The Last Rising Sun

This place was always the same. The green grass, the tall leafy trees stretching around forming an almost perfect circle that surrounded this forest. The sunlight at this time is quite strong as that big star is at its highest point; it is noon.

It almost seemed like a dream to see him surrounded by sunlight. Looking up at the sky as if he was remembering the past. That strange feeling of sadness and nostalgia, but mixed with a comforting peace was felt in the air. He always looked so lonely, but there were times when he seemed to look at everyone as if he was at ease, as if he didn't care about his own loneliness.

Gray felt it was that way. This servant is one of the greatest mysteries she ever faced. It's still very hard to understand.

'How did we come to this,' she wondered. A fleeting memory from this morning flashed through her mind.

Waver was the one who suggested coming to this place. This is that forest away from the city where Sakura and Svin usually come to train. Gray has already been here so she knew the place. Assassin also knew this forest, as being together with Sakura all the time it would be obvious to know the area.

"Waver-sensei mentioned training reaction time and decision making during combat," Assassin raised his hand as if he wanted to reach for the sky and clenched his fist. "That's a good suggestion. I would have thought of the same thing," he lowered his hand and looked at Gray.

She, who until a second ago was deep in her own thoughts, suddenly snapped back to reality as she caught Assassin's gaze. His silver eyes under the worn black hood scared her for a second, as she almost let out a small whimper. She quickly regained her composure.

"Uh, yeah. But I don't know how we should start," she replied nervously. She felt a little uncomfortable because Add hasn't said a word since they arrived, and that was already a little scary.

"Easy," the servant said. He approached her taking relaxed steps and looked her in the eyes. "The first thing is to find an opponent you can take on. That's the reason I'm here. To make decisions during a melee you need to think while moving your body. We shinobi are used to that because we are trained to fight and use ninjutsu at the same time. That requires a lot of agility, coordination and, in general, skill."

She nodded. As strange as it was to hear more than one sentence come out of Assassin's mouth, she noticed something curious. As he explained, Assassin had that strange aura that only a teacher would have. She saw that as something very cool. And that Russian accent just made him sound like a foreign professor teaching classes around the world. In that respect, Assassin took after her mentor.

"Can you take out the scythe for a moment?" he asked.

"Yes. Add...."

"This finally gets good," Add finally said, causing the cage to move in response. "I'll be the scythe!" he shouted, and the cage transformed along with his cubic body.

The pieces separated, moving and twisting with each other. This, like an ancient puzzle, quickly gave way to the scythe with the colors King Arthur carried in the past. This made Assassin nod in approval.

"Perfect. The scythe, originally, was not a weapon. Rather, it was a tool for farming. Some farmers at some point in history used scythes as weapons. Although that information is scarce to me, I know more or less how to use this tool."

"What should I do," Gray wanted to know what it's like to train with a servant. He was supposed to be a hero from the time when everyone was super powerful. At least she assumed so, since she doesn't know anything about Assassin.

"Let's see... To wield a scythe of that size you need a lot of strength, because being a big weapon, it takes you longer to receive attacks and block them, something that doesn't happen with swords or daggers. The first thing would be to know how far your strength can go when swinging the scythe."

"So it will be a test of strength," Add was anxious. Remembering what happened in that castle and thought about the monstrosity of servant in front of him.

"Yes. That would be the gist of it right now. So...", his body flickered, and as if he had teleported, he appeared four meters away from Gray. "Attack me with all your might. Don't hold back."

"With everything? Are you sure?"

She knew that her own strength was not normal for a person of this age. Her body was supposed to be this way because it really isn't her body, but that of that King of old. The amount of magic circuits lying inside her were a strange aberration, like an anomaly of this world. It was impossible not to think that this body does not belong to her. And this Magic Crest that allows her to control Add. Everything in her body, her mind and her existence, was nothing but something strange. And that was what made her doubt her identity.

Assassin then nodded. She was surprised to see that he didn't pull out any of those daggers to defend himself. He simply crossed his forearms in front of his face forming an X and his fingers pointed outward as if they were the claws of a beast. His gaze sharpened and his breathing became slow, but steady.

"Do it," he said. His fighting stance left no weakness exposed. His arms covered his vital points perfectly. That stance was also used by those who fought using daggers.

"Do as the Assassin boy tells you, child. He's the expert," Add suggested. His voice echoed from the scythe and inside Gray's mind.

She nodded and tightened her grip on the hilt of the scythe. Under her dark hood she let her gaze turn cold and emotionless. Her body felt constant shivers, as if death itself would try to rip out her intestines with its cold, non-existent hands.

She took a step and stomped on the ground. Before she knew what she was going to do next, she lunged toward Assassin without thinking. She raised the scythe upward and, standing above him, swung downward with the weapon.

Assassin had no weapon to defend himself with, instead, with the palms of his hands, he held the scythe by the sides of the blade. Due to the power with which Gray struck, the ground under the servant's feet broke sinking a few inches.

"Woooaa!", Add felt the vibrations of the impact all over his body.

Even Gray looked surprised. With bare hands, Assassin parried the scythe, and that she had put all her strength into the attack. It was supposed to be a killing blow, but the servant resisted with a little difficulty.

"Amazing..." he whispered.

When Gray touched the ground again, Assassin let go of the scythe blade.

"Again..." he said, not even waiting for her to think about what was happening.

Seeing Gray confused, he immediately lunged forward. He only took one step, but his body flickered and appeared in front of her as if it were just an illusion. Gray's eyes widened in fright at Assassin's speed, but she found the strength to oppose him. She swung the scythe with all her strength to exert speed on the weapon. She twirled it between her fingers with great skill and threw another blow, but Assassin stopped the metal blade with his palms again.

'I already knew that...', for she saw Assassin's strength that night.

He is outside of what can be considered human. Being an Assassin, his strength, speed and dexterity were beastly. This is a Heroic Spirit who, though dead, continues to walk the earth alongside the living as a servant. He exists to serve the Magus as a depressing slave with no will of his own.

She tightened her grip on the scythe at the thought.

"Do it again," he said, letting go of the scythe. His gaze was still cold, almost numb.

Gray again grew serious. She attacked on three occasions. On all three she missed, as Assassin dodged the first two and blocked the last with his palms. There she realized that Assassin had not taken his eyes off her all this time. He never saw the scythe, he never saw her hand movements, all this time he was looking into her eyes.

He never stopped looking into her eyes.

On the third stroke, she paused to say something.

"My eyes...you can tell how I'm going to strike by the movement of my eyes."

It almost sounded like a joke, but it also made sense. Assassin nodded.

"That's why it's so easy to block your attacks."

That offended her a little. But yes it was true that she always looks at the place where she attacks. That seemed to be a weakness within her fighting style.

Assassin let go of the scythe again and this time he relaxed. He let go of his fighting stance.

"Our eyes have a fairly large field of vision. You don't need to see where the enemy is going to attack if you're only looking at his body. It's enough to never take your eyes off his face. The rest will flow the further the fight progresses."

"How many fights have you been in, Assassin boy?" asked Add.

"More than I can remember," he replied.

Assassin didn't seem to mind mentioning that. Gray felt confused in response.

"But this is no time to linger and chat. We're here for a reason," with a leap, body jutsu flickering, he stepped back four meters again. "I've already proven that you have more than enough strength to wield a scythe. I've already verified that you look at your own hands while attacking. Correct that and get ready to train quick reaction and decision."

Almost instantly, without another word and without warning, he appeared in front of her raising his fist. Gray's eyes widened in disbelief. That was cheating; something she couldn't dodge. All that was left for her was to take the blow full in the face. It was more like stopping the punch with her face. That last one was something Add would definitely say.

The blow was so powerful that it echoed through the forest. She shot backwards as she rolled on the ground. She hit a tree running out of air and collapsed face first into the grass.

"Too bad..." he denied. He looked disappointed though that didn't show on his face. "'Aren't you going to get up?" he walked over to her and crouched down.

She had a reddened nose from the blow and was dripping blood. She felt a lot of pain all over the center of her face, which made her think Assassin has a very heavy hand. It was like being hit by an iron rock flying at the speed of sound. She was dazed by that very thing. She had a hard time standing up.

"You still have your weapon in hand. That's good. In a battle, if you let them take your weapon from you, rest assured you will die. The weapon, the scythe, should feel like part of your body; just another extension of it," because if the warrior is very coordinated with his weapon, as if the weapon itself were just another limb, that would make handling the weapon much easier.

She understood that, but somehow she felt frustrated. A single blow was enough to bring her down. She squeezed the hilt of her weapon tightly.

'What should I do?" she wondered. She looked at Assassin's feet and thought of something. Just as he attacked her without warning, she could do the same.

In one swift movement of her body, she twirled the scythe between her fingers and with all her might swung it aimed at Assassin's face. The servant, crouching down, leaned back watching as the metal blade passed over his face, only two centimeters away. He put his right hand on the ground and stretched out his legs spinning as if in some sort of breakdance-style dance step, which in turn gave him the opportunity to kick Gray's face. This time, however, she was quick. After launching her attack, she retracted her arms and used the scythe pole to block the kick.

Assassin found himself cornered. Gray pushed Assassin's leg outward, which caused the servant to destabilize. She took advantage of this weakness to swing the scythe with speed. She raised the weapon high and charged downward, but Assassin simply thrust with the toes of his right hand and spun 180 degrees. Using the sole of his shinobi sandal, he stroked the side of the scythe blade and redirected it to the ground.

The scythe dug into the ground and Gray saw her own mistake. She immediately wanted to back away, but Assassin stood up, jumped up and appeared in front of her. Their faces were very close, so close that she could feel Assassin's warm breath. At that, the servant threw another punch, but she saw an opportunity. She barely dodged the punch by moving her head to the right, likewise, she used the scythe pole and her forearms to tangle Assassin's fist. She held him tightly and lifted him into the air with a judo move and then slammed him to the ground.

The ground shattered into pieces as Assassin sank to the ground. There was really no expression on his face. Rather, he fell with his body rigid, as if he were a statue.

Seeing what he had just done, Gray felt an overflowing emotion.

On the ground, Assassin held up his hand with a thumbs-up.

"Nice," he said. Then he stood up as small fragments of dirt fell sliding down his cloak.

Suddenly someone was heard clapping. Assassin and Gray looked at the source of the sound and saw Reines standing next to Trimmau.

"That was surprising," she approached as if casually.

"I was going to say the same thing," Assassin looked at her as if she were an intruder. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Hanging out."

"Reines, I-"

"It's okay," she interrupted Gray. "I had some free time and wanted to come and see this interesting servant. After pestering my beloved brother a bit, he told me where you two were," she flashed a suspicious smile. "Despite being dragged across the floor like that... you don't have a scratch on you."

Gray felt uncomfortable. It was true. Assassin had nothing but dirty clothes, without a single scratch that could have been caused during the battle.

Reines looked him up and touched his face with the palm of her right hand.

"Assassin... an Assassin so strong it even gets to be funny," she moved closer to him almost touching her breasts to the boy's chest. "You... you are very special."

Assassin didn't react in the slightest. He had remained like a stone clinging to the ground. Disappointed that she had gotten no reaction from the servant, she immediately pulled away from him and sighed.

Gray was embarrassed watching Reines' bold attitudes. Her face turned red with embarrassment.

"I guess you're an old-fashioned forged man."

That's not really true, in part.

"Ah, right. Before I waste my time, there are a few matters I wanted to discuss with you, Gray. Would you give me a little of your time?"

"Oh, no. Something makes me think this is all going to be a very strange problem," Add whispered, still turned into a scythe.

To be continued...