White Ink

29

Satsuki sat on the couch in the rented hotel. Her job with Sumire paid well enough that she could easily afford to splurge a bit and pay for one with a bit of class. She had deliberately picked a different one to Arcueid due to Shirou's hypothesized cross catalyst contamination and thus the ascetic of the room was that of a traditional Japanese hotel and not the western one on the opposite end of town. She had hoped by now to have already summoned her servant but she had held off until later when the call from her mentor came through. Her left hand itched with the feel of command seals upon them and she longed to officially enter the grail war.

She was painfully aware that by entering the war that she deliberately put herself up against Shirou and Arcueid, two beings that could probably fight an entire army and come out not much worse for wear. The logical thing to do in this situation was to stand aside and let them both eliminate the rest of the competition before duking it out but she refused to sit on the sidelines cowering away from those who may be stronger than her.

She had trained with Sumire over the past year ever since her woeful performance during the Tatari incident. In the times that she had off work she had honed both her fighting skill and the power of her reality marble fighting against the much older woman. Even as her defence was crushed and her mana depletion field was overwhelmed, she persevered growing stronger by the day and learning strengthening magic and perfecting her ability to teleport. She even managed to increase the power of her reality marble so that it can drain a person's Od directly.
She grimaced at a sudden memory. Sumire had praised the development of the ability and then stated that it was still immature and wouldn't harm anybody with an above average lifeforce. Shirou was surprisingly harsher, calling it a half-priced knock off of Akiha Tohno's abilities that lacked any great potential. He had said it with absolute certainty and without any cruelty which only made it worse. It had been a depressed Satsuki who had reluctantly turned away from the ability.
A sudden knock from the door resounded in the empty room and in the next instant the chamber was occupied by another. Sumire had entered the room in a bold red bikini and carrying a glass of Champagne in her arm. In an instant she had laid the champagne out on the nearby table, produced two glasses and filled both of them to the brim.

"Come sit down Satsuki," she called to her apprentice flashing a smile at her shocked look. "I have good news."

Satsuki knelt down on the other side of the table facing Sumire. She was slightly flummoxed by the actions of her teacher. Initially she thought that she would have shown up with a catalyst for the war or at least with a gameplan. Yet it seemed as if her mentor just wanted to reminisce with her. She felt a pang of annoyance that she stifled. This was meant to be her moment to shine, to step out from the shadow of those stronger than her. She could have summoned her servant by now and got to know them.
But still she just couldn't remain irritated at Sumire. The woman had done an immeasurable amount for her. Ever since she had gotten bitten, Shirou had operated on her and she had become something else she had found a wall between her others. She barely called her parents anymore and the few times she had met up with her friends since had been awkward as the things that they had treated with such importance had become so inconsequential. She found she could no longer relate to them. She had then gone to her new friends slightly panicked and heard their response.
Shirou had informed Satsuki that secrets destroy relationships and a secret of that size would cause small cracks in the day-to-day. He then stated that he would be glad to be her friend.
Arcueid had cheerfully concurred stating that she would be continue to be Satsuki's friend even if other people stopped liking her.
Sumire had gone above and beyond, finding her a job when she had felt listless, teaching her about the nature of the world when she felt clueless and training her when she felt helpless. So she remained patient as the water vampire drained her glass.
"Here," Sumire said handing her a dagger that was wrapped in a bow. "This is your graduation present."
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.
.
"What," Satsuki said. "What do you mean by graduation?"
"Congratulations," Sumire said smiling. "No longer are you my apprentice. I deem you fit to go out into the wide world."