History Fanfic / TheSagesDisciple

* MundaneUtility: Crow uses fire magecraft to light Touko's cigarette.

* EmptyShell: [[spoiler:Sola-Ui gets hit by this while she's working on removing the Crest Worms within Sakura. She keeps working, though her demeanor becomes a lot more mechanical and her voice becomes noticeably colder. She recovers a bit later, but not after Rin is thoroughly freaked out at seeing a person basically become a machine.]]

* {{Foil}}: Crow destroys the Kirei-Kiritsugu alliance by pointing out the contrast between the two men.

* PapaWolf: Caster hopes to one day gut Byakuya Matou [[spoiler:for abandoning Shinji in the Matou mansion]], deeply disgusted the man so casually threw away something he'd have given the world for.

** Crow, when teaching Shinji to fight, makes it a point to instil this line of thought into him.

* CombatPragmatist: Crow, when teaching Shinji to fight, makes it a point to instil this line of thought into him.

* CombatPragmatist: Both Caster and Crow have proven that they're willing to fight dirty.

* BodyguardingABadass: Touko is one of the scariest women and most powerful magi on the planet. While he's her "bodyguard," Crow wonders if his job isn't actually "accountant."

* AlternateTimeline: Outside of the Moonlit World, this seems to be the case for the mundane world. Russia remained an absolute monarchy due to Alexander III surviving, the Titanic managed to reach New York City before sinking, Operation Valkyrie succeeded in 1944, etc. Crow spends much of his free time researching other such changes and trying to figure out why its so different from the world he knew.

* AlternateTimeline: Outside of the Moonlit World, this seems to be the case for the mundane world. Russia remained an absolute monarchy due to Alexander III surviving, Operation Valkyrie succeeded in 1944, etc. Crow spends much of his free time researching other such changes and trying to figure out why its so different from the world he knew.

* TheBartender: Cormac Driscoll, owner of the Live Steel Irish Pub. When ruffians tried to firebomb his establishment, he pulled his greatsword off the wall and chased them off. [[spoiler: He's actually a Fraga spy that's been following Touko around for years. He's just really unsubtle about it.]]

** [[spoiler: Until you think about what exactly he gets out of the deal. After the Grail War, the only thing that had changed from before it was that Crow had some magecraft under his belt and some more money. By working as Touko's bodyguard, he effectively gained a base of operations to work out of (as temporary as it is), basic necessities (food, shelter, income), and access to a magus that would be willing to teach him the basics he had completely bypassed to learn his Rune Magic. To a traditional magus, it is indeed peanuts. But to someone focused on surviving? Crow got everything he wanted out of the bargain.]]

** [[spoiler: While he still has the limb, Kirei's left hand was burned to the point of uselessness and cursed with the inability to heal.]]

* BeneathTheMask: Crow, as seen by the other Masters, is a bombastic and suicidally-confident magus with a flair for the dramatic. [[spoiler: However, Caster mentions that Crow is soft-spoken and nervous when away from the War, but drastically changes when needed. It's implied later that he separates the personas into "Crow the crazy badass" and the real Crow. He also tends to use terminology that frames his "badass" moments as a stage performance.]]

** [[spoiler:The Docks scene. Kayneth used it to draw out other Servants, but Caster and Crow set up Rune traps everywhere earlier in the day, effectively allowing them to hold everyone hostage for a few minutes (and kill an Assassin).]]
** [[spoiler:The Hyatt Hotel. After warning Kayneth about Kiritsugu's intent to bomb the hotel, Team Caster went in through the roof while Lancer was away, knocked he and his fiance unconscious, and made off with a suitcase full of Mystic Codes and a vial of Volumen Hydrargyrum.]]
** [[spoiler:After realizing they needed a spiritual surgeon to remove the Crest worms from either Sakura or Kariya, Team Caster used Berserker as a distraction to keep Lancer occupied again while they snatched Sola-Ui, their medical supplies, and Kayneth's backup vial of Volumen Hydrargyrum. After knocking Kayneth unconscious again.]]
** [[spoiler: When he tried to invade Team Caster's camp to retrieve his fiance, his Servant was forced into an inescapable death match via Caster's Ath nGabla, leaving him to face Crow. Despite arguably being the strongest magus in the war, Crow brought him down with what boiled down to flashbang runestones, an enchanted slingshot, a vest of invisibility, and guerrilla tactics. To Kayneth's credit however, this was only possible after nearly four days of hit and run attacks during which Team Caster had stolen his most powerful Mystic Code and Crow was equipped with weaponry specifically to use against him. Even then, Crow was forced to do a lot of running until he got the chance to get close and knock him out.]]

** [[spoiler: Kiritsugu briefly compared Crow to Aozaki Touko while under the mistaken belief that the former was a puppet master.]]
*** [[spoiler: [[SpeakOfTheDevil And in the latest interlude, guess who shows up.]]]]

* GroinAttack: Scatach the warrior-witch seems very fond of it, since Caster mentions a "dick-withering curse" of her invention and her first impulsion after realizing Cu Chulain managed to copy her Gate of Skye is ripping his man bits - after thoroughly and vigourously making use of them, no sense in wasting the opportunity.

* ShoutOut: [[spoiler: When Gilgamesh calls him a mongrel, Crow comments "YouKeepUsingThatWord. [[Literature/ThePrincessBride I don't think it means what you think it does...]] half-breed."]]

* {{Tsundere}}:[[spoiler: Scathach is indeed a scarier Rin Tohsaka. Upon realizing that Cu learned the Gate of Skye technique without her permission, she resolves to "rip his man parts off" but not before using them.]]

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler: After momentarily escaping from Kirei, Crow was nailed to one of the Gordius Wheel's Divine Bulls by a pair of Black Keys, though he was healed by Caster soon after.]]

* MalevolentMaskedMen: Most of the competitors see Crow as this, since he wears the Crow Mask whenever he's doing "Grail business." [[spoiler: Kariya is the only other Master that knows what Crow actually looks like.]]