There were no reasons to circle around the topic, so I went in cold:

"Why did you put your daughter to be adopted into the Matou family?"

Tohsaka perked up from mid-sip, he swallowed the little amount of tea he got in his mouth, placed the cup down on the table between us and lightly coughed. Afterward, he gave his explanation, which can be summarized as:

Tohsaka Tokiomi was blessed with two daughters. Both of whom were gifted in magecrafts and were suited to inherit the Tohsaka's legacy. Tragically, only one of them is able to be the inheritor, since the Tohsaka family's crest could only transfer to one child. In a dilemma, he sought after the Matou family - who he had heard that are in a dire need of an heir - and struck a deal with Matou Zouken to adopt Tohsaka Sakura, sister of Tohsaka Rin. This is so that Sakura can be protected from the other magi who seek to experiment on her since a magus' child hold vast potential and there will be men who'd look to exploit it.

Tokiomi had also assured me that he was having his daughters' happiness in mind when he made that decision. And though the separation between the two sisters will be difficult for them, atleast now they can grow in their respective field of magecraft and hopefully attain greatness in their own way instead of only having one child reaching her potential, and the other stagnates. This, as he said, is what no father wants for their children.

His thoughts behind the decision were reasonable, though his decision to give his daughter away was not. I made my thoughts on that known to him, and he followed by explaining that he couldn't protect Sakura all the time, there will be times where he must look away - like in this Holy Grail war - so he must find her a suitable protector.

"And the Matou, with their strong desire for the Grail as well, was chosen," Tohsaka said. "I didn't pick the Einzbern because they have more care for their homunculus than people, added that she would either be living in Germany or that castle in the forest. Living in such an environment would make her feel unloved."

"Well-"

"Don't say it," Tohsaka interrupted, "I know. I know what mistakes I've made. Sakura... she didn't talk to me last night when I came to see her. She was all quiet, even when I brought her back to Rin and Aoi, she was quiet with them as well. You now know my reasons, but never say that I was heartless. If I had known, I wouldn't send her there. And she wouldn't be like the way she is now."

Though it wasn't cold, Tohsaka Tokiomi's lower jaw was shaking as he breathes out. People's jaw tends to do that when they are on the verge of tears. Tokiomi, though his eyes weren't showing tears, his expression was coming close to it. It was what I expected from a man like him: no wails, no tears - bottle it up all inside then deal with later or never.

"How did it go with Kariya?"

"He was reasonably angry," Tohsaka breathe in and out heavily. "I didn't think that he would join the Grail War to get my daughter out of that pain. It was what he screamed at me that night. Calling me a bastard and saying that I deserve this horrid fate and that. Maybe I am and maybe I do, I don't know. To hear that he was doing it for her and knowing that I was the one who sent her there..."

If he continued anymore he would bring himself to tears, so he stopped himself. I picked up my cup of tea and sipped it. "Want to talk about something else?"

"About what?"

"About you and the Einzberns."

"Specifically?"

"The Einzberns are speculated to have tainted the Grail during the last war. Did father Risei say anything to you about that?"

"He did."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"I need time to think."

"No plans yet?"

"No, not yet. And it could all be just a speculation that holds no weight. I wouldn't doubt that the little worm would throw something like a Tainted Grail out there to stall us even when he's about to die."

"He was dying and in his most weakened state. I'd believe the words of such a man. They haven't the will and the wisdom to lie."

"Perhaps, you were there and I wasn't, so he must've sounded truthful. But, even if the Grail is tainted, we still have to continue the war. To cleanse it, we must be able to touch it first, you understand right?"

"Right."

"Anything else?"

"The Einzberns' castle in the woods. You mentioned it, where is it?"

"Westward of the city, deep in the forest."

"What do you know about the people there?"

"The Einzbern's Servant is Saber, and her master is a homunculus, you'll know when you see it. Another thing, they have contracted the Magus Killer - Emiya Kiritsugu - to their aid, so be careful of him."

"This Magus Killer did anything recently?"

"The bombing of the Fuyuki Hyatt, it was to eliminate Lancer and his Master. The Master is Lord Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald, and the identity of the Servant is yet to be determined."

"Where and how're they?"

"It's hard to say. They confronted the Einzbern last night, but I don't know what happened after that. They probably lost and it wouldn't be an honorable lost, since the Magus Killer is no ordinary magus, he uses bombs, guns and underhanded means to get his kill. He's a mercenary; he goes from one warzone to the next, assassinating one rogue magus after the other like crossing a checklist. I repeat myself, be careful with him; he won't fight you with honor or impressive magecrafts. He'll shoot you in the back if he can help it."

"Cool."

There were Browning, Colt, flashlight and me. The Browning was in my right hand, the 1911 between my waistband at the small of my back, the flashlight in my left and I was standing at the edge of the forest. The time was night.

With the moonlight and flashlight as my only source of illumination, I ventured forward in search of the Einzbern's castle. As I got deep into the forest, I thumbed the Browning's safety down, turned the muzzle beneath my jaw and softly squeezed into a dry-fire.

For recon purposes, Pixie would suffice. She was a small fairy, small enough to stand on your shoulder and it'd feel like two gentle fingers were resting on it. Her wings were crystal clear butterfly wings, her hair was brown, her leotard was blue and her eyes were wide and cheerful.

Pixie flew above and ahead of me a good distance away, and I took it easy to follow her traveled path.

This castle in the forest was an urban legend. People have said to have seen it, people have said it to be nonsense. What this tells me that although the Einzbern are good at hiding a castle in a forest, they weren't perfect. People have seen it before, and it will be seen again.

We knew we were going in right direction when we started feeling hazy magical auras around us. Punching through it seemed to cause no effects and anything. Eventually, after going through it all, Pixie saw the castle from all the way above the trees and we made a straight line right to it. Then, we stopped. Both her and I felt a strange aura of concentrated magical energy ahead of us, picking my brain for a moment, I remembered this strange aura to be near identical to the one I felt at Tohsaka's and Matou's estate. Whatever in front of us was either a defensive barrier or a detection barrier.

Given that I don't know what defensive barriers do, I decided not to touch the strange magical aura, and given that if it was a detection barrier, then I was no sneak, and have no desire to fight them yet, sounding their alarm wouldn't make for a good first impression.

To hell with it, either the barrier was defensive or detection didn't matter. The Einzbern'll get a little mad with me either way. Pixie, I thought, throw ice into it.

And Pixie did, she held both hands out with palm spread, then in front of her materialized a chunk of ice the size of an eight-year-old child, with a gentle push of her hands, the ice chunk flew like a subsonic bullet through the magical barrier. About two or three seconds later, I heard it crash into the dirt.

Nothing happened to the chunk of ice when it got through the barrier, so if this was a defensive barrier, then maybe it only affects living creatures. But it could also not be a defensive barrier, and passing through it would be like passing a laser alarm.

I enjoyed the second hypothetical better, so I decided to chance it and move forward with Pixie. Getting deeper and deeper in, the sight of the castle was a lot clearer to me, and the size of it inspires awe.

All of a sudden then, something like a quick succession of knives stabbing into the grass sounding closer and closer to us. Hearing those steps, I knew immediately that whoever was approaching us was a Servant.

Then, in her holy aura she stood her ground in front of us. "Halt!" she said, "You shall go no further!" With a concentrated pillar of wind between hands, gripped like a sword.

Saber's hair was blonde and her eyes were green. Dressed for combat in what can be called a battle dress. Though why she didn't bother to put pauldrons on was the strangest of her attire.

"Whoever you are," Saber said, "state your business!"

"It's about the Grail."

"And?"

"And the Grail is possibly tainted."

"What?"

"It's still speculations though, nothing concrete yet."

"What do you mean by tainted? And why hasn't the overseer anounce anything about this?"

"Well, this involves your Master's history a little so I'll have to talk to them about it."

Her eyes narrowed at the black automatic in my hand.

I turned the pistol over, offering her the grip. "You can have it if you want," I said.

Saber took it, and then asked: "Your back up?"

"With your speed I saw earlier, you'd cut me before I draw," I argued.

"Hand it over." She found my argument lacking.

I drew the Colt 1911 as well, and turned it over to her.

"So will you call them here or escort me there?"

"Your little friend," she nodded towards Pixie, "where did you get her?"

"From an old man in the enchanted forest."

Pixie punched my cheek. It was light and soft.

"Really?" Saber was confused.

"No."

"Be serious with me," Saber said with irritation in her voice.

"Okay, here's a straight answer: I stumbled upon her during a hike and we're friends ever since."

"You're lying again."

"Am I?"

"Shut up. Walk forward," then she turned to Pixie, "you stay on his shoulder so I can keep eye on you." And Pixie did.

We walked through a busted hole where a gate used to be, entering a room decorated with broken vases, dust, debris, and scars from a million BBs.

"Did your Master use claymores in this room?"

The cold flat of a sword touched my neck, its wind getting in my ear and blowing my hair, Saber's way of telling me to keep walking.

The homunculus was an albino woman. Red eyes, long, smooth white hair and beautifully pale skin. We were standing on the balcony overlooking the castle's inner garden. Saber was behind me, with her wind-sword at my neck and my two friends Browning and Colt in her captive. While Pixie was sitting on my shoulder with her legs crossed and the homunculus was in front of me, staring intensely at my face as if I was worth a study. And the night was windy.

"I see that you brought yourself a little friend, does she have a name?" The homunculus had asked, her voice was fierce but soft and gentle just the same.

"Her name's Pixie," I said.

"Pixie's not any kind of name for anybody."

"Well, it's her name, and that's what she introduced herself as when we first met."

"No, that's not my name," Pixie said and I snapped to her the moment she said it.

"See? What kind of man not bothered to even ask the name of his friend?"

"Okay," I said, "what is this? We're here for business aren't we? So ask me something important why don't you?"

"Like what?"

"Like why am I here?"

"Well, why are you here?"

"To talk to you about the Holy Grail."

"Saber?" The homunculus tilted her head at her Servant.

"He said," Saber said, "that the Grail is tainted and it has connections with your family's history."

"The Grail's tainted?" The homunculus turned to me.

"Maybe," I said.

"What do you mean maybe?"

"I mean I'm not too sure whether it's true or false, whether it's concrete or brittle. And that's why I'm here to talk to you."

"Well, okay," she placed her hand at her heart. "I am Irisviel von Einzbern, and you?"

"Yuki Makoto."

The talk came afterwards. She confirmed Zouken's words on the Einzbern's Servant of the third war, and she showed hesitant in confirming whether it could be possible that this Angra Mainyu could've tainted the Grail. Because, from her words, a mere Servant shouldn't be able to dominate the will of the Grail, there must something more to it. In the end, she concluded that the possibility is there, but nothing is certain yet. She must see the thing for herself. So the war must continue.

I wasn't getting anywhere like this, I'm sure the next two Masters I have a talk with they'll say that they need to see the real thing first before deciding. And I can't blame them since I'd be the same in their situation. Perhaps it's my desire to end this conflict as soon as possible that's making me holding on to the words of a deceased worm when I shouldn't. Perhaps I misjudged a man during his last moments. Perhaps the Grail is not tainted, perhaps I do have to kill all the Servants and there's no talking out of it. Whichever it was, I didn't like that it was not ending any quicker.

"So we're just going to keep going."

"Unfortunately," Irisviel said, "yes."

"Are you sure?"

"I am sure."

"Despite the possibility that it may be corrupted?"

"Mm-Hmm," she nodded, "we wouldn't know if we don't try. I'm repeating myself, but, I must see it with my own two eyes. You understand right? The Grail is an omnipotent wish granter, with it, happiness and prosperity can be given to everybody, and no one will be left behind! If the Grail turns out to be corrupted, then... well, we'll deal with it when we're there."

"Is this speculation Zouken spun comes too sudden for you?"

"Yes, we've only been preparing for the case that the Holy Grail is not corrupted, to think otherwise is rather abrupt for me right now. If it's true, then... all of this would've been for nothing. No wishes for a better world, no meaning to the conflict. It's just hard to accept that that would be the case."

"I understand."

Irisviel's smile was somber.

And then, a sharp thunder roared in the sky, followed by the sound of bulls. From the sky and descending, a chariot was leading lightning behind its path.

Author's note: Once again, the bounded fields serve as trip alarms, making them mundane and boring. I'd like to say sorry that I can't make them anymore interesting like the anime did. Because you see, in the Fate/Zero light novel, the details of Assassin's infiltration is kept rather simple and unexciting, it only got flashy with the acrobatics in the anime, and I'd like to follow the light novel more than the anime since the light novel is the original. Another reason is that the light novel didn't elaborate on what kind of bounded field that the Einzbern used so I decided upon just simple, plain detection.

If any of you know more about what kind of bounded field the Einzbern used, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Also, does Irisviel seems out of character? I don't think Saber is, she'd definitely be at this level of hostility with Makoto in their current situation. But I can't seem for the life of me able to write Irisviel in a way that I think is true to her character.

See you about next month or so.