A/N: Yep, at last, I can now release this one chapter without worries.

Giving thanks to God for enabling me to finish it and to all who supported this fic.

Giving my thanks to Mighty Pen 20 too for the grammatical corrections. Been planning to revise some chapters for grammar errors.

And apologizing to him too if I left some untouched due to a chapter that I will be releasing at the end.

Without further ado, I now present this chapter that is long overdue. XD

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Credits go to Gen Urobuchi, Nitro+ and TYPE – MOON for Fate/Zero, and Hiroshi Shiibashi for Nurarihyon no Mago.

Chapter 27: Longing Waits for No One

"Goshujin – sama, a quick question…" Caster asked in a flat manner. Kejoro was still staring ahead.

"Sure, fire away," Kejoro replied. Her reply came across to Caster as something that she should ponder about.

"When you said that we will do what we do best, you kept in mind that this would be in my best interests, am I right?" Caster reiterated, to which Kejoro replied to her in a matter – of – fact tone that could guarantee that anyone would be convinced of whatever she said to be the truth.

"I did, and I am thinking that it is for your sake that we must do this," Kejoro gave away her answer as if Caster should have realized it by now.

"Sure, it is for my best interests, but I didn't exactly think it would turn out like this, Goshujin – sama…"

That was the one thing that Caster had never expected in her life. She only thought of their house as nothing more than a base of operations. She never even took into account the things that should be obvious to her all along.

Namely, the house in which they were living in was close to the leylines of Fuyuki, and that their house was a few blocks away from where the people that they dreaded were now living in.

Namely, the Tohsaka manor, the Matou manor, and the unnamed manor bought by Emiya Kiritsugu.

Furthermore, as she asked this question, they were in front of the unnamed abandoned manor that Emiya Kiritsugu's partners lived in.

This was the same as asking for an early death.

A Servant…

She did not think of it that there will be someone this early. But then she was having second thoughts…

Besides, Hisau Maiya was there. She could call Emiya Kiritsugu just in case someone approached them.

'Wait, why do I trust them? He of all people knows that they will not stand a chance against Servants. So why is Maiya here?'

She quickly dismissed her thoughts as she placed Iri by the circle.

"Is there something bothering you, Saber?" Irisviel von Einzbern asked as she lay her head on the cold, cracked smooth stone floor.

"N – No. Not in the least, that is…"

She could only laugh softly at her Servant stuttering something.

"Don't worry…about it, Saber. I am sure…that this is…for the best. Besides…" Irisviel smiled at Saber, whose eyes — eyes that were usually colder than stone — slightly melted as they met Irisviel's pleading eyes.

"We have you, Saber…"

"Who are you to dare to enter our premises?" She asked as she pointed her gun at them. Maiya Hisau could definitely note this down as the worst day of her entire miserable life.

"The same people who are definitely asking to be killed, of course." Kejoro replied flatly as Maiya Hisau was still on guard. She slowly straightened up her left pinky finger in a stealthy manner in an attempt to call on Emiya Kiritsugu, but then Caster said something that she swore was out of character for an enemy to do so.

"By all means, straighten up your left pinky finger, Maiya – san." Caster smiled without malice, which came across to the lady as a threat due to the fact of knowing their communication methods in the first place. "Then we can tell you of our exact plan if we chose a different method of doing this…"

Caster then continued as Maiya's left pinky fully straightened, letting Caster in on their communications line. Caster then began her discourse, which made her swear that she was talking to a monster right then. Her voice was also making sure Irisviel and Saber would hear about it.

"I can break your right arm holding the Calico sub – machine gun in three places, pull out those same joints holding that gun, and slit your neck open with a poisoned Dirk for good measure before you can even pull the trigger." She was now listing all that she could do, leaving Maiya speechless.

"While my Master Kejoro – san will make her way as the grim reaper, taking out Irisviel's life silently with a poisoned Dirk at her nape. Saber will not even realize it. By the time that she notices that her Master's life is gone, we will have dissipated like the gentle wind, and Emiya Kiritsugu will make sure that we will not escape."

Caster then sported a feral smile which made Hisau Maiya realize that she was staring at a demon's face.

"Of course, it would be a messy implementation of sorts." Caster chuckled. Maiya could only stare at her and doubt about the part that said her alignment was neutral.

"Or, we could just burn the entire house down using the same circle that helps Irisviel recover from her weakness as an ignition point, erasing all our traces of being here, and report this to the police as a gas leak, cleaning up evidence of your existence. Surely that will earn the ire of the Einzberns and put the blame on Emiya Kiritsugu for being such an incompetent Master in the Holy Grail War."

If not for her reading novels at the time war ravaged her home, she would be unable to describe the situation that they were in right now. And that situation was, to Maiya's point of view, like this:

An Evil of Man had manifested.

She saw Caster's rhetoric escalate to levels of absurdity, yet it felt right since she was talking to the same Servant that filled Saber's Noble Phantasm with inexhaustible amount of prana to let it defeat – no, obliterate – the opponent's entire existence.

By the time Caster had finished her monologue, and before Emiya Kiritsugu could say anything, she had already lowered her gun.

"Then I guess we are on amicable terms, for now." Caster walked the grassy path just like the royalty of Japan would. "Thank you for your compliance, accomplice of Emiya Kiritsugu."

Somehow, those words held no malice as she heard them. It was as if she had been commended for a job well done. No one had ever commended her before for her services.

It felt all too surreal to Hisau Maiya, who only did her job day by day as a tool for Emiya Kiritsugu to use. Sure, she considered herself as a tool for him to use, but time and again she saw the human side of Emiya Kiritsugu. She saw that he blamed himself for the horror that she experienced during that war every time he sent her out for reconnaissance.

It was a side known only to Irisviel, Illyasviel and herself.

For that, she had to protect what humanity he had left to accomplish the mission, even if it meant being used as a tool for his own convenience.

And now, Caster saw her worth as a human being that can love, hate, and have a dozen more emotions that she could never express. Just what was she exactly?

Meanwhile, the man in the long raven colored trench coat could only sigh at the circumstances. Hearing all of those threats made him sick, but thankfully for some reason he was convinced that they would keep their word and only have a light talk with Saber, Irisviel and himself.

As Caster came in, Saber had her sword at the ready. Her armor was slowly manifesting from the spatial area and would manifest itself fully once the enemy made a single move that could be classified by her instincts as hostile.

Of course, it was to be expected, as what they were doing was essentially trespassing property, breaking and entering the premises without the explicit permission from the owner.

But then, who cared about the law? This was a Holy Grail War.

"I see that you still consider me a threat, King of Knights," Caster began. "Don't you think words are more injurious than swords if used...appropriately?"

"I see no reason to talk to you." Saber narrowed her eyes, anticipating for something suspicious to come their way. "You have been a threat since the moment that you listed everything that you can do."

"That doesn't mean that my Master or I will actually do it," Caster replied casually, but Saber still stayed on guard. "If we would go through with it, why tell you in the first place when you could just never even know about it?"

No matter how she saw it, the fact remained that Caster was right. She should have eliminated their lives by that point if she could actually do it instead of announcing it in the first place.

"By all means, talk," Saber began as she let her golden sword disappeared along with the armor that was about to manifest on her body. "But know should you make one wrong move, we can and will eliminate you right here and now."

"Sure thing, Saber." Caster said as she sat on the smooth cold stone pavement in the same manner that those of royal Japanese descent would do so. Saber sat on one of the wooden boxes nearby.

"How is Irisviel doing?" She asked, to which Saber replied flatly.

"She is all well, but why does it matter to you?" Saber clenched her fist. "Of all the people that are here right now, only you know of the exact circumstances of her existence. You could have gotten away with it many times by killing her on the spot. Why won't you still do that?"

"What I did not tell you, Saber, is that I was summoned without a wish." Caster said, to Saber's utter shock, although it does not register on her face as one. "Not a wish that is utterly significant to be recognized by the Grail, but enough to let it know that I have a wish."

"Impossible. Servants have wishes that can be granted by the Holy Grail," Saber said as she studied her carefully from all angles. She loosened up her fist so that she could reason first before she did anything drastic. "You have been summoned by your Master. Surely you of all people know that you still have a wish that is yet to be fulfilled."

"Absurd as it may seem, Saber, I just wanted to be a good wife to my husband – to – be." Caster flatly told Saber of her wish, which came across to Saber as a wish that never needed to be granted by the Grail in the first place.

"That wish is left unfulfilled, but at least I have no regrets about it. I don't want to do the whole thing all over again just to get a husband that can understand me and love me for who I am and not for who I was. I may be a courtesan, but I also know of a human's love."

Saber was left confused as to why Caster had still been summoned in the first place, if not to fulfill her wish. She was about to ask that question when Caster anticipated it and answered Saber's untold question.

"If you are wondering why I still stayed with Kejoro – san in the first place, it is because I see something in her that is similar to my circumstances," She said as she remembered the first day that she had been summoned to that world. "That something sparked my interest in humans once again, even though I already know of the evils that they are capable of. In a way, I guess I was successful in tricking the Holy Grail that I have a wish."

"Your alignment is Neutral Evil," Saber said, as if she wanted to remind Caster of her roots in the first place, and if what her Master saw and typed in his makeshift profiling of the other Caster Servant was correct. "Surely you remember your role in the world that you are living in."

Saber had taken a glance at the profile of the Masters and Servants when she had made her rounds on the Einzbern Castle, preferring to do her search by herself since her Master did not want to reveal information on any of their enemies.

She was only wary of the Master of Assassin of the Holy Grail War as he posed a threat to her Master based on the profiles alone, and even then she didn't know why but her Master was agitated about what was written on that paper.

Kotomine Kirei.

She would have to make a note of it later on, as she was most pressed with the issue of seeing something that the Masters did not expect…

At all.

The other Caster and her Master. The name of a Servant was completely blank. Even her skills and Noble Phantasms were complete blanks, save for her basic statistics. Her Master had a name, but even then, she saw the open and close parentheses and a question mark at the middle at the end of her name.

This indicated that this was not her true name. It seemed that the Master of Caster had hidden even her own name.

"And you still value the code, King of Knights" Caster deflected back to Saber. "I am of that alignment that you mentioned solely because my actions are selfish. But you will never understand the state of this world before concrete law and order have manifested."

"I think I am beginning to understand it perfectly fine, Caster." Saber could only clench her fist at what Caster was implying. "And you are still an evil that needs to be eliminated. While I am grateful for your actions, I am still your enemy in this war."

"See, with all due respect, this is where your view begins to skew, illustrious King of Knights," Caster's flat voice became slightly more intoned in response to Saber's view of the world. "You still do not believe that I do not have a wish that can be granted by the Holy Grail. It is you who should remember your role in the world, King of Knights."

"I am a sword for my Master to use. I pledge my sword to him to eliminate every obstacle that is in our way of getting our wishes fulfilled by the Holy Grail," Saber defined her role in a concrete manner as Caster narrowed her eyes on her. "My only wish is to save my country from its demise. My Master wants the world to be saved. Our interests coincide. What is your role in the world that you are summoned in, Magus?"

"Like I have told you, you have never understood your role in this world, esteemed King of Knights," Caster replied. "All that we know is that we are pawns meant to be sacrifices in this war. I will never go into full detail until we can be convinced that you are to be fully trusted."

"What you have said is unthinkable, Caster," Saber remarked. "If you are truly pawns meant to be offered as a sacrifice, why are both of you still alive in the first place?"

"It will come to us, eventually." Caster lowered her voice, something that Saber found ominous. "It is just not our time yet."

"And you know that I will not strike the both of you down with my sword?" Saber fully clenched her fist, but what Caster said next baffled her to no end.

"You will do it, eventually," Caster said in a flat manner. "However, you will be left with more questions than answers, and by the time you realize it, it will almost be too late for you to stop."

Caster retracted her words with another statement that made Saber even more baffled.

"Ah, forgive me for what I said. Let me say it in a way that you can understand," Caster leveled her voice in a way that attempted to make Saber understand her own situation. "You have already begun to realize it, but you still choose to turn a blind eye on it."

This was her lot, and she had accepted it.

Yet someone other than her husband and Saber looked at her state with utter concern.

That someone was the one that they met a while ago, during the banquet of the kings.

She was…

"Kejoro – san, how nice of you to come to see me again," she smiled weakly as she lay on her back. "I'm truly sorry that you have to see me in this state."

"Like what I have said to my friend, I can only do what I do best," Kejoro began as she observed the glowing Thaumaturgical Circle that let her rest. She couldn't add any other spell to it as she knew that she would only make it worse.

"Is there any way that I can be of service?"

"Nothing that would cause too much trouble for you, Kejoro – san," Irisviel smiled as she saw the look of concern on Kejoro's face.

The fact that the doll with human emotions was dying in front of her was enough for Kejoro to attempt to hold back her tears. This cruel fate was resting upon the shoulders of someone who had experienced humanity for just nine years.

Nine years is such a short time for a normal human to live.

For her, who had lived for such a long time, nine years was too short a span for any human to be able to enjoy life at its fullest. This was the same as asking life to put a noose on their necks and be done with it.

"H…how…" Kejoro had no idea how to console Irisviel — to convince her that she had lived a fulfilling life. It is as if she needed to be consoled instead of Irisviel.

"Everything will be fine, I assure you, Kejoro – san." Irisviel's smile made Kejoro feel even more guilty of what she was about to say. Or rather, guilty of what she could not say to her.

"How will this be fine, if your husband does not even trust us?" Kejoro could only hang her head as words tried to get out of her mouth, but she was holding back in the hopes of gaining Emiya Kiritsugu's trust first before revealing to them the whole truth. But it seemed that the more she kept quiet about it, the longer it would take for them to realize what she is talking about.

"He goes through the same suffering as you are." She smiled at Kejoro as she said those words. "I can never experience that part with him. But at least, with you, I can be assured that you are doing this for the sake of my husband's life and the life of my daughter."

She could only stand up slowly, holding back the tears. Her back was turned to Irisviel as she said these words that reminded the latter of who she was and what her role in this bloodbath was.

"I will get your husband back to this lovely home, no matter what it takes." Her voice was as smooth as the finished surface of steel as those words left her mouth. The words that came out next surprised Irisviel, as she never had heard those words in her entire life.

Moreover, she had never heard anyone say it the way that only those of the clandestine section of Japan could speak those words.

"I may not plead for your life, but don't you dare die on me, Holy Grail. This is my earnest wish. If your husband wishes for this world to be saved, I wish for you and your husband to be living together with your daughter without the burden of being a Magus. If your husband will definitely kill you with his own hands…

"I WILL KILL HIM FIRST BEFORE HE EVER LAYS HIS HANDS ON YOU."

"W…wha…" Saber was left speechless, as Caster's words were on mark. She could never fathom how she of all people understood her, yet she presented it in a way that mocks her existence and her role.

"Looks like I found a rare gem," Caster remarked. "Al – Iskandar – sama is right, you are still a child who dreams of a world with law and order in harmony."

Saber tried to recollect herself as she defended the honor of the knights.

"The knights must have a code after all." Saber began as she laid out the benefits of being a knight and a king. "Law and order must prevail in a world that doesn't have one. Maybe in your world, it is guided by your innate conscience and acted according to your own will. But in our world, selfish desires must be purged from the knights and the king if they are to serve the people and save them from every evil that can befall our country."

"And that is another flaw that I see in you, King of Knights," Caster spat back at Saber. "A knight can become a king, but a king can never become a knight. Surely you are not blind to the implications of being both, Servant of the Sword."

Saber's former life flashed in front of her eyes as she glimpsed the past, full of civil wars that almost wiped out both sides, both of them of Breton descent no less. She tried to avert her eyes from it, but for some reason, she was unable to do so.

"I respect the fact that a code can never be broken," Caster admitted. "But once you become a king, you must know that you still have to make sacrifices for the betterment of the country. A knight's code can never provide that guidance, my king."

"No one needs to die for my cause, Caster," Saber defended her actions. "This is why I do this for them."

"Saving those who are even unworthy to be saved." Caster reflected on what she said before giving an answer to the puzzle that is the King of Knights. "I now fully understand the downfall of Great Britain due to the King of Knights…"

In all of her years, never had she seen a woman speak like this. She thought that women who fully understood the graveness of being an emperor's servant would put them in their place. But it seemed that she was mistaken, seeing that this Caster was an educated courtesan.

She was then reminded of how Cleopatra came to power.

It was not because of her beauty that captivated the countless men and even the Caesar of Rome.

It was her intelligence that captivated them the most, heart and soul.

"Your light has guided them and blinded them at the same time, King of Knights," Caster concluded as she stood up. "I sincerely hope you of all people would understand it. Your light has driven them mad enough to start a war among your countrymen. That event is not even supposed to happen in the first place if you have guided them just enough to let them stand on their own. Instead, you have become protective of them for too long that they do not exactly know what is right and wrong."

"What do you understand about me, Caster?" Saber's suspicions were getting the better of her as she asked that question. "You don't even have a code at all. You act according to your whims."

"Acting on my whims, do I?" Caster chuckled innocently as Saber seethed. "Acting according to one's own freewill is much better than what you and your knights believe in right now, King of Knights."

"I do act of my own free will." Saber's voice was barely a whisper, a sign of true danger. "They stood beside me of their own free will."

"Looks like the golden child knew about this all along and decided to add you to his collection simply because of it," Caster said as she was about to leave while Saber's eyes narrowed once again. How had she known so much about him and her?

"We will still serve you, King of Knights, but please remember what I have said and think about it, even just for a moment. You and your Master are both heroic after all. Such blinding light can only be worthy for those who are truly deserving to be saved."

She then held the cold, rusting frame of the door, feeling its greaves pass through the palm of her hand, before she walked out. She was unminding of the fact that she was leaving Saber even more confused than ever.

Where…am I…

This was what he asked himself as he floated in the endless pitch black void that he was in.

The last thing that he remembered was the flames that had attempted to consume him, the heat that seared his skin, and the agony that he felt as his Magecraft was not strong enough to stand against the Second Owner of Fuyuki's leylines.

Strangely, in his weakness, he saw the image of a priest rejuvenating his skin and bones with healing Magecraft, that for the life of him, he did not understand why. He did not ponder on it any further as he passed out from the immense pain brought upon by the healing Magecraft, exciting the worms inside him further as he recovered his health.

But the one that branded to his mind the most were the lines that made him even more furious coming from the father of the two daughters possessing abilities a Magus can dream of.

'Of course, it would bring me immense joy as a father of my two daughters. Rin and Sakura will definitely bring honor to the name of Tohsaka even though they will face each other. Rin and Sakura are both my joy and my pride.'

Tohsaka…Tokiomi…

He could only mutter this to himself as he floated in that void, renewing his strength from his immense rage boiling inside. But one being dared to use that vigor as his power.

'Look in my eyes…' The voice inside him commanded him. 'I am but the shadow of the shining light…'

Shadow…of a shining light?

If he could remember it correctly, Matou Zouken had a piece of wood that he used as a catalyst to let him summon a Servant. He had suggested that he should add some lines to raise the Servant's parameters.

He'd found out later that he had tricked him into adding the lines of Mad Enhancement to force the Servant in the container of the Berserker class, a class that even the strongest Magus could not control. He only thought that it was a lesson for him, who had strayed away far from the Craft.

But then, looking into the legends of mad warriors, no mad warrior wore a knight's armor. No mad warrior could do what his Servant could with the finesse of an experienced warrior, no less.

He had probably discounted the Black Knight, but from what he remembered, the Black Knight of the legend did not move like his Servant did.

If his Servant was not the Black Knight, then who was he exactly?

Before he could even think of an answer, the voice howled in greed.

"Let your hatred empower me! Let my anger burn deep in your skin and bones! Let your anger be my power, and consume the everlasting light of the king with my pitch – black shadows!"

He could only describe the thing as abominable.

With the sword drawn, the shadows were eliminated, but he stared at a skull's eye sockets behind the ebony helmet of his Servant. Within that, the shadows were gathering around the skull's eye sockets to form the eyes.

And before he could even escape, the figure was in front of him. He could not do anything as the sword was about to swing down on him…

….when something awoke him from his nightmare.

A Crest Worm…

No, it was not sufficient to say that it was just a Crest Worm. It was now at his right abdomen where the injury was supposed to be.

"G…Gahhh!"

He could only scream in agony as he looked at the eyes of the one responsible for it in the first place.

"Matou…Zouken!"

"Why can I hear the disdain in your voice?" The one responsible for it could only chuckle as he placed the Crest Worm on his side. "I'm just here to tell you that you have another opportunity at the war. I'm especially in deep gratitude towards the one who brought you here to me in the first place."

Someone brought him here. He could only think of that someone as that same man who healed him.

"Therefore, be glad…" He continued as he stuck the Crest Worm in him to let it be absorbed in his body. "This is especially cultured from the body of the Tohsaka's daughter and is the first of the fruits from her body. I daresay that the Tohsaka lineage is of really good quality when it comes to providing mana."

No words could describe his disgust and anger for the old man and pity for Tohsaka Tokiomi's daughter as the Matou ancestor continued the process.

He could only scream in anger at what was happening to him as of now.

A/N: And with this, my chapter is finished.

Next chapter will be up on October if time permits it.

Once again, I'm thanking all of the readers for their continued support.

Might come across as weak, but I still want to improve, so please rate and review.