Interlude
Mercenary, Assassin, Vampire I
"...They're all so reckless."
Sigma's face showed no emotion, but there was a tinge of exasperation in his voice.
He was a young magecraft-using mercenary on the side of the "masterminds" of the Holy Grail War. He was originally supposed to become Lancer's Master, but he had ended up haunted by a Heroic Spirit of the enigmatic "Watcher" Class and had formed a temporary alliance with Saber and Assassin in order to increase his chances of survival after his fashion.
He had come to observe the Servant that had formed a contract with a comatose girl in the hospital as well as the other enemy factions targeting her based on information provided by Watcher's shadows. He had passed what he had learned from his Servant on to Saber and Assassin under the pretext that it was "data from his superiors."
A mysterious Heroic Spirit supposed to have a bird's eye view of everything that took place in the city.
Sigma had been drawn into the Holy Grail War without being told the characteristics of the Watcher Class and without having a clear goal of his own. Before that, everyone around him had treated him as "soldier A." Francesca, who had brought him into the Grail War, had wanted him to continue being "soldier A," so that was hardly surprising. The Heroic Spirit that had contracted with Sigma, however, was in the process of transforming him into something special in the "Fake Holy Grail War."
Even so, Sigma's combat ability was no match for a Heroic Spirit's. While he had gained experience as a magecraft-using mercenary in battlefields around the world, he had of course never fought an extraordinary familiar like a Servant. The sight of the attacks the golden Heroic Spirit was enough to tell him how out of place he was.
"That's Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes. One of the earliest heroes," said a boy with a serpent staff—one of the "shadows."
They were "Watcher's" terminals, a system for conveying information to their Master. Possibly they were directly linked to Sigma's brain, because no one else could see or hear them.
Sigma thought it would have been easier if they were just his hallucinations, but the information they provided was accurate and given that they provided information that he could not possibly know, he had no choice but to admit that they were genuinely the power of a Heroic Spirit.
"To be blunt, you don't stand a chance now."
Obviously, Sigma mentally agreed with the "shadow," which had changed from the boy with the serpent staff to a young man with mechanical wings on his back. He could tell at a glance that those were no ordinary weapons that that Heroic Spirit was firing out of empty space.
That was not an opponent he could handle with magecraft or modern firearms. He might be able to distract him for an instant with a stun grenade or flashbang, but he doubted that would be any advantage in the face of the Heroic Spirit called Gilgamesh.
It would be something if he could at least coordinate perfectly with Saber, but they had only just met and Saber's Master—Ayaka Sajou—claimed not to be a proper Master or even a mage.
That being the case, there was only one person who might contribute to combat in this situation. She was a Heroic Spirit like Saber and Gilgamesh—the girl Assassin standing next to him.
"What will you do?"
He did not have a definite plan. Nevertheless, if he just stood there without attacking or retreating, he would only sink into this brutal mire.
In which case, he judged, his best option would be to act according to the cards in the hands of those around him.
"I'm going to protect the child," she answered quietly. "Do you know where her room is?"
"Are you really going...? You'll probably end up facing down either that archer-turned-demon or that golden gatling gun."
"...I won't go through the front. I hate to admit it, but immature as I am, it would literally take everything I am to execute them. Even then, I'm not certain I would be able to see it through. That wouldn't matter if only I were concerned, but our objective is to save a child."
"That's those police officers' objective, not yours."
"?"
Assassin looked at Sigma in confusion, as if she did not understand his intention.
Sigma spoke to her in a matter-of-fact tone.
"You've never met the child and the probability of her becoming either an enemy or an ally is low. In fact, if the Heroic Spirit contracted to your target is hostile, you'll end up in a direct confrontation with a Heroic Spirit you didn't need to fight. Logically, it wouldn't be to your advantage."
"... I'd forgotten you were without faith."
Assassin nodded as if to say that that explained everything, looked straight at Sigma and said:
"There is a benefit. A logical reason."
"What reason...?"
Why he asked, Sigma himself did not know. Probably it was purely because he could not fully comprehend what would drive Assassin to willingly get involved in a troublesome situation.
Assassin answered without hesitation.
"If it will save a growing child, there could be no greater benefit."
As she spoke, she soundlessly moved into action. She began a roundabout approach to the hospital, threading her way through openings in the street-turned-battlefield. Sigma followed.
"...? I don't understand," he asked, half to himself, "child or not, she's still a stranger. You don't even know if she follows the same faith as you."
If she were doing it to add more adherents to her faith, he could understand it. But should she really risk her life to save the child?
"I am still immature. Properly speaking, the deeply faithful do not consider benefits. Just by living they hear a great voice, as naturally as breathing, and choose that path."
"...I don't really understand common morality...but aren't you trying to save a child in this situation because your face is deep?"
Sigma's words caused the fully mature fanatic to turn and look at him for a moment. Her eyes were filled with anger at herself and a deep sadness.
"I was not able to abandon my anger at the heathens. I was not able to have tolerance. As long as my current course is mixed with my wish to save others, it is merely a proud disdain for destiny. Because of that immaturity, I was not permitted to walk the path to the mountain enclosure."
"..."
They stealthily crossed Main Street and drew closer to the hospital. The police force and the bowman had begun to fight and the other Archer—Gilgamesh—and Saber were also engaged in combat. Assassin might survive a hit from a stray projectile, but Sigma certainly would not. He used magecraft to dampen sounds and strengthen his body and followed close behind the carefully advancing Assassin while remaining wary of both battles.
Assassin continued to speak dispassionately to Sigma.
"But that doesn't matter. My immaturity is no reason not to save a child."
"...I see."
At that, Sigma slightly lowered his gaze, thinking about the word "child," and muttered in spite of himself:
"...No one saved us."
For an instant, Assassin, who was approaching the back of the hospital, froze.
Sigma realized that he had made a slip of the tongue and expressionlessly averted his eyes from Assassin. An instant later, the voice of one of the shadows—the old man who had said "call me captain"—came from behind him.
"You put your foot in your mouth this time, boy... Are you stupid? What were you thinking, whining that 'no one saved you' to somebody trying to save someone else? Are you jealous of that whelp sleeping in the hospital? Will you be happy if you slow her down by spouting bullshit and that kid ends up as bad off as you?"
Sigma made no attempt to refute the scornful voice.
That was partly because responding to a voice that only he could hear would make Assassin suspicious of him. It was also because there was nothing he could say to refute it.
Sigma had neither a strong wish for the Grail nor a reason to survive. He was a mercenary who had kept struggling and made it to that point based solely on a vague feeling that he "didn't want to die."
Given that that attitude had kept him alive so far, it might actually be one of his strong points...but it was certainly not something he could be proud of.
Assassin's words had reminded him of his childhood—reminded him of how the person sitting next to him might be a bloodless "thing" to be disposed of by nightfall—and he had instinctively blurted it out.
Why?
Why had there been no salvation for them?
Why would the girl in the hospital be saved? What separated her from them?
Before, he would have dismissed such things as "just luck." So why had those words come out of him now? Sigma realized that his being was becoming unstable.
This isn't a good trend. Not as a magecraft-user and not as a mercenary, either.
People who let themselves waver died. He had seen it happen many times in the course of his work.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have said tha—"
Sigma attempted to regain his composure by ending the conversation, but Assassin cut him short by turning to look straight at him and saying:
"My immaturity prevented me from saving you as a child."
"..."
"I was unable to be there and save you. That is proof of my immaturity."
"You're a Heroic Spirit," Sigma responded to Assassin's seemingly unreasonable declaration. "I don't know when you died, but we existed in different times and places. You couldn't have met me as a child."
"Differences of time and place are trivial. As proof of that, you and I are here right now, standing in the same place."
From Sigma's perspective, her words were abnormal. She stated with certainty that, if her faith were perfect, she would have appeared before the young Sigma and saved him.
If he were currently happy, Assassin's words might have angered him.
If, despite being unfortunate, he had chosen his own path, he might have argued with her.
"I'm satisfied," he might have said. "No one ever pitied me because you never appeared to me."
But that anger did not come to him. Sigma himself half-agreed with what she said.
Oh, I see.
Did I...want someone to save me?
If someone had saved us back there...would things have been different? If I'd been saved before Francesca and the others destroyed the country...before everyone died...or even earlier... If my mother had been saved...?
No, if my mother had been saved, I would never have been born.
Sigma cast his eyes down in silence as he remembered the details of his birth.
If you saved everyone, I wouldn't be happy or unhappy—I wouldn't be at all...
"...That's an interesting way of looking at it. I think there was a comedy like that."
Assassin seemed confused by Sigma talking to himself.
Sigma answered the question she had asked him before they began to move.
"...From here, the police's target—Kuruoka Tsubaki—is in the room on the far right of the top floor."
Assassin heard him and quietly nodded.
"I thank you. I'll take care of the rest."
"Wait."
"?"
Sigma, still expressionless, stopped Assassin. After considering for a moment, he said:
"...I'll go too. I'm not sure about just protecting her, but there may be a way to carry her out while preventing infection."
According to Watcher's information, Kuruoka Tsubaki was infected with a "non-airborne pathogen," but there was no guarantee that it would stay that way.
After all, she had an unknown Heroic Spirit with her. There was a possibility that it could act on her to alter the characteristics of the bacteria. On the other hand, if they could get that Heroic Spirit on their side, it would be a powerful ally and it would make it easier to transport Tsubaki to a safe location. If the police then incapacitated the Heroic Spirit as planned, he would be able to make a satisfactory report to Faldeus without difficulty. That was Sigma's idea.
"Don't push yourself. I'll carry her out if the need arises," Assassin told Sigma. It seemed she had not expected him to accompany her all the way. The black haired youth, however, quietly shook his head.
"I doubt the girl's body could handle the way you move. She's been in a coma a long time—if you put a heavy strain on her, it might be enough to stop her heart."
When I was little, one of my comrades died that way.
Sigma proposed a strategy without putting that memory into words.
"I'm probably more used to handling a stretcher than you are. After we've gotten her out, I'll tell that demonic-looking bowman. If I do that, he shouldn't target the hospital."
If they managed to protect Tsubaki, but the hospital collapsed, it would be a disaster.
"Oh, how interesting. Whose sake did you just propose that plan for?"
The shadow in the form the form of the boy with the serpent staff asked him, sounding pleased for some reason.
For whose sake...?
"It has nothing to do with your mission. You said that yourself not too long ago. There's no benefit. So, why are you trying to support her?"
The "shadow" sounded as if it were testing him.
"...Oh, excuse me. I may be a shadow, but I'm influenced by my personality from when I was alive. I'd probably look different if I were to manifest as a Heroic Spirit... Still, we shadows do have behaviors that resemble individual wills. Consider it a joke from the residue seared into a shadow's shadow and let it slide."
So that boy with the serpent staff said, but Sigma could not let it go so easily. After all, Sigma himself could not explain why he had decided to go along.
This really isn't a good trend.
Why didn't I leave things to her and retreat?
Losing sight of the course of your own mind is a fatal flaw, both as a mercenary and as a magecraft-user.
Sigma was on the verge of announcing that he had reconsidered and would withdraw after all, when...
"...I thank you," Assassin said, dropping her gaze. Her voice arrested Sigma's heart.
"You are striving to do good. You are far more worthy of being saved than me, sullied as I am."
...
If I say, "Actually, I'm leaving," now, it will create a fatal gap. That would impair both the chances of my mission succeeding and my chances of survival.
The thought flashed through Sigma's brain. He followed her in silence without giving her an answer.
The noise of Heroic Spirits' fierce battles resounded through the night.
They put distance between themselves and that clamor by circling around to the back of the hospital. After making sure that there was no one to be seen nearby, they entered the hospital grounds.
Inside the ten-story hospital, the police mages had taken measures to clear the area of people and placed a sleeping spell on the inpatient ward.
Even the nurses working the night shift were asleep for the moment and it was the inpatients' normal bedtime. Because there was a risk of unnecessary harm if the sleeping patients' condition suddenly worsened, the magecraft was set to remain in effect for the shortest possible time.
Sigma, who had heard that information from Watcher, decided that he could therefore afford to make a little noise and attempted to take the shortest route from the rear of the hospital. He advanced quickly through the back garden...but when he had made it about halfway across, Assassin grabbed the collar of Sigma's gear and yanked him hard to the side.
"?!"
Before he could ask what she was trying to do, they rained down on the spot where Sigma had been standing.
Numerous bits of metal stuck into the ground.
They were twisted weapons of death—spears formed from countless scalpels, scissors, and other sharp instruments half-melted and fused together.
Seeing them rain down, Sigma guessed that they contained every scalpel, scissor, and bone cutter in the hospital.
"Right, boy. He's spent this short time gathering sharp objects from all over the hospital," the shadow in the form of the captain smirked a short distance away.
"Now, time for the second trial. Overcome it and grow, boy."
Sigma ignored him and looked in the direction the spears seemed to have come from. And...
There, around the fifth floor of the hospital, a man stood perpendicular to the white wall.
"...!"
Sigma's Magic Circuits shuddered. Partly because beside him, Assassin's magical energy had gone wild. But more than that, because the magical energy within the "thing" that stood on the wall with a disregard for gravity was so unnerving. Or perhaps it was not just his perception of magical energy, but his instincts as someone who had fought for so long as a magecraft-using mercenary.
That "thing" is bad news.
The shadows told me that there was a hematophage, but that "thing" is high-ranking even for one of them. Not one of the highest, but it's on another level from an ordinary monster.
It isn't something a human should ever fight.
He had fought a similar creature only once before. That time, he had just barely managed to defeat it by working with other well-known mages and magecraft-users...but the survival instinct he had built up as a magecraft-user was warning him that the "thing" in front of him was more dangerous than the one he had brought down.
For a moment, Sigma froze, overwhelmed not by fear, but by magical energy. Then, the "thing" spoke to him.
"...You made the right choice, boy."
"...?"
"If, just now," the "thing" continued to the suspicious Sigma while slowly clapping his hands, "you had tried to leave that darling girl and retreat alone, I would have gouged out your heart, ground it into the dirt, and spread it around the feed trough in a pig sty."
The man arbitrarily denigrated pig sties as he dropped to the ground with a broad grin. After making a courteous bow, the "thing" pulled off the tricky feat of grinning ecstatically with his mouth while glaring at Sigma with rage-filled eyes and said:
"You also made the worst possible choice, boy."
It was an absurd declaration, contradicting his earlier statement.
"It is absolutely unforgivable for a puny human to try to walk with my darling. I will not tolerate my lovely Assassin so much as making conversation with the likes of you."
The "thing" cracked his neck, then spread his arms wide and proclaimed his fierce resentment with a wicked grin.
"I'll make you incapable of dying and then suck out your Magic Circuits one by one. I'll squash your eyeballs, break every bone in your body, peel off your flesh, violate your brain, rape your heart, pound your lungs to paste, and chop your guts into mincemeat. Oh! Oh! I have it! I'll rip your body into millions and billions of pieces while you're still alive and spread it around the feed trough in a chicken coop!"
His voice grew steadily louder as he arched his back and stared up at the sky, which reflected the gleam of the golden Heroic Spirit's Noble Phantasms...then shifted to an ecstatic grin and turned his head to stare at Assassin.
"I wonder what face you'll make when that happens to someone you opened your heart to, even if only a little. Ah... Oh... Wonderful! You truly are wonderful! Just picturing you sullied by your own tears is enough to make me cry!"
The "thing"—the dead apostle that called itself Jester—actually shed tears of joy as he spoke. Assassin, watching him, had already sprung into action.
Stifling her emotions, but putting all the indignation she had built up until a moment before into her magical energy, she leapt at the monster that was her Master.
In place of the fiend's magical energy, she had the temporary supply Saber had leant her. She poured most of it into her Noble Phantasm.
"...Clad me in black sharpness..."
"Unfeeling Patrolling Spirits: Zabaniya."
Originally Posted by Sandstorm77
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