Chapter 2

Yet another dream…

This time, I see the girl engulfed in fire… tied up on a pole with a rope, her body and her hands tied up. I am a part of the crowd that is around the sight.

I see her looking up, as if she is chanting something. Screaming, yelling at the top of her voice… however my vision is impaired, everything is too foggy to make out what her lips are mouthing.

I try to move toward her but cannot even move my body. I am forced to stand there watching her as the fire is making its way onto the girl's cloths.

"Someone save her!" I manage to yell out, however the people around me pay no attention… or it is more like they can't hear me. However, the girl looks toward the direction that I am standing. I can see that she is terrified. So terrified that she is crying. But…

She looks at me with an expression of relief and smiles at me, her tear rolling down her face as she did so. She then closes her eyes as if she is accepting her fate. I try to yell for help again, but then everything becomes white.

I open my eyes, out of breath, I see my usual ceiling that I have grown accustom to seeing. There is nothing out of the ordinary, other than the light being on… I reach for my clock, that Keiko fixed, and once I felt it, I bring it close to my face so I can make out what time it was.

2:35, AM probably.

I set the clock down next to my pillow and try to calm myself. It is ok… It was just a dream… I tell myself in my head, there is nothing to be so afraid of...

"Ah, master. I see that you have awoken."

A strange female voice comes from the entrance of the room. I look toward the direction the door is and I see the same girl from the dream standing there, but this time she isn't wearing any armor, but instead just the blue one piece that I saw she was wearing in the dream I had moments ago.

"Wait what are you- Oww!"

"Please don't rush yourself, master, I was able to stop the bleeding and patch up the wounds in a rush. So if you move around too much, the wound might open again." She says as she walks into the room, closing the door behind her. She walks and sits down right next me, setting down the pan of water beside her. As I am watching her, I remember what had happened earlier.

"I see…. So that wasn't a dream..." I mutter under my breath and I turn to her, "Who… are you…?" I ask as I slowly turn my head toward her, she is placing a towel on the water and squeezing it to drain the excess water.

"I am your servant in this Holy Grail War, sir." She says as she uses the cold wet towel on my face to wipe off the sweat.

"Holy… War…?"

"Yes," she answers as she places the towel back into the pan and squeezes it again. She, this time, folds it in a rectangle and places it on my forehead. The cold towel feels nice; I guess I have a fever.

"It is a war that happens every 60 years against other magicians until all servants are gone, a battle to the death, if you will." She explains, "The last one standing gains the grail and gets a wish granted for the winner, both the servant and the master."

"I… don't understand this…" I say, lifting myself up, ignoring the sharp pain in the stomach. "Why do magicians have to fight to the death for something as lousy as that!"

"C-calm down, master." She says with a worried expression on her face, using her hands to stop me from getting onto my feet.

"How many people are going to die just because someone wants a wish? So stupid!" I say out loud and stand up. But the pain is too intense that I have to hold onto the wound, forcing me to sit back down.

"Ma-master… Please do not push yourself, if you die now, it will be the end of both of us." She says as she helps me down onto the bed.

After a few minutes, I'm able to calm down.

"Master, it seems as if you do not know the rules or anything of this war, so I will explain to you." She says, making sure that I am listening, "yes, there are 7 classes and each one of them have a master, or magician, that commands them."

"Seven… There was that many..?"

"Well a few come to this city just to compete in this war so it is possible that many from different parts of the word." She answers, "The classes are made up of Saber, Berserker, Caster, Lancer, Archer, Assassin, and Rider."

"And you said you are a servant?" I ask and as a reply she nods her head, "if so then what class are you? And what are the true identities of the classes?"

"Well, I am a Saber and as for the identities of each individual class, I am uncertain…" She says and after she apologizes for her lack of knowledge she continues with her explanation, "Finding the identities of the classes is also a part of the war, so we all call each other by our classes in order to keep ourselves from getting known our weaknesses."

"How does your identity link to your weakness?"

"We are people whom the future generations calls 'heroes'… If I remember correctly." Saber answers, trying to recall. "And our way of death and how we lived may hint at our weakness."

"I see… Wait so you are a hero?" I ask in amazement, "Who are you?"

"Well, I would rather not reveal however if you really want to know…"

"Oh, if you don't want to that's fine. I was just curious that's all." I say, rushing an answer as I saw the question was making her uncomfortable.

"No, it is fine, master. However it is, I feel, more better if I do not reveal my identity until later on in the battle." She says answering sincerely. "My knowledge about the war comes to an end here, master. However if you wish further information, I think it would be wise to go to the church."

Upon saying this she hands me what appears to be an old book. I open it at a random page to see a drawing of a man holding a lance with a caption that reads "Lancer" in the text of magic, Latin, on one page and on the other shows a picture of the samurai that attacked us earlier that night. It shows a graph and a few texts also in Latin.

"What… is this?" I ask her as I read all the information about the Lancer. The book itself held all the information about the Lancer. The weapon he possessed, his life, his bio, his statistics on strength, and even his way of death. However it lacked one key thing that I was looking for.

It was lacking the facts on his weakness.

"It's a sacred book that shows the stats and information about the servants and the masters that you have met." She explains, "The information is limited but it does help, after all, we will need all the help we can get."

"Is there any way… to 'get out' of this war…?" I ask, hoping find a way out of this pointless bloodshed.

"My past master asked the church the same thing, and he did 'quit'." However, she adds, "My master suddenly changed."

"Oh, so that means that even if I was to quit, you still have the chance for getting your wish right?" I say with a relief when I found out that my dropping out will not affect her chance of winning.

"Yes, you are right, however…"

"No that's great! Let's go to the church right now!" Upon saying this, I try to force myself up, but…

"Master, you do not know what you are saying. If you were to terminate your contract, I would not be able to protect you." And, she adds, "When a contract gets terminated, I am supposed to… 'disappear.' However, instead my master just changed…"

"That means…?"

"The only way a contract is transferred is if one is to 'take' the magical mark…" She says in a low voice. "That means to physically detach it from the body and attach to another."

"So… that means…" I look at my arm; I had a burned-on like symbol on my right hand. "They will cut it off?"

"I do not know…" She answers in a dark voice, but not showing much emotion on her face, looking down. "I also do not know what happened to him either; he may be alive and well. In the end, as a knight, to run away from a fight is already a dishonorable thing.

"Whatever happened to him, I am sure he deserved it. All is under fate and under the judgment of God."

Her statement made me shiver. She is warning me… but in this kind of manner…

"I… see… Then escaping is not an option…"

"Yes, there is no way… I would rather take my chances in this war than take a chance in something that seems to guarantee a definite death…"

"I guess there is no way I can even consider backing out now…" I say out loud, I look toward Saber and see that she did show a slight expression of relief on her face.

In the end, I have to find out why Miki did what she did and attacked me… and why she killed Touji… We all grew up together… so why?

I look back down onto the book handed to me and turn to the next page, only to find blank pages other than that Lancer page. I look at the last page, and there was a written note on it. It is written in a language I have never seen, almost as if it is made up. But I can make out something that I couldn't believe.

My father's signature.

Why is something like that on here?

"Where… did you find this…?" I ask, trying to make sense out of the situation.

"I got it from what I believe is the library in the underground cellar where you had summoned me," Saber answers, "and it seems that my powers are limited for a reason I cannot understand."

"That is the reason why I lost in the previous fight, master," she adds, closing her eyes, looking as if she is also puzzled at why her previous statement was so.

I think back to how that event happened. I enhanced the sword in attempt to fight and all of a sudden, the engravings on the floor started to glow, and then she appeared. I guess the engravings were a part of the summoning magic and the trigger was my enhancement magic. But there are things that still do not make sense; like why Miki killed Touji and attacked me, or why there are such engravings on the floor of the vault. Could it be that my father had planned for this? Was he planning to take part in this 'war between magicians'? So many questions… so little answers…

All I can make out of this current situation is that I am now a 'player' in this war, and now my life is at risk. There is no way I can drop out because it may kill me. Miki is also a 'player' in this war and she is trying to kill me along with many other magicians that I have not known or even heard of. The situation is not looking so well for me because my knowledge on magic is limited to only enhancement magic… I do know of other magic however I only learned how to perform that specific magic. I also know that Miki can use binding magic so she is well acquainted with magic and she knows how to execute it without even chanting any spells. I am required to at least think up the percentages of enhancements if not saying it out loud. She is also a master of a lancer class servant… who claimed to be Honda Tadakatsu, a noble samurai that was considered one of the best samurai in Eastern Japan. It was also noted that he was never majorly wounded in battle… He was also one of the Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings… He is referred to as…

The Warrior Whom Surpassed Death Itself.

If I remember correctly… He weilded one of the 3 legendary lances of Japan, the Tonbogiri. He also made another lance appear… a long sword-like lance… it resembled the other.

Those are the only things I remember from the lessons in class from my school… Touji was extremely obsessed with feudal Japan so if he was here I could probably be able to understand how I may be able to go up against something like him…but he is not here… or more accurately, I will never be able to meet him again. First, if I am even going to consider fighting in this so called 'war' I'll need to come up with some sort of plan to go against them. I look to Saber; she is still sitting there with her eyes closed.

"Hey, Saber," I say to her but I get no response. I take my arm out from under the blanket and softly tap her lap and she quietly falls onto the ground. She is asleep. I sigh and look around the room to see a spare fur blanket that I had left out while I was doing my laundry the other day, neatly folded and conveniently placed near my bed. I slowly get up carefully, not to place any strains on my wound, and grab the blanket, spreading it out. My wound slightly hurt at this action but I ignore it and spread the blanket over her.

Once doing this, I slowly make my way to the string dangling from the ceiling in the middle of my room that is connected to my light and pull it, turning off the light. I then get into my bed, trying to keep the needless motion to a minimum. I then shut my eyes and welcome the fast approaching slumber that was creeping up on me as I pondered about my current situation, deciding that it would be best to think about it more in the morning.

"Did you feel that, master?" A girl, whom appears to be 6 to 7 years old, asks beside me in her monotone way.

The girl is in a full black leather shirt, with a red orb-like gem on her right shoulder with metallic vein-like stems sprouting out of it, imbedded on the shirt, and a long black cloth skirt all ripped up from the left side down in a sharp diagonal shape which is kept up by her belt. On the belt, there is a small metallic black box attached to it. The girl's hair is as long as her waist and she has a ponytail on the right side of her head. She has her hair down in a manner that covers her left eye however has her blue right eye revealed for vision. Her face is as white as snow and had a face as perfect as a doll.

"Y-yes, but I want avoid any unnecessary fighting so lets not make any movements until we can gather enough information on the other masters." I say to her in response, making an excuse to not fight, and look toward the city below. The city lights below glow and look beautiful. I wish I had brought my camera to take a picture.

"Master, we can't wait too long to make our move either." She says as she is looking down, "You must understand, master, as an assassin class, we need to act swiftly and accordingly."

"I-I understand that, Sarah." I reply nervously, looking at her. Her emotion never changes; I have yet to see her smile even though it has been 2 months I have been with her. I walk toward her and pet her head softly. This is the only way I can get any expression out of her, she only shows a little comfort when I do this. I cannot believe a girl this age is an assassin class servant. I have seen her fighting capabilities… I am glad she is my servant but I feel sorry for her that she has such a weak master like me.

"Hey, you! What are you doing here!"

A voice from behind, I look and see a bright light. I can make out a figure of a man… a guard (?).

Oh, no! We've been found!

"Sarah! L-lets get out of here!" I quickly turn to the direction Sarah is supposed to be standing to only find that she was gone. "Wha-?"

I look around in search of her but…

"Guhaaaah!"

I look toward the direction the sound came from to see Sarah standing where the guard (?) once stood, finding that there is no one there.

"S-Sarah, w-where did you-" Before I can finish, something rolls toward me and hits my foot. It is too dark to see what it is so I take out my phone and use the light to see what it is.

It was a human head.

"Waaaaaaaaa!" I yell out to have my mouth blocked by Sarah, who just quickly came to me, with her hand and her black leather glove.

"Master, please be quiet… We do not want any other 'unwanted guests'," Sarah says, then as soon as she says this, she lets go of my mouth.

"Ahh… Waa…?" I manage out as I fall onto the ground. My legs feel too weak to even stand.

"You cannot stand, master? Here, let me help you." She says then pulls out a string from her black box and controls it to come to me. The strings lift me up, above her. I can't even bring myself to say anything. I am too afraid to say anything for that matter… but…

"H-hey… Sarah…?" I manage out when Sarah started to walk, which in turn made me, lifted by the string, drift after her.

"Yes, my master?" She answers without looking back or slowing her pace.

"Please… don't go around doing needless killings…" I say as I am dangling from her strings. She stops her legs.

"Is… that an order…?" She asks in her non-changing, monotone way.

"No… I'm just asking you…" I say, "… Please…?"

She is silent, but after a few moments of silence, she spoke.

"Your word is law, my master."

Upon saying this, she continues to walk toward the exit. All I can do now is hope for the best… I look back toward the head that still remains on the ground behind us. The intense expression of pain is on the face, the blood dripping out of the mouth, eyes, and the neck. The pool of blood is forming where the head lay. I clasp my hands tightly against my mouth in order to keep the contents of my stomach from coming out.

I cannot understand how a little girl like her can do something like this without any feeling of remorse. I just can't understand.

Sarah continues to walk toward the exit and when she reaches it, she lowers the string to let me down and opens the door. By this time I have overcome the want to vomit and look back again.

The man was probably still in his 20s… he was close to my age… 18… I am sorry, sir. Please forgive her… and forgive me for not being strong enough to save you.

"Let us hurry, master." Sarah says from the door. I take a final look at the scene again before following her out.

"I'm sorry…" I mutter under my breath.

I'm sorry…