I create a world of finite somethings

I'll be in and out for the next two weeks and I'm sort of paranoid I won't have my notes for stuff when I have time to write.

The Hearts of the Suffering outline

seriously, don't read if you want to be surprised

体は剣で出来ている
血潮は鉄で心は硝子。
幾たびの戦場を越えて不敗。
ただの一度の敗走もなく、
ただの一度の勝利もなし。
担い手はここに孤り
剣の丘で宿命を叶える。
ならば、生涯に意味はある。
この体は、無限の剣で出来ていた。

Chapter 3
The Once and Future King.
[day 1]
-Saber materializes, possibly in that exact moment of her death, the “continuation of the dream.” She has Avalon now, but as Bedivere has tossed Excalibur, she has no offensive power except the ability to put Invisible Air over other weapons. She and Shirou reunite, though we start to see the differences a decade has put on Shirou, who, while the same person overall, is certainly a broodier, less blatantly optimistic person.

Chapter 4
Almost Family
-Rin and Luvia in Japan contact Waver and Shirou, trying to assess the situation. The Grail is active, though the idea that there might be people who want to dismantle it has apparently gone somewhat public: multiple boundary fields now protect the entrance to the undermountain and keep them from entering. Rin, as Fuyuki’s Second Owner, is detecting intrusion of various magi into her territory. All while Rin and Luvia are arguing the entire time, Sakura trying to act as mediator.

Chapter 5
Apocrypha
-Waver heads to Japan with some of his apprentices in “tow” (though they’re mainly following him of their own volition). After confirming their destination with allies, Shirou and Saber do the same.

Chapter 6
You Are My King
[day 2]
-Waver sets up shop, musing over 4th War memories. Rin, Luvia, and Sakura start feeling around for the situation. Shirou and Saber stop the next group’s attempt at summoning; Saber has mixed feelings seeing Shirou in action, as he is both significantly more capable, though the trade-off is that she is certainly no longer his out-and-out protector.

Chapter 7
Extra
[day 3]
-We meet Shirou’s “aids.” They set up shop in a hotel much like Kayneth—a decoy, part of their strategy.

Chapter 8
The Greater Number
[day 4]
-Waver and Rin confirm at least three dozen magi in Fuyuki alone.

Chapter 9
Castle in Winter
-Shirou, Saber, Hakuno, and Julius venture to the Einzbern castle. They engage magi there of homunculus make: Acht now believes that it is not just the Servant that makes the winning team, but the team of magi and surviving to the end. Sella and Leysritt with the Einzberns, but they turn, having been providing Shirou and co intel and help from the inside on Illya’s orders.

Chapter 10
The Things Learned
[day 5]
-When Shirou and co retreat to the hotel, the Einzberns attack it ala Kiritsugu. Shirou and co escape unharmed, having planned that to begin with (even having evacuated people within already but setting it up to look as if it is still occupied). They settle in briefly at the Mackenzie house, an odd inheritance Waver has gained, to regroup.

Chapter 11
Assessment
-While running the Einzberns around, the group turns their focus on the other interested parties. While Waver has to deal with the major political factions, the group grills Sakura on Zouken Matou’s potential plans, to which she says she has no clue (there should be some strangeness to her words, like they’re hinting at things that appear to go right over Shirou and Saber’s heads). Luvia recounts info about Einon, one of the other groups. Shirou talks a bit about some of the enforcers and mercenaries hired out by some groups. When looking stuck on a direction to go, they are contacted by the church.

Chapter 12
Commandment
-Caren reports in that the Church is at a standstill with the Association; members of the Church have been assassinated by the magi that have come in. While the others take that into consideration, she pulls Shirou and Saber aside regarding their plans. Caren alludes to something.

Chapter 13
The Promised Time
[day 6]
-With Caren’s info, it seems that the potential Masters have been made—though Shirou is confirmed as the only one with a Servant. The group has to split up and, going on their vague intel, strike at the various factions to keep them from summoning.

Chapter 14
Victory/Defeat
-Saber’s group easily disrupts the summoning of their targets and take out the magi of that group. However, Rin and Leysritt encounter trouble and one enemy Servant is indeed summoned.

Chapter 15
Riding to Battle/Shot in the Dark
-Waver also disrupts his group, though is unable to seriously maim or kill them, mocked for his inefficiency in battle. Shirou’s group disrupts another summoning, and using what Caren alluded to—extra reiju—he both sends Saber to Rin’s location and then sets up to snipe. The enemy Servant disables Saber’s offensive ability (Saber does Broken Phantasm on Caliburn to get it to work better), but Shirou, from a distant rooftop, fires another, timed such that Saber is able to catch it mid-air and down the Servant.
-Saber is impressed by Shirou’s abilities, but worried about the “distance” now that had to be crossed…the same distance she sees between them, and the distance he now has from the self he used to be (meaning, not charging headlong into battle with only his emotions and ideals as weapons).

Chapter 16
The Lady
[day 7]
-The group sets up in the freighter Julius and Hakuno came to Japan in, learning it has been Shirou’s base of operations. This cheers Saber a little bit as it hints at his not-forgotten idea of trying to keep innocents out of harms way. At the same time, it is a place bereft of the “home” feeling of the Emiya household, which saddens her. While Julius and some of Waver’s company scout out in town once more, they contact their others outside. Sakura still hasn’t learned anything, Caren confirms that one more Servant was summoned, an enemy used one Command Seal, and two returned to her unused—that Master is “defeated” for now, unless another Servant is called and then becomes independent.
-Sakura reports to Zouken that she has done as he wanted.

Chapter 17
Going Gently
-When setting up to strike out again, two of the groups are strangely silent. While Rin, Luvia, Julius, and Hakuno move to disrupt the Einon and Shirou, Waver, and co deal with the Einzberns, Saber is dispatched to track down the others and finds Yddg striking at the church. By all appearances, Caren is killed.

Chapter 18
Sisters I
-Rin and company engage the other group, Einon, the ones that are comprised of an old family with two children. The way the younger sister acts as a disposable tool for the elder heir is the other way the sister situation could have turned out compared to Rin and Sakura’s distance or Touko and Aoko’s hatred. Rin finds she cannot “pull the trigger” so to speak on them.

Chapter 19
Rhinestone
-Shirou, Waver, and the homunculi confront Einzbern reps. Waver faces the idea of creations that surpass his best that are casually thrown away by the Einzberns. In the end they are forced to retreat, but manage to disrupt any summoning plans (or so they think).

Chapter 20
Magi
[day 8]
-Waver and Rin especially deal with the shortcomings of “magi” while embodying the greatness about them. Shirou and Saber visit the destroyed church.

Chapter 21
Cleanup
-In return for the strike on the church, Shirou, Saber, and Rin take on the two factions responsible. Without hesitation, Shirou strikes them down; both Saber and Rin are upset by this.

Chapter 22
Whiteout
[day 9]
-Sella and Leysritt report that the Einzberns have moved but have not summoned a Servant.

Chapter 23
Sisters II
-They attack the Einon team. The younger is sacrificed willingly by the elder as a decoy so the elder is able to summon a Servant. While Saber and Shirou engage the Servant and Waver deals with the sisters’ allies, Rin and Luvia confront the sisters themselves. They allude to both Rin and Luvia’s relationship and Rin and Sakura’s broken family. Luvia is the one that seems to walk away with the most.

Chapter 24
Valhalla, Home of Warriors
-Saber engages Alruna, the summoned Servant. Shirou supports. There should be some level of comparison between Alruna and her relationship to her husband to both the Rin/Sakura sisters issue and Saber and Shirou’s relationship. Allusions to Valhalla versus Avalon and a take that points out that Shirou is not pursuing heroism or a place on the Throne. Saber defeats the Servant, once again with Shirou’s projected Caliburn.

Chapter 25
Finnish Hospitality
[day 10]
-The group moves again, this time to a place Luvia has simply bought on her own terms. Hijinks with her trying to one-up Rin (trying actually to lighten Rin’s darker mood). Waver and Shirou try to discern the plans of the Einzbern since they do not seem to have a Lesser Grail container set up.

Chapter 26
Territory
[day 11]
-Group is attacked. While a little on the back foot, they starts evacuating. In the chaos, the enemy magus that was going to summon is killed by a third party: Souichirou Kuzuki, who, like Shirou, summons in the place of the original spellcaster.

Chapter 27
Within Sight
-As Saber is charged with getting everyone out safely, she is unable to engage Caster. Shirou and Rin engage Kuzuki. Waver, Hakuno, Julius, the Homunculi, and Luvia engage Caster, though one of Waver’s students and Sella dies. Caster, who of course has no memories of the 5th war, is eventually defeated, though there is some level of understanding that she thinks there is a connection to her summoner as she fades.

Chapter 28
The Sacrifice
[day 12]
-Group meets back up, this time at the destroyed church in the basement; Shirou and Saber cleared it out before and marked it as a place to hide out if things got hectic. They mull over the deaths and their options, as with two Servants to go (even as fast as some went out), the Greater Grail must be on the verge of active now.

Chapter 29
The White Mask
[day 13]
-The group confronts Servant Assassin, revealing they were aware that he had to be watching: the Einzberns, cheaters that they are, already summoned him long before and have been using him to track the group’s movements and watch them. They have waited to confront him on their own terms or when the situation changed, so they could potentially control the time when they had to face down the last Servant. When it seems that he’ll be able to get away, they reveal they have their own watcher and that the church was not an idle place to set up in. Assassin is taken down by a very large pile-driver.

Chapter 30
Blood
-Reports in of magi flooding into the city and setting up around Enzou: Yddg and traditional Tower followers kind of glaring at each other in a standoff. When attempting to contact Sakura, they find a message left instead that Zouken has entrenched himself in Enzou’s underground. Group realizes Zouken has figured out a way to convince the Association to back him. They figure he has summoned the last Servant.

Chapter 31
Victim and Victimized
-Zouken, Berserker, and Sakura under Enzou. Using threat of heartworm and activating the grail pieces in her. She threatens back with using her magecraft on him since he’s more spirit than mortal now; he counters that her magecraft is his, there’s nothing she can do that he can’t control. Only that’s part of the plan. Sakura steps up to the “risk your life as a magus” that failed her brother and that she has never embraced herself, but can now due to Rin and Shirou’s example. She does what Shirou did at the beginning—she begins the process of making a new magical circuit and crest, one not Matou-based. Though it will never see use in her lifetime like the one Rin has—she is able to conceal it’s creation since it is so terrible and low-quality that Zouken, focused on what is good about her, would never notice. Turns around and then uses this crest in an echo of what Zouken would have done—removing his influence at an inopportune moment (like him activating the worm inside of her in HF) by literally stabbing herself in the heart, killing the worm, and then relying on the crest to keep her alive. Which it does, just barely.

Chapter 32
Home
[day 14]
-Sakura escapes and makes it back to the group just as Shirou and Saber are out scouting the situation. She and Rin face one another as the group sets up in the Emiya household.

Chapter 33
Knight in Red
[day 15]
-Group prepares to set out. Saber laments over the changes, over Kiritsugu Emiya’s last moments, over the inevitable path she sees in Shirou. Ciel gives the shroud to Shirou.

Chapter 34
Four is Death
-Group is forced to spread out—when the Great Grail activates fully, with the energy still flowing in it from previous HGWs, they are afraid the instability will cause the black hole to appear over any of the four materialization locations, especially since they don't have a clear Lesser Grail. While Shirou, Saber, and Waver go to Enzou to both confront Zouken’s Berserker and the army of magi, the others go to other locations—only to find magi at other locations as well.

Chapter 35
Sisters III
-Rin, Sakura, and Luvia confront those at the Tohsaka residence.

Chapter 36
Saint/Winter
-Julius and Ciel at the church. Leysritt and Hakuno at the burnt field.

Chapter 37
Black Moon
-Waver confronts the magi army in front of Enzou while Shirou and Saber engage Berserker and Zouken within. While Shirou tackles Zouken, Saber faces Berserker and deals with the whole feeling she's had the entire time, of a "waking dream" and what that means to her in this moment. The hole is ripped open above Enzou again and they move back out to chase it down.

Chapter 38
The Back of a Man
-Waver confronts magi army. With the instability of the Grail, they also have to deal with the beast shades spilling out, and struggle to deal with that and face Shirou/Saber and Waver at the same time.
-While Waver moves to dismantle the Greater Grail beneath the mountain, Shirou and Saber have to enter Angra Mainyu from the “top” so to speak. They confront Angra much as Kiritsugu does in Zero.

Chapter 39
Disposer of Evil
-Confronting Angra. Takes Iri's form since Saber is familiar. Talk of Illya's fate. SxS voluntarily take on "evils of world" and going on what Kotomine said about it wanting to be born, they accept that it wants to come out and that they will face it. Metaphorically taking on the evils and removing burden from Angra—even this “fake” Angra, which is just a copy of what exists on the Throne, itself just curses thrown on an innocent.

Chapter 40
Saber, Everything is in Her Hands
-Accepting, Iri/Angra spits them back out, then disseminates into the real world as HAish wolves, possibly as shades of 3rd, 4th, and 5th War Servants (data collected like how Angra is able to produce HA loop world)? Even more powerful and in multitude because of mana overflow from another activation of Grail without use?

Chapter 41
The Hearts of the Suffering
Chapter 42
Down to Zero

- The darkness of Angra Mainyu spills out—and beneath it, Shirou reaches for the “unlimited mana” that spills out and deploys Unlimited Blade Works, sealing all of it inside his world while alternatively the mana fuels the Reality Marble. Over Ryuudou Lake, the evils and Shirou disappear. Waver dismantles the Greater Grail system and seals it.



Ones who knew what it was to chase an impossible dream.
A man who only drove forward on the desire to see the vast horizons of the sea. As a hero, he did not regret the path that he took, trampling over many lives, leading other lives to their destruction. He died without seeing that vast beyond he sought.
Glory exists on the horizon. Can you challenge that, boy?


A man who fought out of the greatness of his heart. As a hero, many curses and punishments were thrown onto his shoulders, but he carried them as his pride. He died from the many burdens he heaved upon himself.
We’re not attached to this world. We’re just attached to the oaths we couldn’t fulfill.


If you wish for another chance, it should not be from the past, but from this moment onward—


A man who fought to save others. Pursuing a fake dream, he was not a hero, but took on the burdens of one. He died due to the very ones he sought to save.
There is only one thing you can do.


This wish-granting device knows only what you do. It can only make possible on a miraculous scale what you yourself understand. The essence of a wish is that while it may be beyond your ability, it is not beyond your comprehension.
There is only one thing I could ever do.


Hah! Your pitiful ideals are mere child’s play. You are but a helpless boy without any strength. Let this darkness consume you as befitting a true nothing, faker.
Child’s play.
Yes. That was certainly true.
It was, in the end, perhaps the only truth he had.
You cling to what you call truth, despite everything else you know and see. What could you ever do with such pitiful strength?
That was also true.
He had nothing but a tenuous grip upon something greater, not strength within his own hands.
And yet…
He remembered one night when he refused to let go. Even if it meant, in the end, that she had to hold him upright.
After all of that, they were still victorious.
That is your answer, then? To cling to power you do not wield, to grasp for strength you cannot understand, to behold radiance you can not even surrender to, since your tiny mind does not comprehend it? With no one to even acknowledge it, so you will never reach an end?
He did not have to reach that end.
He only had to aim for it.


The ideal was false. It was not his.
That was fine. He was the fake. An imitator. It did not matter.
The ideal was broken. It needed a miracle to ever occur.
That was fine.
A miracle occurred. A little boy was saved from a fire he should not have survived.
The miracle was not that he lived.
The miracle was the one who found him was saved.
The miracle was the man who wished to champion justice had done so at that very moment.
There is nothing in this world that could compensate for a miracle.
Not even his life could measure up to the miracle that he had witnessed.
That man had cried as if in rapture. The terrible things he had done, the lives around him that had been lost, the happiness he had cast away—all of it he endured. All of it he could finally say was worthwhile.
Because he could save even a single person.


An ancient village made sacrifice out of an innocent boy. They revered the boy as a hero without a name. They cast their sins upon one who did not want them.
So that boy writhed in the darkness, wishing for a way out.


Another accepted in his place.
The other did not know the original did not want them. He did not know the sacrifice cursed his fate. He only knew—
He found it worthwhile. He found it beautiful.
If he could save someone. One that should not exist. One that should not be. One that was a zero, a nothingness. One who cried out for a name. One who was before him, in desperate need.
He would do it with that smile.


For ten years, it was a part of his body.
For ten more years, he pursued that perfection.
He understood it from within and from without.
But more than that, he understood it from the beginning.
Pitiful ideals. Mere child’s play.
“That boy…”
He doesn’t need your protection.
You need that boy’s protection.
Because…
“He was stronger than anybody else.”
So long as he remembered that night. The he who existed at that time. The boy with a fearless heart, unknown to sorrow, full of aspirations.


He remembered the oath that he made long ago.
Something he had let everyone see every moment he could from then on.
He had decided to fight.
Even if it meant losing everything and fighting everything.

“You can’t do it because you’re old now, but I should be fine. Just leave it to me, your dream.”

That was his strength.
That was the voice he should keep in his heart.
The one that painted a twisted future.
The one that knew nothing but the endless possibilities before him.
The voice that swore he could do it.
The voice that shot for the stars themselves.


Someday, he would forget even that strength. It would be lost to him forever. It was the natural way of things. As time went on, he would lose things. Precious things. Important things. Even in the world of magecraft, the rules of equivalent exchange were built in.
To obtain, something must be sacrificed.
That was fine.
No matter what he sacrificed, he would find it.
No matter what he sacrificed, he would pursue it.
He would give up everything he had and start from the beginning once again.


It was beneath a beautiful white moon, he made his promise.
I will do it for you.
I will do it in your place.
Then…
It was beneath a terrible black moon, he made his prayer.
I will do it for you.
I will do it in your place.


“If I have a chance to save you—
Not erase your pain.
Not ease your suffering.
But from here on out, give you something to live for…
Let me do so.”


The sins were once more cast upon one without a name. By the fire that had destroyed him before, he was destroyed again, reduced down to the nothing that he began with. An empty shell.
Down to zero we go.



Epilogue



He was empty. A nothing. To say that he even existed would be wrong.

His hand had reached out.
In that burning field of his youth, the sky was far away.
Through the burning pain from where Rider had skewed him, he called for his sword.
Beyond the truth that a monster called Berserker would bring, he made a weapon.
Standing between her and the greatest hero, he sought something stronger than himself.
He had nothing, has nothing, will never have anything.
He can only reach for that which he does not have.
He could only reach for that which he knew.
“Leave it to me.”
With his own hands.
The hands that always held swords raised to take life, to save life.
“Let me fulfill that dream for you.”
With his own voice.
The voice that promised a twisted future, a beautiful future.
He could not promise victory like Saber’s hands could. He could no longer remember her protection, the perfection of her dream. Without that connection to her, the image no longer resided within his mind. After all—it was not his to begin with.
He only had what was within him.
He only had what he swore he would do. A little boy’s hyperbole.
What he said he would do.
The only thing he could do.
Stand by an ideal he did not even understand.
Fulfill a dream that he did not even know.
Do it all with a power he did not hold.
But what were such things to a boy who did not know better?
What were laws and rules, limits and realities? What were they to one who only ever understood an endless world?
One cannot make a miracle with methods they themselves do not know.
But he only knew how to hit the target every time.
What else but a simple belief in himself and everything that had led him to be himself could do it?


The sad look on his father’s face had gone away with his death.


I will change it.
I will change it.
If there only exists the laws that say nothing can be done for those that suffer—
I will tear down such rules.
With these hands.
If these hands seek to save, but can only hold onto a desperate strength—
I will fight. I will take the strength I need with my own hands.
The world that I know has only that.
I have no regrets. This is my life. My prayer.
My prayer.
Unlimited Blade Works.


In the darkness of a world of killing tools, the deeper hell within humanity and its evils—
The boy with nothing but a prayer recorded deep within—
One with no name fought forever.







Saber: Artoria
Lancer: Hector of Troy (the main one that is depicted as a Servant vs Servant fight)
Archer: Alruna
Rider: Jason (not shown)
Caster: Medea
Assassin: Hassan (implied same as TA)
Berserker: Nebuchadnezzar (more of an internal fight that Saber deals with what is happening)