Fate/Zero:Act 2 Part 4
172:38:15
The saying about the hour when even trees sleep doesn't apply to magi and Servants.
The heroic spirit of the shadows, Assassin, has a better grasp than anyone on the complexity of being prepared in the darkness of the night.
Moreso since the magi gathered in the city of Fuyuki have a double interest. Standing on the hill of the Miyama town, neither of the western-styled houses of Matō and Tōsaka are left behind in term of splendor.
Masters aiming for the Grail, the two landlords are using, lately, some low-grade familiars to patrol left and right, day and night around their visible castles. Naturally, the master of the mansion must be ready, and stretch around a multitude of bounded fields for detection and defense even inside the mansion; it must be a stronghold in the magical sense of the term.
Stepping unauthorized into the bounded fields is all but safe, all the more for the large mass of prana that is a Servant. Essentially, regardless if it is a spiritual body, it should be just about impossible to slip through the bounded fields of the fortress undetected.
However, the impossible can always be made possible. That is the presence concealment skill of the Assassin class. While he does not excel in battle power, Assassin can suppress his prana emission until it reaches zero to creep in the shadow and reach his target.
Additionally, for the Assassin of this time, Kotomine Kirei's Servant, this night's infiltration operation was especially easy. The garden he is now sneaking in isn't the one of the Matō mansion that has been considered enemy territory for a some time. It is the mansion of Tōsaka Tokiomi, who was his Master Kirei's ally until just yesterday. Of course, Assassin too has agreed with Kirei and Tokiomi to deceive the other Masters and remain undercover. Obeying that secret agreement, he has undertaken the guarding of the Tōsaka mansion on countless occasions. Knowing all about the disposition of the bounded fields, he is naturally aware of the blind spot.
In his spiritual form, Assassin progressed through the many alarm fields without a problem, laughing at the ironic fate of Tōsaka Tokiomi. That arrogant magus has placed a considerable faith in his protégé Kirei, but can't imagine he might be bitten by his dog.
Kirei's order to murder Tokiomi has reached Assassin not an hour ago. He is unsure of what urged Kirei to change his mind, but Tokiomi's summoning of a Servant a few days ago must be when it began. Tokiomi seems to have summoned the Servant Archer, but apparently, that heroic spirit must be weaker than Kirei expected. And as the merit of the cooperation with Tokiomi fades away, he agrees with the decision Kirei took this night.
| Back to Act 2, part 3 | Return to Main Page | Forward to Act 3, part 1 |
