Louis had barely managed to convince himself to go to church the following morning rather than sulk around at home. He and his father were Catholics and regularly attended the only Catholic church in the city, which was run by a man named Niccolo Visalli. That same man was the first person who Louis ran into when he arrived.
Niccolo Visalli was Dario's father. He was a tall man with the same skin, hair, and eye colors as his son. He wore black priest's clothes and a golden cross necklace around his neck.
"Louis." Niccolo said.
"Greetings, Father." Louis said.
"I have heard about what happened to your father. My condolences." Niccolo said sympathetically. "Allow me to pray for you."
Louis bowed his head and closed his eyes before the priest placed his hand on his head.
"O Father God, please grant this child Your guidance throughout this trail that has been set before him. Give him the comfort of his Heavenly Father while he struggles with the loss of his earthly father. Amen."
Fate/new dawn
Chapter 11: Family Matters
Dario and his twin brother Domenico would be tasked with cleaning the church after the service was over.
The two originally looked exactly alike when they were younger but puberty had caused them to begin to develop differently, Domenico beginning to grow taller than his brother. Ironically, Dario was actually the older twin.
On Sundays, Domenico would wear clothing similar to Niccolo's, having been selected to take over Visalli Church after his father retires from priesthood. Dario meanwhile would wear a polo shirt, slacks, and dress shoes.
Dario was secretly jealous of his brother. And yet, he didn't want to use the Holy Grail to take his brother's place.
"But why not? If we do win the Grail, then surely you can use it to grant your wish." Saber said.
'No. Envy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It's bad enough that I harbor it. Completely giving into it will only have disastrous consequences in the long run.' Dario shook his head.
"Then what else do you want, Master? The Grail only selects those wish strong wishes to be Masters. If that is not what you deeply wish for, Master, then what else do you wish for enough that it would gain the attention of the Grail?"
'Anyway, Alexandre, Rider's Master, was murdered last night, as you should know. I believe that Assassin of Alpha is responsible for that.' Dario then switched the topic.
"Obviously. I doubt that any other Servant would do that."
That evening, Louis met with Frederick. Louis was quite nervous. Assassin of Alpha was especially intimidating and Louis feared that the Heroic Spirit of Murder was hiding right behind him. Yet, he suppressed his urge to turn around.
"So, Alexandre is dead. How unfortunate." Frederick said sadly. "I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thank you." Louis said, looking down.
"It is fortunate that you did manage to save Rider."
"I guess it is…"
"I have a question; would you happen to know anything about those fifty people who went missing over a week ago?"
"What? Why would I?" Louis said in shock.
"That narrows it down to Caster, then." Frederick furrowed his brow. "I should have known it was a bad idea to leave that pair to their own devices."
"As you know, Louis, the Holy Grail War is supposed to be kept in utmost secrecy. I believe that mass-kidnapping may put the secrecy of the War at risk. That is why I asked if you knew anything about it."
Louis nodded.
"Thank you for your time, young man." Frederick then said.
"You're welcome, Mr. James."
Leeroy had come to visit Ian's home during the afternoon. The two were playing BlazBlue while Assassin and Lancer sat nearby, watching them.
"Win this match, my child! Win it for Rome! ROMA!" Lancer cheered, demonstrating how he lacked a concept of 'indoor voice.'
"C'mon, Daddy. You can do it. We believe in you!" Assassin cheered.
"How do we both have literally one pixel of health left?" Leeroy asked.
"I don't know. Next move determines the winner."
"Dead Spike!"
"Finish! Ragna Win!"
"No!" Ian shouted in dismay.
"ROMA!" the Divine Founder of Rome yelled triumphantly, causing everyone else to flinch at how loud he was.
"It's okay, Daddy. You'll get him next time." Assassin said reassuringly.
"Can you convince Lancer to quiet down?" Marcus called. "I'm sure we'll get complaints from the neighbors soon if he doesn't."
"Hey, Leeroy. I have a question." Ian asked. "What is your wish for the Grail War?"
Leeroy was briefly silent. "…I want to use the Grail to heal Kimberly's legs."
"What about you?" Leeroy then asked.
"I don't know."
The next morning, Ian was walking to school but accidentally wound up bumping into someone.
"I'm sorry." Ian said.
Harry then stopped and looked at Ian.
"You look familiar, kid." Harry said.
At the same time, Ian also felt that Harry seemed familiar. But where did they meet? Ian couldn't really think of a reason why the man would seem familiar.
"For some reason, you look like you could be the kid of this woman I knew." Harry said. "What's your name?"
"Ian." Ian answered.
"Ian… Why does that seem familiar?" the older male said thoughtfully.
"Whatever…" he then shrugged and walked off.
'Did he know mom at some point?' Ian thought as he watched the man walk off.
"You think he might be the son of that woman you had a thing with? Jenny, was it?" Lancer of Omega asked through the mental link to his Master.
'That might explain it…' Harry groan aloud. 'D***, I knew that coming back to this city would be a bad idea. Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to have to put up with that b****'s dumba** family again?'
"Master, if I may, it might be a good idea to try to not avoid them." Lancer suggested. "I mean, you ran off about fifteen-years-ago, so they'll be pissed enough. No sense in making them even more pissed at you."
'Whatever, Lancer.' Harry rolled his eyes. 'I'm not going back. Those dumbf***s were more trouble than they're worth. Not going to deal with them ever again if I can help it.'
"Take it from me, you'll regret it if you don't." Lancer sighed. "Look at what happened to me and my son after I slept with Aife and ran off."
"Lancer, I have a question." Harry then asked. "Why does the name of your spear sound like 'gay bulge'?"
"It's Gae Bolg! And in my native language it means, 'spear of death' or 'notched spear', among other similar translations."
The rest of Ian's walk to school was uneventful, but that stopped shortly after he walked into the building. He inwardly groaned after seeing a few girls walking by giggling, one of whom he recognized as Paisley. He sighed before going in the direction the opposite of where they were walking.
Sure enough, he saw Lily kneeling down and picking up some books. Ian walked over before kneeling down to help her.
"Here." he said, handing her one of the books.
"Thanks, Ian." Lily replied.
"No problem." Ian said. "Have you tried telling a teacher or some other administrator?"
"I have, but I've been dealing with Paisley since elementary school. Nothing's gotten her to stop, so I just ignore it." Lily replied.
"She'll stop if she's dead." Assassin said. "We should cut her up so she'll stop being a bully."
'No, Assassin. We will only kill Paisley if she stumbles across the Grail War or is an enemy Master.'
"Aw…"
Ian sighed, both at how psychotic Assassin was and the fact that Lily had been putting up Paisley since elementary yet nothing stopped her.
"That's unfortunate." Ian said sadly. "Come on, I'll walk you to class. They shouldn't bother you if you're not alone."
Assassin didn't like how close Lily was becoming to Ian. She was becoming worried that Lily would take him from her. But if Lily died, Ian would be angry. Ian would hate her if she killed Lily. But she didn't want to lose her Daddy to someone else.
A few hours afterwards, Ian sat with Lily at lunch again.
"So, you said you lived with your uncle, right?" Lily said shyly. "Um, what happened to your parents?"
"I don't know what happened to my father. He left when I was very little. Probably dead in a ditch somewhere." Ian said sadly. "My mom died in an accident ten years ago."
Ian knew he was lying about the last part. But he didn't know that Lily was a Master as well.
"What about you?" Ian asked. "If you're fine with talking about it."
Lily Wright Interlude: Half-Blind
I never knew my birth parents. I think they died in an accident when I was very little. I was sent to an orphanage shortly afterwards.
The orphanage was owned by a church. The people from that church weren't very nice people. I remember there was this one kid, Timothy, I think his name was, who would often get locked in a closet for 'causing problems.' Looking back, I think he may have had Autism.
I heard that the church the people who owned the orphanage belonged to was shut down a few years after I was adopted. My mom and dad are nice people. I'm glad that they decided to adopt me.
I was born blind in one eye. It was always difficult, having one eye that can see perfectly while the other just can't. I've learned to deal with it.
Back when I was little, people didn't really care that my left was a paler shade of blue and I couldn't see out of it. But halfway through elementary school, people started making fun of me for it. I just hated it. After a while, I started to ignore it all, but it still bothers me.
"I see." Ian sighed. "I never really had an easy school life either."
"When people found out that I lived with my rich uncle, they tried the whole 'fake-friendship-so-that-he'll-buy-me-expensive-stuff crap. Leeroy's the only friend I had from elementary school that actually likes me."
Ian then realized something. "Oh, wait, you've never met anyone named Leeroy Jenner, have you?"
No, I haven't. But I think the name sounds familiar. (I know that's who Lancer's Master is, but Ian probably doesn't that the Holy Grail War exists. But if he really is Assassin of Alpha's Master like Caster thinks he may be, then he likely already knows.)
"I'll have to introduce you sometime." Ian shrugged. "He's nice, trust me."
The lunch bell then rang.
And there we have it; more character building. If any of you readers are Catholic and notice that I may have botched something, I apologize. I myself am not Catholic; I go to an Assemblies of God church. I tried to keep the details on Catholic churches minimal for now to avoid blundering and offending anybody. I will do some research on Catholic churches, but if any of you readers would give me a little advice, that'd be helpful.
And yes, the whole "Gay Bulge rather than Gae Bolg" thing might become a running gag. I just love how the weapon that it said to always strike the heart has such a hilariously unfortunate-sounding name.
Anyway, next chapter, Lancer of Alpha and Saber of Omega are going to get some big time action. I wanted to use this chapter to develop mainly Louis and Dario.
Now for the reviews.
Devin sands: Honestly, I'm not sure why they made most Heroic Spirits genderbent. With Artoria, Mordred, Nero, Musashi, Francis Drake (Japanese version of Fate/EXTRA implies her to actually be a disguised Elizabeth I), Orion (though I believe they botched the concept), and Hokusai (Orion done right), it makes sense. Everyone else though, it's just ridiculous. But I just love the bait-and-switch with Astolfo.
Audience: Oh. Another genderbent historical/mythological figure...
Admiral Ackbar: It's a trap!
Moving on, the prequel will be published after this story is done.
ZenoZen: Maybe. And thank you for your recommendation.
KnightOfZaku: I agree with you. And I've been meaning to watch Akame ga Kill sometime. I hear that it's good. And super dark. But for me, those usually go hand-in-hand.
So, leave a review. Constructive criticism will be accepted. Flames will be used to make s'mores. Jyaa-nee (Japanese for "See ya!")!
