It was the third day of the Holy Grail War, and by the noon of it, the still living participants of the war had learned of the demise of Rider's Master. They knew that Rider was still around, but without a Master to provide it prana, its existence was on a time limit. Everyone dismissed her rather quickly.
Well, everyone except Harry.
It was mostly because of his new sight; he could see Rider spying on his house.
His sight, now changed by the Ritual of Spiritual Perception, was able to discern spirits.
To him, Rider in herastralized form was like a shining beacon compared to the smaller near-insect-like land spirits of Fuyuki City.
He was intrigued. He had seen Servants astralize before. Shirou's Caster and his Lancer were capable of such feat. What he recognized was that the when the Servants astralized, their form seems more at ease.
'Is it because that's their real form?' Harry thought to himself.
He had read briefly about Heroic Spirits in the Obscure Tome, and assumed that all of the Servants in the Holy Grail War were such beings. Heroic Spirits, as he recalled, did not exist in the same plane as he and his family did. In fact, they could be classified as "timeless" beings because they could see through and act upon different time periods while accumulating from each era at the same time.
Harry didn't quite understand most about Heroic Spirits.
Still, he recognized that astralizing of a Servant made it closer to its original Heroic Spirit in form. Just something to think about.
On the other hand, he had another ritual to perform.
...
Damn it, Saber was coming his way.
As for Rider, she was uncertain. She spied on the Emiya household because it was the strongest "alliance" of Masters and Servants this war was seeing. She had reported this to her true Master already, of course. Other Masters, as far as her spying could tell, was unaware of the Emiya Masters, and as such were unaware of the danger these three Masters possessed.
She also had to report that the youngest of the Emiya was capable of seeing her and possibly any other Servants in their astralized form.
Kirei, on the other hand, was having trouble finding other Masters.
The only other Master he knew to be a participant was Illyasviel von Einzbern, the Master of the Berserker, and she was exempt from "death" because she was the vessel of the Grail.
So where were Masters of Saber, Archer, Caster, and Lancer?
Surely by now, the third day of the war, they would have done something like attempting to eliminate another Master.
"Is my stuck up Master scheming something again?"
Kirei sighed.
While he enjoyed inflicting pain upon others and feeling the pleasure of doing so, he came to hate how his Assassin was verbally annoying him to kingdom come. Was this how normal people felt when faced with him? Was it worse or better? He couldn't even shut him up without having to resort to Command Spells, but having already wasted one on killing Rider's Master, he wasn't keen on using anymore, even if he had more than a few saved up from the previous war.
They were trump cards, not pest control.
Assassin made him question his position in life. He hated it.
"Aw, is my Master sad? Why is he sad? Is it because he doesn't appreciate my literature?"
"My irritation, Assassin," Kirei snapped. "Has nothing to do with your useless pornography."
Assassin's eye, which had been arching upward, narrowed. "Master, this book is no pornography."
"Assassin, will you shut up already?! I'm tryin-!"
Red glow permeated the room and Kirei froze.
Assassin moved his jaw but no sound came out. Disappointed, he shrugged and left Kirei to his device.
Kirei didn't know whether or not he should dance in joy or mess up the room in anger. Damn Assassin made him use another Command Spell!
Kakashi made a mark on the checklist hidden inside his Icha Icha.
1. D̶i̶s̶c̶e̶r̶n̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶M̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶d̶e̶c̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶s̶o̶n̶.̶
2. M̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶M̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ ̶C̶o̶m̶m̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶S̶p̶e̶l̶l̶
3.M̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶M̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶second ̶C̶o̶m̶m̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶S̶p̶e̶l̶l̶
4. Kill Master
5. Deal with "Archer"
6. Have fun before disappearing
He closed his Icha Icha and let it dissipate. His Icha Icha was part of his Noble Phantasm, apparently, so he could easily hide it. As such, his plan was safe.
When he first saw bodies of children, he had been horrified. But his training took over and his battle-hardened poker face came into play as soon as he had gained consciousness without a idea of where he was and who had summoned him.
He didn't like Kirei, even if he joked around with the man, and he certainly didn't get to like him more over the last few days. Still, he begrudgingly admitted that his Master was tactically sound man. His Master forced him to do what he does best: assassinate. Of course, hating his Master, he had done his best to avoid killing.
Then Kirei used a Command Spell.
Kakashi knew that once Kirei used the Command Spell, he was screwed; he had to kill the blue-haired boy.
Well, it made things easier after learning about all of the chakra-sucking traps that Rider's Master had Rider place around the entire school.
Still...
'I have to kill Kirei before he forces me to kill more people,' Kakashi thought as he thought about ways to kill Kirei.
The thing was, Kakashi knew a trained fighter when he saw one. Using Sharingan to confirm Kirei's muscle bound body with chakra network only served to confirm his intuition. He knew that fighting Kirei one-on-one was going to somewhat difficult, but nothing two shadow clones can't handle while he sneaks up behind the man and slit his throat.
No, the biggest huddle to his plan was the golden haired man who called himself the King of Heroes.
Kakashi had looked him up, of course; he was a ninja and ninjas always learn about their enemy before engaging.
Gilgamesh, the ancient king of Uruk. "The First King." "The First Hero." "The First Myth."
A lot of "First"s.
Regardless of his titles and whatever legends the man had birthed, Kakashi knew absolutely jackshit about him. He knew that Gilgamesh was supposed to be an "Archer" from the previous Holy Grail War and that he was considered the strongest out of all heroes simply because of his Noble Phantasm, the Gates of Babylon.
But what did it do?
Too little info.
Even if this life was fake, he didn't want to die a horrible death after killing Kirei.
So he waited as shinobi of Konoha do for their assassination mission.
Quite and observing.
After all, it wouldn't be too late to kill Kirei in the midst of battle, especially if Kirei's desire to participate in battle was anything to go by.
As much as Kakashi was wary and scheming against Kirei, Kirei was doing the same with Kakashi.
After his Assassin left the room, Kirei schooled his features.
Kakashi was a threat. Even as an Assassin, Kakashi was too relaxed and smooth. His Assassin forced him to use two Command Spells, one intentionally when Assassin demanded pay and the second unintentionally.
The first one Kirei might have been allowed to let Kakashi have it. It did not matter in the long run anyway. But when he used the second Command Spell, that was when he realized that there was something going on.
Kirei knew in his gut that Assassin was doing this on purpose and that made him a threat.
But as a powerful Servant, Kirei couldn't afford to just kill him off.
Not yet, at least.
Illyasviel, on the other hand, was bored. She came here to demand answers from her wayward father, but he and his two adopted children -the assholes who replaced her- were stuck behind their extremely durable bounded field and refused to come out.
Their Servants, though, came out regularly.
Unfortunately, they were fast. Very fast.
She expected Saber to be in the hands of her father once more because her father was still in possession of Avalon, the Noble Phantasm of Arturia Pendragon. Rider and Assassin had been identified as possession of other Masters.
It left Lancer, Archer, and Caster.
It irked her.
While her Berserker was a very strong Servant, easily capable of taking on one or two Servants at once, fighting three Servants along with her father was a suicide move on her part.
Unable and unwilling to show her cards and expose herself to the Emiya household, she was ... frustrated.
She sighed.
There was only one option for her to take to force her father out of the hiding, but could she take the chance?
Of course, there were other options. In fact, she had numerous options! But only one was viable for a favorable outcome, even if she didn't like it.
It was also a tactic her father used in the previous war.
She turned to Berserker.
"Let's go back to the manor," she said and when Berserker extended his hand down to her, she climbed up and went on his shoulder. She glared at the Emiya manor. "Soon father, I will have to pay for what you did."
Later that night, Kiritsugu got a call from his daughter, asking to meet her by the ancient Einzbern manor at the edge of Fuyuki City.
