'I have asked myself many times...'
Why?
Seeing the scars on his arms, he squinted painfully. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see that horrible past life. He often tried to erase those memories from his mind, but now he found out that it's not about forgetting all that. There are things worth remembering.
'It's not about forgetting'
The past is what forged his present.
"My present will forge my future."
He said to himself. Toru doesn't want his future to be filled with regrets and suffering. It was time to grow up and accept everything about himself.
A gentle smile formed on his mouth.
'Damn... I keep overthinking everything.'
He took the wine glass in his hand and, resting on one of the church pews, he toasted in solitude. He raised the glass high.
'I'm going to win. I'm going to come back. I want... I want...'
He wants to live.
-The next day-
Risei informed all Masters that the rules of the war have temporarily changed due to certain special circumstances. Caster is jeopardizing this war, so all Masters must unite and kill Caster and his Master as quickly as possible, otherwise this Holy Grail War will come out to the world. This would not only affect the church, but also the Wizardry Association. Also, whoever kills Caster will receive a command seal as a reward.
Although the church was "empty" when Risei gave the announcement, the information reached all the Masters. And at the same time, in the shadows with his dematerialized body, Toru narrowed his eyes. A bunch of scenarios formed in his mind after hearing the rule change.
'I remember Caster mentioned something interesting about Saber. If he intends to abide by what he said, then the situation that will be created next is in my favor.'
Also, just this morning Toru saw something interesting with one of his clones in the area where the building exploded.
'Lancer's Master is still alive. He was in that mercury bubble. That time at the port that person proved to be too proud, so it is quite likely that he will attack Saber's Master's base sooner rather than later. Considering the strategic points that are distributed throughout Fuyuki City, then the enemy's bases are quite obvious. In fact, I already have the locations of all of them."
The bad thing was that Caster and his Master are always on the move. So it's more likely that there's more than one base of operations for them aside from that place full of dead children.
"Now this is when this war really gets fired up."
He turned around and walked through the walls thanks to his dematerialized form. By the time he realized it, he was already outside the church.
'How first objective... I'm going to kill the Master of Saber and I know where to start.'
It was time to be a true Assassin.
But first...
***
The door of a store opened and a woman's voice thanked the person who came out. It was Toru, who at that moment was wearing his butler's suit. He was carrying a paper bag in his hands filled with the bread that had him obsessed. He took a loaf out of the bag and bit into it.
"It's horrible..."
The sweet taste of the bread and fruit was disgusting, at least to Toru it is that way, but every time he ate this sweet, he remembered Kyoko's smiling face as she ate that sweet bread. A smile formed on his face. The words he said to himself last night echoed in his mind.
"Some things are worth remembering."
He may not be a good person, not at all, but he is no different from others. Even though his hands are stained with the suffering of others, he doesn't want to go back to those times. To be happy together with the people he cares about the most....
'I must kill all the Masters and their Servants.'
Even if he must stain his hands even more, his conviction is to win, and now nothing will stop him.
-That same night-
Toru saw with the Shigan the great and strange magical barrier that enveloped much of this gloomy forest. Although they were not in plain sight, with his eyes and senses, he perceived strange invisible formations moving everywhere within the magical barrier.
'It's a problem not being able to communicate with my clones. If I had my Rinnegan I could even see through the eyes of my clones. Still, I must act with what I have. My clones are watching everything from afar.'
He understood that, although he is dematerialized, he could pass through the barrier, but there were still the strange invisible figures. These can detect the spirits, so it would be a problem to break through them.
"Breaking through the barrier in one cut will alert the enemy. I guess I should dodge then."
Toru stepped into the barrier, and as expected of the Assassin class, this didn't alert anyone. But now came the fun part. Dodging the invisible entities and avoiding touching any of them. He then advanced calmly. Despite the formations being invisible, no matter if most of them had geometric figure shapes, he evaded them by moving from one side to the other with elegance and agility.
To get through everything faster, he took a leap and as he climbed, he was very careful not to touch anything, making sure his cloak and scarf didn't get in the way. The same thing happened when he descended.
...
...
...
***
"Oh, Jeanne! Here I am, just as I promised!"
That spirit, Caster, stepped through the magical barrier and rejoiced. Near him stood eight children no more than ten years old. They all had lost looks, as if they were hypnotized. They walked beside Caster, staggering weakly.
Caster looked up at the sky. He knew someone was watching him. He actually "felt" the gaze of the blissful Jeanne d'Arc on his shoulders. He felt a sharp gaze full of disdain for him. But instead of that bothering him, he spread his arms wide and laughed loudly.
Meanwhile, another of Toru's clones watched the situation from this side of the forest. He watched Caster silently. He narrowed his eyes and with the Shigan analyzed this guy's every move.
'I must assume that Saber will not allow these innocent children to get hurt. So, if she comes to this place, she will leave her Master unprotected.'
A rather logical thought. Now Caster released the children under the pretext of playing a game. This would definitely appeal to someone like Saber, who puts her honor as a knight above all things.
***
Inside the castle, Kiritsugu waited patiently from that brightly lit room, with a lot of information about the Masters printed on the sheets of paper lying on the large table.
'Hm... Iri left together with Maiya. Saber went after Caster. If I'm not mistaken...'
His gaze became sharp. Explosions began to be heard below him. Someone is making a commotion.
And likewise, one of Toru's clones watches the outskirts of the castle. Standing on the top of a tree in his dematerialized form, so as not to waste mana.
Although this clone could not see what was going on inside, he could see Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald himself enter the castle along with a large mercury bubble. Then he took a leap and found himself near the main entrance. There Kayneth called the Master of Saber to come out, so as to challenge him to a duel where their lives would be in danger.
'Just as I predicted, everything is in my favor.'
Toru's eyes glowed in the dark veil of night. He stepped back and hid in the shadows, waiting for the precise moment for the original Toru to attack the Master who survives this contest.
***
Nearby, Irisviel looked at the castle. She worried too much about Kiritsugu. She didn't know if what she was doing was what her heart wanted, so she hesitated to leave.
"Madame...?"
Maiya noticed Irisviel's absence so she looked back. Someone in the shadows watched them and overheard the conversation.
Dematerialized, a clone of Assassin, Toru, narrowed his eyes. The conversation was about this Emiya Kiritsugu, someone Toru already heard about from Tokiomi and Kirei.
'It seems that these women are very close to Emiya. If he's ordering them to flee, that gives me two options.'
How Master, to keep herself safe, Irisviel is fleeing together with Maiya. The second option is that the real Master stayed to fight alongside his Servant.
'I could kill them both right now, but...'
Something interesting happened. Irisviel felt someone else break through the barrier. With this Toru's dematerialized eyes glowed. This woman, it was obvious, but only now he noticed. Silver hair and red eyes.
'Where I come from I've already seen people with those characteristics, but in this world those characteristics are not attributed to ordinary humans. Homunculus of the Einzbern family, huh...'
However, when Maiya asked, Irisviel responded by saying the name of the person who broke through the barrier.
"Kotomine Kirei..."
Toru opened his eyes expectantly, his Master's name echoed in his mind.
'He's here?'
To make sure Kirei doesn't discover him acting alone, he left a clone as a decoy, however, if this clone had no choice but to act as the real Toru, at any moment that clone will disappear, as all the clones Toru created are not made for fighting, as their mana levels are too low. The clone would not be able to perform any ninjutsu, plus its physical strength is infinitely inferior to that of the original.
'Although this was not in my plans, I have no choice anymore...'
With nothing more to say, the clone took a leap and followed the women.
***
After breaking through the magical barrier, Toru finally found himself on the north side of the castle. He watched as the walls and windows exploded hit by something. The fight was going on between those two Masters.
"Then I'll just have to wait."
He climbed up one of the branches of a nearby tree and watched closely. The fight inside the castle was intense. Kiritsugu was constantly running away from Kayneth in order to attack after finding weaknesses in the Lord's mercury defense.
"Not for nothing is he a Magus assassin. It's surprising that he's surviving such an enemy."
Magic is quite a powerful weapon in the right hands. Kayneth was demonstrating why he is one of the Twelve Lords of the Clock Tower. Toru had to praise the control that man has over his magics.
"I can't see through walls, but I can feel the vibrations and make simulations in my mind of what's going on. For survival, Emiya should have prepared something against Lord El-Melloi by now"
***
At the same time, on the eastern side of the forest, Lancer suddenly arrived to help Saber in her fight against Caster. The Toru clone carefully analyzed each of the enemy's moves and stored them in his memory.
'It looked like Saber was going to lose, but this guy had to get in the way.'
He was really hoping that Caster would kill Saber. If that happened, that would be killing Saber and Saber's Master in the same night, but slowly, what seemed to be in Toru's favor was turning against him.
'I guess I have nothing else to do here. I must report back to the original'
The clone put two fingers together in front of his face and closed his eyes. Instantly, he disappeared enveloped in a cloud of smoke, which for a moment alerted the others present, but since they were in the middle of a battle with grotesque starfish-like creatures summoned by Caster, they didn't have time to see what it was.
***
At the same time, original Toru received the information and smiled calmly.
'Interesting... Now the other clones are missing.'
The information about Caster's grimoire was quite useful to Toru. In the middle of that fight it was mentioned.
'The next one after Emiya should be Caster's Master.'
***
"Hm? The original is close. I have nothing to do here anymore. Due to the size of the building, the original Toru will be able to cover everything that happens, after all these two Masters are quite outrageous when fighting"
Boom! Bang! x20
The sounds of bullet detonations echoed throughout the forest. The heavy blows against the structure echoed like vibrations and loud booms. It seemed that this fast-paced contest was about to end.
Puff! With nothing else to do, the clone relaxed and disappeared.
***
This gave more information to the original Toru, who nodded in response to the images that appeared in his mind.
"There are two more clones left. The one with Kirei and the one that was on the west side of the forest."
The last clone Toru mentioned was about the one that was following Maiya and Irisviel.
"I'll undo the last clone in a little while. Kirei shouldn't suspect anything, but it's also not that much of a problem for him to find out, because I told him from the start."
...
...
Toru is not going to obey all of that man's orders. The time had come to get even more serious in this war.
To be continued...