Beta read by Shigiya, and Darklord331
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--Matou Mansion-
Not much was known about the Matous, to begin with, his father had dozens of notes about many people in Fuyuki, especially the Tohsakas and Einzberns — despite the latter being on the same side.
The Moonlit world was a cruel place, where allies were scarce resources and trust a luxury that not even the most powerful could afford. As an assassin, having faith in others was almost nonexistent, Kiritsugu having less than a handful of people he truly called friends or colleagues in some cases. An asset far more valuable than a mountain of gold, a commodity that very few in the Clockwork ever had the opportunity to experience. Those foolish enough to believe in such a concept with strangers they met were bound to die early or become tools to be used and thrown away when broken.
That was why the person known as the Magus Killer never skipped his research on both foes and 'allies' alike. Yet despite all of this, there was little mention of the Matou at any point aside from the Master of Berserker being one but having died soon in the war. They were the founding family, having taken part in the creation of the Holy Grail and basically being partially responsible for the destruction and death that came with every war.
Nevertheless, there was little mention of anything aside from these few pieces of information. Nothing about their magecraft other than theories and speculations formed from past history. Zouken was an honest enigma that very few wanted to garner his attention when trying to study him. No one wanted to awaken the sleeping dragon from its slumber and incur the beast's wrath. Even the family's decline, just like the Tohsakas, was not an excuse to deny their powerful presence in Japan.
The head of the family never made any moves during the war, preventing his father from accumulating any possible traces about the magecraft used by the man himself. Something he could find a counter for and bypass if ever a conflict were to arise.
Shirou himself was quite curious, Sakura was the heir or it could have been Shinji. Though given his attitude, Shirou doubted Zouken would ever grant the title of heir to him with Sakura around.
'This… this isn't right.'
For the first time, Shirou wanted to deny the possible clue he got about their magecraft. Something so vile, so… disgusting, and horrendous to the point of making bile rise to his throat. Gritting his teeth, remember his father's training to always keep a calm composure no matter what situation was the best outcome. Losing control and being led blindly by emotions only made a bigger disaster for everyone involved.
Sakura, the one girl he treated normally despite her background. One of his first friends, a girl that stayed silent when alone, barely made any friends, and never talked to anyone when he wasn't around. This girl had what looked like a worm in her heart, feeding off of her Magical Energy from the little he understood.
"Oh, I never thought you would come here, Emiya's successor," Zouken spoke, bringing Shirou's attention to the old man whose smile looked more like a crooked grin that mocked him.
"You knew my father?" Shirou asked, his voice calm like the sea, yet holding back a great deal of anger, confusion and fear. Not for his life or the man's presence, but for Sakura who stood by the side frozen like a statue.
"Hehehe!" His laugh sounded like wet gravel, repulsive to his eyes. "You can say that, I was what you call… a fan of his work. It's a tragedy he left this world at such an early age, the man still had so much to offer."
Deep breaths, that was what he was constantly thinking to himself.
"..." He decided it would be best to stay silent.
This wasn't his house, he couldn't do anything at this moment but simply wait and see. A Magus' home would be the most dangerous area anyone could end up in, with a single tap of that came could activate hundreds of defensive spells for all he knew.
"Recently, it has come to my knowledge that there has been some feud between you and Shinji." He said, while Shirou just nodded his head. "I may be quite senile with my old age, memories tend to flee my consciousness from time to time, but I remember you two being good friends for many years. May I know what exactly happened?"
There was little doubt that Shinji would have already revealed everything that had happened before. There must have been another reason behind such a question. Did he want to hear his side? Glancing at Sakura nearby, he saw the girl's eyes intently looking at him, almost pleading to the boy to go along with what was happening. She was afraid, he could see it, afraid for him.
And terrified of this man.
"I found a bruise on Sakura… it was obvious to me who did it. I asked him to lay off his violent treatment of Sakura — he didn't listen and insulted me, insulted her. I… I got angry and lost control." That was all he said, not willing to give any more details and just going with the bare minimum. The longer he stayed, the more uneasy he was around Zouken and the darker it became.
"Hah, that boy never ceases to disappoint me at every opportunity." The old man said, letting out several mocking 'tuts'. "It is quite hard to imagine he is my grandson, having never done anything to so much as earn any praiseworthy feat his entire life. Wasting every second chasing girls and lazing around, what an utter failure that boy had become, just like my worthless son."
"Don't say that!" It came out of nowhere, maybe the embers inside of him that actually still saw the blue-haired boy as his friend or maybe just how such words coming out of this man's mouth sounded to him. There was no love, no gentleness that came when talking about someone so close like a grandson. To him, it sounded like… it sounded like Shinji was being treated like an object.
'Remember Shirou, a Magus can be many things, but selflessness is not one of them — neither is loving. I can't tell you how many times I've seen and even had contracts offered by a client requesting to kill their own family members. Obviously, I never accepted any of them, but this only proved one point to me. In a Magi family, if you lose your worth or hold no power, then you become no better than an object or leech that needs to be put down. Always have this in mind if you ever have the misfortune to face such people in the past.' His father's lesson came to his mind, back when a younger Shirou asked about what kind of family the Einzbern were and this reality probably applied to the Matou as well.
"Hooo, do you perhaps want to defend your friend?" Zouken asked, amusement filling his tone and was now treating this conversation like a show.
"No, I'm not, nor will I ever," Shirou said with a firm tone, every time he mistreated Sakura and his last words about her returning to him. "Shinji has his faults, that I can agree with… but don't you think this behavior came from somewhere?"
Sakura's head whipped around, the worry in her eyes turning into horror. "S-Senpai, you don't hav—"
"It's fine, Sakura." Zouken stopped her, his cane hitting against the ground with a 'clack'. Both men stared at each other in the eyes, one filled with amusement while the other hid a lot of anger and frustration. "You at least have the guts to speak out your thoughts while standing your ground. Admirable. Your father taught you well. It would have honestly been quite a disappointment if you were any lesser person. Are you perhaps insinuating that I'm the one to blame?"
"..."
Shirou stayed quiet, his silence being enough for an answer.
The crooked smile on the old man's grew to the point it looked unnaturally hideous. The boy had a fire in him, that was for sure. Something he'd wish Shinji to inherit, but unfortunately, life sure was unfair to him.
"Hm, this is honestly quite a pleasant surprise, I never expected to meet you today. Nevertheless, it is getting quite late and I believe you have your matters to take care of, Emiya." Zouken stated, his hunched posture turning around before walking inside the dark house. "Come, Sakura, I believe we have our own matters that we need to prepare for. Kindly say goodbye to the young man. He is welcome to come by for another chat."
Hearing his orders, the girl slowly bowed to Shirou, unable to utter a word. Though it was clear that she was relieved that things didn't escalate any further. As she started to walk inside as well, Shirou's mind was running in full throttle. Trying to come up with anything, literally anything to stop her from going further. He knew his current capabilities, there was absolutely nothing he could do to solve this problem. There was nothing, what could basic projection and reinforcement do for him in this situation? Against an old and experienced Magus with probably hundreds of countermeasures spread all around the premise, he has little to no knowledge of what he can do with his magic.
In the end, his body moved faster than his mind and the boy grabbed her hand.
"—!" Sakura was shocked by his action, even Zouken stopped and curiously looked back. Even now, the redhead's senses were screaming at him of the danger around him and even his senses began to act up from the presence of Magical Energy around him. He held back from using his Structural Analysis, as he doubted he would be able to hold himself back when sensing that creature inside her.
"Sakura… " he wanted to confirm with the girl herself. Just a sign, any sign that would show him that she needed help. "Do you… are you feeling well?"
Are you safe?
Do you need my help?
What has this man done to you!?
These were the questions he wanted to ask instead, but couldn't. Not with that man behind her, any error on his part could end up badly not only for him… but for Sakura as well. His hands were tied, and this was an act out of desperation.
The girl realized that she could feel his strong grip on her hand, not wanting to let her go. The shaking in his voice and the pleading eyes, it was obvious what Shirou wanted to hear.
Instead, Sakura just rested her other hand on his grip. Gently, her fingers caressed his hand, a smile formed on her face. "I'm fine senpai, I promise if I ever feel sick or bad, you'll be the first one to know." She said while slowly pushing his hands away.
In the background, Zouken chuckled, grabbing Shirou's attention.
"You're quite taken for young Sakura here, I can see why. I wouldn't worry for her, and I guarantee you that she is safer here than anywhere in Fuyuki." The redhead hardly believed those words, he wanted to exclaim the opposite in fact but held his tongue. "Off you go now, don't want to overstay your presence here, do we?"
As both Matous walked inside the house, Shirou was left standing outside with his fists clenched.
"Oh, and before you leave, Emiya, a piece of advice. Always watch your back during the night, the city is quite dangerous at hours of darkness and we don't know who you might end up meeting." He said before the door closed with a loud bam.
His heart was still hammering frantically, having not even noticed the sweat dripping down his forehead. Even in his current state, he did not dismiss his words, especially after the monster, he dealt with a few days ago.
"This… this isn't over."
With his head down, Emiya walked out of the Matou estate. Filled with more fire than ever before to get stronger and save the people close to him. There were still traces of injuries on his body from the last fight, small fractures in his bones that haven't healed and would take another few days. But he didn't care, as long as his legs and arms were still attached to his body and his heart continued to beat… then nothing would stop him.
'A few days, that's all I need... I'll take her away no matter what.'
{Break}
-Tsunomaki Museum-
It was a quiet afternoon, the sun shining brightly above the cityscape. The streets were empty as usual, with only occasional cars passing by. On the roadside, a young girl still wearing her school uniform walked alongside a certain priest. With a glance to her right and left, Rin Tohsaka crossed the road and saw the sign for the now-closed Museum.
Though it hasn't been that long, the area around the establishment still remained close to the public. Having quickly made wooden walls placed all around the area with dozens of armed police officers surveying the area so no civilians to pass through. Though she wasn't a regular civilian and was accompanied by someone whose presence made everyone give way to them inside.
"This is a massacre..." She said, looking at the dried-up blood on the concrete. Most of the building was almost restored to its original condition, but they still hadn't cleaned up everything yet. "Just what happened here?"
"I can't really say, but I know that it wasn't human." A man said, a tall figure wearing simple vestments and a golden cross around his neck with a black cassock covering most of it. Having long black hair that almost reached his shoulders, his face concentrated as he examined the scene in front of him with a frown. "The team found multiple instances of claw marks all over the place and if that wasn't enough, then the half-eaten corpses would seal the deal. Unless you want to check them out yourself, Rin? You are after all an accomplished Magus." He smiled, looking at the girl beside him.
Rin scoffed, "Don't patronize me, you fake priest."
"Fake what?"
"This is my territory and for a monster, most likely a phantasm to wander here and disappear so easily means that another Magus is hiding somewhere out of our view. This is unacceptable!" Second Owners, like her, were magi recognized by the Mage's Association as the supervisors of a local area of high spiritual value. Having such a role was one of great importance and needed to be taken seriously by whoever carried it. Any Magus entering their territory without prior notice who then proceeded to unleash their creations inside her area that killed multiple civilians was a crime deserving of death!
"My my, how fiesty of you. As they say, you certainly woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Kirei Kotomine, local priest and executor working under the Holy Church. Having been known for his great talent in every field he involved himself with, he was currently also holding the role of Rin's guardian given his previous teacher was none other than the late Tokiomi Tohsaka — her father.
"I'm not in the mood for jokes." She really wasn't, trying to juggle her school work, social life, training and financial situation was quite hard. It didn't help that her family's magecraft revolved around jewelcraft and needed a lot of precious stones for it to be used at its fullest potential. She knew if she wanted more, then contacting that wretched blonde was going to turn out as her last resort. That annoying superior laugh of hers still lingered in the brunette's head. "I have already so much on my plate, now this happens out of nowhere and we don't know where the beast ran off to."
"It's most likely dead or wounded," Kirei noted, speaking nonchalantly while accepting a report from one of the construction workers having been contracted straight from the Church itself in order to make a quiet work with the repairs and restoration while keeping the truth away from the public. "Hoo, interesting…"
His attitude didn't sit well with Rin, and everyone around her ignored her despite her being the Second Owner!
"What do you mean by that?" Better to keep her frustration and anger at bay, for now, there were many pressing matters to look into first. "And what are you holding?"
The man shrugged, "Just some simple paperwork that bears no importance to our investigation." Putting the papers away, he brought his hands close to her and showed a single old bullet casing. "Though they did find this inside, almost a hundred of them, and given how the walls were, I can say for certain that the beast is either heavily injured or dead by now."
This didn't make any sense to Rin, true they did find some bullet casings inside the museum, but that hardly proved whether the beast was injured or not. Not wanting to ask him to clarify and admit she couldn't figure out the issue on her own, she silently walked forward and entered the building. Not to mention whether the person was a Magus, to begin with, given that a gun was used here.
Kirei smirked as he watched the frustrated look on her face, the desire to handle the matter on her own while unable to put together the clues. Rin was smart, but she was too stubborn for her own good.
"Hmm, I guess it doesn't hurt to take a look."
He shrugged before walking towards the entrance.
Inside the museum, the stench of blood still resided in the air. Despite how they cleaned everything up, it was difficult to remove certain things as regular methods proved to be unsuccessful. Rin looked around, trying to understand the clues Kirei could have gotten from the single bullet shell. From the outside, everything was restored perfectly while the insides were only cleaned and the traces of a bloody combat were left. Lots of claw marks all around the walls, giving her a rough idea of how giant this creature must have been.
She walked around with the priest patiently following her lead. Going from room to room, asking questions to the people who came first, and even going to the back where the bodies were left to be picked up soon.
"Urgh, disgusting!" She gagged, smelling the stench of the rotten corpse as she opened the bag. It looked like a night shift security guard from his uniform. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to take away from this corpse given the head was missing. It just further proved how big the creature was and this worried her as she didn't want it to eat more innocent people. "How many have died?"
"Around seven people, most of them were security guards and a few were part of the cleaning staff."
"Any witnesses?" She asked, knowing such an incident could not escape to the public. The slightest inkling of magic spreading around the masses would force the Clocktower to take drastic measures, ending the lives of far more people.
"Yes, a few police officers with no connection to the Church or the Mage Association and some civilians. Though fret not, child, we have tracked each of them down and made sure to remove any and all memories partaking to the incident."
Rin sighed in relief, the fake priest was an infuriating fellow but at least he took his duty very seriously.
Kirei walked forward, he grabbed his cross before uttering a silent prayer. "What an unfortunate fellow, I pray that he may find peace with God. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen."
Rin was less than impressed, she knew this man was the further of a believer. No way someone as twisted as him could with good consciousness preach half of the things he's said in the Church. "Are you done? I need to go back and check for more clues." She said the first part impatiently, tapping her feet against the floor while crossing her arms.
"How impatient of you, Rin. And here I believed that I taught you better manners when dealing with the dead."
"Don't flatter yourself! The only thing you taught me was some basic martial arts and how to cook spicy tofu, the rest I learned all by myself and with my father's notes." It wasn't completely true, he did play a large role in her upbringing since her father and mother died, but she didn't want to admit it. After that, they walked back to the museum. Rin continued to look around cluelessly, unable to uncover anything aside from the obvious that the beast must have escaped. She rubbed her head until she finally gave up an hour later. "Nnnggaaa! Fine, you win, now tell me why you think this thing must have died or been injured!?"
Admitting defeat for anything was already hard enough for her, but when it came to this man in front of her — that task became hundreds of times more difficult. Given that they were on a tight clock where every second counted in case the monster was still out there.
"Now, have patience, you lack this aspect young lady. I can assure you that you won't become a successful Magus with an impatient attitude."
"I'm not impatient, you're just annoying, and having to deal with your antics is physically causing me more pain." She said with a deadpan stare.
That almost made the priest laugh, but he got control of his emotions in a split second before getting down to important matters.
"Now we know a battle took place here with a gunner and a possible phantasmic beast of unknown origins. Guns like any weapon are meant to be used, you agree with me so far, right?"
She nodded her head, unable to see where he was going with this.
"Now, it's obvious that when using such a weapon, the shooter must have aimed for the beast in order to kill it, yet look around, don't you see anything weird?" She followed his words and glanced at the wall, concentrating on any small details she could have missed beforehand. The walls were in rough shape, with claw marks covering a lot of space.
A realization surfaced in her mind as she carefully stared at every corner. "How many shells did we find?"
"Hundreds… I see you're beginning to understand."
"Yeah… aside claw marks, there are no bullets aside from a handful." Slowly, she began to understand What Kirei was going with in his previous statement. "If the shooter fired too many times without there being any holes in the wall, then it must have hit the target."
Clap!
Clap!
"Wonderfully done, Rin. Bravo!"
Kirei applauded the girl, though it sounded less celebratory and more mocking to her. But she ignored it for now.
"But that doesn't prove that it died somewhere else, for all we knew it could have possessed some form of regeneration or extremely tough skin for there to be no blood here aside from humans."
He nodded, "True, I never said it was certainly dead, just possibly injured or something else."
"Great!" Rin exclaimed having learned what she needed from this place and quickly leaving the area. "We know that it's still out there, so I'll try to set up multiple boundary fields in key locations around Fuyuki so we may catc—"
"No, we're not." The priest's words immediately stopped the girl in her tracks.
She gave him a suspicious gaze, "And why is that? This thing can't be left to roam on its own."
The man just kept smiling, making Rin want to punch that face of his.
"I understand your worry, Rin. But I assure you that a real professional has come to deal with the matter, our best course of action is to sit back and let her do their work. Oh, and I also went ahead and approved her arrival letter sent by the Clocktower in your stead, given you were too preoccupied with your school homework. I didn't want to disturb your valuable privacy after all. And from what I remember, that person is also a top enforcer, so we are in good hands."
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"What? Why didn't you tell me anything about this!?"
His announcement was like a bomb that dropped on her head, this was something she was not ready for!
{Break}
-Nighttime-
He was scouting the city from the rooftop of the tallest skyscraper in Fuyuki. Wearing dark clothes that blended him perfectly with the black sky — Shirou made sure to come fully prepared this night.
"I hope this will be enough," he said, carefully dropping a large duffle bag beside him. The loud bang it made when impacting the concrete showed just how heavy it was and the loud clang with its content mostly being a large number of magazines, hand grenades, and a few other accessories.
Having learned from his mistakes, Shirou made sure to bring more ammunition with him for this next scout.
Aside from his bag, Shirou also carried a strap around his shoulders connected to a large sniper rifle belonging to his father along with two handguns strapped to his waist. Anything more would have been impossible to carry all this way, even the bag itself was a hassle to get it up here.
Truth be told, he wasn't completely in the right headspace at this moment, the meeting with Zouken and discovering the worm inside Sakura shook his core quite a bit. Worse was he couldn't do anything in the first place, the best option was to retreat and come up with a plan. Sakura never showed any desire or signs that she wanted to leave that place, but he refused to believe that she stayed quiet because there was nothing wrong. The girl needed to be saved whether she wanted to or not and he couldn't just sit by while waiting for things to resolve on their own.
Before he could start anything, he needed to ensure that there were no other cases of these chimera monsters roaming in Fuyuki. His mind going back to the last fight and how he successfully managed to project a nearly perfect replica of the katana blade. Even now, he could visualize every aspect of the blade — almost as if he was holding it right now. The feel of the leather, the weight, the smell, and much more. He tried it again back in his shed and went through the seven steps one by one till the blade reappeared in his hand as it did before. The only difference was how easy it was on his second attempt, it barely strained his reserves and was like second nature to him.
"I wonder if I can do it with a bullet." He grabbed a single cartridge from his pocket, fiddling with it a couple of times to get a general feel.
Shirou closed his eyes and concentrated.
"Haa… Trace, on!"
All sounds around him vanished, the mental image of a gun's hammer firing came to his mind, his 27 circuits humming with power. Unlike with the sword, the process wasn't as easy and even took a few seconds to finalize. The moment he lost concentration on either, the fake one would break down.
"This is harder than I expected."
But after a few tries, he finally succeeded in making a perfect projection and gazed at both ammunition side by side.
"If I can get used to doing this, then my life would become ten times easier." These last few months, he was beginning to run low on the reserves his father left him, the only one capable of supplying him with more was Raiga Fujimura and Shirou honestly didn't want the man to find out about his nightly activities. He was the only one who knew of his father's true nature, so to some level, Shirou planned to ask him at one point in the future. At least with this method, he gained more time.
"Hmm, I can't exactly test it out no—what?" His ears picked up the sound of a crash in the distance. Quickly getting into position, Shirou put his eye near the scope and tried to find the source of the sound.
"There it is!"
A few streets away he saw smoke coming from the upper floor of an apartment complex. A large shadow flew out of the building till it fell to the empty parking lot below and crushed the concrete.
"Another on… Wait, a boar?" Unlike the last lion-headed monster, this one was a boar as big as a car with three horns on its head and incredibly vicious-looking tusks. It was injured, possibly from the fall or something else. The creature looked above before quickly moving to the right to try and dodge another silhouette. But it was too late as its hind leg got crushed and snapped in two.
"Reeeeeeee!" The boar released a guttural scream of pain and fury, Shirou contemplated shooting the thing down immediately but was curious to see what happened.
"What The…" the dust settled, he grew shocked to see a young woman with short red hair and wearing a two-piece business suit with black-gloved hands. What shocked him was not her appearance but rather the small crater that formed around her fist. It completely obliterated the beast's legs, turning them into meat paste while the woman herself look perfectly stoic, showing no signs of tiredness or pain from the long fall.
Crack!
She moved like lightning, nothing giving the boar any time to recuperate, and started attacking it the next second. Despite its size and missing leg, the beast was quite agile and somehow managed to keep up with her. Its tusk tried to piece her arm but was grabbed by her hand and pushed to the ground with an unbelievable amount of force. Did she even need his help? Certainly not with how one-sided this fight was.
Crackle!
Her hands moved fast enough that even to his eyes they became blurry, in less than a second, half of the boar's face was split open with her going as far as breaking one of its horns and jamming it straight inside the eye — killing the creature in one fell swoop.
"That was… amazing."
He was more than impressed, Shirou never saw someone this strong and fast in his life. Whether it was reinforcement or that suit of hers, either way, she was far more dangerous than the monsters themselves. But that sense of wonder soon vanished and was replaced with horror with what he saw next.
"Shit, what's she doing there!?" A few meters away from the scene was a familiar redhead who was holding her mouth speechless at the scene.
It was Ayako.
He could feel his hand becoming sweaty, his body warming up along his breath coming to a halt. From what he gathered so far, there was a large possibility that this person was an Enforcer from the Mage Association. And they were known to be quite efficient and brutal with their ways of handling such cases of people finding out. He heard from Kiritsugu how some even went so far as to exterminate entire villages just to keep the knowledge of magic a secret or even if there was the tiniest suspicion that they were part of the problem.
Ayako ran as soon as the Enforcer spotted her, his heart clenched when he saw the latter pursuing the girl, like a hound searching for its prey.
"I can't let her catch up!"
Regardless if she was here to exterminate these things, he couldn't risk Ayako's life on the possibility that she might get spared. He hated what he was about to do next, but after how he was unable to save someone else this morning — he wouldn't let it happen twice.
Shirou aimed, his fingers resting on the trigger until…
Bang!
He fired.
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.