Matou Kariya stood at the top of the staircase, staring in shock at the writhing mass below him, especially at the young girl in the centre of it, lying naked amongst the strange worms.
"You like my handiwork? She screamed constantly for the first three days, but she stopped on the fourth." Matou Zouken was waiting calmly behind Kariya, just outside the door leading into the basement. Hearing the old man speak made Kariya clench his fists in barely suppressed anger.
"Why? She's just a girl?"
"Precisely why she needs to be made stronger, if she's to help carry on the Matou line."
...
Zouken forced him to watch the worms swarm over Sakura for another few minutes, then dragged him back to the study on the top floor.
"Now, you must know, that even if you want the girl back, I'm not going to just let her go. Tokiomi let me have her in the interest of preserving the three families to ensure Heaven's Feel is not lost." Zouken settled into his armchair to continue speaking to Kariya, "And since we've no hope of winning the Grail this time, I must find a way to survive for the next 60 years at least." With a start, Kariya knew exactly what the old man wanted.
"I'll get you your Grail, and I'll wish for your immortality."
"Pardon?"
"I'll participate in the War next year, but once I've fulfilled your wish you return Sakura to her family."
"If that is what you want, then I will not stop you." Zouken rose from his chair less than a minute after he had begun occupying it. "Come," he called as he walked past the young man "we have much to do if you want to be considered a Master in time.
One Year Later, DUN DUN DUUUUUN~!
The Command Spells burned as they etched themselves into his skin, but the pain from the worms eating through his flesh for the past year was much worse. As much as he tried to rationalise this pain as a product of his determination, it still left him curled on the floor as though he was a baby. As Kariya tried to collect himself the door opened and Zouken stepped into the small room, cane tapping away.
"So you survived this far and you even got the Spells that identify you as a Master. But," he planted his cane down on Kariya's left leg "I don't think this leg will do you any good now, will it?"
Kariya cried out as the older man ground the cane into his thigh, his heart began to race as his body told him to fight back.
"That's not a good idea Kariya, if you excite the Crest Worms they'll eat you inside-out before you have a chance to save Sakura. Now come downstairs, we'll perform the ritual tonight."
This bit's boring so I didn't write it
"Impressive, boy. You actually survived the summoning, but I don't think it did you any good." Zouken gestured to the summoning circle, where the glow was slowly fading to reveal the freshly summoned Servant. The Servant in question was kneeling, head lowered deferentially.
"Servant Berserker, I heed the call and am brought forth. I ask of you: art thou my master?"
Kariya stood before the kneeling servant and answered the question.
"Yes, I am your Master." Hearing these words, the Servant rose to regard her Master in full, as he observed her in return. He towered over the girl, indeed, she would have trouble head-butting any opponent higher than their ribs unless they were of a similar build.
"Oh? You're accepting this weak thing? You tell me you'll win immortality and you give me a schoolgirl?" Hobbling over to Kariya, Zouken suddenly swung the end of the cane at the exhausted man's throat, stopping at the last second to rest it against one of the bulges that denoted a Crest Worm seething beneath the skin. "I should kill you here and end this farce before you humiliate me further." Zouken's words became strained as he finished, his anger was close to getting the better of him.
"I would ask that you do not threaten my Master, as you are clearly an influential person and it would not be advantageous if you are killed." Berserker had taken a step forward to the edge of the summoning circle and materialised her weapon, leveling its lethal point against the old man's throat. Due to his advanced age, just a brush of the curved tip caused a line of beading crimson to blossom across his throat. Lowering his cane, Zouken began to chuckle heartily, deep from the bottom of his lungs.
"Well then, I suppose that you may have a chance in this war, given you now have a cheerleader to inspire you from a distance." Arching an eyebrow, the elder Matou spoke directly to Berserker for once. "Are you going to cheer this failure on with your baton?" Berserker still didn't lower her massive blade. Placing his hand carefully on the sword-thing and nudging it away from Zouken, Kariya tried to place himself between the small girl and old man.
"Berserker, I'm sure he didn't mean to kill me now that I have actually summoned a Servant, so please, don't turn this into a fight, as far as I know I'm the only Master who's summoned a Servant and I don't want that to end so soon." Berserker took two steps back and planted one end of the weapon in the ground, bowing as soon as she was 'in position'.
"I beg of your pardon for my overreaction sir, but I would also ask that you refrain from such words in the future also."
Zouken laughed, a hearty guffaw ill-befitting such a dignified-looking elderly gentleman, shaking a single drop of blood loose from its rapidly-congealing moorings on his adam's apple.
"You don't need to worry a hair on your pretty blue head, he is my pawn as you are his, and I am not in the habit of sacrificing any of my pieces before the game has even begun." With that and a glare at Kariya, he walked up the stairs and out of the room, calling from the door:
"Are you going to stay down there much longer or shall I call the worms back in?"
...
The day after summoning Berserker, Kariya moved his official base of operations out of the Matou mansion and into an old apartment halfway across the city in an area no one would think to look for the 'pride and joy' of the Matou family. Kariya would remain in the apartment during the day to adjust his sleep cycle for the coming War, discussing strategy with Berserker when he was awake. During his waking hours the blue-haired girl would sit calmly with him to talk; she would be waiting for him when he woke up with a meal ready on the rickety table.
"Something's clouding my observation of you."
"What do you mean Master?" Berserker had just handed Kariya his 'breakfast' and sat down opposite him when he spoke up.
"I can see your basic ranks: strength, D; luck, E and so on, but when I try to see your skills and weaponry I see nothing, no skills, Phantasms or anything."
"Is that an issue Master?"
"If I don't know your abilities then I can't think up a good plan, and if I don't have a good plan then we both die and Sakura gets left with him." With a sour look, Kariya began to shovel the rice omelette into his mouth.
"I see." Berserker placed her hands in her lap, eyes following her Master's movements. "Should I detail my abilities? I do not wish to give away my identity, even to you, so I will be brief."
Kariya grunted, almost coughing egg-coated rice everywhere.
"Very well. To begin with, I do not wish to rely on Mad Enhancement but it grants me A ranks in most physical attributes except luck and allows my skills to be used in their most effective and destructive manner. I am capable of creating a type of bounded field that repels everything below divine status and if used offensively can be considered an EX Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm; under Mad Enhancement it is the ultimate shield and part of the Ceremony to end all life on Earth."
Kariya jerked his head up in surprise.
"All life on Earth? And you don't want to use something like that to end the War quickly?"
"It is a large-scale magic ritual similar to Heaven's Feel and requires more energy than the Grail itself. If my companions had been summoned into other classes then we would have been able to perform it, however there is no directing its power, all life on Earth would be destroyed."
"And that's just a skill of yours, not your Noble Phantasm or anything like that?"
"No." Kariya gestured for her to continue explaining herself, so Berserker continued onto the next item in her repertoire. "I am sure you will have already noticed but as long as I maintain physical form without Mad Enhancement I appear identical to an ordinary human in terms of prana."
"With red eyes, blue hair and a strange outfit." Kariya had to point out that not many such ordinary people would be wandering around a city full of on-edge magi and raging proto-gods
"It is the school uniform that is part of my legend, as with my features. Do you wish me to continue?"
"Keep going till you're done."
"Of course. I am able to heal any wound inflicted upon me at varying cost to your own prana. If there is an infection or curse that will also be removed. This ability only has effect while I retain my sanity." Berserker was expressionless, staring resolutely at the centre of Kariya's forehead.
"Fatal wounds can also be healed?" Berserker thought for a moment.
"Yes, but in your current state the prana cost would most likely kill you in the process. My final skill is the ability to use any magecraft, Noble Phantasm of true magic with little to no cost to you." Kariya immediately adopted a very surprised expression. "Would you like me to detail my weapon abilities or would you like to discuss my skills further?"
"Just quickly, why can't you use this 'any magic' ability to heal yourself without endangering me? Surely magecraft covers the healing skill."
"In the time when I was alive my skills worked in concert and made me nearly unstoppable against any foe, but I believe the Grail has placed constraints upon me to prevent me from going out of control should I activate Mad Enhancement. I am also not knowledgeable with any healing skills that falls outside my own abilities but within the constraints of magecraft, Noble Phantasm or true magic. May I continue?"
"I said yes already." Kariya muttered with a frustrated sigh.
"I know." Berserker gave a small smile in return, the only emotion she had shown so far outside of 'intent to kill'. "My primary weapon is the lance you saw earlier, it is capable of penetrating any bounded field and destroying demigods and nullifying any effects of the two in a similar manner to EX rank Magic Resistance. With Mad Enhancement it is able to kill divinity and is part of the Ceremony I previously mentioned. It is also the only thing capable of negating my Mad Enhanced Territory Creation. I also possess a small knife through which I channel prana and develop a sharper edge, but it is not a Noble Phantasm."
"That lance…"
"Yes Master?"
"You say the Grail tried to make you less powerful?"
"That may have been the case, yes."
Kariya jumped out of his seat and began to shake Berserker by the shoulders, but stopped when the Worms began to course across his face. He coughed up a small wad of phlegm, then spoke.
"I think we may have a chance to win this war Berserker, but we don't tell Zouken about this, ok?"
"Understood Master. Would you like some tea?" Kariya gave a small nod, so Berserker rose to move into the small kitchen area, then stopped. "I have just detected what I believe to be a battle between Servants on the outskirts of the city." She began to rummage through a pile of folded papers till she found what she was looking for, unfolding the map and spreading it over the table. Planting one finger in the circle denoting their own location, she traced another finger down and to the left, stopping just in the corner. "Is there anything at this location Master?"
Glancing over to the map, Kariya couldn't think of what may be out that far, but he had a suspicion it was the Tokiomi estate.
"If you can investigate without being seen, go there immediately." Berserker curtsied, folding the map and putting it away, even as she dissolved into the spiritual realm.
...
Kotomine Kirei stood at the top of the small cliff overlooking the Tokiomi mansion, monitoring his Servant as the golden Servant rained destruction upon his Assassin.
"Master, you said I had nothing to fear from him." Kotomine turned to see the purple-haired woman behind him, bowing reverently.
"You knew this had to happen."
"Who're you talkin' to Mr Priest? You look lonely out here." Kotomine spun fully around to find a small girl by his side, hands clasped behind her back as she tilted her head, smiling widely.
"Nobody, just myself. It gets lonely up here you know?" With a thought, he confirmed that Assassin had not been seen by this girl, nor had anybody suspected Assassin to secretly be alive. Guessing this girl to be a non-combatant in the War, Kotomine tried to herd the girl back down the hill, but she kept escaping his attempts and chatting up a storm with him.
"Are you meeting with a woman here? Is that why you don't want me here? Is it a nun?" When Kotomine remained silent the girl gave him a playful punch to the shoulder. "You shouldn't be dragging nuns into sin with you Mr Priest, what will God think?" The girl was unnaturally chirpy, especially considering the time of night. With a muted sigh, Kotomine began to totally ignore the girl and walk down the hill, but the young girl followed him all the way, striking up a conversation with the priest's back.
"Mr Priest, is that house down there the Tahsoka's or something? Mr Matou said that a friend of his lived near here in a big house but I didn't remember the address so I walked up this hill by accident." The girl almost ran into his back when he stopped abruptly.
"Did you just say Matou? And Tohsaka?"
"Oh so it's Tohsaka. Mr Matou was talking to my brother at the time so I didn't hear him correctly. Are you a friend of Mr Matou too, Mr Priest?" Kotomine resumed walking, leaving the girl five steps behind until she realised he had left again.
"I'm more of a friend of Tohsaka's, but please, tell me how you came to know Kariya Matou." Kotomine remained expressionless, his deep voice resounding through the dirt path down the hill.
"Weeeeeellll~, Mr Matou got sick with a bug a few months ago and it made him really sick and he's still really weak even now so we help him out around the house so he doesn't fall down and not get up like an old man because its a shame he's such a nice man and he shouldn't die like that now that he's not sick anymo-"
"I had heard he was sick, but for it to be so serious is rather shocking."
"I know, right? We saw him coming home from the store a while back and he was having so much trouble with his bags that me and my brother just went over and helped him get them home and we've been helping him out ever since."
"It's so good that Kariya met such nice young people like you two, I would hate to imagine what would have happened to him otherwise."
"Though my brother says he treats us like slaves sometimes when we have to take his clothes to a laundromat, but I said that since he pays us and is so nice all the time that we're more like servants." There was a pause as Kotomine seemed to smile at the coincidence, but the girl didn't notice, instead looking at the Tokiomi estate through a break in the trees.
"Do you think they're building a pool in the garden down there Mr Priest? It's such a nice old western-style house, but the big hole there kind of ruins it, don't you think?"
Kotomine 'hmm'd in a agreement. "Tokiomi told me they were laying a new sprinkler system in soon, so the workers needed to know how deep the previous set of pipes had been laid."
The girl began to race down the hill, there was a bus stop at the bottom and she had just sighted it.
"Mr Priest, I'll make sure to tell Mr Matou you were worried about him, ok?" She called back, waving one arm wildly. The girl realised something, and ran back up to Kotomine. "Um, I don't think he'll know it's you if I just say 'Mr Priest' so um, could you give me your name please?"
Kotomine chuckled for a moment. "Tell him you spoke to Father Kotomine."
"Ok Mr Priest! Bye now!" The girl had already begun running down the hill, when in an instant she was no longer there, a sprinkling of glowing dust marking her departure. The instant the girl disappeared several Assassins materialised around Kotomine.
"Forgive me Master," one of the women said, the same one from before "we could not detect her presence and so we believed her to be a bystander. Had she attacked, we may not have been able to respond in time."
"It is of no matter now, we must go to the church and hope this plan has not totally fallen apart." Kotomine waved the Assassins away and continued walking down the hill, pondering the mystery of the strange blue-haired girl.
...
"The battle appeared to take place between Assassin and Tohsaka Tokiomi's servant, who killed Assassin with his Noble Phantasm. I spoke with a Father Kotomine who I believe to be Assassin's Master. I also believe that Assassin is not dead, as Father Kotomine seemed entirely too relaxed for a Master with no Servant." Berserker brought herself into existence directly opposite Kariya, who was still seated at the table he had been at less than ten minutes ago.
"You didn't attack or anything?"
"No Master, your orders were reconnaissance only, so after identifying Assassin's Master I returned here." Berserker sat down on the bed and looked over at her Master.
"That's enough for now, we'll formulate a method of attack tonight and get to it tomorrow, when I want you out in the city during the day and looking for the other Master and Servants."
...
Two days later Berserker left the house on her Master's orders, wandering the streets nearby in the morning to get an idea of the defensive capabilities of the neighbourhood. At midday she returned to the apartment with a bag of groceries, so as not to arouse suspicion. In order to remain concealed from any watchful eyes Berserker also purchased a set of clothes and pair of sunglasses which she changed into upon returning to the apartment, slipping out again quietly to investigate the strange presence flying into the city. She did not arrive at the airport in time to find out the source of the presence, but guessing it to be the physical body of a Servant, Berserker began to follow it around as surreptitiously as she could, avoiding molesters on the train as she dashed around the city after the presence.
After spending most of the day dashing about in the more commercial half of the city, Berserker ended up following a black car to an empty beach, where a woman in a black suit watched over a very familiar-looking woman playing in the lapping waves. Taking a seat on a nearby bench, Berserker quickly identified the suited woman as the Servant, but she detected no prana being transferred between the two, so she left that mystery behind in favour of identifying the other woman. Her silvery hair and red eyes labelled her as Nephilim, of a different breed to Berserker herself, but Nephilim nonetheless. The true oddity of this woman was her inability to immediately sense Berserker through their shared lineage, so she resolved that she must simply be similar in appearance to one. Berserker began to contact her Master to inform her of this Servant's arrival when she felt herself being watched rather intently. It would appear the other Servant felt it too as the pale woman's laughter abruptly ceased, the rising moon silhouetting the contrasting pair of women. The two rapidly rapidly walked past the bench Berserker was occupying.
"I don't think you should go into the trees girls, I think I saw a pervert there a few minutes ago." Berserker called out cheerfully, shocking the two women into stillness.
"Don't worry, we're just going in to beat some sense into him." The Nephilim woman spoke with a smile, hoping to put Berserker at ease. Berserker for her part leaped up from her position on the bench and began to head back into the city.
"Have fuuuuun~!" Berserker waved an arm up high as she raced off back into the city, giggling to herself all the way.
...
"You should know, Lancer, that girl at the beach told us you were a lecherous fiend." Saber materialised her armour, gripping her hands around the hilt of her invisible sword.
"She must have had good eyes to have seen me, but tell me, where do young women these days learn such words?" The Servant Lancer spun his weapons and settled into a ready stance.
"She simply used the word 'pervert' but gazing at maidens without courting them is a fiendish action ill-befitting a man of chivalry such as yourself."
"I cannot help the fact that women gazing upon me are instantly smitten. Now come, Saber, it is a pity we cannot give our names as chivalry demands, but let us cross blades forthwith!" And with that declaration, Lancer charged.
Since Rei has red eyes, blue hair and a blue outfit (sometimes) I gave her E rank luck because she reminded me of Cu Chullain, or however you spell it in Gaelic. Maybe she's like a Cu Churei. Oh wait shit, I'm not supposed to reveal that it's Rei yet! However will I be able to have the scene where she introduces herself to Kiritsugu in 20 chapters time? SUCH MISFORTUNE. Anyway don't expect this to be updated on a wonderfully frequent basis, but I'll try to get it out around the 4th every month. Internet cookie to the person who suggests a better title, put it under reviews so I look more important.