Fuyuki, Homurahara Academy Rooftop
Sadly, things weren't so simple, no.
'No matter how much I learn about this timeline, it keeps surprising me in the worst ways possible!'
Such was the thought when he once again crossed blades with a woman who wore a familiar-looking face with a far steelier expression while stabbing at his vitals with no hint of fairness or chivalry. Just the cold-hearted aim of putting him down.
Assassin held nothing back and went for his neck. Unlike his former sword-trainer, the girl looked calm. Unlike the spandex-wearing battle-mongering spearman, Assassin bore the cadence of a killer whose aim was just that, his death.
"Kuh!" he gritted his teeth, parrying another swipe of the katana that tried to gouge out his eyes.
She fought serenely, gracefully, even as she exuded enough killing intent to give the average mook a heart attack. At least the noisy hound of Chulainn had enough battle lust to drag out their encounter. Assassin though, she was keen on exploiting her glaring advantage over him through her weapon mastery and speed.
She was fast like a ninja, clearly faster than the other timeline's swallow killer. But while she had speed, she lacked the great strength Sasaki and Cu could bring to bear. He faced less of a warrior and more a blade master, hence being pushed back but not entirely overwhelming his defences, thankfully.
Still, her presence was an anomaly. Her silence was unnerving. The stoic expression she bore while cloaked in the colours of the Shinsengumi was similar but not the same as the great King of Knights who he admired. She didn't even fight for fun or competition. She was just here to kill.
He didn't want to admit it, but Archer kind of missed the blue-clad, red-spear toting Irishman. 'Fighting that loudmouth at least felt like a sport!'
He grits his teeth as he pushed his Mind's Eye to counter Assassin's speed. She was jumping from one position to another, teal and white haori sleeves billowing in the wind. Her traction was forcing Archer to quickly turn to his sides and parry almost blindly as she didn't waste time in her attempts to skewer him over and over again. She was swift to use every window of opportunity he tried to bait her yet even faster to counter feint his traps before he could catch her. She didn't manage to touch him so far. For that, Archer felt proud to be able to keep up. But… he knew that he couldn't keep this up for long.
Lancer was a familiar foe. He could match the guy so long as he only fought to entertain the dumbass' battle boner. Assassin was here to kill. And he can't even catch her off guard.
Despite being of the class ill-suited for head-on combat, this Assassin was able to duel him with ease. Granted, he wasn't the orthodox Archer either, but he couldn't risk just throwing the whole armoury at her when there was a risk she could escape and inform her Master about him.
What if she was an alternate Assassin Medea summoned instead of Sasaki? That was a possibility, right? He couldn't risk the Witch of Colchis getting wise to his capabilities until Heracles was dealt with.
Then again, could he even run under the assumption that Caster and Berserker were the same? Not at all. He still couldn't risk it though. Not when more things were at stake, like the survival of Rin's mother and maybe-friend now that they're in close proximity to the war.
God, things were so much easier when they weren't.
"You're distracted!" The girl's soft voice tickled his ears from behind as he caught a glimpse of sakura-colored petals flowing in the breeze, alongside the glint of steel.
He threw Bakuya in between himself and the katana, the cross-guard taking the full brunt of it and shattering the moon-white blade before he threw Kanshou in Assassin's face. The swordswoman leapt back, not expecting a thrown sword but deflected it skyward.
"You would discard a weapon in the face of your killer?" the girl tilted her head, katana at the ready but not pushing her advantage over an unarmed opponent. "If you weren't a fellow Heroic Spirit, I'd consider that act unwise. What are you up to?"
She was suspicious. That at least told him she wasn't stupid enough to fall for his tricks like certain others. A shame. He didn't hesitate to summon another copy of his married blades and throw two pairs her way.
Eyes widening a bit, she expertly parried all four swords out of the way and came straight at his face as he summoned a third pair to lock blades with her. It was only because he held her still that she couldn't gut him where he stood, but being able to pressure her in place should be good enough.
"You're good." Archer held his ground, ensuring Assassin couldn't escape as he made banter. "As expected of the great Okita Souji."
She narrowed her gaze but didn't flinch as she went for a kick at his shin and tried severing his neck twice when he retreated. It's a good thing he had two swords, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to defend and blade lock her again. His comment did pique her curiosity, though.
"You know of me? Have we met in life, warrior?"
"Not that I'm aware of." He shoved her back under his guard, forcing her to retreat and throwing both of his blades on either side of her. She deflected both copies of the sword into the floor with a double parry but had to swiftly avoid him when Archer charged at her with more copies of the married blades. She chose to somersault over and even managed to get a slice across his back but only a shallow one. "Dammit, you're slippery!"
"A swordsman who lets themselves be rooted to the ground is nought but an amateur!" She came down, cutting a gash between his shoulder and neck, prevented by his recklessly swinging his swords in the way. Neither of his blades was safe from the impact though, chipped and cracking but holding the katana back from completely eviscerating his neck off. "You may be able to endlessly summon your weapons, but someone lacking the spirit to fight with their all will never be able to keep up with my blade."
Archer smirked, enduring the momentary agony of being nearly beheaded for the opening he wanted. "Then let's see you keep up with my fighting spirit, samurai!"
Exerting himself, he summoned the discarded blades she deflected earlier. What had been cast aside came back with a vengeance as the wind whistled overhead. Six swords of identical make to the one keeping him alive all whirled like razors of death for Assassin's back. She had the temerity to dodge them one by one, somersaulting mid-air and dancing in the breeze to avoid them all, only having to clip and shred the tips of her black scarf, but she didn't escape unscathed.
In the moment she fled and unburdened her blade from his neck, Archer pushed his mana into the chipped swords he used to defend. The twin falchion blades emanated with power, shattering and remoulding as their lengths grew with vicious sharpness. He had to stifle the blood escaping his lips as he swung a full circle around, bringing the newly formed longswords to bear at his fleeing foe.
"Overedge!" The swords exploded in length, reaching further past and catching Assassin by surprise as it swatted at her.
"Ngh!" Okita Souji was many things, but being able to fight in the air without a foothold was not one of them. She made to block his attack, but the weight of the two elongated swords bursting with mana forced her down into the ground on her back. Not letting up, he let them shatter into motes of light and lunged with a pair of newly summoned short swords.
"You little—Guh!" she managed to block his follow-up strikes but was still reeling from the impact. She was able to block once but unable to avoid the cut that clipped her side down to her right leg. as she fell back further away to the far end of the rooftop. Archer didn't follow, having exerted himself a little too much in that instant.
She was right. He wouldn't be able to kill her with his fighting spirit. He wasn't even fully intending to go for the kill. But he did score a hit.
Assassin didn't take her eyes off him, but both could see that neither escaped this clash without injury. His neck and shoulders were in agony, but he could endure it a little longer. Not too long though. She was fast and able to hold her sword, but he did clip her leg. Mobility was going to be her problem.
"So… Still itching for a fight?" he broke the awkward silence.
"At the moment, not as much as earlier." Assassin stood firm, letting her leg bleed out a bit so as to not compromise her guarded stance. "But… I was ordered to kill you."
"If you want to continue, fine by me. I was just enjoying the view until a certain someone decided to barge in and go for my head."
"Not my proudest moment, I'll admit." She nodded, a little playfully at that. "But it was an order by my Master, the stranger. Until she rescinds it, you're my target to be slain." Her blade shifted to a ready stance. "No hard feelings."
"None from my end." Archer matched her poise. Injured as they were, neither was willing to give the other an opening.
Though, Archer ruminated just how bad his luck was this time around. Not only was he severely on the back foot, what info he could glean from his foe aside from her True Name and fighting style was not worth being crippled over for.
Knowing Assassin's Master was a 'she' hardly narrowed the candidates down. For all he knew, it could be Illya or even Taiga for that matter. Not that he'd ever suspect them without evidence, but the lack of any recognizable ones left him flying blind.
And for someone who relied on precognition, seeing through his foe's disguises, and looking up their weaknesses through a magical cheat sheet just to get by, this was definitely a shitshow. Forget escaping unscathed, he could end up losing before the halfway point. And wouldn't that set him back another Grail War.
He inwardly growled that failure here could mean failing to keep Rin's better life intact. Just the thought of damning what should've been a dead woman in another timeline still made him sick to his stomach.
'It couldn't have been a simple butterfly effect to throw me an Assassin while keeping someone who should've died alive. A change this big is too drastic…' It wasn't just the people. Rin already gave him the summary of the last war and even that left many questions. Questions about the city, the state of the other clans, and what happened with the Mage Association. So many questions that should not be allowed to distract him in this time of uncertainty. 'Something or someone is behind all of these changes. A new player, perhaps? But who? Is it someone I know? Likely not. Just swapping out Sasaki is already concerning. If Medea didn't anchor the Masterless samurai to the shrine then… was he even there? Dammit. This is tiring.'
"You seem distracted, my foe." Archer snapped out of his thoughts to intercept her swift stab to his neck. He tried to parry and counter-stab with his own, but she managed to slip away from his reach, testing his guard with nary a scratch this time around. "Your draw is swift; I'll give you that."
"I had a great teacher." He said, testing his steps to see how she'd react to his subtle approach.
"Hm. Not someone I'm familiar with, are they?"
"Perhaps not on a personal level. But you might be surprised how much you resemble each other if you were to meet face-to-face."
She narrowed her gaze at that but didn't act out of form. He realized she was trying to stall for time. Or maybe just looking for a chance to kill him and retreat before other Servants caught wind of her injuries. In any case, neither of them were in the position to—
The tapping of footsteps drew his attention as it did hers. Neither flinched to turn to the door leading to the rooftop, but whoever it was, it was clear they weren't a Servant.
But no Master was stupid enough to barge in on a fight. Leaving the only candidate who was often the last student in school at this hour…
'Damn you, you idiot.' The face of one selfless redhead haunted his mind. 'Even if it's not Lancer, you might not get out of this unscathed just for being a witness!'
And the frustrating part was that it was an Assassin who would see the fool in action, meaning even if Archer was able to fight her off now, there was no telling when and how she'd off him on her own time.
'I didn't want to reveal my hand, but if it is him, Rin will have to shoulder sheltering his dumb ass.' He readied to go on the offensive, much to Assassin's surprise.
No matter the world and situation, Emiya Shirou would always throw himself into the fray. And wasn't it ironic that it'd likely be him to both kill and save himself in that scenario?
'Damn this magnificent irony!'