Hours later.
Walking into Medea's workshop with both hands tucked in my pockets, I glanced around its familiar interior.
Dormant magic circles embedded in the ceiling acted as lighting, while tiny runes ran along the lining of tiles beneath my feet. They absorbed the falling light, converting it into mana and feeding it back to the lights above, a closed loop of mana circulation.
Two pairs of footsteps accompanied me from behind: one disciplined and calm, the other leisurely, her heels dragging half a beat behind with no hurry to catch up.
"So, Master... are you finally about to bring out the good stuff you took from the Einzberns?" Medea asked, clasping her hands together as a small, satisfied smile broke across her face.
Artoria's jaw tightened. "Master, was it wise to steal from another Magus family? Will there be no repercussions?"
Giving her a long look, Medea turned her gaze forward, her eyes landing on me.
I didn't look back, but replied nonetheless. "There will be, but we will be long gone before they can reach us. Besides, this was a consequence of saving Illyasviel. Do you regret it now?"
Shaking her head, Artoria quickened her pace to walk at my flank. "No, Master. I merely worry about the consequences of our actions."
"What consequences? We got what we wanted, one way or another. If anyone has a problem with it, they can cry to someone who cares." Medea shrugged, moving to my other flank and tracing a finger along the wall scribbled with magical algorithms.
After walking for a short while, the three of us halted before a metallic door. Extending her palm, Medea pressed it against the magic circles carved into its metal.
Her touch made those circles flare violet. They rotated in a synchronized rhythm, unfurling and merging with the algorithms on adjacent walls, leaving the door bare.
I pushed, and it creaked open inward, revealing a vast, empty space perfect for storing items.
We strode inside. Artoria swept her gaze around while Medea snapped her fingers, more ceiling circles awakening at the far end.
"...Master, how is this space so enormous?" Artoria asked, craning her neck to look at its far end, which lay hundreds of meters away.
"You knight, should read some books on magic. It might make you a little less ignorant about how things work." Crossing her arms beneath her chest, Medea tilted her chin up fractionally.
Not even dignifying her with a reply, Artoria watched as the magic circles on my glove spun in a familiar sequence.
A white laptop materialized in my grip, silver-threaded circles pulsing beneath its frame. Before I could speak, it flipped open on its own. Irisviel appeared on the screen, crouching near a patch of grass with that bench behind her.
She held a single blade of grass between her fingers, studying it with quiet intensity. After three seconds, she looked up and let it fall.
"Is this your home, Izuru?" Her words made Medea's brows rise, while Artoria took a step back, dropping into a combat stance.
I glanced at them from the corner of my eye and replied. "No, this is a storage space. Dump all of those stored materials here."
"Okay." She nodded and waved her hand. The silver circles began to rotate, and shelves materialized ahead of us in cascading waves, racing ahead with no end in sight.
Medea tipped forward and rose on her toes, peering at Irisviel over my shoulder. "Is she part of your spoils from the Einzberns, Master?"
"You could think of it that way."
Eyes going wide at my words, Medea froze.
"A knight and a snake as opponents to defeat, I could understand. But now... a laptop? Seriously?" Her murmur reached me, but then she shook her head to snap out of it, glaring daggers at Irisviel, who merely tilted her head in response.
"Master, is that Irisviel? The one who died and became the Lesser Grail in the Fourth War?" Artoria asked with a gaping mouth, shoulders rigid and body locked in place.
Irisviel shifted toward Artoria. "What do you mean, individual Artoria? I don't have anything regarding you in my memory database. Except that you were summoned in the Fourth War by the Einzberns."
Fixing her gaze to my back, Artoria asked, "Master?"
Sighing, I set the laptop down on ground. "I have another commitment later, so help me settle these materials quickly, and I'll explain everything after."
"But—"
Medea cut Artoria off. "What commitment, Master?"
"You don't need to know."
She deflated at that.
Artoria didn't waste time and was already grabbing a tilted jar of liquid mercury, steadying it back into place.
"By the way, Master, this stuff should only cover a third or a fourth of this storage. What should we do with the remaining space?" Medea asked, rushing over to a box of glass tubes about to slide off its column, her fingers catching it in time.
"This storage might not be enough," I said after calculating the total area.
"What! Master, did you rob the Einzberns blind?"
"No. I also demolished their castle."
Crack.
Another jar slipped from Artoria's grip and shattered against the floor.
Even Medea had no words left.
I took their reactions in and reached for Medusa through our connection.
Medusa, come here and help us with all of this.
...
..
.
The sun was still rising from the horizon, its first rays illuminating a park in intersecting shades of molten orange and shadows. Morning condensation beaded on the leaves of trees above, tracing their veins in fine detail.
I walked through grass, each step leaving no footprint behind. Ahead of me, half-caught in the early light, sat a brown bench facing the sunrise.
Someone was already settled there, a red jacket, long black hair tied in a ponytail. I didn't need to see her face to know it was Rin Tohsaka.
Circling around the bench, I lowered myself beside her, and she glanced at me once, then turned forward again.
Silence fell.
It didn't last long.
"Izuru... Kamukura."
She spoke with clenched teeth, more to herself than me. "Who knew that the Master screwing me over for more than half of the war was someone from my own school."
"You were too busy with the war to think about school. Most teenagers would be."
She scoffed. "As if you're not one yourself."
"Existentially, I should be a toddler."
Her eyes roamed from my head to toes, and she rolled her eyes after two sweeps. "Yeah, and I should be the twin of some goddess out there."
"Forget about that." She waved her hand and shifted toward me fully. "Who calls someone to a meeting by breaking their boundary field and leaving an envelope at their entrance!? Do you have any idea how many times I checked that envelope for a bomb, Kamukura!?"
"Why would you do that?" I asked, despite knowing the answer.
Shrr.
A fist sheared through air, but my head was already tilting an inch backward, her knuckles passing a fraction above my nose.
"Because your name was written on it and you bombed me nearly three times! Three times! Twice directly and once indirectly. Just let me bash your face in once!"
She cracked her knuckles, a vein popping at her temple, fists sailing toward my face without pause.
My head moved left, right, then stayed still, each strike missing by centimeters. Before Rin could continue, I swiped a single finger toward the bench's leg.
It split in two horizontally. The bench flipped sideways, and Rin fell backward, crown-first into the grass.
BAM!
"Kamukura! I hate you!"
I remained seated on the tilted remains of the bench, hands resting on my lap.
"Wuwuwuw.... My head. Take responsibility for it!"
...
..
.
***
[200 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[10 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
[Authors Thoughts]
Alright, real question of the day. Do we take responsibility for Rin, or nah?
Look, I trust you all, but nearly every single one of you would look at Rin's right hook and go "yeah, maybe sidestep that one." Meanwhile Eresh's just... over there, existing sweetly, not attempting decapitation via Bajiquan. Everything is basically begging me to pick the option that doesn't end in concussion.
But hey, don't come at me, that's just my honest read, not a decree from above. Everyone's free to root for team Gorilla-Rin if that's your thing. No judgment. Mostly.
Anyway, this wraps up the last slice-of-life chapter for now. From here it's back to whatever chaos comes next.
Take care, everyone!