White Ink

18

Shirou groggily escaped the land of nod. His head was pounding and there was a massive pain in his neck. Opening his eyes he saw the other massive pain in the neck he had to deal recently, her red eyes looking guilty at him from her position on all fours leaning over him.
"

What did you do Arcueid?" he said exhaustion filling his every word.
"Uh, Shirou," Arcueid replied back nervously. "I may have been caught up in the moment and taken a tiny bite. I just had a little bit of blood," she quickly clarified.
Shriou sighed and performed a quick analysis of himself, ignoring the pounding in his head. He had a momentary flash of regret now that he realised Avalon was gone but he consoled himself that it was absolutely necessary and he may be able to make a replacement. Wincing slightly at what he saw he realised that ten percent of his fluid reserves were gone. Raising his hand he poked Arcueid in her belly.
"Where the hell did you put all fluids you took," he asked Arcueid looking at her slender frame. A part of his physiology that he discovered was if he lost too much blood it would be replaced by the water in his body. From his calculations and his steadily growing reserve of H2O in his body he estimated that she must have drunk over one hundred litres of blood. He looked upwards to her breasts and nodded idly to himself as if confirming something.
"You can change back right," Arcueid said biting her lip nervously.
"Yeah," Shirou confirmed.
"Oh, so you can change back from a vampire," a most unpleasant voice came from the side just out of eyesight of Shirou stated. He turned and was confronted with Narbareck her lost arm restored. "This is definitely something the church must know about," she said her smile widening. "Assuming it's true of course and I won't be forced to hunt you down later for being a dead apostle."
Arcueid stepped forward threateningly but Shirou just sighed. Analysing himself he saw the record of his existence recorded in the root. He focused in on the moment he changed and took in his state at that time. The him of then was a lot like now except it didn't have the vampirism so he isolated the differences in his head and removed the concept of vampirism from his body.
In theory he should not have done this with a pounding headache. It was only due to his long months of practice after Nrvnqsr that he was even able to use magic while being this incapacitated. Even removing the vampirism did little to abate the war drums inside his skull.
"Yeah, I'm unvampirised," he said. "Now kindly fuck off. You were all but useless in the fight and you've been an almighty hindrance ever since I woke up."
"Yeah," Narbareck said and for the first time Shirou had ever seen her she looked visibly upset about it. "Yeah, what is it those in the millitary say, "Prior preparation prevents poor performance." I wasn't prepared to deal with a demon otherwise I would have brought my demon hunting equipment and hopefully put up a better fight." She straightened up and continued speaking. "The sealing designate left the building shortly after the fight commenced. Do you have any way to track her?"
"Why," Shirou said. "Are you offering your help?"
"Whether I like it or not the church owes you a debt," the now once-again green eyed girl said. "It would be best if we discharged it as soon as possible."
"I think I'll save that," Shirou replied. "I know all her hideouts and I had my familiar watch the building in case she escaped. It shouldn't take too long to find her."
"Suit yourself," Narbareck shrugged. She tossed him what looked to be a business card. "Here's my number for when you want to call in that favour."
Narbareck then looked at him. Her gaze was so intense that she made Shirou feel quite self-concious. "What," he said after thirty seconds of this happenind."
Narbareck briefly chuckled to herself, "You know I was wrong about you when we first met. I don't think you are ever going to devolve into a monster." She smiled and the smile was different than her previous gentle smiles. It displayed an edge of cruelty and an enjoyment of suffering. "I genuinely hope that we meet again Shirou."
With that she was gone, disappearing in an instant leaving only Arcueid and him in the room.
"She seems nice," Arcueid said causing Shirou to do a double take.
xxx
When Shirou had scanned Touko originally to determine that it was the real her and not a puppet he had read her history to determine what safehouses she owned. Later when he left the building he immediately contacted his familiar Len and asked her for the location of the sealing designate. Len had managed to follow her for quite a while before she lost the trail but it was enough for Shirou to determine her most likely safehouse.
This lead to Arcueid and Shirou walking up to the safehouse which Touko Aozaki was most likely using. It looked like an average apartment on the third floor of a complex. As Shirou approached the door to knock it swung open to his surprise. Walking inside he came across the image of Touko Aozaki drinking tea. A quick analysis confirmed that this version was a puppet. Shirou didn't really care. If that made her feel safer she would be more willing to negotiate.
Shirou opened his mouth to begin negotiations but was cut off by Touko before he could get a word out.
"Your name is Shirou correct," she said examining him from behind her glasses. At Shirou's look of suprise "Believe it or not I do actually subscribe to the practice of putting cameras inside any building I own."
"I wonder how many Shirou's with red hair there are in Japan that are also a magus," she said drawing a cigarette and with a snap of her fingers a rune appeared causing it to ignite.
"I'm not a magus," Shirou replied, because damn it he's not going to have people run around referring to himself as one.
"A person who can use magecraft then," Touko waved her cigarette.
Shirou nodded, that clarification was acceptable.
"I personally don't care that you decided not to re-establish whatever relationship you had before the fire but Aoko is going to be pissed," Touko stated taking off her glasses. "She was always a bit fond of you before she left. You were a toddler when she entered her teenage years. A miracle baby, our parents were in their fifties when they had you."
Touko waved her head. "Look at me getting all nostalgic, I suppose it's amusing to know our trainwreck of a family is now three instead of two."
"Regardless of our family connection I have a job for you," Shirou stated leaving that can of worms only partially opened. "I need you to construct a body that can handle the magic circuits of an Einzbern homunculus."
Touko's eyes widened slightly. "An Einzbern homunculus," she repeated. "I've heard they were quite rare all of a sudden for obvious reasons." Her gaze refocused upon Shirou. "But what payment do you have for me."
"I have recently acquired a sample of the Einzbern research notes on homunculus creation. I'm sure these notes will enhance your ability to create these magnificent puppets."
For a moment they both stared at each other. Then Touko chuckled. "You're some weird mix of me and Aoko. It's actually a bit disconcerting." She raised her hand and Shirou grasped it. "So when can I meet the homunculus."
"It depends," Shirou replied. "Can this puppet body perform the necessary procedure?"
"Yes," Touko replied quizzically.
"Then now," Shirou replied and with his other hand he grasped Arcueid and as Len jumped on his head he teleported all four of them to his house.
Appearing in the entranceway he was immediately confronted by the fact that it looked as if somebody had committed arson. The walls and floor were blackened and cracked. Worse than that was the fact that there was no mana in the surrounding area.
"Satsuki," Shirou growled under his breath. The not-a-vampire was the only person who he knew who could do this. It was always such a hassle to get rid of these zones as they naturally repulsed mana even after initially draining it.
"Excuse me," he said to Touko who had recovered unnaturally quickly from the teleportation and now was looking at him suspiciously. "I have to find out what happened here."
He headed into the next room and was confronted by the combined presence of Nine, Satsuki and Illya. All of them were glaring at two men, who were restrained with ropes and gagged, on the floor. Illya's birds were constantly circling them.
"What happened," Shirou asked his anger at Satsuki cooling as he realised that they may have been attacked.
Satsuki spilt the story with Illya joining in and Nine confirming that was what happened in the end. When the story had finished Shirou then looked towards the two men who glared at him from the floor.
"Cornelius Alba," Shirou heard Touko say from behind him, having entered the room sometime during the story.
"You know this prick," Shirou enquired of her.
"He's with the Clocktower," Touko said. "He's actually fairly highly ranked." She took another drag of the cigarette that had miraculously appeared in her hand. "Only the root knows why he decided to come here."
"Don't worry I have ways of finding out." He stalked towards the two men and with two swift kicks knocked them both unconscious starting with Alba.
"Len," Shirou said. "It's cake for you once you get the information."
The succubus in the shape of a cat jumped down and landed on the man's head. After a moment she curled up and seemed to fall asleep.
"Let's leave that for now," Shirou said. "Len will get the information in due time. Everybody I'd like you all to meet Touko Aozaki. She'll be helping Illya have a normal life."
Illya looked nervous gazing upon the person who was supposed to help her live a normal life. Luckily Nine stepped up and charmingly introduced himself getting a dubious look from the brown haired Aozaki. Satsuki also introduced herself although she was evidently still a bit on edge from the fact that she was attacked.
Touko ignored them both and walked up to the child homunculus and started analysing her. Taking her arms into her hands and sending some form of magecraft. After a moment she pulled out a mystic code and waved it in front of Illya.
"Beautiful," she said. "Whoever did this performed beautiful work. They somehow modified the magic circuits to be far more productive. This is the closest I've ever seen to the third magic. Come follow me," she said and dragged the wide-eyed white-haired girl away with her.
"Where the hell is she taking her," Shirou pondered. "She doesn't have a workshop here. I thought I would have to take her back to get equipment."
Shirou shrugged and went to cook something. As he entered the kitchen and prepared to make himself a treat he was stopped by Satsuki who looked very sheepish. After a moment's hesitation she spoke.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I know I'm not allowed to use that in the house."
"No worries," Shirou said shrugging it off. "While the dead spots would linger for a while he knew a few ways of hurrying up the process of re-manafication.
"I'm going to get stronger," Satsuki said. "I'm going to ask Sumire to teach me magecraft so that I can fight without resorting to using that."
Despite wanting to make himself some food Shirou would never let a discussion of magecraft go by. After a few moments of thinking he shook his head.
"No," he stated. "That technique of yours naturally opposes mana and it is an intrinsic part of you. What you need to learn is a few internal techniques that primarily use your od."
Shirou then returned to the preparation of the food. "You have good circuits and enough od that you can make do without mana. Your best technique would be to drain the mana from the area and then beat them down with manaless techniques."
Shirou turned towards Satsuki. "To that end I actually agree that you should talk to Sumire. She may not look it but she's a master of dragging others down to her level and beating them there."
"And what are you a master of Satsuki," asked Shirou curiously.
"I'm more of a find the person's weakness and exploit it again and again kind of person," Shirou said finishing up his unnamed snack. "Want some," he offered Satsuki. Satsuki gratefully took one and nibbled on it.
"So what's your plan to deal with the attackers," she asked eagerly.
"Don't you worry," Shirou said with a smile on his face. "Where we send them they're not going to be coming back for a long, long time."
xxx
Len had finished relaying the entire life stories of the two men that were currently bound in front of him. They had moved into a separate more secluded room in the house. "So you're saying the entire reason he attacked my house was because he was looking for Kiritsugu because he had originally hunted down Kiritsugu's father and he wanted to complete the set."
At Len's nod he whistled. "Wow he's unlucky," Shirou continued. "If the Einzbern hadn't somehow informed everybody that it was Kiritsugu who ruined them, if he hadn't somehow decided that Kiritsugu hadn't left Fuyuki since the Grail Wars and if he hadn't questioned some of the Fujimura group who had known Kiritsugu he would have still been alive."
"Oh well," Shirou shrugged. "Nine dispose of him."
At his masters call Nine fell upon them both in the shape of a mass of claws and teeth. Bones were cracked, flesh stripped and organs were gulped down voraciously. In less than thirty seconds not even bones remained and Shirou was once again treated to the site of a perfectly normal Nine who nobody would have believed just devoured two humans.
Thinking for a minute Shirou pulled out his phone and made a call to a number he had just received. After a moment the phone was answered.
"Vatican pizza delivery, your pizza appropriately pious or your money back."
Shirou removed the phone from his ear and looked at it as if it had just insulted his mother. After a moment he decided to ignore whatever madness the woman on the other side of the phone displayed in lieu of finishing the conversation and not having anything to do with her for a while.
"Narbareck," he said. "I'm calling in the favour. How do you feel about killing Kiritsugu Emiya." An excited sound on the other end of the phone was heard. "No he's already dead; I'm not asking you to actually kill him. I just want the Clocktower to think he was gone. Yes I am expecting you to lie. You don't have any principles Narbareck. Okay, you'll do it. Good day."
Shirou put down the phone with an absolute look of distress on his face. "I actually think I'm starting to enjoy talking with her," he noted with disgust.
xxx
Shirou was getting his ass kicked in a game of monopoly with Gilgamesh when Illya suddenly came barrelling into the room.
"Big brother," she yelled out. "I'm going to have boobs."
Gilgamesh just chuckled and continued expanding his chain of hotels demonstrating to all others the unmatched hospitality that Uruk offered.
"So you and Touko worked something out," Shirou replied ruffling her hair. "That's great what's the cost?"
"It didn't cost much at all big brother. A few copies of the Einzbern research and I had to let her properly examine me." She suddenly shuddered and Shirou got the inkling that bringing up this point would lead to a deterioration of the peace.
"So no problems, the body won't have to be updated in future," Shirou asked waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"No it should last decades," Illya said chirpily. "By the time it wears out I should have become proficient enough in the Einzbern magecraft to create my own."
"Wow so there's no catch at all," Shirou said happily.
"Umm," Illya hesitated sounding nervous. "It happens that Touko is a bit out of the required materials so we may have to pay a bit to obtain the best materials for a new body."
Shirou just rubbed his eyes and sighed. "How much," he asked.
"Twenty million yen," Illya replied sounding nervous as if she expected that this would be the sticking point. "I have some plans to ra…"
Shirou raised his hand to cut her off. "Let me get my cheque book," he said.
"Wait, wait, wait," Illya said. "You mean you have enough money."
"Yeah, I regularly salvage treasure from ships that have been sunk and then I convert the gold and sell off the jewels and invest the amounts. My investment manager ensures me that my portfolio is doing well."
"Yes," Gilgamesh said leaning back on the couch. "Although I believe it may be time to cash out the various investments. The market is showing all the signs of an imminent recession."
"Already done," Shirou said. "I'm currently waiting for it to hit and then buy the rock-bottom shares in companies who I believe will weather the storm."
"We'll see," Gilgamesh said. "I will only acknowledge you as a man of wealth and good judgement when you can make half the return I have."
"Just watch and wait Gilgamesh," Shirou a determined look in his eye. "Anyway Illya want to join us for monopoly. We need to create a conglomerate to take down Uruk enteprises."
"Your pitiful attempts to even compete with my empire amuse me," Gilgamesh gloated. "By all means bring your sister I will enjoy leaving you impoverished."
Illya sat down next to Shirou on the couch selecting a dog. "Don't you feel that you're forgetting something Shirou," she said. "Like there's something big coming and you haven't prepared for it."
"You mean the Holy Grail War, Illya. It's not that I haven't prepared for it. I just don't know how to do anything to make me more ready." He winked at his adoptive sister. "I suppose we could always spy for weaknesses in our competition," he said deliberately eying up Gilgamesh as he said that.
"As if you could find any weaknesses," Gilgamesh scoffed. "Now roll the dice. My cannon still has a great many acquisitions to make."
xxx
In a room sat an old man reading a report. There was nothing particularily special about the room. There was a fire place that was currently alit, a single desk filled with papers and a chair. Even the man looked rather ordinary at first glance. Only at first glance however the man could be perceived as anything ordinary.
He had white hair and blood red eyes. Furthermore his skin was wrinkle free despite his age. If one were to look at a picture of him they would not put his age at any more than forty. However if the person was in front of him in the brief seconds that they would have before all their blood was sucked dry they would realise that the man put out an aged quality like an old statue that predated recorded history. A sense of this thing existed before you and this thing will outlive you.
The man put down his report looking incredibly bitter. "Chaos disappeared," he said, his thoughts being dictated out loud.
"It is a pity, while he is uncontrollable, he could have been a help for what is to come." The man sighed and the sound was akin to oxygen leaving a corpses' lungs.
"It doesn't matter," he concluded. "Even though I despise the princess there is no doubt in my mind that she will act for the good of this ritual." He smiled and it appeared as a rictus death mask. "If she brings her beast it won't even be a competition."
Getting up he poured himself a glass of wine. "To our success," he toasted to himself. "Just a few short years now."
Author Note The last chapter of this incredibly long arc. Next there will be a few chapters of everyday life filler. Just to put some downtime in between the major arcs.
The Rupture He actually tried. The problem is that True Demons cannonically have an upgraded version of wishcraft. Anytime he applied something the demon would release prana and reverse it.
I phrased that poorly. When I said "hit" I meant to imply that she collided with Shirou and knocked him out.
Super Saiai I don't really feel like writing an omake. There are three beings that are said to reside in Avalon. Merlin, Arturia and Sir Francis Drake. To paraphrase an amazing high budget fight. They attacked the True Demon and were losing until Sir Francis Drake stole Avalon from it and Arturia hit it with Excalibur and the Merlin bullshitted it out of existence.
SpawnageLoong I implied that she had it way back in chapter seven when the bounded field Shirou set up to restrain her automatically faded and she was walking around. Shirou had bigger fish to fry at that point so he didn't give it much thought.
Oblivion168 Not quite. It won't be a curbstomp. Shirou actually got quite lucky in managing to beat the True Demon. He's incredibly strong but not ORT Zel PM or even Arcueid strong yet.
KRKing There is one more major arc before the Holy Grail War. The Mirrored Curses arc plus whatever filler chapters of inconsequential bullshit I put in in the middle.
omegazero2718 He's tough he'll survive.
Guest While I know that assassin Emiya exists. This is one hero I can confirm will not show up less I be accused of ripping off From Fake Dreams.
AnimeA55Kicker Not yet
Archleone I'm literally adding my reply to your review in the end because I didn't see it despite some good questions. Chapters out Touko doesn't give much of a damn. She would treat him like a brother if he wanted but since he doesn't seem to want to she decides not to make the effort. Yeah I was joking about that. There most likely won't be explosions. It will be damn awkward though for obvious reasons. They used to be close then they drifted apart. It was a little Aoko's fault and a little Shirou's but it was circumstance. Hard to write. The demon that Illya "fought" was. I don't know about whether she would still be a grail. I'd have to research and decide. All joking aside the cooking magecraft didn't exist. Shirou's parents circuits combined are equal to Shinji. It's just when he was young Shirou was so eager to learn magecraft and his parents couldn't teach him as they didn't have any. His mother pretended that the cooking was like magecraft (she was a very very good cook) to try and get Shirou excited about helping in the kitchen. Some would say this worked too well.