"I see," Rider said, a frown on his face. "So we can't trust the moderator, huh? That'll make things tricky. He's got complete control over the War, and could pretty easily talk us up as a rule-breaking boogeyman for the rest of the participants." He spoke in Irish Gaelic, the language dropped into his mind by the Grail. Bazett didn't think she was being spied on, but she'd not encountered either Caster or Assassin, and wasn't taking any chances with what they might do.
Bazett had spent the last several minutes bringing her new Servant up to speed on the series of events that had led to his summoning. With Rider around to act as a deterrent, she was much less worried about a potential attack by Archer, and had felt justified in taking a few minutes to let her Servant know about how the War might be slightly different to the standard.
"It's worse than that," she reminded him. "I don't mind admitting, Kirei's at least as dangerous as I am – barring something completely unexpected happening, he's probably the most problematic Master in the War. In a fair fight, I'd probably be able to take him even without my own Noble Phantasm, but, ah, if he was interested in fighting fair he wouldn't have stolen my Servant to mess around with the War in the first place."
Rider fingered the hilt of one of his swords thoughtfully. "No match for a Servant, though, right?"
"Well, that's a given," Bazett said. "But bear in mind, he's got Archer to use as he wishes. He's been around the block enough times that he can work out how to make best use of a near-perfect sniper to counter the rest of the Servants he encounters. Which, thanks to his position as moderator, is all of them." She sighed.
Rider put a hand to his chin in thought. "Hm. Tricky. Always difficult to fight someone who's cheating."
"Yeah. Underhanded bastard," Bazett spat.
Rider looked surprised. "Oh, ah, I'm not saying I'm against cheating. We should cheat as much as possible. I've been in too many battles not to take every single advantage I can possibly get, especially when some participants are way more powerful than you. No, I totally understand this Kirei guy's desire for foul play. I'm just annoyed we didn't get a chance to cheat first."
"Yeah, well, I'm with you on that. Still, though. You'd think he'd take it seriously."
A shrug. "Nothing we can do about it, we just have to fight back as hard as possible." Rider paused, and looked at Bazett. "You do want to take revenge, yeah?"
"Oh, fuck yeah. No way that bastard's gonna get away with screwing me over, and fucking with the War to boot. Just, we have to be careful about how we do it. We can't just rush in guns blazing."
"Hm. Can't we, though?"
Bazett stared. "What."
"Look, as far as I can tell, your being alive? And having summoned a second Servant? Something went seriously weird, something no-one could have expected. Even if Archer senses a Servant coming, she won't think it'll be her previous Master come for revenge – because that's impossible, right? As long as you stay out of sight, as far as this priest is concerned we're just another new Master/Servant pair come to register."
Bazett got his point. "So we get close..."
"And then charge in the front door and kick the crap out of him. He'll never expect it," Rider grinned. It wasn't a cheerful grin. More feral.
Bazett looked at her Servant. While he'd come out of his stiff salute as soon as she'd asked him to, he was if anything even more tense now, his body almost trembling with anticipation at the thought of action. His fingers caressed the hilts of his blades restlessly. She cleared her throat and said, "Are you sure you're fine with this? We'd be attacking a man, a priest no less, in his own home with intent to kill. Are you fine with that as a hero?"
Rider shrugged. "Sure, why not? Besides, I have a wish, remember? If I win the War, I'll use the Holy Grail to kill every single Titan on my world. This priest thinks he's going to get in the way of that? I'll rip him apart." His eyes flashed.
A shiver went down Bazett's spine at the words, but she nodded. "Good enough for me. Come on then, let me get prepared and we'll go. Watch the windows in case Archer does decide to attack."
"Got it." The young man glanced at the city visible through the window. He muttered, "No walls, huh… guess this is what's possible when humanity doesn't have to live in fear..."
Bazett stepped out of her pyjamas, and put on her underwear and spare suit. Her original was missing a sleeve, after all. This one, identical in style, hadn't had quite as many runes and spells on it, but it should be more than enough. She focused, and reinforced it, activating the runes that would make it stronger than full plate armour and as easy to move in as gym kit. She finished with her gloves – spells for magnifying momentum, extra armour over the knuckles, a handy little trick that reflected all the incoming force on the hand back into the target. She punched one fist into her palm, and smiled at the shockwave.
Finished, she looked at Rider, who quickly glanced away with a blush on his face. What was-? Oh. He looked like a teenager, and she'd just undressed without a second thought. Well, he'd not made a fuss of it, and he was a soldier – probably best to just assume he'd be professional about it. Bazett, for her part, had long since stopped worrying about that sort of thing while she was in a warzone.
"Are we still clear, Rider?" she asked.
Rider cocked his head, then shook it. "No Servants nearby that I can sense."
"Good. To the church we go, then. Stay close – be ready to defend me from sniper fire."
Her Servant nodded and dissolved into greenish motes of light.
Bazett left her hotel, and strolled casually in the direction of the church. She made sure to keep close to the edges of buildings, or within thick crowds, and changed directions frequently. It was somewhat annoying to keep doubling back or detouring, but much less annoying than being shot in the head, so whatever. She could feel Rider at her back, an ominous spiritual presence that the evening crowds instinctively avoided. To Bazett's much more finely-tuned senses it was beyond unnerving, like knowing there was a savage animal right behind you and not being allowed to react.
Obviously she trusted Rider – yeah, and would be trusting him with her life in a few minutes – but the fact remained that Servants were pretty much the most powerful class of entity most magi would ever encounter. The tactical part of Bazett was very much aware that Rider could slaughter every single person on the street in about five seconds, and that was assuming she herself could last for three. It had an effect.
Not that she was complaining. She'd need every bit of that power and more if she was going to come out of this alive. Even now – even with her Servant right next to her – Archer could be lining up a killing shot.
Her thoughts stuck on such grim topics, Bazett continued down the busy streets, on her roundabout way to kill a man.
Mami had noticed her former Master almost the moment she'd stepped outside, obviously. Admittedly, she'd gotten lucky and had been looking in the right direction at the time, but even so there was no way she wouldn't have spotted her by now. Red hair sort of stood out in Japan.
Even when you were looking from on top of a skyscraper. Mami had always liked high places, even before she'd received the weapons that made them tactically convenient, or indeed the power of the Archer class that allowed her to see every single person in her line of sight unnaturally clearly. She liked looking out over crowds, watching people go about their day, and looking out over the horizon. In Mitakihara, there were just more and more people as far as the eye could see, and Mami always loved it when she spotted other people looking out at the world, the same as she was.
She was somewhat less enthused about seeing her former Master, and even less so to see the boy following her around. From this range, she couldn't sense whether or not he was a Servant, but, well. It was sort of obvious, at least to her. His clothing would have raised flags immediately – no-one wore cloaks any more – but the odd gear and sword hilts just visible around his waist, combined with the fact that he was following a known magus, clinched it. Mami had no idea which class he might be, though Saber, Rider, Berserker and Assassin were all possibilities. Admittedly, it would be an odd Assassin to just display himself in the open like that, but there could be any number of reasons for it.
To Mami's shame, a small part of her considered just taking out the woman – Kirei had mentioned her name, but damned it she could remember it – with a bullet to the head and just getting it over with. It wouldn't even be difficult. Mami had hit far smaller targets moving far faster, with much less time to prepare. Given that she was firing from most of a mile away, and also invisible, it wouldn't even risk exposing the secret of magic, although the investigation and massively increased police presence that was sure to follow might make things awkward as far as actually conducting the War in secret was concerned.
But no. No, that wasn't who Mami was. Well, okay, using underhanded tactics like sniping and attacking the Master was absolutely who Mami was, she'd long since abandoned any concepts of fair play in her battles against the Wraiths. She'd certainly have had a much harder time against Berserker if she'd focused on actually fighting him, like a chump. But, well. She sort of felt sorry for her former Master. The Irish woman had had no chance at all from the beginning, from what Mami had gathered, and if she'd somehow managed to claw her way back to having a fighting chance, well, Mami could respect that.
One chance, she thought. You get one free chance, as thanks for bringing me into this War. You waste it, that's your own bad luck. Tomorrow, any shot I see, I'm taking.
...which left the question of what she was going to do instead. In the interests of fair play, she shifted position and began searching the other side of the city, keeping an eye out for anything that could mean the presence of a Servant. The entrance to the Einzbern forest, for example, she kept a careful watch on. In fact, if she focused, wasn't that-
"Careless, Archer. If I, merely watching through your eyes, noticed the presence of an apparently restored Bazett Fraga McRemitz, you yourself cannot possibly have failed to do so."
Oh, fiddlesticks.
"Of course not, Master," Mami replied, through the mental equivalent of gritted teeth.
"Then why have you not eliminated her? It should be easy, even for you. You are not an Archer for nothing." Kirei's mental voice was calm. He didn't seem particularly angry that Mami had let one of his enemies escape. He sounded like he was honestly asking after her reasons.
...and if he was any other Master, Mami would have been happy to explain. Kirei, though, just rubbed her the wrong way, with his callous disregard for life and his frankly sadistic disregard for her own feelings. So, well, he could go jump in a lake as far as she was concerned.
On the other hand, she did need some kind of excuse. She could simply refuse to attack, as she had before, but she got the sense that if she pushed her luck on the same issue twice she'd find herself Commanded to attack regardless. Also, before she'd framed it as not hunting down a dying woman just to finish her off. Bazett was fine now, though: arm restored, seemingly no worse for wear – heck, even her suit was unharmed, not a thread out of place! Mami was genuinely curious about how her former Master had managed it… but now was not the time.
Kirei hadn't mentioned the Servant… perhaps because he had focused on Bazett? Although the spell he was using allowed him to see through Mami's eyes, Kirei himself was free to choose what to focus on within her field of vision. This both made it much less disorienting for the magus and allowed them to pick up on things the Servant might potentially miss. A common example was analyzing an enemy Servant's appearance and equipment while the Servant whose senses were being piggybacked concentrated on actually fighting.
So it was entirely possible that Kirei had simply noticed Bazett's survival, and not pegged the cloaked figure behind her as anything out of the ordinary. Mami went ahead with her bluff.
"I was under the impression I was not to involve parties outside the War, Master. You've already taken her Command Seals – this Bazett is no longer a Master, and no longer a target of mine."
There was a pause, as if Kirei hadn't considered that. "Hm. You are technically correct. Nevertheless, she remains a potential obstacle to my plans, and one I'd prefer removed."
Mami glanced back to where she'd spotted Bazett, hoping she'd been out of sight long enough. She had been, and her mental voice was cheerful as she replied. "Oh dear, it looks like I've lost the opportunity, I don't have a clear shot any more. Whoops! Careless of me, like you said. Now, I could hunt this random, harmless, uninvolved woman down for you, or I could expend my valuable time and energy into actually doing the job you set me, and try to find another Servant. It is, obviously, your choice, Master."
There was the mental equivalent of a deep and weary sigh. "Very well, Archer. You may continue your search for enemy Servants. I would say you were the most recalcitrant Servant I had ever met, but the King of Heroes reigns supreme in that aspect as well." Mami took a quick look around, and found Gilgamesh almost immediately. He tended to make himself obvious. At the moment he was loitering around one of the old mansions in the suburbs, for no particular reason Mami could see.
"Well, maybe you should stop summoning Archers. The Independent Action skill isn't for show, you know," she said. That might have been a little too cheeky, she thought at once, but Kirei seemed more amused than anything.
"Need I remind you I am the Moderator of the War? Summoning a Servant, Archer or otherwise, would be quite against the rules."
Mami snorted, and cut the mental connection – as much as she could from this end. It wasn't like hanging up a phone call, more like turning your back on someone you were speaking with. Kirei could still see through her eyes and speak to her, but he'd know she didn't want to talk.
Pretty satisfied that she'd got one up on her irritating Master, Mami jumped off the skyscraper on the opposite side to where she'd seen Bazett, attaching a pair of ribbons to the edge and holding on while running straight down the wall. About halfway down she let go of one and swung herself onto the next rooftop, heading towards the river. She was interested to see what the top of the bridge was like.
"So yeah, in the end you just have to divorce the music from the composer. Was Wagner a racist dickweasel? Absolutely! Does that make his music any less inspiring? No. It's totally fine to condemn him for his beliefs and actions, and praise him for his art – because art itself is meant to stand apart from the artist. It has to, if you're going to try to appraise it without your perceptions being coloured by your own opinion of its creator. Art's subjective, of course, and obviously context is a big deal, but it should ultimately be judged on its own merits… hey, Shirou, are you still listening?"
Shirou had not expected the Servant of Madness to be a classical music buff. Part of him was sure that the strangest thing about the situation was that that was, well, what he found strangest about the situation. There was quite a lot to pick from.
The four of them – Shirou, Berserker, Tohsaka, and Caster – walked through the streets of Fuyuki together. Or rather, sort of together. Tohsaka led the way, as the one sure of where they were going. She'd refused to answer any of Shirou's questions about… anything, and was simply stomping forward at a furious pace.
Shirou and Berserker followed, side by side. At first, the teenaged Servant had been on edge, but as time passed she loosened up. She'd been more than happy to chat to Shirou when he'd asked some basic questions about herself, but her enthusiasm for music had come as something of a shock.
"Uh, yeah, I am listening. Sorry, Berserker."
"Sa-ya-ka. It ain't exactly a difficult name!" Berser- Sayaka frowned at him, and Shirou recoiled. Even small expressions of anger seemed to be magnified on the Servant, so he guessed this had meant to come out as an adorable pout. It looked like she'd just heard him make an off-colour joke instead. He remembered what it had been like when she'd been really angry, and had no wish to see it again.
A voice from behind them interrupted his thoughts. "I'm certainly interested, Miss Sayaka," put in Caster. The enormous foreigner had quite naturally taken up the position in the rear of the group. Sayaka hadn't been happy about having to expose their backs to one of the greatest spellcasters in history, but he'd pointed out that his own Master was exposing hers to one of the most unstable warriors in history. Put like that, it seemed fair enough to Shirou, so he'd asked Sayaka to drop the issue. She'd listened, but hadn't liked it.
"You can keep right on calling me Berserker, you twisty bastard," Sayaka snarled. "I haven't forgotten that scam you tried to pull with pretending to be Rider. And what would you know about music, anyway?"
There was a rumbling chuckle. "I'm a fully trained bard, I'll have you know!" He took a breath, and then sang, "There once was a hero named Ragnar the Red, who came riding to Whiterun from old Rorikstead… hm. It loses something in the translation, I'll admit."
"...okay, you've got a good voice, not gonna lie," said Sayaka grudgingly.
From ahead, Shirou heard Tohsaka call out, sounding exasperated, "A great singer as well? Sure! Why the hell not! What are you not absurdly talented at?"
Caster thought. "Spears. I never did learn to use a spear." He trailed off. "...I think that's it."
There was a pause. "That's it?" asked Sayaka sceptically.
"Look, you live long enough, you pick up a few things."
"Like what?" Shirou asked.
Tohsaka put a hand to her face. "Don't get him started..."
"Oh-ho, trying to gather information on your enemies already, is it, boy? Smart move," said Caster. He didn't seem offended, though. "Well, let me see, most any close combat weapon, spears excepted. I've practised throughout all my life, and now there's no real advantage in my using any one over the other, all else being equal. Magic, of course – and I don't mean that I've specialised in one craft to the exclusion of all others. Nor have I-"
"Oh look we're here and my Servant can stop revealing all his capabilities," said Tohsaka all at once.
Shirou looked around. The group was just at the start of a long driveway, leading through some trees. New Town wasn't a part of Fuyuki he'd ever really had much reason to go to, but he had a vague idea of what was here. Given that Tohsaka was taking them through what looked like a graveyard…
"Hey, are we going to the church?" he asked.
Tohsaka gave him a scornful look. "Duh. I told you the Church sent a moderator, didn't I?"
"Did you?" Shirou tried to remember. "I had a lot on my mind, to be fair."
"Ugh. Just come with me. Caster, you stay outside, obviously. Berserker, you'll need to stay outside the actual church grounds too."
Sayaka bristled. "You don't tell me what to do, Miss Perfect. If Shirou wants me with him in there, that's where I'm gonna be."
"It's traditional," Tohsaka sighed. "Just… control your Servant, will you, Emiya?" She folded her arms and looked pointedly at Shirou.
Feeling slightly guilty, Shirou said, "It's fine, Sayaka. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."
This was, of course, the moment the front doors of the church exploded.
Bazett flew backwards through the doors of the church, launched backwards by Kirei's lunging strike. Well, this hasn't gone well, she thought to herself.
Somehow – some-fucking-how – Kirei had known they were coming in advance, and had set up a couple of nasty surprises. Bazett hadn't considered it before, but there was a reason people went to sanctuary in churches. Traditionally, they were safe havens against the supernatural. Kirei had clearly had this idea in mind when setting up the defenses around his home.
Kirei landed on his feet, but Bazett had to roll to regain hers. Almost as soon as the priest had come to a stop, he lurched backwards into the shadows of the church – and not a moment too soon. Twin straight swords passed inches from his chest, and Rider pressed the assault with a flurry of attacks. Bazett was pretty damn fast, but even she could barely see the strikes her Servant made. Kirei fell back into the church, and Rider clicked his teeth and leapt. Within a second he was on the roof, probing for a way in.
There were two bounded fields, built into the very stones of the church itself, and Bazett couldn't decide which was more annoying. The first was a pretty standard warding against spirits – quite appropriate for a church, but Kirei had apparently massively overcharged the spell so that it could keep out even Servants. Bazett didn't have a clue where he was drawing that kind of prana, and didn't care – it wouldn't matter if she could get in there and deal with him herself.
"You bastard, Kirei, you were ready for us! How the hell did you know we were coming?" Bazett gritted out.
"Have you already forgotten that I am the Master of an Archer class Servant, Bazett?" came Kirei's taunting voice from inside the church. "I am quite certain you were there when I acquired her."
Unfortunately, the second bounded field made dealing with Kirei more tricky. Quite simply, it eroded any spell not specifically okayed by the caster of the bounded field. This meant that Bazett was fighting with no Reinforcement.
Fortunately, her repertoire wasn't that small.
"You know, you were never as funny as you thought you were," growled Bazett. A thought had prana running through the runes on her suit and gloves again. Shaking herself off, Bazett launched herself back into the church. She caught Kirei just as he was drawing some more of those Black Keys he favoured out from under his coat. Unlike the last time he'd used those on her, though, she was ready.
Chanelling more prana into her glove runes, Bazett punched the swords. Prana hardened into the shape of sharp metal met fists enhanced to hit like sledgehammers. The swords shattered, and Bazett followed up with a boxing four, forcing Kirei to slide back in between the pews to evade her.
A second later he realised his mistake and leapt into the air to avoid the hail of splinters that used to be a pew before Bazett had kicked it straight into his stupid face. His arms crossed to protect his face, and as he landed they uncrossed. Six more Black Keys flew at Bazett. They were no harder to shatter than the last, but it gave Kirei time to draw even goddamn more of the swords from wherever the hell he was keeping them before closing in to fight Bazett.
Perhaps 'closing in' wasn't quite the right word. Black Keys weren't long, maybe two and a half feet, so they were mainly used as throwing weapons. But that little extra length, added to Kirei's natural height and reach advantage, meant Bazett had to weave her way past Kirei's guard if she wanted to hit him with her fists.
Or it would have, if she hadn't specifically enhanced this suit to resist holy weapons. Despite how she seemed to getting outplayed at every turn, Bazett wasn't dumb. Fortunately, Irish runecraft in particular had developed a lot of spells specifically for fighting back against the weapons and mysteries of the Church. They hadn't done them a lot of good, in the end, but nevertheless Bazett had managed to plug the gap in her defences.
So she rushed forwards and struck again and again, trusting her suit to take the impacts of the Black Keys. One slashed her forehead, and blood dripped in her eye, but she ignored it and kept on pushing. When Kirei was reacting to a particularly vicious low kick, she reached out and grabbed at his wrists. She missed with her right, but her left hand closed around Kirei's arm like a vice. Bones creaked under her enhanced grip and she felt a surge of triumph, but that wasn't what she was after. Taking a half-step, she turned and threw Kirei out of the church window with a grunt of effort.
Kirei managed to twist in mid-air, so that he hit the window with his shoulder rather than his head. Coloured glass rained down around him, but he covered his face with his arms once again to avoid being cut. Overall, he seemed to emerged largely unharmed, after being wrenched ten feet through the air and through solid glass.
But Rider was waiting.
Even before Kirei had landed, the young Servant was swooping in from his perch, and a doubled slash knocked the priest down into the ground so hard he bounced. He was up on his feet in next to no time, but Rider was already behind him. The Servant's kick caught Kirei in the side, and he went flying away from the church. Even as he rolled and came up on one knee, Rider was already in the air.
Bazett hadn't been able to get her head around the strange equipment her Servant wore. Part of it was the modular segmented swords that made up his primary weapons, but most of it was mechanical, with the swords' oversized hilts hanging to the side of each thigh. Some kind of apparatus using spooled wire or cable hung from the small of the back. It was impressively technical, and Bazett couldn't imagine the kind of training necessary to use something like that in battle.
Rider made it work, though.
As soon as he'd landed his kick on Kirei, wires had fired out from the waist-mounted gear in response to a trigger on the swords, anchoring themselves to one of the trees surrounding the church. As Kirei tumbled, Rider was almost flying towards him, lifted into midair by the wires. Another trigger, and the wires retracted faster than Bazett could track, leaving Rider free to come down in a sword strike using his entire weight.
Kirei didn't even try to block that one, but lunged to one side. Once again, Rider reacted inhumanly fast, a different wire pulling him to one side to track his target. The priest just barely managed to block his flurry of strikes, but the kick had clearly taken its toll, and he was slowing. Back in the church, Bazett smiled grimly. Kirei was good, but even he was no match for a combat-focused Servant. The battle would be over in moments.
Then Bazett saw a wave of red energy come out of nowhere through Rider's eyes, and watched as her Servant backed off. She was so surprised she reacted too late to stop Kirei rushing back inside the church, out of Rider's reach. Cursing, she rejoined battle with her former friend, while keeping half an eye, through Rider, on the third party who had interrupted her revenge.
"Well, hello there," greeted a giant of a man in black mail. The red energy flickering around the edges of the double-handed longsword in his hands singled him out as the one who'd interrupted Rider's attempt on Kirei's life. "I'm informed that's the moderator you were trying to murder there. You are aware that's against the rules, are you not?"
Rider bristled. "You don't know a damn thing. You're being played and you don't even know it. If you're smart, you'll walk away now and let the Church give us a new overseer." He made no move to attack, but held his swords ready.
"Yeah, I'm thinking you're full of crap," a third voice snarled, and Bazett cursed again. What was clearly another Servant stalked out from behind the first. This one looked like a young girl, even younger than Rider, but Bazett knew not to judge by appearances. Like the armoured man, this Servant held a sword, but hers was an ornate cutlass. Although her blue costume clearly aimed to invoke 'knightly' imagery, she didn't wear any armour. "Way I see it, there's only one reason to go after the guy that's meant to stop us interfering with the non-magical population, and that's if you were already planning on interfering with the non-magical population. Well, screw you. Some of us actually have a wish we want to fight for, and want this War to go ahead."
The giant nodded. "Well said, Berserker. I don't know who you are, Servant. From your admirable mobility on the battlefield, and your choice of weapon, I can guess that you are Servant Rider, but I am not certain, and your identity is a mystery to me thus far. However, I know that as a man who values honour above all, I cannot let your cowardly actions stand. I am Servant Saber! Your end comes now!"
Bazett gritted her teeth, even as she hurled a brass candlestick at Kirei's head. Somehow, two Servants had managed to establish an alliance or at least a working relationship this early in the War. And to make things worse, one of them was Saber, the most outstanding class of Servant. Well, she'd see about that.
"Rider. Fight off Saber and Berserker as long as possible. I'll try to beat Kirei by myself, but in case I can't, there's something else I need you to do..." She explained her plan, and Rider nodded.
"I'll see what I can do, Master. Be ready when it's time."
"How will I know it's time?"
Rider gave a mental chuckle. "Trust me, you'll know."
Unfortunately, something must have shown on his face, because Berserker's expression darkened. "You think this is funny? Oh, yeah, a big joke, trying to kill a man! Ca- Saber, I hope you don't mind disappointment, because I'm going to be the one to cause the first Servant casualty in this War." She gripped her cutlass so hard her knuckles turned white, and some kind of blue glow formed under her feet.
Rider shot wires straight upward and lifted off, so fast that he looked to have simply vanished to human sight. Not a moment too soon. Berserker's blade blurred through where he'd been, so close Bazett felt the air rush past Rider's feet. The blue knight herself was already crouched for a leap, looking like some wild beast. Rider barely managed to turn himself aside in time for a parry as the Servant of Madness rocketed past him, making it to the church roof in a single bound. The blades clashed, and Bazett could feel how much force there was behind the blow. The pair landed on the roof at almost the same time, and paused for a moment, looking for an opening.
It came in the form of another wave of rending energy from Saber, who'd arrived on the roof in that bare moment after the other two had arrived. Rider leapt back, retreating along the roof towards the spire. Saber and Berserker faced him, on the side of the roof between him and the church doors.
Rider looked between the two of them; Saber standing tall, calm, and proud, Berserker almost quivering with only-barely-restrained killing intent. "Look, I'd really rather not fight you both. Uh, Saber, you said you were honourable, right? Is this how an honourable man would act? Fighting two on one? Attacking a man while his back's turned? Allying with the most likely Servant to kill innocents?"
Saber shrugged. "So far, she's attacked zero non-combatants to your one, so she's ahead of you there, boy. And what good is honour when it holds me back from preventing wrongs done within my very sight? Now, stop stalling, Rider. Will you fight us seriously?"
Bazett back-pedalled, retreating from Kirei's increasingly desperate flurry of strikes with the Black Keys. He was just slow enough now, after Rider had landed a solid hit, that she could both keep up with him and keep an eye on the conversation. On the other hand, she wasn't sure about her chances of beating him in a fight, even now. He was just too experienced, and too wily.
"Rider. I'll need your help after all. Wait until they're inside, then drop the building on them."
Rider shifted his grip on his swords. "Oh, okay. I was just buying time for my Master to try and kill that bastard priest, is all. She's down there, you see, and quite formidable. I busted him up pretty bad – want to take bets on how long he'll last? Ten seconds? Twenty seconds more?" he cocked his head. "You want to see if he can survive a full minute?"
Berserker snarled and started forward, but Saber only laughed. "Oh, no doubt. But, Rider. Did you think you were the only one who brought his Master along tonight?" He advanced along the roof with Berserker.
Okay, Bazett thought. This is where it gets tricky.
Rin was not a fan of Kotomine Kirei. Legally he was her guardian, but part of the reason why she kept up the honour-student act was so that she didn't have to see him any more than she had to. She had enough of his self-righteous lectures on magecraft without adding him nagging her about schoolwork as well. No, for the most part she did her own thing and only got in touch with Kirei when absolutely necessary.
Her plan for tonight had been similar. Take Emiya to the church, chuck him in the front doors, and then go on her merry way and figure out how to blow his house up with the Servant inside or something. But of course Kirei had to ruin that like he ruined everything. Now Rin had to actually – ugh – support the annoying fake priest. She didn't like the idea, not one bit, but there were rules to be followed. No way was she letting the path to the Root slip out of her grasp because of some rogue Magus who decided she was above following the rules of the Heavens Feel ritual.
So she ran inside the church to save Kirei, while what sounded like a metal hurricane raged on the roof. But she didn't have to like it.
She only realised Emiya had followed her inside when she heard him shout, "Hey! Stop fighting!"
Amazingly, the two figures clashing in front of the altar did, if only so they could stare at this new and special breed of idiot. In the sudden quiet, dust fell from the ceiling as the entire building shook from the titanic forces being unleashed on the roof.
Well, Rin wasn't going to pass up the opportunity. She stood straight, hands inside her coat pockets, and called, "Hey, fake priest. You getting slow in your old age? How come this punk was able to get the drop on you?"
"Your ever-present concern for me is as touching as always, Rin," said Kirem dryly. "Needless to say, I formally request aid as the moderator from the Tohsaka family in removing this obstacle to the Heavens Feel ritual."
"Yeah, granted, whatever," Rin said. Beside her, Emiya looked between her and Kirei, obviously confused about what was going on. Shit, if Kirei died would she have to fill him in on War herself? Man, what a pain.
The other magus – foreign, going by the red hair, although Rin couldn't make out her features under the head wound she had going on – spluttered. "Obstacle- listen kid! This bastard's the Master of Archer, that's why I'm-"
"Oh, save it," Rin interrupted, tossing her hair over one shoulder. "If you were going to make up an excuse, at least make it a bit more believable. I know you might not be as familiar with how this all works as one of the founding families, so let me explain. He's the moderator. He's not allowed to be a Master. Hell, he has the position in the first place because he's an impartial observer. His only wish, apart from causing me trouble, is to see the War conducted safely and properly."
"Tohsaka," began Emiya from beside her, "I'm really confused and this all seems really important, so please. In ten words or less, what the hell is going on?"
Rin brought a fist to her mouth in thought. "Hmm. Ten words or less? He's the moderator, she's cheating, we're saving that fake priest."
Emiya nodded. "Good enough for me." He picked up a splinter of wood that used to be a pew. "Trace on." Holding it in front of him like a sword, the boy faced the red-haired Magus. Reinforcement? Jeez, he really was third-rate. "I'm ready." He ran in, raising it for a strike.
Shaking her head in frustration, the enemy Magus raised her fists. "You're nowhere near, kid." As soon as Emiya reached her, one fist lashed out to strike his impromptu sword, and the other flashed towards his stomach.
Emiya was clearly a poor magus, but Rin had definitely felt the reinforcement spell take hold. The splinter of wood should now be about as tough as a steel bar, while still retaining the original weight. So she was quite surprised when it shattered halfway up the length when it met the oncoming fist.
Given that, though, she was less surprised when Emiya doubled over coughing from the lightning-fast jab.
"Just stay down, kid, my problem's not with-" That was as far as the other magus got before the sapphire Rin had thrown while she was distracted by Emiya exploded at her feet. She was thrown aside as the equivalent of an A-rank attack went off at point-blank range.
"Well, that's that, I guess. Cheers for the assist, Emiya, I- ack!" Rin cut herself off as a Black Key flew inches past her face, throwing the red-haired magus off balance and causing her to break off her attack to block it. Rin dropped into a rough martial arts stance. How the hell had the magus survived that? She hadn't activated any kind of spell, she was sure!
Kirei stepped up beside her. "Tut tut, Rin. I was sure I taught you better than that. If Bazett could be so easily disposed of, I would not be having so much trouble with her in the first place."
Not ten feet away, the magus – Bazett, apparently – brushed herself off. "I'm telling you, kid, you're on the wrong side of the fight. This bastard's been playing you from the start. He's the Master of Archer, and he's going to use his position as moderator to manipulate the War from behind the scenes." The words came out in a rush, as though she was worried about interrupted again.
Rin raised an eyebrow. "To what end?"
The magus bit her lip, and looked down. "I… don't know."
"Uh-huh." There was a brief pause. Rin looked sidelong at Kirei, who was as unreadable as ever. He wasn't denying it… but then it would be just like him not to, and hold it over her head that she hadn't trusted him. Again. And, well, again, he was the moderator. Rin didn't know how the church did things – it was very definitely and very deliberately outside her area of expertise – but they wouldn't just assign anyone to the position. Pretty much the only thing Rin had ever seen her guardian take seriously was his preparations for the War.
No. He'd been a student of her father's once, just like she had, and if Tohsaka Tokiomi had impressed one thing on Rin, it was the importance of the Heaven's Feel ritual. This Bazett, whoever she was, was just trying to drive a wedge between her two strongest opponents.
"You might not know this," Rin began, walking slowly round to flank Bazett, "but Kirei is my guardian. I know him probably better than any Master in this War." She kept her eyes on Bazett. She was looking from Rin to Kirei, and keeping her hands up in a rough boxing stance. Her suit seemed to glow along the seams – were those runes? How provincial. Runecraft was basically useless as far as reaching the Root went, being as it was a black box of sorts, but Rin supposed it was effective for the material effects. It certainly explained how she was able to enhance herself without using reinforcement.
"I hope you are not implying I would be anything less than perfectly impartial," Kirei interrupted, a serene look on his face. He mirrored Rin's movements, heading to Bazett's other side. His tone was light. His footsteps were light. But his eyes, and the fact that his hands stayed where he could use them easily, told Rin that he was paying at least as much attention to Bazett as she was.
Ten feet was nothing in a fight between mages. Rin herself could reinforce her legs to run a hundred metres in about eight seconds – and she knew she was nowhere near as good as Kirei was at that sort of thing. By the looks of her Bazett had her beat as well. Maybe she was an Enforcer or something? Anyway, ten feet sounded like a lot, but the three of them may as well have been squaring up in a phone booth. Worse, squaring up in a phone booth and trying not to give away any openings. Each of them was entirely focused on the other two. The slightest slip could be the beginning of an opening that would lead to someone dying. Even when lightning struck just outside the church, the three kept their focus, not showing any weakness.
Which is why it took Rin somewhat by surprise when the roof fell in.
Shirou staggered to his feet and ignored the throbbing ache in his ribs. The magus had hit him harder than he'd ever been hit before, even in the accident at work that had given him the scar on his shoulder. But there was no time to worry about that, because there was rubble falling down all around the four people in the church, and Shirou still didn't really get all the details about what was going on but he knew that Tohsaka getting squished by a rock wasn't going to help him get any answers ever. So he rushed forwards, and pulled her out of the way, ignoring her startled protests. When they were clear, Shirou turned around and looked at the rubble.
Kotomine church was no longer an enclosed space.
A massive arm had punched through the wall and part of the ceiling. It was – Shirou didn't have the words to describe it. Huge, obviously, but it wasn't huge like an American Football player was huge, or even like an elephant was huge. It was as if the church was just some doll house and an adult man had reached inside.
When Shirou followed the arm up to its owner, he wished he hadn't. At first he thought it was pitch black outside, the arm extending from the darkness. Then a flash of blue hit it on the side, and it moved. The arm pulled back, and a giant straightened up. Shirou had been mentally labelling Caster as a giant – he was certainly the tallest person Shirou had ever met, and muscled with it. The blond Servant had seemed larger than life. Shirou couldn't have imagined looking at him and thinking, 'small'.
This giant, the giant outside Kotomine church was fifteen metres high. Naked, and muscled like a boxer, it didn't move ponderously like every depiction of a giant Shirou had seen. No, it moved like an above-averagely nimble human. When Sayaka came in for another pass, so fast she was a streak of blue against the night sky, it simply shifted its head as if slipping a punch. Spinning on the spot, it delivered an elbow strike behind itself, and Sayaka ploughed a furrow in the dirt as she was knocked out of the sky. The giants eyes flashed green, and such a madness Shirou had never seen in his life, not even on his own Servant.
Sayaka couldn't stay down long. With a shriek of fury, she erupted from the ground – and not a moment too soon. The giant's foot slammed down with enough force to make the building shake. While the other Servant was distracted, the giant turned its attention back towards the church. A hammerfist strike knocked the spire clear off the roof, and it fell to earth with an ear-splitting crash.
"Come on, time to go!" Pulling Tohsaka by the arm, Shirou sprinted for the doorway. All around him, beams crashed into already-broken pews, and bricks fell like rain. The noise was deafening, even drowning out the monster's roars. Shirou ignored it all, and simply pelted forward as fast as he could.
Beside Shirou, Tohsaka spluttered. "That's… Rider?"
He raised an eyebrow. "It is? What, did he have a growth spurt in the last ten seconds? Oh, no, wait, I've got it, we must have missed his minute-long transformation sequence. Should we be looking out for a mecha of some kind or-"
Wham. Stars flashed in front of his eyes as he was hit by a fist that felt hard as teak.
"Take this seriously!" Tohsaka screamed, shaking her hand. "We're both going to die unless we can figure out a way to stop that thing! I get that you're a shitty magus and didn't ask for any of this and I'm- I'm sorry for dragging you into this War, okay? But right now, Shirou, I need you to get your goddamn head in the game and start being useful!" She stopped, breathing heavily.
There was as much of an uncomfortable silence as there can be while a giant does its level best to destroy the building you're standing in.
"Okay," Shirou said, "okay. I'm sorry."
Tohsaka huffed and looked away. "That's fine."
"But, uh, I still have no idea what I can do about, well, anything. You saw me back there! I do my best, but I got pretty wrecked just against that other magus. What do you expect me to do against..." he gestured at the bulk of Rider's new form, "that?"
"We don't have to beat it. That's what Servants are for. All I need you, personally to do is help me out against the Master – same as before, only, you know, in the fresh air now. No, there's something else you can do."
Shirou briefly thought it was unfair that Tohsaka got to crack jokes and he didn't, but let it slide. "And what's that?"
"Get Berserker on board with whatever plan we cook up. Look, she clearly doesn't like either me or Caster, but she should at least listen to you. We've still got two Servants to his one, so as unlikely as it sounds this is still winnable."
"Um," Shirou began, "How am I supposed to get Sayaka's attention? She looks..." he gestured helplessly towards where his Servant had grabbed a lock of the giant's hair in one hand and was hammering away at his forehead with the other, "sort of preoccupied."
Tohsaka stared at him. "With telepathy, obviously. Don't tell me you don't- no, of course you wouldn't." She kneaded her forehead with her hand. "Okay, this is how it works. Focus on the link between you and her. Think about the Command Seals if it helps. Quickly now, before Rider's Master appears. Something like a building collapsing on her won't faze her."
Shirou did. He might have been imagining it, but there was… something. It was like a subtle pull in what he realised was Sayaka's direction, but on the mind and not the body. "I think I have it."
"I hope so. Next, send a message down it. Language is a framework for thought, and thought is the crudest expression of your soul, and it's natural for the soul to be conveyed through magic, right? Think of it that way, and send a message."
Shirou focused. It made a certain kind of sense. He wasn't speaking with his body, with vibrating flaps of sinew and flopping muscles in his mouth, he was just communicating directly with his soul. Speaking from the heart, basically. Heh. Put like that, it seemed the more natural way of delivering information… "What should I tell her?"
"Tell Berserker to be ready, because Caster has a plan, apparently."
Shirou lost concentration, and looked at Tohsaka. "He does? What plan?"
She shrugged. "I have no idea. He just says it'll get Rider's attention, and won't risk hurting innocents."
Wouldn't hurt innocents? It was honestly kind of worrying that Caster had to specify that… or that Tohsaka had to ask it. But, well, technically the reassurance was good, right? He refocused, and sent his message.
"Sayaka! Tohsaka says to be ready, because Caster's going to cause some kind of distraction. Will you be able to take out Rider as long as he's not focused on fighting you?"
The blue figure paused in her assault, and leapt onto Rider's shoulder to avoid the counter-attack. "I dunno, maybe? I keep cutting, but he keeps on healing! I'm suddenly understanding why people get so annoyed when fighting me, because this is really irritating."
Shirou snorted, then looked guiltily at Tohsaka's raised eyebrow. "Well, keep it together and try not to enter that Mad Enhancement thing. I need you sane so you can help me out… and so I have someone to talk to that isn't Tohsaka's bitchy real self or The Most Interesting Man In The World, you know?"
"You got it, Shirou."
Up on that portion of the rood that was undamaged, Caster appeared. He still had that enormous sword that had allowed him to pose as a Saber, but at the moment it was sheathed on his back. He looked to be taking a deep breath.
Tohsaka gripped Shirou's shoulder, making him yelp. "Caster says in three."
"In three, Sayaka!" The blue Servant leapt clear, flashing over to stand between Rider and Shirou. She looked very much the worse for wear, with blood all over her face and an arm that bent the wrong way. As Shirou watched, though, she gave her arm a sharp tug and it snapped back into position.
He was about to ask her if that hurt. But at that moment, Caster finally made his move, and there was no more room for sound.
/DUR/ /NEH/ /VIIR/
In front of Rider, the air tore in a rough dome shape. Purple fire raged from the cracks, rushing to the centre and forming a shape. It was a shape Shirou had seen before – but never in real life.
"No..." whispered Tohsaka.
With a mighty roar, an iron grey dragon, nearly fifty feet long from tip to tail, appeared out of thin air. It beat its wings, and howled a blizzard at the giant. In the path of the attack, mist congealed, the ground frosted over, trees turned white – and Rider's upraised arm froze almost solid. If it had raised its arm a second later, its face would have been the one to freeze. The dragon lunged forward and made to bite the giant's neck – but was caught by the horns in a single massive hand. Then Rider began to counter-attack.
Heedless of its own flesh cracking and breaking off, the giant slammed its frozen arm into the beast's head, then threw it bodily onto the remains of Kotomine church. The grey bulk thrashed and screamed, reducing what little had been left of the building to rubble.
"What is he doing?" Tohsaka yelled. "We're supposed to be keeping this war secret!"
"Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with Miss Perfect on this one," said Sayaka. "What kind of nutjob think adding a dragon to a situation is ever a good idea?"
The dragon roared again, and launched a purplish ball of energy that hit Rider in the chest. The giant howled in fury, and charged in with a kick that impacted on the dragon's hide with the force of a bomb. It kept up the assault, pounding the beast into the foundation of the church. For all that, though, its blows seemed less effective than before – was it tiring easier? It seemed to be slowing down, Shirou thought. This time, when the dragon lashed its tail like a whip and left a bloody welt on the giant's chest, the wounds seemed slower to close.
"Well," came Caster's voice from next to them, "it seemed like a good idea to me." Shirou looked. There was nothing there. In fact, Caster was still on the roof, watching the battle carefully. So how was he…? Oh, forget it. Shirou chalked it up to Caster being Caster and just listened to what he had to say. "We're just too small to deal any critical damage to him, and it can toss us around like dolls. What we need to something large enough that he can't just ignore it, and my old friend Durnehviir seemed just perfect. Besides, he likes to be let out of the Soul Cairn whenever he can."
"And will he go back in?" Tohsaka demanded, a little shrilly. "You know, before he decides to destroy my city? Or reveal the existence of magic to the world?! He's not exactly subtle!"
"Oh, he'll go back eventually. And as far as dragons go he's fairly docile." The dragon, Durnehviir, let loose another blast of well-below-freezing temperatures, and aimed a vicious bite to Rider's collarbone, ignoring the chokehold his lower neck was in. "I don't expect he'll try to destroy the city. Although I suppose he has been cooped up for a while..."
Tohsaka threw up her hands. "Great. Great! So we have a giant who's already destroyed Kotomine church, a freaking dragon who may or may not try to destroy my city once he's done eating said giant, and a Master somewhere around here who can survive the equivalent of a grenade at point-blank range! Kirei might have just had his own church collapsed on him, my temporary ally is a third-rate magus who might possibly be able to turn a stick into a harder stick, and my own Servant literally cannot stop disappointing me at every turn! The only one I can apparently rely on is the Servant of Madness, which I guess makes sense because this world has clearly gone insane. So tell me, Berserker, what's your contribution to this situation?"
Dull thuds punctuated her words, as Rider bounced Durnehviir's head off any parts of the building remaining. The dragon answered with a blast of frost that could have stopped a man's heart directly into the giant's chest. Neither combatant showed signs of giving up.
More quietly, Shirou added, "If there's anything you could do, we'd appreciate it. I mean, this is supposed to be a secret war, after all."
Sayaka, who'd been scowling at Rin all through her tirade, perked up. "Oh, well, if you think it's a good idea, I guess there is something I could do. My Noble Phantasm, or one application of it. It should be able to remove the giant and the dragon from the battlefield, so you guys can find that priest guy and deal with the enemy Master. But, um, in the interests of full disclosure," she sent a dark look at where Caster stood unconcerned on the ruins of the roof, "it has the potential to look a bit… weird, so don't be surprised. And don't interrupt, or you'll be pulled inside, and that's not a safe place to be."
"Berserker, we don't have time for any more games or being coy, so for the love of God, just-" Tohsaka broke off, apparently distracted by the cutlass held an inch from her eye.
"I don't take orders from you, princess. If Shirou wants me to help, I'll help, but you can just butt out," Sayaka snarled. She held the sword rock-steady, but the fact she'd drawn on Tohsaka at all was a reminder of how unstable she really was. She was fully ready to kill her own ally while monsters battled around her.
Shirou ever-so-gently took hold of the blade and guided it away from Tohsaka's paper-white face. As though Sayaka was some wild animal, he spoke slowly and quietly. "Please don't attack our allies, Sayaka. And yes, it would be very helpful for you to help out in whatever way you can. Just do your best, okay?" He gave her a friendly smile.
His Servant nodded, and beamed at him, all earlier savagery entirely absent from her demeanour. "Okay, Shirou! Oh, but, stand back. And like I said, don't interfere, no matter what it looks like."
So saying, she took her sword and reversed it in her grip. Because she'd told Shirou to stay back, he didn't move at all when she plunged it into her own chest. And because she'd warned him it would be weird, he let out no more than a strangled gasp, and heard her clearly when she announced the name of her Noble Phantasm.
"Symposium Magarum."
Unseen, a small white creature observed, and sniffed the air.
"How interesting," it said.
Servant Stats (as seen by Rin)
Class: Rider
Name: ?
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Stats:
Strength – D
Endurance – B
Agility – A+
Mana – D
Luck – C
Noble Phantasm – B
Class Skills: Riding – B, Magic Resistance C
Personal Skills: ?
?
Noble Phantasm: Rogue Titan – Rider becomes the monster he was committed to fighting in life, but through great willpower uses this form to grant him the power to destroy them. This Noble Phantasm increases Rider's Strength and Endurance by 3 ranks and grants Battle Continuation at Rank A, but lowers Agility by 1 rank. In addition, it allows some retention of sanity during Mad Enhancement. Rider counts as a Monstrous Beast while using this form. All wounds are regenerated when Rider enters this form.
