In the dark below of Fuyuki's sewer system, everyone's nerves were at an all-time high. Having been ambushed so easily by Caster's forces, any little sense of movement made them treat it like it was going to be the next threat.

"Are you scared Shirou?" Irisviel decided to use her motherly instincts to soothe the boy as they traversed the murky depths of the sewer system. The boy she was carrying hadn't give any reaction to their dark surroundings.

"...I'm fine," He muttered into Irisviel's shoulder. It was obvious to everyone that the young child was still shaken up by his kidnapping. Even if he displayed himself as a strong and calm child, the slight tremors that went through his body said otherwise.

Even if their objective was to get to the exit of this forsaken labyrinth, they wanted some way to alleviate this child's suffering that he chose to silently go through himself.

Even a child shouldn't be subjugated to a nightmare like this.

Kiritsugu then thought of an idea that could take the child's mind off of the foreboding maze. It worked with Illya really well and he wanted to see if it would work with Shirou. "Hey do you want to play a little game," He leaned in so that Shirou had to lift his head from Irisviel's shoulder to look at him. Seeing him grow curious, the magus killer continued.

"You see the game revolves around..." Realizing where they exactly were, Kiristugu kicked himself for not taking their setting into account. Back in the Einzbern castle, he used the native walnut buds as a way of playing with Illya as they roamed the castle grounds trying to spend as much time as possible with each other.

"Anything that catches your eye," He finished, not caring for the weird looks he was getting from everyone else. But he didn't let that deter him so he decided to sweeten the deal a bit. "And if you can guess correctly then I'll treat you your favorite candy after all of this."

"C-Candy?" Shirou's dull eyes brightened ever so slightly at the mention of the sweet treat. Heh even if placed in a dark place, kids would still be kids.

"Any candy that you want I'll buy it for you," Kiritsugu promised. Have the magus's word, the redheaded boy begun looking around for anything that would fascinating.

"O-over there," He pointed to something ahead of them. "I think those are some bottles."

Squinting to where the boy had pointed, Kirtsugu had to admit that the boy had some good eyes to be able to see so far away. "Wow you have great some great eyes Shirou, one point to you."

Having won his first point, Shirou begun pointing at anything his eyes could see. As he got into the groove of the game, his eyes brightened up and he soon forgot about the terrifying things that had occurred recently.

"And there's a rat over there!"

"Another point to you, being able to see a rat just as it runs away is impressive,"

"There's a coin over there!"

"Hmm...nope that's not a coin over there."

"But its circular and shining really brightly!" Shirou tried to defend.

"That is true but in reality, its actually just a slab of metal crudely cut in a circle," He explained as they walked past the metal circle. From afar it truly did look like a coin but for a marksman like Kiritsugu, he could tell the difference.

"No fair you have better eye sight than I do!" The boy argued.

"I guess, I'll let you have this point," Kiritsugu gave the point up. He wanted to grant the boy some semblance of hope for tomorrow, even if that seemed impossible at the moment. Tucking that disturbing thought away, he continued his game with Shirou.

The other members of the group simply watched the infamous magus killer show off a soft side they didn't existed within him. For Saber it was especially strange seeing the cold aloof man acting so fatherly at this moment.

"Saber, is this really your master?" Lancer confusingly asked as they let Kiritsugu and Shirou take point. The magus now carrying the young boy on his shoulders. Even if they were still in an enemy controlled territory, they were walking around like they were in an amusement park.

"He may act like a cold man but he has a really soft side that he rarely lets out. When he's with Illya he's a completely different man." Irisviel said as she walked up to them.

Irisviel was not one to lie on such matters like these. That begged the question, Saber looked at her master with hidden sadness. What happened that would result in hiding this caring father behind a cold mask of a killer?

"Yes Asako, how can I help you?" Maiya asked as the lead assassin walked up to her. Currently their rear-guard consisted of the purple-haired persona and the last remaining nine copies to defend them from any unwanted guests.

"Forgive me if this is a strange question for a servant asking their master but we would like to know what attracted you to him in the first place, it's clear to us that seeing this side of him is rare for even you."

Maiya didn't choose to answer that question but when she saw Kiritsugu interacting with Shirou, it brought a small smile to her face. Something that Assassin saw and accepted as an answer.

"...From the moment that I was born I was trained to be a soldier." She didn't know why now of all times she decided to share her life story to her servant, which wasn't even hers to begin with, but the remaining ten leaned in closer as she began her story to them. Maybe it was the fact that they had been constantly fighting against the odds that maybe she sorts of grew a bond for her temporary servants.

"I never had such things like a childhood or a father and mother, I was trained to be a soldier to fight for what my leader wanted." She spent her childhood learning the ways of warfare, how to assassinate others and shoot a gun.

She killed her first man when she was just five.

"Life continued on for me as a soldier but that had all changed when I became fifteen, my leader deemed me for another role; something that a female was only capable of." She had remembered those days very well, who wouldn't. Days spent being defiled over and over without spot. She didn't care much about it, all for the good of the group was what had crossed through her mind. If she could help the group succeed why couldn't she do what needed to be done, after all they were only thing she had in the world.

All of that changed when she gave birth to her baby boy.

She didn't what changed in her but when she held onto her newborn child, she no longer cared for the militia she was fighting for. They could burn for all she cared for since she now had something to fight for, something that she chose to fight for.

Her first choice as Maiya Hisau.

She would also know what grief was that day.

"They had deemed him as a gift for an alliance with another militia group." She had to be held back as she watched her son drive off into the desert. Even up to this day she didn't know what happened him.

"I lost myself to grief, I spent the next day's asking for death to come and release me from my torment." She smiled as she remembered what had happened next.

"And it did, Death arrived guns blazing."

A young Maiya lifted her head as door was kicked down by an unknown man. Her captors could not react fast enough to the man's sudden arrival so they were gunned down in a hail of bullets. She gave no reaction to the two men's deaths.

"Hmm?" Fully expecting for the sweet embrace of death, she gave no reaction to the man moving closer to her. Hearing the sound of a gun being reloaded, she waited for the eventual bullet to be fired.

And waited.

And waited .

The bound captive let out a shout of surprise when the intruder shot the chains that connected her collar to the wall. "Huh?" She asked as the mystery man leaned down and rummaged through the two dead corpses for some ammunition.

"You're not going to kill me?"

"Why I have no reason to." Kiritsugu looked appalled at the notion that this lady wanted him to kill her. "You're free now."

"F-Free?" What was freedom when all that she had was ripped from her. Her dull eyes looked up in desperation as her savior sighed.

"You don't know what it means to be free do you." Not hearing anything from the distraught women in front of him, he decided to offer an ultimatum .

"As I can see it you only have two choices in front of you. Your first choice is too wander aimlessly in this desert until something happens to you or..." He offered her hand.

"You can come with me and be my partner in crime, none of the options that lay before you are easy and you will most likely die if you come with me but," His face softened as he looked down at Maiya, who had tears beginning to roll down her face.

"You deserve to make that choice." At hearing this Maiya smiled for what seemed like the first time in forever as she took Kirtsugu's hand. She cared not if the man had dubious intentions or that she was abandoning the place that she grew up in.

Because for her, Kiritsugu Emiya was someone that she would devote her entire life to.

For he gave her the one thing that she never had.

The freedom to choose her own path.

"And ever since I have not regretted this path that I have chosen." Maiya finished as silence reigned between her and the assassins. Some time passed as no assassin made to comment on what they had just heard. Maiya was now beginning to sort of regret telling her servant her tragic past. Maybe whhen Kiritsugu had said she didn't have a great understanding on human interaction he was speaking the truth.

"In a way we are the same as you." Asako begun. "We are a slave to the name of the Hassan-I-Sabbah."

"I thought you loved your position as one of the nineteen Hassans, otherwise your wish wouldn't have been to be the King of Assassins." Maiya pointed out.

"And therein lies the problem, history sees us as nothing more than a Hassan not the person who wears the mask of the infamous assassin. There has always been one true Hassan-I-Sabbah, one and only one. The nineteen that also bear that title could never hope to reach that level of the first one, so history depicts us as assassins trying to reach that level. Even our wish has been changed to that."

Asasko removed her mask just enough that Maiya could catch a glimpse of what laid past the skull mask. "In reality we took up the name of Hassan-I-Sabbah so that our multiple personalities could be grounded to one identity, rather than to be scattered personalities. Our true wish is to be one complete personality, one complete person." She finished as she put the mask back on.

"That's..." Maiya tried to say something only for Asako to pull out a dagger, the other nine assassins doing so as well.

"Something is coming." She warned the group as everyone pulled out their respective weapons. Kiritsugu made his way back into the group so that they could defend Shirou seeing he was the only one who couldn't defend himself.

There a few meters in front of them, a tall draped figure was slowly limping towards them. What might've once been a white cloak was now dirtied and ragged. One could hear the mumblings of the raggedy figure as he slowly approached.

"Byrgenwerth...Byrgenwerth...Blasphemous murderers...Blood-crazed fiends..." He hatefully spat out.

The group looked at each other, not knowing how to proceed. Asako moved forward and threw an expertly aimed dagger at the leg of the limping being. The dirk embedded itself into the unknown's leg as he stumbled and fell forward on his face.

"Is he dead?" Irisviel asked seeing that the being wasn't responding. She let out a cry of shock as the man pushed himself upward and continued on his way, uncaring if now had a dagger embedded into his leg.

"Lay the curse of blood upon them, and their children, and their children's children, for evermore. Each wretched birth will plunge each child into a lifetime of misery." He continued to chant as he came ever closer to the group.

Saber tensed and was ready to attack the strange man only for her to drop her stance in confusion as he walked past her without heeding her presence. The others joining her confusion as he walked past them as well.

Kiritsugu tensed, and so did the others, when the hooded man stopped right in front of him. Following his gaze, he saw that the hooded man was looking right at Shirou. Scowling he tightened his grip on the boy in response.

"Mercy, for the poor, wizened child...Let the pungence of Kos cling, like a mother's devotion..." The hooded man's tone became softer for a moment before he began his trek deeper into the sewer system, uncaring if he had no destination in sight.

"Curse here, curse there. A curse for he, and she, why care. A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea, source of all greatness, all things that be. Listen for the baneful chants. Weep with them, as one in trance. And weep with us, oh, weep with us..." His voice trailed off as his body disappeared into the darkness.

The group tried to piece together what had happened in the last few minutes but they could not ponder long on it as the end of the tunnel where the limping man had come through exploded in light.

"You seek answers do you not?" A voice spoke from the newly made entrance. Tokiomi noticed the voice sounded familiar but could not place a face on the speaker.

From the entrance one could faintly hear the sound of rain softly hitting the ground and of crashing waves. Was the entrance in front of them this whole time but blocked by an illusion?

"Then walk forward..." The voice beckoned them as they slowly walked toward the light, weapons ready to fight back if it was an ambush all along.

"Respite lies ahead"

Deep within Fuyuki's Sea Shore.

Slumbering peacefully, devoid of the troubles of the world.

The Orphan stirred.

"Not yet my friend." A voice soothed him back to its peaceful slumber. With that reassurance the Great One went back to its slumbering state.

"Soon my friend." Pupils filled with white energy gazed at the rocky cliffs that surrounded them. The imposing cliffside that enclosed this space off was enhanced by the dreary clouds that filled the air. He then brought his eyes over to the sea where one could only see the masts of ships sticking out of the sea and the massive sun that was in a form of a clock.

The reality marble that existed here was very powerful, a testament to the strength of the Great One that held back the Blood Moon for so long. Rom the Vacuous Spider was certainly a very strong eldritch being.

His attention shifted as he could see a bright flash being emitted from the sun shaped clock. A smile slowly worked its way onto his face as he could see the masters and servants make their way into the Fishing Hamlet.

It seems that everything was going according to plan.

"I leave it up to you Simon." With that the being's twelve wings glowed brightly as he disappeared in a bright flash.

"What in the..." Tokiomi trailed off as they found themselves no longer in the sewer. He wasn't even sure that they were in Fuyuki anymore seeing how solid the ground that they were walking on was. The cloudy skies, the murkey sea, the village in the distance, all of it seemed real.

"Is this the extent of Caster's power?" He reached down to feel the wet dirt under him. Feeling the wet soil on his fingers made him realize that this was all real.

"Is this all a reality marble?" Irisviel breathed in the air as they marveled at the murky sea that one could see the bottomless abyss that laid beneath it with the mast of ships poking through the surface.

"Is this it?" A voice said as the group swiveled to see who was talking.

Not far from them a group wispy figures walked by them as they made their way to the Fishing Hamlet. They were all dressed in scholarly uniforms and were getting giddier as they got closer.

"By the gods it is! The hamlet where a Great One was rumored to be at." One of the wispy figures said.

"Praise the Good Blood, Laurence will be pleased with this development!"

"Come my brothers let us make haste, greatness awaits us!"

The wispy group soon disappeared as a gust of wind blew their forms away. Not one of them screamed as they disappeared into nothingness.

"You certainly took your time getting here." A voice called out to them as the speaker approached them. The bandaged blinded man had a smile on his face as he made his way closer to them, bowblade in hand.

Seeing the resemblance between him and the abhorrent beggar that had been killed recently, the group readied their weapons but the stranger held his arms up peacefully.

"I assure you that I am not here as an opponent." He tried reassuring as he looked towards Tokiomi. "It is good to see you well Sir Tohsaka, Rin would be in grief if her father died in that sewer."

"How..." The Tohsaka patriarch squinted as he found some familiarity in the stranger's voice. "S-Simon?" He realized as his daughter's teacher grinned before bowing.

"I am Simon the Harrowed; I am to be your guide today in this nightmare."

"Nightmare?" Questioned Artoria as she took another look at the surrounding sea around them. The realm that they were didn't exude anything close to a nightmare, just a sad and dreary place.

"Ah but you see it is what hides under this fishing hamlet that is the real nightmare, the reason behind the cursed end of all hunters." He began walking ahead of them to the hamlet only to stop and turn his head to look at them. Even if his eyes were covered behind some bandages, they could tell he had gone serious.

"But take heed, secrets are secrets for a reason, especially when the secrets are particularly unseemly, so take my word and turn back...unless." A knowing smirk appeared on his face.

"You've something of an interest in nightmares?" Seeing the resolute faces on each person before him, the hunter chuckled before beckoning them forward.

"Then come along as I tell you a story of petty arrogance." The group soon followed the old hunter as they moved closer to the Fishing Hamlet, unknowing of the horrors within.

"We begin our tale with the washed-up corpse of Kos, who blessed this small quaint fishing hamlet."

Chapter 20 finished! Man, I really laid this off! Not going to lie the next few chapters will take longer for me to finish because I'm adding new things in on the fly so just to let you guys know. Maiya shows us her backstory, Assassin as well, the group goes through the Fishing Hamlet with Simon as their guide, and soon the Orphan will make its debut. Expect the Orphan to have more than one chapter.

Love all the support this is getting. Your reviews really inspire me to write better and better chapters.

Hope you guys are staying safe and wearing your damm mask when you go out.

That's all for now.

PRAISE THE GOOD BLOOD!