From Fake Dreams

15

Sirius looked at his captor with dull eyes as he attempted to regain consciousness through the torture that Louvre was putting him through. He knew that things would get worse for him before anything got better if it ever did. The world wasn't some kind of shounen manga, however the fact that Louvre was trying to get him to talk about Shirou's reality marble did not make him feel any warmer and fuzzier…
"

Ah told ya already…" The old man sighed tiredly, trying to keep his head on straight while dozens of mental probing and alteration spells attempted to withdraw information from him or try to make him slip up. A normal human or magus probably would have succumbed to even one of these tortures, but in addition to enhancing his longevity Sirius' self applied runes also enforced his mental defenses to near sorcery based levels. "Ah only knew tat ta lad had a marble a small time ago. It has sometin ta do wit recordin swords and projectin tem damn near perfectly… but tat's all ah really know about it."
"Don't play games with me!" The dead apostle ancestor roared in anger. "Even if you only managed to discover it a month before I captured you, you would have no doubt dissected that child in order to figure out the entirety of his mystery for yourself! A weapon based reality marble would have been too great of a treasure for you to simply pass up!" He grabbed Sirius by the throat. "My daughter is dead because I gave you far too much benefit of the doubt blacksmith. I will not make that mistake again."
Sirius smirked despite the fact that oxygen to his head was slowly being cut off. "Yer getting ahead o yerself Louvre. Ah knew ta lad had a reality marble, but it's still underdeveloped. Even yer standard magi know tat in order fer one ta truly manifest, ta user had ta be truly convicted to his distortion an get ta needed trainin done. Its ta same as pickin a fruit tat wasn't ripe yet. Ya gotta nurture it first and ten cut it open fer ta best results. Strike ta metal when it's nice an hot as it were… no sooner… no later… and ta lad is possibly ta greatest forgin tool ah've ever come across, even if he is barely gettin warm right now…" His shit eating grin grew as he looked at the vampire dead in the eyes. "Makes ya wonder what kind a piss poor material yer little girl was made of…"
His comments were cut short as the irate father backhanded him hard enough that the larger man flew out of his chair and crashed into a nearby wall. "Don't you DARE speak of my daughter in such a fashion you pathetic worm!" Louvre roared in nearly uncontrollable rage. His power flooded the room in killing intent and magic and his eyes glowed red with unspeakable anger. "She was murdered by that harlot of a Fraga at the last moment, not by that pathetic child who does not even know how much of an abomination he truly is!"
"Yer just jealous cause yer not as twisted as a 16 year old boy." Sirius grunted before coughing up some blood and looked at the small spray of red fluid almost amused. "Well at least ah know if ah die now it's not gonna be from mah insides gettin scrambled…"
"You…" Louvre growled as he walked forward, emitting a large pulse of prana at every step…
"Father please stop, remember the geis you made with him." The vampire's son halted his father with a hand on his shoulder from behind. "You cannot do any permanent harm to him else your circuits will destroy themselves…" He grit his teeth and looked away. "And… unfortunately… we cannot do the same to the boy else we incur the same results. That is the reason why this… filth… has been to compliant in making you your codes…" He walked away as his father calmed down. "It was our mistake in assuming that the child would not be a threat to us in any way, and we have paid for it dearly with sister's life." He licked is dry lips as a nervous habit before attempting to continue to reason with his father. "However there is a hint of good news. The boy made a geis with me before he was rescued that prevents him from running away or escaping from me for the safe return of those girls and to no longer feed on those in the city. It is only active between only him and I now, so should you show up with me he will have no choice but to surrender…"
Louvre didn't turn his murderously red eyes from Sirius, however the intensity of energy pulsing off of his body receded a small amount. "Take him back to his quarters... I will figure out a fitting punishment later…" He growled darkly, commanding two vampires that were under his control to step out from the side of the room and drag the halfway conscious blacksmith out of the room.
The area between father and son remained quiet for several long seconds before the latter spoke up. "Your thoughts?" He asked politely, but submissively.
"What of the Fraga?" The elder growled. "Even with one of us here, you are aware that with her noble phantasm she could even kill me when I have the mace. Its passive effect is what makes it so dangerous, and any swing I make with it would be enough to enable her to use that blasted Fragarach to its full power. It's one of the few weapons that I am certain that can defeat me with the mace. Since we are attacking outside of the fortress we will not have the advantage our bounded fields provide…"
"We will figure something out father." The son spoke in a calm tone. "The Mace of Odo is not the only weapon in your collection that is a threat in and of itself…"
Louvre's eyes narrowed. "You know that I cannot wield the mace should I have another code on me in battle… and it is too valuable of a tool to not have on my person at all times. Most of the supplementary codes I possess are designed for thaumaturgy that I am not proficient in or am not capable of using in combat, and the ones that are weapons will…"
"Then fight the boy." The younger vampire argued, knowing very well what his elder was indicating. "You still possess the original noble phantasm. Even if he should manage to divulge its secrets and possibly even copy it, it will do him no good since that despicable man just said that the boy's power will only allow him to copy the tool up to a certain level. In the mean time I will take care of the Fraga, wielding so many codes and conceptual weapons that neither I nor she will be able to tell what my most powerful technique is. So long as we are near one another I should be strong enough to defeat her without too much issue, and if she is stronger than anticipated I will simply stall long enough for you to defeat the child and then come to aid me."
Louvre grunted as he pondered the plan of attack. Despite the reasoning and the fact that it was very logical, he disliked the issue that his opponent could be capable of creating copies of his prized possession…
He shook his head in disgust, He was an Ancestor. One of the 27 strongest vampires on the planet, yet here he was hesitating on deciding to fight a human child of all things. Granted the child was in possession of a branch of thaumaturgy that only a handful of humans in recorded history if that have ever possessed, and fairly rare for his own kind as well… but a human child none the less. If he could handle a small army of enforcers by himself, he could surly manage this single inexperienced annoyance with his son around. Allowing his shoulders to sag, the man chuckled bitterly. "How unbecoming, I have let the situation get the better of me and displayed behavior that has shamed me in front of not only you but the prisoner as well…"
The younger man smiled weakly. "It is not your fault father. Sister's death was an event that you could not have anticipated, and my report on the child's power simply made the wound all the more deeper. I should have waited till you had regained yourself before informing you of that second piece of information…"
"No… you were right to get it out of the way." Louvre brushed off his son's excuse for his actions. " Had you waited it would only have wasted time that we could have been using preparing for our retaliation." He began to walk out of the room to a section of his abode that possessed mystic codes that served as forms of transportation. "We will leave within the week. Prepare what you think you will need for the upcoming battle. My entire collection will be open for you to choose from, but be quick about it…"
The son swallowed heavily and nodded his head. He and his sister often had access to portions of his father's collection of mystical artifacts and weapons, but never had they gained full access to its contents before. "Thank you father. I will not disappoint you…" He bowed deeply before a thought crossed his mind. "And what of the blacksmith?"
The elder paused for half a moment before continuing to walk down the hallway. "Bring him. If anything he will at least learn from this event as to what happens to those who try to fool me…"
o. o. o.
Sirius grunted as he was thrown back into his chambers roughly by his jail guards before watching them close the door behind him and walking away. "Bloody hell… ah might not be as old as yer masta ya bastards but ah'm still clearly not sometin tat ya can just throw around wheneva ya feel like…" He grumbled before picking himself up and stretching his muscles slowly to make sure that everything was where it was supposed to be. He winced however as he suddenly experienced the sensation of a spike going through his head. "Damn it… these tings are easier ta deal wit when you were drunk ta night before…" He rubbed his forehead before slowly walking to his bed and sitting on it and hunching over to reduce the throbbing.
Today was just full of good and bad news. On the good side, Louvre's daughter was dead. On the bad, Louvre knew that Shirou had a reality marble. On the good side, Bazett was backing Shirou up. On the bad, Louvre knew this and from how he was raging knew how Fragarach worked, meaning that her mystery was almost useless now unless she wanted to waste them to do D ranked attacks.
Of course the ultimate bad news was that Louvre was probably going to go after Shirou personally now, noble phantasm and all…
On the ultimate good news side... if Waver was still alive like Louvre claimed and escaped and Bazett was staying with Shirou… then the odds of the boy laying eyes on his inheritance early were very good…
He frowned, even with those three cursed blades… ones that he personally admitted were among the most dangerous tools he had ever made for more than one reason, Shirou would still be in a bad spot against Louvre. The Mace of Odo's mystery was passive while all three of Shirou's cursed weapons were actualized on contact. Even if the difference is only by a fraction of an instant, the mace still had priority on the blades and would destroy them before the origins could be put into effect…
That did not mean that he didn't have faith in the boy. Shirou was a quick learner when it came to combat, and even more so when it came to coming up with strategies to counter the abilities of weapons he encountered for the first time. The moment the boy see's the mace he would no doubt keep his distance and attempt to exploit one of the two conditions needed to cancel the mace's powers.
The old man sighed in frustration though. Shirou could most likely trace the mace as well as his other tools by this point. Hell there was barely anything he couldn't trace so long as it was a weapon that could be held in two hands, but that mace was not something that Shirou would be able to use to its full potential. He couldn't be absolutely certain… but the boy's dual origin affinity relationship, while enabling him to trace objects in the first place… prevented him from using Louvre's own mystery against him…
They were in a bad spot. Louvre knew better than to fight Bazett by himself while the possibility of her having Fragarach was still there. Shirou's aces while almost game breaking against any other magus, were near useless unless they could get around the man's mace, and if what he heard was correct Shirou was now unable to willingly escape from Louvre's son due to a geis he made. This entire debacle would be settled with one last big free for all fight and the enemy had the advantage…
Sirius sighed as he took his head out of his hands and looked at them, recalling the geis he himself had made to Louvre earlier.
Sirius McGinty will forge mystic codes to the best of his ability for the Dead Apostle Ancestor Louvre until the second party is satisfied with the products. He will not use thaumaturgy for any purposes other than crafting and enhancing mystic codes, of which he will not use to escape, contact the outside world, or any of the codes he has made during this time to undermine, alter, or deter the second party's goals.
In payment, Dead Apostle Ancestor Louvre will supply Sirius McGinty with any and all supplies he will require to make his mystic codes, adequate food, room, internet access, cable (Sirius really had to push for those two), and will not suffer from any permanent injuries of any kind nor will he be turned into a vampire by the Apostle or those under his influence during and after the codes have been made. One Shirou Emiya will also be protected from being turned or permanently harmed under this contract in the same time line as well…
The internet bit wouldn't help him one bit since the only other magus he knew that used it was Kiritsugu. He just liked browsing on Wikipedia and downloading music for free from time to time, besides he wasn't allowed to contact the outside world in the first place.
Sirius had to chuckle at some of the arguments that he and Louvre had during the making of the Geis. He had tried to get daily professional massages into the contract as well on his end, but unfortunately that little debate didn't last long.
He did however manage to get the vampire to slip up and allow a small loophole in the agreement for him to work from. Should Louvre actually bring him along to witness the fight between the vampires and the magi in Japan… that would be his best chance to pull his ace out and turn things around.
The old man was fairly good at most standard thaumaturgy, but nothing he knew could help him escape the castle without breaking the contract. He knew a lot about rune magic, but it would not enable him to warp the agreement in the slightest… at least so long as it was hidden away from him. No, the real loophole was the fact that the contract said that he wasn't allowed to use any codes that he had made HERE to try and pull a fast one. While it was true that Louvre and his underlings had stripped him of any and all codes they had found on his person when they first took him to the castle, they had foolishly and conveniently overlooked the one code that he could proudly claim was his true code. His pride and joy…
He chuckled again, amused and curious… after all how long had it been since he had used his personal code for combat purposes?
The Lebor na nUidre…
o. o. o.
Japan:
Shirou relaxed his shoulders as he stopped going through his standard stances and forms with his new blades in the afternoon light.
"This is harder than it used to be…" He frowned as he looked at his weapons. "Is it because I'm still recovering? It can't be because of the swords. They feel and weigh different but if anything they work better for me than what I normally use…" He looked at the sky warily and flinched as the sun caught his gaze. "Or maybe it's because…"
"Oi Shirou!" Rin called out as she walked outside. "You done working out yet?"
The boy lowered his blades and turned to his classmate with a light smile, not that she could tell with the shroud still around the lower half of his face. "Yeah, I guess I just finished. How were things on your end? Did you and Bazett-nee manage to deal with the council of the city?"
The Tohsaka flipped her hair flamboyantly and smirked. "Of course, who do you think you are talking to? Until we can deal with the situation a curfew is being set up and school will be canceled. All thanks to…"
"Kirei." Bazett interrupted, causing Rin to twitch in embarrassment. "The priest has a lot of contacts and subordinates in the local government so it was pretty easy for him to set it all up for us."
Shirou snorted in amusement. On one hand he was still very much on edge whenever the priest was involved with anything he did, on the other he enjoyed Rin getting caught red handed in over inflating her ego. "I can only imagine how that conversation went. "
"Oh be quiet." Rin pouted and looked away as if to deny she did anything wrong. "Besides it wasn't as if we had to try hard. The vampire's familiars are forbidden from feasting anymore so they're dropping all over both sides of the river randomly for the past few days. It didn't take much to convince people that there was some unknown disease spreading around and force people to stay inside."
Shirou frowned. "Still couldn't he help out more with the fighting?"
Bazett shook her head. "No. Apparently when it comes to Apostle Ancestors the members of the church have a strict protocol regarding how to deal with the situation. He's been ordered to stick to damage control until further commands are given."
"Humph. I doubt he would have been of much help anyways. He's a detestable man like that." Rin grumbled before looking at Shirou. "What about you? Did you get a better idea of how your weapons work?"
Shirou nodded as he walked to several bamboo shoots that grew on the side of the house that he occasionally used for reinforcement training. Dispelling his copy of Maiya, the gray sword of binding, from his left hand, he grabbed one of the plants. "I did." He stated as he tapped Natalia, the steel blue sword of severing, against the plant lightly. The girls watched in curiosity as the plant was instantly cut where the blade touched it despite the bare minimum contact they had. "Natalia's power is the actualization of severing, or cutting something completely into two separate parts. So long as what I'm cutting has a low enough resistance to magic, it will instantly bisect along the line of the blade the moment it makes contact regardless of whether or not I finish swinging." He showed the girls the end of the bamboo shoot he had just made and noted how clean the separation was. "In theory, I can actualize the effect in objects bigger than this sword with enough practice… however it will take time. I also estimated that should I encounter an object that has a high enough magic resistance to prevent the sword from instantly severing it… or something that is just simply way too big, the sword would still provide me with an edge that is sharper than anything else that modern technology can provide."
Bazett whistled, impressed. "Not bad, It's either an instant cut through if the defense isn't good enough or a ridiculously sharper blade if it is. It pretty much guarantees that you won't be stuck with your weapon stuck in someone's bone or that you will be wasting energy cutting through a target's insides. What about the curse? What does that do to it?"
The boy looked at his teacher warily before sighing. "Like I said before, the curse is focused on corrupting and destroying life and humanity. When applied to this sword, it gives it a higher effectiveness against living things. In short it means that if it cuts a person, the person would need at least a full rank higher in terms of magical resistance to prevent the origin of severing to be actualized on any part of his or her body."
"At LEAST a full rank?" Rin raised an eyebrow. "That's a pretty big claim Emiya-kun… but what rank of defense would an object normally need to resist that thing anyway?"
The boy looked at his sword skeptically before relenting. "Under normal circumstances… I think it can actualize on any object that doesn't have a resistance of at least a C- rank, maybe C if I get more familiar with it… C+ if I pump it with enough prana. I was researching the theory behind broken phantasms a few months ago to try and see if I can find a middle ground, the basic foundation behind the approach was pretty straightforward but the application was a bit harder than I would have guessed…plus I didn't really spend much time on it to be honest."
"So it could possibly let you cut through an organic based defense with ease up to around a B+ rank…" Bazett nodded in understanding. "That's not bad at all… there are definitely stronger weapons and spells out there, but there aren't many with a passive ability that potent that don't come with any negative side effects to the user."
Rin pouted and looked away in denial. "So what? The strongest of my jewels have an A rank attack power, who cares if I can only use them once… I only need to use them once to take an enemy down." She glared back at Shirou as if daring him to argue her statement. "So what about that other sword? The one that binds?"
The boy laughed nervously. "Um yeah… Maiya…" He dispelled the blue and red sword and replaced it with the gray and brown sister blade a moment later. "Maiya's a bit more difficult to use compared to Natalia and Kiritsugu. It's origin power is "binding", so it's really supposed to be used more as a tool more than a front line weapon…"
"That makes sense." Bazett nodded with her arms crossed before remaining quiet for a few seconds and opening an eye. "So… how can you use it?"
"Humph." Rin snorted. "You're an enforcer and yet you can't figure out a way to use such a unique tool? No wonder you focus on fighting and not on the theory."
The eldest one there twitched an eyebrow. "Really? Then tell me little girl, how would you use such a weapon on the front lines to its greatest ability?"
Rin rolled her eyes. "Easy. I'd…" She paused and frowned in thought. "I'd… bind things first off and…"
The purple haired woman laughed. "Not so easy is it girl?"
"Be quiet! I'll come up with something!" The Tohsaka snapped irritably.
Shirou sighed. "Maiya unlike Natalia, can be used in more than one way. The first thing that you should know about it is that it actualizes at the end of the swing instead of at the beginning. That means that if I used it in a straight up fight, anyplace it would cut would instead…"
"Leave only improperly healed, and decaying tissue… just like what the dual origin does only it doesn't have a chance to target the magic circuit." Rin's eyes widened in realization.
The boy nodded. "That's right, but that's only if I use this blade like any other sword… and personally I'd prefer to have my opponent with no limbs than one that can still work but is only slightly less dangerous which is why I'd rather use Natalia in a straight up fight. It's when I start throwing in other factors that Maiya's true potential can get realized."
"True potential?" Bazett raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
The boy looked down at the blade with seemingly unimaginative and mundane colors. "The hidden ability of Maiya is that it can be used in conjunction with other magic or solutions to produce interesting and significant effects on the opponent. For example, if I happen to lace it with poison…"
"Anything it cuts would not only get poisoned, but make it so that it would be nearly impossible to take it out since the concept of "binding" would practically fuse it to the afflicted area and cells." Rin's eyes opened in realization.
"Exactly." Shirou nodded. "Not only that, but if I happen to cut my opponent with Miya without anything in conjunction and I force the origin of binding into the entirety of the target INSTEAD of just in the wounds I make, it would actualize in a way so that the target would not be able to shed any physical or spiritual portion of his body from internal sources for a long period of time unless they manage to either unravel that particular mystery. If they try to overpower it and succeed however they will end up doing unspeakable damage to the separated parts at the part where they connected."
"Um… that sounds useful Shirou…" Bazett tilted her head to the side confused. "But I'm having a hard time seeing how that can help you out."
"I see…" Rin pondered the blade's power curiously. "That is interesting…" She looked at Bazett. "There are some magi and phantasmal beasts out there that can separate their body into multiple parts, and others that can temporarily send their souls into familiars or puppets in order to enhance their abilities. The problem is that regardless of how powerful they are, they need to return to their original condition at some point lest they do too much damage to their souls or their bodies, but if they are cut by that sword in their new or original bodies…"
"Then either they would be unable to actualize their thaumaturgy without doing incredible damage to themselves, or become unable to return to their original condition and suffer the consequences of being in an unnatural state for too long. Possibly causing Gaia to finish them off for you in order to correct the irregularity." Bazett concluded in realization. "If you managed to attack a familiar with that weapon while even a portion of the master's soul is in it... you'd be able to do some serious harm to him even if it's not the main body."
Shirou nodded. "Dad's and Sirius-jiji's notes say that Maiya's power specifically is "to bind together two or more existences that complement one another and are slashed by the same stroke", while the nature of "binding" can be defined as "to actualize an intertwined but incomplete and imperfect reaction and or fusion". The more compatible the two objects are, the stronger the binding naturally is. For example, broken skin bound together would appear to be completely unharmed other than the necrosis, but binding a spirit to a poorly chosen stone would only last temporarily so long as the spirit was strong enough. "Binding" by definition is not a perfect fusion so it can be undone if sloppily executed. I would have to do more experimenting to see what I could do with this thing, but I have a few ideas that I can test out later. My best guess is that the better I understand it's mysteries, the stronger the binding effects will be when I actualize it…"
Rin let out a slow breath before closing her eyes and leaning back. "… That really is a unique tool you have Emiya-kun… you were right in claiming that its main purpose isn't as a weapon… but then again its capabilities as one are pretty significant… I might just ask you to help me out with it on a few experiments later on after we deal with our current situation." She slowly put a hand to her mouth and began to think. " An intertwined yet incomplete fusion… if it could be applied to spirits and my gemstones and technically no one said that the nature of the binding couldn't be altered post actualization to become a complete fusion."
Bazett simply sighed and scratched her head. "Honestly Shirou. That sword is more confusing after you explained it's uses than you did when you gave me the short version. I'll just assume you know how to use it and keep it at that." Her eyes steeled as she glanced at the boy warily. " What about Kiritsugu though? Is there any alternate affects that it has that you haven't already told us?"
Shirou stared back at his mentor's gaze before relenting and shaking his head. "Kiritsugu retains the same purpose and abilities that my father's origin bullets had. Instant necrosis on any non magical organic target, and instantly severs and binds the magic circuits of the user of any magic it comes into contact with…"
" What about the curse though?" Rin asked curiously. "That must have changed the effects in some way."
Shirou glanced at the girl before relenting, looking down to avoid any eye contact with the females. "Well… while Maiya and Natalia could be considered C- to C ranked weapons, Kiritsugu has the power of around a B ranked when not using the curse, so it has a bit more firepower behind it when used against non magical objects."
"Shirou…" Bazett frowned. "What are you holding back?"
The boy sighed reluctantly. "... I tested it out against a minor familiar I made a couple of days ago just to see if its affects were as efficient as dad told me… it was nothing big, just a small bird was capable of some minor wind thaumaturgy and at most 2 circuits."
"But…" Rin pushed, not liking the way Shirou was sounding at the moment, and wondering how the hell could a weapon originally designed to assault and destroy a person's magic circuits could get any worse.
The boy rubbed his forehead in frustration. "It didn't just destroy the familiar's circuits…" He muttered darkly. "The feedback traveled deeper than that… much… much deeper."
Bazett blinked. "The damage went deeper? How could it go… any…" She paled as she realized that there was something that could qualify as "deeper" for a weapon that assaulted magic circuits specifically, something that if damaged was more impossible to fix than damaged magic circuits. "No way…"
"You… destroyed its soul?" Rin blinked in shock and disbelief. There were only a handful of weapons that could directly harm a soul of any kind since they were eternal and indestructible in the physical world.
"I could hardly believe it myself." The red head shook his head, his eyes defeated and tired. "To be able to harm a being through their second element to that extent…" He grit his teeth, not liking the fact that he was at the moment capable of dealing even more unspeakable harm to others than he originally thought.
"Shirou… you do realize what this means don't you?" Rin said slowly and sweating profusely. "Damaging the soul… even if you use that sword on a minor spell done by your opponents… it will not only cripple their circuits… but their memories as well." It was a well known fact among magi that a person's memories were not in fact stored in their brains but their souls. The reason why normal humans believed it was the brain was because the organ was what anchored the soul to the body. Harming the brain altered the connection it had to the soul, which interfered with the transference of memories to the body. "Even by countering a minor spell… you could interfere with your opponent's ability to remember spells or fighting tactics… it could even cause them to…"
"I get it!" The boy snapped irritably, causing Rin to jump back. "I've pretty much become the ultimate bogyman for magi everywhere if I use this damn thing! No possible reincarnation! No transferring the soul into a safe container in case the body fails in order to extract memories for the future generations to learn from! Nothing! I know already!" He placed his head into his hands. "I know already…" He repeated in a tired and defeated tone, as if he was an old man. "… Which is why I'm not going to use that thing unless I don't have any other choice." He stared at his hands as if he was seeing something else. "I know that a lot of people are going to come after me because of what dad did when he was an assassin. I know that I'm going to have to fight them at some point and that I am eventually going to have to kill a few of them in order to keep on living… I can already see their blood on my hands…"
"Shirou…" Bazett looked at the boy in pity, knowing that despite the fact that he was quite skilled in fighting, he was at his very core someone that wanted to help others not hurt them… and this weapon was almost the literal definition of delivering excessive amounts damage both physically and psychologically at the same time. The fact that his father's legacy enabled him to deal the ultimate form of destruction onto others was not something that she assumed would be good for the boy's current mental situation… not with all the fighting that has happened lately and his friend being murdered by one of them.
"But… but if I can beat my opponents without using Kiritsugu… then I will go down the harder route. No one deserves to have their soul destroyed." He continued with conviction. "I will only use it if I see no other option."
"Shirou…" Rin looked at him worriedly before Bazett stepped forward and interrupted her.
"Good. It's safer for you that way. The less times you use it, the less of a chance anyone will find out about it's true capabilities. Besides if you became over dependant on it you would get sloppy and that would make me look bad as your teacher." The eldest one there smirked with a confident grin. "Still… I have to say Shirou, that's one hell of an ace you have there. It's so good I'm almost considering thinking about maybe trading Fragarach for it if it was possible…"
Shirou blinked before snorting and donning a dry grin. "Tch. Yeah right. Even if it takes forever to make, I'd rather have Fragarach any day of the week over Kiritsugu."
Bazett laughed. "Hah! Is that any way to talk about the last gift your old man left you? Honestly he must be turning in his grave right now!"
The boy paused before chuckling lightly, making a copy of all three origin blades and laying them on the ground before watching them. "… Nope. Not moving, I guess he really doesn't care one bit about what I just said."
The females there blinked in confusion at the boy's actions for several seconds before the joke finally set in… and cause them to hunch over with their hands over their mouths in order to stop from laughing as hard as they could.
"Thank you. Thank you…" Shirou bowed politely as if the girls were his audience. "I'll be here all night."
Rin snorted and had trouble controlling herself. "I heheh… don't think that's how he wanted his remains to be used Emiya-kun heheheh…"
"Keep it up!" Bazett giggled. "Make them play dead!"
Several bad puns later the three had managed to calm down a fair bit. Rin had gone inside to make dinner and surprisingly enough Shirou didn't try to negotiate the position for once. Instead he settled for simply sitting on the porch with a cup of tea while he waited for the food to finish.
"So can you tell me what's been bothering you lately?" Bazett asked from behind the boy, leaning against the wall casually.
Shirou didn't say anything for a moment before pulling down the shroud to uncover his mouth and drink some tea. "I thought I told you about Kiritsugu's secondary ability…" He began in a tired tone before the elder cut him off.
"You know that's not what I'm talking about." The enforcer frowned. "You've been frowning at the sun and even more at the moon ever since you managed to recover. I've seen you do it repetitively when you practiced your forms."
The boy clicked his teeth in irritation before sighing and looked up at the sky. "… I think I might have been more affected by the vampire's blood than we first assumed."
Bazett paled. "Shit. Does that mean that you're getting the thirst for blood?"
The boy shook his head. "No… well, my mouth has been a bit more dry than normal lately, but it's nothing that I can simply ignore and it doesn't seem to change in intensity. Just to be safe, I don't think I'll be testing if another person's blood really does incur a reaction in case I turn out to be a case similar to a true ancestor… and thankfully, I don't have a blood fetish."
The woman took a step forward. "By the sound of things you seem to be judging your hypothesis on something else" She looked up at the sky. "… You're being affected by the lunar cycle and exposure to sunlight aren't you?"
Shirou nodded. "Yeah. My skin isn't burning off, but I feel noticeably lethargic during the day and unusually energetic during the night… the latter more so as time goes by, which can be explained by the fact that it's getting close to the full moon." He pulled back his cheeks and showed off his incisors, which looked pretty much the same as always. "No Dracula teeth though, which is always a relief." He looked at his hands experimentally. "The peak of my daily magical activity used to be at around 5 in the afternoon, but now it might as well be midnight. I don't know if this change in me is gradually happening and the shroud isn't working, or if it simply is what managed to change in my body before the priest treated me and this thing is preventing my condition from getting any worse."
"And if it does?" Bazett asked in a dark tone.
The boy sighed and looked at the moon again. "I don't know. Dad… Dad entrusted me to do a lot of things in the near future… things that he believed that only I could do. If I let anyone kill me before doing all of that… I feel… no… I know that I would be betraying not only myself and him, but countless other people as well." He shook his head. "But I can't deny the possibility that even if I retain my sanity and transform I would still become a monster at some point."
"A monster that can project one of the most dangerous anti magic weapons on the planet as many times as he wants." The woman pointed out. She would have mentioned his reality marble, but since she wasn't sure that he knew about it at the moment, she held back so that she wouldn't be putting more fuel on the fire. Technically speaking, if Shirou ever managed to master his reality marble and became a dead apostle, she wouldn't doubt it if he was eventually recognized as one of the 27 at some point… if none of them killed him of course.
"Which makes the situation even worse." The boy sighed dejectedly before taking another sip of tea.
The two remained quiet for some time before Bazett spoke up again. "So what do you suggest? I doubt that you've figured this out to this degree without coming up with some idea of what to do."
Shirou remained quiet for a few seconds. "… For right now… I think that it would be best to keep quiet about this until after we deal with Louvre. He's the more imminent issue right now. After that… if we survive… I think it would be best to keep me under some supervision… see if this is the extent of how much I've changed or if I'm still turning. If it's the former… then I'll just wear the shroud for another year or so to be safe…"
"Are you sure you just want to keep wearing it because it makes you look slightly interesting?" The enforcer gave him a wry smile.
"And if my condition progresses…" He continued, ignoring his second sister figure's jab at him. "Well… I was hoping that you, Waver-nii or Sirius-jiji knew someone that could help me out… and if not… well then I guess I would have to ask you guys to put me down before I lose control over myself."
Bazett grimaced as Shirou's words echoed in her head. Magi were used to death and possibly dying yes… but few ever spoke of their own so casually as if it was an inevitability… and fewer still as young as Shirou. He is fully willing to die if things get out of hand… She thought before remembering how he had threatened to decapitate himself in order to save Sakura and Rin. No wonder he has a reality marble… he really does has no sense of self preservation when it comes to others… he thinks of himself as a mean… no… a tool to obtain other's happiness. That aria that Rin told me he muttered before the vampire bit him… it's linked to his reality marble. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, groaned loudly, walked forward and slapped the boy upside the head.
"Ow!" The teen grunted and rubbed his skull. "What the heck?"
"Damn it Shirou, I thought we told you to stop worrying us like that every time something looks bad! You especially aren't supposed to do it when a big fight is around the corner. It's unprofessional and lowers morale." She crossed her arms under her chest and frowned at him. "Look, I happen to know a few people that can help if things really do get worse for you, and I know for a fact that the old drunk happens to know the Kaleidoscope himself… even if the nut hasn't been around for the last dozen years or so. Don't count yourself out until we know for a fact that your condition is getting worse. Your old man would get pissed if you gave up so early." She sighed and scratched the back of her head. "Honestly, you're such a hassle you know that? At least let us try to figure out what's going wrong first before resigning to killing yourself."
The boy looked at her skeptically. "Isn't it always good to be aware and prepared for the worst possible outcome though?"
The woman rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but… ugh. Let me put it this way. If our positions were swapped, you'd be busting your ass to help fix my condition and not even letting yourself think that it's impossible to help me, and I would be confident enough in your abilities that I wouldn't even be close to worrying about my possible point of no return until at the very last moment." She nodded her head and closed her eyes. "Yeah, you definitely value yourself too little compared to others Shirou. If this keeps up you're going to have a lot of trouble later on in life."
The boy flinched as Bazett's explanation sunk in. "You have a point…" He muttered as he recalled multiple people telling him similar things over the years. "But I can't really change that." He relented. "That's just the way I am. I'm the kind of guy that wants to help out everyone he can see but always forgets about himself until it's too late if even then." He smiled weakly to his teacher. "But then again I'm happy this way and I personally don't see what's wrong with helping others."
"Shirou…" The woman looked at him pityingly.
He looked at his hands as they held the tea cup in his lap. "You know Nee-san… when dad first really explained my problem to me, he gave me a good example to compare myself to. He said that I was like one of those old swords of legends. I am really powerful by myself and could easily kill a lot of things alone… but if I'm left alone I would either rust, get cursed, or go wild. In order to prevent this he said I would have to find someone to wield me… to guide me through my life so I wouldn't get carried away."
Bazett blinked and thought about the comparison. "That… that's actually a pretty good analogy." She agreed. "You go out of your way to save others, but in the process you never check yourself for dents, scratches and rusting that you get in the process. In a way you need a scabbard…" She paused before snorting and laughing to herself.
"What?" Shirou blinked in confusion.
"A sword needs a scabbard, so you need something or someone to stick yourself in." The woman chuckled and shook her head.
Shirou frowned and shook his head. "Anyways to be honest, I didn't really know who to look for or to trust myself with when I thought about what dad said. At first I considered Waver-nii and Sirius-jiji since they were the first people to know about my abilities other than dad and seemed to care about me."
Bazett couldn't say anything as she was too busy trying to not laugh at the top of her lungs and stay on her two feet.
"Plus they seemed to know what they were doing most of the time even if they got angry on occasion and forced me to do painful things to vent." The teen continued, clearly missing what Bazett found so funny and personally not wanting to know what she found so hilarious. "But, I don't think the old man would last that long with me. I mean he's strong, but he can only teach me so much and he's not as young as he used to be… his back might give out at some point and I think it would be a bit creepy to dedicate the rest of my life to an old man that's drunk half the time."
The sister figure dropped to her knees at this point, her muscle control having failed her as she was now struggling to get sufficient air.
"But after a while I realized that they weren't the ones for me." Shirou's eyebrow twitched, trying to ignore Bazett's odd behavior. "Sure they knew what they were doing and were very experienced, but they weren't what I was looking for… is something wrong?" He asked. "What am I saying that's so funny?"
"It's nothing!" The woman gasped with a grin on her face and tried as hard as she could to stop her laughing. "I'm just remembering a funny joke hahaha… keep going! I'll be fine!"
The boy frowned before shaking his head and looking away again. "So for a while after that, I considered you being the one to guide me." He was somewhat confused that Bazett's laughing stopped suddenly at that. "But it didn't last long. You were always going off on your own jobs so I concluded that just being around me would waste too much of your time." He leaned back. "Since then I pretty much put the question out of my mind… until recently." He looked at the moon. "When Sakura and Rin were in danger… I was terrified… I was angry… and…"
Bazett looked at Shirou curiously. "And?" She asked curiously.
Shirou paused as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say. "I… I felt like that if I let them die… if I let those two in particular die… I'd forever loose something important to me…" He looked at his hands. "For the past few years… I've been dreaming of this place, it doesn't exist in the world but… it feels natural to me. An endless field of swords with a lone hill that I've always been sitting on… waiting. Things would get clearer as time went by, but I would never move from my spot on top of the hill, like I was just like those swords… waiting for something to give me reason to move." He glanced over at the kitchen where Rin was still cooking. "And during that fight, when those two were in danger… I did… and so did all the other swords there."
The enforcer swallowed heavily. If her guess was right, that place the boy was dreaming of was his reality marble, and if that was the case than Rin and Sakura were definitely extremely important figures to his psyche. Should anything happen to either one… "Is that so?" She asked hesitantly. If what the boy said was true, then Shirou must have undergone some kind of significant development in his inner world during the fight. "Well… I guess that means that you've been waiting for those two then." She sheepishly replied. "I mean that place sounds interesting, but I mean it's just a dream and..."
"Unlimited Blade Works…" The Faker interrupted the Fraga suddenly.
"Huh?" She blinked in confusion before remembering that Shirou repeated the password to open Kiritsugu's box.
"My reality marble Nee-san. That's what it's called." The boy stated as he looked at the sky, silencing Bazett almost instantly. "I could barely recall it before, but I do remember that vampire shouting about it just before I blacked out…"
"Y-You know?" The teacher asked surprised.
"… Well… I just found out myself to be honest…" Shirou shrugged. "Dad seemed to know a lot more than he let on before he died, but he trusted Waver-nii and Sirius-jiji to make sure that things didn't get out of control." He snorted. "I guess he didn't put into consideration Dead Apostle Ancestors." He shook his head. "It's ironic that the thing that makes people think that I'm going to die early happens to be the source of my strongest possible power. In a way, I'm my own double edged sword." He laughed dryly before turning to Bazett. "Hey Nee-san. Can we keep this a secret between us? You know, my personality and the whole possible turning into a vampire thing? I don't want to worry Tohsaka about unnecessary stuff."
Bazett blinked before calming down and regaining her in control demeanor. "… You know that she's going to find out eventually if she hasn't already. She's pretty sharp…"
The boy nodded. "That's an understatement. I know my exposure to the magic world isn't on your level, but even I can tell that she isn't simply just bragging whenever she shows off her spells and states her superiority to me. She really is a genius and talented, but I don't think she's completely figured everything out yet and with things the way that they are now she has other things to worry about."
The woman looked at the boy skeptically before walking away. "I'll do it, but please remember this… it's not a bad thing to have people worry about you Shirou. Regardless of what you think, there is nothing wrong with occasionally standing back and letting someone else do your job for you."
Shirou tilted his head and sighed. "There's nothing wrong with that… but there's nothing wrong with wanting everyone else to be happy either Nee-san…" He closed his eyes…
"My body is made of blades…"
He could see his inner world now without having to go to sleep. Having it explained to him through his father's letter, he now understood the hill's significance, of what it represented, of what it could be and what it was…
"Fire is my blood… and glass is my heart…"
He was a unique person, he saw the world differently than others. Through fire he had seen what it could really become and how helpless people really are. Through death he had seen how others could really suffer both physically and psychologically. In order to stay whole he had to shatter, so he did. He was a warped human unable to stop himself from trying to prevent such things from happening again if he had the power to regardless of what became of himself. It did not mean he was weaker than the others. He was simply… different.
"Through countless battles I forever wait, alone on the hill of blades…
… For Hell's hands to bear… for Heaven's hands to temper…"
Yet he was different than most humans. He could fight in ways others couldn't, but he could also break in ways others couldn't as well. He doubted that his life would be simple after the events soon to come would pass, if things even got that far… so odds are his life would be filled with more fights to come. More obstacles to overcome. More people to save… yet if he was left alone he knew that he would just keep going forward in order to be someone's savior… and completely forget about himself. A sword can be used to save or kill humans among countless other things, but it can't be used to repair itself.
…... Well technically there were a few that could but he was fairly certain that he wasn't one of them.
Still, he felt that Rin and Sakura were people he could trust himself to constantly. He could, would and was willing to sacrifice himself for them… and he knew that in return they would take care of him with as much fervor… no that wasn't right. They wouldn't stay with him out of obligation, but because he could see somehow that they cared for him almost on an equal level that he cared for everyone that he saw… though he still didn't know why he was interested in them so much.
Reaching out with a hand, he literally pulled out a fairly common blade from his world into the natural one while barely using any prana at all. Now that he knew how his powers worked, he could confidently say that the efficiency in his magi took another massive leap… how far he wouldn't be able to say until he practiced with Avalon, but even now he could tell that something inside the machinations of Shirou Emiya had fallen into place to make him more efficient.
Swords, axes, knives… anything that could be considered a bladed weapon or related to one that he had seen throughout his life flew past his mind's eye, yet he could identify each and every one of them as fast they appeared and even tell where they were located exactly within Unlimited Blade Works. While most were unremarkable there were however the occasional minor mystic codes, sharp tools that he had encountered in his studies. The five basic element swords that Sirius had shown him to increase his practicing, Rho Aius, Avalon, and of course... the three blades made of his father's corpse.
"Dinner's ready!" Rin's voice interrupted him from marveling at his currently meager collection and brought him back to reality.
Looking to the living room, the boy blinked before a loud gurgling from his stomach finally convinced him to get off his ass. Laughing lightly, he picked himself up and dispelled the temporary blade that he had been holding for a short amount of time. It was funny. Most of the time he wished that Rin would just leave him alone since all she seemed to do is make fun of him and the like… but at the same time he enjoyed spending time with her more than ever. No matter how many times he asked her why she bothered with such a dull guy like himself, she would simply tell him to be quiet and give him some weak excuse… but he could tell that she enjoyed helping people as much as he did. She and Sakura were very similar like that. Maybe that was the main reason why he trusted himself with them so much.
"About time you got here." The girl grunted as he walked in through the door. "That was the third time I called!"
"Sorry." The boy laughed sheepishly as he knelt down to the table that was full of food. "I kinda lost my sense of time going over the blueprints of one of the swords I have."
Rin rolled her eyes. "Ugh, Boys and their swords. Honestly, if there was a more childish combination…" She shook her head and began to eat, not bothering to look at him directly. "Hurry up, you wasted a lot of time and the food's going cold…" She remained quiet as she stole glances at the boy in concern.
Despite what Bazett and Shirou had thought, she had heard everything since she was just about to let them know food was ready when they began to talk. She would have stepped into the conversation at some points, but the shock of learning about Shirou's condition… how he really thought of her… what his reality marble was like… how his mind was distorted… she couldn't bring herself to step out and let herself be known.
… Well that and she had as hard of a time standing up due to laughter as Bazett when Shirou was spewing out horribly misplaced sexual innuendos. The boy really was completely oblivious when it came to those for some reason.
She was simply too overwhelmed with information to say anything at this point. She would sort out all her emotional issues after the vampire related work was dealt with. After she had regained her head, she would then work her hardest to cure or at least halt Shirou's contamination… not that she would let him know that she knew of course. She did have an image to keep up after all. Following the presentation of her no doubt genius cure or solution, she would once more have the twisted boy under her control. Where he would no doubt follow her every "suggestion" as repayment and spend most of his time only… with… her...
She frowned as she took another bite of food. Sakura, at first she was going to compete with her distant sister for Shirou's attention and heart… she wouldn't go down without a fight after all… but now she was having second thoughts. It wasn't a matter of feeling guilty… she had managed to push that feeling down the moment she had declared war with Sakura with Shirou as the prize… but now that she knew that Shirou had such a deep connection with both of them that they affected his reality marble itself… the idea of making one of them a bystander while the other hogged the idiot to themselves seemed far less appealing and more importantly… dangerous. Shirou's power was to materialize any sword he laid eyes on, powers and all. To do anything that could destabilize such a thing was more than a bit risky, not to mention that she wasn't willing to damage the one she cared about so much on a fundamental level… or at least not for something as petty as this.
"…Ka. … ear me?"
Still… this left her with a problem. Polygamy wasn't really looked well upon by many of the more modern countries, and magi didn't really like it either since it made choosing a successor significantly more difficult and potentially catastrophic…
"Sh… no… aying …ention Shirou…"
Not that she didn't think her little sister was rather attractive. Not in the slightest, but the hoops they would have to jump through in order to make things work for both societies would be more than annoying. Plus there was the fact that Shirou was pretty much brain dead when it came to taking a hint… heaven help her trying to get him to try to agree or get used to the idea of being with more than one female at once.
"TOHSAKA!" Shirou yelled, causing the brunette to jump in surprise and fall backwards.
"I didn't say anything! It was all for your benefit!" Rin yelled frantically, waving her arms frantically and thoroughly confusing the other two people at the table.
"What the heck are you babbling about girl?" Bazett raised an eyebrow confused.
"Erk." The Tohsaka froze with a distinct blush on her face. "N-nothing! I was just thinking about an experiment that went wrong a while ago and blanked out…"
"From the way she was screaming it was probably one of the ones that almost killed me." Shirou muttered under his breath.
The blush on the girl's face quickly replaced with a calm frown. "What was that Emiya-kun?"
"Oh you're listening now?" The boy asked innocently, only to get whacked upside the head by Bazett.
"Stop fooling around and tell her whatever it was you were going to tell her." The enforcer sighed.
"Yeah, yeah." Shirou sighed before looking at Rin again. "Look. Rin, I know you want to help when things get ugly again, but I'm gonna have to ask you to sit this one out."
Rin blinked confused before she finally managed to process the new topic, and glared at the boy angrily. "What was that? Please do tell me why I should Emiya-kun."
"You're just too inexperienced and so far you haven't been of that much help since this all began." Bazett stated before holding up a hand to stop Rin from interrupting her. "I am well aware of your contribution into destroying the first vampire's weapon which allowed Shirou to pull off the win, however more often than not a good portion of the time he has had to cover for you because you exposed yourself too much."
"We're going to be up against even stronger guys than before Tohsaka." Shirou sighed. "Last time it was only by a fluke that you and Sakura managed to get out of things alive. This time we really are the only ones left to fight."
"This isn't some pissed off bitch that you'll be handling either." Bazett added. "You're going to be going up against a full blown Ancestor and his son… and both of them won't be taking any chances. Odds are they know who I am since I used Fragarach, and they know that Shirou has a reality marble. Don't get me wrong, you are strong for your age with your Gandr and those jewels of yours, but so long as you are exposed you are going to be a liability. You simply aren't fast or strong enough in closer range combat to keep up."
Rin grit her teeth and glared at the both of them. "And Shirou is? A single enforcer and a kid who is only a bit more powerful and experienced than the average magus think they can stand up to an apostle ancestor and his son, which will mean that they will be experiencing a resonance effect and be even stronger than they are normally? I don't care if one of you has a noble phantasm and the other has an impossibly dangerous set of mystic codes. You two need the backup somehow and I'm the only one that can give it!"
"Then explain to us how you can do that without putting yourself in their crosshairs and getting killed before we can do something about it?" Bazett frowned. "You have strong spells but the best they can do is serve as a distraction since you'll be too far away." She didn't notice Shirou blink and frown in concentration.
"Too far away?" Rin blinked as she clearly took offence to that statement. "I might not be as good as Emiya-kun, but I am also able to reinforce my nerves and eyes to fairly high levels lady. I also know a few cloaking spells so I can easily help distract and confuse those bastards while you take them out."
"That's not good enough!" The eldest one slammed her hands on the table. "Louvre is an apostle that became one through his studies, a magus! He obviously knows how to deal with low level tactics like that! Plus there's also that new weapon that he has that let him take out an army of a hundred magi alone almost easily! This isn't a game girl! You aren't strong, experienced, or good enough to fight in this and we have no tactics that you can put you to use efficiently without getting you killed…"
"Actually…" Shirou frowned as he interrupted his teacher's speech. "That… might not be completely true…"
"Is that so?" Rin smirked before noting the dark look on the boy's face. "Something wrong?"
"Hey Shirou, I thought that you didn't want Rin to fight in this thing." The woman eyed her student warily. "That's why you asked me for help in the first place…"
"I know…" The boy replied hesitantly. "But… there may be a way that she can fight after all, one that you just reminded me of. It's risky, but it has worked multiple times in this kind of situation before… plus…"
"Plus?" Both females asked warily.
Shirou sighed heavily before looking up with calm eyes. He didn't like what he was about to suggest, but at the moment the results mattered more than the means. So long as only the vampires died in this fight with no more innocent casualties, he would be willing to use anyone or any tactic to win…
It was time for him to take a few pages out of his father's book…
o. o. o.
Three Days later:
A private plane from England to Tokyo landed in the early morning. Its occupants were escorted quickly to a limo that had parked right to its side, ensuring that barely anyone had a chance to discern their identities. The car traveled a short distance through the major city before it went into a parking garage and disappeared…
"I hope that you are not wasting my time Lord El-Melloi…" An irritable, fairly young, but unmistakably noble and commanding voice stated tersely. "It is rare that I give second chances… not to mention the fact that you somehow convinced me to come to this backwater country…"
"I am not wasting your time my lady…" An equally young male voice replied, albeit one with less foundation than the first. "Louvre will come for the boy at some point. I have great faith that Shirou will be able to at the very least disarm him of the noble phantasm…"
"Yes the son of the Magus Killer." The Queen of the Clocktower snorted. "You seem to hold this child in great regard despite being a part time student of yours…"
"I do." Waver nodded. "He is not only a special student, but… an experiment of sorts between McGinty and myself. He's really a one of a kind specimen, so I would appreciate it if we could manage to keep him alive and in one piece through this incident…"
"An experiment?" The Barthomelloi asked with the barest hint of curiously in her voice. It would after all be unbecoming to show a significant amount of interest or confusion to anyone. "I was not aware you spent time on human based research other than analyzing and perfecting various forms of spiritual invocation. Do you mind telling me what it is?"
"Unfortunately my lady… I will have to decline." Waver admitted. "This experiment is… one that is I admit prohibited by the Association, however this boy has proven to be such an exception that I could not simply leave him be unobserved and undocumented… I have already made quite a few breakthroughs in many studies related to him and I only expect more as time goes on…"
"Is that so?" The female asked as if stating a fact. "If that is the case, why do you not just keep him in the Clocktower for experimentation?"
The male bit his lip. "I admit that my attachment to him is part of the reason, however there is more than that to stop me. In order to regain optimum results, I need him to be exposed to the outside world and live life among normal humans in order for him to realize his… qualities, and thus make them develop. Unlike most experiments, a controlled environment will only prove to be detrimental to what I wish to accomplish and develop. In addition to that there is… a task that I believe only he can accomplish."
"A task? For some reason I do believe you are drastically downplaying the severity of what you are talking about Lord El-Melloi." The Queen stated coldly.
"I'm afraid I cannot say any more on the subject for now my lady." Waver solemnly replied. "It involves things that to be blunt I am more cautious of rising the suspicion of then you and the Association. However allow me to just say that my actions are to ensure the security of our world and to prevent its exposure…"
The noblewoman stared at Waver quietly for what seemed like an eternity before starting again. "No doubt you will claim that this boy and this event you are talking about is a unique case and that it would be in my best interests to not get involved lest the situation become unstable and uncontrollable…"
Waver's mind briefly flashed back to seeing Gilgamesh standing less than a few feet away from him before walking in the other direction. "To be honest my lady… it has already gotten to that point in a sense. In a sense you could say that our situation is similar to a massive bomb being planted and the controller holding its trigger in his hand, one that will press the button not for a purpose, but on a whim that thankfully has yet to come…"
Lorelei snorted. "Humph. An interesting situation, however I find it unlikely. Very well. I shall humor you up until we have witnessed this special boy of yours encounter the vampire. Should I see reason to believe that this student of yours is out of the ordinary, and that your incompetence was not to blame for the failure of your hunt, I will reconsider your capability and punishment. However should I see otherwise…"
"I will accept any verdict you may hand out." Waver bowed. "I have trust in your judgment."
o. o. o.
Somewhere in Europe:
A young man sat casually in an otherwise empty church as if it was natural to him. The lighting was poor, the room was fairly adorned, and the air was somewhat stuffy, however this did not bother him in the slightest as he leaned back in his seat and enjoyed the silence…
"You have something interesting to tell me?" He spoke out loud to seemingly no one, breaking the quiet just as easily as he was relaxing.
From out of the shadows an elderly priest chuckled and walked out without a sound. "Indeed I do. It seems that our acquaintance Louvre has managed to obtain quite a piece recently… one that you would be most interested in."
"Oh?" The boy raised an eyebrow. "That one's collection was rather impressive, even if he's not always the most selective. I am curious, what artifact did he come across?"
"The Mace of Odo my lord." The priest replied, enjoying the look of momentary surprise and amusement on the child's face.
"The one depicted on the tapestry of Bayeux? Ah that is quite an impressive find." The seemingly younger of the two nodded in agreement. "I will have to go to him and see it for myself… and perhaps barter for it…" He got up off of his chair and looked at the priest curiously. "… There is more isn't there?"
"Indeed master." The elderly man nodded. "I have recently learned from our contacts that he has been unusually active as of late. He has kidnapped a magus from the association who is the leading expert in mystic code manufacturing, dubbed the "mystic code crafter", has used the mace to destroy a force of 100 enforcers that were sent in order to rescue the old man, and recently has had an interest in a city called Fuyuki in Japan for some reason… and has lost his daughter in the process…"
"He has lost one of his heirs so soon after being promoted?" The boy frowned disappointed. "A shame, I had hoped that he would be more composed and careful with his valuables than this. But if he was, it would be all the more interesting to see who or what managed to kill her. …Though another question is why he would be so interested in Japan of all places so soon after obtaining not only a master weapon maker, but a very potential noble phantasm as well… something is missing." He looked at the old man curiously. "I am assuming that he is traveling to the city as we speak."
"With his son and the mace yes." The priest confirmed. "He appears to be going after the ones that killed his daughter and are going to make sure that it is done right…"
"Interesting…" The teenager mused and scratched his chin like an old man before he began to walk to the exit of the room. "Yes… I have a feeling that this event will certainly be worth our attention… come. It would be best to leave now lest we miss anything worth observing…"
The priest nodded. "But of course. I shall make the arrangements with the church and then meet you in the standard place."
The boy smiled in a worry free manner. "Please do hurry my left arm. It is getting rather close to morning and it does take some time to get to Japan from here, even on my left leg."
"I understand." The elderly man smiled as he disappeared into the shadows of the church as easily as he had appeared. "I will be with you momentarily."
The boy smiled as he turned to exit the room. He was very curious as to what in that city had so much of his fellow Ancestor's attention…
o. o. o.
A/N:
Thanks to Bloody Hero for betaing this.
Ugh. This chapter was way harder for me to write than I initially thought.
Fighting will start next chapter. Blood will fly. Tricks will be pulled, and of course blades will fill the sky.
Onto other stuff. From Fake Dreams has a tvtropes page now. Still tiny, but it should get bigger as time goes on and stuff.
Fanart. None yet, but I've been getting questions from people that want to try their hands at the new weapons, but personally I'm hoping for someone to try my new version of Shirou. (shroud around lower head like a ninja, hair going white, skin going dark, and maybe a glowing circuit on his chest). If anyone wants to try, please go ahead.
So I've been getting a few people telling me to kill off Sirius because he has nothing to give to the story now and well… people die in the type moon universe. It happens. I killed Shinji after all. Well I'll humor and annoy you guys at the same time. Something less than desirable will happen to the old drunk in this arc, but that does not necessarily mean I'm gonna off him.
As for future plans with the story… I have just decided to add in just one more OC to this thing that will have an effect on the plot, however I believe that who he comes with will make people at the very least tolerate his presence… until I kill him that is. Heh. Let's just say, I needed a reason to keep the characters I wanted alive after the war alive… and I think I've developed a damned good and logical way to make it like that.
So that's it for now. REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! THANK THE LORD THAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF RECOGNISING BAD SEXUAL INNUENDOS! AND REVIEW AGAIN!