Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Fate: one half ❯ Chapter 7

Day 7

-

 

Rider dreamed. Her dream world was filled with darkness, not like in the room with lights switched off, but almost living. This sensation was closer to being in the sea at night and feeling barely visible waves splash against your body.

 

Each splash seemed to leave a portion of its energy in her, bringing closer and closer to awakening. Finally, she had enough strength to break away from her dream and opened her eyes.

 

-

 

First thing she felt, was that she couldn't feel yesterday's injuries, instead she was literally bursting from energy she felt inside.

 

She sat up, and that simple painless movement confirmed that she was completely healed.

 

`For how long did I sleep? I hope it was not a week or something like that.' She thought worried at the thought of leaving both Sakura and Shiro unprotected for so long.

 

`Again, why the hell I'm worried about him? Its better not be my curse acting up again and liking him. Gah…disgusting.' she thought, quickly pushing away unwanted thoughts about liking Shiro more then a friend.

 

-

 

`It seems that Saber is nearby. I'll go ask her what happened then.' thought Ranam when she turned her attention to surroundings and felt a presence of Servant nearby.

 

-

 

Walking to the living room, she saw Rin, Saber and Shiro talk with a man she never met before.

 

He was about forty years old, dressed like a Catholic priest and his tone reminded her of her father's, always hiding his true intentions.

 

“Yes, the news talked about disappearance as well.” Said Shiro and using remote, he raised the volume of the TV, that usually murmured in the corner, so they could hear it.

 

“Tonight, about thirty people disappeared in old Fuyuki city. It the biggest case yet. Police thinks that it might be connected with recent gas leaks and is currently searching for them in hospitals.

 

If you have any information about location of these …”

 

TV's volume was lowered again and Shiro turned to others.

 

“So, Kotomine, you think Assassin's Master is behind this? And you want a temporary truce to help us kill him and save the girls?” asked Rin, narrowing her eyes.

 

“Yes, both as mediator and Master I can't allow such things to happen?” answered Kotomine and rising his hand, he said.

 

“Lancer, appear!”

 

To Rin's and Shiro's surprise, a tall short haired man about Rider's age appeared near his Master.

 

He wore blue leather armour and was armed with a crimson colored spear.

 

“So, you are his Servant, Lancer. I hope you're mistaken about him.” said Saber when she recognized the Servant she had to save Shiro from, as soon as she was summoned. After Lancer used his Noble Phantasm, Gae Bolg, Barbed Striking Death and Saber mostly dodged it, he left the battlefield saying that as much as he wanted to fight to death, his cowardly Master forbid him from doing more then scouting.

 

-

 

“So, what's the plan?” asked Rider entering the room.

 

“Rider?! How are your injuries?” asked Rin, surprised at the Servant's recovery rate.

 

“I'm fine. So, when we're going to save Sakura? I can still feel the link so I could find her.”

 

“We're waiting for you to wake up, actually. It's only evening, but I doubt we should give Assassin's Master even more time.”

 

-

 

Is this where your Master is supposed to be?” asked Kotomine when he saw Rider stop before one of the alleys.

 

“Yeah, she's there somewhere.” answered Rider and pointed to a house almost at another end of the street.

 

Kotomine waved to Lancer and said.

 

“I think we should scout first. Lancer, go there, we'll watch from here.”

 

Muttering something that was suspiciously similar to coward, Lancer jumped towards the house and walked in.

 

-

 

Soon he jumped out and landed on the roof of nearby house in a battle stance and his spear started to smoke.

 

Before anyone could ask what happened, some kind of shadow creatures burst out of the house and ran towards Lancer in strange half-sliding, half leaping way.

 

But Servant moved only when a dark cloud, with a barely recognizable human shaped shadow inside, exited the house.

 

When the cloud shot out several tendrils of darkness towards the Lancer, he jumped high in the air and called out the name of his Noble Phantasm.

 

“Gae Bolg. Striking Death Flight”

 

The spear in his hand turned bright yellow, as if it was put into a lit forge. Enveloped in power, it looked more like a thunderbolt then a mortal weapon when Lancer threw it at the cloud's core.

 

-

 

The explosion blew away most of the darkness surrounding the shadow inside and Rider gasped in shock, quickly followed by others, when she recognized Sakura's distorted face inside of the cloud.

 

“Sakura!” she yelled and turned to Rin wanting to ask what happened to the girl. The sorcerer motioned for to be quiet and watch.

 

“Hey you, wake up and run.” yelled Lancer as he made his way towards the group, followed by several monsters.

 

“Saber, use Invisible Air to hold them off, while we run.” said Rin and almost immediately a wall of wind repelled Lancer's pursuers.

 

“Saber you must run with us! I can't leave you here.” yelled Shiro, trying to overcome the winds roar.

 

“Be careful, those shadows kill with a single touch.” said Kotomine and stretched his hands towards one of the dark monstrosities that almost broke through the wind wall.

 

“Säuberung.”

 

A white glowing sphere formed in front of his palms and shot forward, engulfing its target in a purification spell and hungrily eating away its shadowy flesh.

 

“I have a better idea.” said Rider as she remembered her recent dream about a gift from the God of Sea. A winged steed that aided her in her battles despite its gentle nature.

 

She crossed her hands in front of her chest and a red spell symbol appeared in front of her. A few seconds later, powerful repeated gusts of wind threw all of the shadow creatures away, signaling the appearance of her favorite friend.

 

`Pegasus.' she thought as she jumped on its back and felt that it was as smooth as she remembered.

 

-

 

“All right. Get on the horse everyone.” She yelled from its back as she used her chain to pull Shiro to her.

 

Masters quickly got on Pegasus and when it was about to take off, Lancer said.

 

“Go on without me. I'll have to entertain our guest.”

 

Looking back, Rider saw a hunched man in dark cloak, the same one that almost killed her earlier, who walked to them, ignoring the wind.

 

Deciding that staying any longer would put Shiro in danger, Rider took off with Saber following her as fast as she could.

 

-

 

Assassin freed one his hands from under the cloak. That arm was tightly bandaged and surprisingly long with long clawed fingers decorating its palm.

 

Looking up at Lancer who was busy dodging shadowy creatures and tendrils of darkness that shot out of shadow that surrounded Sakura, he, suddenly thrusting his strange hand forward, said in a voice that reminded of a dry desert wind.

 

“Zabaniya.”

 

Several flickering strands of light surrounded his palm and pulsing ethereal heart formed in it. Once it was finished, he crushed it.

 

Above him, Lancer's eyes widened and he clutched his chest before he dropped his weapon and shadows managed to touch him.

 

-

 

“Angra Mainyu” whispered Kotomine when he looked back and saw Lancer's body absorb the darkness before it was distorted, like Sakura's body was. But it stayed this way only for a few seconds before it disappeared in a whirlwind of sparks.

 

“Who? You know something don't you?” asked Rider, grabbing the priest and slightly lifting him up.

 

“Yes. I'll tell you later.” croaked the priest.

 

“Rider. We'll figure out happened, put him back and let's hurry.” said Rin, who was very worried at the ease with which Lancer was defeated.

 

They flew to the Shiro's house because Kotomine said that his church wasn't the safest place right now and Emiya residence was closer.

 

-

 

Once there, Masters surrounded Kotomine while Servants stood at the entrance as guards.

 

“Who's Angra Mainyu? And what happened there?” asked Rin.

 

“Persian God of Darkness. A Servant summoned during Third Grail War. It's rumored that he was not a Servant, but an evil spirit that one of mages summoned to bypass the rules of War and forcefully summon Grail for himself, but the mage was killed and that spirit was trapped.”

 

“Trapped where?” asked Rin, thinking over Kotomine's words.

 

“I don't know. My guess is that Assassin's Master used that girl, Sakura, as a vessel when he freed that spirit from its prison.”

 

“What about Ilya?” asked Shiro, remembering that they didn't saw the girl when they followed Rider and dreading to hear that Ilya was as twisted by that shadow as Sakura was.

 

Kotomine hesitated for a minute, thinking of what he could say and answered.

 

“Shadow kills with a touch, but I think that Illyasviel is kept alive by Assassin's Master, because she can be used as a vessel for Grail itself.”

 

“You know, I think I know who would such a thing. Turning Sakura into a monster and killing all those people. Sakura's grandfather was too deaf to hear my warning, so this time I'm going to write it down with his broken bones.” said Rider, clenching her fist.

 

Priest turned to her, narrowing his eyes.

 

“Indeed. ZÅuken MatÅ is old enough to remember or even participate in the Third War. Then Illyasviel is kept inside of his house.”

 

“What about Sakura?” asked Shiro..

 

“We must stop her. Even if killing her is the only way.” answered Rin.

 

“Hell no, If that thing was put inside, then maybe there's a way to remove it.” stated Rider. “Now let's go already. I want to meet that old man.”

 

-

 

When they were near MatÅ's residence, a place where so many cruel things were done to Sakura, they were greeted by several shadow creatures that jumped out of the house entrance.

 

Kotomine stopped everyone and, pulling out several swords from under his clothes, said in no-refuses voice.

 

“I'll go inside with Rin, while you distract Shadow. Saving Ilya now is more important than finding him. ”

 

Rin looked at her mentor for several seconds before she said to Saber.

 

“Saber, if Shiro commands you to protect him, then your Invisible Air should be good enough to stall shadows until we return. Then we'll plan how to deal with Sakura.”

 

When Saber nodded, Tosaka ran after the priest who decided to take another street so he could enter the house from another, safer side.

 

-

 

Sakura walked, even glided, outside to meet the trio, most of her body still hidden by shadow but soon stopped, letting her monsters charge forward and attacked with tendrils of darkness that were spawned from her body.

 

Ranma looked at Sakura and shivered when she saw nothing but twisted bloodlust in the eyes of usually kind and timid girl.

 

-

 

“Saber, protect us!” commanded Shiro and one of his command seal lit briefly before disappearing. But it didn't disappear without a trace, Saber's body glowed blue and a wall of wind threw their assailants away, even Sakura's attacks were repelled by it.

 

Rider carefully watched the surroundings looking for any shadow creatures that managed to overcome or bypass the winds from Saber's sword, and most likely that's why she was able to see a slight distortion in the air behind Saber.

 

Following her sixth sense that already saved her once, she threw her chain towards Saber and its coil landed right behind the Servant. To Rider's surprise, her weapon was stopped in mid air by something and immediately she tightened her chain around whatever was caught and pulling it back, she smashed it in the wall nearby.

 

“I'll take care of this sneaky old man.” smirked Rider when she saw who was revealed by the impact. “ Shiro, you better watch Saber. I doubt she can support this wind wall forever.”

 

After she said that, she threw away all thoughts irrelevant to the upcoming fight and abruptly spun her chain in a tight spiral, deflecting the first salvo of throwing knives.

 

-

 

“Let me handle this.” said Rin when they finally arrived to the Mato's house from another side and saw that first floor had no windows or doors.

 

The sorcerer took out several jewels from a pouch she always carried along and muttering a short word, threw them into the wall.

 

A strong explosion destroyed a part of the wall, scattering debris everywhere, and they quickly walked in.

 

-

 

“Rin, we need to find basement. If we meet Zouken, I'll deal with him. Your task is to save Ilya.” said Kotomine as he moved the sword from his left hand to right, holding them between his fingers as easily as Rin was holding her gems.

 

-

 

For several minutes they walked through the corridors until they arrived to big double doors with inscription covered surface.

 

Opening them, Rin saw Ilya lying on an altar in the center of the room and no trace of Zouken.

“Rin, take Ilya. I'll meet you in a previous room.”

 

-

 

Outside, Saber and Rider still maintained their stalemate with their enemies, but when Saber's wind wall weakened enough for one of Sakura's attacks to pass through, aiming at Saber, and Shiro jumped to shield her, hoping that the same power kept him alive so far would save him this time as well, everything went to hell.

 

Ranma saw Sakura's attack flying to Shiro and tried to do three things at once: deflect Assassin's dagger that targeted her leg artery, pull Shiro away with her chain and realizing that both would fail, jump away.

 

All it would take to kill Saber who knocked down by Shiro's body when he struck by Sakura and Rider now was one more blow from their enemies and neither explosion that blew a hole in the wall of Mato's residence, nor Rin and Kotomine that ran through it, nor the purification spell the priest shot at Shadow, would be able to stop it.

But, surprisingly, it never came. Instead shadow monsters attacked Assassin and in seconds his body melted into nothingness. And Sakura just stood in place with tears in her eyes.

 

-

 

Shiro, when he slowly got to his knees after Saber rolled away and stood up, saw the change in the girl's behavior and when he noticed that Saber was preparing for Excalibur, he shouted.

“Stop! Don't do it!”

His second command seal flared before disappearing and immediately Saber's sword stopped crackling with energy.

 

“This is most foolish, Shiro!” said Saber as power of the seal forced her to kneel before her Master.

 

“No, look. She's not attacking us anymore! She can be saved!” said the boy, trying to get up, but fell back on his knees from an intense lash of pain from the place he was touched by Sakura's darkness.

 

-

 

Sakura looked at Shiro and Rider, two people she swore to herself to protect at any cost, but who were badly hurt by her own hands and thoughts started to form in her mind. Thoughts unrelated to killing those before her, unrelated to darkness she felt, or Zouken's will. Thoughts that belonged to Mato Sakura, not to a vessel for Angro Mainyu.

 

Gathering her will, she crushed remaining familiars, inside of her body that her grandfather used to control her and thought.

 

`I-I… I will help you, Sempai. I will stop this… I will stop everything.'

With that, she started to move, she passed Shiro, who was clutching his chest and Saber that didn't move an inch from her position between her and Shiro, passed Rider and Ilya and walked into the house, homing onto Zouken's presence she felt through the link between them.

 

-

 

Very soon she came to a wall that looked just like any other part of the house and her shadow monsters charged at the wall, creating a hole with a few mighty impacts.

 

Inside she saw a small room with its floor and walls covered with arcane symbols. In focus of the three biggest ones sat Zouken and channeled a spell.

“You made us suffer, grandfather. For that… you will suffer as well! You will die!” Sakura's voice was almost calm at the start, but was filled with bloodthirsty gleefulness when her shadows broke through the barrier that surrounded the mage and started to devour him piece by piece, consuming the magically created familiars that supported his body for more the three hundred years.

 

-

 

As Zouken's head, with an expression of unimaginable agony on his face, sank into the shadows summoned by Sakura, the girl's thought changed from using her knowledge in magic to control the shadows inside, to imagining Saber suffering the same fate as Zouken just did,

`I did it! I solved the problem, Sempai. Now I know I can solve any problem. Saber, Rin or anyone that will stand in the way of our happiness together, they will all die!'

 

-

 

Outside, Rin was arguing with Shiro, who was supported by Saber.

“The only way to stop Shadow is to kill Sakura! You were almost killed already!”

“Onii-chan…” Kotomine's efforts to heal Ilya proved not to be in vain and the small girl opened her eyes and looked intently at Shiro.

“Grail is still tainted by Angro Mainyu and if Sakura completes it, then it'll cause a disaster. Like the one that consumed this city ten years ago, but world wide.”

Shiro didn't answer and instead he delved deeper and deeper inside of his mind, trying to find the solution. He swore not break his ideals and fight to save everyone, but if he follow this path any further, he'll have to kill one who is dear to him.

 

-

 

“Sempai, I'm free! I can do whatever I want and now nobody will stop me. We will be together, forever! “

Sakura voice, mixed with laughter as dark the Shadow herself, came from inside of the house and soon, she stepped outside.

“You don't have to suffer anymore. I'll protect you for eternity!”

 

“Shiro, allow me to use Excalibur.” asked Saber, rising her sword.

“No, Saber. Not yet.” answered Shiro, looking at Rider's Master that slowly approached.

“Then I'll have to do it..” said Rin and pulled a handful of jewels from her pocket.

“Kotomine, can you do that white blast again?” asked Rider as she checked her connection to Sakura and shivered when she learned what Sakura felt now.

Kotomine stretched his hands towards Shadow, before muttering a short incantation.

“Säuberung.”

“We must run for now, Rin. Your jewels will stun them for a second at best.” said the priest when instead of engulfing the target in a cleansing fire, the white sphere only flickered for a moment before it disappeared.

 

-

 

“Rin, you said that Angro Mainyu was a Servant?” asked Shiro, who was carried by Saber, when with another jump they came close to Pegasus that carried the rest of Masters and Rider.

“Yes. Don't tell me you want to make a contract with him, so he would free Sakura and move to you.”

“No. Caster gave a weapon that Archer used to break his contract to you and I…” Shiro couldn't finish because Rider interrupted him.

“Hell no, you are not going in! I'll go instead.”

“But Rider, I can survive her attack.”

“Let her go, Shiro. She wants to help her Master.” said Saber and, mentally, added that even if Rider fails, then so be it.

 

-

 

“I'm going with you.” said Rin when Pegasus landed on the street and Kotomine and Ilya got down.

“We'll follow too.” said Shiro and looked back at Saber, who only nodded.

 

Shiro closed his eyes and concentrated on the image of Ruler Breaker, before starting his spell.

`Trace: on'

He imagined the dagger appearing in his hand and when he felt its weight in his hand, he turned to purple haired Servant and threw the weapon to her.

“Rider, here. Stab her with this”

 

-

 

Pegasus dove to Sakura and as soon as Rider and Rin jumped down it stopped and wind from his wings scattered Sakura's minions.

“Rider? Join me Rider!” laughed the girl, strands of darkness shooting from her body and trying to catch the Servant despite the strong wind.

As Ranma flew by, she threw the dagger at Sakura shoulder and a bright purple flash that tore apart all of the shadows in the street, even those that were produced naturally, accompanied her landing.

 

-

 

Before Sakura's body, no longer supported by shadow could fall on the ground, Rider caught her and hugged close.

 

“I'm so glad you okay.”

 

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry, big sister.” whispered the girl as she embraced the woman that cared for her even after the horrible things she done.

 

She looked at Shiro, who was supported by Saber while Kotomine healed his wound and pulled herself even closer to Rider. This way, deciding to let go of her dream of living with Shiro was easier. After she hurt him so much, Sakura was willing to step aside for Saber, who always protected the boy with her life.

 

Rin, who was standing nearby, slowly put away the jewels she couldn't force herself to kill Sakura with and walked to her sister. She embraced the plum haired girl as well and with her serious expression softening, she said.

 

“Don't worry. It doesn't matter what you've done, you're still my sister.”

 

Ranma stood up, with girl still in her arms, and when Pegasus appeared and landed near them, she hopped on its back and grinned.

 

“Now let's go home. I'll give you a ride.”