White Ink

30

A woman stood sobbing into the arms of a man. While beautiful the beauty was marred by the tears that ran down her face obscuring her makeup and causing her provocative dress to make her look vulnerable instead. She looked at the man who embraced her, eyes full of tears and nose running.
"

Why did this happen," she said. "Why did it happen to me," she suddenly yelled out her eyes red and flushed. The man just held her tighter and ran her hand through his hair.
"I didn't do anything to him," she choked out the words. "I hate him, I hate him. Where is he?" She began to yell her crying face morphing into one that was visibly enraged.
"Calm down…" the man began.
"Tell me now," the woman yelled. "How dare he do this to me? I'll kill him." Her hand moved down her and then flinched. "How dare you cover for him?"
The man examined her look of sorrow on his face and sighed. "I did not cover for him," he said. "You will get your justice." The man sighed. "The man is in a city eight hours to the north in the mountains of Sumer."
The woman turned to leave the building and inflict justice when the voice of the man spoke out from behind her once more. "Judge the person and then put the matter to rest. Be very wary Inanna that you do not let this event gain any power of you."
"Do not worry," Inanna turned back smiling briefly as if to assure her companion. I will judge the man and then no longer shall my wrath fall upon the land."
She turned around and left as the scene rippled and faded.
xxx
Shirou woke up in his bed. Yawning and surprised that Nine had not woken him up he lazily observed the clock. The clock read a very unusual five 'o clock that caused images of the last night to well up inside him. Groaning he realised he had an appointment with Rin sometime today. While they had not agreed on a specific time that they would meet, Shirou preferred to go during the night and sleep and adjust his wards during the day.
In fact that was what he was doing the whole day. By using his vast knowledge of bounded fields he had broken over the years combined with his Magic he had succeeded in altering and activating his War Wards. The pretentious name aside, they were originally simply a remarkable bounded field that absorbed a certain amount of excess prana from the environment and created a spot of background noise which prevented them from being sensed while simultaneously informing Shirou of any threats that have entered the premises. Once the wards were triggered by the unannounced presence of a non-human invader they would activate and the aforementioned invader would be destroyed by a combination of runes and pre-programmed spells that would activate and be supplemented by powerful mystic codes.
Unfortunately they would not handle a Dead Apostle Ancestor, much less an ancestor and servant combination. To that end he had spent the remainder of the night and the start of the morning until ten 'o clock deactivating the current bounded field and implementing a defence system he had previously designed but not actively installed. He had cracked open his prior study into the use of teleportation as a defence and installed a bounded field that not only provided one hundred percent concealment if the enemy was not aware of the place but also immediately teleported any invaders that entered the premises back out. While the defence was far more complete is was also far more fragile and Shirou was well aware that once the unique space magic was gone then the house would be laid bare in future, but it would suffice for now.
Getting up after stretching for a bit he walked down to the kitchen and indulged in a meal prepared by his faithful servant. While eating he planned what he was going to do today. "Nine," he said to the butler preparing more food to be eaten later. "Arcueid is in the house but I do not know where Satsuki is. Please track her down and inform her that the circumstances of the war have changed."
His servant nodded and smiled at Shirou once more before leaving the room. A flex of his prana and the house was examined for traces of other life. In the room on the opposite end of the hallway Arcueid lay sleeping in the room. When the spell washed over the room Shiki materialised and looked around briefly before once again fading into immateriality.
There was no sign of Rider in the house. Shirou sighed; honestly she spent as much time trying to get into his pants as she did evading him. He still just couldn't figure her out. He had hoped that the dream cycle would have shed some light on her state of mind but so far despite three visions it had not helped him overmuch. In fact so far it was his least favourite part of being a master. Hopefully the following dreams were more informative and had nothing in common with the second dream. He had to struggle to consciously keep the pity off his face the following day. He did not think his servant would appreciate it.
He didn't need his servant for the upcoming meeting. He had given it some thought and decided that by not bringing his servant into Rin's house he would decrease the current tension and confuse her enough so that he could place her on the backfoot. However there was no need to chance it. A simple thought informed Rider that he was going out to Rin's and he would like her to be back on standby. The reply made him intimately aware of the fact that he hadn't yet bathed and he resolved to keep the water ice-cold when he did so.
xxx
Shirou was dressed up for battle and with all his mystic codes on hand for his night-time rendezvous with his magus classmate. He was not worried about Rin, even though she was a jewel magus was not a threat. While jewelcraft allowed her to hit above her weight class by releasing years of accumulated prana at one time she lacked his speed, defensive ability and fighting experience. The real reason he had to be cautious was her servant. Even though the Saber class servant was losing quite decisively against Achilles the prior night his abilities were still not to be underestimated. As a servant he was far stronger than all but the most powerful of humans and Shirou knew that he would not be able to say that he could defeat him with any certainty without knowing any more about him.
With his Magic he added the concept of [concealment] to himself. The concept would immediately break in the event of combat and beings with mystic eyes or servants with good perception could probably still pick up on his location. But he had a very good reason for using it. Using his magic once again he disappeared from his house and appeared in Tohsaka's. He had once invaded her house before in the search of any atrocities committed by her and to his joy she had found her clean.
He used that knowledge now to teleport into the kitchen. Inspecting and observing that it had not changed much in the year since he had last been there, he started swiftly making some tea and biscuits using the hosting magus' supplies. Finishing up he disposed of the teabags and laid the table. Standing to the left of the entryway he let out a swift burst of prana and concealed himself once more.
The sound of footsteps resounded through the house and Rin burst through the door panting with exertion and holding a red jewel aloft. She took one look at the room and came to a screeching stop. "What," she said before her voice ceased leaving her mouth to open and close soundlessly.
Shirou decided to put her out of her misery for the moment. "Hello Rin," he said speaking up from her side. "I'm here to have our discussion now."
His classmate whirled raising that red gem and pointing at him as her prana flared and her lips moved in what no doubt was about to be a spell before she visibly clamped down on her actions with all the subtlety of a man hitting the emergency brake on the train. To her side Gawain materialised holding an easy stance but still one in which he could react if necessary. Rin took a deep breath, closed her eyes and counted under her breath until she was calm. That being said it was truly unfortunate that just as soon as she had recovered her composure she opened her eyes to see Shirou dunking one of her special chocolate biscuits in the tea.
After that it took another ten seconds of deep breathing and counting under her breath before she sat down opposite her classmate. "Is there a reason why you're eating all of my food and drinking my tea?"
"Sure is Rin," Shirou said, his voice chipper. "I knew you would offer me hospitality as is only right, so I decided to pre-empt you and make myself some tea and I made you some as well. No need to thank me Rin."
"And why does my guest think he's so welcome in this house," said Rin visibly annoyed at the presumption of the person sitting opposite her.
"Why, didn't you want to talk to me Rin? If I'm so unwelcome in this house I can leave right now," Shirou said.
"No," Rin said and sighed. "Let's get this conversation over with before my headache gets any bigger than it is." She took a deep breath. "Why didn't you tell me that you were aware of magecraft?"
"Why didn't you tell me you had such a lovely house Rin? I'm still thinking of redecorating my own in a similar western style."
"Answer the question Shirou," Rin said through gritted teeth.
"You are recognized as the second owner of Fuyuki by the Mage Association. I have never nor will I ever be subordinate to that organisation," Shirou said staring at Rin and the intensity in his brown eyes forced her to take a step back. "Quite frankly as long as they leave me alone they are all free to live long happy lives."
He stopped there and the silence stretched on as the unspoken implication in his sentence sat heavily in the room.
Rin swallowed suddenly feeling her mouth run dry. She still had mountains of things to ask him but for the first time she got the hint that her eccentric, smiling and occasionally annoying classmate was not so harmless after all. Besides her she felt her servant tighten his grip on his sword and she took a small amount of comfort in the fact that it was two on one.
"How did you know the vampire," Rin asked. Shirou blinked at the question.
"Excuse me," he said.
"You knew the Dead Apostle's name," Rin replied challengingly. "Don't you think it's a bit of a coincidence for a vampire to show up in my town and then suddenly you of all people know who he is?"
She stopped talking as she took in Shirou's expression. His right eyebrow was raised and he had such a flabbergasted expression on his face that, if not for the seriousness of the situation she would have burst into laughter.
"The man's name is Rizo-Waal Strout," Shirou said. Rin just had a look of expectation on her face. "You're fucking kidding me. He's Dead Apostle No.6."Rin's expectant look had morphed to one of fear even as he continued. "And he's the right hand to Altrouge Brunestud. Now you know what you were dealing with," he said as Rin started to panic.
Shirou sighed and clapped his hands and some water appeared above Rin's head before falling down and drenching the poor girl. She turned and glared at him but before she could say anything she was interrupted by Shirou. "Calm down," he said. "Firstly I would like to arrange a momentary truce." He pressed on without giving Rin a chance to stop him. "Neither I nor any of my friends or allies will oppose you as long as the Ancestor is still out there. Secondly my advice would be to stay in your house behind the bounded field. Call sick to school if you have to. Dead Apostles Ancestors would be about the equivalent of servants. If you meet him again he will kill you. Third and lastly take this," Shirou said and placed a phone down on the table. "If you are in any trouble press 1 and tell me your location and I will proceed there with all haste."
Throughout his speech Rin's expression had continuously shifted. At the sound of a truce it brightened, at the mention of his allies it had shifted into concern, when he advised her not to go to school it showed a deep reluctance and finally when he had given her the phone she had shown simple distaste.
"Really," Shirou said with amusement. "You're one of those Magi that don't know how to use modern technology." He shook his head. "My servant is over two thousand years old and she is already using the internet Rin. Keep up with the times."
"Do you really believe that I will have to stop attending school," Rin said far more disinclined about the situation then Shirou would believe.
"Rin, you're in a war. You can die. Use the time to better rest and plan your moves," Shirou said shaking his head. "I'll scout out the rest of the competition and get back to you on the current status of the war by tomorrow night at the latest."
Rin nodded and picked up the phone and Shirou stood up to leave, but before he could take one step he was once again stopped by Rin's voice.
"Shirou," she said with determination laced into her voice. "You have said to me many times throughout our school life that you were a magician. Now I want to ask you one last time. She regarded him, her face dead serious. "Are you a magician?"
Shirou halted in his steps. Slowly he turned around regarding her classmate who was regarding him with fire in her eyes. He then put a hand on the table and broke a piece off before putting it in his mouth and chewing. He regarded Rin's utterly baffled look with a blank face while Saber stood to the side just staring at his behaviour.
Finished chewing he wiped his mouth and said, "Why don't you work it out Rin?" Then he snapped his fingers and mist once more mist descended on him and faded revealing empty space.
Rin still with wide eyes placed her hands on the table and feeling the now changed texture she repeated the process. Placing the piece of table in her mouth she started chewing. After a brief instant she groaned. "He just turned my table into chocolate," she said silently revaluating her prior disbelief of Shirou not being a Magician. Exasperated she let herself fall forward onto the table, only for it to crumble and her to fall onto the floor among the broken shards of chocolate table.
"Please kill me now," she said to her servant who had immediately leapt to help her up.
xxx
Shirou had teleported a block away and looked around for onlookers before he lost it laughing out into the night sky. He had been working on that the entire time he was answering Rin's questions, slowly changing the concept of the table to [texture of chocolate],[tastes like chocolate] and [nutritional value of chocolate]. He wished that he could have stuck around longer just to see Rin's face but he had a dramatic exit to stage and a serious job to do. Wiping tears from his eyes he swiftly composed himself. He had a lot of research to do and he needed to confirm his worst fears had taken place.
"[Poseidon's eye]," he uttered taking a chunk of prana and dispersing it around the city trying to pick up on anything that contained the slightest trace of mystery or prana. To his shock the nearest response was quite close.
"Damn somebody managed to sneak up on me," Shirou said out loud to himself.
"By your tone that doesn't sound like a common occurrence Inke," the woman stepped from the shadows brining an involuntary smile to his face. "I'll be happy to make your first mistake your last."
"Lorelei Barthomeloi, so you've found me and from the tingling in my hand you must also be a master. Is your servant going to introduce yourself or simply remain immaterial?"
The woman drew her rapier and held it in a position of easy access. "You may reveal yourself," she said and a moment later the figure of a tall man wearing the most unusual clothes materialised. It looked like a professional wrestling outfit complete with a red cape and everything.
"Greetings child," the swarthy man stated. "My Master wishes to fight you and I have no particular desire to clash blades so if you could direct me to your servant I shall do battle with them."
"I'm afraid she's somewhere about here I don't really keep track of her," Shirou replied semi-honestly. He could tell she was watching the whole scene from the top of a building three blocks away.
"Ahh, that's no matter then. As long as she doesn't interfere with my Master's fight I shall merely stand and watch," the man said.
Shirou nodded at that and then turned to regard the Vice-Director of the Clock Tower. If it was anybody else he would have asked them for truce. But he didn't think that would work with her. Nor did he really want it to. His blood was boiling for a fight between them but still he had to be sensible about this.
"There's a series of empty warehouses about three kilometres north of here. The citizens of Fuyuki sleep like the dead but even they will wake up if homes start collapsing," he said and immediately took off.
His pace was matched by the head of the Barthomeloi family who trailed behind him by a few steps and in less than a minute they were there. Shirou turned on his heel upon reaching the area and immediately launched a volley of icicles that travelled at bullet like speeds. In most cases this would be seen as a dirty move attacking before the fight was officially declared but at this point neither he nor his opponent cared. The volley of icicles was parried by her sword destroying all of them and she immediately followed up by sending three blades of wind at Shirou that would have torn a human in two but was merely a test for her young opponent.
Shirou saw the test for what it was and simply covered his hand in water and shattered the blade of winds with his bare hands. He then clapped his hands and a wave of toxic fog appeared rolling forward to devour his opponent. Lorelei spoke a word and gale force winds were summoned that instantly dispersed the fog revealing the empty location. She whirled in time to block three jets of water travelling faster than the speed of sound still only using her rapier.
She merely said another word and Shirou found himself in a vacuum and battling to breathe. This was swiftly negated by summoning water from inside his body and breathing in the oxygen contained inside that water. For a moment both he and Lorelei looked at each other silently regarding each other.
Then they both attacked Lorelei summoning a hurricane that tore up the surrounding area and launched at Shirou and Shirou countering with a tidal wave. The hurricane met the tidal wave in a humongous clash sending water and debris everywhere and Shirou had to back track to avoid the blade of Lorelei who had closed the distance in that brief instant. He countered her forward momentum by freezing the water in the ground creating a patch of ice. Lorelei twirled her sword gathering small pieces of debris from the ground and flung it forward t such velocity that it created large cracks in the wall of ice that Shirou had summoned less than a second ago.
Shirou struck the wall of ice sending large chunks of ice flying at the magus and he immediately teleported behind her and fired three bullets from his gun at her back. In response she did a half turn slicing the bullets in half with her sabre while simultaneously blowing all the ice away with a single breath. In the next Shirou was beset by a crushing pressure as the weight of the air upon his body multiplied and he felt like he was being heavily compressed. Unfortunately for Lorelei, Shirou had dealt with this kind of pressure before when he swam through the twilight zone and he negated it by increasing his internal pressure.
Shirou responded by sending vast amounts of water at Lorelei and to his surprise her response was to take to the skies and send a devastating wind attack at him that would have reduced him to shreds of flesh. He had responded by sticking Nolava II into the ground and encasing himself in a metal coffin. He teleported out of the coffin and using the same attack he had used a year ago against the dragon summoned some more water and dropped an iceberg on the woman. To his ever increasing astonishment and joy she was able to slice the iceberg in half. With a brief use of his Magic Nolava II was teleported to his hand he swung downwards at the Queen of Clocktower and was blocked by her. He forced her blade downwards driving her into the ground with his superior elevation.
Suddenly an explosion occurred right next to the feuding couple and they disengaged Lorelei floating downwards until she remained hovering above the water and Shirou landing on an iceberg that manifested under his feet. Suddenly Lorelei's servant manifested next to her.
"Did his servant interfere," Lorelei demanded of his servant looking royally pissed.
"She better not have," Shirou muttered under his breath. "He was enjoying the fight the fact that both him and his opponent were steadily escalating immensely. He did not know how they did it in ancient Mesopotamia but you just did not mess with another person's duel like that.
"No, I don't believe so," the servant replied. "His servant was calmly watching the fight until you were attacked. She then intercepted the arrow. No this fight was stopped by somebody else."
Shirou with a brief expenditure of prana extended his senses and located the interlopers. Turning to them he was amused to note that he was copied by Lorelei and then the servant.
"It seems we meet again," the voice that rang out was harsh and coarse and very distinctive. From the shadows stepped Rizo-Waal Strout followed by Achilles and a white haired tanned man that Shirou did not recognize.
"Black Knight Strout," Lorelei spat out beside him. "What is your kind doing taking part in the Holy Grail War?" Her sabre had risen again and there was an almost mad look upon her face.
"The Queen," the Dead Apostle Ancestor mused to himself. "Probably the same as you, there is something to be obtained."
"I think it may even be worse than that Lorelei," Shirou said. "What did you say the class of your servant was?"
"I didn't," she said. "My servant's class is Lancer though I fail to see how it is relevant now."
Shirou sighed. His worst fears had suddenly become realised. "It's relevant because that man over there is also Lancer. I'm afraid to inform you that somehow the reserve system of the grail has been activated. There are fourteen servants in this war."
"How did you have that knowledge?" the Dead Apostle Ancestor asked his simple question sounding like a demand.
The demand was promptly ignored by Shirou who continued. "That is not the worst part of it by far," he continued gravely. "A requirement for the reserve system to activate is that all the Master and Servant pairs have allied together rather than pursue the grail as individuals. Only then will the grail issue additional command seals."
Lorelei had no response but to tighten her grip upon her sabre but a brief glance towards Shirou contained her thoughts. If this is what was actually happening then they would be allies throughout the duration of the Grail War. Shirou nodded back at his former adversary and prepared for battle.
Author Note: This chapter was originally going to be twice the length but I decided to quite literally cut it in half. You'll get the other half in the next few days.
adislt The pace might be a bit slower but this arc is going to be longer so it naturally slows down as there are a lot of characters. One thing that I will never do is to rehash canon. It would be both a waste of your time and mine. Fate/stay night still holds up as a remarkable piece of literature and if you ever have a hankering for that version of Shirou I would definitely recommend a reread.
Archleone I make it a point to deliberately avoid criticizing other peoples work in my responses as I believe it would make it seem like I need to put people down to elevate my own stories. I will say that I did enjoy the earlier chapters of Fate's Gamble and I believe it should be respected as a perfect example. An example of what I'll leave to your imagination. That said despite my dislike and bafflement of some kinds of stories e.g. some of the fucking weird Harry Potter pairings and some authors penchant to insert an OC named Naruto into every single situation. The only stories that I will condemn without mercy is those that don't break away from canon.
Bit of a rant there. No multiversal shenanigans. When this story ends I will move onto the next one. Lastly no Shirou will not develop a reality Marble.
Archleone,Tobias97, Albertrojas Satsuki basically did something incredibly high risk. She had access to the Matou books on the original command seals so she took advantage of a loophole. The catalyst was her wish for the "best" servant for her not the most compatible. The holy grail then tried to interpret it searching through the throne of heroes and found it but the catalyst was too weak. She then used the command seal to strengthen her connection with the servant and summon him. Her second command seal was to write her story. This is possibly the single best use of a command seal.
For the record the "best" servant for Shirou would have been Cu Chulainn. But I doubt even the Grail would be stupid enough to give one of the deadliest conceptual weapons ever to the Magician of concepts