Disclaimer - I do not own any of the series featured in this fic.
Longing.
It was a feeling that faintly reached Beast as he watched his master play with his daughter through a window while astralized. Kiritsugu told him to stay astralized whenever anyone aside from his master and his wife, who was to serve as a proxy master, was present. After little Illyasviel saw his face and immediately ran away screaming, he agreed.
The young Einzbern's reaction somewhat saddened Beast. He spent a good deal of his original life taking care of children. He always had a soft spot for children. He remembered his students.
No. His children. How they stood by him against the horde of evil. How they sacrificed themselves for him.
And how he made all their sacrifices worthless by sacrificing what they fought for and losing the fight that their lives had let him reach. He remembered the faces of his children as he failed them. How one had reached out and asked for help, only to be met a death sentence. How one had desperately asked him to stop, only to be met with disappointment. How one that had once looked upon him with admiration, had a look of pity on his face during Beast's final moments.
No, his child wasn't the only one with that face. He, also wore that look on his face. He had assumed that the centuries of his wretched, undying life had tore any form of emotion aside from rage and pleasure from the vampire. He was wrong.
Still, even knowing he was wrong, he didn't dare stray from his ideals. The same ideals that he and his children lived by. The same ideals that had earned him the respect of the vampire. With his final words, he declared the vampire to be cursed. To never gain rest. To never embrace death.
"Beast? Where are you?"
A familiar voice snapped the servant out his thoughts. He turned to see Irisviel who had a smile on her face and a gold and blue scabbard in her arms. If Beast had actual eyes, they would've widened at the sight of the scabbard. To a regular human, the scabbard would seem to be nothing more than a beautiful scabbard. To a magus, they would be able to detect magic on it. To a Servant, they saw it for what it was.
Noble Phantasm. A crystalized mystery. A Heroic Spirit's legend given form.
Which begged the question, why did somebody who was clearly not a heroic spirit posses one? And what did she want to do with the thing? The smile on her face was a little unsettling.
Death.
Death was all Waver dreamed of that night after summoning Rider. He had read of the dream sequences. But he didn't expect it to start right after summoning his Servant.
For someone who looked like a total idiot, his life was filled with so much death. So much blood. So much insanity. While there was some parts that Waver had witnessed was somewhat hilarious, behind the comedy was so much insanity. The woman who fought by throwing Gimps of all things was hilarious in that regard, but quite obviously insane, and seeing what she had done after Rider had run her through, quite vicious as well.
And that thing that Rider had fought at what he had called an Akashic Point(Waver made a note to himself to research into that particular topic when he had time) had an appearance that was hilarious and disturbing at the same time.
The man who Rider had deprived of his head in a shower of blood and continued talking despite not being attached to his lungs topping it off with ripping off his laughing head in another shower of blood was both funny and disturbing.
His Servant's life seemed to be composed of an equal balance of comedy and insanity with the scales tipping in favor of one at times.
From the dreams, Waver came to a conclusion about his Servant.
He was completely sociopathic, insane, amoral, and selfish. Yet somehow was still considered a Hero.
"No. Not completely selfish. Not completely amoral." Waver thought back to Rider's reaction to his friend's death. To his reaction to the insane woman's habits.
He stared at his servant, who was engrossed in a manga he had stolen('Liberated' he said). He didn't seem like a hero at all. He looked like a demented otaku who had resorted to killing to pay for his habit.
"Too early to make proper conclusions." Waver only saw bits of Rider's past. He knew he didn't see everything. But at least he now knew of his Servant's combat skills. But not what qualified him for Rider.
Another odd detail about his Servant's life was that he was an assassin. All of his opponents were. But they were very flashy for assassins.
Blood.
It was what inspired Uryuu Ryuunosuke to live the life of a serial killer.
It had started out simple enough. He lured one of his seniors to an alley. The fact that the guy was known by some social circles in the group as a drug addict. Nobody payed any attention to him. Some, because they thought "If he wanted to screw his own life over by taking that stuff, let him." Others because they were taking the stuff themselves. He wasn't really unique compared to anyone, so no one spared him a second thought.
Until he decided to start shaking down schoolmates for money to feed his habit. That was when they started paying attention. Eventually they got fed up. Uryuu, overhearing their complaints, decided, out of boredom, to teach the guy a lesson.
Lessons, sports, and talking weren't interesting to him, so he thought "Why not violence? Probably gonna get bored with that anyways."
Luring the guy was easy. Uryuu just told him he knew of a dealer who sold cheap. He didn't even ask any questions and just followed Uryuu. And then, when he had his back turned, Uryuu grabbed a lead pipe, probably left behind by a careless mechanic, and hit the back of his head.
The guy fell down, dazed and the spot where the pipe struck bleeding profusely. He was screaming, a few curses and death threats in between his pained screams. But Uryuu ignored that, instead focusing on a small puddle of blood on the ground.
Pretty. So pretty. It's shade of crimson, the way it reflected light for nearby light posts, even the slight iron smell. So pretty.
And Uryuu wanted more. And so, as the guy was getting up, Uryuu raised the pipe above his head, and struck his head again. More blood.
Again. More blood, and loud crunch. Some gray and white were also mixed with the crimson.
Again. More blood, another crunch. The screaming stopped.
Again. More blood, another crunch, and a squish. At this point the face was no longer recognizable.
Again. More blood, and another squish. The crunches had either stopped, or weren't loud enough to hear.
Again. More blood, and another squish. By now Uryuu had move from smashing the head, to striking the neck.
Eventually, the blows stopped. Ryuunosuke observed his handiwork. His thoughts?
It was so beautiful. The white of the shattered bone mixed with the blood's deep shade of crimson was practically art in his eyes. The way bone fragments were embedded in the shattered flesh was to him what abstract art was to a connoisseur. The way the blood formed small puddles and how they stained the dead man's clothes was perfect.
But Uryuu wasn't done yet. He had finally found something that truly made him happiness. He had found meaning in his life with the murder. And seeing his work, he had decided what he wanted to be.
He would be an artist. The type of artist that has rarely been seen in human history. But every artist, no matter how talented, needed materials to work. Fortunately for him, he knew a few people who could give him what he needed.
The next day, the school had heard the news that one of their students had been killed. The teacher's were shocked. The parents started to fear for their children. On the other hand, the students were in shock, at first. When they found out who died, the shock wore off and they just wrote it off as the guy pissing of a dealer or had tried to shake down the wrong guy for money.
No one had seen Uryuu lead the guy away. He was careful about that. After a few days of venting his frustrations out at a few stray cats, Uryuu had found what he needed. The first one wasn't the only addict in the school. He found another one and would do the same to him what he had done to the first. He would have done it earlier, but he figured that they were still nervous about meeting any dealers after hearing about the dead guy, so he decided to let that nervousness fade first.
He lead the guy to a different alley. This time, he only used the pipe once. He brought a few more tools to experiment. One had to experiment on different methods to find the one that fit him the best of course.
After knocking the young man down with the pipe, he brought out a knife and quickly sliced open the man's belly. Intestines, like the ones he had seen come out from the poor strays he had happened upon, only bigger came spilling out.
And blood of course. Blood would always be Uryuu's favorite.
Shortly after his guts started spilling out, Uryuu slit his throat. The screaming was nice and all, but he didn't want anyone disturbing his art. As the addict bled out, Uryuu went to work on the hands. First was the right hand. The thumb was the first to go. Uryuu was a bit sad that he had to sacrifice the screaming, but the look on the young man's face was almost good enough compensation. After the thumb, he pocketed the knife and grabbed the addict's left thumb. He started to push it backwards, savoring the small cracks as he went along and the look on his victim's face.
CRUNCH!
The young man made one last attempt at a scream, only succeeding in choking on his own blood, before the life in him finally faded.
After the victim had died, Uryuu grabbed the limp head, positioning a thumb over the eye. He started pushed in slowly, loving the feeling of the eye. And with a squish! the eye popped and out came Uryuu's favorite thing in the world.
Blood. Oh how much he loved it.
He pulled out his thumb and positioned it over the other eye. He pushed it in. Another squish, and more blood.
After pulling his thumb out of the bloody socket, Uryuu pulled out a particular tool he was itching to use.
A saw he had "borrowed" from a relative. He pressed the serrated edge against the dead man's throat, and started to slowly saw his head off. It was easy at first, flesh being soft and easy to cut through. But when he reached the bone, it got tough. Bones were tougher than wood, so it took quite while before Uryuu managed to saw through it.
But in his mind, the reward was worth it. After a couple minutes of sawing, Uryuu held up his prize.
He turned the disembodied head to face him. And he took in it's features. The bloody, eyeless holes were much more beautiful than the brown eyes that had once been there. The lips, stained crimson were much more beautiful like that. And the pale skin reminded the murderer of snow.
It was almost perfect.
It had one flaw.
The result was beautiful yes, and Uryuu would congratulate himself in the future for managing to create something so beautiful with such crude tools, but it was still crude. The man wasn't really handsome. Or even cute. And while Uryuu still enjoyed the process of creation and was okay with the finished product, he knew that he could have made something better.
If only he had fresher materials. Something more delicate.
Newer.
Younger.
Maybe a few experiments with more feminine materials and designs could be nice.
Yes. A wider range of tools and materials would improve his art greatly.
The next day, the cops found the body..
The next week, Uryuu found another addict to target. Female this time. He led her to an empty park. He brought some new toys today. Namely a homemade torch, some gasoline, and a battery powered drill.
The day after, they found another corpse. Examination of the corpse revealed that she had her throat slit, fingers crushed, teeth pulled out, and her eyes gouged out, skull drilled, and scalp burned. The order in which these injuries took place is still unknown
Three days later, the found another corpse. Female. Limbs amputated, and cauterized via direct contact with fire. Cause of death determined to be from blood loss.
Another corpse. Male, teen. Immolated. No other injuries found on the charred corpse except for a crack on the skull.
Few days later, new corpse. Female, preteen. According to evidence found, the killer brought a blow torch. Fingers appeared to have been cut of one by one and cauterized. Eyes stabbed. Heart carved out. Medical experts report the cause of death to be blood loss.
The next day a new corpse was found. Male, preteen. Only the head was found. The head was found scarred, eyeless, and scalped.
In the next few months, dozens of corpses would be found. Mostly women and children. Decapitated, quartered, bifurcated, immolated, hearts carved out, bellies cut open, neck snapped, amputated. Usually the corpses were found in this various states. Sometimes the killer decided to present the corpses in a more, explicit manor. Crucified, buried, hanged, and in one case, found in a stolen coffin with various insects.
In the past few days, the corpses were found in empty apartments where the killer had drawn odd symbols with his victim's blood.
And as the news reported the discovery of more corpses, a young man in an apartment ignored the television, too engrossed in his current work.
In the apartment, there was a pair of couches, a television, a wooden chair, and a lamp. There was also a bucket of blood, a pentagram on the floor drawn in blood, and several corpses on the couches and on the floor. And a man dragging his foot across the pentagram, tracing it with his toe.
"Fill, fill, fill'er up, fill... Repeat four times" Uryuu Ryuunosuke chanted, while dragging his bare foot across the floor of the apartment, tracing the symbol on the floor. "Repeat four times. Or was it five times? Um, destroy each one when filled... or something?" He looked at the book he held in his left hand and started counting with his fingers. "Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill. Alright that makes five times! OK."
He started to drop his foot back on the ground to resume tracing with blood, but he turned to the TV which showed a channel reporting a series of murders.
"Maybe a went a bit too far." Ryuunosuke stated before leaning on a couch, causing a corpse to fall off it and land on the floor.
He turned of the television and then diverted his attention to a kid on the floor, limbs bound and mouth gagged. "Do you thinks demons exist kiddo?" He asked the kid, who, due to being gagged, obviously couldn't answer.
"All the papers and the magazines call me a demon." He continued while walking toward the boy. He stopped next to the wooden chair and leaned against it. "But wouldn't that be kinda rude if demons did exist?" He started walking towards the kid again. "You've gotta be clear about these things."
He suddenly crouched in front of the kid, and declared "Sup! I'm Uryuu Ryuunosuke, and I'm a demon!" The boy started sobbing, but Ryuunosuke ignored and continued with his thinking out loud. "I dunno if that's how I should be introducing myself."
"So like, I found this." He continued, dangling the book he was holding in front of the kids face. "It's some old book I found in the storehouse." He lifted the book back up and began to flip through the pages. "It looks like my ancestors were trying to summon demons. So like, I've gotta find out if demons really do exist!" He stood up saying "But y'know, if a demon really did come out, it'd be pretty dumb to just chat with it and have nothing to offer him."
Ryuunosuke walked around while talking before sitting down on the chair and faced the boy. "So, kiddo... If a demon really does show up... Mind if we let it kill you?" He asked, not really caring about the kid's answer. At that, the boy started panicking even more, straining against his bonds trying to break free.
The serial killer just laughed at the kid's struggle. "I wonder what it's like, being killed by a demon! Not many people get to experience that - Ow!" A pain flare up in his right hand.
He stared at his hand as red marks started to burn themselves onto the back of his hand. It looked like intertwined snakes.
As he continued to stare at his hand, he noticed smoke on the ground. He looked up and saw the source. The circle he had been drawing. He had done it. He had summoned a demon.
"Introduce yourself." A voice came from the circle. The smoke started to clear and Uryuu saw what he had summoned.
An effeminate man with long, blonde hair tied in a long pony-tail stood at the center of the circle. He wore golden armor with a purple robe underneath. His face betrayed no emotions.
"Stop gawking, and introduce yourself." And neither did his voice.
"Uh, "I'm Uryuu Ryuunosuke. I'm currently unemployed and I like killing people very much. Especially kids and young women." The serial killer answered, while continuing to stare at the blond man.
"I am Servant Ruler. The contract is done. What are your plans, master?" He said the last word with distinct sarcasm.
Uryuu didn't know what the man was talking about, but he did remember what he had planned on doing. "Anyways, do you want to eat this kid?" He gestured to the bound boy sprawled on the ground.
Ruler turned his gaze from the young man to bound boy. The expression on his face didn't change.
"At least you were wise enough to offer tribute."
A quick hand movement. A scream of pain. A scream of enjoyment.
"The seventh Servant has been summoned. It is time." Kirei observed the city from a cliff near the outskirts of the city.
Assassin remained quiet as he leaped down the cliff and began his sprint towards his target.
"King Gilgamesh, Assassin is on his way." Tokiomi reported with a bow to the King of Heroes.
"It's about time, Tokiomi. I hope you and Kirei have prepared adequate entertainment for me." The King responded.
"We have done the best that we could hope for. I hope it is satisfactory." Tokiomi replied, still bowing.
"Hope that it is, for your own sake, Tokiomi." And with that, the King of Heroes astralized.
With the Servant gone, the aura of dominance disappeared. And Tokiomi relaxed for the first time in days. Finally, things were going as he planned. About time something did.
Not only had Kirei failed to summon the planned Assassin, who he had summoned unfortunately did not possess an ability that would let them proceed with the initial plan he had made. And then came the summoning of his Servant. While he had summoned who he was after, there were two things he had not foreseen. The first, the King's ego. While Gilgamesh's legend had spoken of the King's ego and arrogance, Gilgamesh's friendship with Enkidu was supposed to have curbed it. Apparently, without the influence of Enkidu, the King's arrogance had grown unchecked.
And now Tokiomi was stuck with a Servant that was not loyal. And worse, Gilgamesh was summoned as an Archer, and with a high ranked Independent Action skill to boot. Tokiomi knew that he would have to tread carefully around the King of Uruk, and use his command seals sparingly.
And the second thing that he had not foreseen was that the King of Heroe-
BOOM!
Tokiomi overheard the first of many explosions. The fight had started apparently. And judging by the number of explosions and the short breaks in between, Assassin was putting up a decent fight.
"SON OF A BITCH!" Assassin's distinct voice yelled, before more explosions followed. The explosions stopped for a few moments, making Tokiomi think that the fight was over.
"MONGREL!" The King's shout and the sounds of more explosions quickly squashed that thought.
He hoped that Gilgamesh wouldn't cause too much damage to his property.
He knew that the King was capable of restraint. Tokiomi wished she would exercise it.
Yeah, I kinda lied about something. Hope you enjoy and sorry for the late update.
