Chapter 15: Chapter 14: The masters past and apprenticeship!
In the slums of a Japanese town, a boy no older then six years of age with longish straight black hair and onyx eyes walked towards a slightly run down apartment complex.
The boy has on a large backpack indicating he was walking back home from school. Unlike most of the kids his age, his eyes didn't hold that childish gleam instead had look of weariness. His face had a few bruises on it along with some bandages.
The boy climbs up the unsteady steps to the second floor of the complex and halted in front of an entrance. The cautious look in his eyes was replaced with slight fear and his hand shook in trepidation as he slowly opened the door...only to find the messy room empty.
Letting out a sigh of relief, the boy hastily entered the apartment room and closed the door behind him.
Throughout the main room was empty bottle of alcohol, the room smelled of the substance but the boy was used to it by now. He grew up in it after all.
CLACK
The boy jumped when the door suddenly opened, fear present in his eyes as he started to rush to another room.
"Ah...!"
Only to trip over a bottle, landing hard on his knees. He tried to scramble to his feet but a hand gripped his head and pushed it into the ground.
"W-where do you think you're going, murderer." A deeper male voice slurred.
The man has shaggy and dirty black hair, black stubble on his face while unfocused his onyx eyes holds only hatred and disgust for the boy in front of him. The man gave off an even stronger stench of alcohol then the room.
"L-let go of me! I'm not a murderer!"
The boy squirmed under the man's grip trying to get free, but the man scoffed and grabbed the boy by the back of the shirt and threw him across the room.
The boy impacted the wall opposite the door, his backpack taking the brunt of the impact.
"You think you can order me around, murderer? Perhaps it's time I finally get rid of you for good! I should have done it when you killed your mother!"
The boy's eyes widen and he begins to tremble in fear as the 'father' took out a knife.
'Why!? I didn't kill mom! I never met her!'
Tears began to fall down the boy's eyes as the drunk man stumbled closer, an insane glint in his eyes and a distorted smirk on his face.
With adrenaline pumping through his little body, the boy took off his backpack and threw it with all his strength at the man. Due to being drunk the man wasn't able to react and got hit straight in the stomach.
Seeing an opening, the boy ran as fast as he could to the door. However just as he opened it pain exploded from his left side.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!"
The boy screamed as a knife twisted in his side and pulled him back within the house.
"Shut up you fuckin' brat! Your nothing but a murderer, a demon! This is all because you killed your mother!"
The man took the knife out of the boys side and punched him in the face.
The boy was thrown back by the punch, clutching his side as he sobbed from the pain and fear. Blood was already looking beneath the boy, covering his left hand.
The man moved towards the boy, intent on finishing him off.
BANG
A loud bang thundered through the room, blood splashing over the startled boy. His cries halted as he stared wide eyed at the hole in his father's chest.
"Wh...at?....You fuck...ing...demon..." The man gurgled before falling forward, all light vanishing from his eyes.
In the doorway is a middle aged man with dark brown hair and brown eyes, a reddish brown beard on his face. In the man's hands is a shot gun that he quickly throws away in favor of running to the boy who was slowly bleeding out.
"H-hang in there, lad. Helps on the way!"
The boy didn't respond, everything fading to black as he lost consciousness from the blood loss and trauma.
/0\
"Alright everyone, gather around."
A kind looking old lady called out to the group of playing kids, orphans. The kids varied in age, from 4 to 9. Each child looks at the black haired boy next to the matron with unconcealed curiousity. Said boy just fidgets with his hands behind his back, his eyes barely showing any emotion.
"We have a new brother! His name is Issen, make sure you make him feel welcomed okay?"
The now named Issen let out a startled cry when he was siddenly tackled down by the group of kids, all of then happy to get a new brother.
For the first time in his life, a glint of happiness appeared in Issen's onyx colored eyes.
/0\
Hell.
That's the only way you can describe the current scene.
Flames as far as the eyes can see. A sick stench of burning flesh. Screams of agony ringing throughout the area. Smoke clouding out the night sky.
Amongst this hell was two figures, an old woman muttering prayer after prayer was pulling Issen through the flames, trying to get them to safety.
The nine year old boy was crying heavily as the memory of all his fellow orphans burning kept replaying in his head.
Why? Why did this have to happen!? He just got a family for the first time and now it was all burned away, becoming this hell!
Issen couldn't think straight as he continued to see more and more people fall to the fire, his only guide being the weak grip on his hand.
However, withour warning that hands grip tightened and his body was thrown forward.
Issen landed on his butt and quickly turned to the matron, the mother of the orphanage. Time seemed to come to a halt as he stared wide eyed at the old woman who was sending him a smile of content, a smile that would confuse him for years.
The matron opened her mouth and said a single word that Issen was able to hear over all of the chaos.
"Live."
Time resumed back to normal as a burning building fell over on the matron, causing a bloody mess.
"Ah..."
'Live.'
A pitiful noise came out of the boy's mouth as the word continued to repeat in his mind.
'Live. Live. Live. Live. Live. Live.'
"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!"
The boy screamed as he got to his feet and started to run.
'Live. Live. Live. Live. Live. Live.'
Issen placed his hands over his ears as he continued to run, desperately trying to block out the noise of people screaming in agony and crying out to him for help.
He ran and he ran and he ran and he ran.
He kept running away from the fire, away from the suffering of other. All so he could fulfill that single command.
'Live.'
He didn't lose his memories, but he lost everything else instead.
After what seemed like an eternity of running, he made it out of the fiery hell. He had 2nd degree burns all over and was barely breathing, but he was alive.
However, while his body only has 2nd degree burns, his soul was burnt to a crisp leaving only an empty shell that had just barely managed to cling to his memories.
/0\
Jeanne D'arc gasped as she shot to a sitting position, she was sweating heavily and felt a small urge to vomit. Pushing the feeling down, wiped her eyes free of any tears that were there.
"The dream cycle..."
Servants can't actually dream. However, just as a master can see pieces of a servants life in the form of dreams, a servant can also see pieces of their masters life as a dream or vision.
Remembering Issen's 'father' and even worse the fire, she understands Issen's reaction upon seeing destruction the 'dragon witch' caused.
She felt all of the emotions that Issen was going through during the events. The fear, the sorrow, the anger, all of it.
Jeanne got the urge to go to her master just to be with him, to make sure he was okay. Nodding to herself, she got up and placed her normal dress on while leaving off the armour pieces before leaving the room she was supplied with.
After a little while of walking, she came up to his room and knocked on his door.
After waiting for a while, she got no response.
"Issen-Kun?" She called out, knocking once more.
"Jeanne?"
The Ruler servat turned to meet the questioning gaze of Arturia.
"Arturia-San? What are you doing here?"
"I-I can ask the same of you. What are you doing at master's room?"
"Eh!? Um..."
Jeanne blushed lightly as she thought of the question. What was she going to do when she saw him?
"Eh? Older me? Jeanne-San?"
Jeanne and Arturia turned to see Lily walking over to them now, her face slightly pale and her eyes red.
Suddenly all three of them understood the situation.
"You two saw the dream cycle as well?"
It's odd that they all saw it on the same day, but it could be because Issen is one of the first masters to even have this many servants.
"Jeanne-San? Arturia-San? Lily-San?"
The three of them sighed as Mashu came along next.
It seems they were right.
/0\
I sweatdropped as I continued to to my morning push ups, trying to ignore the feeling of Scathach sitting on my back.
"What are you doing?" I asked calmly, continuing my work out.
I didn't even hear or sense her enter the room!
It scared the hell out of me when I felt a sudden weight on my back!
"Hmmm? Isn't it obvious? I'm helping."
No. No you are not! You are just using my back as a glorified chair! If anything, it's distracting since I can feel the shape and firmness your ass on my bare back!
WHAP
"Ow!"
"You just thought of something you shouldn't have."
"How did you even know!?"
I feel like crying all of a sudden! Why am I getting hit on the head when it was her fault to begin with!?
"Aaahh! I lost count how many I've done!"
"Another 900,000."
"No, I don't think that's the amount!"
Is she trying to killing me? Did I do something wrong wrong and somehow truggered a dead end?
I'm pretty sure scathach never offered to train me, so why is she acting as a Shishou?
Of course the Lancer servant remains quiet as I start to focus more on the work out, making sure to keep my muscles reinforced. I'll make it a personal challenge to do the amount she set!
With this thought in mind, I pushed myself to the limits and managed to get through 30,000 before dropping down.
The weight left my back as I collapsed down on my face, sweat pouring down my body as the muscles in my arms are torn.
WHAP
"Ow! What was that for!?" I complained from the ground.
"Are you some kind of idiot? Why did you actually try to do that amount?"
"Your the one who told me to do it though!"
"...even I didn't think you would actually attempt to do it."
"..."
...for some reason, I really want to punch something right now.
I sighed as I flipped myself over to my back and got to healing my arms, the soreness not fading even after I was done.
As I was getting up, I caught something that was thrown to me on reflex.
"...a Bokken?"
I looked over at Scathach with a questioning gaze. The purple clad Lancer has a wooden spear in her hand while getting in a stance.
"We're going to spar. You beat my foolish student, surely you would be able to put up a fight." She smirked.
...I don't know why, but I get the feeling that she isn't telling me the real reason why she is doing this.
Either way, it doesn't matter right now.
I turned my sharingan on and raised my bokken into a stance, reinforcing it with prana.
There's an energy reinforcing Scathach's spear as well, meaning that breaking it would be difficult.
My eyes caught the muscles in her legs tending before she burst forward at speeds that I could barely see, even with the Sharingan.
I barely managed to dodge and lift my sword to block the second attack. Even if I am able to see her attacks, my body can't react fast enough.
I was forced onto the defensive as I was subjected to relentless attacks. Whenever I thought I saw an opening, it would be filled in an instant and I would have to block or dodge another attack.
As the spar continued, the attack patterns were burned into my mind as I slowly started to acclimate more and more to her style.
Seeing a stab for my chest, I hastily deflected it to the upper right before twisting my torso and using my lower torque to pull off a point-blank slash at Scathach's chest.
'Third secret sword, Rekkou.'
To my shock, the attack was blocked but the strength behind it causes her to stagger ever so slightly.
Not letting the chance slip by, I go on the offensive.
First I sent a strike for her head that was dodged before I predicted he rmovement and quickly sent an elbow for her neck that was blocked by the spear.
Spinning the spear around, the back side of the piece of wood comes down on my head. I lean to the side at the last second and slashed at her stomach.
Once again my attack was blocked before I jumped up and kicked at her chest. After seeing my attack was again blocked, I jumped back and gained some distance.
Once again sweat was building up on my body while Scathach has a few drops on her face but other then that is completely fine.
Gritting my teeth, the resolve to not use any chakra for this fight before engaging Scathach once more.
/0\
'Impressive.'
Scathach smacked an attack for her stomach to the side before dodging an aattack for her neck.
'He's improving at an abnormal rate.'
Scathach was inwardly praising the boy in her head as he continued to attack relentlessly, trying to get a single hit in without using his chakra.
Scathach likes heroes, not the type that are burly and hard headed, but those filled with potential. Oddly enough, her master seems to hold an infinite amount of potential.
Issen disengaged from Scathach for a second to take a deep breath before vanishing.
'No, not vanishing...!'
Scathach's instincts went off as she vastly twisted around and swung her practise spear at the presence behind her.
...only to see her wooden spear go through an after image.
This time an even more heavy presence appeared behind her, having no time to dodge or block. She was barely able to get a glimpse of Issen as his sword closed in. For a split second, she thought she saw a large demonic wolf glaring at her before it vanished.
SLAM
Issen's sword slammed into her stomach, knocking her back a bit and causing spittle to fly from her mouth.
'He got a hit in...'
Scathach smiled unconsiously at that thought. Sure, she would have won without a doubt if they were using real weapons, the evidence is the bruises on Issen's torso. However, even she does not known if her Gae Bolg Alternative could pierce through that fully armored Susanoo.
Though she doubts the spectral warrior would be able to kill her.
"Haah....haah...I...hit you..."
Scathach frowned slightly when she saw the tired state of Issen.
"I was able to bring out all my strength for a moment...though I'm still training it..." Issen explained.
It was for less then five seconds, but Issen managed to push out every ounce of strength while abandoning his survival instincts. Unfortunately he wasn't able to do it for long as his muscles can't handle the strain right now, even with reinforcement.
"That's foolish. You can greatly damage your body if you do such a thjng repeatedly."
"Unfortunately I don't have much of a choice, I need strength as soon as possible."
Trihexa has the power to literally destroy a world and he has to defeat that monster. While this technique won't really help him with that directly, it will help harden his body. The higher his basic specs, the longer he can use Susanoo and his other moves
Scathach sighed at seeing Issen's stubborn behaviour but remembered the dream cycle.
'He really doesn't care if he dies...'
"Very well then. You are to be here at 4 every morning for training. I need to make sure my master doesn't kill himself after all."
'No, I feel like you'll be the one that kills me.' Issen thought in his mind, a nervous smile present on his face.
Issen healed his bruises and muscles before standing up and stretching.
"Hey...what is you wish for the grail? I mean, you are a Servant...sort of. Don't you have a wish?"
Scathach looked over at her master before deciding to answer.
"I wish for death. I am an existence that is not a human nor a divine spirit, I am without death. If the grail is as 'absolute' as it is said to be, then it should be able to grant my wish."
"You wish for death? Why?" Issen frowned.
"Tell me, if death had no meaning, then is life fulfilling?"
"But what about all of the things you can still do? All the things you can see?"
"I appreciate what your trying to do, Issen, but it's pointless. There is nothing left that I have yet to experience, no adventure, no beauty, no change, just the same cycle repeating over and over again." Scathach stated.
"Do you truly believe that, Scathach?" Issen frowned sadly.
Scathach's eyes widened when Issen said that, his image replaced with Cu Chulainn for a second.
'No wonder they get along so well...they are very similar.'
"I don't believe it, Issen. I know it." Scathach sighed with her eyes closed, giving him the same response as she did to Cu.
"For your rather old age, you are quite stupid, aren't you?"
Scathach's eyes shot open at the unexpected response, her mouth dropping open a little.
"...excuse me?"
"Humans are the same? Sure, we fight quite a bit, but we also grow a lot as well. Did anyone back in your time think we would reach the moon? Did anyone back in your time think that purely mundane humans would be able to create technology that allowed them to communicate across the world, with no form of magecraft?"
Scathach frowned slightly. "...What are you trying to say, Issen?"
"There is so much you have yet to see. So much more to do. Don't give up on humans because you think that there no more for you to see. They will always surpise you. We are a race that flew to the moon despite not having wings."
Scathach felt a small warmth spread throughout her chest, a small fire kindled that only grew when she saw Issen scratch his cheek before sending her a slightly embarassed smile.
"Besides, you won't be alone. I'll be there with you to keep you company, along with the others. Someome as beautiful as you shouldn't have such a sad expression."
Scathach felt her face grow warmer as she turned her head to the side.
"Don't ask for the impossible, Issen...but thank you."
Issen smiled, his eyes filled with determination.
"You may say it's impossible, but I don't give up! I've said it before, I won't let my comrades die even if it kills me. I will save you, even if the enemy is yourself, I will save you. If you see up purpose in life, then I will make sure to help you find it. I promise."
Scathach's face was an even brighter shade of red, unable to look at her master.
'Is this what Jeanne and the others feels around him...?'
Issen saw her look and smiled to himself.
'Cute.' He thought, before blushing slightly.
As Scathach was getting control over her beating heart, she realised something. A terrifying smile formed on her face and a scary aura is released from her body.
"I just realised...you commented on a woman's age, did you not?"
Issen went chalk white with sweat beginning to pour down his face.
"W-wait...I didn't mean-"
"My My, what a foolish student I have. I suppose I should teach you your first lesson." A red spear appeared in Scathach's hand as she inched closer.
Issen wasted no time activating his lightning armor and getting the hell out of the training room.
'Maybe you are right, Issen...' Scathach thought, making no effort to chase after Issen.
/0\
"Ah! There he is!" Okita pointed at me as I sprinted down the hall way, away from from the demon Shishou behind me.
I halted in my run as I looked at the group in front of me.
It consists of Jeanne, Arturia, Lily, Mashu, Okita, and Nobu.
"What do you girls need?"
"B-before that, please put a shirt on!" Jeanne stuttered slightly, pointing at my torso.
Ah shit, I forgot to put a shirt back on after sparing with Scathach...or Shishou now, I guess.
I'm only in some anbu styled pants and some high sandals.
"Sorry, I was in a rush to leave the training room." I rubbed the back of my head before unsealing a black shirt with the Uchiha fan on the back.
"So, what did you girls want? It sounded like you were searching for a little while."
The girls look slightly haggard for some reason.
"Why didn't we think of the training room?" Lily palmed her forehead.
"A-anyway, we just wanted to make sure you were alright." Jeanne said.
"I...see?"
Not really. Why wouldn't I be alright? As far as I know, this facility is the safest place on the earth at the moment.
Now that I think about it, Scathach was acting a bit weird as well.
....whatever. I'm not going to force them to talk.
"Alright then, why don't we go get some food? I'm starving!"
Both Arturia perk up and nod their heads, ahoge waving back and forth. The others nodded as well before we went over to the cafeteria.
My mind drifted to the conversation with Scathach. I will definitely save her, as well as any other of my comrades, my friends.
This time for sure.
/0\
Issen's current servants:
Mashu
Arturia Pendragon
Arturia Pendragon Lily
Jeanne D'arc
Scathach
Okita Souji
Oda Nobunaga
Marie Antoinette
EMIYA (archer)
Siegfried
Cu Chulainn
Amadues
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Train_Heartnet_0767
Train_Heartnet_0767 There's the chapter! Issen's past was revealed, at least most of the tragic parts anyway.
He also had a Scathach moment, and got a new teacher to assist him in gaining strength! The other girls will also get some bonding time, but the next singularity will be coming up soon. Probably in two chapters.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone