Chapter 4: Trust
"I'm not looking to fight. If that is what you want, I will defeat you without question. However, I am merely taking a moment to myself."
A lone man sat alone, his feet hanging off the edge of the Fuyuki Bridge. He had no weapon, and his face was nothing but that of inner peace. It was as though he was fully content with his life, and he got satisfaction simply by looking up at the moon. However, one of the two women behind him did not share the same sentiment, looking ready to fight at a moment's notice.
"Master, this is an enemy Servant. Either we must fight or we must disengage."
The man was unwavering at the thought. Either his confidence in his ability to defeat these two was so high that he didn't bother sitting on his guard, or he truly didn't intend to fight either of them at the moment.
"Rider… It is okay. I trust this man. He doesn't tell a lie."
The flower of a woman walked over to the red Servant sitting, and looked up at the moon along with him.
"My Master is very confident that we will win. I was sent out to gather information, not fight. So, I decided to just enjoy the night. The battle can wait."
The Servant's peacefulness contrasted his appearance greatly. The man was a flame, his appearance completely red and orange, from his hair to his eyes to his clothes. If anyone were to be a hothead, it would be him. This peacefulness would be more attributed to the delicate woman next to him.
"You are Einzbern, correct? My Master has spoken of you. I heard you mention your Servant is Rider. I am Archer."
This piqued the interest and subsequent distrust from Rider, whom now walked between her Master and the enemy. Her weapon now in hand, she was ready to attack.
"That is impossible. No two Servants may be summoned from the same class. Archer has already been summoned!"
The man of flames did not budge, nor did he even turn around towards the woman threatening to take his life. He simply sighed, and turned his attention from the moon down to the river below him.
"I hate that I've been summoned as this Class. I would rather have hope than these grim memories. Besides, I think my younger self might have enjoyed this battle a lot more. Regardless, I am of the class Archer. I do not know who this other Archer is, but the Grail might have simply summoned two Archers. I don't know how the Holy Grail works, Rider."
A golden bow materialized in the man's hand, to which he turned and put on display for the women to behold. The proof of his Class being shown, the Einzbern homunculus now walked back in front of her Servant, never having feared the Servant to begin with. However, Rider stood by her side, still not trusting the so-called Archer.
"The Archer has been summoned by someone that isn't a magus, Rider. Perhaps that caused the summoning ritual to go astray. The last Servant needed to be summoned was Saber, so a normal human wouldn't be able to handle summoning the most powerful Class."
Turning to the Servant, Archer, the homunculus' red eyes gazed over to the bow that was now disappearing into thin air.
"I do not want any bloodshed, Archer. I sense that you do not as well. It seems as though your fighting was finished long ago."
Archer's eyes did not avert from the river below. All his thoughts were onto his past. Why did he need to be summoned from this time of his life!? If only he had been summoned from his youth…
"I have a reason to fight, Einzbern. All of us Servants do. You Masters should as well. I am no stranger to bloodshed, and my wish is one that must be granted."
His words drilled a hole into the soul of the woman. She was charmed by this Servant. It was as though he spoke truth into the world, and every word he said could be trusted completely. His wish must be granted. But then, why was she so captivated by this lone Servant sitting on a bridge? She felt no love or affection for this man, she was merely charmed by his words. It was as though he willed her to trust him.
"A Servant with a wish that must be granted so badly would be killing us right now. Either you're lying, or you have some other reason not to fight us."
Rider, still skeptical of the Servant, chimed in.
"I told you, if you want me to kill you so badly, I will. We will fight, I'll take your life, then I'll report back to my Master that the Einzbern Master has been defeated. Is that what you want, Rider?"
Archer raised himself from his post on the bridge. Turning to face the two, they could finally see his face. And yet, despite his naturally beautiful, almost godlike face, he had a hint of sorrow behind his eyes. Like a man who was broken, and lost all hope. The homunculus could sense that whatever was plaguing this man had to do with his wish.
"Rider, I know every Servant. This man, this is the strongest Servant. If he wanted to, he could have killed us as soon as he sensed us approaching. And yet, he didn't. Why do you think that is?"
Archer stepped over to the women, now facing Rider eye to eye.
"You should help me obtain the Grail. My Master is a schemer. If they get their hands on it, nothing good will come of it. I'm confident I can acquire the Grail on my own, but I don't want to kill anyone unnecessarily."
Rider lowered her eyes, glaring at the man. A murderous intent rode, and she cracked her knuckles. Her weapon did not appear, and yet she swung her fist at Archer as hard as she could. Archer didn't even attempt to block the attack, getting knocked onto the pavement. Blood trickled from his nose, but he sat in silence, looking up at the angry Servant.
"Asking a Servant to help you win the Grail is essentially asking them to commit suicide! Every Servant must die in order for the Grail to manifest, so why would you dare ask that question!?"
Rider folded her arms, and her Master lowered herself to tend to the bleeding Servant, who paid no mind to his bleeding nose.
"And yet, you don't strike me as a killer, Rider. What will you do when you need to defeat your enemies? Even if you avoid battling, you will need to confront me by the end of it all. And then, I won't sit by and let you punch me. Besides…"
The golden bow rematerialized in Archer's hands. He pointed it directly at Rider, drawing an arrow faster than the woman could even process, and firing it just as fast. An arrow of light flew past Rider's face, merely centimeters from her skin, and pierced the unknown entity behind her. A quiet thud sounded as the body, now dead, hit the sidewalk. Before any of the three of them could look over, however, the body dissipated into a black, crumbling smoke.
"Not having the determination to do what's necessary is what costs lives. The lives of those important to you are more important than any indecisions. Do what you must, Rider."
Rider looked dumbfounded at the Servant who returned to sitting on the edge of the bridge. He returned to staring up at the moon, dreaming of the days that could have been. The Master looked in awe at how serious the man was. He wasn't putting on a show to intimidate the two of them, or even make them think he'd be a great asset. He merely saved one of their lives, then went back on with his day.
The bridge was completely silent, save the soft breeze whispering through the night. Rider faded away into her golden spirit form, and the Master wordlessly walked off, thinking of how hard it would be to take out this Servant. Then again, did she even want to?
[x]
Archer, huh?
One of the members of Assassin's Noble Phantasm has been killed by Archer. He also got a glimpse of Rider and the Einzbern Master, who is Rider's Master.
"Assassin, don't send any more scouts to the Tohsaka estate. They'll just be killed by that Archer. Send a squad out to look for this other Master and other Archer Servant. Apparently the Master isn't a magus, which will make it easier to find them. A Servant out in the open with a Master not knowledgeable on the Holy Grail War will make them easy to eliminate. Always keep at least one posted on the Matou manner. And what of the Cerquiera's hotel?"
The Enforcer sat with his Servant as his audience. He managed to summon a perfect Servant for himself - Fuuma Kotarou, the renown ninja. Not only was this Servant obedient, but his Noble Phantasm was perfect for reconnaissance.
"The father and mother have been pressuring the 3 children to summon their Servant. As far as we are aware, no Servant has been summoned, however."
Asher's eyes shot up to the Servant. He wordlessly grabbed his briefcase, and headed towards the door. Assassin faded away into his spirit form, invisibly following his Master. The Enforcer closed the door behind him, and began walking along the sidewalk, moving towards the inner city.
"When we get to the hotel, I want you to remain in your spirit form the entire time, unless an enemy Servant makes its appearance. You are to not show yourself in any other circumstance, you hear me?"
Assassin's words echoed within Asher's head, unable to be heard by the outside world.
Understood, Master. But, why such drastic measures?
"There are supposed to be 4 children. It's likely that the Servant has already been summoned, and that the Cerquieras knew that they'd be getting watched. They're hiding the fourth child from us. I will make them tell me where it is."
By the time the man got to the hotel, dawn was about to break. Price entered, and walked past the desk towards the elevators. Assassin naturally knew exactly where the enemy magi's hotel rooms were, so he guided his Master directly to them. Red eyes panned over to the door to the parent's room. He knocked on the door, and naturally didn't get a response. He simply snapped his fingers, and within 10 seconds the door was opened by the mother of the family, standing with a kunai to her throat. Assassin's Noble Phantasm was perfect for measures like this - as despite the fact that the ninja native to his Noble Phantasm weren't as strong as Assassin himself, they were all still much more powerful than the magi he would need to face.
Entering the room, the ninja sat the brown-haired woman on the bed next to her husband.
"Call your children over. If they try to flee, they will die. Then you will die."
The man on the bed nodded wordlessly, and grabbed a small clay statuette that was on his bedside. Imbuing it with a bit of magical energy, it soon came to life, and walked along the ground towards the exit to the room. While this was happening, Asher turned his back to the two magi, setting his briefcase onto the table. When he undid his lock, he grabbed out a small automaton. It was shaped like a spider, and it glowed a bright purple light. Taking the small spider, he then tore off the eight of its legs. All of the legs emitted light, each a different color in pairs of two. Two green, yellow, blue, and orange.
Setting the spider back in his briefcase, he then locked it and walked over to see the 3 children now wordlessly sitting beside their parents. All of them, save for the father and the eldest son, had looks of varying degrees of fear in their eyes. Asher's eyes peered into the mother's soul, as he raised one of the spider's legs - an orange one - and gave it to her.
"That there contains poison lethal enough to kill 10 magi over. It also has an agent that suppresses the magical energy in one's body. If you don't answer my questions properly, I will have you stab someone in this room with it. If you try to stab me with it, you will be killed before you can even reach me. Now, for my first question - where is your youngest daughter?"
The woman on the bed teared up, and began to hyperventilate.
"I-I don't know. I really don't! Please, don't kill me."
Master, her heartbeat hasn't changed. It's elevated, but not to the point where I'd suspect it's anything other than fear for her own life. She likely isn't lying.
Asher then walked over to the youngest son, and handed him a spider leg. This one glowed a bright green.
"Isabel was the one with the Command Spell. Why did your father continue to pressure you three to summon a Servant, despite the fact that the Master of the household was gone?"
"That bitch is no Master of this househo-"
The eldest son stood up with rage, prompting the mother to freak out, reaching out for him. The other 3 in the room wordlessly stared forward, not interacting as the unthinkable happened. A ninja materialized from the shadows, grabbing the man by the face to silence him. Asher didn't move, still looking at the boy as the sound of snapping, then a thud sounded through the room.
"Answer the question."
"Elisio!"
The mother stood, crying and loudly speaking Spanish that the Enforcer couldn't understand. The ninja quickly paced over to her, and pushed her down onto the bed with such force that she slid back and banged her head against the headboard. Blood dripped down her hair and began to flow onto the pillow below her, but she was still alive.
"He said if we don't have a Servant under our household, then our dream wouldn't be fulfilled."
Another confirmation from the invisible Servant made Asher then turn to the father. Handing the father a blue leg, the father remained silent, but didn't even wait for Asher's question. He immediately turned it around and tried to stab Asher's wrist with it. And yet, the leg only went into his own thigh. The hand of the ninja was gripping his arm, and redirected the leg of poison.
"Ha, if you kill me, you won't get any information out of me! You'll have to give me an antidote."
"That is where you are wrong, Marcos Cerqueira. I never told you what poison was in the last two vials, did I?"
Asher looked over to the ninja, who then put his hands around the father's mouth to muffle the screaming that immediately followed. The father writhed with pain, as though every fiber of his being were coursing with the very embodiment of agony. But yet, he lived. He clutched the bedsheets with one hand and reached for his wife with his other, looking for some salvation from the torrent of torment.
"If you wish to end this pain, you must ask one of your children."
Asher handed the only other colored leg to the sister, who had been silent this entire time.
"One of those two has the antidote. The other has a poison that will cure the pain by numbing every single neuron in your motor system. You will be cured, but you will never move again."
Asher ignored the sounds of agony coming from the father, and returned to the mother. She was fading in and out of consciousness, but she managed to stay attentive to prevent anything worse from happening.
"Elisio inherited your family's Magic Circuit, correct?"
The mother could only muster the strength to nod, then she fainted. Asher took the initiative and returned to his briefcase. Pulling out another automaton, this one shaped like a rat, he set it on the now deceased body of the eldest son. The rat began to sink its teeth into the man's corpse, starting at his neck. This prompted the living son to nearly keel over and vomit, while the sister still continued to be stone-faced as she had the entire time.
"I know you're going to kill us all, anyway. Once you have all your information. These are all lethal, aren't they? They just have varying degrees of pain accompanying them? That's why you have 4 extras. You bait us into thinking we can save our father, then kill us anyway with the other 4 poisonous - what even are they, spider legs? Cliche, I'd say. But whatever."
"If I wanted you all dead I wouldn't have to have come here personally. I can also interrogate you without coming here. I could have my Servant take you to me, couldn't I?"
The realization of what that meant shocked even the stoic Victoria. She now knew what the man wanted from them. Asher stood and grabbed his briefcase, then exited the room. The door shut, and quickly the eldest daughter took the poison from her brother, and stuck both of the legs into her father's chest.
"Victoria!? What are you doing!?"
"If both of them are antidotes, then it doesn't matter which one we give him. I want this man to suffer. He can stay at Mother's side for the rest of his days for all I care. It's us who are in real danger."
The boy stood up to follow his sister, who was now rushing back to their own hotel room.
"Why!? What do you mean?"
"If we want to live, we bring him Isabel."