Tokiomi shifted slightly in his seat after Kirei finished his report.
The night had been quite eventful. Archer's 'reconnaissance' side trip on the way home had turned into another Servant battle, and Tokiomi had slept through it. Worse yet, it seems Archer himself had instigated said fight, and apparently had passed up another opportunity to kill the Master of Saber. This was . . . less than ideal.
Not to mention the things he said to that Master. Ramblings about the Grail- yes, he was hiding something. Of that, there was no doubt.
Archer. Come.
He had dropped the grovelling act when he understood he was being sincerely mocked for it. Such sniping hardly bothered him; just at first he was cautious that he wasn't being baited into showing disrespect. He had quickly come to understand that Archer was simply ruthlessly pragmatic, and such pointless pleasantries were a waste of his time.
The red Servant materialized doing a perfect half-court bow.
"How may this one serve, Master?"
"In the name of the Holy Grail, I command you. Answer my questions truthfully, in word and in spirit." With a mystical sound, one Command Seal vanished from his hand.
Archer opened his mouth to protest, then closed it. He smirked.
"I'm disappointed in you, Master."
"I took what you mentioned earlier into consideration. However, with recent events on my mind, I decided that I needed to clear some details up. As such, I must know: What is your true name?"
Archer looked him dead in the eye, smile widening.
"I don't know. To be specific, the memory was burned out of me at an early age. It really had nothing to do with your summoning. As for the name I go by and the name that other Heroic Servants would know me by . . ." he closed his eyes and cringed, looked as if he was in pain for a moment, then muttered; "Master, I can tell you that name. However, it would provide zero tactical advantage for us and some level of disadvantage. I can explain most of my capabilities with no such risk. Ask me about any of that and it will be fine. However, the spirit of your question concerns the fighting Grail War, and I honestly think it would be advantageous for you to hear me out regarding keeping my name secret." He was sweating now, and breathing heavily.
Tokiomi looked on for a moment then nodded.
"Fine. I dismiss the question, for the moment." Archer quietly gasped, and stood up straighter as if he had just had a great weight lifted from him. "Why should you not tell me your name?"
"Because I am summoned from the future, and my name would be useless to you in determining my abilities. If you knew it, all you would have is an opportunity for an enemy to steal it, and thereby have their Servant learn the relevant information."
Buy it. Buy it. Buy it. Don't ask something that makes my connection to Kiritsugu relevant. Don't ask something that makes my connection to Saber relevant. Don't ask something that will lead to questions that connect to those topics. Buy it. Be satisfied, damn you. Buy it!
"Hmm." Tokiomi closed his eyes and focused for a moment. "Now that you have fought in earnest, I can understand some of your statistics a bit better. While you haven't exposed a Noble Phantasm yet, I can see you apparently have some training in Orthodox Thaumaturgy. What are your capabilities in that regard?"
Heh. Safe.
"My specialties are Projection and Reinforcement. I am also skilled in structural analysis and the sensing of magic." Tokiomi nodded. "My Origin is 'Sword,' and my element is 'Sword.'"
Tokiomi blinked. He stroked his goatee and pondered for a moment.
"I was initially going to dismiss your magecraft as a a curiosity, as I was relatively certain I could easily match or surpass it. However, with those alignments . . ." He looked at Archer again, as if seeing him for the first time. "The sheer potential for having those affinities is unimaginable. It doesn't matter if you aren't physically dominating, then, because you are a magus at your core. If it is a remotely conceivable effect in thaumaturgy to apply to a sword, you should be able to grasp it." He stood up and began to pace.
"Yes, yes. The swords you projected on the crane, you turned them into arrows with reinforcement. I didn't think about it too hard at first because, after all, who am I to understand the working of ancient crystallized mysteries? However, if I take everything I've seen you do and focus it down the lens of modern magecraft . . . oh, my. Projection, you said? Analysis and sensing. You . . . can identify everything about a sword the moment you see it, can't you? And you can duplicate them. You just need prana. Duplicate, and modify. And in this War, you can see a handful of new swords if you are lucky." He stopped, and looked up. "You projected a lance. What are the limits of your interpretation of 'sword?'"
"If a kid on the street would see it and call it a sword, it counts. If it's a blade with a handle, it counts. If it's considered a sword even without a proper blade, it counts. Toss on whatever adjectives you want, if it can be a sword, I seem to be able to grasp it."
"Excellent. This, this was unexpected. I can grasp this. Are you limited to swords?"
"I am able to apply my projection talents to armor and defensive items with less quality and efficiency. Mechanical items are beyond my ability to duplicate, however I can analyze and reinforce them almost as well as anything else."
"Yes, that makes sense. In fact with those-" he stopped short.
He turned, slowly.
"Archer. In your life, you never sought Akasha, did you?"
Uh oh.
"No, I did not, Master. I was consumed by foolishness and used the power I had discovered for more earthly and mundane purposes."
Tokiomi almost looked sad.
"A pity. You, you might have been able to reach it. Whatever your circumstances were, an aligned Origin and Element like that are so rare as to be mythical. Regardless of your family's focus, or even if they had not been mages at all, if that had been your goal, you might have reached it." Another appraising glance. "Whatever you did to become a Heroic Spirit in the post-modern era, you had to have matched or surpassed the necessary effort. Ah, well. You had your reasons, I assume, and I won't use my Command to pry like that."
Phew.
"I have enough to think about, for now. I assume my Command will remain valid for the duration of the War."
Archer nodded neutrally.
"Very well then. Oh, one more question. Why did you say those things about the Grail to Saber's Master?"
Shit.
"Because as far as I am aware they were true, and if he accepts those facts then he will no longer be a concern in the War."
"Oh? And how did you discover this apparent 'corruption?'"
"Partially because I was told, and partially from firsthand experience."
"Who told you?"
Ah, ha ha, here we go!
Archer gave off his best combination closed eyes shrug-and-smirk.
"Kotomine Kirei."
The priest, who had been silently present, now took on the look of a deer caught in headlights.
A couple minutes later, Tokiomi was laughing heartily and Kirei was sitting down, shuddering slightly and sighing with relief.
"So our Kirei survives and goes on to mediate the 5th War. How auspicious. Did he tell you anything else about the Fourth War?"
"No, Master. At the time there were only two Servants left, and he had more pressing matters to attend to."
Like the knife sticking out of his heart.
Archer had, through some small miracle, managed to not expose the fact that the 5th War happens in only ten years, and that Kotomine Kirei murdered his mentor and almost successfully murdered said mentor's daughter. He had even avoided mentioning that Kirei was a participant, and was running two out of a total of eight Servants in the War.
He simply acted coy about the circumstances in which Kirei told him, and by the time Tokiomi was asking the right questions, the spirit of said questions was more pointed towards solving the puzzle than desiring overwhelming context and detail.
"Well, at least I understand your earlier joke about Gilgamesh. Fancy that, a Servant would be summoned in two Wars, and in reverse order at that . . . so in the Forth War before your Fifth, he was the last one standing after all. I made the right choice." After a quick glance at Archer, "No offense intended, of course."
Incidentally Archer also somehow managed to not clarify that in the 5th War he had been a Master. Tokiomi apparently wasn't the curious sort, confident that he had won that alternate Heaven's Feel.
As Archer left the room after being dismissed, Tokiomi was still gently ribbing Kotomine.
"Oh, Kirei-kun, what will we ever do with you?"
Archer responded without intending to, under his breath.
"Trust him implicitly until the moment he betrays you, murders you, steals your Servant, and sets all that you care about on a path to ruin."
Damn. The Command didn't limit itself to questions he asks me.
Tokiomi, thankfully, didn't hear this utterance over his chuckling at his disciple's expense.
Said disciple, however, did.