Saber's Wish

Chapter 7

"I have good news, and I have some bad news..." Medea said to Shirou as Arturia was sitting down nearby with Rin. The girls watched as Caster gave Shirou a briefing as to how to proceed with Arturia's new body.

"Let's start with the bad news first," Shirou replied, curious as to what solution Medea came up with, and saw the Caster's face fall slightly.

"The bad news is... I can't reverse what the Grail did to Saber," Medea said shamefully. "It seems that even my centuries-old magecraft is inconsequential to the magic that the Grail taps into. Like it or not, Saber's wish is stuck on her good..."

"Well, that's plain to see..." Shirou remarks as he took a glance towards Arturia, sitting nervously and still in her mature form. Rin appeared to be bored, implying that they had already known what Caster had just told him.

"Hold on a sec, Caster... you said there was good news?" Shirou then asked the Witch of Colchis, who perked up from her self-admonishing.

"Oh... I did, didn't I?" Medea starts as if she had just remembered. She then tells Shirou proudly, "I can hide her new form, so that your mundane friends and guardian won't suspect a thing."

"How?"

Medea then started to boast, unable to resist showing off her "superiority."

"You see, it's quite brilliant on my part-"

"Enough posturing, witch," Rin impatiently cuts Caster off. "Just show him already..."

Medea merely huffed in response, and Shirou watched with curiosity as she swept back her bangs of hair covering her ears. To the boy's surprise, he saw Medea had regular human ears as opposed to-

"Wait, don't you have pointy, elf-like ears?" Shirou asked her. "Where are they-?"

"EXCUSE me?" Medea suddenly asked in a threatening tone, glaring angrily. "Did you just call me an elf?!"

"Nope!" Shirou said quickly, shrinking with fear as Medea loomed over him. Arturia looks on with worry while Rin tried not to laugh at what Shirou carelessly said to the Caster. Still, his response was enough to get Medea to relent.

"Good boy..." Caster said contently before continuing, "As for your question... They never left. See?"

Relieved, Shirou looked down at Caster's wrist and saw a simple, jeweled bracelet. The moment Medea took it off, Shirou looked back up and saw that her human ears were gone and in their place were the pointed, elven ears that he knew Medea always had. Shirou understood what Caster's plan was.

"It's an illusion!"

"Of course," Medea replies in a condescending tone. "You honestly think I could just walk around in public with these ears without someone awkwardly staring at me?"

Shirou fell silent. He imagined it would indeed be hard for Medea to go about day-to-day business without someone random person questioning why she looked like an elf with such pointed ears. Hard for him to argue about that as Medea then explained her plan for Arturia.

"I charmed a piece of jewelry so that it alters my appearance enough for me to appear ordinary to the ignorant eye. I believe that I can make one similar for Saber, which will make her appear to others as small and cute as she was before..."

Medea swooned a little bit when said that last part. Shirou was intrigued at the idea of using illusion magic to hide Arturia's body from Taiga. Before he got his hopes up, Rin suddenly spoke.

"Hold on. I have an issue with this..."

"What?" Medea asked in annoyance as Rin stood up and scrutinized Caster.