It was early in the morning, and Sakura woke up to make breakfast. Why did this apartment have a kitchen? Well, with the power of money, anything is possible. Sakura has a card with a lot of money on it that her beloved older sister left her, and with that she rented this apartment for a few months when she arrived in Fuyuki City.
Ironically, this was the most discreet place to hide. While Illyasviel von Einzbern hides in a castle in the middle of the forest and Tohsaka Rin hides in her own home, as does Emiya Shirou, Sakura hides in this apartment where there are random people who can act as a smokescreen from prying eyes.
Behind Sakura was Toru, looking out at the city from the apartment balcony.
"Everything is very quiet in the mornings, but last night my clones discovered something that cannot be explained..."
Sakura listened to what Toru said. "Is there something different? Is it another Master?"
"It's not that. I discovered the presence of a strange entity. Although it was only the remnants of its presence, wherever it had been, it left pools of blood in the alleys of the Miyama district. There were no souls nearby... there was nothing but blood. I'm afraid that's all I have. I wasn't able to see the scene in time."
"Don't worry. You don't have to worry about anything else. We'll have a chance to investigate." She tasted the soup with a small spoon to see if it was seasoned properly. Once she was sure it was perfect, she smiled. "Haven't you discovered anything else? We could go out and investigate everything tonight."
"Yes. I discovered another master. He's a young boy. His body, like yours a few months ago, is full of worms... I saw him enter the Matou family residence. His servant has an intimidating presence, though not as much as Berserker or Saber."
The mere mention of that family made Sakura stop what she was doing. She stared at the bubbles forming in the soup, remembering the past.
"I've discovered Archer, Saber, Berserker, and Lancer. If I count myself, then there are five servants. That leaves us with two options for Matou's servant. The possibility that it's Rider is 70% because I think the one hiding in the temple is Caster."
Toru turned around and looked at the expression on Sakura's face. She looked distressed.
He didn't know what to say to her to make her feel better, because he knew more or less about Sakura's relationship with the Matou family. The worms that inhabit people's bodies and all the horrible things that family does...
"If you order me to, I can go and destroy everything related to the Matou family, but it would be a risky move."
Sakura returned to reality. She smiled calmly and turned to look at Toru.
"Thank you for your concern, but it's not necessary. Let's continue as we have been. It's the most sensible decision."
"I understand. I'll keep watching over the city then. When it's time to fight, I'll fight. I'll build the path that will lead you to victory."
"Yes... Thank you, Toru. You're very kind. That part of you never dies..."
"..." He raised his eyebrows in confusion. Sakura had said that as if she knew something specific.
She realized her own mistake and let out a nervous laugh. "Ten years ago... You were just as kind as you are now."
"Ten years ago... I see."
The atmosphere became tense due to the silence that followed those words, but suddenly Sakura's cell phone rang. She took the old flip phone out of her apron pocket and, while turning off the stove, answered it.
On the other end of the call, Waver's voice could be heard.
"Hello?"
[Oh, Sakura. I was afraid you wouldn't answer. I'm calling to find out how things are going in Fuyuki. The war must have already started.]
"Father... I'm so glad to hear your voice... A lot has happened in just two nights. We've already discovered more than half of the enemy servants. Although I used one of my command spells to heal Toru..."
"I'm sorry..."
[That's a shame. The good news is that you still have Assassin. However, how did that happen? What led you to use one of your spells?]
"Toru was about to kill Berserker's master, but Berserker appeared out of nowhere and struck him. Toru was left on the verge of death because of that."
[It's something that could have happened at any time. Is Assassin with you? Put me on speakerphone.]
"Yes. Sure." Sakura obeyed and activated the speaker. Toru waited with his arms crossed.
[Assassin, I want you to tell me everything you've seen.]
—Emiya family residence—
There was nothing he could think about that night. He was simply stunned by how monstrous the heroes of the past could be. Berserker was a monster... In the end, he could only remain unconscious.
Right now, he is dreaming something strange. He walked through the hallways of his house, following a strange sound coming from his bedroom doors. The sound of his feet on the wood overlapped with the noise of the doors, a noise that resembled the wind.
When he arrived, he opened his eyes in utter confusion. He was in a vast open field, a desert with gears fading into the horizon. The whole place...
"Swords...?" Shirou wondered.
The whole place was filled with swords.
Without further ado, he opened his eyes. He was in his room, lying on the floor, covered only by a white blanket. His clothes were stained with blood again, and a sharp pain throughout his body spread like a heartbeat.
He touched his head painfully and got up. He went to take a shower in the bathroom, and when he got dressed to go look for Saber, the noise from the TV in the living room caught his attention.
"Fuji-nee..." He didn't know how he was going to explain Saber's presence in the house to Fujimura.
When he arrived, he saw that Saber and Fujimura were chatting animatedly, as if nothing that had happened in this house on the first night of the war had ever happened. The truth was that he had taken care of repairing the damage with a little magecraft.
The two women looked up as he appeared. Saber looked at him as if to say that it was difficult to distract this woman, while Fujimura looked at him suspiciously.
"Good morning, Shirou. You didn't tell me that an acquaintance of Kiritsugu's was coming to visit him. Were you hiding that information from me?"
Shirou smiled nervously. He didn't know how to answer her, but luckily for him, Saber had already made up her own story. She told Fujimura that she was the daughter of one of Kiritsugu's business partners. Since Kiritsugu was someone who traveled a lot, it was normal for him to meet people. So Fujimura let it slide.
Although she was still suspicious, Saber's performance was enough for Fujimura to leave for work.
When the woman left the house, Shirou sat down in front of Saber.
"Fuji-nee is a difficult woman to deal with. I should have been the one to take care of her. I'm sorry."
Saber shook her head. "You were injured. There's nothing to apologize for. Besides... you fought very well for a novice magus. Illyasviel was powerful, but you managed to survive her."
"Haha... Surviving is an exaggeration... What about you? What happened after I passed out?"
Saber told him what had happened, and Shirou understood everything. Even though they were going to lose, Assassin's appearance was timely for everyone. Besides, Assassin seemed as strong as he was mysterious.
"Each servant has a name and a history that reflects their strengths and weaknesses, which is why a servant's name must be kept secret. And Assassin is probably someone I know. So, Shirou, I recommend that we don't fight him directly. If Assassin is who I think he is, then he's even more dangerous than Berserker."
Assassin took two lives from Berserker in a matter of seconds. He is extremely fast, the fastest among all the servants in the war. In addition, he possesses incredible strategic intelligence and information gathering abilities.
"If you say that, there's a chance that Assassin is watching us all the time."
Saber nodded. "That's right. If we want to win, we have to, at best, ally ourselves with him and his master. But in my opinion, that's impossible. Conflict is inevitable."
"Are there other reasons for you to say that?" Shirou felt that Saber wasn't telling him everything. And, as expected, she nodded.
"If Assassin turns out to be who I think he is, I wouldn't want to fight him."
"I see..." he was understanding. "I'd like to know for sure who this person you're looking for in Assassin is."
"His name was Asahi Toru. I met him in the previous war. At first he was very rude, but over time I learned a lot from him in our battles. I was very stubborn back then, but he opened my eyes. He is the person I told you I want to save."
Somehow, they both had a similar desire. They both wanted to be heroes to one person. It was their will that connected them in this war and the desire they so longed to fulfill.
Shirou felt he could understand Saber. And now that they were getting into the subject of identities, there was something Shirou always wanted to know.
"Asahi Toru... A Japanese name... I've never heard of him. Names... What is your name, Saber?"
"I'm sorry to say that, because you are an inexperienced magus, I cannot reveal my name to you. There is magecraft to enter people's minds or manipulate their actions. If someone with those abilities manages to enter your mind, I'm afraid that..."
"I could inadvertently leak that information. I understand. It makes sense. I know very little about magecraft because my father repeatedly refused to teach me and did not pass on his Magic Crest to me. Everything I learned, I learned by watching him. Gradation Air, magecraft to repair damage, and a few other things for everyday use. Although there is one thing I was able to learn directly from him. It is magecraft to survive in times of extreme danger. He told me to use it to flee, but I have already used it a couple of times to fight."
"At least he left you something to protect yourself with." Saber sensed that it was the magecraft Kirtisugu used to accelerate his body's time. She was not mistaken. "Why didn't you use it before?"
Although she already knew the answer, she wanted to hear Shirou's reasons.
"Because it hurts me a lot every time I use it in battle. My father warned me about that. It's something I should only use when all else is lost."
Saber understood the risks that power entailed. Kiritsugu could use such dangerous magic because he had Avalon with him, which healed him constantly. Now that she thought about it, noticing that Shirou always healed very quickly, she could guess why.
—At night—
Rin and Archer were patrolling tonight, discovering magical anomalies in the vicinity of the Shinto district. Entire buildings are being invaded by these magical anomalies, attacking men in particular.
They entered one of those buildings hoping to find something. And boy, did they find things.
The first thing Rin noticed was the smell of incense in the air.
"It looks like they're all men. The incense reminds me of something. It's used by witches to manipulate minds. In this case, it looks like they used it to knock everyone out," said Archer, bending down to touch one of the unconscious men with the hilt of his sword. "It must be a woman..."
"A woman who seems to hold a lot of grudges against men, apparently. Do you think it's because of a servant?"
"Most likely."
Suddenly, one of the men got up from the ground and attacked Rin. Archer reacted and cut off his head, revealing that this being had a monstrous composition. All of his skin melted away, revealing a hideous black skeleton with sharp teeth. Because of this, other men got up as their skin fell away.
"Archer!"
"I'm on it."
Archer launched himself into the attack. Rin stretched out her arm and pointed at the monsters with her hand. A powerful lightning bolt shot out, destroying two of the skeletons. Obviously, this didn't end there. About seven skeletal dogs appeared, which began to follow Rin. Archer acted immediately, grabbing Rin like a rag doll and running through the corridors.
"Wait, Archer!"
He stopped before jumping out the window. Rin aimed and fired another beam that bounced off the walls and hit all the dogs. After that, the window shattered as Archer jumped out. In a split second, he let go of Rin and took out his bow. For the remaining skeletons, he had a special arrow prepared. In that same second, he shot it and pierced the skeletons.
A thin line of light shot through the window on the opposite side until it faded into the sky.
In free fall, Archer jumped onto the wall of one of the buildings and propelled himself onto the roof of the building they had jumped from. When they landed, Rin took a deep breath. That would have been a lot of fun if they had ignored the context of the moment.
"Rin"
She followed Archer's words as he looked up at the sky. She looked up and saw some mana trails traveling across the sky toward Mount Enzou.
"If anyone has the magical knowledge and power necessary to steal mana remotely, it's surely Caster," Archer clarified.
Rin nodded. "We can't let them continue to grow stronger. It seems we not only failed to kill Rider, but we also wasted our time following the wrong servant."
"Are you saying we should now set our sights on Caster? First of all, we need information. We can't fight without knowing anything. Not again."
"I know. But if we don't fight now, then when? It seems like every second we spend talking, Caster gathers even more mana."
"And a Caster with a lot of mana is a big problem..."
"Exactly." She stood in front of Archer, facing the view of Mount Enzou. "In that case, are you okay with us going to beat Caster's face in?"
Archer let out a small laugh. Rin could say the strangest things with that confident smile. But she's Rin after all. She's always been like that. It's a relief that this is one of the things that hasn't changed...
"We were lucky not to die in our first fight, and now you want to throw yourself headfirst into another one... What a troublesome master I've ended up with..."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm troublesome and all that. Fuck you, Archer, let's go fight Caster," she said with a very friendly smile.
"To hell with it. Let's fight. And you too, fuck you, Rin."
Despite the strange way they insulted each other, the two got along quite well. Maybe tonight wouldn't be enough to get to the bottom of the case, but together they could achieve incredible things. And that's what they were going to do.
—At the Ryuudou Temple on Mount Enzou—
All the mana arrived at the temple. The powerful barrier that protects it has ensured that no one interferes with its mana collection. Until now, it remained passive while preparing.
Her master was once Atrum Galliasta, but he is now dead. And now she alone controls her own destiny as a powerful witch.
She smiled under her cloak as she savored such perfect mana.
The witch hunt begins...