VI – To Hide the Truth

There was once a girl named Áine K. Fraga born nineteen years ago to the date in a small coastal town in Ireland, the daughter of an Irishman and a Japanese woman who loved each other very dearly. Her father's family would have rejoiced to receive an heir worthy of their bloodline, only the child was born out of wedlock and everyone knew it, seeing how terribly dispassionate his legitimate marriage had been. As much potential as a magus the Fragas saw in Áine, they declined to consider her as a potential candidate for their teachings and made sure she and her mother were blotted from the family tree.

Ashamed of their actions, Áine's parents split soon thereafter, her mother later relocating to her native country and finding a man who loved Áine like his own. However, it eventually came to light that this man had ulterior motives, though not self-interested or malicious. This man was an Enforcer of the Mage's Association, a magic-user like those of the Fragas Áine never knew, and he was intent on saving the girl from a sad fate.

It turned out someone in the family had reported the circumstances of Áine's birth, as well as her notable magic traits, which later garnered the attention of the Association. Hearing about her immense mana reservoirs, the rare Elemental Affinity passed on from her inexpert magus of a mother and her father's inherited Sorcery Trait, they wished for the girl to represent them in the future as a Master in the Fifth Holy Grail War at Fuyuki and have the Fragas make her the holder of the family-inherited Noble Phantasm. The family refused however since another child four years older had already been selected to carry Fragarach.

Despite this the Association remained undeterred. They told Áine's mother that the girl's power should be disabled using any means necessary if it would not be used, or else they would place a Sealing Designation on her to preserve her potential while she grew older. Because Áine's mother knew little about magic despite her heritage, her daughter faced becoming a slave to her magic, and the Fragas rejected them completely, wanting to have nothing to do with the Association.

An Enforcer was later sent to collect Áine, but the more he learned about her, the more he came to sympathize with her plight. He offered his help in suppressing the girl's abilities without hurting her, and Áine's mother happily accepted. The two of them slowly fell in love, and because the Enforcer loved Áine so much as well, her mother suggested that she be given a new name of his choice. She was named Atosaki and took her mother's maiden name, Kurokawa.

"Before and after," the Enforcer had said. "Beginning and end. This should be a new start for her."

Unfortunately, that new start could only point to another dead end. When Atosaki got older, her magical powers flourished in spite of the efforts made to subdue them. She exhibited amazing talent with the elemental Void taken from her mother's side, and combining it with the element of Earth she learned to crystallize ether, a uniquely formless substance known for its conductivity and connection to the First Magic. It had been widely believed only divine beings and humans from the Age of the Gods could make use of ether, making Atosaki's newfound skillset highly coveted, since ether was the absolute medium through which magecraft was performed.

With the possibility of being used as a prana conductor, a powerhouse or even a weapon, many magi desired to use Atosaki's ether materialization for their own gain. There was even speculation that this particular ether could sustain a Servant throughout the entire Holy Grail War, battles and all. Once the Association learned of this through other agents, they condemned their Enforcer's efforts to seal the girl's magic gently and when he neither gave up nor found success, they branded him a rogue magus.

The fight to save Atosaki from a fate as a tool began to take a dark turn. Her mother and the Enforcer were pursued relentlessly by both the Association and greedy magi, forcing them to move often and conduct their business in secret. Instead of trying to shut off Atosaki's magic altogether, they opted for an Elemental Affinity change, a dangerous and potentially painful process, to stop her from creating the wanted material, in the hope she might be left alone afterwards. For the time being the magic inside her was placed in an unsteady state of hibernation to conceal its signature and prevent her from using it, or even knowing it was there.

Being from the Kurokawa clan, Atosaki's mother carried the same Elemental Affinity and volunteered to undergo numerous experiments beforehand so no harm came to her daughter, though each of which ended in absolute failure. She faced terrible punishment for attempting to revolt against nature, being cursed and poisoned and tortured by the rituals. Atosaki was kept under the pretense that her mother simply suffered from illness.

Many times the struggles between Atosaki's side and the opposition grew bloody, and countless people were caught in the crossfire. When Atosaki turned eighteen, a strike against her and the ensuing battle resulted in an earthquake which leveled the surrounding area. Of course, she didn't know at the time, taking the move to a new city in stride. She rather liked Fuyuki, although she noticed her sick mother and the man she called her father were anxious, more so than ever.

Around a year later her parents announced a trip to America to "help her mother get better." The ritual treatment there reversed years of damage so that the Affinity-change trials could continue, but in a tragic turn of events the plane that Atosaki's mother and the Enforcer took on the trip home had been hijacked by a desperate and depraved magician who believed that if he couldn't have Atosaki's power, no one could have it at all.

The conflict culminated in the loss of all 145 passengers, ruled as a tragic mechanical error by investigators even though the aircraft was never recovered—there was nothing left of it to find. Word spread to the Association that Atosaki, her mother and the Enforcer that helped them had all been killed in the crash, and the case of Áine K. Fraga was finally considered closed.

No one needed to know the truth.

Atosaki's hands shook as she rifled through her entire life's story in that dark subterranean chamber. She could have been there for minutes or months, she couldn't tell. Endless photos and papers spilled over the magic circle etched in the center of the room, everything from the ceiling to the floor overturned as she desperately searched for something there that made sense. Her tears fell on a photo which showed her mother with another man, a foreigner she did not know, holding a swaddled infant she soon understood to be herself. The name Áine K. Fraga appeared over and over and it did not register in Atosaki's mind that this was her name as well.

アーニャ・ケイ・フラガ

Áine K. Fraga.

Who was this girl, this girl who created hell wherever she went?

Why did so many people get hurt because of her? Why did so many people die because of her?

Just who was she?

Who was she?

黒川 後先

Kurokawa Atosaki.

"N-no way…"

She let the documents slip from her grip and fall on the ground. Lancer watched her without a word, though she felt the concern of his eyes. He hadn't asked what was wrong or looked very closely at anything in the room, but he could sense Atosaki's distress and was about to speak when a sharp ping resounded from what she dropped.

On the stones of the ground lay a pewter pendant on a leather cord, worn and tarnished with age. Despite its condition it radiated power, as well as a strange sense of familiarity, such that Lancer could immediately tell the pendant was meant for summoning a Servant—and not just any Servant.

The Celtic knot-work was all too familiar, and the two beasts forged from the metal were unmistakable.

"The dogs… I'll be damned."

Atosaki stared down at the pendant, and then at Lancer.

"You know what that is?" she asked.

"Sort of," he replied grimly.

Picking up the pendant, he glimpsed the surname Fraga on a nearby manuscript, his blood going cold on the spot. That name sounded familiar—it had been the bloodline of his former Master, Bazett McRemitz, the one Kotomine killed without batting an eye. She made it only four days in the War before she lost her arm, her Command Seals, and her life to him.

As Lancer skimmed over the words written there, he began to see it now, how it all came together, how fate was a cruel and twisted thing for leading him to two people of the same family in the worst way possible. It seemed so scarily contrived yet made absolutely no sense. If there was some meaning behind any of this it had been lost on him entirely.

"Hey, Lancer?"

"Huh…?"

Atosaki smiled weakly. "You look almost as bad as I am right now."

"…You can say that I'm… a little surprised too…"

"Why, because my entire life was a lie, and nothing I believed in was real…?"

His heart sank in his chest to hear her talk like that. He wasn't about to pry too far, but he got the gist of the situation, and it wasn't good either. Someone had withheld the truth from this girl for a long time.

"Who the hell am I?" She pleaded for a straight answer. "How is Áine K. Fraga supposed to be me? I'm not… My father was not… They wanted me, for some War, but I… Everyone died because of me! Just because I was born...! It would have been better if I—"

Atosaki stopped as Lancer stepped closer to her and dangled the pewter pendant in front of her face.

"These are the sacred hounds of Cú Chulainn," he said quietly, "a great hero whose duty it was to defend his people and his land. This pendant is worn for steadfastness to goals—to be like that hero and do the unthinkable, to fight when the going gets rough and everything is falling apart around you. You must never give up, even when all odds are stacked against you, understand?"

Lancer shook the pendant on its chain to drive his point home, and Atosaki nodded, seeing the kind of expression on his face which spoke of pain from unknown depths, like he not only felt sorry for her, but for himself.

Because you're still alive… and for you, anything is possible.

"I know it doesn't fix the past for you… but I'm gonna ask you to keep your sights set on the future. You'll find more hope there than you will ten miles back. Forget about wars and forget about the things you can't change. Live for the moment, and live it well."

He was such a hypocrite, prating about goals and hopes and dreams while his were long over, and all he actually had to cling on to was the past. He was sure she knew it too, from the look she gave him. Yet the girl smiled and nodded tearfully.

"Geez Lancer, you and your motivational speeches… But you're right… And I… well, thank you."

"Got my point across, did I?" he asked with a small smile. "…It's not really mine to give… or maybe it is… but will you wear this pendant for me? Because I want you to remember what I've told you."

Because I want to be there to guard you myself.

"Ah… yes, I will. I would love to."

Before Atosaki could take the necklace from him, Lancer moved closer and began to fix it around her neck, prompting her to blush and lift her hair at the back to make things easier.

"Let's get out of this place," he said as he finished. "It's damn depressing down here and today's a nice day."

"Yes, you're right," she agreed, one hand fondling the pendant hanging at her collarbone. "Then… would you mind coming with me to my parents' memorial? I want to thank them for everything they did. And tell them… I'm willing to move on."

Lancer nodded and walked with Atosaki to the stairwell where they entered, looking only one more time at the face of Áine Fraga's father. The more he looked at him, the more he thought that man resembled Bazett, with dark, mahogany-hued hair, a two-piece suit and stern eyes. An uncle, perhaps, or even more crazy, Atosaki and Bazett might have been half-sisters. He would never know; he couldn't ask either one of them.

In a way it felt like fate was giving him another chance to protect something, and to do it right this time. Atosaki didn't need to know about the Grail War. She didn't need to know about Servants and the world of magic, it would only hurt her more. And as much as he hated to admit it, his reasoning was partially selfish, because he liked how things were.

To hide the truth without a lie, he was just as bad as the others who concealed it from her, just as foolish too.

The truth could only remain buried so long.

A/N: …If this is bad it's because I've been sick for a week and haven't eaten anything and lost like five pounds so far… but I hope you like it! I will work very hard for you! (/ w \) Please review~