#but now... shirou is dead and has stopped believing in what his father did

[fakemiya]

i would do insane things to have a thread with assassin kiritsugu and archer shirou meeting eachother as servants and how bitter that would be

[garbage--account]

I FORGOT U HAVEN'T SEEN ALL ORION YET I'M SORRY 😭😭😭😭

Anyway, continuing this trend for historical purpose 💅💅💅

Now that i think of this, and except if i was too drunk watching the show, there is not really reasons on why coach Zhao is here... not really an issue in Ares but in Orion ???? Why is he the one doing the selection? Why is he coaching inazuma japan ???? We have his backstory with Li Hao but why is he in the story in the first place ?

We can say it doesn't matter but it matters ! Hibiki was coach in s1 because he was in the old inazuma eleven, Hitomiko has direct relationships with Alius Academy so it's fair she is in charge to resolve this, Kudou was scouted by Hibiki himself, Daisuke returned in CS because his own grandson was kidnapped by El Dorado, even Kuroiwa has reasons to be here, he can sense who on earth can use Souls in a competition in which Kenshin are forbidden and Kenshin were the most powerful thing earthlings could use in sakka !!! What about Coach Zhao ??? Raimon hired him when the sakka team was dissolved ?

He is funny and all, actually a competent coach, but i need more and i can't even imagine reasons myself.

Moving on and going back to Asuto because main character...

There is this whole fake or real dad saga, but what if Shinjou (Asuto's real dad) was actually...kinda evil himself ? We are not removing the imposter saga but the protag's real father lacks depth himself i think, and I AM NEVER BUYING THE SHIT THAT HE WOULD BE A GOOD DAD (see my dad tierlist lol). Plus, that would make sense on the fact that he joined Orion WILLINGLY and is now plotting against it with Shirou, and that he basically abandonned his PREGNANT woman. And assuming Vladimir's backstory (fake dad) is actually Shinjou's, idk that screams villain's origin for me don't you think ? At some point, i imagined him as a serial killer who happened to plays sakka, but it might be a bit extreme... I would like to know your take on Shinjou buddy ? But i'll give him credit for rescueing Asuto from Orion lobby, the way he did that make me laugh.

Norika 😭😭😭😭 true that she has the best arc from all the Inakuni, but i don't like how it was delivered... she still felt irrelevant and it hurts me saying this 😭😭😭 her hissatsus were pretty and inspired but don't stop anything from going in the net... AND WTF HER ORION MAKEOVER 🤮🤮🤮 her her used to be so top notch why did they do this ???? Your take on her and her mom "only having each other" is interesting fr! Like despite appearing bold and confident, she actually isn't and not ready to be away from mom. Her confidence comes mainly from the eyes of her mom. She finds herself not being able to do anything without her. She fails things she used to do perfectly on the island. She needs encouragement the most to function. (Plus, now that she is surrounded by boys only, how to deal with girls problems ?). Another one growing up arc to write for an Inakuni lol, Asuto, why you dragged along your friends the most dependable honestly ? Since she comes back in Orion, she needs her improved arc.

THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING FOR IRINA AND BERNARD OMG

That bring us to Ichihoshi who has a "copypasted backstory of og Fubuki" (i kinda agree but it has its own vibe idk how to explain it). What if, instead of having unknowingly the alter of his dead bro from the emotional backlash of the accident and losing his family, it was due to Bernard's magic so he accept to join Orion ? Having a spell casted on you making you believe that you are Mitsuru instead of Hikaru, that Hikaru survived, but fell sick and in need of some therapy he cannot afford by himself, but Orion'll pay if you do what they said ??? Poor lil Hikaru his life was a lie and it's Orion fault. How would he deal with the fact he was matrixed so good and being manipulated all his life ? Bro would turn paranoiac fr. Plus it gives explanation on why some disciples joined Orion in the first place (ex : Baek, Satan, Uzbekistan team, Yurika).

I think Bernard definitly relates to them and he hates it. "He's rich, how can he relate to poor third world country kids ?" He may be rich in wealth, but he was brought up in absolute misery emotionally speaking. The poor Li Hao were hungry and beaten up for stealing to survived because he had no money and no way to afford this. Irina could afford the best life to Bernard but absolutly didn't, and in a way, that's even worse. He was barely considered as a child nor a person, just as a way to bring more glory to his family and their cause. And ironically, that's exactly what he ends up doing with the Orion disciples. How he'd react ? I think he would be always proper and prim in public and with Froy, but could be lashing out on things when on his own (because he realized how violent his Mother was with him and it enrages him deep inside). Until IJ defeated all his plans and then goes ape shit crazy on some children and he ends up in prison, alone in a cell with the ghost of his mom.

Omg that arc we co-write about Hiroto resonates with the Girikanan family and Orion we might be geniuses 🤣🤣🥰

What are you cooking ?

[desperately trying to put out the flames in the kitchen]

I'm glad you asked, my dear friend.

Inakuni Members potential backstories

Asuto's potential relationships as a kid who was forced to think like an adult at a young age and as someone's "Light"

ASUTO HIMSELF

Nishikage & Nosaka's relationship

Hiroto and Asuto's relationship

Ichihoshi and Asuto's relationship

The Ares situation and How much potential it has

All these are ingredients freshly bought from the market [thumbs up]

[tanakavox]

A look into the multiverse chapter 8 SAOA

Many thanks to my friend friend @bssaz97 for his work on the reactions. And TheGoldenBoy2188 for the strict for SAOA making writing easy. The next reaction will be a suprise so stay tune.

Amidst the streets of Mantle, Whitley Schnee walked towards a destination while wearing a disguise consisting of a coat, scarf, shaded glasses, and a flat cap. He had a mission and he would not waste this opportunity!

It was not every day that he could simply leave the manor without Father's permission or notice so he needed to be quick but not noticeable. He had waited months for this day to arrive. Whitley had pre-ordered the latest MMO game of his favorite game series a week before the initial release date and had come to pick it up. Having connections in the right places certainly did have its benefits. The only downside was he had to acquire his prize somewhere outside of his father's notice. So what other place to go than Atlas's sister kingdom.

Outside of his notice, a young white haired faunus woman with sheep ears followed close behind him. Fiona Thyme was out picking up some food for the rest of the Happy Huntresses when she noticed an unfamiliar person walking around. She knew almost everyone on this side of Mantle, so a new person popping out of the blue was very suspicious. Normally she would have reported this back to Robyn but upon further inspection she recognized who this person was.

It was the sole son of the worst man on Remnant and the newly appointed heir of the Schnee Dust Company, Whitley Schnee! Why was he here in Mantle?! Fiona determined he was up to no good and decided to follow him. Wherever the SDC goes, trouble usually follows!

Whitley finally arrived at the destination he was seeking… the Post Office! Now all he had to do was open the door, enter the establishment aaaaaand- stare dumbfounded as the inside of this place was a theatre.

"What the-? This isn't the post office. Where am I?!" Whitley shouted at no one in particular.

"Ah-ha! Caught you right where I- Huh? Where the hell? This isn't the post office!" Fiona also dumbfounded.

"Whitley?" Both Weiss and Winter stated in a mix of shock and disbelief at seeing their little brother. Maybe some hostility on Weiss part.

"Weiss? Winter? How-?"

"What the hell is this?!" A loud female voice shouted as four more people arrived out of nowhere. Consisting of two normal sized humans, a bunny faunus and a very large man.

"Coco/Velvet/Fox/Yatsuhashi!" Teams RWBY and JNR said collectively.

"Oh hello everyone! This… is a surprise! When did you get to Vacuo?" Velvet asked the group.

Fiona turned towards the new strangers, "Vacuo? What are you talking about? You're all in Mantle?"

"I'm most certain we're in Vacuo at the time." Yatsu spoke.

"You are in neither at the moment." Ozpin spoke up.

"What the- Teach? Weren't you supposed to be dead?!" Coco confusingly points out.

"I believe an explanation is in order."

*One short but informative explanation later*

"Wait so we were brought here to watch… alternate realities?" Fiona says after she and all the new arrivals had been told everything about the theater.

"We call them viewings but yeah pretty much." Ruby said.

"Hold on, I can understand why all of you were brought here, seeing as you all are huntsmen and huntresses. But that doesn't explain why I'm here." Whitley, having taken off his disguise.

"A great question indeed." Weiss mutters.

"I think I have a theory." Blake stepped forward. "So far now, I've noticed that the people who are here have at least some involvement in the viewings that we have been seeing. Remember that one viewing we saw of Whitley being stuck inside a video game?"

"I was stuck in a video game?"

"Also if you die in the game you die for real." Nora added.

Whitley's eyes widened at the implications.

"Well you're still stuck as far as we know. But apparently you're very good at the game so you might be fine." Jaune clarifies. Slightly feeling guilty that his alternate is the one who traps him there.

"Oh joy, now I'm trapped inside a place against my will in two realities!" Whitley throws his hands in frustration.

"Oh boo hoo! Is the rich boy gonna cry because nothings going his way today?" Fiona says in a mocking tone.

"Oh I'm sure you would know so much about crying and complaining about trivial things, thief." He shot back at Fiona.

"At least I think about the people of Mantle! When was the last time you thought of someone outside of yourself, Schnee!" Fiona retorted.

Winter sensing that this conversation was going nowhere stepped in between her brother and the happy huntress.

"Enough! None of us came here by choice so let's just stop this pointless arguing and move on."

Fiona huffed, "I couldn't agree more." She stomped away from the two siblings and found herself a seat in the theater.

Winter sighed, "It may not be ideal but as long as you are here Whitley, I would just suggest sitting tight and wait until you or all of us are able to leave this place."

"Hmph, very well. Thank you sister, it almost sounds like you care." Whitley took his leave and found a seat that was about four seats away from Weiss's team.

"Isn't there anywhere else you want to sit," Weiss practically hisses.

"Oh but Weiss it's the only seat that's close enough to you." Whitley affirmed.

Weiss groans in frustration, 'Hopefully it's only for one viewing…'

An acoustic guitar plays in the background as a montage of the events of and post-Episode 1 appears on the screen and a narrator began to talk.

" A month had passed since that fateful day. When everyone's world got all twisted, leaving them stranded in a castle in the sky. Since then, 2000 poor souls came to an abrupt and tragic end. Some by bad luck, others by sheer stupidity. I mean, really. Why would you just stand in fire? Anyways, that didn't bother The Kid none. He only cared about one thing, and one thing alone. Himself. 'Cuz in a game of life or death, you either live... or you die."

The scene transitions to Shirou leaning against a wall with an annoyed look on his face.

"What?! Two thousand of the players have died already!" Ruby yelled, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Not surprising, seeing as many of them looked weak last viewing." Cinder coolly replies.

Many huntsmen and huntresses glared at the red clad woman. She paid them no mind.

"Well thank you very much Narrator, you're doing a wonderful job of explaining the total death count of this video game prison." Whitley commented dryly.

"Oh, WOW. What brilliant insight! It's so deep it loops right back around to being stupid." Shirou snarked.

"The Kid ranted at no one, it slowly dawning just how alone he truly was" Narrator continued..

Whitley's eyes narrowed, "Am I being sassed by the narrator?"

"Maybe you said something to piss them off." Fiona added.

"Wait, what was that?" Shirou asks, shocked.

"He asked the sky, like a preacher to his silent gods."

"What gods? What are you talking about?! It's all bullshit metaphors with you!"

"He cried, not knowing the difference between a simile and a metaphor. The tininess of his brain dwarfed only by the tininess of his di-"

Whitley's eyes narrowed and face twitched at how much of an annoyance this narrator was being.

Weiss was doing her best to conceal her smile but was failing and breathes out a laugh. She was enjoying the exchange that her brother was going through and found it amusing. Her team gave her a side glance while Fiona and a few others laughed at the roast session the young Schnee was being given.

"Narrator off." Shirou commands the system with an annoyed tone.

"YOUCANSILENCEMEBUTYOUCAN'TSILENCETHETRU-" The narrator got cut off.

"Dick."

"Thank gods that's over, that narrator was extremely rude." Whitley sighed thankfully now that the narrator was silenced.

Weiss and Fiona grumbled that their fun was ruined.

Fade into December 2, 2022, on a strategy meeting led by man called Diabel. He gave a big smiled out to the crow

"Hey everyone. Thank you all for coming to our little powwow. Now, I know many of you may be discouraged by the fact that 2000 people have died so far."

" WHAT?!" A player screamed

" 2000 PEOPLE ARE DEAD?!" Another screamed.

"IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN A MONTH YET!"

"OH MY GOD, WE REALLY ARE FUCKED!"

"Pretty much, sucks to be you!" Mercury laughed.

"These are the people that have to survive this game. Honestly what was blondie expecting," Emerald facepalms.

"Hey! Just because they've lost numbers doesn't mean that they have to lose hope!" Ruby glared at the two assassins.

"And I know even more of you are a little down because we haven't even cleared the First Floor yet." Diabel added, trying to keep the smile on his face.

"WE HAVEN'T?!"

"I THOUGHT WE WERE ALMOST DONE...!"

"You were saying." Cinder looked back at Ruby.

"Well…" Ruby trailed off, thinking of a way to defend these players.

Diabel's smile wavered

"Uh, you guys do know there are 100 Floors, right?"

"WHAT?!" A crowd of players yelled.

Diabels sighed a bit.

Ruby, despite her best attempts, also sighed and sat back down.

"Oh jeez, I am just making things worse. Point is, we found the Boss Room!"

The crowd gasps.

"Now, we've formulated a few strategies with some help from the beta testers-"

"BETA TESTERS?!" A voice yells out.

"Oh goddammit!" Diabel groaned argnily

A player named Kibaou jumps in.

Kibaou, what do you want? Diabel looked tired addressing this player.

"Beta testers? They're the reason we're stuck in this game!" Kibaoyu sneered

Many that heard this player's statement and quickly frowned at his blatant accusations towards these 'beta-testers.'

"This guy can't be serious, right?" Coco stated.

Dianel looked at Kibaou flatterausted at the stupidity of the statement he heard

"What?! Do you have any evidence to back that up?"

Kiabrou scoffed at the question. "Pfft! Evidence. I don't need no evidence. Isn't that right, Jesus?" He points to a player named "Jesus"

" It's pronounced "Hey-Zeus", and I don't know you."

"Wow, really selling your reasoning by having no one else to support your claim." Jaune stated while crossing his arms.

"Well, they still should have helped us newbies!" He exclaimed

"If I might interject...:" A deep voice called out.

A big muscular man gets up and comes to the stage.

Velvet taps Yatsu's arm excitedly, "Hey you're in this game too Yatsu! …oh gods you're in this game too."

"So it seems," Yatsu, doing his best to keep a straight face.

Coco lowered her shades along with a confused look. As far as she knew, Velvet was the only one who played video games on their team. Unless...

"And who the hell are you?!"

"I am known by many names.", "Closed eyed demon. The memory easer., "Hooked clawed tiger". But you? You may call me... "Velvet".

"Velvet huh? That's a... pretty masculine name." Kibaoru said adwarkley

"Shouldn't be. It's a woman's name." Velvet replied casually.

"Damn it. I had a feeling but I didn't want to be right." Coco cursed quietly while shaking her head.

"Wait, why would Yatsu have a character named after me? That doesn't- ...Oh ...oh my gods." Velvet's eyes widened at the implications, tears starting to build. That is until she felt a nudge on one of her shoulders. She turned her head and there was Yatsuhashi looking at Velvet with a gaze that said, 'It's not your fault.'

"Kay, I don't know how to talk to you."

"Good. Then you can shut up and listen. Does everyone here have this book in their inventory?"

" Yeah.

" Yes."

"Yup."

"Yeah."

" No... Wait, can I change my answer?"

Velvet/Yatsushi held up a book to show to everyone.

" This book is full of tips and strategies on how to survive this game, put together by the beta testers. Everyone read it, yet some people still died. The beta testers did everything they could."

"Yeah, that means Mace Hair has no reason to blame the beta testers!" Ruby points out.

Many of her friends nodded and Yastu's team smiled at the sound defense his alternate presented.

" Actually, I didn't read it." One player chimed up.

"Yeah, I didn't read it either."

"I skimmed it."

"OH COME ON!" Many members of the audience shouted in agitation.

"What? Didn't ANY of you read it?! It is literally a matter of life and death." Velvet exclaimed

"Well, dude. It's like 80 pages." A player pointed

"2000 people are dead!"

"THEY ARE?!"

"Again. These are the people that have to survive this game." Emerald reiterates.

Brief pause. Shirou looks shocked at their stupidity.

"I am so done with you people." Velvet mutters, walking off the stage.

" What do you mean "you people"?" A player asked a bit offended.

The Faunus in the room narrowed at their eyes at the implications made by that player.

"What do you mean, "you people"?" Fiona asks no one in particular.

Velvet and Kibaou take their seats.

Diabel continued with the meeting. "So, as Mister Hooked clawed tiger was saying, this book has some great strategies, including how to beat the First Boss, Illfang."

He clears his throat and starts reading from the guide.

"So as you enter the Boss Room, he's gonna throw wave after wave of disposable minions at you... and you must answer in kind."...?

"Uh, what?" A player asks, mirroring Diabel confusion.

Many in the audience reacted just as confused. All except Whitley, who had a good feeling where this was going.

Diabel continues

"Send the weaker players first. Good rule of thumb: If a player asks you for gold 2 seconds after meeting you, front lines."

"Ha, serves 'em right!" Kiaboru said with a laugh

"If they hijack conversations to rant about their political views, front lines."Diabel said with a smirk looking at Kiaboru.

Kibaou went pale. "Aw, shit."

"Ha! Serves you right!" Nora laughed.

"If they ask female players for pics of their boobs, front lines."

"OH BULLSHIT!" One player screamed out in rage.

"THAT'S DISCRIMINATION!" Another one howled.

"BOO!"

Many of the women in the theater frown at the way those players reacted. Winter was more than certain that those players were the type that participated in the mentioned acts the speaker spoke on.

Diabel smiles and waves them down. "Now, now, people. I think there are some valid points being made here. Now, it goes on to say when Illfang's health goes into the red, he's going to switch from his axe and buckler to something called a "Talwar". At that point we should initiate a strategy called "The Final Solution" and- I'm just gonna stop reading! Jesus, who wrote this thing?"

Shirou giggles evilly.

"Of course Whitley wrote that book." Weiss sighed.

"Why sister, it sounds like that didn't surprise you in the least." Whitley pretending to act hurt.

"Please. The manipulative tone of the text almost makes one sound too much like you." Weiss bit back.

"Well I suppose you would know." A wide smile on Whitley's face.

Weiss scoffs turning her head away from her traitorous brother.

Team R_BY and Winter watched the exchange and sighed.

"Okay, so the guide's a bust. But it'll be fine. I'll come up with a great plan for us." Diabel smiles at the crowed.

"Like what?"

" Well... we... could... Uh... Uhhhh... I'm open to suggestions."

"Woah, guys, we could- we could, you know, like, group up and-"

"And hit it 'til it DIES!" Another yelled finishing the other player sentence

"Woo, nice!"

"Yeah!"

" High five!"

The two hive five.

"Well. It's something, right?." Velvet does her best to be optimistic.

Many of the more experienced members of the theater shake their heads.

"That's... a good start. But let's hear some other suggestions."

"I'd like to hear more about this "Final Solution"." A player in a german accent piped up.

"Fuck it, group up." said Diabel said tirely.

Shirou slides down the seats towards a girl, named Fiona, who's on her own.

Fiona blinks in surprise, "Oh my gods, that's me! I'm in the game! Hey other me, stay away from the Schnee!"

"You have my condolences." Weiss says to the sheep faunus.

"So, why aren't, uh, you joining anyone's group?" Shirou asked.

"I have my reasons." She said mysterioly

" Is it because you're a girl?"

"No. It's because... I don't know how to play."

"Because you're a girl?"

Many of the females and males who enjoy video games, such as Yang, Ruby, Velvet, Nora,, Jaune, Oscar, Ren, surprisingly Mercury and Emerald, along with Fiona herself, threw questioning glares towards the current heir of the SDC. Weiss and Winter glared at him as well but for other reasons.

Whitley looks around to see all the glares directed towards him. "Why are you all looking at me? I said nothing."

"No!" Fiona snapped. "It's just... I don't know how to open the menu."

"What?" Both Fiona and Whitley asked.

"Jinx!" Nora shouts.

"What?!" Shriou looked at the girl in shock. "But you can't do anything in this game without the menu. How have you survived all month?"

Cut to Fiona holding a piece of bread. She is staring at it intensely. "HOW DO I EAT YOU?!" She screamed at it.

Many laughs were had at the poor girl's predicament, despite some of them doing their best to not do so but could not help themselves.

Fiona slowly sank into her chair, covering her face in shame. Her alternate was the utter definition of a newb player.

Back to the present.

"It's... been a challenge…" She muttered before looking at Shirou. "What about you? Why haven't you join the others?"

"Oh, lots of reasons. Mostly because they're a bunch of mouth-breathing neckbeards who think "LMAO" is how French people laugh."

" Ha ha, that's so Le Mao!" Said one player far away causing to Shirou shudder.

Whitley in the theater also shudders in disgust. If these were the people that he would have been surrounded by inside the game, then he too would have avoided them like a plague.

"Wow. You certainly... speak from the heart."

"Funny, I thought I was speaking from my mouth. But, eh, shows what I know about biology." He said with a smirk.

"No one else wanted you in their group, did they?"

"Shut up! It was mutual!"

"And who would blame me? Have you seen the players of this game? I'm honestly surprised they lived this long."

"You're just saying that 'cause no one wanted a smartass on their team." Fiona smirked.

"I'm sorry, were you speaking Menu Girl?" Whitley nonchalantly retorts.

Fiona's face grew red in embarrassment and agitation. She wanted nothing more than to raise her hand and activate her semblance right now. 'Give me a reason Schnee, I dare you.'

It cuts back to Diabel smiling and clapping his hands.

"Alright, looks like everyone's grouped up. Get plenty of rest tonight, people! We leave at noon!"

A player groans "Noon?"

"That's so early!"

Diabel sighs. "Alright. What about 1 o'clock?"

" Dude, come on!"

" God, fine! We leave at the crack of... 2:30, I guess. Lazy butts…"

"Christ, I'm gonna have to set my alarm."

Everyone in the theater did not have high expectations for these players as they would face their first challenge.

Cuts to December 3, 2022 Floor 1: Illfang's Tower, 7:30pm. Everyone's at the Boss Door and everyone except Diabel is exhausted.

"Okay, so there were a few more stairs than we realized. Apparently real life athletic ability translates into the game. Good to know." Diabel looked out to the sad sight in front of him.

"Oh, god. I can feel my lungs trying to kill me." One player whined.

" Is this sweat?!"

" I peed a little."

" Jesus, this is sad." Diabel said with a grimace.

One player vomits.

"Congrats Jaune, someone else has now become the new Vomit Boy of this viewing!" Yang exclaimed.

Jaune rolled his eyes at her attempt at making him feel better.

"Fuck it. Why don't you all just take a Cheetos and Mountain Dew break, and we'll reconvene in an hour."

1960 Batman-Esque transition with Cheetos and Mountain Dew.

" Dammit, guys! I was kidding! You weren't supposed to actually take an hour!" Dibal said in a rage."God, we've lost so much time. Let's just do this already! You all know the plan!"

Illfang jumps into the center of the room and roars. Kobolds pop in, and an error message pops up on the third one that says "Error: "Sentinel_ " not found."

Ruby and Nora laughed at the mob that got glitched.

"Alright, men!" Diabel began,"Form up and-"

"EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!" A player screams

The armies converge on each other.

"Are they serious! You can't just go gung-ho in a boss battle!" Jaune exclaimed at the increasingly apparent, dim-witted players.

"What?! No! Goddammit guys!" Diabel begins to bark out orders. "Squad B, quit attacking the Boss and keep the Sentinels off us! C, D, stop attacking from the front! Do you even know what "flank" means?! Squad F, for fuck's sake! Stop playing Bejeweled! *Groans* Squad G, get in there and help A and B!"

"Got it!" Shirou said with a nod rushing in.

"Don't talk back to…" Diabel did a double take."l Holy shit, really?!"

"How is Whitley the most sensible minded player in this game?!" Weiss asked.

"Weiss, have you seen the other players?" Blake asked her in a deadpanned tone.

"...Yes you're right, that's actually too much of an insult." Weiss admits.

Shirou attacks a Sentinel, leaving Fiona to finish it off.

"Okay, Fiona! What you're gonna wanna do here is-"

Fiona lets out a Battle Cry and kills the Sentinel in one hit.

Fiona in the theater perked up at this display, "Oh my- I can fight! Oh thank gods I can fight!"

Shirou eyes widened in shock "Wow, I thought she was hopeless, but her technique is flawless. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she's even better than I-"

"Hey Shirou! I killed the thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?! Fiona cried out to him in fear."

Shirou rolls his eyes"Or... maybe... not."

"Miss Fiona, either your alternate is very lucky or is very out of base with technology. I can't tell which it is." Whitley stated.

"Shut up Schnee, she's trying!" Fiona defends her other self.

Illfang's health drops into the red. He snarls at the players and he tosses his weapons.

"Alright, men! This last part's gonna take careful coordination…" Diabel ran towards Illfang. "which is why I'm just gonna do it myself!"

Diabel charges his weapon art. Illfang draws his Ōdachi.

Ruby's eyes widened, "OH NO!"

Shirou looked and saw the weapon and his eyes widened calling to Diabel. "Oh shit! Diabel, look out! That's not a Talwar! It's an Ōdachi!"

"What's the difference?!" Diabel ask still running towards Illfang.

"Well, a Talwar is of Indian descent while an Ōdachi is Japanese! While both are primarily slashing weapons, the Talwar was favored by cavalrymen, as opposed to an Ōdachi which was mainly used for dick measuring!" As Shirou is talking, Illfang starts jumping off the walls.

" What's your point?!" Diabel asked impaintely.

"Well if you let me finish, I was getting to that! You see…"

Diabel gets hit by Illfang, screaming in pain.

Many of the huntsmen and huntresses in the theater either gasped in fear or looked away at the surely doomed player.

"What's happening? Did I miss something?" Fox called out.

"Oops." Shirou sheepishly said.

Illfang hits Diabel again, sending him flying.

"DIABEL!" Kibaou yelled out.

Illfang pops down in front of Kibaou and roars. A message pops up "Bonus Item: Soiled Pants". Above Kibaou

"Hey, rare drop!' A player said cheerfully.

Mercury laughed at the joke while most of the others were disgusted by the fact that that achievement was unlockable.

Shirou runs over to Diabel and holds him up.

" I was trying to say an Ōdachi's a little bit longer than a Talwar, so it'll have more reach and do a bit more damage."

"And why couldn't you say that first?" Diabel asked weakly

"Yeah you dummy! You almost might've killed him!" Ruby cries out.

Whitley was actually taken aback by that statement. Sure he had moments of pride and arrogance, sometimes he looked down on people but he didn't believe he would ever intentionally kill someone.

" I like to think of myself as a teacher. Anyway, drink this."

Shirou tries to give Diabel a healing potion but he stopped Shirou shaking his head.

"No. It's better this way. I just can't do it anymore. I had such high hopes at first. But now? Our best player is a girl who thinks DPS is some kind of sex thing." Both turned to glance to Fiona.

"I know. It's weird, right?"

Fiona sulked more into her chair.

"You're clearly not like the rest of them. How do you stand it, Shirou? Where do you draw your strength?" Diabel look at Shirou like a sage.

Shirou sigh and drops his wisdom onto him. "I've been playing MMO's a long time, Diabel, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that lions do not concern himself with the opinions of sheep. Just take that little voice in your head that tells you to be tactful and understanding... and shoot it. Shoot it in the goddamn face."

" You are so wise. If only I'd met you sooner. Perhaps, things would have been different. You must lead them now. Show them this game can be beaten." Diabel let's go of Shirou wrist.

Weiss was taken aback that this man was actually willing to place trust in this alternate of her brother. This stranger who barely even knows him placed the lives of all the players into his hands. Much like how she tried to trust Whitley once… this caused a bitter frown to grow on her face in recollection. Even if this was a different version of him, it was still Whitley in her eyes.

Shirou smiles fondly at Diabel. "Another life... in another time... I think we could have been friends."

"I... doubt it." Diabel gasps out before turning to shattered glass, dying.

" Well fuck you, too!" Shirou said angrily his smile dropping into a frown.

Fiona slips in by Shirou's side and began to lay out a plan.

"Alright, Shirou. Here's what we'll do. One counters his blows to knock him off balance and the other switches in to attack. Rinse. Repeat. Victory."

Shirou looked at her with one eye. "You came up with that, but you can't open a menu."

"Shut up!" Fiona cried out.

Illfang roars and they take off running toward him.

"Alright, so you counter and I'll attack!" Shirou yelled to Fiona.

"What? No, it's my plan! I should attack!" Fiona yelled back.

"Fine, just get ready!"

Shirou makes a battle cry and counters Illfang's attack.

"SWITCH!"

Fiona moves in and gets her cloak destroyed by Illfang before attacking revealing white curly hair and sheep ears.

" See? You almost got yourself killed! I'll attack him!" Shirou yelled again and began to attack Illfang.

"Oh, that was a fluke, and you know it! He's mine!" Fiona yelled back.

Fiona attacks Illfang.

"Oh shit. They're actually giving that boss the work!" Coco called out.

"He's mine!" Shirou yelled.

Shirou blocks Illfang's next attack, but Fiona attacks him before Shirou can do so himself.:

"Mine!" Fiona screams

"NO! HE'S! MIIIIIIIIIIINE!"

Shirou slices Illfang and he explodes. Everyone is stunned. Lame party kazoo sound effect and a banner with the word "CONGRATULATION" appears.

"Yeah!" A player cheer.

This caused almost everyone in the audience to laugh. Despite the dark humor of it all, it was still pretty hilarious.

"What happened? Did they win?" Fox asks

"Oh yes, I'm sorry Fox! They beat the boss and a victory banner came out."

"...heh." Fox chuckled.

Shirou is panting. He gets an item as a reward for defeating the Boss.

"Congratulations!" Velvet said, patting him on the back. "That was even more impressive than that cat that learned to play."

Cut to a player with a cat's head, with another player staring at it.

"Meow."

"Huh what did you know?" Yang replied.

"Oh my god! You guys can see it too?! So I'm not crazy! Isn't that great, Jesus?!" We see things from the players' perceptive, with a giant hallucination of Jesus Christ looming over the crowd.

"That's right, Jeffrey. Now... kill them all." Jesus said, his voice growing darker.

"As you command, my Lord." Jeffrey whispered.

"Somethings very wrong with that guy." Qrow states.

"I honestly agree with you, Branwen… Blegh! That left a horrible taste in my mouth." Winter stated.

Cut back to Velvet talking to Shirou. The other players are applauding his victory.

"You've led us to victory, Shirou. These men and I will follow you to hell itself. Now... address your people." Velvet is smiling and pushing Shirou to the crowd.

Shirou gets up and smirks. "I always knew this day would come. Ahem. Fellow gamers! We have traveled far and up many stairs to get to this point. Fighting side by side, noobs, and leets, alike. I'd like to take a moment to say that I couldn't have done it without the help of each and every one of you."

"Aw, that's a nice thing to say-" Velvet was cut off when Shirou counties.

"Of course, I'm not a liar, so I'm not gonna say any of that."

"Oh shit."

"I thought as much." Weiss states.

Shirou grins look at the group. "I mean, really. I could've done this whole Boss Fight myself. But to be fair, I guess you did absorb a bit of damage for me, which was nice. You were an adequate meat shield, and no one can ever take that away from you."

"Fuck. Fuck! Shut up! SHUT UP!" Velvet started to say.

"So for those of you who came in late, and that one guy playing Bejeweled back there... shoot for the stars... it'll make it more fun when I kick you back into the dirt."

"You're not better than us!" Kiaboru said.

"Yeah! What makes you think you're so cool?!" Nora shouts to the screen.

Shirou equips the coat he got for beating Illfang and smugly looks at the group."My sweet-ass coat begs to differ."

"Dammit, he's got us there." one player muttered.

Shirou ascends the stairs out of the Boss Room. Fiona follows him and grabs him by the shoulder. "Shirou, wait!"

Those in the audience looked on at Fiona's alternate in hope. Surely she could turn him around after their excellent display of partnership.

"I want half." She said, staring at him blankly.

That hope was quickly squashed, shot at, and finally burned to death via gasoline and cracking a fire dust crystal.

Shirou turns to her confused. " I'm... sorry. What?!"

"I want half the coat. I did half the work, I should get half the coat." Fiona explain and extends her hand for him give it to her.

"No! It's not fabric I can cut! It's just a bunch of 1s and 0s!" Shirou was getting frustrated.

"Fine, then give me the 1s."

" Fuck you! I want the 1s!" He groans and open the menu. "I am not having this argument. I'm disolving this party." Shirou opens his menu and "Di-solves" their party.

"Shirou! If you walk away with my half of the coat, I will make your life a living hell!" Fiona screamed.

"You know what? Fine! I'll give you the damn coat! Just send me a trade request."

"A... what?"

Fiona's eyes widened as she watched from the theater, "No…"

Shirou grins viciously "Oh, it's quite simple really... Just open your menu." Shirou starts laughing maniacally as he walks out the doors as Fiona screams at him:"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" At him.

Outro Plays.

Fiona screams, "I can't believe the nerve of that-! GRAAAAH!"

"Can you please stop screaming! You're going to cause everyone's ears to bleed." Whitley said while using a handkerchief to rub his ears.

Fiona huffed then matched off, going to another place in the theater.

"Well that was interesting. So you all say there's other viewings where we see other worlds besides this one." Coco asked the group.

"Oh yeah, we've seen a couple worlds ourselves, but only a handful I'd say." Yang admits.

"Well as long as we're here, we might as well take time to catch up." Velvet smiled.

"Yeah, this will be great! It's almost like we're back at Beacon, right Weiss? ...Weiss?" Ruby looks beside her but noticed that her partner was not with them anymore.

In another side of the theater, the all three Schnee siblings stand together. Both of the youngest siblings look at Winter who brought them here.

Winter clears her throat, "I understand that there are some… tension between the three of us during this viewing. So I asked you both here so that we may come to terms with our situation."

Weiss scoffs, "Come to terms with him! I highly doubt that."

Whitley crosses his arms, "Yes it does seem like a lost cause Winter."

"Enough! Both of you!" Winter raised her voice causing both of her younger siblings to go rigid. "I'm not expecting you to get along or even apologize to each other at the moment. What I ask is if you two can at least act civil with one another while in the theater?"

Both Weiss and Whitley looked at each other and sneered at each other.

"Why of course I can be civil with Whitley. It is a virtue of a lady to be civil at all times." Weiss said with hidden venom.

"Quite true, but being civil is also a quality an heir of the Schnee family must cultivate as well. So I look forward to spending this immeasurable amount of time with you my sisters." Whitley said with his best presentable smile.

"Yes, how I enjoy us taking this time to reacquaint with each other." Weiss said while one of her eyes was twitching.

"Well then sister, shall we?" Whitley gestured for Weiss to go ahead of him. Almost would have been believable if one did not notice the glint in his eyes and his strained smile.

Winter watched as both Weiss and Whitley walked back to the auditorium where everyone else had remained.

"...This can only end badly."

Hope you enjoyed.

[mirckel]

“---No you won’t die, Shirou. Because I’m the one that’s going to shut the gate.” With a gentle tone, a gentle smile, she stopped Shirou before he could use his final projection. His body was already on the verge of being destroyed, his mind almost gone, Illyasviel had seen this for some while now. If he would use this one projection to destroy the Greater Grail, he would not live. He would not be able to return to the people that were waiting for him.

Unlike her, Shirou Emiya had family waiting for him.

“Hey. Do you want to live, Shirou? Do you want to live on, no matter what kind of life you become?” A simple question - one even he should still be able to answer to. Unable to face him, to make her plans a reality, she kept her gaze forward.

It was something she’d constantly had nightmares about younger. She’d waken up on many a night, seeking out her mother with tears in her eyes, asking if she was going to become a cup. With a gentle smile her mother had always reassured her; no it would not happen, no she would not let it happen, no her father was working hard not to let it happen.

During the happy eight first years of her life she had believed it. She’d never see her mother again, but her father was going to return and live a happy life with her. Yet, she ended up never seeing either of them again. Slowly, she started to understand. This childhood nightmare she’d had was on its way becoming reality.

Even in this cavern, standing next to her younger brother, she was terrified. Still, when he nodded, when he said that yes he wanted to live, a relief poured over her. He still had a future waiting for him.

“Yeah. I'm glad to hear that. I wanted you to live instead of me.“ She did not have long - a year at the best. There was no desire within her to live this final year, not when it meant that the only person she had held dear was dead.

“Then I'll show you a miracle. It's an application of the magic I showed you earlier, but this one's amazing. This is the sorcery everyone wanted to see, after all.” It was what everyone was constantly seeking after. It felt foolish in the moment.

She could hear Shirou trying to call out her name. The fact that he was unable to do so made her heart ache. The only reason he had ended up in this very condition was because of her. Because he had come to get her. Would he not have done so, Shirou would still have both his arms. Shirou would still have an intact body, an intact mind.

“---But the container’s a bit cheap.” She continues, her voice slightly wavering. “I can't completely reproduce it using only my own body, but it's all right. You'll be back in no time if you and Rin keep trying.” With Rin’s resources and craftiness, Illyasviel was certain that with a little help to keep Shirou’s body intact long enough he could return back to his usual self.

“------ a...!”

So she takes a step towards the center. One step, another one, third one, Illyasviel does not stop until she has reached her destination. For most of her life she had felt lonely and hurt - even the only person she had been able to find solace with before the Holy Grail War had been reduced to a mad version of himself. In Fuyuki she had been surprised to grow so close to the boy who had taken her family from her, who had taken her happy life away from her.

With each step she felt calmer. With each step she was getting closer to making her childhood fear into reality, but somehow the fear felt tiny and insignificant in the moment.

“Goodbye. We aren’t related by blood, but I’m glad we were siblings.” Though she had hated the unknown boy who had stolen her family, cursed the boy and wished nothing but ill towards him, she was happy that they were siblings. It was strange how they had ended up so, but it was the truth. This bond was something she was willing to exchange her life for.

“------” ya. If that’s how you feel, then don’t go. I can't sacrifice you. I said we'd live together to make up for all the time you've lived alone. But---if one of us has to be sacrificed, then ---

“No. You said an older brother protects his younger sister, right? …Yeah. I'm the older sister. So I have to protect my younger brother.” Shirou Emiya still had a life to live, a long one, one he from the bottom of his heart wanted to live. It was her duty, as an older sister, to give protect him and give him what he wished for. In the end she could see it - this was the meaning of her life, this was what she had endured all for, lived through all for.

A part of her within told that this was not it. This was not the Einzbern wish, this would not bring anything to her family. Would she do this there would be no Einzberns anymore. So she would need to turn around, and not close the gates.

But it was a part of her which she ignored. A part of her which she had stopped listening to after meeting Shirou.

“Illya---Illya, Illya, Illya, Illya, Illya, Illya, Illya, Illya------!!!”

Despite the blinding light, despite the ear deafening rumble, she could hear Shirou calling out for her over and over again. But it was too late now. Too late to turn back, to stop it. And she didn’t want to.

Turning around, finally facing Shirou, Illyasviel only smiled a wide, brilliant smile at her younger brother. One unlike she had ever smiled. For she knew there was no return.

She was finally happy. The strange emotion she had not felt in some time filled her as she smiled at her younger brother. It was a final smile to leave him at peace. To let him feel better about her choice. To remember her how she had wanted to be for so long--- happy.

She smiles goodbye and shuts the gate of the Great Holy Grail.

The sage cries out. “Open, Gates of Heaven. Bless us and bestow miracles upon us!” The sage cries out in regret. “Close, Gates of Heaven. Save us from all our sins and evil!”

The curtain closes. The millennium comes to a standstill. Our dreams, our hope... was a forbidden “failure” from the start.

The stars fall out of the sky. Space closes up into nothingness. The pathway to the center is shrouded with our sins.

...I am, at last, filled with joy.

All has been engulfed by darkness. Nothing can hurt you now. At last, you have been set free from the pain you carried for so long.

You may now rest, without a worry on mind.

                                              HEAVEN’S FEEL - TRUE END

[sparklyjojos]

[THE CHILDISH DARKNESS Recaps, Chapters 1-2]

Note 1: As this book is a direct sequel, it requires good knowledge of the events of Smoke, Soil or Sacrifices (recapped here).

Note 2: Please be aware that the book revolves around a dysfuntional family, bad relationships, heavy depression and self-harm, and that the narrator might not be a very morally upstanding man.

Note 3: Do not believe his lies.

Note 4: Or do. It’s your call.

Note 5: Different people want to believe in different stories, after all.

[tw: gore, body horror, csa, suicide, sorta homophobic undertones?]

---

ONE

[Our narrator is Natsukawa Saburou, a writer of trashy mystery novels and one of the older brothers of Shirou, the narrator of Smoke, Soil or Sacrifices.]

Saburou recalls his time in middle school when he was concerned about possibly being gay and in denial, since he liked to suck girls’ fingers and that’s ALMOST like blowing a guy, RIGHT? But his actually gay friend Okamoto Yasuhiro, known as Okachi, said that Saburou didn’t seem to be actually gay. On the other hand, their mutual friend Kaede seemed to him to have some lesbian vibes. (The three often hanged out together.) Okachi also claimed that while there is a line between straight and gay, it’s faint and sometimes cannot be seen clearly.

--

When they were In high school, Kaede’s father died in a work-related accident, and she reacted to it by eating a tremendous amount of food and falling into a few days worth of sleep. While she was sleeping her left arm started to swell unnaturally. As it turned out, a womb-like structure had developed there, along with a fast growing fetus, which was cut out in surgery and then cut out again when the same unbelievable event repeated. Kaede’s family claimed that maybe it was the dead father trying to come back to help Kaede, as she had a stalker called Araki Kazuo.

Whether the dad thing was true or not, Saburou decided to solve the problem by beating up Araki. The two engaged in a lot of fights escalating to using weapons. After learning about the problem, Saburou’s brother Shirou said that maybe their older brother Jirou was right: just beating up a guy wasn’t enough, you had to use much more drastic measures. Saburou followed this advice as far as cutting Araki’s two fingers off, internally horrified at the act and how much the threats coming out of his own mouth sounded like something Jirou would say. Upon returning home he popped the fingers in the fridge in case one of Araki’s buddies asked to get them back (nobody did) and sat down to play the piano to calm himself down.

At that time Saburou loved to play the piano, but only a single piece: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. No other music resonated with him so much, and as the result he was a rather poor pianist. One day when he heard the musically gifted Jirou play Beethoven, he was struck by the artistry and emotion heard in the piece. [By struck I mean he even popped a boner and had to go deal with it, because this is Maijo Otaro’s book.] The difference in skill between them was obvious and depressing. Then Saburou noticed that Jirou in all his genius seemed to get quickly bored with each piece and just randomly choose what to play. Maybe Jirou had genius, but Saburou had just enough skill to play the one piece he loved. Maybe their approaches were both okay. It was hard to judge.

While playing, Saburou thought about how Araki had yelled that his stalking was the proof of his love for Kaede. Surely there was a ‘love’ there, much like both sides of an abusive relationship may be convinced of their ‘love’. Maybe Kaede’s dead father also tried to return out of ‘love’, oblivious to the fact that each time he only hurt his daughter more and more.

[And then Saburou tried to lick those cut off fingers in the fridge and was like ‘well, I’m disgusted, and since these belonged to a guy that clearly means I’m not gay!” ...Whatever you say, narrator.]

 TWO

What is a story?, the narrator is wondering. Why does it exist? Why don’t we employ our power of imagination solely to think of new ways to find shelter or food, but we need stories? Why do we need to give birth to fiction, something that doesn’t exist in this world? Why do we need the lies called a story?

The narrator believes that it’s because you can’t tell the truth using anything other than lies. Every writer knows that using a lie will make something seem more real than just faithfully recreating reality; will make deep emotions deeper. A story is a truth you want to tell, but told in lying words. Something that can ellicit joy greater than just plain laughter, or suffering greater than just normal pain. It’s not really something you explain as much as something you feel.

Maybe it’s not that the writer chooses a story, as much as the story has a chance meeting with the writer and can be transferred to others through him. Maybe that’s why no one can write just any story or pass down just any truth. The story is the one who conveys the truth by using the writer as a tool.

Certainly when Saburou was writing two novels in high school, The White Forest (白い森) and The Hymn (賛歌), he did want to convey truths: about commitment and detachment, and how one could at once be with others but still stay separated from them. When he came to write cheap mystery novels later, he ceased to be the tool of the story. Focusing on monetary gain, he wasn’t able to write something more real than reality.

Shirou noticed that and kept criticizing how stupid Saburou’s new novels were, how he’d sold himself out and that he’d become a factory producing the same thing in a different package over and over again, and even snapped one of Saburou’s books in half once. Saburou understood the point: he should be writing more important things and give his life some value. There was value to someone like Shirou, an ER surgeon saving lives every day, but Saburou didn’t really do nothing special.

After the recent case and Nozaki’s attack [see: Smoke, Soil or Sacrifices], 29-year-old Saburou started to feel like now that he had witnessed a true case, he wouldn’t be able to lie convincingly in his novels, and therefore would be unable to convey the truth. He gave up on the idea of turning the Nozaki case into a book, even if it’d bring a lot of money. Or maybe that was just his attempt to escape the reality of what happened.

Saburou called his editors and announced he’s not going to write anything anymore. He had stable income from a cram school he had once established (with an apt acronym of NAPS), and since nobody there really liked him coming around and trying to help, he could fill his time with whatever else he wanted.

At first he focused on sleeping with women. Many women, who tended to be the girlfriends and wives of his friends. So many women that in an attempt to take each one to a different hotel, he sort of ran out of all good hotels in Fukui, and only then realized how ridiculous this whole way of living was and maybe he should focus on something else.

For some time he was playing the piano in a club called Super Dash Penguins [clearly the greatest club name ever] near the Fukui station. He was doing pretty good when imitating famous jazz pianists, and maybe that was precisely what he was best at: not doing anything original of his own, just putting a little twist on something created by others.

--

Around that time, in March, Saburou accidentally witnessed a teenage girl burying a mannequin in the middle of a field. Quite suspicious activity, seeing as the case of Nozaki burying multiple women was still fresh in everyone’s mind. So when the girl then rode her bike past his car, he decided to stealthily follow her [while commenting about how pretty she is in a highly creepy way. Er, narrator? Please stop?]. She was circling between what seemed to be her house and various places in Nishi Akatsuki, each time taking a mannequin from the shed, riding to some remote place and burying it. Saburou decided to investigate the shed while she was out, but during his first attempt he was almost caught by a thin bespectacled man wielding a hoe – probably her father – so he had to return to the car and wait for a more opportune time.

At the more opportune time, Saburou managed to sneak inside the shed and found a map of Nishi Akatsuki with fourteen red pins. Six of them marked the locations of Nozaki’s attacks, and eight pointed to the places where the girl had buried the mannequins.

Unable to do a lot more, Saburou returned home. His mother was still in a coma, his father Maruo and oldest brother Ichirou were still hospitalized, and Shirou spent a lot of time at his girlfriend Atena’s place, so Saburou was usually completely alone in the Natsukawa house. On that day, though, Shirou was home and slammed a news article on the table in front of him. Together with a bag containing a pair of real human legs.

The article provided the names of people who had gone missing since February, all having the surnames Aoki or Aikawa, which fit the pattern that Nozaki used to choose victims. What’s more, the disembodied legs that probably belonged to a missing person were found buried in a location that would lie on top of Jawakutora’s spiral on the map of Nishi Akatsuki.

Saburou remembered the girl burying mannequins. While the points on her map seemed rather randomly chosen, she might have something to do with the copycat. Saburou was a little afraid that Shirou’s impulsiveness would result in him trying to punch the truth out of the girl, but it’s not like all Natsukawas didn’t have this sort of temper.

They arrived at the girl’s house. Shirou invited himself in and by being loud, flashy and acting like he had the full right to be here, got the girl’s father (who’s not the thin guy Saburou saw earlier) to show them her room. The father stated that the girl – Fuse Yurio – hadn’t shown any changes in behavior recently, but to be honest, she had always been a strange child in the first place.

Shirou in his chaotic investigation of Yurio’s room carelessly threw a lot of books on the ground: a lot of weird mystery novels in the vein of Nisio Isin and Seiryoin Ryusui, as well as a plethora of paranormal trash, mostly about UFO. (“Oh, look, now these are some really stupid books,” Shirou said throwing Saburou’s entire Runbaba series to the ground. Fair enough.)  Finally Shirou found a suspicious bundle of volumes held together with a rubber band saying DON’T TOUCH ME, using hundreds of tiny kanji for ‘death’ to make the letters. How very teenage. The bundle contained several tomes with novel-like titles, one of them called Runbaba Notebook and featuring a poor picture of very effeminately looking Runbaba.

Shirou noticed aloud that the first character of each title put together created a message: Dad comes into the room at night. The possible implication made Saburou so outraged he wanted to jump at Yurio’s father with fists before they even tried to make sure there’s really abuse going on, but Shirou managed to stop him. The father claimed that he had no idea what the message was about. Yurio was apparently weird enough to do a creepy thing like that randomly. Shirou decided he’d want to hear the explanation from the source, but it seemed Yurio didn’t have a cellphone he could call.

Further investigation revealed a file titled ‘suicide note’ on Yurio’s PC, containing a description of her being abused sexually by her father, and: “I just want to know that at least my life is my own. My body will soon disappear from this Earth.”

Saburou really did punch the father this time and Shirou had to hold him back to prevent carnage (“Sorry Mr. Fuse, this guy here loves kids and snaps when he hears about child abuse”). While Shirou acknowledged the abuse might really be happening, he also couldn’t ignore the possibility that this could be just a kind of a cry for attention on Yurio’s part, or that it may be a sort of self-harm done in one own’s imagination.

Shirou then found a set of school books and a middle school uniform, all unused, and only then did Saburou realize that the girl had been out in the fields during school hours. According to the father, Yurio had been homeschooled even since she’d refused to attend classes, probably because her unusual personality had made her a target for bullies. Shirou asked for a way of contacting Yurio’s peers that still were friends with her.

While the father left the room to put together a phone number list, Shirou scolded Saburou for punching people without thinking. “Seems you haven’t used your head properly in years! Is it going to take another dead Runbaba and closing yourself in that damn warehouse for you to actually think?!” Saburou didn’t have an answer to that. Shirou asserted that right now the most pressing issue wasn’t figuring out all the family’s issues, but finding Yurio, who might have really been planning suicide.

And so Saburou had to focus on thinking. He couldn’t afford another Runbaba, couldn’t just close himself off from the world in some dark place. Finding this girl was all that mattered, this girl who smelled of citrus fruit and would surely grow up into a beautiful woman one day [um, narrator, your focus on those things in a thirteen-year-old girl is kinda creepy].

Shirou got a call from his friend Sanbonsugi, who had been watching the place that those disembodied legs had been found at. Sanbonsugi witnessed the murderer coming back to the crime scene. The man’s description exactly matched that of the man with glasses that Saburou had seen snooping around Yurio’s house earlier.

Shirou found a mostly destroyed notebook in an oil drum used to burn trash, which could mean Yurio got rid of the evidence for whatever plan she had in mind. The map in the shed had a new addition that Saburou hadn’t seen earlier, a sentence scrawled on it: YOU CAN’T FIND ME.

The two brothers got moving through the town. Shirou called each person from the list that the father had provided and learned that apparently Yurio had a boyfriend. [“Don’t look so down about it, you lolicon,” Shirou said towards Saburou. Thanks for recognizing the creepiness, dude.] The boyfriend was a sixteen-year-old Hashimoto Takashi. (“Seems you’re not the only lolicon around, huh?”) The brothers split, Saburou searching for the boyfriend and Yurio, while Shirou went on to catch the glasses-wearing murderer.

Saburou was unsuccessful in getting any information from Hashimoto’s parents. They didn’t seem to be interested in their son’s life in the slightest and had no idea who Fuse Yurio was.

Meanwhile, Shirou and his friend caught the murderer while he was checking on the buried body parts. The guy was Takano Yoshiki from the neighboring town Nanjou, and when Shirou arrived at his house, inside he found Yurio’s boyfriend Hashimoto Takashi, dead from suffocation, still tied to a chair with tape.

After beating the shit out of Takano, Shirou discovered yet another map of Nishi Akatsuki covered with pins, this one portraying what Takano had been attempting to do by burying the body parts: draw a giant monkey similar to that of the Nazca Lines. Jawakutora’s spiral would create the monkey’s tail.

After Shirou called Saburou, and after they beat the hell out of Takano once again, they asked him about the reason for drawing the picture. Takano answered,

“For Great Jawakutora.”

This time it was Saburou who had to pull his brother away to prevent murder.

Saburou then found Hashimoto’s sports bag. Stuffed inside was an array of nine balls used in different sports as well as a globe. The soccer ball had a paper ring around it. It must have symbolized Saturn, the globe – the Earth, and the rest – the other planets and the Sun. Why would a high schooler lug those around? Why would the same high schooler be killed? Maybe he and Yurio planned to do something that interferred with Takano’s little project. That would explain why Takano had been hanging around her house with a hoe: to follow her and dig up the mannequins so they wouldn’t mess up his Nazca monkey design. But what image could be created using ten “celestial bodies” and eight mannequins... and six buried women?

Saburou couldn’t figure this out, but Shirou put two and two together as soon as he saw it, running to the nearby computer to search for it (using awful dial-up Internet, because this is early 2000s) and make sure.

The Pioneer plaque was sent to space twice, on board of Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11. Aside from a drawing of two humans and the Pioneer probe, it also featured a message for the aliens on how to find the probe’s origin. The pulsar map using 14 pulsars -- that starburst shape on the left side of the plaque -- could be used to calculate the position of the Sun, and the drawing of the Solar System below pointed to the third planet from the Sun.

Ten objects of the Solar System, fourteen pulsars. Ten balls, six buried women and eight mannequins. A strange girl obsessed with UFO could definitely come up with something like this.

Shirou said that the pulsar map could be pointing them to where Yurio is. Her writing YOU CAN’T FIND ME might have meant that she desperately wanted to be found. Clearly, this was the time for Saburou to step in. Saburou replied that he wasn’t the one who had managed to find all those clues, but Shirou retorted that it had been Saburou who had already found Yurio once, and Shirou wouldn’t be able to figure the situation out without that.

So Saburou started to think about where Yurio could be. Maybe she and her boyfriend Hashimoto had planned to kill themselves so that their naked bodies would symbolize the man and the woman from the Pioneer plaque. If so, then maybe the additional fifteenth line of the pulsar map – the galactic plane – would point to them, just like it seemed to point to the two humans in the drawing.

Saburou put on his warmest clothes (even March is quite cold in Nishi Akatsuki) and walked deep into the dark mountains, moving along the ‘galactic plane’ towards the Hand Pond, called so after its characteristic hand-like shape. The lake seemed like an appropriate place for a meeting between two teens.

The mountain forest at night was cold and frightening, mostly because of the possibility of walking into a bear. But also because of an urban legend claiming that a family of cannibals known as Chiuhi lived in secret underground tunnels stretching all throughout the mountains, and that they’d be more than ready to pull a lonely wanderer like him into a hole and eat him.

Although what really scared Saburou was the possibility of Jirou somehow being there, that horrifying man ready to enact revenge on the family starting from his younger brother.

Finally Saburou caught the distant glimpse of the pond glinting with moonlight. Finally a spot of light in the oppresive darkness. Was Yurio still alive? Dead? If she had already died, then maybe exhausted Saburou could just lie next to her instead of Hashimoto and die too so her efforts wouldn’t be in vain, or something.

Upon arriving at the moonlit lake Saburou turned off his flashlight and became one with the darkness.

It wasn’t a bad feeling. Maybe once you’re caught by the very thing you’re afraid of, there’s no further point in fearing it.

In the quiet darkness, Saburou heard music coming from within him. Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. He whistled to the tune and in response heard a small sound somewhere in the darkness. Was that Yurio? A bear? The Chiuhi? Jirou? A UFO full of aliens? He continued to whistle until someone asked, “Who’s there?” A girl’s voice with no discernible emotion.

Saburou thought that maybe it’d be better if aliens really showed up right now, responding to “the Pioneer plaque” or maybe “the Nazca monkey”. People had killed or were planning to die just to make these images. That’s why the aliens really should notice them and show up.

If Saburou was writing a novel about all this, he’d certainly make that happen.

A story passed from an enthusiathic creator to the recipient in the sky...

Even if it’d be a lie, that’d be okay. After all, it was the known truth of stories that a person’s great effort would without fail be noticed by someone else.

[>>>NEXT>>>]

[lycanspirited]

Darkness’ Grasp [Drabble]

He knocks then enters Shirou’s house. Ears twitching, three voices? “Grandpa!” He called out, no reply but laughter? He made his way towards the back door to see Shirou, Cobalt and...

“Anubis!?” He threw the door open, now standing in front of Shirou. Anubis raised his brow. “What the hell is going on!?”

Anubis stood up, pawhands in view for Jasper. “Now just calm down there young Ashwolf, I am not here to harm anyone of such...family fame.” He gave a slight bow. “I’ve known Jonathan for a long time, like Cobalt.”

“Jonathan?” He looked back at Shirou who nodded. “I thought...”

“Your father was Jonathan the second.. My original name was Jonathan.” Shirou said trying to calm Jasper down. “Anubis isn’t a foe, though he’s done something I question, he’s a good friend who helped me in a dire time.”

Jasper glanced back then at Cobalt. He felt short of breath. Anubis slowly set a pawhand on Jasper’s shoulder. The two locked eyes, Anubis giving a nod as Jasper was forced to sit down. “Now, do you drink wine?” A honestly question, something to lighten the mood, Jasper looked at Shirou and Cobalt who each had a wine glass.

Jasper declined and just sat there, watching the three, like family almost. Anubis spoke of Shirou’s time taking out three Panther tanks. Jasper just listened, though when Anubis spoke about Shirou letting loose he spoke up.

“I don’t believe that.” He said flatly.

Anubis raised a brow. “Shirou did a lot, in order to save your family from my Brother, young Ashwolf. Ra isn’t very happy, though I think he’s done trying to kill your blood line.”

“Killing...The fuck did my family do to get the wrath of a god?”

“Exist.”

This made Jasper laugh, though Anubis’ face showed hard like a stonewall. The laughing slowly stopped and everyone looked at Jasper. “You can’t be...Just cause we exist we are on a god’s hit list!?”

“Half humans, half animals are a stain on the world; in his eyes. All werewolves shouldn’t live. You have powers beyond that of a normal human and he can’t stand that.”

Jasper sat there, silent, letting the god speak and letting the words set in his mind. A god, who for the longest time he thought didn’t exist wants him and all other werewolves dead. His grandfather has a secret...had. He’s close friends with not only a demigod, but a true god?

“How...”

Shirou stood up and rests a hand on his shoulder. “You’re a good kid, Jasper. Your father would be proud, but right now, don’t worry about it. You can’t afford to, trust me.”

[rurukandy]

Regarding Atalanta and her “obsession with children”

To begin with, it’s not an unjustified “obsession”. In fact, Atalanta has her reasons to be attached to children and to fight for her dream with all her might. She wants a place where all children are loved, as the novel says:

The anime only shows her saying “I want a world where children are loved”, but it’s not elaborated like in the novel. She wants a world where children are loved, and thanks to that love they receive in their childhood, they grow as proper adults who love their own children and don’t abandon them and so on. Like Achilles said: a pure and beautiful wish.

As you might know, Atalanta was abandoned as a child by her father. Her “sin” was to be born as a woman, since her father, king of Arcadia, wanted a son, so he left her to her luck in the wildness, where Artemis took a pity for her and saved her life. Then some hunters found her and raised her. In short, Atalanta grew up without knowing what was parental love. She was thrown away as if she was something disposable, a mere object, and she fights for a world where children don’t suffer the same destiny.

Now, you might wonder (for those who only watched the anime), why does Atalanta want to kill Jeanne so badly? Why did Atalanta kill Jack, who was a child, if she loves children so much? Answers under the cut:

In volume 3 (and the anime), Atalanta is sent by Shirou to patrol Trifas, and when night falls and Jack and her master start with their hunt, Atalanta witnesses everything Jack and Reika have been doing:

Atalanta doesn’t want children involved. Atalanta doesn’t want children to be hurt. And she will do ANYTHING to protect children, those she wants to save, so from the beginning, where Jack started to involve children in her foul play, Jack became her enemy. She and her master were using innocent creatures, so Atalanta had the resolution to kill them without showing any kind of mercy. They had to die. They had to disappear. Atalanta saw Jack and her master as enemies not because they were from the other faction. She started to loathe them, to feel this desire to kill them when they started to involve children.

Sadly, Jack doesn’t disappear. She asks the startled Atalanta why? why did she kill her mother? right before she releases all the vengeful spirits of the children she was made of. 

Atalanta is engulfed by Assassin’s illusion, and she (like Sieg and Jeanne) are transported to 1880′s London. You know the drill (the part where she has flashbacks with Medea Lily doesn’t appear in the novel, sorry) and she sees hell.

Hell where children are abandoned, mistreated, murdered, thrown away like she was. This is what Atalanta sees. Instead of seeing a happy memory with Medea like in the anime, what Atalanta sees is something more… hardcore. She sees practically what Sieg saw but a hundred times worse, mostly for her.

Atalanta wants to save them. She understands them. She understands what’s not being loved is like. She understands what’s being thrown away is like. She understands them. And that’s what makes her the perfect target for those spirits.

This leads to the children literally entering her body. The spirits literally enter her skin and possess her arm. That’s the explanation for the blackened arm that never makes it appeareance again in the anime (seriously A1, you had one job). After the children possess her arm, they start talking to her. Her experience in that “hell”, the despair she feels, the horrible things she witnessed, and the spirits of children possessing her lead her to her downfall. 

Later, Atalanta shows up when she sees Jeanne trying to purify the spirits in front of her. She has started with the ritual and the children are scared. Obviously, she’s not happy with it, because she thinks Jeanne will kill them. Atalanta is not only angry but frustrated, because since Jeanne is “a saint”, she has the power to SAVE the children from evil, a power Atalanta would wish to possess instead of relying on the power of the grail to make her wish come true. Atalanta would do anything, as I said, to save children from the hell they live in, and she has the perfect person to save them right in front of her, but said person believes that the right thing to do is killing them. And she ain’t having none of that. They’re just children. Victims of the circunstances. Why kill them? why not save them?

(Also, Jeanne notices her right arm, not like in the anime that they made her completely oblivious to something so obvious).

It’s sad to read this part because Atalanta knows she’s powerless when it comes to making her wish come true, so she clings tightly to Shirou’s own wish thinking that it’ll lead to hers and to win the war in order to have the grail grant her wish. What would a mere archer do to save children of mankind? Nothing. But.. if she had the grail. If she won the war. Or even… if she was “a saint”, like Jeanne.

She’s a saint. A saint must save people. Not kill them. That’s what the angry Atalanta thinks. Yet Jeanne doesn’t think of herself as a saint. 

The exorcism begins after Archer’s attempts to stop Ruler. The children are exorcised, and thus Jack meets her end. However, Atalanta still has the spirits that weren’t exorcised living in her right arm. The story progresses with Atalanta slowly suffering her downfall, with her right arm becoming rotten and with the voices asking her to kill that fake saint of a woman. Like being brainwashed. 

Later, Archer returns to the hanging gardens and her behavior is different, to the point that both Shirou and Semiramis wonder what’s up with her. She responds to their questions in an apathetic, boring manner and claims she’s tired. However, Shirou notes her beautiful face is full of something akin to rage:

Then, she has this encounter with Caster that was completely cut off the anime, that deeply explores her rage, and her resolution to kill Ruler more than anything:

Archer of Red silently walked through the Hanging Gardens. Her pace was quick, as if she was trying to shake off that scene carved into her memories. But before she could go anywhere, a single man came to stand in her path.

“…Out of the way, Caster.”

(…)

Archer grabbed the collar of Caster’s shirt as if she were fed up with him—and pushed him against a wall.

“I’m tired. Very tired. So shut up, you clown.”

But Caster didn’t shut up.

“There is no way you of all people would be tired from a mere scouting mission! And you aren’t tired, but frightened, are you not? Just like a child who’s unable to escape into sleep after hearing a scary story!”

“Shut up!”

Archer’s gaze oozed with killing intent. Her eyes declared that she would kill him if he joked around any further. Nevertheless—Caster questioned her, his smile never breaking.

“—What did you see? What did you perceive? How foolish. No matter what you saw, it is already merely a remnant of the past. We are ghosts of the past, and if ghosts regret the past, they become merely vengeful spirits.”

The words of the clown, who shouldn’t have known anything, gouged the deepest depths of Archer’s heart.

“You bastard…!!”

(…)

“—We must live in the future. To devote our bodies to the yet-unseen world. Archer, you also want to see it, don’t you? A world where all children are loved!”

(…)

“For the sake of that, we must activate the Greater Grail. Through any means possible.”

“…You really believe that it will grant that wish?”

“You heard our Master’s words, did you not? That Greater Grail can certainly grant his and your wish.”

Hearing that answer, distress and conflict filled Archer of Red’s face. Caster’s words were truly like the devil’s whisper.

“I—don’t know. Certainly, if it’s his wish, it might have the power to grant my wish as well. But… but, is it really all right? Is that wish truly… correct?”

“Who knows? I don’t know either. No, let me put it like this. Are you unable to decide unless there’s a guarantee? [To be or not to be]—in that case, a clown can only laugh!”

Archer glared at Caster for a little while—but a little bit of life had returned to her eyes. She silently walked away from him.

Caster called out from behind her.

“By the way, Archer-dono. In the end, just what kind of hell did you see?”

Keeping her back to him, Archer whispered softly.

“…It was a piece of the world’s system. Gods, heroes, magical beasts, evil kings—everything was dead there.”

If an evil being committed a crime, then she would eliminate it.

If a god went on a rampage, then she would search for a method to soothe it.

But there was neither there. It was a part of mechanism of the world, working so superbly well that it created a perfect system that preyed on the weak.

There was only one way to destroy it.

The fulfillment of her wish by the activation of the Greater Grail. That was Archer’s only hope now.

“I couldn’t save them with my own power… But, even though that woman could have saved them, she abandoned them and cut them down.”

Her fists trembled with rage—and, even while understanding that this question was a landmine, Caster of Red asked her without holding back his curiosity.

“That woman?”

Turning around at the question, Archer of Red’s eyes were filled with dreadful glee.

“Jeanne d’Arc. I will kill that woman. I’ll shoot her down with my arrows, and if that doesn’t work, I will rip her apart with my claws, and if that doesn’t work, I will tear her to shreds with my fangs.”

“Oh my, is that possible with your beautiful nails and teeth?”

With unfading madness in her eyes, Archer of Red smiled in joy from the bottom of her heart.

“It’s possible. If it’s to kill that woman, I will even become a monster.”

A foreshadow of her metamorphosis. Everything I mentioned before is mentioned here. Archer is frustrated, enraged, and Shakespeare is only fueling the fire of her wish of revenge. Not Achilles’ deadly honesty; it’s this conversation Shakespeare gives her what makes her hatred even intense. This exchange of words not only gives Shakespeare’s character a bit more of importance (yeah, more than merely being comic relief), but makes clearer the reasons why Atalanta wants to kill Ruler if you didn’t get it when she was in Trifas. 

Later, Atalanta goes to her room and we find out this:

However, the interior design of the rooms was quite cold and blunt. To Servants, who did not require sleep or food, personal rooms were simply for protecting their privacy. And even that privacy was almost completely useless considering the role they were summoned to this world for.

However, right now, Archer of Red needed to be alone.

She sat on the bed and threw off her leather gauntlets—and then she looked at her discolored right arm. There was a black bruise like a curled snake twining around the skin of her arm.

It neither hurt nor inconvenienced her movements. But Archer could tell. This was a ‘curse’ of extremely high purity. Most likely, it was from that darkness which had swallowed her up when she killed Assassin of Black’s Master.

Assassin of Black’s repulsive past. The flocks of children, the grudge of the unborn fetuses. Right before Assassin of Black died and dispersed, this curse was probably engraved in Archer.

Of course, it would be easy to cut it off. Though Archer had no means to dispel curses, their group’s Assassin had the abilities of a Caster. There was also the dual Master-Servant Shirou Kotomine to rely on.

If she asked for their aid, it probably wouldn’t be hard to restore her right arm.

But—Archer couldn’t choose that option no matter what. Naturally, she didn’t want to rely on Assassin’s help. The idea of showing any weakness to that woman wasn’t even funny enough to be a joke.

And Shirou Kotomine was technically Assassin’s Master. So she was naturally reluctant to request his help.

…No, those were all excuses. Archer understood. She had to accept this curse. This curse was the resentment of the children she loved more than anything else.

Fortunately, there was little pain since it was merely the work of low-class spirits.

And she didn’t mind even if this curse brought about her own destruction. This was a punishment. A punishment she had to accept.

She wrapped bandages around her rotten-smelling right arm, and decided to leave it alone with that.

There was one thing that Archer hadn’t noticed. It was true that what possessed her right arm were low-class vengeful spirits, too weak to have any effect on Archer herself. After all, Servants were the spirits of heroes who stood at the pinnacle of all spirits.

In the first place, it had been possible for Archer to reject the possession. The moment the vengeful spirits entered her arm, she could have even devoured them as sustenance without any danger to herself.

But she had refused to do that. In other words, she wished for ‘those children’ to maintain their consciousness. Of course, these vengeful spirits did not have any high-level intellect. They simply continued whispering their wish.

We want to go back, we want to go back, we want to go back. We want to go back inside Mother’s belly.

They could only whisper. They were vengeful spirits that should have been completely harmless. But Archer of Red felt ashamed at those whispers and felt compassion and pity.

Those were feelings that one must never have when facing vengeful spirits who only made appeals for their final wish. That compassion stirred up her emotions, and gradually made her hatred swell up towards both herself, who couldn’t save them, and that holy maiden, who didn’t save them.

“I don’t care.”

But Archer of Red accepted that hatred without hesitation. She couldn’t help cherishing those ephemeral, destructive feelings.

The more she hated herself and that woman—the more she could prove and believe in her own love.

So, for now, she would sharpen her fangs. In order to kill that false saint, Archer of Red continued to earnestly nurture her hatred.

As an heroic spirit, stronger that those low-class spirits, they wouldn’t have represented a problem for her, yet she accepted them. She felt compassion for them. The spirits of CHILDREN, the things she loves the most in the world. So great is her kindness, so great is her heart that she didn’t want to erase them from her body and live with them, letting her consume her thoughts, leading her to her downfall. Atalanta might be a bit cruel, she might not care exactly about human life and accept the death of others as something natural and kill with an straight face without any regrets, but when it comes to children, it’s different. She becomes a kindhearted, lovingly person who’s willing to do ANYTHING for them and their sake. She also accepts this as a punishment part of her self loathing for not being able to save them. 

“I will bear with this punishment because I couldn’t save them, I will bear with it because they’re the spirits of children. This is the right thing to do”, she might have thought.

Later, when she’s preparing for the last battle, we get this:

At this point she’s completely possessed, full of hatred and rage, and remembering her past doesn’t help either. Atalanta now doesn’t only want to kill Jeanne, but kill everyone who interferes in her path to salvation of children. She will happily become a beast and even kill herself if it means saving them, or that’s what she thinks. Or that’s what the spirits make her thing. As long as she has their voices, she has motivation. She has the will to fight. She has the will to do ANYTHING to protect her wish.

Sadly, it’s a big contradiction. Her wish, so pure, so beautiful, being reached with destruction and slaughter? She doesn’t care. Her eyes are clouded with hate and she’s slowly losing her mind. She’s no longer thinking by herself at this rate and it becomes worse when she activates Agrius Metamorphosis (which, as you can see, has been intending to use after her exchange with Shakespeare)

TL/DR (because I’m tired): Atalanta’s obsession with children isn’t born from nowhere. And it’s not an insane obsession. I wouldn't call it obsession per say. She had a pure intent, she just wanted children to not go through what she had to go through, so she decided to join Shirou’s side, who had almost the same wish as her. She decided to discard her master (mostly after learning he was easily tricked) and follow Amakusa’s path. She didn’t intend to kill Jeanne out of jealously or just because “lmao she went nuts”. She was actually posssessed by evil spirits, and while she could have easily discarded them, she accepted them thanks to the hell she saw back in Jack’s illusory world. She saw her representation of herll. She saw a woman who was known as a saint killing children instead of saving them. She felt horrible with herself, to the point of hating herself for not being able to save them because she was powerless. The spirits simply took advantage of this and added in to her downfall. She fell into despair and the spirits pushed her further and further until Achilles kills her (thus making her reason go back and the spirits and the possession of the calydonian boar abandoning her body; if he hadn’t killed her, she would have killed herself, or Ruler could have killed her. The ending she got was pretty happy in fact, because she dies without being posessed, grateful with Rider’s actions and in peace with the words he dedicates her: “we’ll head to hell together… if you’re fine with a man like me”, and also his tears of sadness while he holds her in her arms and then both disappearing together… SOMETHING THE ANIME DIDN’T SHOW, UGH). 

No. Atalanta didn’t want to kill your waifu because she was “plain crazy” or “jealous”. She had her reasons and they’re more complicated than you think. I see a lot of people hating on Atalanta because Jeanne is a big fan favorite and while I do love Jeanne myself, it’s necessary to understand/know Atalanta’s reasons for her hatred to her. 

That’s what the anime failed to do. While the novel gave us the chance to emphathyze with Atalanta and her growing feelings of hatred, giving us full insight of what was going through her head and why she was going to do what she did, the anime only showed her being “attacked by children, then coming back with a black arm, then said black arm disappears out of the sudden and now she wants to kill Jeanne because children”. 

I’m not trying, with this post, to excuse Atalanta’s actions, though, because she did a lot of things wrong, yet I’d like people to understand why she did this.

I hope it makes sense because I’m falling asleep here.

[jasontoddiefor]

Oxymoron

Title: Oxymoron Fandom: Blue Exorcist Summary: "My, my, this is really extraordinary," Mephisto commented. "Never thought Father's heritage would resurface again." Blue flames, tail, and sharp teeth against Grace, halo and wings. Because some say that Satan once was an angel of Heaven so the idea that one of his children might inherit his Grace isn't far from impossible. Shirou really wished somebody would have told him that though. Then again - how hard can it be to raise a demon and an angel? AN: Basically Yukio is a nephilim, Rin does not care for human etiquette, Shiro underestimated parenting and Mephisto is as helpful as always: not at all. AO3 Fanfiction.net Consecratio Apotheosis, Anathema Figuring out Yuri's location was easier and harder than anticipated at the same time. On one hand, it should have become obvious where she was hiding weeks ago and Shirou had no doubt that Mephisto had already figured it out some time ago. She had managed to slip away from Section 13, and even more importantly, Mephisto’s watchful eyes. There was no way the Ba’al’s arrogance would allow Mephisto to lose track of Yuri for long

Sadly, the part that made it hard to find Yuri, was the fact that the area was full with demons. From small ones, not more dangerous than coal tars, to demons big enough to make Shirou wonder how the hell Yuri, heavily pregnant, had come through here unharmed. Then again, she was carrying Satan's spawn so maybe those demons left her alone or protected her even. Not to forget that Yuri had always maintained a close relationship with her summons, who were far more frightening than most demons Shirou had come across in the past twenty years.

"She's close!" Mephisto announced cheerily, seemingly unbothered by the cold.

Freaking demon bastard, probably had a spell around him to keep him warm while Shirou had to suffer. The white haired man really wondered what persuaded him to become best friends or whatever with Mephisto.

They tramped further through the snow until finally reaching a cave. It was guarded by two snowmen, who seemed to be on the verge of tears, and so let them through without any resistance. For a moment Shirou considered it being a trap, but then decided against it. Traps weren't really Yuri's style. She loved showing her opponents how powerful she was head-on in those rare cases she decided to fight.

"Something feels off," Mephisto spoke up again, this time sounding actually concerned.

Shirou turned to his companion and was graced with the sight of an unnerved appearing Mephisto. That was something Shirou believed to be entirely out of Mephisto's ability to express. Even after the Blue Night he hadn’t looked too out of place. Now though there was something seriously worrying the Ba’al. Great prospect. They turned around the next corner, reaching the end of the cave and so Yuri.

She was tired and exhausted, eye bags very prominent and her breathing flat. She wouldn't make it through the next hours. At least not here, maybe in a hospital with good personnel but not here in the middle of nowhere.

Odd how he first assessed the state of his old teammate instead of the two children, glowing blue and white-

Shirou's eyes widened. He had expected Satan's spawn to be there, that was no secret. The child was entirely covered in blue flames that harmed neither them nor Yuri, or anything really. Their ears were as elfish as Mephisto's and the aura they had- well, it was familiar enough to the other Ba’al Shirou had already encountered to confirm their relation. That the child didn’t look as much as monster as expected, well, that one was a little surprising but nothing Shirou couldn’t deal with, unlike the other surprise.

"My, my, this is really extraordinary," Mephisto commented. "Never thought Father's heritage would resurface again."

Shirou followed his gaze to the other twin. Extraordinary really seemed to underestimate the whole situation.

"They have wings and- is that a halo?!" Shirou exclaimed.

Mephisto nodded, frowning at the child.

"I have to admit, I didn't see that coming," the Baal continued, still assessing the situation.

"Didn't see what coming? What? That one spawn of Satan is a freaking angel?!"

Mephisto rolled his eyes at him, giving him an appraising look.

"You might want to tone it down, there are children here."

"Tone it down? Samael, I can deal with a lot of stuff, Heaven knows I put up with you after all, but angels are even too much for me-"

"Bickering with your boyfriend again, Shirou?" A gentle voice interrupted him.

Shirou turned to Yuri and, just like he always had, replied with a heated "Bastard's not my boyfriend!"

Growing up together had established typical questions with the same never changing answers.

Yuri's laughter, even if more timid, still sounded like bells.

"That's what you always say but I've never seen proof that you're not-" She interrupted herself with a coughing fit that sounded everything but good.

"Seems like I won't have much more time left, huh?" Yuri said as soon as she had recovered. She then adjusted her hold on the children carefully, making sure to not hurt the dark tail, Shiro spotted only now, of the demonic twin, or the wings of the angelic one.

"The one with the flames is Rin," Yuri told them. "Written like phosphorus. He's the older one."

For a moment Shirou thought Yuri was trying to joke, naming the child that. She had always had a biting humor and been a bit ironic. Then again the components of that name were beautiful too and well, it wasn’t like they didn't fit.

"Yukio's just a bit younger. My precious little snow angel. He- he's a bit sick I think," Yuri bit out between breaths, which sounded far too whistling for Shirou's taste. Perhaps he had given her more time than she really had. "Please take good care of them, Shirou. I- I know they'll be great."

He wanted to tell her that he couldn't. He wasn't there to take care of her children, he was supposed to get rid of them for good- and her too if she resisted. She was defenseless now, it would be so easy to fulfill the mission and go back to being the exorcist he was supposed to be. Still, something was stopping him and he couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. The fact that he could tell that those children had human souls? The memories of a young Yuri running around his teenage self’s legs probably weren't helping either. He hadn't been good with the other children back then, still wasn't good with children, and yet she had wanted him to play with her. She'd always been such a weird person.

"She's dying," Mephisto spoke up again, pulling Shirou out of his thoughts. It wasn't like him to let his thoughts drift so much. Maybe he'd taken too many missions lately.

"You could go ahead with your mission now," Mephisto continued, a sly smile on his face just as if he already knew what Shirou was thinking. He probably did, that bastard.

"They have human souls," Shirou said, his grip on Kurikara tightening. "I can't kill them."

Mephisto nodded, though Shirou doubted the King of Time cared about moralities as such. "Well then, I suppose I could-"

"The remains of S13 are no place for them," Shirou immediately interrupted. "You made failed copies there, not humans."

Mephisto crouched down, poking the cheeks of the winged twin. "And where else should they go? They don't look human to anyone but you."

And even to him they didn't look that human, only felt human and that still made a difference to him.

"Then I'll take them," Shirou argued and turned to the twins again, who were peacefully sleeping, unaware of how much the world wanted them dead. "Like I said, I put up with you, this can't be harder."

Taking in a demon and an angel? He put up with homunculi, failed clones, successful clones, stupid researchers, a shitton of demons and Demon Kings on top. This couldn’t be any harder, Shirou was sure.

Carefully he too crouched down and reached for the child closer to him, Rin. He hesitated for a moment, afraid the flames would burn him, but then picked the baby up. The blue flames were warm, comfortingly so in the cold. Not at all like those horrors he had seen at the Blue Night. He adjusted his grip, fearing it was too tight and he'd wake Rin up, but the boy kept on sleeping. Picking Yukio up turned out to be a bit tricky with just one free arm and Mephisto being as helpful as always: not at all. Eventually he managed though, the baby's wings folded together carefully. He had to admit, calm like this the twins were even adorable.

"Now look at this, already being the perfect father!" Mephisto announced, a gleeful smile on his face, far too wide with too many teeth.

It was then that the penny dropped.

"You tricked me," Shirou said, glaring at the demon.

"Guilty as charged!" Mephisto answered, still looking as stupid as before. "There's no way I would take them to S13, my dear siblings would end up knowing and I can't afford that, not with how tense everyone has been lately. I'm not parenting material anyway and I don't have the time to take care of them. But you? Yes, you have lots of time you're currently spending on unimportant stuff that you can put into raising those two. So, what you say? Still doing it?"

Shirou glared at the Demon King a bit longer before redirecting his gaze to the twins. "It's not like I have a choice, do I?"

"Not really, no," Mephisto answered.

"What are we doing with Yuri?" Shirou asked. He could tell that she was still there, but her presence was fading and soon would be gone.

"Leave it to me!"

Then Mephisto lifted his right hand, the movement already familiar.

"Öffnen!" He called, for once not sticking to his usual chant. Seemed like he wanted to make sure that this was secure. [Open!] Above Yuri a portal opened, slowly coming down on her and taking her to one of Mephisto's many pocket dimension.

"Now that this is done, we're going somewhere warmer!"

Mephisto repeated his one word command and this time the portal took them away from the cold place that gave birth to something that, for now, Shirou considered his betrayal of humanity.