Artoria was at a loss for words. She knew that the Holy Grail War would have her face many powerful opponents for the Holy Grail, and she was prepared to cut them all down. After all, she needed to save Camelot. However, the opponent right outside her window caused her a small amount of worry.
He had introduced himself as Son Goku, which seemed innocent enough, but thanks to the Grail giving her the gift of knowledge, she knew that name was only his Japanese name. If someone had told her she would face this man in combat, she would have dismissed them as a liar. After all, someone who managed to obtain the gift of immortality five separate times shouldn't be in the Throne, for they haven't died. But that golden cloud, a mount nearly as famous as her own sword, told her a terrible truth.
One of her opponents was the legendary Monkey King Sun Wukong.
Goku was unaware of Artoria's worries, pulling his face away from the window and putting two fingers to his forehead, the Saiyan and his Master being teleported right next to Artoria's side inside the plane thanks to Instant Transmission. As Waver fell to his knees, resisting the urge to kiss the carpeted floor of the plane, the King of Knights quickly sprung to her feet, her suit being quickly replaced by her knightly armor. Before she could attack however, Goku held up his hands sheepishly.
"Oh, so you do wanna spar!" Goku grinned widely and innocently, the smile causing Artoria to hesitate. "But, let's not do it here, this ship doesn't have a lot of room." Artoria tightened her stance back up as she called her sword to her side, the King finding this all very suspicious. After all, Sun Wukong was a famous trickster, perhaps this was a trap. It was good that this plane was a private flight, it seems.
Her Master let out a yawn as she opened her eyes, the homunculus sitting straight up as she rubbed her eyes. She looked sleepily at the two new people inside of the plane. "Oh, who are you two?" She asked as she stifled a yawn.
"Yo! I'm Son Goku!" Goku greeted, his smile somehow only growing brighter. "Oh, and this is my friend, Waver!" He added as he helped the poor boy up to his feet.
"Rider!" Waver hissed. "Why do you keep telling everyone your True Name?!"
"Huh?" Goku looked at Waver with a confused look on his face. "You said I needed to hide my name from Servants."
"And what do you think she is, Rider?!" Waver shouted as he pointed to Saber.
"Huh? But she ain't a Servant. Servants are dead," Goku then motioned to Artoria. "She's still alive, so she can't be a Servant." The two Masters were so dumbfounded by this confident yet ludicrous statement, they didn't notice Artoria tensing up.
"And… what.. Led you to that conclusion?" Waver asked, doing his best to keep calm even as his Servant spouted out the most ridiculous things he ever heard.
"Well," Goku rubbed the back of his head as he tried to think of a way to explain it. "So, everything alive has ki, right? You, me, the animals, the sun… the Holy Grail. And each one feels unique," Waver tilted his head in confusion, so Goku continued. "I can sense ki, but… I can't tell where the other Servants are. Their ki feels exactly the same as the Holy Grail, and the ki in the earth, so I can't pick them out unless they power up," He then pointed at Artoria. "Her ki feels different, so she has to be alive, and not a Servant."
Waver could only groan to himself as he began to massage his temples. "I must have summoned the Berserker who thinks he's Rider." Irisviel only giggled to herself. What a funny duo those two made.
"Anyways, what're yer names?" Goku asked the two women with a smile. Artoria looked over to the homunculus posing as her Master, the snow white woman smiling and nodding at the King.
"I am Saber," Artoria finally answered, causing Goku to tilt his head.
"Saber? That's weird. Why would yer parents name you after a class in the Holy Grail Tournament?"
"That's because she's a Servant, Rider!" Waver shouted at the top of his lungs. "And Tournament?! What are you talking about?! This is the Holy Grail War!" Goku rubbed his head, laughing in a way that was beginning to grind on Waver's final nerve.
"What? I've never been in a war, but..." Goku began to tap his chin. "We're all here to show off how strong we are, and there's a prize at the end of it, right? That sounds like a tournament to me!" He looked over to the white haired woman. "And what's yer name?"
The said woman laughed a little as she thought about it. She didn't see the harm of letting these two know her name. "I'm Irisviel. It's nice to meet you, Son Goku and Waver."
"Well, it's nice to meet you!" Goku grinned as he reached down, gently grabbing Waver by the arm. "Well, if you're up for sparring, I'll come find you after you all land this ship!"
"Wait, no!" Waver called out in a panic. "Wait, no, please, don't make me go on that cloud again!" He looked to Irisviel, eyes wide as he pleaded. "P-please! I know this is a lot to ask, but please, let us stay on the plane until it lands! Please don't make me ride on that thing again! It doesn't even have seatbelts!"
"Why would it need seatbelts?" Goku asked as he tilted his head.
"See?!" Waver pointed to his Servant. "Please! You can even have Saber watch over me to make sure I don't do anything, just please don't make me go out there!" Irisviel looked over to Saber, who shook her head. The homunculus took this advice, thinking hard about it, before she threw it out the metaphorical window.
"Alright, but just as long as Saber watches over you!" She decided, causing Artoria to deflate.
"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Waver nearly cried tears of joy as Goku let him go. Waver meekly walked over to Artoria, sitting down in front of the Saber Class Servant. Goku tilted his head before walking as well, picking up Waver and sitting down, folding his legs before placing the English boy on top of them. "R-Rider, what are you doing?!" Waver cried.
"Well, yer worried Ms. Saber will hurt ya, right? I'll make sure she doesn't!" Goku assured the boy as he patted Waver's head. "Don't worry about it, Masta!" Waver blushed.
"I'm not a child, Rider!" Waver complained, but Goku only chuckled and patted Waver's head more. The English Master let out a sigh.
This was going to be a long flight.
Emiya Kiritsugu's face was stone as he walked down the halls of the cheap hotel, his eyes reading the door plates.
"700… 701… 702… 703." Finding the number to his room, he walked up to it, quietly and quickly tapping on it in a strange rhythm. Not even a few seconds passed before the door swung open, Hisau Maiya's face peeking out. Her steely cold eyes scanned over Kiritsugu before she undid the chain lock on the door, letting her superior inside the room. After a quick look around, she locked every lock on the door to make sure they had the most privacy possible.
She watched silently as Kiritsugu inspected and familiarized himself with his old tools she had brought with her. When he went to live with the Einzberns, she made sure every weapon was in perfect condition, as obsessively as a helicopter mother was to her children. Thanks to that, they were now ready for when he walked back onto the field. Quietly, she watched as Kiritsugu reloaded his Thompson Contender.
"Two seconds…" Maiya noted to herself as she watched him. "He's gotten rusty…"
There was no question about it. Having a family made the man just ever so much softer. That was fine. She'd work hard to make up the difference.
"The mistress and Saber have not landed yet," She reported. "But they should touch down soon." Kiritsugu nodded. That was good. They'd misdirect the other Masters and Servants into believing that Irisviel was the true Master while he and Maiya attacked those Masters from the shadows. It was a plan that seemed foolproof. "There was an incident at the Tohsaka residence last night." Maiya also reported. "Assassin and Archer had a run in with each other…," She paused, letting Kiritsugu process that before continuing. "The Tohsaka residence is gone, and all the equipment I set up to record the house was taken out by whatever it was that destroyed it." She admitted.
Kiritsugu raised an eyebrow but otherwise kept calm. Admittedly, he just didn't know what to do with that information, so he decided to ask a question.
"Maiya, who are Archer and Assassin's Masters?" Kiritsugu asked as he put the gun that allowed him to use his Mystic Code back on the bed.
"Archer's Master is Tokiomi Tohsaka, and Assassin's is Kotomine Kirei." She informed him, causing Kiritsugu to slightly shift.
Kotomine Kirei.
Out of all the potential targets in this War, that priest was the one Kiritsugu felt most threatened by. The man was far too mysterious for Kiritsugu's liking. He was the son of the judge of the Holy Grail War, Risei Kotomine, and had apparently studied Magecraft under Tokiomi Tohsaka in preparation for the War. The man mastered all he was taught in a few years. He was a prodigy even at a young age, accomplishing more than most do in a lifetime all due to effort and hard work alone. But the man's way of living was… strange and erratic.
No matter what he studied, Kirei would climb the mountain of learning, come inches to the peak… and then stop and move on to a completely different mountain. All his progress was thrown away for that new mountain, and It almost seemed like the priest didn't care. It wasn't in a way that seemed like the priest had a passion for the journey of self improvement, no it was almost the opposite. The strange priest didn't seem to hold a passion for anything at all.
So then for what reason would a man who seemed to live his life without purpose seek the Holy Grail?
"Where is Kotomine Kirei now?" Kiritsugu asked, and for the first time, Maiya hesitated.
"I… I do not know." She admitted. "I was unable to track down his whereabouts after the explosion, and the Church has said nothing, so we can only assume he is still out there somewhere."
"Dammit…" Kiritsugu cursed as he leaned over the bed, gripping the sheets. He stared at the case of the gun, gritting his teeth as his mind frantically tried to come up with some sort of plan. He didn't want to go into this War blind.
… This War. The War that would grant his wish… but at the cost of his wife. His precious wife would die for the world's greatest need. He knew that the needs of the many outweigh his own and his daughter's needs, but Kiritsugu was not a machine. Even now, it hurt to think about. Maiya watched as sadness clouded behind the man's eyes. Without a thought, she stepped forward and embraced the man who had saved her many years ago.
"It's painful…" Kiritsugu muttered.
"Ignore the pain." Maiya replied softly as she tightened her hug. "Focus on your task and not on what is to come." Then Maiya did the unthinkable for a normal couple. She brought her face up and pressed her lips against Kiritsugu's own.
Kiritsugu stood there, focusing more on steeling his own resolve than the fact he was cheating on his wife at the moment. It was practice… he would have to do this when Irisviel died. Maiya released him and gazed into the eyes that held no more sadness, only cold, hard resolution.
"Push everything else from your mind."
She repeated the action.
The woman knew that Kiritsugu had no emotion in this, that he didn't treasure her like he did his own wife. That didn't matter to her. For Maiya Hisau, these were the moments that she treasured most. She wasn't sure if what she felt for the man who had saved and taught her was love, but really, it didn't matter to her.
If she could help him, if she was useful in any way to Kiritsugu, then that was enough.
Kirei shifted as he slowly came back to the land of the living. His body didn't feel like it was on fire anymore, and instead of the cold, hard ground, he felt a soft and warm bed enveloping his body. Letting out a soft cough, he opened his eyes, seeing an old and cheap looking ceiling. Where was he…?
"Oh, hey, you're finally awake," Mr. Satan said, the champion of the world sitting on the other bed. "You were out for quite a while. Buu did a number on you."
"Buu?" Kirei asked as he pulled himself up to a sitting position.
"Oh, yeah, you haven't met him yet," Mr. Satan commented as he reached into his gi, pulling out what looked like a small ball of bubblegum, one that quickly morphed into a tiny demon.
"Buu-whoo-whoo-whoo!" The Majin cheered.
"He did a real number at your friend's mansion," Mr Satan paused, before deciding it was best to break it to the priest. "Um… this is kinda awkward… Buu here, he… he kinda… left your friend's house a smoking crater." The Servant recoiled back, like he was afraid Kirei would retaliate. The priest thought about it… thinking about how Tokomi must have looked as he realized his home was gone, how all his life's work was up in smoke.
It made the priest quietly laugh, the mirth slipping out almost unconsciously.
Mr. Satan began to relax, watching his Master. That wasn't a normal reaction, not at all. What kind of man summoned him?
"So um… yeah," Mr. Satan sat back down on his bed, gathering his courage before throwing out his accusation. "We need to have a talk."
"A talk? What about?" Kirei asked as he slowly moved his legs so that he was sitting on his bed as well.
"What was with setting me up? Why did you send me to die against Archer?" Mr. Satan asked.
"Hmm? I don't understa—," Kirei tried to lie, but Mr. Satan cut him off.
"Don't try to feed me that. I know a rigged fight when I see one," He decided not to tell Kirei that was because he rigged a lot of fights in his life. "That Archer reacted way too fast to me being there."
"Are you sure?" Kirei argued. Even now, he wasn't sure why he was doing this, but he had a feeling if Mr. Satan knew the truth, it would be trouble for Tokiomi, and that's not what they needed right now. "You were yelling like a maniac right outside his territory, and you weren't subtle with your entrance. Do you really believe someone like you could sneak around?" Kirei asked, throwing Mr. Satan's earlier argument back into his face.
Mr. Satan faltered. His Master was right, there were no clear facts about this rigging. To make it worse, that stone expression the man always wore gave him an amazing poker face. This whole accusation was only a gut feeling Mr. Satan had… but it was one he believed in. There was only one thing he could do in a situation like this, the thing he did best.
Mr. Satan bluffed.
"I talked to your father, and he told me about your plans. I gave you a chance to come clean, but here we are." Mr. Satan folded his arms, doing his best to mimic the look he would have when he was disappointed in his daughter. Once again, instead of getting angry or some sort of normal human reaction, Kirei just sighed.
"So you knew. How did you figure it out?" Kirei decided to ask.
"Because you just told me." Mr. Satan admitted with a wide grin. Kirei shook his head. He couldn't believe he fell for such a simple bluff. This man was so strange to him, he really didn't know how to read him. "Now come on, tell me the truth." At this point, Kirei didn't see a reason to keep it hidden any more.
"Fine." Kirei stood up, his joints popping as they did. "The plan was to let you die, so that I may drop out of the War. However, that would just be a simple ruse. Instead, I would go around and eliminate the other Masters from the shadows, so that Tokiomi would win the grail." Mr. Satan tilted his head in confusion as he stood up.
"I thought I told you to stop lying to me! That don't make no sense!" Mr. Satan shouted. "Why would you give up a chance at an unlimited wish? I've seen entire universes destroyed for the promise of a wish, and you're just throwing it away? Sure, maybe if you were Goku, I'd believe it, but there's no way you're that altruistic!"
Kirei only shook his head. "You are correct. I am not that altruistic. I simply don't have a wish." Mr. Satan stared at the priest, growing more and more frustrated.
"What?! No desire? That's impossible!" Mr. Satan cried out. "How can you join the Holy Grail War and say you don't have a wish for it?!" Kirei placed his hands behind his back, tightening his fists as he did. He didn't want to talk about this, not while he didn't have an answer. For now, the best he could do was just redirect the attention elsewhere.
"And what of your own wish, then?" Kirei asked. For the first time, Mr. Satan clammed up. Kirei was shocked. He expected to have a loud declaration, a speech about Mr. Satan's wish, but the Servant nervously shuffled in place instead.
"... Fine, fair enough," Mr. Satan finally stated in a low voice. "I won't pry anymore," He turned around to head out the room's door. "For now, let's just head to the church. We should let your old man know you're okay, right?"
Kirei, as usual, was quiet as the two walked out the door. However, this time, his mind replayed exactly how Mr. Satan reacted to the question about his wish. Behind the lights and the show Mr. Satan put on, there was something inside of him. Something he could only interpret as dark. The man even seemed to be friends with a demon. Even someone as bright as him could have something hidden away…
Perhaps Mr. Satan was more interesting than Kirei first thought…
The two walked out the door, Mr. Satan noticing their neighbor's door was opening as well. At least now he could be back in his element.
"Howdy neighbors! Lovely day, ain't it?" He called out to the black haired man and the dark haired woman that walked out of the door. The two of them froze, and Mr. Satan noticed that Kirei did as well, the three in some sort of silent standoff, staring each other down. "Um… people you know?" The Servant asked his Master. Only two words escaped from the priest's lips.
"Emiya… Kiritsugu…"
