36

035 - Fate of the Matou

Matou Shinji

I run.

I can't feel my legs anymore.

But I continue running.

My heart beats so hard, it feels like my chest might explode.

But I continue running.

My lungs burn with exertion, and I feel the edge of my vision grow dark.

But I continue running.

I must not stop, I cannot stop. If I do, they will catch up to me.

Right as I'm about to pass a wooden door, it explodes in a rain of splinters, a skeletal hand surging forward so suddenly I barely manage to dodge out of the way by bending my knees so it goes over me, failing on its attempt at grasping my… head? Brains? Soul?

I don't know, I don't care. I only want it to stop.

As I pick up speed again, my mind goes back to the cause of all this. Those bitches! It's all their fault! Those bitches ruined everything!

My dream, my hopes and future, my rightful destiny as the Matou Heir!

That bitch Sakura for summoning a useless Servant. That bitch Medusa for being a useless, disrespectful bitch. That bitch Tohsaka and her bitch Archer for refusing my generous offer. That bitch Mitsuzuri for being a frigid bitch and that bitch Emiya for being a cocky bitch!

And that–

A shiver goes down my spine as I remember cold yellow eyes and the crackling of unnatural red lightning. I grit my teeth and push the memories down,

I can't afford to slow down now. I must not forget the goal.

The Church. If only I can reach the Church, I'll be safe. Those bitches won't dare attack me once I get in there and ask for asylum. The creepy priest will keep them at bay.

But where is the Church!?

I've been running for what feels like hours without slowing down or stopping to rest and I can't find the damn thing!

As I turn a corner, I risk cast a glance behind me. A full skeleton has crawled out of the broken down door. At first it was the glint of gold or a red glow on the corner of my eye that kept me running, but at some point these things began pouring from the woodworks like a damn horror movie.

It's so clichéd I would laugh at it, if they weren't out to get me. Those things are damn scary when they actually happen in real life!

A window shatters somewhere over me, a shower of glass raining on my head as something heavy lands right behind me with a thump. I grit my teeth and run faster. I don't need to turn around to know that's another skeleton out for my blood.

Turning another corner, I find that street filled with skeletons. Nope. No way I can slip between the things, that path is a dead end.

Losing a few precious seconds, I bleed all my momentum to turn around to try to find another route.

My eyes are ready to scan for alternate routes before I even finish turning around, prepared to–

"Nii-san." A voice I know very well, eerily calm when compared with the situation I'm in, sounds right in front of me.

"Ah!" Startled by the unexpected call and trying to step back, I stumble on the curbside and fall to the ground.

The frantic voice in my head that has kept me running so far yells at me to stand up and keep moving, that I can't afford to pause and that things will catch up to me if I do. But I can't move from where I've fallen on my back. Right in front of me, face darkened by the shadow of long and messy bangs, wearing a torn school uniform and pale like a wax statue…

Stands the bitch of my 'sister'.

"S– Sakura?" Relief floods me. As much as it burns, Sakura is an actual magus. And she will never defy me. "Help me, you stupid bitch! Use your magecraft, kill those things!"

The daft bint ignores my commands, muttering something inane instead. "I loved you, Nii-san."

"I don't care, kill those things!"

"You were the only one to be kind to me, Nii-san."

I'm starting to get worried. If there's something wrong with the btich head and she cannot protect me… I get up, grabbing her by the neck of her ruined uniform. It's strangely cold to the touch, but I'm a bit too preoccupied to pay it any attention.

"You stupid cow! Are you–?"

"But then you abandoned me too." She lifts her head to look at me...

… Worms are festering in her empty eyeshockets. "Aaaaaah!"

"Why were you so cruel to me, Nii-san?" I lower my eyes from that horrifying vision, locking my gaze on the ground below her instead...

… Where the blood that pours down her legs is pooling at my feet, drenching my shoes and wetting my feet. "Aaaaaahh!"

I find myself running away again, faster than I've ever ran in my life. The skeletons have disappeared from the street, but I'm in no state to feel glad. I can feel Sakura's blood on my shoes, making squelching sounds with every step. I feel it soaking upwards.

It itches, it burns.

I keep running.

A hint of purple moving at my side scares the living shit out of me and I barely manage to keep myself from stumbling into the ground once again. Tilting my head in that direction, I find Rider's reflection on the window panes of the business along the street. She's floating up in the air, easily keeping pace with me.

Her hair hides her face, and her skin is burnt out and smoking.

"You were never my Master."

I don't flinch at her unkind words, I'm too busy running.

"You were just a stand-in, and a poor one at that."

I grit my teeth and let the bitch continue mouthing me off. She's just a hallucination anyway, Rider doesn't have any skill that would allow her to travel through reflections.

"Incompetent, powerless..." She continues, emboldened by my lack of reply. Until she finally hits a nerve. "A shame to your family, a stain they couldn't wash off."

"Yes, I know I know!" I snap, turning fully to face her. "What do you want from me!?"

"You sent me to my death." Rider faces me in turn, finally revealing her face to me.

Her eyes have burst open and her eyeshockets are steaming, cooked off remains of ocular matter splattered around her face.

Oh, God why is it always the eyes!?

The window panes explode, hundreds, thousands of skeletal hands reaching for me. I barely manage to jump back in time, taking a different alley to keep running. I allow myself a small sliver of hope. The alley runs uphill, the Church is built on top of a hill.

My throat burns, I keep running, Sakura's blood has drenched me to the waist and keeps seeping upwards.

The uphill alley goes for what feels like hours as I run. As I run and encounter more ghosts like Rider and Sakura, though they're not nearly as terrifying. Tohsaka taunts me for my attitude, and dares telling me how I should've behaved. The Emiya siblings make out with each other like the disgusting degenerates I've always known them to be, throwing me taunting looks and knowing smiles as they practically fuck each other in front of me. Mitsuzuri goes on a rant about how she pities every girl I ever hooked up with.

And there's a crazy cowled woman who keeps calling me Jason and promising horrible things. That one is actually scarier than Sakura.

Strangely, there's no more skeletons, but I don't dare slowing down, in case it's just a trap to catch up with me more easily.

But I keep running, pushing through the burn, the pain, the fear and, finally, the shape of the Church becomes visible at the end of the path.

I'm soaked in Sakura's blood, my whole body burns and aches, but I grit my teeth and run faster. I have never ran so fast in my life. I never knew one could run this far. But I cannot let them catch me, I refuse to be dragged down, not by that, not by them.

I actually feel somewhat lighter once I crest the slope and find the gates of the Church open and waiting for me. Cut against the light coming from inside the building stands the silhouette of the creepy priest. He had his hands clasped behind his body and smiles beatifically at me as I cover the last meters.

"A-Asylum!" I yell between gasps as I finally reach him. "I come to give up my rights as a Master and take refuge with the Church."

"I see. The Church indeed does offer shelter to defeated Masters." He hums placidly, as if this wasn't a matter of life and death for me. "Unfortunately, I can only extend that offer to humans."

"Eh?"

"The most I can do for you…" As he speaks, the arms of the priest unclasp and he reveals the multiple swords he's holding with each hand. "Is giving you the last rites."

His words trigger something in my mind and I find myself looking down at my hands. It's the visage of blood-drenched skeletal fingers that meet my eyes.

"Ah, I see." I nod, suddenly understanding the placidness of the priest. "I was already dead."

Fuyuki City sewers.

In recent days, the sewers of Fuyuki City have been unusually calm. The creatures that lurk in the filth, having grown fat and healthy in the last ten years, used to live in abundance with very few rules. Avoid the surface, avoid the humans, avoid the Worms.

As long as they followed those three simple rules, rats, cockroaches and other vermin had little to worry about beyond eating and reproducing. And yet…

For the last few days, the Worms have been on a frenzy. Attacking everything that crossed their path, overwhelming them with numbers and ferocity, migrating towards the deepest recesses of the sewers while bolstering their numbers even more by devouring the prey they hunt.

Deep underneath the city, in a place that's not the center, nor a corner, nor significant in any shape and form, exists a chamber that's not used for anything. Sometimes, small animals and creatures nest there, but it never lasts. There's no point in coming down here, nothing awaits those who brave the winding tunnels beyond an empty hall. Too big for small animals to find comfortable, too remote for anything bigger to reach.

Here, thousands upon thousands of Crest Worms nest now. Blindly reaching for this place on instinct, compelled to bolster their numbers and swarm together.

Matou Zouken is a crafty and twisted individual. He's not the sort of man to put all his eggs in one basket and believes wholeheartedly on always having an escape route. He's also crafted a reputation of immortality, and likes to break the morale of his opponents with the fact that he cannot be defeated as long as a single Crest Worm survives.

It's not as simple, of course. Indeed killing him is an extremely difficult endeavour, but he can certainly be stalled. Indefinitely so, with the right preparations. If enough Worms are destroyed, he won't be capable of rational thought anymore and become limited to the hardwired instincts of the Worms until he can bring the numbers back up.

Survive, hide, feed, reproduce… Gather.

He's at his most vulnerable while getting the numbers back up, still incapable of complex thought but numbers high enough to be noticeable. That's why this chamber exists, away from everything, a safe haven hidden by anonymity where he can recover in peace should the worst come to pass.

At least, that's how it was supposed to be...

In another world, where his phylactery was crushed by the dark grail, it would've worked. Zouken would've managed to put himself back together and rejoin the fight right at the last moment. He'd visit the Greater Grail site and have an emotional encounter with his beloved Justeaze, managing to recover a brief semblance of his own self right before the end.

He wouldn't rejoin the fight in time for it to matter, but he would've attained a closure he dearly needed.

This is not that world though. [Rulebreaker] is a bit more effective than an overwhelming force applied on a poorly chosen target and Medea knows a fair bit more on how to aim her tools than a half-crazed schoolgirl with a spotty magical training.

The soul tied to the Crest Worms was severed days ago and sent on to the next great adventure.

The room full of worms is a product of instinct, a miserable pile of magical vermin without a greater will behind. No matter how many of them gather, they'll never be able to become something more. And, without guidance, without the ability to take the next step, they'll soon starve and fade into nothingness in the dark.

And thus the Matou line, once Makiri, comes to an end. Not that anybody will ever know, since to all official intents and purposes, there's still one more of their kin.

Way above the pathetic pile of worms, away from the desecrated bones covered in blood, in the temple on the mountain overlooking the city, a certain plum-haired girl cuddles her naked body against her Servant's equally naked one, letting out a contented hum in her sleep. It's a good day to be Sakura.