White Ink

22

The streets of Fuyuki were mercifully quiet tonight besides the occasional abomination that appeared in front of the patrolling duo. A half-formed creature that with glowing eyes and charred skin appeared and grasped at the smaller of the duo but it was immediately shot down by four birds that were composed of wire by the white-haired teenager. Smirking she sent another barrage to a nearby humanoid that emerged from the ash and just as quickly returned to it.

Two more were executed by the blonde haired woman before they were even formed their remains briefly bursting into flames. Any surrounding fires started by the collective abominations were immediately quenched by the True Ancestor's supreme control over air.
"There are a lot of these burning corpses aren't there," Arcueid said contemplating as she destroyed another corpse.
"Apparently there were rumours about the dead killed in the fire nine years ago not being able to rest in peace," Illya replied. "At least they're better than those tentacles monsters that showed up earlier. I have to be careful about tentacle monsters." At this she blushed. "I'm saving my body for somebody special after all."
"Oh," Arcueid said with genuine innocence. "You mean like Shirou, he's pretty special." Arcueid looked up wistfully as if she was recollecting something great. "And he really knows how to treat a body." At this Illya was getting redder and redder and she looked about ready to attack the ancient True Ancestor. "Yeah, it's very hard to get out of a lock once he puts you in it."
"Oh," Illya said. "Oh," she repeated looking dumbfounded. Then she blushed. "I thought you were talking about stuff like sex and all that."
Arcueid just looked at her confused, "That's what I wa…" Then she stopped and tilted her head.
From a side alley emerged a man with a white open shirt and black pants. He stood there for a moment staring at Arcueid.
"Get back Illya," the blond vampire said actually snarling a bit as she spoke. "This is not going to be a fight that you want to be caught anywhere near."
Illya was an exceptionally powerful magus and she knew it. She was also quite strong at magecraft and she knew it. However she also knew that when a good candidate for the strongest in the world tells you to retreat you should probably listen.
"Arcueid," the being began. "How pitiful you look. No you're just a copy of her, a degraded fake." As he spoke lightning began to form around him until the very air crackled and the air reeked of ozone.
"Roa," Arcueid began. "Wait," she said adopting a thinking pose. "Sorry, I was told never to talk to dead men."
Then the True Ancestor dove into the lightning storm intent on ripping her hated progeny to ribbons.
xxx
Shirou whistled as he walked towards the Matou household. The seething and frothing ocean of rage had subsided and now his mind was akin to a sea of tranquillity. Truthfully the only feeling that Shirou had right now was a slight sense of melancholy at the momentary absence of his sword. He had it for one-and-a-half years now and despite knowing that it would return to him once the job was done the temporary loss made him feel slightly empty. Nolava was at the moment his greatest creation. It was a healing artefact that besides being stored inside him had absolutely no resemblance to Avalon. It was a sword, Avalon was a sheath. Avalon restored things to their perfect condition by employing fae magic, Nolava created a mesh by using incredibly advanced projection magecraft and by liberal use of concept manipulation caused the mesh to grow and become skin and muscle. Avalon could transport users to the realm of the Fae, Nolava could transport users into a world of pain as not only did the sword have strong penetrating power it had a special ability whereby anything that was stabbed would sprout metal at Shirou's command.
Shirou realised idly that he had arrived at the Matou mansion. He had spent the entire time contemplating his absent sword and had forgotten about the things that he should have really concentrated on, namely Zouken Matou's imminent death. He shrugged to himself; maybe he should just hold off on planning Zouken Matou's murder and do what comes naturally.
He still meant to murder him of course; there was more chance of Sumire going on the wagon then of Zouken surviving the night. But maybe he'd just spontaneously decide how to murder him when he saw him.
Walking up to the Matou's door he ignored the comparatively pathetic bounded field. While it was decent for detecting and had some minor countermeasures against foreign magecraft it was nothing compared to the Einzbern's or Touko's or his own. Strolling up to the door he knocked three times before waiting for a reply. After a few minutes waiting the door was opened by a bored looking Shinji who managed to look simultaneously surprised and unimpressed at the person standing by the door.
"What do you want," he said rather ungraciously sneering at Shirou.
Shirou and Shinji did not really get along. While Shirou had honestly forgotten what first started their hostilities neither of them had done their best to reconcile. Rather Shinji had done his best to annoy and hinder Shirou whenever he had the opportunity and Shirou had in turn taken it upon himself to crush him whenever possible. For a moment Shirou considered just killing him along with Zouken but he ultimately decided against it. While some might claim he deserved it for what he did to his sister ultimately he would leave it up to Sakura to extract whatever revenge she felt like.
"I'm here to talk to your grandfather," Shirou said only semi-politely.
"Grandfather's busy," Shinji said abruptly and slammed the door in his face.
For a moment Shirou just stood there blinking. "That boy really has no survival instincts does he," he mused to himself. "Hopefully he learns them in the next few seconds or he may wind up being collateral.
Shirou then raised his hand and then punched the door causing it to shatter into hundreds of pieces and fly across the room. As he did this he reached out to the bounded field that turned to restrain him and shattered it. Stepping forward into the room ignoring the cowering blue-haired boy he stared up at the withered old man who stood on the stairway staring down at him with a look of concealed surprise.
"Who are you to enter my house in such a rude manner," the man said looking outwardly calm but to Shirou's eyes and magic he was trying to keep a grip on the situation.
"Are you Zouken Matou," Shirou said despite already knowing the answer. It was best to follow the procedures on this one lest he end up killing the wrong person by accident.
"Guilty," the old man replied. "Now you haven't told me why you've so suddenly burst down my door. Are you with the mage association?" he said trying to wheedle information out of Shirou. "There is no need for a member to enter my home in such a violent manner. I have not broken any of the laws required by the society."
"That you immediately believe I'm an executor of some sort speaks more about you then it does about me," Shirou said shaking his head and denying the execution. "No I'm simply here to murder you."
At this Zouken started to laugh, Shirou idly noticed it was an ugly thing full of mocking and cruel enjoyment. "So you came alone to face me. This is the reason why I had lost contact with the worms in that girl earlier. You killed her, found out the truth and now have come to try and kill me." His laughter resumed with a frightening intensity. "You have no idea what you've cost me boy."
At this statement the mansion came alive. From beneath the furniture, from the doors, and even coming through spots in the walls that opened up to let them in, an army flowed through the room. This army consisted of countless green armoured worms with stubby bodies and glinting teeth. Within seconds the area was filled with thousands of them surrounding Shirou signalling an impending orgy of violence.
Shirou scanned the room taking in the countless mass that surrounded him and sighed. "This is why I shouldn't get my hopes up," he said. "I was expecting a good fight at least but now it looks like it's just going to be a chore."
"You're so confident you can triumph over me youngster." Whatever image of calm serenity the old magus originally possessed was lost as his skin rippled and his words were tinged with rage. "I was mastering magecraft before your grandfather had even learnt his first words. Like all other impetuous youths you will become food for familiars."
At that the collective swarm rushed at him, a mass of crawling insects with large sharp teeth Shirou just sighed in annoyance. Within a second the swarm were upon him biting down and tearing at the soft flesh; or attempting to anyway.
"Perhaps you don't understand the situation," Shirou said as the collective swarm of worms failed utterly to penetrate his skin due to a combination of his high levels of mystery and his ever present use of [Ryuujin's Perfect Body]. "You're dead. If the incarnation of human death, Primate Fucking Murder was to bust through that wall right now it wouldn't lower your chance of survival any." He paused in contemplation even as worms broke their teeth trying to penetrate his skin. "In fact why am I even talking to you, I need to start taking my own advice and stop conversing with the dead."
At that he clicked his fingers and an ocean exploded into being in the Matou Manor.
xxx
Arcueid was actually having a bit of a hard time. This was definitely one of the latest incarnations of Roa. In fact the power was almost comparable to the first incarnation that required both her and the church to defeat. Everywhere she stepped an explostion of electricity arose and zapped her. And lightning spells were shot out by the hundreds. It was a testament to how powerful of a mage Roa really was that the copies lightning did not automatically dissipate upon reaching her skin but actually managed to tickle her.
As it was Roa was losing. His speed and strength were both lower than her as evidenced by the fact that she had twice tore him in twain and multiple times had inflicted damage that would have killed somebody without an apostles regeneration.
Her opponent disengaged to recover stamina but it was ineffective as Arcueid charged straight through his morass of lightning and delivered an uppercut that tore his head straight off his body. In the middle of her follow up she was hit by a blast of lightning much stronger than all the others before. If the others before were a tickle then this one was a punch; enough to send her back a step when she wasn't prepared for it but not enough to seriously harm her.
"Overload," the Roa copy intoned and Arcueid felt a slight shift in the nature of reality. A sudden tingling in her teeth indicated that the air was much more charged than she previously thought. "Behold the pinnacle of my magecraft. Long ago before I first transformed into a vampire I had created a spell that did nothing but amplify the power of other spells. Throughout my incarnations whenever I regained enough of my memory I further worked to improve my magecraft abilities and I created a trump card only one step below True Magic. Behold the Reality Marble Overload. Any spell I cast in this zone has its power dramatically increased."
From his hands came another lightning bolt that Arcueid casually dodged. The effect wasn't anything like an ordinary spell as the office building that it hit was pierced right through and the edges of the hole had melted from the heat.
"Do you see false True Ancestor," Roa said. "You are weaker than me. Have you given up attacking knowing the difference in our power?"
"No," Arcueid replied. "I was told never to interrupt monologues because they give valuable information." She tilted her head as if remembering something. "Unless they're stalling of course. Were you stalling?"
Roa actually spluttered. "Of course not," he said indignant. "I don't need to stall to defeat you."
"Oh," Arcueid said, "that's good. Now," she said her eyes sharpening, "I've realised how to defeat you." At this Arcueid smiled. "You're like an electric pokemon," she said and the very earth started to shake. "That means you're weak against ground attacks."
Arcueid stomped her feet and an enormous boulder emerged from the ground creating a massive hole in the road. Without preamble she grabbed the boulder, digging her hands into the surface of the giant rock and heaved the whole thing at the Roa duplicate. Much stronger lightning spells slammed into the projectile but all that resulted in was a partly melted hunk of tar and stone hitting Roa instead of a solid one. Struggling he was unable to free himself before a massive impact hit him on his chest driving him further into the earth. The massive impact was actually another boulder and then another and another until he was buried by the mass of stone. Being crushed and burnt by the coalition of minerals he suddenly felt the earth open up to receive him and he felt the welcoming touch of Gaia clear a space for him before the earthy walls came together and he knew no more.
xxx
Shirou was walking throughout the Matou manor in a bored manner. He shot another worm in a precise manner while minding his manners and preventing collateral damage to the manor. While he did not appreciate the manner of style the Matou went for it would be a poor manner of behaviour to destroy the house of his underclassmen and his manners were much too refined for that even if such minimal collateral damage went against his usual manner of operation, in a manner of speaking.
Getting bored with conducting wordplay in his head he took stock of the situation. Almost ninety percent of the worms were killed in the first five minutes as the man tried to pelt him with those familiars that clearly were not designed for withstanding the pressures of underwater combat. In seconds he had covered the room in water and simply crushed all the worms that were found in the water.
Surprisingly one of the casualties of the battle was Shinji. This filled Shirou with annoyance. While he hated the prick he decided to be the bigger man and leave his fate to his sister. Unfortunately his noble poetic justice was ruined because some of the worms went crazy and decided they wanted a Shinji sandwich. The last half-an-hour after the worms were dead had just been a bore. Shirou was a damn good sensor so it wasn't even a good game of hide-and-seek.
Hunting down Zouken consisted of him walking through the mansion and sniping any worm he saw with condensed needle sharp jets of water. He wasn't complaining that much because Zouken was filth and he would happily kill a "man" like him any day of the month.
Finally getting tired of the endless searching Shirou stopped and with a word of magic released a mist throughout the mansion that creeped in every crack and invaded any area no matter how sealed off. The precipitation firstly provided him a means to view the world by identifying all of the worms with his magic, and then allowed him to crush the worm individually by using a bit more of his prana.
He saved the basement for last and then he didn't so much as kill the worms as flood the structure obliterating everything within. Mentally making a note to buy Sakura a new basement he congratulated himself on a job well done. He was still slightly in disbelief that this all went on without his knowledge. He resolved to check out the Tohsaka mansion later and make sure that Rin wasn't locking up children to siphon prana into jewels or something.
Doing one last large scale check with [Poseidon's eye] he declared the town of Fuyuki worm free and left the manor into the cold night air. "Man," he said to himself in disbelief. "Who would have thought that the biggest nightmare I've faced so far this night had nothing to do with Zepia."
As he said those words he felt ripples of such intensity that they nearly pushed him back a step. Reaching out with [Poseidon's eye] he felt a ridiculous presence near Ryuudou Shrine. Cursing his big mouth he set off running even as a tremendously loud roar resounded out through the night.
Author Note: Not 100% satisfied with this chapter. First few days at new job so I'm writing this after work. Updates might slow a bit.
Luckykittens He would be that one guy who continually doubts whether the show is any good and is impossible to show it to.
CD123505 Yup
The Rupture Hmm let me consider it.
Archleone Thanks I've taken your advice and am currently writing a long one shot when I feel like relaxing from this story. It's Tatari. A Dead Apostle Ancestor that show up in Melty Blood. I'm really giving a lot of love to the super vampires aren't I.
For the records like many things in JKR's works boggarts were just a plot device to drive the story forward. As an author she seems to have an immense hatred of explaining things or providing context to her creations which ironically makes the HP series the best source for fanfiction period.
In additon yes canonically Lorelei is that bad. Shirou basically walked up to her implied she wasn't as good as her name suggested in the middle of her own powerbase and walked out. If he was a dead apostle she would have gone ahead and nearly everybody in that room would have died. I'll keep my ORT shipping for another story then.
Rawrking Have you ever tried fucking somebody then living with them, neither have I but it's apparently not pleasant. They then make you do stuff like fix the car and mow the lawn and cook. Shirou only likes to do one of those things. He's taking a risk with Arcueid already. (I'm actually writing this right before Valentine's day I can't believe it.)
And yes that is exactly what he is. I didn't include his ability to teleport in agility.
123 Yes that's the point. I intended it to be a random fillery chapter. I mean absolutely no offense but was it a good random fillery chapter. A bad random fillery chapter. This is easily the most neutral comment I've got yet and I must applaud you sir, you made me smile.
KRKing What I never said any of that? *Checks previous responses* Can you quote me?
DPSS It's more like a pie he refuses to dip his fingers in at all. Illya gets frisky, he makes like a tree and gets the fuck out of there.
ENDDRAGON369 Still haven't watched it.
SyQadelic Statistics on how many Japanese have sex with close relatives is notoriously difficult to find over the internet.