Episode Four (Oct 6th/7th - Night)

"... -chan...?"

Someone was calling her name. Kokoro raised her head from a wooden floor, squinting sleepily up toward the source of the voice. A fuzzy silhouette in a doorway. The light in the room came on and blinded her temporarily.

"Mou... ****-chan, sleeping on the floor..." A girl's voice. There was some kind of noise every time the girl spoke, overpowering her voice in some places and becoming quieter in others. Static? Kokoro couldn't hear the name being said. She knew it was hers, but she couldn't hear it. "Did you fall asleep listening to it again?"

"... It's pretty..." A different voice. This one sounded like a younger version of her own, quiet as it usually was. Her head lowered from the bright ceiling light, allowing her to see the floor and box next to her. "... But it stopped..." She felt a hint of sadness, but it didn't make it into her voice. Nee-san was always saying she sounded emotionless.

"Baka S***-chan. That's because you have to wind it up," the other person told her. The girl knelt at her side and grasped Kokoro's hand, placing it on the key sticking out of the front of the box. The girl put pressure on her fingers, forcing them to slowly turn the key a few times. Then she pulled Kokoro's hand away from it again.

"Like that." The key started to turn on it's own in the opposite direction they'd turned it before. The box then began to emit a pretty tune. "See?" Kokoro didn't know how to describe it, but it made her happy to listen to it. And she had. Over and over and over again. Her vision began to fade as she lay there enjoying the soft melody.

"I know you really like that box, but we should do something more fun. I found a new place to... know. You'll never..." The static was getting in the way of her hearing again. At least she could still hear the box. "... Se... -chan? Wah, you fell asleep again so fast." 'Se-chan'..? That didn't sound...

The girl was quiet for a moment. The box continued to play. Kokoro could distantly feel something soft and warm being placed beneath her head.

"Well... This is okay sometimes too..."

The music stopped.

Kokoro opened her one unscarred eye with a small gasp. It felt as though her heart had skipped a beat. She let out a raspy cough before her lungs started functioning again. With that, other parts of her body began to respond as well. Her back said the ground was damp. Her arms said she was laying in something scratchy. One hand said there was something crawling on it. Her throat said it was dry. Her feet said they were warm, her eye said it was dark, and her ears said it was raining. And that there were crickets nearby. A lot of crickets.

Almost every part of her body also claimed to be in pain. Especially her face. What was it Nee-san said sometimes..? 'Pain is proof that you're alive?' So she was still alive, then. It wouldn't hurt if she was dead.

Kokoro slowly sat up. She shook something off of her hand. There was a sharp pain from her wrist as she moved it. She cradled it in her lap, idly noting the bandages peeking out from beneath her sleeve as she did. Sleeve.. Ah, she was wearing a slightly tight long-sleeved shirt and short skirt. Both of them had small burn holes around the edges. There were also long socks on her feet. The source of the warmth. She was shoeless, but it was still an upgrade from the recent past. Especially since she was mostly dry.

"... Ah..." A quiet noise escaped her as she remembered. The recent past. Something had happened... Something involving Nee-san... And...

Another sharp flash of pain drew her less-injured hand to her face. There were bandages here, too. Covering her whole left eye. That was fine. It was a useless eye anyway.

More importantly, if Nee-san were in trouble, Kokoro needed to be there to protect her. With that thought driving her, Kokoro managed to stand and look around. She was surrounded by trees... For some reason. It wasn't a place she recognized. She stood there for a moment, listening to the pat pat of rain hitting leaves. Then she closed her eye, thinking Nee-san-like thoughts. If she were a dog, this wouldn't be much of a problem. She'd just smell the air and...

"... Kun kun..." she murmured, sniffing. Surprisingly, she caught the scent of something. "Ah. Nee-san's smell..?"

Probably not. Unless Nee-san had started running a taiyaki stand. Kokoro's stomach grumbled lightly.

"Nee-san is not food," she scolded it. Still, it was a smell that should lead her to people and eventually back to Nee-san or Nee-san's home. So, with her goal in mind, Kokoro forced her aching body toward the enticing smell.

Neal stood under the small overhang outside of his apartment and frowned at the motorcycle infront of him. If Lancer had gotten a car like he had been told like would have been simpler. But it couldn't be helped. They needed transportation and this was all they had. At least Lancer had thought to get two helmets. That way if they wiped out he stood less of a chance of getting his head scrambled. It wasn't that he wasn't able to drive a bike, it was mroe the fact that it was pouring now that concerned him.

Lancer seemed eager to get going however "Well? What are you waiting for? We have a murderer to take out." he said as he extended a helmet to Neal. Neal took the helmet and grumbled "I'm driving. I don't trust you to obey the speed laws and other road signs." he slid the helmet on and moved to climb onto the motorcycle. For the purposes of this night's recon Neal had chosen to dress all in black. He didn't have anything as bad ass as bike leathers however so he was forced to settle for black jeans, runners and a black sweater jacket with a white line running down the sleeves which had been layered over a black turtleneck and to complete the getup he wore black leather gloves, which he soon found to be a good thing considering that once the bike had reached cruising speed the rain would have stung and numbed his hands. Lastly there was a sort of leg holster on his right thigh which housed the collapsible staff his aunt had mailed to him.

Neal used his heel to disengage the bike's kick stand and paused, glancing at Lancer oddly through the tinted visor of his helmet. Lancer was making to climb onto the back of the bike. "...What are you doing?" Lancer paused, one leg half over the bike already "I'm getting on the metal horse, what does it look like?" Another sigh could be heard from within Neal's helmet "You don't need to ride with me, you can keep up easily on foot. Just stay out of sight and follow on the roof tops." Lancer frowned "But the ladies love a man on a bike..."

Neal flipped up his visor and glared at Lancer "I told you, we aren't going -in- any of the clubs. We are watching them from a distance. It is bad enough you picked up a mode of transportation that is so noticable. Now please just do what I say. I don't want another innocent to die tonight because you were being difficult." Lancer took a step back and looked a little surprised for a long moment before he grinned "That's the spirit. I want to see that fire in your eyes more often Master. Sometimes I think you are way too tolerant. Right then. Lead the way." Neal flipped his visor back down and brought the bike to life and sped away from his apartment.

As much of a hurry Neal felt he was in, he forced himself to keep to the designated speed limits and in some cases even slower due to the fact the roads were slick in some areas. At least it was faster than walking. He wound his way through the streets toward his destination, and could sense Lancer was close by. When he drew nearer to his destination Neal started taking more of the back alleys, and was rather thankful that there wasn't a reinactment of the night before, till finally he stopped the bike and shut it down. There were several clubs in the area but he would need a high point to observe them all from.

Lancer landed next to Neal from seemingly nowhere, still in his street clothes "So, which roof?" Neal glanced upward. There was one building that was taller than just about every other in the area, he wasn't sure if it was a high rise or an office building, but it had the hight he needed "That one. Think you can get me up there from the outside?" Buildings normally had security, and that wasn't something he wanted to deal with. He would look far too suspicious wearing all black and a motorcycle helmet, which he had planned to keep on for the duration of the night if for no other reason then to keep his head dry.

Lancer nodded "Yep, just don't get the wrong idea." Neal furrowed his brow "Wrong ide..." Before he could even finish his sentence Lancer had thrown Neal over one shoulder and jumped upward. If his helmet hadn't had a chin strap Neal probably would have lost his helmet with how abrupt the action was. The landing was considerably less jarring and Lancer set Neal down on his feet. "....Little warning next time." Neal muttered and glanced around. They were indeed ontop of the building he had indicated, which must have been at least thirty stories up, if Neal had to make a guess.

He made his way to the edge of the roof and glanced down. The rain gave the lights of the city a dreary haze, one would think it would put a damper on any sort of long range viewing. Perhaps for a normal person with binoculars. "bioróidh mé mo radharc na súl go an iolars." Neal muttered under the muffling power of his helmet. A faint light could be seen from within the visor for a brief moment and the world changed to Neal's perspective. Everything was clear. Yes he could still see the rain, but the distance was no longer an issue. He could focus in and see individual's faces on streets below. His gaze slowly and methodically scanned the rain slicked surroundings as Lancer stood casually beside Neal.

Some distance away, something caught Neal's attention, movement on the roof of a nearby shopping complex. His enhanced sight zeroed in on that movement. And though the distance was considerable, he could see two figures up on that roof. "Lancer...something is going on ov..." Neal paused mid sentence and focused more, there was some sort of designe marked on the roof. "A spell circle...It looks like someone is planning some ritual magic over on top of that shopping center.." Now Neal was in a predicament. He had come to search for The Ripper but seemed to have stumbled on someone else. His goal had been to safe guard people from being murdered in back alleys but not it was quite possible that anyone in that shopping center could be in danger. He didn't like it, but his choice would come down to numbers. The Ripper, as far as he could tell was very much a one on one type. Could perhaps kill a hand full of people in a night, but the shopping center held more people.

"Our plans have changed. Whatever they are doing we need to stop them." Neal said, his tone very serious. Lancer quirked an eyebrow slightly "Not exactly tactically sound to go rushing in without knowing who it might be. Are you sure?" It was a token effort on Lancer's part, not to sound overly eager and over confidant. "Yes, dragging people into our war is wrong. In my opinion that makes that magus unfit to win the Holy Grail. So we stop them. Can you get us onto that roof without us being seen?" Lancer's grin only grew "You know I can. We can use the ventilation units to hide behind once we get there."

Neal nodded "Lets get going then." And with that Lancer put an arm around Neal's waist (rather than doing a fireman's carry) and the two headed across the rooftops. "Just dont' get used to me carrying you like this...you still aren't my type."

Rain was too annoying. It fell far too fast and before the boy knew it he was soaked, and shivering at every random wind that came by. Kaito periodically peered into the sky hoping to find a break in the clouds, but no luck. Perhaps the sky was weeping, perhaps some higher power had guessed at the boy's intentions for that night, and so that being caused the sky itself to let loose a torrent of tears upon the earth. The possibility also existed, that this was merely his own terrible luck showing it's ugly head once again.

The circle was becoming more elaborate by the minute. It had morphed into a circle he had never even seen before, and just when he thought it was over Caster would instruct him to continue. Caster herself was being a bit more serious than he was used to. Unlike her master she didn't bother with the rain as it simply seemed to bounce off of her. But, more than that, her usually blank expression was far more serious.

"Ne, caster," Kaito began, still writing symbols on the rooftop, "How many people will die because of this?"

Caster's face changed to one of surprise for a moment but that face quickly faded to a smile and she said, "Not a single soul will be lost".

Kaito peered over at her in surprise, "Eh? This circle is to gather mana right?"

Caster nodded, "That it may be, but none will die, they will simply take one step upon the cycle of rebirth."

Kaito began to ask her to elaborate only to have Caster suddenly say, "Master, your hood please." and step towards him. Kaito stared at her puzzled before realizing what she meant. He pulled his sopping wet hood over the hat on his head.

Caster peered off towards one side of the building before turning back and crouching at the circle.

"Who is it?" Kaito finally said still looking around.

"The master and servant from earlier," she said

Kaito felt his heart sink in his chest as he remembered his tutor from earlier that day. "Master you must finish the circle," Caster said as she stood. "If they are trying to sneak around as they are, then they have yet to find out which servant I am." She stepped back to where she had been before and began uttering some incantations. The young master tried to relax and stretched as though he had been taking a break. Finally he crouched back down to add the finishing touches to the circle. 'Just a little more time...'

They were only two rooftops away from their target. "The second we touch down, you create a distraction and I will deal with the spell circle. If we are lucky they will be unsure of what one of us is the Servant and what one is the Master. Don't reveal who you are unless it is absolutely nessisary. When we reach the roof..." "Yeah yeah, jump into action immediately so they don't have time to react. Speed and surprise are our best asset right now." Lancer almost seemed bored, as if he knew everything Neal was going to say before he said it.

Neal only had a few moments to prepare while he and Lancer were making their way to their final destination. His enhanced vision faded back into that of a normal human. He didn't stop there however. Speed and reflexes would need to be enhanced and so he set about doing just that. However, enhancing too much could tax his body to the point of failure. Not matter how you sliced it, Neal was still Human. "Géaraigh an luas, fabhcún. Iompraímid mu go gasta." They were nearly to the rooftop now, not much time to do the second augmentation. "éirí cleachta leis an luas, dul i ntaithí an luais"

"Go for the one with the hood, I think that is the Master, the rain was falling strangely around the other one. Don't kill him, just force the Servant to defend so neither of them can get a chance to act against me." Lancer only nodded and then they were on the rooftop behind the large boxy ventilation unit. Both darted out from around the unit on oposit sides, and Neal even did his best to match Lancer's speed. Lancer apparently had the same Idea and slowed himself down to match Neal's as they both darted toward the two figures standing in the rain near the spell circle.

Neal didn't want to cause too much damage to the building, or endanger the people inside. he needed to figure out a way to destroy the spell circle without blowing a hole in the roof. Neal reached down to the thigh holster where his family's staff was housed and pulled it out, extending it to it's full length. Showing the weapon was more for the purpose of confusion, to make the enemy doubt as to who was who in this Master and Servant pair. Neal promptly stopped and drove a gloved hand down at the cement floor of the roof uttering a muffled word under his helmet and spiderwebbing cracks start to spread from the point where his fist hit the cement, racing toward the spell circle to break it up.

Meanwhile Lancer, still in his street clothes cotinued to run at the enemy with an expression that was both excited and just a little blood thirsty. He hungered for a victory in his first battle of this war. Doing it without his weapon would be a challenge worthy of him. He loved challenges.

Too quickly. The boy's heart thumped loudly in his chest as he continued to draw. Why he continued, he had no idea. The incoming cracks would easily mess the circle up far before he could finish. Trust was the only thing he could think of, he trusted in the higher power of his own servant, he only hoped his faith wasn't misplaced. He struggled to keep his hands calm while he drew. Finally succeeding he stood and dashed to the other side of the circle. His eyes momentarily met the figure of a man with a staff running towards him. He swallowed hard, he was nearly done.
---

Caster seemed calm as the servant approached her with no weapon drawn. He was underestimating her, that was always a good thing. The other man, the master, seemed to be underestimating them as well. Simply charging in with no regard for his own safety. Yes, she could do this. Her eyes closed as she finished her incantation. A large pulse of mana rippled through the air around her. Several chain links began to form and connect until a chain the length of the woman herself remained.

At the very least this circle had to be completed. What happened to it after that wouldn't truly matter. That meant time needed to be bought. 'He won't make much noise or do anything too flashy while people are still out and about', she peered back at the cracks forming towards the seal. "Ræna lið afli valda hræzla," the incantation flowed from her mouth rapidly as an aura of mana engulfed the end of the chain. The end shot forward and struck the ground creating a hole to seperate the spell from the area of the circle. She continued to fall back attempting to cut off the master in time.

---

Kaito calmed just a little now that he no longer ran the risk of ending up in a pile of rubble. He bit his thumb hard successfully drawing the blood needed to finish, 'just two more...'

The outfit-choosing process was lengthy and tiring. Kogane was informed that the cafe usually has a weekly cosplay theme. To keep with this week's theme, Kogane was eventually assigned maid-like dress. It was a good bit different from the outfit the waitress she'd seen before wore, however. For starters, she didn't get an apron. The dress was also frillier, with a complicated array of white and black ribbons at the neck and wrists and a lace-up portion at the waist. And while the other waitress' skirt had gone all the way to her ankles, Kogane's was only knee-length.

She'd also gotten new eyewear, a white cloth square like those given to someone with an eye disease, to wear in place of her normal black eyepatch. Thankfully, the manager left her bandage-wrapped hand alone, saying it went well with the new eyepatch anyway. She was forced to take her hair down as well, but that was something she could live with.

To top it all off, she had a frilly headband to wear. It looked somewhat maid-like, except...

"Nekomimi?" Fujimura Jun questioned, flashing an amused grin at Kogane as she finally exited the back room and made a sedate pace toward the table he'd 'claimed' in the empty restaurant. He was still in his damp casual clothes. The other waitress, 'Aya', was standing next to the table. Presumably, they'd been chatting carelessly while Kogane was being submitted to hellish tortures only one room away.

"Aya-san, it's really fun being here talking with you."
"It's just too bad the weather isn't better, Jun-kun."
"Any weather is fine with you by my side, Aya-san."
"Maa, Jun-kun, you're such a flatterer."
"Ah ha ha, ah ha ha, ah ha ha ha ha~"
"Ah ha ha, ah ha ha, ah ha ha ha ha~"

... Something like that. Thinking about it only made Kogane more annoyed, so she quit thinking. Instead, she stared at the floor until she was close enough to slump down into a chair at Fujimura's table.

"... Nyaa..." Kogane unenthusiastically answered him.

"Maa, it seems she's been completely defeated," Aya commented, sympathy evident in her tone.

"Haru-nee wins again, then. Will anyone ever be able to challenge her?" Fujimura pondered. Then he grinned again. "But as always, she has good taste. A cross between gothic lolita and maid fits Yuu-chan well and still goes with this week's theme."

"I'll murder you." Kogane tiredly gave a somewhat hollow threat.

"Ara, kowai." Fujimura smirked. At the very least, he'd found her a job. And a meal, she hoped, soon. Killing him was an unnecessary risk that probably wouldn't provide any benefits aside from making her feel better.

"There there, koneko-chan." Someone had started patting her head while she was thinking. Kogane swatted the hand away, tiredly glaring up at the waitress. Aya answered only with a pretty, ladylike smile.

"I'll go see if your food is ready, then. Jun-kun, koneko-chan, excuse me."

"... Hmph. It's hard to get mad when she's so polite."

"That's one of Ayashiro's most potent weapons," Fujimura supplied. "No matter how much she teases, you can't really get angry. But if you ever have a problem, anything at all, she'll be there to help however she can. Nothing ever surprises her. It'd be hard to find a better person to work with."

"Hmm... What are her other weapons?"

"You didn't see them? She's got huge--"

Figures.

"Nevermind. That was a stupid question," Kogane interrupted with a flash of annoyance. She glanced toward the windows lining the building's front wall, sighing. It seemed like that was becoming a habit lately.

"It's gotten completely dark.. I'd hoped to be home by now. I need to go soon."

"Eh? Is someone waiting for you? I've never seen anyone else when I go to watch your sleeping face. I thought you lived alone."

Kogane shook her head, ignoring the question. Hopefully Assassin wouldn't go wandering around tonight before she got back. With the heightened state of alert the police and at least one other Master were in, the relaxed mana collection plan they'd used for the past few days would be ill-advised. That aside, there was something more important that would require the both of them in action tonight.

The food was heavenly. Perhaps it was simply that she hadn't had anything but a weird sandwich and instant noodles recently. Actually, she reminded herself, she hadn't eaten anything today. She'd completely shut down her stomach bug's insistence for food through ignoring her hunger, but she found that it didn't complain one bit as she filled it with the beef, rice, vegetables and egg that made up the gyudon Fujimura had ordered for the both of them. It was a relatively cheap meal one could find in almost any restaurant. And it was fantastic.

"... You really were starving." Fujimura noted in awe as Kogane downed the miso soup that came with the dinner. He had only barely started his meal, partially due to the speed at which Kogane wolfed hers down and otherwise from distractedly watching her do so.

Ayashiro, on the other hand, didn't seem at all ruffled.

"Kittens are always hungry, Jun-kun. Ikou, ikou." She patted Kogane's head again, or tried to. Kogane ducked away and stood up, thwarting the attempt. She held up her bandaged right hand and eyed it, flexing it into a fist.

So suddenly fueled, Kogane didn't feel much fatigue anymore. She was still lacking in sleep, of course, but that didn't seem to matter nearly as much as it did before. Perhaps her fever had even gone down. She looked back at the other two, both of whom were watching her movements and... Wondering what she was doing, probably. It was hard to get embarrassed over it, considering her recent humiliation.

"... Arigato, Fujimura, Ayashiro-san. I feel a lot better now, but I need to get changed and hurry home."

"Eyaya, it was worth it just to see you in costume. And to see you eat a beef bowl so ridiculously fast."

"Jun-kun. It's rude to talk with your mouth full."

"A-ah, my bad."

"I'll explain how to wait tables tomorrow if you need help, koneko-chan."

"Hai, yoroshiku." Kogane turned away from them, then remembered something. Her clothes wouldn't be completely dry yet, but there was no sense in getting soaked again on the way home. She turned back, looking down at the table, and grabbed the folded umbrella from one end of it. "I'm borrowing this."

Fujimura started to protest, but at that point Kogane was already halfway to the STAFF ONLY door. Newly revived with eggs, rice and animal protein, Kogane felt she needed to get back as soon as possible before things could get any more complicated. Getting out of the ridiculous costume she'd have to wear for several hours these next few days wouldn't be a bad thing either.

These two didn't seem to be in the least bit confused as to who was who when it came to the two men attacking them, and that rather defeated the purpose of trying to pass Lancer off as the Master. "Engage the Master, but don't kill him, and don't underestimate them." Neal said to Lancer as he watched the enchanted chain foil his first attempt at destroying the spell circle. if they could only put enough preasure on their opponents, and force them to withdraw that would satisfy Neal for now.

Lancer seemed a little dissapointed that his personal challenge had more or less been called off. His Master apparently wanted things done quickly and efficiently, and that meant he would need his weapons. "Maybe next time..." He muttered before holding his hand out to the side and with a burst of mana a long spear/javalin-like weapon appeared in his hand. Lancer leveled the point of his weapon toward the the chain wielding figure. "Consider yourself lucky my Master doesn't want me to outright kill yours." And with that Lancer blurred as he darted toward Kaito.

Neal was taking this chance to move to the spell circle. There was risk involved, the other Servant's chain had a significant range but with his own reflexes and speed hightened he decided it was a risk that needed to be taken. He reached the edge of the furrow created by the chain's defensive strike and continue past it till he was nearly standing on the spell circle itself. Quickly Neal crouched and laid a hand on one of the symbols of the circle. With his enhanced speed he started to smudge one of the symbols into something else before slamming his gloved hand into the circle itself. If he was lucky the creators of the circle wouldn't notice the small change that had been made before his second attempt to destroy the circle was made.

This second attempt wasn't all that dissimilar to the first but this time the scale was a bit grander. The intention was to completely shatter the surface layer of the whole roof. To send bits of the cement flying and hopefully bits of the spell circle as well. The noise might be noticed over the din of the down pour, and the damage would certainly be noticed when water from ouside started to seep in through the roof into the building below, but the roof's supporting structure would remain intact. Just not its ability to remain waterproof.

Kaito swore that his heart had never beaten harder in his life. His hand somehow remained calm enough to successfully draw the last symbol, but not before the other master had made it to the circle and changed his servants target. As agile as Kaito was, there was no way he could dodge a servant and master both at the same time. As soon as he finished the last symbol he quickly slammed his hand down and injected a large chunk of his mana. The circle glowed dimly as the mana spread around the outer circle, next the symbols should have began to glow but suddenly it all stopped. His mana had been cut off at some point. Frantic but out of time, he looked to Caster who was coming to his rescue.

She looked disheartened, but this hadn't been planned there was nothing they could do. The chain shot forth and wrapped around his chest before pulling him back quickly. The circle was done for. Watching as bits and pieces of it's many intricate symbols scattered into the rainy sky, there was no doubt about it. Kaito bit his lip, he had failed.

Caster watched the devastation of the circle and sighed. She couldn't blame her master, they were in a bad position from the start. The main thing now was to get away. There was no point in fighting this battle without the circle, and with the mana Kaito had just wasted there were no second tries for today.

Escape was their only option. It seemed as though the master didn't really want to kill Kaito, but all they could do was wait and see. She jumped up to the edge of the roof and jumped off still dragging her master along on the chain. Almost immediately she began to recite the incantation for a transference spell.

Neal couldn't express just how relieved he was when he saw the mana transfer into the circle stop at the point that he had altered one of the symbols. The utter destruction of the symbol and the surface layer of the roof had only served to erase the circle from existance. When he saw the Servant and Master leap over the edge of the building in retreat he finally considered the intervention to be successful. However it seemed Lancer wasn't quite as ready to let the pair go as his Master was. The spear wielding Servant dove over the edge of the building after the enemy. For some reason it made Neal think of a dog chasing a car.

Lancer wasn't willing to let these two off so easily, if he could he would have his weapon taste blood before they escaped. He knew his Master didn't want the other Master dead, but Lancer did. And if he wasn't permitted to kill them, then he would injur one or both of them if he could. Weaken the enemy. As much as he liked fighting on even ground he didn't want these two to be in a position of being stronger after this encounter. So naturaly a good way to do that would be to drop them into a weakened state so that any recovery time would only serve to bring them back up to normal strength rather then increased strength.

It just so happened that the way the two were falling put the Master between Lancer and the other Servant. The large spear's point gleamed in the street light as he plunged after the two. He thought he heard the Servant saying something as they fell. "You aren't getting away THAT easily!" Lancer quickly hauled back and launched his spear down at the two, aiming to graze Kaito's shoulder. He had considered using his Noble Phantasm but with the chance that it might miss, and the fact that he was -supposed- to let them escape, he chose against it, even if it could prove to be beneficial in the long run.

Kaito cursed under his breath as the spear approached. As he was still bound by Caster's chain his freedom of movement was far too limited. Caster seemed to notice and pulled down on the chain, but it was too late the spear nicked his shoulder successfully drawing blood and eliciting a small yelp of pain from the boy. After that his vision blurred and the colors swirled around them. Caster had finished her spell and they were off to safety.

When the world stopped spinning they found themselves in at the edge of Kaito's minefield in the forest. Caster turned quickly and the chain around Kaito faded from existence. The boy himself fell to his knees clutching at his shoulder. It wasn't much, it certainly wouldn't kill him, but the shock of it all was awful. Not only had their mission failed, but he had been injured. Suddenly the realism of the war became apparent to him. This was his life from now on. He looked at his blood soaked shoulder listlessly the color seemed so vibrant to him illuminated in only the light of the moon. He laughed as his vision blurred once more, tears began to well in his eyes but he still laughed. Shortly after the world began to spin, and then there was darkness.

---

Caster wasn't in much better spirits. She had managed to fail her master on their first mission together. She had even caused him to be injured by not removing the chain. She sighed as she tightened a bandage on his shoulder. He winced and muttered something under his breath and fell back to sleep. Once she was done she opened the door and stepped outside. Even if those preparations had failed she could still make other ones. She would have to watch out for that master and servant, but just a few human lives should go relatively unnoticed. Her chain reappeared in her hands. She would have to gather souls on a smaller scale.

The end of the spear plunged into the cement of the sidewalk below, before Lancer landed beside his weapon yanking it up from the ground and glancing around to make sure no one had seen him. The street seemed deserted, lucky for him. If he had landed right infront of someone walking by it probably would have been hard to explain how he had fallen off a building with a giant spear and not only survived but landed on his feet effortlessly.

He brought the tip of his weapon up to examine and watched as the rain slowly washed away the blood that remained on it. "Hmm...if I had known it was going to hit him I would have used it...Ah well. Maybe next time." He glanced up at where the targets had vanished mid air. "No small feat doing that sort of magic in free fall...I think I lucked out this time." He heaved a dramatic sigh and his spear vanished from his hand. "That one will only get stronger, and I'm not the best suited to fight it." Lancer suddenly noticed the edge of an umbrella coming around a nearby corner and hurriedly lept up and out of the light of the street lamp. Landing on the edge of the roof in a crouch. He had gotten a little too absorbed in considering the brief fight he had just had, he had almost been spotted by some girl running by with an umbrella.

Neal walked up beside Lancer "That was a bit careless, don't you think?" he said from under his helmet. "Haven't you ever heard of look before you leap?" Lancer chuckled "Haven't you heard of, he who hesitates has lost?" Neal folded his arms, and it couldn't be seen, but behind his visor he rolled his eyes "The expression you are talking about is, he who hesitates IS lost."

Lancer shrugged as he straightened "Same thing. I injured the Master just before they vanished just as you wanted." Neal didn't respond at first, he was busy releasing the spells he had used to augment his body and uttered a groan as his muscles complained about the stress he had put them under. He was going to be sore for a day or so from that little exchange, that was certain. He reached up and pulled off his helmet, it was getting a bit hot inside of it and the cool rain was a welcome blessing on his sweaty face. The helmet itself had sustained several chips here and there from bits of flying roof but ultimately had served it's purpose. "Lets get clear of this place, someone may have noticed the commotion and I don't want to be here when someone decides to check it out."

Lancer nodded but was aware that his Master could use a bit of rest before they did anything further. It was a simple and quick enough a task to jump across the rooftops back to the tall building they had started on. Once there Lancer set Neal down to allow his master to sit and rest. "So tell me....what sort of idiot decides to specialize in magic that is so hard on the body?" Lancer said as he leaned against the exit onto the roof.

Neal glanced over at Lancer, by this point his hair was plastered to his head from the rain. "Simple. The type of idiot that has had to fight his own battles up until now. I guess I'm just more a hands on type of person." Lancer scoffed amusedly "You can be a hands on type of person and still learn a more practical form of magic you know. Learn how to throw fireballs or something like a normal magus." Neal chuckled as he collapsed his staff and tucked it back into its holster. "I guess that may be our common link. We would rather rely on ourselves. Tell me, if you had the ability to throw fireballs around, would you? Or would you take up your weapon and get into the thick of battle where you and your weapon become one and take down enemies on a more personal basis?"

Lancer seemd to consider his Master's words for a long moment "Huh....I guess I see your point. Lobbing balls of fire is all well and good but it doesn't really seem like much of a challenge and too far removed from actual battle." Neal nodded slightly "I suppose I just see close combat as forcing me to be accountable for what happens to my opponent. If you kill him, you are there and looking him in the eyes when you do it. You can't escape the reality of the situation, because you are right there...That is why I don't want to have to kill."

"But you used earth magic tonight, what about that?" Lancer said as he studied Neal's serious expression, there was clearly something Neal wasn't saying. "That was used as a tool against an inanimate object. I also tend to use that sort of magic to manipulate an opponent, control his movements. I don't use it directly against an enemy in any sort of deadly form, generally." Neal set his helmet down next to him. "You're asking a lot of serious philisophical questions Lancer. Did you get rattled by our little skermish tonight?"

Lancer laughed "Rattled? No way! I don't really consider that a skermish anyway, unless you call picking on a roof a skermish. But seriously, if those two get enough time to gather strength, I would have to advise letting someone else deal with them in direct combat. I'm pretty sure that was Caster. Probably the one Servant I am least suited to go against. But if you are willing to let me take them out before they can recover then that would be another story. You're choice Master, but if Caster ends up being our opponent in the end, we may have problems. We can't spread ourselves too thin either. We came out there to find The Ripper originally but we found Caster instead. We should focus on one or the other, not both."

Neal frowned quietly as he watched drops of water drip from the hair that was infront of his eyes. Lancer was right, they had run into two Servants so far. On one hand The Ripper was more dranged, on the other Caster was willing to work on a larger scale. "I'll decide later. I think I need to talk to someone before I make any decisions on the matter." Lancer didn't really like the sound of that but nodded "Alright, suit yourself. So are we going to stay out here and continue to get soaked and freeze our asses off, or are we going to head home and watch TV? I really doubt we'll be running into anyone else tonight."

"We'll watch for a little while longer, then we can go back home and have a hot meal and rest." Neal said before reactivating his eagle eyes and turned his gaze once again to the cityscape, but his mind wandered back to that day. The day that he had been holding himself accountable for, for years.

"This is... School."

Kokoro stared up at the large, darkened building from before it's gate. She couldn't see it very well through the veil of wet bangs and water dripping down her face, but she was sure there wasn't a soul moving within. Kokoro herself hadn't been to the building in days, but it seemed wrong for it to be so empty. Normally there were far more people who weren't Nee-san around. For a building that had so many people in it every day, it seemed very uninviting at night. However, if she were to wait here until daylight, Nee-san should eventually come by. It was the school they went to together, after all. Kokoro stepped forward, reaching toward the closed gate.

And recoiled immediately upon feeling something like an electric shock. She stepped back from the gate, blinking slowly at her hand. She looked up at the gate, then back at the building beyond. Giving her such an obvious warning... Maybe it did want to be left alone after all. But more than respecting the building's wishes, Kokoro felt like she shouldn't stay here. She wasn't sure exactly what caused the feeling, but she wasn't going to question it. She turned to leave the school building, crossing the middle of the empty street without paying any heed to signs or crosswalks.

The problem was, where should she go now? The scent she'd been following initially was all but impossible to find again in the rain. And she just wasn't very good with directions otherwise. The city was a maze to her, some places more than others, and she found it strange that other people could know their way around it so well. Like Nee-san, with whom Kokoro was always constantly impressed whenever they left home to go to a store or someplace else.

Kokoro's knees buckled and threw her to the sidewalk, skinning themselves in the process. It hurt, but that wasn't the first time it had happened tonight. Most of her body just wasn't used to moving so much. Her knees in particular had been supporting a good deal of her weight on a stone floor until just recently. They were going to be sleepy. But she had to keep moving, to keep trying.

"... Ganbaru..." Kokoro murmured, patting one scraped knee.

She allowed her legs a moment to rest, then forced herself up from the ground. She tentatively sniffed the air again, hoping to find something if she tried hard enough. Sure enough, a light breeze passed, bringing with it the faint aroma of taiyaki again through the smell of wet... Everything. Being a dog was indeed difficult in this kind of weather, she thought empathetically, but it's not like she didn't have practice. There was a Nee-san to find.

Completely oblivious to the smell of wet clothing that may be coming from the bathroom, Daisuke wandered toward his own room. He started to open the door out of habit, but hesitated and knocked first instead. "Maybe if I'm lucky she just won't be there and I'll have imagined the whole thing," he muttered to himself. Then he started to open the door. Unfortunately Daisuke wasn't that lucky and was suddenly assulted from behind as Rider threw her arms around her Master.

"MASTER! I'm so glad you are back! I cleaned your clothes for you! Would you like some ale? Or perhaps some mead?" Rider was still in her dingy dress and still had a pair of boxers on her head but she seemed to be in far better health having rested most fo the day. She had been worried the entire time that something would happen to him, the last thing she wanted to do was fail her master by not being there when he needed her.

Daisuke gave a startled jump, all but smashing his face on the door as he surprisedly jerked forward. "Ugh.. ShhhHHH. Be quiet," he whispered without turning to look at her. He pulled forward to go into the room, though escaping her grasp seemed a dubious proposition.Rider followed Daisuke into his room and released him once they were inside however

"I am so glad you are home safely...I was so worried about you. Are you okay? Did anyone attack you? Oh my gosh someone did didn't they! I should have been there! I'm never letting you out of my sight again!" came a flurry of questions from the strange blond woman. She had no basis for her assumptions but she made them none the less.

"Calm down. I wasn't attacked. I just can't keep the girls off of me lately." Daisuke padded over to his desk, his wet socks making squishy noises on the wooden floor, and jammed the power button on the computer tower harder than was really necessary. While it made it's starting-up whirrs and vrooms, he removed his glasses and scrubbed his face with one hand. "Or the guys. Hngh."Rider paused for a moment "You didn't tell me you had a boyfriend. You didn't tell him about this did you? No one is supposed to know..." it wasn't like men seeking the company of other men was taboo or anything, she just hadn't seen THIS man as one of them..

"Now there's a classic line of dialogue. It's both misunderstanding and easy to misunderstand." Daisuke shook his head with a sour expression, seeming oddly serious. "But no. That was a joke. Another... 'Servant' kidnapped me, briefly. His 'Master' informed me of all this grail business, so I guess you're not drugged or anything like I thought you were." Rider folded her arms under her ample chest "You went somewhere with another Servant??? Are you insane???? They could have KILLED you!" Rider glared seriously, which came off as being not so serious considering she had underwear on her head. So her Master had encountered another servant and she hadn't been there to protect him. What a fine war this was shaping up to be. Her master was clueless and running off with the enemy while she was left in a strange building floundering in her new surroundings. She definitely needed to pull herself together and get herself sorted out if she was going to keep her Master alive...

"ShhhHHH!" Daisuke ducked back around Rider to close the room door. "I swear," he breathed, "You're telling me not to tell people about this, and then you go yelling your head off like that like my family isn't right downstairs. What if they find you?" Daisuke turned to glare at her. And faltered somewhat at her appearance. "... Is that the newest in 'Servant' fashion, or are you wearing my shorts on your head?"

"Hmm? Oh, the hat. I needed something to keep my hair out of the water while I was cleaning your clothes." She reached up and pulled the boxers off of her head, her long blond hair cascading down losely. "So you know all the details now right? I don't have to explain things?" Rider extended the boxers to Daisuke. As dangerous as it was to interact with an enemy Servant it seemed to have not had a completely detrimental effect. He was still alive after all..

"Yeah, I know. I think." Daisuke absently accepted his underwear, walking back over toward the computer. He squinted, spectacle-less, at the monitor, wiped it clean with the shorts, then blinked at them. He sighed at himself and tossed them carelessly over his shoulder, then put his glasses back on and reached for the mouse to rove the curser around on the desktop for a second. "I just don't want to really believe any of it."

Rider watched him with facination for a long moment "Why wouldn't you? Do you even understand how much of an honor and privlage it is to take part in a war like this? To have the chance to have ANY wish granted that you could dream up? I would think you would be excited.....What are you doing?" she leaned forward over Daisuke's shoulder to peer at the monitor curiously, the box was emiting a strange light and a tiny little arrow was moving around on it as if it were alive. Infact is seemed to be moving in the same way her Master's hand was. Maybe he WAS a magus after all...

"It's just.. Uncomfortable. Crazy, really. It doesn't really seem like something that would be possible in a safe, modern-day world, you know? ... No, I guess there's no way you would. Hmm..." A few windows popped up on the screen. "Jun's not online... 'Out on a hot date', eh? I find that hard to believe, somehow."

Rider leaned a forearm on Daisuke's shoulder "So, what is your plan? We are going to win this war right? You aren't going to just give up I hope..." There was an edge to her words that could be taken as a bit threatening depending on how one took it. If her master gave up...she may never get the chance to alter that one choice that had ruined her entire life...

"About that..." Daisuke frowned pensively and tried to pull out from underneath Rider, both to get away from her and to get out of the awkward position of leaning over the chair at his desk.

Did he doubt that she could win? Rider quickly jumped to her own defense "I can win this war for you Master...I can. I just need to gather more energy. Please just give me a chance..." She was practically begging. "I know the Rider class isn't the strongest...but I can promise you that I will never give up. I will fight untill my last breath for this." She didn't attempt to stop Daisuke from moving away from her, merely followed him with her vibrant bright blue eyes.

Daisuke moved over to his bed, shifting books to one side to make room to sit down, obviously without paying attention to the movements. "It... Depends. I don't want to hurt anyone to achieve my goals. It seems... Irresponsible. But turning away from the war is the same thing. At the very least, that would put you in a difficult spot." He sat, looking down toward the markings on the back of his hand. "It's... Just a little unfair."

At least her Master seemed to have some sort of morals, and just for a moment she thought she could sense that there was something more to this stringy young man.."If you quit, I vanish. And you can't win a war without fighting. People are going to get hurt, if you quit or not. At least if you fight, you may have a say in who gets hurt." Rider lowered her gaze to the floor. "I do need to get mana though....I can't fight the way I am now. So maybe I should leave you to think about this while I go out and get some...."

"No... I can't make a decision this way, no matter how long I think about it." Daisuke looked up at her, seriously. "I need to know what your wish is. If it's something worth fighting for..."

Rider narrowed her eyes slightly at Daisuke "That is a pertty personal thing to ask...And you should be fighting this war for your own purposes not mine." Rider had felt a tightening in her chest at the thought of having to explain why she wanted this so badly. And if he used a command spell...she wouldn't have a choice in the matter..

"I cannot be any sort of ally with you unless I know that your wish is benevolent." Daisuke stated matter-of-factly. "And more than that. My wish is one I don't need to fight a war for. I can do it on my own. I'm not a dreamer that sets impossible goals that can only be granted by something I didn't even know existed until a few hours ago." He gazed at her for a second, then cleared his throat and averted his eyes. "Admittedly, I wouldn't want to tell you mine either... Maybe if you just give me some kind of general idea..."

Rider heaved an exasperated sigh "I want to undo a choice I made a long time ago." She hoped feverishly that her reply would satisfy her Master. Going into detail would only serve to lessen his already none-existent confidence in her..

"Hm.. I think I can relate," Daisuke murmured dryly. "It sounds like something that would make a decent movie. And somehow.. That isn't as helpful as I thought it would be." He sighed at himself and looked back down at his hand, falling quiet.
[
Rider plopped down on the edge of the bed next to Daisuke "Would it help if I said that it was a selfish wish that would only benefit me, but not do any harm to anyone else? I know that doesn't exactly make it sound like the best wish in the world, and being selfish probably doesn't make me look very good in your eyes...but at least I'm honest."

"It doesn't make you look any worse. I wasn't exactly sure what to think about you, since you've done a lot to try and manipulate me. But my wish is selfish too, so I'm not any better." the woman next to Daisuke seemed as though she were about to say something further, but was cut off before she even started. "Onii-chan?" Came a voice from the room's door, which then opened without further preamble. Hanako peeked inside, twintails bouncing. "Why is your laundry all over the bathroom?"

The foreign woman... A vague description... She is female and she's nowhere near native to my room, but... Perhaps I should stop deluding myself, Daisuke silently criticized himself. Servant Rider was silent for a few seconds. Then she suddenly gasped and leapt excitedly to her feet.

"Oh my GOODNESS! She is so adorable!"

"Yeah, she is," Daisuke replied without thinking. He absentmindedly glanced up at the blonde Servant, following her gaze to the room's doorway. "Adora..."

It hit him. His mouth failed mid-agreement. His body stiffened, freezing in place, eyes widening slightly. And his mind rushed into overdrive.

Hanako had seen or would soon see Rider. It was too late to close the door in his sister's face. He couldn't laugh it off. Judging by how long the blonde Servant had been silent, they probably had a good look at each other during that moment. There was no time to hide the Servant. No convenient distractions or methods of producing one made themselves apparent. If that hadn't been enough time for his sister to notice something, Rider's ridiculously loud declaration of Hanako's cuteness had significantly raised awareness levels. With the appropriate timing and proper amount of force, he could knock her out with a book... Really, if she'd been wandering around the house all day, it was a small miracle that nobody had noticed her before now. But just the realization that he'd factored hurting his sister into his mechanical calculations made him feel terrible. Actually doing it would be impossible. It would be bad if she managed to alert his mother before he finished thinking. Preventing an alarmed noise is top priority. He and Rider also hadn't falsified a suitable background and identity for her to use yet. In order to keep her quiet, he would have to move swiftly before she had a chance to react. But there was absolutely no way he could tell the truth. That left only one viable option.

With two thought processes running, it took Daisuke less than half a second to reach his conclusion. His frozen moment ended and he flew into action. He was across the room and pulling his sister inside before he knew it, nudging the door closed behind her and starting in with the introduction.

"Hanako, you're just in time to meet Risa! She's a friend of Oto-san's that just flew in from America a few days ago. And Risa, this is Hanako, my little sister."

"Oooooh, can I keep her??? She is so cute!" Rider knelt in front of Hanako and smiled at the little girl.

"No. She's mine. I saw her first." Daisuke responded immediately. Hanako herself retreated to hide behind her brother, peeking around him at what to her was likely a strange woman that didn't belong here. Which she was, actually. It was just more intense for Hanako, he supposed. She didn't even know his father, after all. Daisuke cleared his throat. "See?"

"Aww... But you didn't see her first..." Rider pouted. She sighed heavily and sat on the floor. "Already my Master is being mean to me.."

"I've been living with her for years. How did I not see her first?" Daisuke shook his head, then looked down. "Erh.. Hanako, why don't you go see if dinner's ready? Tell Oka-san to prepare an extra place, too. I've got something else..." He glanced up at Rider and sighed. "I'll be down in a bit. Then we can work on your walking, talking, firebreathing model of Mount Fuji. Okay?"

"Fuji-san..?" The girl shook her head. "Onii-chan, laundry."

"Ah, right, laun..." Daisuke blinked, finally realizing something was wrong as he looked around the room. "Wait a minute... Where is my laundry? I had it piled up all over the floor, just the way I wanted it..." He briefly paced around in search of the clothing in question, then went to peek under the bed.

"Oh, is the laundry dry already? That was rather quick... Does the blue water have some sort of magical properties?" Rider asked quizzically. "This really is a strange place..."

Daisuke sat up, frowning, and eyed the pair of shorts he'd discarded earlier. They had landed on his... Bed... "And why are there books all over my bed?"

"Oh, I thought they would be helpful so I did some reading. But they were all in a strange runic code.." Rider chimed in again.

"And you couldn't put them back afterwards?" Daisuke stood, reaching up to rub the bridge of his nose. "No, no, that doesn't matter." Another headache was beginning to sink in. He turned to eye Rider. "Where did you put all of my laundry?"

"Oh, your garments are drying in the cleaning room, but they shouldn't be dry yet. I didn't feel any sort of breeze in that room... Don't worry, I'll put the tomes away." The Servant stood and started to gather the books from the bed. "Would you teach me how to read these runes?"

"I think you've got more important things to learn first..." Daisuke grumbled to himself. "Cleaning room.. That has to be... The bathroom?" Daisuke glanced down at Hanako. She nodded at him. He sighed and started back toward the door, his sister trailing closely behind. "Great. Because I haven't had to go through enough tonig--"

A polite knock at the door silenced him. "Daisuke?" Came his mother's voice through the door. "Why are your clothes in the bath?"

Rider glanced at the door, loading her arm full of books. "Do you live with all women, Master..?"

Daisuke dropped his head on the door with a thump. This time, it took him several seconds of silence to formulate a response.

"Because an insane blonde woman was washing them. I was just going to go get them. In fact..." Daisuke opened the door, revealing his sweatshirt-wearing young mother on the other side of it. He went past her, Hanako practically walking on his heels. "Risa's still here, if you want to meet her. I'll go assess the damage done to my clothing. And the bathroom."

Sorry, Oka-san. There's no stopping now.

Rider climbed out of the guest room's window and landed on on the wet ground outside. It was pouring but that didn't matter in the least. Already she had grown to adore her Master, and his family. It hadn't taken long, introductions, a meal, and it had been so wonderful. They were incredibly accepting people. She couldn't remember the last time she had been treated so hospitably. And for that reason her resolve had been tempered. She liked it here, and she liked this family. She would need to become stronger if she was going to protect all of them, however.

Rider crouched there in the rain for a moment, wearing a pink sweater and a pair of slacks that had been loaned to her as replacements for her dingy white/grey dress. She would have to get stronger somehow, if she was going to protect all three of the occupants of the house. If she could collect mana without running into any other servants she would be fine. And on a rainy night like tonight, what were the odds that the other Masters and Servants would be wandering around?

She would take her time, blend in as a normal person. Or at least as much as a tall blonde woman could in a land that seemed to be populated mostly by shorter and darker haired peoples than herself. It didn't take her long to get soaked either. Soaked and cold. Rider wrapped her arms around herself and walked, heading in the direction of taller buildings. She hoped her Master wouldn't get upset that she snuck out. But they were in a war, she needed the strength if they were to survive, let alone -win-.

After what seemed like hours (and it very well could have been) Rider found herself standing before siable building with a large "Hotel" sign. There were lights shining through various windows in the fairly tall building. She could tell that there were a decent number of people in the building. It would be a start if nothing else. Quietly she started to walk around the building toward the back. She didn't want to be seen by anyone while she did this...

Caster drifted about in the rain, a forlorn look plaguing her usually calm eyes. Already she had absorbed the mana of quite a few people but she couldn't stop thinking back on her run in with the spear wielding servant from before. If she was to gather the mana needed to win this she would need to recreate that circle. But if she were to try while that servant existed it would simply end as it had today, or perhaps worse.

She winced as a few raindrops hit her face, successfully snapping her out of her trance. She had once again concerned herself so much with the past that she lost concentration. She closed her eyes and focused causing the rain to once again bounce away a few inches from her body. She turned in place trying to figure out where exactly she had wandered. The cities of this time period really were too cramped together. All of them were stone and seemed so alone and dark even when graced by the light of the moon.

Finally her eye caught sight of something she recognized. The hotel her and Kaito had left the day before. Happy to know where she was she turned and started back towards the forest. She hadn't walk more than two steps when she heard a sound. It was small and far off. It caught the womans ears only by the fear it seemed to radiate.
---

"..Ni....Nii-sa.." a single girl crawled forward hand covered in an odd warmth her hands struggling against the slippery pavement. With a splash her face met a puddle. Her eyes were empty and her voice sounded as though she had already given up on her goal. She extended her hand only to have the brother in question kick it away. She heard them from the shadows, laughing, egging him on, the ones she hated more than anything those that had turned her precious older brother into this...

All she had left flowed into her face in the form of a warm smile, ".nii" he lifted the bat into the air "..sa." He brought it down hard on her back forcing out a scream. Again the darkness behind her brother burst into laughter.

One of them finally stepped forward "Ne, Mitsu" He said lazily "How about wrapping this up, we'd hate for the cops to show up ne?". The rest of the gang burst into laughter and even her brother followed suite.

She swallowed hard as he lifted the bat, his face blurred and became unrecognizable behind her blood and tear soaked face. 'You hate them right?' a voice in her head spoke suddenly. All at once time seemed to slow to a stop. All that existed was the voice. 'They did this to you, to your family' it continued 'so fix it, use your will as a mortal being force the world into the shape you desire'. A warmth spread throughout the girl as the bat met her head. The world was black for but a moment, she heard their laughter and then silence.

In the blackness between this world and the next she clasped a thread, revenge in her heart she pulled at it, once it was pulled taught she began her climb. 'I'll sell my soul, so that noone may see my gentle brother as the monster he has become.' At the top of the thread rested a woman, her body suspended in midair by two threads of threads. One leading skyward the other went on into infinity. She spoke softly her voice matching the one within her mind 'If you have decided your fate' the thread snapped and the girl fell back into the blackness 'then I will give you the power to make it so'.

---

A single girl stood over her brothers corpse a single knife clenched in her hand. The others all ran off in fear. This filled her heart with rage, yet her body wouldn't move forward to stop them. She had the power now... the strength to get revenge for her brother and yet it meant nothing "Why..." she muttered. Caster stepped towards her and the girl's eyes went wide
'The woman from my vision'. He approached her brothers corpse and thats when she saw it, a single thread was tied around the woman's finger leading back towards her.

"Your wish for revenge was granted" Caster said solemnly "But now your fate is no longer in your own hands."

Wind. Erratic, unthinking, illogical. The embodiment of chaos. Some say it travels wherever it chooses, but in reality, there is no choice. It simply... moves. Unpredictably. You could learn a lot simply by watching the pattern of leaves wafting in the breeze, if you put your mind to it. There were also other things, too, that you could discover, but understandably most people try very hard not to.

One gust of moist air swirled through the windows of Archer's bouncing Taiyaki stand, quietly rustling its colored paper streamers and quickly sucking up the extremely aromatic steam like a curious, living creature. A wind chime began to ring cheerily underneath the cart's wooden roof, despite the gloom of the rain and the nocturnal forest looming up ahead.

Archer immediately stopped in her tracks, an intent look coming onto her face. She cocked her head and slowly glanced around, her eyes searching left and right. The tinkling ring intensified as the wind picked up.

It would be difficult to describe what exactly it was she was looking for. In one sense, it was a feeling. In another, it was knowledge. It was like standing on the tallest mountain in the world, and looking all around and down at the same time. The eerie sense of falling forward and floating in the same place would have easily made anyone cry out in terror, but Archer had been here before many, many times. Like a dice player carefully rolling the pieces in her hand, she reached out, and felt the balance between nothing and everything.

Gingerly, almost tentatively, she placed one foot in front of another and stepped forward. At that precise moment the merrily tinkling chime ceased its noise. Archer waited for a few seconds. She suddenly grinned and took another step forward, and another. Her steps became confident as she resumed pushing the cart on its trundling journey towards the forest.

"Hmm. I wonder if I'll be late," she commented absently to apparently no one in particular, although of course she already knew the answer. "Is everything so old as it feels?"

Archer made a face and pouted up at the trees directly ahead of her. "Come on now, I know you can hear me. Not all of us have forgotten, you know." The forest stood silently, as it always had. "I don't suppose any of you would jump if I threatened to take an axe to you?" Somewhat annoyed by the complete lack of any response, she sniffed and began tending to her Taiyaki stand.

Then Archer reached up for a lock of her now black, long hair, twisting the tip between two fingers as she made one last careful inspection. "Well, whatever. Hair, check. Kimono, stunning," she said with a satisfied smirk, tapping the wooden roof of her stand. It was doing quite a good job at keeping out the rain. "Jam-filled Taiyaki, delicious." She wiped something purple and syrupy from the corner of her mouth with a thumb at this last statement. "Jam-filled Taiyaki, delicious but sticky," she corrected. "And shy personality, adopting. Like those J-pop idols always loved to say..." Her voice trailed off as a small hill appeared a little ways ahead.

"It's showtime," she whispered breathlessly.

*****

As Archer shoved her Taiyaki stand over the top of the hill, the first thing she noticed was the seemingly feeble form of a young girl struggling along a few meters away. The girl was the key to... something. She wasn't sure exactly what, but a few interesting notions had already made themselves clear.

A tiny flicker of faraway movement caught her attention, and she sharply focused her eyes on the area, concentrating. It was a woman. The most interesting thing, though, was that in the drizzling rain this woman wasn't getting wet. With the superhuman help of the Archer Class's eaglesighted vision, she easily discerned that the figure was looking for someone, or something.

Quite possibly that something was the same thing Archer was looking for. Making sure that her presence was extremely well masked and the unknown woman's features entirely memorized, Archer slid easily into the role she had fashioned out for herself.

"O-oyamaa!!" Her own voice was soft and extremely hesitant, and not unlike a startled baby pigeon being poked incessantly in the rear, thought Archer wryly to herself. She gestured helplessly at the struggling girl. "A-are you all right, imōto-chan? H-h-here, let me lend you a hand. You have to get to the hospital right away!"

Rider stood behind the hotel and pushed several wet strands of long blond hair from her face. Her clothes were sopping wet by this point but she stubbornly persisted. Her expression serious, she knelt down on one knee and placed a hand flat on the ground. She would do it quick, take just a little from each person in the building, it would add up with such a large building, and she should actually be in shape to fight for her Master.

It was pretty late by this point, most of the lights in the hotel had turned off for the night as the occupants slept. If she did this right, they would stay asleep and none would be the wiser. Rider set her jaw and the rain around her swirled "Ring of Fire!" and with those words flame spread out in a smoothly curving line from either side of her hand and started to crawl around the hotel. It looked as though someone had drawn a perfect circle on the wet ground with gasoline and set it aflame. The flames weren't that high, a foot at the most, but they rushed to completely encircle the building.

It wasn't exactly the most subtle way to go about getting stronger, but she was desperate, and being desperate meant having to take risks if she expected any sort of gain from this one chance she had been granted to atain her otherwise unatainable wish. She could only hope that the flames would go unseen.

As she maintained her focus the two ends of the perfect circle connected and the bath was open for her to draw mana from those inside. Her focus was solidly on managing just how much life force she took from the people in the hotel. She didn't like the fact she was being forced to use this so early on. But she had little choice considering the circumstances of her summoning.

***

Within the hotel, staff and guests who weren't already asleep, found themselves gradually nodding off. It didn't seem to matter just how awake they had felt a moment before. Their eyelids slowly slipped closed. Maids collapsed in the halls next to their carts in a magic induced slumber, and those who were already asleep weren't even aware that anything was happening.

***

Rider licked her lips as she felt the mana start to flow, just a trickle at first. It was like easing open a flood gate, and it was all too tempting to simply throw open the gate fully and indulge in all of the mana these people had to offer. To suck them dry and be at full strength. However, Rider could tell that such an act would be completely against the wishes of her Master. Despite her casual dim witted behavior, her head wasn't nearly as vacuous as it appeared to be from an outsider's perspective. She was a warrior, a living piece of legend and lore. And she would serve her Master devotedly. Only a few minutes. That would be all she needed, at least for now...

Her head felt like it had been bashed in with a brick. 'To be exact it was a bat' . Her body was light, and she had somehow gained the ability to float through things. She phased through every person she could. She had originally hoped that she would see a montage of blood and innards as her eyes when through, but all she say was darkness. The woman walking ahead of her, the only person who could see her now, was forcing thoughts into her head once again. 'The grail war' 'Our master Kaito' 'Magus' all of these things now seemed as though they were common knowledge. It was frightening, she had died mere minutes ago and if this was some twisted form of heaven then... 'Why can't it be hell?'. Her eyes went wide of course a demon! She had sold her soul to a demon and now she was being dragged to hell.

Dawn would be approaching soon, or so the girl could gather. In life they had taken her watch, and oddly enough even in death fate had refused to return it. 'Does hell have time?'. "I don't know..." her hand met her mouth quickly, she had responded to it. That voice, the small nagging voice in the back of her head. It had been feeding her mind negative premonitions since she had died.

"Did you say something?" the elegantly dressed figure before her said without looking back "Speak."

Her throat began to burn "N-no" her voice came out clearly, yet seemed foreign. "Wh-where are we going?"

"Home." Caster answered plainly "Continue."

That burning again "Am I dead?" 'Umm duh?'

"In a way yes" the girls heart dropped "but if you play your part well you'll move once more along the lines of fate." She paused and turned to face her. "Introduce yourself."

The burning was even worse this time, bringing tears to her eyes. 'If you were dead you wouldn't feel pain!' Another voice, this one more excited, burst forth in her mind. "Hiyori Sato" she muttered "What are these voic-"

"Speak when spoken to." Caster said sternly.

A sharp pain shot through her body and she dropped to her knees. "The voices are the remnants of your free will" she continued while watching the girl "they'll attempt to guide you down paths that you can no longer follow."

The girl looked up at her and the pain stopped. That was it, the reason for all of the pain, the commands, the attitude. all of it was to show her who was in control. 'truly a hell ne? told you sooo~' 'No you're still alive just make a dash for it! She gave you power show her what you can do with it'. She ignored them and followed the woman into a forest. She had sold her soul to save her brother's, she had to accept the consequences right? 'Haha... cute.'

---

Caster was returning far earlier than she had ever planned, but with the added mana cost of the girl following her, she simply couldn't generate enough mana to keep herself going while that far away from her young master. The girl, Hiyori, had been oddly quiet since being told about the voices, she had expected far more arguing and proof of her control over the girl before she would become so humbled. Than again her expectations were going all wrong today. The failed circle, Kaito's wound, and now the new girl she felt as though things were a bit out of hand. But mostly she had the urge to return to her master and regain some of her mana, this night would have to be a quiet one.

"Ah.."

Kokoro's ears twitched. She cocked her head to one side to listen. It took her a moment of thought to realize that she was hearing Japanese words. Ones that sounded... Upset? She traced the sound to find someone calling to her from the top of the hill she was climbing. It was a girl. In a soggy kimono. That seemed like a bad choice of clothing for a rainy night, even to Kokoro. Still, it wasn't good to stare. Or so Nee-san had said. Kokoro lowered her one-eyed gaze to the ground.

"H-h-here, let me lend you a hand."

A hand? She already had two hands. Neither of them were helping her find Nee-san at the moment save for picking herself up off of the sidewalk whenever she fell. It didn't seem like having a third hand would make the task any easier. And she might forget to give it back. That would be bad.

"You have to get to the hospital right away!"

The hospital. Where was the hospital, again? It seemed like she'd been there before...

... White...

No good. She couldn't remember any details. Should she ask for directions? If Nee-san the taiyaki was there, she wanted to go too. No, that didn't seem right. Nee-san wasn't food. Nee-san eating taiyaki, maybe? The taiyaki was important, anyway. Still, Kokoro never was good at talking to people. Or talking to things. Or.. Talking. Asking for directions was... Hard. It might be better to just keep following the scent.

Right, the scent. The taiyaki smell. It had lead her this far. She shouldn't have too much farther to go.

".. Kun... Kun kun... Ah.."

It was nearby. Very close. Just turn to the left, and... A cart? That was definitely where the smell was coming from. Kokoro blinked expressionlessly at it. Was Nee-san.. Inside? She should be nearby... Kokoro sniffed again to make sure, but the result was the same. Well, if she's nearby, she should hear if Kokoro were to call out.

"... Taiyaki-ne--.. No..." She shook her head. ".. Nee-san..? Are you a tayaki...?"

It was dark... Kaito turned his head to either side still woozy from his earlier wound. 'The cabin...' his eyes met a nearby window, he could just barely make out the silhouette of the trees in the forest. The spell on his eyes had long faded leaving him on the brink of blindness, not that there was much to bee seen in the pitch black blob that was the cabin. One heavy hand lifted into the air cautiously, testing for pain, aside from obvious fatigue his whole body seemed ok. He swallowed as he placed his hand on his opposite shoulder where the spear point had struck him. The shoulder had been bandaged rather well. The boy breathed a sigh of relief as he attempted to get up.

After several falls and stubbed toes Kaito finally managed to flick the light switch in the bathroom attached to his room. As light filled the room he was met with his own reflection. Tired was the predominant word in his mind as he looked over his wounded body. The blood used for the circle combined with the mana he had poured into it had been a bit more taxing than he had thought.

'School is out of the question' he thought as he began to replace the bandages on his shoulder. He winced as the wound came into view it wasn't too deep and would heal rather quickly but it'd be painful to use and even more of a pain to explain to his classmates or teachers.... "Crap!" he blurted out suddenly. in all of the excitement that had taken place that day he had procrastinated on coming up with something to deal with that tutor he had met earlier. If he took the day off that would basically be like telling the world either you were planning something or something was wrong, and showing weakness in this war wouldn't turn out well. No, he had to go to school, face that tutor and pretend nothing was wrong.

He bit his lip as he tested the movement of his arm. Almost immediately he released released a small cry. Biting even harder into his lip he cleaned and carefully re-bandaged his wound. He then slid his uniform shirt over his head and gazed into the mirror. The bandages weren't all that visible. He practiced moving his arm and discovered just how far he could move it without any show of pain. Sighing he turned off the light and left the room. If he could make it through the next day without too much activity he just might be able to avoid the tutor's suspicions.

He found his way back to his bed sat on the edge still moving his arm every which way. He was a bit startled when he heard the door to the cabin open but calmed as he recognized Caster's voice as she announced her return. What he hadn't expected was a guest.

"Close the door." Caster commanded, and the girl complied shutting the door quietly behind her. "Ah, you're awake" Caster said upon seeing Kaito. The boy in question had his eyes fixated on the girl behind her. Noticing her master's obvious confusion Caster simply muttered "weapon".

The girl bowed and muttered "I'm Hiyori and I guess I'll be serving you from now on" before slowly fading away into the night.

Sighing and climbing into bed Kaito muttered "Explain tomorrow please."

Caster nodded and her master closed his eyes and fell asleep in the blink of an eye.