It is well-known facts that Fuyuki Grail has been stolen, various knock-off emerges, and Holy Grail Wars sparks around the world. Originally best described just as a 'neat' ritual, it suddenly becomes a common practice to reach the Root.
No one had actually successfully won one, and even if they did, it turns out to be flops or incomplete. People should already learn that there are no worth pursuing something yet to be proven, right?
Wrong, the idea of getting a shortcut to reach the Root is far too tempting. Why wouldn't they? 2nd class Mage has a clear chance to reach it. Century-old Mage already grows frustrated from researching crap. The rules are simple enough too.
Kill the other participants and you will reach it.
Among the crafty Mages, some people spread the information of the Grail War to the ears of civilians. Advertising it if they won their wish will be granted, various people without any magical background start joining in. This gives an incredible advantage to the Mages, as they basically cutdown potential competent threats and replace them with incompetent ones.
His Master, Swerhly Taskhero is one of these people. She has a reason to join the war, just like everybody else. At least, she has the same strong will as the 1st rate Mages has. Or, Kanetsugu thinks so.
They were in the night city of Beijing, another unfortunate city holding a Grail War. While the war hasn't officially started, they decided to reconnaissance a little for gaining a geographical and others advantage before the others making their move. Even if you can't set a base on a Leyline, knowing where they located and preparing countermeasures still prove as an asset of information.
Wait...
But they realized there is a Servant nearby. A Servant standing on the tallest of the electric tower, her figure shadowed by moonlight that sits behind her.
Is that a Saber-
In a second, the Servant suddenly disappears from there and then...
SLAAAAAAAAAAASH! In an instant, she appears in front of Swerhly, and swing her katana at high speed.
"-!!! Master-!"
"Kyaaaah!"
Swerhly pushed by Kanetsugu and thrown quite far away. It is the most realistic thing he can do to save his Master in the very small time frame. It may be rough, but it is better than sliced open. After all the enemy is the supposedly strongest Class in the war, the Saber class Servant.
"Hmph, nice reflex you have there, Yoroku."
The now identified Saber, still framed in darkness due to the shadow generated from the buildings around the road. But she seems way too familiar with him, as she just calls him with his childhood name.
Another swing she launched at high speed. This time, it is not targeted on Swerhly, but Kanetsugu. In turn, Kanetsugu receives the attack by parrying it with his katana.
"Saber! Who are you?"
CLAAAAASHH!
The sounds of connected irons roar. After the first slash blocked, she launched more swings. Of course, Kanetsugu parries all of them too. Saber has an exceptional skill to launch confusing, unreadable attacks that let an opponent's guard down. Kanetsugu has a skill gifted by birth to analyze what the best course of action intuitively. But still, her assault is way too easy for him to respond to. As if...
He already familiar with her.
CLAAAAAAASHHHHH!
In an instant, she launched an uppercut attack that may give a fatal wound if not blocked hastily. He did just that, but the result is both of their sword thrown away in the air.
"Your swordsmanship has improved since I instructed you, but it seems your judgment has become duller."
What comes next is not something he can anticipate. She punched him in the gut, full force. The coldness and hardness of her steel glove amplify the already powerful punch.
BAAAAAAAM!
He is thrown away into a nearby building. The sudden impact somehow activates the electricity of the dark street. And the previously unknown Saber can be identified fully.
"Training me-? What are you-"
"No, no way..."
He was in shock, the figure is something that he knows way too well.
"It can't be, that armor, that sword... You are...!"
"Kenshin-dono!?"
Uesugi Kenshin, the person that he admires, the person that he wishes to be. Now standing in front of him, as an enemy that he must to defeat. Her physical appearance is way younger than he remembers, but there is no mistake, this is the lord that he vows to serve for eternity.
"You have been grown into the quite handsome man. You are different from the naive Yoroku that I remember."
Kenshin, unlike her former subordinate who in shock, give him a little smile. She is way too fascinated by seeing the adolescent boy she personally trained in a form that older than her.
"Why are you here?!" Unable, to think anything else, Kanetsugu gets up and ask the most obvious question he can think of.
"I'm one of those that have been freed from the Holy Grail enchantment. Those that the rest of you called, Stray Servant."
But the answer she gives blows his mind in a different way he imagined.
"Stray Servant?! No way, you are here to destroy the Holy Grail?"
Stray Servant is a collective term for Servant that abandoned the Holy Grail War and sought to destroy the Grails scattered around the globe. Some of them even betray their Master and kill them. That's why the term is virtually interchangeable with 'Grail terrorists'.
"Precisely." She jumped to a nearby building, boost her momentum and continue her assault.
"But why?!" But again, Kanetsugu is already ready to receive her attacks.
"Why? To protect the present world, that is my conviction."
"But that's mean, Uesugi's glory will not be restored!"
Another strikes launched and another strike parried. This continues without both parties presenting an opening.
"There is no reason for me to dwell in my past glory." The way she says it is full of regret, yet full of conviction. It is clear that she herself may think the same way like Kanetsugu before, but perhaps, she learned that clinging to old glory constitute the reason why she lost.
Kenshin tries the same tactic before, but this time, she launched it from her feet. Kanetsugu no longer taken by surprise, receive her metal shoes by his bare hand.
"!!! I can't believe you say something like that, Kenshin-dono! Then what reason we fight and die for then?!"
Kanetsugu, in his disbelief from what he just heard, catches her leg with his two hands, then swing her on full force. She was thrown away to the nearest building, demolishing the wall and makes a huge debris.
"This talk doesn't lead us to nowhere. Let just prove it with our sword."
But she quickly gets's up. She clearly gets hurts, but she still smiling. Perhaps she likes how much Kanetsugu grows into an independent man. Or maybe, she just enjoys fighting more than he realizes?
"Let's end this once and for all, Saber of Beijing!" Suddenly, bursts of whirlwinds start guzzling toward Kenshin. It is so intense that light objects such as leaves and papers dragged in the direction of the wind.
It's clear that the real fight will only start now.
This huge amount of magical energy?! She is preparing a Noble Phantasm!
"Master, get out of here! Now!"
"Yes!" But it was too late.
"This is the end, Yoroku." Kenshin now wrapped in blueish energy. She holds her sword up, horizontally above the shoulder, the blade pointing forward, gripping the handle firmly. This is called the Ko-Gasumi stance, or in a western term, Ox Guard.
The bluish energy built up, growing bigger and starts forming into something else. At that moment, a giant Chinese dragon-like aura engulfs Kenshin and her blade.
"Echigo no Ryu!!!"
BLAAAAAAAAASTTTTT!!! She fires her sword forward, releasing the dragon into pure energy of destruction straight toward Kanetsugu and Swerhly. The dragon swallows them whole, then drags them around the city, wrecking everything in its path. A straight crater formed around the highway, with this amount of energy and being directly hit, it surely able to instantly kill anyone.
Nay.
"I will... not... abandon... my Master!"
But what she sees is something that betrays her expectation or perhaps, far exceeds it? Either way, it is clear Kanetsugu still standing. Critically wounded he may be, his eyes and postures clearly say he can take more hits all day and he will still not down.
"!? How...?"
"You call me, Saber, before right? Guess you are mistaken, Kenshin-dono."
"Tenchijin, that's the Noble Phantasm befit the man that protects his lord future to the very end."
She doesn't notice it at first, but there is something different from Kanetsugu after taking the hit. His body radiates white light and wears his iconic helmet with 'love' kanji plastered on it. And his Master, Swerhly, unhurt.
"An extra class? A Shielder!"
"You will not lay a finger upon my Master. I swear upon my heart, my justice, my conviction, my tale, I will stop you!!!"
Firmly held his sword up and his left foot is forward. The blade should slope slightly to the rear. This is the Hasso stance, the most basic stance of kendo, but also the most reliable.
"..." She closes her eyes and smiles.
"You really have grown. I guess calling yourself with your child name because I'm familiar with you is impolite of me."
"You are a hero that spawn your own legend and honor. Fighting you with half of my power is disrespectful! So I'll face you with all of my might! Come, the guardian hero, Naoe Kanetsugu! Show me, the legend of the man that outlived me!"
Originally Posted by King of Padoru
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