Chapter 53: The Next Mission
The Next Mission
The visitor arrived as suddenly as a summer storm.
Shirou had just managed to gather everyone in his house again, his sister and her maids, his lascivious nun, and even all three of his girlfriends for once, for a nice dinner together when their meal was rudely interrupted by the visitor, who appeared in the dining room of the Emiya-estate without as much as a by-your-leave.
Predictably, the inhabitants did not take that well, and the visitor was soon subjected to a storm of lightning, a hail of Magic-infused gems, an attack from the Shroud of Magdalena, and a barrage of Magical lasers.
None of these attacks did anything to the visitor however, as he simply bore them, his peaceful smile never wavering.
Before long, the attacks stopped, and the owner of the estate spoke up.
"Nasu!?" Shirou spluttered, his eyes wide as saucers as he looked at the Watcher, who had given no warning whatsoever of his coming. "What are you doing here?! Don't surprise us like that!"
"I apologise, my friend." The alien rumbled in his deep, pleasing voice, inclining his massive head. "But I believe any possible warning of my coming I could send in advance would be just as startling as my arrival itself."
"You could have sent a note!"
"Now what would be the fun in that?" Nasu asked, his peaceful smile turning a tad devious, revealing his true intentions.
"Fun?! It would be polite if nothing else-!"
"Shiiiirooouuu!"
Rin's furious and shrill voice put an immediate stop to Shirou's scolding, and the redhead felt cold shivers going down his spine as he sensed her wrathful gaze fixed upon him.
He'd only very rarely heard that tone from her before, and it always spelled deep trouble for someone.
Usually him.
Indeed, when he turned towards the black-haired girl, he found her looking at him with a terrifyingly empty gaze, the twitching of her right eye being the only movement in her otherwise frozen expression.
For a few moments, he didn't understand why she was so furious, what he had done wrong, but then he realised.
None of his housemates had ever met Nasu before!
In their perspective, their house had just been invaded by an utterly inhuman creature, something more Foreign than the Dead Apostle Ancestors themselves, and rather than fighting it or setting them at ease, Shirou had elected to completely ignore them and argue with it instead.
No wonder Rin was glaring at him like that!
Behind her, Sakura had nearly ducked underneath the table, Ayako was standing on shaking legs, Caren and Illya had frozen stiff, and Sella and Leysritt had placed themselves in front of their mistress with the air of warriors about to make a heroic last stand.
The fear in the room was palpable, and Shirou wanted to kick himself for not noticing it sooner.
"I'm sorry, Rin, everyone." He promptly apologised, before gesturing at their uninvited visitor. "This is Nasu the Watcher, the alien I told you about before. You don't have to worry about him. He's a friend of mine."
He tried his hardest to set them at ease, but only with marginal success. The fear in the room barely lessened, which honestly was to be expected.
This was an alien creature after all, and the Emiya-household was one of Magi, meaning Shirou was fighting an uphill battle from the very start.
To normal people, aliens were cool creatures out of stories, the foundation of beautiful space-tales and the promise of what lies beyond the borders of the Earth. Some people envisioned green-skinned babes, others were more likely to think of insect-monsters, and again others feared eldritch monstrosities with too many tentacles.
Whatever their belief though, all considered aliens to be mere speculation for now, with only crazed loons and hopeful amateurs believing otherwise.
To Magi however, it was very different. To the inhabitants of the Moonlit World, aliens were both extremely real and extremely dangerous. They were beings outside of the Human Order, and thus so utterly inhuman that any attempt at communication with them was doomed from the very start.
Immensely powerful, nigh-immortal, and completely without morals or scruples, there was no telling what they would do and why, which made them terrifying beyond reason.
Especially since just about every alien that had ever come to Earth had been malicious in some way.
The Crimson Moon Brunestud for instance, the Ultimate One of the Moon, was legendary for almost wiping out humanity in its entirety, while ORT was the closest thing that the Moonlit World had to a bogeyman under the bed.
All that was to say that it was only logical for Shirou's housemates to be overwhelmed now that they were meeting an actual alien for the first time, and frankly, the fact that they didn't immediately run away was a testament to their immense faith in him.
Nasu really could have handled their first meeting better, at least by not just springing his visit on them without any warning whatsoever, and Shirou gave him a glare of annoyance for putting him in such a difficult position.
To his credit, the alien did look contrite, and it was this expression, this surprising sign of humanity, that managed to ease the atmosphere the tiniest bit where Shirou's words had failed.
"U-Uhm." In the end, it was Sakura who first worked up the courage to speak to the Watcher, slowly raising her head from underneath the table. "Y-You a-are N-Nasu? T-The one who gave Senpai the ritual t-to change Homunculi into humans?"
"That is me." Nasu confirmed, smiling kindly at the plum-haired girl. "It is a pleasure to meet you in person at last, lady Sakura."
"Y-Yes, it is." Sakura nodded quickly, staring at the being with awe-filled eyes, clearly feeling more than a little overwhelmed but not letting that stop her from being polite. "T-The pleasure is all mine!"
It was a good start, and Sakura made a clear effort to be hospitable, so Shirou gave her an encouraging nod.
Seeing that, Sakura took a deep breath, slowly rising to her feet, before she spoke up again.
"Nasu-sama?"
"Just Nasu is fine."
"Nasu-san." Sakura corrected herself, taking another deep breath, before she suddenly bowed deeply, visibly taking the ancient creature aback. "Thank you for being Senpai's friend!"
For a few seconds after her proclamation, it remained silent as the grave.
Then…
"Huh?!" Shirou spluttered, having not expected that at all. "S-Sakura, what are you talking about?!"
"Senpai doesn't have many friends." Sakura explained, getting up from her bow to reveal that her expression was completely sincere, with not a hint of amusement or mockery present anywhere. "So thank you for being so kind to him, Nasu-san. He appreciates it very much, as do I."
"I don't think I was that kind to him on the one occasion that we met." Nasu argued, cocking his massive head to the side. "I was curt and rude, for I was short on time. Yes, I wasn't kind at all."
"But you were kind." Sakura countered confidently, her voice progressively gaining strength. "Even though you owed Senpai nothing, you still gave him the instructions for the ritual to help Illya without asking anything in return. You really helped him when he needed it, when I couldn't do anything for him, and for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart."
"I see." Nasu hummed ponderously, before he smiled again. "It was no trouble at all. I am simply happy that I could help."
Hearing that, Sakura gave him another grateful bow, and this time, Nasu bowed back in acknowledgement.
The first contact with the alien had successfully been made. The plum-haired girl had just displayed an immense amount of courage, no less than any ancient hero's, and in doing so, had demonstrated that there was nothing to fear from this particular alien.
She had broken the immense wall of ice that had been standing between guest and hosts, and Shirou made a mental note to properly express his gratitude to her later, in a more private setting.
Ayako, not a Magus by birth and relatively new to the scene, was the next to speak up. She had already been torn between fear and childlike curiosity, and now that the alien had proven not to be hostile, the balance tipped over to the latter side.
"So you are actually an alien?" The brunette asked, her eyes gleaming in interest and admiration as she came as close to Nasu as she dared, which was still well out of arm's reach. "Like, literally?"
"I hail from the core of the universe, deep within the Dimensional Rift." Nasu replied, turning to the brunette. "I did not arrive in your solar system until more than half of my life had gone by. So yes, I am indeed literally an alien by your definition of the word."
"That. Is. So. Awesome!" Ayako nearly shouted, her hands shaking in sheer excitement. "Do you have a spaceship?"
"No, I do not." Nasu's tone became apologetic as he had to let the brunette down. "I travelled through space by my own power. I do not require vehicles of any kind."
"That's even cooler!"
"Really?"
"Yes!" The brunette nodded furiously, inching closer and closer to the Watcher as she continued her rapid-fire questioning. "Are there more of your kind?"
"Many more."
"Do you know other aliens as well?"
"An uncountable number of them."
"And what about-?"
"Hold on just a moment there!"
Rin bluntly interrupted the brunette, having scraped together enough courage to speak up herself, and she stepped forward, holding her finger to Ayako's lips.
Then, with a determined expression and balled fists, the black-haired girl placed herself right in front of the Watcher. Everything about her body-language screamed how she was trying to look strong, and when she spoke, her voice was equally strong, only the slightest tremor revealing her true feelings.
"Are you truly an alien?"
"Yes." Being generally good-natured and millions of years old, Nasu patiently answered the question again, despite it having been asked already only seconds before. "I am truly an alien."
"But you don't want to kill us?" The tremor in Rin's voice increased as she asked the question, and her knuckles turned white from how hard she was clenching her hands, but she didn't take a single step back nor did she break eye-contact.
She wanted an answer, and she wanted it now.
"I have no desire to take any life, nor would I be allowed to." Nasu replied swiftly and reassuringly. "My kind merely observes. We do not interfere, nor do we seek destruction or death. You have nothing to fear from me, young Walkure. You have my word."
His answer didn't set Rin at ease entirely, as she was too conditioned to see aliens as enemies, but she did relax a bit, at least enough to give her poor knuckles a break.
Nasu couldn't prove of course that he was telling the truth, but it seemed Rin was willing to believe him for now.
"Very well then." She replied stiffly, though the look in her eyes clearly indicated she would be keeping a very close eye on him nevertheless. "Sorry, Ayako, please continue."
"Right." The brunette stepped up again, her eagerness to continue grilling the Watcher writ clear on her face. "Then, Nasu-san, could you please tell me where you live?"
"On the moon." The alien replied casually.
"The moon?!" Ayako blinked in surprise. "But how do you breathe up there?"
"I do not need to breathe."
The matter-of-fact reply caused Ayako's mouth to fall open in astonishment, even as Rin rolled her eyes at the brunette's exaggerated reactions.
"Aliens usually don't need to breathe like we do." Sakura provided helpfully. "They are completely different from us after all."
"Okay, but what about…"
Ayako continued her questioning, making inquiry after inquiry, while Nasu patiently answered every one of them to the best of his ability. Sakura occasionally interjected, sometimes to clarify something to Ayako, sometimes to ask a question herself, and eventually, even Rin started taking part in the conversation.
The three girls were starting to warm up to Nasu, and Shirou breathed a soft sigh of relief at that fact.
Not every inhabitant of the Emiya-estate was as accepting of their visitor however.
"Let me go." Illya whined, struggling against the hold that Sella and Leysritt had on her. "I want to see the alien too!"
Illya was staring at the Watcher with eyes as large as saucers, barely blinking as she observed his every movement. Even as she struggled with her maids, she never looked away from him, as if her eyes were glued to that precise spot.
She too had been raised her entire life as a Magus, but unlike Rin, who had been honestly scared of the alien who had invaded her second home, Illya was absolutely fascinated by Nasu's presence.
There was no other way Shirou could explain the gleam of excitement in her eyes, or the fact that she was radiating curiosity and wonder. Right now, it were only her maids who were holding her back from burying Nasu under a barrage of questions of her own, and they were losing the battle, slowly but certainly.
Though that did not stop them from trying their hardest.
"Mistress." Sella's expression was pained as she continued holding Illya back, her eyes rapidly switching between Illya, Nasu, and Shirou. "Please wait. We don't know how it will react if you approach it."
"He." Shirou corrected her before he could stop himself, frowning at Sella's use of the dehumanising pronoun.
"Huh?"
"How he will react." Shirou repeated, feeling a little vindicated when Sella flinched slightly. "And there is no reason for you to assume he is dangerous. As I said, Nasu is my friend, sort of, and he is not here to harm anyone."
"See?" Illya whined, renewing her efforts to escape. "Let me go! I want to talk with him."
"B-But…" Sella tried to protest, tears of frustration building in her eyes as her immense and ingrained fear of non-human entities warred with her desire to follow her mistress' orders. "Mistress, please!"
"If you are truly that concerned, go with her." Shirou suggested, softening his tone when he realised Sella truly was feeling immensely conflicted, already regretting having bullied her earlier. "But you have my word that Illya will not be harmed."
"…" Sella stilled at his promise, her mind running a thousand miles a minute, and Illya ceased her struggles to await her maid's judgement. Even Leysritt turned to her elder sister in interest, her stoic façade not having lasted past the arrival of an extraterrestrial being.
The seconds slowly ticked by as Sella thought deeply, trying to get a grip on her fears, before she let out a deep, shuddering breath.
"Fine." She allowed, eliciting a massive grin from Illya. "But you will stay at my side, mistress."
"Promise." Illya swore, placing a hand on her heart, before she wrenched herself loose and skipped over to Nasu, swiftly joining the conversation too. Sella was quick to follow her, but Leysritt waited a few moments, locking eyes with Shirou.
"What do you think, Leysritt?" The redhead asked, wondering what was going on inside her head.
"I think that if that alien wanted to harm us, he would have done so already." She replied calmly, thoughtfully. "Since we haven't been harmed, I can only conclude he has no evil intentions."
"Indeed."
Leysritt had always been rational, and she continued being so, to Shirou's relief.
"I cannot deny however that I am scared." She admitted the next moment however, her expression tightening a bit.
"Ah." Well, that was probably rational too, or at least understandable. "So what will you do?"
"Believe you." The maid responded frankly, giving him a minute smile. "You gave your word that he would not harm us, and I trust you."
"O-Oh, thank you-"
But before he could express his gratitude for her declaration of faith, Leysritt had walked away again, to join her sister and mistress.
It left Shirou a little non-plussed, but grateful nonetheless.
By now, most of his housemates were conversing with Nasu in one way or another, and although the fear of aliens wasn't completely gone, nor would it ever, Nasu was quickly earning himself a place as an exception to the rule.
That left only Caren standing on her own, and unlike the other girls, whose thoughts and reactions had been easy to understand, she was much more difficult to grasp.
Shirou had never told her about Nasu, which meant that she should have been the most surprised and distraught out of them all.
On her face however, he found no indication of either surprise or shock.
Instead, Shirou noticed that the nun looked… conflicted.
Rather than looking angry, scared, or excited, her features displayed something much more complicated than that. There were traces of displeasure, of confusion, and of resentment, as well as a thousand other things, but there was no telling what emotion had the upper hand at any given moment.
Also notable, her expression didn't change at all based on Nasu's words and actions. Whatever the alien did or said, Caren kept staring at him with the same blend of feelings, possibly not even registering that he was doing anything in the first place.
So rather than his behaviour or his statements, his perceived bloodlust and animosity towards humanity, it was almost as if she considered his very existence to be problematic-
Ah!
Of course.
Now he remembered.
Caren wasn't just a nun. She was also an agent of the Burial Agency. An organisation that was literally focused on nothing but the eradication of all that was not human, everything that did not fit in God's image of the world.
Magi might fear aliens because of their power and their inhuman viewpoints, but the Church, or at least the Burial Agency, hated aliens for nothing but their very existence. An existence that flew in the face of the Lord Himself, having no connection with the Human Order whatsoever.
The white-haired nun might not have been as zealous about the Church's Sacraments as many of her colleagues, but she was a true believer still, and that meant that Nasu was nothing short of an eyesore to her. A confirmation that the word of God was lacking and incomplete.
An expression of pure heresy.
Which meant Shirou better do something quick before this would get out of hand. The last thing he needed was a crusade in his city.
"Hey, Caren." He spoke up carefully, placing a hand on her shoulder to get her attention.
Surprisingly, she ignored him, or it might be more accurate to say she didn't even notice him. She just kept staring at Nasu, her lips moving slightly as she spoke inaudibly.
"Caren!" He repeated, louder this time.
"Huh?" That proved enough to get through to her, and Caren blinked slowly, before glancing sideways at him. "W-What?"
"Are you alright?" The redhead asked carefully, unsure of how to deal with this highly unusual behaviour. After looking at Nasu again though, he decided it might be better to speak with Caren in private. "Come on."
"W-What?"
"Let's go somewhere else." He said, gently pulling her along to the adjacent room, before closing the door to give them some privacy.
Caren went along easily enough, offering no resistance, but once the door was shut, she gave him a confused look.
"Is there something wrong, Shirou?"
"That's my line." Shirou replied with a small huff, giving her a worried look. "You seem… troubled."
"Troubled?" Caren repeated in a questioning tone.
"Yes, troubled. By Nasu."
"Ah." Caren blinked once, the gears in her mind visibly spinning as she registered his question, before she made a soft sound of realisation as she understood what he was talking about.
Then she smiled.
She smiled so widely that her face was almost cut in two.
All the complexity, the uncertainty, and mixed emotions that had worried Shirou so much disappeared like snow under the summer sun, leaving nothing but pure joy on the nun's face.
"Not at all." She beamed, her voice as clear as a bell. "I'm completely fine."
"O-Oh." Needless to say, her sudden joy set off numerous alarm bells in Shirou's head. If she was this happy, something had definitely gone wrong in some way.
"Could I ask you one thing though?" Caren requested, still smiling so widely. "Or maybe two things?"
"…Sure." Shirou agreed hesitantly, wondering if he was making a terrible mistake.
"That is actually an alien, right?" She asked her first question, the one that had been asked so often already, while pointing at the door, in Nasu's general direction.
"Yes." Shirou nodded in confirmation.
"And you are friends with… it? Him?"
"Him." Shirou wasn't at all sure whether Watchers had the same gender-definitions as humans did, but for now, male pronouns would do. It sounded a lot better than 'it' at least. "And yes, we are friends."
"Friends…" Caren repeated slowly, her smile shrinking slightly.
Then her shoulders began shaking, and she placed a hand on her belly, doubling over as if she was getting sick.
"Caren-?!" Shirou asked in alarm, taking a step forward and reaching out for her, fearing she might faint from the shock, when…
"Pffft."
"Huh?" Shirou blinked once at the unexpected sound, before his eyes widened when he realised that-
"PfffwaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Caren was laughing.
She was laughing in pure joy and hilarity.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
She wasn't fainting. She was just unable to remain standing from how hard she was laughing, sinking to her knees and hitting the ground with a closed fist, gasping for breath every few seconds.
It was completely out of character for the white-haired girl to express her amusement in such an obvious and loud way, and Shirou was left fumbling, with no idea how he was supposed to react.
"W-Well, I don't think that-"
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"You don't need to-"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"What so funny?!"
"You!" Caren replied as if it was obvious, looking up to beam at him again, tears of laughter streaming over her cheeks. "This whole situation!"
"I don't see what so funny about this-"
"You have befriended an alien!"
"Yes? But why is that-?"
"You have befriended an alien!" Caren repeated, grinning widely as she pointed straight at his face. "You truly are the worst kind of heretic! An enemy of humanity!"
"W-What?!" Shirou reared back in shock at the accusation. "T-That's not true!"
"It must be!" Caren responded promptly, her eyes full of amusement and mockery. "Aliens are enemies of us all. The fact that you have befriended one can only mean you are a heretic of the worst kind!"
"But Nasu isn't our enemy!" Shirou insisted, feeling like tearing out his hair in agitation. "He helped me before, and he has been nothing but pleasant since."
"Oh dear, oh dear. Accepting bribes from aliens now." Caren shook her head in sadness, as if terribly disappointed in him. "Truly a heretical action-"
"Caren, that's enough!" Shirou was quickly getting fed up with the accusations, and he put his foot down. Neither he nor Nasu were enemies of humanity, and he would no longer stand for her mockery. "I do not want to hear any more of this!"
"The truth must be ackn-"
"But it is not the truth!" Shirou thundered, and Caren finally fell silent, perhaps realising he was fully serious. "If you truly believe that I am an enemy of humanity…!"
"Then?" She asked curiously when he fell silent.
"…I don't know." He finished lamely.
He didn't have any threats ready for this kind of situation, so Shirou had nothing to back up his warning. He wasn't going to threaten her with violence, stern words essentially meant nothing to her, and killing her was absolutely out of the question.
"…Shirou." Caren began slowly, and the pity in her tone was painful to hear. "That might not be the weakest threat I have ever heard, but it is still a weak one."
"W-What would you have me say then?"
"Well, you could throw me into the dungeons for a few nights, that's what they did back at the convent I was trained in." Caren suggested, casually sharing a very off-putting piece of information. "Alternatively, you could decide you are done with me and throw me out."
"I'm not going to do that." Shirou said immediately.
"Why not? I am a very difficult person-"
"I promised you could stay here, and I will keep my word."
"B-But I really am not a pleasant-"
"That doesn't matter." Shirou shook his head, putting an end to the discussion. "I knew what I was getting in for when I took you in. I might lecture you, I might get angry with you, but I will not throw you out. You are my friend after all."
"…O-Oh." Caren's demeanour became very subdued after he explained his reasoning, and she looked down at the ground with a slight blush. "W-Well, uhm, thank you, I suppose."
"You can repay me by not calling me a heretic again."
"I didn't mean that." She was swift to say, looking back up again with a sincere expression, all traces of mockery having disappeared. "I was just joking."
"…What?"
"I was just messing with you, for fun." She repeated, smiling unsurely at him. "I am happy that Nasu-san is your friend, and I don't think you are an enemy of humanity. I just said that because your reactions are funny."
"…You mean you were just winding me up?"
"Yup."
"…Ugh." Hearing that, Shirou realised he'd been taken for a ride again by the white-haired nun, and he palmed his face, sagging slightly as all tension left his body. "And here I was, trying to be considerate of your beliefs."
"I believe in the eternal mercy and love of God, for humans and for aliens alike." Caren replied calmly, and her voice was suddenly far steadier than before. "The Scripture does not condemn aliens, and the preachings of the Burial Agency hardly hold the ultimate truth. I do not hate aliens merely because I was told to."
"Really?" That was surprisingly open-minded of her.
"Yes, really. Nasu-san seems like a decent man, and I will not condemn him for crimes committed by other aliens."
"I… I see. That's… That's good, I guess." Shirou said uncertainly, once more surprised by yet another side to the white-haired nun. "I do wish you'd told me so right from the start though."
"I'm sorry. I just enjoy messing with people too much." She beamed at him, and just like that, the naughty glint in her eyes returned.
"And don't I know it." The redhead griped, letting out a sigh.
It seemed she was still the same old Caren as ever.
Ah well, he was used to it by now. Getting irritated at her for being herself wouldn't help anyone. He'd just take his wins when he could. That she was not going to start a crusade over his friendship with Nasu was plenty for now, he could hardly ask for more.
"So you're fine with Nasu?" He nevertheless asked again, just to be sure. "If you're not, you can stay in the living room until he has left."
"No, I'm fine with him." Caren shook her head. "Like I said, I don't mind aliens as long as they're not trying to kill me, and Nasu-san's not very alien to begin with, is he? In fact, it's almost like he's just a deformed human."
"Huh? How so?"
"Well, he talks like a human, he has good manners, he hasn't killed anyone, he hasn't driven us insane yet, and he hasn't once expressed any intentions of committing genocide." Caren quickly summed up. "It's only his size and his big head that really look inhuman, and compared to other aliens, that's nothing."
When seen like that, Shirou could only agree.
Nasu truly was the least inhuman alien he'd ever seen or heard of.
Except himself that was —something he'd probably have to tell Caren about as well at some point.
And wasn't that a conversation he was not looking forward to…
"So while I can't speak for other members of the Burial Agency, I at least don't mind that my owner is the worst kind of heretic." Caren puffed out her chest in pride as she said that. "Aren't you lucky to have me."
"I am not your owner, nor am I a heretic." Shirou deadpanned, rolling his eyes in exasperation.
"So I am an abandoned cat, nya?"
"You will be if you keep making stupid sounds like that."
"Gya?! Forgive me, master!" Caren wailed, grabbing his hand and looking up at him with pleading eyes. "I'll be good from now on! Please don't throw me out!"
"I won't if you stop acting like that!"
The atmosphere between them had completely returned to normal, and it wasn't long before they entered the dining room again, where they found Nasu still being grilled by the girls.
Ayako had apparently finished asking most of her questions, and it was Rin who was now leading the impromptu interrogation.
"So you have control over reality itself?" She asked the visiting alien with no small amount of wonder, apparently in response to a previous answer that Shirou hadn't heard.
"To a degree." Nasu nodded, before he held up a finger in warning. "Nothing too grand though, and I am limited from using those powers of mine to begin with."
"So you can only use your power to observe?" Ayako asked, cocking her head to the side. "How does that work? Do you just watch everything at once and write down everything you see?"
"I only write down things of note." Nasu answered her questions in reverse order. "As for seeing, I do try to keep an eye on every dimension in this verse, but most of the time, I cheat a little by taking a peek at the records that are stored in the Root."
"The Root!?" Everyone started when Rin let out a cry of surprise, jerking like she'd been stung by a bee, becoming simultaneously pale in shock and red in excitement. "The Root of Akasha?! The domain where all knowledge is stored?!"
"Indeed."
"You can access it whenever you want?!" Rin spluttered, delight and outrage warring for dominance in her expression.
"I can, yes." Nasu nodded, before smiling slightly. "You could even say that I have 'Root access'."
"…"
"…?"
"…Okay, that was bad." Ayako scoffed, glaring at the Watcher as if he'd just killed a puppy for no reason. "No, worse than bad, that was awful."
"I thought it was rather clever." Nasu smiled, not bothered in the slightest by the brunette's horror over his little joke.
"It was bad and you should feel bad." Ayako insisted, turning to Sakura. "It was bad, wasn't it?"
"It was bad, but in a funny way." Sakura smiled in response, apparently less stringent on the rules of good jokes than her brunette girlfriend.
"Never mind the joke!" Rin interrupted them, stalking forward until she stood right in front of Nasu, as if to intimidate him, though considering the sheer difference in their sizes, any such attempt would fall flat. "Are you willing to share your means of access to the Root?"
"No."
"Not even with Shirou?"
"Not even with him." Nasu confirmed, his voice apologetic. "That would be interfering too much. The Great Council would not stand for it."
"Just out of curiosity, what would this 'Great Council' do if you did tell us how to reach the Root?" Ayako inquired, looking like she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer but was too curious not to ask.
"Remove me from my tasks and wipe your memories of all interactions you ever had with me."
"…That is all?"
"That is all."
"That's a lot more restrained than I thought." Ayako noted happily. "With how everything's been going with the Moonlit World so far, I thought we'd be killed in all kinds of horrible ways."
"My kind avoids killing whenever we can. We have no shortage of other options." Nasu explained, before his expression turned the slightest bit stern. "But let us put an end to this topic now. There is nothing more to be said about it, and I have much to discuss with Shirou."
"Right." Shirou nodded, stepping forward to face the alien while the girls retreated a bit. "What has happened? Is the world in danger?"
He couldn't think of any other reason the god-like alien would come down from his perch high up the heavens.
"Not yet." Nasu replied, and though his voice was calm, his words were like a cold breeze, sending shivers down everyone's spines. "But it will be soon unless you take prompt action, my friend. I have, if you would pardon the cliché, a mission for you."
Well, there was only one answer that Emiya Shirou could possibly give at such a moment.
"What do I need to do?"
"Don't be so quick to accept. It will be a long and difficult process." Nasu warned him, his large eyes glittering with slight concern. "The threat is manyfold, and it will require considerable work to repulse and remove it. The danger will be great and the rewards will be low. In light of that, are you certain you are willing to accept this mission?"
"Tell me what I need to do." Shirou's answer did not change. If the world was in danger, he would do what needed to be done. His very nature allowed for nothing else.
"Of course." Nasu nodded once to acknowledge the redhead's resolve, and the glitter of concern disappeared, making place for a smile. "I should have known the lack of reward would not be of any concern to you."
"Lack of reward?" Illya spluttered suddenly, gaping at the alien. "We all live on Earth! Saving it should be a reward in itself!"
What she said was very sensible, but both Shirou and Nasu ignored her for now.
"Not far from here, there is a city called Misaki Town." The Watcher began, looking up and to the left, or more precisely, to the East. "Are you familiar with it?"
"I have heard the name before, years ago, but I don't recall when or where I heard it exactly." Shirou replied, frowning a bit. Since he couldn't recall it well, it had to have been before Mjolnir arrived and before he started Reinforcing his brain, so it might very well be that Kiritsugu had been the one to mention the city to him.
It couldn't have been important though, because then he would remember it better.
"I have heard of it." Rin piped up, raising her hand. "It's a large city located in the outskirts of the Kanto-region. It's built on top of one of the largest leylines in Japan, and its Moonlit Side is ruled over by the Tohno-family."
"Tohno…" Shirou repeated in a mumble, the name ringing another bell. "That also sounds familiar."
"Well, they are one of the most powerful and influential families in the region, so it should be familiar." Rin huffed, scratching her temple a bit. "Even my family, insular as we are, had some interaction with them over the centuries."
"What are they like then?" Sakura asked curiously, having never learned anything about other Magus-families while living with the Matou.
"I never met any of them myself, but I gather they have a less than savoury reputation." Rin replied, pursing her lips. "You know, not being shy about removing opponents with less than legal means, the works."
"Less than legal means?" Ayako repeated in a huff, looking thoroughly amused. "You have such a wonderful way of understating things, Rin."
"Of course." It was well-known in the Emiya-estate that Rin was weak to sincere compliments, no matter their nature or the things they referred to, and this was no exception. The black-haired girl practically preened at being told she was good at understating things, her expression full of satisfaction.
"If what you say is true, then it might be that dad told me about them once." Shirou still couldn't remember exactly, but it did sound plausible. "He probably did some work for them at some point."
"Oh, right. I keep forgetting that your father was an assassin." Ayako had never been sure what to think about that, and she still wasn't, judging by her conflicted expression. She might never have met the man, but she did find it hard at times to reconcile the image of Shirou's loving father with that of the world's most feared assassin.
"It's not something I like to talk about." Shirou admitted, knowing better than anyone how much Kiritsugu had regretted his life's choices at the end, before he held up a hand when he realised they were digressing. "But that's not the point. Nasu, why did you mention Misaki Town?"
He tried to get the discussion back on track, and the Watcher nodded gratefully, taking the word again.
"I mentioned Misaki Town because it will be your destination. Currently, a boy in that city, who shall remain nameless for now, has had his body possessed by Michael Roa Valdamjong."
It was not a name that meant anything to Shirou, but it turned out others were better informed than him.
"Valdamjong?!" Caren gasped in shock, her eyes widening in fear and dread at the mere mention of the name. "He has returned already?!"
"Who's Valdamjong?" Ayako blinked in confusion, speaking for pretty much everyone else as well. "And what's this about possessing bodies?"
"Michael Roa Valdamjong is a Dead Apostle who is capable of reincarnation." Caren explained, her voice uncharacteristically serious. "Whenever his current form is destroyed, his Soul will transfer to a new victim, whose very being he will then usurp. He is a body-stealer, and a very proficient one at that. Sufficiently so to have survived for centuries despite the Burial Agency's best efforts to slay him, engineering massive bloodbaths and causing immense suffering wherever he goes."
"Ah." Ayako's face distorted in repulsion, and she almost seemed to turn a little green. "So, he's bad news?"
"He is widely considered the unofficial twenty-eighth Dead Apostle Ancestor." The white-haired nun revealed in a grim tone, and that said enough.
"A Dead Apostle Ancestor?! Here in Japan?!" Shirou took in a sharp breath in horror, before he let it out again, calmly, as he realised what he had to do, why Nasu was telling him all this. "I understand, Nasu. I will travel to Misaki Town, and I will kill this Valdamjong once and for all."
A good dose of the Cleansing Power should do the trick, and even if not, the Vault held some very potent Soul-Prisons he might be able to use to at least remove the unofficial Ancestor from the board entirely.
"No."
But then Nasu shook his head.
"No?"
Shirou blinked as the wind was taken out of his sails.
"No. The task of vanquishing Michael Roa Valdamjong is meant for someone else. It is not your adventure." Nasu told him, his tone strict if apologetic. "I do not wish for you to go to Misaki Town for battle. Your only purpose there will be to gather information, for the next step in the process of saving the world."
"I cannot stand by and do nothing while people are killed." Shirou protested. "If this Valdamjong is indeed such a threat-"
"Valdamjong will meet his end in Misaki Town even without your interference. You have my word." Nasu promised him, and despite not knowing the Watcher very well, Shirou did instinctively understand that he would never break his word once given.
"Even so." He nevertheless argued, unable to let it go. "How many people will die before he is stopped?"
"Many." Nasu replied solemnly, not even trying to hide it.
"So then-"
"I am not saying you cannot interfere at all. By all means, limit the number of victims as much as you can. However, I must insist that you do not deal the final blow to either Vlov Arkhangel or to Roa."
"Vlov Arkhangel? Another Ancestor?" Nasu was dropping so many things on him at once that Shirou was starting to get dizzy, and Caren had become even paler than she already was. "And they're all just going to be out there, in public? Killing people?"
"They will be dealt with, just not by you." Nasu promised him again. "Your target lies elsewhere. You need to find a certain someone in Misaki Town."
"A certain someone?" Shirou repeated, frowning at the phrase. "Can you vague that up a little more for me?"
"Senpai, don't be rude." Sakura scolded him, and Shirou winced, before making an apologetic gesture, realising his words had been too curt.
"You will know this person to be your target once you see them." Nasu promised, giving no sign of being insulted. "They shall be… hard to miss."
"In what way?"
"I will say no more." Nasu shook his head however, refusing to answer the question. "Go to Misaki Town in four days, take the direct train exactly when the clock strikes three in the afternoon, and find your target. Once you have, more will be revealed."
"…" Shirou had half a mind to protest, to ask for more information, but he recognised that Nasu meant it when he said that he would say no more.
"I realise it is frustrating. Many have often insulted my kind for being overly cryptic and mysterious." Nasu didn't quite apologise, but his tone did become contrite. "But if you do what I have asked of you, then the next clue will be revealed shortly."
"Clue? Now you're making it sound like you're sending me on a scavenger hunt." Shirou huffed jokingly, expecting to draw a smile from the alien.
"That is… not inaccurate." Nasu only confirmed it though, turning the redhead's joking smile into a pained one, before he looked up at the ceiling. "My time here comes to an end."
"Already?"
"I have said what needed to be said." Nasu took a step away from the dining table. "Overstaying my welcome would not be a good idea."
"You wouldn't be overstaying." Sakura protested, perhaps fearing that some impoliteness on their part was driving the Watcher away. "It has been fun, having you here."
"Thank you, lady Sakura, but it is not up to you or me whether I am allowed to stay." Nasu smiled congenially at her. "I will visit again, at a later date."
"Then stay safe-" Sakura began to say, but stopped when she realised she was already talking to an empty space, casting the dining room in silence.
Nasu had left as suddenly as he'd arrived.
"That guy isn't very good at saying goodbye." Shirou sighed, placing a hand on the plum-haired girl's shoulder to cheer her up a little. "It was the same the previous time he was here. It is nothing personal."
"I suppose that when you never interact with anyone, your manners might erode a little." Ayako nodded sagely, before giving him a complicated look. "So Shirou, you are going to be leaving us again?"
"It seems so." Shirou nodded, pursing his lips in displeasure. "I would rather not, but this does not sound like something I can safely ignore."
"The fate of the world is at stake." Illya nodded, and although she was trying to look serious, her sparkling eyes betrayed her true thoughts.
Being excited about the possible end of the world. Truly, those anime were a terrible influence on her.
"Well, if you are going to leave, you better take it up with the school board." Rin suggested, her voice a bit curt, showing her own displeasure. "Unless you plan on playing hooky."
"I am not. I will contact them soon." Shirou nodded, reaching out to place a hand on her cheek, which cooled her temper a tiny bit.
It was obvious that none of the girls, save Illya, were happy with his imminent departure, but they didn't protest. They all lived on the Earth after all, and they'd prefer it if it wasn't destroyed any time soon.
"This shouldn't take long." Shirou promised them. "Misaki Town isn't that far, and from what Nasu told me, I don't have to do a lot. I could be back in less than a week."
"Let us hope so." Rin sighed, before taking his hand. "Now come on. We need to gather information. You cannot just barge into the territory of another Magus-Family without preparing first. That would be courting disaster."
"I mentioned earlier that my father might have had dealings with them. I'll look in his diaries."
"An excellent idea." Rin nodded approvingly. "I'll look through my family's records too."
"Ah, but before you go, can I ask a question?" Caren suddenly raised her hand, drawing everyone's attention to herself. "Nasu-san told you the world is in danger, but what exactly is it in danger from?"
"…You know, that is a very good question." Shirou huffed after a moment, noticing how Caren preened at the compliment, much like Rin. "Maybe it's Angra Mainyu? If the Grail is fully manifested with him in it, that could destroy our world."
"No, I think it is something different." Ayako shook her head however. "According to what you told me, Misaki Town has nothing to do with any Grail War. Also, I don't think Nasu-san would be so cryptic if it was about that, considering we know all about it already."
"Maybe it's the Dead Apostle Ancestors?" Sakura suggested. "Since Senpai is going to a city where there will be two of them?"
"It might be worse." Rin's expression darkened, and the grip she had on Shirou's hand tightened considerably. "The world has been in danger of being destroyed before, and the most recent case was at the hands of the Father of Apostles, Brunestud."
"The Crimson Moon." Shirou nodded, and his eyes flitted to the nearby window, through which the moon was clearly visible in the night sky. "I really hope this isn't about him though. I don't think I, or anyone else, could beat him."
"The Wizard Marshall did defeat him last time." Caren reminded him, trying to sound hopeful. "Maybe he can do so again."
"Maybe." Rin sighed, placing her hands on her hips. "Though the Kaleidoscope hasn't been seen in decades. Many people doubt he is even alive anymore."
"I sure hope he is." Shirou's tone turned heavier, and his expression hardened. "Because if he isn't, people are going to look at me."
That confused the others for a moment, but it was Caren who realised first what he meant.
"Because you are a Sorcerer too." She nodded.
"Yes." Shirou confirmed, as that was what the Moonlit World currently thought of him. "Should the Crimson Moon ever return and the Kaleidoscope fail to rise to the occasion, the Moonlit World will have to look for someone else to fight the Ultimate One of the Moon."
"And that someone might very well be you." Ayako finished for him.
"Yes." A truly terrifying prospect by any means.
"…I'm sure the Wizard Marshall is fine." Sakura said after a moment of uncomfortable silence, trying to sound confident. "He's probably just… very fond of privacy."
"I hope so." Shirou muttered, looking back at the moon, which was no longer a pretty sight in the sky, but a dark, foreboding sign of impending doom. "I really hope so."
In an unremarkable room in an undisclosed location, hidden from prying eyes and nasty scrying rituals, a young woman and an old man were sitting together at a table.
On said table, a large number of Magical Catalysts and Materials had been placed, ranging from Dragon Fangs and Poisonous Needles to Evil Bones and Eggs of Truth. They had been grouped together to form a rough Magic Circle, and although they weren't yet positioned in the most efficient configuration, it was already obvious that once completed, the Magic Circle would cast a spell of epic proportions.
It was the young woman who was working on said completion, labouring tirelessly to finish the spell, the effects of which were unknown to all but the two people in the room. She was leaning over the table, studying the Catalysts with squinted eyes, trying to figure out whether she should scatter some Void's Dust over the Evil Bones or smear the Mystic Spinal Fluid over the Rainbow Threads.
Meanwhile, the old man was keeping careful watch over the process, ready to interfere should she make a wrong decision. Neither of them would be particularly hurt if the Magic Circle went out of control, and there wasn't a single soul around for many miles, but he'd gone to great lengths to gather these materials, and he'd like to see them used well, not blown to bits.
Especially the Evil Bones.
It was immediately obvious from their general demeanour that they were teacher and student in the middle of a lesson. There weren't many other ways to explain the scene after all.
But while the young woman was working seriously, putting in great effort to build a proper Magic Circle, the old man was looking elsewhere, at the nearby wall, his eyes glazed over and unfocused.
As if his mind was somewhere else entirely.
Something that did not escape the young woman's attention.
"…Tsk."
Frankly, it annoyed her to be ignored, and she purposefully began playing around with a few Evil Bones, hoping to elicit a reaction. He was always so careful with them after all and giving her just these five had almost brought him to tears.
But the old man failed to respond or even notice.
Her handling of the Evil Bones became rougher, and then rougher still when he remained absentminded.
Right up until one broke.
But even that failed to rouse him.
By now, the young woman was actually unnerved, and she left the Magic Circle for what it was in order to hear the old man out.
Whatever he was thinking about, it had to be important.
"Alright then, out with it." She barked, rather rudely, picking up a Deadly Poisonous Needle in case she needed to force him to pay attention.
"Huh?" But the question alone proved enough to rouse him from his introspection, so she put the needle away again. "What?"
"What are you thinking about?" She repeated, giving him a glare. "It isn't like you to brood, Kischur."
Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg was many things, including but not limited to Wielder of the Second True Magic, Wizard Marshall, Dead Apostle Ancestor, and vanquisher of the Crimson Moon, but he was not and had never been a brooder.
Not as long as she had known him at least.
"I am not brooding, Aoko." Zelretch replied with no small amount of indignation, and if he'd been wearing a fur scarf, he would have thrown one of its ends over his shoulder with a huff. "I was just... thinking, about nothing in particular."
"Tch." The disbelieving and sceptical noise escaped her lips automatically.
Aozaki Aoko might not be one-tenth or even one-twentieth of Zelretch's age, but she was a Sorcerer in her own right, and she was more than capable of telling when he was lying to her.
He had never been any good at that, lying. Probably because he never really needed to. He would keep his blue eyes unnaturally still, his white beard would twitch along with his jaw, and his massive limbs would be held close together, as if to defend him.
So she gave him a withering stare, demanding the truth.
"Alright, maybe I was brooding, a little." He amended his previous statement, combing a hand through his white beard when he realised she wasn't going to let up. "But not about anything interesting, I promise. You would find it to be boring and tedious if I told you."
"Nonsense." Aoko scoffed, brushing a lock of her currently brown hair out of her face. "Why would you even think that?"
"Because you told me as much during our previous conversations, if I remember correctly." Zelretch replied with no small amount of amusement. "You called me a boring old man, did you not?"
"…Maybe." Aoko allowed, shifting a bit in her seat as she recalled that particular incident, before she rallied. "But I am curious now, so you have my permission to speak."
"Well, to be honest, I was thinking of many things." Zelretch hummed, closing his eyes in thought for a moment. "The most significant though…"
"Yes?" Aoko prompted him when he fell silent. "Try me, Kischur."
"Very well. The Dead Apostle Ancestors are preparing to conduct the Aylesbury Ritual." He revealed in a grave tone, giving in to the brunette's insistence.
"Right." Aoko nodded, as she'd known that much already. "And?"
"What do you mean 'and'?!" Zelretch spluttered, looking baffled she was taking it so lightly. "We are talking about a Ritual meant to raise the Crimson Moon here!"
"I know, but that's old news." Aoko refuted, frowning slightly at her teacher's dramatic behaviour. "They have been trying for centuries without success, and it's never bothered you much before. I don't see why it should now."
"Because this time, they might actually succeed." Zelretch explained, accentuating his words by tapping a finger on the table. "They are showing more unity than ever before, they have amassed unprecedented amounts of power and riches in service to their cause, and they have even infiltrated the Magus Association and the Burial Agency. They have a real chance now."
"Certainly, you are exaggerating?" Aoko frowned doubtfully, though a tinge of nervousness wormed its way into her gut all the same.
"I am not." Zelretch shook his head, his white mane merrily swishing along. "At the rate they are going, the Ancestors will have completed the Ritual within the next three winters."
"WHAT?!" If Aoko had been drinking anything, she would have spat it right out again. "H-How?! How is that possible?!"
Only a decade ago, they had been laughing merrily together at the fumbling attempts of the Ancestors to make any progress on their accursed Ritual. Had they truly rallied that quickly?
"How? I wish I knew." Zelretch grumbled in a grave tone. "I might have been able to do something about it if I knew."
"You don't know?" Her question was answered by a shake of his head. "Then how do you know they are making progress at all?"
"An excellent question." He nodded, before he suddenly put a mighty arm down on the table and swept all Materials aside, sending them clattering onto the ground, completely destroying Aoko's unfinished Magic Circle.
With one movement, he ruined hours of work, and Aoko gaped at the immense disregard for her efforts.
It wasn't often that she wanted to strangle her teacher, but this was definitely one of such instances.
Zelretch didn't notice though. He quickly carved several strange symbols into the table, before, with a muttered word, he called an immaterial display into being, something that the mundane folk might have called a holographic display.
It showed a ten-sided shape, a decagon, as the 'floor', with twelve square forms placed perpendicularly on top of it, sticking upwards, together forming a figure that was not unlike a miniature Stonehenge.
Most of the figure was coloured a gentle blue, but several of the squares had been taken over by a sort of dark red. Aoko normally liked the colour red, even despite its associations for her, but this red was foreboding and ominous, making it clear that its advance on the figure was not a good thing.
"What is this?" Aoko asked, for now putting aside her teacher's blatant disregard for her work, ignoring the scattered Materials on the floor which had been her Magic Circle only seconds before.
"This is a schematic representation of the progress that has been made on the preparations for the Aylesbury Ritual." Zelretch replied, sounding rather proud of himself. "It was an awful lot of work to make it, and I am not ashamed to admit it brought me to tears on several occasions, but now that it's finished, it's damn useful."
"It tracks the progress of a Ritual? How does that work?"
"The details are too complicated to get into right now, but essentially, every square that you see here represents one of the twelve aspects of the Ritual, while the floor represents its actual completion. The final spell, if you will." Zelretch explained shortly, before his voice turned grim again as he looked at the two red squares. "Every time a square turns red, the Dead Apostle Ancestors managed to complete another step."
"And when the whole figure is red?" Aoko asked, though she could already guess the answer.
"Then the Aylesbury Ritual has been completed, and Crimson Moon Brunestud will awaken." Zelretch replied gravely. "This figure turning red has been a reoccurring nightmare of mine for decades now, and I don't like that the red has been encroaching so rapidly as of late."
"Of course not." Aoko nodded. Nobody in their right minds would consider the Crimson Moon getting closer to awakening a good thing. "Still, there is a lot of blue left. You should have plenty of time to prepare."
"Prepare?" Zelretch gave her a confused look. "For what?"
"To fight the Crimson Moon again." Aoko replied, huffing a bit at the stupid question. He was the one who had beaten the old monster last time around, and he was currently the only one capable of doing it again. She didn't like forcing responsibilities onto people, not with how often that had been done to her, but in this case, there was no other choice. "People are depending on you, Kischur. You cannot let them down."
Her mentor was a clever and dutiful man, despite his rather childish behaviour sometimes, and he would do what needed to be done. Aoko was sure of it.
"…"
"Kischur?" Aoko frowned however when her teacher suddenly refused to meet her gaze, and the tinge of fear in her gut grew larger when he slumped, his very pose suddenly exuding nothing but exhaustion and fatigue. "Kischur, what's wrong?"
"I..." Zelretch took a deep, shuddering breath, one that sounded more tired than ever before. "I cannot fight the Crimson Moon again, Aoko. I have no hope of victory this time."
He didn't speak loudly, in fact, it was more of an embarrassed whisper, but that simple statement, that ominous prediction of the future, made Aoko's ears ring as if it were the tolling of a bell the size of a mountain.
"N-Nonsense!" The brunette reared back as if she'd been slapped across the face, having to hold herself up at the table as her legs became unsteady. "Y-You're just being pessimistic!"
It was hardly the first time her teacher had been a little down, a bit hard on himself, and Aoko hoped, prayed, that it would be the case this time again.
"It is no nonsense." Zelretch insisted however, only the slight gritting of his teeth showing his own agitation. "Weakened as I am, I cannot hope to do more than delay that monster. My prime has long since passed."
"W-Weakened? You?" Aoko muttered, and she quickly looked her teacher over.
At first sight, nothing seemed to be wrong with him. He was tall and broad, with a full white beard and a mane of equally white hair. His suit was impeccable, his wrinkles a perfect complement to his aged appearance, and the way he conducted himself was nothing short of royal.
This was Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, the last surviving master of the Second True Magic, the one who had defeated the Crimson Moon in single combat and who held the title of Wizard-Marshall, potentially standing above even the Director of the Magus Association in rank. One of the most powerful beings on Earth.
But all that was only the outside.
Unbeknownst to most of the world, even to his own apprentices, the fight against the Crimson Moon had left Zelretch crippled. It wasn't just the forced change from human to Dead Apostle that he'd undergone at the very end of the battle, but something on a far deeper level.
Having channelled far too much power and having used certain arts he would have preferred to stay far away from, his fight with Brunestud had left deep scars, on his body, his mind, and even his Soul.
Those scars had worn away at him over the years until he was but a shadow of his former self now.
Even his appearance reflected that. During his fight with the Crimson Moon, he'd been… Well, he'd already been over a thousand years old, but he'd still had the appearance of a man in his prime. After the fight with Brunestud however, he had aged rapidly, despite his mastery of the Second True Magic and his nature as a Dead Apostle. Now, he looked like a man in his seventies or eighties.
A fit, strong, well-kept man in his seventies of course, but still well past his prime and rapidly heading towards utter decay.
A perfect mirror of the state of his power and abilities.
Right now, he was but a husk of the man he once was. Still more powerful than most Magi could ever hope to be, but with no chance of redoing his victory against a creature that was a god in all but name.
In every Parallel World in which the Crimson Moon had been roused again, or another Type arrived on Earth for that matter, he had fallen quickly. Thousands of Other Dimensions, and not once had he been victorious.
With so much evidence available, he felt secure in saying that his loss was inevitable and indisputable.
So that was what he told Aoko.
Predictably, the brunette wasn't too happy to hear it.
"I cannot fight the Crimson Moon either." She stated bluntly, not wanting there to be any doubt about that. "You know that as well as I do, so don't get any ideas about me taking your place."
"You cannot defeat Brunestud yet." Zelretch pointed out. Parallel Worlds had shown that Aoko would grow ever more powerful with time, and there were plenty of examples available where she had in fact defeated the Crimson Moon by herself.
"Not for a good few decades." Aoko refuted tersely, not liking where the conversation was heading. "If the Ancestors are really about to resurrect their evil god, I stand no chance of forcing it back to sleep. Don't ask that of me."
"What if we worked together?" Zelretch suggested, before he shook his head himself. "No, that would be no good either. It's not like our crafts can be combined, and neither of us is fit for the supporting role."
"So neither of us are going to do much good one way or another." Aoko concluded grumpily, scratching her cheek as she tried to think of an answer to their dilemma. "Should we recruit other Magi to fight with us? That's what you did last time, right?"
Zelretch stilled for a moment, and then he smiled wryly, rubbing the back of his neck in shame and embarrassment.
When he'd decided to engage the Crimson Moon in battle back in 300 AD, he had recruited an army of Magi to help him, to provide backup and support. However, since Magi were naturally insular and opposed to working together because of petty infighting, they had been very reluctant to answer his call, even with him being the one asking.
In the end, he'd forced them to work together under him through threats and generous applications of violence. He'd become a dictator, which was exactly the thing that had earned him his title as the feared Wizard Marshall.
Had his motives for fighting the Crimson Moon been pure and selfless, for instance to prevent it from causing more slaughter, that might have been forgivable. However, the only reason he'd gone to slay Brunestud was out of personal dislike, which made his actions far more morally questionable.
It was unclear, even to him, whether his morals had changed over the centuries, whether he was a kinder man now that he had been back then, but in any case, he felt ashamed of his heavy-handed approach, and he'd rather not repeat his stint as cruel warlord any time soon.
In no small part because it just wasn't practical anymore.
"Back in those days, the Magi were far stronger than they are now, and even then, I lost over half of my forces to Brunestud and his followers." He explained to his apprentice. "Should we try to recruit an army now for the same purpose, they'll be slaughtered in moments."
It was regrettable, but that was the current state of affairs. Complaining about it would change nothing.
"What if we deal with it at the source?" To her credit, Aoko didn't waste time on complaining. Instead, she tried to think of other solutions. "If we can prevent the Aylesbury Ritual from happening in the first place, we will not have to deal with the Crimson Moon. I may not be able to defeat Brunestud, but I can handle an Ancestor or two."
"That is a very good idea, and one I had been entertaining myself, but it has proven more difficult than I expected." Zelretch admitted, having already tried to see whether such an approach was feasible.
"Don't tell me they have become too powerful too?"
"Hahahaha, no, fear not." Zelretch laughed at her tortured tone, shaking his head. "They're just very good at hiding."
"From you?" Aoko asked incredulously. "I didn't know anyone could hide from you."
"I'm not omniscient. If the proper measures are taken, it is in fact quite simple to hide from me. Considering that Thrvmn has had many centuries to practise and perfect his methods, I'm not surprised I cannot find him anymore. Him or his patsies."
"Then why are we just sitting here?!" Aoko demanded, now becoming rather wroth with her foolish teacher, who was apparently quite content to waste time while Dead Apostle Ancestors were preparing to destroy humanity. "Shouldn't we be out there, looking for them?"
"I considered it, but the chances of success are low, so I judged it more advantageous if I continued your education instead." Zelretch explained, before he stepped closer to the brunette, placing a fatherly hand on her shoulder. "I understand that you wish to take prompt action, and that doing nothing can be frustrating, but wasting your energy by running around without a clear purpose is no good either. We must wait and listen before we strike. Remember, haste makes waste, my apprentice."
"Don't start acting all wise on me now." Aoko scoffed. "I'm not the one who has developed the reputation of a Bogeyman in the Magus Association because I can't manage my expectations of my students and end up driving them mad as a result."
"…Oof." Zelretch winced as the remark hit home, but Aoko wasn't going to apologise. It was the truth after all.
Rationally however, she knew his advice was sound. It was true that she had no idea where to start looking if she wanted to find the Ancestors, so she'd probably just run around like a Berserker, making a fool out of herself.
Again.
"Well, I'll have you know that I also have plenty of other things to do." Zelretch continued his argument, his voice becoming a bit defensive. "I have packages to deliver, resources to claim, people to find, and people to stalk."
"Stalk?" Aoko blinked at that last one.
"It's the stalking that usually takes the most time and effort." Zelretch huffed, placing his hands on his sides. "That guy Gil for instance. He always knows I am there when I watch him, and his stupid smirks drive me up the wall, but I don't dare to take my eyes off him. Not for a moment."
"Why?"
"Because he is immensely dangerous."
"Fight him then." The ever-practical Aoko presented the most obvious solution. She didn't know the person he was talking about, but if Zelretch took the time to complain about him specifically, he had to be quite a bother.
In her mind, it was best to deal with such people directly and immediately.
"When I want to commit suicide, I'll definitely do so."
"What?!" For the second time, her teacher's words hit her like a sucker-punch from her blind spot, her mouth falling open in shock at the notion there was someone besides the Crimson Moon who could beat him. "There are two beings who can kill you?!"
"Well, actually there are eighty-seven, but let's stick with the second one for now." Zelretch huffed, ignoring Aoko's baffled stare. "Most of those eighty-seven can only defeat me under specific circumstances. With Gil however, it's a done deal. He'd crush me."
"R-Really?"
"Yes, really. It's not that odd."
Zelretch had never understood why people thought of him as unbeatable. Yes, he had defeated the Crimson Moon, a god in all but name, but that didn't mean he was suddenly a god himself. That was not how the world worked.
There were thousands of dimensions in which he'd lost the battle against Brunestud, and thousands more in which he'd been beaten by someone other than Brunestud.
As wielder of the Second Magic, he was powerful, yes, and he stood in contact with his other versions in other dimensions, granting him a massive information-gathering network and a nigh-unlimited source of Magical Energy, but he wasn't invincible. Not in his prime and certainly not now.
In his current condition, the King of Heroes would make mincemeat out of him.
Poor Aoko took the news hard though, and he gently steered her back to her chair.
"Don't worry too much about Gil though." He tried to reassure her. "Based on what I've seen in Parallel Worlds, there is a 98.7% chance that he'll be defeated soon without any inference from either of us."
"A-Ah." His words did seem to help a bit, as Aoko breathed a little easier.
"In fact, with some luck, we might get a more esoteric version of Emiya Shirou out of the deal." He continued, though he left out the fact that the chances of that were very low. "If that happens, we might have more of a chance against the Crimson Moon too."
"Who is Emiya Shirou?"
"One of the protagonists, and I dare say the most sympathetic one."
"…You say the weirdest stuff sometimes." Aoko complained after a moment, giving up on making sense out of that.
"It'll all make sense to you soon, after the Grail War has been concluded." He promised, quite looking forward to seeing it unfold in his own Dimension. "Now, instead of fretting about this, why don't we continue today's lesson? You were already quite far with the Magic Circle, so if you just add the final… touches…"
Zelretch's voice fizzled out when he turned back to the table to see that the Magic Circle was no longer there, and he took in a sharp breath when he saw the components lying haphazardly on the floor.
Where he himself had thrown them.
"The Materials…" He whispered, horror writ clear in his expression.
"That's what you get for being careless." Aoko huffed mercilessly, looking grumpily at him.
"MY EVIL BONES! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
If there was one thing that all members of the Emiya-household were very well aware of, it was the fact that Tohsaka Rin was hopeless with any form of modern technology.
Operating the ancient phone in her house was still within her capabilities, and she knew how to handle a typewriter, somewhat, but anything more modern than that quickly had her spinning in circles as she tried to make sense of it all.
At least until she lost her temper and smashed the appliance to pieces.
Hence, for the information gathering on the Tohno-family, it was Shirou who handled the laptop to search the internet for any available information, while Rin was firmly delegated to the backseat, forbidden from laying a single finger on the electronic device.
Since Rin had quickly come to hate the machinery that appeared to resent her so, it was an arrangement she was quite content with.
Currently, Shirou and Rin were sitting next to each other at the dining table of his house. He was typing and clicking away on his laptop, while she was looking along over his shoulder.
"The Tohno-family seems to have their fingers in quite a few pies." The redhead remarked after a while, once he was certain he'd found all publicly available information. "Shipping, manufacturing, beauty products, accountancy, the list goes on."
"It's not that special." Rin informed him, pouting slightly at the screen. "My family was much the same. At least until that fake priest managed to ruin things so thoroughly I was lucky to retain the house."
"Right, I'm sorry about that." The financial downfall of her family was still a surprisingly sore spot for Rin, and Shirou took the time to gently stroke her cheek with a finger until she'd been cheered up a bit.
"As expected though, the Tohno-family has been meticulous in not putting any private information on the computer, nor anything relating to Magecraft." Rin stated once the cheering up was done and her mood had improved again. "As expected, the internet will not be of much help to us."
"It was worth a try." Shirou shrugged, before he closed the laptop and placed it aside. "But you're right. We're out of luck there."
It was the day after Nasu had stopped by, and in the time following that unexpected visit, Shirou and Rin had put much effort into finding more information about the Tohno-family, in preparation of Shirou's impending trip to their city.
But so far, they hadn't had much luck. Not with the internet, and not with other sources either.
"I went through my father's papers last night, and ultimately, this is everything I could find on the Tohno-family." Shirou said as he placed a single notebook on the dining table for Rin to see, and the black-haired girl wasted no time in reading it. "A few paragraphs in my father's records, detailing a short job he did for them in taking down a competitor of theirs."
"That's indeed very short." Rin huffed, frowning a bit at the text that did not even cover a single page, before she let out a sigh. "Not that my family did much better. All I have that mentions the Tohno is an old contract dated a century ago and the list of Second Owners in Japan that the Clocktower renews and distributes every ten years or so. Both of them only confirm what we already know; that the Tohno-family are in charge of the Moonlit Side of Misaki City."
"My father wrote down a little more than that. He did business with the head of the family, Tohno Makihisa, in the private mansion of the family. Apparently, Tohno asked dad to kill his cousin, who was making a bid to become head of the family himself."
"Ah, so we have a name at least. Is there anything else?"
Rin didn't bat an eye at the notion that Tohno Makihisa had ordered a hit on his own cousin. Power-struggles were very common in Magus families, which was a large part of the reason why her own family had always tried to limit themselves to one child per generation.
Though that didn't always succeed, as both she and Sakura could attest to.
"Dad completed the job in no time at all and then left again. He didn't write down anything about the city itself or any other members of the family." Shirou shook his head, closing the diary again, as it provided no more information of value. "So his records don't help us much either."
"That seems rather negligent for the Magus Killer." Rin remarked with a raised eyebrow, a little surprised that the world-famous assassin Emiya Kiritsugu, in his prime no less, had been so careless.
"Ah, well, you see, the truth is that dad only wrote these journals after he retired and took me in." Shirou explained, drawing a noise of understanding from Rin. "He wanted me to have as much information as possible about his work in case something from his past came back to haunt me after his death, so he started writing down his life story. He did his best to remember as much as he could, but since he's done thousands of jobs over his career, he forgot most of them."
"Which explains why he is unable to provide much information." Rin finished, nodding in understanding. "Then I suppose we should be glad to have this much at least. Like I said, having the name of the head of the family is a good start."
"Perhaps, but that was almost twenty years ago now, so I don't know if this Tohno Mikihisa is still in charge." Shirou cautioned her, well aware of the danger of acting on outdated information. "I don't even know if he's still alive."
"True." Rin huffed, crossing her arms in displeasure as she realised he was right. "He might already have been replaced. By one of his children perhaps, or another cousin."
In Magus Society, it was notoriously difficult to predict or guess the amount of time that any one family head would stay in power. The possible time span ranged from anywhere between mere hours, in families where the position was heavily contested, to literal millennia, in families where the head still hailed from the Age of the Gods.
Tohno Mikihisa could still be in charge, he could have peacefully retired, or he could be dead and buried. There was no way to know aside from checking it out themselves.
"I suppose I'll find out when I call them." Shirou thus shrugged, giving up on the information gathering for now.
"Call them?" Rin didn't seem to agree though, giving him a look that suggested he was being extraordinarily foolish again. "Why on Earth would you call them?"