A/N: I was never gone. Just lazied around and didn't write anything. To celebrate my COVID shots, here's a chapter.

::Obscure Tome::

Hatake Kakashi was a ninja of Konohagakure.

Well, not anymore, but he still held true to the ideals and training of his village.

One such training was information gathering. There were many ways to go about gathering information, and the easiest method - if perhaps the riskiest - was simply to ask.

And ask he did about the Irish Vampire Alliance.

Its current if somewhat deposed leader, Tyler Eschera, and Kakashi's own boss, Emiya Kiritsugu were quick to tell him all about it.

The Irish Vampire Alliance - their current target of decimation - was an alliance of multiple vampire clans that had either originated from Ireland itself or moved there after fleeing persecution from elsewhere. They used to number in the hundreds before Kiritsugu went through their ranks like hot knife through butter, and as far as Tyler remembered, numbered around four dozen and then some.

His boss really ground them down.

Considering how weak they had become and how passive their leader had been lately, Kakashi could understand why they had decided to do their own thing away from their leader's instruction of "keep it low."

Unfortunately for them, he, his boss, and the vampires' boss were coming to clean the house. He understood why they did what they did, seeking allies and branching out of their comfort zone, but they wouldn't last long anymore. Depending on what they did, they might not even survive as an organization.

"Assassin, do you have to read that book?"

He looked up to find the young master of the house. Not his Master, no, but the young master, Emiya Shirou (or Shirou Emiya as these westerners arranged their names).

He eye-smiled and made it very clear that he was going to keep on reading by not closing the book. "Oh, hello, young master. How have you been? It's a little cloudy today. How goes your studies?"

Shirou sighed. "Hello, Assassin. My studies are going great. Harry is doing well, too, by the way."

"Good to hear," he hummed.

"So, the book?"

"I don't see why I have to stop reading. These vampires are anything interesting."

Tyler Eschera was interesting. He was strong, very experienced, and tame (for a lack of a better word). Being a father to a widow and grandfather to fatherless non-vampire twins would do that to many men.

And according to him, he was very powerful among vampires. He wasn't a Dead Apostle Ancestor, nowhere near it according to him, but he wasn't weak by any means.

That said, he was also nearly quickly dispatched by Kakashi's boss, and Kakashi was actually on par with his boss in combat, so …

Yeah, why would he have to worry about this mission? It would be a piece of cake. Like stealing a lollipop from a genin.

Or a chunin.

Or Harry.

Actually, Harry would freeze his balls for that, so maybe not Harry.

Hmm, maybe Rin or Ilya?

What was he talking about?

Oh right, vampires and how weak they were.

"People's lives hang in the balance, Assassin. Get serious," Shirou chided him.

He just shrugged it off.

"I will if there is something serious," he replied.

"Shirou, Assassin."

Shirou huffed and held back while Assassin went back to faux reading. Instead, he glanced around the room without actually giving anything away (glancing to the left while feigning to read the top left corner of his book and glancing to the right while "reading" the right middle page).

The room they were in was a room available for meeting above a bar in northern Dublin. It was an old building, but well maintained. The white and green patterned walls didn't aggravate anything, the window was large and a security risk despite the illusion covering the insides of it to provide an image of a happily rutting Irish couple, and the table and chairs were all well used and, again, well-maintained.

As for the occupants of the room, there were only four: Kiritsugu, Shirou, himself, and Tyler.

There was no need for more, especially since all four of them were each worth more than a dozen vampires.

Vampires who were gathered in a small coven underneath the city in the catacombs would have no chance against them and their close quarter combat specialists.

That said, he still didn't like Tyler Eschera. Was it his senses as a pseudo-human simply not liking the human-hunting vampire? Was it his bias or other factors? Whatever the reason, he was not liking the man. He did like the man when he was around his family, though. Then he had a completely different feel about him. It was a doting grandfather Kakashi first remembered seeing. This Tyler wasn't a grandfather; Kakashi saw a seasoned killer.

On that note, Kiritsugu didn't look as tense as either Tyler or Shirou. This was Shirou's first mission as a member of the Emiya Alliance, and he would have to kill. Oh, he was already bloodied due to the nature of the Grail War, but this would be the first time he would be going out of his way to kill someone else.

Kakashi pitied the kid. He didn't understand - he kind of did, actually - why he would choose to fight when he should be studying and honing his magecraft.

… Bah, he made his choice.

"Equipment check," Kiritsugu called out.

"Good," Kakashi replied easily, having expected it.

Shirou fumbled a little, nodding once before he realized he should speak up. "I have everything, dad."

"I'm good," Tyler hummed.

"Shirou, do you have any weapons or gear to hand out?"

He shook his head. "None that would help us individually."

"Which one do you have?"

"Blutritter."

Kakashi froze.

Wasn't that…?

"You brought a blood-controlling sword to fight the Dead Apostles?" Kiritsugu asked. There was no disappointment or approval, merely a question.

Tyler looked surprised.

"If only to negate their control of blood," Shirou replied firmly.

"Good. It will negate one of their advantages."

"Oi, what about me?" Tyler spoke up tersely. "I'm a vampire, too."

"You're tough even without blood control."

"Fair enough," he grunted.

"Then let's move out."

::Obscure Tome::

This wasn't easy but by no means was this hard.

Kakashi was used to either opponents who took a hit and died or didn't mind taking a hit. People were, in general, fleshy and weak once their defenses had been breached.

These Dead Apostles?

They took hits, yes, and it cut them apart, yes, but it didn't kill them.

Thirteen minutes ago, they stormed a catacomb at the western edge of the city, breaking down fortified church doors and breaking the altar protecting the secret entrance to said location. They came down upon a chamber that led out to five different locations.

Kakashi looked around.

"Old, decrepit, rocks, boulders, and bones. The most generic catacomb one could find anywhere in Europe," Tyler grunted out, listing out details Kakashi had been listing in his mind. "It used to be a Victorian lobby when I ran the show. What the fuck happened?"

Kakashi paused as he heard skittering. And then a stampede.

From all five corridors leading out of this place, vampires rushed out towards them with their fangs bared and claws extended.

It was clear they weren't fighting Tyler's men. The crazed looks etched into the faces of these men and women even Shirou recognized on the spot told everyone that this was some kind of control or corruption running among the ranks of these vampires.

"Something's wrong!" Tyler growled as one of his men came rushing at him, snarling and hissing, only to overreach after a slash and get ripped in half by the man. "They lack all the training I drilled in them!"

"What kind of training?" Shirou asked in earnest curiosity as I formed a sword of blood - due to a lack of any blood controlling vampire - and sent it hurling. The crystallized blood sword nearly broke the sound barrier in the narrow tunnels of the catacomb and stabbed one vampire and then two vampires and then three vampires before taking all three down the depths of one corridor.

Tyler switched from just punching to a narrow stance. "BOXING!" he shouted and then threw a left jab. That single attack caused a sonic boom and sent one corridor crumbling. "Oi, oi, oi, did they fucking not take care of maintenance?! Jeff should be doing maintenance!"

Kakashi rolled his eyes. See? Nothing to worry about.

He cut his finger and quickly slammed it down onto the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Smoke billowed out briefly before they disappeared, leaving only his summons.

"Hmm, Kakashi? What's up?" Pakkun, his brown pug ninken, grumbled out.

"I need you to smell out an enemy. It smells like them," he said while gesturing to the downed - and some dead - vampires. Shirou and his boss were killing, but Tyler was not.

This was going to be a problem in the future. He could see Kiritsugu and Tyler getting into an argument over it.

Kakashi sighed.

Then it was his job to make it easier for his boss's father.

He closed the book and put it away without even looking to slit the throat and twist the head off of a vampire that thought, even in their maniac state, it could sneak up on him.

"Chidori." He felt at home hearing his lightning technique begin chittering out like a thousand chirping birds.

It was time to take out the pests quickly.

"Kakashi, there's something rotting deep inside," Pakkun barked out. "It's fucking disgusting, worse than your book!"

With a nod, he made a Shadow Clone and sent it off to scout it out.

There would be a bigger battle soon.

::Obscure Tome::

A/N: Short and more of a prep chapter, but I think the story needed one for the sake of getting Kakashi's current stance/personality/character/perspective.