Chapter eight- Assassin

Hakuryuu pushed open the door to his and Hakuei's house, closing it behind him. Taking a left he entered the dining room, where all his cousins were already sat with dinner. "Hello," He greeted simply, sitting beside his sister. She looked like a nervous wreck.

Kouen was at the head of the table, "Welcome back." He greeted.

"Took ya long enough," Kouha muttered, picking at his vegetables. Koumei gave him a glare, mouthing 'be polite'. Kouha rolled his eyes.

Hakuryuu served himself, not caring much about the tension-filled silence.

"So I hear you're a master as well, Hakuryuu?" Kouen spoke, looking directly at Hakuryuu.

"Yeah."

"What servant do you have?"

"Which servant do you have?"

Kouen frowned slightly, yet answered, "Caster."

"Lancer."

"Good for you," Kouen nodded. "He's a strong servant."

"Does that mean you two are going to have to fight?" Kouha asked loudly. Kougyoku hid her face in her long shirt sleeves.

"We'll deal with that when it comes to it," Kouen replied, turning to his siblings.

"Hakuryuu, where have you been all afternoon?" Hakuei asked, her expression worried.

Hakuryuu paused eating, deciding to be honest, "I ran into another master at school, but it was nothing."

"You did?!"

"Who?" Koumei asked this time.

"Alexius. Rider's master," Hakuryuu responded absently. He quickly finished eating and stood, "I'll be in my room if you need me."

In his room, Hakuryuu allowed Lancer to materialize and ordered him, "Lancer, go to Alibaba's house and tell him Kouen's servant is Caster. I can tell Judar at another time. He shouldn't fight you."

"Your cousin won't try anything while I'm gone, will he?"

"No, I don't think so. Not in front of Hakuei or his siblings," Hakuryuu shook his head.

"Alright, I'll be back," Lancer nodded and faded into his spirit form.

~

The redheaded servant manifested in front of a strange staircase. It was inside of a thick forest, not too far away from the high school. The stairs led deep into the ground, so far down the servant couldn't see the exit even with her heightened sense of sight. This had to be where Berserker's master went. She'd followed him for a short while, but lost him the second he entered the forest.

Assassin began down the staircase with caution, there could be traps anywhere. Luckily, she didn't have to worry much about any mages inside sensing her; being in the Assassin class gave her the ability of presence concealment, meaning she was very hard for other servants and mages to detect.

Several minutes later she reached the end of the stairs. At the bottom was a long platform. The walls beside her had disappeared, replaced with open air. It was dark, and peering over the edge led her to believe the space was never ending. She pulled out one of her spare knives, a dull, old one, and dropped it over the edge. Even after waiting several more moments, she never heard it land.

Proceeding forward, she saw a large iron door. It was bolted shut, but Assassin found no difficulty in prying it open. She barely got a foot in the door when a pair of black hands extended towards her, stabbing right through her stomach.

But -to her attacker's dismay- just before the hands dug into her flesh, she jumped back, activating one of her special abilities. Within a cloud of smoke her body changed in seconds, splitting into two different people. The pair of hands stabbed where her abdomen was just milliseconds before, missing the servant completely.

The original Assassin retreated, knowing whoever attacked her would do it again. She was slower than usual, barely escaping another wave of hands -four of them this time. It happened whenever she split. Her copy was far ahead of her, having taken her swiftness when she used her power. She could split as many times as she needed to, but the price was her losing one of her skills to the copy. Assassin prefered to remain a whole unless entirely necessary.

Meeting her copy at the stairs, she grabbed them and with just that simple touch, the copy turned to ash in her hands. With her speed now restored, she turned back to the hallway and ran down it at top speed. She dodged and weaved past several hands, all missing her by millimeters.They all came from the same source somewhere within the iron doorway. It was nearly impossible to get to, hand after hand after hand appearing before the servant.

Eventually, it was all too much. Assassin's daggers weren't lowering their numbers at all. They engulfed her, ripping at her skin from every angle. The servant was forced to use her ability again, this time losing her heightened hearing. As Assassin narrowly escaped, slashing her way through more hands, her copy was torn apart. Limb by limb. As she sprinted up the stairs, Assassin couldn't hear her copy's screams, although they were so loud anyone should have been able to.

She ran until she was back in the forest, where she stopped to gather herself. Her clothing was tattered, but it wouldn't take much to fix. Her wounds were worse, chunks of skin missing and claw marks from nails decorating her body. Her master wouldn't be happy. She reluctantly headed back to him anyway.

~

"Assassin, what have you learned?" Ja'far asked as the servant returned.

Assassin dropped to one knee and apologized, "I'm sorry, master. I've learned nothing."

Gilgamesh huffed in amusement, leaning on a nearby wall. Ja'far and Sinbad ignored him, Ja'far asking, "Why not?"

"I was not able to enter their base, it's too heavily guarded," Assassin explained, remaining on her knees. "The attacks were so strong I was forced to use my special ability."

"A special ability? What is it exactly?" Sinbad asked, crossing his arms. "Is it your Noble Phantasm?"

"No, it's not my Noble Phantasm, although it is similar. My ability allows me to create a copy of myself to avoid deadly attacks. In doing so, the copy I create takes one of my abilities with it, like my hearing or sight," Assassin explained.

"Is your copy alright?" Ja'far asked. "What sense did you lose?"

"The first copy I made is one with me again, but the second was torn apart, taking most of my hearing with it. It was all I could do to escape. I'm sorry, Master." Assassin hung her head in shame.

Ja'far and Sinbad looked her over, noticing all her wounds. Ja'far sighed, "It's fine. We'll find another way to get in there. Rise, Assassin."

Assassin stood, asking, "How do you plan on going about this? Luring Berserker's master out?"

"That's one option," Ja'far said, thinking. "For now, we will wait."

~

Strong knuckles knocked on Hakuryuu's bedroom door- Kouen. "Come in," The black haired teen said absently, his nose buried in a book as he lied on his bed. Lancer was sitting at his desk, learning how to work a computer. Both paused their tasks as the red haired man entered the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Hakuryuu, I wanted to tell you about a party I'll be throwing at my mansion two days from now," Kouen spoke, standing at the end of the teen's bed. Kouen's side of the family was far wealthier than Hakuryuu's, him owning a mansion while Hakuryuu and Hakuei had a simple house.

"What for?" Hakuryuu sat up, placing his book on his nightstand.

"Just a party to meet the other masters and their servants. A way for everyone to meet peacefully for a while." Kouen explained. He wore jeans and a black tee-shirt, with a white vest over it.

Hakuryuu chuckled, "So, a trap."

"Not at all. There will be no fighting whatsoever. I just notified the church, they'll tell everyone else."

"Lancer, what do you think?" Hakuryuu looked over at his servant.

"It doesn't sound like a bad idea." Yes it was. It was a horrible idea. Lancer knew that.

"Alright, then. We'll be there," Hakuryuu decided, looking back to Kouen.

Kouen nodded, "Good. Be sure to dress appropriately. Both of you." He nodded again as a farewell, then took his leave.

"That means we're going to need to get you new clothes," Hakuryuu spoke to Lancer, taking out his cellphone. He entered his contacts and scrolled to Judar's name, typing masterfully from years of practice; "Party at Kouen's two days from now. The church sent out a message, but I assume they don't know you. I'll send you what time it's at when I know."

Judar replied moments later; "Kk. Jek too?"

"Yes. Make sure you're dressed nicely."

"Got it~ ;)"

~