Fate/Stay Night Fan Fiction ❯ Escaping Fate ❯ Ortensia Bloom ( Chapter 21 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Zekk_Skywalk 
Time to move.
Anime/Manga: Fate/Stay Night Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Horror / Fantasy / Hentai / Drama / Action | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 09.29.2011 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.5K | Visits: 269 | Status: Completed
Time to move.
Anime/Manga: Fate/Stay Night Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Horror / Fantasy / Hentai / Drama / Action | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 09.29.2011 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.5K | Visits: 269 | Status: Completed
AN: I’ve received a few comments, so I’m gonna try and explain:
Tracing is Shirou’s term for the magic he uses to analyze an item. I’m also using it in a way that is only implied in the game: Shirou isn’t actually using Projection when he creates swords. He is actively using the data stored in his Reality Marble instead of creating things out of air like other magi do with Projection. So here, it’s also him using the term for the movement of data from Unlimited Blade Works to the real world, like a reverse-action of Tracing. Here, it’s a plot point because if it were full-on Projection, Shirou would never be able to Alter anything in his repertoire, only Reinforce. In my head, that’s the reason Archer was able to play around with things like Caladbolg.
Chapter 10’s “One that wanted to fulfill that wish, another that wanted to fulfill that wish” is worded like that on purpose. Hopefully it is understood now that the demon was the other side of that, and it certainly wants to fulfill the wish…just not in a positive way.
“Magical Circuit” is the blanket term for any number of individual circuits within the whole. Also, if you were to transliterate this back into Japanese—which I try to write keeping with the Japanese mindset—there is no plural form for a noun like that anyway.
Escaping Fate
Chapter 15
Ortensia Bloom
Regardless to how uncomfortable she made me, it was important to talk with Caren about everything that had been going on. If we were going to make it through this, I didn’t want us to be enemies like it had turned out before.
The final unoccupied Japanese-styled room had been where Sakura had directed the priestess, so I reluctantly made my way there and rapped lightly against the door. “Caren…san. Are you awake?”
When no response came, I dared to peek in, wondering if my karma would allow this dangerous decision to go by without retribution. But the room was empty.
Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. A folded set of bandages lay on the desk, implying she had been in here at least long enough to treat any wounds she may have suffered. I couldn’t tell if she had actually slept any, as the futon was unaccounted for.
I considered the places in the house she might be, though now I had an odd suspicion. Closing the door behind me, I headed for the porch, cringed as the early-morning air was still quite warm, and when I had grass beneath my feet, glanced up to the roof of the house.
Yep.
Sighing, I took a little run, jumped off the lip of the porch, grabbed the edge of the rooftop, and hauled myself up. Though I could feel my prana returning bit by bit, such a thing left me a little sore as my body protested from overuse. “What are you doing up here?” I complained.
Caren shrugged. “I have been attempting to discern changes in my body to detect the presence of—”
“What the hell are you wearing?!” I interrupted.
She glanced down at one of my t-shirts hugging her body. “Did you expect me to frolic around your house in bloodstained clothing? Sakura-san quite nicely took my clothing to wash and provided me with something to wear until they were clean.”
“I’m VERY sure she didn’t give you my clothing!”
“Quite right.” She smiled sweetly. “The clothing she provided was her own, but it proved too loose on my body. I went to ask you for alternatives earlier, but you were not in your room.”
I glared. “If Sakura’s clothing was like that, I can’t imagine mine being any better.”
“Actually, the way this shirt is made tightens around my shoulders in a comfortable fashion.” She tilted her head. “Isn’t it something every man wishes to see, their girl in his t-shirt? Should I not take my trousers off as well for added effect?”*
“NO IT ISN’T AND YOU AREN’T MY GIRL!” I shouted. Probably waking the neighbors.
Caren reached out and patted me on the cheek, like I was an adolescent child. “There, there. No need for you to get angry. I’ll change back once my clothes are clean and dry.”
I sighed, and realized why Issei would actually continue to wear glasses instead of contacts: they were a good thing to push up the bridge of your nose and hide your face while you recover your composure. Unfortunately, I had no such device and could only fume until it felt like the steam coming out of my ears receded.
I will never be able to prepare myself for this person. I had a hard enough time on normal women.
“I do believe it is on the move,” Caren said. “I feel the sense within me changing; it grew stronger earlier, but has since started to recede a greater distance from where it began.”
Business. That, I could get behind. “So, maybe it was on one side of us, but is now going elsewhere? Like, it was on the far side of Miyama-chou and is now going for Shinto?”
Caren nodded. “That makes sense. Though it disturbs me that it would approach any closer to the Church, when it would intuitively understand that such a place is dangerous.”
That did sound like an ominous sign.
“Are you feeling well enough? I assume you wish to accompany me in seeking it out.”
Nodding, I looked down at my feet. Yumi would be almost directly beneath me. “I want to get it now, before it hurts anyone else, and while it is far from Yumi.”
“Then we should leave soon.”
I nodded again and hopped down back onto the lawn. “Give us a couple of hours and we should have some food as well. Make sure to be as prepared as we can.”
“Shirou Emiya.”
I looked back up at the priestess, and she stared down at me evenly.
“I am the daughter of Kirei Kotomine.”
…Will never understand women like her. Instead, I felt a brain aneurism coming on.
“Much of what you are is due to his actions. And I am a product of those actions as well. I wanted you to know, so you understand that I am not trying to hide anything from you, or hinder your way.”
In the faint light of morning, Caren seemed somehow more solemn, the light catching her in a way that screamed anything but Kirei Kotomine. “I never thought you were, and have never considered you an enemy.” I nodded at that, to myself. “And knowing who your old man was doesn’t change that, you know.” Though it might explain the feeling of discomfort I got around her. Genetic? “Maybe, in spite of that, I’d want to doubly make sure you’re alright.”
I didn’t have the right to tell her not to be concerned with the sins of her father, though.
Ugh, the very thought of that connection made me feel nauseous.
“Then you do want me to be your woman,” she said, delightedly. “Even though our fathers hated each other, and you hated mine.”
“I think I’m fine without, thanks,” I said quickly, flatly, and before she could conjure up any further ideas. “I’m going to see about food now.”
I fled back into the house, but not without seeing the faint drop in her smile, to a more melancholic expression.
…Really, now?
Sakura had beaten me to the store, though, and kicked me out of the kitchen and any attempts to help. To compromise, I went about trying to dry Caren’s clothing faster by pulling out a space heater from the storage shed and settling it in front of her out-to-dry robe-dress-thing.
She was not going to go out in my clothing, no way.
We all settled in to a quick breakfast, Caren in newly-cleaned clothing and thankfully out of mine. Yumi turned the television to the news, and we watched carefully for any sign that unusual occurrences associated with the demon might have cropped up.
“Um, I know you’re gonna go look for that thing today,” Yumi said carefully, once we were well into the meal. “Are you all going to be okay?”
Tohsaka bumped her shoulders with Yumi’s and grinned. “What an odd question, to ask if we’ll be okay. I wonder who gave you the impression that ‘doing something extremely dangerous’ and ‘okay’ were not mutually exclusive?”
Stop looking my way, devil woman.
It failed to lighten Yumi’s mood, though, and the girl continued to look a little harried. “But, you know, between this and that guy that attacked us here…”
I sighed. “We managed that fine, though, right?”
Tohsaka’s eyes narrowed suddenly, and Yumi fell silent at the expression. I did too.
Sakura asked, “What?”
“I’m pretty sure that the Dead Apostle, what’s-his-name-Dmitri, he was referring to that convergence of wishes in Yumi, the ones that were creating the demon. Perhaps the demon had even already attached itself to her by then.”
“That makes sense,” I said carefully, glancing at Yumi. When I turned my gaze back and gave Tohsaka a closer look, I felt my face fall. “You just thought of something really bad, huh?”
She turned to Caren. “You said Shinto-side of the city, possibly, right?”
“Yes.”
“We have to go, now.”
Tohsaka stood, and Caren and I both followed suit. Sakura looked on, carefully, watching her sister, then her eyes widened.
Tohsaka nodded at her sister. “You’ll be okay here, right?”
Sakura looked my way, and I met her stare evenly. She nodded. “I’ll make sure Yumi is fine.” She mouthed be careful my way when Tohsaka and Caren were already heading for the door.
I nodded, then reached out and squeezed Yumi’s shoulder. “Be back soon.”
I went to stand, but she reached up and grabbed my hand. “Um. Here, wait a second.” She reached under the table, then pulled out a rolled length of red cloth. “You always get hurt, so, keep this with you.”
Taking the cloth, I noticed that Sakura was looking at Yumi with interest. But I couldn’t say anything as Tohsaka popped her head back into the room. “Hey, we need to move!”
I gave Yumi a quick hug of the shoulders, pocketed the bandage, and nodded. “Thanks.”
Squeezing Sakura’s shoulder on the way out, I chased after Tohsaka and Caren.
“The Dead Apostle, he was going on about how it was like the Grail, what he sensed at the house,” Tohsaka explained as we ran for the bridge.
“Yeah.”
“If that thing is evil like you say the Grail was, what might it be attracted to that has ties to Grail magic?” Tohsaka shook her head. “We even thought of it immediately after that guy attacked the house.”
I bit my tongue. “Illya.”
“Her body was made to house the Grail magic, and that thing might want to consume what is left of her—”
I waved off further words while simultaneously cringing at the thought. I did not want to imagine what we could find if Tohsaka was right about this. “Then let’s hurry.”
Tohsaka’s expression fell as I moved to outpace her. She muttered something and looked off to one side.
“What?”
“Just…I just want you to be prepared. I don’t like it when I see you so upset over everyone else’s pain,” she said.
Yeah. I guess I needed to work on that. If this whole idea of who Archer was actually fit, I should try to face things more stoically like he did, perhaps. “Wanna hear a joke?”
“AGHHHH!”
Tohsaka and I both skidded to a stop as Caren fell to her knees behind us, and I watched in equal parts horror and fascination as her body did something mine had not so long ago.
It looked as if she spouted swords from her skin.
Upon a closer look, it was apparent they were not swords, though they still looked blade-like and sharp. They pierced her body from within along her arms and shoulders, in the same places where blood had stained her clothing before.
I crouched down next to her. “Caren?”
She shuddered briefly and was whispering something in a language I didn’t know. When Tohsaka stepped to her other side, she looked up at us. “It’s closer, yeah.”
“Are you going to be okay?” I asked.
“Shirou Emiya, this is my job. I am used to this kind of pain.” She shuddered again, then brushed her hair back out of her eyes and stood, stiffly. “But with this level, it is clear the thing is out in the open and stronger than before.”
Stronger?
…Damn.
“Shirou, prana?” Tohsaka asked.
I nodded. I felt a lot better from before, a lot better than I should have considering how dry I’d run myself last time. “Okay.”
“Then, let’s go.”
I looked to Caren, who nodded.
The bridge was before us. Not much further now.
Converting /tmp/phplKwCUY to /dev/stdout
Tracing is Shirou’s term for the magic he uses to analyze an item. I’m also using it in a way that is only implied in the game: Shirou isn’t actually using Projection when he creates swords. He is actively using the data stored in his Reality Marble instead of creating things out of air like other magi do with Projection. So here, it’s also him using the term for the movement of data from Unlimited Blade Works to the real world, like a reverse-action of Tracing. Here, it’s a plot point because if it were full-on Projection, Shirou would never be able to Alter anything in his repertoire, only Reinforce. In my head, that’s the reason Archer was able to play around with things like Caladbolg.
Chapter 10’s “One that wanted to fulfill that wish, another that wanted to fulfill that wish” is worded like that on purpose. Hopefully it is understood now that the demon was the other side of that, and it certainly wants to fulfill the wish…just not in a positive way.
“Magical Circuit” is the blanket term for any number of individual circuits within the whole. Also, if you were to transliterate this back into Japanese—which I try to write keeping with the Japanese mindset—there is no plural form for a noun like that anyway.
Escaping Fate
Chapter 15
Ortensia Bloom
Regardless to how uncomfortable she made me, it was important to talk with Caren about everything that had been going on. If we were going to make it through this, I didn’t want us to be enemies like it had turned out before.
The final unoccupied Japanese-styled room had been where Sakura had directed the priestess, so I reluctantly made my way there and rapped lightly against the door. “Caren…san. Are you awake?”
When no response came, I dared to peek in, wondering if my karma would allow this dangerous decision to go by without retribution. But the room was empty.
Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. A folded set of bandages lay on the desk, implying she had been in here at least long enough to treat any wounds she may have suffered. I couldn’t tell if she had actually slept any, as the futon was unaccounted for.
I considered the places in the house she might be, though now I had an odd suspicion. Closing the door behind me, I headed for the porch, cringed as the early-morning air was still quite warm, and when I had grass beneath my feet, glanced up to the roof of the house.
Yep.
Sighing, I took a little run, jumped off the lip of the porch, grabbed the edge of the rooftop, and hauled myself up. Though I could feel my prana returning bit by bit, such a thing left me a little sore as my body protested from overuse. “What are you doing up here?” I complained.
Caren shrugged. “I have been attempting to discern changes in my body to detect the presence of—”
“What the hell are you wearing?!” I interrupted.
She glanced down at one of my t-shirts hugging her body. “Did you expect me to frolic around your house in bloodstained clothing? Sakura-san quite nicely took my clothing to wash and provided me with something to wear until they were clean.”
“I’m VERY sure she didn’t give you my clothing!”
“Quite right.” She smiled sweetly. “The clothing she provided was her own, but it proved too loose on my body. I went to ask you for alternatives earlier, but you were not in your room.”
I glared. “If Sakura’s clothing was like that, I can’t imagine mine being any better.”
“Actually, the way this shirt is made tightens around my shoulders in a comfortable fashion.” She tilted her head. “Isn’t it something every man wishes to see, their girl in his t-shirt? Should I not take my trousers off as well for added effect?”*
“NO IT ISN’T AND YOU AREN’T MY GIRL!” I shouted. Probably waking the neighbors.
Caren reached out and patted me on the cheek, like I was an adolescent child. “There, there. No need for you to get angry. I’ll change back once my clothes are clean and dry.”
I sighed, and realized why Issei would actually continue to wear glasses instead of contacts: they were a good thing to push up the bridge of your nose and hide your face while you recover your composure. Unfortunately, I had no such device and could only fume until it felt like the steam coming out of my ears receded.
I will never be able to prepare myself for this person. I had a hard enough time on normal women.
“I do believe it is on the move,” Caren said. “I feel the sense within me changing; it grew stronger earlier, but has since started to recede a greater distance from where it began.”
Business. That, I could get behind. “So, maybe it was on one side of us, but is now going elsewhere? Like, it was on the far side of Miyama-chou and is now going for Shinto?”
Caren nodded. “That makes sense. Though it disturbs me that it would approach any closer to the Church, when it would intuitively understand that such a place is dangerous.”
That did sound like an ominous sign.
“Are you feeling well enough? I assume you wish to accompany me in seeking it out.”
Nodding, I looked down at my feet. Yumi would be almost directly beneath me. “I want to get it now, before it hurts anyone else, and while it is far from Yumi.”
“Then we should leave soon.”
I nodded again and hopped down back onto the lawn. “Give us a couple of hours and we should have some food as well. Make sure to be as prepared as we can.”
“Shirou Emiya.”
I looked back up at the priestess, and she stared down at me evenly.
“I am the daughter of Kirei Kotomine.”
…Will never understand women like her. Instead, I felt a brain aneurism coming on.
“Much of what you are is due to his actions. And I am a product of those actions as well. I wanted you to know, so you understand that I am not trying to hide anything from you, or hinder your way.”
In the faint light of morning, Caren seemed somehow more solemn, the light catching her in a way that screamed anything but Kirei Kotomine. “I never thought you were, and have never considered you an enemy.” I nodded at that, to myself. “And knowing who your old man was doesn’t change that, you know.” Though it might explain the feeling of discomfort I got around her. Genetic? “Maybe, in spite of that, I’d want to doubly make sure you’re alright.”
I didn’t have the right to tell her not to be concerned with the sins of her father, though.
Ugh, the very thought of that connection made me feel nauseous.
“Then you do want me to be your woman,” she said, delightedly. “Even though our fathers hated each other, and you hated mine.”
“I think I’m fine without, thanks,” I said quickly, flatly, and before she could conjure up any further ideas. “I’m going to see about food now.”
I fled back into the house, but not without seeing the faint drop in her smile, to a more melancholic expression.
…Really, now?
Sakura had beaten me to the store, though, and kicked me out of the kitchen and any attempts to help. To compromise, I went about trying to dry Caren’s clothing faster by pulling out a space heater from the storage shed and settling it in front of her out-to-dry robe-dress-thing.
She was not going to go out in my clothing, no way.
We all settled in to a quick breakfast, Caren in newly-cleaned clothing and thankfully out of mine. Yumi turned the television to the news, and we watched carefully for any sign that unusual occurrences associated with the demon might have cropped up.
“Um, I know you’re gonna go look for that thing today,” Yumi said carefully, once we were well into the meal. “Are you all going to be okay?”
Tohsaka bumped her shoulders with Yumi’s and grinned. “What an odd question, to ask if we’ll be okay. I wonder who gave you the impression that ‘doing something extremely dangerous’ and ‘okay’ were not mutually exclusive?”
Stop looking my way, devil woman.
It failed to lighten Yumi’s mood, though, and the girl continued to look a little harried. “But, you know, between this and that guy that attacked us here…”
I sighed. “We managed that fine, though, right?”
Tohsaka’s eyes narrowed suddenly, and Yumi fell silent at the expression. I did too.
Sakura asked, “What?”
“I’m pretty sure that the Dead Apostle, what’s-his-name-Dmitri, he was referring to that convergence of wishes in Yumi, the ones that were creating the demon. Perhaps the demon had even already attached itself to her by then.”
“That makes sense,” I said carefully, glancing at Yumi. When I turned my gaze back and gave Tohsaka a closer look, I felt my face fall. “You just thought of something really bad, huh?”
She turned to Caren. “You said Shinto-side of the city, possibly, right?”
“Yes.”
“We have to go, now.”
Tohsaka stood, and Caren and I both followed suit. Sakura looked on, carefully, watching her sister, then her eyes widened.
Tohsaka nodded at her sister. “You’ll be okay here, right?”
Sakura looked my way, and I met her stare evenly. She nodded. “I’ll make sure Yumi is fine.” She mouthed be careful my way when Tohsaka and Caren were already heading for the door.
I nodded, then reached out and squeezed Yumi’s shoulder. “Be back soon.”
I went to stand, but she reached up and grabbed my hand. “Um. Here, wait a second.” She reached under the table, then pulled out a rolled length of red cloth. “You always get hurt, so, keep this with you.”
Taking the cloth, I noticed that Sakura was looking at Yumi with interest. But I couldn’t say anything as Tohsaka popped her head back into the room. “Hey, we need to move!”
I gave Yumi a quick hug of the shoulders, pocketed the bandage, and nodded. “Thanks.”
Squeezing Sakura’s shoulder on the way out, I chased after Tohsaka and Caren.
“The Dead Apostle, he was going on about how it was like the Grail, what he sensed at the house,” Tohsaka explained as we ran for the bridge.
“Yeah.”
“If that thing is evil like you say the Grail was, what might it be attracted to that has ties to Grail magic?” Tohsaka shook her head. “We even thought of it immediately after that guy attacked the house.”
I bit my tongue. “Illya.”
“Her body was made to house the Grail magic, and that thing might want to consume what is left of her—”
I waved off further words while simultaneously cringing at the thought. I did not want to imagine what we could find if Tohsaka was right about this. “Then let’s hurry.”
Tohsaka’s expression fell as I moved to outpace her. She muttered something and looked off to one side.
“What?”
“Just…I just want you to be prepared. I don’t like it when I see you so upset over everyone else’s pain,” she said.
Yeah. I guess I needed to work on that. If this whole idea of who Archer was actually fit, I should try to face things more stoically like he did, perhaps. “Wanna hear a joke?”
“AGHHHH!”
Tohsaka and I both skidded to a stop as Caren fell to her knees behind us, and I watched in equal parts horror and fascination as her body did something mine had not so long ago.
It looked as if she spouted swords from her skin.
Upon a closer look, it was apparent they were not swords, though they still looked blade-like and sharp. They pierced her body from within along her arms and shoulders, in the same places where blood had stained her clothing before.
I crouched down next to her. “Caren?”
She shuddered briefly and was whispering something in a language I didn’t know. When Tohsaka stepped to her other side, she looked up at us. “It’s closer, yeah.”
“Are you going to be okay?” I asked.
“Shirou Emiya, this is my job. I am used to this kind of pain.” She shuddered again, then brushed her hair back out of her eyes and stood, stiffly. “But with this level, it is clear the thing is out in the open and stronger than before.”
Stronger?
…Damn.
“Shirou, prana?” Tohsaka asked.
I nodded. I felt a lot better from before, a lot better than I should have considering how dry I’d run myself last time. “Okay.”
“Then, let’s go.”
I looked to Caren, who nodded.
The bridge was before us. Not much further now.
Escaping Fate, Ortensia Bloom, End
*Caren confirmed as Hitagi Senjougahara-style troll.Converting /tmp/phplKwCUY to /dev/stdout