Fate/Another

The Holy Grail; an artefact of reverence. Said to be the vessel that contains the blood of Christ, many artefacts have been discovered throughout the millennia that have been ordained as this omnipotent wish granting vessel, all have been disproven... That is until a coalition of Einzburn, Tohsaka and Makiri birthed into this world a device that real or not had power that should be feared and respected. Thus began a ritual known as the Holy Grail war, a competition where 7 magi competed with the aid of 7 heroic spirits to claim the vessel. Since its inception there have been three Holy Grail wars each as inconclusive as the last. Due to their frustration the Einzburn family summoned an 8th servant during the 3rd Holy Grail war, the Persian god of darkness Angra Mainyu. This act of the perversion of the wars rules tainted the grail unbeknownst to any faction. Thus the 4th war arrives, ordinarily the servants to be summoned to fight in the war from the throne of heroes would have been pre-set however due to the presence of the 8th servant order has descended into chaos and beings whose power and temperaments far outstrip their intended counterparts will enter the fray.

Fuyuki City Church- Basement

Kotomine Kire stood overlooking the summoning array that held the catalyst to summon the old man of the mountain Hassan-I-Sabbah. Summoning servant assassin was crucial to his masters plan to win the Holy Grail War. Kire had no true desire to win the war which was a source of confusion to him as to why the grail would choose one like him to be a master.

Kire absentmindedly glanced towards his right hand that held three red shaped markings, his 'command seals' the identifying mark that branded him as a master. He had experimented in the past to see if he could ignite the human condition called emotions, once when he married he almost convinced himself that he had succeeded. But in the end like his other endeavours his wife failed to provide the stimulus he needed to feel fulfilled. The only real emotion he carried from this experiment was disgust at her death. Not the fact that she died, he knew going into it that she was terminally ill the fact gave him comfort as the experiment would have a time limit. No the reason for his disgust was that in the end when the mother of his child drew her final breath he felt nothing but acceptance. Most normal people would display sadness, rage some depraved people may even display joy, Kire felt nothing other than neutrality as the life in front of him blinked out of existence. Some small part of him hoped that this war would be able to satisfy him.

Kire Proceeded to initiate the summoning ritual, a blinding light emanated from the summoning array followed by the appearance of judging by the physical features a man of indeterminate age. The man wore a dark purple outfit laced with golden trimming accompanied by a cape that verged on Dracula esque, also wearing black gloves. However the garment that most caught Kire's attention was a black mask with a purple circular middle. The man turned to face Kire and suddenly a hole opened up in the mask where the man's left eye would be revealing a crimson red eye adorned by a symbol Kire did not recognise, this was definitely not the old man of the mountain. The man crossed his arms and glared at Kire with a defiant and dignified look that was almost regal "I am Servant Rider, so are you my master".

Einzburn Mansion

Emiya Kiritsugu lay in bed in the grasp of a nightmare; no nightmare would be too kind a word for to describe this rather it should be classified as a festering wound that stung and wept at every opportunity when Kiritsugu closed his eyes for a moment's respite. What he dreamt of was the sequence of events that robe him of his illusions that this world could be acceptable in its current form, the night he was forced to grow up.

Fear... that was the only emotion that ran through Kiritsugu's head as he fled from the girl he loved, his first love Shirley who begged for him to kill her, to grant her peace. This was all too much for the adolescent Kiritsugu, too much of a burden and thus he crumbled and fled. This action little did he know would haunt him for years to come rather than die at his hand the woman he lovedwould be eliminated by a team of enforcers. his next memories were a blur, fragmented. An argument with his father regarding the experiment that had essentially killed his love... a knife entering his hand... the soft squelch as steel met flesh, the knife now found embedded in his father's back... frantically running again as fast as his legs would carry him until he happened to meet her Natalia Kaminski the woman who would be the closest thing he had to a mother, someone who he cared for deeply and another sin he would carry with him to his grave.

Kiritsugu awoke in a panic his body soaked with sweat; it had been a long time since the dreams had been this vivid he decided it was due to the close proximity of the war. It was for this very reason that he forbade his wife Irisviel form sleeping in his chambers; it would not doo to shake her resolve.

Kiritsugu now dressed entered the hall where the summoning was to take place, Iri and Maiya stood soberly as he entered, words were not exchanged but each individual understood the importance of the ritual ahead, the ritual to summon a king.

Preparations were complete and with a flash of light a figure stood before them. It was strange this was not what Kiritsugu was expecting the king of knights to look like. In front of him stood a young man of clear oriental descent, most likely Japanese. The youth was dressed in a black trench coat with a tattered maroon scarf tied around his neck. After soaking in his image Kiritsugu's eyes were drawn to his right hand that was the colour of obsidian with lines of light that traced the arm ending at the fingers. On the youth's left hand was a crest not too different in appearance to a command seal.

The youth suddenly spoke "I am Servant Saber for this war are you my master?"

"yes I am, however I am surprised you do not look like the king of knights" said Kiritsugu.

"I am sorry to disappoint you but my being here was not done out of my own volition, However this is the situation we find ourselves in. Besides I should be ample to accomplish the task at hand as I will not let anyone stop me from getting my wish" the man said firmly.

"very well, but I will be the judge ofthe extent of your abilities, know that you have a lot to live up to, the servant I was expecting is top class even amongst saber which is said to be the strongest class. I will have you show me the extent of your abilities so we can strategise moving forward"

"Yes Master"

Tohsaka Manor

Kire had informed him of the mishap that had occurred during his summoning not only getting the wrong servant but the wrong class as well. Having trained him personally Tokiomi was reluctant to believe that Kire had made such a grievous error however he relented that must have been what happened. It was fortuitous however as the servant he did summon far outstripped assassin in usefulness. All he had to do was successfully summon Gilgamesh and this war was as good as his. At least that was what he thought prior to the ritual. Now he was even more confused as there was no way a magus of his expertise would have made the same mistake, yet here in front of him was a servant that was most definitely not the king of heroes.

Stood before him was a boy no older than 17 clad in a red coat and a black jumpsuit underneath. Adorned with white gloves and blond hair that was tied back into a braid combined piercing gold eyes.

The boy looked visibly annoyed to the extent a vein was pulsating in his forehead.

"Caster... caster... CASTER, ARE YOU FRICKIN KIDDING ME. WHAT SORT OF JOKE IS THIS. ALCHEMY IS NOT BLOODY MAGIC ITS SCIENCE!"

The boy would continue to rage for the next hour without Tokiomi getting a word in. He thought to himself that his prospects of winning the Holy Grail had

severely diminished.

Author's notes

Hi everyone, firstly a big thank you to anyone who picked this up and gave it a read, I hope you enjoyed it so far. Any comments or constructive criticism is greatly appreciated as this is my first fan fic and first time publishing something online so lots of reviews please. Secondly a big thanks to The Infamous Man whose work inspired this story. The concept of the grail war has so much versatility that I thought I would have a crack at it with some interesting characters of my own. Speaking of can people guess who has been revealed so far? Two of them should be pretty clear but the third one may be a bit harder to guess, I am trying to keep the balance between fan faves and a few curve balls for all the servants, so stay tuned. I will try to update regularly at least once a month hopefully more but you know life and stuff, but I am keen to get this going. Thanks.