[Fate/ninth heaven] Vagrant Grail Cadenza; Sunrise on the Water [route III, TRUE END]

[feral-phoenix.livejournal.com]

Masterlist and readme are here.

notes;
The conditions of this ending are:
-Contract is made with Meria on day 15
-Due to insufficient relationship level, Meria refuses to abandon the battle with Caster
-Meria dies defeating Caster; Gulcasa assists Nessiah in battle with Hector and survives

True End Sunrise on the Water   “—”   And when I wake up, it’s warm.   There’s really nothing quite like waking up relaxed and energized in a warm, soft bed.   “Fua—”   I stretch my body and curl up again.   Last night was pretty passionate, and so the warmth of the soft covers and the simple stretches and shifts feel very nice.   I’m tired and don’t really feel like doing anything, so maybe I’ll even sleep a little more.   …When I think that.   “Nessiah?”   The door to the bedroom opens, and Gulcasa peeks in.   “Oh, so you’re still in bed?   “You’re carefree as always.”   “—I think it’s just that you’re up bright and early as always.   “Goodness, you’re always so chipper in the morning. I don’t know where you get the energy, personally.”   Gulcasa smiles at me with good humor when I complain.   “I was going to warn you that breakfast is almost ready.   “I’d offer to carry some up here to you, but I was in a good mood and so I wound up making a lot…”   He laughs and sticks his tongue out like an embarrassed little boy.   And against my better sense, I can’t help but smile and soften at the sight of him.   “All right.   “If that’s the case, then I’ll get dressed and come down.”   Gulcasa nods and backs out of the doorway.   “Take your time.   “Oh, but don’t take any longer than half an hour, because by then everything will be on the table and it will be getting cold—”   He turns in a swirl of long red hair and disappears.   …It has been several months since then.   The war ended, and by some miracle, we both survived.   The exertion of using the Heaven’s Feel to grant Gulcasa and myself mortality was extremely taxing on my body.   In the end, we both wound up collapsed at the Tohsaka workshop and neither of us woke up for a while.   It seems that in the end Roswell came to find us, and had to fish our collapsed bodies out of the wreckage, and wound up causing a big commotion with the temporary Second Owner.   She and her family contacted the real Second Owner, Tohsaka Rin, and between them and Roswell a lot of things were worked out and explained.   During that period Gulcasa and I were both in treatment and exhausted, so it can’t be helped if it sounds like I’m treating it like someone else’s problem.   The truth is that not even I knew what was going on.   It’s just that in the end, I wound up discussing it with Tohsaka Rin and her family, the Emiyas.   …I disclosed everything fully.   The three of them were survivors of the fifth and final true Holy Grail War, and so they could be trusted to be understanding.   I told them everything that I had explained to Roswell during the war, including the parts that I left out even then.   With some persuasion from her sister and her brother-in-law, Tohsaka Rin graciously said that she would do everything she could to take care of this mess before the Magic Association stuck their noses into the matter.   Incredibly, I was even thanked for not wrecking the town as badly as their generation did.   After that.   For a short time, Gulcasa and I were tasked with staying in the Tohsaka household and fixing it up from all the aftereffects of the final battle.   Roswell and Tohsaka Rin handled things at the Clock Tower’s side, and our daily lives managed to progress.   …Finally.   After the whole matter was settled to the satisfaction of the proper Second Owner.   …I filed a formal request to be allowed to live on this land with Gulcasa.   It will be easier and more convenient in several ways to stay in Japan.   Gulcasa still has all the powers and abilities of a Servant, and so there would be many who would want to investigate him and examine his body if we went to a land where the Magic Association is very active.   Japan is one of the lands that the Magic Association overlooks, and so we can live peacefully here without fear of people nosing into our business.   As if to prove that, there is even a surviving Servant from the previous war living in the Emiya household.   She has been a member of that household for five years, and no one has discovered her yet.   …But more than that.   This is a sentimental place for us.   It is the place where we won our freedom, and it is the place where we have made our first connections with other people.   We are on casual terms with the Tohsaka and Emiya families, and Roswell occasionally visits here from France.   Initially we were offered a place in the Emiya household once we had fixed up the Tohsaka mansion.   But in the end, we chose this place.   We had to ask for assistance in refurbishing and outright rebuilding in some areas, but—   I change into a light tunic-length dress and skirt, and pull back the blinds.   Outside—   The beautiful view of the Mion River spreads out before me, with the last traces of a dazzling sunrise lighting up the silver water.   That’s right.   This house—was built using the foundations of the shack Gulcasa and I first took shelter in when I escaped from Hector.   It’s been refurbished so completely that it almost doesn’t feel the same sometimes.   It has two floors now, and a high blockade on the river side of the first floor as a preventative measure against possible flooding.   Inside the wall, Gulcasa has planted a garden, and wants to grow some of his own ingredients if possible.   But—the magical aura of this place is the same as ever.   Ever since I claimed it as a makeshift workshop and put up a boundary field, this area has been “mine”.   It won’t be for tens of years, but I’m sure that over the course of my lifetime I will rebuild this house into a grand temple to rival my old sanctuary on the island of Ancardia, where my remains were first buried.   Anyway.   It has been months since then, and it is now in the middle of autumn.   Neither of us really has a career.   Most of the time, I stay at home.   Gulcasa does some odd jobs and I know that he’s interested in taking up a part-time job as a chef at some restaurant or other, and every now and then we are both called to help with magical problems by Tohsaka Rin or the Emiyas.   But for the majority of our daily life, we are alone on the riverbank.   …It’s like a happy dream, an insular world made up of the two of us.   Gulcasa cooks and collects recipes, I study and experiment with my magic and collect books, and we’re slowly catching up on the time that we lost from our first life together.   …And, um, because Gulcasa is still classified as a Servant, he periodically needs to receive magical energy from an outside source so that Gaia will not deny him and send him back to the Throne.   He has true incarnation, but that’s unfortunately still the case.   So—well, because we have that very good excuse, we also do it a lot.   By “a lot”, I mean several times in one day, at most.   But—we love each other, and we are able to be alone with each other, so I think that that’s actually rather normal.   “—Nessiah, are you going to come down for breakfast or what?”   “Oh—yes, I’ll be right there.”   Walking this path, we have lost innumerable things.   Even just in this battle, we lost an ally who will never come back.   But so that we can hold our heads up high—   I walk down the stairs.   The kitchen smells wonderful.   This is the spot where Gulcasa scavenged and scrounged and cooked food obtained by cheating and stealing, all for my sake.   The old-fashioned stove is still in the corner, although we don’t use it very often.   I stroke the black stovetop as I pass, a movement that feels as though it’s becoming habitual.   There, in the place that I had once cobbled together loose bedding from an old mattress and several blankets, is a sweetheart sofa and a new kotatsu table that was a gift from the young Emiya couple after the last job we did with them.   Gulcasa is setting the table for two.   Breakfast seems to consist of baked fish seasoned with lemon, hash browns, egg drop soup, and tarts filled with various jellies.   It looks so delicious that even I can’t help but work up an appetite at the sight of it.   …Maybe someday soon, I’ll ask Gulcasa for some basic cooking lessons.   After watching the family at the Emiya household all sharing the kitchen, I’ve started thinking that it might be fun and even a little romantic to share such a thing together.   A soft, gentle world for the two of us keeps turning with the seasons.   Our lost time won’t come back.   The things we have lost, the sins we’ve piled up—can’t be taken back.   So I’d at least like to face towards the future.   “—Thank you for your hard work at breakfast as always.”   Gulcasa shakes his head.   The early-morning light from the window sends his hair into beautiful jewel tones that dazzle me and make me feel as though I’m dreaming.   “There’s no need to say things like that when this is what I like to do.”   “Even so, I’m grateful.”   I walk over to the small dining room in slow steps.   The soft carpet feels good on my bare feet.   “—That’s right.   “I forgot to mention this before, but it seems as though Tohsaka-san is consulting with her mentor, the current Lord El-Melloi, about how to dismantle the Grand Grail.   “She’s a bright and resourceful magus, so I don’t doubt that her plan will be successful whenever she manages to put it into motion.   “This means… that no one will be able to follow Hector’s example, and use this cruel system to abuse the Heroic Spirits for the sake of opening a gate to Akasha, ever again.”   Gulcasa’s expression goes soft and thoughtful.   “…Really. I’ll be happy if that’s true.”   Instead of sitting down at the table,   I walk straight to him and put my arms around his waist.   Gulcasa is warm and solid.   His hair is silken sweet, and smells like a bonfire as always.   He wraps his arms around me, and we hold each other in the room that smells like warm breakfast and new beginnings.   He is real.   He is really here, and I am really free.   …Just knowing that.   I will be able to face tomorrow over and over again without fear.   I face upwards.   I reach out and frame Gulcasa’s face in my own two hands.   When he obediently leans down, I close my eyes for his kiss.   …Silhouetted in the early morning light.   I bury myself in the solid form of the wish I finally realized with my own two hands—