Kiritsugu Emiya was not an emotional man. He had seen and done so much that he doubted he could feel anything with the exception of despair.
Yet when he knelt down to give Illya a goodbye hug while he went on his "business trip" as Irisveil had put it he couldn't help but feel some fatherly satisfaction when she said goodbye. As he left the mansion and walked to the car he glanced back at the window to Irisveils room to see a pair of green eyes watching him neutrally. He focused back on his mission and what he would have to do to complete it. He got into the car, turned the key in the ignition, and drove off under the trees to the airport where he would then fly to Fuyuki, Japan. Maya had already been there for several months and had been keeping him appraised of the developments. Everything from the Former Matou Heir rejoining the Moonlit world to the day to day movements of Tohsaka senior.
Everything had been cataloged, referenced, and had photo evidence sent with it. Kiritsugu frowned as he turned onto the road making sure to drive carefully and deliberately. He knew that there was at least one more Master unaccounted for but felt confident in his ability to kill them regardless of who they were. He turned onto the main highway and accelerated into the thickest part of traffic eventually slowing to a stop. He glanced at his right hand and the fake command seals that had been etched onto the back of his hand and his frown deepened. That had been a twist for both him and the Einzberns.
That Irisveil had been the one to get command seals and not him.
He idly rubbed the fake seals as they still itched slightly from the tattooing process. They were magically linked to Irisveils command seals so that if she ever used one the corresponding seal on his hand would disappear as well. Sadly in order to do this they had to take a small amount of tissue from the skin where the command seals were on her hand and then that tissue sample had to be turned into a liquid that was then tattooed onto the back of his hand. It had been painful even beyond getting a normal tattoo due to the fact that they were partially implanting a command seal into his body. The fact all it did was itch every so often the Einzbern patriarch called a miracle in and of itself.
Which lead to the next issue: Saber.
The fact that "he" was actually a woman was enough cause for consternation but then there was Sabers attitude towards him. She obviously preferred to be around Irisveil which worked well with their current plan but the King of Knights was more...callous towards him than he would have thought she would be. It was as though there were two kings in one body. One being kind, chivalrous and righteous while the other was calculating, almost emotionless, and almost...inhuman.
He chuckled darkly as not for the first time he saw who he was prior to marrying into the Einzberns in that second half of the King of Knights. The cars ahead of Kiritsugu accelerated and he gently pressed on the gas as he glanced at the clock seeing that he had well over three hours before he had to be at the gate for his flight. Eventually he slowed to a stop again and let his thoughts wander as he knew he was mostly safe in the middle of all this traffic. He took his right hand off the steering wheel and reached into the shoulder holster under his jacket to wrap his hand around the grip of one of the pistols he carried at all times.
No the main issue was that Irisveil was...too kind and the worry was that she wouldn't have the heart to order Saber to do anything the servant wouldn't want to do or refused to do. He knew she would listen to him if it came to that but there was something about this entire war that made his finely honed sense of danger prickle slightly. The cars ahead of him accelerated again and it seemed traffic was finally moving for real as Kiritsugu began to navigate his way through the cars to get to the Berlin International Airport.
About an hour later he had parked the car and was slowly working his way through customs. He cast an obfuscation spell on his hand guns as he went through customs and soon was sitting at the gate for his flight right in the middle of everyone else. He looked around both with his normal vision and mana sense and found nothing of note beyond a couple of people both of which had an amount of mana that signaled a magus. He briefly thought about conjuring a familiar to see who it was but decided against it opting to remain as he was. If it came down to it he knew he could take two mages even if it was in the confinement of an airplane.
Leaning his head back he closed his eyes and rested a bit as he waited for the conductor to announce the plane was boarding. A while later after getting his ticket scanned he was in the throng of people boarding the plane and found his seat soon after. The Einzberns had gotten him a first class seat which he had tried to argue against but had eventually relented at Irisveils insistence. As he sat down he felt something prick his sixth sense and he looked up in time to see a young man with sandy blonde hair and grey eyes enter onto the plane. He frowned and examined the man out of the corner of his eye as a-
Kiritsugu blinked and had to resist looking more openly as a woman with golden eyes and ash white hair followed the man yawning as she did so. Her face had stress lines under her eyes but aside from that it was almost a mirror match for Sabers. As they got closer Kiritsugu weighed his options. He didn't know if the man was a master or not but he knew that both of them were Mages.
On the same flight as him.
Which was a one way trip to Tokyo International Airport.
He could preemptively strike the mage down but then he wouldn't be able to stay on the plane.
As he continued to think about it the man and the woman were about to pass him when the man looked him in the eyes and his grey eyes briefly flashed a prismatic purple. It was so fast that Kiritsugu didn't even have time to react. The man smiled at him, winked, and continued walking past him as though nothing had happened. He resisted turning his head to watch them go past as they entered into the section behind first class. Not long after the plane was in the air and the seat-belt sign had darkened. Quickly Kiritsugu conjured a familiar and sent it to the section behind his with the normal instructions. As he waited, tapping his foot, the familiar pinged him four times which made his heart almost stop.
Four times meant that whatever was behind him could kill him outright before he had the chance to even fight back.
He felt a bead of sweat drip down his back as he leaned back into the seat pretending to go to sleep but instead linked his eyesight with his familiars. He "opened" his eyes and was briefly disoriented as his sight was upside down. Quickly orienting himself he moved the familiar to examine the cabin and eventually found the man and the woman. He moved the familiar over to them slowly and eventually caught their conversation which was in french. He frowned as he caught the tail end of the conversation which he mentally translated into his native language,
"….'ve been pestering me for the past three days and on the entire time we were on the connecting flight to Berlin. Yes I'm sure no one noticed. Have some more faith in the mystic code you created." The woman was saying in an annoyed tone.
"Yeah except I've been putting out more mana than normal as a smokescreen to cover for you Lancer-" the man was saying as Kiritsugu moved the familiar closer to get a better look at who he now knew was a Master and Servant. He quickly went through the dossier on the participating Masters and felt ice in his veins as he realized he slipped up. He had nothing on this man. He tuned back into their conversation,
"...oing to sleep for a bit. Wake me if anything happens."
Kiritsugu watched as the woman reached into her carry on and pulled out a sleep mask. She put it on and tilted her seat back. As she did this the man shook his head slightly and then looked up and directly into the familiars eyes. The man raised his eyebrows, smirked, and stood up jerking his head to the back of the plane.
Towards the cargo hold.
Clearly he wants me to follow him. Good. I can take out one of the masters already.
While clearly this individual had the skills to summon a servant he also clearly thought he would be able to take whoever was operating the familiar. Kiritsugu disconnected from the familiar and stood up navigating his way to the cargo bay where he stopped in front of the door. He scanned it and saw that the only magecraft that had been put on it was a simple spell to unlock it. He braced himself ready to attack and yanked open the door stepping to the side so his back was against the bulkhead and his hand already his pistol.
The man was sitting on a stack of suitcases two meters tall, floating what looked like a ball bearing inbetween his fingers. His eyes widened and briefly flashed purple again as Kiritsugu began to pull his pistol from the holster
The man held up his other hand, crossed his fingers, and invoked a spell for neutrality. Kiritsugu felt his killing intent fade a little as the man hopped off the stack of suitcases and fell down to the floor abnormally slowly. Kiritsugu shook off the spell and pulled his gun from its holster aiming it at the man only for the sound of cicadas to echo around the hold for a split second before the pistol was suddenly blown out of his hands as the barrel was shoved into the back of the gun at an angle. Not missing a beat he reached for his other pistol right as the man snapped his fingers.
Kiritsugu felt a wave of static electricity pass over him and heard the various devices he had on him pop as they were fried. He pulled out his other pistol and tried to fire only to realize that that same wave had magnetized the pistol rendering it unusable.
"...Electromagnetism."
The man nodded and spoke in flawless but french accented english,
"I was hoping to avoid fighting you to begin with and while I am sure you can take me in hand to hand combat I urge you to calm down and listen to me before either of us make rash decisions."
"If I can take out one of the masters early I should do so." Kiritsugu said as he vaulted over the railing to land in the cargo bay and settled into a fighting stance. He much rather preferred guns but he knew he could take one kid.
"Do you need help Micheal?" Came the womans voice from behind him.
Kiritsugu turned his head ever so slightly to see that the woman was leaning forwards onto the rail wearing a grin that could only be described as evil. She saw him looking at her and blew him a kiss as her grin widened.
He had no idea a human face could look like that.
"No, I think we're fine Lancer. You can go back to sleep."
"...alright. I'm going to order some food using your money."
The woman lazily waved as she left the cargo bay pulling the door closed behind her,
"Thats fine. We won't be fighting on a plane will we monsieur….?"
"I don't see the point of giving you my name 'Micheal'. Assuming that is your real name."
'Micheal' shrugged and said something in French that Kiritsugu understood to be "Well, I tried."
"Look. I don't want to fight you now. Given that you brought a gun onto the plane as well as the feeling I'm getting from you, both tell me that you'd have no issue taking out the entire plane with everyone on it to kill me and my servant. However monsieur…"
The man grinned almost as evilly as the woman,
"Where will that leave your wife and child?"
Kiritsugu froze. How did he know about Irisveil and Illya….he glanced at his right hand and saw the wedding band. He put two and two together and sighed, getting out of his stance.
"Willing to talk now are we?"
"Speak magus."
"I promise and give you my word that I will not interfere with you or anyone associated with you until the first blow of the grail war has been struck. I even have a geass I'm willing to sign should you need to be further convinced."
"I don't trust you. Let me see this geass."
"I see we're not completely stupid then."
The man reached into his coat but held up a finger as Kiritsugu felt his combat sense kick in. He pulled out a rolled piece of parchment and tossed it to him. Kiritsugu caught it, opened it, and read it.
It stated everything that the man had promised. He wouldn't try to interfere, scout, or do anything-beneficial or harmful- to him or anyone associated with him until the first blow of the war had been struck. There was an addendum stating that if Kiritsugu made any motion with intent to harm or threaten the man and/or strike him, his servant, or any one related to him before the first blow then the geass would be rendered void.
He looked down and saw the blank for where the mans signature would be. He nodded and tossed the geass back for the man to sign. He did so and tossed it back. Kiritsugu caught it easily and read the signature.
Micheal Lafaire.
"Fine." Kiritsugu scanned the geass with several different spells and found out that it was legitimate. He sighed, rolled the parchment up, and tucked into a pocket before glaring at Micheal who just smiled and shrugged a bit.
"..Fine. As soon as the first blow is struck."
"Oui, merci. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go stop my servant from eating all the food on the plane." He walked past Kiritsugu, clearly unthreatened, with his hands in his pockets and left the cargo bay. Kiritsugu sighed, walked over, and picked up his ruined pistol looking at it carefully. He disassembled it as much as he could and found something he wasn't expecting lodged in the back of the barrel.
A ball bearing.
When-
Kiritsugu froze as realization hit him like a bucket of ice water. He pulled out the Geass and reread it. He grimaced as he felt the spectre of death walk away from him once again.
"...'His word' huh?"
It had been a while since he had had an enemy like this as he realized he had been allowed to live another day. He briefly wondered which of the two were the one the familiar said could kill him. Shaking his head he sighed, reassembled the pistol, and reholstered it before leaving the cargo bay. On his way back to his seat he glanced to his left and saw Micheal Lafaire trying his best to get what was apparently his food back from his servant who looked smug having stolen his meal from him. Kiritsugu shook his head a bit as he walked back to his seat,
Similar Face, Same ravenous appetite I suppose.
He got back to his seat and remembered to dispel the familiar before waving down a flight attendant to get something to eat before that servant ate all the food on the plane.
######
-Micheals PoV-
Tokyo was, in a single word, intense. When the plane landed he expected to see the man who had attempted to attack him but he had already gotten off and Micheal couldn't find or sense him. After he and Jeanne had gotten off the plane and into the airport proper they quickly pulled out the guides that Amelia had given them and compared notes. The difference couldn't be more plain. Micheals was very by the book. Go here, give person A this, go there and give person B that, etc.
Jeannes was more of a tourist guide centered around going on what Micheal was convinced were date locations more than anything else as while it had the same instructions it also had a list of places to "go with Micheal to" that extended to the bottom of and around the back of the paper. As Jeanne read her way through the list Micheal noticed her face getting more and more red before she let out a shaky breath, shook her head forcefully, and folded the paper putting it back in her bag before informing him that from now on they'd be using his set of notes. As they finally got their visitors visas stamped and entered Japan properly Jeanne tugged on Micheals sleeve and pointed at a bunch of people holding signs in various languages but one sign caught his eye more than others. He grinned and shook his head as he made his way over to Desmond who was holding a sign that read in french, "To the victor".
~~~
"I see the plane ride was mostly uneventful." Desmond stated as he took their bags leading them down and into the subway station below the airport that doubled as a parking garage,
"The house is fully upgraded, All the bills have been paid for in advance, and the workshop has been restocked completely." He led them to a matte black car, pulled out a keyfob, and pressed a button unlocking it. He then walked to the rear doors and held them open for them. Jeanne nodded and got in first while Micheal followed soon after. Desmond shut the door and got into the drivers seat, lowering the partition as he did so. The car roared to life and they left the parking garage. Micheal stared out of the window in awe as the car drove through downtown Tokyo.
"Is that- Were those maids?" Jeanne asked incredulously. Desmond looked into the rearview mirror and chuckled,
"Yes and if you're smart Jeanne you'll keep Micheal far away from them." was all Desmond said as they merged into the turn lane to get onto the highway. Micheal glanced at Jeanne and caught sight of her reddened face right before she stared resolutely out of her window. Soon after they were on the highway and Micheal felt a bounded field kick in as he saw Desmond glance in the rearview mirror,
"Alright time to brief the two of you on whats been happening in Fuyuki. So far I've confirmed that five Servants have been summoned within the city itself which means that there are two left unaccounted for barring you Jeanne. After checking the area around the leylines I've found the spots where the summons occurred. I've marked all this on a maps that I've put in the back of the seats."
Micheal reached in the back of the seat and felt around finding several pieces of paper and what felt like a book. He pulled all of it out and looked at them in turn. One of them listed the types of bounded fields around the house as well as instructions on how to key in specific people and/or servants. Another piece of paper seemed to be a citizenship certification complete with an ID card while the book seemed to be a grimoire of some kind. He looked over and saw that Jeanne had pulled out a similar collection of documents but no grimiore. He held up the book and Desmond nodded,
"I'll get to that in a minute. The folded up piece of paper is the most recent governmental map of the city of Fuyuki. You'll notice that I circled specific spots on it," Micheal found the specific piece of folded paper and opened the map listening in as Desmond recounted what had happened since he had left to go back to Fuyuki five or so months prior. Micheal grimaced at Desmonds description of the level of bureaucratic nonsense required to recertify the house. He looked back down at the map as Desmond continued,
"The spots I've circled in red are the houses for the various mage families within Fuyuki itself. Each house is over a leyline so if you need to storm it for whatever reason be prepared."
"Why would we need to storm house?" Jeanne asked curiously as Desmond paused to take a breath
"Because I'd put good odds on one of them-the Matous specifically-, pissing off both of you enough that you'll want to take them out purely on principle."
Jeanne nodded and Desmond continued, "You'll notice that there's a third spot circled in red. Thats the temple. A leyline also runs under it but its also staffed almost 24/7, 365 by the monks that live there. I wouldn't try to interact with them unless you absolutely have to. Speaking of religious sites look at the blue circle and make a mental note of where it is. Thats the church where the elder oversees the Grail war."
Jeanne narrowed her eyes at this and pinched the map harder crumpling it slightly. Micheal didn't respond much better but kept his mouth shut. Jeanne then looked up from her map, "Is it the same man as the one from the previous war?"
Desmond glanced in the mirror again and nodded silently. Micheal looked between the two of them and wondered what just happened. He shook his head and looked at the map again noticing a green circle in one of the residential districts
"The green circle is-"
"The house. Yes. You have the key to it don't you?"
"I have both of them." Micheal said pulling out one of them from his pocket, "How long have you had this house anyway? Wouldn't the locks have been changed by now?"
Desmond was silent for a while and eventually answered, "What has Amelia told you about me?"
"Only that you fought in the 3rd Grail War and got a house out of it."
Desmond chuckled at this but eventually quieted down and was silent for a bit, "Yeah that is how she would put it. Alright Micheal, listen up…"
Micheal listened intently as Desmond described his experience in the 3rd Grail War while they continued to drive on the highway to Fuyuki. Eventually the car fell into silence for several kilometers before Micheal felt he could speak, "These...injuries from Avenger. Not even Mom could heal them?"
"They are divine level curses barely kept under control by whats left of my servant. There's nothing a human could do. Servant, Magus or otherwise." Desmond sighed as Micheal saw him glance back at him in the mirror, "Micheal. What you are about to go into is literally hell on earth. You're going to see things that you couldn't imagine in your worst nightmares. Things worse than what you saw happen to Arnehearte. You still have the opportunity to go back and avoid all this."
Micheal glanced over at Jeanne who flicked her eyes to him and then stared out of the window. He smiled and looked back at Desmond through the mirror, "I have my wish and I'm going to see it completed."
"...Alright then. When we get to the house let me give you something of mine that I've kept there. It'll need to be cleaned but it should serve you well. We're almost within the outer limits of Fuyuki so be prepared."
Micheal nodded, shelving his curiosity about what Desmond was talking about and looking back out of the window.
0 Months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 17 hours, 02 minutes until the Grail War