Spoiler
“MY HOUSE!” Emiya Shirou could only watch as the roof of his home came crashing down, in heaps of smoke, wood and fire. The rest of his house didn’t hold very well; windows crashed into scattering glass fragments; outer walls caved in from the force of the fallen roof. Only four walls of the house stood up, some rooms that were currently for guests. Shirou fell to his knees in the horror of it. “My...house…”
It was the house where Kiritsugu had taught him the ways of magic; it was the home where he had met his friends Fugi-ne and Sakura; It was the home that was to hold many more days of his life, from when he graduated high school, to where he would find a high paying job and live happily with a wife.
And now it was all gone. A fire had failed to take my life, so one took my house in compensation.
If Saber looked concern, she showed no sign of it, not even when she stared at the mighty bow Archer was still holding.
“ A good hit,” he said. The servant Archer’s hard face had broken into something of a sly smile. “ I sent them both flying away to die.”
Tohsaka was the only one who looked doubtful. She watched what was soon to no longer be Shirou’s house, engulfed in smoke and orange fire. They were all silent for a while, letting only the sounds of spitting embers fill the night air.
Then the little girl standing on top of her ogre’s shoulder blurted, “Let’s keep fighting!” She leaned in towards the ogre, who had named himself Shrek, Emiya had recalled. “Kill the archer, berserker!”
Shrek let out a groan. “Look lassie,” he growled. “You’re gonna call me Shrek, or else…”
“Archer,” Tohsaka yelled. “Attack them now!”
Archer just vanished. At one point he was standing right beside Tohsaka Rin, the next moment he was upon the ogre, wielding two short blades in his hands.The bow was forgotten. Tohsaka’s white-haired servant rammed into Shrek fiercely with his shoulder and slashed both small swords against the ogre’s big chest in a parallel cut. The brown crocodile skinned vest the ogre wore cut open, broken leather pieces flying through the air. The cuts went deeper than that, tearing down past even the white shirt the ogre had underneath, and even through the monster’s green flesh.
Shrek let out an agonizing roar of pain, his big head bobbed up towards the night sky. Archer pushed off him with his foot, which also sent the ogre flying backwards. The girl fell off the ogre and tumbled to the ground, down the crater, screaming.
“Oh my God!” Shirou ran towards the crater. He heard the body of Shrek crash against the streets nearby, but his main focus was on the girl.
“Shirou!” he heard his knight servant Saber call. “Stay away from them!”
“Listen to your servant, Emiya Shirou,” said Archer. He stood by the edge of the crater. Both his small blades were down and relaxed by his sides, the sharp edges thrust out and stained with fresh dark blood.
Shirou glared at the archer. “Don’t hurt her!” He shouted. He kept running. He was going to ram right into Archer if he had to.
“Shirou,” Said Tohsaka, “She’s an enemy. She wanted to kill us both.”
Shirou ground his teeth. Archer was before him, but he wasn’t the one he was heading towards. Somewhere down there the girl was struggling and hurt. Just like I was, back then. As he stepped closer, he saw Saber running beside him, her invisible sword raised and ready. “Saber?”
“I will defend you,” she replied. “Get the girl, I’ll hold back Archer.”
Tohsaka shouted back at them. “You idiot! She’s an Einzbern! She’s the most powerful mage there is!”
The Archer tensed. He raised his blades, prepared to fight. “Shall I start a real match, Rin?” Right after he said that, Archer’s eyes widened suddenly.
Shirou didn’t have time to comprehend what was happening, and only saw Archer’s eyes before the ogre came slamming into the servant from nowhere, roaring a menacing ogre roar. Shrek had grabbed Archer and brought him bodily forwards, to the burning house in a violent charge.
They crashed into the fire and smoldering wood, the black smoke engulfing them both. Saber looked over, stunned. “He’s strong…”
Shirou didn’t waste anytime. He rushed over to the crater and called down. “Are you okay?” A stupid thing to say. He saw her, lying on her side, her eyes closed. She must have been knocked out during the fall. She’s so small her bones must be fragile. He lept down, then slid along the wall of the crater, but nearly tumbled down himself. When he reached the bottom, he bent over and grabbed the girl in both arms. She’s light, he thought. He hauled her up in his arms, and carried her like a baby. Her slow warm breathing brushed the side of his neck, and caused his skin to prickle. His face suddenly grew so flustered that soon his arms began to tremble. Focus!
He began his climb up. When he reached a hand on the wall of the crater and pushed his body up, the incline was too great, and his slow climb caused him to slide back down. Great, he thought. “Saber!” he called. “We need help!”
Saber stood over the edge. “Shirou, grab onto my sword!” She made some kind of rotating motion with her hands, then she lowered her arms down the crater.
Shirou looked at the nothing that awaited for him to grab onto. “Uh, what and where do I grab?”
“Feel around for the hilt!” She said.
Shirou felt around. This was just as hopeless. What if she wasn’t low enough? How the hell would he know exactly where to grab? As his head swam through these thoughts however, his hand did hit against something hard. An invisible steel. He felt his fingers around it, trying to find a good grip.
“Hurry!” Saber called.
Shirou found a good grip on the invisible hilt. “I got it!” he shouted. He prayed he had enough strength in him to hold on. His shoulder was still burning in pain, and it was the same arm that was holding on to the sword. Please, please make it…
The ride up was treacherous. He had forgotten the extremity of his wound. Blood spilled out in a heavy clot on his shoulder, and his vision fuzzed in and out. He could scarcely hear the sounds of fire spitting, and the falling of a house structure.
Saber pulled him over the edge, and Shirou fell to the ground, the little girl Einzbern in his arm.
Saber fixed her grip on the invisible sword, and as Shirou looked up, he saw her steel gauntlets were cut through, and even produced some blood. “ Your hands..” he began.
“My sword is sharp,” she replied cooly.
Shirou stood up, after laying the girl down peacefully. Tohsaka Rin was gone. Or, she was over by the burning house, whose fire and smoke was still fuming strong, blocking out the moon with its black and orange fingers.
Shirou heard sirens in the distance.
Suddenly out came Archer from a guest room window of the falling structure, his red cloak was torn from left shoulder to torso, and covered in bruises and cuts from the face down. He held his dual blades in both hands, though the blood had seemed to vanish suddenly, as if they were brand new. The servant suddenly dove forward, and a powerful wind erupted from the house behind him, sending Shirou to clutch onto the girl and the ground at the same time, to prevent himself from falling backwards. He heard the shouting of Tohsaka Rin as well. Where was she?
Emiya’s house went up in a larger bloom of orange fire, sending wooden planks and shutters flying forward like projectiles. As soon as they were going to hit Emiya, Saber stepped in between and hacked all the debris that came hurling in their direction. Her strokes were fast, like a painter in a frenzy swiping left and right. The flaming debris broke and died out as they caught in her sword slashes.
Emiya kept eyeing that fire. It’s getting bigger, he thought dreadfully. Will it be like the one long ago? He was terrified to find out. Archer picked himself up, and looked back at the flames. His face tensed into something of irritation. “Rin,” he said.
Shirou looked over at the monster of flames. Rin, she’s in there. I have to save her! I have to--
A big figure threw itself out of the flames. Emiya knew immediately who that figure was. Shrek the ogre landed on his feet, his back hunched over, arms by his chest, as if cradling something…
Shirou’s eyes widened. “Tohsaka!” He picked himself up and ran right over to the two.
“Shirou!” Saber called, surprised by his advancement.
Shirou ignored her. The sirens were getting louder now, but he didn’t care. Tohsaka Rin was all that mattered. She had to be alright. If she wasn’t…
“Here, laddie,” said Shrek. He placed the lying Tohsaka in his arms. Shirou staggered. Tohsaka was a lot heavier to carry. Shirou looked at her face-- pretty and covered with streaks of ash. Her eyes were closed.
“Is she alright--” but the ogre was gone. Emiya found him standing by the fire, both hands forward down below his waist. When he heard the zipping sound Emiya wondered just what the hell the ogre was doing.
A huge arc of yellow water streamed from the Shrek’s crotch, it landed on the huge orange flower of fire with a loud hiss and clouding white steam. The flickering fire put up a resistance, but quickly it became smaller and smaller. The ogre’s yellow stream was still strong, like those big hoses firefighters used.
Then Shirou could smell it. “Aw, man!” He looked away. If he could use one of his arms he would pinch his nose. He saw Archer’s face crunch in dismay after he took a whiff, and momentarily he pinched his nose as he watched the flames die. Saber was standing there too, watching it all, her face frowning in disgust.
The fire was out. Shrek zipped up his pants and turned towards them. “Aye, had held that one in for a long time. Better out than in I always say.” he chuckled.
When no one was laughing, the ogre frowned, then headed towards the little white haired girl.
“Is Tohsaka going to be alright?” Shirou said to him.
Shrek was only glaring at Archer, who was giving him the same treatment. Did they get into a fight?
“She’ll be fine laddie,” Said Shrek. He walked over to the Einzbern girl, and picked her up by the small of her purple coat with one huge ogre hand. “ I must bring her to the swhamp.” And with that he jumped high into the air, into the night.
Shirou watched Shrek vanish with the girl. He didn’t see Archer approach him.
“I’ll take her,” said Archer. As he was about to reach over, Shirou turned away.
“Why did the other servant save her, Archer?” he asked sharply. “ What about you?” He felt the presence of Saber beside him.
The Archer sighed. The way he did it was as if he was shrugging away a shameful disappointment. “We were fighting in the house, me and the berserker servant…”
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The ogre’s charge sent Archer crashing through a charred wall and into the weakening guest room of the flaming house. Orange flames surrounded them, like shuddering orange spikes of heat and death. Archer hated fire. He had been terrified of it long ago, but now he just hated it. It had been apart of him all his life, used to kill so many people again and again. It had always been irksome, and underneath his tough hard exterior, fire would spark a hint of rage within him, as it reminded him of a promise he had made long ago. A promise that was always diminishing with each passing day.
He threw himself up to his feet. The berserker servant must not have a chance to glimpse him lying down. The servant named Shrek was standing before him, feet apart and green fists clenched. His bald green head was smeared with black ash, as was his face. He had no weapons on him.
A foolish move. Why go into this war without a weapon? Archer suppressed a confident smirk, and dove forward, his dual blades extended. He slashed at the ogre in two fast archs, his movements so fast they left trails of light off the steel blades. They cut at the ogre’s neck.
Or, they would have. But suddenly Archer realized that the ogre wasn’t there. Archer found out that the ogre had ducked the swipes and swerved to the side. By then Archer spun on his heel, his blade ready to thrust into the ogre’s eyes. His movements were swift and professional. He had done this many times before, after all.
But he had underestimated the ogre’s speed. Before he was able to swing his blade out, a big, meaty fist kissed his face, sending a hard blow and knocking him backwards. He crashed into the wall of flames. He raised himself quickly from the pool of light, in both pain and anger. He had sent this pathetic berserker servant flying not too long ago. How was this happening? The Einzbern girl was knocked out. She wasn't supplying him with mana. How did he get so tough?
Archer leapt out of the fire. But he found flames licking his shoulder down to his chest and torso. Archer frowned. His face contorted into anger, and a vein bulged on his tan forehead. He charged the ogre, blades wielded and ready. This bastard. He didn’t care if this was the berserker servant, the strongest there was in the Grail War. He had misjudged this Shrek, thinking they all had lucked out with a weak berserker, but now he was wrong.
His blades came down in a fast controlled arch, then quickly with a twist of his body, as Shrek stepped to the side and avoided the attack, Archer came slashing sideways. This caught the ogre with success. But Shrek didn’t scream. Nor did he cry out. He took the cuts and grabbed Archer’s face, grasping it hard with his green sausage sized fingers (count that, they were bloated sausage sized fingers) then as if like a professional wrestler he threw the servant bodily down to the ground.
When Archer landed hard on his back, another big fist slammed into his jaw, then another. Now Archer was losing his sights; the fiery battlefield around him grew into blurry animated colors of red and orange. For a moment, the blurriness in itself was darkening, as if a curtain of blackness began to descend upon his world, trapping him in a suffocating embrace..
The blow had bested him, all he could do was uselessly struggle uselessly underneath the ogre’s strength. He would need a minute to retrieve Rin’s mana, to recover from this. But he knew the ogre wouldn’t let him do that…
Archer’s weary eyes widened as he felt the weight of the ogre lift up from him. After that everything started coming back; his vision was brightening, the dizzy feeling starting to slowly subside into dim throbs of hurt.
They were standing before each other yet again. The fire on Archer’s shoulder and chest that had burned him were put out, but they had charred his clothing to nothing but smears of black and fresh cuts and bruises. Shrek’s face frowned at him, big eyes reflecting something else entirely in the firelight. Archer couldn’t make out what it was, but it couldn’t have been anger.
Suddenly, the ceiling was collapsing. A flaming wooden ceiling beam crashed between them from above, and it was then that Archer realized he needed to get out of here--
“Archer!”
The call had surprised him. He frowned. “Rin?” What was she doing here? Was she just as bad as Emiya Shirou in wits?
They found Tohsaka Rin, pointing her fingers at Shrek like a gun. With a shout, she had sent two short beams of energy right at the ogre.
Smoke spilled from the ground when the attack hit the ogre, and soon everything was collapsing now. The ceiling fell in steady bursts of wood and fire, and Rin screamed. Archer looked her way, but there was only fire now. Everywhere he looked there was fire.
That was when he found the window…
--- --- ---
“I was going to go back in and save her, but the ogre servant beat me to it. I had thought Rin’s attack stopped him for sure.”
Shirou narrowed his eyes at Archer, as if disbelieving his story.
Archer seemed to have read his face.
“She saved me, Emiya Shirou. And she is a necessity if I am to win this war. We have a contract. If she died, I would disappear. Why would I leave her?”
“I still don’t--” Shirou felt Saber’s gauntlet hand gently touch his shoulder.
“He’s telling the truth,” she said. “If a master dies in this Grail war, the servant disappears.”
Archer closed his eyes and nodded. Then he stepped forward again. “Give her to me.”
Shirou looked at Saber, who looked at him just as unsure. “I could fight him right now Shirou,” she said. “He is weakened--”
But now the sirens were upon them. Fire trucks screeched their wheels to a stop. They needed to bounce.
Archer took Tohsaka in his arms, and in a blink of an eye he left. Shirou had to hide as well. Him and Saber must surely not be found by anyone else.
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