---------------------------------------------------------------------- It should be me and Arturia.That's right.
It would do us no good to draw attention to ourselves.
And we have to move quickly if we want to get to school on time.
“I think we should go alone. We are supposed to be quiet, right? I don't think Mother is in a very quiet mood right now.”
“Guh--------------”
Mother raises a hand across her face and blushes.
“I guess that's right. Fine. But be back before school starts.”
And with that, Mother signals the conversation to be at an end, turning deliberately away from Saber.
The two seem to have a past.
Father looks at me and Saber in equal measure, and nods.
“Kiri. I'm sorry, but I am counting on you and Saber to keep Arturia safe during this. You especially, since you and her got into this yourselves.”
“Of course, Father. I am her shield.”
Saber looks at me and blinks.
Did I say something strange?
“Good boy. The Kotomine Church -Well, we call it that, but there hasn't been any Kotomines there since the last Holy Grail War- is in Shinto, in the oldest district on the hill. Saber can show you there if you get lost. This is your third time here, right Saber?”
….....................!
Three times?
That's incredible.
I had heard Saber was the most powerful Servant, but to have fought in the Holy Grail War three times?
I again find myself wondering what sort of hero is so famous that she is summoned three times.
“It is. I believe I can navigate this city very well by now.”
Saber confirms her knowledge of my home town.
“We should get going.”
Arturia stands up, along with Mother.
They both yawn and stretch like cats, perfect mirrors, one black and one red.
“Arturia is right. Go quick. I'm going to go take a nap.”
Mother pads away, back into her room.
It's strange, I think, as Arturia ducks into her room to grab a extra few bars of tungsten.
Even though it was a breakfast eaten with a knight in silver armor.....................
…..............................It was a pretty normal day.
We leave as the sun rises, the town flooded with a feeling of hollow tranquility.
“Ah..... It is a gibbous moon.”
Arturia is looking at the sky.
Indeed, a gibbous moon hangs just over the horizon, across from the sun.
“I thought I felt off today.”
Arturia claims to have health in time with the stages of the moon.
Well, claims is the right word. There's no proof to it.
I never learned of any magical meaning to it, and the Emiyas and Tohsakas were never major Astrological practitioners.
Actually, the Emiyas weren't much practitioners at all.
Luckily for our sanity, Arturia quickly looks away.
“We should get going. I am excited, aren't you?”
“Not really. I never wanted to be a part of the Holy Grail War.”
I speak honestly.
Arturia can see through my lies anyway, so there's no reason to hide things.
“You are a giant baby, Kiritsugu. Maybe you're just jealous you are not the Master.”
Arturia prods her finger to the corner of her mouth in a stance eerily reminiscent of Aunt Ilya.
Saber doesn't seem to be paying attention, apparently enraptured with the stonework wall on the other side of the street.
“I-I am not upset at anything! Why would I want to be a Master? Who would I even summon?”
Arturia's getting on my nerves.
I don't want to be part of something that hurts people.
“Oh, that is a good question........ Berserker? You would have the same amount of tact.”
“.................hmm.”
Saber makes a contented humming noise and rubs the stonework.
She's acting strange and it's pissing me off.
“Saber, what are you doing to the wall?”
My tone is more rude than is really warranted, but I'm angry.
We summoned Servant Saber, not Servant Mason.
What kind of hero loves bricks anyway?
“This place has been repaired very well. You can almost miss where Berserker hit it.”
She says something strange.
“Y-you fought Berserker here?”
Arturia is in shock.
“Yes. Hercules was summoned as Servant Berserker, and his Master, Ilyasviel Von Einzbern, attacked us here. It was the first major battle of the War.”
I blink.
Servant Berserker.................
…...............................Hercules?
The famed hero of Greece? The heroic demigod who completed twelve impossible tasks?
And summoned as Berserker too..............
I have a new respect for Saber.
Arturia seems just as shocked as I am.
Berserker..................
Kotomine Church is set upon a hill in Shinto, the town across the river from Miyama. It's technically part of Fuyuki City, but people treat it as a different city all together.
Shinto is a bustling place of quickly built high-rises and sky-scrapers, filled with neon lights and technological marvels.
But Kotomine church is a place away from all that. There used to be a suburb around this area, but in recent times many of the houses have been converted into a slightly more dense urban residential district.
The houses are clustered together, but the grounds of the church are clean and filled with bright green grass, lit by the rising sun.
The church itself sits upon the hill like a sleeping giant.
Somewhere inside, an organ is playing a haunting hymn.
“I should stay outside. You will be safe with the supervisor inside. I will keep watch for other servants from out here.”
Saber refuses to enter the church.
Admittedly, it does give off a creepy impression.
Like a massive spider on it's web, waiting to draw out it's prey.
But Arturia has to go inside, and that means I do too.
The door creaks as it opens.
The haunting organ tune keeps playing.
The man inside is large, wrapped in an all-encompassing black mantle.
He waits for the music to stop before turning to us.
“----------The seventh Master approaches.”
His voice is like gravel, his eyes screwed shut by age.
“I have come to accept my place as Master in the Holy Grail War.”
Arturia says this boldly.
“I hav-”
She stops abruptly.
It doesn't take me long to figure out why she stopped.
There's two other figures in the Church.
Another Master and Servant are staring at us with amused expressions on their face.
The Master is tall and pale.
Her eyes are round, eyebrow raised in our direction and the beginnings of a smile pulling at her lips.
Golden hair like wheat pours down her shoulders, framing eyes blue as the skies above.
And most strikingly, she's almost my age.
Her Servant seems young too. His face is smooth and unblemished, a wide smile baring pure, white teeth.
His hair is as blonde as hers is, but cut short.
He's wrapped in a brown coat, concealing everything but his head, which is covered in a large, but plain, wide-brimmed hat.
He's look at us askance, the shadows from his hat obscuring his eyes.
“...........................”
Arturia pauses.
She already blurted out that she was a master.
Arturia only seems to make mistakes when they matter.
“Hmph.”
The priest behind the altar scoffs.
“Too often youth and eagerness walk hand-in-hand to destruction.”
The priest raises a hand, as if a king issuing a decree.
“Then by the power invested in me by the Church, I accept you into the Sixth Holy Grail War.
Let the Ritual commence.
As always, if a Master should seek shelter, they will find it here, in Kotomine Church.
And I, Augustus Pilate, will take them in.”
Pilate lowers his hand, mantle once again subsuming his enormous body.
Then he smiles like a cat.
“You are the Emiya child, yes? I should not be surprised. The heir of Tohsaka is always involved.
The name may have died, but her blood runs through you.”
“..................”
Arturia glares at the old priest.
Oddly, the blonde foreigner looks upset too.
“Kukuku. Forgive me a little bit of schadenfreude, Heir of Tohsaka. This church is stained with the odd nature of it's previous two masters, and I fear some of the sadism has seeped into these old bones.”
The priest shrugs as though there's little he can do about the issue.
“But now you must all leave. I cannot allow Masters to hang around in my church with Servants hovering.
Archer, Andrea. Arturia, Kiritsugu. The safety ends at the door. Let me show you through.”
So the big man in the brown is Servant Archer?
I thought something felt off.
Although, without knowing about Archer I would have assumed it was the priest.
Or the bloodstain in front of the altar.
We all shuffle out, led by the gnarled old priest.
Archer and I are last, and right after I exit, I hear the Servant speak.
“I've always hated priests.”
“Kukuku. I as well.”
And the doors slam shut with finality.
Saber is looking at Archer, jaw tense.
Arturia is looking at his Master.....
…..............Andrea?
What an odd name.
It's a tense scene.
Two Servants meet right after the official beginning of the Holy Grail War.
Arturia already has a rod of tungsten held in her hand, three centimeters long and a quarter centimeter thick.
The foreign Master twitches her fingers randomly, as if stretching.
Archer's hand slowly slides inside his coat.
Saber grips the air as if her sword were already there.
I-------------------------------------------------
1) Stop this.
2) This isn't the right time.
3) Sneak attack Archer from behind!
Author
Topic: Fate / Lunar Sun (Read 26480 times)