Pain seared his being. There was only pain burning all throughout his body. The cause? It was the mud that he and his foe had been bathed in.
"What… is this?"
Kiritsugu coughed as he examined the bloody black muck that pooled around him. But rather than blood, it was more apt to call it mud. Upon one's touch, it burned slightly. Even his damp clothes soaked with the stuff felt heavy, almost as if the grime of the liquid was weighing it down more than it should have.
But all thoughts of the pain and mud drifted away when he lifted his gaze and spotted something glowing up above. Golden majestic rays shone down on his head as his eyes beheld the instrument to his goals. There, hovering in the sky, the golden cup awaited.
"The Grail…" he muttered to himself. 'Which means… Iri's already…'
No, he couldn't waste time on that. He had to claim it before anyone else could—
"And just where do you think you're going?" As soon as he made to lift himself onto his feet, the sound of a gun clicking at the ready caught his attention.
Lelouch Lamperouge, looking a little worse for wear, eyed him cautiously. On one hand, he had a gun trained on Kiritsugu's chest. In the other…
"Agh!" Maiya gasped as blood escaped the corner of her lips, or was it the mud, as Lamperouge carried her around, arms no longer bound but still limp at her sides.
From where Kiritsugu sat, he could see she was still in pain. But unlike earlier, when she could stomach it, now she was actually fighting back tears as her wounds continued to smoke and blacken by the second. The mud that seeped into it appeared to be cauterizing, or perhaps it was worsening her situation? Even her ropes looked to have been singed or crusted away.
Either or, she looked to be on the cusps of death, but that didn't stop the brat from using her as a human shield against him.
"To think the Lesser Grail was in Lady Irisviel's hands all this time. Or rather, it was within her…" The boy snidely commented, still feigning being in control of the situation. "I guess I should've just killed her from the start. Save myself the trouble of unnecessarily having to deal with you."
That caught Kiritsugu's attention. "You… would have the Grail destroyed?"
"Of course." The boy's eyes flitted above once then returned to meet Kiritsugu's. "Had I known the cursed Grail was within your employer all this time, I would've ended this farcical conflict with a swift stroke and saved everyone the time of battling it out for false promises."
'False…?' The mercenary assassin eyed the brat carefully.
Even now, saying all he had, the boy continued to use the half-dead Maiya as a barrier between them. But all the while, Kiritsugu noted the boy's slow retreat away from him. That spoke volumes of how much on guard Lelouch Lamperouge was against his foe.
'Saber, report your situation.'
In a surprising turn of events, the Master who'd continuously ignored his Servant for the longest time broke the mental link silence. And, as soon as the young knight recovered from her momentary shock to respond curtly of her even battle against Avenger, Kiritsugu sighed.
Conditions for his win had never been so perfect until now.
"Earlier, you mentioned that all of us Masters had lost before the War had even begun." Kiritsugu kept a steady, unflinching gaze towards Lamperouge. "Care to elaborate?"
"Would you even listen to the one who openly mocked your dream?" the boy remarked with a smirk, but that vanished when Kiritsugu returned solemn silence. "Would you believe me if I told you that the Grail you seek is cursed? Corrupted? Would you accept it as fact if I told you that something has been wrong even before the first Servants were summoned?"
"What do you mean 'corrupted'? Iri had never mentioned any of that."
"Such familiarity… I guess it really wasn't just an 'employer-employee' relationship." The boy's mumbling went ignored before he continued. "I doubt Lady Einzbern, or any of their kinsmen, knew of the corruption beforehand. Had they realized it, they wouldn't have gone through this folly when a parasite had latched itself onto the cup, tainting it, changing it."
"Where's your proof?" Kiritsugu demanded.
"Why, look around you, Mister Hero," the boy's smile was as devilish as it was taunting. "If the Holy Grail is such a glorious prize, why does it spill a muck that eats away at all?"
Kiritsugu paused at that before sparing his surroundings a glance. Truth to the boy's words, the walls and flooring were damaged. But unlike the results of a simple flooding, there was a clear distinction between the burn marks on the plaster as well as the seemingly melting glass. Maiya's wounds themselves were clearly getting worse, and even Kiritsugu himself felt a bit drained. Like he'd been doused with a depressant slowly eating away at his life force.
"A monstrous 'hero' of a Caster. An Eighth Master and Servant. What's more, a new Servant class is far different from the established ones. Though I cannot speak of the past wars, wouldn't you say something had been off from the start?"
No. Kiritsugu wouldn't deny it. However, the boy was wrong in many parts of his assertions. "You're mistaken, Lelouch Lamperouge."
"Eh?"
"Caster isn't so much of an anomaly as he is a usual occurrence. The Grail's definition of heroes include twisted amalgamations and different interpretations of their legends. Berserker is a prime example. As for Caster, Bluebeard was a hero himself once. Until he'd lost the only one who mattered to him most. As for your Servant, there has been an Avenger class before. But unlike your own, that one had fallen quite easily in the Third Grail War."
Kiritsugu gathered his od and prepared himself for one last gambit. Raising his voice slightly, he garnered a reaction from Maiya. She was still conscious, albeit barely. But if she could move, then…
"And another thing. Though you may say the Grail has been corrupted, you do not have concrete proof of anything. Only conjecture. That's why I won't let you get away!"
With a momentary cry, he darted for his gun. The Contender had been discarded from his person not a few meters away, but with his training, he could make a run for it.
BANG
A gunshot rang followed by a splash of mud near his foot, but that didn't deter the hardened killer. Nothing would. Clicking the gun's chamber open, he pulled out the empty cartridge of his earlier missed shot.
"Persistent bastard—" "Aaaaaaagh!" "—NGH!"
A quick glance to the boy, and Kiritsugu's eyes narrowed. Maiya had pushed through back to the world of the living to distract the brat one last time. "Do it now! Kiritsugu!"
CLICK
'Saber, distract her now!' He conveyed his second command to his Servant. At the same time, the Contender turned to his target: the back of his most loyal tool, as well as one of the few who truly understood him. 'Sorry… Maiya…'
BANG
"Agh!" "GAH!"
The shot struck true, piercing through Maiya who grunted her last with a smile and then hitting the brat with half the force of a sniper rifle. Lelouch Lamperouge collapsed to the mud beneath him, wounded in the lower abdomen but trapped under the weight of a corpse.
There was no way he'd escape now.
"Damn… it…!" the brat coughed with widened eyes. Kiritsugu had approached, looming over the boy with a gun trained on his head. "Ah… I see… Checkmate… for me… is it?"
"You don't sound surprised," Kiritsugu, sounding bored, clicked the gun ready. "Or did you already expect your ancestor to break her code of chivalry?"
That was correct. Via his mental link, he'd ordered Saber to distract Avenger through any means necessary. With as much imagination as a teenager could think of under pressure, a verbal threat to release Excalibur into the building and killing her Master alongside them all had caused Avenger to hesitate for a moment.
It was that very moment that Lelouch Lamperouge was caught. And it was because of that lapse in judgement on the Servant's part that her Master now had a gun pointed to his head.
"To think… this is how… I go… the second time…" The boy exhaled lightly, blood escaping his own lips. "Not being stabbed… but shot…"
Kiritsugu said nothing as he met the brat's eyes. With a practised motion, he pulled the trigger.
BANG
The boy's head fell flat to the mud, sporting a new hole through his left eye socket. Dead as can be, his last foe was gone. And very soon, his Servant would fade away.
He'd won.
Kiritsugu had finally won!
But… at what cost?
His gaze drifted to the other corpse nearby. Turning over Maiya, there was a soft smile gracing her usual stoic features. Even in death, she was still able to smile in a way that cut through Kiritsugu's core more painful than she could stab a knife through him.
The man let out a dry sigh, stifling any and all tears for the departed. There was time to grieve later. Right now, he had to claim the Grail.
Shutting his apprentice's eyes to allow her a peaceful eternal rest, Kiritsugu rushed out of the destroyed hall to find a still-standing staircase. With how high the Grail floated up above, he needed to get closer in order to access it.
In his rush, he failed to notice the black mud claim the boy's body as it dragged him into its shadowy depths.
---
"AAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Pain wracked his body. Specifically, his left eye.
Gasping for air, it took a long while before Lelouch noticed that he was still alive. Or, he knew he was for what else could he be?
Still, to experience such a realistic gunshot to the eye but still clearly be able to see, something was wrong. Only, he didn't notice in his panicked rage.
"Dammit! I was so close!" So close, yet so far. He'd been distracted by the man's asking for the truth. After a quick debate whether he should or not, his arrogance in allowing the man to hear some of what he knew before killing him bit Lelouch back in the ass. Only, he couldn't be angry at Emiya for it entirely. 'Curses… I should've just shot him…'
But be that as it may, right now he needed to contact Nobu. His vengeful daimyo no doubt realized his mistake as soon as he did and he needed to calm her before she burned down the city.
But at this very moment, Lelouch froze.
His eye, the one that was shot, still saw. His vision continued to adjust to the darkness until finally, he was able to recognize his surroundings.
And just that thought alone, apart from his still being alive after receiving a headshot wound, was what caused his very soul to freeze in time.
'What… the… Where… where am I?' The Demon Emperor found himself inside a familiar room. Straightened sheets, a simplistic and well-organized study desk. A shelf fool of study and research material. Walls that looked bland and lacked the décor that was expected of any teenage high school student.
It was the very same room he spent years living in during his time as a normal student.
Ashford Academy… The clubhouse building… His assigned bedroom… Home…
The only thing missing was the green-haired goblin that normally claimed his bed on the pretence that a gentleman would accede to a lady and take the floor.
'This… is impossible!' His mind raced for an explanation, but no one could explain it at all. 'What is… going on?!'
"I heard some noise." A voice, a very familiar one, called out from beyond the door. "Milly is that you?"
'No… No!' Even more than before, Lelouch's breath hitched as he jolted to his feet, tripping onto the floor. 'It… It can't be—!'
It was then that the door opened… and a familiar person, one he'd never forget in all his years ever again, strolled in, driving her wheelchair to a stop before him.
'No…' Bright purple eyes stared back into Lelouch's jaded own. 'Please… don't…'
His reason for living stared long and hard as did he. The one for whose sake he became a hero and monster clasped a hand to cover her mouth. Tears escaped her eyes that could now see as the once-helpless girl whose smile was the light that could always brighten his life exclaimed with happiness she'd never exuded before.
"B-big… brother—?"
The sight of her disbelieving expression tore through Lelouch's heart as tears started to form in his own eyes. Whispering her name, his voice broke.
"Nunnally…"
***
Author's note:
The reasons behind this fanfic existence. There are two reasons but right now I will reveal one of them. Back in 2020, I became interested in Fgo (grave mistake) and that was when I saw the Avenger Nobunaga. I was so captured by her design that I started to read about the real deal Nobunaga and soon was reading his life history. Soon, I started playing Fgo NA, so yeah, Nobu made me join this salty hell :D But beyond that, I wanted to roll for her and heard about how some players will perform strange and weird things to summon their wanted servant, the catalysts they are called. And so I decided to do it too but in a different way. Many of you probably already figured out what was my catalyst :D
This fanfic is my catalyst for Avenger Nobunaga and it worked! ( LvL 100, NP 1, 10/10/10)
So yeah, thanks to special thanks to ReavesTheReader for making this chapter amazing!