Episode Three (Oct 6th, Tuesday - Day)

(As mentioned before in the shoutbox, this episode has an experimental time limit of thirty real-time days from the moment of this post. After thirty days have passed, the thread will be closed and all further action during the day will be forfeit in order to keep the story moving. This time limit may or may not be carried over to future threads depending on how well it works.)


Someone was in his bedroom. Daisuke wasn't sure exactly how he knew, but the way his aching shoulders were shaking and his head was lolling back and fourth had to mean something. There was also a strange noise. It sounded like words of some kind, almost like someone yelling at him.

"Onii-chan! It's morning! Wake up!"

Nah, that has to be my imagination. There was no way. Ignoring the fact that he usually woke his sister up instead of the other way around, it was definitely still nighttime when he'd collapsed into bed two seconds ago.

"Oiii! We're going to be late!"

Late for what? School wouldn't start for hours. It couldn't have be more important than sleep, whatever it was.

Finally, the shaking stopped. And then, with a loud thump, Daisuke felt his head connect with the hardwood floor of his room. The rest of his body sagged after him in short order. He had a moment to think, Wow, that sounded like it hurt. Then it started hurting.

"Stupid Onii-chan. If you don't get up, I'm going to hate you."

A groan escaped his throat. Daisuke took a few fumbling seconds to right himself, rubbing his head as he looked blearily around at the fuzzy, bright landscape of what was either heaven or his bedroom. Miraculously, the blankets had somehow stayed on his bed. The curtains were thrown wide open and painful, searing light was shining in from the lens flare outside. His computer monitor on the desk against the wall held no solace, reflecting light at him as he looked away from the window. The blurry figure of his sister made it's way into his line of sight, and then suddenly the details of the entire room sharpened and took on a more realistic atmosphere as she settled his glasses on his face--sideways.

"Ooh.. Hanako. Thank god you woke me up... I was having this terrible dream where I was being crushed by a pair of giant breasts."

His adorable sister, still bed-headed and in her pink chick-patterned pajamas, stuck her tongue out at him with a bleeh noise. Then she held her hand out, palm up.

Daisuke reached up to fix his glasses and stared uncomprehendingly at her hand. Then he pulled himself into a kneeling position, flipping her hand over to graze the back of it with his lips with all the charm of a prince.

"My lady..."

"Bzzt. Wrong." She pulled her hand from his grasp, then thrust it at him again, impatiently. "My present. You forgot about our promise, right?"

Daisuke blinked at her for a moment. Then a wave of comprehension passed over him and he jumped up, alarmed. "Oh! That's right!"

His sister relaxed a little from his reaction, clearly expecting him to hurry and apologize. Perfect. "If it's a good one, I might forgive--"

"We're going to be late if we don't hurry!" Daisuke scooped the shirt of his school uniform up from the floor where he'd discarded it yesterday and started pulling it on.

"Ehh?! No!" Hanako puffed out her cheeks, pouting. "My present first!"

"Alright, alright.." With only one arm through a sleeve, Daisuke stumbled over toward his desk where the paper bag from the night before lay. He took it, kneeled again, and offered it up to her with both hands as a knight might present a sword to his king.

"I found this in one of the caves in the mountains around China. I was starving at the time, but as soon as I discovered it, I knew you would want it. So I ate my shoes instead, just to have something to bring back to you."

Hanako carefully took it from him as he explained. She looked up at him for a second, then frowned down at it. "A bag?"

"Y-yes. Isn't it wonderful? Look at how the light it reflects shines in a fabulous dull brown. Doesn't it look delicious?"

"Oooh, oooooh.." She murmured, peering at the bag in her hands. She seemed to be focusing, perhaps trying to see it how he was describing.

"Well, don't hold back on my account. Go ahead and eat it." He turned away from her, pulling his shirt on the rest of the way, and shoveled through the laundry on the floor until he found a pair of socks that were of an acceptable degree of cleanliness. Behind him, he heard the faint crinkle of paper crumpling.

"Oh, Hanako?" he glanced back to find her biting down on one corner of the bag. She looked up at him with it still in her mouth. Daisuke fought to keep a smile off of his face. "Your present is inside the bag."

Neal rolled out of bed bright and early as he always did, the sun wasn't even above the horizon yet. The events of the night before still quite vivid in his memory despite the early hour. He had always been an early riser, even when going to bed late he was normally up before the crack of dawn. Normally doing so was for the express purpose of getting some training in before he started his day, but the habit never left him even if he had left the home that had perpetuated the habit in the first place. It was much a part of him now as his own body.

He also had the unique distinction of being one of those types of people that was wide awake and perfectly alert the moment he opened his eyes in the morning, another learned habit he had picked up during his younger years back in Ireland, but that wasn't going to stop him from having his morning coffee. After having a quick shower he made his way into the small kitchen area and started up the coffee maker. "Lancer, anything to report?"

Lancer was lounging on the couch as if he had been there all night, watching the morning game shows and drinking what looked to be like a power drink of some kind or another "...Where did you get that?" Lancer glanced over at Neal "Hmm? Oh right, report. Nothing happened while you were sleeping. So what is our plan today?"

Neal decided not to inquire further on the origins of the can in Lancer's hand and sighed slightly "Today, we'll be finding a new place of residence, that should take up the better part of the morning. Once that is finished we will return here, by that time school will have been in session for some time and I can check the map to see how many magi are lurking about the high school. Then we head over to the high school itself. I have to see if anyone has signed up for my tutoring."

Lancer quirked an eyebrow in amusement "Wait, why are you still bothering with the tutoring stuff if you have enough money so you don't have to work anymore? Seems like a waste of time to me." The toast Neal had been preparing popped out of the toaster as he poured himself a cup of coffee. "Not a waste. If it does indeed turn out that there is a Master at the high school then this tutoring job is my way of gaining access to the school without being conspicuous."

The young man on the couch seemed to consider Neal's words for a long moment before shrugging "Well, good luck to you on the sneaky stuff. It isn't really my style. Speaking of sneaky...so, what are we going to do about Assassin?" Lancer scrunched the aluminum can into a little ball and tossed it into the small waste bin across the room as Neal sipped his coffee.

"Well, because he is the only one we have the identity of, he is logically the only one we can go after right now. Nor does he seem particularly powerful at the moment. If we do hunt him down we have to be careful because other Masters could very well be lurking about waiting for an opportunity. We will have to be extremely careful. Judging by what I've read on Jack the Ripper, he was a bit compulsive about taunting the police about his handy work, so I suppose that keeping an eye on cops would be the most logical place to start. Only problem with that is, there are a lot of police in this city, and we can't very well watch all of them..."

"So we are just going to cruise the streets at night and hope we run into the red-headed freak aga...." A knock came from the front door and Neal frowned slightly before making his way toward the door, Lancer hopping to his feet and tagging along just behind his Master.

Neal reached the front door and opened it, there stood two men. One of them appeared to be one of his now-former co-workers from the delivery service, the other was... "Officer Yoshikai? What are you doing here?" The young police officer smiled, a travel mug of coffee in one hand "I was just on my way to work and I thought I would swing by and check to make sure you were alright, after last night." Neal nodded quietly "Yes, I am as well as I can be, thank you for your concern." The second man offered a long thin rectangular box to Neal "Sorry to interrupt Mr Doyle, but I need your signature for this. I'm on the clock."

Neal nodded apologetically "Yes of course." He handed the box back to Lancer to hold while he signed the electronic device, and second man waved and headed back to his delivery truck. Yoshikai peered past Neal at Lancer curiously "Who's your friend?" The question was one of pure curiousity. "This is my cousin Logan, he's moving to this city and just needed a place to stay till he.." Lancer pipped up, cutting Neal's words off "Hey there! Nice to meet you! You the cop that brought Neal home last night? Thanks for that, I haven't gotten a cell phone yet, otherwise I would have picked him up myself. I'm just glad my little cousin is safe." Lancer wrapped an arm around Neal's shoulders and promptly mussed Neal's hair.

Yoshikai seemed mildly amused by the display "It was nothing, just doing my duty as an officer of the law. You two gentlemen have a good day." the young officer waved and headed back to his car which was parked on the side fo the road, as Neal shut the front door and pushed Lancer away before fixing his now tousled hair. "Laying it on a little thick, don't you think?" Neal's voice carrying a hint of annoyance. Lancer smirked lopsidedly and tossed the package back to Neal, who hadn't quite been expecting it and had to act quickly to keep the parcel from toppling to the floor.

Neal peered at the parcel, noting that it was from his aunt before setting it aside. He was fairly certain he knew exactly what was inside it. "Come on. We have a lot to do this morning, and I don't have a functioning mode of transportation." Lancer tilted his head to the side thoughtfully. "Why don't I get us transportation, while you get us a house? There shouldn't be much danger at this stage in the game, I can go pick up a new vehicle and I can meet you at whatever house you were going to pick. Sound good? If there -is- any trouble, you can just use a command spell and summon me."

"Isn't that a rather irresponcible thing for a Servant to say? Isn't your sole purpose for being here, to protect me?" This servant was certainly shaping up to be a bit...different, from what he had come to expect from Servants. Lancer's demeaneur changed abruptly and a serious expression came over the young man's face "I will protect you Master. No matter what...BUT...this is something we need...."The seriousness melted back into the boyishness "And I reeeeeeeeeally wanna pick out the new vehicle!"

Neal sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping "Fine." he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, removing a plastic card from it. "Nothing fancy, I'll meet you at the manor for sale over on the east side." Giving the card and a slip of paper with the address, Neal started to get his coat and shoes on. "I'll meet you there....Do you even know how to drive?" Lancer simply nodded "Of course." as he headed for the front door, while Neal picked up his briefcase. Lancer waved "See you soon." and the door closed.

Neal frowned as he stood there ready to head out, himself. He had a bad feeling he had just allowed something horrible...

It had happened the night before, although she still wasn't entirely sure as to what -it- was, exactly. The sun was up, and climbing steadily into the sky. The tall blond-haired woman turned her gaze upward toward the sun as she paused to lean against a fence that ran along the back side of a series of buildings. It seemed to her like the past seven hours had been preciously short. She was already feeling weakened. She certainly wasn't going to last more then a day without a Master.

"That...that stupid...pompous...reckless....incompitent.......LOSER!!" Part of her was furious, part of her was just depressed, but the evens from the night before were still blurry in her mind. All she -really- knew..was that something went terribly wrong...

***

The summoning was nearly complete, she could feel the connection, the flow of mana, the power that mana gave her...And then...just before the completion of the summoning...Something went horribly wrong. it had felt like someone had grabbed the bond as it developed and ripped it apart. There was a flood of mana, a wash of energy and then what could only be considered to be an explosion.

When she had awoken, the room was charred black. Rider was laying on the floor, and had probably been unconscious for some time. Not too far from her, however, was the corpse of a man who had probably been in his late fifties. His life force having been completely torn from his body. ".....My...Master is dead...-already-!?" Rider climbed uneasily to her feet. She was in little more then a plain white dress of sorts, which was covered in black smears from the charred ground, her armour and weapons must have vanished when she had fallen unconscious.

To have finally been selected for a chance to get ehr wish from the Grail and...already her Master was dead. Surely this was some cruel joke. "Make one bad call and it haunts you forever..." She muttered as she staggered toward the door that hung off of a single set of hinges at an odd angle. The door led to a long narrow set of stairs, most of which had been destroyed by whatever had happened. It was quite the feat just managing to get to the top using what stubbs of the stairs that remained. By the time she reached the top she was even more filthy then when she had started.

Finally she pushed the cellar like door upward and climbed out onto the floor of what appeared to be a shed of some kind, all the while muttering curses at her former master for having screwed up so badly. "He is lucky he is dead...cause I probably would kill him myself if he wasn't...Wrinkled old prune..." She straightened, her long golden hair trailing behind her as she pushed open the shed door only to see a strange world, and the sun already peeking up over the horizon. "I must have been out longer then I thought..."

***

Rider continued to walk along the fence in her bare feet and her filthy white dress. She was already starting to feel like the world was growing more distant. She felt a sharp pain in her foot about the same time she heard a crunch as she stepped on some broken glass. "This...is -far- from a glorious war so far..." She hopped on one foot over to the curb of the adjoining street and sat down to pick the glass out of her foot. "I can't believe this....it's not fair...How could my chance be over before it even started....."

She climbed back up to her feet. "I need to find a Master...I'm not giving up my chance that easily..." By her estimations...she probably didn't have much more then 12 hours, maybe a little more. But she had to try. Stubbornly the tall woman trudged forth along the back street, without a clue as to where she was going or even where she was, as her time ticked away.

"For the sake of my friends!" bellowed the TV suddenly "I won't lose! Clow Card!". The young master rolled over and placed his pillow firmly over his ear, but the voices seemed to get louder. Kaito grunted as he shot his worried looking servant a death stare. The servant in question was standing in front of the TV, eyes wide as she awaited the thrilling conclusion. Kaito rushed over and snatched the remote from the top of the TV. "Honestly" He muttered angrily, "do you have any idea what time it is". Almost on queue his phone erupted into a fit of loud gonging and vibrations. He sighed, and walked over to turn it off.

"So how'd it go?" Kaito said to his servant as he started to change into his uniform.

"Well enough" she replied still entranced with the images before her. Suddenly she remembered the large mana source from the night before "The information is a work in progress, and I'll be needing your assistance to gather much more mana".

Kaito's ears perked up at those last words "Ehhhhhh... the great Magus servant caster requires the help of little me?".

Caster didn't even seem to flinch at the obvious tease, she simply muttered "Fate has asked that you be the one to finish it."

Flustered, all Kaito could do in reply was mutter out "Not much I can do if it's the will of fate we'll go after school"

Walking from the forest to the school was far more than a simple morning workout, especially when you had to take a path around the many traps he had placed. By the time he had reached the gate to school he felt like he was going to collapse.

Just as Kaito began to ponder whether or not to simply skip school and go finish the mana gathering spell the nurse placed a hand on his shoulder "Hello, Izumi-san" she said with a gentle smile.

Kaito transitioned back into his facade easily, "Ah, sensei Good morning" he replied trying to seem more tired than he really was.

"Listen, I don't mean to make you late for class but..." she began to shuffle through her bag "Since you've been sick so much, I thought it would be best...." her voice trailed off as she looked deeper into the bag. 'j-just how much stuff is in th-' "Found it!" she withdrew a small slip of paper "I signed you up for tutoring so that you can catch up on your missing work"

"E-Ehhh... Th-thats not" he began to say in protest.

"Of course if you refuse" she interrupted "We'll need to call you parents and make arrangements to-".

He interrupted her interruption "Ah!, that won't be necessary!" he took the slip from her hand.

She smiled in triumph "Good, go say hello to him in the faculty office." With that she waved good bye and walked off.

'Nice...Very nice' Kaito thought as he made his way towards the faculty office 'hopefully just a minor setback...'

His parents getting involved was one thing he couldn't let happen, not yet...

"Taiyaki?"

"From a mountain cave in China, yes." Daisuke tossed one paper bag ball, slightly chewed, into the bin labled 'Combustible Garbage' as he loaded the double barrel of the toast cannon in his family's kitchen. Though difficult to aim and requiring a constant supply of electricity, there was never a weapon more suited for flinging perfectly-browned toast at one's foes. And the discharged rounds doubled as a delicious breakfast item. A powerful weapon indeed.

"I've never had a cave taiyaki before..." Hanako, seated at the table in the adjoining dining room, bit into the fish-shaped confection in her hands with an audible homf. "It's cold... But it's good."

"It shouldn't be warm. It gets pretty cold in caves, you know. People who get lost in them or stranded by cave-ins generally die of hypothermia far before lack of food or water becomes an issue. And don't talk with your mouth full."

"Haaai."

Daisuke tapped his foot, waiting on the cannon to fire out his bread. There wasn't exactly a whole lot of time for breakfast, but going without any sort of food until lunch was not a thrilling prospect. Granted, neither was running to school.

"Well, that confirms it. The phrase 'beggars can't be choosers' is a complete lie. The truth of the matter is that all of the choices just suck."

"I don't really know what that means, but I forgive you, Onii-chan. But you have to help with my story tonight, okay? I'm supposed to turn it in tomorrow."

"Well... Normally I would say no, but since you're my favorite sister. I'll have to cancel dinner with the Prime Minister to squeeze you into my schedule tonight. That probably shouldn't really be a problem, maybe. I think."

"Good! It's a promise." Though he could only see her out of the corner of his eye, Daisuke could hear the relief in her voice. He wondered if she even understood the implications of his previous statement. "You're the best at coming up with stories, after all, Onii-chan."

"At least someone appreciates me." The toaster--no, cannon--clicked and threw his toast into the air. "Finally-" Daisuke swung to snag it in flight, but only managed to catch one piece. The other slid across the kitchen counter. By reflex, he started to chase after it, only to have his back seize up as his reaching fingers grazed the edge of the rapidly cooling bread, and knocked it to the floor.

"Hngh." Daisuke rubbed one shoulder and irritatedly bent to pick the toast up. Then he suddenly struck a triumphant pose, holding it over his head. "You found... Breakfast!" Applause pattered from the dining room. Daisuke turned to see his sister pick her taiyaki back up from the bare table and use it to hide her smile.

"Onii-chan, you're really lame sometimes. Aren't you going to be late?"

"Oh, crap! I'm going to be late!" Daisuke checked his bare wrist to see what time it was as he hurried out of the through the dining room toward the living room and the closest goal in his quest journal: the front door. "Too bad I don't own a watch or something to see how late I am. Can you get to school yourself today?"

"That's okay. It's just down the street, so--"

"Right. Don't forget to lock the door. Now I gotta get outta here before I go crazy." Daisuke plopped down on the entryway step to pull his shoes on, holding both pieces of breakfast in his mouth for a moment to accomplish the feat.

"Hnghakmrff!" He garbled around toast as he tore the door open.

"Itterashai!" Hanako called after him. Daisuke took off down the street. How she'd managed to decipher what he'd said was anybody's guess.

Neal sighed heavily as he took a seat in the faculty office of the local high school. The morning had been....a test of his patient nature to say the least. Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong.

***

He arrived at the estate he had been planning to purchase and was kept waiting by the real estate agent, who arrived only to realize he had brought the wrong papers. Neal was left siting in the estate for fifteen minutes while the agent hurried back to his office and got the appropriate papers.

The rest of the purchase went smooth enough. He signed the appropriate papers, the deal was made, the payments established and everything seemed to be looking up. That was untill he heard the peeling of tires and the roar of an engine. When he stepped out onto the front porch, what he saw made him go white as a sheet. There was Lancer, sitting on a sporty red motorcycle, waving excitedly, his shirt unbuttoned and no helmet.

Neal excused himself and the estate agent merrily made his way to his car, content to having made a grand commission fee so early in the morning. Neal had made his way over to Lancer, his grip on the handle of his briefcase causing his knuckles to turn white, despite the fact his face was calm. "Lancer...what is this?" Lancer beamed "This my dear Ma..Cousin is the latest style of horseless chariot. The wheels are in the front and back instead of next to each other. It is incredibly fast and you only have to feed it foul-smelling water to keep it going. You should have seen all the women who stared...lots of women...with bre..." "I think that is quite enough...We are going home."

Neal made Lancer walk the bike back to the apartment. "Lancer...I asked for a plain, inconspicuous car, not a flashy racing bike...Hand it over." Lancer glacned at Neal confusedly for a moment before the realization dawned on him "Oh, right." He dug into his back pocket and pulled out the credit card, handing it back to Neal. Neal then tucked it into his front shirt pocket.

It didn't take them too long to walk back to the apartment and once they were inside Neal made his way back over to the bookcase and found the hollowed out book that housed the map he had used for the spell the night before. Upon opening the map Neal frowned. Within the circle that was drawn around the school, was the number thirty. "I....wasn't really expecting so high a number." But on the flip side, with such a high number of potential magus in the school, there was bound to be at least one Master. "Time to go to the school. Spirit form please."

***

And so, now he was sitting in the faculty office, having been informed that he did indeed have a student enlisted to be tutored and that the student was supposedly on his way to the office. He was in the middle of pouring himself a cup of coffee when the door to the faculty office opened and a young male student stepped in. "Good day, do you happen to be the student that has signed up for tutoring?"

Don't you hate it when you're late for school, flying down the street, minding your own business... And a freaking foreigner turns your life upside-down in the most painful way possible?

Breakfast in one hand and bag in the other, Daisuke flew down the street at mach speed. It was surprisingly empty without all of the uniformed students trudging to school like there would be most days. Anyone who did happen to be on the sidewalk with him had plenty of time to move out of the way since the fastest he could run was.. Not very fast. Especially after the first two blocks, 'running' became more panting and sweating than anything else.

And then a bombshell dressed like she'd just escaped from a burning building staggered out of a back street. She landed hard on her hands and knees, her long blond hair hiding her face from view. She fell at just the right time and right place to end up being right were Daisuke's legs would have been in a few seconds. The way it always happens in anime and visual novels. Highly coincidental.

Yeah. Me too.

Naturally, he bowled right over her in his haste.

"Hwah!"

There was no way he could have stopped himself, so he threw out his break instead. He flew into a rather unspectacular sprawl, his break (read: face) planting itself on the sidewalk to halt his momentum.

Daisuke managed to roll over. He just lay there panting and sweating for several moments, taking stock of the situation. The blonde had crumpled to the ground after he'd tripped over her.

"A.. Boy?"

Miraculously, his glasses had somehow remained on his face and were relatively unscathed. His bag was still gripped loosely in one hand. His toast, however, was on the sidewalk he'd rolled off of, crushed beneath him.

".. A... Woman..?"

It was difficult to keep the irritation out of his tone. His precious toast cannon breakfast had been destroyed. Had he known this would happen, he would have just gone to school normally. Now he had a pair of headaches, was even more late and had no food. Fantastic.

As he lay there brooding, the woman pushed herself to her hands and knees and half-dragged, half-crawled across the short distance between them.

"I need your help... I won't last long..." She lifted her head enough to gaze upon Daisuke with vibrant blue eyes.

"I need you..."

".. Y-you need..." He stared up at her for several seconds, still catching his breath. What the hell kind of line was that? Dispite himself, he felt a little trail of blood trickled out of his nose. His face was beginning to heat up.

"... What?"

The foreigner.. Dropped against Daisuke's chest and clung to him tightly.

"Please... Be my Master... If you turn me down, I'll vanish... Please.. I need you," her tone was pleading, but also plenty suggestive. "I'll make your greatest desire come true."

"Mas--wha-ahawaha," His entire body tensed up upon the contact. Epic. Nosebleed. It took several more moments for him to get his voice under control again. He lifted a hand to his nose in effort to make sure the flow didn't get out control.

"What kind of joke.. D-desire, there's no need to do th-th.. If you're in trouble, shouldn't you, uh, go, um... Police?" Way to go there, Kuhara. You're so cool you don't need a full sentence.

"Please, just agree to be my Master... I'm begging you..." She lay her head down on the Daisuke's chest. "Please..."

"All right, all right." A bit of exasperation creeped into his voice. "If it makes you happy, I'll... Be your Master, o-or whatever."

"Thank you, Master... So much.."

".. For wha-" His teeth clacked together, biting his tongue in the process, as his question was inturrupted by the pain of his entire left hand, the one holding his nose, cramping up. He lifted his other arm to grasp at it's wrist. "Fuck, ow, what the hell-" And his words were once again cut short, this time by what he saw. A faded tattoo in the shape of three wings had appeared on the back of his hand. As the pain faded, he flexed and inspected it. "A brand..?"

"Master... I need mana if I'm going to fight properly... My reserves are runing low," the woman muttered to him.

What's with the video game terms? She's got to be drunk. Or drugged. Or.. Both. Either way, this was getting ridiculous. Irritation was beginning to win his mind over from confusion and embarrassment.

"I seriously have no f-... No idea what you're talking about. What's this supposed to be? When did you put it on me?" He waved the bloody, now branded, hand in front of her face. "Wasn't that all I had to do? I'm sorta in a hurry, so.."

"If you need to be someplace, I will accompany you. Even in my current state... I cannot leave you unprotected... That and you are rather cute..."

Daisuke sat up partway. He wasn't annoyed enough to outright push her off of him. Yet. She might really need help.

"I really don't think the teachers would approve of that. Besides, you look... Like.." He paused awkwardly. Sitting up had given him a new perspective from which to view... Things. "You look like you need breast--rest, l-like you need rest, so shouldn't you go.. Home?"

"I do not know where your home is, even if I wanted to go there... No, I have to do my duty and protect my Master." The woman lifted her head, her ash smudged face mere inches from Daisuke's.

"In the first place, that's backwards. You're... Completely..." Way too close to me. "Lost..." He managed to turn his head away from hers. He cleard his throat again.

"My train of thought. This is extremely distracting. I don't know if you've been drugged or something, but I think you really need some rest. Probably.. I can probably take you back to my place, but I can't stay there. I've got to get to school afterwards." More accurately, he had to get the hell away from her long enough to figure out what was wrong with her and what he was going to do about it.

"I can't simply leave you unguarded, Master... It is a Servant's job to be her Master's weapon and shield." She paused and seemed to notice his bloody nose for the first time. "You're hurt... You should heal that..."

".. You.." Daisuke sighed. It seemed like talking really wasn't doing any good. She was so delirious that nothing he said seemed to be getting through.

"No, it can wait. I'll take care of it when we get to the house." Grabbing his bag in his clean hand, Daisuke pulled the woman's arm over his shoulder and pulled them both upright. With his help, the woman climbed unsteadily to her feet.

"I am sorry for being in such a poor state, Master... It isn't a very flattering look on me..." She peered down at her filthy white dress. "Not the best first impression..."

"It's nothing. You should have seen me when I got back from that sock convention in the Arctic last year. I smelled like feet and ice cubes for weeks. Come on, this way." He pulled the foreign woman into a walk back in the direction he'd initially been running from. Back toward his home. It probably wasn't the most intelligent thing to do, but he wasn't in the most intelligent state right now. Right now, he just wanted to get off of the street and out of the sight of the few people passing by.

Leaning heavily on Daisuke, the tall blonde hobbled along, her bare feet slapping noisily on the sidewalk. "The Arctic? You travel lots? I don't see many ice cubes around this place... Just broken glass and strangely styled houses.."

"Not really, just the Arctic and whatever else comes to mind. Unfortunately, the convention was cancelled this year because it snowed."

Daisuke dragged the foreign woman into the entryway of his house. She finally seemed to be feeling some embarrassment from the state she was in, which was progress in itself.

"This is your home?" She lifted her head and gazed curiously around at the new surroundings, what was, for Daisuke, an everyday scene.

"Summer home. We had it crows carry it over from Europe. My room's upstairs." Daisuke dropped his bag and used his now-free hand to slide the Japanese door of the modern, western-eastern hybrid house most of the way closed. It didn't have to be perfect. The heat shouldn't be on right now anyway, since no one was here. He stepped on out of the entry way and into the house proper, still in his shoes, to help her toward the stairs.

"Europe?" She seemed puzzled. "This is such a strange world. So different.. Master, I must insist you not go anywhere without me. You are far too cute to let wander around on your own."

"Insistance or not, I can't drag you all the way to school. It would take forever. It probably wouldn't be good for you, either. He patiently helped her up the stairs and to his room door. "And if I don't go, the actual owner of this house will kick me out. So it isn't like there are any choices here."

"Is it your order that I stay here then, Master?" The blonde's tone carried reluctance, as though she already knew the answer but didn't really want to believe it. "You wouldn't use a command spell for such a thing, would you?"

"I don't know what a 'command spell' is, so I'd have to save before using one. But you really need to stay here and.." He mentally braced himself to make sure he didn't slip on the next word a second time. "Rest." Daisuke kicked the half-closed door gently to open it and lead her inside.

The woman looked around the room they had just entered and blinked. "Such a strange looking dwelling.."

You're far stranger than anything around here, lady. The first woman in my room and she has to be so... Daisuke sighed.

The fouton.. He glanced toward his closet, then shook his head. Is not worth getting out. There's no time for all that. Instead, he dragged her over to the bed. "We can worry about the rest when I get back in a few hours."

The woman dropped rather heavily onto the edge of the bed. "Hours... Without any sort of protection? That is suicide..."

Well, at least she's concerned about protection. I know I am, what with her being a drunk or druggie or something. But I don't actually own any condoms, so...

I'm a terrible person.

Daisuke glanced up out of his thoughts to find the foreigner watching him. "You... Truly don't know what a Command Spell is? You at least know what a magi is right? Or the Holy Grail?"

How she could even talk about such things with a straight face... And know seemingly nothing of the world, believing everything he said as fact. What was wrong with her?

"Look.. I'm already going to be so late that I'm going to miss the first two lessons. If I don't leave right now, things could get seriously bad. I don't have any time to talk anymore, okay?" He turned away from her, pacing back toward the door, and glanced over his shoulder at her. "Just get some sleep. Please."

The woman pouted somewhat, an incredibly girlish thing for a full-grown woman to do. "Fine... I'll rest... But promise me you will come back immediately after you are finished your lessons." She stretched out on the bed and snuggled the pillow, apparently completely at home in someone else's place and getting smudges of ash all over the bedding.

Daisuke sighed at his poor bed. "The bathroom is down the hall, but try to stay in here. I'll be back as soon as I can." Then he waved his branded hand over his shoulder at her and left, closing the door behind him.

Half a beat later, he opened it again. "And don't touch the things on my desk. They're fragile." He pointed, indicating the PC and other bits of hardware scattered across the aforementioned desk.

The foreigner lifted her head from the pillow enough to glance over at the desk curiously. "Fragile? What does it do?"

"A lot of things. I would probably die of shock if it broke, so leave it alone." With that, he closed the door again and left a strange woman behind, alone in his room with all of the few earthly possessions he cared about.

The walk to the office was uneventful, much to the young master's chagrin. Secretly the young boy was hoping for some time of robbery or sudden fire to get himself quickly out of the school and back to safety. Though in all honesty, what were the chances of some random tutor becoming an enemy? The boy attempted again and again to convince himself 'there are only 7 masters the chances of them being in this school are slim'.

While the nurse was right and he did have plenty of work to make up from his absences, that didn't exactly mean he needed help, after all he would do the work...later...when he felt like it. Anyways, it was far too much trouble for a master to be exposed to the public for such a long period of time, even if Caster was with him, they might be detected and from what Caster had mentioned she needed preparation. So, the plan was simple, put on the facade of the sickly genius and finish so quickly that tutoring ends in only a few days , thus minimizing dealings with strangers.

Once he reached the door he exhaled and inhaled deeply before smiling, and opening the door.

"Good day, do you happen to be the student that has signed up for tutoring?"

Kaito was taken slightly aback by the appearance of the man, 'a foreigner? Perfect' Someone who knew little of the schools curriculum would be easily amazed by what he was able to do, right?

He bowed slightly "Ah y-yes I'm Izumi Kaito, and I'm afraid I'll be in your care for a little while" He threw in a cough at the end, still attempting to feign sickness, sympathy was a powerful thing after all.

"Ah y-yes I'm Izumi Kaito, and I'm afraid I'll be in your care for a little while" The young man appeared to be rather sickly and timid. He certainly didn't seem like the type to simply skip classes, which was cause him to need tutoring. And illness was certainly a valid reason for missing school, however, they were also signs of a potential magus. He knew from experience that illness was a good cover story as far as explaining away absence from school.

Neal however had to remind himself that being overly paranoid about every little detail would wear him down and dull his senses, which were things he could not afford during this dangerous time. Caution however was a must. "Well Mr Isumi, it is a nice to meet you. I am Mr Doyle, your English tutor." Neal sipped at his cup of coffee. "If you have a particular location you would prefer to do the lessons in, please make it known now."

He picked up his briefcase and made his way toward Kaito calmly, he could sense Lancer was staying close by, but couldn't comunicate with him till he was alone and his Servant could manifest, but thankfully, the school was a busy place, if there were any Masters in the school, they, hopefully, were not crazy enough to try anything during the day.

As he reached the doorway he ushered the student back into the hall so as not to desturb the other teachers. "So Mr Izumi, what sort of illness is it that you suffer from? Am I right in assuming that it is a chronic condition?" He closed the door and gestured for Kaito to lead the way.

Caster drifted slowly between her master and his tutor prepared to act if the need arose, though deep in her heart she wished that she was in the A.V room from the day before her master had cut her off during a particularly deadly cliffhanger and the curiosity was eating away at her, she wished to know the fate of her anime friends.

"So Mr Izumi, what sort of illness is it that you suffer from? Am I right in assuming that it is a chronic condition?"

Kaito continued to follow the man but at this point the weak smile dropped from his face, "it's actually rather odd" he began "there were complications during my birth, too much pressure in my head deteriorated my eyes, which is why I have to wear contacts" he gestured one finger towards his eyes "it was only around a year or two ago that my immune system started to slow down and I became ill more and more often". Well he hadn't completely lied, his eyes were screwed up and he was wearing contacts, but that was only because optical reinforcement spells could get him caught during the war.

"ah, I'm sorry" Kaito said suddenly "I didn't mean to ramble on". So far everything seemed good, school work would be done and kaito would be on his way with another possible enemy none the wiser.

Neal nodded in understanding as him and the unique student made their way to one of the smaller classrooms. Once there Neal pulled open the door and ushered Kaito into the room, briefly laying a hand on the young man's shoulder. Almost instantly he felt a jolt of pain in his left hand, than hand were his command spells were. He didn't show any outward signs of the sharp pain, but he had a funny feeling that wouldn't matter much, if the boy had felt a similar sensation. Perhaps he could faint ignorance and get the young man to underestimate him. That in mind, he continued on as if nothing had happened.

"I'm sorry to hear that. It must be a bit of a challenge. Just how much vision do you have? Do the contacts fix it, or do they only help a little?" He made his way to the front of the small class room and set his briefcase down. "Please pardon all my questions. You don't need to feel compelled to answer them. Anyway, I am sure ew will get you caught up on your school work in short order, you seem like an intellectual individual." Neal's tone remained rather soft spoken and relaxed as he took a seat on the edge of the teacher's desk. "There is supposed to be an assembly at some point this morning so we should try to get as much done before then, that we can."

Meanwhile Lancer had been following along in his spirit form, having a hard time of not watching the girls in the short skirts. So many young...freshly blossoming women...but then he felt something else., a presence. He couldn't very well manifest in the middle of this busy place, to inform his master that there was indeed another servant probably in the immediate vicinity. He was going to have to wait till his Master was alone, to inform him. For now however, he would just have to stick close..and try not to get -too- distracted.

Close, the boy had come far to close to wincing as the man's hand met his shoulder. 'You've got to be kidding' he thought 'the odds...of this are...' he thought back on the days since he had gotten his servant and all the misfortune that had come with it 'well...I suppose the odds were against me from the start'. He bit his lip, the man didn't seem to respond but Kaito knew that he was caught. His mind began to scramble for some type of plan.

"Please pardon all my questions. You don't need to feel compelled to answer them. Anyway, I am sure we will get you caught up on your school work in short order, you seem like an intellectual individual."

Kaito blinked a few times 'did he really not...?' "Y-yeah" he managed to stay 'crap don't blank out now!' "with the contacts I can see well enough, but if they happen to fall out I go close to blind" 'crap! don't give him a weakness either!'. He smiled modestly at the compliment as he took his seat at a desk and pulled a pencil from his bag. He could feel his own heart beat and immediately looked up, fearing that the man could hear it as well.
---
The servant in question was drifting behind the boy seemingly oblivious to their situation.
---

"So, what's first sensei" Kaito said to his tutor with a smile. He had to get himself under control first, if he panicked it was over. He just had to wait for the assembly then he'd be free to plan something out. He just hoped caster could handle it if this went bad.

Neal nodded calmly, the kid seemed to tense up. In all honesty, Neal couldn't blame him in the least. The boy was alone in a classroom with someone he may consider a threat to his life. And really, if Neal was so inclined, there was a chance he could kill the kid before too much of a ruckus was made. That would be the quick and dirty way of handling the situation at least. But that certainly wasn't Neal Davian's style.

He reached back to his briefcase and pulled out the english text book he had been supplied for teaching purposes and opened it. "Please turn to page 107 in your text book and read out loud passages four through to eight, please." Neal noticed the boy seemed a little pale, but neglected to ask if he was feeling okay. He didn't want to offer the young man an excuse to leave his lesson. "This should give me an idea as to where we should start. I will evaluate your pronunciation and diction, and if we have time before the assembly, I will do a quick writing test as well. These will have no baring on your grades however. So don't fret too much."

The way the young man reacted led Neal to believe one of two things were possible. Either the boy didn't know all the details of what he was involved in, or that he knew in great detail what it was he was inolved in. The way he kept his composur, for the most part let neal to believe the latter was probably the more likely of the two. And if that was indeed the case, chances were that he may try a preemptive strike at the first chance that presented itself. He watched the student calmly as he recited the indicated passages.

At the very least, given his situation, Kaito could honestly say he was proud of himself. After all it's not every high school child that could look possible demise in the face and keep right on acting. He looked down at the passages in his text book, they seemed easy enough only one or two words here or there that he didn't recognize. So took a second to gather himself, stood and began to read the sentences straight from the book with his same weakly voice as when they had met. It was odd though, before he had been fine around the tutor, however now it seemed as though his arm was burning he had to resist the urge to clutch at his sleeve to make sure that his arm wasn't seriously singed.

"..And so ended the reign of the once powerful king, the people were uneasy during the celebration" he peered at the page intensely he noticed his every mistake and winced at them as though the man would kill him for them "Fearful that the old lord would return" with that he sighed and turned to the next page before looking up "H-how was that sensei?" he muttered. He had wondered, for a moment, if he could say a spell incantation fast enough to distract the man and make his escape with caster, or at the very least get to somewhere where the fight could be on their terms. But part of him still clung to the sliver of hope that the master had simply walked into a nearby classroom, that perhaps this man wasn't out to get him.

Otherwise it could be called fear, after all Kaito had no idea what servant the man possessed if it happened to be Saber then the magic using Caster would be at a steep disadvantage. Sure it was a pretty low chance, but based on recent events he couldn't really count on odds. Fate was really being evil.

Brushing away fragments of forgotten dreams, Kogane slowly opened her eyes. As opposed to the ceiling, the cloth overhang of her bed greeted her hazy vision. She was splayed sideways across her bed and had taken her damp sheet with her, but her pursuit of comfort hadn't yet lead to sleeping on the floor this morning. Was it still morning? Kogane sat up.

It was a terrible idea.

The sudden change in perspective was extremely disorienting, nauseating, and painful. She sagged back down onto her mattress, dragging a hand up to hold her head as the headache blossomed. For several moments, Kogane focused on her shallow breathing, trying to wall the pain and nausea out of her senses. It was an acquired skill that had little to do with magic. Anyone could develop a tolerance for pain and sickness simply through ignoring them. It wasn't necessarily good for the body, but it was better than being in agony. Unfortunately, it was a skill she'd never had the patience to master.

Her effort was only marginally successful, but the minor subsistence of the headache gave her room to think. She methodically took stock of her situation like she'd done many times before. As she did, things she'd noted upon waking but hadn't bothered to think about became more apparent and uncomfortable. Her vision was wavering slightly; like a street on a summer day. Her sheets were damp and her shift was completely soaked. Her blanket was mostly hanging off of the side of the bed, likely thrown or kicked off to escape it's warmth. The sheet had probably stuck to her skin and would have proven more difficult to remove while unconscious. Judging from the smell, the dampness was due to sweat. A fever. Such occurances were not entirely uncommon for her, though they generally caused less discomfort than she was currently experiencing.

Kogane briefly considered calling Assassin, but there wasn't any point. Not only was her throat too dry to speak, but she could feel through her connection to him that his presence was already heading in this direction regardless.

There was a polite knock at her bedroom door, then it quietly opened. Her red-maned Servant entered with a tray. On it was a glass of water. As much as she hated him, Kogane couldn't quell a feeling of gratitude. She sat up as he approached, far more carefully and slowly than she had initially, and tried not to seem like she was dying of thirst as she accepted the glass from his offered tray. She had half of it drank in slow, patient gulps before she finally spoke.

"How..." Her voice was somewhat raspy. She cleared her throat and continued. "How long was I asleep..?"

"Two hours, perhaps."

Two hours. It couldn't have been very late, then. She could make it to school before the second period started. As if I was actually planning on going to school in the first place. With the fever, it was all the more unlikely she would go anywhere.

"How's the damage?"

"You were at about forty five degrees celsius, last I checked." His tone was somewhat amused. "I had to use a cooking thermometer. You broke the one from the medical kit."

It was slightly impressive she'd managed to get two hours of sleep with a fever that high. But she'd had worse. Once. It was also news to her that she even owned a cooking thermometer.

"I meant the house. Has the damage from Berserker's departure been repaired?"

"Yes, actually. It was somewhat unnerving watching the wall... 'Regenerate', was the word you used?"

Kogane allowed herself a wry smile. "Papa... Father was very proud of it. A mansion that rebuilds itself became somewhat useful when the basement started exploding every week. It won't work if the damage is too severe, though. And it'd be pretty difficult to add onto the building now." She looked up at Assassin. "Did you clean up the debris? The house may be somewhat isolated, but it would still look rather odd if anyone happened to see it."

"Of course. It's all been properly disposed of." Assassin's gaze drifted to her right eye. It undoubtedly reminded him of when they met, but he wisely kept his comments to himself. Kogane finished her water, then glanced toward her mirror. Eyes aside, her reflection was a mess. Especially her hair. And with how much sweating she'd done, another bath was definitely in order. Immersion in cool water wouldn't be a bad thing for the fever, either.

With a sigh, she placed the empty glass back on Assassin's tray. Then she carefully stood and started toward her bedroom door. Her head was still pounding and her vision still hazy, but the nausea had subsided and it was only slightly difficult to move her limbs.

"If you're going to bathe, shall I prepare your school uniform?"

"The uniform isn't necessary. Normal clothes will be fine. There's something else I want to do today."

Akashi slept in a bit that day. The events of last night had been confusing, and he needed time to sit up and think them over. He usually accomplished this by staring at one of several paperback novels he had already read, reading but not really reading the pages as his mind played through the scenario over and over. The murder of the young woman, and then the attempted murder of the man... it was just the tip of the iceberg. Something deeper was going on; he felt it in his bones.

After a warm shower and a hot breakfast which consisted of a cheeseburger and hush puppies (He had unusual tastes after staying up late), Akashi felt ready to return to the school. He drove to the campus in his red sports car, going over what he wanted to say in his head as he switched his attention to auto-pilot. There wasn't a whole lot to say at this point, but the presentation was what mattered. Too gentle, and those kids would ignore him. Too aggressive, and they would challenge him. Their safety was paramount, and so the way in which he could best get his point across would require enough warning and enough understanding to properly convey his message.

As his car pulled into the school parking lot with a smooth and silent glide, the sun glinting off of the slick red paint, Akashi thought he knew how to approach the situation. He grabbed his briefcase from the passenger seat, mentally scanning the contents to make sure he had everything necessary. Finding it satisfactory, he exited the car and made his way to the administrative building.

Despite the thick tension in the room, the rest of the tutoring session went rather smoothly. Neal was right in assuming that the student was a rather bright one. Despite the young man having missed so many classes he still managed to blow trought the tutoring session with ease. They had just finished up their written pop quiz when the PA came alive and the voice of the school's principal came over the speaker in the corner of the room.

"Would all students please make their way to the auditorium for today's assembly." Neal was rather relieved, the assembly would give him a chance to talk with Lancer about the Master they had found, as Neal himself wasn't required to attend the assembly. "Well, I suppose that is our cue to end this session for today. You did well." He tucked his books back into his briefcase. "I'll escort you to the assembly, and see you again tomorrow."

Escorting Kaito to the assembly wasn't simply Neal being nice to the visually impaired student. He wanted to make sure the young man didn't get a chance to consult his Servant by skipping the assembly. Neal may not be a malicious person, but he certainly wasn't one to pass up the opportunity to maintain the upper hand. He closed he briefcase and picked it up, moving toward the door of the small classroom. "Shall we be on our way?"

Kaito bit his lip, there was no doubt about it now the man knew that he was a master. Even worse was that he was in total control of the situation. He could take off running and perhaps even outrun him, but if his servant were to appear that would definitely lead to a bad end. He continued to gnaw at his lip. The man couldn't possibly do anything at the school, far too many witnesses. So at the very least one could say that he was safe for the moment.

Something began to irk the boy suddenly. Why was he still pretending? He had to know that if he knew than kaito knew as well. So why treat this escort like a sensei escorting his student rather than what it really was, an enemy refusing to take his eyes off of an enemy.

"So," Kaito muttered, trying to make small talk "you wouldn't happen to have any idea what this assembly is about do you?"

--
Caster drifted behind her master knowingly. The tension was nearly suffocation so of course the magus servant could feel it. What she didn't feel however, was killing intent. no fate had a different meaning for this event than what the two humans likely perceived.

The two exited the class and made their way along the corridor. Other students were bustling about on their way to the assembly, Neal caught sight of a few that were sneaking else where, there was always a few. "I'm not entirely sure. I did however overhear the principal mention a detective, so perhaps it is your standard awareness lecture. Avoid drugs, smoking is bad for you, don't drink and drive. That sort of thing."

Neal however didn't believe his own words. Normally that sort of lecture was done by a relatively low rank local officer, not a detective. He had another hunch of what the assembly might be about, but he didn't feel it was in his best interest to bring that up, and he certainly hoped that the detective wasn't anyone who had been present in that alley the night before. He didn't want to have to deal with the cops again. Not so soon anyway.

The two reached the assembly hall, the last of the students were filing in through the doors and Neal gestured for Kaito to head on in. "Enjoy your assembly and I will see you tomorrow morning. It was nice to have met you." He watched as the student moved away to take his seat in the assembly hall before he himself turned to leave, heading up toward the roof of the school so he could converse with Lancer in private, and grabbing a coffee on the way.

There were a minute or so of bustling about as the students too their seats, the principal walking out onto the small stage at the front of the large assembly room. He adjusted the mic at the podium for a moment before he started to speak, the students quieting to listen. "Good morning, and welcome to another glorious day at Tomiya High. As most of you, no doubt know, These are dangerous times we live in, and today's assembly, we hope, will help our students be better prepared for the dangers of this world. We have a special guest today. A detective that is currently working on the serial murders that have been plaguing out fair city. I give you now, to Detective Kotomine, please make him feel welcome."

The majority of the students clapped as the principal relinquished the podium to the detective, some simply because they were glad that the principal had stopped babbling, some to welcome to new guest speaker, others simply clapped because they were asked to. As the applause died down, the assembly hall fell silent to hear the detective's words.

***

Neal made his way up the stairs and emerged outside on the fenced in rooftop of the school, as he had predicted, no one was there, not even those students who had opted to skip out on the assembly, obviously the roof would be the first place anyone would look for them. He opened his coffee and spoke as he leaned his back against the fence at the edge of the roof "Lancer. We need to talk." he could have waited till he went home, but he didn't want to put it off that long.

Lancer appeared before him, clad in his street clothes, shirt hanging open, he also sported a sly looking grin. "You called, Master?" Neal nodded "Were you able to get any information on that Master's Servant?" Lancer shook his head "No, we can sense each other while in spirit form, but we can't see or interact with each other in that form, I knew the other servant was there, but not what class it was, or even where in the room it was exactly. But I gotta say, making sure he attended that gathering was a nice move. Keep him just a little off balance and he won't be able to talk to his servant for a while. I think I lucked out...Not only are you a nice little mana fountain, but you have a pretty good tactical mind too. You could make a good general given enough time and training."

Neal sipped his coffee, "Today was decently productive, but all things considered, finding one Master of the six I need to worry about isn't as great as all that. It is a shame that a high school student got sucked into this war though. I wonder if he knows just how dire his situation is. It was difficult to tell just how much he knew, though it was obvious he knew -something-." Neal glanced over his shoulder down at the school parking lot and frowned. It was hard -not- to recognize the bright red car that was parked in the guest section of the lot. You didn't see many of them driving around this town. "That detective from last night is here...We should try to avoid him, I don't want another interrogation. At this point I'm probably their prime suspect despite the fact I phoned in the murder."

Neal was finished at the school for the day anyway, he had no other students signed up for tutoring as of yet, and if he left during the assembly, he could be sure that he wouldn't bump into that detective. "Alright. Lets head home and make preparations. You should go back into spirit form till we reach the apartment. Lancer nodded and vanished from sight. The Servant seemed a little too excited about finding another Master, seemed he was eager to fight the war he had been summoned to fight.

The young Irishman left the rooftop in silence and made his way back down the ground floor and off toward the front exit of the school. As he turned a corner he felt a hard impact which caused him to stagger back slightly. A young male student had run around the corner and plowed directly into him. Again he felt a sharp pain course up his arm and blinked in surprise. For a split second he thought he was actually under attack, perhaps by the young man he had been tutoring that morning, but in the following seconds he realized that wasn't the case. It was another young man who hastily apologized and and hurried off before Neal could inform him of the assembly. The encounter was fleeting, but Neal did get a good look at the boy. "....Another one...and he doesn't know.." if he did...there would have been some sort of reaction from him...He decided not to linger, despite the encounter, and started to make his way home.

Kaito was dazed as he reached his seat. The man had simply let him go, no threats not even a show of power. Was he stupid or just extremely confident in his ability as a master? Either way the boy had gotten away from that little ordeal with just as much information as the other man had, despite a little fear in the beginning the situation had turned out beneficial. The boy began to believe that his string of bad luck had finally left him.

Kaito always hated assemblies. To him they were loud and more often than not pointless. To make matters worse, Kaito now had a basic idea of what it would be about. A detective coming to speak at a school, in a town where many violent things had happened (including his own robbery of a museum) it was obviously a warning to get indoors early, maybe even an earlier curfew. The brown haired boy was being forced to sit through a pointless assembly while an enemy was plotting his downfall.

More than anything else the boy wanted out of this school and away as to throw off any information the tutor might have. After all the one link they shared was the school He no longer stayed at the address listed in the school registry and nobody at the address knew where he was staying. More likely than not nobody there knew he was missing. He bit his lip again, it was becoming a habit. He hoped their guest speaker spoke quickly.

Akashi entered the auditorium to the polite applause of students and teachers. He had memorized his speech exactly from start to finish, and went without the benefit of note cards. He also had to concentrate his powers as a magus, for there was more than one intention in bringing together every student and faculty member in the school to one place.

"Thank you, everyone, for your warm welcome. I am detective Kotomine Akashi, one of several officials who is endeavoring to protect your safety.

"One of the ways in which we intend to ensure your protection is through direct information and unabashed honesty. As many of you know, there have been several murders recently; most of our information on the attacker is speculative except to say that it is almost certainly a single person committing these atrocities. This comes from both forensic evidence at the murder sites... and witnesses who will, for obvious reasons, remain anonymous."

As he spoke, Akashi tapped into his powers. Like flicking on a switch in his mind, he began to scan the assembled audience before him. He thought it best to remain as innocuous as possible in his mental probing, and so he decided to scan for radical changes in emotion during his speech. Anyone who showed up to him as suspicious would either have to be highly emotional, or else had something to hide.

It was a gamble, of course. A trained magus, or even someone with enough mental discipline, could conceal their emotions in something of a mental poker face. Akashi almost hoped that nobody would raise his mental alarms; the idea that a teacher or even a student could be murdering people was abhorrent to him.

"Since we still know very little about the attacker, we advise everyone to adhere to several commonsense rules. First, the curfew will be drawn back another hour. This will result in most after school clubs and committees being unable to hold meetings at the school. Students are encouraged to have these meetings before first period classes begin, or to hold them on applicable weekends.

"Second, all faculty will be required to follow attendance regulations to the letter. That is, any students who are absent during the school day, at any time, must have written or telephoned notice by a parent or guardian. Students who do not have this will be severely disciplined in accordance with school regulations for violating attendance policies. That is, written notice the first time, twelve hours of detention the second, and expulsion the third.

"The reason, of course, is for the student's safety; it is the sworn duty of this school to account for the safety of its every member. Students are also advised to travel in groups, avoid isolated parts of the city, and use sensible caution when approached by strangers."

Akashi took a breath, smiling at the assembly as he bowed slightly. "I will be patrolling the city along with present police forces, so please feel free to come to me with any questions or concerns you may have. Thank you very much for your time, everyone, and enjoy the rest of your day."

Daisuke sat silently in his seat, gazing blankly at the chalkboard. The imaginary teacher was informing the class of the proper way to feed mangos to a kodiak without getting too personal. After several minutes of this, Daisuke finally stood up.

"... Where the hell is everyone?! I'm late for one day and everyone disappears?!"

The empty room held no answers for him. Daisuke fell into despair.

"Just kidding."

The room wasn't quite empty and in fact did hold several answers. His classmates' bags were still here in the classroom as if they'd up and left. It apparently wasn't quite lunch time, though it should be quite soon. Which means...

"... They were abducted by aliens, of course."

Which means that there was probably an assembly.

"That even works out in my favor. All I have to do is wait until it's over. Judging by the time," Daisuke glanced at his bare wrist, "It'll probably dismiss right into lunch. That's when, in the chaos, I slip back into the room and take my seat here as if I'd just gotten done listening to the principal drone on about the mating rituals of Bigfoot for three hours, which he's probably doing. Then, when class resumes, everyone will go, 'When did Kuhara get here?' But nobody will actually question such great mysteries of the universe."

The room still held no responses to his pacing around and chatting with himself.

"And then I get away with being late. It's the perfect plan!"

For the second time today, Daisuke took a triumphant pose. Or tried to, but his back painfully voiced it's opinion on the matter. His reflection in the window resembled a hunchback who just found a hundred yen coin. The run to school on top of little sleep and last night's physical exhaustion was taking it's toll. Daisuke sighed and sagged down into his seat again.

"Now... To somehow wait out the Principal's speech without falling asleep."

Daisuke took his glasses off so any inopportune faceplanting wouldn't smash them.

"I think I'll just... Rest my eyes for a bit."

And was asleep before the camera finished panning out.

Kaito remained lost in his mental game of pong, so far he couldn't come up with any sort of plan and it was begin to cause an ache in his forehead. A few words from the speech filtered in, and he figured out that his assumptions had been correct, there was indeed a new curfew and there would be more police patrols. The thing that suddenly made him focus was the new attendance policy. With that being watched he would unable to dodge the tutor as he had planned. No, he was basically being forced to face the problem head on, and that wasn't the way he liked it.

His thoughts scrambled as new plans formed and were discarded. He tried to calm himself, but the room was far too crowded. He felt it, eyes watching him from nowhere. He grabbed at his head and massaged his temples trying not to cause a scene. The room felt as though it was blazing hot, but he knew it couldn't be because he was hardly even sweating. It was all in his head yet it caused his eyes to blur and his hands to shake, he rubbed at them and re-positioned his head to better hide his trembling hands. He guessed he was doing a good job as he wasn't even earning a second glance from most of his peers. He felt trapped, and he didn't like it, not one bit. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his own breathing his hands still cradled his head and he remained that way for the remainder of the assembly.

Caster watched her master through his panic attack wishing to help but knowing that she couldn't with so many people around. She knew that all would be well once they set her plan into action, she just hoped her master could hold it together for that long.

Kids. Why did there seem to always be kids involved? Neal sat down on the couch in his tiny apartment and put his face in his hands. "Lancer. How confident are you, that you could take out any other Servant? Including Saber?" Lancer flopped down in the arm chair in front of the TV, casually. "Well, considering we have only met -one- other servant so far. I can't give you a tactical analysis of the battlefield. But if you want to know based on my confidence? It should be easy. If that Assassin was anything to go by."

Neal nodded and lifted his head "Good enough for now. The Master....s we found today, we will be wiping out their Servants, not the Masters themselves. They are just kids, they have a whole life ahead of them. We have to take out their Servants as fast as possible. The second boy. Did he have a servant with him?"

Lancer grabbed the remote and flicked on the TV and started flicking through the channels "No, not that I could sense. What channel were the naked people on again?" Neal paused and glanced over at Lancer "...You've been watching p.." Just at that moment the phone rang and Neal leaned over to retrieve it from the end table "Neal Doyle speaking." It was his aunt, checking to see if the parcel had made it to Neal safely. Neal had actually completely forgotten about the parcel and tucked the phone between his shoulder and ear as he got up to get it from the front hall. Sitting back down on the couch he opened one end of the long thin rectangular parcel and tilted it up on it's end, causing a foam wrapped rod to slide out. "Yes, it is unharmed. Thank you." he hung up the phone and started to unwrap the ornate rod.

Lancer peered over curiously "What is that? A Scepter?" Neal shook his head calmly "No, my weapon of choice. A staff." Lancer furrowed his brow slightly "...Kinda short isn't it?" Neal held the rod up horizontally and muttered a gaelic word under his breath and the ends of the rod shot out, adding an additional two feet to each end of the rod, forming a staff of about five feet long. Lancer's eyebrow twitched upward slightly before his gaze was drawn back to the TV "So what is special about it?" Neal reverted the rod back to its compact state and set it on the coffee table "It is mana charged, and has a protective barrier spell that can be used untill the mana is depleted. I'm not entirely sure how many uses is it in. But I''ll know when it is empty. Not only that but it is a compact weapon."

Lancer sighed "Why would you need a barrier spell? I'm here." Neal frowned faintly "It is just a precaution. At any rate I would like you to go back to the school and follow those two boys around, see if you can't figure out who their Servants are. Remain in spirit form. I don't want you to engage them yet." Lancer folded his arms "If I find a Servant that is vulnerable I'm going to get rid of it. I know war, better then you do. If I find an enemy, and I have the advantage. I will make use of it...." Lancer tone then changed from serious to plaintive "Can't I finish watching this first?"

Neal rolled his eyes and shook his head "No, please go now." Lancer huffed then vanished from sight. Neal quickly reached over and turned off the TV. He hoped that his Servant's confidence wasn't just hot air, but it was pretty obvious that he was designed to be good in one on one. "I hope he doesn't do anything stupid..."

"... Hot..." Kogane paced through the streets and sidewalks of the business district, grumbling to herself. It was too damn hot. It shouldn't be so hot this time of the year. Distantly, she knew that it probably wasn't; she was just feverish. But that wasn't going to stop her from complaining. Or sweating. The real annoyance was that she still had to dress the part. Wearing summer clothes in autumn would garner unwanted attention. There was no need to add to the already numerous strange looks she received for her other choices in fashion.

She had donned her eye patch, a lesser evil for anyone who wore one in that it made one look strange while masking something far more strange than the cloth pad itself. Her actual clothing would blend in well enough if not for another necessary oddity. She wore a long-sleeved cotton shirt of a medium grayish purple, a silver-gray skirt, her black shoes and matching thigh-high socks. Beneath all that was the oddity in question.

The fishnet bodystockings Kogane had become accustomed to wearing served several purposes. The primary one was personal climate control. The fabric allowed air pockets to form between skin and clothing, thus providing a layer of insulation from whatever temperatures the outside world may generate. For her, it wasn't something that was completely necessary in the winter. It was extremely helpful in the summer, however, when the sun threatened to boil her innards. And if she was going to wear it for half the year, it wouldn't hurt to do so in the other half as well.

The other purposes? Well, it was one of the lightest, breeziest undergarments one could wear, which was nice for sweaty physical activity. It also emphasized curves and muscles, making one look more athletic than they actually were. It was a little itchy, but that was something she'd gotten used to years ago. Other than that, it was a fashion statement. And with so many mainstream anime characters wearing something similar, it was one that had become more and more popular in certain niches. Questionable ones, to be sure, but being associated to ninja wasn't exactly a bad thing as far as images go.

Hopefully her potential employers would think so too.

"The first stop..." Kogane mumbled to herself, trying not to squint through her heat-hazed vision as she scanned the shopping district's buildings for worthy candidates, which mostly meant anywhere with a sign that read, "Now Hiring!" The options weren't exactly scarce, but the jobs she was actually willing or had the patience to do limited them considerably. It probably wasn't entirely intelligent to let her pride get in her way, but she had the rest of the day to find a job. She could afford to try only the best locations. For the moment, at least.

One location in particular caught her eye as she walked past. A women's clothing store, by the look of it, on the other side of the street. She made her way through a crowded crosswalk to get to it, ignoring the stares of the lesser beings she passed, and peered through it's windows. It seemed a respectable enough business. They apparently catered to a wide number of different fashions, though her own was unique enough that she still wouldn't quite fit in. They didn't have a rack of eye patches, after all. However, it wasn't a job that would be particularly difficult or demeaning and was certainly better than waiting tables. It was worth a try.

Kogane briefly checked her reflection in the glass. For the time being, she wouldn't bother acting much differently than normal. If the job hunt became difficult, she could perhaps play on emotions with her sickness. She wasn't much of an actor, but when it came down to it, she really shouldn't be out of bed with a fever like this. It was just rather important to get a source of income, else there would be no food to eat while weathering her sickness. She lived by herself and had recurring fevers. If she only told that much of the truth, it may be enough to earn her some sympathy.

Kogane wiped all obvious sweat off of her face and brushed off her skirt. Then she inhaled deeply, nodded to her reflection, and went on into the store.