68

068a - Wrapping things up (1 of 4)

The fake reality collapses soon after Medea's gallant intervention, dropping us back into… the messed up ruins of what used to be Ryuudou's Temple main courtyard. The ground is filled with craters of both the impact and scorch variety alike, piles of indeterminate materials that are only occasionally not on fire and a spider web of what I can only assume to be superheated and then crystalized dust and sand criss-crossing over an entire segment of the area.

… There's also a person-shaped indentation in one of the walls that only fits Medusa's size.

"What the—?" I exclaim in incredulity, letting my eyes wander over the desolation. "I swear, I look away for a couple of hours and you manage to wreck the whole place."

"Ah, my apologies, Master." Medea answers, looking more amused than apologetic. In fact she doesn't look apologetic at all. "We were attacked here too."

"Attacked? By whom?" There's no contender left, right? We took care of everyone. "Please tell me nobody reanimated Shinji's cursed skeleton and sent it against us or something…"

"That's… I'm confident that's not a thing that can actually happen, Master." Medea replies, looking distinctly nonplussed at the mere suggestion. "No, it turns out that girl you rescued from the Church—"

"Bazett went berserk?" I cut her off, letting out a long whistle as I reexamine the area. That would explain the damage just fine. "I'm actually kinda surprised nobody died." Then I realize she hasn't actually given me a sitrep yet and stop in place, turning around to face Caster with a more sober expression. "Nobody died, right?"

"Nobody died, Master. And the girl didn't 'go berserk'." Medea assuages my worries with an amused eye roll. "She was, as our dear Head Wife so eloquently put… A Trojan."

I can't help it. I would blame the effect of exhaustion on my mental soundness, or maybe the relief felt at getting confirmation that everyone's alive. But the truth is the snort of amusement that escapes my lips would've happened anyway, even if I was in my best condition.

Medea doesn't seem to appreciate my amusement. "It's not that funny, Master."

"It kind of is." I argue back with a small chuckle. "But it still doesn't tell me what happened."

"Barbatos happened." That kills my amusement cold.

"Please." I ask slowly. "Tell me you mean some bounty hunter using the name Barbatos."

"I mean Demon Pillar Barbatos."

"Yeah, I was afraid you'd say that." A last chuckle escapes my lips, this one slightly hysterical. "How the hell did that even happen?"

Demon Pillar Barbatos was the one responsible for the London Singularity. It shouldn't even exist in this timeline but, even if it did, there's no reason for it to be around. I mean, I guess there's a vague connection to Zouken, but no reason whatsoever for that to matter in the slightest.

The only reason I'm not panicking more is the fact that nothing's on fire -figuratively, there's actually a lot of things literally on fire- and reality isn't collapsing around us like a cheap cardboard box under the rain..

"We have some theories, but until we can get some form of confirmation…" Medea trails off, giving me a somewhat uncaring look as she shrugs her shoulders. She's spent too much time with us. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"Well, at least that's dealt with now." I wonder what happened here? Demon Pillars are dangerous, but nothing five Servants working in tandem couldn't handle. "You'll have to tell me the whole story later."

Medea winces in a way that gives me a deep feeling of foreboding. "Actually…"

"What now?"

"We didn't exactly 'deal' with the problem just yet." Medea explains carefully. "Barbatos-chan surrendered and begged for her life, so we have restrained her for now. But we'll need to decide what to do with her sooner rather than later."

"Barbatos-cha–!" I cut myself off, realizing I'm too done with this shit to prolong it by acting pointlessly shocked. "Of course you did."

Lowering my eyes, I take a good look at Haku's unconscious and naked body which I'm still carrying bridal-style. Stupid self-sacrificing yandere little sisters, conjuring powers they can barely understand just to try and save their dumb big brother from his own hubris. And why do they have to look so hot while doing so?

"Just… take me somewhere secure where I can drop–"

Before I can finish that sentence, Ecchan materializes right in front of me. Without a word, she spreads her arms towards me, an absolutely intense glint in her eyes and her demand clear. For a moment, feral possessiveness wars with my common sense and I find myself toying with the idea of telling her to fuck off, but if there's anyone Haku would be safer with than me, that's Ecchan.

Also, she'd absolutely kick my ass if I tried to deny her.

The petite Saber accepts her Master in her arms with delicate reverence. She doesn't even bother acknowledging me anymore, putting all her focus on carefully making her way into the main building as if she was carrying a fragile treasure instead of a hardened battle mage. I'll have to remember to tease the two of them about it.

Later, when I no longer feel like I'm running on fumes and spite.

"Well, nevermind that." I continue with a sigh. "Let's see that… Barbatos-chan."

The sooner I'm done with this, the sooner I can collapse into a bed and sleep for a week.

Barbatos… doesn't look anything like I expected.

Spoiler

She looks for all intents and purposes like a bullied and scared child and I feel like the bad guy just looking at her lying in chains right before me. This isn't helped when she tilts her head up to return my staring, fixing into me the soulful gaze of those wide, slightly teary eyes of hers.

Then she speaks out and something inside me just melts.

"Senpai/Warm One?" Her body language radiates a heart-wrenching mix of fear and hope. "Are we pretty enough yet?"

… Wait what?

"What do you mean, Barbatos-chan?" I meantally wince at the way I slapped the endearment suffix to her name on reflex. She's really getting to me, huh? I need to remember to keep some of my guard up, or she'll worm her way straight into my heart. "Why would it matter how pretty you are?"

"Kin/Empty One told me Senpai/Warm One saves pretty girls." She explains quietly, using some strange double-speak in lieu of names to let me know who she means. "Being a girl is easy, but being pretty is hard."

"Oh? I think you're plenty pretty." I muse, barely resisting the urge to pat her head. "But when did Sakura tell you that?"

"Sakura, un." Barbatos-chan repeats the name to herself, nodding cutely as she seemingly commits it to memory. "We heard her from inside my Host/Hideout. We wanted to be saved too. From the Golden One/Omniscient, Omnipotent Star. We don't want to die."

"Hmmm? But the golden bas– jerk isn't around anymore…" And damn, but does it feel good to say that.

"Un." She nods easily. "The world is still scary. We don't want to die."

"Well, I'll see what I can do about that. But first, can we ask you some questions?"

"Un." She nods again. "We'll answer."

I trade a glance with Medea, who tilts her head minutely in return. She'll be making sure Barbatos-chan is truthful with her answers. I'm not sure whether she'll be using some sort of lie detector or turn the Demon's Pillar verbal agreement into a contractual obligation, but I don't need to know the details to have faith in her competence.

"Why did you kill Bazett?" Barbatos tilts her head in clear incomprehension, so I clarify. "The girl you were using as host and hideout."

"The golden jerk commanded us to attack at his signal." I note with some amusement that she's stopped using her double speak for Gilgamesh now, in the most amusing of ways. "We were scared. We are sorry. We didn't want to die."

I glance at Medea again, getting a brief affirmative gesture. Well, that's a beautiful moral mess for me to try and work my way through, isn't it? Or rather, it would be if I was more prone to dwelling in moral dilemmas. Bazett dying sucks, but Barbatos wasn't in full possession of his faculties back then and she regrets it after the fact.

That's like… 80% of forgiveness just there. More than enough to give her a chance.

"Why were you… here in Fuyuki?" I stumble over my own question, finishing it lamely. What I really want to know is 'Why not London? Why not five centuries ago? Why this timeline at all?' but I can't find it in me to speak those questions out loud. "Why were you working with the golden jerk at all?"

"We… don't remember that part very well." She answers timidly. "It was dark and cold and we were hungry. But there was nothing to eat so… We ate each other."

"You…" I'm not sure what I want to say there, but I can't finish the sentence because Barbatos continues talking the moment I trail off.

"Again and again we ate each other. We fought and we won and we lost and the winner devoured the loser but the hunger was still there so we kept fighting." She says, eyes lost and unfocused, arms wrapped around her body as if trying to get heat… or comfort. "In the end there was only one, we remembered a bit, from before. But then the golden jerk came along and made us work for him and— Warm…"

I blink in confusion when she cuts herself off like that, only realizing I've put a hand on her head when she leans into it.

"We– well, I guess that's enough of that." I try to rally myself, finding that I can't quite bring myself to pull my hand back. "There's only one last question I wanted to ask for now."

"Un." She nods easily, the eyes on her face closed -the rest of them are still open like usual- in an expression of utter bliss as she nuzzles against my palm and… when did I get my hand on her cheek? "We answer."

"Goetia." It's not really a question, but it causes Barbatos to freeze all the same.

Her eyes open again and, for a long minute, she simply stays there, staring into nothing as I awkwardly pull my hand back. I begin to worry for real when her body starts shaking but, before I can decide on anything to do about it, she finally speaks out again.

"Abandoned us." She says, tears forming on her eyes once again. "Useless, pointless, shameless. Lost, forgotten, scared. Spurned, ignored, cast away from the rest. We want to belong. We don't want to die."

"Caster?" I ask, putting all my admittedly diminished mental acuity into making my voice sound casual and relaxed.

"Yes, Master?"

"Am I… being brainwashed? Like, right now?" I continue, maintaining my voice level with some effort.

"Not that I can detect, Master." She answers with a frown, no doubt a bit worried about my current attitude. "Why?"

"Because…" I explain softly. "I'm fighting against an overwhelming urge to hug the stuffing out of a demon pillar's loli form and adopt her into my household. I just wanted a second opinion."

I mean, [Invictus] fiats my resistance towards mind control, so it shouldn't be happening at all, but…

"That sounds like a normal 'you' thing, Master." Medea answers in a fondly frustrated tone.

I nod distractedly. That point cleared up, there's no more reasons to hold back, so I get down to my knees and put my arms around the sobbing and shivering girl. Barbatos pauses for a moment, obviously shocked at my unexpected action, but she recovers swiftly enough. Tiny fists clench my shirt, her face burying into my chest as she starts bawling her eyes out.

What I'm doing is stupid and reckless. There's so much we don't know, so many variables and potential dangers. The very fact there's a Demon Pillar here at all is beyond suspicious.

And yet…

This feels right.

"Right…" I speak out again when the waterworks don't seem to lose any steam after a good five minutes. "Just because I can't resist a crying girl doesn't mean I've gone full retard. We'll need a way to keep track of you, just in case."

"I'm sure I can whip up something. A nice, pretty choker, maybe?" Medea muses with that hint of enthusiasm in her voice that Ecchan has learnt to fear. "I could easily fit in a tracker in there alongside something to let her blend in with mundane society. This time I'll put a failsafe though, just in case."

Barbato's tears finally stop at those words, her face timidly pulling away from my now utterly soaked shirt to peek at Medea. "... Will it work when we get big?"

"Don't worry sweetie, I'll make sure it can adapt to your size."

I can't help but think that's a strange thing to be worried about, but it seems to put Barbatos at ease. And with that I mean she barely has time to nod in agreement before her eyes -all of them- close and she's out like a light.

As I get up to leave the room, I frown upon noticing Medea's smug smile. I know her enough to know she's hiding something from me. Something about Barbatos that's ultimately harmless but will catch me off-guard and make me react in amusing ways. Arching an eyebrow to let her know I'm on to her only makes her smile widen and I'm unfortunately too tired to try and play the game right now.

In the end, it all boils down to a pretty -more like cute, really- girl making my life more complicated. What's new?

'Too many waifu will ruin your laifu' and all those other similar lies that unfortunately carry a grain of truth. And her way of speaking of herself in plural? She'll either get along swimmingly with Jackie or they'll be like cats and dogs from day one. I'm not sure which option scares me more.