History Fanfic / JustAnUnorthodoxThief

** To protect Lupin from his father, Kirei claims that Lupin was acting on his orders in [[spoiler:killing Caster]]. He is also surprised that [[spoiler:he felt joy when he thought about sinners being punished for their crimes]]. At the climax, he reflects on how different he is from the man he was before meeting Assassin, including the fact that he has just saved someone's life when even a few days earlier he would have left them to die. (It's purely a self-serving gesture; his interests are what have changed.)

** How [[spoiler:Lancer]] kicks the bucket.

** [[spoiler:The almighty Gilgamesh]] is killed this way. [[DeathByIrony With bullets made of]] [[spoiler:[[DeathByIrony Lancer's stolen weapon]], no less.]]

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: The Kuken oh so much.

* UnfamiliarCeiling: Happens to Sakura in Chapter 21.

* GutFeeling: How Fujiko realizes that Lupin is, well, [[BackFromTheDead Lupin.]] Which leads to this gem:

** Assassin's solution to Caster's regenerating familiars.

** [[WouldHurtAChild Caster]] is this to the point where his very presence causes a complete ''GenreShift''!

** The Count and the Owls of Minerva by dint of being {{Combat Pragmatist}}s to the core.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: How Risei hides the Holy Grail War.

* FlatWhat: Waver gives one when Rider declares his intention to get Daisuke Jigen to join his army.

* GambitPileup: Lupin and the Owls of Minerva are the main Chessmasters in this fic, though every other Master/Servant pair have plans of their own.

* ShameIfSomethingHappened: Risei regretfully tells Kirei and Assassin that he has no choice but to [[spoiler:give Sakura back to Zouken]] if Zouken arrives at the church--keyword being ''arrive'' at the church. Risei will be perfectly happy to look the other way if something "unfortunate" happens to Zouken before he reaches the church.

* AgonyOfTheFeet: While dueling with [[spoiler:Saber]], [[spoiler:Assassin]] winds up impaling his foot after stepping on a piece of his ''own' broken weapon. Cue him comically jumping around on his good foot while trying to remove the offending part. [[spoiler:Saber]] has a rather difficult time keeping a straight face at this.

* CameBackStrong: Lupin, of course.

** Saber gradually lets go of her ideals throughout the course of the war. She takes her first step when she defeats Caster using what she considers dishonorable methods, forsaking her chivalry for a greater good. Later on, Lupin forces her to take a hard look at herself when they argue about her wish. She then falls prey to a Fantastic Drug (see below), faces her demons during her trip, and comes out of it with a changed philosophy and not chained down by her chivalrous ideals. By the end of the war, she's willing to do whatever she has to in order to get the Holy Grail, even strike her opponents from behind, or strangle them to death.

* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:Emiya Kiritsugu, the gun using Magus Killer and assassin, is killed by an assassin with a gun.]]
* DefeatByModesty: Goemon cuts off the clothes of police officers, forcing them to run away as a result.
* DestroyTheEvidence: The entire [[spoiler:Owls of Minerva hideout]] was rigged with incendiary explosives to prevent information from falling into enemy hands.

* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Assassin's ''Better Luck Next Time'' Noble Phantasm works like this. Lancer nearly kills him when he figures that out by going for the same fatal strike again.

* LoveMakesYouDumb: Kayneth loves his fiancée. When she goads him into attacking an enemy who outclasses him, he doesn't realize this nor that the woman in front of him is an imposter because he's blinded by the desire to impress her. It almost makes [[SmugSnake Kayneth]] sympathetic.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** Lupin gives one to Lancer regarding his complete obedience to his Code of Chivalry and honor.
** Lupin delivers an awesome one to Zouken:
---> '''Assassin:''' All this is pointless in the end, don't you see that? Even if ya demanded to [[spoiler:have Sakura back]], it wouldn't last. Pops and the cops are lookin' for ya, and I don't think that the old man is going to completely cover for ya. If anything he will wipe their memories of any magic-related stuff and make you up to be just some sick old rapist. That alone will make them relinquish you as Sakura's legal guardian, and hunt you down to take her from you. And even if you were to avoid them and try to start fresh, the terms of the geis wouldn't hold because the stick in the mud signed off Sakura to ''Matou Zouken'', and no one else. You're disgraced and alone, so why bother tryin' to [[spoiler:get her back]]? Because of pride. [[SoreLoser Ya hate losin']], because you haven't lost in a long time have ya? You so desperately want to save this plan because you know that without Sakura or Kariya, you and your family are finished. And once your family is gone, you'll wither away and die. Face it. You're just an old, sick, and stubborn man who has lived too damn long for a goal he probably doesn't even remember. All you're doin' is torturing a child and beatin' a sick man who can't defend himself anymore. Tell me, 'cause I'm actually a little curious... what does that even accomplish?
** Lupin gives one to [[spoiler:Pycal]] about his delusions of grandeur and self-importance.
** Lupin is on the ''receiving'' end of one in Saber's mind when she's [[spoiler: beating him to a pulp with her bare hands]].
--> '''Saber:''' ''Tell me Lupin the Third… Did you think I spent the time before I was King of Camelot sitting on a horse or throne while my Knights bled and died on my behalf? Before I became the king of anything… Before I became anything close to a knight… Before I took my oath to uphold the code of chivalry... I learned how to fight. Perhaps it's true that I was too inflexible and if I had been willing to compromise my values earlier things would have been different… But that does not make me weak or helpless, or naive. The King of Knights… that is my title. I earned it through my struggles. But you? 'Emperor of Thieves'... A self-proclaimed title. One more suited for your grandfather. I hope you remember this. I hope you're realizing something right now. You're a hundred years too early to think you can treat me as a simple distraction or a foolish girl, '''you little punk'''.''
** Lupin gives one to the Count when the latter's identity is revealed and he has ranted about his motives.

* SpannerInTheWorks: One of Assassin's current goals in non-life is to screw up canon as much as possible.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler:Ryuunosuke]], though in his case that's only so that Zenigata can arrest him.

** [[Series/TheThickOfIt Britain's Director of Communications being caught on camera making rather explicit as well as creative insults and curses]] is mentioned.

** Mayu (and company) from ''Manga/ElfenLied''. Goemon retired from thieving and became a bushido instructor in Kamakura, watching over Mayu in particular as a surrogate father. TIM says this was done purely as a ShoutOut to the series. In the epilogue, they're running the Ahnenerbe café.

** Mayu (and company) from ''Manga/ElfenLied''. Goemon retired from thieving and became a bushido instructor in Kamakura, watching over Mayu in particular as a surrogate father. WordOfGod said this was done purely as a ShoutOut to the series.
** Riko Mine, a.k.a. Lupin the IV, from ''LightNovel/AriaTheScarletAmmo''. [[spoiler:She was conceived the night before Lupin's death.]]

* DistantFinale: The epilogue is set twelve years after the fourth Holy Grail War, telling us how Rin, Sakura, [[spoiler:Lupin]], Kirei, [[spoiler:Lupin's and Kirei's daughters]], [[spoiler:Saber]], Zenigata, and Akimi Daisuke (Zenigata's partner during the Grail War) have moved forward with their lives after the events of the main story.

* AnachronismStew: During Kiritsugu's flashback [[spoiler: to when he first met Lupin]], it is mentioned that he and Natalia have two Jeircho 941 handguns and a Calico M950 among their weaponry for the job. These two weapons were not available during the time the flashback takes place (1976).

* TheDogBitesBack: A mild version. Tohsaka treating Risei like a servant causes Risei to chew him out.

* ImplausibleFencingPowers: Goemon can safely cut clothes off of people and can cut right through a suspension bridge.

* DyingCurse: [[spoiler:Angra Mainyu]] gives a whammy of a curse to Saber after [[spoiler:she rejects and destroys it]], damning her to [[spoiler:eternal life until a member of the Lupin bloodline kills her as well as changing her body to be similar to Irisviel's, including the excruciating pain Irisviel was in right before she died]].

* {{Hypocrite}}: Saber condemns the Lupin III cosplayers who get plastic surgery to look more like him:
-->''Completely ignoring the life they had been given for an opportunity to be someone else? It was worse than trying to escape reality. It was obsession to an unhealthy degree.''
::She's not wrong about the cosplayers, but from ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' we know that this wording describes Saber's motivation for winning the Holy Grail pretty well. She wants to use the Holy Grail to erase her rule as KingArthur by choosing not to pull the sword from the stone, ignoring all the good she did as king and trying to become someone else.

* PerspectiveFlip: [[spoiler: The final arc is portraying Saber as TheHero and Assassin as the BigBad.]]

''Just an Unorthodox Thief'' is a ''LightNovel/FateZero'' and ''[[Franchise/LupinIII Lupin The Third]]'' crossover by The Infamous Man, the same author behind ''Fanfic/FateZeroSense'' and ''Fanfic/ADifferentKindOfTruth''. It uses the familiar concept of someone summoning a Servant from another series--this time, Kirei Kotomine has accidentally summoned Lupin The Third as Assassin. How will this affect the Fourth Grail War? Read it [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8868025/1/Just-An-Unorthodox-Thief here]], and find out.

For those unfamiliar with the ''Lupin'' franchise, Lupin III is the grandson of the original GentlemanThief, titular Frenchman ''Literature/ArseneLupin''. Lupin Sr was intelligent, fast, and powerful enough to rival Sherlock Holmes. The grandson is less classy, but even more dangerous. He is normally accompanied by three friends, but this work downplays their influence. He is, however, still chased by a policeman who has dedicated his life to tracking down Lupin, and has collected an impressive arrest record by catching the criminals Lupin has competed with. Criminals like the mages Lupin has been summoned to fight. With the power that comes from being a "Heroic Spirit", Lupin seems to be getting even more incredible.

** [[spoiler:Jigen's death scene is set up to be similar to that in ''manga/{{Trigun}}'', where its protagonist finds himself conversing with a slowly dying rival/best friend.]]

** [[spoiler:Jigen's death scene is set up to be similar to that in ''manga/Trigun'', where its protagonist finds himself conversing with a slowly dying rival/best friend.]]

* IJustWantToBeNormal: [[spoiler: Saber's real wish.]]

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: [[spoiler: Saber has a chance to achieve her most desired wish: [[IJustWantToBeNormal a normal life]]. The Grail makes a convincing argument to make that wish, by consequence of causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Saber refuses, strikes the grail down, and knows that she will likely never be recognized for doing this.]]

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Kirei’s general opinion of Lupin’s antics.

* BreakingSpeech: Lupin gives Lancer such a good one about his blind obedience to chivalry and Saber's willingness to put her honor aside that Lancer has a brief HeroicBSOD.

* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: The only reason Assassin doesn't kill Kiritsugu for sending [[spoiler:Pycal]] after him and causing a mess is because he wants to steal Excalibur from Saber and without Kiristugu, Saber will disappear.

** To protect Lupin from his father, Kirei claims that Lupin was acting on his orders in [[spoiler:killing Caster]]. He is also surprised that [[spoiler:he felt joy when he thought about sinners being punished for their crimes]].

* ChekhovsSkill: Lupin/Assassin's most iconic Noble Phantasm is claiming ownership on any item he steals. This allows him to prevent Archer's weapons to return back to the Gate of Babylon, to use and modify [[spoiler: Lancer's weapon after he died]], and even [[spoiler: [[CrazyEnoughToWork hijack the Holy Grail itself by touching the avatar]]]] at the climax.

* DyingCurse: [[spoiler:Angra Mainyu lays down a whammy of a curse on Saber after she rejects and destroys it, damning her to eternal life until a member of the Lupin bloodline kills her as well as changing her appearance to be similar to Irisviel's as a reminder of her failures.]]

** She's not wrong about the cosplayers, but from ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' we know that this wording describes Saber's motivation for winning the Holy Grail pretty well. She wants to use the Holy Grail to erase her rule as KingArthur by choosing not to pull the sword from the stone, ignoring all the good she did as king and trying to become someone else.
** Subverted in the sense that her wish is to redo her life during Fate/Zero, not get somebody else to become King. That wish manifested out of her belief that she was unworthy to be king, not that she wanted to be someone else.

* {{Sadist}}: In a similar vein to ''Fate/Zero'', Kotomine Kirei is a budding sadist living in denial. Unlike ''Fate/Zero'', Lupin is here to prevent Kirei from going full blown For The Evulz-mode and help him find enjoyment in (slightly) more moral ways. See Smiting Evil Feels Good below.

* ShutUpHannibal: Before their battle Rider tries to criticize Saber's kingship and wish like in canon, but by this point in the fic Saber's heard it all before and just doesn't ''care'', telling Rider that she's long stopped caring what other people think of her life. This makes Rider begin to respect her.

* SignificantWardrobeShift: The story points out the many outfits Lupin's worn over the years throughout the series, and note that they often come with a change in attitude. Naturally, Lupin changes into these outfits whenever the appropriate mood strikes him.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: [[spoiler: Saber has a chance to achieve her most desired wish: [[IJustWantToBeNormal: a normal life]]. [[spoiler: The Grail makes a convincing argument to make that wish, by consequence of causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Saber refuses, strikes the grail down, and knows that she will likely never be recognized for doing this.]]

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: [[spoiler: Saber has a chance to achieve her most desired wish: [[IJustWantToBeNormal: a normal life]]. The Grail makes a convincing argument to make that wish, by consequence of causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Saber refuses, strikes the grail down, and knows that she will likely never be recognized for doing this.]]

** [[CharacterDevelopment Saber]] attacks Assassin from behind when [[spoiler:he's the only thing between her and the Holy Grail]], though he manages to turn around and takes the slash from the front. Immediately after, [[spoiler:he shoots her from behind. When he picks up Excalibur, in desperation she picks up the gun and shoots him five times in the back]].

* {{Ubermensch}}: Assassin lives by his own rules and no one else's.

::She's not wrong about the cosplayers, but from ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' we know that this wording describes Saber's motivation for winning the Holy Grail pretty well. She wants to use the Holy Grail to erase her rule as KingArthur by choosing not to pull the sword from the stone, ignoring all the good she did as king and trying to become someone else.