Capítulo 1029: 43
042 - They came in like a wrecking ball.
Illyasviel von Einzbern.
I walk past the last bushes obscuring the way and the hill where the Ryuudou Temple rests finally comes into view. The path we've chosen to approach goes all around the outer edge of Fuyuki City and through the wilderness to take us behind the temple. This is Onii-chan's base of operations for the war and the place we have come to attack tonight.
I take my time examining the building, not at all distracted by the way Rin's figure in front of me is cut against the lights coming from there. All her best qualities seem to be highlighted, the confidence reflected by her posture, her luscious hair, the deliciously feminine shapes of her body and that magnificent ass I wouldn't mind sleeping on for the rest of my life. For once I'm grateful about my short stature that sets me at the right height to admire it from a proper angle.
I– I mean... attacking from this side means any ruckus we cause will be hidden from the city by the Temple itself and there's a good chance we'll manage to avoid undue attention. Usually, the spiritual barrier surrounding the place means the main gate is the only way a Servant can get inside, but we're maybe the only team capable of bypassing such restriction.
… Yes, that's what I mean, a perfectly defenceless backside I wouldn't mind sinking my teeth into and... Damnit!
"Well… this is it." Rin states, with maybe a bit less conviction than what I would've liked to hear.
To say I'm feeling a bit anxious about tonight is an understatement. I know Rin has a plan, I can even make a good guess about it, but it relies on her familiarity with Onii-chan's character and her ability to predict his actions more than any hard power we can leverage to turn the fight in our favor. I'm sure she'll be the first to admit how this assault is anything but an overly elaborate suicide attempt from a strictly strategic point of view.
Berserker might be the strongest in the world, but I don't like her chances against three Servants at once.
Neither of us is stupid, we both know this war has turned very unfavorable without having the basic decency of asking for our imput. Even if I don't get the fine details of this plan, I know enough to confidently say nobody here is deceiving themselves into thinking this is more than a risky gambit.
… Funny how I was so sure of my inevitable victory when I first stepped into Fuyuki. Pride and ignorance really are insidious things.
An unknown weight pressing against my back, an indistinguishable voice in my ear, an unfathomable knife against my throat. I suppress a shiver
"I hope you know what you're doing, Tohsaka."
"Getting second thoughts, Einzbern?" She turns around to send me a fierce grin. "You can always surrender to your Onii-chan, I'm sure he'll welcome you with open arms."
I find my own lips stretch up to mimic her smile. "In his dreams"
"That's what I thought. Archer?"
The diminutive Servant clad in white materializes in front of us, bow in hand and already pumping mana like a blast furnace. Berserker appears right beside without prompting, ready to cover her in case it becomes necessary.
I'd feel jealous that my Servant has bonded so easily and strongly with what's strictly speaking an enemy but, considering her background, it was pretty much inevitable. Plus, they look cute together.
"I am Destruction." Archer's voice is as cool and collected as ever as she raises her shortbow to the skies. The calmness of her actions feels out of place compared both with the tension I'm feeling and the overwhelming power she's pouring out. "I bring forth nothing. I bless nothing. I save nothing. I only erase... completely. [Star of Tears, Photon Ray]"
… [Photon Ray]? Isn't that–
Before I can properly formulate that thought, a blast of destructive light comes from the skies at an angle, impacting straight against the hill underneath the spirit barrier and collapsing a part of the foundation. The barrier is too stable to collapse with just that, but a small portion flickers out and disappears, giving us a way in.
Also, there goes our subtlety.
"Knock, knock, motherfuckuer." I don't need to see Rin's face to know there's a slightly manic smile on her face.
Then I make a face, because her choice of words makes me think of something unpleasant. "I really hope Onii-chan didn't fall that low."
"Uh..." It says something about Onii-chan's personality that Rin seems to have immediately caught my meaning. "Not trying to be insensitive or anything but isn't your mother… well..."
"Dead, yes. Which doesn't really improve the situation."
"I want to say he wouldn't go that far but..."
"... Yeah." Would Onii-chan waste the wish of the Grail to bring back Mama? Would it really be a waste? Why did I never think about it myself? What's my opinion about Oyakodon? "Let's just… go on with our attack, shall we?"
I love Mama very much, but I think Liz is the closest thing to incest I'm comfortable with.
...Onii-chan doesn't count! We're not blood related!
"Damnit Rin, did you really have to bust my bunker?" A male voice pulls me out of my (inner conflict) musings. "I needed it for the other Servants! And do you have an idea how much it took to keep the monks asleep through that?"
There he is. Walking out alone through the hole Archer made in the Temple barrier with his hands on his pockets and a careless smile on his (handsome) dumb face. It's his fault this War has gone nothing like it was supposed to. I should be crushing my enemies and single-handedly winning the War! He should be chained down in the cells of the mansion with Onee-chan! Rin should be–!
… A broken corpse at my feet.
Damnit.
I grit my teeth and pointedly focus on the present. I can't afford to dawdle in what ifs during an important moment like this.
"You know what they say about only having a hammer and solving problems, Emiya-kun." Rin answers haughtily, using a hand to throw her hair behind her. "You are a problem and my adorable little hammer packs a mean punch."
Onii-chan stares at Rin without saying a word, for long enough to have her fidgeting in place a bit. Finally, he shakes his head while letting out a long sigh.
"I think that metaphor ran away from you somewhere."
"…S– shut up!" Is the very coherent and mature answer. "Archer!"
"Rider." Onii-chan answers without even getting his hands out of his pockets. "Would you kindly?"
A very tall woman of long hair and ethereal beauty wearing an obviously magical blindfold and armed with a strange set of nail-daggers linked through a chain materializes in front of Onii-chan, facing Archer with her lips quirked upwards in what could generously be called a subtle smirk.
The two Servants remain in place, tense but unwilling to commit to an action. They're either waiting for further orders or simply studying each other for an opening to exploit.
"Rider too!?"
"She was Shinji's Servant, but I made her an offer she couldn't refuse." Onii-chan answers with a shrug, finally getting his hands off his pockets. "That's kind of why I can't just accept a surrender at this moment in time, actually. The Grail has a pesky failsafe to avoid Masters for banding all together and…"
"Yeah, I know about it. Because you forced me to read all the obscure documentation my family had about rarely or never used functionalities and failsafes of the War!" Rin accuses heatedly. "Which was a pain and doesn't explain how you learned about it."
"That's a trade secret and you should've done your homework by yourself anyway. I have Caster looking into it, but I'm not sure when she'll have a solution to–"
"Give me one more day, Master." The voice of an unseen woman echoes from everywhere and nowhere, making Berserker freeze in place and a confused tangle of emotions flow through our bond. That must be Medea. "Tomorrow at this time I'll have bent the Greater Grail subsystems over the knee and have them calling me Mommy."
"You heard the beautiful scary lady, right Tohsaka-senseii?" Onii-chan announces cheerfully. "How about we call it a day and you come back tomorrow?"
For a miserable and shameful instant that's barely worth mentioning, I feel the temptation of taking that offer. Common sense prevails immediately afterwards though, washing away my moment of weakness with the raw and unbridled stubbornness that meeting Rin has taught me to wield with pride
Our answers wouldn't have been more synchronized if we had practiced it.
"... How about no?"
"... How about no?"
"Well, I had to try." Onii-chan shrugs again, before his smile turns into a wince. "Of course, you will be throwing everything and the kitchen sink at me, without leaving anything in reserve for any random interloper waiting to attack while we're all busy, right?"
"Well… you are the one who has been acting high and mighty, you've also made clear you want the two of us to survive, so..." Rin continues smugly, hiding a nasty smirk with her hand. "I don't think you'll allow any 'random interloper' to take a cheap shot at us, right, Emiya-kun?"
"I usually love how smart you are, Sensei." Onii-chan continues with a sigh, making Rin's cheeks redden at the praise(, the lucky bitch). "But it's mighty inconvenient at times like this."
"Don't get melodramatic, Emiya-kun." (The lucky bitch) Rin huffs loudy to hide her fluster. "We all know only Lancer's Master remains. There's only so much they can pull off by themselves."
"Oh? I'm not saying you're wrong, but how did you reach that conclusion?"
"The failsafe you're so worried about, genius. Four Servants are the hard maximum who can band together without triggering it. Since our own alliance is composed of two other Masters, only one remains."
"We could be only three, you know?" Onii-chan points out calmly. "As you said, you're part of an alliance already, absorbing the two of you would bring the final count to five."
"You could…" Rin trails off, seemingly stalling for a moment. But it's only a handful of seconds before she rallies herself, crossing her arms with a knowing smirk. "Are you only three, though?"
… She's totally bullshiting.
"Oh, come off it, Tohsaka!" Comes a new voice from inside the barrier, drawing our attention to a new figure that walks out of it to stand beside Onii-chan. "Just because your shot in the dark hits true, doesn't mean it wasn't a shot in the dark!"
Vivid orange hair, amber eyes and an athletic figure that speaks of healthy beauty. I would recognize her everywhere, though the cheerful smile she sports in all my pictures of her is visibly absent at the moment. This girl is...
"Emiya Haku-san." Rin greets icily, a flawlessly fake polite smile suddenly slapped on her face. "Are you having a good evening?"
"I was!" Onee-chan answers cheerfully, though to a socially trained eye like mine, her demeanor is clearly forced. "We were about to make dinner and I was going to let Nii-san help me in the kitchen under the condition that he wore only a naked apron! Maybe we'd fool around a bit and almost burn everything because we were too busy putting our hands all over each other!"
I don't drool at the images those words conjure. Because this is a serious situation and I need to keep all my attention in the here and now. As soon as I get back home though, Liz is giving me some cooking lessons and we're going to have fun in the kitchen. Naked apron… I can't believe I never thought about that!
Onee-chan's voice is clearly less cheerful as she concludes her tale with a frown. "But then you came knocking and ruined everything."
"I'm terribly sorry I have caused you some minor inconvenience." Rin apologizes insincerely. "Please bear with me just a bit longer."
"Oh you bitch, I'll show you 'a bit longer'." Onee-chan growls, turning towards Onii-chan with a frown. "Can I bash Tohsaka's face in already or what?"
"Sure, there's only so much you can stretch banter anyway." Onii-chan nods cheerfully. "Which Servant are you taking with you?"
"Assassin." Onee-chan declares firmly. "I think it's best to keep Saber on the lookout in case Lancer pokes his nose around."
(For a moment I feel very small and very cold, insignificant under the eyes of Death itself.) I shake the uncomfortable feeling mentioning that particular Servant causes to focus on what's coming next. We expected this, we have prepared for this.
"Hah!" Rin declares boldly pointing at Onee-chan and drawing all the attention, covering my own… difficulties to deal with the situation in the process. "I knew you'd do that!"
"Oh? You designed a counter against Assassin?"
"When you revealed the true identity of Lancer you gave me some ideas. And Assassin does not have magic resistance!" She continues before turning her head towards to send me a look that's a mix of worried and challenging. "You ready, Einzbern?"
It burns a bit that there's more care in Rin's eyes that I've felt in the last ten years put together. I clench my fists and stomp ruthlessly the urge to curl into a ball and beg for my life, giving my best fierce smirk instead. "Try not to drag me down, Tohsaka!"
We pour our prana towards Berserker, drawing the relevant runes in a circle around her. This is something I could do alone, maybe, probably, but it would've left me wiped out and I'm not stupid enough to assume Onii-chan and Onee-chan will remain idle while our Servants fight.
"Algiz, Nauthiz."
"Ansuz, Ingwaz."
Combining our efforts makes things more complicated, but far less exhausting. Still… I'm the one who has to do the heavy lifting. For one, it's my Servant we're using to focus the spell. For another, I'm the only one here who actually knows what she's doing. Rin's magecraft is partially based in European traditions, so she at least knows the runes, and of course she's providing her part of the prana, but she's not privy to obscure rituals rarely used after the fall of the Red Branch.
Her family hasn't spent nearly a millenia plundering Europe for esoteric knowledge. Not the way the Einzberns did.
"[Ath nGabla!]"
"[Ath nGabla!]"
… Though I have to admit using the runes to negate the advantages of the only Servant we actually have a chance to use our magecraft against was something that didn't occur to me. Rin does have good ideas.
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"
The rune circle connects, latching the main effect into Berserker, who lets out a challenging roar. The secondary effect wails around loosely for a moment before finally latching into something we cannot see. Assassin.
A grin of satisfaction forms on my face when I see a figure slowly reveal itself in front of Berserker. It all has gone flawlessly to plan… until Assassin's fully materializes and I can make out her appearance. My mind… kind of freezes at that.
I'm not sure how long I spend staring at the body of a short-haired girl even tinier than Archer, half-crouching in front of Berserker with a knife on each hand and an adorable look of concentration in her face as she does her best to glare at her. It's the sound of hands clapping together that finally drags me back into the real world.
"Congratulations." Onii-chan says amusedly. "You just locked Atalanta in single combat… with a child."
Rin and I trade looks that say everything that needs to be said. Still, I feel the need to properly verbalize our thoughts.
"Well… shit."
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder