Chapter 6: Begin the Holy Grail War

Shirou woke up Monday morning, but was still tired from everything going on with the Holy Grail War. He dragged himself out of bed and went to the dining room, where Sakura was already up and preparing breakfast on the table. "Good morning Shirou." She said in her usual cheery tone.

During the last Grail War, Caster had subjugated Sakura to be a sacrifice to summon the Holy Grail without killing all the Servants, but she had no actual memory of that event, and as such still knew nothing about magic or the war; so Shirou still had to hide it from her.

"Morning, Sakura." Shirou replied and sat down to start eating.

"Do you need to work today Shirou?" Sakura asked as they ate.

"No, I have today off." Shirou replied.

"I see, well I need to check on how the rebuilding of my house is going, so I'll be gone for a few hours after breakfast."

"Ah, alright,"

Once the two of them had finished eating, Sakura grabbed her handbag and left. After she left, Shirou put a bunch of the leftovers from breakfast on a plate and took it to the dojo. In the previous Grail War where Shirou had introduced Saber to Sakura and Ms. Fujimura, not feeling it right to just make her sit out in the dojo all day; but there were reasons he was simply unable to do the same thing with his new Servant.

He entered the dojo and saw a single person sitting at the end of the room. The person looked over to Shirou when he entered; this was his new Servant. Shirou's servant had blonde hair and green eyes; however, it was not the same Saber he had the previous Grail War. But Shirou also knew exactly who he was the moment he had seen him.

He had seen a person who looked perfectly identical to Saber in a dream once where he peered into her past. She had finished that person off with her lance, and he in like had done to her with his sword, the attacks ultimately resulting in both of their deaths. That person had referred to Saber as 'father' in the vision. From that information, he could have been only one person; Mordred.

These were the reasons he couldn't let Mordred walk around the house as he had let Saber. He looked perfectly identical to Saber as Sakura met her 10 years ago; so aside from the fact Sakura would think he was Saber, there was the fact she would wonder why there was no age difference.

"Mordred, here's your breakfast." Shirou told his Servant with a tone of disdain.

Because Shirou loved Saber, whom Mordred had killed, it was only natural for him to dislike his new Servant.

Mordred stood up and walked to accept his meal. "Thank you, but I would prefer you call me by Saber when speaking with me, lest an enemy be listening in and overhear my identity." Mordred told Shirou.

"I can't." She declared and turned to the door. "It doesn't feel right addressing you the same way I did her." Shirou explained.

Shirou had already explained to Mordred that in the previous war, his Servant's identity had indeed been King Arthur, his 'father'. Mordred was surprised to hear this information but still did not seem to understand why Shirou held hostility toward him.

Yet no matter what the issue was, the two of them needed to work together and win the Holy Grail War. Shirou was about to leave when his cell phone rang, and he took it from his pocket and answered. "Hello," He said. "Oh, Tohsaka, what is it?" He asked and listened. "Meet? Then just come by my house, Sakura isn't here right now." He replied. "Alright then, bye," He said and hung up.

"Who was that Master Emiya?" Mordred asked.

"That was Tohsaka; she's another Master in the Holy Grail War." Shirou answered. "The two of us are working together, so she's coming over to talk about our next move."

Tohsaka arrived soon after her call, and brought Archer with her. She and Shirou sat at the table while Archer chose to sit in a corner. "So you summoned your Servant right; where is-" Tohsaka began but then Mordred walked in and she nearly jumped. "Saber!" She practically screamed, seeing only a face identical to King Arthur.

"That is correct, and you must be Tohsaka." Mordred replied, just taking 'Saber' as his class.

"No, he's not the same as last time." Shirou interrupted, correcting Tohsaka. "This is Mordred, her son."

"Eh, son; But he looks just like her!" Tohsaka complained.

"I am a Homunculus made from the semen of King Arthur during a time the wizard Merlin transformed her into a male." Mordred explained.

"I-is that so?" Tohsaka remarked as her face twitch at being given this information; not entirely sure how to take something like that.

"Master Emiya, I fail to understand why we are teaming up with the enemy." Mordred said.

"That's exactly what I said." Archer noted from the side.

"We want the same thing, it doesn't matter which one of us wins." Shirou explained.

Mordred sighed. "Very well," He said, and then looked at Archer. "So what is your identity? It seems only natural if we are on the same side."

"I'd tell you if I knew, but I can't seem to recall anything from my past." Archer replied. "Or rather, there doesn't seem to be anything for me to remember."

"What?" Mordred wondered.

"Let's just say I don't know my identity and leave it at that." Archer replied, not wanting to explain the whole concept.

"Anyways, we're getting off the issue." Tohsaka said, returning everyone to what the purpose of their meeting was. "When I was chosen to be a Master, I began setting up barriers around the city to see if I could pick up on any of the other Masters arrival."

"And," Shirou asked.

"From what I understand, at least three other Masters have already made their way here; maybe more."

"All seven Masters have summoned their Servants, so the war can now easily begin at anytime now." Archer added. "We'll have to be on our toes."

"Tonight, Archer and I will attempt to find one of the Masters and take out their Servant. Shirou, it would be helpful if you and Mordred assisted in the search. And we will have a better chance at victory with two of us in the case we do encounter another Servant."

"Alright then, when should we meet?" Shirou asked.

"Meet us at Fuyuki Park at 10:00 P.M." Tohsaka replied and stood up. "We'll start from there."

"Alright," Shirou said.

"Good; Archer, let's go." Tohsaka told her Servant, who stood up and changed to spirit form as the two of them left.

"If we are planning to search through the night, it would be helpful if you were to rest to conserve your energy." Mordred told Shirou after they were gone.

"No, I'll be fine." Shirou replied. "But you should go back to the dojo before Sakura gets home."

"Very well, Master Emiya," Mordred responded and left to the dojo.

When 10 O'clock rolled around Shirou got himself out of bed and silently made his way to the dojo. "Mordred, let's go." He said.

"Yes, let us make haste to our destination." Mordred replied, and the two of them started making their way around to the front of the house.

As they were heading for the front gate however, Mordred suddenly felt the presence of someone watching them and froze. He spun around and looked up at the roof of Shirou's house but saw nothing. "Mordred, hurry up." Shirou called, snapping Mordred out of his trance.

Mordred shook the feeling and followed after Shirou, but did not lower her guard in case whatever she had felt attacked.

Tohsaka and Archer waited in Fuyuki Park on top of a nearby building, keeping watch in case any of the other Masters happened to come by. "How about it, do you sense any of the Masters yet?" Archer asked.

Tohsaka shook her head in response. "No yet- wait!" She interrupted herself catching someone on one of her barriers heading this way. "Yes, I've got one; coming from over there." Tohsaka said and pointed to their right.

Archer looked down the street and then saw two figures walk out from behind a corner in the distance. Looking closely, he could tell it was a woman with blonde hair wearing fashionable clothes and a man with black hair in a white kimono robe with a fire emblem on it. The man had a sword tied to his side, which must have meant he was the Servant. "Want me to take them out quickly?" Archer asked.

"Shirou and Mordred should be here soon, so even if that fails and we get into a fight here, he should be able to get here to back us up quickly enough." Tohsaka replied to decide on an appropriate course of action. "Alright then, do it Archer."

Archer grinned and looked down at the enemy and her Servant. "We'd best pay close attention; maybe if we examine how I fight we can get a clue as to who I really am." He said and then raised his hands.

Before Tohsaka's eyes, there were suddenly a pure golden arrow in Archer's right hand and a golden bow in his left. She was surprised, but not because of their appearance. Rather, she was surprised because it didn't seem like they had suddenly appeared there from teleportation or from Trace magic like Shirou. It felt more like they had already been there in his hands and she was just unable to perceive them until that moment.

Archer took aim slowly, giving as little room for error as possible. "See ya." He said with a grin and released his arrow.

The arrow flew over 29 meters strait for the enemy Servant's forehead but… the Servant was not taken easily. Almost as if he had known it would come, the enemy Servant drew his sword with incredible speed and blocked the arrow, knocking it to the side, where it suddenly vanished as if it were never there.

"Damn it, Archer let's go." Tohsaka said after their sneak attack was blocked.

Archer grabbed Tohsaka by the waist and leapt from the building, landing quickly but safely on the ground, at which point Archer let go of Tohsaka and charged forward at the enemy Servant. The enemy reacted in kind and ran toward Archer. When Archer and the enemy neared, the enemy swung his blade for Archer's neck, and Archer swung his fist, and in that instant a crooked blade appeared in his hand to block the Servant's attack.

"You were foolish to think you could assassinate Assassin!" The enemy Servant told Archer, revealing his Servant class.

"Well isn't this good fortune," Assassin's master said when she came up to them. "I was worried we'd have to hunt down all the Servants and Masters but here you've come to us."

Tohsaka also arrived to assist Archer. "Hm, don't take me for some coward too afraid to fight. This isn't even my first Grail War; so in terms of experience, you should be the one afraid." She bragged.

"Oh, so we have a cocky Master here do we? Well I know how to zip that lip of yours… now!" The woman yelled and suddenly large spikes of rock were being launch toward Tohsaka.

"Uh!" Archer realized they were coming and pulled his free hand to the side, swinging it at which time a gold dagger was suddenly in his hand.

Assassin was forced to jump away and Archer turned and ran in front of Tohsaka just before the spikes of rock struck her. But the spikes were just inches from Archer's body, there was no way he could block them in time…

Or so they all believed. In a bout of impossibility, the blades in Archer's hands were replaced by a huge golden shield. And yet no matter how it was looked at that shield shouldn't have been able to block the earth spikes in its position it currently held in conjunction with how close they had been to striking Archer down. And yet it had still happened, and that just meant that he and Tohsaka were in the clear for now.

"Ah man, talk about your tough breaks." A man said as he walked up to the battlefield. "I'm surprised you were able to block that attack, but at least now I'll be able to fight without restrictions."

"Hmph, I'll bet you just underestimated the opponent, Yamato." The female Master revoked the man's statement. "If you had put a little more Prana into your spell, than that Servant wouldn't have been able to get in the way in the first place."

"Stop pinning everything on me Kasumi!" Yamato shouted back at the female Master.

"So, you two Masters have teamed up?" Archer questioned.

"Oh no, Yamato isn't a Master," Kasumi corrected Archer. "He's just my brother, and I called him over to help me win the Grail."

"I see," Tohsaka said, and then looked back as if looking for something. "Where's Shirou?"

"If you're worried about That Master you teamed up with you should give it up." Yamato said, noting Tohsaka's expression. "I already noticed them on their way before heading here, so I set a little magic trap for them. Assuming they survive it will still take them a while before they can make it over here."

"What!" Tohsaka questioned.

"Oh, so you thought that far ahead Yamato? I'm impressed." Kasumi told her brother.

Shirou and Mordred were stuck a ways away from Fuyuki Park. But the reason wasn't a simple magic trap. Yamato, who was hiding his status as a Master, had sent his Servant to intercept them and keep them busy until he was given a signal.

Berserker now stood in the way and challenged Shirou and his Servant, keeping them from meeting up with Tohsaka and Archer. "Out of the way, or I will have you taste my blade." Mordred told the Servant.

"Do not fool yourself; I am Berserker, what reason would I have to back down from a challenge?" Berserker stated and drew his two swords.

The two Servant's stood there for a moment, and then they charged forward at each other, plowing their weapons into each other and clashed, pushing against one another.

(Trace, on!) Shirou thought and began creating a weapon for his own use in battle. Last time he had been unable to be much help to Saber because his Trace magic was unrefined. But after 10 years he had learned how to use it properly and did not plan to just sit around while Mordred did all the fighting.

In his hands appeared two blades. They were Kansho and Bakuya, the main dual blades Archer from the previous war had used in battle. Berserker saw this and was not planning to give either one of them a chance to strike.

Berserker push Mordred back and then swung one of his two sword down, making him have to jump back to dodge. Shirou ran up to Berserker and stabbed forward with Kasho, but Berserker easily deflected the attack. Shirou followed up by adding the momentum from being deflected into his attack with Bakuya, but still Berserker deflected the attack. Berserker readied his own attack swung his swords down on Shirou, but then Mordred came back around and got between them to protect Shirou.

Shirou let his weapons vanish and then ran back to a safe distance, after which Mordred jumped away as well. "Tell me Berserker, where is your Master?" Mordred asked.

"Oh he's around somewhere, but he has no wish to put himself out in the open." Berserker answered.

Mordred laughed. "So your Master is a coward." He accused.

"Not at all," Berserker retorted. "He is merely making the best of his situation, which requires his identity to remain a secret."

"I see,"

"Now if you don't mind I'd much rather get this over with." Berserker remarked and raised his blades once more, ready to strike his opponent down.

Little did they know that they were being watched by another Servant; Rider. With that strange blade on his back he stood on a tree hidden within its branches watching the two Servants' fight. However something about him was off, his eyes once more were glowing that unnatural green color they should not have been.

However, Rider's eyes change back to normal and he puts his hand to his head as if suffering from a headache. "What…"

"Watching from the shadows? Isn't that pretty cowardly of you?" A voice suddenly said as another Servant appeared on the tree next to Rider.

Rider was surprised by his appearance and took his oddly shaped sword and swung it at the Servant, but he ducked down and the blade stuck into the tree instead. The Servant was a man in his twenties wearing a skin tight light green outfit with yellow pads on his shoulders, knees and elbows. The Servant held a jet black spear in his right hand, and from that must be of the Lancer class.

Lancer looked up at Rider's blade in the tree. "Hee, you must not have swung that at full force, if you had this tree would have easily been knocked down by your attack. Do you want to stay out of the fighting that badly?" he asked.

Rider did not answer, but it wasn't because he didn't want to. Rather, Rider didn't remember leaving his post protecting his Master during the night. Even worse, it shouldn't have been possible for him to leave even if he wanted to, his Master had used a Command Seal in order to make sure he did not attempt to partake in unnecessary battles; more specifically he was ordered not to fight unless the enemy came to him.

Rider had of course noticed the commotion, but because of the Command Seal was not allowed to head toward it; and yet here he was in the midst of it.

"Well then, how about we go and say 'hi'?" Lancer said and raised his spear to strike.

In the moment Lancer threw his spear at that close range for Rider's head, Rider pulled his sword free of the tree and leapt backwards. Doing this however landed him right between the fight of the two other Servants as they made to swing their weapons at one another; which were now about to strike him.

Rider reacted as quickly as he possibly could and spun his body in a circle with his sword held out. This action made both the other Servants have to jump away, too surprised by Rider's sudden appearance to have been able to make a proper block.

Lancers spear struck into the side of a building behind them, and now all of them were left with some sort of question. "Who are you?" Mordred asked.

"Where did you come from?" Berserker questioned.

"What was that?" Shirou wondered looking at the spear in the wall.

(How did I get here?) Rider thought.

To answer Shirou's question, a man walked up to the battlefield. "Oh, that's no good. Lancer, you should have used the incantation when striking Rider." The man said, looking at the tree Rider had come from.

In response to the man, Lancer jumped down from the tree and replied. "Sorry, I guess I over anticipated the other Servant's attacks, they were meant to finish him off before he had a chance to think." He said. "Even so, I should have used the incantation as insurance, I'll make sure not to make the same mistake twice." Lancer then held his hand up and called out a single word. "Athibar," And with it his spear stuck in a wall on the other side of the street flew backwards and landed directly in his hand.

"Master Emiya, it seems we will be unable to regroup with Archer and his Master tonight." Mordred reported.

"Yeah, looks that way."

At this time, a single pair suddenly appeared in Fuyuki by teleportation. This pair was the last Master and Servant yet to arrive: Caster and her Master Nimue.

Nimue sighed. "Aw, it looks like everyone started without us, such a shame." She said to Caster. "In that case, let's show them what happens when we get left out of a party."

At this order, Caster took something out of her pocket and put her hand in front of her face. As she opened her hand, a small necklace fell down suspended by a chain. The necklace was a black pentagram, and it began to glow ominously as she uttered the name of the dreadful Noble Phantasm in a hoarse voice. "Pagan's Path…"

And with all seven Servants gathered, the sixth Holy Grail War had truly commenced.