Fate/Stay Night belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon
Date A Live belongs to Koishi Tachibana
Chapter 2
Lancer and Assassin
There were reports of multiple people suddenly going comatose. If a magus were to check the victims, they'd see that a large portion of their mana was ripped away from them, the remains being just barely enough to keep them alive. Originally, Caster was the cause of it, stockpiling mana for her and her false Assassin to call upon at a moment's notice, which True Assassin had to admit, it was a clever solution for a Servant who's Master wasn't even a magus. However, it didn't help when they encountered one another... and neither did it end when she died.
Yes, the incidents where people were simply minding their business before losing consciousness did not stop with Caster's demise. After all, there was another entity draining Fuyuki's populace of their mana, one that True Assassin hadn't encountered herself, but was given the low-down on by her Master. This being, a dark shadow of wholly alien manneurisms, was to assist her in taking down other Servants, as the Assassin class wasn't exactly known for combat. They were killers, but not warriors, and would be easily dispatched by any other Servant class. It was why they usually went after Masters, and in her case, utilized mind games to throw the opponent off their A-game. It's so much easier to take someone down when they aren't thinking clearly, after all...
As the Shadow went on another meal trip, True Assassin simply watched on from afar, not getting involved so as to not get caught by it. She could always leave one of herself behind and survive like that - and, heck, one of her was very much not around - but the point remained that she wouldn't be spared by it. It was a mindless creature, driven by the instinct to consume mana and nothing else. Considering that it was essentially the ultimate anti-Servant weapon, this meant that she wanted nothing to do with it directly, as if a Servant, even one as weak as her, was around, the Shadow would immediately go after her. While she was watching it, she reminisced about the brief meeting she had with her Master and this... other boy.
During the assault on Caster...
As True Assassin was going after Caster and her beloved Master, she sent one of herself to the Matou residence, wanting to meet her own Master face to face. She easily managed to go through the gate by turning into a piece of paper and floating through the gaps, just in case she was unable to pass through in spiritual form for one reason or another, before calling to her Master. After a bit of waiting, she'd be greeted by an old man she quickly recognized as her Master and a younger, blue-haired boy reading a book.
"So... You're the war's true Assassin, aren't you?" Her Master spoke, his tone of voice appropriately authoritative for his position in their dynamic.
"Why yes I am, Master! Don't worry about the thing with Caster's Command Spells, by the way. You may probably already know this, but I sent out all but this one body to try and get her to give them up. I wonder what kind of face her Master is gonna make when in pain~ Hehe~" She giggled at her own comment, something that seemed to freak out the boy.
"...holy shit, this really is her..." The bluenette muttered, something that she immediately picked up on.
"I heard that, you know!" As she said that, he immediately shut up, as she made it clear that he wasn't allowed to talk behind her back.
"Anyway..." The Master continued, although the Servant didn't believe he'd cut to the point as quickly as he did. "Shinji here told me that your True Name was Nibelcole. Is that correct, Assassin?"
"Ooh, I see you're not playing around here! Yes, that is indeed our name. What about yours, Master?" She would inquire, as it was quite rude to ask for somebody's name without giving them your own. Master or not, she was not letting him be too rude to her.
"Oh, right, where are my manners... My name is Zouken Matou. And as I already said, this is Shinji Matou, my grandson." He would point towards the bluenette, Shinji, with his cane as he brought him up. However, it was then that she noticed something odd about the book he was reading. She would very quickly dash up to him. snatching the novel out of his hands and reading through it.
"...How the hell did they know all this?" She inquired towards Shinji, wanting answers about why he had a book detailing events that included her very life. The times she was from were quite modern, after all.
"Well... You see..." Shinji spattered out, incredibly nervous in front of the adorable Assassin. "You... shouldn't really be a thing. You're part of a work of fiction, not even a real person, or even someone based on a real person. The fact that you were summoned, even considering that this light novel right here was used as the catalyst, is a one-in-a-million chance that should be about as impossible as dividing by zero!"
This would cause the Assassin Servant to stifle a giggle... before just giving up and bursting into laughter. "You're... You're joking, right!? Me! A piece of fiction! This has gotta be the best joke I've heard in my entire life!"
"It's not a joke, dammit!"
"Prove it then, boy. Prove to me that I shouldn't exist here." She challenged him, though she was surprised at how easily he did so.
"Well, Tengu City doesn't exist, Eurasia is perfectly intact, spacequakes are also entirely non-existent... Should I go on?"
"...Well... Fuyuki doesn't exist where I'm from either, so there!" She would turn away from him while pouting, but then, Zouken would speak up.
"It appears that this is more interesting that I thought. I know that the Grail invokes a replication of the Third True Magic to conjure Servants, but to think it managed to tap into the Second... And to this degree, too..." His tone showed a sense of awe, something that was quite intriguing for True Assassin, but she decided to hold off from inquiring about it for now. Shinji, on the other hand...
"What is it, old man? What's this about the True Magics?" Yeah, Shinji decided to not play around and just ask him.
"The Holy Grail, in a sense, invokes the Third Magic to give Servants form. But to make sense of her, a fictional character with no basis in reality, becoming a Servant, it must have invoked the Second Magic as well, and to a degree far beyond even what Zelretch ever could. He told me that adjacent worlds are out of his reach, unlike parallel worlds, but for this to occur, the Grail must have somehow brought her in from an adjacent world, if not a world beyond even that concept, where the events of this work are reality." Zouken's speech was quite calm, despite the topic at hand. "Or, atleast, that's my theory. If it is true, then the Grail might be more powerful than anyone could have imagined."
"Ugh, this alternate universe talk is hurting my brain..." True Assassin was perfectly honest there, as she had trouble comprehending the high-concept ideas being brought forth by her Master. "Can't we talk about something else?"
"If you wish, you can use the body you have brought in here to talk to Shinji about whatever you please, as long as the others are still doing their job." The old Master said matter-of-factly. "I'm going to prepare Caster. While I'm doing that, I shall give you some necessary information through our mental link."
"Aye aye, Master!" She saluted as Zouken's body disippated into a swarm of insects, which then flew off towards Ryuudou Temple.
"Uh..." It was quite clear that being left alone with the Assassin was, to put it bluntly, extremely nerve-racking for Shinji.
"So, I see you're a fan, huh?" She decided to talk about his reading of the novel.
"Yeah. What can I say, it's a fun read. Helps distract me from thoughts of how useless I am..." The last part was spoken through his teeth, as it was a bit of a frustrating topic for him. However, responding like that was a mistake, as she then decided to have a bit of fun with it.
"Oh... A fun read, huh? Well, what do you think of a character from this story you enjoy quite a lot being right next to you?" Her voice had a clear teasing tone to it, as she tried to get under his skin, albeit not in the frustrating sense.
"It's, uh... well... it's an interesting experience, that's for sure..." It seemed he was actually quite flustered, as shown by the blush that suddenly adorned his cheeks. "Would've prefered someone stronger to come in instead, like Tohka, or Origami, or Kurumi..."
The young girl would then pull him in by his collar, so close that their foreheads were touching and her eyes were unmistakeably staring directly into his own.
"Wha-!?"
"Well guess what? You're stuck with me. You're going to do whatever I want. Not Nightmare, not any of the other spirits, me. Understood, Shinji?" Her voice was somewhere between her original teasing tone and a more authoritative one, as if speaking to a pet of a... certain kind.
"Uh... Y- Yes... I understand..." He stammered out, knowing that he isn't getting out of this without potentially dying. And also... well, she was right. He really was stuck with her. Once you summon your Servant, there are no takebacks, and Zouken had already summoned her in particular.
"Good boy~" She would then let go of his collar and pat his head, a gesture that actually felt pretty nice to him... but was also so extremely humiliating that he immediately left and went to his room, left a blushing mess.
Back in the present...
She couldn't help but giggle at the memory. He was going to be quite fun to mess with, if everything goes well. Heck, she may even get to know his dear sister Sakura. But now, all she could do is watch the casualties of the Shadow's act, when she heard what seemed to be some sort of hard, sharp point scraping against the metal floor of the platform she was on.
"Hey. This is your handiwork, right?" When she turned around towards the voice, she saw a man in blue spandex, with red eyes, spiky blue hair, and a red spear held in his hand. This was Lancer, otherwise known as Cu Chulainn. Apparently, he was the Servant of the Holy Grail War's overseer, Kirei Kotomine, so getting caught by him of all people wasn't that great.
"Hmm... Maybe it is. I'm not telling you." Though even if the opponent was the Servant of the one keeping tabs on the war going as intended, she wasn't going to try and resist messing around with him a little. Then again, what he said next seemed to nullify that entirely.
"Nah, it can't be. Even with your multiple selves, I doubt that you could've done something like this. You're just a little girl, after all." Did... Did Lancer just dismiss True Assassin as nothing more than a little girl? Now, sure, the Assassin class was the weakest out of them all, but that was still uncalled for!
"Hey hey hey." She would wag her finger at Lancer in response, already knowing her plan with him. "You are not being a good, respectful boy here. We're both Servants, we're both way older than we look!" That was, of course, a lie. The... world - if her Master's word was true - that she came from was quite the modern one, but she needed to keep up the impression of being a normal Servant that actually belongs in this world.
"Meh. I couldn't care less about what time you're from. All I see in front of me is a child..." He would fancily spin and flip his spear around a few times befpre getting into position. "...And man, do I hate having to kill children."
"...Hoo boy. This is quite a complicated situation. Well, see ya later~!" The Assassin would jump off of the platform onto the streets below, quickly getting on a truck carrying a few cars. She was quite a bit faster than it anyway, but she wasn't attempting to outright outrun Lancer, because that would just be impossible. She was instead trying to egg him on, since she knew he wasn't actually going to leave her alone.
And lo and behold, she was right. After the briefest window of time, she would see Lancer rushing towards the truck, his eyes full of killing intent. She'd pull about four sheets of paper, somewhat resembling the pages of a book, out from behind her, with each one turning into more of herself. Then, the True Assassins would get under the car closest to the back end of the truck, collectively pushing it up with their feet before kicking it towards the Servant in blue. However, he would simply thrust the spear forwards when the car got close enough, causing it to explode with him completely unharmed. After that, nothing was stopping him from getting onto the truck himself, staring down the Assassins.
She had to admit. For atleast a brief moment, she was terrified of him. His glare was as sharp as the blade of his spear, piercing directly into her soul and stripping it bare, as if he was trying to figure out her intentions at just a glance. Thing is though, she knew that wasn't the case. She knew that as long as she ended up dead, that's all that really mattered to him, and... it made perfect sense to her. This is a Holy Grail War, after all. To partake in one is to sacrifice your humanity, and become a killing machine that is willing to slaughter anybody to attain their goals. But then, as she was thinking these thoughts, he finally attacked.
His crimson spear thrust forward, directly towards the face of what he perceived as the main body of True Assassin. This thrust was quickly evaded by dodging to the side, but it was then followed up by a swing that threatened to hit two of the others. The remaining two would retaliate, but would quickly get kicked off of the truck before he continued his assault of swings and stabs towards the three still on it, with them evading the best that they could. After a bit of this, Lancer would pull his spear behind himself, with it glimmering red before he began wildly swinging it all around himself at incredible speeds, red hot lines spreading all over the area around him. Two of the three True Assassins were torn to shreds, with the last one just barely getting off of the truck before the cars on it exploded from Lancer's attack.
This just ended up moving the chase from the streets to the rooftops. The Assassin looked back, only to see Lancer's spear flying towards her. She was only barely able to avoid it, but that did not stop the blue Servant, as he ran towards her at full speed despite not having his weapon in hand. She then realized that she needed to weaken him first, because if he was at full strength when they reached their destination, not even the Shadow might be able to get him, and she was very much banking on it doing so. However, Lancer snapped her out of these thoughts by calling for his spear, it flying back into his hand as he vaulted over to her, breaking the sound barrier as he dropkicked her off of the roof, knocking them both into a new area.
This time around, they were somewhere resembling a fountain area that had long since stopped functioning. Lancer was at the deeper part of the field, while True Assassin held the high ground at its edge. Holding her stomach in pain, she strained herself to give him a smug smirk, which ended up intriguing the blue Lancer quite a bit, because...
"The hell are you so happy about? Your stupid clones went down like complete chumps, and you're also keeling over after just one successful attack. You don't stand a chance here." The Assassin had to admit, Lancer was right there. That one attack alone caused her immense pain, and if he got another one in, this body would probably be destroyed. However... the keywords were "this body".
"You'd be right there, Lancer. Well, would... if I was done just yet. Didn't think I'd have to invoke my Noble Phantasm this soon." Once she said that, Lancer was briefly stunned. The reason? She wasn't bluffing. Throughout the entire chase, or even during her encounter with Caster, she hadn't invoked anything resembling a Noble Phantasm. And given that Assassins are commonly given some pretty powerful Noble Phantasms to compensate for their low statistics, Lancer assumed that he wouldn't want to deal with it what-so-ever.
"Right... You didn't use that yet. Well, go ahead, release your Noble Phantasm. I'll do the same with mine, and then we'll see who's the better Servant out of us." Only after saying that did Lancer realize, that he just made a big mistake.
"Alright then." True Assassin would let go of her body with the arm holding it, spreading them out to the sides as she began floating upwards. Her shadow, however, stayed on the ground, growing larger and darker by the second before the ground beneath her resembled a black void. Meanwhile, Lancer got into position, his spear pointed diagonally downwards in True Assassin's direction as a scarlet glimmer surrounded it.
"Beelzebub... Yeled!" The moment she called upon her Noble Phantasm's name, the pitch black void beneath her released a myriad of paper sheets, which spiralled around her like a tornado. Some of them turned into more of herself, while others remained in paper form. Her Noble Phantasm allowed her to freely create more bodies for herself, with the only limit being the heightening of an individual's naturally quite low mana cost by a factor of however many were around at the time and how many were actually in humanoid form. But then, Lancer used his own Noble Phantasm to attack her, it being intended to make her efforts pointless.
"Gae Bolg!" As Lancer thrust his spear forwards, the crimson glimmer turned itself into an arrow of crimson light, flying towards the perceived main body of True Assassin. While he was surprised that the clones didn't try to defend their core, it didn't exactly matter. This strike reversed causality, so that the thrusting of the spear was the effect of the cause that is piercing the heart. The moment that he verbally invoked the attack, the True Assassin's heart was already pierced. The scarlet arrow was nothing more than a visual indicator to facilitate it coming into play. Upon being struck through, True Assassin fell to the floor, fading away as Servants usually do upon death... but the rest of her were still there, as was all the seemingly miscellaneous paper that he could only presume to be even more of her in an alternative state of being.
"Oh, right, there's another mistake you made!" One of the others spoke in a condescending tone. "None of the me's you see are "clones", as you put it. They are all the real me in equal parts, with us all sharing a single mind and spiritual core. You can't truly kill us if you don't kill all of us!"
Upon that proclamation, the many pieces of paper shaped themselves into paper airplanes, flying around the shocked Lancer before they all homed in on him. Not that this did her any good though, as the projectiles were simply blown off of him by some invisible force. He didn't even move - not that he could, being briefly paralyzed by the revelation's sheer shock factor - and yet the attack thoroughly failed.
"Don't waste your time like that." He quickly snapped himself out of it though, and proceeded to once again made a huge mistake in saying too much. "Projectiles don't work against me. Given that all of your meaningful attacks seem to be projectile-based, you may as well give up."
"Oh, right, that's a thing that exists for some of us Servants... "Protection From Arrows", was it? That is gonna be a pain to deal with if I don't figure something out- Oh wait, I know!" She then proceeded to... launch another paper airplane at Lancer, which was appropriately seen as a dumb move by him.
"Are you just that stupid? I already said, projectiles don't-" And then he was cut off when the airplane faded to black, and a pair of small brown boots slammed themselves directly into his face. While he was blown back a little, he quickly regained his footing, only to see another True Assassin right near where he was, having just landed her first attack on him... by dropkicking him in what he could only presume was supposed to be payback. "...smart cookie..."
"Hehe~ Thanks for that! I thought one of my paper bodies didn't count as a projectile anymore if I switched forms and went in for a melee attack, and there I go, proving myself right!" Her face appeared annoyingly smug for Lancer, and considering that she just found a workaround for one of his greatest defensive abilities, it wasn't like it was unfounded. That, however, only served to piss him off more. When True Assassin recalled all the paper wasted on her first attack for another strike from all directions, he made it his first priority to remove the attacks from the equation without relying on his Protection From Arrows. He would begin swinging his spear all around himself, cleaving through a whole bunch of True Assassins in both forms, eventually leaving only one to run away once more. Of course, he would continue to give chase, since he was still hellbent on taking care of her.
After some more time chasing True Assassin around the city grounds, Lancer was guided towards a large lake. And of course, there was True Assassin, floating above the water with that same smug look on her face that he was already getting sick of.
"So, this is the place you chose to be your grave!?" Mmhm, he's just about had enough of True Assassin's bullshit.
"Oh, it will be a grave for someone, alright..." She responded as her opponent charged towards her, spearpoint-first as he was about to skewer her. "...Not for me though~"
Black and red ribbons suddenly erupted from the water, binding Lancer's arm and leg before pulling him into the water. When he looked into the depths, he saw a crimson glow, from within he could see hundreds of these ribbon-like tendrils extending up and outwards, and reaching for his drowning self. However, he would then kick and slash off of it, going back out of the water, only to find True Assassin curiously crouching over the spot where he just was.
"What the hell was that, Assassin!? Answer me!" He shouted towards her in frustration, wanting to get some answers about this.
"What, that sweet little thing there? Nothing much, just... your death."
As she said that, more of the dark tendrils burst out of the water, trying to latch themselves onto Lancer as he evaded them. During said evasion, he'd also continue to try and attack True Assassin, who would continuously get just barely out of range for him, as if mocking him for being unable to kill her. He could've gone for his reverse causality attack again to guarrantee a hit, but he could feel his magical energy reserves being drained from the moment that the shadowy entity grabbed onto him up to when he got himself free from it. Just in case it'd get a hold of him again, he had to waste as little mana as possible. After all, Servants are effectively beings of pure mana in and of themselves. Without it, they can't remain manifested in the current world, hence why a Master needed to act as a constant supply of it.
However, Lancer's capture by the Shadow was inevitable. It would grab onto him all over, eating away at his mana by the second, while True Assassin approached him with some kind of dagger in hand. While he didn't recognize it, it didn't quite feel like her own weapon. Just didn't fit her apparent aesthetic. It had to have been something she nabbed from Caster instead.
"I must say, Lancer, this has been fun. But this cute little shadow here feeds off of mana. More specifically, the mana of Servants." True Assassin would begin monologuing to Lancer, proving him right about its capabilities. "However, even an anti-Servant weapon such as it can't guarrantee the consumption of a fully-powered Servant such as yourself, so... Let's see how it does when your connection to your dear Master is no more~"
Once she said that, she raised the dagger in her hand, plunging it towards Lancer... but then he mustered up all of his strength to break out of the Shadow's grip on him, the small blade simply slicing into his arm. But even with that slight injury, he could feel his connection to that bastard Kirei getting disrupted, the flow of mana between them starting to lag. A weapon capable of breaking the bonds between Master and Servant? No, it couldn't be that specific. If he had to guess, the dagger broke magical contracts as a whole, but that kind of ability would be restricted to a Noble Phantasm. But again, it didn't quite feel like hers, so who's was it? Caster's? That would make sense, given that she went after her prior to this encounter, but then the question became "how in the hell did she keep a dead Servant's Noble Phantasm for herself". Unless... Caster somehow didn't die...
Either way, he was just 99 flavors of done with this. He would jump high into the air, pulling his spear back as scarlet energy flew all around it, aiming towards True Assassin and especially the Shadow. His magical energy was converted into raw power, the spear's curse being pushed to its absolute limit. He was ready to strike down the enemy that did nothing but mock him throughout, and the abomination that was just about ready to ruin the Holy Grail War as a whole, all with this one last toss of his spear.
"Gae Bolg!" The call was the same as his previous Noble Phantasm, but the effect couldn't be more different. As he threw his spear downwards, one could see hundreds more spears sprouting from it, True Assassin getting away as fast as she possibly could the moment she saw it coming. There was no way in hell she could survive an attack like that. However, the Shadow remained in place, even through the massive explosion of pure kinetic force that resulted from the impact.
Once the dust settled, Lancer was no longer there, and his crimson spear flew back away, supposedly towards him. He was going back to his Master, both to re-establish their now-destabilized contract... and to just generally have a long talk about what the hell just happened.
A/N:
Mmhm. Yes, indeed. Lancer lives! We are all still human! Just kidding, I'm still a damn monster. But either way, yeah, Lancer will actually survive for atleast some time longer in this fic compared to canon Heaven's Feel, which is good. You can never have too much best doggo (although Barghest is currently vying for that position too, so who knows about that right now). Anyway, I still feel like I'm missing something... O- Oh, right, the updated stat sheet!
True Name: Nibelcole
Class: Assassin (labeled as True Assassin due to Sasaki Kojiro's prior summoning)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral (leans towards "Chaotic Evil" due to the Master's influence)
Class Skills:
Presence Concealment C
Personal Skills:
Hivemind Page A
A representation of the connection between the individual True Assassins. Unlike the Assassin of the Fourth Holy Grail War, True Assassin is a hivemind connecting multiple bodies indistinguishable from one another in appearance or manneurisms, as opposed to multiple varied individuals born from a single being. They do not have what could be called a "main body", as every single True Assassin is the real one in equal measure, and thus, they can only be truly killed if all of them are destroyed, making this skill double as a sort of substitute Battle Continuation skill.
Childish Page A
A skill that represents True Assassin's state of existence. She is not a true human, but rather, something more akin to a homunculus. However, even that isn't quite correct, as her method of creation is quite different from that of homunculi such as the ones created by the Einzberns. Rather, each individual True Assassin is a page ripped from a certain demonic book and given humanoid form through pseudo-magical means. They are a transient existence made to follow their "father's" will, with their Master in a Holy Grail War acting as a substitute for said "father" if he isn't summoned as well. This nature of theirs is the cause of their fluctuating alignment, as they will lean more towards "Chaotic Good" or "Chaotic Evil" depending on the nature of their Master. It also allows each individual to transform back into their page form at will and retain consciousness, either floating through the air as a method of transportation or folding themselves into objects such as paper planes for long-ranged combat.
Noble Phantasm:
Beelzebub-Yeled: Pages of Divine Corruption
Rank: B
Classification: Anti-Unit (Self)
A Noble Phantasm representing True Assassin's countless numbers in life. Even though only so many may appear at once, there were always hundreds, if not thousands more waiting in reserve, with their creator and so-called "father" being able to create more at will through the same process that created the originals. Upon invocation of its True Name, True Assassin's shadow releases as many of herself in page form as she deems necessary, allowing for a veritable army of True Assassins to be created. In combination with her Hivemind Page skill, this also makes them incredibly hard to take out of the war, as every single one of them is still as much the real deal as the one invoking the Noble Phantasm. However, this comes at a cost. The individual True Assassin's extremely low mana cost is multiplied by a factor of however many exist at the time, due to the nature of every single one being real, and the ones created by this Noble Phantasm are no exception to this rule. As such, depending on how many are created, True Assassin can cost as much or even more magical energy to maintain as any other Servant, including the most costly ones of all. Either way, it is an incredibly versatile Noble Phantasm capable of being used for a variety of different purposes, so its average rank and relative heavy cost should not scare one away from making use of it.
Next Chapter:
Holy Grail War Inversion
