flightworks | [Fate/ninth heaven] Forgotten Wings; One day II [route I, day 2]

Masterlist and readme are here. Feedback is appreciated, especially as this is a very experimental style for me!

One day II

—When I was small, my world was made up of my master’s workshop.
My master is an incredible magus, and any workshop he creates is immense, but that’s still a tiny world for a little kid.
I didn’t have parents. I wondered a lot when I was little if it meant they were dead or something, but since no one ever claimed me, the only grown-ups I really knew were my master and my master’s servants.
It wasn’t a bad life.
I can’t say it was a very good life, but it wasn’t a bad life. I had regular meals and I was cared for, and the servants kept me company most of the time.
I also had a lot of time to myself as my master was always really busy then.
—So, when I was small, my world was the workshop and the stories I was told.
I hardly ever even saw the sky.

—But I had dreams.
I had dreams about angels, armies of angels with black wings, who marched down monsters that terrified me.
When I was little, I always thought that the monsters were coming to get me and the angels were fighting to save me, but eventually I realized that it was a dream I was watching, not a scene I was part of.
They were very realistic dreams.
I could smell the dust and the blood and sweat from the fighting. And I could hear orders being shouted, the screams of monsters and explosions.
But what stood out most of all—were the weapons those angels were carrying.
They were bright and colorful, and from a distance they looked almost like cardboard cutouts—it seemed laughable that a warrior would carry such a weapon into a fight.
I realized after a while though that those weapons were bright and bold because they were “something more” than mortal. When the fighting got close, it was easy to see that those weapons had mass like any ordinary sword or spear or staff.
I was fascinated by them.
I always wondered more than anything else, what it would be like to touch one of them—

I wake up.
There are birds chirping and light is coming in through the window, and even though it’s warm, I feel refreshed.
I sit up and yawn, stretching.
It’s hard to think, but I know that after yesterday, I should get up without dawdling. So I head outside my room with slow steps and enter the bathroom to wash my sleepy face.
…Man, why am I never any good right when I wake up.

I get changed into my uniform and head into the kitchen, as it’s 6:20 now.
“—Oh.”
“—Oh.”
Rose is standing there.
She must have just gotten up too, as she hasn’t tied her hair yet. Her ribbon isn’t tied yet, either. She looks tired out, but at the same time warm and feminine.
—Hold on, I think that was just a very strange thought to have.
How is it strange, though?—I really am no good this early.
…I should say something, as she’s staring at me with a confused face.
“Good morning, Rose.”
She nods and covers a yawn.
“’Morning. Get me out a frying pan, would you?”
I open the cabinet and take out the pan she asked for, and I realize that she’s holding a bowl and a whisk. It looks like she’s stirring eggs.
“Hold on, Rose. Are you making omelets?”
“Huh? Uh, yeah. They’re fast, and we have to leave a little early today, since we have a short club meeting before classes start.”
Oh yeah. I’d almost forgotten about that.
“Well, here. Let me do it, you did make breakfast yesterday after all. And I can make an omelet well enough.”
Rose looks at me for a long time—,
and then she smiles at me.
“Okay. Thanks. No onions on mine, okay?”
“Haha, I know better than to give you anything like that.”
She goes to sit down at the table, and then the phone rings.
“I’ll get it!”
Before I can move, Rose goes to pick it up, so I just busy myself in front of the stovetop.
“Hello? This is Rose… oh! Hector-sama!”
I almost drop the pan, but when I turn around, Rose is making fierce shooing gestures at me. So I figure I’d better do as I’m told.
“No… not yet. I’m very sorry. But the sign should be appearing today or tomorrow at the very latest… isn’t that right? I have everything ready in the basement as soon as it manifests. How many positions…? Three? I’m sorry we’re cutting it so close. Yes, I’ll be sure to notify you right away. Thank you, Hector-sama. …Goodbye.”
She sets the phone down.
All the air of an old friend is gone. Her shoulders are rigid and she has the sense of a magus about her.
I keep silent and flip the omelet I’m cooking so that it won’t burn.
“Well, it seems like time is getting close. But there’s nothing we can do until it’s time, so—hey Ein, stop staring off into the distance and hurry it up! We’ll be late!”
I put the omelets on plates, but it’s hard to get that relaxed feeling back from before.

—Well, we got to school in enough time.
Actually, only Aura-san and Fia-san were here before us, which is good.
Cierra-sensei came into the classroom before long, and Pamela-chan was almost late, but those are normal, everyday things.
I’m sitting off to the side as I usually do, since Cierra-sensei is talking to Mimee-san and Pamela-chan about the different kinds of things a Magic Crest is good for and Rose is helping her. It looks like Fia-san is trying to get something out of her bag, but she’s listening too.
The unusual thing today—
—is that Aura-san is sitting off to the side, too, and she’s watching the others with a lonely face.
I hear that it’s hard for Aura-san at home.
It’s not something that’s easy to talk about, and in any case I don’t think I have a right to intrude on other people’s business, but Mimee-san is a close friend of Aura-san’s, and I’ve heard her talk about how strict Aura-san’s father is.
Um, it seems that Aura-san’s family, the Herzogs, are a long-standing clan of magi.
It also seems as though they’ve been dwindling lately, but I know because Cierra-sensei said so that Aura-san has a lot of Magic Circuits. And they’re all high-quality ones, which makes her kind of a prodigy in her family.
So I think part of the reason Aura-san has seemed so strained lately is because her family expects her to help them return to their former standing.
It’s not really fair to Aura-san, but it’s an expectation in families of magi that the heir gives up their humanity before their birth. Even I know that kind of thing and have felt it, and I never had a family to begin with.
Even if we want to be people more than we want to be magi, this is something we’re always held to, because magi are exceptions to human society.
But it’s sad that it’s making her so miserable.

“Aura-san, is something the matter? You’ve got a look like your stomach hurts or something.”
“Sempai.”
…She makes an expression like a cornered animal.
“You don’t have to talk about whatever’s bothering you if you don’t want to, but you shouldn’t make a face like that. Mimee-san’s going to get worried, and then she’ll get really angry. She thinks of you like a little sister, and she’d feel really bad for letting her little sister get depressed on her watch.”
Aura-san looks down guiltily, and I wonder if I said the right thing.
…In a few years, I’m sure Aura-san will be a stunning beauty.
She’s the kind of girl that people who don’t know better will be calling “Ojo-sama” because she looks like a cultured kind of person.
But before she’s a young lady, she’s still just my underclassman in high school, and I’m sure there are places she doesn’t let us see that are childlike.
And just as I’m thinking that,
“Sempai, is it… strange for a high school girl to want to keep a stuffed toy?”
she asks me a question like that with an embarrassed face.
“Huh? That’s kind of random, but no. I think it’s normal. We all have stuff from when we were kids that we don’t want to give up. Well, I may be generalizing a bit, but that’s the case, isn’t it?”
Aura-san makes a reserved smile. Even now, she’s sitting perfectly with her back straight and her hands folded in her lap.
“My uncle… you see, for my birthday, my oldest uncle gave me a very large teddy bear.
“My father wasn’t pleased with it and thought it was babyish, and the only reason he didn’t make me get rid of it right then is because it’s impolite to refuse a gift.
“I care for my uncle very much, and… I like the present. I want to keep it. But my father is… I’m afraid he finds it unsuitable for me to have such a thing, when I should be putting all my focus into my studies as a magus.”
I can’t help making an angry face. What kind of person is Aura-san’s father? Aren’t people supposed to know that this is the kind of thing girls should be allowed to get away with?
“You wear hair ornaments, don’t you?”
Aura-san makes a surprised face, and I understand because that must sound like a complete non sequitur.
“Um, that’s because you’ve already learned to keep magic reserve in your hair, right? I remember from Cierra-sensei talking about it before.”
Aura-san nods.
“Well, I’m sure there’s a way to put magic into inanimate things too… if you can store prana in jewels, then shouldn’t you be able to do it in just about anything if you really try? Maybe Cierra-sensei can help you. Your father will probably be able to approve of it if you’re using it to practice with magic.”
“…Thank you, Sempai.”
Looking a little better, Aura-san gets up and moves a little closer to everyone else.
Um, I know it’s presumptuous, but I’d be happy if that helped at all. I don’t know if it did, because that’s up to her.

“That was a good thing you just did, Sempai.”
I jump, and nearly fall over.
Fia-san is much closer than I thought she was before, and is beaming at me with folded hands.
…That’s embarrassing.
First, that Fia-san was listening in while I was talking to Aura-san… but also that I didn’t notice and jumped when she spoke.
Um, just like Aura-san, Fia-san looks up to me a lot as a good Sempai, and I don’t want to do anything to seem less dependable.
…Fia-san is giggling. I can feel my face heating up.
“Um, uh, I-I don’t really think so,” I answer her with a dizzy head. “I just—don’t like it when girls look sad, and so I just selfishly…”
Fia-san gives me a shining look.
…Um.
As a man, I should be happy to have a girl looking at me that way.
But I wish it had happened on a date with someone, not as an underclassman accidentally seeing me in a private conversation with another underclassman.
“Anyway, Sempai. Why don’t you join the rest of us? Even if you don’t have a Magic Crest, it’s always a good thing to learn. You never know when it will come in handy, after all!”
I hold up my hands in protest.
“Sensei doesn’t need somebody asking a hundred questions about the basics when you all are ready to have an advanced lesson, so it’s okay.”
The smile falls from Fia-san’s face, and she’s looking at me in alarm. I lower my hands, confused. …I don’t think I said anything that bad, did I?
“Sempai, your hand!”
Eh?
I look down at my hands, and for the first time, I see it. …I really must have been half-asleep when I got dressed, if I missed this.
On the back of my left hand is a red bruise.
It’s large and goes under my sleeve, and it looks as if I just hit my arm on something big. Did I run into a desk when I jumped backwards?
Fia-san carefully takes my left arm and pushes my sleeve up an inch or so. The bruise is still spreading upwards, as if it runs up my entire arm.
“Sempai, this looks awful! You should go down and see the nurse, right away?”
“—Fia-san, don’t worry. It doesn’t hurt at all, I’ll be fine.”
When I look up, I see that Rose has turned towards us. She’s staring at me over Fia-san’s shoulder.

On her face,
is a look of cold shock and hatred that ties my insides into frozen knots.

“…Sensei. I’m sorry, but Ein and I are going home right now.”
Cierra-sensei—no, everyone—stares at Rose in shock.
“There isn’t time to explain, but neither of us can come to school for a week or two. Oh, but I think I can stop in every few days to pick up the handouts. Please let our homeroom teachers know.”
As Rose crosses the room, her form is that of a magus, not a high school girl. She grabs me roughly by the shoulder and starts to pull me out of the classroom.
“But—”
“I will talk to you,” she says coldly, “when we’re home.”
Leaving our silent club members behind us, we walk out of the building. We’ve left the school before the bells have had a chance to ring, and before the gates have even closed.

The walk home is silent.

When we get back to the house, Rose tells me to hurry up and change out of my uniform.
I head into the bathroom with a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt and put them on. Before I pull the shirt over my head, I take a long look at my arm.
All up and down my left arm, there’s a wide red mark. It’s impossible to think I actually bruised it somehow. And don’t bruises start fading to purple right after you get them?
…There’s nothing I can do about it now as it won’t come off even if I scrub it with soap and water, so I finish getting dressed and head back into the kitchen.
Rose is on the phone when I get there.
“The summoning will be tomorrow, since I’m sure I’ll have to explain a lot of things first. And once that happens, we’ll come see you directly. ……Thank you. Goodbye.”
She puts the phone down and turns to me.
She’s wearing that look again.
It feels like my blood is going to turn into ice.
“…Well, if you’re going to gloat, you’d better do it now.”
…Um, Rose just said something strange.
“Huh?”
“…Because it’s you. It’s not me, it’s going to be you.”
“Wha… WHAAAAAAAT?!”
Rose crosses her arms and glares at me.
“Like I just said, the one chosen for the Sixth Fuyuki Grail War isn’t me. It’s you, Ein.”
…My head is spinning.
“But why would it be me instead of you? I don’t even have a Magic Crest, and I’m barely even a qualified magic user, and—how do you know, anyway?”
Rose points at my arm.
“That. That’s the first manifestation of the holy sign. When you summon your Servant, it’ll turn into a Command Spell. Which Servant you have determines its shape.”
It looks like if I try to protest or ask how she knows, Rose is going to get even angrier. Besides, I know how she knows that. Both of us expected her to be chosen as a potential Master, so Rose was the one who did all the research about the Grail War.
…Rose takes a deep breath and sighs. Her face is telling me she’s given up.
Somehow, that expression makes me feel even worse.
“Anyway, you’d better go be useful and go buy us lunch. I can’t concentrate on explaining things to you and cooking at the same time.”

…Since I’ve been exiled from the house, I head for the shopping district.
Let’s see… It would be easy to just pick up some junk food at the convenience store, but I have the feeling Rose will get even madder if I don’t put some effort into this.
The local Chinese place has small cartons of fried rice mixed with bell pepper on sale, so I pick up two of those, as well as some apple bread and melon bread. It’s pricey, but Rose’s favorite sushi bar also has crab sushi today, so I buy some of that too.
…Maybe I should consider taking her out for a ramen bowl or tempura later… It won’t make up for taking her place as a Master, but maybe it’ll put her in a better mood.
We still have some fresh fruit at home, so this should be enough.
Carrying the bags carefully, I turn and make my way towards home—
—when I see a strange person in front of the vending machine.

It’s a girl.
Her red hair is almost pink, and it’s falling thickly into her face so I can barely see her eyes, but I think she’s cute.
Um, she seems about middle school age, but school is still going right now and she’s not wearing a uniform. …At least, I don’t think that school uniforms have black shirts and plaid skirts these days.
And, um, she’s hitting the same button over and over with a really distressed look on her face.
I shift the bags onto one arm and walk over with difficulty. …Wow, she’s really intent on that button, which seems to be the “vend” button for the red bean milk.
…I haven’t had shiruko in anything since I was really small. It’s way too sweet for me now.
She must like sweet things, as she’s also holding a melon bun.
“Um, excuse me…”
The girl jumps up with a gasp, and then leaps away from the vending machine as if I caught her doing something bad.
“This is what you want, right?” I point at the little box of red bean milk, and she nods.
I lean over and look at the vending machine.
…It looks like her money went in fine, and she paid enough. Maybe the button is jammed. I give it a poke to test, and the coil obediently pushes the drink forward.
…Um, it’s pushing an iced caramel coffee forward too.
Both drinks fall into the tray, and I straighten up.
“See? It was just being stubborn. And now you get two for one, look.”
She cautiously heads back up to the vending machine and bends over to get the drinks, but when she does, she drops her melon bun.
…Oh.
She looks like she’s going to start crying from frustration.

Um, it would be bad if she cried, and I feel sorry for her. So I dig in my shopping bag for one of the melon buns I just bought.
They’re a bakery specialty and they’re packaged individually. It looks like this is the same kind the girl bought, and they may be out by now—these kinds of bread are very popular.
I look the plastic wrapping and the bun inside over, then hold it out to the girl.
“I have a lot, so take mine, okay?”
She stares at me. …It’s an intense stare that I can feel piercing me even through her hair. Finally, she takes the bun from me, looks it over—
—and gives me a brilliant smile.

The girl bows deeply and then disappears into the crowd.
…Come to think of it, she never said a single word all through that.

“What took you so long? Come on, I’m starved.”
With that kind of angry greeting, I’m welcomed back into the house.
Rose nods with approval when I set the food out, and then goes to get chopsticks. By the time I find a drink and sit down, she’s already wolfed down half her meal. …She must really have been hungry, or she must really be enjoying it.
Maybe some of both, because she seems much more relaxed as I start to eat too.
“Okay. Even though I know you’ve heard the basics before, let’s go back over them so that I can be sure you haven’t forgotten.
“Here in Fuyuki, the ritual of the Holy Grail War has been carried out for about two hundred years, at intervals of about sixty years. The gaps between the fourth and fifth war, and the fifth war and the one right now, have been a lot shorter because the fourth and fifth wars accumulated a lot of magical energy that didn’t get used.
“The ritual was founded by the Einzbern, Makiri, and Tohsaka families. None of them seem to be participating any longer, and the Tohsaka head can’t participate in this war anyway because she’s at the Clock Tower. The Einzbern family doesn’t seem to be involved with this war, which is probably because the fifth Grail War ended in a joint victory between their Master and one of the others.
“Basically, the Holy Grail War is a free-for-all battle between seven magi called Masters and their seven Servants, which are Heroic Spirits called into this world and given form by the Grail. Each Servant makes a contract with a Master, and after that they fight and kill each other. The Servant and Master that win the Holy Grail are able to use its magical energy to make any wish come true.”
Most of this I already know, but I think it’d be better just to listen as Rose talks.
“There are seven classes of Servant that can be summoned: Saber, the knight of the sword; Lancer, the knight of the lance; Archer, the knight of the bow; Rider, a mounted warrior; Caster, a magus; Assassin, a killing expert; and Berserker, the mad warrior.
“…There’s also an eighth class called Avenger that’s used to summon antiheroes, but only one Avenger has ever been summoned. It was a taboo in the first place, and apparently the Servant that got called was really weak, so most Masters since have ignored that class.
“Anyway, ignoring Avenger for now, the classes that are considered the best ones are Saber, Lancer, and Archer. In all the past Grail Wars but the fifth, Saber made it to the final battle. All the classes but Caster, Assassin, and Berserker have natural magic resistance, too, which means it’s hard for Masters to fight them.”
Rose’s face grows more serious.
“When I talked to Hector-sama over the phone, he said that the only Servants that haven’t been summoned yet are Saber, Assassin, and Lancer. When we summon your Servant tomorrow, you want Saber or Lancer if we’re going to have any chance of winning.
“Any questions yet?”
I think it over, and then nod.
“Um. We don’t have to kill other Masters, right?”
“You don’t have to, but it’s easier to go for the Master than to just attack Servants. You can bet that there are going to be a couple of unscrupulous Masters that won’t mind going straight for you, if not more than a few.
“Hector-sama’s always told you that the path of a magus is a path stained in blood, right? It’s unpleasant, but if you’re going to be killed, you’d better prepare yourself to aim for your enemy’s life too. That’s the only way to defend yourself now.”
She narrows her eyes at me.
“And don’t even think about not summoning a Servant. You’ve got the proof of a Command Spell, and as long as it’s there, those unscrupulous Masters will go after you to keep you from making a contract with a Servant whose Master has died.”
I think I’m probably making a face, but I can’t help it. Rose is a lot more prepared for this than I am, and the more I listen, the more I wish she’d gotten this bruise thing instead of me.
“Um, one more question. How does a Heroic Spirit manage to stay in this world for long enough to fight a war, even a short one like this?”
Rose nods with a stern face, but I think she’s pleased that I asked the question.
“The Grail gives the Servants physical vessels. They can become spirits, but the vessels are half dependent on the Grail, and half dependent on the Master’s prana.”
…Um, I think I see a problem with this.
“Is that going to be okay? I don’t have that much magical energy capacity, right?”
Oh.
Rose is making a really scary smile in my direction.
“What, are you asking me to lend you more?”
“N-No!! What are you saying?! You shouldn’t joke about things like that, stupid!”
I seem to have surprised her, as she folds her arms.
“Well, picking on you aside, in your case the problem is just that you’re not very receptive to absorbing and using the mana in the air. You’re okay when it comes to od, so I was thinking that for the rest of the day, I’ll just have to tamper with your body to increase your receptivity.
“…Your Servant might still lack a bit of magical energy, but it’ll be able to make up for it if it’s any good as a tactician.”
Rose says this as though it’s a matter of course. I think there was still something scary in there, but it’s better than what she was implying before.
“Hurry up and finish eating, Ein. I’m going to get things ready in the basement. I’ll teach you the spell to summon a Servant there, and then we’ll work on expanding your capacity.”

—After that, Rose really did bring me down to the basement and start the torture she calls training me.
She told me with a dangerous smile to fire the “switch” to open my Magic Circuits, and once I’d done so, then she put her hands on my head and forehead and did something like slamming a wedge into that small opening.
“…Man, she’s ruthless.”
To make the situation worse, she didn’t know when to stop tormenting me mentally and kept saying ridiculous things about how she’d claimed my magical virginity and this was her revenge for all women on stupid men who ruin things with their clumsiness.
…Um, it sounds like she has a grudge on someone.
I’ve definitely learned one thing from today—if girls get the wrong idea about things you say, they’re completely vicious. And, um, that if this is anything like “that”, I need to be careful in the future.
I still feel awful.
…The torment ended a few hours ago when Rose noticed that I was in too much pain to concentrate properly, and she gave me a smile that was much less scary and told me to hurry up and go to bed now.
“I’ll give you a cheat sheet for tomorrow, even,” she said. I wonder if that was supposed to be an apology.
“Ugh.”
My head is pounding.
What Rose is doing is like trying to expand a cup that can only hold 10 liters of water by placing it under a waterfall.
In this case, the cup will grow a little, but the mana pouring into my body from outside it and spilling out again violates my nerves with pain with every breath. This is “torture” that is essential to expediting my growth as a magic user.
It would end if I shut off my Magic Circuit, but I don’t want to die, so I’ll keep it going and endure the stabs of pain through the night. …I don’t want to die, after all, and Rose would kill me if I disobeyed her now.
…I’m exhausted.
Even with this pain, all that’s left for my body to do is collapse onto the bed and go to sleep.
It’s telling me that even before I enter the Sixth Fuyuki Grail War, I’m already straining at my limit—