Assassin

It was rather late in the morning when Emiya Shirou left his house and headed to school. He had waited for Sakura to stop by his house, but she never came today. Hopefully, the red-haired teen thought, his kohai had just overslept and nothing bad had happened to her... And, unfortunately, bad things were happening around the Fuyuki city in the recent days. Even worse, Shirou couldn't do absolutely anything to stop that string of mysterious gas leaks and night assaults that now plagued the normally peaceful city.

As was walking through a small park, Shirou noticed a girl sitting on one of the benches, her knees pulled to her chest. This girl appeared to be in her late teens, maybe a year or so older that him, and she had waist-long black hair and most unusual crimson eyes. She was dressed in a loose worn-looking blue track suit and had a wide gray bow in her hair... And from his point of view, this girl appeared to be hungry and actually somewhat chilled, despite the fact that the morning was a relatively warm one... Maybe she had spent the whole night out there?

For a few moments, Shirou wondered, what she was doing there when all teenagers were hurrying to get to school, but then he remembered those mysterious gas leaks that were happening around the Fuyuki city in the recent days. It could be just that something had happened to her relatives other house and she just couldn't make herself go to school today? Either way, she was most definitely hungry, and being a kind soul he was, the red-haired almost-magus simply couldn't walk past her and not do anything to help her.

"Are you hungry?" Shirou asked as he stopped in front of the girl. She raised her head to look at him with those red eyes of hers, but said nothing. Somehow, that made some primordial instinct scream in Shirou's head that this beauty was a very dangerous being, yet the adopted son of Kiritsugu Emiya ignored that voice... Reaching into his bag, he pulled one of the bentos he had prepared not half an hour earlier. "Here." He said, placing the bento onto the bench next to the strange girl. "It should be still warm." The he looked at his watch. Damn, he had less that fifteen minutes to get to school. "Sorry, I gotta go." He excused himself, before hurrying towards Homurahara high.

"Thank you." He heard the girl whisper as he sped away.

~/ *** \~

Assassin followed the strange boy with her gaze as he hurried away from the park she was in. He was obviously in a hurry and given what time of a day it was, the raven-haired beauty had no doubts that he had a school to attend... Still, she was very surprised at how easily he had given her his lunch. It definitely looked like something prepared with great care and skill... And in his kindness, he reminded her a lot of Shun Hao Xuan...

Shaking her head to banish those thoughts from her mind, Assassin returned her attention to the bento she had been given. She was a heroic spirit and as such human food was of little use to her. Especially since by now she had less that twenty four hours to find herself a new Master if she didn't want to disappear, rejected by Gaia... Still, not eating this packed lunch would be just way too rude and maybe it will give her a little extra time in this world. Thus, releasing her knees from her hug, she reached for the bento and began eating it; her mind still occupied with the thoughts about a red-haired teen that had shown such a great kindness towards her, a mere stranger...

~/ *** \~

Thankfully for Shirou, Sakura indeed had just overslept and now was waiting for him at the school gates. Though, it looked like her brother Shinji wasn't exactly pleased about this... Anyhow, that strange meeting in the park a bit earlier, it looked like the redhead teen's day will pass normally.

And, well, it did. The classes were as boring as always and, like it often happened, the young Emiya had to repair one of the school's electric appliances during the lunch break. And even though he had quit the Archery club some time ago, he was once again asked to help cleaning the club building; being a kind and helpful soul he was, Shirou just couldn't say to 'no'...

Maybe he should have had, though: helping around the Archery club took way too much time today, and it was getting quite dark by the time he has finished. And remembering those accidents that were happening around the Fuyuki city in the recent days – and all of them happened during the nights – the red-haired teen decided that he really should hurry back home, lest something happened to him.

Gathering his things, he started walking out of the school property and back towards his house, but just as he left the shed where the targets were kept, he heard the sounds of intense fighting coming from the school yard. Alas, his curiosity got the better of him and Shirou decided to see what was going on there. What he spied in the said yard left him rooted to the ground:

There were two men fighting like no normal human ever could – the red-haired teen could barely track their movements, yet neither of those two seemed to mind this crazy dance of death... Their appearances were also far from normal. The wielder of a blood-red spear was rather pale, tall man with dark hair and red eyes. He was wearing a blue armored bodysuit. His opponent was a tanned male with gray-white hair; he was dressed in a futuristic black body armor with an unusual red cloak thrown over it; his weapons were a pair of black and white scimitar swords.

Not wanting to attract attention of either of those two fighters and not wishing to remain there are one of those inhuman attacks might hurt him, Shirou began backing out of the courtyard... Unfortunately for him, he stepped on a dry stick laying on the ground. And in the sudden silence that enveloped the courtyard, it broke with a sound of a gunshot, immediately attracting attention of both fighters. The fight immediately stopped as the spear-wielding monster in human skin chose to kill witness first, before continuing his attempts to off his opponent.

And no matter how un-heroic running away was, Shirou did just that as he didn't want to die yet. He ran as fast as he could, but it looked like there was nothing he could do to lose that crazy lancer that was after him. Even worse, mere three blocks away from school, the red-haired teen suddenly found himself in a deadend with nowhere to run.

"You shouldn't have run away, kid." The blue-clad lancer spoke as he casually twirled his spear in his right hand. "All you've achieved is that you will die tired." Stopping playing with his weapon, the maniac took a battle stance, his lance pointed at the helpless teen. "Goodbye. Hunting you was fun." Shirou closed his eyes and waited for pain to come.

It didn't. Instead, there was a sound of metal hitting metal, followed by a silent struggle of two powerhouses. Daring to open his eyes, the young Emiya saw something really unexpected. The girl he had given his lunch to this morning was standing between him and Lancer, pushing his spear away with what looked like an oversized bayonet knife. More, it looked like she was actually stronger than the battle-crazy man in front of her.

"Consider this to be my payment for your kindness earlier today." The mysterious girl said, half-turning her head to look at Shirou. "Now then, Lancer,.." She continued as as she turned her attention back to the blue-clad man. "How about you stop hunting kids down and try taking on someone of your own caliber?" With the last word, she launched herself at the man, delivering him a full-body hit so powerful that he was sent flying back at least a dozen yards.

"So... You are a Servant too..." Lancer spoke as he rose back onto his feet. "Then you should know as well as I do, that the witnesses of the Holy Grail War should be silenced. Permanently." His spear was now pointed at the raven-haired beauty. Her response was to draw another oversized knife from the sheathe on her back – somehow, that sheathe was there yet Shirou noticed it only when his savior actually drew a blade from it.

"And you should know just as well as I do..." She mocked. "That this rule applies only to those without magic. This boy, not matter how terrible he might be at it, is a magus. Him reinforcing his body as he ran away from you should have been enough of a proof, no?" Lancer merely growled in response, before deciding to disappear.

A moment later, his opponent from earlier walked into the dead-end back alley. He wasn't alone though as a girl was accompanying him. And much to his surprise, Shirou recognized this girl as Toshaka Rin. There was a long moment of silence as the two pairs studied each other.

"Did Lancer withdraw?" Rin asked finally. The knife-wielding red-eyed girl nodded in response, still ready to fight to protect the young Emiya, should the need arise. They kept staring at each other for several more seconds, before Rin turned around and started walking away. "Come, Archer, we're done here." The tanned, white-haired man that was with her nodded and followed the Toshaka heiress, leaving Shirou alone with his savior, who had her blades sheathed by now. There was another long and uneasy pause... Then, the red-haired teen finally broke it.

"Um... Thank you for saving me... Uh..." Really, he didn't know this girl's name. And by the looks of it, it will remain a mystery for him, unless she chose to introduce herself properly.

"You don't have to thank me." The mysterious girl replied. "I was merely repaying you for the kindness you've shown me earlier today." This, though, didn't placate Shirou – after all, one meal was not something equal in value to a human life. And the red-eyed beauty could see his thoughts written all over his face.

"U-um... At least let me treat you with a dinner?" The red-haired wannabe-hero asked after a very long and quite uneasy pause. He really felt that he ought to do something for his savior to repay her for protecting him from that crazy spearman. The raven-haired warrior girl thought about it for a couple of seconds before nodding.

"If you want to." In her thoughts, though, she really saw no point in this: 'I'm going to cease existing in less than seven hours even if I don't fight at all; why does he want to waste his food on me? Well, he's a very nice boy, refusing him would be rude...' She asked herself. 'Maybe he doesn't understand my nature of a Servant? Well, he isn't a great magus, maybe he just doesn't know anything about the Grail War?' That certainly looked like a possibility.

~/ *** \~

Assassin had to say that she was impressed. This red-haired boy, Shirou, was a great cook. That was something even she who would eat pretty much anything edible at all could say. And he was a very nice and easy-to-like person. Though he also was kind of naïve and easy to manipulate through his desire to help those around him...

Suddenly her enhanced senses picked up an unwanted presence approaching the Emiya household. She was absolutely certain that it was a Servant, and if she were to guess, it was Lancer. That bastard was someone crazy enough to keep going after her host even after she had pointed out that the teen was actually a magus and, thus, he needn't to be silenced.

"Wha-?!" Shirou exclaimed, startled by the red-eyed girl as she stood up sharply. A moment later his dining hall was invaded as Lancer burst through a thin sliding door that led into the yard. His spear, though, didn't quite manage to connect with the young Emiya's heart as Assassin caught it with a hole in the blade of her oversized knife. Another moment later, and the blue-clad man was thrown back into the yard by less than pleased girl.

"You are being rude, not to mention stupid, Lancer." She said as she herself walked into the yard, both of her mismatched knives held firmly in her hands. The spearman had already recovered, though, and with a growl, he charged at her, showing a speed that was beyond anything a normal human could achieve. Yet, the dark-haired beauty evaded his attacks with both ease and grace, while still raining powerful slashes with her knives back at him.

"Not bad, girl." Lancer growled as the two combatants broke away from each other. "But can you deal with this?" As he finished saying this, a rune he drew on the ground glowed and he himself was suddenly surrounded by an ethereal blue-white glow. Then he disappeared, moving too fast for Shirou to see him at all.

The knives-wielding girl too appeared to have some problems with him, though she still managed to evade his weapon thrust: instead of impaling through her head the crimson spear merely destroyed the bow in her hair. This caused two thin locks of her hair to stick out disobediently on the top of her head... No, looking closer, the young Emiya could see that those weren't her hair; he wasn't sure what it was, but it definitely looked like antennae of an insect...

"Darn, I liked that bow." The raven-haired girl swore as she tried to stab Lancer with her knives. He disappeared in a blur of speed, reappearing to her left a moment later. With a powerful roundhouse kick, he sent her flying into the wall, next to where the red-haired boy was standing as he observed the fight of these two ...superhumans. 'Shit... I'm running low on my prana reserves...' Assassin thought. 'If only I had a master to supply me with energy, I wouldn't need to hold back.' Then a thought occurred to her: Shirou was a magus, even if not a great one. But, surely, he'll be able to provide her with the energy she needed. "Shirou!" She said, ignoring whatever advancing Lancer was saying.

"Oh- ...Ah, yes?" The said teen replied, broken out of his stupor.

"Become my master."

"What?" He asked, surprised. Growling under her breath at his lack of knowledge regarding the mechanics of the Holy Grail Wars, the black-haired beauty responded:

"Just say that you will be my master and that you accept me, Servant Assassin, as your Servant." Glancing towards the approaching Lancer, she saw that they barely had any time left to complete the bonding. "Quick!"

"U-uh..." Then seeing the steel in his protector's red eyes, Shirou finally yielded and produced something that could a be a very crude binding aria: "I ...accept you, Servant Assassin, as my Servant and... um... I will be your master." Not perfect, but that will do, the raven-haired warrior-girl decided.

"I, Servant Assassin, accept you as my Master." There was a flash of red, and a strange blood-red mark appeared on the young Emiya's left wrist... This bonding caused Lancer to pause as he had just seen an almost mundane boy become a Master to Servant, apparently the Assassin, though until this girl had named her class, he had been quite sure she was a Saber.

"Now then,.." The knives-wielding girl said as she stood up, her clothes replacing themselves with a body-tight gray plug-suit with black armor for her shoulders, forearms and wrists. "Time for round two, Lancer." Then she attacked at the man, almost cleaving him into two from shoulder to hip with a powerful swing of her oversized knife...

~/ *** \~

'Damn.' The Assassin of the Fifth Grail War thought. 'I can barely feel any prana flowing into me. If we do nothing, this will merely delay my rejection from the world by Gaia. And not by much.' Even thought she could feel that Shirou had enough prana to sustain her, somehow he turned out to be unable to share it with her... Oh well, there were other ways a Servant could obtain the energy needed in order to remain in this world, and since he was a likable young man, Assassin wasn't against trying one of those with him.

"Shirou..." She said as walked into his room. He was getting ready to climb into the bed, but that was actually a good thing right now.

"Yes, A-Assassin?" The red-haired teen asked, eying the raven-haired girl, who was now wearing just a T-short and some boxer shorts.

"I'm afraid, you are unable to supply me with enough prana passively." She said as she walked up to his bed and sat on it next to him. "Don't worry, there are alternative methods as to how I can recharge my reserves." A predatory smirk found its way onto her face and before Shirou could think of anything, he found himself pinned to the bed under a very attractive – if not fully human – girl. "Don't worry, I'll be gentle." The next moment he found her lips on his own with her tongue already invading his mouth...

Assassin

True identity: Bai Hua
Series: "School Shock"
Age: unknown, presumed 18
Sex: Female

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Strength: A
Endurance: B+
Agility: A+
Mana: E
Luck: D
Independent action: C+ - can remain in this world for thirty six hours without an established contract.
Magic resistance: E+
Bravery: C
Battle Continuation: C++ - only attacks that will permanently put a normal human out of commission will stop her. Even then, unless it was a killing blow, she'll be ready to fight again in a short while.
Eye of the Mind (false): C+
Presence concealment: B - if she is not using her vanguard powers out in the open, Bai Hua will remain undetectable through normal means, both technological and magical...
Inhuman anatomy: D - has insect antennae-like sensors that grant her extended perception of the world.
Clairvoyance: C - while it's not a normal clairvoyance, Bai Hua, like any other vanguard, 'sees' the world in much more detail that a normal human.

Noble Phantasms:
Vanguard: A, support, permanently active. Bai Hua is a vanguard, a human who was granted super-human fighting capabilities through technology. More precisely, a great number of nano-machines strengthens her body far beyond the limits of human flesh. Her perception of the world is also beyond anything a normal human can hope to have. That, coupled with high-grade equipment and military training of the highest quality, turn this girl into a living incarnation of carnage.

Mantis blades: D, item. Bai Hua's mismatched blades. While these oversized knives are special only because of their durability and sharpness, you still don't want to face their owner with them in her hands.

Freedom of one's own path: A+, support. A very strange Noble Phantasm that has absolutely no use on the battlefield. It is a curse for her master, should they have distinctly-different opinions on how she should act. This Noble Phantasm allows Bai Hua to remove herself from her master's service freely when the said master still has one command spell left.