Episode Three (Oct 6th, Tuesday - Day)

The journey back to the school was a quick one. Lancer arrived at the main gate in spirit form and paused to survey the structure for a long moment. "How did I end up with such a boring Master...This isn't going to be a challenge if I just hide in spirit form and snoop around." he thought to himself as he strode in through the main gate and through the front door of the school unseen and unheard. "Watch the blind boy....how exci....wow...that is a really short skirt..." Lancer veered from his present course and followed one of the high school girls into the washroom. "She may as well not be wearing anything..."

By the time that detour had reached an end, Lancer stepped out into the corridor of the school as some sort of gathering had just concluded. Hundreds of students bustling about and making their way back to their classrooms. "Blind boy, blind boy blind boy...where is the blind boy...." he muttered to himself as he scanned the crowd. The kid had his Servant with him, as far as Lancer could tell, maybe if he got them alone he could eliminate their first target.

***

Meanwhile back at Neal's old apartment he had managed to set up a means of getting to his new manor. It had taken a bit of research and luck but he had managed to set up a means of teleporting to his new home, and had set it up in the apartmen's bedroom closet. If he changed his life stile too obviously it would be a clue to those that might kill him, as to where he was, so he was intending to keep the semblance of living at his original abode, while using the manor as a training ground.

Lancer didn't strike Neal as a particularly serious servant, infact thus far the Servant had proven to be a bit of a goof off which had caused Neal concern. However, the Irish bred magus wasn't about to judge a book by its cover. Doing that in a Grail War was a good way to get yourself killed. He was going to have to trust that his Servant knew what he was doing and would pull through when it mattered the most. Having contingency plans wasn't such a bad idea either but such was the case regardless of what Servant you drew. Even if Neal had drawn Saber, he would have taken every precaution.

Kaito left the auditorium slightly dazed. The voices of hi peers met his ears as an annoying buzzing noise. He didn't notice those telling him he was walking to slow and earned a sharp shove to the side because of it. His feet were moving on their own, maneuvering to someplace where he had even the slightest bit of control even if only for a moment.

The door closed behind him with a soft click and he immediately made his way to the center of the room where Caster hastily materialized. They were back in the relative safety of the AV club room. Kaito had calmed down a bit, though his face was still a little flushed and his eyes seemed to dart to and fro every once in a while. However he tried his best not to lose what little sanity he was maintaining. "You felt it right?", he muttered. Caster nodded "you didn't help because?"

Caster blinked at the boy, he had surely lost a bit of confidence since this morning, "I didn't wish to give them any more information than what they already have." she said back "A fight at school would cause too much of a disturbance" she began "With that knowledge and the lack of killing intent I chose the best course of action fate had presented me." An eerie silence fell over the room and you could hear the sounds of movement slowly dying down. Kaito brushed a few hairs from his face and peered at his own brown eyed reflection in the blank television screen.

The young master then sighed and stood as though to go out the door, however Caster placed a hand on his shoulder "Master, you mustn't lose yourself like that again" she said looking deep into his eyes "the next opening like that, will be your last." With that the blue eyes faded leaving Kaito alone in the room.

Kaito peered at his reflection once more and said "We're still going...after school"

Caster nodded though her master couldn't see, but he left as though he knew. She barely caught the small sensation of a fellow servant entering the premises 'the one from earlier' she noticed ah she drifted away from her master 'he may be able to sense me... but I wonder how well he can sense a normal magi.' Her hand clasped around the threads she had prepared as she drifted towards the second floor.

Daisuke wandered aimlessly around the oddly pixelated-looking village, talking to random people he happened to pass by. He found that he couldn't actually speak a word himself, but whenever he walked up to someone they would just start speaking. Usually they'd just repeat the same thing they said a few seconds ago. Some people would even say something someone else already told him. It was annoying, but at the same time it seemed like a common enough issue and didn't actually stop him from listening to everyone who came close. Except for the creepy looking, too-buff shirtless man with a full helmet over his head. That guy was just creepy.

In his wandering, Daisuke suddenly realized he was completely naked. In fact, he didn't have anything on his person except for the hundred gold coins clutched in his fists. Yet he didn't feel any embarrassment. In fact, the only thing he was worried about was his low defense. He made haste to the nearest shop with a sword and shield hanging over the door. He left only a few seconds later, having mindlessly traded the entirety of his gold for a long, shabby tunic and a short bit of wood. It was probably made of cypress. Ignoring how overcharged he felt, Daisuke proceeded onward to what appeared to be the town's entrance. The man next to the door was repeating, "This is Home Town," to everyone who walked by, entering or leaving. What a fitting name for the first town, he idly thought. Daisuke tried not to make eye contact with the man on his way past, striding boldly out of town like a man with a purpose.

Three steps from the safety of the town walls, Daisuke spotted several red blobs on the grassy horizon. As they came closer, he noticed they had goofy smiles on their faces. Somehow it only served to fuel his terror. He brandished his bit of wood, but that did nothing to deter the blobs. They were charging right for him; there had to have been nine of them! Nine red ones, this close to town! They were closing in on him, circling around him to rush from all sides...

"Kuhara-kun!" There was a loud sound of impact accompanying a shockwave that lifted Daisuke's face up off of his desk for the barest of moments, after which it thumped back down due to gravity. He groaned softly, his eyes flickering open to look up at the sleep-smeared silhouette of a woman above him.

"Asa-chin, you're supposed to call me 'Onii-chan'..."

This time, it was his head that felt the full force of the schoolbook.

"... But Kuhara-kun is fine too," he added, wincing as he sat up and rubbed the point of impact. Several of the other students were laughing at his plight, but to be entertaining was merely another one of his life goals. He felt a faint sense of pride in being able to do so merely by taking a nap.

"Are you back with us now?" someone asked him.

"Should have bought a helmet... I'd be invincible if only I'd been empowered with a toast cannon breakfast," It seemed like someone had said something else, too, but Daisuke was too wrapped up in mumbling to himself to catch the details. "In fact... Sensei, how did you know my one weakness? No way..." Daisuke stood, backing away from the literature teacher that was giving him a doubtful look. "Don't tell me you're working with the red slimes to bring me down! You are, aren't you?!"

"Kuhara-kun.. Energetic even in your dreams, I see." The teacher sighed at him. She really wasn't much older than the rest of the students, a good-looking woman fresh out of college and working her first year as a literature teacher at the only high school in the area. She had long black hair tied back in a simple tail and pair of gorgeous... Eyes, copper eyes one could get lost in were they not fenced off by a simple yet elegant pair of half-moon spectacles.

"I think you hit him too hard, sensei. He might not have much of a brain left," the girl seated next to Daisuke noted in an amused tone.

The teacher shook her head. "I'm pretty sure he's well beyond needing to worry about that."

"Asama-sensei... I'm hurt that you look down on me. So cold, even after I've admired you so much," Daisuke heaved a sigh of his own, deflating. In response, the woman raised the weapon she'd already bashed him with once. It was more a playful gesture from her than a menacing one--she could accept a joke when it didn't catch her off guard like before. She was the type to get violent when embarrassed. Daisuke lifted his hands in surrender, slowly creeping back into his seat to recover and equip his glasses. "Literature.. Last class of the day already? How long was I asleep?"

"That's a good question." Asama looked down her nose at him from above, then glanced at the girl seated at the next desk--the one who had spoken before. "How many classes did he sleep through, Kaname?"

"Only all of them since the assembly. I couldn't get him up, so he even snored through lunch. He called me a weapon store owner, too."

"Gah!" Daisuke shouted, suddenly rising from his seat. "I forgot my lunch!" Several students burst into muted laughter again. Unphased, the young teacher lifted the book, raising an eyebrow at him, and Daisuke promptly sat back down. "I can't believe I left it in the fridge.. Now I can't even eat something on the way home..." His stomach growled, voicing it's opinion on the matter. "Yeah, me too," he told it.

"Honestly, sleeping through an entire day of school... You may as well have just stayed home. Should I make a visit to your home and chat with your mother?"

"I-it wasn't my fault, Asa-ch-" Daisuke flinched as the teacher's arm twitched "-sama-sensei, I was.. Poisoned! Yes. There's probably a needle or blowdart somewhere on me where someone knocked me out with a sleeping venom," he explained, feeling his sides and legs for show as if he were searching for one.

"The red slimes, perhaps?" The young teacher asked with a smirk, drawing yet more snickers from the rest of the class.

"Yes! Well, maybe. It's the green bubbly ones that are poisonous, but--"

"Hai hai hai, that's enough." Asama thumped him lightly on the head with the book again--which still hurt, by the way, due to the earlier injury--and started toward the front of the classroom. "We've lost a lot of time now, but if you're done fooling around, let's finish the lesson."

Daisuke gave a subdued, "H-hai," and began the ordeal of pretending to pay attention to most of a single class without actually doing so. And preferably without obviously staring at the teacher.

Lancer had spent the rest of the day watching the blind boy and was growing bored. What sort of challenge could such a magi be? It almost wasn't fair to even consider eliminating the boy. Maybe if he gave the young man some sort of edge. Or a deliberate opening. He didn't care of his Master had told him to stay in spirit form. A Command Spell hadn't been used so he was free to do as he pleased. After all this was all just a big game. And he wanted the game to be fun.

Before the school day was out, Lancer had managed to leave and return to the school in quick order. When the bell rang Lancer was standing at the front gate of the school leaning against the wall, perfectly visible and wearing his street clothes. Sneakers, jeans and a button up shirt that was left unbuttoned. He knew they were still here, or at least there was -a- Servant in the area aside from himself. He scanned the crowd, hunting for the blind boy. Occasionally his gaze strayed to a skirt or two. A few school girls casting side long glances at the strange but attractive young man.

Over the course of the day, the sky darkened. Kogane went from building to building, attempting to garner the approval of those within. She was widely unsuccessful, even after she'd started going to places she didn't want to walk near, letalone be employed in. And now, as skies clouded over and temperatures dropped, she was starting to tire. And... She was cold.

With a large sigh, Kogane plopped down onto a bench in the small park beneath the city's bridge. For several minutes she sat there, passively resisting the involuntary muscle spasms threatening her arms and shoulders. Her still-feverish body wasn't overly used to experiencing cold, but it was a relatively simple matter to relax her shoulders and endure it. Ignoring things was one of her strong points, after all. And it was better than heat.

Not that it seemed to change how sweaty she was.

At least, not until the first few drops of rain washed it off.

Drops of water pattered against the second story window Kogane was peering through. A girl was in the yard below. In the rain. Looking for her. It was hide and seek, her favorite game. Thinking it would be amusing, Kogane had staged the game outdoors and promptly slipped inside to watch her seeker search for someone she wouldn't find. It hadn't been raining at the time. But that was hours ago.

The girl continued to look for her. She was checking places she'd already looked several times. In fact, her search pattern was no different from when she'd started. She'd methodically work her way around the yard, searching everywhere one could possibly hide. Then she'd do it again. And again. The girl was normally far too good at seeking for Kogane to have any fun, hence the desire to play tricks on her. But she was...

She never understood. She just didn't know when to stop. In turn, Kogane herself couldn't understand. Why didn't she give up? A normal person would have come inside a long time ago. But she kept going. Didn't pause. Didn't even hesitate. It didn't make any sense. So Kogane watched. She watched the girl's mechanical seeking pattern for hours.

The sun set. The rain fell harder. The girl searched. Searched until Kogane couldn't see her anymore. Unable to bear it any longer, Kogane finally ran downstairs and outside. She darted about the yard, now searching for the one searching for her. She was probably only out for a few minutes, but it was more than long enough for the rain to soak through her dress. And then she was hugged from behind.

"Found you," a muted girl's voice spoke. Breathlessly, Kogane wriggled around toward the direction of the voice.

"Found you. Found you." Her voice was as expressionless as the wet face she buried into Kogane's side. She was completely drenched and, Kogane noticed, had abrasions on her arms and legs from crawling about in her fruitless quest. But she didn't seem to mind at all. In fact...

"I found you, Ko-chan." She didn't even realize what had happened. When Kogane didn't respond, the girl looked up at her. "Ko-chan? Did I do something bad? Ko-chan.. Why... are you...?"

Kogane found herself staring down at the brick-lined pathway beneath the bench. Her face was moist, even beneath the damp eyepatch. It was raining, after all. But she tasted salt.

Ah... I was crying. Were they tears of pity? Or... Tears of self-loathing?

"... Damnit..."

"Aahn, you shouldn't cuss like that, Yuu-chan. People might think you're some kinna delinquent." The dark sky got a bit darker as something shielded her from the light rain.

"... Damnit," she repeated, though this time it was for a different reason entirely. She didn't even bother looking at the fellow student that had walked up while she was thinking, instead busying herself with rubbing her face clean. "What do you want, Fujimura?"

"As cheerful as always.. I'm amazed you don't already have a boyfriend with that kind of personality." This time she did raise her head to fix him with a steely gaze, trusting the rain to conceal whatever tears might remain.

"No, really," he went on, knowing well enough that she didn't care. Annoying. "Seriously. Some guys like to be abused."

"If you don't have anything important... Get the hell away from me."

"See, there. There are guys that would go crazy..." He trailed off at her glare, coughing lightly by means of segue. "Well, if you really wanna know, I was mostly just wondering why you're over here sitting in the rain. It works wonders for making you look cool and broody, but aren't you, y'know.. Cold?"

Kogane glanced up at his umbrella. In holding it over her, he was exposing himself to the rain in her place. Risking getting wet yourself to keep an already wet person from getting wet. It seemed overly pointless. Exactly the kind of thing most people would do, she supposed.

".. I don't honestly care about the cold."

"Yeah, an ice-cold girl like you wouldn't." He went on holding the umbrella over her anyway. "I didn't see you at school today. There was an important assembly, y'know."

"I had to do something more important."

"Haah.. Like what?"

She debated telling him to get lost again, but it seemed like wasted effort. She may as well just answer him. "Finding a job."

Fujimura winced. He was a skirt-chasing idiot but, just from that visible reaction, he clearly knew more about compassion than she ever would. "Lost another one, huh. You really need to learn to control your temper." She felt too tired to respond, so he probed further. "Any luck?"

"Not really."

He clicked his tongue. "Bit of a waste, a sort of cute girl like you without a job."

"Sort of cute..?" It was hard to even muster anger in the statement. She couldn't decide which part of it to be angry about, the 'sort of' or actually being called cute in the first place.

"Well, you know. Part cute, part sadistic, mostly scary. Anyway, I happen to know the owner of a cafe." He puffed out his chest as he spoke and watched her for a moment, as if expecting a reaction.

"... And?"

He let out his long-held breath. "And if you would just ask your friends for help once in awhile instead of trying to do everything yourself, you might have an easier time of it. I could prolly recommend you for a job. 'Sides, they're always looking for more.. Cute.. Waitresses."

She wanted to tell him where he could shove his cafe, but as she sat there thinking under his umbrella, she couldn't find a non-prideful reason to turn him down. She sighed again. "I guess it couldn't hurt."

"Great! You'll love the place. Let's go, then. The sooner you get a job, the sooner you can go home and change and I can watch with my binoculars." He wagged his eyebrows at her and pulled his umbrella back to offer her his free hand. She ignored it and his perverted remark and stood up on her own. Maybe she really was sick if him saying things like that wasn't bothering her anymore.

After several seconds of them both just standing there, Kogane shook her head. "Move. I'm not walking underneath an umbrella with you no matter how long you wait."

"Ehhhhh," he groaned in protest. Then he grinned, shoved the umbrella into her hand and turned to lead the way, rain slowly plastering his hair to his head.

Kogane glanced down at the hand now holding the umbrella. The handle was warm. She tightened her grip on it before going after him.

"... Friends, huh..."

'Juice...', Thought the young boy as he toyed with the straw of his juice box. It had been a long day and he still felt that useless thoughts of fear were till dwelling in his mind. His other hand absentmindedly gripped at his cell phone and flipped it open as he began to move towards the schools entrance. He sipped at his juice as he began to cycle through the many numbers in his phone book, yet even once the blinking phone read 'Izumi Mika' he found himself unable to press the talk button.

Visions of a man from long ago began to appear in his mind. A man in a suit with a very stern look on his face, always with that stern look. It was as if he were constantly looking down on him, no matter what he did those eyes never changed, they remained fixated as if they were stone, or an image frozen in time. Another image was that of a woman, this one with tears as the image blurred.

Right, that was the last he had seen of his family. His mother looking down at him in a hospital bed, crying as the doctor put him to sleep. A simple surgery, a high success rate, and a whole lot of other words his mother's generous donation had forced them to say. Yet, once he woke up the world became a blur of colors, shapeless and mysterious. The doctor said his eye sight was lost due to damage to the occipital lobe of his brain during the surgery. The chances of this damage occuring were slim at best maybe a 4% chance, and yet fate had chosen him to add to that percentile.

It was after this that father gave up on him. He had a younger brother now, one that so far seemed healthy and normal, he would be the heir. As a small parting gift, he was given magic before being shipped off to Tomiya City. Only these images remained of his parents.

He couldn't rely on his family for help. The boy was on his own this time, he wouldn't suffer through that glare again. He would show him the power that he had obtained, he would carry the Grail to their home and with it's power his father's look would change. He would make him sorry. The cell phone flipped closed and the juice box sailed through the air and into a trash can.
He swapped his shoes with the ones from his locker and proceeded towards the school's gate to meet Caster.

Daisuke was in the last of the waves of students leaving the school. Club activities had been canceled, or so it seemed, but he wasn't in any clubs anyway. His real reason for lagging behind was the thought of what--or rather, who--waited at his home and what he was supposed to do about her. Lost in thought and with what was probably an amazingly serious look on he face, he mindlessly let the tide draw him toward the school gate.

As far as he could tell, there were three options. One: she was drunken, drugged, or otherwise under the influence of some questionable substance. Most people slur a lot more when they're drunk, but... Chances are she was also homeless. Two: she was getting close to him for a reason. There weren't any reasons he could think of beyond wanting a place to stay (assuming option one was also correct and she was homeless), but it was true that she could be abusing his admittedly far-too-trusting self. And finally, three: none of the above were correct and he had no idea what was going on.

It didn't take very long for Daisuke to snap and exaggeratedly throw his hands up in the air. The serious thinking was just too much on an empty stomach.

"Why can't an angel just come down and give me a sandwich already," he complained to himself, "After all I've been through today, I think I deserve one."

As he neared the gate, Daisuke noticed an oddity that shouldn't have been there. He didn't look overly out of place, though the open shirt might have been a bit much given the slight chill in the air. He was an adult man, young but definitely too old to be a student, and was leaning against the wall beside the open gate, just on the inside of the campus entrance. He relaxed there, looking cool and watching the students pass. The female ones in particular. In turn, he was also being watched by the majority of them. The female ones in particular. A few of them had actually clustered near the other side of the gate to whisper together and point at him.

As Daisuke approached the gate, he averted his gaze from the man. There was a faint deja vu feeling to the action. As he did, he watched the guy step away from the wall and into his path with his peripheral vision. A mechanical voice began to drone in his head.

Imminent collision detected.
Countdown sequence initiated.
Five.
Four.
Three...

Where were you when I could have used collision detection this morning? Fortunately, though he may be a raving madman talking to himself in his own head, Daisuke could learn enough keep from repeating the same mistake three times in one day.

Or perhaps it was a fluke. A drop of rain flecked Daisuke's glasses, causing him to stop in place and look up at the clouds as several more light raindrops began to patter down.

"Rain, huh," he noted to himself in a serious tone. "Troublesome. This will not adequately fill my stomach."

The man spoke up. "Hungry huh?" he asked in a casual tone, briefly sneaking a glance at a passing female student before turning his attention back to Daisuke. "Sorry, noticed you rambling to yourself. You do that often?"

Daisuke paused his thorough examination of the cloud cover to lower his gaze to the man in front of him. He squinted at the guy and adjusted his rain-flecked glasses before responding in a joking tone. "Pervert-san, huh? Sorry, noticed you checking out the girls. You do that often?"

The guy smirked lopsidedly. "I can't help it; I've never seen clothes like that before. Do they wear short skirts like that everywhere in this country? And furthermore, how did you notice anything with your head in the clouds?"

Daisuke shook his head a bit, allowing a slight grin. "Only the ones that prefer it. The school uniforms come in two skirt sizes. Shorter ones get used more in the summer, guys rejoice. And on a related note... It's naive to assume that I'm paying any attention to the sky with all of these short skirts around." Daisuke gestured toward his surroundings with a shrug.

Wait. Why am I giving him mostly truthful responses? Get a grip, Kuhara. Get your head out of the skirts. Or clouds. Whatever. Thinking's gotten you all serious. He mentally slapped himself on the cheeks.

The man folded his arms and gave Daisuke a skeptical look. "Well, last I checked, the skirts were below eye level. Mind if I ask what 'san' means? I'm kinda new to the area. I was..." He hesitated awkwardly, "... Thinking of enrolling in this... Place. So I figured I would check it out."

Daisuke raised an eyebrow, returning the guy's skeptical look. "'San' is the noise the mice in Russia make," he explained seriously, "It actually sounds a bit more like a sighing roar, but I can't do it quite right. Anyway, aren't you a bit old to enroll in a high school? I mean, I've heard of fourty-year-old bears being taught to use a rocket launcher before, but..." Daisuke took a moment to note the man's features. Dark, disheveled hair, foreign features. Tall, good-looking and muscular. Seriously, those were some ridiculously chiseled abs.

"Well, you are kind of bear-like, aren't you. Hm."

The man followed Daisuke's gaze to his mostly-bare chest and frowned slightly. "I'm not that hairy... But I guess it could be a compliment on strength..." He seemed to try and puzzle through the mouse bit for a moment before confusion won over. He gave up. Amateur. "Well, what age does your high school go up to? I'm not that old you know... Certainly not fourty."

Daisuke sighed. "You're the second person today to actually take me seriously. Ugh. Can you imagine it?" He turned to the side, gesturing and speaking as if to a camera and the viewers at home, "Can you? A world where people take things I say at face value?"

Daisuke rounded on the group of girls that were chatting nearby and casting glances at the half-shirtless foreigner. Idly, he noted one of them had been thoughtful or cautious enough to bring an umbrella, as they were huddled underneath it. Some people actually have time to catch the weather in the morning.

"A world where nobody hits me for speaking whatever stupidity floats through my brainmeats?" He thrust out an empty hand toward them as if holding out a microphone for a comment. "Doesn't it just sound... Disturbing?" Three of the four girls stared at him or rolled their eyes, but short giggle from the fourth reached his ears. Somehow that was enough to make the whole thing seem worthwhile.

"Well...true or not, you have to admit that it is pretty silly." Came the man's voice from behind him. "... Is it normal for them to be grouping together like that and pointing?" He paused for another hesitant moment. "Women where I'm from don't normally behave like that, is why I ask."

"Now that you mention it..." Daisuke reached up to scratch his head, then looked back at the foreign man. "I guess it's pretty normal when I'm around. Except for the broad from this morning..."

Ugh, her again. No, let's think about something else. Like butterflies and fields of... Flowers... Flowers?

"Ah!" Daisuke exclaimed, remembering. "Crap. I promised my sister I'd help with her paper on the human-headed Chinese moose today." He started to walk past the guy. "Sorry. I'd hate to be rude--moreso than I usually am--but I really shouldn't hang around to be interrogated about my country's customs."

"Broad from this morning?" Much to Daisuke's dismay, the man started to walk along side him casual swagger. 'I'm leaving,' 'Cool, lead the way!' So much for being rude.

"What is a broad?" The man asked insistantly. "I've heard of traveling abroad... But I don't see how you can be rude to do something like that."

"No, I mean the messed up woman this morning. She followed me around asking a lot of questions about obvious things. I'm kind of getting a weird deja vu feeling. Except you're nowhere near as unbearably hot or crushing me with your breasts." Daisuke passed through the school gates and hesitated distractedly as he tried to remember which direction to turn. He settled on left, which... Was incorrect, but the crosswalk at the other corner of the block would work just as well as the one right in front of the school. "No offense."

"You mean some complete stranger started crushing you with her breasts?" The man continued to walk with Daisuke, "Most men would consider that a good start to a day, you know. Nothing nicer then a nice soft pair of..."

"I don't know... I'm not saying I don't like gigantic face-crushing ones, but smaller ones have their appeal too. Maybe more appeal, in a 'holy crap I can actually breathe' sort of way..." Daisuke paused at the crosswalk to wait for the light to change. "Why are we talking about this anyway? I get enough of generic male topics whenever Jun barges in for lunch or messages me on--"

The foreign man continued to walk right off the curb even after Daisuke stopped for traffic.

"--line--" There was a loud honk as a car came toward the crosswalk. Too slow. He couldn't react at all.

Daisuke watched in awe. With reflexes like a tiger, the foreign man's head snapped up in the direction of the car. Rather than diving out of the way, he jumped directly upward and tucked, rolling over the hood, windshield, roof and finally right off the back end of the car. He landed in a crouch on one knee, staring after the vehicle that had very nearly turned him into paste as it sped off down the street.

"Watch where you're going!" The guy yelled after it. Then he grumbled to himself. "Damn drivers..."

"--holy..." Daisuke glanced wide-eyedly around to make sure he wasn't the only person to see what he thought he just saw. His fellow normal people at the crosswalk were all staring, slack-jawed or with hands over their mouthes.

Cool. Guess I'm not as crazy as I thought.

He briskly walked out after the badass action hero man, glancing back and fourth for more incoming dangers of metal and glass and pain. "Are you all right?" He offered the foreigner a hand, assessing his apparent lack of wounds. "Geeze, that was crazy. You rolled completely over it without a scratch."

My-Life-Is-An-Action-Movie took Daisuke's offered hand and pulled himself to his feet. Daisuke himself managed to not get pulled to the ground. Barely. And then he nearly got crushed. Leaps-Over-Cars-For-Fun fell against him with a grimace. "Damnit...I think I wrenched my knee..." He tossed an arm over Daisuke's shoulders to keep himself upright.

Damnit indeed. This is the part where you ask me to walk you home and I relive my annoying morning, isn't it.

Daisuke sighed, probably, but it was hard even for himself to tell due to his somewhat heavy breathing just from helping a man off the street. He started to pull the guy toward the sidewalk that the foreign carhop had been a bit too excited to get to.

"Can't say I feel all that sorry for you. What were you doing, walking out into the street before the light changed? And then jumping over the car instead of just getting out of the way?"

Dives-Off-Of-Burning-Buildings paused as they reached the other side of the street and shrugged slightly. Both shoulders. Huh.

"If I had jumped to the side it was likely that it would have run over my legs at the speed it was going... Think you could help me to my cousin's place?"

... I knew it.

"It is only a few blocks from here." Walks-Away-As-The-Building-Explodes put the back of his hand to his forehead. Woe is he. It was an extremely overdramatized, maybe somewhat feminine gesture. It pretty much ruined any badass image the guy had. "I simply don't understand this strange place."

Did this guy and the woman from this morning go to the same drama class?

Daisuke snorted. "Sure, why not. It's not like I haven't wasted enough time today helping complete strangers, and weird foreign ones to boot, back to their place of residence."

"Took the crazy lady back to her place too did you? You dog you. Smooth move." The two of them limped along, completely ignoring the gawkers from the other side of the street. The inversion of the situation was strange. Has-A-Cat-Named-Dynamite pulled Daisuke along even as he limped, as if Daisuke was the injured one in need of a place to go.

"Sounds like you had a really odd day. I am glad I can contribute to it!" Chews-Up-Guns-And-Spits-Out-Cupcakes thumped his first against his chest proudly.

And boy are you.

Having realized by now that this situation was getting far more hellish than his morning, Daisuke 'helped' Even-Looks-Manly-In-Pink along less than happily. It was bad enough that he had another guy leaning all over him, but he couldn't shake how downright fake it felt. In fact, even from the beginning, it seemed like the guy--er, agh. Coming up with a new name for him every time is getting irritating. Let's just go back to calling him Carhop. Anyway, it really seemed like Carhop had been trying to find an excuse to drag Daisuke along with him.

Daisuke realized he'd been silent for several minutes. He finally responded in a thoughtful tone. "... Yeah, crazy. Crazy day. You're pretty energetic for someone who just jumped over a car, too. Must be that 'roadkill effect' I hear so much about."

"I guess my heart is still pounding a bit from that little encounter." Carhop shook his head. "And I didn't really jump over that thing anyway... That would have been a feat to behold."

They were silent for several paces before Carhop spoke up again. "Hey, look. I'll feed you when we get to my place as a thank you. How does that sound?"

Daisuke's rejection was all but instantaneous. "No, sorry, I can't. I've really got to get home as soon as possible. Herb gardens and.. Moose paper, or whatever it was." Herb garden? Thinking was getting in the way of both his wiseassedness and the mental box of thumbtacks he'd at some point labled 'people skills'. He wasn't even trying to sound hospitable anymore.

Then again, it was a bit late for pleasantries anyway. Grappled as he was under the arm of the supposed victim he was helping, Daisuke wasn't going anywhere but where he was lead.

This morning... Is she in on this too? I don't get it. Why...?

Carhop nodded slightly, not in the least bit hurt by the verbal rejection. The two continued in silence down the rainy sidewalk a little while longer.

Why am I being kidnapped?

And eventually stopped outside a small apartment building. "Well, thanks for coming this far anyway. You're a good kid." Carhop stood up straight, bearing his own weight on uninjured legs, "So I am going to have to apologize for this later, maybe," And shifted the arm from around Daisuke's shoulders to pull him into a headlock. He dragged the boy toward the door of the apartment.

In a depressing lack of any comforting realizations, Daisuke could only think,

I really need that sandwich right about now.

Daisuke gave a brief, futile, perhaps even autonomous fight against Lancer's strong-arm tactics before giving in. "I don't get it, man.." He choked out a cough before continuing in a sour tone, being dragged along inside the whole while. "This entire damn time since you started leaning on me.. I couldn't figure it out... Why go through such a roundabout method to kidnap someone?"

"Cause really, it was just easier this way, you walked willingly. Not like I'm actually kidnapping you though. Well, I suppose it is a kidnapping but it isn't as bad as you might think" Lancer said as he closed the door behind them once inside the apartment "This is actually for your own good, believe it or not. Sounds cliche, but you'll see." Lancer led Daisuke into the living room where Neal was sitting at the coffee table with his laptop and a cup of tea. He glanced up and looked surprised for a moment "Lancer...what...I told you not to make yourself visible..."

"Yeah, willingly. More like hopelessly." Daisuke laughed listlessly and shook his head. Well. Sort of.. Twitched it a little, back and fourth. "There's no way I could get away from someone that jumped over a freaking car. But no, the worst part was planting someone in my house. As if that's even necessary. Where's the motive, that's what I want to know. What the hell could you want from me?"

Neal sighed heavily "We didn't plant anyone anywhere. Lancer, you are dismissed for now while I talk to the boy." Lancer shrugged "You wanted to talk to him so I brought him..."and with that the man that had been leading Daisuke vanished into thin air. "A-... Ah..?" Daisuke blinked, suddenly supporting all of his own weight, and reached up to feel for the arm that vanished from around his head. He glanced up and behind himself at the door, confused. "I didn't even feel him let go. Sneaky bastard."

"He is guarding the door incase you try to run for it I would assume. May I ask your name?" Neal was very polite as he closed his laptop to give the young man his full attention. "Sure, but I can't gaurantee a serious answer. In fact, why would you swipe someone off the street without already knowing their name? Are you just randomly targetting people, or is it just those with certain attributes? 'Cause I tell ya, I can do a mean rain dance, and from what I hear that's fairly uncommon." He hesitated for a second, then frowned. "By the way, how much does kidnapping people pay? Because that is one sweet laptop."

Neal frowned slightly "This isn't a kidnapping so much as an...intervention. It doesn't seem like you know what you have gotten involved in, and you have a choice you need to make, the sooner you make the choice, the better. Care for an explanation as to what you have..."stepped in".?" Neal sipped at his tea and gestured for Daisuke to have a seat if he so wished.

"I really don't understand the vague, cryptic, theatrical dialogue, but..." Daisuke checked the bottoms of his shoes, confirming the lack of foreign substance on the bottom of them, and stayed standing near the living room's entrance. Not that it really made a difference where he stood, he supposed. "What I really want to know is why you've done all of this. I don't know who the chick you had my gullible ass haul to my house is, but I swear if she's going to hurt anyone, I'll... Make some extremely hollow and perhaps slightly frightening threat."

Neal shook his head "I don't know who you are talking about. However, can you tell me how you got that mark on your hand?" "What mar--" Daisuke started, looking at both of his hands. Then he remembered the one from this morning, on the back of his left hand. Upon checking, it was still there. A faded tattoo of three wings, only slightly darker than his own complexion. "Oh. That. Yeah. Funny story, actually. See, there was this plate of waffles..."

"My guess is you stumbled across a Servant without a Master, and accidently entered an agreement with the Servant to fill that void. This dragged you into something called the Holy Grail Wars. A war between Magi to attain the most powerful wish granting object known to man. There are seven magi, and seven Servants. The last Master and Servant left, get to make a wish and have it granted. Now I am going to assume you are going to take none of what I just said seriously, and that you do not believe that true magic exists. However, I can offer you a simple way, to return to your normal life and put thsi all behind you. Relinquish your Command Spells, the marks on your hand, they enable you to control your Servant. Without them, you are out of the war."

"A comrade in storytelling, eh? But no, it wasn't anything like that. What really happened is this. That plate of waffles was in the middle of the sidewalk just daring me to eat them. They were all luscious and dripping with butter and syrup... And then suddenly I get dragged into an apartment building to see some overly sober guy of questionable sexuality who lives with his extremely sneaky, vanishing, car-leaping 'cousin,' had an awesome laptop and was trying to force a ridiculous story down my throat."

Neal decided to ignore the jab at his sexuality. "That "cousin" wasn't my cousin, he was my Servant. Perhaps a demonstration is in order." And as if on cue, Lancer faded into existance, sitting on the chair and reached for the remote "He is telling the truth you know. But you probably wouldn't believe it even if he showed you real magic"

".. H-huh.. Because, yeah. That's not a mirror trick or anything, that'd make too much sense." Daisuke cleared his throat. "I suppose I sound like a classic case of denial, don't I. But seriously, if you're actually over there, you should lock the door before trying to convince me you are. That's just rude, partially getting my hopes up when you know I know that I know you know that we both know you can probably catch me anyway. So. Assuming I actually believe this... Stuff.. And that I have a choice, what do you want me to do?"

Neal furrowed his brow faintly "What would it take to convince you? I suppose I could force you to give up your Command Spells and simply wipe this entire thing from your memory, but I would rather not have to force you to do anything. I feel it is a choice you have to make for yourself. Keep in mind. In War. People die."

"I don't know what you could do that would make me instantly accept something like that. What I really don't get is why you're bothering. If all this is true, doesn't that make me your enemy? Why not just let me bumble around on my own? Are you just a good guy? Because if you wanted to convince me of your genuine goodwill, I'm ready to take that one. Something like letting me leave would probably work fine."

Neal expression was grim "I don't like seeing people, especially kids, tossed into a War. I didn't want Logan to bring you here like he did, he was supposed to just be watching the school. That woman you mentioned....She is most probably a Servant. Servants are the sword and shield of their Masters. She will fight and defend you as best as she can, even at the cost of her own life. You mentioned you liked my laptop...Allow me to do a demonstration..."Neal climbed to his feet and moved over to the closet and pulled a crowbar and made his way back to the coffee table and promptly smashed the laptop with five very hard blows, shattering it to pieces. "Please, check to make sure it is broken and no longer functioning." he tossed the crowbar back into the depths of the closet casually before sitting back down.

"Wha-don't--!" Amazingly, Daisuke actually approaches a little as if to protect the poor electronic device. He recedes slowly afterwards, gulping. "Wow. Well. The whole sudden acts of violence thing against inanimate objects really goes a long way toward convincing me of your goodwill." It didn't seem like he was willing to go anywhere near the thing now, letalone check if it's functional. "If that thing still works in this shape, I'll confess my love to my literature teacher."

Neal opened the shattered screen and turned it to face Daisuke, bits of broken screen tinkling onto the broken keyboard. "Watch. Carefully." Neal said calmly as he held his hand over the broken laptop, muttering something in a language that Daisuke probably didn't recognize in the least. There was a glow as the damage to the laptop slowly started to reverse untill finally it appeared to have returned to the state it had been in, before it's fatal meeting with the crowbar. Neal lowered his hand back down and watched Daisuke for his reaction, as Lancer lounged in the chair, surfing through the channels on the TV

Daisuke watched silently, fascinated. "W-well. I guess I could write her a serious love letter or something. She'd never think something like that came from me." Daisuke removed his glasses and put a hand to his face, rubbing at his eyes. "I'm.. Developing a serious, cerebral meltdown of a headache."

"I realize this must be hard to believe. And it is a lot of information to take in all at once. But as long as you are bound to your Servant....you and those you care about are in danger. Some people who are selected for this war, aren't as considerate as I am. To remove someone from the war by force, generally means one Servant killing another. But sometimes people feel it is easier to kill the Master instead."

Daisuke stayed silent for a moment with his hand on his face. Real as the pain was, he made a show of nursing it to give himself time to think. Then he placed his spectacles back on his face tapped them by way of adjustment, and opened his eyes. They seemed so serious now that he was like a different person altogether. "Alright. I think I get the gist of things. I don't want to be involved in killing or.. Being killed, or risking those I care about. But, before I choose.. What happens to her? What happens to the Servant, if I quit this 'war'?"

"There are two options. She may find antoher Master if she can do so quick enough. Or she dies. However, a Servant dying isn't exactly death as you and I know it. Servants are heroic or otherwise well known figures of history and lore that are seen as worthy to take part in a Grail War. When they are killed, they technically just return from where they came from." Neal didn't want to scare the boy into thinking that he would kill the woman if he dropped out of this war but death was the only real simily to what happened when a Servant vanished.

Kuhara was silent again for a time. Then he spoke up again with a new question. "Servants.. They have wishes too, right? Something they want granted by this 'powerful wish-granting object' you mentioned?" Neal nodded "Yes, they are driven to do anything they can to be the last one standing so they can have their wish granted by the Holy Grail."

"Then..." He shook his head. "There's no way I could decide right now. I mean, it's not entirely my choice, right? I at least have to talk to her first." Neal sighed "Very well." He had really been hoping that the boy would jump at the chance to leave this war behind him. Neal stood and walked to Daisuke and extended a hand to the teen "I am Neal, if you have further questions you can find me here. But I would advise that you not take too long in deciding. Every moment you are being hunted down by the other Masters and Servants. Try to keep yourself hidden."

"A-ah.. Right." Daisuke looked down at the extended hand, hesitating for a second. Then he tentatively grasped it, shaking slightly. "Kuhara... Kuhara Daisuke. Am I free to go, then? No sudden crowbar-smashing my head in on the way out or surprise attacks by your sneaky..." He glanced toward Lancer and blinked, noticing what was on the television. ".. Perverted... Cousin?" He finished distractedly. "Geeze. How do those even fit in there?" Lancer nodded slowly "Yeah...I know...It shouldn't be possible."

"You are free to go. I am sorry if this little abduction frightened you." Neal cast a glance at Lancer annoyedly "This wasn't planned...Logan decided to act on his own. However I am glad I had a chance to speak to you about this. At least you have some idea of what is going on now. Which should help you avoid trouble until you have made your choice. Again, I'm sorry about how...forceful the invitation was."

"Right, right..." Daisuke murmured, shaking his head a bit as he wrenched his eyes off of the TV screen. "Well, in that case, I'm just gonna.." He lifted a hand to point at the front door, then held his head again as he made his way over and opened it, making to leave. "Becareful Daisuke. And if you do end up in trouble. Call for her and she will be there. The Command Spell will bring her to your aid, but you only have three. Once the third is used, she is gone."

Instead of responding, or perhaps incapable of really responding at the moment, Daisuke merely waved his hand over his shoulder and left. Neal turned to Lancer once the door was closed "You....Don't listen very well do you?" Lancer glanced from the TV lazily "I may be a Servant, but that doesn't mean I don't have free will. Besides, it work out well enough. You need to relax Master." Neal frowned and rubbed at his own temple a moment before returning to the coffee table and returning to whatever it was he had been doing before this whole interruption.

His eyes were still glued to the street. Rumors all around him began to form about the man that barely avoided being splattered across the pavement. Of course none of them had the same ideas buzzing through Kaito's head. 'A servant' he thought as he turned and continued his path towards the shopping district of town 'no, I'm being paranoid'. He nodded to himself, after all a car would be nothing to a servant, and that man was clearly limping as the boy helped him away. He nodded to assure himself even more.

Once he reached the city he stepped into an alley, there he found a seemingly ordinary trash can. He removed the lid and withdrew a small bag of clothing and an over-sized hooded sweatshirt. He changed quickly and put the bag, that now contained his school clothes, back into the trash can. Finally he placed a hat snugly on his head before jamming his hands in the front sweatshirt pocket and exiting the alley. He couldn't have any evidence of what school he went to left on the cameras and his over-sized clothing did a lot to hide his body size and features.

As he entered another alley Caster appeared, this time dressed in a much less extravagant white hooded sweatshirt and gray skirt.

"These clothes are a bit..." she muttered looking down on them with distaste.

"Yes, but they're a lot less noticeable than that dress" He looked around before motioning to Caster to follow him down the alley. "So, do you feel the presence of any other servants?"

She shook her head calmly before saying "Not as of yet"

Kaito let out a sigh of relief as they approached the target building. 'Here's where we'll set the trap' he looked at all the people buzzing around the area, not knowing that soon their lives may be in danger. It almost made him jealous that they could all be so carefree, while a life or death battle was taking place right under their noses. Because of that feeling, Kaito had no qualms about the cruel acts he was about to commit, after all, the less enlightened would never learn of it anyways? Therefore they wouldn't even fear it as their death approached.

The woodland leaves looked green, and yet they were white. Branches of oak and ash twisted upwards carrying the weight of their years, yet at the same time, these branches also stretched skywards with a silvery, ageless aura. One river ran through this forest, quick and crisp in its unwinding passage to the ocean. And these woodlands had no river - only pools of clear, silent water that never rippled beneeath the softly glowing trees. At night the sky would shine with the light of the moon and stars, and at night, it would also shine with the unearthly presence of not one but three impossibly colossal moons. For one manifestation was akin to that of the fairy tales of old, the other altogether ghostly and ethereal. By some mystifying wonder, both these appearances remained locked in this forest, the reason for their existence forever a mystery. Two worlds in one.

She was always waiting. Her memories stretched centuries back. With the ability to gain a limitless supply of knowledge, however, there also came a price. At some point along the years she had forgotten who she was waiting for - or even why she waited in that green and silver forest. She remembered nothing, not even her own name, save a promise made ages past. A promise, and a single face emblazoned in her heart despite the changing years...

Change, she discovered, comes upon one unexpectedly. The world stood at the turning point where stories faded into legends. Perhaps she, too, would have become nothing more than an obscure legend, had it not been for that fateful day an enormous company of horsemen passing by caught her attention. Silently she observed their passing, and by pure chance alone, with a shock she recognized the face of the splendidly dressed man riding at the front as that of the one she remembered. Yet she knew no name to call out with, and soon the horsemen disappeared. It was the last time she would ever see that face.

And so she ventured out from the forest into the world, searching for the man she remembered. She chose to make herself a name among the people of the land as a prominent archer, though she never told anyone where she was truly from. She made friends and, regrettably, enemies. Evil, she noted, had not changed since the forgotten ages past. Many thirsted to end the life of the renowned markswoman who foiled their elaborate plans without fail. They forced her slowly backwards, surrounding her, isolating her existence and those of the allies she knew.

Yet she was not without her own strength. She had the powerful gift of making others smile, and she used that gift freely to make friends forget their pain. Not a day passed without laughter in her presence. She laughed, but in her heart she cried alone, for she was the only one who could see the silver forest. Her charm was most likely the reason why so many threw in their lots with her, and without a doubt the reason for her downfall. She never lost hope in her search for the face she remembered, even after all her efforts had failed, and even as she lay dying, her right forearm slashed open by the knife of a traitor. She refused to surrender. Her body lay chained, but her spirit flew free...


*****

Unconscious, Victor groaned and shifted his weight on the hospital sheets. Archer sat in the shadows beside his bed, gazing with an unfathomable expression at his troubled face. "Ah," she murmured simply. She resumed her vigil over her sleeping Master.

*****

At first he didn't know where he was. He seemed to be lying in a warm bed; that much was certain, but he needed to find out more. Something was wrapped tightly around his chest. His silver hair made a rustling noise as he swiveled his head side to side in a weak attempt to wake up. Victor slowly opened a slitted eye to check his vision. It was blurry. From the clean, dimly lit ceiling, which was all he could see, he guessed he was in a hospital. He turned to look at the window next to his bed. Light streamed in between the closed curtains, indicating that it was either morning or late evening. It was probably the latter. He turned his head to look left...

... and gazed right into a very worried, and very near, set of female eyes. "Victor-sensei," breathed their owner.

"GEH!" The shock drove him completely awake. He spun away and reached out, grasping for the side of the bed. His hands met something soft. Fortunately it was the pillow behind his head. He held it between himself and the woman leaning far too much over his bed like a protective barrier. "Who are you?"

She was wearing a nurse outfit and, against all expectations, had dyed her heir pink. "Victor-sensei? I'm one of your students. I work part-time at this hospital, and when I heard you were here..." At this point she fidgeted shyly. "Sensei... will you please take care of me?"

His head felt like exploding. "Wh-wh-wh-what are you saying?! I don't remember you!" She leaned closer. His stomach felt like it was full of butterflies. No, actually, moths. Moths were more suited to the evening. Victor started to panic - he wasn't thinking clearly! "Students can't work in hospitals! W-wait, more importantly, aren't you breaking the Hippocratic Oath? You've g-got the wrong person! Please, wait, I'm too young to be treated like this!" He realized he was babbling. Suddenly, something struck him as odd.

"Your eyes are green," he pointed out flatly.

The nurse immediately drew back and pulled off her wig. She was laughing - laughing! Needless to say, Victor knew who she was. "Hahahaha! That was the funniest response I've ever seen! How did it go again? 'Please, I'm too young to be treated like this!' Hah... hah... ah, no, I can't breathe..."

He was indignant. "Th-that's not it at all!" he sputtered. "Since when did you become so forward?"

Archer ignored him. "You're platonic. Completely platonic!" She pointed an accusing finger at him. "I had nothing to fear from you when I realized that fact. You wouldn't lay a finger on a girl even if your life depended on it! Wait - " at this point her voice changed to a low purr " - do your interests lie in that direction?" She raised the brim of her hat slightly to once again reveal her eyes.

"Absolutely not! More importantly, how did you change so quickly into a '40s detective trenchcoat and fedora-"

"Well, it can't be helped," she interrupted. "Your motorcycle accident was really unlucky. Your face became completely squashed, you know. The cosmetic surgeons didn't have any pictures of you, so they used the photo of that cute girl you keep in your wallet instead." Silence. Archer grinned hopefully. "They did a pretty good job, you know! You'd get a lot of guys this way!" More silence.

"Liar."

She sighed. "Suit yourself; believe what you want." She handed him a mirror. "If you don't trust me, at least look at this to see for yourself."

Victor stared dazedly into the glass. He felt his hands grow cold. It was her face - really her face! - staring back at him. He couldn't believe his eyes. He blinked several times and looked again. The face stared back, perfectly mimicking his shocked expression.

"Before you die of fright, Victor," continued Archer casually, "I had a look through your things. That silicone mask synthesizer was really high-tech, you know. Seriously, how much money did your higher-ups give you?"

Relief flooded over him like a wave. Then, anger. Archer struggled to keep a straight face as he glared at her and peeled off the mask. "Ha. Haha. Hahaha. Now, could you please tell me what truly happened?"

Archer's expression grew serious as she looked carefully at him. Her antics had ceased, at least for the moment. "You really don't remember?"

Victor furrowed his eyebrows in concentration. What had happened the night before? He vaguely remembered meeting with a detective in a cafe. Something else had happened afterwards. Something important. His cracked ribs were proof enough of that. No, wait! He had left with Archer to inspect a large influx of mana in Tomiya. Was it... "Berserker?" he muttered softly. "Did I do something foolish?"

Archer walked away to look out the window, her back to him. She seemed to be thinking. "So I'm not the only one, huh?" After a pause, she continued. "Yes, Berserker... both of us were only spying on him at that point. Then you suddenly started screaming, 'Kill him; kill him; kill him now!'" Archer turned her head and looked curiously at him. "You rushed out and attacked him. Your eyes looked strange. It was all I could do to keep you from getting killed, you know," she continued dryly.

He knew she hadn't mentioned something. Apparently she was waiting for him to ask, so he did. "You're leaving something out."

She nodded. "Victor..." she began, but stopped. "Berserker... doesn't exist," she slowly continued.

"What? Of course he does! He cracked my ribs!" Victor stopped himself. "It would've been worse if it wasn't for you," he humbly added.

"I know," agreed Archer simply. "Nevertheless, he does not exist. I can't feel his presence. You were injured, but he does not exist."

The contradiction made no sense. "Couldn't he be hiding? Or maybe he ran away from the city?" The reasons he listed sounded foolish even to his own ears. He knew both were impossible.

Archer shook her head. "We can't deny facts. We have to accept them and look for real answers. Which is," she added, "exactly what I plan to do." She opened the window and jumped lightly onto the ledge outside.

"Wait... I'll go with you!"

"No, you won't." Archer's frank refusal stunned Victor. "You might be getting a few visitors. What would Masters in the school think if you suddenly disappeared from your hospital room?"

"Archer. Are you challenging my role as a Master?"

"No, baka, I'm challenging you to think carefully! But of course." A mischievous glint caught in her eye. Suddenly she waved his credit card at him. "I've already anticipated everything. Just think. The dashing, handsome Victor-sensei of Tomiya High was involved in an terrible motorcycle accident! He was reminded of his own mortality," Archer continued in a lilting voice, "and gallantly bought flowers for all the elderly ladies in the hospital!" She giggled. "Needless to say, his picture and room number were added in a note with every boquet."

He suddenly found it was very hard to breathe. "You wouldn't. No, wait, you would," he mumbled. "You... you sly vixen!" Victor heard footsteps outside his door. They grew louder. Were those voices on the other side?

"Such a nice young ... to send us ... Oho, he's .... good-looking too! ... Of course ... we'll give him a good time! ... You know, back in the day I was called ...." Several cackles drowned out whatever the rest were saying. Victor felt a sinking feeling in his chest.

"Wait!" He desperately shouted out to Archer, who was already disappearing from sight. "What will you look for?"

"Crossroads!" she called back. His eyes caught a flutter of Archer's athletic black and green dress. Before Victor could puzzle out what Archer had meant, she was gone.

The door opened.

It was dark, distantly she could hear the thundering of hooves and the clashing of metal on metal but all that seemed to fade away and grow distant with each moment that passed. The darkness was cut by a crimson light that flickered briefly, Illuminating the strange place. The light was from the summon circle which she could see below her feet. A man stood before her, muttering under his breath. But the circle was incomplete and the could feel the energy building up in the man as the bond between herself and her Master solidified. But the moment that the final threads were woven...all that built up mana was violently torn from the man and her own power blossomed like a flower with intense radiance for a fleeting moment before the blast ripped through the cellar and burned away all that mana she had only just received.

She could feel her strength drain away so quickly she had been certain that she was about to blink out of existance right there and then, but instead she fell back into darkness. But she did not return to the battle she had been taken from. She knew what had gone wrong. A simple oversight on her Master's part. It had been like a power surge, all because there had been a ring missing from the summoning. He had failed her.

***

Slowly the luminous blue eyes opened. She was warm, and laying on something soft, but it wasn't furs. She studied what was in her field of vision, not moving an inch. It was all so strange, especially the box on the table nearby. Slowly Rider sat up and pushed her long hair from her face so she could glance at her surroundings. It took her a moment to remember what had happened. "I....that boy..and then..." She glanced at her hands, they were filthy, but they were solid. She hadn't vanished yet, apparently. She didn't feel like she had recovered much, if any mana, but at least she felt a bit like she had stabalized, she had an anchor that would hold her here untill she had spent every last ouch of her power. "There is nothing here that looks famil....."

Slowly she climed to her feet and took a few steps over to the book case "Tomes....many of them...perhaps they have the answers I need.." plucking a thick book from the shelf she opened it to a random page and scanned the text. She didn't understand ANY of it. "What sort of strange symbols are these?.."Rider frowned and started to take all the books from the bookcase and piled them on the bed before climbing back onto the bed herself and starting to go through each and every book, searching for a rune she might recognize. "If he were here....he wound understand these markings..." she muttered to herself in dismay, clearly not meaning Daisuke. It didn't take long for the entire surface of the bed to be covered in books, opened to this page or another.

Frustratedly she raked a hand back through her absurdly long hair "I hope he gets here soon..." her gaze slowly wandered about the room till it fell on the pile of laundry on the floor. For a long time she peered at the pile contemplatively before slipping off the bed and going over to the pile and scooping it up in her arms. If she couldn't go with her Master to his lessons, the least she could do was be of SOME sort of service to him. She made her way to the door of the bedroom and carefully pushed it open and peered out into the hall "Where was that room he mentioned...."she muttered as she inched out into the hall with the arm full of laundry. It was by sheer chance that she found the appropriate room on the first try.

She stopped inside the washroom and glanced around confused for a long moment. Three basins of different sizes and shapes. "Why is this world so comoplicated..." with a heavy sigh she twisted her hair and coiled it ontop of her head before pulling a pair of boxers over her head to keep the hair in place. First she studied the sink, failing to puzzle out the function of the faucet she turned to the bathtub and was met with a similar problem. Finally she peered into the toilet and smiled. "There is the water! So blue...amazing..it is like the ocean.." she pushed the pile of clothes over to the toilet and started to wash the first shirt.

Unfortunately she hadn't done much before she realized that her water supply had dwindled considerably, having been soaked up by the laundry. She peered into the toilet bowl and frowned "Does it refill on its own?..." Surely she couldn't just stop half way through! Feeling rather upset she couldn't complete her task, she placed a hand on the toilet so she could climb to her feet, by chance, accidently pushing down the lever to flush. The sound startled Rider and she jumped back before realizing that the bowl was refilling. "Oh! How wonderful!" and she quickly set back to work, piling the wet clothes into the tub as she went, incidently dying anything white into a lovely shade of blue. "Master will be so happy..."

"... No. I'm not working here."

Kogane stood outside a small, cramped building, overshadowed by it's larger neighbors, holding the umbrella her 'friend' had given her while he ducked under the cloth overhang above the cafe's door to get out of the rain. The weather was only getting worse. The sky was slowly but steadily darkening, giving an impression of an early death to daylight. Thunder rumbled from a distance that was slowly lessening. The bad weather could make the night a lot more annoying than it had to be, but it would also make it easier for things that live in darkness to do their prowling. And she knew someone that had some important prowling to do.

None of which was at all relevant to the issue at hand.

"That was a fast denial." Her classmate, Fujimura Jun, shook his head once like a dog to rid his scalp-hugging blonde-dyed hair of water. "Come on, you haven't even gone inside yet. It's a great place."

"It's... A cosplay cafe."

It was just the kind of place Fujimura would hang out in, too. She should have known there'd be a catch, but she was too tired and hungry to think that far ahead.

"And they've got great food," he added agreeably, as if he'd been reading her very thoughts. "The least you can do is try it. My treat."

Ah. Food. Food was important. As she'd decided later in the day, important enough to swallow one's pride for. But still, this was pretty low.

"... Too hungry..." She spoke aloud accidentally. She mentally berated herself over the fact that she was caught again, for the second day in a row, in the same trap that played on her body's need for sustenance and her own lack of money with which to buy things suitable for consumption.

Then began the rationalization. The least she could do, she supposed, was go inside. If the costumes were as ridiculous as they were sure to be, at least she'd get a free meal out of it. It was the only reasonable, logical thing to do in such a situation.

With such thoughts, she managed to talk her pride down. Then she stepped begrudgingly toward the door, folding the umbrella and shoving it back at it's owner as she went under the overhang. He accepted it with a grin and opened the door, holding it open for her, a gentleman in sopping street clothes.

Similarly, Kogane's own clothes were still fairly wet. The short walk to the cafe hadn't given them much time to dry, but it had given her a fair amount of time to become numb to the accompanying chill. She looked down at herself, smoothing her damp skirt and straightening a roll out of the cuff of one sleeve, and realized belatedly that she had a snickering audience for her preparation.

"... What am I doing..?" With a tired exhalation, Kogane put a her hand to her head as if to hold her thoughts steady. Upon lowering the hand, she gave her classmate an annoyed glare and stepped across the threshold into the questionable cafe.

Admittedly, it was a lot nicer than she'd expected. Somewhere in her mind she'd apparently been unable to make a clear distinction between 'cosplay cafe' and 'brothel'. She knew the difference between the two well enough, but perhaps it was her lack of experience with either that had formed a relation between the two.

The place was clean, cozily temperature-controlled, had a friendly environment with nice not-too-bright lighting and at least one employee that was far too cheery. In spite of how small it was, it may have been the most atmospherically welcoming resturant she'd been to all day. It couldn't boast about customer count, at least not for the moment, but that could very well be due to the weather.

More surprisingly, the most annoying part wasn't the costumes. It was the behavior of those wearing them.

"Okaeri nasai, goshujin-sama!" greeted the waitress near the entrance as Kogane and her demoted friend entered.

The girl was probably not much older than Kogane herself (though she was, Kogane noted in irritation, significantly more physically developed). She had long black hair in a hime cut that made her seem more high class than she should in her current outfit and was apparently the only waitress on duty, but that probably wasn't a real issue given that she was currently greeting the only customers. She wore, naturally, an apron dress and frilly headband. A maid costume. Degrading, yes, but it was a rather modest outfit compared to what Kogane thought she'd be faced with.

Kogane realized she'd been staring only when someone stepped in front of her. "Ara, Jun-kun. It seems like we've been seeing a lot of you lately," the waitress greeted again.

"Only because your beautiful smile keeps bringing me back, Aya-san," Fujimura responded. He bowed overdramatically to the waitress, giving Kogane a view of something other than his back for just a second. It was rare to see him this polite, but the motives behind the words and actions obviously hadn't changed.

"Maa. And you brought a friend this time. Do you want a table for two, or would you rather towel yourselves off first?"

"Actually, is Haru-nee in? I brought a sacrifice for her," he hooked a thumb back at Kogane.

... A what?

The waitress, Aya, didn't bat an eye at the way he'd phrased it. "Hai, she's in her office watching something. It should be open."

"Sankyu, Aya-san. Well then, excuse us." Kogane's classmate looked back at her, then he made his way toward the back of the small building toward a door labled STAFF ONLY. Kogane followed, ignoring the cheerful, "Itterashai!" from the waitress they left behind.

"... You said we were going to eat," Kogane reminded him.

"Sure, my treat. After your interview." He flashed her another boyish grin as he reached the door. "I figure you'd just eat and leave, so we've gotta do things in the proper order."

"Ho.. Forcibly expanding your harem?"

"I like the way you think, but it's not my harem. Not really anyway. Besides, it's not much of a harem with only one girl in it." Kogane gave him a silent stare of disbelief, but he just shook his head, "You'll see," and knocked on the door twice before pulling it open.

"Haru-ne--"

"Come in! And keep quiet. It's just getting to the good part!" came an exited female voice from inside.

Kogane followed her classmate into the small office, glancing around. A desk was crammed into the corner facing the door with a nice chair behind and a mess of papers atop it... And that was about where the resemblence to an actual office ended. The wall to the right of the door was lined with a long rack of various female costumes. Multiples and similar costumes were all grouped together, giving the impression of being meticulously sorted. A small television was set up against the wall opposite the door with a comfortable lounging chair in front of it, in which a woman was seated with her eyes fixed to the screen.

The woman, 'Haru', Kogane supposed, didn't seem old enough to be managing a business. She was probably around the age of a college student, shoulder-length auburn hair, bright green eyes. Above her head were two shallow arches Kogane almost mistook for antenna, but she soon determined that they were actually strands of hair sticking up. She was watching what appeared to be a magical girl anime of some kind with rabid fandom in her eyes. She might have been drooling a little. It was hard to tell with the television being the only light source in the room.

"Haru-nee, you're going to ruin your eyes." Fujimura reached over and flicked the ceiling light on, shaking his head. "I brought someone to see you. Aren't you understaffed right now?"

"Shh, this is more important." The young woman was on the edge of her seat. Sort of. It was probably hard to sit on the 'edge' of a chair that was more pillowy cushon than anything else.

"I know how you feel. Nana-chan's in a pinch there... Someone will probably upload it on MewTube as soon as it's over, though. It's not really... More important than the cafe that will go under if you keep losing your overworked waitresses..."

Even as he spoke, Fujimura was inching closer to the TV to get a better view. It didn't do a whole lot to make his argument believeable. And then he collapsed altogether.

"Haa, Nana-chan is so cute~"
"Isn't she~?"
"Is that a new wand?"
"It was upgraded just a few minutes ago."
"I sort of liked the old design better..."

Tired as she was, Kogane was having a hard time ignoring the irritation she felt at how quickly she'd been abandoned by her only companion now that he'd been hypnotized. The situation was dissolving into pointless, fandom-inspired nonsense.

"You should have seen it, there was a tofu monster--"
"The same one from last season?"
"Nono, it was his brother."
"Oooh, so that's what he meant by, "You'll regret--""

The television winked out as Kogane pulled the plug out of the wall. As two simultaneous objections rang out, Kogane noticed she couldn't reply immediately because she'd been grinding her teeth. Doing her best to relax her jaw, she glared one-eyedly at the pair on and beside the chair.

"What... What's wrong with you?! Is this any way to run a business? Lounging around watching cartoons while your only waitress runs the resturant? And you.." Kogane shifted her glare to her classmate. "Weren't you just saying that the understaffed cafe was more important? Did you actually believe what you were saying? Because you sure forgot it quickly."

"A-ahaha, my bad," Fujimura lifted his hands in surrender. Meanwhile, the apparent manager of the cafe had fallen silent and was watching Kogane as she vented.

"Ridiculous.. I'm disappointed in you. Both of you." Kogane shook her head at them disapprovingly. She turned, stalking angrily toward the door. "I think I'd be better off leaving. Enjoy your anime."

"W-wait!" The voice that stopped her was the manager's. Kogane glanced over her shoulder to see the young woman standing and hurrying over to her. "You... How would you like to be a waitress?!"

The sudden employment invitation took Kogane by surprise. "Well, that's what I came here for, but--" her voice overlapped with Fujimura's, who had said nearly the same thing.

The manager wasn't even listening. She reached down and lifted Kogane's chin a little, examining her features. "Yes.. She's cute enough..." She said, either to herself or to Kogane's classmate, who was apparently amused by the situation. He stayed in the background, grinning at them. The woman lifted her hands to put one on either side of Kogane's face.

"Let go of me!" Half-panicking at the sudden contact, Kogane pulled out of the woman's grasp, but she just took a step back to inspect the rest of Kogane's body. Crisis averted, for the moment.

"Small, but fiesty. I think she'll do, with a few wardrobe modifications."

Fujimura stepped forward to make some timely introductions, gesturing between the two of them as he did. "Yuumitsu, this is Takimachi Haruna. Haru-nee, Yuumitsu Kogane."

"I'm not happy to have met either of you right now."

"Hwaa, she has such a great, natural tsundere character type!" The manager, Haruna, spoke again with stars in her green eyes.

"And she needs a job," Kogane's 'helpful' classmate added. "Do you think you could do something about that, Haru-nee?"

"Oh ho ho," Haruna laughed posing dramatically with the back of her hand in front of her mouth as she did, "I think we can do something. There's probably room for another waitress, I think. Come on, then, Ko-chan."

"No. Not 'Ko-chan'." Kogane rejected the nickname reflexively. It wasn't something she wanted to hear.

"No? Maybe Yuu-chan, then?"

"... Whatever.." Kogane lifted a hand to her forehead. She had a serious headache developing on top of fatigue and fever, though it felt like the latter might be lessening a bit. Surprising, given the situation. She was still in wet clothes, which was something that she felt would probably be used against her in the near future.

"Right, Yuu-chan. Let's find you an outfit!" Haruna energenetically started sifting through the rack of costumes, humming to herself.

Fujimura stepped up next to Kogane. "Now you get it?" he whispered to her. "She gets a little excited."

"I'm beginning to understand why the term 'sacrifice' was appropriate, yes," Kogane agreed.

"It's not too bad. She'll calm down soon. Besides, you really need this job, right?"

Kogane sighed by way of reply. He just grinned at her again.

"All right, I'll get us a table while you two discuss the details," he spoke again, this time at normal levels. He gently shoved Kogane toward the manager and her costumes on his way out of the room. "Have fun, Yuu-chan!"

"Bastard.." Kogane grumbled to herself, tentatively approaching the costume rack. This wasn't what she'd had in mind at all. The situation was getting out of hand.

"Hey, shouldn't we do this some other time? I can't start today, so..." She didn't seem to be listening. "Things I need to do tonight, and..."

"Hah?" The manager paused and glanced over at Kogane, blinking. Her strands of antenna hair bounced in a convincing imitation of their namesake. "That's fine. We'll just find one that looks good on you and then you can start tomorrow, after school."

This... Didn't seem to be working. "But, I--"

"Come on, why are you still in those wet clothes? Hurry, hurry, let's get you changed."

"Wha-, but if someone walks in--"

"It'll be fine. Don't tell me you're shy We're both girls, it's fine. Hora.." The manager started walking toward her, wiggling her fingers. Her antenna were twitching again. Kogane backed away without thinking about it, waving her hands flusteredly.

"This isn't really neces--" Kogane's back hit a wall. "-Ah..." She hesitated.

It was all the manager needed to tackle her and start wrestling off her clothing.

"Aha, orange stripes! So you just wear them over the fishnet! I was wondering.."

Oto-san... Oka-san... Why couldn't you just send money for food..?

Neal finally closed his laptop and leaned back on the couch heaving a heavy sigh. He had learned just about everything he could about Jack the Ripper from the internet. There were variations between the information, and what was going on now, of course. He didn't understand why The Ripper had decided to stray from killing prostitutes. Even now they would be the most logical choice. Unless of course the Master was picking the victims himself. Afterall, a Servant had to have some sort of similarity or link to their Master. Either way, he couldn't allow that Master to win the war.

His gaze shifted to Lancer who was lounging in the chair infront of the TV watching the same smut he had been watching since Daisuke had left. Neal couldn't help but wonder what trait he could possibly share with this Servant. Their personalities were completely different. Lancer had refused to identify himself as of yet, so he couldn't draw any conclusions as to history or similar pasts. Aside from some physical similarities and a similar preference in weapons, Neal couldn't think of anything he had in common with a lecherous playboy.

Neal shook his head and stood, making his way over to the front window of his apartment and peered out. The sun was sinking behind the rooftops as evening set in. Or rather, what could be seen of the sun through the dark clouds. It had started raining and it was significantly more then just a bit of drizzle. On the bright side however. The rain would mean that most people would be inside their homes tonight and not out wandering the streets, making themselves a better target for The Ripper. Neal was under no illusions however. He knew that just because people were inside, didn't mean they were safe, BUT The Ripper's history seemed to indicate that he preferred to do his killings outside, and where people would easily find them.

"We're going to get wet tonight..." Neal said as he watched the rain quietly. Lancer furrowed his brow and glanced over at Neal "Umm...I'm flattered but you aren't really my type..." It took Neal several moments to understand what Lancer ment, then he blinked as it sunk in. Lancer seemed thoroughly amused by the expression on his Master's face. Finaly Neal glared at Lancer "Turn the TV off, and get your mind out of the gutter." his tone was scornful, as if reproaching a child. Neal then headed over to his bookshelf and pulled down a bundle of maps and sifted through them.

Lancer sighed dramatically and turned off the TV "I'll see you again soon ladies...Don't worry." and then he sat up in the lounge chair and gave Neal his full attention. "So what is our plan for tonight?" Neal set the majority of the maps back up on the shelf and made his way to the coffee table and laid the selected map out. It was a larger map of the city than before, but this one had red dots marked on it. "These mark where the past victims of The Ripper have been found, they are numbered in the order of which the deeds were done as well. The one with the circle around it is where we encountered the Servant. He will know we are looking for him tonight, that we are going to try and stop him. So I don't think he is going to keep to his usual routine.." Neal frowned to himself slightly "Now...He isn't that old, but he is very well known and we don't know how many he has killeed, there could be more then have been found, so assuming he isn't as strong as you are, is probably a fairly safe bet, BUT we don't want to underestimate him."

Lancer looked almost bored "Master, in all honesty...I think you are over thinking this. So far we are up against a bunch of teenagers. You start thinking the way you are, and you become predictable. I'll show you have to pick where we are going to search." Lancer stood up and picked up a fork, which had been sitting in an empty TV dinner tray near the lounge chair. Neal watched Lancer with a suspicious gaze for a moment "A fork? You are going to find him with a..."

THUNGGGGG! Neal paused and glanced down at the map which now had a fork sticking out of both it, and the coffee table it had been spread out on. "You put a fork in my coffee table..." Neal said as he peered at where the fork had punched through the map. Lancer pointed at the map "We will look there! It was chance we ran into him the first time, and chance will take us to him again." Neal folded his arms and shook his head "That is not chance...that is the middle of a land fill. There is no reason The Ripper would go to a land fill. I thought you said you were good at war and tactics. Is this how you always fought your wars? By throwing forks at a map to decide where you would attack?"

Lancer paused for a moment as his Master tried and failed to remove the fork from the coffee table. "No, I fought wars with elite fighters and surgical stries. Which are a little hard to do when you have no elite fighters and don't know where the enemy is. So what is -your- plan?" Neal rolled his eyes slightly and pointed at a spot on the map. "There are night clubs here, on a night like tonight the most likely source of people walking home at night in the rain, would probably be the clubs." Lancer seemed to pause for a long moment before he spoke again "....What is a "night club" exactly?"

Neal furrowed his brow "I suppose I need to remember you aren't accustomed to the modern world completely. It is where people gather to socialize, dance and drink." Lancer suddenly looked like the cat that ate the canary. "No, you are not going in. We are going to post ourselves on the highest roof in the area and we are going to watch from a distance. If the Servant shows himself, we will drive him to a relatively deserted area and you can destroy him there." Neal said as he watched Lancer, and with that said Lancer's wide grin was gone, replaced by a look that probably should have belonged to a sad puppy.

"How are you at fighting in the rain? Will it effect you in any way?" Neal said as he struggled to yank the fork free again, and again failed. "No, I should be just fine." Lancer reached down and easily pulled the fork free. Neal picked up the map and folded it, frowning at the four neat little holes left in the surface of his coffee table. "I am going to have my supper and then we can leave." And it was then that Neal remembered he had no car. "We are going to get soaked..." he muttered as he made his way into the kitchen to prepare himself a hot meal.

Daisuke wound up mindlessly circling the block his house was on to clear his head in the rain. He was going to have to make an important decision soon, provided all of the ridiculous-seeming information he'd been recently fed was true. The problem was how much sense things made if it was true. Some might argue otherwise and he might agree with them out of good humor but, inexperience with what he was currently dealing with or not, Kuhara Daisuke was no idiot.

That's right, Kuhara. You may be a disgruntled, rain-soaked weaking of questionable sanity that's never really tried to get good marks in school, but that doesn't mean you're dumb. Hell, you can't be. If you were also dumb, you really wouldn't have any good points except for your great looks.

Daisuke snorted at himself. Having to rely on inner monologue to cheer himself up was only more depressing.

But yes. Facts began to line up in a way that seemed to make sense when this 'War' was considered to be reality. It explained a lot about why both the woman he'd met this morning and Carhop had known so little about Japan. It also explained why Carhop had the ability to gain his nickname. If the blonde woman was also a 'Servant', she would logically have to possess physical prowess of a similar level. Not that Daisuke felt he really had a good grip of just how powerful that was yet.

There were other things, too. The recent murders were could be due to the 'War'. Were there other crimes committed recently? Or recent sudden additions to the school staff? It seemed like there had been. And then... The brand on his hand.

"Three feathered wings," Daisuke thought aloud, studying the mark in question through his rain-speckled glasses. "I wonder if it stands for something. Angel wings? Pretty and blonde hair.. I guess she sort of has angelic features, but she didn't really act like an angel... What with trying to tempt me and all. Maybe they take all kinds."

"Then again, what kind of angel has a redundant third wing? Unless the third wing symbolizes me, in which case that seems pretty accurate on the redundancy issue. Come to think of it, do angels really need wings to fly anyway? You'd think they'd just use whatever holy powers they had at their disposal. I guess it's probably just an image. Wings are symbols applied to unearthly things, after all... Things that aren't restricted to the ground."

Speaking of angels, I never did get that sandwich. Daisuke contemptuously shook his fist at the sky.

As his long, pointless digression ended, Daisuke found himself standing in front of the door to his home. It hadn't been burned down... Yet. His normal life plus one still waited inside. It would be difficult to see anything as 'normal' now, but it was as normal is he could immediately attain. And he could get some research done, too, if an angel hadn't already ruined his PC.

Upon entering, Daisuke confirmed the neat, lined-up presence of his mother's and sister's shoes in the entryway and haphazardly removed his own. Then he sock-padded his way deeper into the house.

"Tadaima," he groaned as he entered the living room. Hanako, twintails and all, looked up from the anime she was watching, blinking at him. It seemed to take her a moment to recognize him.

"Onii-chan? You're wet. And your hair's all messed up. And you're suuuper late."

That's my adorable sister. Keen observer of the obvious. She'd already changed out of her school uniform and into her favorite orange sweatshirt and red plaid skirt, the former of which was rather necessary given the usual temperature of the house in the fall and winter. Oh, they had a heater. It just wasn't usually on so they could save some money.

"It looks like Nana-chan's in another pinch, isn't she?" Daisuke noted by way of distraction, knowing it would give him a bit longer to think of an excuse.

"Ah..." His adorable sister followed his gaze to the TV and promptly forgot about him. Such amazingly fast hypnosis. Mahou Shoujo Nanami was apparently a pretty popular show these days. Jun wouldn't shut up about it online, at least when he wasn't busy not shutting up about boobs or swimsuits or bloomers or... He wouldn't shut up about a lot of things.

Daisuke started to walk on past the couch his sister was seated on toward the kitchen/dining room combo they had going, but he didn't make it that far. Just past the couch, he was hit with a crippling wave of hunger. He collapsed to his hands and knees, then fell to his side on the floor, clutching at his growling stomach.

"Too hungry... Can't go on..."

He may have overdramatized a bit.

"Wah!" Daisuke's sister jumped up and scurried over to him, unhelpfully rocking his shoulder. "Oh no! Onii-chan, get ahold of yourself!"

"H-Hanako... Please... Sandwich... It's so dark..."

"Oka-san, it's an emergency! Onii-chan's dying hungry!"

"You mean dying of hunger," Daisuke corrected.

"Right! Onii-chan's dying of hunger!"

"Ahh... My life is flashing before my eyes... I think. It's too dark to see it. That's depressing."

"Hai, hai, that's enough." His mother, Keiko's soft voice came from the kitchen. A moment later she came on into the room. She was wearing an apron, so she had probably been inturrupted while making dinner. Beneath that was her typical sweater and a plain dress. She had slippers on her feet in contrast to the socks her children both wore. One hand was at her cheek, as per her usual habit. The other...

The other held a shining treasure.

"My... My sandwich.." Daisuke sniffled. He sat up and accepted the plate holding a golden meal consisting of two slices of delectable white bread laden with royal ham, wondercheese and what looked to be slices of a glorious cucumber. A feast fit for kings.

And then it was gone.

"That may have been... The best sandwich... I've ever eaten." Daisuke leaned back against the side of the couch and patted his stomach, basking in the afterglow.

"A complete recovery! Oka-san's food must be magical, like Nana-chan's 'Healing Aspiration'!" his sister exclaimed energetically.

"That's 'Inspiration'." Which was a move where she used her magic wand to release a wave of sparkly pink magic that miraculously healed any ailment. What was in that cloud of pink gas that convinced people they'd recovered from their cold or made their aches go away or their boyfriends come back to them remained a mystery. That must be where the 'inspiration' part came in.

"Right. Inspiration." Hanako picked up the discarded plate and handed it to their mother, who was smiling faintly.

"I knew you'd need something when I saw your lunch still in the fridge, but I didn't think you'd come home so late." Her expression shifted over to worried. "You're soaked.. Did you have work again after all?"

"Well, no.. Uh..." It was good to know that in all the time he'd granted himself to think, he'd still failed to come up with a functional excuse. He fumbled for something to say for several seconds under the pressure of both of their stares, then sighed and shook his head.

"I was thinking about things and decided to go for a walk. Or to keep walking, I guess, on my way home," he told her. It was the truth, or part of it. That probably made it suspicious enough on it's own.

His mother sighed at him. "You should have at least stopped by for an umbrella." She turned to go back into the kitchen. "Hurry and get changed before you catch a cold."

Daisuke gave a subdued, "Hai..."

"It'll be okay. Onii-chan's too stupid to catch a cold," his sister chimed in.

"Hanako, don't badmouth your brother," came a gentle scolding from the direction their mother had departed in.

"Haaaai," Hanako replied unenergetically, plopping back down on the couch.

Daisuke stood, childishly stuck his tongue out at his sister and went back toward the hallway. Just as well. Now that he wasn't in danger of starving before dinner, he should head upstairs and check on Blondy. His family didn't seem to be aware of her, so maybe she'd just slept the whole day away like he hoped she would.

"Don't forget tonight, Onii-chan!" Hanako called after him, presumably to remind him to help with her homework before it was too late. He waved over his should to indicate he'd heard her and went on down the hall to the stairs. Hopefully nothing had gone horribly wrong in his room while he was out.

Ladders...What were they even made for anyways? Why in this days society, that places such value in technology, couldn't all ladders be replaced with escalators or something? But no, Kaito's luck wasn't good enough for fate to throw him an escalator or at least leave the elevators on, no fate wished for him to be climbing a ridiculously dangerous ladder in an even more dangerous elevator shaft. This was the immediate result of speedy planning. You see caster, being the forward thinker she was, hadn't planned a way for the boy to make it to the roof unspotted by the security personnel of the shopping center.

His first thought led him to the elevators which, of course, were down for maintenance. So he attempted check the door leading to the roof, locked. So, barring the option to blow the door up, the boy grudgingly made his way back to the elevator waited for the area to be clear and pressed the 'up' button. Surprisingly, the door actually opened into a dark abyss. with a jumb He landed on the ladder on the opposite side of the corridor. He had a small moment of light to get acquainted with the ladders size before the automatic doors closed on him.

So here he was, in the dark, climbing the innumerable bars into even more darkness. It was a bit symbolic when Kaito thought about it. Here he was about to commit his worst crime so far, and fate throws a literal stairway to hell at him. "Well, I guess fate was low on funds" he said out loud as he placed his hand on yet another bar. His voice seemed to echo on forever in the corridor.

After what seemed like hours of climbing his hand met a metal trap door. He knocked a few times before hearing it creak as Caster pulled it open. He noted, much to his dismay, that it was raining. "Fate is really messing with us huh?" he said to Caster as he hoisted himself up and onto the roof.

"Fate works in-"

"Mysterious ways yeah yeah stop with the cliche phrases" Kaito interrupted.

Oddly enough Caster smiled before turning to the circle. "Even more so, luck has to turn around eventually" she said looking up into the sky "And the same goes for fate".

"Ehh? was that optimism?" Kaito said with a hint of surprise

"Something of the sort" she said before looking down at the incomplete bound field "Shall we?"

Kaito stared down at it as well before removing some items from his hoodie pocket "Yeah..."

Archer meandered casually along her route through the business district. Over a dozen large paper bags hung from her arms, crinkling noisily against each other as she walked down the sidewalk. So far her trip had taken her through several shopping malls, an ice cream parlour, and at least five conveniently placed designer clothing outlets along a path that seemed to twist as much as it traveled. And what was wrong with that? Tomiya's ley lines spanned out like a spider's web, requiring slow passage for appropriate inspection. Also, groups of people passed her from both directions, either heading back home or towards the city to spend an evening out. She couldn't very well skulk around like someone suspicious, either. Much better, then, to attract a lot of the right kind of attention, than the smallest amount of the wrong kind. No, she wouldn't sneak around. She'd do things with style.

At least, that was she told herself. She tapped a familiar-looking credit card to her forehead and tried not to bounce down the sidewalk in glee over what she had done to Victor. Of course, she failed. To the best of Archer's knowledge, the insignia on the medium-sized badge was some sort of heraldic device. An international heraldic device. When she showed it to storeowners, they would immediately smile and cater to all her needs without a single complaint. It was magic! She smiled knowingly, pleased with herself for having puzzled out the mystery. There was probably a lot more to the enchantment, but she was never one to care for unimportant details.

As Archer cooly shut one eye to track where several faintly glowing strands trailed off into the distance, however, she couldn't help feeling slightly annoyed. Victor's horrified look when she had waved the credit card in his face had been somewhat unsettling. He was a bright, agreeable fellow, and not entirely unlikeable. Yet Victor also made up for his occasional moments of brilliance with so many equal moments of apparent obtuseness it was impossible not to poke a little fun at him now and then. Well, most of the time. It wasn't her fault! She gave a short sigh, and then moments later, she forgot about it.

She ventured into a fifth shopping mall and headed straight towards the fashion department. A receptionist sat idly at one desk, looking off into the distance before balking at Archer's appearance. Seconds later she found her tongue. "K-Konbanwa! This is Tomiya Central's ModeJapon franchise; how can we help you?"

Archer advanced on the younger girl like a tank. "I'd like some clothes, please. Pretty clothes." She grinned.

"A... ano... you're still shopping with all these bags in hand?" It was more a statement of the obvious than anything else.

She blinked and looked down at her bags. Well, she was carrying about three times more than what a normal person could, but anyone could tell that the world wasn't filled only with normal people. Therefore, by her reasoning, there wasn't any harm in doing abnormal things. "Yup! I'm going to get something here, too, so is that all right with you?"

"Of course..." The poor girl rallied her courage together in a weak attempt to sound brave. "W-would you care to take a look at our selection of clothes?"

A while later Archer frisked happily away from the shop, several new bags added to her collection. She walked by another store, its glass display cases showing some curved, ornately decorated objects behind several glass panels. She ignored them. Then, she stopped abruptly, nearly causing several people to crash into her. She hurried back and to stare at the shop. Archer quickly made her way into the store, yanking her bags through the door.

Several clerks stared in astonishment before noticing Archer's wealthy appearance. "Suzaku swords and replicas; how can we help you? If you're looking for a fine katana to set up in your house in Europe, or America, we can recommend - "

Disinterestedly, she waved them aside as if they were a flock of pigeons. "Yes, I want a sword. That sword," she said, pointing at an old-looking mantlepiece behind the table. "I know, I know, you're insisting it's not for sale? I'm still getting that sword." She stood up regally, giving an air of command. "Do you know who you're dealing with? I'm Archer, the great Archer-dono, and I tell you I'm going to have that sword! Bow to House Mastercard, you knaves!" She thrust the credit card in their faces.

One of the clerks choked and tried to reason with her. "A-ah, Archer-dono, our group really can't sell you that sword. Could we interest you in something else? Why, we'd even offer you some of the special swords we've prepared in a deal with the Y- Ow!" Another clerk smacked him over the head before whispering fiercely in his ear.

A raspy old voice spoke up. "Silence!"

All the clerks suddenly stared at the door and cowered. "Obaa-sama!"

Archer glanced at the entrance. The first thing she saw was a wheelchair. Her eyes traveled a very short way up the chair's length, where she saw a wrinkled old lady sitting in it. She was short, too. She was also wearing a flowery kimono, and was quite ostensibly puffing on some sort of pipe despite the "No Smoking" sign behind her. Several muscular men stood with their arms folded behind her, all wearing matching suits and sunglasses.

Unexpectedly, the old woman jumped off her wheelchair and stalked up to Archer. "So. I hear you wish to buy this katana?" She laughed, her voice souding like a sandpapered shark's. "The Inagawa family has been guarding this blade for countless generations. Why should I sell it to a foreigner such as yourself?" She walked over to the mantlepiece and drew out the katana, unsheathing its blade. "Besides... it has been mine for so long... and it brings so many memories..."

"It is a fine sword, Obaa-sama," replied Archer firmly.

"No! Do you know what you are asking? This sword," hissed the aged matriarch, "is the dearest possession of our family, kept for the luck of our clans. Do you know its history? Do you know legend has it that it was forged by Masamune himself, who, upon seeing a vision of the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, attempted to recreate it with his best materials?" She turned and stalked back towards her wheelchair. "No, I cannot sell it to you. Not for any price."

"A billion," said Archer suddenly. The old woman stopped in her tracks with a quick "Huk!" sound that made everyone, except Archer, jump in surprise.

Obaa-sama turned very slowly, a calculating look in her beady eyes. "A billion... of what?"

"Name your currency, Obaa-sama," answered Archer. She smiled winsomely.


*****

Archer walked elatedly down towards the city bazaar, bags swinging haphazardly from her arms. If anyone had looked carefully enough through the dense tangle of purchased apparel, they would have seen a long, slightly curved object wrapped in plain cloth and slung casually on a strap from her shoulder. Nobody did, though, because anyone who cared to look was too busy looking at her bags. As for that billion - well, she was sure Victor's House would cancel the order once they found out who she was, and someone would eventually end up returning the katana. After the war was over. She grinned to herself and chuckled softly. After all, it was nothing more than an extended loan.

As she reached the plaza, she paused and glanced out over the bazaar. Here was the second stage. In the evening, gleaming yellow lights were already installed off hanging wires over the wide area, and street vendors were setting up their wares in preparation for the night. She walked interestedly over to the makeshift stalls, dismissing them one by one from her mind. Her searching gaze settled on a final one. There. It was just right.

"Taiyaki, Taiyaki, nice and hot! Konbanwa, Kanko-kyaku-san! Care to buy some Taiyaki for the evening? If you buy extra for your boyfriend I'll add a discount!" It was, of course, a Taiyaki shop, specializing in fish-shaped waffles stuffed with various fillings. The friendly vendor wore a traditional kimono, which created an altogether rustic feel with the antique build of the mobile wooden stall. He winked and grinned affably at Archer.

Archer always trusted her instincts. This stall was of immense significance in some unknown way she couldn't clearly grasp, but knew with such an absolute certainty that surprised even herself. She decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Actually," she said with a charming laugh, "I would. How much would you say your stall is worth, including all the materials you've brought? I'll pay you four times whatever price you offer."

The man sputtered. She slapped a fat stack of bills down on the wooden counter and winked back. "It's your lucky day, Tenshu-san. Whether you agree or not, I'll add this as a bonus." The vendor stared at the stack and nodded slowly. "Then it's all agreed?" He nodded again, speechless.

In about a half hour's time, Archer had disappeared. Instead, a thin but attractive black-haired girl in a kimono pushed a wooden Taiyaki pushcart away from the bazaar, occasionally calling, "Taiyaki! Get your Taiyaki while it's hot!"

She trundled cheerfully towards the bridge and residential districts.