From one moment to the next, he stopped in a limbo between life and death. A voice in the distance whispered his name. He closed his eyes as he bled out and suddenly felt himself sinking into the depths of blood. This was not the blood of his Bounded Field, it felt different. The blood was heavier, thicker, and dark....
In the blink of an eye, he appeared in his old home in Konoha. He was sitting in front of a small table and across from him was his mother, Kyoko, eating a loaf of bread with an adorable smile on her face.
"Okaa-sama..."
He soon realized that this wasn't real... It's just another one of those stupid cute dreams that ended in tragedy. Still, Toru crawled over to her and laid his head in the woman's lap.
Kyoko raised her eyebrows, her mouth full of bread. She looked like a squirrel with nuts on her cheeks.
"Okaa-sama... I'm tired" he closed his eyes. "I'm... very tired..." and took a calming breath.
She smiled. She swallowed her bread and stroked her son's hair. The sunlight outside seemed unreal, as if this were paradise. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming. This moment was perfect. His mother's warmth made him feel safe.
"Then rest," she said. "Breathe easy... Clear your mind..." and she smiled tenderly, but... "Rest... aLeK%$/&/$###"??????????????!!!!!!!!!"
Toru immediately opened his eyes at the mention of his past life's name. What he saw when he opened his eyes was no longer the peaceful place he was in. He was now standing in front of his house on the day his family was massacred. The memory was distorted in the darkness, and the words of a mysterious being whispered in his ear.
[I know what you really wish for. I can fulfill your wish.]
It wasn't really a voice, it was the thought of something in the darkness; just words that suddenly appeared.
Toru looked behind his back, when everything disappeared turning dark. Something appeared floating in the void. It was a golden chalice, bright and pure. Is it the chalice talking? There was no concrete way of knowing.
What Toru did know was that the thought kept repeating itself.
[I know what you really wish for. I can fulfill your wish.]
Before he could probe further, Sakura's voice interjected with his thoughts.
***
After Toru was thrown like a rag doll in the trash, she ran out to help him. As she ran being accompanied by the Assassin clone, she held out her hand and command spells glowed. Her thoughts traveled through space until they reached Toru.
"Assassin!" she said, alerting everyone on the scene. "Heal!" and the first command spell was cast.
One of the petals that make up Sakura's command spell design vanished. Then an eerie dark light enveloped Assassin's body. His broken ribs knitted back together and the mutilated flesh of his chest closed up as if time had turned backwards. His torn clothes returned to normal. All his wounds healed...
Assassin instantly opened his eyes and jumped back, standing in front of Sakura, who had already entered the scene.
Saber looked intently at Assassin and frowned. She was angry for an instant at Assassin for entering a battle in such a creeping manner, but her anger subsided when she saw the servant's appearance. At the same time, Shirou staggered wearily as he noticed another servant and his master joining the battle. He suddenly felt a strong dizziness and fell to his knees on the ground. His mind became foggy and his body lost strength. This was a product of his previous battle and the strange experiences he gained out of nowhere.
Saber had to ignore Assassin to help Shirou.
As for Illya, she touched her neck painfully. She was about to be killed by Assassin. And that didn't please Berserker at all, who shouted angrily, ready to launch himself at Assassin.
However, Assassin had been staring at the ground in silence. He thought deeply about what he saw, but as he heard Berserker's heavy footsteps running towards him, all those thoughts vanished.
"Get her out of here!" ordered Assassin to his clone.
The clone obeyed and took Sakura in his arms, jumping backwards to get her out of harm's way. Assassin pulled out his wind daggers again, which attracted Saber's attention. He's using the same trick as her to hide his weapons.
Berserker charged at Assassin. He raised his sword high to cleave him in two and Illya thought he was already dead, as Assassin could not withstand a single blow before. But she was wrong. Assassin used both daggers to parry the sword and succeeded.
The ground beneath his feet sank and the expression beneath his mask was one of absolute effort. Berserker was even angrier to see that this insect could resist so he began to strike with all his might as Assassin resisted.
"It's Assassin..." puzzled, Illya looked at Sakura "She called it Assassin, but it doesn't look like one..."
At Illya's doubt, who had become dismayed, Saber looked at the Assassin. He wears a skull mask, an old patched black cloak, and under that cloak he wears pure samurai-style clothing and a pair of wind-sharpened weapons. These could be two swords, but also two daggers. If there was a possibility that this was the Assassin she knew, would she be able to fight him?
Meanwhile, Assassin was being smashed to the ground. His body was barely resisting each of the blows, but he could withstand it. He took advantage of the fact that Berserker's attacks were wide, and when Berserker raised his sword, Assassin disappeared.
Illya and Saber frowned to see him. Assassin had jumped up and positioned himself above Berserker. In midair, Assassin flexed his legs. Saber opened her eyes, superimposing one of her memories with what was happening in front of her.
"That style..." she could only say that before running out of breath.
Assassin narrowed his eyes under her mask. [Dansu Gyakusatsu] And in a split second, he jumped onto one of the air platforms and plummeted down against Berserker.
It was like an unpredictable flash. One moment Assassin was up in the sky, and the next he was slitting Berserker's throat. His speed was impressive, and that wasn't all. Assassin jumped again on the ground and slashed Berserker's back.
The colossus screamed turning around and swung his sword, but instead of hitting Assassin, it hit the ground. Berserker realized that Assassin was no longer there, that he had jumped again and was in the air again.
Without giving him time to react, Assassin jumped onto another air platform and lunged at Berserker to slash him in the arm. Achieving his goal, he jumped once more and repeated the same process... a hundred times in one second.
Saber watched each move with her eyes lit up. In the past someone had used that same fighting style against her. Every jump was precise, every slash was perfectly calculated. He was physically weak, but when it came to being agile and swift, he was better than Lancer.
"Dansu Gyakusatsu..."
Saber recognized that style perfectly. For a moment she looked at Shirou and regretted having to protect him right now. That Assassin was likely to be Asahi Toru. Of course, she couldn't be sure, as there were people in the world who could use the same styles. Even if it was just a probability, she wanted to talk to Assassin, but she had something more important to do right now.
'I swore to protect Shirou' as a knight, she couldn't break her promise, but she also had a promise with Asahi Toru.
Assassin's attacks were relentless. His every move looked like a dark trail bouncing all over the place. Berserker couldn't hit him because of how fast Assassin was going.
'His kill lines are fast.'
It was obvious that this would be the case. Berserker possessed beastly stamina. The edge of his daggers couldn't reach those lines so he had to increase his pace, but he also had to increase the damage of his weapons. He crossed the daggers in front of his face and injected mana into them.
The daggers flared like a torch in the darkness and became fearsome swords incinerating human flesh. The glow of that flame showed in the eyes of Berserker, who clenched his teeth tightly as his muscles grew even stronger.
"Berserker! Don't let it defeat you! Crush it! Kill them all!" shouted Illya. After her moment with Shirou was interrupted, she had no choice but to punish Assassin.
Saber scowled at her, but the girl showed a creepy smile. There was no way to resume their fight anymore. Now Berserker was entertaining Assassin and Saber is not the kind of woman who would jump in to kill a defenseless person, not now....
After Illya's words, Berserker seemed to sink deeper into madness. His stats increased again and his strength skyrocketed. Assassin is like a fly that bothers a lot, so Berserker raised the sword and slammed it into the ground. The entire ground rose up in stones and dirt, but for the first time in a long time, Assassin smiled confidently.
"Thank you. Now I don't have to spend so much mana" he shot off like a star in space, propelling himself in a second with all the debris that rose up. Light illuminated the forest and lines of irregularly moving fire hit Berserker. "With this I can kill you" he said, and with his Shigan he saw Berserker's lines of death.
In that same split second, Assassin pierced Berserker and Berserker's gaze went out, his body burst into flames as he fell to his knees on the ground, a gaping hole in his chest, and his death lines disappeared from his body.
Assassin won...
"Impossible. Berserker..."
Illya was afraid of Assassin. The servant looked at her with the glowing eyes of the mask. The daggers in his hands were still lit, showing elongated Japanese blades. He was like a shadow of death in front of Berserker, who was burning in flames, slowly turning into ashes that broke his body into pieces.
"Looks like it did work," Assassin said, his voice distorted from his mask, but then he sighed. "Or maybe it didn't..."
Disappointed, he turned around and blocked another sword from Berserker, who was still burning in flames, but his body was in one piece. Now the fire was not hurting him, as it is one of the properties of his Noble Phantasm.
Berserker will be able to revive, and every time he comes back, he becomes immune to whatever killed him. Of course, he could not become immune to something like the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, as this ability is at a much higher level than his Noble Phantasm, but he could become immune to other things involved in his death, such as the flames that burned him.
This time Toru sank to the ground completely from the surprise attack. Berserker had too abysmal strength. After reviving, his stats increase even more. He is a completely unfair servant to the other masters.
Saber saw that Toru had disappeared. He had sunk to the ground, but there was no trace of him. Suddenly, a creaking sound was heard, and two earthen walls rose up on Berserker's sides. The walls fell on him, but did nothing to him. Again, however, he opened his eyes in pain.
Behind him lay Assassin, stabbing him in the back. Berserker's gaze went out again and he fell face first to the ground. He died again, which made Illya horrified. She realized that Assassin was somehow able to evade Berserker's immunity.
"I knew it..." whispered Saber. "It's him..."
Only Asahi Toru was capable of doing ridiculous things like that. He might as well kill Berserker or summon a star in the sky.
Shirou, half-dead, looked at Saber's expression. In all this time she had been understanding and a good person to him, as well as a stoic and calm girl leaving the battlefield aside, but looking at Assassin she showed a different side. Saber's gaze possessed an overwhelming determination.
"How many more times can you die, Berserker? I got curious," he said.
It even looked like Assassin was joking. Sakura looked at the dominance Toru had over the situation. He didn't lie. In a one on one duel, he is capable of winning.
"We don't know how many more times Berserker can die, but the original is capable of killing him. But if Berserker keeps getting stronger, there will come a point where he will force us to use our Noble Phantasm" said the clone. "But with our speed and our eyes, for now, it should be more than enough."
To the bad luck of all masters, a servant even more unfair than Berserker had appeared. He does not possess immortality, nor does he possess a strength that is capable of tearing another servant apart with a single blow, but his mind, his abilities and his Mystic Eyes were his greatest strength.
Just as before, Berserker stood up again. He shouted angrily and attacked Toru. He jumped and dodged, but this time Berserker matched him in speed. The two began a powerful exchange of blows. It was exactly the same as when Berserker fights Saber.
When it looked like the fight would escalate further, Illya spoke up.
"Berserker..."
Berserker shouted angrily, punching, punching, punching, again and again. He wasn't obeying Illya's orders. He was still furious with Assassin for beating him twice and he wasn't going to stop until he crushed the cockroach.
"Berserker!" but Illya screamed. Her whole body was filled with red spots, her command spells, covering her entire body.
This time the colossus stopped instantly although it seemed Illya hadn't expended any command spells to do so. Berserker lowered his weapon and looked Assassin in the eyes. Out of nowhere he roared in his face at the top of his lungs and leapt to position himself next to his master.
Illya and Berserker looked at Assassin with a frown, but turned to leave.
"Huh... Are you running away?" said Assassin. "No one's running away from me... Because I know where you're hiding."
Illya stopped for a second, but then kept walking. Beside him, Berserker faded into nothingness.
"I'll come find you myself" he whispered. Then he turned around and, about to dematerialize his body to leave, as this place was already heavily compromised by the masters, Saber stopped him.
"Assassin!"
He looked at her silently. The time for fighting was over, but if Saber wanted to fight and die, Assassin would be happy to fight.
"... Next time we meet, I hope we can talk."
That he did not expect at all.
Shirou coughed up blood and Saber carried him in her arms. She looked at Assassin one last time and then ran into the forest. This made Toru stand in thought. He understood absolutely nothing of what had just happened, but he had managed to gather a lot of information so, on this night, the only one who lost today was Berserker.
"That went better than I expected" he vanished in his ghost form and returned to Sakura.