the grail was destroyed so I didn’t see what happened.” Saber mentioned, looking down towards her hands.
“I remember. I see it in my nightmares. That was Hell I was left in. But… even in that darkness, even with that pain, I wouldn’t change it. It made me, me. Without that… I wouldn’t be sitting in front of you now. Just because I could change it, doesn’t mean that I want to change it. I still want to follow my path and that requires continuing, through the hardship, through the pain.” Shirou monologues further on.
Saber listened, it sounded almost as single minded as her knights. Her mind wandered. It felt nostalgic in a sense, even though they could have had a better chance. She needed to speak with the two goddesses before Heracles struck. She needed to know, desperately even, if her dream was even still viable.
The Mage had rattled her, using Merlin to legitimize his claims. He knew about her already as well, making it difficult to ignore. Still, she had nothing to lose by asking.
“I guess we’re staying home today.” Shirou grumpily sighed.
‘My body still feels horrible. All that Mana pushed through my body probably wasn’t a good thing, but at least I’ll not be a burden.’ Shirou thought as he clenched his fist.
“For the best Master. We are probably being watched by familiars sent by the Einzbern already.” Saber mentioned.
“Saber… is everything alright?” Shirou finally asked.
“No Master. I’ve been confronted by something I didn’t want to be, that I can’t beat in combat.” Saber admitted, grimacing the entire time she let those words come out of her mouth. “And my name is Artoria Pendragon.”
“Oi! Shirou! Where are you!?” Taiga rushed into the house, her worrying only started when she noticed that he hadn’t been cooking yet. “Shirou!”
“In bed Taiga-nèe!” Shirou called out. He had been forced under his blanket. He needed to sell
The image of looking sick. And with how hot his body felt, it wasn’t hard to fake a small fever.
“Oh, there you are Shirou.” Taiga smiled, “Shirou are you okay!? What’s wrong!? Oh god are you dying!?”
Taiga nearly panicked, becoming heavily animated as she rushed around her room. She was looking for some way to help until she felt his head and nearly jumped several feet away.
“You feel like a furnace!” Taiga announced that she figured out the problem. “Wait! You feel like a furnace! You should be sleeping now, hurry up, hurry up!”
“I am…” Shirou attempted to say only to be stopped.
“No, no, sleep. Unless I have to knock you out. Now sleep so you can cool down!” Taiga stated, pulling out her extra shinai out just to make sure that she was being taken seriously.
“Wait!?” Taiga nearly fell over before staring at her watch. Her eyes focused intensely on the time and she started to panic. “Shirou! Get as much rest as possible! I'll be back tonight to cook for you! Don’t get up!”
And with those last words she raced out of the house without letting Shirou say a word more. It made him feel a bit weird about trying so hard to get out of school, but he ignored the feeling of disappointment from his plan not really going as he thought it would.
“Master, your caretaker left. It’s fine enough to come out now.” Artoria called from the other room. She had hidden before Taiga had raced in.
“Right… let’s get some breakfast ready and then we can get started figuring out how my circuits work.” Shirou muttered as he stepped out of his covers and stomped over to the kitchen.
“So… we wait then?” Kama asked.
“Pretty much. I mean there’s not much else we can do until we’ve figured out our plan. Also this is one of the few places I’m pretty sure King Gilgamesh can’t see us.” Ritsuka stated.
“Tch!” Ishtar clicked her tongue. “Why did that Goldie have to be here too? There’s already seven servants here and he wasn’t invited.”
“Well… El-Melloi the second mentioned that Gilgamesh was summoned in the fourth, and this is the fifth war. He probably got doused in the grail mud and made him somewhat alive now?” Ritsuka hypothesized. “Though that’s mainly speculation on my side.”
“I’ll kill that Goldie when I see him.” Ishtar growled out.
“I’d rather you didn’t. If he has his chains then you two are liable to die to him. Honestly, I would like to have Saber and Lancer deal with him alongside me. That would be ideal for dealing with him. Otherwise I’d have to figure out ways that wouldn’t let our souls be taken by the grail. Unfortunately, Kirei has Cu and Gil under him.” Ritsuka grumbled.
“We should probably try to recruit Heracles. Something that crazy should help.” Kama snarked slightly.
“Honestly I have thought of that but Illya is so stubborn. It doesn’t help that we’ve only got a small chance against Gilgamesh since if he sees Ishtar he’ll be serious about fighting us.” Ritsuka sighed.
“Hey! It’s not my fault he doesn’t know respect for a goddess as he should.” Ishtar complained.
“That still doesn’t help matters.” Kama interjected, the two love goddesses getting into each other’s faces.
Ritsuka noticed that unlike how their vessels, Rin and Sakura, Kama and Ishtar were both willing to get into each other’s faces. They both had problems actually enforcing their domain of love, unless he is involved. Before they could devolve into further argument, he once again grabbed their asses and squeezed. The squeal they released destroyed the train of thought they were barreling down.
“Are you two done arguing?” Ritsuka asked.
“That’s cheating Ritsuka.” Kama, blushing heavily, scowled at him.
“Yeah! That’s a weak spot you shouldn’t go for.” Ishtar stated, her own blush hidden as she turned her head to the side.
“Maybe. But I can’t resist when it comes to you two.” Ritsuka gave off a good natured chuckle without seeming to be guilty at all. “Anyways, we need to prepare for tonight. Where are your masters?”
“They went to school. Something about actually appearing to be regular girls. We sent two propagated clones, each, to keep an eye on them.” Kama stated.
“It’s not that hard for a divine spirit to create more terminals. We even put those spell tags you had on them so that Gilgamesh couldn’t see them.” Ishtar chuckled.
“Kama suggested it, didn’t she?” Ritsuka asked.
“Yup.” Kama bluntly stated, not even letting Ishtar brag or explain her side of the story.
“I would have remembered!” Ishtar shouted back.
“Well, since we are overall prepared, wanna cuddle?” Ritsuka broke their chance to argue once more.
As Ritsuka laid back on the Tohsaka couch, Kama leapt into action and curled into Ritsuka’s right arm. She immediately rubbed her face into his chest. Ishtar, incensed by the suddenness of the pounce, did so as well. The three servants basked in each other’s embrace, well, they basked in Ritsuka’s presence. The two love goddesses had been enamored with Ritsuka ever since their Grand Order.
They remained in such a position until the two goddesses respective Master contacted them that they were heading to the Emiya household.
“Tch, never enough time.” Ishtar growled out. Her hands had been wandering the entire time.”
“Kind of like Chaldea in that case.” Kama sighed. Her own hands had also been wandering. “Still, we have plenty of time to change that.”
“Must you two be so sinister when it comes to me.” Ritsuka chuckled, covering himself up once more.
Neither goddess actually cared about the problem of the world being in danger. They already had a taste of their particular love, they knew what they wanted. They both even had a plan, and both could tell it was going to happen given how badly certain relationships were going.
“Let’s head out then. Kind of glad I can make clothes out of mana now.” Ritsuka chuckled as he readjusted his clothing. The two goddesses did the same and made sure to look presentable, even if they were just going to end up staying in spirit form just in case.
It was a quiet trek. Rin and Sakura walked almost side to side, however, they didn’t speak. Neither of them could actually figure out what to say to one another even with all the time that they were together at this point. Even when Taiga rushed past them, she even remarked how rare it was to see them together.
“So… “ Rin muttered.
“Yes…?” Sakura snapped slightly.
“I don’t know…” Rin sighed. “I thought I could say something.”
“Oh…” Sakura cut off her anger. She partially didn’t want this to be their interaction. Their relationship was one where they were merely waiting either for her to snap Rin’s head off, or for Rin to break her resolve.
It was with great difficulty that Sakura tried something, anything to at least try to empathize with Rin. Honestly, if this was the girl that was still in the Matou home, it would have been an impossibility. However, with her being completely free, she felt that there was something she could try to do. Her hope had been destroyed once before, but it couldn’t anymore.
Kama had made sure of that by tempering her anger and there was nothing that could stop her from fighting back anymore.
“Rin…” Sakura spoke up. “What happened to Mom?”
“Ah… ah…” Rin looked as though she swallowed her tongue. “When… When the war ended she had been choked by someone near mercilessly until she passed out. The trauma of everything made her think Dad was still alive and stuck to a wheelchair she was unable to recognize reality.”
“She… oh god…” Sakura looked off with a glassy stare. She had wondered why her mother was gone. The constant trauma had made her not care about what was going on around her.
“She didn’t last long. Two years I think. She always asked where Dad was… but I just said he was working. I think she knew the truth. But, I didn’t tell her.” Rin shook her head.
“I see. I thought that she kept out of Dad’s business.” Sakura stated. Though there could have been more she could say, she couldn’t say it. For all the time they spent away from one another, she couldn’t say that the woman she saw in her mind was her Mother.
“She… didn’t.” Rin stopped herself. She had more to say for how callous Sakura sounded but it wouldn’t be helpful. “I’ve noticed that he’s not around.”
“Rider killed him. Made sure he was deader than dead and… yes he’s dead.” Sakura stopped herself from saying more. “He didn’t deserve mercy anyways.”
“I always hated him. Creepy bastard.” Rin stated, a small pout appearing on her face.
“He really was. I’m glad he’s gone.” Sakura agreed.
It was these small moments that actually gave them any place to step forward with. Sakura wasn’t going to explain her past and Rin wasn’t going to prod. The moments for them to get close to one another were few and far between. Even then the two were still unable to be honest with one another.
‘Jeez Master, can’t even be honest with one another.’ Ishtar thought into her mind making Rin pout.
‘Passive aggressive, aren’t we Master?’ Kama mentally vocalized, her tone playful as she swooped in behind Sakura like Ishtar had done with Rin.
When the two realized that their servants had arrived fully, the two stood up a little straighter. They looked to the side as their other ally came in. While the two didn’t make it obvious, they had both gotten Ritsuka to stand between them. They didn’t do a good job of being subtle though.
“So ready to strategize what to do?” Ritsuka asked as he peered up to the sky.
“I suppose… I don’t know why you had us go to school when there’s more important things to do.” Sakura mumbled.
“You need to live again, and the mundane things, while tedious in some circumstances, make things worthwhile. Those small moments add up and keep you grounded.” Ritsuka explained. “I always wanted that to happen, I’m pretty sure I got that when I had finally finished my job while alive, but I’m not entirely sure.”
“Hmph, easy for you to say. Ms. Fujimura was being increasingly pushy with her and me.” Rin grumbled instead.
“I haven’t gone to see Senpai for two weeks… I haven’t needed to do so. Things haven’t been as bad as they used to be… “ Sakura sighed, her eyes went a bit blank.
“Was that why she took you aside? I mean, I get it…” Rin paused and stopped speaking.
“It’s not important. Emiya is Emiya, that’s really all that it is.” Sakura answered promptly after that.
‘Also he’s entranced by Saber, so it would be awkward. Even Ishtar would agree with me.’ Kama lightly addressed the real issue to Sakura’s displeasure.
‘Also he’s crushing on Saber, so it’s awkward to speak with him. Even Kama would agree with me.’ Ishtar bluntly addressed Rin, who started to look more annoyed than anything.
Neither sister could smile at that, more so that it came from the mouth of love goddesses which meant it held so much more weight. Rin and Sakura stepped closer to Ritsuka.
Kama and Ishtar could only smile.
Taiga had rushed into the Emiya household. She had to make sure everything was fine after finding Shirou burning up like a furnace. He sat nonchalantly at the small table in the sitting room.
“Safe!!” Taiga rushed in, diving like a baseball player. “Shirou! What are you doing? You should be resting!?”
“Eating?” Shirou answered succinctly.
“Oh, of course.” Taiga bopped her fist into her palm. Then she got angry. “You shouldn’t be up when you look like you were burning up!?”
“I’m fine now.” Shirou attempted to placate the Tiger of Fuyuki, to minimal success. She fretted and coddled him as she came to realize that he wasn’t burning anymore.
“Oh, you feel fine now. Jeez! You had me worried since knowing you, you’d push yourself to death.” Taiga fumed as Shirou felt that small gut punch.
‘I’m not that bad, am I? I’ve taken care of myself more now than I ever do. I mean I did push myself into getting my circuits open… and rushing into danger… and attempting to stand up to my sister… I’m horrible at this now… forget it. I’m not that bad…’ Shirou quickly threw his thoughts down an endless flight of stairs. At the very least he didn’t need his own mind fighting against him as well.
“Now I’ll be looking over you until I have to go home.” Taiga gleefully stated.
“Which means I’ll be taking care of you since you have poor impulse controls.” Shirou translated quickly.
“Ugh, my heart.” Taiga quickly grasped where her heart had been and fumbled around on the ground animatedly. “How cruel, Shirou!?”
“You know I don’t mind Taiga-nee.” Shirou answered with a careful sigh.
The door knocking made things stop as Taiga quickly went to check the door. The sudden gasp caught him by surprise but when he saw Sakura and Rin followed by Ritsuka, he knew things were serious enough to let them do the talking… if only Taiga didn’t have to be here to cause problems.
“Shirou, he looks just like Kiritsugu!” Taiga quickly shook at Ritsuka’s shoulder… who looked bemusedly uncomfortable.
Shirou could only feel his gaze harden, because now that he was paying attention, he could see it now. It was just the eyes that were different.
“I don’t know who that is.” Ritsuka shook his head.
“Oh, wait right here! I have photos.” Taiga rushed off to one of the rooms in the back.
“Emiya, isn’t she supposed to be gone already? And where’s Saber?” Rin quickly snapped at their impromptu host.
“She’s in the dojo because she can’t take spirit form. I don’t really understand that though.” Shirou quickly brought up what Saber had told him. “And after he opened my magic circuits I was burning up.”
“Sorry, you probably should have had Rin or Sakura open your circuits.” Ritsuka admitted. “I was the best choice to get to you quickly so that you wouldn’t be caught unaware before Illya came back to mulch you.”
Sakura pondered if she would have even helped with that. She quickly shook her head to Ritsuka while Shirou was staring incredulously at him. Rin also shook her head, Shirou had been almost killed for trying to charge at Heracles and she wasn’t going to reward stupidity. Shirou remained completely unaware.
“I found it!” Taiga shouted and brought about a picture frame of Kiritsugu sitting in seiza on the porch of the house. “See! Besides the eyes, you are almost exactly like him.”
“I suppose I can see that but I already have a father, I left him a few days ago. Sorry, my name is Ritsuka Fujimaru.” Ritsuka introduced himself.
“Ah! That’s close to my name! I’m Taiga Fujimura, the greatest teacher to ever exist!” Taiga grinned and gave off a little V motion.
“Taiga-née… We should make dinner.” Shirou quickly broke her pace as she lounged beneath the small table calling out for food.
Ritsuka and Rin sat down and Sakura went with Shirou to the kitchen to help prepare food. For once it was nice to be in the kitchen again, though he was already putting a larger portion for when he inevitably fed Saber. Sakura did not come close to him throughout their entire cooking session. She seemed strained for some reason, and it was clear she was angry about something.
“Is everything okay?” Shirou had to ask.
“No. Not really.” Sakura stated, but refrained from elaborating. Her gaze trailing to Taiga. Shirou seemed to accept that as her reason as he continued to set aside something for Saber.
Sakura grumbled under her breath, confirming that Kama was telling the truth. It galled her to learn that. Kama wasn’t even in her mind speaking with her either. She was busy staring at Ritsuka longingly again. That also made her gut churn slightly. The jealousy of an actual relationship working out was excruciatingly annoying.
“And then I smacked him with my Shinai, and forever I was known as the greatest swordswoman of Fuyuki!” Taiga declared as she proudly sat at attention. “Forever known as the greatest warrior to ever be known in Fuyuki!”
“So a regular Jaguar of the city?” Ritsuka asked, causing Shirou, Sakura and Rin to freeze up.
“You get it!” Taiga suddenly gasped in delight before grabbing Ritsuka in a one arm hug. Ritsuka used enough force to keep from being dragged into her pace. “Strong too!”
“I feel like I understand people pretty well. Not enough to be called an expert, but enough to handle any kind of relationship.” Ritsuka chuckled as Taiga seemed to gleefully preen at not being called the Tiger of Fuyuki. He could feel the shocked stare from Rin, while Sakura and Shirou seemed to be completely caught off guard by the act. Though they quickly returned to cooking.
“Ah, that’s so lucky. I wish I could figure out people just from looking at someone.” Taiga whined and lamented her inability to know people at a glance. “It takes me a lot longer to do something like that.”
“Food’s ready.” Shirou stated as he placed a few dishes in tandem for the group of people. Ritsuka could see a larger portion put to the side, most likely for Saber and the other servants.
It was a quiet affair as food was divided up. Ritsuka ate a smaller portion than the others but that was more due to using the grail embedded inside his body for sustenance. As soon as food was done, Taiga immediately raced out the door and headed off to grade papers.
“Ritsuka! Let’s head out for drinks another night!” Taiga cheerfully called out as she left.
“Sure if we can!” Ritsuka answered back, though he didn’t exactly try to sound enthused about it. As soon as the door closed everyone seemed to relax. “I feel dread. Did anyone else feel that?”
“I feel that anytime I have to be around Ms. Fujimura.” Rin groaned. “She’s really… a lot.”
“Did she think I was an adult and not a teenager?” Ritsuka asked, realizing what Taiga had asked him for.
“It’s more she’ll drink and you’ll listen to her complain.” Shirou let out a breath, sighing from exasperation.
“Ah that makes sense. I guess…” Ritsuka shook his head. “Go ahead and call in Saber then. It’s time to strategize.”
“Right…” Shirou stood up. “I’ll be back.”
As Shirou left, Kama and Ishtar both appeared once more and took seats next to their respective masters. Ritsuka didn’t have a Rider to come out and Caster didn’t want to bother with something so trivial. The fact that neither Shirou or Saber had figured out that he was Rider was amusing to the three servants in the room.
“He does know that he could have mentally called her right?” Rin scoffed.
“I just opened his circuits. I didn’t get to teach him, given how he was overheating from his circuits being opened.” Ritsuka admitted. “Why do you think I mentioned that it should have been one of you two to open them?”
“I wasn’t going to open his circuits.” Sakura admitted. “He already wasted enough nerves making fake ones.”
“I feel the same way but we shouldn’t let him kill himself by doing so. Stupid decisions are made every day, Emiya just makes dozens every time he practices magecraft.” Rin attempted to be nice… it came out slightly caustic though.
“Don’t worry about it. She’s fine.” Ishtar waved it off. “We should truly be concerned with Heracles. This is not an ideal place to fight and going to their territory will cause problems.”
“There’s no doubt that Illya has set up traps most likely, unless she’s confident in Heracles.” Kama sighed. “It’s more than likely that she is, so perhaps a lack of traps.”
“Is that likely?” Sakura muttered, tapping her finger on the table.
She was glad to know that no one noticed her sudden sharp glare when Shirou came in with Saber. Kama sent a sharp poke to her side.
‘Master, I can feel your jealousy. Ishtar probably can too. While I might not care about doing my job, my job does include dealing with this. I know it is painful, but it is much easier to move on.’ Kama mentally sighed.
‘After all that, I have to just move on?’ Sakura felt like screaming. She kept her composure though. It wouldn’t help here.
‘If you want to, Master. Would be easier than continuously pining for someone who doesn’t really feel like acting on their feelings.’ Kama scoffed.
Sakura went quiet at that, her dreams shooting back up and taking center stage. She didn’t notice how Kama smiled at that.
“Here you go, Saber, eat up.” Shirou handed her a large plate. As he looked to the other two servants they both declined eating.
“So, what’s the plan then?” Shirou asked as he sat next to Saber.
“Deciding on our terms. Making a place to fight or going to fight her on her turf.” Ritsuka stated. “Making our place puts her in more danger, going to hers puts us in worse danger. Neither is better.”
“One is much more of a stupid idea but would keep us from being overwhelmed.” Rin spoke up. “It is better to go on her turf because our turf would have a lot of questions on why it looks like a tornado destroyed our homes.”
“However, you are a problem. Illya wants nothing more than to kill you.” Sakura added. “Horribly if what she attempted to do when she confronted us the other night is taken into account.”
“I’m not standing back, I should be able to do something as well.” Shirou immediately argued.
“You’d be a liability if you stepped up to fight.” Ritsuka bluntly stated. “Even if you had years of training in your magecraft, unless you had someone who was perfectly countered by your particular branch of magecraft, you’d have little to no chance.”
“It would ruin any chance we would have of surviving a battle.” Saber stated as she finished her meal. She looked down at the plate as if to ask for seconds but with how serious the situation was, she didn’t go for it though.
“But…” Shirou started to say. Only for every single person in that room to stare into his soul. He wisely decided to shut his mouth at that moment.
“Since I doubt you will listen, I’ll be keeping an eye on you.” Ritsuka immediately stated. “Especially since Illya can fight as well, which means she’ll be after you.”
“Which means that we’ll be handling Heracles with only us three…?” Saber questioned.
“Caster will join us for it. I doubt I can get Lancer on our side without a lot of problems with that. His master is the priest in the church… so having him around would be detrimental.” Ritsuka sighed.
“I knew it.” Rin growled out.
“That’s not even counting the other threat here.” Ritsuka started. “It seems that Gilgamesh is also here, incarnated somewhat.”
“That golden bastard is here!?” Ishtar nearly flew up in a rage before Ritsuka grabbed her and forced her into his lap, wrapping his arms and legs around her.
“Easy, you’re hidden from him for now but I need to make sure you don’t immediately go and do something that would cost us all our lives. I don’t want him to take us seriously right now.” Ritsuka growled as Ishtar’s golden eyes and aura seemed to want to make everyone in the room faint.
“Gilgamesh? He’s also summoned, but I thought that there were only seven servants in the war.” Shirou had brought up the obvious concern.
“He’s from the last war, I suppose the grail managed to keep him alive…?” Saber wondered aloud.
“Well, the grail is corrupted so the mud it produces could possibly give him a more permanent body. I doubt it did anything to his mind though.” Ritsuka muttered, Ishtar was calming down slowly.
“I am a calm leaf in the stream…” Ishtar grumbled as she kept twitching, nearly breaking Ritsuka’s hold every single time. The only reason he was keeping hold of her was because she was allowing it.
“Which complicates things.” Saber added. “Gilgamesh was the most dangerous of the servants summoned last war.”
“Ea is an anti world noble phantasm, and his King’s Treasury would cause problems.” Ritsuka stated.
“If only we had the Key of Babylon I could probably seal his treasury at least.” Ishtar bemoaned their plans. “For now we need more people on our side. Which means incapacitating Berserker enough to get him on our side, or figuring out a way to get Lancer.”
“You can say their names. It’s not like they’re a secret anymore.” Ritsuka muttered.
“Fine, Heracles or Cu Chulainn.” Ishtar rolled her eyes and let out a puff of air.
“Problems, like always, are how to do such things. We have a small chance to perhaps turn things on its head given we have a five servant coalition working together.” Ritsuka summarized. “Even so, Caster is reluctant to work beyond dealing with Heracles and Gilgamesh. She probably would help with Cu though.”
“So, we go confront Illya and I can see what my dad left behind.” Shirou pounded his fist into his palm.
“You are sticking next to me if that happens. No running off and letting her capture you thus making our mission harder than it has to be.” Ritsuka stated immediately, offering no compromise.
“Agreed.” Rin added.
“Obviously.” Sakura continued.
“As it should be.” Saber agreed.
“Without question.” Kama scoffed.
“Hahaha… no.” Ishtar giggled.
“Urgh…” Shirou grumbled as every single person was against him trying to go into an aggressive plan.
The sudden breaking of the window caught his attention and a crystalline bird flew in a loop and dropped a letter on the table, shattering afterwards into dust and faded soon after. The letter was grabbed by Rin who immediately looked it over.
“Well, she’s making the choice for us.” Rin grumbled. “Come to my castle, on the outskirts of Fuyuki, tonight. Great, she’s either prepared for us, or she doesn’t see us as a threat.”
“Guess that makes it easier. Okay… first things first. I have something to deal with Heracles. I have a hydra dagger but we need to use it on him, so one of you will have to be around me so I can hand it to you.” Ritsuka started. “Even with Godhand active, which gives him twelve lives and adaptability against what originally killed him, we have his weakness.”
“That’s his Noble Phantasm!?” Rin nearly screamed.
“Yeah. It’s Heracles. What did you think his Noble Phantasm was?” Ritsuka looked at the surprised girl. “Also attacks only B ranked and above can hurt him.”
“No wonder you need all of us.” Saber stated.
“The heavy hitters take a lot of hits.” Ritsuka stated. “And even with Kama and Ishtar, we’d probably only be able to do four or so kills each. You killed him once yesterday. That leaves him twelve and even with that said, I’m sure Heracles can push himself further than that.”
“Let’s head out. We shouldn’t keep our host waiting for us.” Kama sighed. “Great, going into danger.”
“Should be fun at least.” Ishtar waved her hand, dismissing Kama’s reluctance. “We’re at least ready for things.”
“Fun they say.” Saber rolled her eyes.
While the servants all voiced their idea that it would be interesting, the same couldn’t be said by the humans.
Sakura half worried about the others, and secretly wouldn’t mind that they would both get crushed. Her issues with both Rin and Shirou had been compounded by circumstances as they were. Rin wasn't fully forgiven. She was still handling her like glass. Shirou… well, she was contemplating moving on much more seriously. Even without hearing Kama’s commentary, she could tell Shirou was focusing on the blonde swordswoman.
It sickened her regardless. Her suffering had finally finished but the darker parts of her mind felt that this was spitting on her trials and tribulations. That made her hate herself more.
Rin was worried about the circumstances. Going into the territory of a known mage was stupid. It didn’t help that Shirou was still a complete novice and had Rider not said anything, she would probably have to be the one to keep him in line. She could tell Sakura was getting annoyed with her, but she didn’t know what the reason was.
She wasn’t the most confident about how Illya had planned this out. However, it looked like everyone was ready to ride out. She knew that if they didn’t go, Illya would have attacked them in their own home.
Shirou was worried about Sakura and Rin joining them. They were just two girls and taking them into a combat zone would leave them in a dangerous position. He didn’t even notice the annoyed looks when he thought of that particular idea. Sakura wasn’t a fighter and Rin seemed worried about heading out. So it was up to him to step it as it seemed.
He remembered that he was going to be tied at the hip to Ritsuka and went a little sour since it meant he couldn’t actually do something. He had his magic circuits opened already, he was as ready as he’ll ever be.
Kama and Ishtar both rolled their eyes and shook their heads. They were both going to be dealing with Heracles again it seemed. Their time in Chaldea had long set them up with the know-how to deal with him. And if they needed room they would target near Illya. Both were strong enough to keep Heracles busy for a short while. Saber seemed to be frowning at Shirou who seemed gung-ho on casting his life away given how he seemed to be focusing on his fists.
As for Ritsuka… he was a whole world away.
‘I wonder how I should handle this. Heracles would be useful for dealing with Gilgamesh, even as a distraction. That means getting Illya to give up but she doesn’t seem the kind to do so. She might also have the Lesser Grail in her which makes her a target. I do have some extra grails… but I remember Sitonai mentioning something about how Illya’s body was fragile. Gonna be playing this by ear, I guess.’
“Let's go already. We’re not going to have a better chance than now, and maybe Lancer will show up and we can get him involved. Maybe as a meat shield if we’re lucky.” Ritsuka muttered the last part.
It wasn’t out of malice, Ritsuka respected Cu immensely given how his nickname of Cockroach spread throughout the ranks. He came in clutch at all the necessary moments.
With that said the three masters and four servants all headed out to where the Einzbern Castle was, and they were followed closely by a blue skin tight clad suited man with a deep red spear.
Chapter 6: We're off to fight a Homunculus... What now?
Summary:
A meeting was scheduled. Berserker will now be seating, Illya is at the head of the table.
Chapter Text
Night had struck once more. The sky was clear, the moon was out, someone was whining about the cold. Overall there were three humans and four servants off to assail a castle hidden within the forests of Fuyuki. No one actually knew that there was a castle hidden within that forest. Several years of magecraft work had hidden it from sight and kept all of the people from going out into said forests.
“So do we have a plan?” Rin called out.
“Stick together, don’t fuck up or die.” Ritsuka answered succinctly.
“I mean something more concrete.” Rin hissed in annoyance.
“Masters stick together. Servants stick together. Which reminds me.” Ritsuka answered once more.
Ritsuka disappeared once more. Within a few seconds another woman appeared beside him wearing a purple dress and blue hood which covered her eyes.
“Really? Heracles?” Medea asked.
“Yup. Stick with this one.” Ritsuka pointed at Shirou. “He’s a target and more than likely going to have them gun out for him.”
“He does look foolishly like someone who would run off to fight someone without even preparing a plan.” Medea dismissed the boy.
“I’m not that bad.” Shirou grumbled under his breath.
“You are that bad.” Sakura answered after a very long pause.
Shirou continued grumbling under his breath. That Sakura said it placed much more weight on it. He had thought Sakura would have understood that he needed to do something but lately they had not had much time to speak with one another. It was almost like she was avoiding him, however, he didn’t know if that was the actual truth.
“Regardless, we have our roles and we will carry them out.” Ritsuka mentioned before retreating back to his thoughts.
“So long as we are out and about, shall we figure out who attacks first?” Ishtar asked outright.
“It should probably be me.” Kama growled out. “I have three shots and a Vajra could count as a B rank attack or higher.”
“Then I’ll go.” Ishtar stated. “We’ll be breaking a lot of things but it should at least deal with everything.”
“Does that mean I’ll be going next?” Artoria wondered, grumbling all the while about the lack of a plan.
“Yes. Then Caster will finish it off, with Rider coming out to help if necessary.” Ritsuka added offhandedly.
“We are going against Heracles, I would not like this to be trivialized.” Medea growled out, though she kept her words to a minimum.
“That’s right.” Rin firmly continued that train of thought. “Heracles is only the biggest threat there. Illya will no doubt also be trying something.”
“We just need to subdue her.” Shirou added.
“Given the Einzbern family’s work, she is physically stronger than all of us humans, and magically more capable as well.” Rin quickly shot Shirou’s comment down. “Subduing her is going to be extremely hard unless a servant does it.”
“She might just have Heracles go after Masters if that’s the case.” Sakura grumbled. “We should do the same if she gets any ideas.”
“That seems wrong.” Shirou gingerly stated.
“She’s also not willing to speak given how she attacked us after your orientation.” Sakura berated Shirou slightly. She was firm with her refutation of his assessment.
“Can’t kill her. She needs to stay alive. Heracles is a coin flip at this point. He is listening to her seamlessly and in this case her orders are absolute.” Ritsuka piped in, stating his conditions for the battle. “Best case scenario, she gives up before the last life falls. If she doesn’t then Heracles will have to go.”
“That sounds… ruthless.” Rin muttered.
“It’s meant to be. Heracles isn’t someone we can tiptoe around and with five of the eight servants in this war fighting him, it’s no stretch to think that the other two will pop in either to watch or get involved. I’m more worried about Gilgamesh being here than Cu Chulainn and that’s because his Chains of Enkidu would render our two powerhouses of this team useless. So ruthlessness is a necessity right now.” Ritsuka shook his head. “That’s also taking into account that because of Archer, he will be serious.”
“It’s not my fault!” Ishtar quickly shouted, Kama floating up and shutting her mouth with a quick scowl. Ishtar grumbled silently, pouting all the while like a petulant child.
Had the two not had a glamour spell over their forms, Shirou would have realized that they were looking exactly as their respective master. Regardless of their form the two goddesses were acting more akin to sisters than what they were. Ritsuka noticed and couldn’t stop the smile on his face.
It was the quiet before the battle that made Ritsuka think back on everything that happened. Being summoned had been a trip in itself. Summoning two servants through their hosts left him somewhat at ease since they were reliable… even if Ishtar usually pushed for too much and Kama was incredibly lazy when unmotivated.
Ritsuka soon found his thoughts wandering towards the why on his own summoning. It felt like he was pushed into this problem by someone. A spectral hand on his back pushing him into a beam of light for summoning.
The treeline began to thicken and eventually the sight of glass birds began to pepper the air. They didn’t attack though. They perched for a moment, then flew off without too much effort. Everyone tensed up at that moment.
“Well, she knows we’re coming.” Rin muttered. “I don’t think there’s any traps then if she’s that confident in Heracles.”
“Heracles is the strongest after all.” Ritsuka chuckled. “We have a chance but it’ll be dangerous regardless.”
“What are you talking about?” Shirou had to ask.
“She sent her familiars out to scout us and make sure we’re coming.” Sakura answered.
“Which means we’re coming up to an ambush.” Artoria ground out as she unsheathed her sword. There was little left for her to speak about given that Ishtar and Kama had pulled out their weapons and Medea began casting spells on everyone.
One would think that the four servants wouldn’t have worked so well together. Rin in particular found it reality defying given that she had known somewhat about the servants from the previous war. The specifics weren’t exactly known but she did know that there were no alliances in the long term.
Sakura marveled at the sight. She had only known of the shapeless shadow that followed her uncle and they were a solo act. Seeing Ritsuka corral Ishtar and Kama was a fun experience but seeing that happen alongside Caster as well made her actually intimidated. Three servants working together under a fourth.
‘Senpai keeps trying to rush ahead…’ Sakura pondered as Shirou did indeed walk a little quicker… only to be pulled back by Ritsuka.
It was an irritating sight… something that kept pricking at the back of her mind. He was rushing ahead, just like her uncle had done. He was dead.
Rider was still leading which just continued to keep her calm. Sakura couldn’t believe that she was being relied on so much to help deal with the last member of the Fuyuki Families.
Admittedly the Matou family was dead, the Tohsaka family was only Rin, and her, and the Einzbern were always losing the war every time. She frowned slightly.
‘Master, don’t think too much about it. As much as I prefer to leave the dead weight behind, we need all servants working together. Otherwise we’re gonna end up dead. Focus on what we’re going to do, not on other people.’ Kama quickly stated as they entered a large empty field outside the castle.
They had been led into a potential trap.
“Really don’t like this.” Ritsuka mentioned.
Illya smiled. She could see them, and it was a hilarious sight that four servants had come to face Heracles when it was obvious that it was a foolish choice. He was the strongest in the world.
Her gaze focused on her foolish stupid little brother. He was still trying to rush ahead, becoming a hero. She needed to teach him a lesson about that. How being a hero was nothing more than a death sentence, and given how her own father ended up.
However, her eyes always trailed off to the guy that was there. Ritsuka, as she remembered, had been extremely capable of keeping her and Heracles at bay. He was the only anomaly she was worried about. The two flying servants were afterthoughts.
And once again, he was sticking close to her… brother. Adopted, if she really willingly thought about it, most likely. It pissed her off.
As much as she hated what happened to her, it was all because of that promise. That lie had let grandfather do whatever he wanted, and that was why everything hurt almost all the time. Even now, Illya did her best not to fall back asleep since she needed to deal with the tiny ants crawling into her territory.
She clenched her chest every time her eyes kept being drawn to Shirou. She hated him… hated him so much. However, she knew that she wouldn't have an easy time if that one guy was still there.
Ritsuka Fujimaru, that was the one that she was worried about. He had kept her busy from getting Shirou easily. When she was about to win, he swooped in and stole that victory from the jaws of defeat. That wouldn’t do.
She had planned out as best as she could. Leysritt and Sella were forced to remain at the castle, and the grounds weren’t full of anything but familiars. Any traps she could have set would have been destroyed right when the fighting started.
Still, she was confident. Berserker, Heracles, was the strongest in the world. She would defeat all the servants before her.
Though there was that small nagging feeling in the back of her mind that screamed that she was out of her depth. She didn’t know who Archer was. She didn’t know who Assassin was. She only knew who Saber was because it was the same person as back then. What was worse was that she still didn’t know who Rider was.
All during the fight, Ritsuka had kept Rider out of sight. He was planning something with him at the last moment. The only thing that made sense was that Rider had been dealing with Lancer. Illya sighed heavily as she held onto Heracles’ shoulder. It was time for her to finish what she started, and finally cut off the rot that was her own father’s choices.
She would never be alone again.
Shirou noticed him first. That massive pile of muscle and the small girl, who he now knew was his sister, stood a bit far from them. There were no words, just the two groups staring each other down. And Shirou attempted to take a step forward.
“Illya, we have to talk!” Shirou called out.
“That’s nice!” Illya called back. “Heracles, if you will.”
Illya hopped off, standing to the side as Heracles pulled out the massive slab of concrete that he was using as a sword.
“Shirou.” Ritsuka muttered, grabbing Shirou by his collar and dragging him back.
Rin and Sakura also took a few steps back, making sure that they weren’t all stacking up together. Heracles may have been a berserker but it was clear that he wasn’t as mindless as he pretended to be. The tension rose as they continued staring.
Medea managed to get Heracles to focus on her for a moment longer, she grimaced as he realized who was now in front of her. Ishtar and Kama floated off to the side, they held their weapons close by by the force of their mind.
Heracles roared, jumping forward with his large concrete slab sword raised above his head. His gaze was focused on the human, Ritsuka Fujimaru. However, even he could tell that was a very small veneer he hid behind. Rider was an extremely good actor.
The only problem was that Illya hadn’t believed that. He hid it too well, and his few moments of telepathic warnings had fallen on deaf ears. It wasn’t because she didn’t trust his observations. She was still pissed that he had basically ruined her plan without even really trying. A simple spell had effectively cost him a life.
Unfortunately, even he knew the tunnel vision was a bad thing. Though he hid it by seemingly going after the brother, Emiya Shirou, Rider had seen where his blade was going. It didn’t stop the large inflamed vajra from knocking him up, stopping his momentum completely. The large golden bow that came from nowhere knocked him back.
His feet dug a furlough all the way back to Illya who merely smiled. She giggled a moment, and immediately activated her magic crest. Several small birds made from glass formed and began flying back, aiming for Rin and Sakura as Heracles jumped back into the fray.
Rin grumbled as she brought up her hands and immediately began to charge magical energy at her fingertips. As soon as the storch ritters flew around, Rin began firing. She staggered her shots to make sure that she wasn’t as predictable when she took out a few of the birds.
Sakura, looking worried, activated her own circuits and with a careful flick of her wrist let out a few shots of these strange orbs of void magic. When a storch ritter got too close the orbs exploded into a mass of spikes. The few that circled the two girls were immediately destroyed.
It didn’t help that Shirou was the main target since Illya was aiming to cause as much pressure as possible. Ritsuka forcefully kept Shirou close to him, pulling out the sword that he was given by Berserker Lancelot, slicing at the birds that got too close.
“What the!?” Shirou cried out.
Even with all the time that Ritsuka had been around him, he hadn’t shown any capabilities of combat to any of the masters of the war after all. Shirou grumbled silently to himself, he was the obvious target and he wasn’t being allowed to actually do anything.
“Stick near me. She’s going to make sure Heracles kills us if either of us gets too far from one another.” Ritsuka stated before Shirou could take another step.
“But I could…” Shirou started.
“No. You barely got your circuits open. If she hadn’t sent that letter then we would have taught you some things so you could do something. But since we couldn’t, you won’t. Survival is what’s most important here.” Ritsuka refuted his assertion before he even had the chance to speak it aloud.
“I can’t let Artoria fight by herself!” Shirou attempted to shout.
“That’s why the others are fighting with her as well.” Ritsuka sighed, his sword shattering another storch ritter. “We don’t exactly want to give Illya the opportunity to use you against her, do we?”
Shirou looked away, staring at the battle that was taking place. Heracles had been sent back a few times but there hadn’t been any appreciable damage done. Every servant was still feeling out their opponents. And the one that Ritsuka had brought with him was busy using her own magecraft to strengthen the others but he was pretty sure that she was a Caster.
Illya was staring at him again. Her eyes locked with his…
“Again!?” Ritsuka smacked him, knocking the hypnotism out of his head. “Flood your system with od if you are feeling that your mind is being overwhelmed.”
“Right, sorry…” Shirou grumbled as he rubbed his head.
Illya grumbled as she turned back to the fight, but summoned another round of storch ritters for them to deal with. However, Ritsuka could tell… she was annoyed that this wasn’t a complete wipe.
Heracles smiled. It was a treat to find out that he was being pushed. As much as his madness allowed, there was a clarity to battle that he was understanding as time went on. The Archer, the Assassin, and the Rider hiding as a human knew him. Medea was a surprise to see but she had been remaining out of range with either of the aerial allies she had knocked him away if he got too close.
The few times he went after the Rider, he was knocked away faster. His mind wasn’t in the right state to actually ponder what that meant, but it was clear that he was being pushed back. Only one life had been taken but that was already one too many.
Saber was the only foe he was being forced into melee combat with. Even then, she was barely getting back into the swing of things since she had been looking extremely weak.
That’s when it started. The two other girls were moving closer to Illya while he was being taken for a loop by the other servants.
He let out a roar which knocked the servants surrounding him away and he jumped back towards Illya.
“What!?” Rin yelled out as Heracles appeared in front of them.
Sakura released several void orbs and released them. They didn’t exactly do anything except knock Heracles arms away at least a few centimeters.
“Shit.” Sakura grumbled under her breath. Even one month of training wasn’t enough to get over the lack of progress from a lifetime of torture. Heracles didn’t get to move too fast as a bolt of magic hit him, causing him to lock up, mouth wide open.
“Crap, crap crap!” Rin shouted as she pulled out the pendant she had been charging for the past few days and with careful precision chucked it into Heracles’ mouth.
The spell wore off and Heracles attempted to spit out the gem, only for the sudden explosion to burst his head wide open like a watermelon. Both of his eyes flew past Rin’s shoulders and twin Kamas grabbed the two masters and flew them back over to Ritsuka and Shirou.
“The hell!?” Illya cried out as another one of Heracles’ lives had been snuffed out.
Eleven lives were remaining.
It took less than a few minutes before Heracles restored his head and suddenly became immune to having his head blown up by a B-rank overloaded gem. Though no one but he would know that.
“Damn, now we actually have to start killing.” Ishtar grumbled as she came down and smacked Heracles back once more, catching a foot for her trouble.
Ishtar took a few seconds to regain her footing as Heracles flipped back onto his feet once he finished sliding across the ground. He was about to rush for Ishtar but a large spiraling pillar of flame shoved him back into the ground.
Kama had sent her vajra spiraling into his back. The weapon disappeared into flames before reappearing behind her. It had merely knocked him down and if she wanted to do actual damage, she needed more oomph in her attacks.
“At this rate we’re going to be killed when we get tired.” Kama snidely remarked. “Are we starting?”
“Go for it!” Ritsuka called out as Rin and Sakura checked on Shirou and kept him from rushing out again.
“I think we just have to keep him busy.” Ishtar mumbled as she floated closer.
“We do?” Kama muttered, before seeing what was being planned. “Ah… so that’s what’s up.”
“This behemoth is… vexing.” Artoria gritted her teeth in fury as she picked herself out of a long dug trench that Heracles punted her into.
It hadn’t exactly been a fun fight given that Berserker was actively trying to get her Master with every attack… or so it seemed. Her instinct was screaming that Heracles was targeting Rider’s Master… and she couldn’t say it was the worst idea.
He had actively changed the very course of the war just by existing, and her plans had been shredded and destroyed due to his intervention. She had even given up her try for a wish given how devastating it was. Her earlier talk with Shirou, while melancholic, had given her plenty of pause for thought. This war had been shoved into overdrive due to the constant revelations and her own ignorance was part of the cause.
‘Had I known she was Irisviel’s… no, nothing would have changed.’ Artoria could only cut off the thought threatening to shadow her continued combat readiness.
Heracles hopped back in, he attempted to slam his whole weight into the four humans once more. Artoria scoffed before rushing into action, a swift slash from her blade sent Heracles flying up. The Archer and Assassin batted him back and forth at least once before spiking him down.
‘One chance.’ Artoria thought.
Releasing seals on her blade, she dove below him and shoved the sword into Heracles body. Before he could react, Artoria had finished her chant.
“ Sheathed in the breath of the Planet, a torrent of shining light! Feel its wrath. Excalibur! ”
As she screamed out the line, her blade exploded in a large golden beam straight up into the stratosphere. Shirou nearly buckled, sweat dripping down his face as Ritsuka forced a silver apple into his mouth. He needed to keep providing mana for Artoria’s attack.
Heracles roared in defiance as his entire upper body was atomized in a deluge of magical energy. Illya froze in horror as life after life began being drained from her stalwart protector.
“Berserker! You can do it!” Illya shouted at the top of her lung as Heracles forced himself back together and slammed down into the ground knocking Artoria out of her stance and straight through several trees with a haphazard kick.
Five lives were left, and Artoria had been spent.
“Again!?” Illya shouted out. She could feel the trepidation from Heracles for only a moment.
She debated… she had command seals to use… but they would also put her in complete body wracking pain. She shook her head, she didn’t believe they could defeat Berserker even with how many lives he had lost.
“Berserker! Don’t lose!” Illya yelled out.
Heracles roared, and with a pulse of energy he jumped towards the other servants.
“Crap… I don't want to have Heracles die yet. We need to do something to keep Heracles from being dragged into the grail.” Ritsuka muttered as he stared at the continuing fight.
Medea had once again boosted Ishtar and Kama, allowing the two to keep Heracles from completely overwhelming them. Artoria was still picking herself out from the long furlough she had been punted into. It was getting clearer and clearer that he was going to have to get in there as well.
“What do you think we were trying to do? We tried getting close to her and Berserker managed to stop us. I used up my most powerful gem!” Rin cried out, pissed but composed.
“I thought we were trying to beat her…?” Sakura admitted. “If we take out the master, the servant would fade. It’s just a thought…”
“We can’t just do that to her!?” Shirou looked shocked.
“Newsflash! She’s still trying to kill you!” Rin shouted out. “It’s not like if we capture her she’ll follow us!”
“She’s just lonely. I can see that everytime she looks this way at us. I don’t know what happened between her and dad, but if I have the chance I should do whatever it takes to help.” Shirou resolutely stated.
“And that’s why I’m not letting you go out there.” Ritsuka answered as he stared Illya down. “She knows that you’re willing to race out there. It’s why I’ve been keeping a grip on you. Otherwise, you would have been squashed into meat, and Saber would have faded. It doesn’t help that the apple I fed you barely managed to help you have enough magical energy to have Saber fire off a high powered Noble Phantasm.”
“About that - “ Rin started.
“Later!” Ritsuka shouted, another plume of dirt rose to the sky as Ishtar was sent into the ground by a lucky shot.
Artoria came racing out, slashing at him, only for Heracles to jump back before she could. Medea fired off beams at his feet focused on force rather than power. He tumbled onto the ground, only to quickly roll back from the barrage.
Ishtar dug herself out of the hole, and Kama was sent flying next. Sakura and Rin only grimaced at the sight. For as strong as their servants were, Heracles was still proving to be a powerhouse.
“Like I said, I don’t want him completely absorbed into the grail.” Ritsuka rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to have to catch her. Can you two keep this one from running off into danger.”
“Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on him.” Rin crossed her arms, looking frustrated that she was being put into the support role.
“Sure. We’ll keep Emiya-san from rushing out to die.” Sakura answered.
Shirou flinched. With how Sakura usually referred to him, she wasn’t using the usual honorific she usually used. He wasn’t being referred to as Senpai.
‘Have we drifted so far?’ Shirou saw the frustration from Rin being mirrored upon Sakura’s face.
He didn’t know what had happened for that whole month that Sakura hadn’t come over to his house. Even when he had confronted Shinji, Shirou had been told nothing. All he could figure was that something big had happened. Taiga had even said it was really weird that Sakura had avoided him entirely.
“Fine… I’m going to go get her. If possible, try and have Archer and Assassin take out two more lives. I’m thinking that he doesn’t have many lives still in stock if my sights are working right.” Ritsuka sighed and rushed off from the group, moving far faster than a normal human should have.
“What!? How’s he moving that fast!?” Shirou called out.
“I’d like to know too, but we made a deal for our alliance and we haven’t finished our parts yet.” Rin grumbled under her breath. “That’s just how he is.”
“It’s true. That’s how he was when I met him.” Sakura stated, keeping the truth of their meeting to a bare minimum. It wasn’t like it would help them deal with Heracles.
Illya growled out as she sent out a few more storch ritters, the few already sent out had been mercilessly shattered from the combined fire of multiple magi working together, not including her brother. He still seemed out of his depth and was on a very short leash…
‘Where did he go!?’ Illya felt like tearing her hair out.
The one person who had ruined her original plans and was the one who messed with her the most was missing. Part of her wanted to call Heracles back, since she hadn’t brought Sella or Leysritt for back up. The constant fighting, however, made it clear that if they decided it was too much of a hassle they could just snipe her.
‘Damn it. Maybe I was too hasty… but Berserker is the strongest in the world. He can take care of this.’ Illya bit her thumb as she started to pan her head around. She couldn’t keep making anymore storch ritters seeing as her body was starting to hurt.
As she panned her head back and forth over the field, she was knocked to the ground. Something had pounced atop her back.
“Waaah!” Illya cried out as a small Sphinx cub knocked her to the back, followed by two others who climbed atop her hands. Then they all laid down keeping her stuck in place.
Heracles roared in defiance, about to jump over to save Illya, when Kama decided to act.
“ The Sugarcane bow and the arrow with flowers. I question your judgement for relying on such things like that, oh well. Kama Sammohana! ”
Several clones of Kama surrounded Heracles before pulling out a bow, pink energy flowed from her arrows and pierced through Heracles. He stopped on the spot though he was busy restoring his body. Illya could only gasp as his eyes seemed to be stuck in a lethargic gaze and he didn’t move immediately.
“Illya, please give up. We can waste the rest of his lives and I don’t want that to be his ending.” Ritsuka called out as he squatted next to the tiny homunculus girl.
“Lousy time to show up for a date, don’t you think?” Illya snidely remarked, a glare pointedly focused on him from the corner of her eyes.
“Far be it from me to come between a lady and her revenge, but since you’re doing this without at least speaking to Shirou about his side of the story, it’s going to be hollow. Kiritsugu and Irisviel wouldn’t want you to waste your life becoming the Dress of Heaven.” Ritsuka took his shot.
“What did you say!?” Illya harshly hissed, glaring bloody murder at Ritsuka.
“Exactly what I said.” Ritsuka bluntly stated. “I may not know what Kiritsugu thought about all this, but I at least know Irisviel wanted you to grow up to live your own life. However, you know that the Einzbern make their members into the lesser grail to activate the greater one.”
“You… I… “ Illya growled and huffed. With the sphinxes atop her, she couldn’t lash out with whatever she could at Ritsuka. She remained glaring at him.
“Who told you that they abandoned you? Iri found out that the grail was cursed, and Saber over there was summoned by Kiritsugu, she would know what happened.” Ritsuka pointed out the Saber who was fighting off her Berserker.
“Why are you doing this…!?” Illya roared out. “Why now!? Why at all!?”
“Because you’re going to die if you follow this path regardless of what we do. You know why. And do you really want to go thinking that they abandoned you when I know you’re far smarter than that.” Ritsuka sighed, and waited.
He took a moment before pulling out a small geas contract. He placed it in front of her eyes so she could read through it. It was barebones, basically stating that she wouldn’t have her or her forces attack them anymore for the duration of the Grail War.
“We can take out Berserker. We still have enough to take him out and they’re waiting on you.” Ritsuka mentioned. “Rub your thumb in the mud and press against the contract and we’ll stop before that happens. There’s an extra servant in the war, cheating technically.”
Illya stared at it. She was highly pissed. The constant use of her parents name had thrown her for a loop. Tears fell unbidden but she didn’t cry. Her eyes turned to Heracles who was struggling to get out of the charm he looked to be under. They weren’t taking advantage of him, staring at her to make a decision.
‘I want answers… I want them now…’ Illya clenched at the dirt. She wasn’t in the best angle to toss dirt at Ritsuka… but she was losing her will to keep fighting.
Caster teleported over. While she didn’t do anything, Illya could see the small dagger in her hand. They had options… a lot of options.
‘I can’t believe I’m considering this…’ Illya shook violently. The Sphinx cubs were still on top of her. She couldn’t actually toss them off her body.
“Fine…” Illya hissed. “Berserker! Stop already!”
Illya quietly pushed her thumb into the dirt and stamped it against the contract. The Geas took effect and the Sphinx cubs slowly padded off of Illya. Ritsuka offered his hand.
Illya just glared at him. A deep broken sigh left her and she grabbed his hand allowing him to lift her back to her feet. Heracles jumped up, landing right next to him. Ritsuka didn’t back down when he glared at him. He had already seen a much more dangerous version of Heracles before, even if his legs were shaking still. A burst of steam left his mouth as he looked at Illya.
“Yeah… we’re not fighting anymore… unless someone else starts something.” Illya grumbled. “No thanks to this bastard.”
“It’s not my fault you wanted to kill us all.” Ritsuka huffed. “If I’m gonna die, it’s gonna be because I’m doing something to help several people.”
“So what now?” Illya grumbled. “Because I want an explanation.”
“You can die.” A voice called out from nowhere.
“ Your Heart is mine! Gae Bolg! ”
Heracles‘ chest burst into a shower of gore as Ritsuka pulled Illya behind her and Medea flew up away from the carnage. The spear was hanging out of Heracles’ body and his eye had faded. He was still taking his time to come back, but Ritsuka could tell he still had a few more lives.
“Damn it. I missed.” Cu Chulainn grumbled as he pulled his spear out, stepping menacingly towards Ritsuka and Illya. “Sorry bout that, I’m gonna need that little lady now.”
“Ah, Cu. I figured you were following us. Didn’t think you were going to actually act since you’re working with Kirei.” Ritsuka called out to the other servants who heard him.
“What can I say, a job is a job. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to choose my master… ya know.” Cu shrugged, though his eyes focused on Ritsuka. Ritsuka merely raised his thumb and Cu nodded to himself. “Yeah, the boss says I need the girl. Now.”
“Impatient, isn’t he?” Ritsuka sighed. “Is he also working with Gilgamesh, the Archer of the last war?”
“The what!?” Cu growled out. His eyes seemingly darted back and forth as if he was arguing with someone in an intense debate.
“You know, you really have no idea what’s going on, even if you have been watching.” Ritsuka muttered.
Ishtar flew in out of nowhere and attempted to ram into Cu with her entire bow. Manna was dodged… though the extra kick managed to knock Cu away from the pair.
Kama and Medea floated by the other Masters, Shirou was being kept in place by Rin and Sakura keeping a firm grip on his shoulders. It was already clear that he wanted to rush over… up until the point where Heracles finally got back up. His skin turned red and before Cu could regain his footing, Heracles grabbed his leg and slammed him into the ground.
With careful precision, and what looked like an application of runes, Cu managed to cut through Heracles’ wrist well enough to escape. His agility was put to the test as he dodged and weaved through a flaming vajra and several beams of light from Assassin and Archer respectively.
“ What do you mean I should retreat…?” Cu whispered under his breath, incredulity spreading across his visage. “ It’s an even fight!”
Even as Cu argued with an invisible voice, it was clear that all servants were starting to surround him. While it was to be a grand fight, it didn’t change the fact that he was going to be outnumbered. Also his main target was being held by that sneaky bastard of a Rider hiding out like a mage.
Then he felt it, that invisible force being pushed through his being as a command seal was being used.
“Well shit. Guess we’ll be doing this later.” Cu grumbled.
Heracles slammed his massive blade of concrete down… only for Cu to disappear from that spot in a flash of light. The power of the command seals during this war being far more powerful than the ones Ritsuka was used to.
“Damn it.” Ritsuka cursed under his breath as Illya peeked around his body.
There wasn’t a massive blood stain that was the Lancer there. And she was starting to realize that Ritsuka knew all about the war and had effectively planned out enough to get his route as the winning plan. It was admittedly impressive, if not infuriatingly annoying.
“Ho! And that is all the servants of the war.” Kirei muttered as Cu came back. “Do you think they’ll come and attack us immediately?”
“Probably. I mean I did effectively make myself the villain of the piece.” Cu scoffed. “I could have taken them if you weren’t holding me back.”
“Hmph. That’s not the point. Without the black grail that Zouken had, the child will not be born. It is without shape or form, and at the moment, the actual child of heaven isn’t corrupted enough to even allow him form.” Kirei shook his head. “Besides, someone has urged me to wait until it’s time.”
“Indeed. The finale has barely been marinated and you want to skip the process, Mongrel.” Gilgamesh floated down from on high as he stood at the altar of the church. Cu tensed up, realizing just how much he didn’t know was going on behind the scenes.
“So that’s how it is.” Cu grumbled.
“Indeed Lancer. And we shall allow them the brevity they require. Once that time limit is down, an invitation will be sent.” Kirei added as he turned and walked back to his room within the church.
“I shall send it myself. There is something beautiful I must acquire. A treasure that’s eluded me for far too long.” Gilgamesh huffed as he walked off as well.
Cu stretched out his body, though his glare never left the backs of the two that left him behind. He was at least somewhat relieved that Rider, that bastard that hid his scent, had saved his original master. That she was alive was a blessing in itself.
This war was reaching it’s end.
Chapter 7: I just slept with my servant... now what?
Summary:
Sakura decides to change and Rin follows suit out of pride. One girl gets a new life and another wakes up to her old one.
Chapter Text
There was tension. Even with the Geas in effect, it didn’t change the fact that Illya was still a ball of anger and hurt. The only reason that things were proceeding somewhat calmly was the fact that Ritsuka had known explicitly about Irisviel, and Illya wanted to know. The truth, or at least a version of it, was within her reach.
“How long do you think we’ll be somewhat free?” Rin called out as Sakura walked next to her, giving Shirou a wide berth. Saber was the one walking close to him, even with Sakura giving her the stink eye.
Saber didn’t even notice… which just depressed Sakura.
“Hm… no clue. Probably three days. Maybe. You won’t exactly be safe anywhere we have to hide. Not even your own home given Gilgamesh is also here.” Ritsuka answered, though it was clear Rin didn’t actually want an answer.
“How reassuring…” Rin groaned.
“He’s not wrong, Master. That golden pain in my ass won’t go to any beat than his own. So three days is generous given that it’s still him and most likely Lancer against the other six members of the war.” Ishtar added.
“He’s always like that, though that’s only when he actually likes someone.” Kama added. “So we’re lucky at this moment. Doesn’t mean Lancer probably won’t be trying to cull our numbers.”
“Which means we should probably call in sick to the school.” Sakura extrapolated where Kama was going with her comment.
“That seems like a big assumption just to ditch school for a bit.” Shirou pondered as he looked back at the other two female Masters. Illya was quietly riding Heracles’ shoulder, and Ritsuka was speaking quietly to Medea.
“No. It’s the smart thing to do, because they have nothing to lose from attacking us outside of our own bases.” Rin covered her forehead, seemingly trying to force a headache to get smaller. “It also means collateral doesn’t matter to them either, probably. So when they start, who knows who they’ll attack to get at us.”
“They would do what!?” Shirou nearly rounded on Rin, only for Artoria to keep them moving.
“Exactly what I said. So if you want to keep people safe, then we all need to call in sick.” Rin stated, finishing off with a poignant poke of her finger on his shoulder.
“It’s military tactics. If he knows how we think, then he’ll use that against us.” Artoria finished off the thought that had raced through Shirou’s head, based solely on his worried look. “From what I can tell, neither Archer’s Master, nor Assassin's Master have anyone that they know that could be taken as a hostage or used against them. You, Master, have multiple people. Rider’s Master also is a lone wolf in this sense.”
“Sounds about right.” Ritsuka chirped in, and continued speaking with Medea.
“Illya is their main target. Which means that they’ll focus on taking her.” Artoria summarized. “Anyone else is a speed bump.”
“I’d like to see them try.” Illya grumbled.
The Geas spell was still in effect. Illya had partially thought about crushing Ritsuka’s head through Heracles, only to get a headache and quickly recant the thought. It wasn’t worth it.
“So we’re using your house as our staging area.” Ritsuka spoke up, quickly coming up to Shirou and patting him on the shoulder.
“Wha-? I mean, okay. That’s the plan then.” Shirou quickly ran through every thought process.
‘When did we agree to use my house? I don’t remember mentioning that at all… unless, Illya? No I would remember mentioning… did I get played into saying yes?’ Shirou mentally sighed as he led the group to his home. It was already four in the morning… and he needed to make a decent excuse for his actions going forward.
Day 1 Emiya Household
It had been tough to actually find enough room for everyone. Shirou had offered rooms for everyone but Rin and Sakura had left with their servants back home. Ritsuka had taken the offer, if only to keep an eye on Heracles.
Of course he woke up to his new world, and Illya greeted him at breakfast. Artoria and Heracles remained outside the building.
“Good morning Oniichan.” Illya smirked… though there wasn’t a lot of warmth in her gaze. She looked annoyed and perturbed at him.
“Illya… you don’t have to call me that.” Shirou sighed as he felt the actual anger wafting off of her.
“Oh no, I think I have to since our beloved father never came to get me, basically abandoned me and left me in the care of our mage grandfather who basically experimented upon me. Please tell me, why shouldn’t I call you oniichan seeing as father took care of you for so many years. Please, tell me.” Illya grew more tense by the second, voice straining politeness as her glare intensified.
“I… I never knew any of that. Kiritsugu never told me much about his past. I do know that every month until he died, he would travel out to Germany for an entire week, only to grow more despondent with every trip. Like if something soul crushing happened. He would usually sit on the porch for hours on end when he got back staring at the moon. For some reason he would also be holding on to walnut seeds? I don’t know why though.” Shirou explained, and Illya only looked more upset with each word out of his mouth.
She didn’t know if she could believe that. For as long as she had been spying on Shirou, he didn’t come off as a liar. He was completely broken from whatever happened during the grail war, that she could see from whenever they confronted each other during the war. He had tried to run in to stop Heracles, which was a level of suicidal stupidity built through trauma.
She could see it in his eyes. He craved something that he could only get through throwing himself into danger for the sake of others.
“When I was born… Kiritsugu would carry me on his shoulders. During the winter season, when the walnut trees began blooming, we would play a game seeing how many we could find before the others.” Illya started, tears forming as she spoke. “He tried to cheat by using wingnuts as a substitute. Of course, I caught him and magnanimously allowed him to keep playing… it was the only time I ever saw him relax. The only time I ever saw him smile.”
“I only saw him smile twice.” Shirou mumbled under his breath. “The day he pulled me from the Great Fuyuki Fire, and the night before he died. I’m realizing now a lot of things that I probably should have picked up. Things that were obvious… things I didn’t want to actually come to terms with.”
“He was a mercenary.” Illya stated. “That is the truth. With several missions under his belt where he killed magi who stepped over the line. And they were killed regardless of the severity of their crime. That was his choice when he went on a mission.”
“Yeah… Saber said the same thing. She… she knows more about dad since I think he summoned her for the last grail war.” Shirou nodded, he felt smaller than usual.
“He did. He was given Avalon, the sheath of Excalibur, to summon her, I guess. We know he still had it.” Illya wiped the tears that had formed. “Do you know anything about it?”
“I never saw anything like that… he wasn’t exactly keen on teaching me anything. I used to turn my nerves into pseudo magical circuits.” Shirou admitted, only for Illya’s glare to intensify.
“You idiot.” Illya bluntly stated. “And to think I wasted so much energy hunting you, when letting you continue would have killed you easily.”
“It’s not like he taught me exactly what to do.” Shirou argued.
“Did you actually use it for something worthwhile or was it stupid little things that anyone could do if they practice enough?” Illya glared even harder.
“It was for practical things. I used it for structural analysis of objects in order to ascertain what was wrong with them.” Shirou felt a harsh slap, stopping him from talking.
“So you wasted your nerves to fix up what?, machinery, for no reason at all. That is not even worth the effort when a screwdriver and a manual would have solved the same problem even if it took a little longer. Are you that stupid and uncaring of your life that you would waste it right then and there!?” Illya shouted.
“Hey!? I used what I learned through self teaching because I didn’t exactly have any other way to learn. I needed to figure out my magecraft…” Shirou trailed off as Illya just glared down at him.
“Father was an idiot who tried to save the world. He had no idea how to do so. It killed him every step of the way because all he could do was kill. How is anyone supposed to be a hero if they can only kill, kill and kill.” Illya grumbled, glaring at Shirou. “Are you also trying to be a hero or something? Killing yourself for the smallest thing even though you accomplish little to nothing that an electrician could do?”
“It’s… not like that.” Shirou attempted to argue. He found his thoughts strangely silent on that front. “I… I needed to do something.”
“And have you actually saved anyone, or is everyone still looking out for you because you can’t even save yourself.” Illya turned pensive. Her glare was still there but it was tinged with worry.
“I don’t know.” Shirou admitted.
‘I know I kept Sakura safe… but lately I think I’ve failed there. She hasn’t been around for nearly two months and I can’t even tell why.’ Shirou felt his thoughts picking away at his resolve. ‘I think I’m helping Artoria… She's been more open lately. And maybe… just maybe I can save her too…’
“I think… at least one person.” Shirou let out. He was still unsure about his words.
“I suppose you’ve at least tied with dad.” Illya crossed her arms, harrumphing at his words.
‘Artoria… can you come here? I think the two of us need to know about father.’ Shirou telepathically communicated with her.
‘ Of course, Master. ’ Artoria stated as she walked into the house, her armor dismissed as she sat at the small table.
And the two learned extensively about what had happened during the Fourth Holy Grail War. Through the tale, the two sat closely to one another until brother and sister finally were able to hug and cry about what had happened.
Artoria could only smile. It was melancholic and full of sympathy. She could finally see the resemblance to the women she had constantly protected during that war. She could finally remember the small girl perched on the shoulders of a man she had hated and respected in equal measures.
Heracles, the stalwart guardian, could only watch in silence. It was cathartic to see his master finally come to terms with her grief. The wolf pack that hunted her was still fresh within the small pockets of sanity that made up his mind. Her only opening to him was finally bearing fruit.
He was content. Though his berserker state made it difficult to show that. For the Emiya household, at the very least, they were attempting to heal. It wouldn’t exactly happen over a single day, but at the very least it was happening in the first place.
Ritsuka remained silent throughout the entire exchange. It was nice to see what Irisviel meant when she looked at Archer and Sitonai. She had only mentioned them once in passing and she only knew because she had information from the grail. This had happened in the past of an alternate timeline which meant it wasn’t her timeline. She was happy all the same.
“Hmph, it seems deadbeat fathers are still going strong.” Medea pouted as she looked at the scene through her scrying crystal ball.
“I guess? Honestly, I only know these things secondhand so I don’t know all the details. At the very least, we are lucky that things ended up the way they did.” Ritsuka sighed.
“You mean the way you wanted them to.” Medea pointed out.
“It was the best case to be fair. You are right though.” Ritsuka nodded.
“Did you mean to be devious about this?” Medea grumbled as she thought back to everything that happened.
“Honestly, it was the only way to keep as much of the world safe as can be. Heracles might not be at full power but he has enough juice in the tank to make it work. I need to get the grail out of Illya though, if any of us die, she’ll be in intense pain. I’m gonna have to hide her in my noble phantasm tomorrow probably.” Ritsuka scratched at the back of his head. “And that’s going to be a nightmare to handle.”
“Must you be so flippant with these reveals.” Medea facepalmed. “You are the worst mage I’ve ever met.”
“To be fair, when I wasn’t a heroic spirit, I couldn’t even do reinforcement or Gandr spells. I was merely capable as a mana battery or a repository for mana diffusion amongst other beings. That allowed me to support up to three servants at any one time though… so make what you will of that.” Ritsuka admitted.
“You truly are a fool. Why would you tell me that!?” Medea could only feel her stomach drop further. It felt like she was speaking to her little brother once more… before he fell into meat chunks in front of her mind’s eye.
“Can you actually do anything with that? I died a long time ago… or I will die eventually in the future. Something like that.” Ritsuka chuckled, waving off the sheer incredulity wafting off of Medea as he grabbed her hand and took her back into his reality marble.
They still needed to look over Bazett and make sure her healing was up to par.
Night 1 Tohsaka Household
It had been a mostly silent walk that evening. Ishtar and Kama had taken to invisibly floating around the two as they kept an eye out for Cu Chulainn to show up once more. As much as it vexed the two, neither of the sisters had put up more than a token effort of resistance to the idea.
Walking shoulder to shoulder made the two feel somewhat equal and far less lonely than they had been.
It was the one thing they could agree on. The house they called their home was more akin to a tomb. It was meant for a family… but they had stopped being a family a long time ago. Their father had his throat slashed out by some unknown assailant, and their mother had been throttled and eventually lost her mind completely until she gave up.
The two of them weren’t in the mood for doing much more than existing at this point… even if the events of the night had destroyed a lot of their preconceptions before them.
“That didn’t go as was planned…” Rin finally mentioned it as they entered the bounded field of the Tohsaka home.
“Shirou-san kept trying to rush out and do something several times. It was… frustrating.” Sakura added, if only to add something to the conversation.
“I’ll say.” Rin harshly sighed. “We even told him not to do that because he wouldn’t be able to make much of a difference with his complete lack of training.”
“We didn’t make much of a difference either. To be fair.” Sakura muttered under her breath. Rin barely heard her, but heard all the same the most important of that message.
“Yes, that’s true, but we also supercharged that gem to be strong enough to do something.” Rin grumbled. “And we both had to add magical energy to that gem just to make a difference. I barely had it at C rank before we actually worked together on it.”
“I suppose there’s something to say for our small miracles.” Sakura faltered slightly. “It’s just… frustrating.”
“You’re telling me. This isn’t how things should be going… for some things, maybe that’s for the best.” Rin looked at Sakura. “In other ways, it’s a nightmare.”
The two walked inside as Kama and Ishtar both materialized and floated after their respective master. Rin had stylized another room for Sakura to take.
The house wasn’t exactly meant for it but Rin had forced Ishtar to help her create a better room for her now estranged sister, more akin to a second Master bedroom which was refined during one of her meetings with Ritsuka. The bathroom between the two rooms was now shared.
And the two entered their respective rooms and laid back after the rough day before.
“So, that went better than what I first expected.” Kama floated down to Sakura who was lying on her back staring at the ceiling.
“I suppose.” Sakura answered.
“Not satisfied? I mean that ‘ senpai’ of yours at least didn’t do stupid shit.” Kama finger quoted that particular word which slightly mocking derision.
“He still tried.” Sakura muttered, anger on her lips quite clear.
“And that’s just who he is. He tried to help Saber given how many times she had to melee Heracles on her own.” Kama added, ignoring the anger born of worry.
“I noticed.” Sakura growled.
She hated that. She hated that she even hated that. Once long ago, those things would stop her with pain for having such strong emotions. Now, she was untethered to that bullshit. It didn’t help, but her anger burned too fast to actually affect her worse. It sputtered out and a sigh left her mouth.
“Better?” Kama floated above her, looking her in the eye.
“No.” Sakura bluntly stated.
“I mean, I could suggest a particular stress reliever, but I’m not sure if you want that.” Kama smirked, her eyes tilted slightly in mirth.
“I… if I do that… it means I don’t want to go back.” Sakura sighed.
“And that’s not bad. It’s all about growing up. Changing oneself, even if I do find that stuff to be utter bullshit. For humans, it means something.” Kama giggled as she seemingly held her head on her knuckles. Even though she was floating above her.
“But… he’s a servant too…” Sakura mentioned, with uncertainty still on her face.
“He’s also supporting himself with a grail. I’m not sure how this is going to work, but that shouldn’t have happened. He basically has a mana battery that would let him support the two of us beyond the end of the war without issue. Even now, I could probably meld myself to you and I would be able to stick around without too much trouble.” Kama smirked. “There’s plenty of ways to break this stupid system.”
“Oh…” Sakura looked shocked. “I thought… oh…”
“Indeed Master. You will be living a far better life.” Kama smirked smugly, looking at her master coming to terms with her desires.
These desires she had helped grow. Kama didn't even need to force this to happen, or help build up Ritsuka in his legend. He just acted as himself, and suddenly, he was buried in tits and pussy. Even reluctantly acting as a Love Goddess, she could feel such immense energy whenever he once again dragged another woman into his countenance.
“Go for it. We still have a final battle, but regardless of the outcome, you will at least go down that road with a genuine smile on your face once more.” Kama fired the finishing blow.
“Right.” Sakura nodded almost absentmindedly. She had mentally pumped herself up for it, and Kama could only smile. Her eyes glowing a deep red as they were hidden in shadow.
As much as Kama cared for her Master, it didn’t mean that she didn’t want to appease her former Master more. She didn’t use her charm, she didn’t force the issue. All she did was let Sakura Matou figure out her way and watch where she went.
After all, she wasn’t working as a Love Goddess right now. It was thankless work and she didn’t need to do anything in the first place.
“He did something impressive.” Ishtar smugly smirked at her now fretting Master.
“Shut up! I heard you the first ten times!” Rin shouted, thankful for the bounded field to keep her screams. She quickly grabbed her pillow and screamed into it.
‘I just had to tell Archer that I would actually think about it if he did something impressive. I just had to do that. ‘Oh sure, I’ll just subdue the Einzbern heir and subsequently pull her in as my ally, no big deal!’ The fuck was I supposed to know that Ritsuka is a fucking charismatic bastard capable of doing the impossible.’ Rin screamed in her mind as she heard Ishtar giggling the entire time. It just infuriated her more.
‘I told you so~’ Ishtar sang mentally.
‘I can’t even think in privacy because I’m actually considering this bullshit. I can’t believe it. I am the heir of the Tohsaka, not some… floozy!’ Rin stared into the closest mirror.
She was blushing as the constant thoughts coursed through her mind. This was dangerous. She had actually considered it as a worthwhile endeavor… all because her magus brain was spouting out how beneficial a union would actually be. Madness, her father’s words were nothing but a poison.
Even so, she couldn’t actually fully dismiss them. She knew that they came from a much more enclosed mindset from an ancient bloodline. Though lately she hadn’t exactly felt happy about having said bloodline. It was… sickening to think of.
Sakura would frequently occupy her mind. She didn’t know what happened but she knew something bad happened. And that had been her Father’s choice. Now he was dead and everything he did meant absolutely nothing.
Rin could only feel despair over their legacy. The Grail was corrupted. Their path was destroyed and sent to ruin because one of their families decided it was better to cheat than to win through honor. That thought left her mouth tasting of ash. Honor… it was a word that held little to no merit here. There was no honor and there wasn’t exactly a happy ending here.
She was under a geas, as far as she knew, and she would have to follow through on giving her body for all the help she received. She had been given a goddess… and that was more than she probably could have summoned on her own.
‘Gods… I’m actually considering it…’ Rin looked haunted, albeit her cheeks were flushed because she realized that she would be keeping her personal honor, with her honor. It was frustrating… and tantalizing in several ways she couldn’t fathom.
Night 1 Rider’s Reality Marble
Illya had felt drained after everything she heard. Saber had been the same servant her father had summoned, the one she remembered from those simpler times. It… helped? Somewhat, at least.
It didn’t mean she wasn’t still angry. Saber was her mother’s protector, and she hadn’t even known what it would cost her… though maybe her mother knew and didn’t tell her. She wasn’t exactly sure. Years had passed since those days… and she wasn’t exactly the innocent girl that existed back then.
The story was… probably true. The Geas she was under had forced her to think more logically. Then Rider picked them up and dragged the two into his Reality Marble. Heracles stared at the large ship, silently watching him in case things went down.
“And this is?” Illya asked.
“My ride. The Storm Border. I can name it since you wouldn’t actually know about it.” Ritsuka added. “Honestly, I’m just bringing you in because I’m not sure if Gilgamesh or Cu Chulainn will decide to pick you up early. Kirei is very willing to be cruel.”
“The priest? Figures that he would be. I only saw him once when I arrived in town. I wanted to bash his face in when I saw him.” Illya squeezed her fingers, seemingly pantomiming, crushing something between them.
“Yeah… he’s bad.” Ritsuka slumped slightly, sighing in exasperation. “It’s not as bad here, but that’s really a debatable sentiment given who is left to fight here.”
“So… I see you brought me to your home. Already attempting the last heir of the Holy Grail War as well.” Illya pompously proposed, looking almost disappointed.
“If you want? Honestly, I just wanted to make sure that you’re safe.” Ritsuka shrugged, taking Illya off guard.
“Couldn’t you phrase it better!?” Illya growled. “At least make it seem like you’re interested in playing the game!”
“Not right now. When I know I can actually keep you from becoming the grail, then I’ll play your game.” Ritsuka chuckled, but didn’t seem happy about it.
“Hoh! So sure that you can do anything for me.” Illya smirked, though it was anything but proud. “Think you can save me?”
She wanted to smack him. Ritsuka could see her hand tense but the geas stopped her. Illya’s glare hadn’t subsided, and Heracles seemed to huff in agreement.
“Yup.” Ritsuka smiled, pulling out one of his extra grails… to the shock of Illya. She just stared, mouth open, completely wide eyed in shock.
“How!?” Illya yelled.
“I was summoned with three. One I’m using to supply myself with magical energy. The other two will be used for something else. One of those is going to be for you once we get to the final fight. Gilgamesh’s soul counts as three servants, and Cu Chulainn isn’t going to accept a deal aside from fighting.” Ritsuka explained. “It’s in you right now, isn’t it?”
“I… you… but…” Illya couldn’t find the words. “…yes.”
“I don’t want you to wear the Dress of Heaven.” Ritsuka resolutely stated.
“… thank you.” Illya softly muttered. Her arms were wrapped around her. “You still have your hair hidden.”
“I didn’t know how you would take it if I didn’t hide it. Aside from my eyes it’s jarring, probably to you and him if I didn’t.” Ritsuka sighed, undoing the spell that hid his hair.
Illya covered her mouth in shock. Ritsuka Fujimaru looked almost the same as her late father. The only difference were in fact his bright blue eyes. They had actual hope pooling within them. Genuine happiness was the vibe she received from them.
“You weren’t kidding. Honestly, if it wasn’t for your eyes and this geas I would have wanted to claw them out.” Illya threatened, though it lacked her usual malicious intent. She was still examining Ritsuka’s face in excruciating detail.
“You know, saying horrifying things like that doesn’t really make me want to run from you.” Ritsuka shook his head, almost looking at her fondly. “Morbid, aren’t you?”
“Looking down on my sense of humor.” Illya mocked right back. “Picky, aren’t you?”
“Anyways,” Ritsuka sighed, “let’s get you situated. I’ll pull you both out when the sun rises.”
“Lead the way.” Illya huffed, bemusement painted her face as she followed into the innards of the ship.
Heracles remained on the deck of the ship, within this vast void looking up into the nothingness.
During that entire exchange, he had been forced to mentally chastise Illya. She had gotten strange ideas when she realized Ritsuka looked like her father. Even being Greek, he did have to point out the problems with her malicious behavior.
She ignored it. She was invested since someone at least saw her as an adult. Years of being a staunch shorty had taken her toll and being taken seriously, treated like an actual woman rather than as a child had left her going full tilt. She craved it now, and she wasn’t going to let it slip through her fingers.
Even though it was clear she wasn’t going to get any until the war ended.
Day 2 Emiya Household
Sleep had been a joke. Shirou had seen nothing but flames and annoyance. The truth was supposed to be liberating. It hadn’t left him in the best mind set given that he now knew that his father had been both responsible for the fire, but that he had taken responsibility for his actions finally from what he knew.
It didn’t change anything though. At least, it didn’t change how he felt about his old man. It did, however, make him think about his own demeanor. And he admittedly didn’t like what he had noticed.
There was no way to really be a hero, like he wanted. Illya had mashed that into his head repeatedly that he had mistaken a hero with a superhero. They were ideals made manifest in fantasy because that’s what people wanted. It wasn’t impossible but it was unlikely unless circumstances allowed it to happen. Artoria had also stated the same thing, and spoke from experience.
Illya wasn’t in the house. Ritsuka had taken her and Heracles somewhere to hide away from their enemies Lancer and Gilgamesh. It was a smart move given that he was pretty sure Lancer had already known where he lived.
It took a few moments after starting breakfast when Artoria came in from the dojo.
“Hey Artoria.” Shirou called out, flipping an egg over itself. Omelettes felt as the best thing on the menu for today.
“Master, you won’t be leaving anywhere today, will you?” Artoria perked an eye up.
“No, not that I didn’t suspect you’d ask me something like that. I’m not going to rush off like that. It’s not like the church is their actual base of operations.” Shirou scoffed.
‘I know damn well that that’s where they’re holed up. We should go out there and take them now.’ Shirou thought as he placed the omelet on the plate and started on the next. The rice was still cooking, and the meat he set aside for Saber was grilling quite evenly now. ‘The sooner we take them out, the sooner everyone will be safe.’
“You are easy to read, Master. It would just make Gilgamesh take us out immediately. As much as it pains me to admit it, Fujimaru is right about how Gilgamesh acts. He deals with problems if they rush in because it goes against his sensibilities. If we go up to him and challenge him, then we have a chance.” Artoria explained, though her own scoff could barely be hidden.
“I take it you don’t like how that guy is dictating how things go?” Shirou quietly hedged his bet.
“No. He is right, but it feels like I’m listening to a diet Merlin. However, Merlin was right about everything even if I didn’t always have the right context. He has been right the entire time and deviating from the plan is probably what gets us all killed. The only one in this war that can stand up to Gilgamesh is Rider, and myself.” Artoria huffed. “And that’s provided Rider actually shows up. That bastard hasn’t been in any of our fights, leaving his Master to pick up the slack so heavily just for us to handle.”
“It does feel like that’s how it goes.” Shirou hummed in agreement. “Here you go, Artoria.”
“Thank you Shirou. Your cooking has been most helpful this entire ordeal.” Artoria smiled before scarfing down everything placed before her. Shirou was glad he had made enough food. He still had enough in his fridge that it wouldn’t cause him to need to race out to get more.
“Artoria… what are we going to do now?” Shirou finally broached the subject that had been building up in his head since this war started. “I mean… neither of us are able to get anything from this. We can’t really change our pasts… it doesn’t work that way… even if we had the grail.”
Artoria slowed her eating, pondering the statement as she laid her chopsticks down.
“Honestly, I don’t know. For ages, I have been summoned to gain the grail. I’ve come close, but I never got it. Now that I know more about the stakes and what I would cause with them… I’m at a loss. Fate was cruel, and I was certain that gaining my wish to undue my rule would solve everything.” Artoria mirthlessly chuckled. “Now I know that it wouldn’t even help me in the first place. It would just create a timeline where I didn’t and there would be no guarantee that it would actually go right. At least, that’s what my instinct is screaming at me now. Camelot will fall, it is fated to. Merlin had warned me extensively, up until I pulled the sword.”
“I was born in a fire. I don’t even try to reclaim my past… even if I have all the records I need. I am who I am because of that moment. My ideals… need to be reforged. I placed that ideal of being a hero on a pedestal, when I never realized that it was made from the spilled blood of the innocent. We need to find something to work towards… we both do.” Shirou struggled to let those words exit his mouth.
All the while, Shirou and Artoria sat closer and closer to one another.
“We’re back!” Illya shouted as she stepped into the dining room, causing the two to nearly lunge away from one another, or fall flat on their back.
Heracles remained outside, uncaring of the comedy happening within the building. He remained aware of his surroundings, keeping vigil if Lancer decided to appear. Ritsuka had raced off, heading for the other members of their alliance. It was basically time to prepare their spirits for what came next.
“Ho! Tough crowd.” Illya harrumphed, as she sat at the table… only for someone else to race in.
“Shirou! Why are you skipping school!” Taiga yelled as she rushed into the house. “Ah!”
Only to tumble into the wall when she saw Illya.
“So you’re his caretaker. I am the daughter of Kiritsugu Emiya, the eldest child I should mention.” Illya regally stated, as Taiga picked herself up from the ground, and fell back down in complete and utter shock.
Shirou hoped the others were in better states than he was.
Day 2 Morning Matou Household
It was a whim… and a plan filled with vengeance. One that simply coincided with her decision. Kama only smiled at it, never saying a word vocally or mentally. Her presence did all the speaking she needed.
Shinji rushed the fuck out of the house. At the very least the old money his family had come from would buy him a motel room at least for a day or two. Their father figure was nearly non-existent and wasn’t even home all too often. The bar was his real home.
And Zouken, he didn’t matter since he had been erased from the face of existence.
Sakura Matou, as much as she hated the last name, was basically queen of the house. She had even stopped to get something special in particular before she had made it home. Kama smirked, happily lounging in the air. She didn’t need to help as Sakura changed into what she bought, and prepared to put on a white dress to go along with it.
‘Is it wrong that I’m looking forward to this?’ Sakura pondered as she looked in a mirror.
‘Not at all. It’s your right to enjoy your life. And if this is what you want to do, it’s not hurting anyone.’ Kama giggled as she floated through the home. ‘I’ll make sure he doesn’t come back, use every hour you have to the fullest and cut off this cancer with this act.’
‘Yes. I’ll do it.’ Sakura pumped herself up.
Wearing a very tight black bra and tiny thong, Sakura stared into the mirror. The clothing didn’t exactly hide her body to any appreciable metric. Kama even floated down with a smirk.
“Not even trying to be subtle.” Kama noted, poking at how her nipples were barely hidden by the material. “Good. We don’t need you to be subtle. He was somewhat dense when he was a human. Just be careful, when he does know, he’ll be ravenous. Damn… now I want to join in.”
Sakura looked shocked at that admittance, though she didn’t exactly say no. She fretted though.
“Don’t worry. I won’t, Master. But I’ll be nearby, in case you realize just what you’re in for. I didn’t when I seduced him, but it made my devotion all the better.” Kama chuckled maliciously. The truth was that Ritsuka had seduced her, blindsided her with his ridiculously long cock and fucked her into submission. She wasn’t going to exactly tell her Master that. She was still a goddess of love and she wasn’t going to be that open about what Ritsuka did to her.
“Ah… thanks.” Sakura quickly spoke, before her attention was dragged to the bounded field.
“It’s Ritsuka. It’s what? Seven in the morning now? Good luck Master.” Kama faded into spirit form and Sakura could feel her make some distance, for the moment, which left Sakura scrambling to get the white dress on.
It wasn’t going to be on her long, but there was a certain decorum she wanted to follow before things got intense. Not too desperate, not too needy. She was going to be the textbook definition of a Japanese housewife… at least for the moment.
Ritsuka looked up at Kama who silently floated above the front door. Without breaking eye contact, she lifted both hands. One formed an O shape while she extended her ring, middle and pointer finger before thrusting it into the hole. Ritsuka curled an eyebrow up at her, she pouted slightly before the smile returned.
She shot her thumb back into the house and faded into spirit form. The smirk hadn’t faded as she disappeared. That left only one option for why Kama acted like she did.
‘Well, I suppose I should answer clearly.’ Ritsuka thought.
As he entered the Matou home, it was quiet. The usual oppressive atmosphere he felt when he was first summoned was no longer there. It was calm and peaceful.
At the foot of the stairs stood the purple haired girl, in a simple white dress. She held her hands behind her back, and cautiously smiled at him. Tense would be an understatement of how she appeared in front of him. A blush adorned her face.
“H-hello Rider.” Sakura announced. “I’m glad you came.”
“You did summon me after all. So, what can I do for you Sakura?” Ritsuka answered in kind.
“I… yes, I could use your help with something. I didn’t really think I would be capable of this. My life was planned, my fate was destroyed, then you showed up and suddenly everything was opened once more.” Sakura quietly started, her words gathered strength. “I thought it was impossible. Then in five minutes you saved my future.”
“Hm.” Ritsuka hummed slightly as he stood in front of his former master.
“I wanted to hate you. I wanted someone else to save me… but they couldn’t.” Sakura harshly whispered. “But I couldn’t hate you. You made me feel safe, you made me turn strong. You didn’t lose.”
Ritsuka remained quiet, scratching his cheek lightly. He didn’t actually do anything important. She was in trouble, and he meddled immediately. And it looked like she wasn’t out of steam.
“For years, I thought of nothing but revenge. The one person who knew what had happened to me failed. The person I thought would save me, they did the bare minimum by offering a place where I could be safe. It might have been a reprieve but it never solved the problem and let it fester beneath the surface.” Sakura nearly started screaming, her words turning harsher. “Unlike them , you came in and actually took out the problem.”
“I’m sure if they were thinking more about it, they would have figured it out.” Ritsuka attempted to ease the contempt that had been brewing. He wisely left out the word eventually since it felt like it would just set her off.
“Maybe. But they didn’t. They might have done nothing in the long run, I recognize that.” Sakura slumped slightly, before straightening up and staring Ritsuka down. “But you did. You were the one who finally saved me. And you actually saved me entirely. I know what that thing that I threw up was.”
“A piece of his soul, right? I could feel that he was hiding everywhere.” Ritsuka nodded. “But you’re building up to what you really want me to do, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” Sakura answered.
With a heavy blush, Sakura slipped off the straps of the white dress she had put on. It pooled at her feet easily sliding down her curvy body. The small black bra she wore barely allowed her already hardening nipples any coverage. The matching black panties couldn’t even hide her neatly trimmed pubic hair as it hugged into her labia.
“I know… I’m tainted. But I just want to… to thank you.” Sakura quietly muttered as she brought her arms into her body. She had basically thrown herself into the jaws of exposure for a man she had only known for little more than a month.
And she wasn’t disappointed or shunned.
Rider zoomed over, grabbed her by the chin and pressed his lips against hers. Sakura, taken aback, let her tears fall as she kissed back. Her gambit she had built up with Kama had paid off.
His hands trailed down her body, no clothing taken off but she could feel his calloused fingertips gliding down her body. His tongue voraciously explored her mouth and when his hands gripped her butt she squeaked in surprise. It was enough for Ritsuka to fully dominate their kiss, twisting Sakura down slightly as he completed his domination. As their lips parted, Ritsuka picked her up.
Her ass fit comfortably within his palms, and Sakura’s arms curled onto his shoulders to hold on. She looked into Ritsuka’s eyes and could only smile when he smiled back at her.
“So, where are we going?” Ritsuka asked, adjusting Sakura in his arms.
“Um… the master bedroom. It’s up there and the last door on the left.” Sakura stated. She lost her nerve slightly, gripping a bit tighter to Ritsuka. Her head rested on his shoulder and she could hear his heartbeat as he walked up to her destiny. It was a saccharine way to think about it, but she was feeling a little floaty at the moment.
The master bedroom was sparsely decorated. It was clean, but the bed looked as though no one had slept in it for the last couple of months. There wasn’t a layer of dust but everything felt as though it was untouched and lost to time. Ritsuka took a moment to will his clothes off, fading with a flash of golden dust before breaking the stasis of the room and sitting on the bed.
Sakura gulped slightly. She had been carefully placed in a way that she straddled his lap, but his hands were firmly lifting her ass above his crotch. She could see what he hid beneath his clothing, a scarred body built to perfection. He definitely had abs one could grind meat on, biceps that could crush her head with every flex, and well defined pecs.
Sakura was not an idol of purity as she appeared to everyone. Her upbringing had brought up some problems with her libido. It was still there but finally it was under better control since that blasted parasite wasn’t mentally destroying her by draining her heart.
This was a massive alarm to that libido waking up.
“O-oh… wow…” Sakura quietly reached down, her hand felt up and down Ritsuka’s chest, taking her time when she felt the definition of his abs. “Rider… how!?”
“I was trained by so many teachers. They built me up until I reached the standards of a heroic build. I tried to still be human though.” Ritsuka chuckled. “However, that’s not my real concern. Do you know why I’m not letting you firmly sit down on my lap?”
“Hm?” Sakura seemed confused.
“Being a servant has pushed my body to be, I suppose, Adonis-like. That means every muscle is at their peak physical fitness. Every. Muscle.” Ritsuka intoned slowly.
Ritsuka allowed Sakura to slide down his body until she sat on something that was standing at full attention. Her entire body froze up realizing what she was sitting on. Only at that moment, Sakura finally realized what she was getting into.
“That includes that muscle. Which is now what you are sitting on.” Ritsuka finished as Sakura turned redder. “Go ahead. Look what you’re getting into.”
Sakura did so. Turning her head, she noted a massive log standing as attention between her ass cheeks. She even reached back to check its thickness, noticing that it was as thick as her wrist. When she turned back to Ritsuka, her eyes looked like pinpricks.
“And to think, being a Rider didn’t actually change how long I was.” Ritsuka admitted. “Heroic spirits usually get affected by their legend, but that part of me wasn’t, surprisingly.”
“What!?” Sakura nearly shouted, coming out more like a hiss.
“Yup. So what should we do?” Ritsuka asked. “This is a big deal after all.”
Sakura slowly nodded, only for Ritsuka to lift her off his lap. She stood meekly in front of him, he reached up and grabbed her hand. It took only a few seconds before she felt his thick heated pole in her fingers. Absent-mindedly, she began stroking away at his cock.
“It’s… big…” Sakura muttered as her eyes focused on it.
She gulped slightly. Her knees went weak and she fell before Ritsuka’s cock, eye level with that monstrous tool. Had she been more aware then she would have noticed Kama watching the two from the corner of the room, masturbating at the sight before her.
“Can I…?” Sakura asked, trying not to seem desperate with her actions.
“Act however you’d like Sakura. I’m here because you summoned me. So if you wanted this, I wouldn’t say no.” Ritsuka answered, leaning back as he watched Sakura do as she pleased.
Sakura couldn’t hide her horniness. It was a left over piece from her years of living within a pit of worms. Her body craved stimulation but she had kept it under control due to the worm that was attached to her heart. Now, she was no longer muzzled by that horrible parasite.
She quietly lifted his meat stick up until it began resting on her face. Sakura’s eyes focused on Ritsuka’s as her tongue stuck out and began licking his balls. She wanted to do her best so she eagerly moved her tongue up and down as quickly as she could.
Ritsuka reached down, patting her head and making her preen at the act. Sakura could feel her enthusiasm grow as she grabbed at the base of his cock and began slobbering all over his shaft. Her eagerness to please was obvious as her mouth rose up until she reached his mushroom tip.
Feeling his hand still on her head, she took that as all the prodding she needed. Wrapping her lips around the tip, she lowered her mouth along his meat pipe until her cheeks bulged from its intrusion. Rider was too big… and she almost felt like it was an impossible task.
“Let's see… I remember a spell for this.” Ritsuka muttered. There was a deep flash of light and Sakura felt a warmth flooding her body. She could hear a couple Latin words when he did so.
Sakura deepthroated Ritsuka’s cock so easily without gagging. It took a few seconds of realizing what had been done. Her violet eyes stared up into his blue eyes asking the question that was in her mind.
“While I was always a horrible mage in life, I did learn tantric spells given how hung I am. I’d prefer not to have my partner have a hard time.” Ritsuka chuckled slightly. He didn’t say much after that… but his grip did tighten.
Sakura could feel his grip on her hair, lifting her head off his lap before shoving her mouth back down on his cock. With no gag reflex Sakura easily kept taking on her new blowjob duties with nary a complaint. She could feel her mind get foggy as her mouth and jaw were put to work for Ritsuka’s pleasure. Her own body betrayed her as she felt her panties get wetter by the minute. With no hesitation she reached down plunging her fingers into her pussy.
Ritsuka took a moment to stop as he stood up from the bed, reached down to Sakura, and lifted her entire body until she was completely upside down. Her hands fell to his side, grabbing onto his hips. It didn’t help that she was still sucking Ritsuka’s cock and the sudden twist in perspective actually had her be hilted to the base of said cock. Her eyes wavered as tears formed due to having her throat packed full of dick meat.
It was only the start of her pleasurable torture. It took very little effort to pry her soaked panties off her legs. Even less to have that hand immediately push three fingers into her quivering lower lips making her gush with a single touch. Sakura curled her toes only to feel his cock pull back before thrusting into her throat once more.
It was too much. She remembered the horrors that affected her before. It was never for her pleasure. This was too different and she could feel her entire body vibrating from sensations she had never felt before. She nearly lost it when she felt something wriggling between her puffy pussy lips, and she realized only when she felt two hands holding her waist what it was.
His tongue work was experienced, he searched every crevasse and when he found a weak point, he struck. Sakura tensed, her entire body so unused to the sensation flailed around only kept in check by the cock in her throat making it hard to squirm around in the first place.
As he flicked her clitoris, that was the last crack in the dam. She wanted to scream, but it was muffled, sending vibrations down Ritsuka’s cock. Sakura began squirting, only missing his face due to the angle she had faltered into. Her lower body, hanging up in the air with legs splayed out in a Y shape, twitched and spasmed in orgasmic enthusiasm.
Had Sakura been on the bed, she would have been able to rest for a few seconds. However, with her current position placed in a standing sixty-nine, she didn’t have that chance. Ritsuka’s cock twitched, and Sakura’s eyes could only widen as it exploded in her throat. The speed at which he shot his load defied gravity enough to hit her stomach.
She gulped as quickly as she could to coax everything out before her cheeks could bulge with Ritsuka’s jelly-like cum. As he placed her back on the ground, taking his time from the small twitching of his cock, she could not swallow fast enough. Her cheeks ballooned with cum and Ritsuka kept the tip of his cock against her lips.
“Swallow.” Ritsuka ordered.
Sakura stared up at him, and with great effort did as she was told. It took two minutes until she had managed to get as much of his baby batter down her throat, leaving a small hefty amount left in her cheeks.
“Show me.” Ritsuka stated.
Sakura calmly opened her mouth and showed the thick sludge coating her tongue and pooling up into her cheeks. Her head leaned back just so she wouldn’t spill any. She waited a few more moments, letting her tongue play with the remaining amount in her mouth.
“Go for it.” Ritsuka placed a hand atop her head, patting it. Sakura could only lean into it as she gulped down the remaining cum. Opening her mouth once more, she showed off how clean it was. “Good girl.”
To some it would sound demeaning. To Sakura, it was praise in a way that she couldn’t deny sounded good. Even with a month of helping her through her issues, it didn’t magically change the fact that she thought herself a monster. Now, however, she was with another monster. Admittedly, he could only be a monster because his cock was humongous, but that wasn’t a bad thing.
Sakura saw herself as a monster even now. So, why wouldn’t she pair up with an equally monstrous individual with a differing context behind him. It felt right… at least, to her it felt right.
She idly let the still dripping cum from his thickened tip fall into her mouth. He hadn't gone down, which meant she had only survived round one. That… actually frightened her. Monster was an adept description of the beast that towered above her.
“So… now comes the big question. Are you riding? Or being ridden?” Ritsuka asked, offering her hand to the young woman in front of him.
She didn’t know when it had happened, but her bra also slid off her body. She instinctively reached up to cover herself, only to relax when Ritsuka placed his hands on her shoulders. Sakura eased her arms down. She had already performed fellatio on him, she didn’t have much left to hide given how she had dressed.
“What’s the difference?” Sakura gulped.
“If you ride, you’re on top. You dictate the speed… mostly.” Ritsuka chuckled. “If you’re ridden, you’re on bottom and I dictate the speed… completely.”
“Ritsuka… I’ll be the rider.” Sakura confidently stated, even if she had paused before making her decision. It was still a dangerous notion.
Ritsuka didn’t say a word as he effortlessly picked up Sakura and carried her onto the bed in the Master Bedroom. He adjusted himself, sitting at the head of the bed and placed Sakura down at his side. She gulped as she crawled atop his lap, and took a seat.
Reaching back with her palm, she managed to squeeze his dick between her cheeks. Ritsuka said nothing about it, allowing her to dictate how she wanted this to go. Then she began to bounce in his lap.
It was a bit rough given Sakura’s general lack of confidence in being in control. It didn’t deter from the pleasure Sakura was giving Ritsuka, but it was clear that she only had so much boldness when it came to sex. Actually coming on to Ritsuka was the peak of her boldness.
Once again, it didn’t take away from Sakura’s plush ass squeezing Ritsuka’s cock just to the right amount. Ritsuka was merely the beast of burden in this scenario, and Sakura needed this confidence boost so he leaned back and relaxed.
“You’re doing good.” Ritsuka grunted, pulling in Sakura and kissing her once more. Their lips stuck together as her hips gyrated and sidled back and forth. She looked dazed and content as their lips parted, a trail of saliva being proof of his influence on her demeanor.
“Yess… “ Sakura sighed as she suddenly felt the splashing of hot liquid over her ass. Her smile grew, even though she noted that it hadn’t eased Ritsuka’s stiff cock much, since she had managed to coax out another shot through her own power. Her smile was actually genuine at her accomplishment.
She gulped and lifted her hips once more. She noted that the thick cum sliding down her ass was extremely slow, and had the consistency of jelly. It was dangerous even if he was a servant, and she was on her safe days.
Sakura halted as the tip of his cock pressed against her pussy. He was thick, and she didn’t feel she was built exactly for bitch breaker class cocks. Violet eyes met blue eyes once more, and Sakura locked her hands on her knees and squatted down. The spell from earlier was still helping, but it didn’t change the fact that she still felt that she was being ripped in half.
Then she felt something that she shouldn’t have had. Her hymen had been regenerated. Her eyes turned to pinpricks as she realized what Kama meant when she said that she was repairing her. Unfortunately, she had been taken off guard by the sudden tearing. Her foot slipped.
Suddenly, Rider’s massive cock was now buried in her guts, her newly restored hymen was torn and she had lost her virginity for the second time in her life… that last thought wasn’t exactly a deal breaker. However, she wasn’t in the right mind for thinking about anything at the moment.
Sakura had hilted Ritsuka’s cock seamlessly. A high pitched squeal left her mouth and she began squirting hard against his stomach. He had to hold onto her waist when she started to fall backwards. It had been too much all at once and her brain had been wired to tolerate pain… not pleasure.
“It’s okay. You’re good.” Ritsuka coaxed Sakura to lean into him as she mumbled obscenities under her breath. He cooed and calmed her to the best of his abilities. “You did it. You handled me well.”
“Eh, oh, uhh, mweh…” Sakura muttered as the high of impalement was slowly wearing off. “So… big…”
“And you took it.” Ritsuka answered, patting her head in praise of her. She was still twitching on his lap.
“I… I can keep going.” Sakura cried out, she didn’t exactly look capable of lifting her hips at the moment though… and Ritsuka was hesitant to do the work himself.
If he was honest, he would go all out the moment he was given the chance. His legends… or at least his stories always portrayed him as merciless to his lovers, if what Ishtar and Kama had told him was true.
“Hold… my ankles… please…” Sakura breathed out as she adjusted her posture. Barely managing it, she had gotten her legs into a squatting position. She was still hilted though and the imprint of Ritsuka’s cock was pushing through her lower abdomen. She wasn’t even able to focus on anything given how her eyes kept darting back and forth.
Ritsuka did as she asked and his hands wrapped around her ankles, holding them firmly. Sakura took a couple deep breaths before she groaned from the exertion of standing up from his lap. Even standing up as much as she could, the tip was still stuck inside her. Sakura didn’t falter but Ritsuka could see the look in her eyes. She looked overwhelmed but determined.
“Here I go…” Sakura stated, before she nearly dropped down.
A shuddering moan escaped her mouth and Sakura’s eyes nearly rolled into the back of her skull. Ritsuka was too big, but since she had decided this was the hill she was going to die on, her hips lifted once more. It took twenty squats before Sakura built up a rhythm.
Every time that Sakura felt his cock twitch, she knew deep down in her haze ridden mind that he was holding back. So she did her utmost to show that she was far more capable than she appeared. She was going to prove that she was stronger now than she was a year ago…
‘Yes… I’m going to show this hero, my hero, what I’m made of.’ Sakura thought as her rhythm got faster. She was riding Ritsuka as if her life depended on it.
Again and again, she felt her belly be filled almost dangerously. Her body was reacting positively to it as the tip crushed her womb with every squat. And then her body locked and she came once more. With the same pressure she drenched Ritsuka’s abs in her excitement as she lost it. It got worse when his hips bucked up and shot another load out, filling Sakura up.
She couldn’t handle it. Her pussy slid down the shaft until she hilted once more and her upper body fell atop Ritsuka’s. Sakura was spent, her body couldn’t handle that level of orgasm over and over again.
“Sakura… I’m not done with you.” Ritsuka stated. His hands reached down, Sakura could feel them clenched on her ass.
“I… I can take it.” Sakura grumbled.
‘I wish you luck, Master. You’re in for a ride.’ Kama giggled into her mind, and Sakura managed to catch a small glimpse of her schlicking herself in the corner of the ceiling.
Sakura could feel his grip on her ass tighten, his palms fitting nicely against her hips. Ritsuka slid her back off his cock, but only to the halfway point.
“Last chance.” Ritsuka stated. They had already taken care of one another. The satisfaction was there. Sakura could have gotten off with that.
“Do it.” Sakura hissed, her arms wrapping around Ritsuka’s neck tightly.
Ritsuka’s hips shot up refilling Sakura once more, the cum he shot already oozed out from the edges where they met. If that had been the extent of his actions, Sakura would have been fine. Then his hips fell and he thrusted once more.
Sakura lost it after that point. Ritsuka slammed his hips into her welcoming snatch and another load was fired inside her. Then he did it again, and again. For the next six hours he kept Sakura in a cowgirl position, changing the angle of which he thrust up into her.
Sakura screamed out obscenities and taunts all at Ritsuka to fuck her harder, to break her. Unfortunately for her, Ritsuka obliged her for the next six hours and by hour five Sakura had been fucked unconscious.
Before fully succumbing to being racked with pleasure, Sakura demanded that Ritsuka, in much more colorful words, fuck the stick right out of Rin’s ass before devolving into other obscenities about his cock destroying her pussy. Ritsuka idly agreed, if only to appease his current partner. She managed a smile before screaming her lungs out.
It was almost two in the afternoon when Ritsuka finally stopped. Since he had been at this since the moment they walked into the Matou home, Sakura was unconscious, naked, and laying on the bed covered in a thickened glaze of multiple cum shots from Rider. Ritsuka pumped out the last couple shots, even if it still wasn’t enough to drain him, standing over his unintended conquest.
Kama floated down, lustfully gazing at his meat pillar and her Master’s body. Her own shuddering breath and the fact she was still masturbating to the sight told Ritsuka all he needed to know. She had watched every second of him dominating her Master.
“You sure you weren’t supposed to tag in?” Ritsuka asked, not fully turning to Kama.
“Nope. My Master wanted all your attention to herself. She decided to go for it on her own terms without my love goddess powers I should clarify.” Kama smirked. “Overall, it’s an improvement over a boy who doesn’t understand what a hero will have to do.”
“I feel like you’re not giving him enough credit, even if he’s rash.” Ritsuka sighed.
“Probably. Doesn’t mean I care to know. I know when someone has fallen for someone. And she wasn’t at the top of the list.” Kama pointed her thumb at Sakura. “So forgive me if I don’t care to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“I should go check on our allies. As much as we shouldn’t actually be distracted, I do know she needed something to bolster her spirits.” Ritsuka scratched the back of his head.
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry. I’ll watch over her. Go to it.” Kama waved him off as quickly as she could. “But before you do…”
Kama instantly flung herself down and swallowed Ritsuka’s cock, slurping up every single drop of cums she could still stuck inside his meat stick. It took a few moments before she finally let go and showed off how shiny she had made his cock.
Ritsuka grumbled about it reluctantly, then went into spirit form and back fully clothed. He jumped out the window and left Kama and Sakura alone. Kama smirked, licking her lips as she looked down on her Master.
“Master, you’ve done very well. Most newbies who take on Ritsuka only last an hour or two.” Kama praised. “And he left me the greatest gift. I don’t know if you’ve noticed Master, but I love him. I love him more than my role or my purpose.”
Kama quietly crawled onto the bed where Sakura lay unconscious. Her body was covered in a thick white glaze. It pooled around her neck and sides while more slowly leaked out of her well fucked pussy. Ritsuka had shown no mercy, or took it easy on her for a moment.
“And he made sure that when everything goes down, we’ll be supercharged.” Kama stated.
Without hesitation, Kama ran her tongue across every rivulet of cum, slurping it up. Every drop became mana for her, every drop increased her reserves for when they inevitably went to fight off the last two participants of the war. Sakura continued to moan as Kama ate out of her cum filled holes, savoring every drop and ironically cleaning up Sakura, aside from a light coating of slobber.
Day 2 Emiya Household
Shirou had a headache. Taiga had stormed in at the worst possible moment. And now… now he had to find out just how much Taiga really didn’t know about Kiritsugu. It was a dam of emotions or betrayal, and darkness. Then she got pissed and ranted about how Kiritsugu never saw her as a woman, followed by depression as she asked for beer to drown her sorrows.
Illya played along, even got into the act. She was amused by this turn of events. Though it did make her realize that Kiritsugu was probably a heartbreaker of sorts. She remembered the assistant, Maiya? That’s what she recalled her being called. It didn’t matter to her much since she was dead as well.
Taiga drank too much and Shirou immediately put her to bed. Even though she had to teach tomorrow. It didn’t change the fact that he was emotionally spent.
“Jeez, if I knew she was going to react like that, I would have had you hide out in the dojo to avoid all that.” Shirou grumbled.
“That would have been boring. Come on, we need to break the minds of everyone at least once.” Illya laughed as she lay beneath the kotatsu she forced Shirou to bring out. It was obviously not that cold, but Shirou did need to be a somewhat dutiful brother… which he immediately hated. Illya assumed what was best for him, and that was going to grate for a while.
“That’s just waiting to cause problems.” Shirou sighed.
‘I guess… This is how siblings are? I don’t actually know. Issei never mentioned it. Ayaka doesn’t say anything about this… and that is very little frame of reference I could actually have. How much have I been missing due to all this.’ Shirou thought, as Illya seemed to stare at the ceiling.
“New plan. Shirou, go start searching Fuyuki with Saber for any problems. I doubt you want to stay cooped up here doing nothing. And I want to nap in peace.” Illya ordered.
“Wha- What do you mean search for problems.” Shirou groused slightly. Even then, his words felt hollow. He was getting restless. All this waiting while he was certain that the priest was inside his church, it irked him. He needed to do something.
“I mean go around town and bond with Saber, otherwise, you’re going to be the weakest link when we actually strike.” Illya harrumphed. “It’s obvious on your face that there still has to be rules.”
“Guh!” Shirou felt like he had been struck. ‘I’m not the weakest link…’
“Now go and bond. Shoo! Shoo!” Illya pushed Shirou out towards the dojo and closed the door behind him.
“Hey…” Shirou grumbled the entire way… even though he didn’t actually try that hard to stop her. Even he knew that maybe getting to know Saber better would help when the time came.
So he walked into the dojo. As much as he wanted to get stronger, he didn’t even think of challenging Saber yet. Too much had happened and when his circuits were forcibly opened, he had been lethargic for a good while.
“Hey Saber. Let’s go. We’re going to go around town and make sure nothing has gone wrong.” Shirou called out to the lone girl sitting peacefully within the dojo.
She had looked exhausted, but more at peace after she spoke to the siblings about their parents. It didn’t change anything major, but the three of them had found a modicum of peace knowing the truth. Artoria opened an eye, and with a small hop, got to her feet.
“Of course Master, lead the way. So long as we don’t enter enemy territory. Archer and Assassin and Rider’s Master were very adamant about me not indulging you.” Artoria idly commented, which just got Shirou to grumble silently about teammates.
The two quietly exited the home and went off towards the busier parts of the city. Shirou was glad he at least had his wallet and keys before he left.
Day 2 Evening Tohsaka Household
She had gotten the message only a few seconds in the afternoon. Rider was coming to discuss things and Rin was freaking out. She wasn’t ready at all. She was certain that the geas would activate and Rin would know exactly what it meant to pay a powerful mage their price.
“Really!?” Rin nearly screamed while Ishtar was floating around, laughing her head off.
“Of course he is! He’s always on top of things!” Ishtar laughed even harder, spinning in the air as she did so. “It’s going to be life changing.”
Rin blushed, grimacing at that thought. She couldn’t believe that she had made that stupid deal, even if she was confident that it wasn’t even going to happen. And now she had egg on her face.
“Right… right! I need to prepare. Shit… shit what do I do!?” Rin freaked out as Ishtar pulled out special clothing she had looked through Rin’s dresser.
“Here you go. This will help, I still remember his tastes.” Ishtar smirked. “Remember, this is war, and we don’t know if Assassin has already helped her Master. If you want him completely on your side, own it, flaunt it, and conquer it.”
“I… Archer, I… that’s a lot…” Rin blanched at the bra and panty set she found. Also the dress. All of it was red.
“Win, Master. It’s the only way we can triumph.” Ishtar smugly stated looking imperiously down at her human master.
Ishtar didn’t need to say anything. She didn’t really care how her current Master was kind of boneheaded, not really understanding the irony. She constantly muttered about the Geas she was put under could control her and how she sold her body for a divine class heroic spirit.
It was laughable because there was no geas. And the one time Ishtar had mentioned that there wasn’t one, Rin scoffed and stated it was a subtle one. That there had to be. So Ishtar allowed Rin to believe what she wanted.
Honestly, Ishtar could see through Rin. The loneliness was suffocating and she had been pushed beneath the waves. The girl had nothing to really live for anymore, even if she wasn’t exactly looking for an end. She was merely stuck and her lineage was going to end given how her parents acted and how guarded Rin was.
She didn’t care that much though. She was merely there to watch the show her Master would be giving her. Also she would humiliate Goldie once they got to the endgame but Ritsuka would have a plan for them to follow when it was time.
Rin was nervous. Ritsuka had entered just as she had finished getting dressed. She had effectively given in to Ishtar’s suggestion and was now wearing the matching red lingerie set, and a red dress over it. Admittedly, it was more like a slip on.
It didn’t help her emotions since she felt exposed. It went against a lot of her usual magus qualities… and she dreaded that Luvia ever found out about this. That particular bitch was always a thorn in her side… and she didn’t need any problem like that.
“Hey Rin. So, we’ve gotten everyone bonding better with their servant. It’s a necessity since it will make it easier to work when out on the field.” Ritsuka explained, he had glanced at her body but said nothing about it.
“Is that really necessary?” Rin pondered out loud. “I mean… we’ve barely been in this war for a week or so.”
“It helps. I bonded with over four hundred servants when I was alive. Because of our bonds, we faced monsters, deities and creatures from beyond the veil and succeeded. It even made most of them stronger.” Ritsuka continued. “Never underestimate what makes humanity great. It’s when we work together that things change, mostly for the better.”
“That feels… naive.” Rin winced slightly as that word left her lips.
“Probably. Still doesn’t change that before I entered the throne, I saved the world. Twice, in fact. All because I bonded with every heroic spirit I summoned and they helped me do so.” Ritsuka pointed out.
“That’s your story.” Rin wondered. “You actually saved the world…?”
“Pretty much. Did you ever want to know the truth behind the summoning system? During my adventure I snuck into the Clock Tower archives and figured it out.” Ritsuka chuckled as Rin paled.
“H-how much did you do!?” Rin nearly shouted. Sakura wasn’t in the home and that let her actually raise her voice.
“A whole lot. I can tell you more later. Now… There's something I’m curious about.” Ritsuka clapped his hands together. “You have dressed quite elegantly.”
“I just felt like it.” Rin answered immediately. She crossed her arms and harrumphed slightly. “I do like looking good.”
“Fair enough. How are you feeling after all of this? I mean, I’ve been wondering who I’ve been getting to know here. Have I been getting to know Rin, or have I learned about Tohsaka?” Ritsuka chuckled as he sat back on the couch in front of Rin, spreading out as if conquering the area.
“What do you mean?” Rin crossed her arms, scowling only slightly. She had a slight inkling about what he meant.
“Am I talking to the human, or the mage?” Ritsuka clarified.
“Is there even a difference!?” Rin growled out.
“Yes. A big one. Even with how I was, a first generation mage, I never put much stock in my magecraft. It wasn’t that important compared to being myself. It’s how I actually survived my grand order.” Ritsuka mused. “It would be shocking for you to know that out of all those forty eight participants who could finish it, I was one of three people. A six percent chance of actually succeeding. And I was the one who was lacking magecraft wise.”
“Is that so…?” Rin felt her shoulders falter. She sat close by, contemplative about what she heard.
“Yup. Out of those powerful magus, I, the one with no legacy, was capable of doing the job.” Ritsuka sighed. “It was terrifying.”
“I… I don’t know anymore. I thought I was the magus… but knowing how things ended up makes me realize just how inadequate I am at being one. I took the harder paths, and left Emiya alive. Most if not all magi would have just killed him and been done with it.” Rin grumbled. “And what happened with Sakura… I shouldn’t have cared, but it was impossible not to be.”
“Sounds like things have changed.” Ritsuka mentioned off handedly.
“Yeah they did.” Rin harshly groaned. “That doesn’t mean it’s all for the better.”
“I mean, not every single thing will be better. Only the important things, at least the ones I see in my eyes.” Ritsuka shook his head. “You’re not alone anymore. That’s one. You’ve stopped turning into a sociopath which is par for the course given all the magus families we’ve both met.”
“The fact that you’re calling me a borderline sociopath isn’t helping.” Rin snapped at that.
“Not even remotely where I was going and that’s a good thing. It means you haven’t abandoned everything to that desire that all magi have. Where someone justifies every single action they take so long as they win.” Ritsuka continued, lowering his tone as his words continued.
“Yes… I can figure that out.” Rin sighed. “You… you knew of my father?”
“I wasn’t summoned in that war. I did have a mission that took place in Fuyuki, but that involves time travel and a whole lot of context to help you figure things out. It’s that difficult to understand. And we don’t have all the time necessary to tell you every single detail.” Ritsuka shook his head even more. “We’ll talk more when we’ve finally finished this war. Provided we all survive.”
“I will get that story. There’s no way I’ll be losing.” Rin let out a pout. “I suppose it’s not like it’s the same… since it sounds like you’re talking about the Kaleidoscope.”
“Something like that.” Ritsuka nodded.
“Who won…?” Rin asked once she shook herself out of her fugue.
“Me. I stopped them from getting the grail because it was as corrupted as this grail is. Avenger was summoned in the Third Grail War. That’s part of a fixed point, supposedly it’s a split temporal path. It all depends on the Einzberns. If they summon a Ruler, the Greater Grail is stolen to Trifas. If they summon an Avenger, the Greater Grail is corrupted forever.” Ritsuka lectured. “It’s a time locked point at this point.”
“I see… and my Father?” Rin asked.
“Well, we took out Gilgamesh as the first victim of the war and when he lost he took over as Assassin’s Master and lost once again. But we only took out the servants.” Ritsuka explained.
“Oh…” Rin looked down.
“We also killed Zouken… or at least I know his soul was devoured completely.” Ritsuka explained further.
“That’s… that’s good.” Rin mumbled as she stumbled over and sat next to Ritsuka, falling on his shoulder and crying. “It’s a lot…”
‘I ended up on the worst timeline…’ Rin thought as she kept crying.
As much as she wanted to dismiss Rider’s entire story as fanciful, she really couldn’t. The loneliness that had been covered up by having her sister return had left her emotionally vulnerable. Talking about her father and mother once more with someone who actually knew and once cared for them, it had reawoken her emotions.
It didn’t help that her plan to actually keep atop of Rider had broken because from the moment he entered her home, there was nothing but empathy being pushed at her. Even Ritsuka’s harsher words were spoken with understanding. He wasn’t exactly accusatory, but his words held bite to them.
He stopped what he was doing and grabbed Rin into a deep hug. It felt better than anything that her father’s praise had tried to instill in her. It felt like she was actually being cared for like a person… which was just emotionally exhausting in a different way. She had never shed tears around anyone even when she had to bury her mother, she ignored her tears because it wasn’t what a mage did.
“Great… I failed at being a magus… damn it.” Rin grumbled further.
“It’s fine. That’s not the worst thing to happen.” Ritsuka muttered.
“So you say, that doesn’t mean you’re right.” Rin continued grumbling. “It doesn’t hurt though, and for some reason it feels like a weight is off my chest…”
“And that’s so much better in the long run. At the very least, you have your family back.” Ritsuka smiled, and was taken aback when Rin struck.
It was out of nowhere as she pressed her lips against his and closed her eyes as she kissed him.
‘Crap, I panicked!’ Rin fretted as she continued to keep her lips pressed against Rider’s. She didn’t know how to actually segway her way into actually keeping her word to Ishtar. ‘It’s not my fault I’m just jumping into this. Obviously this is all that geas’ fault. It’s because of that that I’m throwing myself at him. Yeah, that’s exactly what’s going o-‘
“Mmh?” Rin mumbled as Ritsuka pushed his tongue into her mouth and took complete control. His kissing was aggressive and encompassing. The sudden push had distracted her from noticing that she was now sitting on his lap, her eyes only opening from the sudden shock.
She could feel his arms wrap around her, and Rin felt ever safer. It had been years… years since she allowed someone so close. The sudden affection was shocking enough to make her emotional. Even though, to her best knowledge, was under a geas. Rin was going to confront Rider once she had eased the feelings she had been most likely filled with because of the Geas.
Yes, it was the Geas, she was sure of it.
It hadn’t taken long for Ritsuka to push Rin down on the couch. It was almost like she wanted it to happen. Ritsuka did find it a bit strange with how willing Rin was to act like this. It wasn’t like he put a geas on her, he didn’t even know any mental spells.
Ishtar had laughed, uproariously in fact, that her Master thought she was under a geas. That her second guesses were all because she thought Ritsuka had placed her under one. It was also the reason why Ritsuka knew that Rin thought she was under one, the goddess liked to chatter about amusing things.
It didn’t exactly stop him from continuing on dominating the young lady that now lay below him. That would be rude when she has the courage to do such things in the first place. It took little effort to lift Rin up and slide her dress off her lithe body. Admittedly, there was a bit of trouble because of a certain feature of the Tohsaka females that Ritsuka noted.
They were either stacked with massive tits, or wielding a massive ass. Sakura had the chest, Rin acquired the hips. It took a bit more effort to slide the dress off those hips of hers. Once again, it was just as enticing when he slid off clothes from Ishtar so it felt right.
Rin laid there, partially exposed because even though Ritsuka had undone the clasps of her bra, it was still on her. Her hands were close to her shoulders, holding on to the pillow she had laid upon. As much as she tries to hide herself, she still eagerly puffed up her chest.
Ritsuka ignored that at first, and with a quick swipe grabbed those fancy red panties and slid them off her legs. She released a small gasp, and crossed her legs. That made her pull her arms away from her chest, which let him take off Rin’s bra. She pouted at the suddenness but barely covered her body.
“Not even going to follow through.” Rin sniped only to go silent when Ritsuka astralized his clothing, revealing his well built body and massive dong looming over her.
“There’s an order. Trust me, it’ll all lead exactly where we both want it to go.” Ritsuka gave a cheeky wink, and without really thinking about it, he began flexing his cock in tandem with Rin’s harsh breaths. Her eyes didn’t break sight with it.
“Wha-“ Rin gulped. She desperately wanted to argue about that so-called order… only to be intimidated by the sheer size.
She wasn’t used to something like this. This was entirely beyond her skill set even though she was trying to entice Rider into placing more attention on her because of Ishtar’s machinations. Even though those machinations were merely Ishtar taunting her into acting recklessly. Not that she would ever admit it.
“Question, do you want to ride, or do you want to be ridden?” Ritsuka asked aloud. Rin caught the wording… and she was being given a choice.
‘Is that even a choice or am I being tested?’ Rin thought, scrutinizing what she was told. It didn’t help that she was still nervous about Ritsuka’s cock. ‘It’s enormous… but I won’t look incapable. Never!’
“Ride me, I can take it.” Rin resolutely stated. Her pride as a magus demanded that she could handle anything… Even through the trepidation of feeling the weight of the appendage on her belly made her keep second guessing herself.
It went well past her belly button, as he rested it on her. The weight was surprising. And her lack of communication let Ritsuka slip Rin’s bra completely off. Her puffed up erect nipples pushed past her arm as it tried to cover her up. It barely did anything and Rin knew that. It was all instinct.
Part of her wondered if this was what sleeping with a servant was like, after all, they were much stronger and more powerful than her. They could just take what they wanted given how this was an enemy servant as well… even if they were purportedly allies. Rin’s magus thought process still made her wary.
‘Am I scared of his size or the intimacy?’ Rin pondered as she watched Ritsuka flex his cock, slapping it against her belly with a heavy meaty thwack.
“Shall we then?” Ritsuka asked, Rin locking up before her magus upbringing once again reared its head. A frown appeared on her face and she nodded.
Ritsuka released a sigh, and adjusted his body. Rin watched as she was lifted into position and prepared herself. The sudden thrust never came. Instead, she felt those strong fingers clenching around her thick thighs and lifted.
“Wha!? What are you doing!?” Rin shouted, blushing heavily as Ritsuka split her legs apart revealing a glistening pussy dripping with anticipation.
“Getting you ready.” Ritsuka idly muttered, just loud enough to be heard.
Before Rin could protest, Ritsuka pushed his tongue against her pussy and licked. He stopped immediately at her clit and teased it with the tip of his tongue. Rin froze on the spot, shuddering as her entire being was assaulted by the pleasurable sensations vibrating from her core.
While she might not have been a stranger to masturbation, this was several times better than handling herself.
“Wait…!” Rin tried to shout.
Ritsuka pushed his tongue in, his hands gripping Rin’s ass tightly. It forced Rin to reach down, gripping his hair as she let out a sharp moan. Her back arched as the vibrations from his tongue striking away at her slit overwhelmed her.
“Oh gods…” Rin grit her teeth. ‘It shouldn’t be this quick!’
Rin was a disciplined individual. She could handle pain given how she was a magus, one who walks with death. They never said anything about pleasure and she was crying out from the attention.
“Cu- cumming!?” Rin sounded so confused as her body betrayed her. She screwed her eyes shut before screaming out wide eyed as she splashed all over his face.
Rin felt her body go limp, only being held up by Ritsuka’s hands gripping her hips and ass. She could feel his fingers gripping into her cheeks. She barely even recognized when Ritsuka put her back on her legs until her toes reached the floor. Her knees shook as she attempted to keep standing.
“You… you…” Rin attempted to growl at Ritsuka, his hand reaching down fingering her pussy stopped her. Her tongue stuck out in ahegao as she squirted out onto the carpet.
“Bend over, now.” Ritsuka stated, ordered even.
Rin attempted to scoff, it came out as a moan when Ritsuka stopped his fingering. The small voice in her mind kept telling her that the geas was in effect. That she should do what he wanted. Her pussy was on fire, dripping wantonly with lust.
Even as shaky as she was, she reached down, managing to grab onto the table. She presented her fat, well rounded ass for Ritsuka’s inspection, and Rin went far above what she needed to do. Reaching back, she pulled her cheeks apart showing off her twitching asshole and dripping pussy.
“Here… you big dicked bastard… take it.” Rin growled out, blushing heavily as those words came out of her mouth. She managed to get enough of her breath back. “If you think you're so impressive then come show me. The Tohsaka are far stronger than that.”
Ritsuka felt an eyebrow raise as he looked down at Rin. Even knowing how strongly his cock was throbbing, he didn’t really get this whole pride thing. He stepped forward allowing his cock to rest between Rin’s thick ass cheeks. There was an idle thought of wanting to see her bouncing on his lap but he pushed that away… for now.
“I don’t know about the Tohsaka, they don’t seem important to me.” Ritsuka answered honestly. “But I do feel that you, Rin, are important to me.”
“Wha…wha…what!?” Rin nearly shouted, her blush went crimson, and before she could yell any further, Ritsuka pushed the thick tip of his dick into her dripping pussy.
Ritsuka’s firm grip on her hips, pushing her own hands away as he pushed into her virgin pussy. It took effort though. Rin was tighter than he thought. She tried holding onto the table, gritting her teeth, breathing heavily as she felt she was torn into two.
Rider was too thick, too long, and more powerful than she could even fathom. Rin had expectations for her first time. Every inch being pushed in threw those expectations out the window. This was her new standard and she couldn’t believe that it was happening.
“Rin… was I your first?” Ritsuka asked, stopping what he was doing.
“Y-yes!” Rin shouted. “Don’t… don’t stop! I want this to happen! Just… just fuck me already!” Rin cried out, the pleasure was too much. Not only was her honor at stake, her desire had exploded from a combined assault on her senses.
Ritsuka Fujimaru had broken through her magus armor. The affection was horrifying to Rin, it wasn’t something she was used to. Affection with no expectation, caring about her physical state, getting her sister back… it was too much. Even while vehemently believing that she was under a geas that made her loyal, she felt her heart stirring.
She had felt that once before, but that didn’t go anywhere.
“I hope you know what you’ve brought upon yourself.” Ritsuka growled into her ear as he finally hilted his cock. He may have not been a Saber but his new Magus sheathe would disagree. “Reach down and feel what you’re about to endure.”
Rin grimaced, even with her mind partially broken by sex. She could feel her guts basically being rearranged. Ritsuka pulled her arms back behind her, lifting her upper body above the table and she complied with his order. It was only natural for her to do so.
Her entire face went pale as she realized what exactly Ritsuka meant. Rin’s hands could feel the massive meat stick that pierced her pussy, pushing up against her stomach causing it to bulge out. Her face turned redder which just made her paleness stand out.
‘Oh fuck! Oh fuck! Oh fuck!’ Rin hadn’t even started being fucked by Ritsuka and her sexual destruction had already been set up. Instead of letting herself panic, Rin scoffed. Admittedly it was strained and it felt more like she was groaning from the heavy impact of having a massive cock inside her.
The rhythmic sound of flesh meeting flesh started out light, then built into a constant stream of plap plap plap. Rin no longer was holding onto the opposite edge of the table, her arms securely grasped in Ritsuka’s grip. She was hovering above the table all because of the leverage Ritsuka used, which was mostly through his dick.
Rin kept herself as grounded as she could given the circumstances. Pleasure assailing her brain made it difficult to see through the fog of lust that covered her mind. The narrative that had been built up in her head allowed her to keep at least one bastion of sanity holding the tentpole in place.
Ritsuka sped up, his breathing turned harsh. He pulled Rin higher, her legs and toes curled in as she fought against the inevitable. She could feel the tension of his cock building and the veins that rubbed against the walls of her vagina told the ending. He was cumming.
“Inside.” Ritsuka stated. She couldn’t tell if it was a question or not. It was too much pleasure and not enough sense left. So she eloquently answered back.
“Eeeee!” Rin tensed up, trying to curl into a ball. That just made her pussy squeeze tighter.
“Cumming!” Ritsuka grunted as he used the momentum of his hips, and the movement of his arms to exaggerate his thrusting prowess. It wasn’t much of an exaggeration when the tip of his cock pierced Rin’s womb and fired.
Rin screamed even louder. Hot thick seed poured directly into her baby maker, flooding it. Molten white sludge burned her insides and the radiating heat just made her resultant orgasm all the harder. She nearly collapsed onto the table, Ritsuka plugging her pussy so completely that her belly started to get pumped up.
Rin couldn’t see straight, double vision was her fate. The heat from his cum inflating her womb was dangerous. She was too enthralled by the pleasure assailing her system. Then, she felt her body being twisted around. She could feel her insides being rotated upon his cock.
“ Again. ” Ritsuka growled, and before Rin could protest, and pulled her down the entire length of his cock.
Rin screamed out, her eyes wide open, tongue stuck out, and back arching from the sudden intrusion once more. At first she thought that that would be enough, but Ritsuka wasn’t giving Rin the chance to get used to it. He immediately grabbed Rin’s particularly fat ass and began slamming her down at his preferred pace.
*plap plap plap plap plap*
Ritsuka groaned in delight as he kept picking up speed. It was as if he was in a trance once more… mostly because he was this rough with Ishtar. She needed to be put in her place and a bit of overlap had washed over his perception. It didn’t stop him from giving Rin his complete attention but it did tickle a part of his mind.
“Ooogh!” Rin groaned as Ritsuka fired another heavy load into Rin’s pussy once more, forcing her stomach to expand a bit more. “Too… much…”
Rin let out another moan as Ritsuka pulled his cock out with a loud pop, followed by Rin’s womb failing to hold on to his seed. The extremely wet splash of cum was fired out. She clenched her fingers into his shoulders as her body went through several more rounds of orgasmic destruction.
“ Again. ” Ritsuka growled and before Rin even came down from her current orgasm. At this point Rin was little more than a toy.
‘Do it! Use me! This isn’t me at all, and this is just the Geas and maybe a little of my happiness from someone empathic looking out for me.’ Rin contemplated as she felt the thick tip of his cock pressing against her pussy once more. ‘Obviously, my wanting to have his cock destroy my pussy is just the Geas. That’s all.’
Rin squealed in joy as Ritsuka spread her out once more. Her arms and legs instinctively wrapped around Ritsuka as he thrust up once more. The molding of her pussy had long been completed with how thorough Ritsuka was over this extremely long couple of hours. And Rin, unable to cope with the pleasure, surrendered to it completely.
Her tongue stuck out as her eyes started rolling into the back of her skull, only to be made worse when Ritsuka captured her tongue with his lips. He sucked on it while his hips continued their relentless drive to fill her with his seed. Their dirty kiss made noises that echoed through the house, only matching the squelching noise when he hilted his cock.
Ritsuka released her tongue and Rin arched back as orgasms hit her once more. She was being rocked by another load of cum being blasted into her womb again, her already filled belly looked like she was carrying a bowling ball. And Ritsuka decided to follow Sakura’s desire.
“I’m taking your ass as well, present yourself.” Ritsuka stated as he pulled Rin off his cock.
There was another satisfying pop as Ritsuka pulled her off. Rin didn’t have any strength in her legs when he placed her down. She barely managed to grab onto the bed as she fell atop it. Her legs spasmed as Rin remained on her stomach on her bed, her asshole twitched in kind. She didn’t know what had come over her… but she didn’t try to stop it from happened.
“Fine… you big dicked bastard…” Rin grumbled under her breath. Her stern voice was betrayed by the sheer lust within her haze filled gaze. Her tongue hung out of her mouth and a lascivious smile was painted across her face.
She did her best to spread her asscheeks apart but her arms didn’t obey her. Ritsuka shook her head, a playful smirk on his face as he stepped up. He allowed his length to do the talking, the tip of his dick now pressing on her exposed anus.
“Grab the sheets.” Ritsuka ordered and Rin barely managed to bring her arms back up. Her fingers grabbed the sheets and she even bit into them.
Ritsuka took a few moments to admire her ass. Sakura was all woman, she had curves that signified that she was the most breedable of the sisters… however that didn’t diminish what was before him. Rin may not have been top heavy, but she made up for this with all the junk in the trunk.
It wasn’t like he didn’t notice. Rin had one of the best asses he had ever seen. Ishtar was his favorite girl for anal… which he tried not to think too much about. This was not her, this was Rin Tohsaka. Though given that Ishtar used her body…
Ritsuka broke off his thoughts and slapped Rin’s ass. It was enough to make Rin release all the cum from an orgasm he made her have. Muscle memory took over… he was back in his ways when it came to dealing with a defenseless ass like this.
Ritsuka felt himself back in the moment. He pushed the tip into her exposed ass and Rin immediately clenched her fingers and grit her teeth. It didn’t stop Ritsuka though. His cock was still covered in his still heated cum and Rin’s excitement.
“Oogh!” Rin cried out, her face twisting into agonizing pleasure. Ritsuka had not given much time or mercy when he shoved the entire length of his cock inside her. She was little more than a puppet on a thick meat stick.
And Ritsuka had fully given in to his inner beast.
“I’m going to fucking destroy both your holes until the only thing you understand is that my cock reigns supreme.” Ritsuka growled as he pulled back and slammed her hips forward.
“Eeee!” Rin screamed through her gritted teeth. It was too much. Her ass was being split further in half. He was too big, too thick, too long. And those thoughts were dominating her mind.
Those thoughts changed firmly to so big, so thick, and so long the longer Ritsuka kept slamming her fat ass raw. Rin had completely lost herself to the waves of pleasure her body now rode upon. She had fallen into the realm of a Rider with an EX rank in riding.
Rin went silent, her mouth in an O shape as she couldn’t scream out loud. She could feel it. He didn’t warn her. Her stomach felt heavy as she tried desperately to make sense of what was happening to her. That meat stick of his was throbbing and thick cream was being forced into her stomach. Now she had a cantaloupe shaped bulge in her stomach that she only noticed because her hands were holding it.
He had wrapped his arm around her neck, not hard enough to choke her but enough to make her lightheaded. It just enhanced the sensations.
“Honestly I shouldn’t take it further… so one more round and we’ll take a break… after I cover you in my seed.” Ritsuka growled sharply into her ear.
“Pwease!” Rin managed a single word. She didn’t know whether she was asking for more, or asking for mercy.
Ritsuka laid her out on the bed, turning her around to face him. His cock was still buried in Rin’s tight ass, still squeezing it to his delight. He quietly lifted her legs up, putting her in a mating press position. The small throw pillows on the bed were strangely placed nearby for Ritsuka to grab… though he was certain that it was just Ishtar voyeuristically watching her host succumb to her favorite dick.
His hands firmly grasped Rin’s ankles and his legs lunged forward. With how much cum was trapped in her stomach, it was a surprise still to see it push up her already protruding stomach. She was starting to completely lose it.
Ritsuka hilted himself and started grinding his hips against her pelvic area. His dick was throbbing once more. He wasn’t anywhere close to done, but Rin wasn’t going to handle more than one more shot.
‘Sakura handled this a whole lot better. Still she does have a much tighter pussy and ass even with Kama restoring her. Doesn’t matter though, Rin and Sakura are going to be protected as long as I’m here. I don’t know what’s going to happen later but I’ll do my best to make sure these people survive.’ Ritsuka groaned as he slowly pumped his hips slower.
Rin flailed a bit before going still, her eyes had rolled into the back of her skull and she was finally unconscious. It had been too much.
Ritsuka pulled out and with a single thrust of his cock he fired his load out over her body. No longer holding back, he let go firing more akin to a hose than a cannon. Thick ribbons of cum fired across her face dripping into her open mouth, her small but perky breasts and her cum inflated stomach. He didn’t control where he fired, several of those ribbons landed on her shoulders and arms, dripping into her armpits.
Finally, he pulled away, stroking his cock while pointing at her pussy. The final few streams of cum covered her pelvis in a thick glaze. He was satisfied with what he had done. Admittedly, his time in Chaldea had painted his cavalier ideals when it came to sexual partners, something he never realized was kind of out there even after he had passed into the throne.
“Woah… how wonderful Ritsuka.” Ishtar cried out as she floated down from her vantage point.
She hadn’t even bothered stopping her masturbatory efforts as she did. Ishtar had her hand deep inside her bikini briefs schlicking away the entire time.
“Did you enjoy the show while I fucked your Master and host?” Ritsuka sighed, his cock was still throbbing at this point. He could have kept going but it would have completely ruined Rin.
“Why wouldn’t I like watching you dominate me? Well, vessel me at least. We’re more akin to siblings at this point since I’ll be sharing her body. It also looks like your tantric ritual worked as well.” Ishtar mused aloud, she still hadn’t stopped her fingers dancing in those wet looking panties.
“Oh, you noticed that huh?” Ritsuka idly shrugged. “It’s just a little change to how things will go. With my connection to you and Kama through your masters, I can at least cut off your connection to the greater grail. Better than letting Angra Mainyu have a way to manifest in either of you.”
“I figured you’d be doing something weird. Was fucking our Master’s necessary?” Ishtar idly wondered.
“No, it probably would have been faster for the two of you to be my partners, but it seems like you both wanted your Masters to have something different.” Ritsuka tilted his head, staring suspiciously at Ishtar who chuckled. She played with her twin tails like a high school girl would.
“Like you just said Ritsuka. I wanted something different for my Master, and Kama would agree if she was here. There was no love to be found on their path at the moment. It was better that we did something given that the other boy made his choice to be a sheathe for that sword.” Ishtar giggled before floating above Rin.
“I suppose…” Ritsuka scratched the back of his head.
“You should go make sure our other allies are safe. I’ll watch my Master.” Ishtar shooed him off. “I’ll keep her safe.”
“If you say so.” Ritsuka stared closely at Ishtar, suspicious of her intentions but he had to watch out for his allies. “I’ll be back.”
“Take your time.” Ishtar waved as Ritsuka quietly astralized his clothes back on and left the house.
Ishtar smiled more sinisterly as she quietly put down the mixing bowl on the floor near the bed. She floated over Rin and slowly pressed on her cum inflated stomach. The sudden torrential waterfall of cum from her pussy and ass flowed into the bowl, splashing slightly out of it when it fell.
“You know… Master, it was brave of you to face Ritsuka alone. I even fell when I decided I could take him on solo. Then I became his. Addicted to him in his entirety. I know you can’t hear me, but I know you know exactly what I meant when I said Ritsuka was special.” Ishtar smiled.
Without wasting a second, Ishtar picked up the bowl and started drinking the heavy load of cum that had splashed into the bowl. It was mana, extremely rich mana from a servant holding onto a holy grail. Ishtar already knew the special properties of two of the holy grail batteries Ritsuka held.
Ignoring her thoughts, Ishtar savored the taste of cum before turning to her groaning Master. Rin had moaned heavily when she had emptied her insides. That didn’t stop Ishtar from acting. Like Kama, Ishtar was an addict. And she carefully licked off every drop of cum that was covering Rin’s body till she was clean.
Kama quietly deposited Sakura in her bedroom of the Tohsaka home. It was easy to merely possess her body since they were connected and bring her back. When she laid down on her bed, Kama released her hold and the naked body of Sakura was left behind.
She smirked as she remembered the fact that Ritsuka had thoroughly ruined the master bedroom with Sakura. The Matou household wasn’t a home after all.
Kama floated out of the room, carefully floating down into the living room, a disheveled Ishtar floated down after her. She looked content.
“So, did your Master cave?” Ishtar chuckled, nonchalantly avoiding mentioning her state.
“Of course. She got what she wanted.” Kama smirked maliciously. “She wasn’t going to find any love in this timeline.”
“Same here. They’re quite the pair of sisters, aren’t they?” Ishtar muttered, fixing her hair as she meandered over her words.
“I suppose. Doesn’t mean they’re that capable. We barely had two weeks of training for mine. She is still partially conscious at least.” Kama huffed.
“Well, I’ll give your Master that at least. Mine is completely unconscious.” Ishtar grumbled slightly. The two fell into a comfortable silence.
It wasn’t as though the two were actively fighting against one another. This was just another Chaldean mission to them. Even under the banner of extra masters it was just a continuation of their time working under Ritsuka.
Day 2 Midnight Emiya Household
Ritsuka sat down in the Emiya home. Illya had still there taking a nap while Heracles watched over her. Artoria had walked in holding a small lion plushie while Shirou looked exhausted, mumbling about so much food.
“Aww… bonding moments.” Ritsuka chuckled under his breath.
“Yeah… let’s call it that.” Shirou mumbled even lower. “So much yen…”
“Oh nii-chan, so disappointed.” Illya mocked. “You should be more prepared when you get a foreign girlfriend.”
Neither Shirou or Artoria commented on that. The slight blush on their face betrayed their thoughts but both seemed to agree that commenting would have made things worse. So they remained stoically silent about it. It didn’t work so well when Illya began smiling like the cat that caught the canary.
“The other two are busy getting ready their resources in case either Lancer or Gilgamesh decide to step in.” Ritsuka brought up, breaking the amorous tension that had been building. “This is our last grace period, and more likely than not they’ll strike. So we need to decide where we’re going to set up this finale.”
“Indeed. If we don’t have an advantage in territory, we’ll fall.” Artoria spoke up, placing her lion plush to the side.
“Though the first step of the plan is that someone is going to be challenging Gilgamesh outright. If we don’t, we lose. So we have to go up to him and fight him outright. He’ll take us less seriously, which is our only chance.” Ritsuka answered.
“What?” Artoria spoke so softly, as if she had seen a ghost.
“Yeah, that’s how he operates.” Ritsuka answered.
“Figures.” Illya huffed. “The only thing that I managed to pick up from Saber’s story was that he was arrogant and so sure of himself, that he’ll take someone who tries to fight him as an ant. It’s perfect in its simplicity.”
“It doesn’t help that he has a weapon that captures those with divine blood easily.” Ritsuka added. “The Chains of Enkidu effectively make Heracles, Archer and Assassin as his worst opponents. That means Saber and Rider are the only ones who can go after him. His armor would also block anything less than an A rank I think. Though that’s if he even deigns to use it.”
“So I’ll be helping with Gilgamesh?” Shirou muttered, his hands clenching. Determination on his face clouded the fact that everyone else was looking at him as crazy.
“If by helping you mean supporting Artoria with command spells, then yes. We have to worry about Kirei, given that he was all those command spells saved up from his role as the overseer of the Holy Grail War.” Ritsuka quickly broke Shirou’s confidence bubble.
“Right.” Shirou muttered. “Him.”
“He’s dangerous.” Ritsuka added. “He’s strong enough to shove his fist through people and I’m not sure if he needs to reinforce his arm with magecraft.”
“W-what?” Shirou looked shocked.
“Yeah. Illya, can you show him how to do projection magecraft?” Ritsuka had changed the topic.
“Projection? That’s one of the weakest magecraft out there.” Illya looked incredulously at Ritsuka.
“He specialized in structural analysis and reinforcement.” Ritsuka mentioned offhandedly. “At least from what I could tell from the stuff I’ve heard while looking around the high school.”
“God damn it…” Illya growled. “Sit down now. We’re going to go over all this until you understand every little nuance.”
“Uh… but it’s…” Shirou started.
“Now. Ritsuka, make coffee now.” Illya ordered and forced Shirou, who felt her big sister's energy, to sit down at the table in the living room as Illya took the head of the table.
Ritsuka didn’t say anything and went off to make the coffee. Artoria could only watch in shock as Shirou was pushed into a quick and dirty lesson on magic circuits and how they actually worked. They continually went back and forth as Shirou was forced to learn on the fly about everything he needed to know about Projection.
He wasn’t exactly going to be an expert, but he was at least knowledgeable about the subject. Though Illya shook her head once Shirou finally passed out from exhaustion. Artoria carried him off to his bed once it hit four in the morning.
“He’s not going to get anywhere with an impromptu lesson. He’s going to get himself killed if he doesn’t plan this right.” Illya grumbled.
“I am wondering how he summoned Artoria and she was in the last war as well.” Ritsuka didn’t continue Illya’s concerns… since it seemed to be borne out of worry.
“That… is a good point. I know dad had the sheathe of Avalon… but we never recovered it.” Illya tapped her finger against the table. “Should we ask Artoria?”
“I can do it… or just bring her back over with your Storch Ritters?” Ritsuka added.
“Right…” Illya brought out two of her glass birds and sent them off to get Artoria. It took a few moments for her to come back.
“Yes? You sent your… birds to get me.” Artoria flatly asked though she didn’t seem too put off by the idea.
“Did Dad summon you with the sheath of Avalon?” Illya brought up.
“Yes… that’s what I remember him mentioning at one point.” Artoria looked off to the side.
“And you were summoned here but it wasn’t on compatibility summoning, was it?” Ritsuka asked right after.
“Shirou doesn’t have anything on him…” Artoria looked off to the side.
“Did anyone around you ever seem to heal because you were around…?” Illya asked further on.
It was something she picked up on when Artoria had mentioned the assault on the Einzbern Castle in the forests of Fuyuki. Her mother had seemingly gotten back up after a particularly horrible wound. That was tied into the notes that her grandfather had surprisingly kept even though he hated Kiritsugu so much.
“Shirou healed quickly but…” Artoria trailed off.
“He survived the fires that wiped out Fuyuki… and I don’t know what my father was thinking when you destroyed the grail. But I do think he would do something reckless… he wanted to be a hero after all.” Illya softly, yet bitterly stated.
Artoria didn’t say a word. She pondered the thought before leaving the room and seemingly heading to his bedroom. She came back just as quickly. Her face was an open book.
“He… has it. I don’t think he even knows it’s inside his body. I removed it though… if you’re having me face Gilgamesh then I’ll be needing it.” Artoria sighed.
In her hands was the sheath that she had lost so long ago. It seemed to shine with possibilities now that it was back in the hands of its owner. However, Artoria looked side to side, weighing options in her mind.
“Good. Better chances for later. I need sleep.” Illya puffed out as she laid back on the couch. “Take me back to your gilded ship then, Ritsuka.”
“Right. Keep watch over him. We need him to be well rested since we’re going to probably strike as soon as it hits midnight.” Ritsuka mentioned as he stood up and Illya followed after him. Heracles went into spirit form, and avoided causing the house to shake with his every step.
She didn’t exactly follow them, she had her own mission as she walked into Shirou’s bedroom and quietly sat down in a seiza position. She still couldn’t go into spirit form given her status. So she decided to watch over her Master, the lion plush she received by her side like a loyal knight.
Day 3 Tohsaka Household
It was a silent meeting. Rin and Sakura sat in the living room, hastily clothed in what could generously be called nightwear. They were two large shirts that only one of them filled out well. Rin mentally grumbled. A pair of panties being the only other clothing they wore… which the casualness of their attire heavily clashed with the seriousness of their expression.
Or at least Rin’s seriousness, though it was marred by blush building up her cheeks and ears.
Sakura looked so smugly pleased with herself and didn't look the least bit unhappy about everything she had done. Rin could see that clear as the morning light sifted through the windows. Their servants floating nearby looked just as pleased.
‘Just… bite the bullet I guess.’ Rin mentally sighed, chastising her lack of decorum or dignity when the words left her mouth.
“So… was yesterday just something of a fluke or was it necessary?” Rin tersely asked, trying desperately not to break her own dignity.
“Did he fuck you in the ass like I asked?” Sakura bluntly and cheekily questioned, a slight smirk on her face not unlike how her Assassin would do.
“T-that’s! That’s not important!” Rin shouted, breaking any chance of elegance she tried to bolster.
“Ah he did, I’m happy then.” Sakura giggled. “Admittedly, I asked only because I was kind of losing my mind by the end.”
Sakura trailed off, her own blush grew and the confidence she exuded had slowly evaporated as she continued remembering what she did. And her words had broken that armor as both girls couldn’t look at one another.
“I can’t believe we both did that…” Rin muttered.
“I didn’t regret it.” Sakura answered almost immediately, though she didn’t look at Rin. “I still don’t. It was the most liberating moment of my life. After everything… that doesn’t matter, it was my moment.”
“I didn’t say I regretted it… though now that I think about it, I’m more annoyed that you told him to, in your words, fuck my ass.” Rin grumbled, she was sitting on a pillow that she had partially cooled with her connection to being an average one.
“Is that why you’ve been sitting on that particular pillow?” Sakura asked after a moment.
“Please stop talking about that.” Rin hissed as she adjusted herself once more. He had been too thick… it hadn’t fully closed yet.
“So… we’re kind of completely on the same page about him, aren’t we? We’re going this route because our actual plan was destroyed in front of our eyes because neither of us wanted to try…?” Sakura questioned, or at least tried to. She had felt those feelings die, slowly and surely ever since she had first seen Saber.
“It’s… not too weird, is it?” Rin asked. She looked away, thinking about something else. Those feelings died when she realized he was a fool who nearly killed himself, and not learned why he did so. Her annoyance because of the nerve method that had been used set her blood boiling.
“I don’t think so… but that’s probably because I know that I’m not going to be alone again, am I?” Sakura wondered aloud.
“No, I don’t think I’ll let that happen.” Rin answered resolutely. “Not on my watch ever again.”
“Good. I’ll never go back to that. Never again.” Sakura mentioned, a calm smile slowly rose on her face.
“So I even want to know…?” Rin quietly asked, receiving a shake of her head.
“By the way, if we survive then I’m first.” Sakura stated, only for Rin to squawk in protest.
“Look at them.” Kama smirked.
“I don’t like that your Master and Host called dibs on first.” Ishtar grumbled.
“Maybe, but that’s their job, isn’t it?” Kama harrumphed at that.
“You figured out what he did?” Ishtar ignored her musings to bring up something far more important.
“The tantric ritual to break the connection to the Greater Grail?” Kama answered, Ishtar nodded. “Then yes, I noticed that the three of us are using one grail to keep us from being dragged into the Greater Grail if we do die.”
“I did wonder what he was trying. This is so Angra Mainyu can’t try to use us as hosts?” Ishtar continued.
“Yes. I’d be fine due to who I am and what I represent. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t try with the others. If he were closer, then I’d think he would have gotten the Einzbern girl as well, seeing as I remember reading one of those mission reports about the fourth grail war and using the Einzbern in the Greater Grail as a host.” Kama quietly explained.
Beneath them the two sisters bickered back and forth about who was better. It was better than where they were previously, barely holding back their frustration and disparagement of their combined pity. Sakura, for her life with the Matous, and Rin, for her loneliness, had been luckily stopped before that bridge could be burned to cinders. It was more light hearted, with genuine smiles and cocky smirks of affection that broke through their cynicism.
“Sitonai, right? Didn’t she have Freya inside her?” Ishtar muttered.
“Wait… fuck she did.” Kama looked distressed.
“Why did our Ritsuka have to be sexual chocolate to love goddesses…?” Ishtar bemoaned what she had just realized.
“Damn it all… maybe, that won’t happen?” Kama attempted to ignore possibilities. “Yeah, that’s not going to be a thing.”
“Great, you jinxed it. No wonder they call you girlfailure incarnate.” Ishtar growled under her breath. There wasn’t too much of a bite to her statement, but Kama didn’t take it lying down.
“Oh, coming from the useless goddess. Missed seeing that through all the bullshit.” Kama snarkily answered back.
Just like below, the two goddesses argued back and forth about their own received flaws. All the while the two sisters had found a sense of normalcy, even if they were arguing about who got it better from a Rider with an EX rank of Riding.
Day 3 Ritsuka’s Reality Marble
“So, you want to transfer her grail heart out?” Medea asked once more.
“Yeah, otherwise it’ll be the end of the world, potentially.” Ritsuka nodded. “I’m pretty sure I explained this two days ago.”
“You did, but then you disappeared for the next day and I’ve been doing nothing but making things since then.” Medea bluntly stated.
“You made a lot of figures of Artoria. Is Someone Land still a thing?” Ritsuka asked.
“The fact that you know that and are still able to recall it is something that both vexes and annoys me to no end. That is something I don’t talk about.” Medea growled, embarrassment coating her cheeks in red.
“We needed you for a mission and you left the object unattended and completely open.” Ritsuka bluntly added, making Medea groan about being far too comfortable when she had been summoned by Rider. Apparently that was something she had to take into account. Future summonings were utter bullshit it seems.
“Fine… I’m just going to ignore that so I don’t end up having an aneurysm. For this we need life affirming materials. Which I am going to throw these out because I’m certain you’re going to do something that’ll make me want to end my existence… again.” Medea sighed, completely done with life as it was.
“What do you need?” Ritsuka asked, his hands already reaching into his pocket.
“Phoenix plumes, homunculus babies, seeds from a world tree, and fruits from the trees of eternity that the Greek gods had. That’s the only way we can make this work and do so without needing to do this more than once.” Medea listed out the materials, and with the flattest look on her face watched Ritsuka pull out several phoenix feathers, bottles of homunculus babies, seeds from the tree of Yggdrasil and five fruits of eternity. She just stared at him… contemplating on what she would do to keep him supplying her before killing those thoughts immediately. “Of course…”
“I think I have access to the materials I harvested when alive because it’s part of my legend. I farmed so much… so much farming…” Ritsuka trailed off, looking haunted as he didn’t notice Medea collecting the materials and creating an array to check the materials.
They were viable… no matter how much she wished they weren’t. Now her worldview was shattered and she couldn’t go back to blissful ignorance. So she went into denial, and just got to work.
“So… why am I stuck laying in this circle?” Illya called out, she was on her back in the middle of a large summoning circle.
“We’re going to be fixing up a lot of things… and hopefully making sure you can age correctly. I don't know if we can give you an entire lifetime but we should be able to make you have a much longer lifetime. Also let you grow normally.” Ritsuka mentioned.
“This is going to be touch and go. It’ll be a long procedure and we’re probably going to have to work extremely fast but as long as we take the right precautions then we should get this done right.” Medea answered. “Heracles, you remember that thing with Asclepius and Perseus?”
Heracles actually had his eyes widen. The sudden recognition made Illya react as well. She seemed to look confused.
“What was that about? What about Perseus and that sea nymph?” Illya questioned aloud.
“Oh, so you are cognizant enough to remember that.” Medea smirked as Heracles actually rubbed his hand down his face in frustration.
“No seriously. What happened to the sea nymph?” Illya asked again.
“It involved several bottles of alcohol, a strange kelp rope, Jason being led by the nose and a whole lot of stupid.” Medea answered.
“I don't think we ever summoned Perseus but I never heard this story. Then again, my memories of Chaldea are really fluid so I’m sometimes remembering different servants and different scenarios.” Ritsuka scratched his head.
“Oh good, you don’t know every little detail. That would worry me. Now get me a cauldron and let’s get this potion ready. I need you to eat one of these fruits ten minutes before I set this potion. I’ll mark the time by a small spell, so psyche yourself up.” Medea sighed as she started creating the sigil marks around Illya, who was now sitting up.
“Wait, then why was I lying down already?” Illya asked.
“Why were you? We had even gotten anything ready and Ritsuka just told you we were going to see if we could do anything to help fix you up.” Medea answered back. “Did you think I should be able to snap my fingers to fix this up? It takes time as you should know.”
“Grk!” Illya flinched as she got too enthusiastic for her own good.
“Anything else you need?” Ritsuka asked.
“We’ll need more of the homunculus materials. It’ll help ease any burdens that come up.” Medea answered.
“Gotcha. I’ve got a few but I’ll wait till you get this set up.” Ritsuka replied in kind.
For the rest of the day, Medea continued working on the potion and by the afternoon, the potion was ready. The sigil was drawn in blood from a strange tearstone he pulled out. Illya needed a gown to wear, however, there wasn’t exactly a reason given for why.
“It feels… airy.” Illya muttered.
“We don’t know if you’ll take time to grow, or it’ll happen all at once, provided this works.” Ritsuka answered. “Which means you’ll need new clothes… so yeah. Are you ready?”
“Yeah, I didn’t care for living like this any longer anyways.” Illya grimly huffed, letting some of her cynicism bleed off her anxiety.
“And now.” Medea called out, letting a spell go off which made Illya bite into the fruit she was handed.
It took her a few minutes to eat the entire thing. She looked at the fruit, not even sure on how to describe the fruit in question. Medea quickly channeled her magecraft through the sigils as Illya fell on her back.
Heracles stood vigil over the entire ritual. Illya didn’t move after she ate the fruit. Then Medea nodded to him and he placed his hands on Illya’s arms.
Medea used her magecraft to allow the liquid of the potion to flow out of the bottle and start etching itself onto her body, slipping beneath her dress before the other half flowed down her throat. Several words were chanted, pouring from Medea’s mouth as she continued channeling the mana from Ritsuka into the spell.
Illya grunted and nearly screamed as she did her best to struggle. Ritsuka placed a piece of wood in between her teeth so she wouldn’t accidentally bite her tongue. Illya constantly tried to get Heracles to kill her outright as steam wafted off her body. Heracles ignored the order and Ritsuka did his best to keep her from using up her command seals.
“Don’t give up. You aren’t so weak, right? You’ve been fighting all your life and this is just one more fight on the path.” Ritsuka growled out as he held down her legs.
It took another ten minutes before the steam finally settled and Illya stayed still. She spat out the wood she had been given and started cursing up a storm.
“Give her a bit.” Medea sighed.
It took several more vulgarities before she finally eased up. That’s when she finally realized that something was different. She wasn’t feeling too much pain, except that the dress she was wearing wasn’t actually as loose as it had been…
“What!?” Illya looked down.
She wasn’t the tiny little girl anymore, but she wasn’t overly bigger than before. The mirror given to her let her see that she was a foot taller than she was. She was also not flat which did elicit her obligatory need to play with her new chest.
“Really?” Ritsuka asked.
“Shut up! I didn’t think I’d actually be so bouncy!” Illya shouted, glaring at Ritsuka who still hadn’t looked away. Though the flat look he was giving her still pissed her off.
“And we managed to at least cut out the grail that was going to form inside you.” Ritsuka sighed, showing off a jar with a disgusting growth pulsating within it.
“What?” Illya stared at the object, confused about so many things. “That was the grail?”
“The Lesser Grail. This way you won’t be targeted and have it ripped out of your body.” Ritsuka answered.
“That’s… strangely specific.” Illya pointed out.
“Yeah, weird, isn’t it?” Ritsuka nodded. “We’ll be keeping this close when we attack so that we control where the damage goes.”
“I’m… I’m just gonna pass out now…” Illya muttered. Her brain was already too taxed to figure out what was going on. She was done, and Heracles quietly picked her up, carrying her to the room that was provided for her on the ship.
“Did I really have to use those divine spiritrons so wastefully?” Medea grumpily muttered as she watched the pair depart.
“I mean, it was the catalyst to partially activate the fruits to undo all the damage that was done to her…” Ritsuka shrugged it off. “I feel it was well worth it.”
“No I mean… look, that doesn’t matter. Ugh…” Medea grumbled, sitting down and just nursing a migraine that had developed.
‘He is the worst magi I have ever met and he’s endearing to a god damn fault. Just like my brother…’ Medea didn’t play with that thought for long before killing it. She was frustrated enough as it was… and exhausted beyond what she was usually capable of.
The work wasn’t what had gotten her so wound up. It was the way he had gotten things to work. This war was already a crapshoot. That the one who orchestrated so many variables in order to come ahead of everything… It was frustrating.
It also stung that she hadn’t even been able to reach the starting line like everyone else.
“Welp… in a few more hours we’ll be starting our attack. Can we block clairvoyants once we start planning?” Ritsuka asked.
“Do you have any materials that look like a lens?” Medea quietly asked, hoping for a no.
To her dismay he pulled out a lens that was filled with divine energy… and felt like crying as he placed it in her open hand.
11:00 PM Night 3 Emiya Household
They sat neatly within the dojo of the Emiya household. Rin had managed to convince Taiga to go home for the night when she had arrived unannounced… though she did have to give her a hypnotic suggestion… which didn’t sit well with Shirou but he kept quiet. Once she was gone, Caster came out and quickly set up a bounded field to block scrying and set up a few more spells just to make sure that if someone tried something she would be able to stop it.
“So, time for plans to take down our three opponents.” Ritsuka announced, pulling out a whiteboard he had somewhere on his ship.
He also found tiny glasses for Heracles and put them on him. It was hilarious, but no one had the spine to actually laugh at him.
“Do we actually have a plan, or are we just winging it?” Rin asked, huffing slightly.
“Honestly, there’s very few things we can do that’ll actually work out right. The problem here is that Gilgamesh is the most dangerous one there. Especially so because Archer, Assassin and Berserker all have divinity in them and that means that he is effectively a hard counter to them.” Ritsuka explained. “I had hoped to sway Lancer to our side but that became impossible when I found out who his master was.”
“Um… question… Why does Illya look… bigger?” Shirou broke the conversation to point out the obvious.
“She had a growth spurt. That’s all.” Ritsuka quickly answered before returning to the briefing.
Shirou frowned slightly. He wasn’t sure that that was the answer but he didn’t have any way to actually steer the conversation in that direction when they needed to get ready. He bit his tongue for the moment.
“So, that means Saber, Caster and Rider are the only two who should go after Gilgamesh. Even then, it’s a dangerous endeavor since we also have to deal with Kirei and Cu. Kirei especially since he holds all the command seals from all the previous wars. That means that we need the humans, aside from Illya, dealing with him.” Ritsuka explained.
“You want us,” Rin pointed at the three of them. “To deal with Kirei? He’s one of the most dangerous exorcist members to exist. While I hated looking this up, Kirei was part of the Eighth Sacrament. That was one of the church affiliations set up for hunting dead apostles. That should tell everyone here just how dangerous he is.”
“Once again, an explanation please.” Shirou asked.
“Vampires. Ones strong enough to fight Assassin class servants off easily.” Ritsuka quickly added.
“And you want us to deal with it?” Sakura spoke up, pointing at the two other masters and herself.
“Unfortunately. If we don’t have someone dealing with him, then he could use his command seals to empower Gilgamesh or Cu. And that’s if they haven’t already been empowered since then.” Ritsuka muttered.
“So we need to decide, is this what we’re doing? I feel we should just go confront them already. This plan is the only one where we even have a shot.” Shirou crossed his arms.
“I think that should be obvious. Honestly, I hate the fact that we don’t have any better options.” Rin grumbled, biting her thumb. “Do we have nothing else?”
“I did find Lancer’s original Master, but she’s… kind of naively aggressive. She’s part of the Fraga clan.” Ritsuka answered.
“She’s alive?” Sakura spoke up.
“Oh, is that the lady in the tube in that ship?” Illya spoke up.
“Yes and yes. She’s better but I’m worried about letting her wake up. She had her arm ripped off and went into shock.” Ritsuka scratched her head. “She’s better now, but bringing her in might be more dangerous.”
“It’s not like she’s going to do something stupid.” Sakura answered what was going through everyone’s head.
“She’s an enforcer. She’s also a punch first, ask questions later type of person. Also she has runes and a couple Fragarach mystic codes to use.” Ritsuka sighed. “But I can bring her in. If you think it would be good.”
“Yes. We need someone effective against Kirei!” Rin shouted.
“Okay, just make sure no one gets close to her.” Ritsuka sighed before walking out of the room.
“You don’t think she’s gonna be that bad, right?” Shirou had to ask.
“Don’t jinx it Emiya.” Sakura answered, once again forgoing saying “ Senpai” once more.
Shirou didn’t know how to take that. He ignored it though because he needed to be ready for what was going to happen soon. They were going to battle soon.
She gasped, still in shock from what happened. Kirei had ripped off her arm… which was still there. She touched the bare skin feeling how new it felt. And then she saw a man before her… and raised her fists.
The runes that she placed on her gloves didn’t activate. She quietly put her fist down… she wasn’t in the best position.
“Hey.” Rider stated. “Looks like you’re back up.”
“Yes.” Bazett muttered. “Kirei?”
“He ripped your arm off and left you for dead after taking Lancer.” Rider answered.
“Right.” Bazett sighed.
“And the grail war is reaching its end already. Grail is heavily corrupted by an improper summoning from the third war. So right now Kirei has an extra servant in this war.” Rider started talking.
“What?” Bazett muttered.
“Yup. A lot of things happened while you were healing.” Rider answered.
“And my equipment?” Bazett asked.
“I have it ready. Provided we work out details about what happens next.” Rider answered immediately.
“What do you want?” Bazett grumbled once more.
“Alliance to deal with Kirei. He’s the most dangerous person right now.” Rider answered. “The other servants aside from Cu and the extra Kirei brought in are in an alliance. We’re all committed to stopping him from bringing about the rise of Angra Mainyu.”
“I… you’ll have to explain this all to me more clearly.” Bazett rubbed her temples as she thought about what was being spoken about.
“Where do I even begin?” Rider pondered as he began trying to summarize a whole story within twenty minutes before they traipsed out into the city towards the church to confront the final obstacles of the Hily Grail War.