In Which Rin Learns Some Unexpected News About Her Sister...

Well, at least in THIS world it does. I am NOT at all sure how it works with this Outsider/Champion business here.

Saber Zero

"What are you doing?" I find myself asking Rei in exasperation.

I swear to God it is like she and her group are ALL over the place sometimes! Sometimes they do or say something that makes me want to forgo all decorum and knight them here and now in gratitude.

After all, it is not every DAY that you learn that the very Quest you went on and practically sold your afterlife to in order to save is already safe and sound (or readily in reach of being safe)! That revelation alone that the young squire named John Quatermain won me over rather readily.

Up until they started to get rather evasive with me and my sisters (and their . . . Masters) trying to find out more details about this "Champion Quest" business. Especially about the details on just HOW they intend on fixing things OR just why they were being evasive.

They’d been evasive about even why they’d spared the life of Rider here, for God’s sake! I mean really! Rider is a monster from Greek mythology knowns as Medusa. Medusa! Not exactly the kind of . . .entity that would warrant mercy, right?

. . .

I’m missing something here? I now I am. God above knows I missed enough during my reign as king of Camelot.

Those knights who left me before the end had said I was a king who did not know the hearts of her subjects. Didn’t understand the hearts of others…

Uh, anyway! Un-unless those rather tersely muttered phrases were supposed to be some kind of code words or clues. Some of the looks they’d given me in particular (those of Rei and her sisters) had been filled with frustration and resignation when I had obviously failed to grasp . . .

Maybe something to do with our unexpected leonine host and the extra Berserker Hercules and the two newest Ilyas as well? It just might.

VERY well, it would behoove me to not show as much frustration as I just did moments ago with them. Proper decorum of a knight would demand such! I will give them ONE more chance to make things clear since they did not include it in the initial "briefing".

It would have been nice but then again they had covered a LOT of ground and questions answered. Just not all of it…

"Long story short: I need to ‘charge’ the cards up a bit before I make a effort to do a communion spell that has even the smallest chance in He . . .Blazes to work," Rei beings to explain pausing in her shuffling of the Tarrot cards, quickly changing her choice of curse words after remembering we did have still a rather young girl still awake and alert here.

I . . .guess that the little dark skinned elf girl that John Quatermain is doting over is somehow adopted? That or he and his mother are more . . .progressive when the Changling that had replaced their original human sibling than what I and most others are used to here? That and the Changling doesn’t turn into a complete monster upon discovery and bring grief and ruin…

Hrm. That sounds . . . rather nice in a way. Usually it ends in tears for all parties. I’d like to learn how they did that, really.

"See, in the Home Base we kept on trying to get everyone back to which is warded against anything the still unnamed and unaccounted for the Fourth Grail War’s Caster could throw at there are a LOT of prepubescent girls and one young teenage girl who are probably VERY frantically wondering where the Blazes my group has gotten off to here," Rei continues, as she resumes shuffling her cards a bit faster and energetically than what I believe is necessary. There was more than a bit of anger near the end there in her voice, speaking of some very dark memories.

"Wait, wait!" Rin Tohsaka interrupts, clearly outraged by something here. "What is this about all these girls? Where’d they’d come into this?!"

"…They were going to be . . . converted into power crystals by some very bad and evil magus named Atram Galiast," Rei deadpanned, giving Rin a look that is . . .hard to read but says nothing good. "Remember him? Supposed to have been the Caster sister’s original summoner before he. . . .they were ‘punished’ by the Caster sisters for that."

"What?" Rin blinked. "I never sanctioned Atram to kidnap any of the locals for anything like that! I’d have known if he’d DARED try something like that!"

"Rin," John Quatermain called from the back after pausing his talk with his young sister. "The guy got the girls off the Black Market. It’s called ‘Human Trafficking’ I’m told you guys call it nowadays…"

"Their parents couldn’t afford them or they were orphans who got sold into the Market by corrupt officials," Aslan added, a low growl in his voice of disgust. "I fear that is . . .was a dark fact of your world, Rin."

"But . . .how . . .?" Rin protested, sickened by the realization . . .that she’d been played and played BADLY back early on during the Grail War. "Kotomine said that . . . .said that . . ."

Rin then grows rather red in the face in rage at all of it and goes off on a quiet (but rather colorful) rant on what she’ll do to the man when she gets her hands on him (again).

"He’ll beg for death by the time I’m done with him," she whispers, an evil glint in her eyes that makes me feel almost sorry for him.

Almost.

"Mommy, when they said that the mean magic men were ‘punished’ that they got killed please?" the young elfin girl (a formerly human young woman who’d later been transformed from what I learned from being exposed to Narnia) who was John’s sister.

"Yeah . . .they were," Rei smiled, which brightened even more at the happy noises that the little elfin girl made at that.

"Any objection to having done that Rin?" Lilith asked, coming up to her side with a look like she wanted to ask more than that single question but was wondering how to proceed.

"And being that you didn’t know about that . . .what about the thing with your sister: Sakura?" Medusa asks, looking like she’d finally grown tired enough and opted on taking the lead on things here.

But what IS this about Sakura? Only "Sakura" I had ever heard of in MY Grail War was the small, quiet purple haired girl that my "former" Master had mentioned in passing when talking about the Matou house.

Rei

"Bloody!" I mutter, silently cursing Medusa for having jumped the gun here.

I wanted to tackle this AFTER I made my attempt at contacting the kids back at Home Base. A simple text message might have been the best I may be able to do with the connection through Aslan’s magicks I am sure, but still if somehow I am lucky enough and he’ll allow live video conferencing (as it were)…

"What’s wrong with Sakura?" Rin blinks, looking increasingly frantic as her imagination runs wild from what I see from here. "What do you know?! Tell ME!"

See that she’s not questioning how we Champions know about Sakura Matou being her sister, having been turned over to the Matou clan for adoption due to some utter NONSENSE about not being able to inherit the Family magic. Their father at the time thought that this was tragic so opted on selling . . .uh . . .giving over Sakura to the Matous to they would teach her their magicks (since they had no viable magic types in their household anymore otherwise).

I DID manage to finally get enough time to quickly speed read all the fan lore books that my dead team mate left behind.

I didn’t want to read it. Didn’t want to disturb the dead’s possessions before turning them back over to the living relatives back on their home world (if I ever GET a chance to go back). But with everything pressuring despite our best efforts…

It’s very invasive and embarrassing, even IF not everything being potentially being true here with these particular "incarnations" or whateer you want to call them. It would be mortally embarrassing if.

No, it’s going to be HELL to pay when they realize how much information and whatnot is in that lore Rin had sneer at me for not having read when we’d been under the gun with Berserker there earlier.

Unprepared? Amateurs? Rin, you’re going to find out just HOW much you’ll regret . . .!

. . .

The . . .ways that Sakura was actually being "taught" by the head of the Matou clan was . . .

He’s a monster who is a "worm user" and he’s used those worms to infest Sakura in ways that are Disgusting!

. . .

The world this place mimics a tale that originally (before the mangas and movie adaptations) was an ADULT Japanese video game so if you realize that those worms could be termed "rape worms" . . .

Yeah, Medusa wants to protect her true Master who summoned her. Sees more than a bit of herself in Sakura in her potential to becoming a true monster (like she did when becoming the Gorgon near the end) what with the Matou elder having made her be this Black Grail.

I explain all of this mentally to the adult here who haven’t been taken aside by Lilith (read Medusa and Rin) and who are awake (our sleepers named Ilya and Shiro will be up and about in a minute here) to explain what is going on with Sakura.

Behind some VERY powerful sound mufflers for privacy sake as well as some of the inbound screaming and hysterics I fear that Rin might have here in a moment. Maybe.

If nothing else, it’s good for some measure of privacy!

This! This is not the way I wanted it. I wanted to do this AFTER I made my spell attempt to contact Home Base, verbally with them here. I can see that even the less . . .disturbing briefing I did last time with them mentally was very cringe worthy, by the way they twitched and squirmed throughout it.

Guess that while mental communion is possible between these anime folks and us Champions, it doesn’t make for a pain free or comfortable experience for them. Like fingers on a chalkboard…

Through in the rather graphic nature of what has been done here with Sakura (and one of them had/could still have) gone amuck and become something of a monster capable of wrecking untold havoc with this city at least…

They look rather green, even the Brigadier (who’s seen some rather nasty things over the years while in UNIT I’ll have you know).

Well, the one I am familiar with, anyway.

"Now, as for contacting the girls," I finish, giving everyone around a look that broached no arguments here over this. Aslan’s quiet about this, not hinting on how much will be allowed (with this Quest business he’s not going to put his nose more into it because that’d be . . .a bad idea for the flack he’d get from the Higher Up who is HIS direct boss and all that). "I’m going to do this because the little girls are going to be scared and I don’t want THAT. The teen is looks to be able to keep her head on her shoulders there and young miss Bazett Fraga McRemitz does have a rather powerful tool in her possession just in case anyone less than a Heroic Spirit should try to invade."

"Fraga?" Shiro’s father blinks, recognizing the name and what that particular bloodline’s ability has there. I’d imagine that being the "Magus Killer" and all that (retired or not) meant he’d have come across that tidbit of info during his career and whatnot, maybe as targets and maybe as allies. Whatever, I’ve got my eye on you if you decide to take up old bad habits!

"With her having the Noble Phantasm Fragarach they’d BETTER be safe," he mutters, shaking his head at THIS latest revelation. "By the Root!"

OH my, you will just DIE when we get to the last few bombshells I’m going to be dropping here, especially what I and the other magic types of the group are fearing what will happen with the King of Camelot once we get there in a moment. What she’s been exposed to and all that. What it will do to her because of what the Heroic Spirit version of her having been magically "de-darkened" and changing her back into normal Saber vice "Saber Alter".

…

Sigh, YES the Caster sisters told Medea what they did earlier their and of course the duly concerned girl shared it with us! She’s not stupid, you know!

It is such a pleasure to work with her, really. That and having her as a friend . . .

Okay, let’s get down to it.

A final flurry of cards and laying down the final set (which would make for a grand and odd game of solitaire let me tell you), I blink at the spellwork . . .works rather better than I could reasonably hope for here.

But . . .noting the now rather startling green, slit pupilled eyes that Miss McRemitz is sporting (along with the now slightly pointed ears) means things have been happening a bit faster than expected (and some totally unexpected things happening) here.

That and who and what are sitting on the young woman’s shoulders…three green eyed pixies blink back at me. Each looking rather like the grown up version of Miss McRemitz that I had stumbled across whilst reading up on Fate/Stay Night from my dead friend’s book supply.

Wonder how they managed to magic up their business suites like that so quickly. I mean magick comes naturally to the Fairy folk, but still! "Sooo . . .we seem to something of a discussion to happen here in a second but how are the other girls?" I begin after a slight pause.

1. Of course,I am ignoring the stares the others in the room are giving me and those in the scrying/communication spell above the cards I laid out before me.

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