Bluntly put, Sasaki Kojirou as a combatant was in a realm beyond the Knight of Atrocity as far as skill with their weapons were concerned, perhaps on equal grounds, the Lancer would overpower the Assassin through sheer difference in raw power but, it seemed the world would not have it that way.
Any difference in parameters was more than made up for by the boost provided by being in his homeland coupled with the honestly insane quantities of mana Sasaki's master could supply him with.
Servants were quite the cost-efficient entities after all.
Despite all this however, the Assassin couldn't help the excitement building up in his heart as he took an actual stance, preparing himself for the increasingly rapid wave of blows his opponent was about to rain down on him, all with a tailored smile practically plastered across his face.
It should have been an easy win, it could have been one had he gone all out right from the start but why would he do that? What thrill would a man like Sasaki Kojirou feel from a battle that ended in but an instant?
Nay, he desired a clash with a worthy foe that would be burnt into the minds of all those that witnessed it.
He found that foe in the Lancer Class Knight of Atrocity, Aston, who commanded thunder and moved faster than a man could blink.
The moonlight seemed to take on a stronger form to illuminate the coming exchange, lighting up the surroundings and giving an ethereal feel to the two servants staring one another down, exchanging strange smirks that oddly fit them completely, even if the Enforcer bearing witness to this had a few things to say about men fighting to the death joking around like they were old friends.
"I will answer your splendid display with one of my own, even if you might find it lacking." Sasaki spoke coyly, raising his blade to eye-level.
He'd not expected to find such an opponent when his summoner was someone leeching off the innocent, in a war fought between the loathsome fools with twisted hearts that sought only to further themselves and would discard flesh and blood in that foul yet admirable ambition.
BUT, he would relish this sudden fortune all the same, irrespective of consequences, irrespective of orders.
How could he not?
Their clashes just then told him all he needed to know.
It wasn't just some ordinary spearmanship learned by some upstart noble, it was far beyond that.
Skill honed on battlefields, skill honed by felling man, skill honed upholding his own sense of justice, skill honed fighting for one he had offered his heart to.
It WAS in a realm of it's own, even Sasaki Kojirou accepted that.
No doubt his current advantages were born only of a series of coincidences that would have him the victor.
"Of course not, even if I do find the thinness of your blade somewhat questionable." Aston maintained his cordial demeanour, shaking his head with a small smile, "Is the length meant to compensate? I had heard the East was not quite.." He put a hand to his chin, pausing for a moment before, "Gifted."
Sasaki's smirk froze for a fraction of a second before widening further, "I find mine more than adequate, however I will again call into question your disposition, have you no other interests, Aston?" He would show this opponent the technique that made him a legend.
Aston found himself in a conundrum, he wanted to share a drink with this man not murder him, "Are you certain you refuse to move?" But then again, he knew his request was unreasonable. He would scorch the temple behind the man if he did and in doing so, probably kill his Master.
"Such arrogant confidence is unbecoming of a man." Sasaki moved, swinging his blade in a horizontal arc. This alarmed Aston who, feeling extreme danger, tried to utilise his monstrous speed to move away, releasing blue lightning from his figure and cracking the concrete under his feet.
Only, it was mostly futile.
No matter how fast the Knight of Atrocity could naturally go, so long as the speed could be quantified, so long as he took time to move, no matter how little, he could not avoid the technique Sasaki Kojirou had developed.
Three skillful strokes of his blade, in a realm where speed became irrelevant, as did time and it's constant flow.
If Aston could move so fast it seemed he took but an instant, then Sasaki's blade was even faster.
He couldn't hope to be faster than strokes that transcended the very concept of time, not without access to his complete power.
And so, as Bazett Fraga McRemitz watched with widened eyes, unable to understand what had transpired. Aston's arms fell limp, his shoulders slashed apart. A gash appeared right beside his neck, going down to his chest and fresh, warm red blood sprayed out, reaching volumes not humanly possible, "Damn."
She noticed Aston actually curse, but something irked her, "Why are you still smiling?!" Bazett wanted to rush over to her servant but noted that it would be counterproductive and raised her arm, intending to use a command seal to heal him.
Sasaki Kojirou seemed somewhat surprised too, "You.. moved." At the last possible moment, Aston had positioned himself in a way that let the wounds inflicted not be fatal, preventing death or worse.
This opponent simply DEMANDED respect.
"If this was all it took to do me in, I would be too ashamed to continue living." Aston was completely calm about the situation, regaining strength in his arms mere seconds later and rose to his full height, "I must say however, that was amazing." He praised honestly, staring at the Assassin with dull blue eyes all the while completely ignoring the deep, possibly mortal wound beside his neck, as if he didn't even register it.
"Right.." Bazett lowered her arm, returning to her calm self.
She'd read his legend hadn't she?
This was the man who slaughtered the Roman invaders and fought his way to the frontlines from the rebel forces' rearguard. It was in his very legend to forge through pain and injury that would have one screaming in pain.
It made sense then that wounds fatal for the common folk were barely hindrances to him.
"It remains that I could not react and as such, I will refrain from commenting about your incompetence out of respect." Aston smiled smugly, as if he'd done something to be truly proud of.
Sasaki chuckled at his words but soon that turned to laughter, "Normally you'd hold a grudge over such a grave injury you know?" He asked rhetorically, wiping a fake tear from his eye.
"I must say whoever made you think that must've had shallow patience." Aston denied the possibility, unnaturally calm about the slowly healing wound Assassin had tore open in him.
But then he appeared right behind the man, driving his right leg into Sasaki's ribs only to be blocked but once again, scorched his opponent's flesh with the blue lightning dancing about his unarmoured figure.
Unfortunately, there was no stupidly broken technique to stop damage dealt by actual lightning.
This time however, it was far more intense than before and blew Sasaki into the dense forest around them. He crashed through several trees, tearing them down before finally stopping, with his face completely buried in dirt and soil.
"That should be enough." Aston remarked blandly, nodding to himself, "My honourable foe! You were commanded to hinder! Not kill or defeat! So stay down!" He was truly a genius for finding a loophole in his opponent's task.
Sasaki shuddered, feeling his charred flesh as he winced from the waves of pain coursing through his nervous system, "M..Maybe say that before.. I don't know, almost burning someone to death!"
Aston deadpanned and gestured to his own wounds, wondering if the Assassin realised the sheer irony in his words. He looked at the stoic Bazett who seemed dead inside with a gentle smile, "Onwards my Master, to Caster." The Lancer felt strangely irked by how someone could actually outspeed him but then realised he couldn't utilise even a fraction of his top speed so it made sense.
"If you don't mind me asking, what's with all the lightning and speed?" Bazett just didn't care anymore and tended to her idle curiosity lest she smack her servant and injure herself again. The speed made sense considering his legend but the coloured lightning didn't, so she asked, expecting him to insult her again, "I can't see it being born of a legend."
Aston stopped for a moment, "You wish to spend decades in a hellhole that makes no sense and almost makes you forget yourself my Master?" He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, "Even if you are a closeted ruffian, I suggest not putting yourself through that."
"I.. What? What?" The Enforcer rushed to catch up to her servant, blushing profusely, embarrassed by her servant's tendency to say such extreme things so casually, "Why would you say that?"
"I speak the truth only."
Saying his piece, Aston silently climbed the steps leading to the temple built upon Mount Ryuudou, preparing to meet Caster.
* * *
You can find up to 7 chapters ahead at patre0n.com/Bleap and support me as well.
Might be one or two off but that's usually dealt with in a day at most.
One can only write so much on an empty stomach that can't be filled till the sun fully sets.
*Inside Bazett mind*
... Wow... Figures of Myth and Legends... Bantering about phallus... Yep... I have seen enough.
TFTc
Kojiro actually doesn't have the boost from being in his homeland because very technically he has no homeland bro is a phantom he's not the real Kojiro Or Kojiro Sasaki just never actually existed or else he would be the default strongest servant in the entire 5th holy grail war if you don't count gilgamesh and even if you do count Heracles. Bro held off heracles indefinitely if he wanted to he could have probably easily killed Ilya.
Honestly I thought the explanation was that he HAD homefield advantage and that's the entire reason why a fake person was still so strong. He's not real but his home both IN story and where his story is known is Japan. Honestly the man has piles of advantages and arguably the flood of mana he has while at the gate is a minor one since the man barely uses mana aside from existing. (His NP is functionally stated to be so mana efficient he probably could have used it with a non-mage as a master much less with a permanent connection to a leyline.)
Bro, I'm pretty sure he does. The homeland boost corresponds with fame in one's land like Vlad being Dracula and the ruler of the land he was summoned with, it's an insanely famous story. Similarly, Sasaki Kojirou gets a boost because he too is from a famous tale originating from Japan. Him being a wraith doesn't well and truly matter because fake or real, his story has him be a Japanese that lived and died there, he's famous there and so by reference, as in cases with other servants, it makes sense that he should have the homeland boost from being in his own country even if he's just from a book.
@Bleap Yes and no. It's not that Kojiro is just a storybook character the dude we see was an actual human being not a heroic spirit with a legend backing him up just some dude that was summoned cause his life resembled Kojiro's the most meaning he has no boost at all. Despite calling his Tsubame Gaeshi a Noble Phantasm it is not one similarly to EMIYA UBW they aren't real Noble Phantasm. Another reason why he wouldn't have the boost is because he has no inherent Legend there are no story about HIM similarly to EMIYA. Bro wasn't even summoned correctly btw and had no master living off the leyline. Either way it's pretty easy to disprove the he did receive the boost with a bit of research. ( P.S Also at this point The whole nasuverse thing was still a eroge I doubt he even thought of things like Fame Boost from being in your homeland or anything like that yet at this point) ( P.S.S Vlad being as strong as he was is a MASSIVE exception like an incredibly massive one because he is in the very city he defended everyone knows of him therefore in that city people know of him as much as they do Hercules or whatever even if Kojiro was real/legit he wouldn't have been as strong as vlad has been.)
Also keep up the great work I'm really enjoying the story so far.
Also small Edit what I meant by Kojiro not receiving any boost is that servants are just inherently boosted by their fame and legend Kojiro like Emiya has none that. He's a nameless spirit so any achievement he ever has will be credited to Kojiro rather than him.
Also Dracula's boost is different since outside of wherever his from he is still insanely famous but as Dracula not the OG him so his vampire form is actually weaker in his home country because Vampire Vlad is less famous than normal Vlad but outside of it vampire him is much stronger than normal him.
@Chaeden Bro is actually massively debuffed believe it or not. He has no master the reason why he can't just leave the mountain is because he's stuck to they leyline there and that's the only thing feeding him mana and because he doesn't have independant manifestation ( I Think too lazy to look it up) he's a bit weaker than normal he also has no master to just heal him up. Also at this point Nasuverse was still an eroge there is very little chance the creator even thought of the fame boost and the only instances of it is in Apocrypha which was made wayyy after.
Edit: Medea also fked up the summoning so he wasn't summoned correctly. And bro still pushed Hercules back.
@Vendre No the fame boost was a thing, and because of the leyline connection he's fine while in the one place he ever is. Since Caster refuses to give her own energy though if he 'fled' his position of the front gate he'd start fading out quickly since he doesn't have independent action.
(as for knowing the fame boost was a thing, even in F/SN there was the 'rule' for no Japanese servants to be summoned due to the homefield advantage. This was broken because of Angra Mainyu's corruption of the grail and the weirdness of HOW he was summoned....meanwhile in the other timeline I feel they FORGOT the rule or the Einzbern can literally just cheat because in the war where Angra normally dies and corrupts it they summoned Amakusa Shirou as ruler who has homefield advantage, access to command spells to order other servants around, and the ability to know every other servants info.....because the Einzberns are massive cheaters.)
Honestly, its generally better to just assume Nasu already thought it out....because gods DAMN does that man through piles of mostly inconsequential info scattered through his works, some only accessible by dying in ret*rded ways. Honestly the homefield advantage bit was functionally a throw away line in FSN to explain people not summoning mostly Japanese servants when they'd probably have far easier access to their artifacts as people living in Japan. Then it was just run with later on to explain things. (I'd also say 'fame' boost is something else personally. Because the more well known a story or hero is the more powerful its subject tends to be. Honestly Archer is probably kinda f*cked by that because not a f*cking person knows his 'tale' since he got summoned to the past. Meanwhile theres a chance the sheer amount of people who know about people like Edison and Tesla are where the majority of their power actually comes from....well Edison cheats because apparently america literally has as their 'secret weapon' a mystic code a body with a lions head that bears the will of each successive president for use by the President in case of a threat to the existence of the USA.....f*cking Nasu.)
@Chaeden The no Japanese servant rule came much later though it wasn't mentioned in the visual novel or in the anime in the OG fate timeline it was never mentioned at all actually though I could be wrong . As for Medea being his master she is technically as in she summoned him but she summoned him incorrectly he isn't anchored to her he's anchored to the leylines if she dies off he'll still be alive but thats a problem because first of all bro isn't even a heroic spirit technically bro is legit just a spirit he could literally get exorcised by a priest lol. On the wiki it even says that if saber didn't kill him he would have still vanished before dawn. Fame boost works on the whole world and certain places Vlad is the perfect example outside of Romania his base form would be pretty weak but his Dracula form would be insanely powerful but within romania since people know of Vlad more than they do of Dracula he is boosted to the level of Hercules while his Dracula form becomes much weaker. The thing about Kojiro is that he is literally not Kojiro just some farmer dude that was summoned in place because he is the closest thing to Kojiro if A phantom of Kojiro was made MAYBE he would receive the land recognition boost but because this dude is LIterally not Kojiro he is just some dude that was summoned and was forced to take the name Kojiro and the reason why he cant use his own name? Its because he has none since he wasn't remembered he doesn't have a legend to back him up. Another thing is No one ever mentions him having the boost there is no material ever bringing it up the only time we see it in effect is with Vlad and Semiramis if we don't count FGO cause of romulus. And His stats reflects that bro has e in almost anything and only an A in speed and only because he achieved the Tsubame Gaeshi bro is legit just a normal human that managed to achieve impossible speed (Meaning bro isn't even getting a fame boost TESLA has a better stats than him and he is far older than tesla bro aint even a servant). As for the edision and tesla thing yeah definitely they were born after the age of the gods at a time when humanity was and mysteries were slowly getting weaker and they aren't that old basically all their powers come from the fame boost. While EMIYA is an exception because not only was he a top tier Magus Killer (We don't have proof of this but cmon) AND he got boosted by Alaya and had infinite amount of time to train his techniques.
Sorry a bit long :P
But to make it short my main point atleast was that. Sasaki is a wraith bro is literally not a heroic spirit he has no legend to boost him he is literally not even Sasaki Kojiro just some farmer and his stats reflect that he has worst physical abilities then most casters other than speed( Due to him mastering The Tsubame Gaeshi) his technique is techniqually not even considered a noble phantasm under the Fuyuki System since a noble phantasm is the crystallization of ones legend bro has no legend therefore no noble phantasm the technique is just something he mastered to such a degree that under the FATE system it is considered one.
P.S Also that comment about Nasu I found really funny considering bro has done more retcon than DC and WH40 combine. I mean a while back Tsukihime and Fate were the same universe lol. Shirou getting nerfed over and over again to servants being able to remember past grail wars now...?
Edit: Also the reason why people don't use japanese servant is that first they're overall weaker to european servant sure you could summon a buff raikou OR you can summon Heracles Sure you could summon Oda Nobunaga Or you can summon Heracles. Also most of the magus in the Holy Grail war are european most Summoning relic are acquired through european connections alot of them are also done without any item rin literally just prayed for the best and so did the Matou's 2 of the 3 founding members.
@Vendre how do you do "BRO" 🤣