log; complete

[heroshirou.livejournal.com]

When; December 19
Rating; G
Characters; Hotaru silence_bringer and Archer heroshirou
Summary; Hotaru, with magic power beyond her control, accidentally summons Archer. Now, as her servant, he must inform her about the Holy Grail War and everything else pertaining to him.
Log; Hotaru sighed heavily, drawing the dark purple velvet shawl around her shoulders tighter. She sat down on the thick cushion in the big windowseat of her living room. Her empty livingroom. Tucking a stray strand of midnight-hued hair behind one ear, she glanced out the window. It was snowing. She liked the snow, though she didn't like the cold. Cold weather had always been difficult for her, since her body was still somewhat weak from the injuries suffered as a child. But it wasn't the cold, or even the loneliness of her apartment that was bothering the petite girl right now. She sighed again, watching the flakey white stuff fall to the ground softly. No, what was on her mind right now was the things that people had told her about someone she wanted to trust. Itachi..san. Is he really as bad of a person as they all say he is? I...I don't know if I can believe that...

Sliding down off of the cushion and onto the floor, she sat cross-legged and closed her eyes. Maybe she should just think on it. Meditate, like she had seen people do on TV. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, she let her thoughts turn inward, concentrating. Finding her own unique aura and letting her mind become lost in it's undulations and shifts as she let the energy that was her seep through her bones, hoping to find her answers there.

Archer was floating in the void. The place where heroes rested. He felt something tug at the edge of his consciousness. "This magic feeling. I'm being summoned again. But does she have the power?"

In the shimmering void, the magical circled appeared and Archer floated towards it, waiting for the moment when her strength was proven.

Hotaru could feel the energy building. It was almost like healing, this sort of meditation. Following the trails and chains of memory and light, feeling herself expand as the energy thrummed, a warm vibration that spread through her mind. She smiled to herself as the tenseness of her muscles began to ebb, the bloodflow seeming to increase as vessels relaxed, sending the fluid in her veins rushing through her body. It was as though all of her senses were expanded. She could hear her own blood stream through her veins, feel every fiber of the carpet, smell the tiny particles of dust in the snow outside. Hotaru imagined that if she opened her eyes, she'd be able to see farther then she ever had before. But then, her wandering subconscious brushed against a part of her mind and chaos abounded. The Saturn power, dark and terrible, bursting free of it's confines and flooding her mind with it's destructive and wanton power.

Archer laughed outloud. A power this large, summoning him. This much power should be summoning someone like Saber or Berserker, not him. It was enough for him though. He allowed himself to be pulled into the real world. As he drew towards the magical circle, everything began to get brighter. Soon, Archer was forced to close his eyes or end up damaging his keen sense of sight. Now all he had to do was wait for the magical circle to open up in the real world, so he could take on a physical form.

She recoiled from her own mind, shoving her hands in front of her in a gesture that mirrored what she wanted to do with the Saturn power. Her mind beat against itself in terrified passion as she fought down the siren-song of the darkness that threatened to overtake her. Dropping forward, she hung her head, hands braced on the ground in front of her, gasping for breath as sweat dripped off of her face. What was that?! The Saturn power had never done anything like that. Never run amok and acted as though it was going to swallow her soul up in it's fury. No, it responded to her depression, her own inner darkness. It was times when she was lost in misery, alone and depressed, letting her mind drift and float softly down into the depths that her power chose to rear it's head. Blinking and gulping back her sudden fear, her attention was caught by a faint glow in front of her. She glanced up, still trembling, to see a glowing runic circle appear on the floor.

The circle darkened to a red color and began to rise into the air. From his feet up, Archer was physically contructed. Once the circle passed his white hair, Archer opened his eyes. He blinked a few times to clear and adjust his vision. In front of him was a dark haired girl with surprise written all over her face. Archer mentally sighed, wondering why, for the third time, he was summoned by a girl. Archer's gaze swept up and down, measuring her aptitude with his own eyes. Finally he spoke.

"Are you the one that has summoned me?"

Wide violet eyes stared in stunned silence into dark grey, blinking in surprise. A man. A man had appeared in her room. From out of a magical circle, no less. And now, he was talking about summoning? She chewed her bottom lip slightly and raised her hands, rubbing her eyes. Maybe she was just seeing things.

Archer was taken aback. Was she blind and deaf? He knelt down to be on the same level as her.

"Did you not hear me? I asked if you summoned me."

She yelped and backed up slightly. No, it definitely wasn't a dream. Swallowing, she dropped her head in an attempt to regain some decorum. "I...I..I'm Hotaru. T..Tomoe Hotaru. I....I don't know anything about summoning. I...I was meditating and...and then you appeared in my room..." She raised her head slightly to peer up at him. "A..are you a..a spirit or something?"

This moment brought back to many memories for Archer. He sighed softly and took a deep breath.

"My name is Archer. I have been summoned by you, Tomoe Hotaru, to fight in the Holy Grail War. As proof of this, look at your right hand. There should be three different symbols on it."

"Holy Grail War?" She breathed the words softly. That wasn't good. The Holy Grail was something she knew about. Something she had experience with. It had brought nothing but darkness and sorrow. And destruction. She gulped and glanced at her hand, eyes widening at the runic designs now present on it. She bit her lip again, beginning to tremble. "No....no...not the grail....not ...not again...I..I don't want to..I don't want to Silence it again....". The dark-haired girl's frail body was starting to shake, as she was quickly working herself up into hysterics, lost in her memories of when she, as Mistress 9, had ripped the Holy Grail from the hands of the White Messiah, and plunged the world into darkness. Leaving her true self, the Soldier of Ruin, no choice but to rend the world with the Silence. No, she wanted nothing to do with the grail again.

Archer's mouth turned downwards into a frown. The girl was obviously hysterical. That was easily understandable since he had a very bad experience involving the Holy Grail also. He put his hands on her shoulders and spoke to her.

"Look. I'm going to say this right off. I don't like the Holy Grail either. I've helped destroy it twice before, and I personally don't want it exploding. I've seen the end of the war, and it always ends in death. But if we attack the Holy Grail instead of trying to drink from it, we can prevent any death from happening."

"De..destroy it? But...but I don't understand! Why is everyone fighting over it again, it's back where it belongs, in the hands of the White Messiah!" She didn't understand at all what he was talking about. Were there other Holy Grails, on other worlds? The thought chilled her. No, she couldn't let that happen. Not again. "I...I don't understand what you're saying. I...I destroyed....destroyed everything. There's nothing left. No grail, no nothing. Only Silence. Un...unless....there's a grail in your world, too?"

"My world? What are you talking about? There is only one world. And in this world, every seven years, there is a fight between seven servants and thier masters. Once there is only one servant/master pair remaining, the Holy Grail is summoned." Archer was starting to get a bad feeling. Getting summoned by someone who could be a psycho was not on his list of things to do in his lifetime.

Now it was starting to make sense. He didn't know where he was. And apparently, in his world, men must come out of magic glowing circles all the time. She tucked her hair behind her ear and shook her head. "No...Archer-san. I...I think you're confused. This...this isn't your world. This is the City."

Archer looked into her eyes. There was no deceit there. The thought of being somewhere he had never been excited him. Before we went overboard, he better explain the rules first.

"Well, I'm sorry to say this, but I am serious about the Holy Grail. Once all seven servants are summoned, we are going to enter into a fight. We must either kill the enemy servants or thier masters. It's either that, or we die ourselves. We ar e in luck though. I don't sense any other servants in this place, so we have plenty of time to prepare." Archer frowned, a little hesitant about describing the last part.

"Remember when I told you about those marks on your arms? Those are command spells. As a servant, I am compelled to do what you tell me to do. If it goes against my will or morales, I will refuse to do it. If you feel it neccessary, you can use up one of those command spells to force me to do your order. You only have three, and once you use them all, you are no longer my master. If you force me to do things that I really hate, I will probably kill you after you runout of command spells. However, I doubt that will happen."

Her small face had gone pale when he'd talked about killing others, and she gulped hard when he mentioned killing her. "I...I don't want to make you do things you don't want. But I...I don't want to kill anyone, either. Why....why do you have to kill each other?" She was gradually calming down, but this was still very confusing to her.

Archer was reminded of himself again. So naive. "Look, if we don't try to kill them, they will kill us. I give you my word that I will protect you with my life. Starting now, I will allow no one to harm you."

Archer let go of her shoulders and stood up. He offered his hand to her, to help her get up.

Amethyst orbs widened further. He..was going to protect her? In a way, it reminded her of the things that Mamoru would say to Usagi. She blushed slightly and glanced away. He WAS a handsome man, she had to admit. But...this was still so strange. Glancing back up at him, she shyly reached out her hand and placed it into his larger one.

Archer pulled her up to her feet and smiled. "So, you are obviously a magic user, since you summoned me. What kind of magic do you use?"

She glanced down at her hands for a moment. "I...I don't know. I..never knew I had magic. I mean....I can heal things. Since i was little. Is that...magic?"

"Oh boy, what world does this girl come from?," Archer asked himself. He spoke up saying, "Yes, healing is a type of magic. I'm glad you can use it, because I can't heal myself. However, you can't summon me with just healing magic alone. What other magic do you possess?"

She cast her eyes downwards at the thought of the other power. The one she wanted to forget she had. But this man obviously knew about it, somehow. And if he knew about it, there was little point in really hiding it. She swallowed, fidgeting slightly. "I....in my world, there are soldiers for each planet of the solar system. Each soldier is blessed with that planet's power, watched over by it's patron god. I..I am one of them. Blessed by Saturn." She paused for a moment before continuing. "The planet of ruin..."

"Saturn? Planet of ruin? You must be reading the wrong legends. Saturn is a beautiful place. Something to look for in the night sky." Archer already could tell that it was tough for her to cope with the power she had. However, he wasn't going to stand have a sad girl as a master. He was going to do his best to help her dispel the illusion that she possessed an evil power.

She cocked her head to the side, blinking past the tears that had begun to form in the corners of her eyes. "But...my power...it's for destruction. The Soldier of Saturn must never be awakened. Because once that power is awakened, I have to fulfil my purpose. To bring down the Silence. I...i'm a monster..."

"I don't know much about this silence, but you are not a monster. Look at you. I don't even think you could hurt a fly without feeling bad. Anyways, if you are scared of this power, then don't use it. If you do use it, and somehow go crazy, I'll still make sure no one will hurt you." Archer gave her a genuine smile and motioned towards the door. "So when can I have a tour of this 'city'? It would be nice to know my way around during a fight."

She smiled at him. He didn't understand, of course. Didn't understand that the girl he thought unable to hurt a fly had murdered an entire world. But...that was ok for now. Now that he was here, things didn't seem so lonely. And that ticking was gone. Nodding, she took a step forward, then swayed as her vision blurred.

Archer noticed her eyes fade a little. He jumped towards her and propped his arms out, ready to catch her if she began to fall down.

And fall she did, thankfully against his chest. She shook her head, gazing up at him through slightly unfocused eyes. It was the Saturn power, she assumed. With her weak body, it always sapped her strength.

"Going out now seems to be a bad idea, Master. I think you need to rest. If you run out of mana, I run out of mana." Archer moved to her side, still supporting her with his right arm. He picked her up her legs with his left hand and held her bridal style. "Point me toward your bedroom. I think you need to go to sleep."

Her cheeks turned bright red as he first called her "master", then scooped her up like a bride. She let out a startled squeak, hands drawing up to her chin in surprise.

"I don't think 'squeak' is the correct way to your bed. I just have to find it myself." He quickly glanced around the apartment and found her room in no time. He gently lowered her down onto her bed. "Alright. You sleep. I'm going to be invisible for the time being, but I will still be at your side. I'll have a meal prepared for you when you wake up."

"Wait!" She sat up, grabbing onto his sleeve. "Please...."

"What do you want Master?"

She turned red again. "Just...call me Hotaru." Glancing away, she chewed on her bottom lip. "Can you....stay? I...I know it's silly but....I have...nightmares...and I..." She was embarassed, because in her mind it was a silly thing. Children had nightmares. Not 15 year olds who had been on their own for quite a while.

Archer sat down beside her. "I'll stay right here if you wish." He reached out and grabbed her hand, hoping it would make her feel more comfortable.

"Th...thank you, Archer-san." She tightened her fingers around his larger ones and lay back, dark hair splayed across the pillow. Within minutes, she was fast asleep.