TYPE-MOON Universe, Earth, Japan, Fuyuki City.
Now fully healed, Caster, along with her Master, Souichirou stood across from Tatsuo and Elicia on the rooftop where Tatsuo had stabbed Caster only a mont ago.
While Tatsuo and Elicia both stood, seemingly relaxed but ready for battle should things go sideways, Caster stood with her arms crossed in front of her chest and a scowl visible on her lips under her hood while Souichirou adjusted his glasses, his posture rigid and ready to jump into action at the first sign of hostility.
"So, what did you want to talk to us about?" Caster asked in a cold tone while staring daggers at Tatsuo.
"Straight to the point, huh?" Elicia said with a smile as she clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward slightly. "Well, I don't have a problem with that."
Elicia then stood up straight once again, exchanging a glance with Tatsuo as she did so. Then, she turned her gaze back to Caster.
"We know you've been doing sothing with the Greater Grail." Elicia said, not losing her smile. "And we're curious to know what that is. In return, we'll tell you everything we know about the Grail and what's happened to it over the last two Holy Grail Wars. How does that sound?"
Unsurprised to hear that the two in front of her knew that she had been doing sothing with the Greater Grail, as she had felt traces of mana all over Mount Enzou the day she arrived there, Caster did not show much of a reaction. Yet, when she heard there was sothing to the Holy Grail, especially after feeling the evil that had been fused with it during her research, her eyebrows raised slightly. Though, no one could see this small reaction.
Souichirou, on the other hand, did not show any reaction at all. Instead, he simply remained ready for battle should it be necessary.
"I see." Caster said, her tone not betraying her current thoughts. "Then, tell what you know. Should I deem the information useful, I will explain my plans to the sa degree."
"Yeah, that sounds like bullshit to ." Tatsuo said cutting into the conversation.
Imdiately, the glare Caster was shooting Tatsuo intensified. However, Tatsuo completely ignored it as he continued.
"Look, I've already figured out your identity based on how you reacted to the word witch, dea of Colchis." Tatsuo said, his expression not changing under dea's glare. "So, I know you're not the type to betray others, despite what your legend says. But that doesn't an I trust you. We're not allies, and you have no reason to tell us everything… Or rather, anything at all."
At first, Tatsuo's words caused Caster, or rather dea's eyes to widen in surprise. However, when she heard Tatsuo's following statent, her expression turned complicated.
'He knows my identity… yet, he does not despise as a traitorous witch?" dea thought to herself. 'No, this must be a trick. He's an assassin. And assassins are well-versed in trickery… Or rather anything to get close to their target and end them swiftly.'
Despite the thoughts running through her head, had anyone been able to see her eyes, it would have been clear that her gaze had softened considerably. Even so, what Tatsuo said about her not trusting them to not betray her, just like Jason of the Argonauts had was a tall order.
"It doesn't matter if she doesn't tell us, honestly." Elicia said, shrugging her shoulders exaggeratedly. "Because her plans for the Greater Grail really don't matter to us. In the end, we have a job to do. And whether she decides to assist us or not is none of our concern."
"I guess that's true." Tatsuo replied with a shrug of his own.
anwhile, dea's expression turned harsh once again. The way these two were dismissing her as a threat was really grinding her nerves.
"So, here's the deal." Elicia said, her tone turning more serious.
Elicia then went on to explain everything she had told both Sakura and Rin in the past. anwhile, dea, though she was still skeptical, showed an intrigued expression while she listened to Elicia's explanation.
"In conclusion, the only thing we really want to do is purify the Greater Grail." Elicia said, ending her explanation. "After that, we don't' care what happens. And if you want a fight after that, we're happy to give you the fight you want."
"But if you don't want to let us do the [Purification], we have no problem taking you out before marching into the no longer occupied Mount Enzou and doing it after you're gone." Tatsuo added.
"Is that really what you think?" dea asked, her tone not belying her irritation at the dismissive tones Tatsuo and Elicia used. "Then, why haven't you simply killed us and taken the Greater Grail sight for yourselves to do this so-called Purification Ritual you've been speaking of?"
"That's actually quite simple." Elicia said with a nod and a smile. "Because fighting a Magus in their workshop isn't really the smartest choice, you see."
"So, if you refused to let us do our thing." Tatsuo said, adding to Elicia's explanation. "We would kill you right here, right now."
Hearing that, dea opened her mouth to make a counter argunt. anwhile, Souichirou's eyes narrowed, his gaze making it clear that he was ready to jump into action at any ti.
However, before dea could speak, Elicia raised her hand, stopping dea's words before they could leave her mouth, as she continued.
"And if you were thinking about agreeing to our deal then betraying us later, that wouldn't work." Elicia said, picking up where Tatsuo left off. "We would have made you sign a magical contract that would guarantee our safety during the [Purification] and until we were safely off of Mount Enzou."
"Oh, and there would be a clause in that contract that made your Master here…" Tatsuo continued, gesturing towards Souichirou as his words trailed off. "… to use one of his [command Spells] to stop you from using [Rule Breaker], your [Noble Phantasm], on the contract or anyone involved in the signing of said contract."
The fact that Tatsuo and Elicia saw through her process so thoroughly was only secondary to the shock dea felt when they laid out the identity of her [Noble phantasm] and its effects on contracts.
'How could they know so much about ?"' dea thought to herself. 'Have they been watching ? But when could it have started? The only ti I've used [Rule Breaker] since I ca to Fuyuki was when I freed myself from that pathetic excuse for a magus who summoned . But how? I never sensed anyone spying on …'
When her thoughts reached that point, dea glanced at Tatsuo, who seed to not notice her gaze. Then, she lowered her head in thought.
'Now that I think about it, I don't think I would have noticed his presence had he been stalking .' dea thought to herself, continuing her earlier thought. 'But how does that explain the traces of mana I picked up when I set up the mountain as my workshop? Sothing just doesn't add up.'
anwhile, Tatsuo, who actually did notice dea's earlier gaze, was smirking on the inside, as he could guess exactly what she was thinking.
'Do you really think you could have sensed my traces if I didn't want you to?' Tatsuo thought to himself pridefully. 'Although I don't have full access to my [Spatial Manipulation], [Maiestas Divina] is more than enough to keep from leaving any traces if I want to keep them hidden. But if I didn't do that, you would have never co running when Lici was facing your little boy-toy.'
While the two Servants were lost in their own thoughts, Elicia and Souichirou remained silent. While Elicia stayed silent in hopes of inflicting psychological pressure on the opposing pair, Souichirou did not have enough magical knowledge to get himself involved in the conversation. Besides, the only thing he was there for was to fight in close range while dea finished off the opponents from the rear.
"We will need more ti to consider." dea said, finally breaking the silence after a few minutes. "For now, we will return to the temple to discuss our options."
"Yeah, that's not gonna work for ." Tatsuo replied, taking a step forward as he spoke. "You see, once you disappear back into the depth of that mountain, there will be no way of us getting to you again without fighting through all those annoying [Bounded Fields] you have set up around it. And I already did that once. And I'm not really looking forward to doing it again."
Once again, dea's eyes widened in surprise. However, everything she knew about herself and her capabilities in the mystic arts told her that the Assassin in front of her was lying. But her instincts, sothing that she trusted implicitly, told her that he was telling the truth. And that… was rather unsettling.
Opening her mouth to retort Tatsuo's claim, dea was forced to raise a [Defensive Bounded Field] when Tatsuo blurred forward, almost too fast for her to perceive with her limited physical paraters.
Even Souichirou, who was much more physically gifted than dea could only catch a blur of black and purple speeding towards him and dea before it passed right by them.
Completely caught off guard by Tatsuo's move, Souichirou and dea both turned their heads just in ti to see Tatsuo standing in the finishing pose of a downward slash with his two modified trench knives in his hands. anwhile, in front of him was a tear in space that was rapidly closing.
*Boom~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!*
In the next instant, they heard a loud explosion in the distance. Quickly, Elicia, Souichirou, and dea turned their heads in the direction the sound ca from. When they did, they saw a do-shaped explosion of crimson red energy that was large enough to cover the top of an entire building.
"Damn, that bastard let himself fall off the top of the building after throwing the spear." Tatsuo grumbled after realizing that no one was affected by the attack he returned to sender. "If he wasn't faster than , I would hunt him down. But he's already too far away."
With that said, Tatsuo kicked the rooftop in frustration. Then, he turned around to see Souichirou and dea staring at him blankly while Elicia only shook her head and flicked her fingers repeatedly, reeling in the thread she was going to use to defend from the sneak attack.
"So, another Servant noticed our location." dea said, the first to regain her composure. "But I have to ask, why did you save us?"
"Are you stupid?" Tatsuo asked bluntly, causing dea to scowl. He then pointed back at the destroyed building where the attack landed and continued. "If I didn't do sothing about that, we would have been caught up in the fallout, too."
"And that's almost certainly what Lancer was going for." Elicia said as she watched the red spear responsible for the destruction spin through the air in the direction where Lancer was running. "His Master, Bazett, is nothing, if not efficient in her work."
"I guess that ans you haven't run your plan for the Grail by her yet." dea said as she turned to look at Elicia again.
"No, and I doubt we will." Elicia replied. "She probably wouldn't believe us, even if we did. She works for the Mage's Association, and she has her orders. And even if she did believe us, I don't think she would chance losing the Grail to us because of those sa orders."
"I see." dea replied with a nod. "I suppose that makes sense. Anyway, because you saved us from that attack, I will trust you this once."
With that, dea used her Magecraft to conjure a magical parchnt. She then began inscribing a contract on the parchnt that floated in front of her.
"Were you even listening?" Tatsuo asked in an exasperated tone. "I didn't do it for you."
"But if you sohow manage to find a loophole in this contract and back stab us, I will make sure you regret it for the rest of your lives." dea said in a nacing tone while ignoring Tatsuo's retort without looking away from the contract she was inscribing.
"We could say the sa to you." Tatsuo replied just as coldly.
anwhile, Lancer, who was sprinting through the streets of Fuyuki City suddenly raised his hand. In the next instant, a spinning red blur fell into his raised hand, revealing his weapon, the cursed, crimson-red spear, Gáe Bolg.
{"Looks like the operation failed, Bazett."} Lancer said over his telepathic link with Bazett. {"I don't' know what that Assassin did, exactly. But sohow, just before [The Soaring Spear That Strikes with Death] could land, he cut the air in front of it. Then, before I knew it, it landed on the building I threw it from. But I'm really lucky you decided to use a [Command Spell] to boost my range. Otherwise, I'm not sure I would have been able to get away. Draining all my magical energy like that really did a number on my speed."}
Hearing Lancer's description of what happened, Bazett's brows creased montarily. Then, she realized that if the attack had been dropped on the rooftop where Lancer attacked, he might have been hurt, as well.
{"Were you injured?"} Bazett asked, no hint of the worry she felt for her Servant in her tone. {"Should I increase the mana flow so you can heal?"}
{"Nah, I'm fine."} Lancer replied nonchalantly. {"I an, my mana is running a little low, but other than that I'm great. My instincts told that staying on the roof would not end well for . So, as soon as I threw the spear, I jumped off. And it's a good thing I did, I tell ya."}
Though Lancer could not hear it, Bazett, sitting back in her suite at the hotel, exhaled a sigh of relief.
{"But it's sweet that you were so worried about little old ."} Lancer continued, a hint of teasing in his tone.
Imdiately, Bazett, who had been trying to hide her emotions, sothing she was trained to do by the Sealing Designation Enforcent Unit, flushed a bright red.
{"Just co back."} Bazett barked in an attempt to cover up her embarrassnt. {"We need to discuss counter asures for such a skill or [Noble Phantasm]. Also, we need to start doing our research to see if we can figure out that Assassin's True Na."}
{"You got it, Boss."} Lancer replied, his amusent not at all hidden by his tone. {"I'll be there soon."}
With that, Bazett cut the link, causing Lancer to laugh hardily as he ran through the streets of Fuyuki in his astral form, which he had shifted into after reclaiming his spear.
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