Chapter 1: Difficulty Understanding
This is...inconvenient. This was the thought at the foremost of the mind of Aaron Styx as he stared down at the unusual creature standing in the center of the summoning circle. He directed a glare down at the silent corpse of Uryu Ryunosuke. Even when he's already dead, this trash seems to screw everything up. Aaron wasn't disappointed in the Servant that had been summoned. That wasn't a problem yet. After all, he didn't yet have a definitive understanding of his Servant's capabilities. No, what really upset Aaron was that something had been summoned at all. Was the Grail truly so desperate for placeholders that it picked me?
To say that the magus was reluctant to participate in the Holy Grail War was an understatement. Aaron hadn't come to Fuyuki City with the intention of participating at all. Rather, all he desired was to observe. That was all he ever desired. Even before he had finished his studies in the Clock Tower, Aaron had earned something of a reputation. Ultimately, he was a natural observer. Even before he graduated, Aaron had earned himself the moniker, the Witness. Some went as far as to accuse him of being a voyeur, but Aaron cared little for such things. Ultimately, all he had wanted to do when he came to Fuyuki was to watch.
What could have been more exciting? This was the Holy Grail War, where competing magi summoned Heroic Spirits as familiars, their identities drawn from the annals of myth and legend to compete against one another in an epic battle. It was an event the only occurred once every sixty years and Aaron counted himself blessed to have an opportunity to see the epic contest with his own eyes. Hours had been spent researching the history of the Grail War, learning about its nuances. He had even gone so far as to carefully gather information on the various Masters, the seven magi that would be competing for the privilege of wishing upon the sacred chalice.
Of the Three Families of the Beginning, the most obvious participant had been Tohsaka Tokiomi, waging battle for the name of his family. An accomplished magus, Tokiomi's intimate knowledge of the workings of the Grail War along with his own substantial talents marked him as a formidable competitor with an excellent chance of victory. Then there were the Mato's, the fallen ones among the three families. Having originally come from foreign-born stock, their bloodline had withered almost to nothing, a problem compounded when the first child naturally capable of magecraft to actually have been born in the family for many years had abruptly abandoned them. But for some unknown reason, Mato Kariya, the prodigal son, had returned and was also preparing for the battle. Finally, there were the Einzberns, the mysterious mages of the North. Aaron had managed to discern little about their plans for participation until he heard whispered rumors that the Einzberns had recruited a most formidable agent to serve their interests; Emiya Kiritsugu, a man whose name was whispered amongst the members of the Mages Association with equal parts fear and contempt, the Mage Slayer.
Among the others participating, the most notable name to pop up had been that of Kayneth Archibald, known as Lord El-Melloi among the magi; the ninth head of the Archibald house and a prodigy regarded as the most accomplished among the magi participating. Among the other participants, the only other standout had been the man known as Kotomine Kirei, a former Executor for the Church who had cut his ties with it in order to study magecraft under Tohsaka Tokiomi, only to abandon him as well once the Command Seals that marked Kirei's position as a Master had appeared.
Of the remaining two participants, Aaron had found little. He had heard some rumors that an apprentice at the Association had actually been as bold as to steal the catalyst that Lord El-Melloi had originally planned to use for his summoning. But Aaron wondered if a mere apprentice would be so bold as to actually step onto the battlefield himself. As for the seventh...that was the problem, now wasn't it?
Looking back on it, Aaron reflected that he had been lucky to learn the identity of the seventh Master. It had only been through sheer coincidence that he had learned about Fuyuki's infamous serial killer while watching the news in an idle moment, news that had shown the killer's early attempts at creating a summoning circle for calling a Servant. Realizing who he was looking for, it had taken a a magus with Aaron's skill set virtually no time at all to divine the location of the soon-to-be Master.
One could easily imagine Aaron's disgust upon learning that Uryu Ryunosuke was to be the final participant. The piece of filth wasn't even a magus. Worse still, as Aaron soon discovered, the trash wasn't even aware of the Grail War itself but rather thought that he had been summoning some kind of demon. The fact that he was doing so merely for his own amusement was what ultimately drove Aaron to action, not wanting to watch such a sacred and magnificent event be sullied by such filth. Aaron Styx didn't want to watch such a disgraceful competitor.
And yet, here he was, now having been dragged into the very conflict he had been so intent on observing. Aaron could say that such a notion did not sit well with him at all. Right now, the purple unicorn was staring back at him, her expression remaining innocently confused after his brief words earlier. For a moment longer, the two of them continued to stare at each other.
"So, um..." said the unicorn in a soft voice, "What are you?"
Aaron tilted his head slightly. "A human. Were you expecting something different?"
The unicorn frowned at his words. "A human? I have no idea what that means. Is that your species?"
Unable to think of a more appropriate response, Aaron nodded. "Yes. That is correct. But I thought you would know that already." An uneasy feeling rose in his gut, which was impressive as he was feeling plenty uneasy already. "Are you not a Heroic Spirit answering the summons to do battle for the Holy Grail?"
The diminutive equine seemed to mull over his question for a moment before Aaron's words struck a chord in her (and Aaron wasn't entirely sure how he knew the creature was female) mind. She looked confused, as though she were wrestling with unfamiliar concepts and ideas.
"Yes, I think so...but I don't understand why. I was at home performing an experiment then suddenly I was here. I have all these strange things in my head...things I didn't know before, but somehow know now. Only, I still don't understand what they mean."
That information made Aaron take a step back. That couldn't be right. "Are you saying that you were alive before you were called here?"
The unicorn actually had the audacity to glare at him. "Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"
Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on. From the moment he had laid eyes on the little pony, he had realized that what he had managed to summon was not a typical Servant, as evinced by the fact she wasn't even human. But this was just too much. This was completely outside the boundaries of what he knew the Holy Grail, which provided the means to actually summon Servants in the first place, should have been capable of.
"Then we have a problem," he said simply. A soft sound behind him prompted Aaron to notice the child, still in the room and still staring at the whole situation, even more lost than the other two "people" in the room. "Oh, there's that too."
"What?" asked the unicorn, taking a hesitant step away from where she stood, bringing her around the barrier afforded by the back of the couch and giving her a clear view of the room. She clearly found what she saw unpleasant.
Twilight gagged and fought back the urge to vomit at what she saw when she came around the back of the couch. There were five other humans in the room, but only one of them was still standing. And from the unnatural stillness and what was clearly blood leaking out of the others, the other four were obviously dead. Worse still, Twilight realized that she had nearly tread on one of the corpses as she came around. Looking down, she found herself gazing into the unseeing eyes of the corpse right in front of her, a human with a more slender build and smoother features than the one she had been talking to, to say nothing of his bright red hair. Twilight couldn't fight back that urge anymore and looked over, spotting a conveniently placed potted plant she could reach before unloading the, thankfully small in quantity, contents of her stomach (previous experiments with teleportation having taught her that attempting anything new or different with a full stomach was ill advised).
"Hmm, I didn't think equines were supposed to do that," came the disinterested voice of the human she had been speaking to.
Shaking, Twilight lifted her head and backed away from the human, seeing him in a new light now. "D-did you do this?" she asked, not entirely sure what she would do if his answer was yes.
"Not these three," replied the human, sweeping his arms to indicate the three corpses seated in the room, "They were the work of this trash." Looking down, he directed a contemptuous kick at the red-haired corpse. "However, I did do for this one." Twilight saw the handle of what she recognized as a knife sticking from the man's ribs.
Seeing her confusion and wariness, the man simply shook his head. "We will discuss this in more detail in a moment. First..." He turned his attention to the sole other living person in the room. Twilight's eyes widened when she saw how much smaller the other human was. He was short enough to look her in the eyes. The proportioning of his limbs suggested that he was immature. This then, must have been a human foal.
The tall one, the one she had been speaking to at this time, knelt down in front of the child and looked him in the eyes. The boy met his stare for a brief moment before his eyes slowly glazed over. The next instant, the child toppled over and sprawled limply across the floor. Seeing the human foal's stillness, Twilit directed a furious glare at the tall one, just wondering what he was up to.
"What did you just do?" she demanded.
"I wiped his memory of the past few hours just to be on the safe side. I can't afford to allow him to speak of what he saw here. With any luck, the authorities will attribute the gap in memory to trauma from seeing his family slaughtered in front of him."
A shiver went down Twilight's spine. She couldn't believe the flat, casual manner in which the man had related the child's experiences. The tone was completely devoid of sympathy. "How could you?"
The man looked at her once again, something unrecognizable in his gaze. "He can't be allowed to talk about what he saw tonight. The secrecy of the Grail War and magecraft itself is one of the most strictly enforced edicts of the Association. If the boy remembered and started talking, they wouldn't allow him to live for much longer. And as the one who allowed him to witness this, my life would be forfeit as well. If anything, I'm being merciful. Most other magi would have killed the boy on the spot. It would be simplest arrange and tie everything up quite neatly."
Twilight gulped nervously. Just what in Celestia's name have I gotten myself into?
The man continued on without regard for her reaction. "In any case, I'm going to summon the authorities in a moment. We should continue this conversation in a better location. You should dematerialize and follow me."
Twilight blinked for a moment. She didn't understand what the man said, but suddenly realized that whatever it was he had asked, she couldn't do. "I...can't."
The man turned his gaze back on her. "You can't enter spirit form."
Twilight shook her head gently. "I-I'm not even sure what that means. I just know that I can't."
He closed his eyes, clearly trying to think. "That's problematic. We can't let other people see you...let me see. First, what class are you?"
The answer came out of her mouth before she realized it. "Caster."
The human's eyes snapped open and stared straight at her own. "You're a magus?"
Twilight thought this over for a moment, trying to process the foreign information in her brain. "Yes...I think."
"I see," said the man, leaning back and folding his arms, "That may make things easier. "Do you know a spell for invisibility."
Finally, a question she could answer for herself. "Of course," she replied, a hint of haughtiness creeping into her voice.
"Then you'll want to use it," said the man, smiling with an expression that looked like relief to the unicorn, "You'll follow just behind me. Keep close and mind your position and the position of others. It's late at night, but our destination is in a section of the city where it tends to be crowded, even at this hour."
"Okay," said Twilight uncertainly.
"Wait for me by the front door," said the man, pointing to a door that led into the hallway, "I'll be with you momentarily."
Twilight lifted a foot to follow his instructions. "Wait." She paused at his voice. "Before we go any further, we should exchange names. What is yours?"
Twilight looked up at him, not sure of how she felt at this moment. "Twilight Sparkle."
For the first time, a smile played across the human's face. "That's...fitting. I am Aaron Styx."
Aaron was fortunate that they did not have far to travel to reach his current residence. While the two companions had been forced to travel away from Miyama, Fuyuki's suburban district, the section of the Shinto district where Aarong was staying was not very far away. As they traveled, Aaron was mindful of his Servant's presence. When they finally entered Shinto, he navigated carefully to avoid large crowds to keep Caster from being tripped over. Even with her invisibility spell, it wasn't difficult for Aaron's finely honed senses to pinpoint her location and guide his steps accordingly. Much to his relief, they made it to their destination, the lobby of a small hotel, without incident.
Moving carefully, Aaron walked through the sparsely populated lobby, grateful that the soft carpet prevented the unicorn's hooffalls from echoing through the evening stillness. A short elevator ride later and The two of them arrived at Aaron's room. While he would have liked to have been higher up, the seventh story was as high as this hotel could go. It was unfortunate, but Aaron knew better than to attract attention by purchasing a room in one of the taller, more expensive hotels in Fuyuki's urban district. He might have been mistaken for a participant, rather than a mere observer. It was ironic then, that his precautions were serving him doubly well now that he actually was a participant in the Holy Grail War.
Closing and latching the door behind him, Aaron turned his attention to the pony, still concealed by her spell, standing in the middle of his room. "You can drop the spell now. We won't be disturbed. Though if anyone comes in, you had best have it ready to cast on short notice."
The air shimmered to reveal the unicorn, who immediately trotted to the window that dominated one side of the room. Being someone who spent his life watching others, Aaron had naturally picked a hotel with large windows in its rooms. Perhaps it was foolish to occupy a space that was so open to the outside, but Aaron's aesthetics overrode his pragmatism in some areas. Even so, it may not be wise to stay here much longer.
Resting his hand on the window, Aaron closed his eyes and activated a single magic circuit. The simple spell altered the window to give a static image of the empty hotel room to anyone who might look in from the outside. It was best that a random passerby didn't suddenly spot a small, purple unicorn staring out of the window.
Their privacy ensured, Aaron turned his mind to the problem at hand as he looked over at his Servant. Now that the opportunity, he decided to check her status and parameters. This was a feature available to the Masters who participated in the Grail War. A Master, looking at a Servant would be granted knowledge of that Servant's basic abilities. For their own Servant, Masters could generally get a more in depth idea of what their Servant was capable of.
Analyzing Caster's parameters, Aaron found himself impressed. For a magus-type Servant, some of Twilight Sparkle's parameters were impressive, not at all what he expected from a Caster. Her physical abilities were unusually high for a member of the Caster class, with her agility, at least, actually close to being on par with members of one of the three Knight Classes. Most shocking was the immense prana she had available to her, an amount that was clearly leagues above the magi of the present world.
"Now then," said Aaron, moving to a nearby chair and reclining gratefully, "Why don't we iron out some of the issues that we have."
The human world was amazing. Walking down the streets, Twilight Sparkle had seen strange vehicles completely different from the carts and carriages of Equestria, buildings that rose higher than Canterlot's mightiest tower. Even though, according to Aaron, the crowds were sparse due to the late hour, Twilight knew that she was unlikely to see such crowds during the day back home in Equestria, even its busiest cities. Even at night, the streets were lit so brightly that it might as well have been day out. From her new vantage point afforded by the hotel room, she could see the site around her glittering like the starry sky. Looking up, she found herself frowning. The lights on the street were so intense that she couldn't make out any but the brightest stars in the night sky. Clearly the human world had its own problems.
She found herself turning to look at Aaron, at the sound of his voice. As she did so, she took her first proper look at the hotel room. The furnishings weren't exactly luxurious. There was a single bed with a blanket and sheets. In one corner, there was a large chair (Twilight wasn't sure how she recognized that piece) that allowed the one sitting in it to lean back, extending a footrest as it did so, which Aaron was currently resting in. There was a desk with a considerably less comfortable looking chair in front of it. On top the chest that dominated the side of the room opposite the bed was a black box that Twilight identified as a television (again, uncertain as to how she knew that). There was also a large mirror along one wall. Strangely enough, hanging in front of the mirror was a wind chime consisting of several crystalline pieces of glass suspended from a crossbar suspended in the ceiling. She suspected that Aaron was responsible for this amenity; it clearly being out of place in the room.
"I'm still fuzzy about what's going on," said Twilight softly, "I mean I know, or I feel that I should know, bit I don't understand much of it."
Aaron cupped his chin and stared at her. "Perhaps you should tell me where you're from."
Twilight blinked, not sure what he was getting at, but acquiesced to his request. "Like I said before, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I'm a unicorn from the land of Equestria..." Over the next few minutes, she gave Aaron a basic description of her homeland and its residents.
Aaron listened carefully as she explained about the three tribes and the Princesses, asking questions where he needed clarification. Finally, he nodded. "Interesting," he said, "I believe that I have a better understanding of the situation now."
"What do you mean?" Twilight tilted her head in confusion.
"Essentially you have not merely been displaced in your world or from some place in my world. The world you described clearly acts according to a set of fundamentally different laws than this one, indicating that you hail from a separate world, or parallel dimension as the case may be, altogether. This answers a few of my questions but introduces several problems."
"Like what?" asked Twilight.
"I'll start at the beginning. You have been summoned to take part in a contest known as the Holy Grail War. In this contest, seven magi, who assume the position referred to as Master, utilize the means provided by the Grail itself to summon forth a Servant, a Heroic Spirit venerated by humanity through myth and legend. These spirits are the heroes of ages past, their legends preserving their existences in a place beyond the mortal plane known as the Throne of Heroes.
"Every sixty years, the Grail allows for the Masters to call these Servants down. While the Grail itself does the summoning, it is the Master who supplies the prana to give the Servant a form and body for what is otherwise a shapeless spirit. Because, by the laws of the world, such bodies are phantasms, which must be maintained via the supply of the Master's prana to ensure that the world's laws do not erase them from existence."
Twilight listened to his words, finding that she was beginning to make sense of the foreign information in her head. "I think I see. But I'm not one of these Heroic Spirits you talk about."
Aaron nodded. "Which brings us to our first set of problems. You are an anomaly to be sure, something that should not have been summoned by the Grail and yet, here you are. For example, you've already noticed that you are in possession of knowledge that is not your own; things you know but don't fully understand. When Servants are summoned, the Holy Grail supplies them with all the pertinent knowledge of the era in which they are summoned. This way, heroes from the more primitive eras of human history (which is more or less where they all hail from, come to think of it), don't find themselves completely overwhelmed by the present world. The fact that you are an anomaly means that while the Grail has clearly given you the knowledge it has every other Servant, most likely, your nonhuman perspective and understanding of the world means that this knowledge is difficult for you to understand and process.
"The other problem is that, since you are not a spiritual being, you were called here with a purely physical form, not a vessel fashioned from my prana. In fact, I was surprised to note that you are not drawing any prana from me to maintain your presence in this world."
"Of course not," snapped Twilight, "Why would I want to stay here? Not that the human world is bad or anything, but I don't belong here."
Again Aaron nodded. "Which brings us to the primary problem. How to get you back to your world. I'm assuming, of course, that you will wish to return in one piece and with as little harm as possible."
"Of course," muttered Twilight, glowering at him.
"The way I see it, there are three ways you could conceivably return to your home. However, they have different degrees of risk attributed to them. I'll start with the easiest, which also happens to be the riskiest and go from there."
He held up one finger. "Your first option is to die."
"What?" The casual tone with which the magus suggested this idea made Twilight's mane stand on end. She backed away slightly.
Aaron continued as though she hadn't said a word. "When a Servant dies, his or her existence is erased from the world and is stored in the Holy Grail to power it's activation. Once the Grail has served its purpose, the Heroic Spirits contained within are returned to their place of origin.
"The obvious problem with this method is that you are not a Heroic Spirit. There is absolutely no guarantee that you would receive the same treatment. At best, I suspect that you might very well reach your own world in the state in which you left this one, which would defeat the purpose of killing you to send you back."
Twilight's knees felt weak.
"Our second option is to use these..." Aaron held up his right hand to display the markings etched along its back.
"The Command Seals," said Twilight, recognizing them in spite of herself, "You can issue an absolute command with them, right? How does that help?"
Aaron smiled. "Yes, the Command Seals can be used to issue absolute orders to a Servant. In other words, if I told you to do something, as long as I used a Command Seal, you would be unable to disobey me even if the act in question was completely against your nature."
A lump caught in her throat.
"However, that's only in the Command Seal's capacity to force a Servant to obey their Master. A Master only receives three Command Seals from the Grail and must use one for each command, which makes wasting them on such things a poor idea.
"The true potential of a Command Seal lies in their ability to reinforce the action of a Servant, even if that action would normally be impossible for the Servant in question. Furthermore, the effects of multiple seals can be stacked to produce a greater effect."
"So if you used all three of those Command Seals," said Twilight softly, "You could order me to return home and they would provide me with the means to do so."
"Perhaps," answered Aaron, "But that would depend on your full capabilities, and mine. We do not know the exact circumstances of how you came to be summoned. From what you told me, what you experienced should have been truly impossible except for the appropriate practitioner of what we in this world refer to as True Magic, of which, to my knowledge, there is only one. Even with their fullest power, the Command Seals do not allow a Servant to accomplish the truly impossible unless that was already within the scope of their abilities."
"So basically you're saying that it's a gamble as to whether those Command Seals would work or not," summarized Twilight.
"And if I used all three of them, it would end our only chance of sending you to your home through this option. Furthermore, it would nullify the contract established between us upon your summoning, the consequences of which I couldn't even begin to predict."
Twilight sighed and lowered her head. "Well, that leaves out the easy ways. Although I guess we can always try gambling on that last one if worst comes to worst. So, what's the third way."
Aaron slowly leaned forward, coming out of his recline so that he rested his elbows on his knees, lowering his chin onto this clasped hands. "The third way is unquestionably the most difficult of our options. But it is also the one with the highest probability of success."
"And that is...?"
"We must enter the Grail War in earnest, defeat the other competitors and seize the Holy Grail for ourselves. Then the Grail can be used to fulfill your wish of returning home."
Aaron carefully gauged Caster's reaction as she processed the information he had just given her. From the confusion of her expression, it was clear she didn't fully understand what participating in the Grail War truly meant. He found himself suppressing the urge to chuckle in amusement. She would get her chance to see soon, he was sure.
"What is this Holy Grail thing about anyway?" asked Caster after a moment.
"The Holy Grail was created by three families of magi working together. Simply put, it is a miracle machine, capable of granting the wish of whoever successfully obtains it."
Caster raised an eyebrow. "What kind of wish?"
Aaron shrugged. "Well that depends on the one making the wish."
Caster looked pensive for a moment. "Then do the other Masters have wishes of their own?"
"Of course," answered Aaron, "And their Servants as well. In fact, a Servant will answer the summons specifically because he or she has a wish that is desired of the Grail."
Caster slowly slumped all the way to the floor. "Then that means that getting to the Grail means trampling over the dreams and wishes of all those other people and destroying what they worked so hard for?"
Aaron was taken aback by that. That's what she's worried about? "I'm sorry to say that hurting your opponents' feelings is hardly our greatest concern at this juncture."
Caster looked up at him, her eyes wide. "What do you mean?"
Aaron had to stop himself from grinning as he imagined her reaction to what he was about to say next, much less what she would probably see for herself before too long. "What I mean is that those other Servants and Masters are eagerly advancing, seeking to trample each other's dreams, yours included. If you hesitate because you sympathize with your enemy, you stand no hope of succeeding in obtaining the Holy Grail. In fact, if you aren't careful, we might find ourselves testing the first solution I proposed to your problem whether you like it or not.
"The Holy Grail War is a seven-way battle royale. All the participants are competing with one another and only one pair will have the privilege of reaching and using the Holy Grail."
"But how do you win?" asked Caster.
Aaron's eyebrow twitched. She can't really be this naive...can she? "You have a sharp mind, I'm sure. Take a moment and think a out what I've told you. First, there are seven competing Servants. When a Servant dies, their soul is taken into the Grail, which will activate and fulfill its function once six Servants have passed into it. Put those facts together and..."
Caster's eyes widened in horror as the realization hit her. "You mean, in order to win, we have to kill the other six." Caster began to back away from him. "No. I can't do that. I could never do that. That's horrible!"
"Technically you may need to kill only one other Servant," clarified Aaron airily, Caster's revulsion being of no real concern to him, "After all, the other six will hardly being waiting in line for you to face them when they could so easily be tearing away at each other. If we kept well clear of the conflict then we could theoretically wait until they whittle one another down and only have to deal with the last one remaining." Not that things are likely to work out that neatly.
"That's awful!" exclaimed Twilight, "No! It's worse than awful! It's downright evil! I can't go through this if that's the price! I'd much rather put my hopes on your second plan."
"Calm down and think rationally about this," said Aaron, "Keep in mind that whatever you do, the other Servants will continue to slaughter one another regardless. From the moment they answered the summons all but one of you are destined to lose your lives in the coming battle. I suppose we could also debate the ethical issue of whether or not Heroic Spirits are worth your concern, considering that they are otherworldly spirits given temporary bodies in this world, with you as the sole exception to that. But that is a mere technicality.
"At the very least, postpone your decision for the time being. We can always rely on the Command Seals as a fail safe if you ever decide you've had enough. But at the very least, watch the opening engagements with me. You might find something to catch your interest."
Aaron kept his smile to himself. He had already observed enough of Caster to know her primary weakness. She was an academic, a student with an insatiable lust for knowledge, desperate to find and understand things that she couldn't yet comprehend. Appealing to her sense of curiosity was the surest way to stave off her reservations about participating in what was sure to be a bloody conflict.
At the same time, Aaron found himself wondering exactly why he was convincing the lavender unicorn to remain. He had never wanted to take part in the Grail War, only to observe it. And yet, here was Caster, practically begging him to take a free ticket out of the conflict so that he could return to his preferred position on the sidelines and enjoy the show. Aaron could have simply given in to Caster's demands and thrown away his Command Seals. One way or another, she would be out of his hair and he could have enjoyed the coming battles, although it would have been slightly less exciting with one of the players off the field before it could even get started.
He was supposed to be the one who watched and observed. He was here for the spectacle of seeing heroes from myth and legend clash against one another. Aaron had actively laughed at the notion that he might participate. He had no reason to seek the Grail.
And yet, the Command Seals had appeared on his hand. His Servant had been summoned. So clearly, he had some purpose for fighting in the Grail War, even as a mere placeholder to fill the remaining slot. Taking a moment, the magus looked down at his hand. The Seals, drawn in the form of an eye, looked back at him, almost chiding him for breaking one of his few rules; to never meddle in what he was supposed to be watching. You made this mess, they seemed to say, Now clean it up.
In other words, through the very act of disrupting Uryu Ryunosuke's summoning and accidentally summoning this Twilight Sparkle as Caster instead, Aaron had inadvertently given himself a reason to compete, namely doing all that was within his power to send Caster to her home, which specified that he default to the method most likely to succeed, wishing on the Grail itself. Certainly, he could discard that responsibility easily, but at the same time, there was a certain eagerness in him. He had never been an actual part of the events he was observing. Perhaps this unique perspective would show him something even more interesting than what he would observe otherwise.
If Caster remained at his side, Aaron might get to see more interesting things. He already found himself curious about the Equestrian and the nature of her magecraft. How did it differ from that of humans? What was she capable of? Perhaps that was how he had come to understand Caster as well as he did, they had more in common than they had first thought. The two shared the same insatiable lust for knowledge and answers to their questions.
Finally, after taking a long moment to consider Aaron's suggestion, Caster sighed and looked up at him. "Fine," she huffed impatiently, "I'll wait."
Aaron could barely conceal his grin.
The next day was spent making arrangements for Caster's stay in the hotel room. Clearly, she wouldn't be able to dematerialize to accompany her Master without being noticed. Even relying on her invisibility spell would be unreliable in the long run. It would have only been a matter of time before someone accidentally tripped over her. In any case, Aaron was already looking for a new venue, into which they could move. The hotel, while perfect for an observer, did not fit Aaron's criteria, now that he was a participant. They needed a more secure space, where they could minimize the likelihood of encountering the other Master's and their Servants.
Aside from food to nourish her physical body, the only request that Caster had made of Aaron was for books detailing more about the human world. She was beginning to reach the limits of the information that the Grail had supplied her and now she was eagerly looking into the history of this strange new world. Aaron felt it was a minor price for keeping his Servant placated and compliant. For the time being, Aaron was happy that she could be satisfied so easily.
On the evening of the second day, the two of them retired to the room for the night (or rather, Aaron retired as Caster had been there all day). Aaron was quietly relaxing in the chair, while Caster lay across the bed, another book open in front of her, scanning and turning pages at her usual, phenomenal pace. Looking over, Aaron noticed that even as she was reading, she appeared to be lost in thought. Perhaps the wait was getting to her. He understood her impatience. Unlike him, Caster's experience went beyond simply being in a foreign country. Being alone in this strange world, where nothing like her lived, would tax her mind and body far faster than the average human's experience of culture shock. And matters were only exacerbated by the fact that she had been confined to just one location for almost the entirety of her time here.
His musings, as well as Caster's were interrupting by a series of tones from the chimes strung in front of the mirror. Aaron listened to the sequence of notes before grinning. "That was certainly fast."
"What are you talking about?" asked Caster as she watched him warily. While Caster, having to deal with the constant waiting might not agree, Aaron hadn't expected the conflict to begin in earnest yet. In all likelihood, all of the Masters and Servants had not yet even assembled in the city. Then again, it wasn't as though there was some kind of formal declaration to the beginning of the conflict. The Holy Grail War began when the Servants met and began their battle. It need when only one remained. It was as simple as that.
The magus got to his feet and walked around the bed to reach the mirror. "One of the other Masters has started to move. When I first came here, I laid down surveillance spells around certain areas of interest that were likely to become places of conflict during the Grail War. The music you just heard indicated activity at one of those sites. And from the series of tones, I believe it means that something is occurring at the Tohsaka mansion."
"Tohsaka...?" The unfamiliar word rolled off Twilight's tongue with disturbing ease, supporting what Aaron had told her earlier about the Grail supplying her with the knowledge to interact with the current human world, including the language, which she was fairly certain wasn't Equestrian.
"The Tohsakas are one of the Three Families of the Beginning," said Aaron, reaching up to flick the lowest crystal on the wind chime. The crystal produced a clear note that caused the image of the room reflected in the mirror to ripple like a stone had been thrown into a pond. "Their ancestors were one of the three families that collaborated around two-hundred years ago to create the Holy Grail and begin the Holy Grail War. Because of this, a member from the Tohsaka family as well as one from each of the other two, is guaranteed a slot to participate in the Holy Grail War every time it occurs. This time, the current head of the family, Tohsaka Tokiomi, has been designated as the Tohsaka family Master."
The ripples disrupting the reflection of the room resolved into a new image. And suddenly it was like they were looking out a window into a completely different place. Twilight saw a massive mansion surrounded by a garden of decorative flowerbeds, the property bordered by a rather dense stand of trees. She could see that at the center of each flowerbed was a stone pedestal of some kind with a glowing jewel set into it. There was a taller sculpture in the yard between the garden and the house with a similar jewel set into its top.
Twilight was just about to ask what they were when her attention was drawn by a black figure leap from the forest. She barely saw something flicker from its right hand before several of the jewels in the flowerbeds shattered. The sound actually coming out of the wind chime. The figure seemed to float like a ghost before dropping into one of the flowerbeds that it had attacked earlier.
"Assassin," murmured, Aaron, stroking his chin.
Twilight watched as the figure stepped out of the flowerbed. It was human in shape. But it either had coal-black skin or wore some tight, black garment. Even more terrifying was the face. It was bone white, with a shape troublingly familiar and yet slightly alien. It looked like a mask of some kind. "Is that a Servant?" she asked nervously, already knowing the answer.
"Yes. The Assassin class specializes in stealth, espionage and infiltration...and assassination as their name might suggest," answered Aaron, not taking his eyes from the image in the mirror, "Statistically, they are one of the weakest classes in a direct confrontation, but make up for it in their skill at striking from concealment with precise and deadly blows."
"What is he doing?" asked Twilight, her eyes wide. She did not like where this was going. As she watched, Assassin once again seemed to flick a hand, this time in the direction of the taller sculpture in the yard. Her eyes could barely pick out several small objects fired by a deft movement of the Servant's thumb...rocks. She then saw them shatter against an invisible force in the air ringing softly as they did so. A barrier?
"Presumably, he is attempting to infiltrate the Tohsaka mansion in hopes of killing Tokiomi," stated Aaron calmly. The ripples of the rocks' impacts crated distortions in the barrier. With deft and graceful movements, Assassin moved between the distortions in a roundabout path carrying him ever closer to the sculpture in the center.
"Then that sculpture is the anchor," said Twilight, her knowledge of magic being supplemented again with a certain degree of understanding of human magecraft provided by the Grail.
Aaron nodded again. "Yes. He will disable the barrier and then move in to kill Tokiomi."
Assassin's dodges forced him to drop to all fours on the ground. As he did so, he fired off another series of rocks, these breaking apart just before they impacted against the stone sculpture's embedded jewel. With a chiming sound, the entire barrier was dispersed enough for Assassin to approach the keystone directly.
Twilight had a new question and she was just about to ask when everything changed. With a scream of splitting air, something slammed into...and through Assassin's hand just as he touched the stone. She could hear the Servant scream with agony. To Twilight's shock, she saw that it was an ornate spear that had rammed straight through Assassin's hand, pinning it to the stone sculpture. Something on the roof of the Tohsaka mansion blazed with a golden light.
Twilight looked up at the source at almost the same time Assassin did. And then she heard him.
"Who told you that you could raise your head, worm?" The air shrieked and suddenly dozens of projectiles rushed down upon the immobilized Servant. It was almost too fast to see, but Twilight's eyes picked out swords, axes and other vicious-looking and yet terrifyingly beautiful weapons hurtle downwards. She only barely saw one of the swords pierce right through Assassin's head before his entire body vanished in a series of explosions, throwing up a cloud of dust and smoke as the unending stream of blades continued to hit home, gouging their way into the earth.
Yet again, Twilight found herself fighting the urge to throw up. This wasn't a battle, or a brawl, or even a murder. The attacker's next words made that clear. "You dared to look upon me. A worm like you should die as it lives, crawling and wriggling in the dirt." It had been an extermination, an effortless snuffing out of a human life as though it were no more than an insect's. Finally, Twilight saw the perpetrator clearly.
He was human, but in such a way that he was clearly more than human, his features too perfect, his presence too great. For a moment, she actually felt she was looking upon Princess Celestia, cloaked in her power as the Princess of the Sun as she beheld the blazing, golden radiance that surrounded the Servant, matching his spiked, blonde hair in color. But that was where the comparison ended. Where Celestia would have radiated warmth and compassion, this Servant showed nothing but the purest, cruelest disdain, his glittering, crimson eyes glaring balefully at the smoking crater where Assassin's remains lay. Behind him hovered an entire arsenal of weapons emerging from a wall of golden light that made it seem as though the sun itself had descended to Earth. Everything about him conveyed an air of authority and arrogance, from his cold, hateful expression to the casual manner in which he stood, his arms folded across his chest, as though he couldn't be bothered to do the killing with his own two hands.
Aaron's words, tinged with an almost cruel amusement at her horror and revulsion echoed through the empty room. "And that is what it means to fight in the Holy Grail War."
I have to say that I was surprised at how much interest there was in this story. For those of you not in the know, Fate/Zero is a prequel to the visual novel, Fate/Stay Night. If you are not familiar with Fate/Zero, then I suggest you read the novels. An unofficial translation can be found at http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Fate/Zero. Or, if you want, you can watch the first thirteen episodes of the anime, which are available for free at Crunchyroll.com (the anime is still in production and the second season of thirteen episodes will be released in April). Thanks for all your interest and feel free to leave some feedback. I'd love to hear from everyone.
Caster:
True Identity: Twilight Sparkle
Master: Aaron Styx
Alignment: Lawful Good
Parameters:
Noble Phantasm: Unknown
Strength: C
Agility: B
Mana: A++
Luck: C/ E*
Endurance: C
*Luck stat is treated as rank E for incidents involving Pinkie Pie.