Episode One (Oct 5th, Monday - Day)

Kogane awoke sprawled on the floor with most of her bedding. It would seem that in her midnight quest for comfort, the hardwood bedroom floor was more appealing than the cushioned mattress. It's not like it's the first time and it probably won't be the last, but it always left her a bit embarrassed to find that she was asleep in such an undignified manner.

After extracting herself from the blankets and sheets and tossing them into a pile atop the bed, she moved over to her vanity mirror. There was little sense in making the bed when Assassin could do it, but to leave the covers on the floor would lay bare the fact that she was sleeping there. Her reflection gazed steadily at her with it's asymmetrical eyes. One of them gold, as her eyes had always been. The other, since her summoning.. Wouldn't be acceptable in public. She pulled on her eyepatch with a frown, then changed into her school uniform, combed out her hair and tied it into the usual style (.. I wouldn't have the slightest clue what to call it). After this, she made her way to the bathroom and brushed her teeth. The usual morning routine.

Except that Assassin and the breakfast he fixed were there to greet her when she got downstairs. The breakfast was as limited as her funds, but toast for breakfast was better than no breakfast. She still wasn't used to this, given her habit of skipping breakfast entirely. Even today she didn't have enough time to sit down and eat it.

"Good morning, Kogane. Would you like jam on your toast?" The red-haired butler asked, not even bothering to hide the amusement in his tone. Her eyebrow twitched. "Kogane-sama. Can we even afford jam?" The man's face broke into a slight, toothy grin. "Naturally not, but I do have some that I made myself.." "Passu. I need to leave anyway." She claimed the toast, put her shoes on at the door, grabbed her bag and, toast hanging from her mouth by it's corner, went on outside for the long walk to school, ignoring Assassin's muted goodbye as she closed the door in his face.

"Looks like today's going to be another boring day..."

Kaito peered, with blurred vision, to the ceiling of his room. Sunlight barely managed to light the area through the drawn shades. More than ever his body felt heavy and his mind felt hazy. He wished with all his might that he could remain there in bed, but knew that if he did he may be homeless when his parents found out. Sighing, he rolled over to find Caster's sleeping face next to him. He smirked in memory and sat up. Caster stirred slightly before returning to peaceful slumber. As he reached his hand out to wake her, she sat up and peered at him causing him to jump a bit in surprise. "Umm morning" he said regaining his composure she nodded in response. Kaito had noticed that she was rather silent speaking only at random periods.

Once both were up and dressed they stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the second floor. One of Kaito's favorite things about his hotel home was the free breakfast every morning. Once there he casually scooped up a chocolate cupcake. "Unhealthy" caster remarked before taking the snakck from her masters hand. She paced away and quickly returned with two blueberry muffins, offering one to her master she began to nibble at the other. Kaito was a bit to shocked at his servants bold move, he took the muffin and strolled back to the elevator. Caster once again stepped in after him and together they rode to the lobby and walked off to school.

"Haah..." The bell hadn't rang yet. Kogane made it with far more time to spare than she'd anticipated. Just as well that she walked leisurely, then. She sat on a bench just off the path into the school to finish her breakfast. Assassin could really make some good toast.

"... marksmanship class? How strange." A female voice spoke from a small group of students passing by. "The new teacher came in from overseas. He's really handsome!" "Attractive is all well and good, but why teach highschoolers about guns?" "The principal and other teachers think highly of him. They probably trust him. He even brought all of the equipment with him, you know." "Who cares? All that matters to me is that he gets close to help me aim when I miss on purpose." They laughed as they went on through the school gates.

"... Marksmanship, huh..." It sounded like it might be fun. Kogane leaned back, peering up at the sky with her one uncovered eye. "I'll have to see what this new teacher is made of." Maybe today won't be so boring after all.

The sound of a hammer pounding rhythmically away echoed with a metallic ring from the far end of the school yard...

There, that should do. "Ah hah!" Victor put the finishing touches on the last of several canvas targets in the newly-created school shooting range. He paused a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow before stepping back to inspect his work.

It was a wide, fenced-in enclosure, neatly arranged and well cleared of grass. A durable fabric roof provided shade over the area where the students would practice. He would have to do something about an archery range as well, but for now, this was all he had planned to accomplish. With the large size of of the city school, and its expansive yard, there was no problem about sound interfering with the students' work. This was just as well.

All the equipment for the range was kept in the school storage area. Mostly they consisted of relatively harmless low-caliber firearms and safety equipment. Just to be on the safe side, however, he had reinforced the storage crates and the heavy locks on their covers to deter any potential delinquents from tampering with his materials.

Now what? He decided to head for the teacher's lounge. It was amusing how all teachers were expected to socialize with each other and engage in courteous, yet casual, conversation. Still, it couldn't be helped. He had nothing to do until his presentation at lunch, and his class wouldn't be on until later in the afternoon.

Several students had arrived early and were lingering around on campus. Of course, they greeted him politely: "Ohayou, Orutensia-sensei!"

Victor laughed. "Ohayou - Just call me Victor-sensei, please. I'm still too young to be greeted any other way!" He waved to them and entered the school.

As the morning bell rang, he reached into his pocket and felt around for a familiar object. He took it out and gave it one perfunctory glance before putting it back...

A silver-tipped arrowhead. As Victor remembered, a slight smile played on his face and was gone in a matter of seconds.

"Haah? A teacher conference?" Kogane was seated at her desk in what would be her first class.

"Ahh... Yuumitsu, you didn't know? Did you forget?" One of the male students asked, walking over to lean on her desk as he spoke. He was an annoying guy with a short mess of dusty brown hair and eyes that seemed to be closed all the time. Kogane could never remember his name... Kanida? Nagata? Himuro? Oh well, it wasn't important. "They announced it on the intercom last week. First class is independent study."

"Had I known school was starting late I wouldn't have bothered to come so early. Get off of my desk, Himuro."

"Ah, it's not starting late, it's independent study... Himuro?" A confused face. She punched him in the side, albeit lightly. "I said move, Kanida."

"A-ah... Canada?" The confusion persisted. Must've been wrong again. He took his hip off of her desk, frowning down at her.

"Clearly," she gestured at the window and the crowd outside near where the new class was supposed to be held later on today, "it doesn't matter whether we 'study' inside the classrooms or not. Seriously, this school..."

"Ah, that's true. So you mean to say you'd have rather 'studied' your pillow for a bit longer, huh?" He chuckled at his own joke.

"You're annoying. Keep your dry humor to yourself." Kogane stood up, leaving her things behind and heading toward the door.

"Ah, wait, Yuumitsu. Where are you going?"

"To study the clouds. Might not be back until lunch, so answer for me during roll call, Nagata."

"Ah, my name's not Nag--wait, you want me to answer for a girl's name?!"

"Hai hai, gambatte." She went on out.

"Too small" caster muttered plainly, peering into the room before her. Kaito sighed and continued his journey through the remains of the AV club's clubroom. Much of the AV equipment was packed into boxes and carelessly placed in the room, leaving it inaccessible, if not for Kaito's work of moving and stacking boxes. Of course, much to his chagrin, Caster had denied his asking for help, and he feared being unable to do what he came for before the free period ended.

It took around fifteen minutes after the bell signaling the beginning of first period, but he had done it. The room now looked somewhat presentable, though all he had really done was organized the stacking of the boxes, taking special care to block any and all windows in the room. Once the work was done Caster let herself in and sat on a small stack of boxes.

Kaito eased back to the door, locked it with a keyhe had stolen long ago, and paced back to a tv placed carefully in the center of the room. Soon he had set the TV up with a vcr and popped in the video of the news report of his crime. He knew he had lost his cool that day, and not all of his plans had gone well, particularly the bomb going off at the wrong time. This meant that they most likely had some footage of him. he watched it four times over, taking extensive notes.

The little footage they had was a bit blurred and fuzzy, all he could really make out was the color of his hair,. His height had been concealed by the shoes he had worn to make himself taller, and he had worn layers to make his scrawny body a bit thicker.

"Hmmm...I think we'll be okay...but we better lay low, atleast for the time being." Kaito muttered, he had just finished and was now peering into his servants blank eyes "And just in case any of my classmates happen to recognize me somehow...I'll need you here at school, you can use this room, it's usually uninhabited since the club was canceled this year." Worst case scenario Kaito had bombs set up in strategic positions around the school in case he needed a distraction to help him escape. He flipped his cellphone open, it was a brand new phone as he always through away the phones he used for bombs, he insured that the first number in the phone book would work this time then flipped it closed.

"Ten minutes" Caster spoke suddenly looking up at the clock on the wall. Kaito noded, stood and walked out leaving Caster alone with a box full of movies to watch, "I'll pick you up after school" he said, receiving a nod from his servant. Soon she was lost in the latest adventures of the great Card Captor, Sakura Kinamoto and Kaito was off to his next class.

The clouds were... Cloudy. Puffy cumulus and cumulonimbus. Piles of water droplets and ice crystals in the sky. There weren't very many of them, so it would probably be clear tonight. There wasn't much more to say about them. Cloud study finished, Kogane allowed the slowly drifting masses to carry her thoughts away from where she lie on the roof.

There weren't many emotions flavoring her thoughts. Loneliness was the predominant one. The very emotion seemed all the lonelier for the fact that it didn't have many others with it. She'd usually been alone. Her parents never paid a lot of attention to her, or even to each other. It's not that they were estranged, they were just... Distant. Both of them valued their privacy, even after they'd had a child. So, for the most part, she had played around the house by herself when she was younger. Her home seemed far larger back then than it does these days. How long ago was it, exactly? Her favorite game at the time was hide-and-seek. She was fantastic at hiding, so she never had to be the seeker. She'd usually pick hiding spots so perfect that she'd stay there and fall asleep before anyone ever found her. It was constantly causing... Worry. Causing worry. Not that her parents noticed; they rarely even made it to dinner. Kogane herself barely made it to dinner for all her hiding. Usually she had to have it reheated after she crawled out of her hiding spot due to hunger...

Hunger. Kogane's eyes opened slowly. The lunch bell and her stomach bug were singing a duet. Somewhere along the way dreams must have started to overshadow memories, but it was difficult to discern fiction from the faded past. It was challenging to even remember things that happened a week ago, let alone years. What did she have for dinner last night? Probably ramen. But that was a deduction more than a memory. Come to think of it, wasn't there something happening during lunch break that she was forgetting about? Food, her stomach reminded her.

"Be quiet," she told it as she got up off of the hard stone floor and dusted herself off. "You know as well as I do that we don't have any money to buy a lunch." She couldn't tell if it was listening to her or not, but it quietened down nonetheless. "There won't be a whole lot of time to work or even get a job, either..." What with the war going on and all. She sighed softly, looking up at the sky once more. A gust of wind blew past, causing her hair to slap her face in an uncomfortable manner. She raised a bandaged hand to defend against it as she made her way to the door into the school proper. If only the light stinging on her face and the restless grumbling in her stomach were the only discomforts she had to bear...

"Everyone - the health of our students is of the highest priority. For now, please do all you can to keep them safe."

Students promptly rushed out of their classrooms as the bell for lunch sounded its call. The clattering of their feet on the tiled floors, converging with their nonstop chatter, created a familiar cacophony of sound every individual fortunate enough to know would recognize instantly. As Victor walked down the rapidly emptying hallways, his mind kept going back to the principal's words:

"Please do all you can to keep them safe..."
"Keep them safe... safe..."

He sighed.

Old man, even as a magus, there's nothing I can really do about it.
I can't protect even one person, so how could I manage an entire school?

Victor glanced at a clock in one of the nearby classrooms he was passing. That's right - soon he would have to head off to the firing range. He kept waking, turned around a corner... and stopped dead in his tracks. There:

A young girl. She was only several meters away, though she seemed to be heading somewhere. Since she wasn't facing him, his eyes were drawn immediately to the silver-colored hair cascading down her back. That familiar short height, the no-nonsense attitude she had from childhood, yes, sensed even from behind her...

Caren?

But of course. The tips of her hair were pink - whether they were somehow like that naturally, or dyed that way, he couldn't tell. Victor thought he saw something tied around her head, but with her long hair, he wasn't able to make out what it was. And she was far too young to be the person Victor thought he saw. For a moment, though, he had optimistically allowed himself to believe the impossible...

Yet was this actually a mistake? Perhaps he had known all along, so he made a decision and called out.

"Konnichiwa! Hey, you look like someone I knew really well!"

The girl turned to look at him with a questioning gaze. The difference was clear now that she was facing him. She was definitely Japanese, and even wore a black eyepatch over one side of her face. So that was what he'd noticed from behind. Victor carefully made sure he was showing no reaction to the unexpected feature and grinned warmly.

"I'm Ortensia-sensei. Though you can call me Victor if you want. You looked pretty bored, so I was wondering if you wanted to see my demonstration down at the firing range today for the school's new club. It'll be a blast!"

She hadn't said anything yet. Whether it was from the shock of having some random foreigner speak to her, or the extremely terrible pun he had made, Victor couldn't determine. But he had made a decision, so he persevered:

"Ah, how unthoughtful of me. Were you already heading to lunch? Tell you what - I made too many sandwiches today. It's not a Bento, but I'm willing to part with half my share if you come along. And in exchange for your name, of course."

He smiled candidly.

Silence stretched on for what seemed like several minutes as Kogane unblinkingly inspected the man that had just approached her. Early twenties, perhaps. Disheveled hair that matched her own in color, blue eyes, western features, acceptable level of fitness. She could see how other students would be attracted to him, though her inspection of his features was akin to how a man would inspect a horse's appearance before buying it.

Several short thoughts surfaced in a haphazard manner. Foreign teacher? What a horrible pun. Was that the important thing? Bothering me while I'm thinking. Firing range. Scheduled during lunch. Can't remember. I'll show you a blast... It was effortless to keep her expression blank. Which was a good thing considering how difficult it was to resist the urge to commit arson. Cool down. Why am I so uptight? An explosion at this range is dangerous. Whatever. Just roast him with words.

Finally, she allowed a smirk, narrowing her uncovered eye. "Oho... I knew you were already popular among the female students, Ortensia-sensei," she spoke, her tone tinged lightly with both disgust and amusement, "but I didn't know you were shameless enough to accost them. Offering bribes, even?" She paused for a brief moment to let it settle in before continuing.

"Then again, I suppose being a teacher is a great position for wooing young women. Even if they reject you, you can easily gain access to their address and other information, can't you?"

It was then that her stomach chose to state it's opinion on the matter. Openly, honestly, and loudly. Perfect. Way to completely spoil the image.

"Nani?" Victor inclined his head slightly towards Kogane, giving no sign of what he just heard. "Gomen nasai; I didn't hear you too clearly back there. But let's see what we have first..."

Victor unstrapped the black satchel worn over his shoulder and began searching around. "All right... there's the Coronation sandwich - done in Brit style too, you know - and a miniature Italian-American submarine... but I don't have drinks," he warned, looking up at Kogane from the satchel. He pulled out a packet and held it out to her. "I'm giving you the Coronation chicken because it's my favorite."

She seemed to nod in assent, so Victor placed the sandwich in Kogane's hands. "Curry sauce was hard to come by in the World Wars, you know. So several chefs made it for the Queen afterwards to celebrate her coronation as a special event!" The scent of roast chicken mingled with curry and almonds began to waft up from the packet, as if on cue to Victor's words.

He palmed the other packet, shouldered his satchel, and started to walk down the hallway. "Well, I don't know who you are, though you're probably not a queen. I don't think that'll make any difference to how much you like the sandwich, though," commented Victor jokingly.

He stopped to turn around. "Hey, aren't you coming? You haven't told me your name yet, you know - a deal's a deal!"

"Tch..." No response whatsoever? Kogane grumbled at the package in her hands. "Selective hearing... I don't get any say in the matter at all, do I?" All that aside, is the sandwich really important enough to talk that much about it knowing full well I don't care about it's history? She stood there taking in the heavenly fumes, her anger quickly subsiding to mild annoyance, and heaved a sigh at her abrupt absence of pride. Yes. Yes it is. Then she started after Victor.

"Completely unfazed; underhanded and forceful methods," She noted with a serious tone. She looked up at him and nodded approvingly. "You pass, Sensei. Yuumitsu Kogane. Yoroshiku. We can talk about our marriage after lunch."

Pity. The only word Kaito could find to express the way he felt for himself the moment he peered into his bag to find....A school book! Educational, yes, however it did little for his grumbling stomach. He knew that now he would be forced to go to the cafeteria but cringed at the thought of even looking in his wallet. He sighed (and perhaps muttered a quick prayer) before pulling his wallet from his pocket. He had just enough money to buy a single juice box! His faced twisted to an empty smile and he made his way to the nearest vending machine. He popped a few coins in and pressed the necessary buttons. The machine soon dispensed his beverage and he poked the straw in before turning to roam the halls. 'stupid cell phones' he thought to himself 'shouldn't our economy be rich enough for you to be free, I mean what in the world do we pay taxes for anyways'.

His peers were all around him, gossiping about who's doing what after school or so and so is going to fight so and so, and for some reason this erased Kaito's pity. After all his life was more interesting than that right? He was about to enter a war! These thoughts even caused him to snicker to himself.

Suddenly, his eyes blurred from lack of concentration, he scrambled to set his vision straight again but, before he knew it he had bumped into a grown man whom he presumed to be a teacher. "Ah, gomen gomen" he said blinking rapidly his eyes still dangerously out of focus. 'what is going on with my spell?' He attempted to go around the teacher only to get caught on his foot and stumble. 'You've got to be kidding!' he stayed on his hands and knees for a moment, surely looking very odd to the one he had bumped into. Slowly but surely his vision returned enough for him to stand and make a more formal apology.

"Gomen nasai" he said bowing to the man before him. By the silver hair, he guessed that this was the famed new sensei. Behind him was a short girl, who was apparently trying to start some sort of eye-patch fad. 'Forbidden sensei-student romance huh' he thought as he looked from the silver haired teacher to the silver haired girl 'so it does actually happen...'. He paused, wondering what to with this information. 'blackmail ammo?' He peered at the girl she was only a bit shorter than Kaito 'comrades in height' he thought with a nod, and at that moment he knew what he had to do. He sipped at his juice box and muttered "Gomen, don't let me interrupt" as he began to walk away.

One drop of sweat rolled down the back of Victor's head, collecting in a strand of hair before falling off.

Drip.

A- ah... these misunderstandings seem to be appearing pretty frequently... Just my luck, I suppose...

Victor tried not to think of all the implications of that particular statement, but met with no success. The last possibility involved the Mage's Association and the exact number of Tomiya's resident magi lineages, which he knew to be quite low. A chilling thought...

As a result, his face froze for a split second before resuming its normal expression. Fortunately, Victor had prepared his own response:

"Are you sure? You know we'll have wait two more years before we can consider that, right? By then you'll probably change your mind once you see what an old man I'll be, Kogane," he teased.

Fight fire with fire, huh? I hope I don't get burned...

A young boy suddenly crashed into him as Victor made his way across the hall. As the boy apologized and moved away, something in his eyes made Victor do a doubletake: "Hey, kid-" But he had walked around a corner, apparently not hearing.

Before Victor had time to think about what it was he had noticed...

"You gave her my half," whispered a voice in his ear.

"Shush. You can have my share instead if you're so -" then, what Archer had said suddenly struck Victor.

"Oh. I hadn't understood how kind you were until now, Archer," he replied softly.


Noon. It was time for the presentation to begin.

The sun shone brightly down on the onlookers crowded around the new firing range. Chattering students discussed the latest news as they enjoyed their remaining time. Even a few teachers, gazing interestedly around, were present. Excitement and anticipation were the general mood of the crowd. What was the new sensei going to show them? That was they were all here to see.

Victor stood at the entrance to the range, leather-gloved hands held neatly behind his back, a slight smile playing on his features as he faced his onlookers. His silver hair fluttered lightly in the fitful breeze. A circle of students surrounded him, maintaining a respectful distance yet crowding around as close as they could to see the action. He waited a few more moments before motioning for silence. The small crowd settled down.

"Konnichiwa! I'm Victor Ortensia, though the principal wants you to call me Ortensia-sensei." This brought a few chuckles.

"As you know, I'm Tomiya High's new firearms and archery instructor. Some of you may have a few questions - for example, 'Why teach the use of firearms in high school?'" Victor looked carefully at his listeners. "Before I answer, I'd like to ask everyone a question as well: Why is fighting included in sports?"

"Kendo. Kyudo. Karate. All of these are well-known practices here in Japan that have their equivalents in the Olympics. So what is the redeeming factor that grants international recognition to fighting? This is my answer: concentration. The athletes who truly learn to do their best in pursuing their goals will also come to an understanding of what it means to pursue learning itself. In this way, swordfighting, archery, and hand-to-hand combat have found their places even in the high schools we have today."

"Over the years, however, we've tamed these arts past their original purposes. Now, I want to show you a sport that will bring you back to what Kendo, Kyudo, and Karate meant to the Japanese several thousand years ago. The only way for me to do this is to give you some understanding of what modern fighting methods are like. Granted, this can be dangerous and requires more responsibility, which must be a mutual effort between the students and their teacher. Yet if you learn to do this much, I believe the gains you receive will far outweigh the risks you take."

After a short pause, Victor grinned at his onlookers. "But I also don't want you to think that I'm all talk. Let's have a look at what I can do before you judge my words. That's what you came to see, right?"

Victor walked over and opened up a large case in front of the field. He unlocked it, taking out a pair of pistols and a rifle. Then, he pulled out a black cloth and a stopwatch.

He stood up. "Could I have an assistant, please?"

The sandwich was gone.

It was also, or at least had been, terrible. Kogane felt sorry for any royalty that had eaten such a thing. Foreign food just wasn't to her tastes, regardless of her ancestry. Then again, her tastes had obviously cheapened over the years since her parents' departure. But nevertheless, it was terrible.

Which had nothing to do with why it was gone. In fact, she'd been so hungry that the... Chicken-crowning whatever-it-was hadn't even made it to the shooting range. She didn't care much about the opinions of other students or teachers in the first place, but the hunger pangs had shredded any remaining dignity she had, and she was left wolfing down a sandwich in the hallway as she trailed after her new fiance.

... Fiance. Hah. It had been a statement spoken in the spur of the moment out of frustration for not being able to startle the sensei with her initial sharp-tongued statements. At the same time it was a representation of her success. Every time she thought about it, she couldn't help but gloat to herself over the split second's worth of panicked hesitation that she'd gotten out of the man who blatantly ignored her scalding remarks. It seems that he is weak against apparent misunderstandings, perhaps too kind to just outright dismiss them. Any weakness is a weakness to be exploited, of course. Even he seemed to think that way, using her hunger against her to bind her into coming to his presentation. It was only natural to want to strike back, really. And what better way than to fight fire with fire?

Not just fire with fire... I fight everything with fire, Sensei.

The man in question, Ortensia-sensei, was once again droning on about something she didn't care about. She was staring right at him from the rough ring of students around him even though she wasn't paying him any real attention. A small, amused smile played about her face.

What was it he said while I was eating, anyway..? "... how kind you were until now, Archer."

"... assistant, please?"

Kogane's bandaged hand was in the air before she'd mentally linked the words to the action, tearing her thoughts away from their previous destination. "Sensei!" Whoops. The crowd's eyes shifted to her. She hadn't really meant to call out so loudly. Oh well. The flushing of her face wouldn't need to be an act, then. Let's see, shy dialogue...

".. Um... L-let me help!" The annoyance and embarrassment in her tone weren't faked either, just drawn from different sources. She was glad she couldn't hear her own voice as well as the others. It was disturbing enough to even think of how ridiculous she probably sounded. But it's not like she could stop now that she'd come this far.

Rumors were part of the goal, of course. Riots were not. And judging from the sudden rise of objections and cries similar to her own, "Sensei, I want to help too!" from most of the surrounding female students, she'd just accomplished both. But she just stayed quiet, hand raised, as if she refused to even acknowledge the presence of the others.

The events of the night before had been perplexing. Neal had certainly attained a Servant, that much he knew, however...The man had been so...normal-looking. He wasn't sure what to make of it. Neal shook his head slightly as he climbed out of bed and got changed. He had apparently fallen asleep the moment he arrived home, and hadn't even changed. He couldn't help but consider himself fortunate that he wasn't required to work, it was his day off and his original plan had been to stop off at the local school and drop off his information at the faculty office so that he might get some tutoring work there.

After getting changed into a nicely pressed suit, he headed for the door. "Please stay here Lancer. I'll return sho..." Neal paused as he realized that Lancer was actually sitting in the living room with his eyes glued to the TV "Wooo....she is hot..." Neal frowned. Was this guy actually a Servant? It was a little hard to believe, in all honesty. But he would worry about that later. "...Whatever....PLease stay here for now Lancer. I'll return shortly." And with that Neal slipped out the front door, and made his way toward the nearby school, on foot. It was close enough that he didn't need to worry about driving. By the time he arrived it was lunch hour and there seemed to be some sort of gathering out in the school yard.

He paused to watch as the young female students bustled for the chance to assist a young male teacher in some sort of demonstration. The teacher stood out particularly due to the fact he seemed to be foreign, just as Neal himself was. The demonstration itself seemed to be some sort of firearms demonstration, which Neal found to be a little odd. However he decided to watch anyway.

How had he known? Victor was amazed by his own lack of surprise as he noted Kogane, holding her bandaged hand in the air seconds before it was lost in a sea of countless others. His gaze flickered over to an unusually well-dressed man entering the school grounds. An interesting development, but so far, everything was going to plan...

No matter what... the show must go on.

Victor pointed at Kogane. "You, young lady. It seems you were the first to address me." He grinned at the collective sighs let out by quite a few other members of the crowd. "Just as a reminder, it's my policy to work on a first come, first serve basis. Remember that when signing up after the demonstration!"

He picked up the rifle and called out boldly to the assembled group. "Ladies and gentlemen! Today I will show you what has never been viewed before in the history of sharpshooting! My young assistant will tie this cloth around my eyes - " he motioned for Kogane, who had arrived, to do so - "and in less than fifteen seconds, I will hit each of the ten targets across this field!"

Kogane finished fastening the black cloth. Victor faced the crowd, the stopwatch held in his hands. He gave it to Kogane. "On my first shot, she will start this stopwatch and continue until my allotted time runs out. When that happens and I turn to face you again, you may go to inspect the targets I have fired at. I will begin.... now." The onlookers grew silent with anticipation.


He saw nothing but darkness. He could hear the wind rustling though the cloth around his forehead, reverberating off his ears like the crash of waves on the seashores. Yet Victor wasn't interested in the sound.

There's a consistent wind coming from the east... I'll have to adjust my aim a few degrees to compensate...

It was like being completely blind. But that didn't change the fact that the targets were "there." No, the most important factors were his memory of their location, and his quality of technique...

A projectile hits its target even before it is released. Whether the practitioner is an sharpshooter, archer, or knife thrower makes no difference - he or she will fire based on that image. So... if I remember every scene with perfect accuracy...

There is no need for sight!

His mind was already crafting its own images of the targets. Silvery, wraithlike forms juxtaposed against the dark background of his imagination, shifting continually with each change in his instincts...

A well-dressed stranger. A boy with oddly evocative eyes. Another boy, disinterested but present. And, a girl with a bandage over her hand...

He slowly raised his rifle and fired.


"Fifteen seconds!" declared Kogane. Just in time, for that matter. Victor had barely finished emptying the last of his two pistols.

He pulled off the blindfold around his eyes and turned once again to the crowd. "I can assure you that every bullet has lodged itself in the targets. Please feel free to inspect them as you wish. Remember, signup also begins now, and don't forget to clap for the help of our lovely assistant!" He held out a hand towards Kogane.

Soon, the majority of the crowd rushed off as one towards the targets. Victor could hear gasps of shock and suprise coming from the other end of the firing range.

"N-no way... they're all in rings around the bullseyes..."

"Is this a trick? How could he have done that!?"

"Baka, does this look like a trick? There's nothing around the targets!"

"I don't know about tricks, but I'm definitely signing up!"

The applause finally began in earnest with this discovery. Students began lining up at the entrance of the shooting range, and Victor smiled as he began writing down their names. At least for this day, he had accomplished what he had set out to do.

Neal quietly watched the demonstration with interest. He had been living in Japan long enough to know that archery wasn't uncommon in the schools, and had this demonstration been of archery and not firearms he may not not even given it a second thought. However, teaching students about shooting guns seemed very odd to him. Perhaps when he gave his information to the faculty office he could inquire as to how long the teacher had been teaching at the school.

As a courier he had delivered a few things to the school in the past, but hadn't ever seen the sharp shooting teacher about. It must be a bother for the man, standing out like a sore thumb as he did, magician or not. He was quite obviously not a local. Granted, Neal wasn't exactly japanese in appearance either. But he certainly wasn't hard to overlook. Neal himself was rather plain looking, nothing about him really stuck out. No crazy hair due, or hair colour, he wasn't overly tall, and he didn't generally wear distinctive clothes either. It was easy for him to blend in, even though he was originally from Ireland.

Neal watched the student run off to inspect the targets, he didn't need to see the results himself to know what they were, the students made it easily audible that each shot had landed a bullseye, or close to it. He had heard of marksmen who were able to do that, it just still struck him as odd that one would be here teaching high school students. With a slight shrug Neal turned and headed toward the main building of the school, his destination being the faculty office.

When he arrived at the faculty office he was greeted by one of the teachers, they had been expecting him to drop by, as he had called in advance to let them know he would give them his information. Handing over a paper with his information on it he casually inquired "I saw there was some sort of demonstration going on outside....it is common for schools to teach firearms?" The teacher shook her head "Not particularly, but if you think of it this way, guns aren't all that different from archery, which is fairly common as a club activity." Neal nodded slightly "It just struck me as odd, I hadn't noticed a shooting/archery range at this school before."

The teacher nodded and explained that it had been a recent addition to the school, as was the teacher that was running the program. Neal offered up a soft smile to the teacher "Well, I certainly hope that none of the students that come to me for tutoring, come armed." He laughed slightly and closed his small briefcase. "It was a pleasure talking with you. I hope I can enrich this school's students with a bit of my own knowledge, even if I'm not a "sensei" per say."

After bidding farewell to the teachers Neal made his way back out onto the school grounds where there were still several students hanging around the new range, probably the last few that were signing up. he was a bit unsure of what he should do. If he just slunk off, if the man was a magician, he could get suspicious. If he walked over and inquired about this new program, he may also fall under suspicion. Ultimately, however, it really didn't matter. Neal had no idea if the man was a magician or not. But he had a plan to find out if he was. He would need to wait till night, and return to the school.

Neal decided to take a chance, and made his way over to the loose gathering, and waited for the Sensei to take notice of his presence. "Good day, pardon my intrusion but I couldn't help but notice your demonstration. that was rather impressive. I couldn't help but stop and watch. I haven't seen many schools teaching the use of guns before." he glanced over at the targets. "I've heard of stunts like that, but never had I seen one till today. Must have taken years of practice to pull it off huh?" He kept his tone casual and friendly, after all, this guy could be just your average man with a curious hobby.

The idea of being able to blindly maneuver through an obstacle course or hit targets based solely on memory of their layout was fairly common. In theories. It was far different to actually see it done in person, and Kogane couldn't help but feel impressed. She even felt... A vague, inane sense of pride. Was it because he was her sensei or because he was her fiance? The latter being a weakness exploitation and the former... Oh, right. Technically I'm not his student yet. Definitely something to remedy. Kogane was a fairly accurate shot with a bow, but she'd never even held a firearm before. It was definitely worth a try.

Lunch break was almost over and the students were beginning to thin out, but a loose group of them were still lingering about. Kogane herself was watching Victor register the last few of them from a little ways away. She was just about to go over there herself--

"Ohoho. I know that look. Yuumitsu's got a new target." A girl spoke from a nearby cluster of three students. Short brown hair and blue eyes, outspoken and gossipy. She'd actually been an archery club member last year...

"No way, Yuu-chan. Are you going to challenge Ortensia-sensei?" A guy this time. One of those who bleached his hair blonde to stand out, though you could see the black near the roots where it had grown since being colored. Kind of a showoff, but people like him due to his sense of humor.

"Gomen, Yuumitsu-sempai... You're really cool, but I don't know if you can beat him." The other girl, a first year, quietly said. She had a pale complexion and glasses. She was soft-spoken, a little shy, definitely the most intellectual of the bunch. They all looked pretty familiar... Classmates who insisted on speaking to her even though she put off an unapproachable front. Like Kaguya. Yamato? Whatever. The difference being that this time she could remember their names.

"Besides, aren't you supposed to be his bride?" Blondie again, a laugh bubbling up near the end of his sentence.

Kogane slowly narrowed her eye at the guy. "How much do you want to regret what you just said, Fujimura?"

"A-ack..." A choking noise as he swallowed his giggles. He stood there in silence for a moment, his previous smile plastered to his face. Then he suddenly collapsed to his knees, giving a very exaggerated formal begging posture. "Gomenasai! Please forgive me, Yuumitsu-sama!"

"Tch. Whatever." Kogane grumbled. The brown-haired girl was about to collapse herself, though hers was from a fit of laughter. Kogane looked back toward her initial destination. "I've got something to do. Don't let them be late to class, Kotori."

"A-ah.. Hai." This from the glasses girl. She started tugging on the arms of the other two, one falling down laughing and the other still begging forgiveness, as Kogane turned away from the bunch. Poor girl. Don't be late to class? I sound like a healthy choices advocate. But that's exactly why she has such unwavering faith in me.

Distraction aside, Kogane was finally able to step up to Victor's recruitment stand. Except, in her absence of attention, he was now talking to someone else. Another foreigner, from the looks of it, although he didn't stand out anywhere near as much as Victor himself. Were they from the same country? Probably friends. With how pretty Victor-sensei is, maybe even...

"... Oh, Sensei..." It was hard to speak through the genuine laughter that had started while she thought about it. "I didn't know you swung that way."

Kaito awoke, his eyes still blurred and out of focus. He could barely make out the white roof of the nurses office. He got up quickly and pulled back the white curtain around the bed. Apparently the nurse was still out 'probably at sensei's presentation' he noted 'too bad he's a loli'. He laughed to himself and at almost the same time stumbled and fell. "Great..." he muttered, the colors around him swirled, a brown wooden desk blurred into a white backdrop.

He traveled the room by memory alone and stumbled through the door, he crashed into someone as he passed through. "Ah- Izumi-san" she said surprised "Are you ok?". He recognized her voice immediately smiled and rubbed the back of his head, "My stupid eyes again, I'm just going to head home".

"Alone?" she said, concerned. "Of course" he said turning his back on her. He walked down the hall waving his arm back at her. 'now if I can make it seem like I can-' his thoughts were interrupted by a wall he could have sworn was a door. He heard the scrambling footsteps of the nurse. 'Dammit, I can't reactivate the spell yet...'. He did his best to wave her off and continued down the hall. He side-stepped one blur of white and brown, waved to a random blur of white and blonde, and thanked another random blur for some money he had borrowed, leaving a series of very confused blurs in his wake. Despite this he smiled as the nurse gave up and returned to the office.

Kaito knocked on every door down in both hallways of that wing, apparently his memory was failing him, of course the last door was the right one and the extravagant blend of colors. "Caster, we're going" He muttered, he could barely hear Sakura declaring her capture of the newest clow card. "Not finished" Caster called back simply. Kaito walked through the door, and after much stumbling reached the tv. "You can finsh when we-" "Finish now" Caster interrupted. Kaito sighed, stepped back, and delivered a kick to the tv, causing it to teeter slightly and fall, effectively ending Sakura's adventures.

Kaito couldn't see but he knew Caster was pouting as they reached the school gates. She had hidden herself. He was careful to move slowly and cautiously, but feared he would be unable to get home like this. He rested at the gate to prepare himself. 'I'll cast the spell in the hotel where it'll be harder to pinpoint'
Caster remained silent.

The whole area was abuzz with excitement over the sensei's presentation. Deep within, Kaito wished he could have seen it...

Victor wrote idly in his notepad, his hand switching reflexively from kanji to hiragana; from hiragana to katakana. He briefly wondered if he was able to do the same thing upside-down, but on the account of everyone present, he quickly dismissed the notion. There had been enough bewilderment for the day.

Several latecomers still stood in line at the firing range, waiting for him to finish writing down their names. He looked up to see the aristocratic stranger approaching him, but from that distance, he could tell the man apparently was just being friendly. Apparently. Just in case, Victor kept up his guard while maintaining an affable facade.

"... Must have taken years of practice to pull it off, huh?"

His own reply came quickly. "Believe me, it doesn't come easily. Every morning you have to find the motivation in yourself to give it all you've got!" He paused. "It's a good thing I had the right instructors, too. Most had... some rather tenacious personalities, but they meant well."

Victor lowered his voice and leaned over to the man conspirationally. "In fact, you might say I'm on leave from the most of the shooting organizations back in the Commonwealth. They can tend to get a bit clingy, I might add. It's not so often that I can get an overseas job like this one, so I jumped at the opportunity!"

He extended a hand towards the man. "I'm Victor Ortensia. So what brings a Scotsman like you here - business ventures, perhaps? And I insist that you tell me your name!" demanded Victor jokingly.

Before the man could respond, however -

"... Oh, Sensei... I didn't know you swung that way." Lilting laughter characteristic of someone Victor knew all too well drifted in the air. As for his retort...

He stared blankly at Kogane. "Whatever do you mean? I've already been enjoying this pleasant, fulfilling engagement of thirty minutes, so why would I want anything else?"

Then, he looked inquisitively into her face. "Since you're my fiance, I take it you're here to sign up?"

Come to think of it, staying at the school will be full of surprises like these. I'll have to head back before dusk... with what I suspect, there's quite the list of additional preparations to make...

Neal shook VIctor's hand firmly. "You were a little off on my place of origin actually. I am from Ireland. I'm Nick Doyle, I've been living here in Japan for a while now. I was just dropping off my information, I am offering English tutoring to the students of this school. I..." Neal paused as he heard a female student pipe up with a joking comment, or at least he sure hoped the girl was joking. he glanced over to see a curious young girl, and was even more baffled when the teacher mentioned her being his fiance. He didn't want to be rude and question it however.

Instead Neal offered a smile to the young lady. "Good day, Miss. I assure you, Mr Ortensia and I have no such relation." He returned his attention to Victor "Well, I'm sure you have much to do, and I have a few errands to run, myself. It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr Ortensia. I wish you the best of luck with your unique activities. I may actually be having a cousin coming to live with me soon, so you may yet see me about. Do take care." Neal nodded politely to the strange young girl before he turned and made his way in the direction of the school's main gate.

He still had suspicions, so tonight he would definately need to return to the school and erect a detection spell. He wasn't going to make any moves untill he was absolutely certain the man, was indeed what he thought him to be. He wasn't too concerned about the man looking up his contact information, as it too said Nick Doyle on it, and the number was that for his cell. If he had used his actual name, there was a good chance that a magician from that part of the world may recognize the Davian name. It was best to err on the side of caution.

Neal meandered home via the more round about route. He was rather looking forward to changing out of the suit, and to ditch the briefcase, it wasn't to his tastes in the least, but putting up a professional front was fairly important when seeing employment, even if it was just a small part time job teaching a student or two about English. He was also eager to get home so he could make sure his Servant wasn't getting himself into any trouble. When he reached his street and saw that his apartment hadn't burned down, he took that as a good sign and allowed himself a measure of relaxation. maybe he wasn't as troublesome as he had appeared at first glance.

He stepped in through the front door, Lancer was sitting on the couch, still watching the TV and there were a ton of dishes and various food containers littering the coffee table. "...Great...One of those..." he muttered to himself

Kogane's laughter slowly died down to a mere grin. "Hai, hai." It was clear from her sarcastic tone that she didn't believe either of them. She waited politely for them to finish speaking, jokingly chiming in again as the Irishman started to leave.

"I was worried. 'What will I do when he keeps bringing men home?'" She sobered up and raised the index finger of her bandaged right hand, a condescending note in her voice. "It's frightening for a young, newly-engaged girl to think about, you know. You should be careful not to break your fiance's fragile heart by accident, Sensei."

Her scolding done, she lowered her hand again to give him a faint smile, as if to say 'I forgive you'. "That aside, it would be rude if I didn't sign up, wouldn't it? It sounds exciting anyway."

Kogane looked after the departing foreigner, shaking her head as she spoke aloud to herself. "An Irishman, huh. He was sorta plain looking. And aren't they supposed to be blond? Suspicious guy... Although, we seem to be getting a lot of new foreign teachers recently." She trailed off into thought.

What with the ruckus Assassin is causing, Ortensia could just be here as some kind of... Student bodyguard or something. The school's own private bouncer. The principal has always been a little overprotective and all, but... That Doyle guy bugs me. Teaching English. The national language of Ireland is... Garlic? Something like that. But they speak English there too, probably. Suspicious due to how well he blends in.

"The whole school smells fishy... Well, whatever. It doesn't have anything to do with me." The school bell started it's chime, signifying the beginning of afternoon classes.

"I should probably go get my things and leave before I'm 'late', huh.." She mumbled, sighing as she gazed off toward the school gate.

After grabbing something suitable for lunch, Neal made his way back to the living room and sat down in the chair adjacent to the couch that Lancer had managed to dominate completely. He watched the strange young man for a long moment before speaking "What are you doing?" Lancer glanced over at Neal "Watching TV, what does it look like I'm doing?" Neal sighed heavily "No, I mean...You don't actually need to eat when you are in your servant form....Why are you staying in your..." Lancer lifted a hand to stop Neal and spoke "Look...Holy Grail wars only happen once every decade right? And do you have any idea how many possible servants there are that can take part in these wars? Getting the opportunity is like winning the lottery. Some have won several times in a row, others will never win the chance to take part. I for one, fully intend to enjoy this whole thing to its fullest. That includes watching TV, eating all these neat foods, seeing the sights and winning the war."

Neal frowned and folded his arms "This isn't a vacation, Lancer. This is serious life and death stuff." The strange young man sprawled out on the couch laughed "Exactly! If you take it too seriously all the time it will eat away at you and wear you down. Look, Master. We can talk strategy till we are blue in the face, the fact of the matter is, right now it is the beginning, and that means we need to have patience. If you get too up tight, you are going to start making mistakes. And THAT is going to get you killed. See my point?" Neal thought for a moment befor nodding slightly "Fair enough...now...about the mess you made..."

Lancer sat up and stretched "Don't worry I'll clean it up. It is just that these foods were so wonderful it was hard to stop. Oh and tomorrow we are going to start your training." Neal blinked and looked at Lancer puzzledly "My training?" Lancer got a faint smirk on his lip and nodded "Well yeah. You put me in a tight spot you know. If you were a young kid, or a girl it wouldn't be so hard to run around with you. But you are a grown man I really doubt you are going to want a piggy back ride if things get hectic. Right? Besides, I want you to be able to be able to at least hold your own for a little while in case I'm not around right away. You have any experience with spear work?" Neal picked at his lunch "I've done martial arts, but not spears specifically. My family made sure that I was going to be ready to fight in a war, but I never trained in any one thing specifically."

Lancer propped his feet up on the coffee table amongst the food containers "Well, that should make my life a little easier at least. We are going to learn to fight as a team. I'll teach you spear work, and you can augment those skills with your own magic skills. You would be surprised how well it works." Neal could understand the need for the extra training, but really, when was he going to find the time? Granted his tutoring job could turn up not a single student, but even still, he had a full time job that had him working five days a week. Granted he did have that account he could draw on. In fact, the thought had crossed his mind to quit his job for the duration of the War so he could focus entirely on the task at hand. He may still do that, if things got too crazy.

"Tonight, you and I need to go to the school and set up a few things. I just need to verify if the new teacher there is a magician. He is teaching the students marksmanship with gun...I found it a little odd, it is worth checking out. I want you to stay out of sight though, only step in if I'm attacked. Also...if we are walking around during the day, I can't very well call you Lancer, if a magician heard me call you that, it would be a good way to give away what I am. Even calling you Lance is a little too obvious. Our cover story is going to be you are my cousin Logan Doyle, you just moved here to live with me for a little while till you can save up money to go to college." Lancer snickered "Sure, whatever. I can already tell this is going to be a loooooong war..but that suits me just fine. War is one of my specialties. So tell me....Are those women on TV real? And how would I go about meeting one?" Neal facepalmed "Why me..."

Kogane paced silently down the long road leading toward her home from school. There weren't many people out, given the time, but she could feel their presence nonetheless. Kogane hated being around others. Occasionally she even felt nauseous while surrounded by a large crowd. Perhaps becoming accustomed to isolation had lead to an expansion of what she deemed her personal space, thus making her uncomfortable when people got close to her. But there was a sense of security in just knowing they were there. Knowing there were others in the world, even if they weren't nearby. Even if they weren't people she knew. It was comforting. It was the source of her calmness in any given situation.

But it wouldn't stop her from striking those unknown people down in pursuit of her goals. There would always be more beyond them, after all.

When she glanced down from the sky, her home was already in sight. She had wound through the familiar mess of streets and houses that made up the residential area while lost in thought. She raised her hand to open the door--

Only to have it click and slowly open on it's own, producing a rasping creak as it did. There was no one beyond the door, but only one person would have been here to do so. She stepped on inside, lightly kicking the door closed behind her as she'd always done. It's hinges were silent this time. She glanced around as she slipped out of her shoes.

"Assassin." Her tone was cool, distant, and demanding a response.

"Yes, Kogane?" The man's amused voice came from directly behind her, near the door she'd just entered.

"Kogane-sama." Her voice cracked with irritation. His choice of positioning was interesting, but unimportant. She didn't bother turning around. "It's a little early, but fix me something to eat. We've got things to discuss."


Hmph. Completely unphased. His Master was proving to be surprisingly difficult to unnerve. It was getting to the point that Assassin found himself making a conscious effort to do so whenever the opportunity arose.

The girl stalked into the dining room ahead of him. He followed after an annoyed pause. "I thought you'd be out looking for--" a split second's hesitation as he turned the corner to find her already seated at the table, "--a new job today," sipping from a glass of tea he'd brewed and poured for himself. A few angry voices trickled into his thoughts, suggesting various methods of torture. Briefly imagining a few of them served to be enough to lighten his mood, though it wasn't anywhere near as satisfying as the real act would be.

"Forgive me, please," the girl was crying from her place at the table. An elation filled him upon hearing the words, and he found himself smiling as he walked past her toward the kitchen.

"It's an English tea. I managed to procure it during the hunt last night." He gave a natural enough response. Perhaps he should have poisoned the tea. But poison wasn't really to his liking. It wasn't intimate enough.

"B-but, I didn't mean... Please, please don't... Someone..." She sobbed hysterically behind him. Somehow, it seemed like the two sides of their conversation weren't matching up.

He went back into the dining room with a steaming cup of noodles on his tray. The girl had her eye closed, apparently savoring the scent and flavor of the beverage in her hand. "Naturally. After all, the more mana I have, the better I can perform." No, they were definitely conflicting with each other. This discussion was making less and less sense the longer it lasted. It was absolutely hilarious.

Kogane fixed Assassin with a harsh glare as he put the tray on the table in front of her, which was actually just her normal expression. She mouthed words at him, but all he heard were mindless, pained, delightful cries for help. It didn't even seem like her voice anymore. He stepped back, turning to face out the window so he could enjoy her pleas without having them at odds with the girl's expression.

"Of course. I'll look into it while I'm out tonight."

He watched the sun as it slowly sunk toward the horizon, the faint reflection of himself in the glass giving the sky beyond it a mad smile.

It was evening. The school had become strangely silent, giving an almost forlorn impression with its lack of people: Tomiya city's recent incidents had not gone unheeded.

Wind whipped constantly about on the building's rooftop, giving sign of winter's gradual onset into the city. It was getting colder, and the sky was different. Earlier on some thicker clouds had sparsely populated the heavens - but now the thin, wispy variety always signifying change in the weather had replaced them. As a result, the setting sun permeated the scenery at an early hour, bathing everything in an orange, almost arcane glow.

Victor stood on top of the building. He gazed methodically down into the visible streets surrounding the school, simultaneously scanning for danger and memorizing the visible routes to and from the school. After a moment he folded his arms in thought, his dark blue trenchcoat whipping erratically in the breeze.

"Archer... who do you think they are?"

The same red-haired, green-eyed woman he had met days earlier abruptly appeared next to him, her athletically cut black-and-red floral dress settling down around her. She pouted and made a face.

"Aww. And I was just about to scare you just before you started talking!"

"Aren't you full of surprises," replied Victor drily. He couldn't help but smile, however. "Now answer my question. Or maybe you don't know either?"

"There's no need to say that! I don't know because I'm choosing not to!" She pointed a finger at him. "I don't want to get any nasty surprises later on, so don't blame me if you make the wrong assumptions and some 8th-grader ends up killing you!"

"All right; all right, I give up." He held up his hands in mock surrender. "All the same, I have to make my report this evening. I don't have the time to talk to you, so go practice on the targets in the shooting range. You need the experience."

Victor tried to duck the well-aimed rock thrown in his direction, but it hit him anyway.




He leaned against the rooftop wall, cell phone in hand. Victor gave it an incomprehensible look before raising it to his ears.

"Kazu Hachi calling, Kazu Hachi calling. I repeat - this is Shokyuu."

"... a-ah, Shokyuu! I apologize for for the delay; I'll connect you to the central station immediately..."

"It's fine." Victor waited a few moments before the familiar crackle of static told him he had been shifted to a secure line.

A young woman's voice, cold and confident, greeted him. "Oh? You're rather early for your report."

"I try to be punctual. More importantly, I've made a list of possible Masters in Tomiya. Current evidence tells me that the most likely ones might be located in close proximity to me."

"Anything else?"

"There have been no further developments."

"Hmm. I think you've forgotten something. Perhaps if I mentioned your 'demonstration' today you might begin to remember? You're quite the subject of debate over here, I might add. Did you really have to go so far?"

"A calculated move. I had to take risks to gather the information I needed."

A short pause. "All right. Some are calling your actions indiscrete, but you're off the hook for now. Shokyuu, was it? Your codename fits your actions." Victor couldn't tell whether that was a compliment or not.

"By the way, I'll let you know something. The Mage's Association recently sent out a representative. Looks like he's a relative of your hero Kotomine, too - can you prepare yourself to kill him?"

Victor froze. "... And if I choose not to?"

"Pah. You should know it's not my style to babysit subordinates. Do whatever seems best. We'll send you his profile; the fellow honestly believes he can own a public cell phone without being traced. Then again, so do you." The line snapped and grew quiet, signaling the end of the talk.

Victor stood up slowly from the wall. Archer immediately walked out to greet him.

"Hey."

He gave her a wry smile. "You heard it all, didn't you? Well, I suppose that's all right. You had to find out eventually." For once she gave no response.

"But you know what? I think I'll take up my leader's offer for freedom." Victor flipped his cell phone open again, this time looking carefully through his contacts. He made a secure call.

"Kotomine Akashi, is it? I suspect you're wondering who's calling, but I'll keep that a secret for now. Meet me at the Caffé Veloce in the commercial district if you want answers." He turned off his cell without waiting for a reply.

"Let's leave, Archer. It's time we started moving."