7th Day of the Second Moon

Kiran

Nearly half the force wiped out from a single ambush…

Truthfully, Archer had done a good job in dealing with it, or so I thought. Remaining wary of the ambush, and being swift to eliminate the panic among the ranks to keep some semblance of order within the smoke clouds… it could have gone a lot worse. Hell, it probably should have gone a lot worse for us.

Although, the situation was still pretty bad. Sure, Hanzo had ceded the battlefield, but in our need to stop, recover and reorganize the entirety of western Shikoku had fallen under his master's control. The front line in western Honshu was under siege as well, so even if we immediately returned to the mainland, we would be some days out from where we actually needed to be, due to the sieges disabling warping into the besieged regions.

A two-front war; the exact situation we were trying to avoid by switching our plans to securing Shikoku, instead of rushing straight for Kyushu…

It didn't help matters that we were still missing the answer to the key question: where was the enemy master?

How did they manage to make that ambush work, considering they'd just finished unifying Kyushu the day prior? Only masters were able to claim territory, and even if the other master had ships prepared and left for Shikoku immediately after finishing the unification, taking the shortest trip across the water possible, there should have been no way for them to travers that much of the white void that was Shikoku to make that ambush possible! Not to mention there would be no point in laying siege to our frontline in Honshu if there wasn't a master there to actually capture the region!

…Why did I see mother in place of Hanzo…?

That had been Hanzo. Archer had no doubt about it, and I was certainly able to believe it. Looking back on the fight, the movements were far too quick to be coming from a human. Wasn't like mother knew how to cast illusions either, considering we used the same magecraft.

…But then-

"You're brooding again, master. If one setback is all it takes, we're never going to win this war, let alone the grail."

I'd been so caught up in my own thoughts I hadn't even noticed Archer enter the tent. Assuming she hadn't been walking around in spirit form till now, anyways, but that typically wasn't Archer's preference.

"I know. I just…" I let out a deep breath before twisting around in my cot to look at Archer. "I didn't expect our first encounter to go so poorly."

"Hey! Who says that encounter went poorly?! We now know exactly who the enemy servant is!"

"Sure, but, so do they" I pointed out. "And they know who their enemy master is, and what he's capable of."

"So? No different from us. You said you thought Hanzo was your mother at first. That's not the work of magic, that's something Hanzo has always been able to do."

"What, take on the form of what his opposition least wants to see or deal with" I scoffed.

"To disguise himself as his lord, and take their place as a double" Archer stated as a matter of fact.

""…He can do that?"

"He did it all the time for the boy" Archer laughed. "Honestly, most of the time people thought they were chasing Ieyasu, they were chasing Hanzo! How else do you think he was always able to escape a losing battle?!"

"So mother really is my first opponent. Ok, we're equal on information. But then, why would Hanzo reveal that information to us like that?"

"Who knows" Archer shrugged. "You could have been identified weeks ago, and he wanted to disrupt your focus? Knowing Hanzo, he already has a whole network of shinobi trained and working under him, acting as his eyes and ears. Wouldn't surprise me if some of them had infiltrated us already."

"Well, that's disturbing."

"Isn't it" Archer grinned, and it sounded to me as though she was actually enjoying this. "Now I have to start weeding them out and eliminating them, tightening up security, verifying reports far more closely… Really takes me back to my time!"

"Weren't you allied with Ieyasu, and therefor Hanzo?"

"The Hattori weren't the only clan of shinobi, master."

"True enough" I could no longer suppress the slowly building smile. "Still don't know how they're-"

Then it hit me, and my eyes went wide.

Takes the place of his lord, takes the place of mother. Mother is a master, masters capture territory, so if he can become a double of mother, couldn't he-

"So that's how it is!"

"Hm? What's how it is?"

"How that ambush worked! We know the territory was captured, but we didn't know how that was possible, considering only masters can capture territory, and there was no way my mother could have gone from Kyushu to there in a single day!"

"Which is why-"

"But mother doesn't need to leave Kyushu, because she's already in Shikoku!"

"…"

"…"

"…Are you sure you've fully recovered, master?"

"Think about it Archer! The rules of the system dictate that only masters can claim territory. However, the rules of the system also state than firearms cannot exist, yet you're still allowed to use your rifles. Why is that?"

"…Because I'm just that awesome?"

"...Okay, yes, but also because, above all else, the system doesn't want to restrict master and servant capabilities! So, because you have them as a servant, it's fine for you to use them, but you can't give them to someone else to use, nor can you introduce them into the world as a technological advancement! If we apply that same rule to Hanzo and his ability to double for his lord-"

"Then if his lord is a master, while serving as a double, the system will consider him to be his master as well, enabling him to capture territory on his own in his master's place?"

"Yes, that! This system has always functioned like a game, but if everyone was forced to play the game the exact same way, it would be stale! It's why other games of a similar nature apply a base rule set, but then give each faction different abilities or tools than enable them to either interact or circumvent the base rules in specific cases. So, by treating each master and servant pairing as its own faction, then our unique ability is having a technological advantage through you with guns, and mother's advantage is having twice the capture speed by virtue of having a double of herself, thanks to Hanzo!"

"…"

"…"

"…Heh… HehAHAHAHAHAH! Well master, I'm impressed! That actually makes a lot of sense! However, now that we know that, the plan must change."

"What change?"

"It means we can't just leave Shikoku to defend Honshu. Well, not both of us, at least. As such, I'm entrusting the defense of Honshu to you!"

"You're what?! Archer, isn't that- I mean- Wouldn't you be better suited for that?! I don't know how to lift a siege off a castle!"

"You think that's harder than beating Hanzo in a fight for Shikoku?"

"Well… no, but Honshu is far more important to hold onto, isn't it?!"

"Indeed, which is why I'm permitting you to fall back no further than Hiroshima! Consider this your first real test, master!"

"First test of what?!"

"To see if you're worthy of being by retainer" Archer had a wicked gleam in her eyes. "You have your map, don't you? A straight line through Hiroshima across Honshu and Shikoku, that's the retreat limit for this war. That is, of course, until you retake whatever your mother ends up capturing. Once you take a step forward, not a single step back!"

"But then how are you going to stop Hanzo? Unlike him, you can't capture territory."

"Why does the territory need to be captured immediately? They can't warp across the water, and they can't warp into any territory in which the territory capital is under siege. So long as the cities are occupied by hostile forces, is the threat not effectively eliminated all the same?"

"I… I suppose so" I had to stop and think about it for a moment. "So that's your plan then? You're going to occupy every territory capital in Shikoku."

"Obviously" Archer raised an eyebrow. "Unless you know of another way to deal with the issue?"

"…I don't" I conceded. "This is going to be tricky. You're going to need reinforcements as well, aren't you?"

"Probably" Archer shrugged. "Hanzo's an old bastard, not a stupid one. I'll bring Shikoku under control, but it'll take some time; he's as much a commander as he is a shinobi, and depending on what else he has set up… well, don't you worry about the small details, master! You just focus on defending Honshu!"

"And if Hanzo and my mother end up switching fronts-"

"Doubt it. Weird as it is, this is still a grail war. Sending a master to fight a servant is suicide, so best let them fight each other."

"Or Hanzo shows up to ambush me in Honshu while you're still sieging down Shikoku" I finished.

Archer went silent and blinked a couple of times, before breaking into a round of laughter.

"I suppose that's what your command spells are for then, aren't they? Well, the two that remain, at any rate!"


A/N

Longest break ever, I know! And to come back with such a short post as well; absolutely criminal behaviour! What can I say other than I got real busy with school for a while (nothing new there...) and after that, well... as I think I've said before, once I stop doing something for a bit, I find it real hard to get back into it, so... yeah. Could have prob had this out a couple weeks ago, but...

Anyways, I'm back y'all! So, see you oin the next post (hopefully this Sunday) o7