Chapter 5: Duty

The Western-Style homes of Fuyuki City were not in high demand. Most of the people that lived there were either foreigners that moved to Japan, or Japanese residents that simply wanted to mimic the Western style of living. The general population, however, avoided that side of town, since it wasn't to their liking. However, were one to venture over to the side of town with most of the Western-Style houses, they'd find that one of these houses was much different from the others. It looked almost like a haunted house, and it's been told in the community that it is exactly such.

This house was a haunted house - but not in the traditional sense of the matter. Evocation, magic, all of these that are associated with witches, raising the undead, they were all performed in this household. But it wasn't to raise any zombie, mummy, or something of that sort - and there were no yokai or Western witches on brooms. There were only two people, although the world only ever saw one of them.

"Tohsaka!"

A brown-haired student ran over to Class 2-A, approaching the boy that was seated eating his lunch. Following him were 2 others, another boy and a girl.

"Tohsaka, what's up?"

"Ka-cha… er, Tohsaka-senpai!"

The boy that was eating his lunch waved to the others, inviting them to sit down.

"Mizuru over here is still trying to act like she's not into Tohsaka. Listen to her, man! 'Ka-chan, Ka-chan! Ka-chan, do you want to sit with us for lunch? I brought some food from home. Oh, but I can't eat all of this myself. Maybe we should shaaare-' GAH!"

The brown-haired boy was shoved out of his seat by the girl. Mizuru's face was beet red, but she folded her arms and pretended to act as though nothing had happened.

"Thanks for the seat, Akio-senpai. You're such a gentleman!"

The girl sat down in the seat that she just vacated, then looked over to the boy everyone referred to as Tohsaka. Wearing the typical Homurahara Academy male uniform, the only thing that was distinct about him were his bright blue eyes, and spiky dark brown hair. That, and the confused yet oddly not surprised look on his face.

"Why do you always wait until after school to eat your lunch, Tohsaka? Surely it'd be better to eat with the others? I mean, I understand why you don't want to be seen around Akio, but why not us?"

Another boy, with black hair and glasses, sat down across from Tohsaka while Akio got up and sat down across from the girl, glaring daggers at her.

"I am just not hungry until after school. I'd rather just spend my lunch time studying."

Tohsaka spoke matter-of-factly, like it was common knowledge at this point. He returned to eating like he had nothing more to say on the matter.

"So, when are you going to take this devil-woman out on a date anyway? She's clearly waiting for you to make the first move. Yasui isn't the type to do anything with confidence, unless it has to do with pissing me off."

Akio was on the verge of taking his revenge on the girl, but he seemed satisfied with her embarrassed face as penance for her prior assault.

"If she wants to go out with me, she can ask."

Akio was taken aback by the nonchalant answer, not even expecting a serious response in the first place. Yasui, however, was seemingly dying of a heart attack in her seat. She stammered, then put her head down on the desk, resting in her arms.

"Th-Thobafa-shembai… wirr youuu…"

She whispered, completely inaudible and muffled at that.

"Anyway, what're your plans today? Naho and I were gonna hit up an arcade, and I know Yasui would go anywhere you go."

"I was not going to hit up an arcade. You came over to me and said 'Hey, we're going to the arcade after class' and didn't give me a chance to say yes or no."

"If you wanted to say no, you could have!"

Tohsaka stood up, and put his boxed lunch away.

"Sorry, I have some work to do in a bit. I'll be busy after school for maybe the next week or two. Afterward, I'll be sure to go to the arcade with you guys whenever you ask. I actually have to get going now, as a matter of fact. See you later, guys."

Tohsaka waved goodbye to his friends, who all acknowledged this. They all knew that Tohsaka was a hard working guy, he made sure he got the highest scores out of the second-years, was always studious, and had part-time jobs to make money since he was living alone. Despite all that, he still made time for friends and to hang out after school. So if Tohsaka said he was going to be busy for the next 2 weeks, it must have been something extremely important.

Leaving the school and passing plenty of club-goers, Tohsaka made sure to wave to those who said goodbye to him, as he went over to the lonely road back home. It took about an hour, but he saw the familiar tall Western-Style houses, and the "haunted house" that was infamous in his community.

Entering the house, the boy was greeted by a man standing next to a middle-aged woman at the dinner table. They were talking, and invited the teen to join them.

"We have information on the Einzbern Master from last night. Apparently she is the Master of Rider, and had knowledge over our Servant before the encounter."

Sitting at the table next to the woman, the boy seemed shocked by this, but tried his best to keep his composure.

"Does this mean that he knows of your Servant's-"

"Our. Our Servant, Kazu. Actually, it'd be better if you drill it into your head that this Servant is yours. You will fight, you will bring us victory. You do not fight for me, you fight for us. Our family. Our family's dream. And no, it did not seem like the Einzbern Master knew of our Servant's True Name from what he said. Only rudimentary information like his rough degree of strength. She also gave us information that one of the Masters in this Holy Grail War isn't a magus."

The woman waved her hand, and the Servant disappeared.

"There was a confrontation last night. I do not know between which parties, but given that Rider was deployed with its Master, I can only assume it was between Rider and another Servant."

This prompted Kazu to realize something. He stood up, and slammed his hands onto the table.

"You mean to tell me that we didn't kill Rider!? Isn't that the goal of the Holy Grail War!?"

The woman at the table shook her head. She gestured for the boy to sit back down, and to calm down. Only once he did that did she grab the kettle on the table before them, and pour him a cup of tea to calm his nerves. It was clear that the boy was nervous. She left a big responsibility upon him, and he took it in stride. She should be proud, but instead she chose to be logical.

"My child, if we killed Rider on the first night, then it would be the other Masters who had information on us, not vice versa. We will defeat those who attack us, but until then we will not fight until we know of every Servant. For now, we only know of Rider and Assassin."

"Assassin?"

"It must have been, given the method of attack. Last night someone attacked Rider. He appeared out of the shadows, and prepared for a silent kill. However, he didn't have the presence of a Servant. It must have been some sort of skill or Noble Phantasm. Either one that clones the Servant multiple times to gain reconnaissance, or one that deploys multiple bodies throughout the battlefield. It's unclear."

Sighing, the woman took a sip of her tea, to which Kazu did the same. He looked at his mother's hand, the hand with the Command Spell. It only had 2 Command Spells on it, but the command was done in secret. She wouldn't tell Kazu what the command was, even when the boy pleaded with her to inform her of such. He thought originally that it was to follow his orders as if he were the Master, but that couldn't be the case. The fiery Servant has told Kazu himself that he only sees him as a bystander, and that he would rather not involve innocent people. This must mean that he only sees Kazu's mother as his Master.

Does this mean that he doesn't agree with Mother's plan?

"I want you to go out with him tonight. Don't fight if you don't need to. Just gather information on the others. He will defend you if you're attacked, but he knows not to initiate any fights."

With that, Kazu's mother stood up and left the room. Going up the large stairwell, she didn't address the boy sitting at the table any further. Kazu, on the other hand, still sipped his tea. As he finished, he walked down to the basement, where he knew the Servant would be. He couldn't see the man of flames, as he was in spirit form, but he knew he was there. Not only that, Kazu couldn't communicate telepathically with the Servant, as he had no contract with him, and therefore no connection beyond physicality.

"I assume you know the plan for tonight?"

The golden mana in the air formed together to create an armored body.

"I implore you not to listen to that woman. She is only using you. If she really wants to win this Holy Grail War, she can do so herself."

Kazu shook his head, and went through the belongings that were sprawled about around the room.

"I have waited my whole life for the time I would become a Master. This was supposed to be my time, however the Command Spell manifested on my mother. However, I will still do my duty as a Master for her."

The Servant went silent. It was clear he proposed this idea to the boy before, only to get the same response. He merely disappeared once again, leaving the boy alone in the room. Kazu, on the other hand, grabbed a small box. Taking it with him, he went upstairs to his bedroom. After finding a suitable outfit, he changed clothes and opened the box. He grabbed multiple small gemstones, each of a different color, and set them on the bed. After taking a jacket from his closet, he put all of the gems into different pockets in the jacket, and put it on.

My first night as a Master. This is what I've been training for.

Taking a deep breath, he closed the bedroom door and walked to exit the house. It was well before dusk, but he wanted to get a head start - by the time he got to his goal, it would be nightfall.

[x]

"I told ya, Archer. I don't get any of this shit, man! Magic, Masters, Servants, you can't just shove all this information onto me and expect me to go 'Oh yeah, I got this!'"

Naoki drove along the road, going towards Shinto's business district. That was where most of the places he shook down were located, either locally owned businesses, or individual people within larger businesses that got into the shadier side of life. Most of his peers acted as "landlords," but he and a couple others worked towards businesses.

"It's not hard to get! Listen, how 'bout this. Do ya got anythin' you'd wish for?"

The cowboy in the passenger's side sat with his hand out the window, looking out at the city while talking.

"Wish for? Like what?"

"World domination. Immortality. A million dollars - or, well, I guess you don't know about that. How much is a million dollars in the currency around here?"

"Oh I get it. I don't know what I'd wish for, then. I'm pretty content with my life. If I got any wish I'd want, I guess I'd just wish for Old Man Fujimura to be in his prime. That'd be a hell of a sight."

Archer visibly recoiled, then looked at his driver with almost a sense of unfamiliarity.

"What the hell? You can have anythin' you want and you'd waste your wish on somethin' like that?"

"Yeah. I heard Raiga was crazy when he was younger. You don't become the boss without a legend behind you. I just wanna see that for myself. See how he became who he is."

Archer nodded, then returned his look to the city streets. If this was the case, maybe he'd be able to get along with this human. He wasn't a mage, didn't care about dumb stuff like world domination, and he just wanted to do his job and have fun doing it. Living to the beat of his own drum. That'd be something the two of them had in common.

"What about you?"

"Huh?"

"Your dream. What'd it be?"

Archer stopped for a moment, then hesitated to answer, but decided it wouldn't be a bad thing to tell Naoki about it.

"I just wanna see somethin' mighty fine. Damn interesting, I'd say."

Naoki chuckled, then shook his head.

"You ask me about wanting all those grand things, and you say you just want to see something cool? You'll get that every day around me!"

The two of them laughed together, but it seemed like Archer's face got a bit darker. It wasn't like he seemed angry, but his smile began to falter. However, after a moment, he went right back to smiling as he grabbed a cigarette from the box Naoki gave him, and lit it with his match.

"So you're some kinda ghost, right?"

"Yup."

"How the hell did I get caught in this mess? Here I was just screwing around in my childhood house. And there you were."

Archer shrugged his shoulders as the car came to a halt. The two men stepped out of the vehicle, and walked over to a small flower shop. A young woman was working, tending to the flowers. She looked no older than 19, and as she heard the two men talking she turned around and greeted them like any other customer.

"Oh! Mr. Matsuo! I'm sorry, my grandfather isn't in today, but he left his rent here for you."

"Of course, Shokko! He's always good for it. Thanks honey!"

The young woman handed Naoki an envelope, and he nodded to her and walked away, with the cowboy following him.

"That's it? No stick up, no bags, no tyin' ropes around folks? No sheriffs?"

"I don't know what it's like where you come from, but here people know who's in charge. I'm just a collector. Think of it more like a bill you pay, rather than getting robbed."

Archer nodded.

"Now come on, we got a lot more places to go before the end of the night!"