Fuyuki Church: A letter's arrival

Atalanta watched the pidgeon approach as she made rounds around the churches property, keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity. When she was able to confirm that it was not a familiar, she mentally marked her spot and returned to the church proper to find Kyrie. She also called for Rider as she approached, though she was confident he had noticed it as well.

Risei and Kirei, having both noticed the pigeon's arrival, both met Archer outside the doors of the church.

"A response from the Church?" Kirei asked.

"Would you like to inspect it, or would you rather I do it Master?" Atalanta ask, holding her arm out for the pidgeon as it made it's way down from the sky.

Rider took his place next to Atalanta. "It must be!"

"I will take a look at it," Kirei said, taking the note from the pigeon's leg and unrolling it. After skimming it quickly, with Risei reading over his shoulder, he frowned and handed it to his Servants to read.

"Not good," Risei muttered. "If the Church intervenes, we can kiss the Holy Grail goodbye."

Atalanta shared the paper with Rider as she read. She had never been a fast reader, so it was a few moments before she was finished. She tried her best not to let her face betray her slight fear. "Do you think we can conquer him alone? Or will we have to turn to the other masters?"

"I've been trained to fight Dead Apostles. I think the three of us would be more than enough to take him down." He paused and thought. "But, it would be easy for other Masters to take advantage of the situation and stab us in the back."

Risei cleared his throat. "We may not have to worry about that. I am, after all, the mediator of the War." He grinned and rolled up his right sleeve.

Atalanta's eyes widened at the seals on Risei's arm. She wanted to say something, but couldn't think of what. Instead, she turned to Kirei. "In any case, we should locate the Dead Apostle."

Kirei nodded in agreement. Risei meanwhile, walked further away from the church. Once he was standing a good distance from the doors, he scanned the surroundings.

There were at least three familiars present. The barrier around the church prevented them from seeing inside, of course, and they could only monitor who was coming and going. For now, though, it would suit his purposes well.

"Attention, Masters of the Holy Grail War," he announced, drawing the attention of every Master that had a familiar present.

"The Holy Grail War has been placed in grave danger. We have discovered that a Master in the war, responsible for several kidnappings and murders, is in truth, a Dead Apostle. Therefore, exercising my emergency authority as the impartial mediator, I shall be temporarily changing the rules.

"All other Masters are to suspend their current actions, whatever they may be, and focus all efforts on the Dead Apostle's elimination."

Risei raised his arm so that every familiar could see the Command Spells on his arm.

"These are Command Spells that went unused by defeated Masters in the previous Grail Wars, passed down to each mediator. Whoever eliminates the Dead Apostle will be rewarded with one extra Command Spell. I expect they would be a priceless commodity to all of you. Once we have confirmed the Apostle's destruction, we will resume the Holy Grail War."

He rolled his sleeve back down. "If any of you have questions, now is the time to ask." He then smiled, spying a pigeon familiar in a treetop many yards away. "Although, I must insist that only those of you capable of human speech do so."

Atalanta was not looking forward to working with the others. They might have too much time to observe her tactics. She turned to Kirei. "We should hurry and find him. Perhaps we can defeat him before the other masters do. I don't care much about the extra seal, but I'd like as little interaction in combat as possible until necessary."

Kirei nodded. "That should at least prevent the other Masters from attacking us, but we need to get to him first. We can start searching as soon as you like, but he will only be active at night. The odds of finding him during the day are almost zero."

Atalanta considered for a moment. "Would it hurt to search anyway? If we can find him during the day it will be even more advantageous. If we don't, we'll already be out and ready to act if he makes an appearance."

"You would be good at that, Miss Atalanta! You're a mighty huntress, aren't you?"

Atalanta let a small smile cross her face at the suggestion while she waited for Kirei's permission to search.

"Not a bad idea at all," Kirei agreed. "Though we should take it fairly easy. We should still be rested and ready to fight when night falls. Also," he quickly added, "Rider should probably remain here on the leyline. I can't easily sustain mana for both of you being out and about for a full day."

Rider bowed deeply. "Of course, milord! And I shall defend our home with honor!"

"Agreed, master. I will let you know if I find anything before nightfall. If I don't, I will see you then. Be careful, both of you." Atalanta took off towards the city, using as little energy as possible. She kept her eyes and ears open for signs of their enemy, or any other masters or servants out and about.

[[Archer doesn't feel the presences of any other Servants in the city at least until nightfall. How long will she wait before returning to the church?]]

As the sun set, Kirei stepped out of the church doors with briefcase in hand, and started down the road toward town. It was his first time truly leaving the Church and searching the city; he knew he was taking a large risk, but it could no longer be avoided at this point.

The briefcase was of course full of useless paper, and he kept one hand tucked in his pocket to hide his Command Spells. Though he felt the presence of familiars, he acted as though he didn't notice them. To all outsiders, he should appear as just a normal preacher. Even so, it might be enough.

Their time spent in secrecy was running out. It was easy to hide Assassin, but any Servant that came too close to the church would notice Archer or Rider; it wasn't as well protected as the Tohsaka Mansion. And it couldn't have escaped the other Masters that since Fuyumi and Clara were dead, Assassin's Master must have usurped both their contracts. Every other Master would be taking extra care to search for him.

At the base of the hill, he stepped into his father's limousine, turned the key in the ignition, and started off into Shinto. Even if the familiars were paying special attention to him, he was confident he could lose them in the busy city streets.

He supposed he had one, maybe two more days until he was discovered. It was inevitable. In that time, he had to destroy the Dead Apostle. Failure was not an option.

Atalanta arrived with a battered Kirei, calling out as she did so, "Rider! Risei! Please come help!"

She transported her injured master to a bed, and began to examine his wounds. "Is there anything in the house that can help you?" she asked as she began to remove his clothes to examine him.

Rider's footsteps tapped across the floor as he ran to Atalanta's voice. "Milord! What happened??"

Risei helped carry Kirei inside. By this point, Kirei was on the verge of passing out from blood loss, keeping his eyelids barely open.

"There are bandages in the basement," Risei explained in a hurry, examining his wounded son. "If we can keep him stable, he should be able to heal himself magically in short order."

Atalanta rushed to get the bandages and anything they had to sterilize the wounds. She bandaged up what she could in short order, making sure he stayed concious and kept speaking with her.

Rider held Kirei's hand in both of his. "Please, stay with us, you'll be stable soon!" Despite the way Kirei unnerved him sometimes, it hurt him more to see his Master injured so badly.

Kirei grunted as he was carried to the basement. Already, he felt a little better as the bandages were being applied, and the leyline under them restored some of his mana.

"I was careless..." Kirei explained to Rider. "An enemy Master got the jump on me. I managed to fight him off, but the Dead Apostle nearly finished the job."

"You shouldn't have gone out," Risei grumbled.

"The Dead Apostle must be dealt with," Kirei reminded his father. "It is my duty." He winced as a new wave of pain spread across his ribcage. "It is my..." He let the sentence trail off as the pain faded. He tried to relax, concentrating on collecting more mana.