Assassin
Medea of Colchis, the witch of Betrayal and the Caster of the Fifth Holy Grail War studied the man she had just summoned to be a servant of her own. Secretly, she was still a bit surprised that she managed to do this as under the normal rules of the Grail War servants were forbidden from becoming masters themselves.
Anyway, the man Medea summoned was quite tall and had short, shaggy black hair along with a small short beard. He was dressed in an unzipped dark-gray jacket with a much lighter T-shirt underneath it and blue jeans, held in place by a most standard brown leather belt... The man had a lean body, but it was clear that he was strong and very skilled fighter. He was also blind: a walking stick and black sunglasses had hid some rather ugly scars made it quite clear.
Caster sighed. Why, why the Gods thought it was a good idea to give her a blind assassin as a servant? At least he appeared to be from the modern era and, thus, would have no troubles with blending in. But can he really fight? - that what this war was about, after all... Then, her rational side reminded Medea that whoever this man was, he became a heroic spirit while already blind, meaning that he indeed could fight despite having lost his sight.
"Very well, Assassin." The witch of Betrayal spoke. She knew that the man in front of her could only be a servant of shadows. "I want you to guard the gates of this temple until such..." She was interrupted by an angry Assassin, who went for his cane. Apparently, it was more than just a walking stick: Medea could see a lock near it's handle, meaning that most likely a this sword was concealed within this cane.
"You summon me into a war full of mighty warriors and expect me to just sit there and do nothing?" While Assassin spoke in an even and controlled voice, it was very clear that he was very very angered by a mere thought that he will miss all of the 'fun' of the Grail War...
'So, Gods gave me a blind, battle-hungry assassin?' The blue-haired mage from the age of Gods wondered in her head. 'Why do they hate me so much?' Shaking her head at the thought that she'll have to spend a command spell so early, Medea issued an order: "You will guard the gates of the temple." Assassin let out an almost animalistic growl, but could not fight against such an order.
"Fine." He hissed with obvious distaste.
~/ *** \~
Medea was sitting in the corner of the dojo, watching as her Kuzuki was sparring with the summoned assassin. Even with her constantly reinforcing him to make him stronger and faster, her 'fiance' was barely able to keep up with the blind servant. And from the looks of it, Assassin primary specialization was his cane sword and not unarmed combat... Whoever this man was, he was really good, and the blue-haired mage no longer felt bad about summoning him out of all possible servants.
Eventually, the spar ended with Kuzuki breathing heavily, while Assassin was barely winded. It was not much different from any other of their spars in this regard: the blind heroic spirit managed to see right through now-school-teacher's 'Snake' fighting style right away, never being caught by surprise by it. But it took him some time to fully adapt to such an opponent, and now he was actually working as a stimulus for Kuzuki to get better.
"Damn... I need a good sword fight." Assassin breathed out after he had gulped down a glass of water. Turning his attention to Caster, with whom he still had a strained relationship, he spoke: "If you wouldn't mind, master?" Knowing that the best way to keep a working relationship with this battle-hungry swordsman was to give in to his demand, Medea nodded as she gave some more prana to Assassin. The said man did a wide swishing movement with his right hand and a second later someone knocked on the dojo's door. Being very attuned to magic, the witch of Betrayal could tell that her servant had just performed a summoning of his own, and it was that new summoned spirit, who was knocking on the door.
This minor heroic spirit was a man in a creamy business suit, who had long pale-gray hair, steel eyes and golden earrings in both of his ears. He also had a scar going from the left corner of his mouth and all the way up to his left eye. He appeared to be armed with a Japanese katana, which he was casually carrying in his left hand.
"Onii-san! It's so nice to see you again!" The newly-arrived man exclaimed, as soon as he saw Assassin, acting as if he hadn't just been summoned by the said servant... Assassin merely gave a small bow of a greeting to this rather annoying ashy-haired man, before unsheathing his cane-sword from his walking stick. "A-ah! You want to fight me, onii-san? Why? You know that I'm not all that good and..." Apparently, the annoying man was also a bit of a coward... Still, seeing as Assassin wasn't going to give up his idea of using him as his sparring partner, the unnamed heroic spirit let out a deep sight, before unsheathing his own sword. "Fine. Let's fight."
For the next ten or so minutes, the dojo became filled with the sounds of clashing swords. And Medea had to admit that despite coming out as a slippery coward, the man her Assassin had summoned – she had learned that his name was Senji – was actually a pretty good swordsman. Not even near the level of his 'onii-san', but enough to be a significant danger to a normal human or an unprepared enemy master.
Though, Medea had to admit that she secretly hopes, Assassin wouldn't summon him when someone was attacking the temple: the prana needed to keep this Senji man in this world could be used in much better ways... But since at the moment they were in a relatively peaceful times, the witch of Betrayal felt like allowing her servant to sate his lust for battle in any reasonable ways that kept him within the boundaries of the temple...
~/ *** \~
Archer, also known as Counter Guardian EMIYA, traced his futuristic bow as he prepared for the attack. Then he traced his arrow: the spiral sword of Caladbolg. Even though it was not a perfect replica of the sword, fired as a broken phantasm, it was still a highly-destructive projectile. Powerful enough to kill almost any heroic spirit with a single hit...
What for did he need something this powerful? The answer was rather simple: after nearly a week of observations, Archer finally determined that the blind man sitting at the gates of the Ryuudouji temple was actually Assassin. And the servant of bow was going to kill that bastard before he had even a chance of counterattacking. After all, who knew what weird powers that abnormal servant had?
Alas, this plan was doomed to fail spectacularly as Assassin seemed to have sensed the attack as soon as Archer released Caladbolg from his bow. And the blind servant managed to get away from the blast zone just far enough not to be affected by distortions in space, which the broken phantasm created. And before EMIYA could even swear, he himself had to dodge as his sixth sense warned him about an incoming projectiles...
A moment later, two small throwing knives got imbedded in the tree trunk right where Archer's head used to be. This raised a big question: was this Assassin really blind if he could (almost) hit a target tree miles away with such a deadly precision? Well, no matter, the red and black clad servant decided as he sped towards the temple gates. He wasn't going to fail his self-given mission of eliminating the servant of shadows, and if archery didn't work, then he'll try to overwhelm that guy in close combat.
EMIYA was quite surprised to see that Assassin didn't even try to hide and was behaving more like a Saber would, waiting impatiently for him at the temple gates with his cane sword drawn. As per his habit, Archer immediately analyzed the sword. It did not possess memories of any special moves, but it was exceeding sharp. So sharp that, Archer was sure, it could cut through steel doors like a hot knife through butter. But at the same time, the blade was very thin and quite brittle, meaning that it was absolutely not suited for blocking powerful blows. And Archer was about to make use of this weakness of Assassin's sword.
Tracing his most trusted scimitars – Kashou and Byakuya – the white-haired heroic spirit threw them at his opponent, before tracing a copy of Durandal as he quickly closed in on Assassin. Much to Archer's dismay, the blind swordsman not only perfectly evaded the flying scimitars, but also the slashing attack aimed at his midsection. Whoever this blind guy was, he was good.
"This temple is under my protection, Archer." Assassin commented as he used the flat of his blade, supported by his forearm, to block another strike. "To pass, you will have to defeat me. Can you do that?" With those words he pushed Durandal away, before quickly palming the servant of bow to his chest with enough force to throw him several step back.
"We shall see." Counter Guardian EMIYA replied, before dodging couple of throwing knives. He quickly returned the favor with several traced dirks, but Assassin easily evaded those. Then he charged at Archer, his cane sword readied to take the red and black clad servant's left arm. Archer raised Durandal in order to block this attack, but blind servant quickly switched to attacking from another angle, forcing the white-haired heroic spirit to quickly roll back to avoid being cut into two at his waist... And even if Archer managed to remain unwounded, he lost a good part of his red cloak, not to mention he had landed in a very unfavorable position.
Assassin immediately made use of this advantage of his and prepared to stab EMIYA through his heart. Knowing just how sharp that cane sword was, Archer had no delusions that his futuristic body armor will offer him any protection. And since he knew he couldn't bring Durandal fast enough to block Assassin's thrust, the white-haired servant had to resort to tracing one of the few non-sword noble phantasms he had copied: Rho Aias.
The conceptual shield which was said to be the ultimate defense against any thrown weapon was already half-formed, when Assassin suddenly interrupted his attack and jumped to the side. A moment Arturia entered Archer's sight, her invisible Excalibur passing through the space the blind Assassin had just vacated.
"So it's two against one now, huh?" The servant of shadow asked, sounding not at all concerned by the fact that he now had two powerful heroic spirits opposing him. "It should be fun." He further commented as he raised his cane-sword for a new attack, his voice dripping with the lust for battles. Then he charged at Saber.
Assassin
True identity: Hijikata 'Blade' Mamoru
Series: "Until Death Do Us Part"
Age: unknown, ~35
Sex: Male
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral – actually depends on which direction he aims his lust for battles at.
Strength: C
Endurance: B
Agility: A
Mana: D
Luck: C
Independent action: C
Magic resistance: E+
Presence Concealment: C
Battle Continuation: C+
Eye of the Mind (true): B
Eye of the Mind (false): A - Mamoru can detect killing intent from a great distance and is able to locate his enemies using any of his remaining senses
Noble Phantasms:
Born to be a Fighter: Demonic swordsman: C++, support, permanently active.
Essentially, this is not as much of a true noble phantasm as it is a combination of Mamoru's almost legendary drive to find strong opponents to fight and of the skills he had acquired during his life. The skills include but are not limited to: swordsmanship, handling throwing knives, unarmed combat, modern firearms, black-ops tactics.
Partners: Trusted ones: B+, support.
Another abnormal noble phantasm. Mamoru, should he wish to, can summon up to three minor heroic spirits. All of these heroic spirits have no noble phantasms of their own and possess E+ rank in Independent action, but Mamoru can keep them in this world for longer periods of time through spending his own prana. These minor heroic spirits are the following:
* Igawa Ryōtarō (is summoned along with his van): a geek who never fights directly, but provides Mamoru with various forms of support from behind the frontline. Igawa maintains all of Mamoru's equipment, most notably, the ultrasonic system that gives him some semblance of sight.
* Haruka Touyama: a young-teen girl with very powerful precognitive abilities. She can do a little bit of fighting against normal humans, but will be absolutely useless against anything on the level of a proper heroic spirit. Her precognitive abilities, however, can greatly help Mamoru in his fights.
* Senji Tomagawa: an ex-mafiosi, who sided with Mamoru at one point. While he is not on Mamoru's skill level, he's a good swordsman and can be a danger to an unsuspecting master or a normal human. He's also a skilled spy and can gather intelligence on Mamoru's enemies.