AU for imperial_saga

[killed_shiki]

-1-


[Servant and Servant! You've crossed paths before, but with your Masters - this time it's just the two Servants.]

[Assassin smiles as she draws a small, plain kife. You'd expect someone of her class to be a bit stealthier, but it seems that a straightforward approach is more your style.]

No Masters this time. This is what I wanted from the start. Now we can put aside all worries aside from fighting to the death.

I hope you're ready.


-2-


[Servant and Master! The Grail War is complex, especially during times as tumultuous as these, and planning ahead for the upcoming battles is very important.]

[You've got all kinds of important plans up your sleeve, but Assassin is just leaning against the wall, eyes closed. She doesn't seem to be listening very hard. If you try to get her attention...]

Why should all this matter to me, one way or the other?

If I encounter a Servant, I'll kill the Servant. That's all I need to know. The rest is your problem.


-3-


[Servant and non-Servant! It's dangerous to go out into the woods alone at night, you know. Or at least, that's what they said... and maybe this is why.]

[You just stumbled upon two people. Only one of them has a head.]

[Blood sprays in various directions, making an almost beautiful pattern along the ground. As the freshly-made corpse collapses, the pale woman turns slowly, giving you a bloodstained smile.]

[She doesn't say anything, but you're not here to make small talk, are you?]


-4-


Ooh! What about that one?

[Servant and anyone! Do you know Assassin? Maybe, maybe not - but this appears to be her... but her personality is completely different now.]

[SHIKI bounces through whatever local festival is going on, looking like she doesn't have a care in the world, dragging you along by the hand.]

Hey, have you ever tried this? I hear it's a local specialty, but I've never had any.

You could stand to smile more. Has anyone ever told you that?

Comments

1

[idranel_the_damned]

Lancer spins her spear around to a ready position.

"It's definitely more satisfying without that fool getting in the way."

[killed_shiki]

Oh, good. She understands.

Assassin doesn't waste energy on further words. Instead, she crouches low and springs forward into a terrifyingly fast sprint, aiming to close into close range, where she'll have the advantage with her speed and flexibility.

[idranel_the_damned]

Yes Assassin found herself facing not one Lancer, but 5, each with brilliantly glowing eyes, all countering her death charge in different ways. Five glittering, humming speartips striking unerringly at the Servant from five different angles.

[killed_shiki]

Assassin turns on a dime, dodging the barrage of spears with an acrobatic flip - one of them cuts a few of her hairs a bit shorter, and another cuts narrowly through one of her sleeves, but she manages to escape unharmed.

Her mind races during the split second she has to react. Illusion magic? Duplication? Worry later, act now - as she falls back to earth, her arm lashes out as she stabs one of the five through the heart.

[idranel_the_damned]

Her knife goes directly through the Lancer duplicate as if it were air as the illusion vanishes like smoke. Two more Lancers make their attack, only they're now holding knives just like Assassin's. A third Lancer thrusts her spear of their heads while while the fourth fires blasts of lightning from her hands THROUGH the other three without slowing them down.

[killed_shiki]

Assassin retreats, sprinting, rolling and jumping a broad circle around Lancer. Until she figures out which one is the real one, charging in again is risky enough to be out of the question...

But then again, she has a way to identify a real person among fakes.

Assassin's eyes flash blue with a red halo around the iris as she activates her first Noble Phantasm. She glances briefly over the illusory forms, her glowing eyes narrowing as she focuses in on the lines of death criscrossing across the true Lancer.

[idranel_the_damned]

Of the four remaining Lancers, only the one with the spear has anything resembling the lines of death of a normal person. The other three don't have any lines on them whatsoever. In other words they have no presence in reality whatsoever and exist only in her mind. The three phantom Lancers move in concert with the real one to surround Assassin.