Third chapter editted, and the first to display my deviations from the original planned story.
No Spoilers now, you need to read to find out.
Fate/Zero Requiem:
An Alternate Tale of the Fourth Holy Grail War
Second Night: Assassin's Game.
Kirei felt his jaw drop, looking on in horrified wonderment as the fireball that consumed the Tohsaka-Manor lit the night sky like a firework sans the noise, Tokiomi's precious Bounded Field ironically serving its intended purpose of keeping the uninitiated from noticing anything.
Add this to the fact that the mansion was isolated even from the other members of the 'Upper Class District' Tokiomi's ancestors had built it in, and it was highly unlikely that anyone would notice its destruction until Tokiomi's family returned.
'Rin is going to kill me…' a distant part of him realized, though Kirei paid it very little mind, as he was hardly terrified of a six-year old girl, even if she was a Prodigy with the potential to command all Five of the classic Elements used in Magecraft.
As a Magus, Kirei had long since surpassed Tokiomi's heir, the Tohsaka head, make that the late head, having acknowledged him as his senior apprentice after a mere three years of tutelage, something that irked his prodigal daughter to no end.
"Quite the show." Assassin opined, his obvious amusement at Kirei's reaction to the display snapping the younger Kotomine out of his daze to gape at his enigmatic Servant in stunned disbelief "Wouldn't you agree, Kirei?"
"…how?" Kirei demanded, a part of him unable to help shivering at the Servant's use of his name instead of calling him 'Master', as he had before, the Executor turned Magus unable to help gaping at his Servant in shock and, as much as he was loathe to admit it, awe "What did you do?"
"Unlike Tokiomi, I wasn't sitting back on my Laurels these past three years." Assassin revealed, his tone dismissive as he continued to watch the Tohsaka manor burn to the ground below "While he was instructing you and Rin in the arts of Magecraft, I was familiarizing myself with the layout of his mansion, in particular the inner workings of his Bounded Field and the location of his jewel stockpile."
Kirei shivered, recalling the one time Tokiomi had shown him said stockpile, the result of three generations of Tohsaka transferring their power into jewels in preparation for the upcoming Forth Holy Grail War. The accumulated value of the precious stones would've been enough to cover the living expenses of a normal, non-magus family for several generations, and each individual gem had enough prana packed into them to match an A-Rank destructive spell.
In short, by blowing up Tokiomi's Stockpile, Assassin hadn't just bombed the Tohsaka manor, he'd essentially detonated the magical equivalent of a Tactical Nuclear Warhead right under Tokiomi's feet.
Even if Gilgamesh had been in Astral form at the time, something Kirei highly doubted given how Tokiomi's plan relied entirely on Gilgamesh being seen in order to drive home the power of his Servant, the sheer amount of unstable destructive magical energy would've wiped the King of Heroes from this world for the second time, or at the very least wounded him enough that even Assassin could take him down if he played his cards right.
"From there, it was a simple matter of smuggling the necessary explosives into the house, and installing them in key areas." Assassin continued "Due to Tokiomi's lack of technical knowledge, it never occurred to him to check his own house for any traps other than those he placed himself." he inclined his head so that Kirei's stunned features were reflected on the surface of his mask "I trust it was to your satisfaction, Kirei?"
It was. Oh it most certainly was. Despite the knowledge that this upset the entire plan Tokiomi and his father had painstakingly concocted, Kirei was shocked to find he could not deny the strange sense of satisfaction that filled him at the sight of the Tohsaka head's machinations were reduced to ash by his Servant's single Action.
Indeed, so great was his wonderment at the feeling spreading through him that he couldn't even bring himself to silence the blasphemous thought that it probably would've felt more satisfying to kill Tokiomi himself, though even that part of him reveled in the exhilaration that it had been his order that had silenced the smug prick.
However, all good things must come to an end, and as a man of the cloth Kirei had trained himself not only to resist temptation, but to ensure he did not overindulge in the few pleasures the Lord did not forbid, so it was with minimal effort that he managed to reign in his feelings and school his features into their usual mask of calm disinterest.
"Father will be most displeased." He pointed out, though even as he said this, he could not help his surprise at how little he seemed to care for the elder Kotomine's feelings on the matter. Indeed, the blasphemous part of him seemed almost eager to see how his sire reacted to the revelation of Tokiomi's demise "With this, our entire plan has been destroyed."
"Not necessarily." Assassin countered, his smile coy as he inclined his head towards the ruined mansion, Kirei turning to follow his gaze, only to blink as he espied a second Assassin, mantle and all, fleeing the scene with a bow held in one hand and the smoldering form of what could only be Tokiomi's corpse slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"Why so surprised, Master?" Assassin chuckled "After all, is it not 'common knowledge' that members of the Assassin class are traditionally incarnations of Hassan il Sabbah, of which it is plain to see that I am not?" he inclined his head towards the second assassin below "With that in mind, and factoring in the fact that, with the exception of the Founder, most Assassins are hardly what you would call front-line fighters, it should not take a genius to imagine the outcome of a fight involving Archer, one of the three Knight Classes."
"I see…" Kirei mused, unable to help the approval he felt at his Servant's cunning from slipping into his tone even as he schooled his expression to remain calm, choosing instead to watch as the second Assassin, Tokiomi's corpse in hand, leapt over the boundary wall and escaped into the forest "People will assume that 'Archer' managed to save Tokiomi, and since Servants can sense when one of their own has passed, they will assume 'Assassin' was killed in the battle."
"Indeed." Assassin confirmed, nodding approvingly at his Master's intuition "Furthermore, with the loss of his base of operations, the other masters will prioritize searching for Tokiomi instead of focusing on you. And by assuming the role of 'Archer', I can draw out the other Servants whilst targeting the other Masters, who will undoubtedly lower their guards in the wake of 'Assassin's death, leaving them wide open for you to pick them off at your leisure."
"How thoughtful of you." Kirei mused, actually surprised to find himself smiling at the prospect of getting to hunt the other Masters unhindered, something he would have been denied if he'd been following Tokiomi's scenario "You must have been quite the tactician in life, to have come up with such a plan."
"You could say that." Assassin admitted, his tone amused even as he turned to face the 'other' Assassin, whom Kirei noted was taller, possessed of a more muscular build, and dressed in a black version of the Servant's purple outfit "I trust things went as planned?"
"Archer's dead." The doppelganger confirmed, earning a quirked brow from Kirei at the different voice that emerged from the mask, this one bearing a hint of a Japanese accent "He managed to take a few of us down with him, but in the end his own status as a King was his undoing."
"Is that not always the case?" Assassin mused, earning a quirked brow from Kirei as the Servant and his doppelganger shared an amused chuckle before the main body waved his hand imperiously "Head for the Fuyuki Church, but take the long way so as to throw off any potential spies."
"Yes, Your Majesty." the doppelganger acknowledged, though Kirei couldn't help but note the hint of silent mockery in his tone just before he leapt away from them, making a bee-line towards Fuyuki proper in such a blatant fashion that it would be impossible for the other Master's familiars to ignore.
"Let us go, Kirei." Assassin instructed, turning on his heel as he shifted back to Astral form, the younger Kotomine staring after him in contemplative silence. And how could he not? In a single night his entire world-view had been turned on its head by the impossible Servant he had summoned for the explicit purpose of sacrificing for the goals of another.
A servant, he recalled, who was unlike anything that had been recorded in modern history.
'This…is going to be interesting…' the younger Kotomine deduced, nodding his head once as he began the long trek back to the Fuyuki Church, a subconscious spring in his step that he pointedly ignored. Truly.
Elsewhere...
"Hey, Rider!" Waver Velvet called out, the young Magus' eyes snapping open, having witnessed the destruction of the Tohsaka manor through the eyes of his rat familiar "Tohsaka's house just got destroyed!"
"Hmm? So that's what that was?" Rider muttered, the Servant not looking away from the television, idly munching away at a plate of crackers as he watched examples of the World's Air-Forces on the television in the cluttered room he shared with his Master "I sensed one of the Seven passing away a few moments ago…looks like the Grail War's finally started."
"You don't sound too excited about it…" Waver deadpanned, eyeing the massive, bearded man with disapproval; and not just because of the man's attitude…though perhaps it was better to say it was.
In the world of Magi, it was a widely accepted rule that the length of a Magus' bloodline largely determined their abilities. The reason for this was simply a matter of mortality, for no matter how skilled or affluent a Magus might be, it was impossible for the wonders of Magecraft to be completed within one generation.
As a result, the cardinal rule, the Grand Order, that all Magi capitulated to, was to ensure their teachings were passed down to their descendants. Whether it was because they themselves had reached the limits of their capabilities, or the simple fact they were nearing the end of their lifespan, it was every Magus' solemn duty to pass down the sum total of their Thaumaturgical Research to their offspring, that they might continue and indeed refine the work of their forebears.
As a result, it was generally an accepted fact that the older a family of Magi, the more powerful they were. Waver, however, had dared to contest this 'truth', writing a thesis, 'How Wizarding Should Be in the New Century', outlining several ways, including deeper understanding of Spells and improved Prana Control, could in theory allow a Magus of younger bloodline to bridge the gap of generations and stand on the same level as one whose bloodline was considered superior.
He'd put all of his free time into writing that thesis, and considering how hard it was for Magi from lesser families to get anything done, due to the favoritism offered to those with peerage, that was no small amount of time.
With this in mind, you could probably imagine his reaction when his Euryphis lecturer, the prodigal Lord Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi, not only dismissed his work as 'Juvenile Fantasies', he'd gone on to publicly humiliate Waver in front of his peers, treating him as a child despite everything he'd endured just to get into the Association.
Needless to say, Waver hadn't been too pleased, and had stormed out of the lecture hall only to run into one of the staff, who asked him to pass on a package to Lord El-Melloi, a package that had been shipped all the way from Macedonia.
Like all his students, Waver had heard the rumors that Kayneth would be competing in some sort of magic tournament in the Far-East, presumably to prove himself worthy of the hand of Miss Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri, the daughter of the head of the summoning department, who'd been putting off their engagement for some time now.
At the time he hadn't given it much thought, as he'd been preoccupied with writing his thesis. Following his humiliation, however, the young evoker decided to steal the relic, originally just to spite the man, though after a quick trip to the library and learning precisely which tournament Lord El-Melloi was to participate in, he'd soon changed his game plan and had boarded the first plane to Japan, using his memory manipulation skills to convince a Canadian couple living in Fuyuki that he was their grandson here on a visit.
Admittedly, he'd harbored some doubts even before arriving, and given the barbaric nature of the Grail Wars, how could he not? But he'd persevered, and in three years of constant preparation had finally been recognised by the Holy Grail in the form of the three command seals that currently adorned the back of his hand.
Elated with his success, he'd immediately set about summoning his Servant, Rider, using the very catalyst that had been intended for Lord El-Melloi, a scrap of cloth that had come from the robe of none other than Iskander of Macedonia, known to the modern world as Alexander the Great, the King of Conquerors.
That had been two nights ago, and in that time Waver had run the gamut of emotions, ranging from elation to confusion, before settling on aggravation due almost entirely to the nature of his Servant.
Needless to say, Waver and Rider's first impressions of one another hadn't been the best. Waver regarded the King of Conquerors as a loud ox of a man with a one-track mind and no respect for his Master, refusing to remain in astral form despite the drain it put on Waver's reserves.
Likewise, Iskander viewed Waver's reasons for entering the grail war, to earn the respect of his peers, as childish, often berating the boy whenever he tried to make the oaf see common sense. He was also far too comfortable with spending Waver's money on what he liked to call 'War Preparations'.
Waver wouldn't have minded as much if it was the Grail War the King of Conquerors was referring to, rather than the clearly mad Servant's desire to pick up where he left off and conquer the rest of the globe, though he supposed he should count his lucky stars that, for the time being at least, he was content to simply gorge himself on snacks while watching documentaries on how the world had developed, economically and militarily, since his death.
'I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, given his title…' he sighed, shaking his head in distress, only to yelp as something flicked him in the forehead, sending him sprawling onto the bed "OW!" he yelled, looking up to find Rider looming over him, the Servant's having used one mighty finger to flick him in the head "What was that for?"
"Did that wake you up?" Rider demanded, his features stern, though his tone was jovial as he stood with his massive fists on his hips "I've been asking you if you saw which Servant died for a while now."
"I don't know…" Waver muttered, rubbing his forehead tenderly where the Servant's fingers had struck "I didn't see who blew the mansion up, nobody went near it. But after the explosion I saw someone carrying another figure over his shoulder, he had a bow in his hands and I can't be certain but the figure on his back looked like Tohsaka Tokiomi."
"Hmm, so Tohsaka summoned an Archer class did he?" Rider muttered, the bronzed giant of a man stroking his crimson beard in thought "Guess I should've expected he'd aim for a Knight class, being one of the founding Families." He hummed thoughtfully "You said nobody went in or out of the mansion, right?"
"Yes…well, no, someone did leave earlier." Waver corrected himself, frowning as he recalled what had happened earlier that day "It was Kotomine Kirei, Tokiomi's apprentice."
"Hmm, so the student betrays his teacher does he?" Rider mused, his expression darkening somewhat as he stroked his beard "Judging by that, it's likely he summoned Assassin and had him wait inside the mansion when he left."
"It certainly sounds like something he'd do…" Waver agreed, shivering slightly as he recalled what little he'd seen of the grim-faced man who wore the garbs of a priest despite being a magus, knowing all too well how deadly the Executors of the church could be "Which means that Assassin was the one to die, right?"
"So it would seem." Rider deduced, a frown adorning his features even as Waver breathed a sigh of relief. And for good reason, for while the three Knight Classes, Rider and Berserker were the kind to charge in headfirst and beat each other to death, Assassin and Caster were decidedly more tricky to deal with, the former specializing in eliminating Masters from the shadows, while the latter, regardless of whether they hailed from the Age of Gods, could track the other servants from a distance and learn their weaknesses "Did you notice anything unusual about Archer?"
"Um…not really…" Waver murmured, only to recoil as Rider raised his hand, his middle finger readied for another fore-head flick "Give me a break! There's only so much I could see through the eyes of a rat at night! All I could tell was he wore a mask and cloak and carried a bow!"
"Not good enough!" Rider barked, his finger impacting mercilessly against Waver's brow right between the eyes, sending the distressed boy sprawling back with a yelp "If I must fight someone, it will be to survive and win! Why weren't you paying closer attention to him?" he sighed at Waver's look of distress "Oh well, it matters not. Did you at least notice anything else about him? Any notable features?"
"No, his entire body was hidden beneath a black cloak and mask." Waver grumbled, rubbing his brow tenderly as he sat up only to blink in recollection "Wait…there was something else…a mark on the mask, like a bird in flight…"
"Now we're getting somewhere!" Rider applauded, an approving smile adorning his bearded features as be slapped one massive hand against Waver's back, rattling the boy's bones "Think you could sketch it out?"
"I can try…" Waver gasped, grimacing at the pain in his, well, everything, as he pulled himself back into a sitting position, blinking the tears out of his eyes "It wasn't that complicated..."
"Complicated or not, a mark like that on a warrior's armour is a clue as to his true identity." Rider pointed out, his voice laden with the wisdom of the battlefield as he got to his feet "We can figure out his identity later, for now get ready, we're heading out."
"Out?" Waver stammered, blinking up at the massive man in understandable confusion, wondering, not for the first time, what was going on in that unreadable mind of his "Out where?"
"Anywhere, it doesn't matter." Rider replied, that insufferable Devil-May-Care smirk adorning his face as he popped his massive neck muscles "You weren't the only one watching Tohsaka's place." He reminded his distressed Master "That means everyone else knows what happened, so they'll be racing to take Archer out before he can squirrel his Master away."
He grinned expectantly as he crossed to the window "Not only that, but if it's true that Assassin was the one to fall, then the other Masters will stop waiting for attacks from the shadows and start making their own moves. We'll hunt them down and crush them as we come across them."
"You say that like it's going to be easy." Waver groused, eyeing his Servant with a deadpan expression, not for the first time "Seriously, are you sure it's okay to be doing this?"
"Why wouldn't it be?" Rider countered, smirking confidently all the while "Food and sex, sleep and war! Whatever you do, enjoy it to the fullest, that is the secret of life, and the same can be said for the hunt!" he drew his sword from its scabbard "Furthermore, I am Rider. My mobility far exceeds that of any other Servant!"
"W-w-w-wait a minute! Waver yelped, waving his arms in terror as Rider's sword began to glow, the precursor to his summoning his Noble Phantasm "Not inside! You'll blow the house away!"
Kotomine Church...
"I have lost my Servant." Kirei declared, standing before his father, who in turn stood before the doors to the Fuyuki Church, the only agreed upon Accorded Neutral Territory for the Holy Grail War "I have forfeited my right as Master, and can no longer participate in the Holy Grail War. In accordance with the Treaty, I, Kotomine Kirei, ask that the church shelter and protect me."
"I accept your request." Risei confirmed solemnly, the elder Kotomine saying the words aloud for the benefit of the familiars that were assuredly watching from the shadows "In my role as Judge, I, Kotomine Risei, will guarantee your safety." He gestured to the doors "Now, come in."
Kirei did so, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the laughable farce he'd been forced to go through. As if his own father would deny him shelter, even if he hadn't lost his rights as a Master.
He had to admit, however, that there were worse places to seek sanctuary. Despite being a Japanese city with an active Buddhist temple, the Kotomine church had quite the number of patrons, some of them quite influential, and so the interior of the Church was quite splendid to behold, eliciting a feeling of serene calmness as one would expect from a house of The Lord.
However, this too was merely camouflage to disguise the Church's true purpose, as it had been constructed specifically to serve as the base of operations for the Overseer of the Holy Grail Wars.
Kirei's Grandfather had served as the first Overseer well over sixty years ago during the Third Grail War, which had ended prematurely with the destruction of the vessel. Naturally disappointed, he'd passed his desire to witness the 'Miracle' of the Grail down to his son, Risei, who would doubtless have done the same with Kirei had Tokiomi's plan failed, which in retrospect it had.
"What a disaster…" Risei sighed, the elder Kotomine sinking onto one of the pews; his face buried in his hands as he shook his head mournfully "How could something like this have happened?"
"We underestimated the resourcefulness of the other Masters." Assassin spoke up, Kirei quirking a brow as his Servant materialized before his father, arms hidden beneath his cloak like some sort of vampire bat "It would appear Emiya Kiritsugu's reputation is well deserved."
"So it would seem…" Risei growled, earning a quirked brow from his son, who had never heard his father sound so agitated before "Jubstacheit…is there nothing he won't resort to?"
"From what I can tell, the Einzbern's frustrations are justified." Assassin pointed out, drawing the father and son's attention to himself "If Tokiomi's records on the war are correct then the Einzberns haven't won a single war since the founding of the Heaven's Feel ritual."
"But still, to so blatantly attack one of the other founding families." Risei persisted, the elder priest shaking his head in disbelief "Jubstacheit must be getting desperate if he would resort to such blatantly obvious tactics."
"Even with those techniques he uses to prolong his lifespan, he isn't immortal." Kirei reminded his father, deciding to see how things ran their course, rather than correcting his father as to how Tokiomi truly died "Most likely he hired Emiya Kiritsugu as added insurance, as it's unlikely he'd bequeath his family's rights as Master to another."
"Unless the Grail War is meant to act as a Rite of Passage." Assassin mused, earning looks of confusion from the pair "Think about it, why would the Einzberns, one of the premier Magus families in all of Europe, welcome a known heretical Magus from Japan into their ranks?"
Indeed, Kirei had often pondered that question himself. Western Magi, as a whole, tended to look down on their Eastern counterparts, irregardless of their success. For someone like Jubstacheit von Einzbern to even deign to acknowledge the existence of a heretic like Emiya Kiritsugu was most irregular.
"From what I can understand, with the exception of the Tohsaka and Matou, the Einzbern have almost no regard for oriental magi." Assassin continued "Even setting aside the face the Matou originally hailed from Russia, the only reason the Einzberns colluded with them in the first place was due to the Wizard Marshall's suggestion."
"Someone's been doing their homework I see…" Kirei noted approvingly as he regarded his enigmatic servant. He had to admit, he'd been wondering how they were going to deceive his father into believing they played no part in Tokiomi's death, yet it seemed Assassin had already planned things out to the letter.
"No matter the age, information on your opponents is the key to victory." Assassin responded, inclining his head towards Risei "I was fortunate that Tokiomi did not forbid my browsing of his archives to familiarize myself with the inner-working so of the Grail War and the Magus Society." he sighed dramatically "It's just a shame I couldn't repay him in kind."
"You did what you could, Assassin." Risei sighed, offering the Servant a kind smile "Had you not retrieved Tokiomi-kun's body and brought it to me, it would've been impossible to preserve his Magus Crest." he sighed, shaking his head morosely "At the very least we can ensure that his last will and testament are carried out."
"Then Rin is to become the new head of House Tohsaka?" Kirei proposed, more of a statement than a question, as there was hardly anyone else to fill the role, Tokiomi having given up his other daughter to the Matou's tender mercies, the very thought of the horrors the poor girl had doubtless suffered over the past three years sending a heretical shiver up his spine that he crushed instantly.
"Yes, though I had hoped she would not have to for some time." Risei admitted, the old man looking every one of his years as he palmed his face "I'm truly getting too old for this, perhaps it's for the best that Tokiomi-kun designated you as her Master and Magical Guardian."
That certainly earned a blink from Kirei, the younger Kotomine gaping at his father, completely caught off guard by the extent of the trust Tokiomi had placed in him, which only served to heighten the blasphemous rush of exhilaration he felt at the delicious irony that said trust had been misplaced, albeit indirectly.
"The bond between a master and student is a beautiful thing." Assassin mused, his tone respectful, though Kirei just knew the masked Servant was smiling mockingly all the while "Wouldn't you agree, Master?"
Kirei didn't trust himself to speak, feeling the corners of his lips tugging treacherously even as he turned his back on his Servant, who turned his attention towards Risei as his doppelganger from earlier stepped into view.
"If I may be so bold, I propose we proceed with Tokiomi's plan for the time being." he proposed, nodding his head towards his doppelganger "For the time being I've managed to fool the other Masters into believing 'Archer' managed to get Tokiomi to safety. Since the other Servants will have doubtless sensed Gilgamesh's demise, their Masters will doubtlessly believe Kirei has truly lost his Servant and will focus their attention on locating Tokiomi before he has a chance to 'recuperate'."
"I see…" Risei mused, eyeing the second Assassin warily, as he'd possessed no prior knowledge that his son's Servant possessed such a versatile skill "The loss of Gilgamesh is a heavy one, but if Assassin can masquerade as 'Archer', then the other Masters will have no reason to suspect Tokiomi-kun is in fact dead, leaving Kirei-kun to move with anonymity."
"What better conditions for an Executor of the Church trained in the art of Magecraft to find themselves in?" Assassin agreed, his tone confident as he dismissed his doppelganger "With me distracting the other Servants, it should be child's play for you to take out the other Masters."
"My word…" Risei chuckled, the elder Kotomine eyeing his son's Servant with respect and, unless Kirei's senses were failing him, wariness "You truly summoned an interesting servant, Kirei."
"So it would seem." Kirei agreed, no longer able to resist the slight upturning of his lips, the former Executor openly smiling for the first time since his wife's death as he regarded his enigmatic Servant with approval "Most interesting indeed."
And I'll just leave off there.
As you can doubtlessly see, I have decided to scrap the Kid-Gamesh sub-plot entirely, as in all honesty it serves no purpose in the long run.
I debated removing the non-canon ability for Servants to sense each others' passing, but in the end I opted to leave it in, as it would only serve to strengthen LuLu's plan to lull the other Servants into a false sense of security.
And we've seen Two of his Noble Phantasms in action, sort of. so Like in the game, here's what has been noticed:
1. ? (Anti-Unit): For some reason, His stats cannot be witnessed.
2. ? (Anti-Unit/Anti-Army) Can make Doppelgangers. Though for some reason they seem different from the original.
Not going to spoil anything more than that. I'll let you figure it all out on your lonesome. More details on the Noble Phantasms will be explained as the story develops.