5

004 - Let silver and steel be the essence.

For years, Haku and I had to go through great lengths to keep our martial prowess private. It's one thing to be known as nearly superhumanly athletic, but for it to be known that we can easily kill a team of trained soldiers with our bare hands before they can pull out their weapons is a very different one. Our spars have always been held inside the dojo, away from prying eyes.

And using our magecraft in combat required prohibitive travel times away from the city, so it's something we kept to a minimum. I mean, I'm a fair hand at Bounded Fields, but I'm not going to risk detection against the kind of monsters who prowl this city, so I didn't touch Kiritsugu's.

Until Medea came around, that is. Now we can go wild on the courtyard without worries with a brand new Bounded Field that could block a nuke going off inside without leaking anything. I smile eagerly at the idea of a no-holds-barred spar, it's been a while since we last went wild."Ready, Nii-san?" She asks, finishing her stretches and adopting a ready stance.

"I was born ready."

There's a last trade of smiles, before we wipe them off with our serious face and recite our arias to activate our [Body Reinforcement] at the same time.

"Watch and learn."

"I am the captain of my soul."

Luminous circuitry grows through our bodies, and the fight is on.

Haku has broken into a charging sprint even before the two curved machetes taking shape her hands are done properly manifesting, lowering her body to present as small a target as possible. My answer is a couple of [Gandr] at her feet. Instead of making a sharp turn to dodge as I expected though, she jumps ahead, managing to keep her momentum at the cost of losing all her maneuverability.

I raise an eyebrow at that. 'You can't dodge mid-air' is one of the first lessons we both she learnt. It was quite the embarrassing one too.

I fire again. Thrice, taking into account how much she can turn and twist around to make sure there's no funny business with seemingly impossible dodges. She still manages to avoid two of my shots, putting herself straight into the path of the third one in the process. There's a smirk on her face that has me worried though, she was expecting that.

"[Trace Overedge - Hunter's Machete]"

Her projected weapons grow and thicken, gaining a serrated edge. They're not exactly Kanshou and Bakuya, so it's not like she can pull a [Triple-Linked Crane Wings] like EMIYA or Kuro, but one of the overly-reinforced blades suffices to bat away my third[Gandr] at the cost of shattering.

The impact sends her spinning, and she takes advantage of that extra impetus to throw the second one at me with added force. My first instinct is to deploy a shield or try to catch it with my reinforced body, but between the extra offensive power and their tendency towards exploding, blocking a [Trace Overedge] simply isn't practical.

So instead, I take aim with a finger and let loose my own signature spell.

"[Corrosion]" A beam of transparent light pierces the blade clearly, causing it to freeze in place for the fragment of a second the hole takes to expand until it completely dissipates into mana motes.

She's not done just yet, even spinning out of control, she's managed to keep her eyes on me, ready to slam an elbow in my face. Magnificent improvisation and control on her part.

Magnificently reckless too, another [Corrosion] tags her body, dispelling her [Body Reinforcement] and allowing me to easily catch her no longer superhuman strike to throw her over my head. She lands ass over teakettle on the other side of the field, raising a heavy dust cloud in the process.

Too heavy, she's done that on purpose. It's only a fraction of a second later that there's a burst of prana and the glow of her [Body Reinforcement] becomes visible from within the dust cloud once more.

A handful of thrown knives come flying at me from the obscured area. I don't bother blasting them, dodging and parrying instead, but giving Haku the opening she needs to go for something a bit more elaborate. There's an energy pattern that I don't quite catch and...

"[Excalibur Rapidly]" There's a figure bursting out of the dust before the sound of her voice even reaches me and my eyes widen in incredulity. Did she really do that?

"Oh no, you don't!" My surprise is only momentary. With a double speed boost on her person, I can't afford to play around anymore."[Corrosion Barrage]"

Both my hands raise as I launch an onslaught of invisible beams that fail to catch her as she dances around them. She's not really making any progress on closing the distance, but her eyes are closed and there's a smile in her lips. I grudgingly admit holding her ground with such ease is already an improvement.

Haku fights nothing like Shirou. For one, she's found a way to use her[Structural Analysis] in the battlefield as some sort of combat omniscience. For another, her [Tracing] feeds off a different source of inspiration from the original. She doesn't need to see a weapon to replicate it, instead she feeds upon the stories I've told her while growing up, about other worlds with other rules. At this point, I'd say it's closer to Fairy Tail's [Memory Make] than traditional [Tracing]. Plus...

"[Sagitta Magica - Undetriginta Ignis Series (Magic Arrow - 29 Arrows of Fire)]" Weapons aren't everything she can Trace.

My grin widens as twenty nine fire bolts fan around her to rush at me in an arc. There's no way I'll be able to shoot them all down before I'm hit. Seems like today is full of surprise. Fortunately, I have a few on my own.

"[Corrosion Sphere]"

It's Haku's turn to be surprised when a transparent sphere expands around me, disintegrating her arrows and forcing her to abort her own ambush lest she has her sword dispelled too. She has no way to know the Sphere is less powerful than a focused attack and something like a traced 'Excalibur Fragment' will last for long enough to tag me, after all.

Compared to her ample repertoire, I only have my[Corrosion] beyond what amounts to party tricks. It's a useful tool, of course, that's why I developed it in the first place. But I can't help feeling a bit lame, answering with my invisible lasers to everything she tries. Just because it works doesn't mean it's cool.

"Master, anymore structural damage risks causing leaks on the Bounded Field." Medea's voice calls from the sidelines, stopping the fight. "A most remarkable magic, that [Corrosion] of yours. In a very literal sense, you've achieved something that would've been impossible in my time."

I can't help but smile and blush a bit at her words. For someone like her to praise my modest achievements is quite the rush.

"It's designed with Servants in mind, though I'm unsure of how effective it will be."

"It… Should work, to some extent at least, assuming your attacks manage to connect. Enough to make them wary, at least." She concedes with obvious reluctance, still considering all the ramifications of my spell but clearly not happy at the idea of me fighting in the front lines. "Please keep in mind it will only affect spiritual bodies though, while you can theoretically use it to consume projectiles and energy blasts, or even their materialized bodies, it'll be absolutely useless if someone decides to just chuck a big rock on you."

As expected, then. Not that it matters. I'm not at a level where I can be a credible threat to a Servant and the war has already started, so I've run out of time to improve. I mentally shrug at that thought. It's still useful against the other Masters, so it's not a wasted effort. It'll have to suffice.

I've barely had time to catch my breath after the spar when Haku impatiently drags me to her workshop.

Between Haku's magecraft training being intrinsically boring and her preference for joining me in mine when it's our day to practice together I've not been here for a while, so I can't help a surprised whistle at the sight that greets me.

The place looks nothing like the toolshed it once was. Rather, it reminds of a futuristic cabin, or maybe a cell. The shine of polished metal catches my attention everywhere I look. Metal closets and drawers, metal desk and chairs… even the walls are covered by carefully-fit together metal plates.

"… Is everything in here Reinforced?" I ask as I eye the suspiciously soft-looking padding of the chairs. "Because it feels like everything in here is reinforced."

"Of course it is, Nii-san." She confirms my suspicions, distractedly putting her hands on one of the plates and Reinforcing it with the ease of familiarity. "By this point it's become routine to warm up for my daily practice to start by renewing it on everything."

I'm not really surprised, but it's still a lot of work to go through all this every day. As a warm up, Haku sure is as hard-working as her counterpart… Man, I'm so glad we learnt how to properly use our magic circuits and she's not reduced to that bastardized crap Shirou used in canon.

I take another look around, the place is rather spartan though. I guess she doesn't care too much about comfort when she doesn't have to entertain anyone. That's also something she maintained from Shirou, unfortunately.

Finally, I address the elephant in the room.

"I see you've moved Kiritsugu's circle." Or rather, the summon circle that lies now on one of the floor metal plates. "That couldn't have been easy."

"I didn't move it, actually." She scratches the back of her head as she chuckles sheepishly. "I just… kind of kept reinforcing the floor underneath until it became metal?"

"Oh, like transmutation." I comment in a suddenly calm voice.

"Ehehe… yeah, kinda."

"The same theoretical transmutation that we agreed last time was too advanced to perform safely." I continue, still holding my temper. "And not worth the risk?"

"But I didn't have time to perform it safely anymore!" She raises her voice in protest, taking me aback. This doesn't happen very often, after all. "I needed to finish my workshop in time for the summon ritual, and wanted to use dad's circle."

Her tone is mullish as she explains, gripping her own elbow with her other hand and refusing to look at me directly. I let out a long-drawn sigh while pinching the bridge of my nose. This is about Kiritsugu, because of course it is.

All through our years growing up, he's been one of our few points of contention, and the only consistent one. Haku would always take my side if it ever came to it, but she sees him as a parent, and doesn't approve of my own opinion of him. Or rather, has somehow reached the conclusion that I had a far worse relationship with him that I actually had.

I don't hate Kiritsugu, I don't despise him. It's nothing so… visceral. I'm actually pretty lukewarm about his existence. A complicated tangle of admiration and contempt that doesn't really allow me to feel strongly about him one way or another. At the end of the day though, the problem is that I remember enough of my past life to not really see him as a parent, while he's the only one Haku remembers to have ever had.

Is it really so strange, or so bad, that she admires him?

"It wasn't that risky anyway." I finally say, trying to ignore the way her face lightens up in pleased surprise. "I'm sure that wasn't what you brought me here for, though. What have you planned?"

"Nothing bad, Nii-san." She tries to answer innocently, but the effect is ruined by her cheerful giddiness. "I just thought there was no reason to wait until the last minute to call for my own Servant like him."

With the smile of a cat who got the canary, she shows the back of her hand, marked with the red lines of a Command Seal. I'm pretty sure those weren't visible twenty minutes ago, while we were trying to bash each other's head in.

"Oh. Yes, I guess you're right." I try to mirror her enthusiasm, but I'm not sure how well I succeed. Artoria isn't exactly a person I'm eager to meet. "The Grail has been capable of sustaining Servants for a while already, and the longer we have to familiarize with Saber, the better we can prepare for the War."

"Geez, try to contain your delight, Nii-san." I succeed poorly, apparently. But Haku doesn't let herself be discouraged. "And you might be surprised, you know? Just because I carry Avalon doesn't mean she'll answer the call. I might get Merlin or Morgan instead!"

I raise a finger to protest that there's already a Caster in the War, but then I remember that Merlin is actually a damn good swordsman too and probably qualifies as Saber. And Morgan Le Fay is Morgan Le Fay, she does whatever she wants. Actually, Merlin is Merlin and does whatever he wants too, so yeah.

"Alright, I guess there's a small chance that Kiritsugu's adoptive child, using his same summoning circle, in the same location, with the same reactive, might somehow end up not summoning the same Servant." I drawl. "Excuse me if I'm not very hopeful."

"Oh, come off it, Nii-san. It's not like you hate her or anything." She cocks her hips to the side and leans her fists into them in a perfect mirror of Taiga's scold posture #2. Then she smiles mischievously once again. "I bet you'd love to be the meat of our Master/Servant sandwich."

"...Whatever." That pause wasn't my mind picturing out that image in painful detail, and I'm not blushing. I'm just looking away because I feel like it. "Are you doing this or what?"

"Of course, Nii-san!"

Her eyes close, and her prana floods the workshop, causing the soft glow from the summoning circle to increase in intensity until it floods the room. With her Command Seal pointed straight at it, she begins to chant...

Let silver and steel be the essence...

She opens her eyes wearily, the pains and aches of a ten day long war vanishing from her body to give way to a whole different set of wounds, including Clarent's lethal wound in her side. Unthinkingly, she makes to raise a hand and try to staunch the bleeding caused by her knight, by her son.

So many mistakes, so many regrets…

Yet, before she can really begin to move, she feels it again. The pull of the World, the call to arms. Another Grail War, without even a moment of reprieve.

This is how it's going to be, isn't it? Sent back here, to the place of her greatest failure after every defeat, only to be immediately forced to answer the call once again. And again. And again. Until she finally wins the War and claims the Grail. She'll do it, of course, for as long as it takes. That's the duty she took upon herself.

A duty she doesn't have the option to renegue or give up on.

She only wonders how long it'll take, how much frustration and pain will pile on her along the way, and how many of her values will be compromised in the name of victory. Allowing herself a resigned sigh in the privacy of her mind, she reaches for the connection, idly wondering how much of her original self will survive these trials.

Will she even recognise herself in the mirror once she's finally done?

And yet, as soon as she grabs it, she's painfully rebuked. Feelings of a herself that's not herself beating her to the punch and accepting the summon in her place. Someone different enough to not be a mere alternate, something close enough to still be Artoria Pendragon.

Memories not her own flood her mind during the timeless instant the two of them are connected, providing knowledge she's never learnt in a way not dissimilar from that of the Grail itself. She sees a world in the far future, where the ships of steel sails the stars, and great and terrible wonders are achieved without magic on a daily basis. The Servant Universe, where the many Artoria-faces, memetic descendants of the original King Arthur, are a plague upon the galaxy.

The flow of visions and knowledge ends with a face concealed by a blue scarf and a black hat, revealing only pale skin and a very familiar set of emerald-green eyes, pouncing on her with an overhead sword strike while yelling a battle cry.

"SEIBAAAAAAAAA!"

The shock of watching the demented-looking warrior charge at her breaks the connection, and she's once again in the place of her failure. Blinking in confusion, there's only one way to put into words her thoughts at the moment.

What the fuck did I just see?

The window of opportunity is ruined, that particular War will go on without her. But before she has time to feel anything past befuddlement about it, there's already another pull, another call to arms.

Artoria Pendragon accepts the summon, too dumbfounded to wonder how many other versions of herself are doing the same thing she's doing right now, how widely they're spread through the multiverse as they reach for the everdistant Grail. Like a thirsty man chasing a mirage, like a plant's pollen scattering to the wind, like a virus spreading through the body.

She's always been a pragmatic sort of person disinclined towards philosophical thoughts. And she really isn't in the mood for those right now, anyway.

I can only stare dumbfounded at the petite girl standing in front of us after the ritual is complete. Those clothes, that pale skin and ash-blond hair, the yellow eyes… there's no mistaking her. But still… how? I turn my head to face Haku, who looks smug and overly pleased with herself, before pointing at a hidden compartment that's opened right beside the summoning circle at some point during the ritual.

Inside lies a bar of luxury chestnut jelly and dual lightsaber replica.

"Heroine X Alter… Class is Berser– Saber, yes, probably." The girl stops to fix her glasses, looking nonplussed as she stares into nothing. "Huh, it's actually Saber, that's a first."

"Welcome aboard, Ecchan!" Haku tackle-hugs the still puzzled Servant. "This War is going to be a bit different from normal, but please take good care of me!"

… Somehow, the only thing I can think of at the moment is that Master/Servant meat sandwich…