Chapter 1: Arrival

"If you look out your left window you'll spot the Fuyuki Bridge, a pleasant place to be if you want to gaze out at the beautiful river. This also marks the beginning of our descent, we will arrive on solid ground in less than 10 minutes."

The bustling families of various British citizens visiting Japan lit up the plane with various talks of what they'll do in the city of Fuyuki, while the Japanese citizens returning from their trips to London were recapping the stories of the amazing sights they witnessed. Some Englishmen practiced their Japanese, while others struggled to even remember how to ask for directions. No one paid any mind to the man in the black suit sitting completely silent, intently focused on the papers that he was reading. As if in a trance, his eyes simply moved over the documents in hand repeatedly - it couldn't even be said that he could hear the rest of the passengers on the plane around him.

The soft bell chimed and a green light signaled that the plane fully landed. The passengers all exited one by one until none were left except the man, still with his seatbelt on, still reading the series of papers before him.

"Sir, I must ask you to leave. Everyone else is gone and we must prepare for the next flight."

One of the flight attendants, a young woman approached him and stood next to him politely, slightly looking over the documents, seeing them all written in English.

"Oh, do you not speak Japanese? Uh…" The woman paused for a minute, thinking back to her slight knowledge of the English language she learned in school. "Excuse me, you have to go -"

"I speak the language just fine, thank you."

Contrary to the polite words the man spoke, his tone was cold and unfeeling. It wasn't that he sounded bitter, angry, or even disgusted - it was a lack of any sound at all. It was as if he only spoke with pure neutrality. The man unbuckled his seatbelt and stood, then grabbed a small briefcase from above his head. He quickly undid the small lock and placed the documents firmly into the case, then relocked it. All of his movements were just as inhuman as the tone of his voice - the woman almost thought she was looking at a robot in human skin. As the man began to walk towards the exit of the plane, he donned a hat that was a matching black to the suit he wore atop his light red hair.

It was night in Fuyuki, 11:22 pm to be precise, as the man looked down at his watch. He walked over to an elderly man holding a sign in front of a silver car.

Price.

Wordlessly, the man opened the car door and sat inside - meeting with a middle-aged Japanese woman with graying hair, wearing a crimson dress and smoking a cigarette. He nodded to the woman, awaiting what she had to say. The engine started, and with one puff of smoke from the lady, they took off.

"It's not every day that you get to meet an esteemed Enforcer from the Clock Tower. I'd introduce myself, but you already know who I am." The woman's words were falling on deaf ears, as it was clear the man wouldn't respond to anything he deemed unimportant.

"Fine then, don't talk. I prefer the focused young ones anyway. As you have already been debriefed on, the Einzberns have already made their way into the outskirts of Fuyuki, residing in their usual base of operations - the castle in the woods. It's honestly a shame how they never try to change their headquarters, it puts a very obvious target on their back. It seems that they haven't summoned it yet, although we have no confirmation since all of our familiars keep being destroyed whenever they get close enough. It seems that they haven't hired a Freelancer like in the last one, so it will be easy to identify the Master when you see them. A homunculus, female, white hair, red eyes. Be sure not to kill it, we need it alive to extract the Grail."

The man's expression stated that he knew all of this already, but he still didn't utter a single word. In response to this, the woman only sighed, and put her fingers to her temple.

"You seriously want the juicy info first? Come on, what is it you Englishmen say - 'save the best for last?' Fine. As you already know, we don't have a name for the Einzbern Master, and while we know roughly what an Einzbern homunculus should look like, we don't have an exact face. But what we do have information on is the Tohsaka Master. Too much, for that matter. It's a little concerning that the Tohsaka household has an even stronger Boundary Field than the Einzbern Castle, and yet every familiar we've dispatched is still intact. It's as if they're so confident in their victory over the other Masters that they have no care for whether or not anyone else discovers information about them."

This "concerning" fact didn't seem to move the cold face of the silent man in the car. His red eyes waned over to the seat in front of him, as if to say that he'd lost all interest in this conversation at all.

"Goodness, you're so hard to please, Mr. Price. Anyway, the Makiri - or, I guess it's better to call them Matou now - household is as to be expected. They are trying to use a proxy, since the heir's blood has run too thin to properly use magic. Their camp should be the easiest to defeat out of the 3 major families, so I expect nothing short of perfection from you. As for the other Masters, we have no information on the other Masters precisely, although we have confirmed the presence of 2 other families of Magi in and surrounding the areas of Fuyuki. We know of the Cerqueira family hailing from Brazil, as they're one of the most prominent families of Magi from that part of the world. Since they have come all the way to Japan on a whim, it's very likely that they have a Master with them. The last family, we have no clue. They are deep in hiding, and we merely know they exist. Keep on the watch for them, but I know you'll find them sooner or later. That's your specialty, after all."

The car stopped, and the two in the back seat exited. Price, as the woman called him, grabbed his briefcase and stared at the building in front of him. It was an abandoned building, rundown with boarded up windows. It seemed like it would be demolished and repurposed into a new space if it weren't for the building being bought out.

"As you requested, this is your base of operations. Easy to decimate in the event of an emergency, and no one would bat an eye at a building like this suddenly collapsing. There are chickens in the basement, adequately fed to your liking, and your catalyst is in the trunk of the car."

The woman tapped on the window that the driver was sitting beside, and he quickly popped the trunk. Inside was a small case, which the man in the hat took with his free hand. He stood staring at the woman, knowing that there was a reason why she was still here.

"Oh, by the way, Mr. Price. I believe I forgot to mention - we've seen Tohsaka's Servant."

This was the first thing the woman said to get a reaction out of the man. His eyes briefly widened, and he took a step towards the woman, while she smirked with a sadistic look. She giggled, and tossed her now butted cigarette onto the ground.

"Ah, like I said Mr. Price - save the best for last. I couldn't give you the juicy bits too early. Where's the fun in that? This is what's the most concerning about the Tohsaka Master. There's no way they would gladly and knowingly display their Servant out into the open if there wasn't some kind of catch. Either it's extremely powerful, or they are dumber than they are poor. That reminds me, they still owe me 300000 yen for a jewel I provided them."

The woman began to re enter the car, and the door was stopped from shutting by Price's hand.

"Tajima, give me more details."

"Ah, but that's all I have for you my dear. I don't think it should be much for the rising star, Asher Price, right? The one who never fails to deliver perfection?"

The door closed, and the car drove off. Clutching the briefcase in one hand, and the small box in his other, Asher's eyes returned to the robotic gaze that it failed to maintain, then began walking to the steps of the building. Looking at his watch, he saw the time once more. 12 minutes until midnight. He needed to get the preparations done quickly, to complete the summoning at the time that his magic was at its height.

[x]

Terror.

That is the only word that could describe the feelings going through Isabel's mind.

Pain.

The sight before her couldn't be described in any other way. What she saw was pain. The almost lifeless bodies of her three siblings looked up at her, looking past the face of sorrow, care, and love. The sight of their youngest sibling, their flesh and blood younger sister wanting nothing but to fix whatever the problem could be. All they saw was the source of their pain.

"Why did it have to be you?"

The raspy voice of the eldest, Elisio, coughed out the words as he stood. His bloodied face, crushed fingers, and sliced tendons began to mend themselves to give him the strength. Magic flowed through the room as he began to heal his two siblings that were in better, albeit still horrible, condition than he. Saul, the 3rd child, merely had a crushed windpipe and couldn't speak. Victoria, the second eldest, had one of her arms broken and a slash across her face. The pain the 2 of them experienced combined couldn't compare to what Elisio went through, but he simply gritted his teeth and healed his siblings.

"Elisio, I -" Young Isabel couldn't get the words out as she backed away from the approaching figure. She knew that her brother wouldn't hurt her - he couldn't, for fear of a worse pain than he felt earlier that day, combined with an assured death - but it still felt as though some sort of judgment would be passed onto her.

"We are criminals. Mother and Father train all of us in the art of magic. Only one magus is to be allowed per bloodline, and yet they are caring enough to not give you away. You, Victoria, and Saul. Father wanted you three to support me in retrieving the Holy Grail. I was to be the successor, with my loyal siblings at my side."

The man, age 25, grabbed his sister's arm. He yanked her up and shoved her sleeve up her arm, revealing the red mark on her left forearm.

"And it doesn't manifest on me. I would have been fine if it were Victoria, she is probably a stronger magus than I am, at least offensively…" Elisio dropped his sister onto the floor, as she crawled away as if to avoid the stare of the other three in the room.

"It manifests on the youngest, the least experienced, the one who can't even use anything more than rudimentary magic. It's like the setup to some twisted joke."

Isabel looked around at the hotel room. It was stained with blood, glass shards were spread out across the floor. Saul began to restore the broken parts of the room back to normal, while Victoria simply watched the eldest scold the youngest.

"I don't want to see your face here. Go and die looking for the Grail, and I hope you take our parents with you. Your parents, I should say. They aren't the father and mother I was born to." The oldest sibling gestured towards the door, which made the young girl frantically shake her head.

"Elisio, if I leave, Father will hurt you even more than today. He… He'll kill you if he finds out you told me to leave! I'll give you control of the Servant! I'll use a Command Spell to make the Servant follow your-" Isabel was stopped by a gust of wind, and found her sister standing directly in front of her. The look of disgust in her eyes exceeded that even of Elisio's.

"Magi aren't human. This compassion of yours - kill it, or you'll be killed before you can reach the Grail. Elisio said to leave, that is the end of it. If you don't, I'll tear your arm off and summon the Servant myself."

Isabel choked. This was a side of her sister that she has never seen before. Victoria was studious and focused, but was kind. She felt like the eldest sometimes, even more so than Elisio. Isabel could see it as nothing else but her sister having put aside her feelings in order to abide by her brother's wishes, but… The look on her face, the feeling of pure disgust that emanated from her brown eyes was nothing but truthful. Isabel could read the feelings of others, and all she felt was truth.

The youngest sibling fought back tears, but wordlessly opened the door to the hotel room. She quickly ran towards the elevator, looking back to see the door to her parent's room opening. With the ding of the lift, the girl shut the door and could no longer stop herself from sobbing. The look of Victoria was burned into her mind and her words drilled into her head.

As the elevator door opened, Isabel walked towards the bathroom that was in the corner of the lobby. Thankfully at this time of night the only one here was the receptionist and a security guard, who didn't care as the girl walked in to wash her face. With the tears washed off of her, Isabel looked in the mirror and couldn't help but curse her visage. She shared the same features as all of her siblings. The same straight black hair, the same olive skin. Not only that, she was currently in Japan, she would be easy to pick out among a crowd, and any enemy magi would target her immediately. The only way she could survive would be to go into hiding.

"What am I thinking!?"

Determination, at a time like this? Isabel splashed more water on her face, as if to call herself stupid. But, if she were to win this Holy Grail War, what would that entail? She was supposed to have a wish, right? What would she wish for? For her siblings to be free of their parents' influence? To be accepted by them? This would be something she'd have to think on.

"The Grail is an omnipotent device though. Shouldn't it know my wish better than I do?"

The young 19 year old walked out of the hotel and onto the streets of Fuyuki. She needed a place to reside, and to draw a magic circle. She remembered from the study sessions with her Mother the chant to summon a Servant, but also knew that she couldn't just summon one in the middle of the street, even if it was almost midnight. She walked through the night, heading towards the church on the hill. There was a graveyard down the hill from the church, which she could use as a place to summon. She quickly approached the sight of the field with the graves as something struck the girl.

"A catalyst! I don't have anything to summon the Servant with! I'm sure Father had something he would have given to Elisio, but I didn't get to ask him what it was or where it was. How am I going to summon a strong Servant if I can't even have a good catalyst?"

Sighing, Isabel stepped onto the grass housing the dead. There was no one else around, so she quickly began getting to work. She had no chalk or chickens to bleed, so she settled with the dirt beneath her. She shaped it into the circle she would be using for the ritual, being certain to pour magic into every ounce of the ground where the circle was. Isabel wasn't even sure this would work, but she was determined. It had to work.

"And done. I hope this works."

Recalling the words to the ritual, Isabel took one deep breath as she raised her right hand - the hand that bore the Command Spell that her brother detested, and it began to glow and burn. The pain in her hand was nothing compared to the pain in her chest as she thought of her siblings, so the girl gritted her teeth and began to speak. The mana flowing through the air gathered towards the circle inscribed in the dirt, and a whirlwind encircled the graveyard. The Earth itself called forth the power to bridge the gap between the lands beyond death and the present. The winds drowned out the voice of the girl, but yet she continued to speak. Even when muted by the very ritual she was performing, Isabel did not stop - she could not stop. As she mouthed out the final words of the incantation, a bright light enveloped her.

"Be the hands that protect the balance, right? That was the final line? It seems like everything went correctly, but -"

Isabel stopped as a chill went down her spine. The fear she felt in the presence of her angry siblings paled in comparison to this. This wasn't the terror inflicted by her worst nightmare. This fear was primal. It seeps down into the very core of her being. This is the feeling every human feels, it's engraved into the back of their minds as a mechanism for remaining safe. Danger. No, it was better to describe this feeling as -

"...Death."