Fate/Broken Thrones
Chapter 2: "Ashes To Ashes"
A small argument had broken out. Akasha and Lancer were arguing over ethics.
Akasha had no home. No money. No food. So he asked Lancer to steal for him. This had caused the argument. "Master! You must understand! I'm a knight. I will not bring myself down to a petty thief and commoner. We could... work for money and use that."
Akasha raised and eyebrow. It was a nice change of pace that Lancer was talking with some spirit to his voice. But what perplexed him more was the servants suggestion.
"Lancer, they are a multitude of problems with that. First, we have no qualifications, I doubt anyone would hire us. Furthermore... we cannot afford to expose ourselves into the open. Another Master or Servant could easily catch us off guard and it's possible we would be working at separate locations."
Lancer opened his mouth to respond but swallowed his words. Closed his eyes. Then opened them again. "What about if we ask your family..."
It wasn't really a question. It was more of a feeble quick response. He could not deny what his Master said was fairly sensible, even if some of his actions weren't.
However Akasha seemed to actually be thinking about it.
"Lancer, I cannot, however perhaps we could... borrow its reputation. It's not really stealing, just taking what is mine. You can't deny me that, will you?"
Lancer sighed. "At least it isn't petty thievery." He said reluctantly.
Akasha stood up and looked at the whole of the city from the skyscrapers top.
"I guess, since we lack a home, this will be our base of operations. If we used my family for a home they could locate me quickly since I doubt they would worry if they were missing food."
Lancer grabbed Akasha and moved at a blindingly fast speed. They were now far below from where they were, in front of a convenience store.
Akasha approached, the doors automatically parted and the pair walked into the place.
Akasha quickly ran forward like a kid in a candy store. He started ogling the various foods being contained around him. Then he saw a rather cute petite girl with red eyes and white hair, stuck in a wheelchair, wearing winter clothing of a blue colour.
He seemed to disappear from his spot and he stroked her hair.
The girl looked up at him, startled. "W-what are you doing?"
Akasha just narrowed his eyes a little and then began touching her face randomly, poking it, stroking it and tapping it. The customers around him just gaped in awe of the rather... politically incorrect scene.
"So, this is a Girl. Huh." He began to prod her fore head with his forefinger. "However, you are... a Homunculus right? An Einzbern huh? Hm, so does that make you a normal girl?"
The girl's jaw dropped, she seemed severely offended but rather shocked at the blunt comment.
"Your too frail to fight in the war. So your no real threat to me."
Akasha then grabbed a bunch of random packages and placed them at the counter.
"Bill it to the Tohsaka Household." The clerk was rather shocked.
"Uh.. sir. We can't really do that...and well you have no proof..."
Then he saw a metal armoured hand with sharp finger like claws by his neck, a small trickle of warm blood dropped to the ground. "Are you doubting the lineage of my Master?"
Lancer made an intimidating smirk. At least that was what it looked like. In the depths of his heart he felt wrong doing this. He was rather infuriating his Master had already made a scene and he was being forced to act like a simple enforcer.
"N-no sir! Take the food for free, the Tohsaka's own the land anyway hahaha..." His voice nervously trailed away into the silent atmosphere of the store.
Lancer felt sick. "Just like the abusive, so called nobles of England. Thank God the King came to power." He then turned and looked far past the Einzbern girl, into the distance, to others it looked like he was staring at a bunch of apples.
"Y-you want that too? Sir, just take them! Okay?"
Lancer turned to Akasha who was still annoying the immobile girl.
He turned and tapped Akasha on the shoulder. They both left out the same way they came in.
"Master, back there..." Lancer began but Akasha lifted his right hand, while his left was carrying the grocery bags. "Lancer, take these to the skyscraper. She won't attack me in daylight with so many civilians. Then come to my location. I'll be at the destroyed forest like area."
Lancer nodded and as usual disappeared as a silver flash.
Akasha took small steps forward. Fuyuki never rebuilt that burnt area... it was now just a location with some dead trees and withered pale grass, it was very wide and not many people approached it.
It was the perfect place for a fight.
It looked just like winter. This dead forest. Having charred looking trees covered in white with dead branches. The ground was withered, the very little grass there rustled and ripped upon step. He had reached one end of the huge field. He then gracefully turned around using the balls of his feet.
He was facing the girl in the wheelchair. "...I don't want to fight you." Akasha said in a very cold plain disinterested tone.
"Well I'm a Master, I must kill you for the glory of my family-"
Akasha raised his hands and she stopped mid sentence. "I know your not the Master. It's common sense. Do not fool me. I feel it. A servant and master behind you, hiding. Come. I'll end this quickly, it's the least I could do, furthermore you are foolish enough to still be in a wheelchair. Someone brought you here."
Akasha narrowed his eyes and focused on the air of space behind the girl. It was as if she was completely erased from his sight of vision.
The sounds of metal rattling approached. A young woman approached. Her hair was a deep brown that reached to the back of her neck that hanged out and curled a little upwards, her eyes being dark and chocolate like. Her ethnicity could be described as a mixture of Jewish and French. She wore a large saintly robe with deep blue mixed in it with golden trimmings.
She was carrying something in between her grasping hands but Akasha could not perceive it.
She twisted and turned her small elegant hands instantly. The air was filled with the sound of a splash and metal that seemed to roar like the tide.
Then a streak of white. Lancer had intercepted whatever it was that aimed at his Master.
The metal sounds pulled back and began to swing and vibrate through the air again.
Lancer placed his hands over his swords and gripped them tightly, he then jumped forth into the air... surging like an ash snow flame! He seemed in a perfectly poised position to bring is swords upon the enemy servant!
However the watery metal sounds lifted upwards as if forming some sort of net to protect her from above. Akasha thought this was the perfect time... "Go Lancer!" He screamed.
The enemy servant and the Einzbern girl looked severely shocked at that moment.
Lancer smirked. He quickly pushed his body slightly backwards elegantly like a pile of cinders, he pushed the scabbards of his swords to the side as if preparing for a double horizontal slash...
The watery metal however formed a barrier in front of the opposing servant extremely quickly, she was sure the next attack would not hit.
She would have been correct. She would have perfectly guarded and been able to inflict serious damage at that point. But the slash of swords never came.
Instead something that seemed fairly ridiculous happened, at least in the minds of Akasha, the wheel-chaired girl and the enemy servant. It was awkward to all but Lancer.
He bent further down, smiled and released the grips on his sword, he curved his body and spun it quickly and performed a devastating sweep kick!
All was silent but the impact and the rattling of moving metal for the instance that the servant was falling to the ground after losing her balance.
Lancer placed his hands on the wretched earth, transferred power into his other leg and kicked forth like a blazing rocket, the effect, the servant was launched into the air and smashed into a multitude dead trees, shattering them to tiny shards of broken wood.
"What the hell was that! Why is Lancer using kicks instead of his swords? A Lancer with swords that does not use them? Who the is he?"
Quickly ran through the mind of Akasha. The wheel-chaired girl screamed in horror.
"Rider! Get up and fight!" Not a command out of cruelty but a desperate plea for both their situations. Lancer had stood upright, grasped his swords again and took a defensive position, as if he would allow no one to get past the range of his blades. He had not pursued the injured Rider.
Rider slowly got back up and brushed the shards of wood off her body. She didn't seem to have any serious damage.
Lancer spoke. "I'm sorry. As a knight I would dearly desire to give my name, but to all involved I could definitely not for the mere devastation of my identity, not important but a harbinger of destruction nonetheless. You are a woman, I would prefer you to not fight me, but it seems that fate has chosen for us to do so. I did not pursue so you could know my intentions. Now let us have a honourable match. Please... take care. A lucky misfortune follows me wherever I go."
He bounded forward again with the strength of his heels, the silver ash flaming flash was about to descend on Rider again releasing his grips on the hilts.
He had lifted his left arm as if to make a straight punch, but then suddenly his right arm swept forth in a slugging motion. But Rider would not be fooled again.
The watery metal sounds encompassed Lancer's arm and a blazing vapour seemed to be erupting from his armour!
"Kh!" Lancer brought his body backwards and pulled with his right arm, he then began to grasp the mysterious thing holding him and winced in pain as he did and the vapour increased.
"This is chain... it feels like acid is washing over me!...But if it's a combat of pure strength then..."
Lancer began to pull with both hands despite the damage being caused by the indiscernible chain.
Rider also pulled. The chains seemed to be moving back and forth with sudden powerful agile pulls.
Lancer however was being damaged by the chain while Rider was feeling no strain but their physical struggle.
But Rider was slowly moving forward. Without a doubt Lancer was physically more powerful then her. But she had a magnificent aura surrounding her... as if a divine force was aiding her every move. Lancer could feel it... this was going to be a very simple but complex power struggle...
It now really depended on a game changing move or mere endurance.
He merely had to do a simple one. He kicked the chain in between their hands, launching it up.
The sudden disturbance loosened Rider's grasp, freeing Lancer from the chains.
He closed in and lifted his left leg, aiming to kick from her side!
She grunted and flipped upwards into the air, she had let the chain go from her hands... she quickly stepped back to avoid any other close combat. The chains would follow her like serpents anyway. They were loyal to her. Lancer couldn't see the chains anyway, he could only feel it when he had direct contact with it.
Since Lancer was only fighting with his hands and feet, she had to take a small chance. That Lancer truly couldn't use his swords. She began to pull back more, then she stretched out her fingertips and the chains launched forth like a tidal wave of serpents ! The rattling sounded like a maelstrom!
They began to whip, bite and entangle the charging Lancer! "Shit!" Lancer cried.
He was using his kicks and punches to break the entangling attacking chains but he couldn't really see them, he felt when they struck but that could barely help him discern the locations of the next strike. His instincts were good though, he occasionally intercepted a few strikes with the sides of his limbs, knocking the momentum out of them for a mere moment.
Slowly but surely their grips were solidifying upon him despite his power and speed.
The ash like flame warrior was being turned into a tiny ember...
He was cursing horribly in the back of his mind. He might have been done for...
Then a round of impressive powerful shots struck the area surrounding and Lancer himself.
They inflicted no pain, but the chains loosened! He leapt back in a swift step to be by the side of his Master.
Akasha had fired at Lancer and his location. It seemed to have saved him a little.
He could hear the chains regrouping and taking position again. A frontal attack was now suicide.
But something else was nagging on his mind... Lancer's lack, not of the use of weapons, but rather the style of fighting. His punches and kicks were all like a regular street brawl! Somewhere inside his Tohsaka pride was burning with some anger.
He began to run backwards. The chains launched at Lancer again, who leapt into the air and caused a flurry of kicks with his right leg, with no real basis or aim, then in an instance switched to his left and then once again to the right, repeating the pattern.
It was his makeshift plan to repel the chains. He knew it had one gaping flaw however, he knew that if a single leg of his was caught he was done for.
Surely enough, his legs were caught by the writhing chains that started to pull towards Rider... he was lucky though. In the path between him and Rider was a rather large tree.
He swung his waist and legs, landed them on it and kicked forth. Shattering it to mere sawdust.
Rider had token flight. Against her will of course. It was simple. Now both were in mid air facing one another at a swords length away. A gigantic surge of power began to burst from Rider.
Akasha sensed it. Lancer sensed it. The girl sensed it and a childish joy spread on her face.
"That face is never good... Since this area is damaged already... and maybe if I aim upwards! God damn this! I might have no choice, the power surging from her is horrific!"
Lancer's mind began to scream at him... Don't do it. But it was do or die.
A equally powerful... no a far more powerful surge of energy was surrounding Lancer... the desolate ash flames blazing across the night sky!
"La...!" Began his voice. "Come forth...!" Left Rider's beautiful lips.
But then two voices, yelled in unison. "Stop! Retreat!" Both Servants instantly disappeared from the scene in the air!
Lancer was by Akasha's side. Rider was no where to be found.
The clock like symbol on Akasha's left palm began to fade slightly, the outer ring was gone, only the minute and hour hands were left.
The other voice that had ordered Rider back could be heard again.
"Master of Tohsaka and Lancer. Please, I humbly request that we continue another time and that you do not pursue milady Einzbern. I would have dread to have seen the result of that attack... I honestly do not know what your Servant was thinking. We shall leave."
The wheelchair girl faded from sight.
Akasha sighed, and he began to work out of the clearing, heading for "home", in other words the top of the skyscraper.
/
A large sigh came from Akasha. That situation was certainly frightening as well as exhilarating.
But that last moment seemed extremely dangerous. The amount of power that they were both giving off was sheerly astounding... for some reason, perhaps both he and Rider's Master sensed it... that a catastrophe would occur... one with so much damage that it wasn't worth the continued battle.
Lancer was quite. He had been rather calmly eating a pork dish. "...It certainly isn't as salty as back home..." He whispered breaking the silence. It was sunset. Few cars were around for some reason.
"Master... I hope you do not mind me asking but, when I took you out of that room... you seemed to be barely able to stand and talk. What exactly are you... you act as if you have never seen the world before... never felt touch, taste, sight, sounds or smell."
Akasha sighed again, stood up and looked at the sunset with small glistening eyes.
"It is because I hadn't. I... had not known a single word, idea, concept, feeling or emotion before I awoke and you were heading for me."
Lancer curiously looked at the boy, thinking such a thing impossible.
"I have knowledge... because I was empty. The Akasha... my namesake, the place where I first "existed" is filled with the mysteries of the world. Long ago my ancestor, Tohsaka Nagato, believed that one could reach Akasha, the root of all things by the concept of "Stillness and Emptiness" so practised martial arts as well as magecraft. It seemed he was right. I was sedated since birth to be "Still" never knowing anything. I was but an empty vessel. I assume the man claiming to be Araya Souren supplied what was necessary for me to enter. When I was there, actually it's impossible to actually be a "there" but that's the best way to describe it. Anyway, I started receiving random information... but the information you servants get of the modern world and the grail war when you are summoned was also given to me. I had to learn and play with simple things like dots and letters in my mind. I broke the Throne of Heroes to allow seven new servants to participate in the grail war. Then I was forced out, since I had knowledge and feeling, I was no longer still. So it truly is my first time... feeling the entire world."
Lancer looked at Akasha who had gone to sitting down in a position similar to meditation.
He opened a can of beer, sprite and cola and the packages of a chicken bento.
He took a quick swig of the beer, spat it out and coughed. "Why would anyone want to drink this? It causes so much random violence and stupidity yet people don't stop?...Maybe this is my personal preference?" He took a sip of the cola and sprite and had a rather pleasurable look on his face.
He took a relived breath. He started trying to use chopsticks but they kept fumbling in his hand and a good deal of rice fell on the floor of the skyscraper.
But he seemed happy. He was happy to be living like any normal person.
Lancer couldn't help but smile. He began to eat his food gingerly with at list some expression.
/
Crunching, whipping sounds could be heard from the Matou basement. A black muscular being with tendrils coming out of his back and with a long sharp tongue was standing over something, devouring it with it's chest, for the lack of a better explanation. It's eyes were like white flames and it had a odd white spider like symbol on it's chest...
"Assassin... enjoy your meal? Also, stop taking that ridiculous form."
Matou Aragaki didn't particularly care that his servant was eating a random person off the street.
He wanted a good relationship with his servant, he wanted to try to make him loyal.
Assassin turned around and shifted forms in a black ooze... he appeared as another Matou Aragaki.
"That is rather... not pleasant either." Assassin had been taking the forms of pop culture beings and or making a new original form out of all of them. When he didn't he would occasionally turn into Aragaki. Assassin was... wonderful in a way. He was very interested with the creations of the world.
He was almost like an inquisitive child. Aragaki took out a disk. It was rather old.
"Assassin... this is a game I thought you would like. It's 400 years old. But I think you will... love it, it will be amusing for you. I guarantee it."
Aragaki's guarantees often were true, at least in Assassin's mind.
He was a bit cautious however. A disk? That seemed very old. It wasn't like the holographic games he had played already. But he trusted his Master, so he placed the disk in the dusty console... and played it. It was called Catherine.
/
The next morning, fifteen men had died in their dreams. All were suspected of having affairs while they were still with a partner. The police had never seen anything like it. But what was most curious on each scene... were the ram horns and eyes on the floor as well as the huge puddles of sheep blood...
End of Chapter 2.
Authors Note:
Servant Identities:
Rider:
Strength: C
Mana: B+
Endurance: B+
Agility: C
Luck: B
Noble Phantasm: ?
Identity:?
Personal Skills:
Charisma: B
?:
Knowledge of Respect and Harmony: B
More information cannot be added at this time.
Lancer:
Strength: B
Mana: E
Endurance: B
Agility: B++
Luck: EX
Noble Phantasm: ?
Identity:?
Personal Skills:
Instinct: C
?:
?:
Magic Resistance: E
More information cannot be added at this time.
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