Fate/Stay Night Fan Fiction ❯ Escaping Fate ❯ Place of Victory ( Chapter 26 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Zekk_Skywalk 
For those I couldn't save...
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: 3.2K | Visits: 263 | Status: Completed
For those I couldn't save...
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: 3.2K | Visits: 263 | Status: Completed
AN: This is probably where I make the first of two egregious departures from FSN canon. It’s something that works for me but doesn’t probably work for others, so fair warning. I’ll be toying with a more obvious version of this idea in Fate/Far Side as opposed to the (perhaps too) subtle layering in that I’ve tried here.
Theme to this is “Into the Night” from the original game.
Escaping Fate
Chapter 19
Place of Victory
The roof collapsed beneath me, the floor beneath that, and I crashed into a first floor study, managing to cat-twist myself to not land awkwardly. I heard the crash of wood and tile around me, and took the fetal position while covering my head until the sounds stopped.
I pushed out of the rubble and patted myself down quickly, trying to discern if I’d been impaled by anything. When it was clear I wasn’t, I pushed aside the headache threatening to give me double vision and stumbled to the broken windows in the room I had fallen to.
Caren was covering Tohsaka, throwing Black Keys at Yuushi as he stood in the same spot, the golden light surrounding him deflecting each blade out of the air. Tohsaka, meanwhile, was strafing left across the open lawn, possibly trying to get into a flanking position, firing Gandr shots the entire way. They likewise crashed against the light and dissipated into harmless nothing.
A boundary field? Around a person? He wasn’t moving, so he probably could not carry it with him, but that seemed to be the only advantage. I had never heard of a boundary field that physically protected a person from the outside besides something like Rho Aias, which had field-like properties, and Avalon, which wasn’t a boundary field at all. They were usually more subtle than that, misdirecting or alerting rather than outright protecting.
Black Keys continued to tumble the moment they reached that ring of gold, and Tohsaka’s curses splashed across it harmlessly.
I glanced up above my head; that same light had caved in the structure at my feet. When I had first confronted this guy, he had done something similar with a tree branch, hovering it in the air like he was some kind of Sith Lord. Tohsaka had said something about him being a student of a famous magus that specialized in both boundary field manipulation as well as souls.
Tohsaka managed to circle so that she was 120 degrees from my position around Yuushi, then make a sharp turn and move in closer to Yuushi, black orbs firing from her hand the entire time.
My eyes processed the sight of steel in his hand before the rest of me did, and I remembered the cuts he had made against both Sakura and I, at range. Kanshou and Bakuya formed in my hands, and I tumbled through the window.
“I am the bone of my sword.”
I flooded the twin scimitars with prana enough to Break them and sent them flying to either side of Yuushi and his golden shield.
“Ad mutatio.”*
He uttered that single incantation, raised his scalpel like a musical conductor, and swiped it through the air.
Golden light enveloped both spinning blades, and they paused in mid-air—
Then reversed direction.
I dove right back into the building the way I had come as the blades spun back at me and crashed into one another, triggering the explosion of a Broken Phantasm. Again, smaller than Caladbolg, the blast sent wood and glass shards flying in every direction and I felt wall planking fall atop me, causing something in my body to break. I groaned and felt my good arm move involuntarily to my side to push rubble off and confirm a broken rib.
“Uhhh…” I heard myself moan, and even that hurt.
Shifting to find a way to pull myself up without aggravating myself further, I heard Tohsaka’s German incantations and the constant thumping of her spells crashing against that shield.
“Senpai! Are you alright?!” I heard Sakura shout, both through the open windows and the stairway further into the building.
“Still here,” I tried to say as loud as possible, but taking a deep breath did not feel very good. I staggered up and peered out the window—now a third larger than it had been before.
That bastard still stood in the same position, though now he was swiping his scalpel in what I assumed was an attempt to cut at Tohsaka.
Dammit.
If I could pierce that damned field, Tohsaka might be able to handle him herself…
I thought of Joyeuse first, but discarded that—such a blade needed to be held and swung at the target for its rotating properties to adapt to the situation and cut through a boundary field, and I don’t think I could get close enough.** Arondight and Caladbolg had the stopping power, but I didn’t have enough prana to activate or Break them.
Break…
Or cut…
I Traced the bow and readied it. It should work, it ought to work. It was the best choice I had, all things considered. Though I had seen so many things within the Gate of Babylon, my knowledge of applying them severely lacked, and I didn’t know what this guy was doing, exactly.
But…
If the legend were true—
“I cut all things in two.”
The split blade, the sword of bifurcation; wielded by Ali, a Heroic Spirit that had served the prophet Muhammad. The blade itself was split at the end, resembling a steak fork at the tip.
It had split a warrior and his shield completely in two, and I had to wonder if stories like that were what made up the legend behind things like the supposed Mystic Eyes that could kill anything with a single cut.
I readied the blade, readied the bow—
Make it—
Just make it—
“Zulfiqar!”
The blade narrowed and shot forth.
But Yuushi seemed ready. He merely flicked his wrist, and even beyond Tohsaka’s incantations and the sound of things crashing into his barrier, I heard him say loud and clearly: “Ad mutatio.”
My blade smashed against his golden shield, but instead of splitting the protection right down the center, it splashed as if I had thrown a bucket of water at him. I saw the pommel of Zulfiqar reform and ping off the barrier like a coin, flipping end-over-end in the air before falling uselessly to the ground.
Ignoring the pain in my side, I jumped back out of the building, growling, trying to think of anything that would work, even though I was running out of prana, my body feeling completely drained—
“Now!” Rin yelled.
Gandr shots went flying to the ground surrounding Yuushi beyond his barrier, exploding against grass and dirt, blowing dust and grime up into the air. Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen blasts until the air around the magus had been enveloped amidst the tiny explosions of earth. Yuushi waved his arm to clear his vision, glancing over toward Tohsaka—
Who had lobbed a knife right over Yuushi’s head.
Caren charged in from the opposite side, no Black Keys in hand. Instead, she made straight for the arcing weapon, to Yuushi’s left flank, and even I could sense the prana buildup in the priestess.
A glint of red caught my eye, and I understood.
With one hand, Caren fielded the dagger perfectly, charged it straight into the shield until it halted, and rammed her other hand into the pommel.
“Laßt!”
A fire of white burst from the blade as it released magical energy against the barrier, which flashed brightly before collapsing. The same kind of Azoth knife that had killed Kirei Kotomine dropped likewise to the ground, broken, but having served its purpose, and the irony of Caren using it did not escape me.
I Reinforced my legs with what little prana I had and charged.
Yuushi’s cut was dangerous, but if he had to divide his attention between all three of us—
Caren was even quicker, the red of that same shroud that had entangled me whipping out of her hands. But before it could snake itself around the magus, Yuushi was leaping laterally and swiping with his scalpel.
The red cloth split in two.
Caren leapt back, but not in time, as the same swipe of Yuushi’s knife cut into her. It crossed her neck and split her skin, sending blood flowing out of her neck, and she reached up to stop the flow, a faint glow about her hand.
Yuushi ran past, toward me, and Tohsaka came up quickly from behind.
“Shirou, if you—!” Tohsaka started.
“Ad mutatio.”
Yuushi pressed his hand to the ground as we came in at either side, and it was like the world exploded in heat around us. The ground immediately began to oscillate like a waterbed, but everything turned gray and red—
The very fibers of my soul felt it before it happened, the fires of the 4th War burning it forever into my memory.
The ground became molten metal, raw iron melted down.
My steps fumbled in the change, searing the bottom of my feet and sending heat splashing up into the air. I felt my entire body go numb as it tried to shut down in time, and I crashed to the ground—
Just outside the field of liquid death—
But I heard a scream, and my ears—
—told me—
No…
I rolled up, felt the broken bone in my chest snap fully in two and pierce something, but drove myself right back into the heat and fire and scent of sulfur.
Tohsaka burning.
I screamed, I screamed in pain, I screamed until the words came—
“AVALON!!!”
The scabbard formed, it pressed into Tohsaka’s chest as I careened right into her, and with as much force as I could, I dug my legs into the terrible heat and jumped.
We rolled out of the embers, out of the fire, out of it all, and I forced everything I had into the scabbard, forced the sheath against this girl I fought with and ate with and couldn’t stand and adored—
Rapidly cooling metal dripped down atop the scabbard as I bowed over her on my hands and knees, and I felt the blades about me, the only thing that kept the same smoking black from covering my body as it did hers.
Yuushi headed for the main house, feeling his research within, feeling the additional souls calling out to the ones within him.
“I am your master, my little philosopher’s stone,” he said aloud. “I am the master of your souls, and I demand you return to me everything in you.”
His stone was silent within, and he could feel the malice from the Matou girl.
A smile.
He took a step forward—
“S…rou,” Tohsaka whimpered.
If the heat were not still so intense over her skin and clothes, I might have been able to cry, but it felt like every sense of liquid had evaporated clean off me. “Tohsaka!”
“…m okay,” she said, stronger than before.
I managed to tear my eyes away to glance over at Caren, who was on a knee, both hands to her neck. Beyond that, there were tiny markings starting to form about her, like black cracks between dry skin—
Her eyes widened when she caught my gaze, and nodded.
“Go,” Tohsaka said. I turned back to her, a fringe of her hair still glowing like embers.
Another drip of melted metal fell atop the scabbard, which she held out to me.
“I am your master, my little philosopher’s stone,” Yuushi was saying. “I am the master of your souls, and I demand you return to me everything in you.”
“Shirou should already think of himself as a hero.”
Tohsaka shoved the scabbard into my arms. “Save them. Then…hurry up…back to f-fix me.”
I looked down to the gold and blue enamel, stained now with bloody iron. I glanced up at Caren, who nodded and mouthed something.
Duty.
I forced myself to my feet, Tohsaka carefully laying her hands to her sides, wincing the entire time. I turned toward our attacker as he stepped toward his goal.
Avalon held to my chest. The thing I always relied upon, fell back upon, the thing I considered strong, heroic, beautiful…
Hers. Her strength, her beauty. That which I aspired to.
Sakura raised her hand, ready to bolt her magic down at their attacker, even as useless as it may be. She had watched the battle carefully, sensed the switch in prana, and knew that she could never drain him completely. Even after that terrible Alteration at her sister and senpai’s feet, he had merely moved on to another circuit, another tier of energy—
Yumi’s hand came up to take hers.
Sakura stared at the girl, only to find quiet acceptance.
“Don’t worry,” Yumi said. “Those souls…those lives he took…they’re here, in me.” Yumi clasped her chest, fingering the black waistcoat she wore. “Shirou…is meant to save them. He’s already saved them. And he’ll save more.”
She told me once, before.
The very power I relied upon, the very thing that epitomized what I thought was strong in her, the Heroic Spirit that had not backed down even when her country turned on her. Her distant utopia, so perfect it was untouchable, unreachable, impossible to achieve…
“You were my sheath.”
My world…
Was the paradox within me.
I was her sheath, and that sheath was an impossible world beyond all influence…
Then…
“You’re not going anywhere,” I said.
Yuushi stopped, and turned. He swung once with his scalpel, not even bothering with the incantation.
And it passed harmlessly through the man, grasping a device of gold and blue.
“I am the bone of my sword.”
His body was pierced by many blades from within.
With his skin broken by blades, he sheathed his left hand into Avalon, wrapped in the gift of one whom he had saved.
“Steel is my body and fire is my blood.”
Even if a miracle were to have stopped it, even if he had the power…
Allies of justice existed to straighten out what has already happened.
But what has happened would drive him forward.
“I have created over a thousand blades,”
He once said, “I don’t need the Holy Grail. I can’t stray from my path for the people I’ve left behind.”
“Unaware of loss,”
Lives he lived for now, never rewarded, nor understood.
“Nor aware of gain.”
Lives that were his past and drive him to the future. If Shirou Emiya the body is empty, the person is a life with the burden of many.
“Withstood pain to create many weapons.”
He was determined to reach it.
The place of their victory.
His ideal, his dream.
She lived her life as the King, and was unrewarded, and died alone under an unremarkable tree.
But even so…
“For those I couldn’t save, and those I will,”
She was determined to see it through to the end.
And he was determined to live the same way.
“I have no regrets, this is the only path.”
She was his sword, and he was her sheath.
But now she is gone, and he is left.
He once said: there is nothing in me that can replace you. But everything in him was with her. It colored every desire he had.
“My whole life has been—”
Fire swept across the all in sight. Blades staggered the ground like memorials for lost lives, plinths for the lives he has left behind.
“—Unlimited Blade Works.”
Avalon broke into light and the world was revealed in full.
The hill is darkened and barren, though the sky is bright. The sun rises on the distant horizon, bathing everything in golden light. It is not the dead of night, nor does the world smell of sulfur, despite the flames that brought birth to it.
“A master of souls should be able to tell, just by looking,” I said.
Yuushi scowled, his ghostly face stark amidst the warmth surrounding us.
“Those lives aren’t your playthings.” I motioned to the blades surrounding me, then plucked two from the ground. “These lives won’t allow it. My life won’t allow it.”
Yuushi swung his blade as I tossed the two in hand at him. They dissolved like water once more, yet were instantly at my feet again.
“For those lives, gone and yet to come…”
I took two more, crossing them before me, and moved.
“My body is made of swords.”
**The poem that describes Joyeuse says it had different colors throughout the day. I’m thinking, rotating effects that change depending on the situation.
Converting /tmp/phpPipHdz to /dev/stdout
Theme to this is “Into the Night” from the original game.
Escaping Fate
Chapter 19
Place of Victory
The roof collapsed beneath me, the floor beneath that, and I crashed into a first floor study, managing to cat-twist myself to not land awkwardly. I heard the crash of wood and tile around me, and took the fetal position while covering my head until the sounds stopped.
I pushed out of the rubble and patted myself down quickly, trying to discern if I’d been impaled by anything. When it was clear I wasn’t, I pushed aside the headache threatening to give me double vision and stumbled to the broken windows in the room I had fallen to.
Caren was covering Tohsaka, throwing Black Keys at Yuushi as he stood in the same spot, the golden light surrounding him deflecting each blade out of the air. Tohsaka, meanwhile, was strafing left across the open lawn, possibly trying to get into a flanking position, firing Gandr shots the entire way. They likewise crashed against the light and dissipated into harmless nothing.
A boundary field? Around a person? He wasn’t moving, so he probably could not carry it with him, but that seemed to be the only advantage. I had never heard of a boundary field that physically protected a person from the outside besides something like Rho Aias, which had field-like properties, and Avalon, which wasn’t a boundary field at all. They were usually more subtle than that, misdirecting or alerting rather than outright protecting.
Black Keys continued to tumble the moment they reached that ring of gold, and Tohsaka’s curses splashed across it harmlessly.
I glanced up above my head; that same light had caved in the structure at my feet. When I had first confronted this guy, he had done something similar with a tree branch, hovering it in the air like he was some kind of Sith Lord. Tohsaka had said something about him being a student of a famous magus that specialized in both boundary field manipulation as well as souls.
Tohsaka managed to circle so that she was 120 degrees from my position around Yuushi, then make a sharp turn and move in closer to Yuushi, black orbs firing from her hand the entire time.
My eyes processed the sight of steel in his hand before the rest of me did, and I remembered the cuts he had made against both Sakura and I, at range. Kanshou and Bakuya formed in my hands, and I tumbled through the window.
“I am the bone of my sword.”
I flooded the twin scimitars with prana enough to Break them and sent them flying to either side of Yuushi and his golden shield.
“Ad mutatio.”*
He uttered that single incantation, raised his scalpel like a musical conductor, and swiped it through the air.
Golden light enveloped both spinning blades, and they paused in mid-air—
Then reversed direction.
I dove right back into the building the way I had come as the blades spun back at me and crashed into one another, triggering the explosion of a Broken Phantasm. Again, smaller than Caladbolg, the blast sent wood and glass shards flying in every direction and I felt wall planking fall atop me, causing something in my body to break. I groaned and felt my good arm move involuntarily to my side to push rubble off and confirm a broken rib.
“Uhhh…” I heard myself moan, and even that hurt.
Shifting to find a way to pull myself up without aggravating myself further, I heard Tohsaka’s German incantations and the constant thumping of her spells crashing against that shield.
“Senpai! Are you alright?!” I heard Sakura shout, both through the open windows and the stairway further into the building.
“Still here,” I tried to say as loud as possible, but taking a deep breath did not feel very good. I staggered up and peered out the window—now a third larger than it had been before.
That bastard still stood in the same position, though now he was swiping his scalpel in what I assumed was an attempt to cut at Tohsaka.
Dammit.
If I could pierce that damned field, Tohsaka might be able to handle him herself…
I thought of Joyeuse first, but discarded that—such a blade needed to be held and swung at the target for its rotating properties to adapt to the situation and cut through a boundary field, and I don’t think I could get close enough.** Arondight and Caladbolg had the stopping power, but I didn’t have enough prana to activate or Break them.
Break…
Or cut…
I Traced the bow and readied it. It should work, it ought to work. It was the best choice I had, all things considered. Though I had seen so many things within the Gate of Babylon, my knowledge of applying them severely lacked, and I didn’t know what this guy was doing, exactly.
But…
If the legend were true—
“I cut all things in two.”
The split blade, the sword of bifurcation; wielded by Ali, a Heroic Spirit that had served the prophet Muhammad. The blade itself was split at the end, resembling a steak fork at the tip.
It had split a warrior and his shield completely in two, and I had to wonder if stories like that were what made up the legend behind things like the supposed Mystic Eyes that could kill anything with a single cut.
I readied the blade, readied the bow—
Make it—
Just make it—
“Zulfiqar!”
The blade narrowed and shot forth.
But Yuushi seemed ready. He merely flicked his wrist, and even beyond Tohsaka’s incantations and the sound of things crashing into his barrier, I heard him say loud and clearly: “Ad mutatio.”
My blade smashed against his golden shield, but instead of splitting the protection right down the center, it splashed as if I had thrown a bucket of water at him. I saw the pommel of Zulfiqar reform and ping off the barrier like a coin, flipping end-over-end in the air before falling uselessly to the ground.
Ignoring the pain in my side, I jumped back out of the building, growling, trying to think of anything that would work, even though I was running out of prana, my body feeling completely drained—
“Now!” Rin yelled.
Gandr shots went flying to the ground surrounding Yuushi beyond his barrier, exploding against grass and dirt, blowing dust and grime up into the air. Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen blasts until the air around the magus had been enveloped amidst the tiny explosions of earth. Yuushi waved his arm to clear his vision, glancing over toward Tohsaka—
Who had lobbed a knife right over Yuushi’s head.
Caren charged in from the opposite side, no Black Keys in hand. Instead, she made straight for the arcing weapon, to Yuushi’s left flank, and even I could sense the prana buildup in the priestess.
A glint of red caught my eye, and I understood.
With one hand, Caren fielded the dagger perfectly, charged it straight into the shield until it halted, and rammed her other hand into the pommel.
“Laßt!”
A fire of white burst from the blade as it released magical energy against the barrier, which flashed brightly before collapsing. The same kind of Azoth knife that had killed Kirei Kotomine dropped likewise to the ground, broken, but having served its purpose, and the irony of Caren using it did not escape me.
I Reinforced my legs with what little prana I had and charged.
Yuushi’s cut was dangerous, but if he had to divide his attention between all three of us—
Caren was even quicker, the red of that same shroud that had entangled me whipping out of her hands. But before it could snake itself around the magus, Yuushi was leaping laterally and swiping with his scalpel.
The red cloth split in two.
Caren leapt back, but not in time, as the same swipe of Yuushi’s knife cut into her. It crossed her neck and split her skin, sending blood flowing out of her neck, and she reached up to stop the flow, a faint glow about her hand.
Yuushi ran past, toward me, and Tohsaka came up quickly from behind.
“Shirou, if you—!” Tohsaka started.
“Ad mutatio.”
Yuushi pressed his hand to the ground as we came in at either side, and it was like the world exploded in heat around us. The ground immediately began to oscillate like a waterbed, but everything turned gray and red—
The very fibers of my soul felt it before it happened, the fires of the 4th War burning it forever into my memory.
The ground became molten metal, raw iron melted down.
My steps fumbled in the change, searing the bottom of my feet and sending heat splashing up into the air. I felt my entire body go numb as it tried to shut down in time, and I crashed to the ground—
Just outside the field of liquid death—
But I heard a scream, and my ears—
—told me—
No…
I rolled up, felt the broken bone in my chest snap fully in two and pierce something, but drove myself right back into the heat and fire and scent of sulfur.
Tohsaka burning.
I screamed, I screamed in pain, I screamed until the words came—
“AVALON!!!”
The scabbard formed, it pressed into Tohsaka’s chest as I careened right into her, and with as much force as I could, I dug my legs into the terrible heat and jumped.
We rolled out of the embers, out of the fire, out of it all, and I forced everything I had into the scabbard, forced the sheath against this girl I fought with and ate with and couldn’t stand and adored—
Rapidly cooling metal dripped down atop the scabbard as I bowed over her on my hands and knees, and I felt the blades about me, the only thing that kept the same smoking black from covering my body as it did hers.
Yuushi headed for the main house, feeling his research within, feeling the additional souls calling out to the ones within him.
“I am your master, my little philosopher’s stone,” he said aloud. “I am the master of your souls, and I demand you return to me everything in you.”
His stone was silent within, and he could feel the malice from the Matou girl.
A smile.
He took a step forward—
“S…rou,” Tohsaka whimpered.
If the heat were not still so intense over her skin and clothes, I might have been able to cry, but it felt like every sense of liquid had evaporated clean off me. “Tohsaka!”
“…m okay,” she said, stronger than before.
I managed to tear my eyes away to glance over at Caren, who was on a knee, both hands to her neck. Beyond that, there were tiny markings starting to form about her, like black cracks between dry skin—
Her eyes widened when she caught my gaze, and nodded.
“Go,” Tohsaka said. I turned back to her, a fringe of her hair still glowing like embers.
Another drip of melted metal fell atop the scabbard, which she held out to me.
“I am your master, my little philosopher’s stone,” Yuushi was saying. “I am the master of your souls, and I demand you return to me everything in you.”
“Shirou should already think of himself as a hero.”
Tohsaka shoved the scabbard into my arms. “Save them. Then…hurry up…back to f-fix me.”
I looked down to the gold and blue enamel, stained now with bloody iron. I glanced up at Caren, who nodded and mouthed something.
Duty.
I forced myself to my feet, Tohsaka carefully laying her hands to her sides, wincing the entire time. I turned toward our attacker as he stepped toward his goal.
Avalon held to my chest. The thing I always relied upon, fell back upon, the thing I considered strong, heroic, beautiful…
Hers. Her strength, her beauty. That which I aspired to.
Sakura raised her hand, ready to bolt her magic down at their attacker, even as useless as it may be. She had watched the battle carefully, sensed the switch in prana, and knew that she could never drain him completely. Even after that terrible Alteration at her sister and senpai’s feet, he had merely moved on to another circuit, another tier of energy—
Yumi’s hand came up to take hers.
Sakura stared at the girl, only to find quiet acceptance.
“Don’t worry,” Yumi said. “Those souls…those lives he took…they’re here, in me.” Yumi clasped her chest, fingering the black waistcoat she wore. “Shirou…is meant to save them. He’s already saved them. And he’ll save more.”
She told me once, before.
The very power I relied upon, the very thing that epitomized what I thought was strong in her, the Heroic Spirit that had not backed down even when her country turned on her. Her distant utopia, so perfect it was untouchable, unreachable, impossible to achieve…
“You were my sheath.”
My world…
Was the paradox within me.
I was her sheath, and that sheath was an impossible world beyond all influence…
Then…
“You’re not going anywhere,” I said.
Yuushi stopped, and turned. He swung once with his scalpel, not even bothering with the incantation.
And it passed harmlessly through the man, grasping a device of gold and blue.
“I am the bone of my sword.”
His body was pierced by many blades from within.
With his skin broken by blades, he sheathed his left hand into Avalon, wrapped in the gift of one whom he had saved.
“Steel is my body and fire is my blood.”
Even if a miracle were to have stopped it, even if he had the power…
Allies of justice existed to straighten out what has already happened.
But what has happened would drive him forward.
“I have created over a thousand blades,”
He once said, “I don’t need the Holy Grail. I can’t stray from my path for the people I’ve left behind.”
“Unaware of loss,”
Lives he lived for now, never rewarded, nor understood.
“Nor aware of gain.”
Lives that were his past and drive him to the future. If Shirou Emiya the body is empty, the person is a life with the burden of many.
“Withstood pain to create many weapons.”
He was determined to reach it.
The place of their victory.
His ideal, his dream.
She lived her life as the King, and was unrewarded, and died alone under an unremarkable tree.
But even so…
“For those I couldn’t save, and those I will,”
She was determined to see it through to the end.
And he was determined to live the same way.
“I have no regrets, this is the only path.”
She was his sword, and he was her sheath.
But now she is gone, and he is left.
He once said: there is nothing in me that can replace you. But everything in him was with her. It colored every desire he had.
“My whole life has been—”
Fire swept across the all in sight. Blades staggered the ground like memorials for lost lives, plinths for the lives he has left behind.
“—Unlimited Blade Works.”
Avalon broke into light and the world was revealed in full.
The hill is darkened and barren, though the sky is bright. The sun rises on the distant horizon, bathing everything in golden light. It is not the dead of night, nor does the world smell of sulfur, despite the flames that brought birth to it.
“A master of souls should be able to tell, just by looking,” I said.
Yuushi scowled, his ghostly face stark amidst the warmth surrounding us.
“Those lives aren’t your playthings.” I motioned to the blades surrounding me, then plucked two from the ground. “These lives won’t allow it. My life won’t allow it.”
Yuushi swung his blade as I tossed the two in hand at him. They dissolved like water once more, yet were instantly at my feet again.
“For those lives, gone and yet to come…”
I took two more, crossing them before me, and moved.
“My body is made of swords.”
Escaping Fate, Place of Victory, End
*Latin, “add alteration.”**The poem that describes Joyeuse says it had different colors throughout the day. I’m thinking, rotating effects that change depending on the situation.
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