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Author's note: This chapter covers the Assassin group's backstory, shown as a death replay. The next chapter returns to Maverick's second round. Skip ahead if you prefer to stay with the game action.
According to Max's original design, the total map area of Fuyuki City in Holy Grail War referenced Kobe City in Hyogo Prefecture — 502 square kilometers in reality, scaled down to a playable 50 for the game. Still substantial enough that without a detection system, two players could theoretically spend an entire session wandering without ever finding each other.
Max's solution was the detection expansion mechanic: no map awareness for the first hour, then a five-kilometer outward expansion per additional hour from each player's position. Friendlies marked green. Enemy players red, enemy Servants yellow. Assassin-class Servants received a notification the moment they were detected and entered a five-minute stealth window — enough time to break line-of-sight or close to within one kilometer, at which point detection failed entirely.
It solved the "nobody can find each other" problem without killing ambush strategies. Max had considered everything.
What it also meant, practically: if the Assassin group's icons never appeared on the fully-expanded map, something had happened to them before the detection range reached them.
Something had.
The player in question — username "LiXiaming_Emperor_of_Europe" — had strong opinions about starter items.
Specifically, he didn't use them.
The Einzbern family provided a Holy Relic at game start, tuned for compatibility with Saber-class Servants, because Saber was the historically successful class for the Einzbern strategy. Li Xiaming had looked at this, decided it was for people with less confidence than himself, and drawn his own summoning circle based on personal compatibility.
"Are you kidding me? I'm the Emperor of Europe. Watch me pull gold on a single try. Come — Guardian of the Scales!"
The standard summoning incantation. Blue light. White mist dispersing.
A small figure in black close-fitting clothing materialized from the circle. Slight build. Purple hair. Skull mask with bone decorations. The specific aesthetic of a cult whose entire identity was centered on eliminating the self.
Then the mask came off.
[Chat_From_Replay]: oh
[Chat]: OH
[Recognizing]: Serenity Hassan. Assassin of Serenity. the poison-body one.
[Also_Recognizing]: she's one of the Hundred Generations of Hassan-i-Sabbah — the Old Man of the Mountain, the founder of the Assassin cult. each generation takes the name. this generation's ability is: her entire body is a lethal toxin. contact with her skin causes instant death.
[Player_Still_Unaware]: Li Xiaming does not appear to have read the character description.
[Watching]: he's smiling. he's walking toward her.
[Horror]: HE OPENED HIS ARMS
[More_Horror]: she stopped moving. she's stunned. she has literally never had someone walk toward her before.
Serenity Hassan's wish — the thing she would ask of the Holy Grail if she obtained it — was the simplest wish in the war: she wanted someone to touch her without dying. Her entire existence as a weapon had been built around what her skin did to living things. Every intimate assassination she'd performed had ended the same way. She'd never been held.
Li Xiaming walked into her arms wearing Emiya Kiritsugu's face, which was not the face you'd expect this situation to wear, and his face was deeply flushed with embarrassment because that was the kind of person he was.
Serenity Hassan stared at him. She had not moved.
He hugged her.
[Chat]: ...
[Chat]: ...
The chat was briefly, genuinely quiet.
Then Li Xiaming's hands moved.
Specifically: his hands, noting that her outfit left her back largely uncovered, moved toward her back.
He took a deep breath.
Her body fragrance hit him.
In the next three seconds, his face traveled from flushed to deep red to purple. He vomited blood. His knees gave out. He hit the floor face-first and stopped moving.
Serenity Hassan stood over him looking at her hands.
The replay ended.
[Chat]: ...
[Chat]: moment of silence
[Official_Statement]: he died doing what he loved.
[Counter]: he died because he didn't read the character description before making physical contact.
[Both_True]: these are not mutually exclusive.
[Warning_That_Helps_Nobody]: note: Serenity Hassan's skin is a lethal toxin. the game description says this clearly. before initiating contact with any Servant, read the description.
[Response]: I read the description and I would still have walked into those arms. this is not a preventable outcome.
[Judgment]: this says a great deal about you.
[Agreement]: it says the same thing about me. Li Xiaming, we are with you in spirit.
[Practical_Question]: so wait. Serenity Hassan never fought anyone? she just stayed in the building and her Master died in the first five minutes?
[Checking_Timeline]: correct. they never left. Li Xiaming summoned her, had one interaction, and that was the entirety of their Holy Grail War.
[Serenity_Fan]: she looked so surprised when he walked toward her. she'd never had that before.
[Feeling_It]: ...yeah.
[Also_Feeling_It]: the wish she would have asked for. someone to touch her. and the one person who ran toward her—
[Stopping_That_Thought]: let's not.
[Already_There]: too late.
Max's Assassin pool, for balance reasons, didn't include all eighteen generations of Hassan-i-Sabbah. The game featured four: Hundred Faces, Cursed Arm, Serenity, and Starlight, with small-chance bonus pulls for rarer variants. Serenity was the confirmed draw for the standard pool.
The standard advice applied: read the character description. Know your Servant's abilities before making direct contact. This was in the tutorial.
Li Xiaming had skipped the tutorial.
He'd had exactly the Holy Grail War experience he'd chosen to have, and it had lasted approximately four minutes.
[Chat]: F
[Chat]: F
[Chat]: F
[F_Chat]: for Li Xiaming, Emperor of Europe. may his next pull be kinder.
[Game_Knowledge]: for anyone joining co-op mode: read the character descriptions. specifically the Assassin pool. specifically Serenity.
[Counter_Advice]: read it and then make your own choices. we don't judge here.
[We_Do_Judge]: we absolutely judge here.
[Also_True]: we do, but fondly.
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