Servant Zero

AN: In this chapter, Louise's partial ability chart (as seen by Rin) appears. Note, that due to Louise's amnesia, the skills Rin sees when she consults the Grail regarding the Heroic Spirit Louise's abilities are different, in some cases, from the skills the amnesiac Louise in this story actually has.

The Caster Who Could Not Cast

Rin was confident in her tea brewing skills.

As a person who had lived alone from a young age on a limited budget, but who still was determined to enjoy excellent food, Rin had spent the better part of a decade honing her cooking skills. She could cook two dozen high quality rice dishes with inexpensive ingredients, she knew how to prepare four dozen delectable desserts (she, admittedly, had a bit of a sweet tooth) and the tea she had brewed for her servant, an exotic, rose-coloured, Chinese blend, was on a completely different level from normal green tea.

A guest who sat at the ornate, hardwood table in her dining room, sipping such exceptional tea, should bow her head in gratitude for being granted such a privilege. At the very least, Tohsaka Rin expected that she would receive sincere thanks from the person to whom she had shown such generosity.

"Ugh," her servant made a disgusted sound, clearly struggling not to spit out the beverage she had found so offensive. Finally managing to swallow her first sip of the tea Rin had so painstakingly prepared, the temporarily black-haired woman raised her pink eyes from her cup and towards her host, wearing an expression which did not contain even a hint of gratitude. If anything, it looked as if her servant was planning to lecture Rin in her own home.

"Familiar, I'll forgive you this time, since I failed to give you clear instructions, but, in the future, you should know that I take my tea black, with one scoop of sugar and milk. This..." the heroic spirit hesitated, as if searching for a polite way to express her feelings, "unusual blend of tea you favour is unacceptable."

Rin took a deep, calming breath. She had suspected that their conversation would be difficult. If, as she guessed, Caster had not received the information the Grail was meant to provide her, then confronting her prideful servant about that fact could garner an explosive reaction. Even if her first command spell would keep Caster from harming her, protecting herself from her servant was not enough. Rin would need Caster's full cooperation if she wanted to win this Holy Grail War, and, without any spare command spells, she could not force her unruly servant to cooperate with her.

That was why Rin had asked her servant to sheathe Derflinger, in order to keep the talking sword from riling them up. It was also why, after informing Kirei of what had happened in the shopping district, Rin had prepared a cup of her favourite tea for Caster. She had hoped to win some goodwill from the heroic spirit, or at least that the soothing beverage might calm Caster if she became agitated. However, for her servant to simply throw her hospitality back in her face like this was too much.

In response to Caster's words, once she had taken a few more deep breaths, Rin offered her servant a wide, slit-eyed smile. It was a smile that said, 'if you keep talking, then this smile might be the last thing you see upon this Earth, so try to make your last words memorable ones.'

Caster, having just finished chastising Rin, looked up, caught sight of Rin's expression, and froze in place.

"Oh, I see," Rin exclaimed pleasantly, in the same way one might pleasantly say, 'Oh, don't bother getting up. I have your lethal dose of arsenic for you right here.'

"Don't worry, Caster. I will be sure to remember your words in the future."

The subtext was clear: 'the next cup of tea you drink from my hands will be your last.'

"Anyway," Rin continued, the nervous expression on Caster's face doing much to soothe her frayed nerves, "as enjoyable as this discussion has been, it's time to get down to business. Caster, please correct me if I'm wrong, but, from what I've observed of your behaviour, it seems obvious that the information you received from the Grail was incomplete."

Finally having recovered from Rin's smile, Caster blinked a few times in confusion.

"What? What are you talking about? What Grail?"

Rin sighed. The situation was just as bad as she had feared. Taking a sip of her tea – and it was positively delicious, whatever her thankless servant had to say about it – in order to calm her nerves, Rin continued.

"The Holy Grail is a powerful magical device which usually appears every few decades in Fuyuki City – where we are right now – in order to grant a wish."

"A wish?" Caster asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow. "You know, if you're going to lie, you could at least try to make it more convincing."

Rin simply took another deep breath and ignored Caster's accusation. Getting bogged down in justifications before she had even really begun explaining would be pointless.

"I don't know most of the details regarding the Grail's operation," Rin admitted, "but that it exists can easily be proven by the fact that it has already appeared four times before. The Fifth Holy Grail War will be beginning shortly, in order to determine who will claim a wish from the Grail."

Caster scowled.

"I already said that I don't believe you. If you want me to believe you, then at least offer some real evidence. Talking about things that might have happened in folk tales told decades before either of us were born is meaningless."

"Fine then," Rin replied, slamming her tea cup on the table, and then leaning over the table towards Caster. "If you don't believe me, then explain how you're here at all. As a Caster, you should know that it's impossible for a magus to summon even a copy of a heroic spirit. Even one hundred maguses would probably fail if they tried. The very fact that you're here at all is already a miracle, so why is it so hard for you to believe in a wish?"

"What are you talking about? Every mage can summon a familiar. That you kidnapped a human instead of getting something normal like a toad or a cat just means that you must have messed up somehow!"

"Human?" Rin replied, raising an eyebrow. "And what part of you is supposed to be human exactly?"

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

For a moment, Rin paused, peering at her servant carefully again. Unless Caster was a professional actor, her confusion was unfeigned, but how could she not even know that she wasn't human?

What had she said to Rin in the past?

Her name was Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere. She had been a member of the nobility, a magus, and had presumably lived in Europe within a century or two of the Protestant Reformation, considering how touchy she had been about religious denominations last night.

She not only lacked the knowledge of this time period and the Holy Grail War that all servants normally possessed, but did not even seem to remember that she was a Heroic Spirit. Yes. If Rin made those assumptions, and also took into account Caster's arrogance and self-righteousness, then most of her actions could be understood.

All that remained was to determine just how she should use that information in order to get what she needed from her servant. If Caster did not even realize that she was heroic spirit, then using her real name might be a good start.

"Louise," Rin began in a more friendly tone, "I'm sorry if I'm confusing you. Maybe we should try starting over again from the beginning."

Pointing at herself, she declared, "I'll start. I'm Tohsaka Rin, the magus charged with overseeing Fuyuki City, which is where we are now. And you?"

Caster's scowl wavered at Rin's suddenly more friendly tone and introduction. Rin could still spot suspicion in her eyes – for a magus, Caster was painfully easy to read – but there was also uncertainty, and even a bit of hope there as well. Moreover, if Caster really had been a noble, then Rin suspected that she would have been trained to answer politeness in kind.

After a moment's hesitation, her servant answered.

"I'm Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere, the third daughter of the Duke de la Valliere, who rules the largest duchy in the Kingdom of Tristain."

Tristain? From her recent studies of legends and mythology, in preparation for the Grail War, Rin vaguely recalled a knight of Tristan, or, perhaps he had been a knight named Tristan. She could not recall the details. Unfortunately, her knowledge of sixteenth and seventeenth century European geography was rather poor, although she would have guessed that Caster was from a French-speaking country, judging by her name.

"Alright then," Rin replied, raising her right index finger in an instructional pose. "As far as I can tell, you are here because I summoned you here to act as my servant, a sort of powerful familiar, during the Fifth Holy Grail War, here in Fuyuki City. I didn't mean to get you, in particular, but servants usually do take the appearance of humans."

Caster was frowning again.

"You- You can't just summon a person like that and expect that I'll act as your familiar! It's kidnapping!"

"Oh," Rin responded airily, raising her left hand, which still bore the familiar runes Louise had seared onto it last night. "So, taking a person as a familiar would be kidnapping, would it?"

"That's- That's not..." Caster instantly began a heated denial before trailing off, as her gaze turned downwards.

"Fine," she finally continued after a long pause, sounding as if the words had been dragged out of her by force. "You're right. To try to take another noble as my familiar was unacceptable, but you're not any better! I- In fact, you did it first! And another thing: you said we're in Fuyuki City, but I've never heard of anywhere like this city before. So, where is this place?"

"Mm. Normally, the Grail would provide you with basic information on this location and time period, but, as it hasn't, I guess I can tell you a bit. We're in the nation of Japan, which, if I'm guessing right, is far to the east of where you lived before."

Caster's eyes seemed to light up with hope at Rin's assertion, as she hurriedly replied, "You mean, you know where Tristain is, and how I could get back there? I- I- When I noticed that there was only one moon in the sky at night, I was worried, but-"

"What?" Rin cut her servant off. "Why wouldn't there be one moon?"

Caster tilted her head to the side, looking mildly puzzled at Rin's interjection.

"Well, in Tristain, there are two moons, of course: one red and the other blue. I would not have thought it possible to go so far east that even that would change, so I'm reassured-"

"Stop," Rin interrupted Caster again, her eyes slightly wider than they had been a moment ago. "You're saying that you come from a place where there are two moons?"

"Yes," Caster replied uncertainly. "That's why I was surprised that you had heard of it."

Two moons? Could it be a lie? No. Caster was a poor liar. Her earnest hope had definitely been genuine when Rin suggested that she knew where her home could be found. So, then Caster was from an entirely different world. While such a thing was normally not permitted by the Grail, her summoning had been, admittedly, a little bit irregular, and, as the Throne of Heroes was independent of both the world and time axes, at least in theory, it could be possible. Now, she just had to find a delicate way of explaining all that to Caster.

"I'm sorry, Louise," she apologized. "I was mistaken. There is nowhere on this planet where two moons can be seen in the sky."

Caster's face fell immediately. For a moment, it even looked as if she might cry, before she closed her eyes and took a deep breath in order to calm herself.

She clearly wanted to go home very badly. It should not have been a surprise. If Rin had been summoned to a foreign land, she would want to go home as well. However, if she was ruthless enough, Rin realized, it also presented an opportunity.

Rin closed her eyes. She was a magus fighting in the Holy Grail War. She had no choice but to leave her weaknesses behind if she wanted to win.

Opening her eyes, Rin moved her head to try and catch Caster's downcast gaze with her own, forcing a sympathetic expression onto her face.

"If you truly did come from a land with two moons, then I know of only one power in Japan which could return you to your home."

Caster's pink eyes peeked up to meet her own blue orbs.

"It was the power of the Holy Grail which brought you to this place, so, if you want to live in Tristain again, there is probably no power besides that of the Holy Grail which can make your wish come true."

Caster closed her eyes, and then sighed. When her eyes opened again, there was a fierce look in them, wholly different from the tentative hope Rin had seen in them a moment ago.

"I'm not stupid."

Rin remained silent, not quite sure what to make of the seeming non sequitur.

"It's obvious that you want this Grail, and now you're trying to convince me to help you get it. I'm not so stupid that I can't see what you're trying to do. So, I only have one question." Caster's eyes hardened, boring into Rin. "Can this Grail you want really bring me home?"

"I don't know."

The words came out before she had even had time to consider them. Rin wasn't sure if she simply wanted to be honest with her servant for some reason (perhaps, she felt guilty at having tried to manipulate her) or if she was afraid that Caster's piercing eyes might detect a lie, but the truth came from her lips without any consideration.

"But if anything in Japan can do it, the Grail can. I've never even heard of a more powerful magical device – at least not one I could hope to access."

Caster held her gaze for another moment, seeming to search her eyes for something, and then, seemingly having found what she sought, her servant nodded.

"Alright," she declared, squaring her shoulders. "Then I'll help you get this Holy Grail thing. If it's really the best chance, then I can't afford to do anything else. So, where is it? You said there was some kind of war over it, so I assume that you have at least raised your levies already."

Levies? Those were some sort of medieval soldiers, weren't they?

"No. It's not that kind of a war. It's more like a competition between seven maguses, using our servants," she explained, nodding towards Caster. "Once only one master and servant pair remain, the Grail will appear before the victor."

"Defeated?" Caster replied, appearing unhappy. "Since you're calling it a war, I assume you really mean-"

"Yes," Rin interjected. "Killed. We will need to kill either the servant or master of each of the other six pairs without dying ourselves."

For a moment, Caster looked almost afraid, before she visibly rallied, lifting her chin up defiantly.

"Fine. Then that's what we'll have to do."

Rin's response was a deep sigh of relief, her entire upper body visibly lifting up, and then slumping back down in her seat.

"Oh, good. I wasn't quite sure what to do if you had refused. So, now that we've sorted that out, I guess the next thing to do is to take a closer look at your abilities. Just hold still for a second."

"What?"

"Oh, don't worry. It's just one of the Grail's functions. By looking at you, I can obtain a fairly good idea of your combat power from the Grail. The same thing works with other servants, although, until they've revealed their full abilities, getting a full picture of enemy servants is usually impossible. I took a quick peek last night, but, now that we're properly working together, you can hopefully clarify anything that confuses me."

"I- I see," Caster replied, sounding worried. "Are you sure that's really necessary?"

"Of course it is. How can I prepare a combat strategy without knowing what you can do?"

Then she looked at Caster, and directed her eyes to focus beyond Caster's physical appearance, flicking the switch in her mind which would allow her to see Caster as the Grail saw her, rather than as human eyes perceived her.

OOO

True Name: Louise Fracoise le Blanc de la Valliere

Class: Caster

Master: Tohsaka Rin

STR: E

CON: E

AGI: C

MGI: A++

LCK: B

Noble Phantasm: A

Class Abilities

Territory Creation: C

As Caster saw little need for a workshop in life, she has difficulty manufacturing even a small workshop.

Item Construction: (Lost)

Personal Skills

High-Speed Incantation: B

Due to the long casting time of many of her spells, Caster focused significant effort on learning to speak her incantations with both extreme speed and accuracy.

Bravery: A-

Bravery is the ability to negate mental interference such as pressure, confusion and fascination. In life, Caster could not be cowed by anything except for her mother. At this level, some would call her bravery foolish recklessness or insanity, but that's never stopped her before.

Charisma: D~B-

In life, Caster was known as a great leader of men, who led the defence of her homeland time and time again, while also having been trained in all the arts and courtesies of a noblewoman. For a time, she was even the heir to Tristain's throne. When she was calm and focused, her charisma approached that of a king. However, when annoyed or frustrated, Caster would often revert to childishly lashing out in anger, disheartening all those who followed her.

Void Magic

Caster is capable of using all the spells of Void Magic, which were passed down by Brimir in the Founder's Prayerbook, as well as a few original spells of her own creation. She was widely regarded after her death as the greatest practitioner of Void Magic in six thousand years.

Magecraft Tool

Wand

Noble Phantasm

Derflinger

Rank: B

Type: Anti-Thaumaturgy Noble Phantasm

It is said that Brimir forged a legendary sword for the first Gandalfr, which could overcome any magic. The noble phantasm Derflinger is this legendary spirit sword. In addition to possessing supernatural durability, it has the power to absorb spells of Rank B or lower instantly and spells of higher rank given sufficient time. It also has a great store of knowledge, which it may impart on its wielder by making use of its ability to speak.

Mark of the Gandalfr

Rank: A

Type: NA

Channelling the power of the Void is lengthy and difficult. Thus, legend has it that great Void mages like Brimir and Louise de la Valliere empowered a familiar, the Gandalfr, with the strength to defeat an entire army alone, so that they would be protected while casting their spells. As a noble phantasm, the Mark of the Gandalfr forces whoever it is used upon to defend Caster with his or her life, and cannot be broken with any mortal thaumaturgy. However, only one Gandalfr may be empowered at a time. The Gandalfr gains the following class abilities, in order to protect Caster:

STR: E

CON: E

AGI: E

MGI: E

LCK: E

Class Abilities

Magic Resistance: D

Single-action spells are cancelled.

Battle Continuation: A

It is possible to fight even with deadly injuries, and the Gandalfr can remain alive so long as she does not receive a decisive, fatal wound.

Guardian Knight: B

When defending Caster, the Gandalfr's defences, including Magic Resistance, rise by 1 rank.

Mastery of Weapons: A

The Gandalfr can wield any conventional weapon, treating it as a C-rank noble phantasm, or any offensive noble phantasm of up to A-rank, with the skill of a master, provided she holds that weapon in her hands. Additionally, when holding a weapon, the Gandalfr gains 2 ranks in STR, CON and AGI.

OOO

A few moments later, as her eyes focused upon the material world once more, Rin frowned thoughtfully.

At some point, Caster had apparently become unnerved by Rin's gaze and had started fidgeting, which seemed a bit odd for a hero who "could not be cowed by anything except for her mother." Of course, it wasn't quite as odd as having her mother be the one thing that could cow Caster. What sort of mother had she had? Some sort of evil God or phantasmal beast? Well, at the end of the day, that wasn't so important. Caster was the one who she had summoned, not Caster's mother.

More importantly, she thought to herself, lifting her left hand so that she could look at the runes Caster had placed upon her last night, Caster's Mark of the Gandalfr was far more useful than she had initially realized. Of course, she was troubled by the compulsion it apparently involved to "defend Caster with her life." Was it a mental compulsion or a physical compulsion? Could it be overcome? All of those questions would need to be answered before Rin would feel truly comfortable with her servant's noble phantasm, and even then, it certainly seemed as if it would reverse the way a master-servant pair normally operated in battle, which she would need to factor into her plans.

On the other hand, she considered, walking around the dining room table so that she stood beside Caster, she might be able to face a heroic spirit herself now – a feat which her father's journals would have had her believe was nearly impossible. That additional melee combat power would make up for a lot of the Caster classes' usual deficits, and, even more than that, there was a part of Rin that had always hated the idea that her fate in this war would largely be decided by how someone else fought for her. The idea of facing enemy servants herself – deciding her own fate in this war with her own two hands – truly appealed to that part of her nature.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Rin's servant asked nervously, trying to shy away from the magus, as Rin reached around behind her to take hold of Derflinger's hilt.

"Don't worry. I'm just-" Rin began to reply, but then, as she drew Derflinger, her words came to an abrupt halt.

She had been expecting it, but, even so, Rin was caught off guard by just how much wrapping her hand around Derflinger affected her. Information poured into her mind: a thousand katas, a hundred thousand stances, a million subtle sword movements, each of which she now understood – each of which now spoke to her – in a way that she had never imagined possible before that moment. She – who had seldom even glanced at swords in the past – now knew how to wield Derflinger as if the blade was an extension of her own arm.

Letting the sword cut through the air a few times before her eyes, Rin found herself very nearly laughing in delight at the feeling of connection and fulfilment she felt. Her hand was meant for this sword, and this sword was meant for her hand.

"Not bad, girl," the blade tried to interject, "but cutting the air's not what I was made for. Find me something a little meatier if you want me to acknowledge you as my partner."

But Rin was barely listening. It was not just the sword. Her vision and hearing were sharper than even her best reinforcement could make them, she felt stronger than she ever had before, and her movements were so swift and elegant that she barely felt like a human being anymore. She loved her magecraft – the gift her father had passed down to her – but, as fulfilled as she felt when mastering a new spell or unearthing the secrets of an ancient grimoire, there was no magecraft without pain. Thaumaturgy was the art of twisting the natural state of the world, so that it fit with one's own desires: a process of perversion which could not be achieved without first painfully twisting oneself. Her connection to Derflinger was different: purer, cleaner and painless. She loved it.

Reluctantly, Rin placed the talking broadsword upon the dining room table, taking her hand off its handle.

"Hey? That's it! Come on. We were barely getting started."

Ignoring both the sword's words and the part of her which agreed with its sentiment, Rin turned back towards Caster. A superior magus should be capable of sublimating her desires into more useful impulses in order to achieve her goals,and Rin would allow herself to be nothing less than the best.

"I have one more question."

"I- What? Why did you?"

Ignoring Caster's confusion, Rin continued, absently brushing her black hair back from where it had fallen over part of her face during her swordplay..

"Instead of magecraft or even divine words, your personal skills tell me that you use something called Void magic. That could mean that your only element is Void, I suppose, but, from the description, it seemed like it was actually something a bit more special than that. If we're going to work together, then I need a better idea of exactly what sort of magic you can do."

For a moment, Caster simply froze in place at Rin's words, as if they had left her utterly befuddled. Then, without warning, Caster's mood turned dark, and she became angrier than Rin had ever seen her before.

"How dare you?" She spat, her voice rising with every syllable. "It's bad enough that you're a heretic who would profane the Founder's holy element, but to... to say..." Caster's voice cut off with a hitch, as if she was barely holding back a sob, "How dare you mock me like this?"

"I- I- What-" Rin tried to get a word in edgewise, before she was cut off by her servant's still rising fury.

"You said you looked at my abilities, didn't you? That's what you were doing while I just sat here. So, you know! You know I can't cast anything – that I'm a zero – and you would still make fun of me like this! The Void – the holy power with which the Founder Brimir reshaped the world and saved all of humanity from annihilation – how could someone like me ever-"

Her voice cut off in a hiccough.

Realizing that the situation was rapidly spiraling out of control, Rin reached out towards Caster, not sure what she wanted to say, but knowing that she had to say something to try and salvage this situation.

Caster slapped her hand away.

"Don't touch me! Don't even- Just leave me alone!"

Then Caster fled the dining room, barreling through Rin's still wrecked living room and, from what the magus could hear, up the stairs before Rin could even try to calm her down. Distantly, she heard a door slam.

"Well," Derflinger exclaimed sardonically from his spot on her dining room, "that certainly went well."

But Rin had no time for the sword – not when her own thoughts were whirling quickly enough to make her head spin. Caster had not known that she was a heroic spirit, but showed no surprise at her own appearance, despite the fact that she was young – maybe fourteen or fifteen, if she was an extremely late bloomer. So, she thought that she was a teenager herself. She had not just lost her memories of being a heroic spirit, but, quite possibly, most of the memories of the heroic feats she had performed in order to earn that distinction. She, apparently, did not even remember the magical power with which she had earned her fame. Her servant had said that she could not cast anything: a Caster who could not cast any spells.

Rin's face fell into her hands. What was she supposed to do with a servant like this? Even if she had some of the abilities and noble phantasms of a heroic spirit, her servant was, for all intents and purposes, a teenager. If her servant had been Saber or Berserker, perhaps that would not have mattered quite so much, but she was Caster – a class which thrived on exploiting the very wealth of magical knowledge and cunning which her servant lacked. Even with the Mark of the Gandalfr, they would definitely be over-matched.

"Father, what am I supposed to do now?"

Surprisingly, she received a reply to her rhetorical question, although it did not come from her father.

"Well, kid," Derflinger responded, "I'm not your father, but, if you asked me, I'd say go after her." The sword paused for a moment, apparently considering his advice further. "Well, that's only if you still want this house to stay standing, of course. If you're interested in demolishing a wing or two, you might want to leave her alone."

"What?" Rin asked, her self-pitying thoughts diverted by the sword's very odd advice.

"I mean, I've known a few untrained Void mages in my time, and the one thing they all seem to be good at when they're pissed off is blowing stuff up."

An ominous boom sounded from somewhere above Rin.

"Wow. Even for a Void mage, that was pretty quick, and, from what I heard, not too stingy on the explosive power, either. I've heard better, but I'd still give it about a 7.5."

Rin's eyes widened, and then, talking sword in hand, she was running. There was no way she was letting that bitch total her house.

"Y'know, this takes me back. It was awhile ago – a few centuries, maybe – when I was wielded by this fire mage who was so paranoid that he liked to keep his wand on him in his sleep. Anyway, this one time, we were staying in an inn, and he had this weird nightmare. So, long story short, he set the whole place on fire, and-"

Images of her own house catching fire, or at least sporting big holes in its walls, helped speed her footsteps, as Rin catapulted up the stairs, hearing a second, louder boom coming from the direction of her own room. Servant or not, Holy Grail War or not, Rin had decided: if Caster was doing what it sounded like she was doing in Rin's room, then she would die here.