Assembling the Red
Answers to some reviews:
Amatsumi: I won't tell you the answer. You have to wait.
Zephyroths: Because the events of Fate/Zero still happened albeit some differences. As how it still happened, I won't tell you now. You have to wait.
RedRat8: Currently, the shipping in plan is Shirou x Saber. As for Ruler, she has someone else.
Kingawesome: It's two team fight against each other. There are only three Servants from the 5th war.
Ryuu von Einzbern: Nope, it happens in Trifas, just like in Fate/Apocrypha. The Servants of the Red faction are a mix of the Fifth Grail War and original Servants.
Kotomine Church, Fuyuki City
At the middle of the church stood three people.
The first is a red-haired high school student who is secretly a (incompetent) magus. He uses his magecraft mostly to help those in need. He has a wish to become the hero of justice, just like his late father. His name is Shirou Emiya, the son of the late Kiritsugu Emiya.
The second is a black-haired high school student from the same school. Unlike Shirou, calling her competent doesn't do justice to her level of magecraft. One of her favorite type of magecraft is jewelcraft, which is why she tend to have some financial issue. Her name is Rin Tohsaka, the current head of Tohsaka family.
The third is a white-haired priest from the Holy Church. Despite coming from a religious organization, the priest's magecraft is not something to be underestimated. He has been tasked by the Holy Church to supervise the Great Holy Grail War and make sure that it remain secret, just like his father before him. His name is Shirou Kotomine, the member of the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament.
"Shirou...Kotomine?" Said Shirou Emiya in surprise.
"Yes, that is my name. My I know your name, O fellow Master of Red?" Replied Shirou Kotomine.
"I am Shirou Emiya."
"Shirou Emiya?" The priest puts his right hand at his chin. "That will be a problem."
The supervisor thinks for a few moments before snapping his finger.
"I know the solution, Shirou Emiya. You must change your first name."
...
...
"W-WHAT?!"
"Because I am the older one, I have the right to decide how we're going to do it. Plus, I am a supervisor."
As Shirou Emiya's face shows shock, Rin is laughing when she heard that.
"Shirou, please don't joke around. Just use your family name." Suggest Rin.
"Ah, what an interesting idea, Rin." Replied Kotomine as he palms his right hand and smashes it one his left hand.
"You...are joking?" Ask Emiya with more surprise.
"Of course I am joking. Do I look like someone who will order others to change his name because he has the same name as me?"
Emiya takes the words for a few moments before dropping his head. Kotomine laughs at the scene.
"Sorry. The situation has been quite stressful, so I want to do something to relax a bit." Said Kotomine as he scratches the back of his head. "Anyway, thanks for informing Rin. With this, our team is complete."
"Actually, there's another reason why I brought him here." Replied Rin with a bit of nervousness.
"Hmm?"
"This guy...has no idea at all about the Holy Grail War."
Kotomine takes the words for few moments as he thinks. He let out a sigh in annoyance.
"No idea at all, huh? Just as if the Servants of the Yggdmillennia are not bad enough, the Master of our Saber chance of getting kill is quite high." Said Kotomine as he pinches the upper part of his nose.
"Sorry." Replied Emiya as he feels a bit guilty.
"It's not you fault. If I must make a guess, the Yggdmillennia did on purpose in order to weakened us. They're the current owner of the Greater Grail after all."
"OK. Conversation aside, I am pretty sure you must do your job as the supervisor." Remind Rin.
"Right. Emiya, I am going to explain it as simple as possible and only once. Get it?"
"Yes, I am." Replied Emiya immediately.
"The Holy Grail War is a ritual to summon seven Heroic Spirits by seven magi to compete in a battle royale. They'll kill each other until there's only one pair left."
"Why would they do such a thing?!"
"Beats me. I am still a priest. You better ask the one besides you." Replied Kotomine as he points at Rin. "Back to the war, this kind of ritual has been happening at Fuyuki for more than two centuries. However, during the Third Holy Grail War, something happened."
"Something?" Ask Emiya.
"The war happened during 1939. Can you guess it?"
"1939...that's the eve of World War Two!"
"Indeed. One of the Master collaborated with Nazi Germany. The latter sent their military forces under the direct order of Hitler to obtained the Grail. They succeed."
"What happened then?"
"The Master betrayed the Nazi and stole the Greater Grail for him and his family, the Yggdmillennia. At least he had enough sense not to work forever with those people."
"Wait, if the Ygg...Yggd...something has the Grail, then how can we got chosen as Masters?"
"Before that, I am going to explain to you the Fourth Holy Grail War, that war that should be impossible to happen. Until now no one has an idea how the war happened, but I am sure the Yggdmillennia can answer that question. Long story short, the war happened like usual. But in the end, it created a disaster known as the Great Fuyuki Fire."
Emiya's eyes become wide when he hears that. His mind then goes to the past, the time whe he was wandering around the fire, have no intention to live. He also remember it as the time when he met Kiritsugu.
"It seems that you're a survivor of the fire, judging from your face. This is why there was supervisor in the Grail War, to make sure that that kind of event won't happen. Again."
"So then, how is this war – I am pretty sure the fifth – happened?"
"Smart indeed. Few months ago, the Clock Tower managed to locate the location of the Grail and sent fifty Enforcers to retake it. Alas, the Yggdmillennia had summoned at least one of their Servant and the latter killed all of them except one. The survivor managed to reach the Holy Grail and activated the reserve system."
"Reserve system? What does this system do?"
"To put it simply, the amount of Servants that can be summoned now is double of the original amount – fourteen. And the battle changed from battle royale to team battle."
Kotomine suddenly points his index finer at Emiya.
"You are part of the Red faction, Master of Saber of Red."
"I...see. So I must participate in the war, huh."
Rin wants to say something, but Kotomine immediately give a gesture to her to remain silence; one that Emiya doesn't detect. She decides to agree, at least for this moment.
"That's right. There's a way to quit however. The marks on your hand are Command Seals, claims of Servant's absolute obedience. If you want to quit..."
Emiya waits for the answer. When he gets it, there's a chance that he can return to his normal live.
"...use the Command Seal and order your Servant to commit suicide!"
Emiya's eyes become wider than when he heard the cause of the Great Fuyuki Fire. Rin is also shocked when she hears that. Emiya grits his teeth as his left hand clench.
"Don't joke around! There's no way I will force Saber to do such a thing!"
"Then there's only one way, Shirou Emiya."
Emiya's face becomes bitter before he relax. Seeing that the only way to quit is to kill his Servant, he makes his decision.
"OK, I am in."
"Good decision, Emiya. Now then, return to your home, find your passport, pack up, and say goodbye to your beloved ones."
"Eeh, passport?"
Kotomine lightly facepalm as he remembers that he forgot to tell something.
"Right, my mistake. The Great Holy Grail War will take place at Trifas, Transylvania. Romania if you're asking for the country.
Silence falls on the church as Emiya realizes what will happen next.
"R-Romania?! T-That's Europe, right? How am I suppose to participate then?! I have school, Fuji-nee might not allowed me to..."
"Calm down, Emiya. I'll handle it. Just prepare yourself and your Servant for a trip." Replied Kotomine as he tries to calm down Emiya.
Emiya can do nothing but sigh. Looks like the war will be harder than he expected.
"You can go back home alone, Emiya. I want to have some talk with Shirou." Said Rin.
"Of course. Thanks for bringing me here, Tohsaka."
Emiya then walk towards the door. Just right before he exits the church, Emiya stops and ask something to Kotomine.
"Kotomine, do you know what was the result of the fourth war?"
"Not really. But I can tell you this; Kiritsugu Emyia killed Kirei Kotomine during the war."
Kotomine can't look at what kind of face that Emiya made. However, he knows that at least the red-haired feels sad.
"I see. Sorry for asking." With that, Emiya exits the church, leaving Rin and Kotomine.
"Just what were you doing, Shirou?! Emiya can quit without killing Saber and you risk us loosing one of our strongest Servant before we even landed on Romania!" Exclaim Rin.
"Worry not, Rin. Emiya is too kind to do that, I know it the moment I saw his face. Also, I believe he can be our good trump card." Replied Shirou as he smiles a bit.
"Him? Shirou, he can't even do something so simple like fixing a broken window. I doubt he has something that will be valuable to us."
"Yeah, but you must remember that there can be two reasons for that; first, he really is incompetent. Second, he's too specialize with his magecraft. So far, I am leaning towards the second."
"...Shirou, while we're only friends for few months, I know that you won't make that kind of claim without a good reason. May I know what is it?"
"Not now, Rin. I must prepare for our journey first. Then we can have a talk."
Rin thinks about it for a while. At one hand, she really is curious. On the other hand, getting to Romania as quickly as possible is more important.
"Fine, Shirou. I believe in you." Rin then goes towards the door. Before leaving, she speaks, "But if your action cost us the victory and Emiya's live, I won't forgive you."
"You won't be disappointed, Rin."
With that, Rin leaves the church, leaving Shirou alone. Sighing due to exhaustion, Shirou goes towards his room for preparation. Just in few steps though, he stops and looks to somewhere.
...
"Yes, I believe letting him has Saber is a good idea. Risky, but if everything goes as planned..."
Plane to Romania
Inside a private jet plane, the Master of Berserker of Red, Illyasviel von Einzbern, is drinking a cup of tea. She had been chosen to represent the Einzbern for the Great Holy Grail War.
After getting a letter from the Clock Tower, the Einzbern immediately used as many contacts that they had to help the family and their allies in regaining the Holy Grail. The Einzbern also contact a freelancer magus, not unlike the late Kiritsugu Emiya.
Illya puts her cup as she remembers her father. After the end of the fourth war, Jubstacheit von Einzbern didn't let his father to met her. However, despite being crippled thanks to the war, Kiritsugu managed to bypass the bounded field and reached the Castle of Einzbern. Impressed by the result, Jubstacheit told him that he can meet Illya, but he also told both of them that it will be their last meeting.
Illya spent the last hour that she had with her father by playing around the castle, his father telling her how the outside world is, and so on.
Illya cries a single tear before comforting herself. There's no use of crying for the past. The one thing she can do is fulfilling her father's request.
"Illya, I know this sounds strange. But, should you be able to travel to the outside world, visit your brother, will you? His name is Shirou, and I believe that both of you will enjoy each other company."
Illya diverts her mind to her Servant sitting few feet in front of her. Berserker seems to be in sour mood for an obvious reason if you know the Servant's history.
"It was your own fault, Berserker. You shouldn't destroy your catalyst the moment you knew what it was." Said Illya to Berserker.
Berserker says nothing in return, except a scowl appeared on the Servant's face.
Matou Manor
Zouken Matou walks around the house. He doesn't know what he currently feels, but perhaps happy can describe it close enough.
His mind then goes to the time of the Third Holy Grail War. He remembers how that man completely humiliated him by defeating him and stole the Holy Grail along with the Nazi.
His mind drifts off to the Fourth Holy Grail War. Truth be told, he already expect that war to not ended up well. It was simply impossible without the Greater Grail nearby.
At least he managed to get rid off that stupid Kariya.
Then, Zouken remembers what happened few days ago. Sakura had summoned her Servant. But because she didn't want to participate, Shinji will replace her position. It was also a blessing that the Clock Twoer decided to gave him a very good catalyst.
Hopefully Shinji can survive long enough until the Clock Tower win with the Servant at his side.
Now Zouken just need to figure out a way to be able to make a wish to the Grail. If the Clock Tower manage to win, chances are low that they will return it to the Three Founding Families. They would surely use something along the line of "incapable of guarding magical artifact" as an excuse.
RIING RIING
Zouken stops thinking for a while when he heard the doorbell. He intends to order Shinji to open the door, but decide to do it himself and let Shinji makes a bond with his Servant, Rider of Red.
Which is an epic fail because Rider still regard Sakura as his true Master and hate Shinji's attitudes with passion.
Zouken walks slowly towards the door. When he's in front of it, he slowly opens the door.
"What is it that..."
And done.
Sorry if it's a bit short, but I finish this in hurry due to real life problems.
How do you think the interaction between two Shirou(s) will go?
A challenge; can you guess the identity of Rider, Berserker, and Assassin of the Red faction? And if you can, also Caster of Red?
If you have question or suggestion, feel free to tell me.
Review please.