That old bag of worms had done exactly what I thought he would, what Rider had warned me about earlier. The girl's body was a cesspit, filled with those creatures in an unimaginably horrendous mesh. They weren't joined with her, not a part of her.
The worms lived and breathed inside her.
Parasites. That was the word.
They were designed to feed on her.
God, this war was such a disgusting affair. I could scarcely believe this was what its creators had in mind when they set up the ritual. No, knowing magi, it was certainly a method of approaching the Root that all of us sought. But even then, it was supposed to be a fight… a war, not… whatever this was. The Grail summoned heroes, and there was no way any hero would abide by this.
Maybe that was why even Rider was so ready to leap at any chance to escape Shinji Matou.
I wordlessly stared at the deeply frightened Sakura.
She was shaking her head, pleading with her eyes for me to stay quiet. I glanced at Shirou, then back at her. A decent person would probably oblige. That person, whoever he or she happened to be, was definitely better than I was.
"Don't-"
"She's full of those worms."
Neither Sakura's nor Shirou's dilemmas were interesting to me. Thus, I had no interest in entertaining them. I was a selfish man. If they wanted, they could dislike me for it. I didn't care. There was no way for me to do nothing at all just so they were able to come out stronger together for this hurdle.
For a moment, silence hung in the Emiya Residence. A souring quiet that made me scrunch up my face in annoyance.
"You people are too serious. You're ruining my vibe."
"What does that even mean-"
"What I mean, Shirou, is that she's full of worm familiars that feed off her body courtesy of her dear grandfather."
The Matou heiress collapsed, choked sobs escaping her lips as she stared down, refusing to meet anyone's gaze. Shirou ran past me, to her side. I didn't stop him. No, I only watched, making no effort to hide how little I wanted to be there.
"You will not harm my master again-"
Saber opened her mouth, but I cut her off. "You, shut up."
Her gaze sharpened. Both of her hands moved to grasp the hilt of an invisible blade. In response, I turned to face her fully.
"So you would force your own ideals upon us all?"
Here and now?
Absolutely.
"You're over-dramatic." I shamelessly spoke those insensitive words as the world around us froze, even the howling winds stopped. "And I'm really not in the mood to explain anything because…"
I owed her no explanations. Moreover, for some god-awful reason, I suddenly began to vividly recall the sensations of Gae Bolg shutting down my body as I faced the Saber-class servant before me. A servant. Yes. A servant, the same as him.
Pursing my lips, I snuck a glance at Shirou. He had his hand on Sakura's shoulder, and a typical blank look on his face. I really hoped he understood what I was doing.
"I don't understand you, Henry."
"I can't stand your indecisiveness. Move."
All of this really was getting to me.
My fingers shivered.
Why was it getting to me?
I should have been completely capable of handling a bit of teen angst and horrible backstory. I was me.
When I made for Shirou again, Saber swung her blade. Before I could retaliate, something I was completely capable of with how weak she was, I heard the clink of metal chains, and the distinct clamber of friction between multiple sets of them. In the blink of an eye, those chains wrapped themselves around the frail arms of King Arthur, around her neck and her legs to hold her in place by force.
Rider?
The winds howled once more as the purple-haired woman yanked on the chains in her hands. With incredible strength, she tossed King Arthur through the paper-thin walls of the living room, out into the courtyard. Before either of the teenagers in the room could react, she was standing beside me.
Her next words came as a whisper meant only for me,
"I can understand… the desire to help when it is unwanted, and being made to feel a monster because of that desire. Help her. I will help you. It is better to be vilified than to do nothing for fear of it. I will share the burden."
She shot through the wall after Saber.
What burden?
I wasn't explaining myself but even I knew I was wrong for that. Yet, I didn't want to explain either. It was an unimaginably frustrating feeling. Why were they behaving this way when I just wanted to help?
The command seals on the back of Sakura's palms flared. "Rider, no-"
Her servant halted midflight for a brief moment, then she grit her teeth and powered through. Her advance became significantly weaker, but she advanced all the same.
"Let me help her, Shirou." I walked towards them.
Shirou's eyes hardened. "She doesn't want your help."
"Too bad then. Move. I'll be out of your hair soon as this is done. You can be angry later."
Outside, steel clashed against steel and sparks flew. Saber was weak but she was still the King of Knights, the legendary King Arthur. I didn't understand what exactly Sakura had done with her command seal, but I knew that Rider was weakened too for going against the command.
I felt the activation of magic circuits, and removed my aviators just in time to see Shirou project another pipe. No, wait, he hadn't projected that pipe at all. It was a projection, I could tell, but he hadn't done it just then. He pulled that pipe out of a place I couldn't see… like…
"Damn."
The words left my lips just as I wrenched the pitiful weapon from his grip and shoved him aside. With a snap of my fingers, the space around him bent to hold him in place. The same spell Caster had used to immobilize Nobunaga when we'd fought.
"How did you change races?"
The last person I had seen draw a 'weapon' from an unreachable place within themselves was… Archer. Rin's amnesiac servant. Because of my eyes I knew the moment I saw Shirou do it that there was no difference between them. Both of them were doing the exact same thing, down to the last minute detail.
Suddenly, Archer knowing me made a lot of sense.
Shaking my head, I drove away those thoughts. I had something to do for now.
Sakura crawled backwards, eyes wide in horror like I was planning on hurting her… I really wasn't. When I reached out, she let out a cry and began trembling harder. Then Shirou was moving again, with abnormal strength, he rose from the now-broken table I'd thrown him into and raised both his hands.
Lightning crackled from his hands. His eyes hardened. My expression faltered.
Again, I could tell precisely what he was doing.
"No one should do what they want with no regard for someone's feelings."
"Mate, you're going about that the wrong wa-!"
"Trace on!"
Ah…
Instead of drawing a projection from that incredible 'place' like before, he tried to cast the spell in its entirety by himself. The result was… awe-inspiring.
He succeeded.
He succeeded in doing something so baffling even I would hesitate.
Shirou knew he couldn't beat me from our last fight so he decided to become insane and attempt something that could. A servant.
Within those calloused hands, he grasped two blades. Kanshou and Byakuya. When had he seen those resplendent blades? When had he even got to run structural analysis on them to attempt something so utterly mad?
Wait, did he even need to analyze them in the first place?
What was he feeling right now?
Before I knew it, his madness had washed away the frustration bubbling within me. My curiosity piqued, and came out in full force. What an incredible specimen. What a grand accomplishment. I decided I wanted to do what he did before I ever even processed it.
Then, he was upon me.
Shirou Emiya swung down his blade with all the practice and skill of children playing at swords with sticks and branches. I easily stepped aside, leaving the gleaming edge of his white blade to carve through the air, and came back with a punch to the face. Not too hard, just enough to knock him down.
"Shirou, stop, I'm trying to help-"
With an ugly battle-cry, he charged me again. I moved into his strike and grabbed his arm before turning around to throw him onto the floor with such force that the wind was knocked out of his lungs. Behind us, Sakura cried at me to stop.
With pursed lips, I gripped her wrist.
I only had a little while before that damn shonen protagonist willed himself to his feet and tried to commit suicide via Henry once more.
The worms were ingrained deeply into her body but my control over mana and mystery itself far superseded anything modern magecraft could possibly hope for. Divine Mystery surgically targeted and burned away the disgusting creatures within her, then filled what space they took with what was meant to be.
I healed her fully, in the blink of an eye, for I was the best magus to ever walk the planet no matter the age.
Anyone who disagreed could catch these hands.
Unfortunately, the worms had subsumed her magic circuits, and there was no way to return those. They weren't biological, after all. With mouth agape, she ripped her hand free from mine.
"Feel better?" I smiled neutrally, turning my head to stare at Shirou. "That's all I was trying to do. You both suck as friends. Actually, I don't want to be your friend anymore either, Shirou. Screw you."
He let out a breathless groan, trying to stand up.
"Oh you're a healthy young lad, you'll be fine." I chuckled, "Right, Sakura, was it? I'm taking your servant as payment for this. I'd feel bad abandoning her after she trusted me."
Sakura had no magic circuits. With the Matou Crest Worms gone, she no longer had a way to supply Rider with the mana she needed to maintain her existence by herself. Really, I was doing her a favour taking Rider.
"I don't-... What-"
The now-former Matou heiress stared at me blankly. The confusion was writ all over her face. Her gaze held a helpless anger directed at me but... slowly, surely, what had actually happened was settling in. I didn't think she even registered my words about Rider with the way she was still clenching and unclenching her hands, shoulders tensed.
Fair enough, it was kind of baffling when some hot young man like me came around and ended the real, constant threat to your life with a snap of his fingers.
Shaking my head, I stepped out onto the yard where Rider and Saber were still at each other's throats.
"You can stop fighting now."
-
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