Interlude R(F) II: Simulator Scramble

Life for Fujimaru Rika had settled into something resembling a new normal over the course of the last five months. The circumstances had not become any less ridiculous or crazy than they had when it all started back in August — in fact, Rika would say that they had, in some ways, become even crazier and more ridiculous — but there was something to be said for letting it all go and embracing the crazy for what it was.

Which wasn't to say that she was going to stop being the only sane woman in the loony bin anytime soon, but she thought that she had gotten enough of a handle on things that she wasn't nearly as surprised as she would have been when something new and even more stupidly crazy happened.

And then it turned out Senpai was even more of a badass than anyone had thought and killed a god before coming to Chaldea. Talk about something to put on your resumé, right?

Rika wasn't sure how much room she had to talk, though, not when her new best friend was an emperor from back when Rome was going out and laying claim to every bit of land they could march an army through, and not when part of Rika's resumé could now legitimately include things like stopped an evil witch from destroying medieval France or helped kill three giant tentacle monsters.

The real crime was that the second one somehow didn't qualify her to be a magical girl.

"I even have a transformation sequence and everything!" she muttered furiously to herself.

"Did you say something, Senpai?" Cinnabon asked.

"Nothing, nothing!" Rika waved it off.

"— last thing to go over," Da Vinci-chan was explaining. "The only feature still remaining that I haven't managed to finish implementing yet is the realistic simulation of magical energy usage. That means, yes, as far as the simulator is concerned, you will all have limitless magical energy, so until I can finish the coding to simulate your individual limits and the costs of spells, fighting for Servants, and Noble Phantasms, try to keep in mind that you'll technically be stronger than usual, okay?"

"So we can cut loose as much as we want, huh?" Mo-chan asked, grinning broadly. "Nice! A chance to really stretch my legs!"

"Are there any other restrictions we need to know about?" Senpai asked Da Vinci-chan.

Da Vinci-chan shook her head. "Not that I can think of at the moment, no. Any and every Servant should be perfectly capable of using the simulator now, just the same as the Masters have been since we finished the preliminary repairs. Oh — now that I think about it, yes. I just said you have essentially unlimited magical energy, but don't think that means you can just keep firing your Noble Phantasms off one after the other. The simulator can't simulate the limits of your magical energy just yet, but that doesn't mean the program can handle the load of rendering so many esoteric effects in such rapid succession."

"Hear that, British?" Jalter drawled. "You're going to have to rely on a more complicated strategy than 'blast it until it stops moving' if you want to beat any of us in there!"

Mo-chan just kept grinning. "Right back atcha!"

"Could it even simulate Rome?" Best Buddy asked. "Every street, every brick? Mm-mm!"

"Down to the temperature of the baths," Da Vinci-chan confirmed. "Although I regret to inform you that any relaxation you derive from it will be entirely mental. Nothing that happens inside the simulator will have any effect on your actual body, Emperor Nero."

Best Buddy nodded sagely. "I see!"

Da Vinci-chan smiled. "And now that we've gotten all of that out of the way, what do you say to a test drive, hm? Would anyone like to give it a go and see how well the repairs work?"

Half of the Servants looked ready to jump at the opportunity, especially Super Action Mom, Hippolyta (Rika still needed to find a good nickname for her that worked), and even Sieggy — but it was Senpai who thoughtfully said, "It has been a while since we've had a chance to do one of our simulated battles, hasn't it?"

Terror gripped Rika's heart for a second, and when she turned to her brother, he stared back at her with equally wide eyes.

"H-hang on!" Rika hated how her voice squeaked. "W-we don't have to jump right into that, do we? We can let Mo-chan and Super Action Mom and Jalter have their fun first, can't we?"

Senpai smiled, and Rika had never seen a more terrifying expression on her face. "We can do both."

We're doomed, thought Rika. Doomed, I tell you! Doomed!

"Oh," said Cinnabon, and like the traitor she was, "and this time, I can take part, too, can't I?"

That's not going to make it any better! Rika wanted to say. But gosh darn it, Cinnabon just looked way too innocent, which didn't make any sense, because she'd seen what Senpai's last simulated exercise was like. She knew the Hell they were about to walk into.

"It will certainly be entertaining," said Da Vinci-chan, smiling.

"Glad to know you enjoy it so much," Senpai drawled, and then she turned and swept her gaze out across the room. With narrowed eyes, she took in each of the people present and did some sort of calculation in her head.

And then, with a nod, she sealed their fates. "Mash and two other Servants. Anyone who is contracted either to one of you or all three of us, and I'll stick to the same limits."

Oh no. There was no stopping it now, was there?

"The scenario?" Onii-chan asked, brave fool that he was.

Senpai smiled again. "The same one as last time. We'll see how far the two of you have come since Orléans."

Oh shit. She was really taking this seriously, which… Well, it was Senpai, so Rika probably should have expected that to begin with. Senpai never did anything by halves.

"Anyone?" asked Rika.

"Anyone," said Senpai. "I'll even let you pick first."

Mash and two other Servants, and they got first choice of everything. Rika looked at the gathered group, so many badasses that would make the version of this they went through back then child's play.

Somehow, however, Rika didn't think Senpai would let it be as easy as wiping the base off the map with Mo-chan's Clarent or Aífe's Ochd Deug Odin.

Sorry, Best Buddy, she thought apologetically. But if we wanna win this, we're gonna have to throw our hardest hitters at it and hope it works.

Rika turned to her brother. "Onii-chan? You pick one —"

"— and you pick the other," he agreed.

It didn't make actually choosing any easier, not when they had several really good Servants to choose from. With so many frontline attackers on the team, any one of them could have filled in the role, although each of them had their strengths and weaknesses. Like Mo-chan being… Well, Rika didn't want to hurt her feelings, but just watching Siegfried made Mo-chan look like she was a toddler swinging around a stick and playing pretend. Which wasn't to say that Mo-chan was bad, just that she didn't have the same level of raw skill as someone like Sieggy or Super Action Mom.

And being fair, it was hard to argue about skill when you had the kind of raw strength Mo-chan did. Plenty of guys would probably get tossed around like ragdolls, no matter how skilled they were.

What Mo-chan could do that Super Action Mom couldn't was throw out loads of widespread damage at once. Super Action Mom's Ochd Deug Odin took a while to set up, and her chariot had to build up speed and didn't have a huge area of effect, whereas Mo-chan just had to charge up her sword and swing it.

Despite that, though, when she thought about what Senpai might bring to the field, Rika could only make one real choice.

"Emiya!" she declared confidently.

He blinked at her. "Wait, really?"

She just nodded and kept her lips tightly shut. Senpai was right there. No need to explain the reasons why or the strategy in plain view of the enemy.

"Then I'll pick Jeanne Alter," Onii-chan said.

"Huh?" Jalter drawled. "You sure about that?"

Onii-chan nodded, too. "Yes."

"Shit, really?" Mo-chan complained. "Thought we were gonna get the chance to really cut loose!"

"Mm-mm!" Best Buddy said. "What about the rest of us? My magnificent self especially!"

"Sorry, Mo-chan," Rika said. "Sorry, Best Buddy."

"We'll be having scrimmage matches regularly until it's time to prepare for the next deployment," Senpai told everyone, and while there were a few disgruntled faces and a little bit of grumbling, that was enough to placate most of the rest. Senpai cast a glance around and then announced, "Then I'll bring Siegfried and Arash."

Wait, really?

Sieggy inclined his head. "Of course."

"Right," said Arash, and he offered Rika, Ritsuka, and Mash a playful smile. "I'll try not to go too hard on you guys."

"Isn't that supposed to be my line?" Jalter shot back.

Da Vinci-chan clapped her hands together, and with a smile, she said, "Now that the teams are decided, such as they are, if everyone would get settled in? Those of you who aren't going to be participating, you can watch from the display at the front of the room."

Ritsuka, Rika, Mash, Emiya, and Jeanne Alter all made their way to the 'pods' they were going to use to access the simulator, with Jalter trailing behind — because she probably didn't know how to use them, Rika realized — and Sieggy and Arash making for their own pods. Senpai, however, went up to Da Vinci-chan, and a feeling of foreboding settled, cold and dreadful, in Rika's gut as their heads leaned together. Senpai whispered something that Rika couldn't hear, and then Da Vinci-chan nodded and whispered something back.

That couldn't be good. No way, no how. Rika had a very distinct feeling she was going to be finding out what that was all about the hard way.

When they were done with their little pow-wow, Senpai came over and climbed into her own pod, reclining into the seat. Rika let herself do the same, trying to dispel the nervous jitters in her belly.

"Loading up the scenario now," Da Vinci-chan called.

As she did so, the VR visor slid down over Rika's eyes, and the real world was replaced by black in every direction. The back of the chair reached up to cradle the nape of Rika's neck, and it had been so long that she had almost forgotten what it felt like.

"Booting up the simulation in three…two…one…"

The last word had barely left Da Vinci-chan's mouth before Rika suddenly found herself back on the streets of Fuyuki, her real body left behind. Senpai was already there, dressed up in that costume from the first time, that same mask she'd used in London hanging from one hand, and between one blink and the next, the others appeared, too, first as basic wireframes, then as smooth, untextured gray models, and finally perfect representations of the real people they were meant to be.

The only other one changed was Mash, who was fully decked out in her skimpy armor and shield.

"Fuyuki again, huh?" Emiya said as he looked around. "How nostalgic."

"Familiar, too!" Rika chirped. "I'm having flashbacks to the last time already!"

"This isn't the first time I've used the simulator," Cinnabon murmured, "but it…still amazes me how real it looks. It looks just like I would expect Fuyuki to look, u-um, if it hadn't been on fire when we were first here."

"It would kind of defeat the point if it couldn't do at least that much, wouldn't it?" said Arash.

Cinnabon hummed. "I guess so…"

"Speaking of nostalgic," said Rika, "I see Senpai's back in her creepy duds! Hey, does that mean we're actually going to get an explanation for where they came from?"

"I can control every kind of bug there is, including spiders," said Senpai wryly. "Where do you think this came from?"

Oh, another one of those answers without answers. Rika was sure Onii-chan must have realized it, too, but… Gosh darn it, it technically was an answer, wasn't it? Senpai! That's not fair! Stop doing that!

"So we really are just doing the same thing as last time, only with Servants now?" Onii-chan asked.

"Gee," Jalter drawled sarcastically, "I wonder what happened last time? It's almost like I wasn't there!"

"Miss Taylor pretended to be a Caster class Servant," Cinnabon explained simply, "and then she made Senpai and…Senpai try to fight her in her, um, her lair."

"It went about as well as you'd expect," Emiya added with a faint smirk.

"No kidding?" Jalter asked. "There a recording of this shit so I can go back and watch it?"

"No!" Rika rushed to say. "No, of course there —"

"There is," Senpai interrupted.

"Lies and slander!" Rika insisted.

"Ask Da Vinci when this is over."

Rika could only groan miserably. Cinnabon chuckled quietly, the traitor.

"To answer your question, Ritsuka," said Senpai, "yes, this will largely be the same as our last simulation, just with Servants. There are only two more changes — first, I won't limit myself to Shinto this time. The entire city is fair game. Second, I asked Da Vinci to fiddle with the code a little. For the duration of this exercise, the simulator will treat me like an actual Servant this time."

Rika wasn't the only one startled by this.

"H-hold on!" Onii-chan stuttered. "You mean, like, physically and everything?"

"Yes," Senpai said. "The rules of last time apply — I won't engage physically, and all you have to do to win is to get a single decisive hit in on me, either by yourselves or with Emiya, Mash, or Jeanne Alter. You will even have all of the functions of your standard mystic codes to do it. However, my spells and my attacks will hit harder, and they will be able to hurt those three, too. If all three of them are disabled or if they're unable to stop me from getting to you, you lose. Got it?"

No, no, don't got it! Don't got it! Who cranked the difficulty setting up to high?

"Don't worry, Master," Cinnabon said confidently. "I'll protect you."

But Senpai just smiled, and like she had been taking lessons from Darth Vader, said, "You'll certainly try."

And then Senpai pulled her mask on, and the transformation was complete. In the light of the streetlamps, the eyes seemed almost to glow, and for a second, Rika could believe she really was looking at a Servant. She hadn't given Senpai enough credit last time — the whole thing was creepy, but when she imagined it belonging to a Heroic Spirit instead of a living person, it fit all too well.

"Half an hour," Senpai told them, her voice accompanied by the undercurrent of a thousand angry bees buzzing. "Then, you have to come and find me."

Just like last time, a swarm of bugs so thick it was like a cloud of chitin rose up and consumed her, and when it dispersed, both Senpai and her two Servants were gone. They might as well have vanished into thin air.

"Master," Cinnabon began.

Rika held up a finger. "Shush!"

Cinnabon's mouth snapped shut. Several long moments passed in eerie silence, and Rika listened, waiting for any sign, straining her ears for the rustle of cloth or the whip of wind from a passing body or even just the clap of a foot on a nearby rooftop. Onii-chan did the same, slowly turning his head, eyes swiveling back and forth.

Finally, after a solid minute or two of nothing, Onii-chan said, "I think she's out of range by now."

Emiya cast his own eyes about, peering into the dark. "No sign of any crows on the rooftops."

"And I can't sense any Servants nearby," Cinnabon added. "Senpai, do you think Miss Taylor would bend the rules that far? She didn't spy on you last time, did she?"

"Last time, she only stuck to what was in her range, didn't she?" said Emiya. "I'm not sure we can count on that now. If she's playing the part of a Caster Servant seriously enough to give herself a Servant's strength, then that sort of limit won't exist on how far she can send a familiar to spy on us."

"Murphy, I know I don't pray to you often enough, but please spare us!" Rika said.

Seriously. Were they asking Senpai to make this harder on them?

Cinnabon sighed. "Senpai…"

"I don't think it matters one way or the other," said Onii-chan. "If she's spying on us, we don't know, and we have no way of stopping her, do we?"

"Not like it would change anything anyway," Jalter agreed. "We've gotta go after her one way or the other, don't we? It's not like she doesn't know we're coming."

Emiya huffed, but didn't disagree. "That brings up another salient point, though. Last time, she limited herself to Shinto and went to the old civic center. This time, she has the whole city to hide in. Do we think she'd hole up in the same spot again?"

"We could burn it down and find out," Jalter suggested in what she probably thought was a very sly manner.

"No," said Onii-chan, "but I guess it couldn't hurt to check. Where were the other Terminals again? The one on the mountain and…"

"That swanky mansion belonging to Tohsaka's great-great-great-great-something-great-grandkid," Rika chimed in. "Which, hey, that place had nice beds, that's where I'd go."

Not where she expected Senpai to be, though.

"There was also the one at the old Catholic mission," Cinnabon added. "I'm…not sure there's enough room for a Servant fight there, though."

"You'd be surprised," Emiya drawled. "Being entirely fair, however, I don't think she would choose the church. It might not exactly be cramped, but I remember how this went last time. There's nowhere near enough space for her to really plant her flag."

Onii-chan nodded. "And that just leaves the mountain, doesn't it?"

"It's the obvious choice," Emiya agreed. "And with what she has on hand, it's also the most dangerous one for us."

"That's definitely where she went, then," Rika said sourly.

"Still," said Onii-chan, "we should probably check on the other ones before we commit to the mountain."

"I can handle that on my own," Emiya said confidently. He slid a look her way. "That is, as long as my Master agrees, of course."

Rika nodded. "Yeah. Senpai is tricky, so we'll make sure she isn't in those other places first, then swing by that swanky mansion on our way to the mountain. Don't go getting into trouble though, Buster! If you spot anything funny at the church or the civic center, you get your keister back here pronto!"

Emiya chuckled a little. "Of course."

Before she knew it, the rest of the thirty minutes Senpai had allotted them passed, and the alarm that rang on their communicators let them know it was time. As they shut them off, Emiya gave a nod and said, "Right, I'll be back in a few minutes then." And with a crooked smile, "Try not to get into too much trouble in the meantime."

He was gone before anyone could reply, disappearing like a mirage and leaving Rika to huff and mutter, "Jerk! You didn't even give me enough time for a comeback!"

"Want me to burn him for you when he gets back?" Jalter asked with a nasty grin. "Just a little?"

"Let's not," Onii-chan rushed to say. "We're supposed to be in this together against Senpai, aren't we? If we start fighting each other, we'll just make this whole thing harder on ourselves."

"What he said," Rika agreed, jabbing a thumb at her brother.

Jalter shrugged. "Have it your way."

Several more long minutes passed as they waited. Rika had the thought that she could check what was happening through Emiya's eyes, the way Senpai had done with Arash sometimes, but no, if Emiya was in spirit form the way he'd left, then he didn't actually have eyes for her to look through, did he? She didn't really want to find out what happened if she tried like that, because the best case she could think of was 'nothing' and the worst was 'acid trip.'

Eventually, however, Emiya returned, reappearing amongst them as though he had condensed out of the mist mid-jump.

"Nothing," he reported. "Both the church and the civic center were completely empty. I wouldn't put it past Taylor to have left a familiar or two behind there to watch for us, but I couldn't sense the presence of any Servants or spells in either place, and there weren't any traps that I could find."

"So it's like we thought, then," said Onii-chan.

"The Tohsaka mansion or the mountain," Cinnabon concluded. "Senpai —"

"Yeah," Rika chimed in. "Definitely the mountain."

"How would you put it, Master?" asked Emiya wryly, a small smile on his face. "She's set it to hard mode?"

Rika did the super mature thing and stuck her tongue out at him. Emiya chuckled.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jalter demanded. "If we know where she is, then let's get our asses in gear!"

Onii-chan nodded. "You and Mash will go first."

"And Emiya will bring up the rear," Rika finished for him.

With their destination set and their formation decided, they began the trek across the city and towards the mountain in the distance, and they only got a few blocks before the obvious problem became obvious to all of them.

"It'll take us hours to get there if we walk!" Rika moaned.

Her brother agreed. "In hindsight, there might have been a reason why we started this right after breakfast instead of sometime after lunch."

And just like that, the formation fell apart, because the only way they were going to make good time was if the Servants picked up Rika and Ritsuka and carried them to at least the foot of the mountain. Or if they grabbed a pair of bicycles from somewhere or something, but it wasn't like there was a conveniently placed bike shop on the route through the city.

So Cinnabon picked up Onii-chan — and if they were both a little red in the face, Rika could only chuckle menacingly beneath her breath; blackmail material — and Emiya swept Rika up into a princess carry. Jalter, of course, refused to carry anyone, but that was fine, they didn't need her to, and it left her free to take point in case Senpai tried anything tricky with Arash or Sieggy.

Like that, things went much faster. Rika felt a little stupid for not realizing it right away, but it wasn't like they'd woken up that morning prepared to hop right into the simulation, not the way they had when the last one was scheduled, so she let herself off easy and thanked herself for being so understanding.

In a fraction of the time it would have otherwise taken them, they found themselves at the Tohsaka mansion, and a quick inspection proved that nobody was home. As they expected, Senpai wasn't going to constrain herself to such a small house, not when she got more terrifying the more space she had to spread out through, so they picked right back up and made for the mountain. It only took another few minutes to reach the base of the stairs, with the steps leading up into the dark peak above, framed by trees whose leaves seemed black in the gloom.

When they came to a stop, Cinnabon let Onii-chan down immediately, but Emiya paused for a long moment, brow furrowing.

"Worrying," he said at length, and then he cautiously set Rika down on her own feet. "I thought for sure that guy would fire a shot down at us from above, but he didn't even take a single one on the way over."

"…Is Senpai not on the mountain, then?" asked Onii-chan.

"I wonder," said Emiya mysteriously, and then clarified, "It's not impossible that she could have set up a workshop down in the sewers, but in terms of where a proper Caster would choose to make a workshop, the Ley Line Terminals are just too good to pass up. Which is to say that it's not impossible," he added, "but I would be very surprised if she decided to break the mold of the character she's supposed to be playing."

Worrying, Rika thought, just like Emiya had, but that was a bridge they'd have to burn down when they got to it. She didn't put it past Senpai to change things up on them like that without saying so, but until they knew for sure, there was nothing to be done about it.

"Guess we get to go up the creepy stairs and find out," Rika said grimly.

Emiya nodded. "Right. Mash, you'll definitely want to keep your eyes peeled. If we're going to get attacked, the stairs are the place it's going to happen."

Cinnabon nodded back, face resolute. "Right!"

And so they began their climb up the stairs and into the dark. Rika and her brother turned on their flashlights, shining them up on the steps in front of them. Jalter and Cinnabon cast long, dark shadows that danced with every step.

"The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout," Rika sang quietly to herself. "Down came the rain and washed the spider out…"

Onii-chan gave her an exasperated look, but didn't comment on it, and eventually, Rika got tired of singing it on repeat, leaving the whole group in silence as they climbed. The sound of their footsteps, the rustle of their clothing, and the gentle, simulated breeze blowing through the trees were their only companions on the trek.

Eerily, nothing happened then either. Rika kept expecting something to happen, a gigantic joro spider to leap out at them or something, but as they went, reaching landing after landing on their way to the top, they were entirely unbothered. It was almost like Senpai really wasn't on the mountain, which would suck, because then they would all have to go back down those stairs. Rika could freely admit she was in much better shape than she had been back in Fuyuki when they first made the climb, but that didn't make the idea any more fun.

About halfway up the mountain, Onii-chan stopped and looked around, and ahead, Jalter and Cinnabon stopped, too, when they realized he had.

"Senpai?" said Cinnabon.

"The cavern that leads to the Grail," Onii-chan began, "it was somewhere around here, wasn't it?"

"What?" asked Jalter, confused.

"It was," Cinnabon answered. "Off on a side path, through the bushes."

"That's the way you came while you guys were here, huh?" said Emiya. "I'm not sure that's where she'd go. If she was looking to get into a contest of who could throw around the most power, maybe, but there aren't many ways to trap that cave. The temple at the top of the mountain is where a more typical Caster would make her base."

"But that's exactly why she'd be there," said Onii-chan.

"You lost me," Jalter told him bluntly.

It took Rika a couple of seconds to realize what he was talking about, and when she did, it was like a lightbulb going off in her head. "Wait a minute. You're thinking, just like last time —"

Onii-chan nodded. "Yeah. She'll leave a decoy in the most obvious spot and hide her real self down in the 'basement.' And while we're distracted fighting the decoy…"

"She'll catch us with a sneak attack!" Rika concluded. "Oh, man, and we would've walked right into it, too, if Onii-chan wasn't so smart!"

Onii-chan ducked his head, embarrassed, and murmured, "You would have thought of it, too."

Maybe. But it probably would have taken her a bit longer to catch it, and Rika was perfectly willing to admit it. The Rika of five months ago was a completely different person, so painfully ignorant and naive about how all this stuff worked that it made the Rika of now cringe, but Onii-chan was still the smarter of the two of them. He still got this stuff better than she did.

Maybe those RTS games he liked so much had paid off, she thought with some wry humor.

"So how do we want to do this, huh?" Rika asked. "I mean, I'm all for going straight after Senpai and turning this all back around on her, but if we do that, won't Sieggy and Arash just drop in on us from behind?"

"Oh," said Cinnabon, "we don't know where they are, do we?"

"I have a hunch," Emiya drawled. "Something I forgot about earlier, but this mountain has a kind of naturally formed bounded field that surrounds the temple. Any Servant trying to pass through it by going over the walls or through the forest will be weakened, so the only way to get in is to use the front gate."

Rika and Ritsuka both groaned when they realized what that would mean.

"Siegfried will be guarding the front gate," Onii-chan lamented.

"Doing his best Gandalf impression," Rika agreed. She could even imagine him with a long, gray beard to match his hair, planting his sword in the ground and declaring, 'You shall not pass!' Which made them the Balrog in that scenario, but without the flaming whip and all that stuff.

A horrible thought occurred to Rika suddenly. Oh god, could Senpai program a Balrog into this simulator? No one could ever be allowed to suggest it. Never ever.

"Gandalf impression?" Jalter asked.

Cinnabon, however, seemed to get the joke, because she giggled. "S-sorry. It's just, um, I-I can't imagine Siegfried in a robe and wizard's hat, it doesn't suit him at all."

Rika made a mental note to see if she could convince Sieggy to actually dress up like Gandalf. Halloween had passed without much happening, but maybe if it was just for an hour or two, Boss Lady wouldn't be too upset?

"She means that Siegfried won't let us past the gate," said Emiya. One does not simply walk into Mordor, Rika thought, but held her tongue. "If we want to get into the temple itself, we have to either lure him away from it — a tall feat, even for someone like Aífe — or beat him outright, and that isn't any easier." He grimaced. "And that's not including Arash, who could be anywhere right now, and I doubt Taylor would keep him in the same place as Siegfried."

"Unless she wants us to think she's up at the temple," Onii-chan pointed out. Emiya could only acknowledge the point, although he didn't look like he agreed.

"Ugh," said Jalter. "All of this planning and counter-planning and 'does she know that we know that she knows' bullshit is getting annoying. What are we actually going to do about it?"

Rika and Ritsuka shared a look, a shrug, and then a nod. Neither of them had any better ideas, it seemed, so there was really only one thing to do.

"We spring the trap," said Rika simply.

"Jeanne Alter is the best matchup we have for Siegfried, so she'll go with us and Mash to the temple gate," said Onii-chan.

"Meanwhile," Rika picked up, "Emiya will head on down to the cavern, and once we have Sieggy occupied, he'll go after Senpai."

"Arash will…probably be there." Neither of them was sure, so Onii-chan didn't sound super confident about it. "And if he's not, then Mash will protect us from wherever he might fire from. We'll…just have to hope she can, at least."

"I will," Cinnabon said confidently.

"And if she isn't up at the temple or down in the cavern?" asked Jalter.

Ritsuka and Rika shared another look. Then we have absolutely no idea where she is.

"We'll burn that bridge when we get there," Rika said.

Jalter huffed, but a slight grin still curled at the edges of her mouth. Apparently, the easiest way to get a smile out of her was to suggest burning something.

"Then let's quit yapping and do this thing," she said brusquely.

Rika turned to Emiya. "Emiya?"

He nodded. "Got it."

And then he split off, heading for the Grail cavern to wait for them to engage Siegfried, and the rest of them marshaled themselves and picked up where they'd left off. Cinnabon and Jalter stayed at the front, even though it left the fine hairs on the back of Rika's neck on end. Arash could be anywhere, and Rika hadn't forgotten that moment in the forest back in Septem, when an arrow from miles away stopped that Tiberius guy in his tracks.

But that wouldn't be fair, would it? Senpai had said the rules were mostly the same, so putting Arash on the other side of the city would be against the rules…right?

Rika wished she was confident about that.

Up the mountain they went, trees rustling ominously as they passed, and still, there was no sign of Senpai at all. Not a single spiderweb, not the caw of one of her ravens or the flapping of their wings, not the buzz of any bees. As creepy as the civic center had been when all the bugs started pouring out of the place, it was the lack of them that was creepier, the total silence left by their absence.

Finally, the top of the temple gate loomed in the distance, a boxy, stalwart figure with familiar tiles for roofing that gave it almost an armored look, like a samurai. As they got closer, more and more of it was revealed, from the walls that disappeared into the surrounding forest to the wooden doors shuttered and barring their way, and there, at last, standing in front of them like some sort of temple guardian…

"My apologies, intruders. I cannot allow you to go any further."

…was Siegfried. In the dark, the bodysuit melded together with the shadows, leaving his hair, his armor, and his sword to gleam like shards of moonlight.

"Didn't know we needed your permission, Dragon Boy!" Jalter jeered.

"All the same," said Sieggy. "My Master has entrusted me with the guarding of this gate. You shall not be allowed entry."

Jalter just grinned. "We'll see about that. What do you say, Master?"

"Go!" shouted Onii-chan.

The instant the word left his mouth, the fight began. Like a rocket taking off, like a jet going supersonic, Jalter leapt off the steps and crossed the distance instantly, so fast that, to Rika, she might as well have teleported. To Siegfried, however, that still wasn't fast enough. Balmung moved as though magnetized, placing itself in the way of Jalter's sword. The resulting CLANG was so thunderous that Rika was sure Senpai must have heard it from down in the cavern.

Go! Rika echoed to Emiya.

Got it! the reply came immediately.

"I won't go easy on you," Siegfried said calmly. "Since this is just an exercise and no one will be hurt, the fact that we are allies normally won't stay my hand."

"Took the words —"

Jalter's sword lit on fire, and with an ear-splitting metallic screech, she dragged her blade down Siegfried's, throwing flames directly into his face.

"— right out of my mouth!"

But Siegfried stepped through them as though they were nothing, bringing his own sword around with such ponderous weight that Jalter couldn't even keep her footing. Despite blocking the blow, she was thrown back almost as far as she had originally leapt, and as she stumbled to a stop, Mash tensed, ready to jump in to block the follow up attack.

It didn't come. Siegfried remained where he was, standing just in front of the gate, Balmung brandished and ready to keep going.

"Tch," Jalter scoffed. "Tough bastard, aren't you? I can see why my other self decided you were way too much trouble to keep around."

Siegfried's only reaction was a slight narrowing of his eyes, a subtle tightening of the skin that Rika wasn't entirely sure wasn't a trick of the light, dark as it was.

"Your other self had the help of several other Servants to incapacitate me," he said calmly. "Without them, you alone have no hope of succeeding."

"Fuck you!" Jalter howled, and she kicked off again, blazing sword trailing a line of fire behind her.

Siegfried blocked again, effortless, and ignored the flames entirely. Jalter, obviously trying to avoid a repeat of that first exchange, didn't go for anything fancy and didn't let up, swinging her sword in a series of slashes so quick that they looked like they were all happening at once. The cacophony of their ringing steel filled the silent forest, and Rika did her best not to wince as it rose to a fever pitch that made her ears hurt. The only way she had any hope of following the action was by watching their feet, keeping track of how they stepped to gauge who was coming out the better of each attack.

Unfortunately, it was mostly Siegfried. Jalter danced around, changing up her angles and the direction of her swings, feet and legs bouncing around on the landing, while Siegfried mostly stood there, sliding one foot back or putting one foot forward to keep his leverage, but never moving anywhere near as much. He was like a human fortress, stalwart and impenetrable. A single person could never hope to pierce through his defenses, not without something meant just for that.

Senpai had picked her Servants well.

And then came a pause, a moment of reprieve, as Jalter pulled back her sword, snarled, and shouted, "Try this one on, asshole!"

She pushed forward with a lunge, the tip of her sword angled down and inwards, towards Siegfried's gut, fire flickering around the blade like curses. Siegfried twisted out of the way and used Balmung's huge blade to deflect hers out and away from his body — but Jalter spun on her heel and stepped in with her other foot as though she had planned for just that, and with both swords pinned between their bodies, she reached out with her hand and grabbed a fistful of his hair.

"You're the Dragon-Blooded Hero, right?" she asked silkily. "So that means…as the Dragon Witch, you have to obey me!"

Siegfried's eyes went wide, and he tried to pull away, jerking his head back. Jalter just sneered. "None of that, now! Heel, Dragon Boy!"

"You will find," Siegfried ground out. Blue light began to seethe from the jewel in the hilt of his sword, surging up the blade, "that it will take far more than that…to make me bend my knee."

"Shit!"

Jalter threw herself to the side in a desperate attempt to get away, but she wasn't fast enough — not even when Onii-chan tossed a hasty "Emergency Evasion!" at her — and when Balmung swept across where her belly had just been, a thin arc of pale blue light cut the air. Blood flew even as a line of trees off to the side shook and fell, cleanly sliced through, and Jalter landed hard on her shoulder, tumbling down the steps until she came to a stop on her back. Red darkened her left side, seeping into the black of her clothes and making them darker.

But she had managed to avoid the worst of it. Between her own dodge, Onii-chan's spell, and the protection offered by her armor, the damage wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. If she had taken it all directly, it might have been enough to actually kill her.

"First Aid!" Rika and Ritsuka shouted. The pair of spells was enough to knit the wound back together, and Jalter groaned as she pulled herself back to her feet. Mash stepped out, shield raised, to protect her for that vulnerable moment, but Siegfried didn't attack.

"Bastard!" Jalter gritted out through her teeth. "Miniature charges of that stupid sword of yours? What a cheap trick!"

A sudden buzz replied, chittering, staccato, and it took a second for Rika to realize — it was laughter.

"SO YOU SAY, AFTER ATTEMPTING TO SUBORN MY ALLY THROUGH HIS DRAGON'S BLOOD," the chorus of a thousand fluttering wings spoke. "THERE ARE NO RULES IN BATTLES TO THE DEATH. IF THAT WAS ENOUGH TO DEFEAT YOU, THEN YOU MAY AS WELL SURRENDER ALL THOUGHT OF SECURING THE GRAIL HERE AND NOW."

"Senpai?" Onii-chan whispered.

"Gotta be," Rika agreed, because she remembered this trick from back during their last simulation. It was just as creepy then, too.

"Get real!" Jalter snapped. She didn't seem to know which direction to aim her words, because Senpai's buzzing seemed to come from all around them, which didn't say anything good. Last time, she had nearly drowned Rika and her brother in an entire tsunami of bugs. "You think some flies and this dork are enough to make me quit? Do I look like that much of a pansy to you?"

The buzzing laughter again. "VERY WELL. IF YOU'RE THAT DETERMINED TO DIE TODAY, THEN I SHALL SIMPLY HAVE TO OBLIGE YOU."

Master! Emiya's voice suddenly echoed through Rika's skull. It's a trap! Taylor is —

But before he could finish, the mountain beneath their feet rumbled and rocked as though in the throes of an earthquake, and his voice cut out, gone, like the line had just snapped mid-sentence. The trees shook and quivered, and Rika and Ritsuka both had to plant their feet and widen their stances to keep from falling over, even as Mash planted her shield to brace herself. After a second or two, however, it was over, and the mountain quieted.

Mash gasped, head spinning from side to side. "What was —"

"Emiya?" Rika asked. In her mind, she echoed, Emiya? What happened?

There was no response.

Emiya! she tried again. Only the silence of her own mind answered her. Rika's heart lurched in her chest.

No, no, no, not again! She just got him back not that long ago. Did she really get him killed a second time?

"Emiya's not responding!" she announced to everyone. She didn't really care if they heard the panic in her voice, just then.

Mash and Onii-chan both turned her way with shock. "Something happened to Emiya?"

The fluttering bugs chuckled again. "YOUR FRIEND WAS POKING HIS NOSE WHERE IT DIDN'T BELONG. HE SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED THAT IT MIGHT GET CHOPPED OFF."

Another time, Rika might have been able to appreciate the pun, but just then, no witty response was forthcoming. She had forgotten, for those handful of seconds, that this was just a simulation, nothing more than an incredibly realistic wargame. The only thing her head had room for was making sure Emiya's loss wasn't meaningless.

And against a guy like Siegfried, the only way to win was overwhelming firepower.

"Jalter!" she ordered. "Use your Noble Phantasm!"

Jalter grinned nastily. "With pleasure!"

Flames lit up around her feet. As they surged and grew hotter and brighter, she lifted up her sword high over her head. "This is the howl of a soul filled with hatred! La Grondement —"

"NONE OF THAT, NOW."

Something whistled past Rika's ear, and she had no time at all to even wonder what it was, because in the same instant, an arrow sprouted from Jalter's back. Red blood splattered across the stones and surged out of her mouth, cutting off what she'd been about to say.

"S…sonnuva…!"

Arash, Rika realized. But to hit anyone from that angle, he had to be halfway across the city. The only one who could have even seen a shot coming from that far away was Emiya, and he…

"Master!" shouted Mash, and she moved — backwards, behind them, to deflect not a single arrow, but what had to be a dozen more, all of them plinking off of Mash's shield like raindrops but hitting with the strength of cannonballs.

"M-mother…" Jalter rasped, stumbling as she tried to regain her strength. A dark stain was spreading across her clothes, growing larger by the second.

A sudden figure appeared atop the temple gate, casting a deep shadow. The wings of a familiar contraption spread wide, giving her a broader, more imposing shape, and in the darkness, it was almost impossible to see anything else about her aside from the glowing yellow eyes and the bone-white armor plating that showed through here and there. One hand was lifted, aiming the finger of a finger-gun — not at Rika or her brother, but Jalter.

"Emergency —"

"Gandr."

But before Rika could finish her spell, Senpai cast another, quicker one, and it took Jalter straight in the head like a bullet.

"…fuck…"

An instant later, Jalter was gone, too.

"Jeanne Alter!" shouted Onii-chan.

How had it all gone so wrong so quickly?

"I DO BELIEVE THAT'S MY VICTORY, CHALDEA."

The thought of retreat briefly entered her mind, but… No. Not yet!

"Onii-chan!" Rika shouted. "Together!"

And so they both raised their hands, taking aim at Senpai, because it was the only thing left they could do.

"Gandr!"

A pair of answering shots screeched down from above, canceling out both spells, and a familiar pair of ravens swooped low, landing to either side of Senpai like an honor guard.

There was no winning anymore. They had to run, into the trees, break line of sight and get out of Senpai's range —

Something fluttered, soft and featherlight, against the side of Rika's neck, just below her ear, and she froze. For one, horrible moment, she remembered what had happened last time, the spider that had bitten her and rendered her paralyzed.

The bite didn't come. The barrage of arrows ended. Up on the temple gate, Senpai sat down and said, "I think that gets the point across."

And as the touch against her neck vanished, a simple, ordinary moth fluttered out in front of her as a second flew away from Onii-chan.

"So tell me." Senpai slipped her mask off. "Why didn't you think to call for reinforcements?"

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

NOTES

Let's check in on Rika, shall we?

In the end, I didn't wind up focusing anywhere near as much on Rika's mental state as I meant to when I started this, but the events of the past few months of in-story time have left very obvious marks on her that should be quite clear to everyone.

Also, Taylor is still Da Boss, and for good reason. The twins might have improved and they might be coming into their own, but they've still got a ways to go before they can match her experience.

This story and this chapter brought to you by my wonderful supporters, whose kindness and generosity have made it possible to devote so much of my time and attention to writing, especiallyEric,s22132,AbyssalApsu,Mark,Peter Parker, andAlias 2v10. You guys are absolute legends. To show my gratitude, they had the chance to read this and upcoming chapters before the public release. You can find out more:

James_D_Fawkes (P a treon)

As always, read, review, and enjoy.

Next — Chapter CLXVII: Roman Holiday