Fate On(e) Savior
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Chapter 1: The First Servants
Kotomine Kirei didn't know why the Holy Grail had chosen him as a Master. He didn't have a wish and so he just couldn't understand why he would receive the three Command Seals, resembling some sort of leaf on his hand, the proof that he indeed was a Master. But as it appeared it really was like he didn't need to have a wish to be selected for the position of Master.
When three years earlier the Command Seals had appeared, his father, Kotomine Risei, had called him to a conversation with himself and Tohsaka Tokiomi, another Master in the fourth Fuyuki Grail War. As he had been a member of one of the three families which created the ritual in the first place it was nearly certain he would be chosen as the Master, even what at that point in time had yet to appear on his hand. The other two founding families with nearly guaranteed participation rights being the Einzbern and the Makiri, who were called Matou nowadays.
But besides the Tohsaka, they had all long forgotten the real reason for the ritual in the first place: To reach Akasha, the Root, the place were souls originate from and go back after their death. Tokiomi was the only one remembering their goal and thus was determined to not let anyone else have the Grail. The Church, Risei and Kirei belonged to, just not wanted an artifact with powerful wish-granting abilities to fall into the wrong hands and thus Tokiomi and Kirei formed a contract. He, Kirei, would summon a Heroic Spirit and help Tokiomi reach his goal.
For that he was to summon Assassin, since Tokiomi had a catalyst with ties to Gilgamesh, the King of Uruk, the first hero and the strongest Servant. Tokiomi was certain that the only other Servant that would be dangerous to them would be Assassin, since he didn't specialized in fighting the Servant, but rather attacking and killing the Master when their guard was down. So summoning Assassin would take out their greatest threat and add a skilled information gatherer to their side. Together with Gilgamesh they were nearly certain to win this Holy Grail War.
But it would only work if the others thought, they were enemies. That was why he was ordered to summon his Servant before Tokiomi, since it would be suspicious, if they both received their Servant at the same time. For that purpose Kirei was standing here, a symbol made out of blood, the summoning circle, to his feet on the floor. With that he had already cleared one of the absolute conditions for summoning a Servant in the Holy Grail War. Now, onto the second.
He inhaled and then began to chant the aria for the summoning of the Servant, the aria that Tokiomi had taught him himself:
„A Base of Silver and Steel.
A foundation of stone and the Archduke of Contracts.
And my ancestor, my great Master, Schweineorg.
A wall to block the falling wind.
The gates of all four directions close.
From the Crown, come fourth and follow the forked road to the Kingdom.
Fill, Fill, Fill, Fill, Fill.
Fill Five times.
But destroy each when filled
I hereby propose!
Thou shalt come under my command, and thy sword shalt control my fate.
Abiding by the summons of the Holy Grail, if thou accedest to this will and reason, answer me.
I hereby swear.
I am all that is good in the eternal world.
I am the disposer of evil in the eternal world.
Thou, clad with the Great Trinity, come fourth from the circle of constraint.
Guardian of the Heavenly Scales!"
The summoning circle glowed in a bluish-white light that suddenly expended and engulfed the whole room. When the light died down, inside the summoning circle stood a person. The first thing to notice about him was, you could hardly see anything about his physical features except that he was rather young for an "Old Man of the Mountain".
He wore a dark green jacket with a hood and underneath that a black sweater with such a big collar that it effectively covered half of his face. Together with the hood, black glasses and a headband with a metal plate where the kanji for "shinobi", was inscribed, it hid nearly everything of his face, only the light tone of his skin. Additionally he wore black pants and shoes with open fronts so you could see his toes as he wore no socks. Instead he had white bandages tied around the part of his legs between pants and shoes.
At the same time Kirei studied the newcomer, the newcomer studied him. Then he spoke with a deep tone of voice complete devoid of any emotion:
"I have answered to the summon of the Holy Grail. And you are my Master. Why? Because there is no one else in this room and I can feel the connection towards your Command Spells. And I don't need to tell you that I am Assassin. Why? Because you wanted to summon an Assassin. How I know that? Because it is rather early for a summoning and Assassin is one of the only two classes, where the Master can set the class from the beginning. So the possibility of you receiving the Assassin-Class who specializes in stealth rather than any frontline fighting otherwise is rather small, especially since you did not use any other catalyst than the name of the Assassin Class."
At once Kirei understood he had summoned a rather perceptive individual, if one that liked to talk quite a lot for a silent killer. But that was most likely just a result of stealth not being needed right now and anyone who would have been able to hear his calm and subdued voice at this distance would also have been close enough to be seen.
"Indeed", he agreed. "I am Kotomine Kirei, your Master."
"With that the contract is finished. I am awaiting your orders, Master."
"For know I would like to confirm, are you indeed Hassan-I-Sabah, the Old Man of the Mountain?"
"No, I am not", refuted the silent Killer. "Although I am an assassin, I don't belong to that group of the middle east. I am a shinobi."
A shinobi, just as his headband told, in other words: a ninja. A group of Japanese shadow warriors. Like the al-Assassin they fought in the shadows doing dirty work, although the al-Assassin did this out of religious beliefs while the ninja did it under the orders of their lord. But as the shinobi were of Japanese origin and the Holy Grail War was occurring in Japan, Assassin would get a slight boost from the legends around this place, since a Heroic Spirit was always stronger, the stronger the legends of them.
But usually the summoned Heroic Spirit of the Assassin-class would be Hassan-I-Sabbah, since he was the origin for the word Assassin. Why did the Holy Grail twist the rules just to make his Servant stronger? Did it want him to win that badly? But why? He didn't even have a wish! So why it was him that got such support from the Grail?! Well, at last Tokiomi would be delighted to hear about this event.
Tokiomi was indeed happy about the turnout of events. Not just had Kotomine successfully summoned a Heroic Spirit, but also someone with a home advantage as well. The Command Seals in shape of a ring with three lines at each side, connected by an arc to every ring each, had already been expected. He was, after all, the most competent magus of the Tohsaka family, not to say the only one of the bloodline of age. So, all was well.
That was until he summoned his own Heroic Spirit a week later. Even though he had used the shed skin of the first snake, the summoned Servant wasn't the great king Gilgamesh, except if the King of Heroes was a teenage boy with white hair and red eyes. He looked more like an Einzbern-homunculus than a king. He wore a white jersey with black stripes and gray trousers and around his head there was some kind of choker that was connected to his ears by earphones. But what was the most unsettling was the crutch he held in his right hand. That was a Heroic Spirit summoned at the peak of his power?! The Heroic Spirit in question just looked at him bored and then only said one word:
"Tch."
Matou Zouken was surprised as well. He actually prepared for his son a piece of the round table so that he would summon a knight. Maybe Mordred or Lancelot, since he had his son add to lines to the summoning ritual so he would summon a Berserker to make up for his low prana.
At last that was what he told him. In truth he just liked to see his son suffer. Matou Kariya who angered him by turned away from the path of a magus and only came back after he heard that one of the girls he was found of would receive training in his stead. Tohsaka Sakura was given to him from her father Tokiomi so that both of his children could be trained in the art of thaumaturgy and won't had to fight over the family crest when they got older. As Kariya turned away from the path of a magus, he couldn't understand that reason and had decided to take Sakura's place.
Actually he had expected Kariya to die from the pain as he offered his body to the crest worms. But he didn't. Instead he just lost his left eye and most movement in his left leg, turning it more into something like a log than a functional limb. But he pulled through and the appearing Command Seals in the shape of a manji symbol with only three arms instead of four on his hand were proof that he was selected as a Master in the Holy Grail War. Zouken didn't actually thought, he would be able to win the Holy Grail War and give him the Grail so that he would be able to wish for immortality. But on the other hand there was at last a little chance and if he really managed it, he had no use for Sakura anymore.
For now he would take delight in the painful struggle of his son. Or he would have, if he wasn't that surprised of the appearance of the Servant. It wasn't a knight, it didn't even look human. Actually it looked like the Minotaur. It had a human body who wasn't just light-skinned but completely white. His head looked like a human skull with horns of a bull, yellow eyes and long orange hair. He wore a ragged black shroud, which covered the necessary parts only barely, his chest completely exposed. It also showed something that made it clear, he wasn't human. A giant hole. Yes. In the centre of the chest was a giant hole. A regular human couldn't just live with a giant hole in his chest and Servants weren't summoned as if they were on their death-bed. Now one could say that Kariya might had been too weak to summon a Heroic Spirit at his full power, but the way the Servant stood made it clear, this hole wasn't something that hindered him.
"Well, well, it seemed like you were indeed able to summon a Heroic Spirit", Zouken said. "Although it looks like it isn't a knight of the round table! I don't know if I should be proud or disappointed."
"█▄▀█▄▀▀█", the Servant roared and within the blink of an eye he summoned a black katana, crossed the short distance between them and slashed at the old man, cutting him in half.
"Now, now", Zouken said, still halved. "Can't you even keep your Servant in line?"
"Enough, Berserker!", Kariya ordered and the Servant stopped. "Return to spirit form." As soon as he said that, the Servant faded into nothing.
"Well, at last it looks like you summoned a strong Heroic Spirit. Now go and bring me the Grail! After all, that was what we agreed on, wasn't it?!"
Emiya Kiritsugu and Irisviel von Einzbern got a surprise as well. Instead of the King of Knights, Arthur Pendragon there stood a small boy with a black jacket, trousers and white sneakers. He had brown eyes hidden behind round glasses and short brown hair, with the particularity that his hair was dark brown at the bottom half. There was no doubt, he wasn't Arthur, since he had the appearance of a normal child from the modern age. The question now was, why was this one summoned instead of him and why was he so young.
"Good Evening", the Servant greeted while politely bowing down so that his waist was in a right-angle towards the rest of his body, "I am the Servant Saber. I've come forth to the summoning of the Holy Grail. Am I right with the assumption that you are my Master?"
"I am", Kiritsugu answered, clearly feeling the connection to the boy over his Command Seal in the shape of a sword accompanied by flowers, "but just to be clear, you aren't Arthur Pendragon?"
The boy was taken aback at that.
"No, no, I am not someone fancy like that", he denied while waving his arms amplifying around. "I am just a normal student. Well, for the most part."
For the most part?
"How come someone as young as you is a Heroic Spirit?", Irisviel wanted to know. He scratched the back of his head.
"Well, there were some guys rampaging inside my clan's territory and I couldn't just let them do whatever they wanted." Territory? Was he some kind of Yakuza?
"Then what's your name?", Kiritsugu asked. The boy shook his head.
"I don't think you have ever heard of it, so it wouldn't be useful in any way. So I rather would want to keep it a secret until the time is right."
"Very well", Kiritsugu gave in. It was not like he could force him to reveal his name, without the use of a Command Seal and those were way too valuable to waste for something like that. "But please tell me, what is your wish from the Grail?" That was always the most important question after summoning a Servant. After all, what would happen if your Servant had a wish that contradicted with yours? Finding out about that after already obtaining the Grail was too late.
Saber sheepishly scratched the back of his head.
"There is this one person that I killed… I want to bring her back."
"Your girlfriend?", Irisviel asked eagerly, making Saber blush.
"What? No, no, she was an enemy!"
"A forbidden love!", she happily shouted, making Saber blush deepen.
"Oh, your blushing, how cute!", she squealed and embraced him with a hug, swinging him around. "I just want to take you home with me!"
"We are already at your home", Kiritsugu felt obliged to point out, while Saber tried to get out of the suffocating embrace.
"Besides", he said, after finally managing the impossible, "she is even older than my grandfather. And what was your wish, by the way?" Quickly he tried to change the topic to something else.
"World peace", Kiritsugu answered clear without inhibition in the same voice as before.
"World peace?", Saber repeated. "I like that! Count me in." Perhaps it wasn't so bad that he didn't get the King of Knights, after all. But Old Man Acht would surely disappointed that the catalyst had been a fake.
Waver Velvet was the next one to get the surprise. Although his wasn't as big the others as this catalyst wasn't something he got for himself. He just stole it from Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald. This guy ridiculed him in front of the entire class, proclaiming, that his theory that a magus could become strong through hard work instead of just the heritage, were juvenile fantasies.
So when he heard about the Holy Grail War, he was thrilled. A battle where only your own talent counted and not your ancestors. And as an added bonus he had been at the right time in the right place and managed to get a catalyst who was supposed to go to Kayneth. A piece of the mantle belonging to the great "King of Conquerors", commonly known as Alexander the Great. That meant that he would be able to summon a strong Servant and still get revenge on El-Melloi.
At last that was the plan. But he couldn't imaging the person in front of him being that legendary king. Could it be that the catalyst had been a fraud? First, nowhere there was even a shred of red visible in the clothes, yet the mantle. And second, this person in front of him was a girl.
She was smaller than him and had long golden hair like a princess and even a crown and a dress. Although there stopped the similarities. The dress was black, the crown was made out of spikes and she wore black gauntlets with claws. Furthermore she had black boots made out of metal going over her knees and stopped direct under her short white skirt showing under her black dress. At the bottom of the boots were big black appendages with gold wheels and spikes. That would make the girl a Rider-class Servant, but he had never heard of a Heroic Spirit like that.
But the real surprise came, when the girl finished to exanimate him with her yellow eyes with a circular pattern and promptly raced towards him. Before he could retaliate at what seemed a sudden attack, she swung her arms around his body, hugging him. Thanks to her speed Waver couldn't stop himself from falling and with a heavy sound he slammed onto the ground.
"Wa-?" For a moment his though process stopped completely. In his 19 years of life Waver Velvet never once did have a girlfriend. He had been to busy with studying and a lot of magi in his class didn't thought about romantic relationships before a certain age and a lot of magi would later engage in political marriages. So he also had never had been so close with a girl before. Furthermore she was definitely younger than him, maybe fourteen at most and he half expected someone to walk in on them and accuse him of child molesting.
"Ehm, hi!", he tried to start a conversation. The moment he spoke her eyes flickered towards him, looking at him with curiosity. "I am Waver Velvet. Are you my Servant?"
The girl happily nodded.
"And your class in Rider?"
She nodded again.
"Well then…"
He didn't knew what else to say.
"Aren't you going to go into spirit form?"
Now the girl shook her head, looking a little bit hurt at his suggestion.
"But if you don't go into spirit form the people are going to question your appearance and every enemy Master would know that you are a Servant and I am your Master."
Now she let go of him for the first time and stood straight. Waver was baffled, how someone with wheels for his feet could do something like that, when suddenly her black gear including her crown started to glow. Then her crown transformed into a ribbon tying her hair, her dress and the gauntlets turned yellow and transformed into a blouse, her skirt got blue and her wheels transformed into a wheelchair. Now she was beaming at him, looking really proud of herself.
"Well, that will work", he admitted and then began to push her towards his current place of residence. After all, there is probably nobody who would think a girl in a wheelchair is a Servant.
Some miles away in the Tohsaka mansion, a certain white-haired Servant started to sneeze.
"So, what am I going to tell the MacKenzie's?", Waver mused and then, since this was also concerned his Servant, began to explain the situation: "The MacKenzie's are the old couple I live with. I kind of used hypnosis to make them believe I am their grandson since I had to stay for the duration of the Holy Grail War somewhere. Of course I could hypnotize them again, but before I can do that I first have to have some base to go on. So what to say?"
He brooded for a moment. Opposite to his case, he couldn't just pose her as a family member even if he used hypnosis. That was because they actually had a grandson and he just made them believe that he was him. This wasn't the case with Rider. Of course, he technically could fabricate the necessary memories but keeping that up for the whole duration of the Grail War was just not feasible.
So that was out of question. Furthermore, he just told them the chickens, which now were dead since he used their blood for the summoning circle, were from a friend who was on trip and came back today. So he couldn't say that he was keeping watch over his little sister while he was on a trip. Although her appearance combined with the chickens are too perfectly timed to shrug off as a coincidence it didn't was.
"I am going to tell them that when I brought the chickens back to my friend he told me that his friend had to go away for an undermined amount of time and couldn't take his little sister – in other words you – with him and begged my friend to take care of you. But he himself couldn't care for you and thus asked me to do it. Is that alright?!"
She pondered for a moment and then happily nodded.
"Good. Then all we need now is a name for you. At best a Japanese one, looking at your features. Hmm, how about…"
'…Kagari Izuriha.' Waver stopped abruptly when he heard an echoing voice inside his head.
Did she just said something?! Inside his mind?! But if she was able to do that, why didn't she say anything up until now? When he asked her on this matter her answer was simply:
'No reason.'
Waver rubbed his temples. So she wouldn't say anything until it was absolutely necessary?
"So, Kagari was it? Is that your real name?"
For a moment she was silent. He wondered, if he said something wrong, since she didn't respond, when he noticed her lost in thought. Then suddenly she shook her head. Waver sweat-dropped. Did she just had to ponder about her own name?! What kind of idiot forgets his own name?!
And again the white-haired Servant had to sneeze. What was that today with him? Could it be that the years without the need for an immunity system had finally caught up to him. He hoped not, since the Holy Grail War was way too important for him to lose because of a cold.
But the one who had the most problems adjusting to the new circumstances was a certain Euryphis lecturer in the department of Spiritual Evocation. His name was Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald and he had one of the worst weeks in his life. Which all began when someone had stolen the catalyst which he had been spending a lot of time and connections to get for the current Holy Grail War.
As he was a prodigy from a long line of magi with two elements, there were no worries about the other Master. The only one capable of matching him was Tohsaka Tokiomi. The Matou-line was dying out, the Einzbern specialized in alchemy and not combat and the rest of the random Master weren't going to be a threat. So, the only uncertainties were the Servants. And for that he had used his connections to achieve said catalyst, since with a strong Heroic Spirit there was no doubt, he would prevail.
But then the theft happened. Oh, he had no delusions about just who stole his holy relic. His name was Waver Velvet. He stood out in that just before he committed the theft, he had giving Kayneth a script of an absurd theory. He of course had to tell him, just how wrong his childish fantasies were and bring him back to reality, before he would lose himself completely. It was his duty as a teacher after all.
But Waver didn't take his advice to heart but stole the carefully prepared relict instead and hit it in his outrage. Just to spite him. Of course he didn't appear at the clock tower anymore or Kayneth could have helped him overcome his silly behavior. But in the end Kayneth had to get another catalyst using more money and connections. Yet as the head of the Archibald family these weren't so hard to come by. Instead of Iskander the Great, he would summon Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, the first warrior of the knights of Fianna.
Although somehow the authenticity of the catalyst had to be flawed. Since in front of him the summoned person standing in the same room with him and his wife Sola-Ui was clearly not of Celtic origins, but Asian. Furthermore he wore a white overcoat with blue cuffs and underneath a black pullover. Together with blue trousers and white boots with metal kneepads. Around the neck he wore a red pendant. Oh, and his hair was silver. There was one thing, Kayneth was certain: This guy was not Diarmuid.
"Who are you? And what did you do to Diarmuid Ua Duibhne?!" The summoned Servant frowned at that.
"Dia-what? Sorry, I don't know anybody with that name. Wait, now I do, but I am not him. I am Servant Lancer. And you are my Master, correct?" So, Lancer. Not only did he not receive the Servant he wanted, but he also didn't get the Saber-class. He tried to calm himself by saying that at last he got one of the three knight-classes.
"Well then, if you aren't Diarmuid, then who are you?", his wife asked.
"Sorry, that's something I want to keep to myself." Kayneth was surprised. So he did not want to reveal his name? Well, he didn't have a choice.
"As your Master I order you to reveal your name!", Kayneth commanded, but all it did was making Lancer snort.
"Nice try", he said and pointed at a ring of three tomoe and two lances to each site on the magus hand that should have shown Kayneth authority over him, "but without the use of one of those that won't work." Kayneth was taken aback. What did he say?
"I am your Master! Do you dare to defy me?!" He nearly shouted faced with such rebellion. Lancer just sighed.
"Alright, Master, here's the deal: Knowing my name wouldn't help you in any way. You probably wouldn't even recognize it. And if for some reason you actually would, it'll just lead to you getting expectations from me which most likely would be completely at odds with my real self. So, if you really want to waste a Command Seal for that, go ahead!" For the first time in his life Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald didn't knew what to say. But in his stead Sola-Ui took the initiative.
"If it really don't matter for the fight, let's just let him keep his secret, Kayneth."
"Well, you are right", Kayneth admitted. "If it really isn't going to affect your performance I think I can allow it."
"Great! Then I have a question! Why can I feel the Command Seals from you, but the mana supply comes from her?!"
"Ah, there you experience one of my master pieces", Kayneth exclaimed proud. "I have altered the usual Master-Servant contract, so that I would be your Master, but my wife would be the one supplying you with mana. The way I can fight, too, without worrying about your mana."
Lancer nodded approving.
"Nice idea. Although I doubt you are going to be of much use against Servants."
"Of course not. I shall engage the Master."
"Good. Then do you have any place, where I can set up my workshop?" For the second time in his life Kayneth was taken aback.
"Workshop?!"
"Huh? You haven't already looked up my skill set?! I have Territory Creation A+!"
Hey guys and gals.
Now we have Assassin, Archer, Berserker, Saber, Rider and Lancer, basically everyone except Caster with the same Master as in canon. Now though, I don't think there is anybody who won't figure out Assassin's and Berserker's identity and Rider's is clear, too, if you look for her, but I couldn't find a way for her to get any other name for her civil form. Saber is someone who has a good reason for disclosing his identity, as have Lancer and Assassin, well, the letter is doing it out of professionalism.
Lancer himself is special in the way that he clearly would into for a lot of different classes, like Saber and Berserker, but just like Heracles isn't able to use "Hundred Shooting Heads", while he is a Berserker, Lancer won't be able to use his Noble Phantasm suited to the Saber-Class, while he is a Lancer.
Berserker this time is actually a Berserker. A hero summoned at the moment of his greatest mental disruption. That was one of the things, I often wondered about. Although I am not too averse against a lucid Berserker, as Type Moon has already shown us Kintoki, and, if my information are correct, Frankenstein's Monster, nobody ever seems to support the idea of a berserk Berserker.
Archer fits to his class as good as Gilgamesh, Assassin speaks for himself and Saber executes a lot of his techniques with his sword that is one of his Noble Phantasm.
So, all in all, I think I am consent with the classes the Servants were summoned in and I hope, that when this story is finished, at last one Servant wasn't found out right away.
Gashadokuro Amanojaku