"It's Lancer! Lancer isn't dead! He's fighting Archer!" Seiji Fujiwara relayed the situation in the rear mountain through the communicator to Rin Tohsaka inside the main hall as fast as he could.
"Lancer?!" Hearing the news, Rin was stunned as well.
"Looks like your backyard isn't all that safe either, Caster." She immediately turned the accusation on Medea.
A look of surprise crossed Medea's face as well.
"Lancer... when did he..."
It was clear that even she, the "landlord," hadn't known of Lancer's existence.
"It seems your Master has been keeping you in the dark and doing quite a few interesting things." Seiji's voice came calmly through the jewel earring Rin wore.
"Miss Tohsaka, now isn't the time to assign blame. Lancer's appearance has disrupted our plan. But at the same time, it's an opportunity."
"An opportunity... to test Caster's sincerity."
"...Caster!" Rin caught on at once. She stood up and looked Medea straight in the eye. "If you truly want to ally with us, then show us your sincerity!"
"Now, immediately, go help Archer and deal with that Lancer!"
A flicker of hesitation passed through Medea's eyes.
But in the end, she nodded.
"...Fine. Let me show you the sincerity of Medea, then."
...
...
While Ryuudou Temple was in chaos, Seiji once again found his chance to slip away.
Using the excuse that he "needed to return to base to prepare a contingency plan for the sudden situation," he temporarily handed command over to Waver, then drove an unremarkable sedan alone toward that place he was growing ever more familiar with, Matou Manor.
His second "treatment" of Sakura Matou was about to begin.
This time, when he knocked on the back door, it opened almost instantly.
Sakura looked as though she'd been waiting there for a very long time.
Her face still wore that timid, pale expression, but when those purple eyes saw Seiji, they bloomed with a radiance like the sight of a deity.
"Mr. Fujiwara... you've come."
"I promised you I'd come back soon." Seiji smiled, his voice carrying a reassuring strength.
He stepped into that familiar, gloomy room.
This time, without him saying a word, Sakura had already moved to stand before him, even with a trace of eagerness, and closed her eyes, as if offering herself up to be taken.
She craved that feeling of "being healed."
That heaven-like bliss of being temporarily freed from hellish pain.
"Are you ready, Miss Sakura?"
"Mm." The girl nodded softly.
Seiji reached out and pressed his hand to her forehead once more.
Cold magical energy flowed slowly in.
[System Command: Initiate Crest Worm purification program, phase two.]
[Objective: Deeply suppress the Crest Worms, and begin seizing supreme control authority over them.]
Pain even more violent than last time swept through Sakura's entire body in an instant.
But this time, she clenched her teeth and didn't make a sound.
Because she knew that after this agony, what awaited her was an incomparable "sweetness."
And besides... as long as she could be touched by the man before her, even the greatest pain seemed to become bearable.
A flash of approval passed through Seiji's eyes.
"What an... obedient good girl."
His other hand gently stroked the girl's back, as if soothing a frightened kitten.
And his mental force turned into countless invisible, sharp needles, piercing precisely into the core of those Crest Worms, beginning to forcibly rewrite their deepest "obedience protocol."
The process was like a silent hacking war taking place at the level of the soul.
He was wrestling control of this "server" away from Zouken Matou, who had lived for five hundred years.
"Heheh... found it."
Seiji's mental force finally touched that enormous worm hidden deep within the girl's heart, the "mother" of all the Crest Worms, linked to Zouken Matou's main body.
[System Command: Execute protocol substitution on the target's main-nest Crest Worm.]
[Beginning implantation of highest-priority command: Seiji Fujiwara's mental orders override all else.]
A low hum rang out.
Sakura's body gave a violent shudder.
She felt the pain that had tormented her for ten years collapse in an instant, as if her spine had been pulled out of her.
A bone-deep comfort and ease spread through her every limb.
She slowly opened her eyes, gasping in great breaths, an almost intoxicated, blissful expression on her face.
"Mr. Fujiwara..."
"Feeling better?" Seiji withdrew his hand and looked at her with a smile.
"Mm..." A sickly flush rose on the girl's cheeks. "My body... feels... so light..."
"This still isn't enough." Seiji's tone turned serious.
His gaze seemed to pierce through the girl's body to the black shadow deep in her soul, polluted by Angra Mainyu.
"Miss Sakura, the affliction inside you is more stubborn than I imagined. Merely suppressing those worms treats the symptom, not the root."
"Your true illness is in your heart."
"My... heart?" Sakura looked at him in confusion.
"Yes." Seiji's voice, like a devil's whisper, was full of temptation.
"You've been suppressing yourself all along, haven't you?"
"You suppress your pain, your resentment, your... jealousy."
"You're jealous of your sister, Rin Tohsaka. Jealous that she has everything you don't, a healthy body, a bright future, the love of parents..."
These words stabbed like knives into the softest, most untouchable place in Sakura's heart.
"No... that's not it... I don't..." She shook her head in panic, trying to deny it.
"Look into my eyes, Sakura." Seiji's voice carried an irresistible magic.
"Admit it. Admit the darkness in your heart. It isn't your fault."
"The one at fault is this world. Your father, your grandfather, the one who took everything from you... Rin Tohsaka."
"They pushed you into hell, yet demand that you forgive and forget like a saint. Is that fair?"
"It's... not... fair..." Sakura's gaze began to grow vacant, and she instinctively repeated Seiji's words.
"Right." Seiji smiled and gently stroked her hair.
"So don't suppress it any longer. Release all that darkness."
"Hand it all... over to me."
"I'll help you purify it. I'll help you take back everything that belongs to you."
"I will... become your only light."
In that hypnotic murmur, Sakura's fragile mental defenses, long since unable to bear the weight, collapsed completely.
She nodded, and the last spark of "self" in those purple eyes went out.
In its place came an unreserved trust and obedience toward the man before her.
The second phase of "treatment" was complete.
He hadn't merely seized control of the girl's body.
He had implanted his own will, like a virus, deep into the girl's soul.
...
...
The battle at Ryuudou Temple ended in dramatic fashion.
With the intervention of Medea, that great magus of the Age of Gods, Lancer quickly found himself at a disadvantage.
Though his spearmanship and battle continuation ability were both exceptional, against a top-tier Caster holding the home-ground advantage, in the end he couldn't hold out alone.
Finally, he left behind a "consider yourselves lucky today," feinted, and swiftly withdrew from the battlefield, vanishing into the forest.
And Archer seized the chance to complete his preliminary survey of the outer area of the "Dragon's Cave," escaping successfully with valuable intelligence.
A crisis that could have escalated into a three-way melee had been "defused" just like that.
Tohsaka Manor.
When Rin returned with Saber and Archer, exhaustion and gravity were written on everyone's faces.
"...That's the situation." Rin explained everything that had happened at Ryuudou Temple to Waver and Seiji.
"Lancer has been resurrected, and he has a new Master of unknown identity. Caster does intend to ally with us, but her goal is to use us against her Master."
"And the most crucial part..." She looked at Archer. "Archer found something incredible at the Dragon's Cave."
"Yes." Archer took over, his expression more serious than ever before.
"That cavern is itself a massive magical reactor core. But I could feel that the energy has already been polluted."
"Polluted?" Waver frowned.
"That's right." Archer said firmly. "It was full of an ominous aura. I suspect the source of that black mud that appeared at the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War ten years ago is in that cave."
"The Grail... has already been polluted."
That conclusion plunged the entire living room into a deathly silence.
If the Grail itself was evil, then what meaning did this war of theirs have?
"...That's impossible!" Saber was the first to step forward and object, her emotions somewhat agitated. "The Grail is an omnipotent wish-granting device! A sacred miracle! How could it be polluted?!"
"The facts are right in front of you, King of Knights." Archer gave her a cold glance. "Sometimes the ideal you cling to is nothing more than wishful fantasy."
"You!" Provoked by his words, Saber clenched her fists.
"Enough, both of you, less talk!" Waver stopped their quarrel with a headache.
"Whether or not the Grail is polluted, the war has already begun, and we have no way back." He looked at everyone. "Now we have one more enemy, that mysterious Lancer faction. The situation is more complicated than we imagined."
"Yes." Seiji, who had been silent, spoke up now.
He walked to the map, picked up a pen, and drew on it another blue question mark representing "Lancer."
"Now the forces on the board are basically clear."
"The Berserker faction, with its undying body."
"The Caster faction, holding the home-ground advantage, with unclear intentions."
"The Lancer faction, suddenly resurrected and hidden in the shadows."
"And... one final Servant whose true face we still don't know, Assassin."
"And us," his pen circled the two points of light representing Saber and Archer together on the map, "our fragile alliance now sits at the center of all these forces."
"One wrong step, and we could lose everything."
His words made everyone feel a heavy, sinking pressure.
"So do you have any suggestions, Fujiwara?" Waver asked.
"I do." Seiji nodded.
A light shone in his eyes, calm to the point of cruelty.
"Since the board is already this chaotic, then why don't we... make it a little more chaotic?"
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is..." The corner of Seiji's mouth curled into an eerie arc.
"We can take the initiative to go find that missing Assassin."
"No, I should say, to manufacture an Assassin."
"Do you remember, sensei? The records say that the mountain gate of Ryuudou Temple is itself a kind of barrier. No Servant can enter through the front gate. That in itself is a defense against assassins."
"And Caster summoned another Servant in violation of the rules, something the Grail system will not permit. It is certain to make a correction."
"If we can use this point to make a fake Assassin appear before the mountain gate of Ryuudou Temple..."
"Then what interesting things might happen?"
His words were like a stone dropped into a calm lake, sending out ripples upon ripples.
A bolder plan was slowly taking shape in his mind.
He would draw everyone's attention to Ryuudou Temple.
He would have Caster, Lancer, and the Assassin he was about to "manufacture" perform, on that cramped stage, a fine show of mutual slaughter.
...
The "manufacture an Assassin" plan Seiji proposed was undoubtedly insane.
But at this moment when everyone had been driven into a corner, that "insanity" seemed so very... tempting.
"...How do you intend to do it?"
In the end, it was Waver, the one who best understood magecraft trickery, who asked the key question.
"It's simple." A confident smile appeared on Seiji's face.
He took out from his luggage an old-fashioned Japanese doll that looked utterly ordinary.
The doll wore samurai clothing, its features lifelike, but its eyes were hollow and lifeless.
"This is..."
"A catalyst, or rather, a vessel." Seiji explained. "A little trinket passed down in my family. Inscribed within it is a special summoning ritual that can temporarily inject a concept into the body of this fake."
He set the doll on the table.
"We all know that the true Assassin, Hassan-i-Sabbah, is the collective title for the successive leaders of the Middle Eastern assassin cult. They aren't one specific hero, but a collective concept of an assassin."
"And what I intend to do is exploit the loopholes in the Holy Grail War's rules, along with the system disorder caused by Caster's rule-breaking summoning, to forcibly summon this concept of an assassin into this doll."
"Of course, the fake produced this way will be extremely weak, inferior even to the lowest-grade Servant. The only meaning of his existence is..."
"...to die before the mountain gate of Ryuudou Temple."
"When an Assassin dies before the mountain gate of Ryuudou Temple, what will everyone think?"
"They'll assume Caster killed the Assassin who came to spy for intelligence."
"That way, Caster's image as a treacherous, untrustworthy witch will be firmly cemented. The possibility of her allying with us will be cut off completely."
"And that Lancer faction hidden in the shadows, after seeing Caster act so aggressively, what kind of reaction will it have?"
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