Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/Stay Night or Fate/Apocrypha

Shirou Emiya's mental to-do list on the Holy Grail War:

Large flat metal cylinder made from covering seven swords I forged myself with molten silver and then engraved with a summoning circle – check

Have that scabbard inside of me to act as a regent to summon a hero from Arthurian legend – check

Be located in a forest in England when summoning to get a legend bonus – check

Take measures to ensure that Clock Tower or other magi won't figure out what I'm doing – check

Have Saber(Arturia Pendragon) present and ready just in case things go wrong – check

Perform the Servant summoning ritual at midnight while it is not raining –

Negotiate with summoned Servant –

Get out of England as soon as possible and return to Fuyuki –

Win Holy Grail War –

…I think I'm skipping ahead a bit. Regardless, it is finally time to summon my Servant for the 5th Holy Grail War. As I stood in front of the engraved cylinder on the ground, I began chanting the incantation.

"Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. Hear me in the name of our great teacher, the Archmagus Schweinorg.

The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.

Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill).

Repeat every five times.

Simply, shatter once filled.

I announce.

Let thy body rest under my dominion, let my fate rest in thy blade.

In accordance with the resort of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.

Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.

You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"

I can feel my magic circuits beginning to burn my body as the summoning circle glows a bright red, until it is too bright to see for an instant. After my eyes adjust, I can finally see the Servant I have summoned. For whatever reason she is currently impaled by a spear in her side, with blood beginning to leak out of the wound and down her armor . Her face looks just like Arturia's, although the silver armor she is wearing is different, the dress underneath the armor is red instead of blue, she doesn't have an ahoge and-

*SPLORCH!*

She just ripped the spear out of her, blood spilling out onto the summoning circle and ground, yet a grin slowly forms on her face as her wound and the hole in her armor begin to close. She turns her head to gaze upon the spear and-

Now that I've taken a look at it, I believe that spear she is holding is Rhongomyniad, a weapon that belonged to King Arthur, although it seems to have been altered with the addition of two short double-edged blades at the base of the spearhead that are perpendicular to the spear's shaft, giving it a passing similarity to a spetum. Since the edges of those two blades facing towards the tip of the spear are sharp and their opposite edges facing towards the shaft are dull, I am guessing that the purpose of the addition of those two protrusions seems to be giving the spear a substitute for the crossguard of a sword without impacting its penetration ability. In fact, with the meter long main blade, I felt that 'this' Rhongomyniad more closely resembled a longsword with a very long grip than a spear…An impression that proved to be accurate when she used the same Noble Phantasm that Arturia has, Invisible Air, to make the pole-arm invisible and assumed a swordsman's stance, which meant that somehow the shaft of Rhongomyniad shortened in response to…No, 'this' Rhongomyniad had its own Invisible Air bounded field, and had the ability to dematerialize the end of its shaft until the grip was of the appropriate length for a two-handed sword. I wonder if this means the Servant I summoned is a Lancer, Saber or-

"Mordred?" Arturia asked in a shocked tone.

Mordred…That makes sense, 'he' died when 'he' was impaled by Rhongomyniad, so that's a very good hypothesis as to the identity of my Servant for this Holy Grail War, even though she has a weapon that King Arthur wielded. Luckily, I know an easy way for me to find out if this is true or not. 'Masters who have made contracts with Servants have the ability to read out the status of a Servant with powers of clairvoyance', if I recall correctly, so I close my eyes and try to view my Servant's information.

Servant Class: Saber

Master: Emiya Shirou

True Name: Mordred

Sex: Female

Height / Weight: 154cm / 43kg

Alignment: Lawful Evil

While it is great to know that my second Servant is also a Saber, boasted to be the strongest of all the classes in the Holy Grail War, I do have to wonder how Arturia came to the conclusion that this Servant's name was Mordred.

Oh. Right. They killed each other, didn't they?

I finally snap out of it and look to my right and, although Arturia has drawn her own weapon and entered a combat stance, I can see the look of concern on her face. Glancing back at Mordred and seeing a twisted smile on her face, and I realize that the 'Negotiate with summoned Servant' part of my checklist is going to have a few complications.

"FATHER!" Mordred roared as she smashed her foot into the summoning circle, shattering the silver cylinder and the sound barrier as she leaped forward to launch a strike against Arturia, who dodged by jumping to the side. Mordred chased after Arturia as they went off deeper into the forest and out of my sight, but I still hear the loud clashing of steel on steel from their battle. It seemed to me that Arturia was on the defense in this fight before they left me, although I'm not sure if this is because she's holding back or Mordred is significantly stronger than her, but now is not the time to speculate. I should have spoken up before they started fighting, and it is up to me to get this problem back under control.

I glimpse at my right hand and think about using one of my recently received command seals on Mordred, but I immediately go against it. The usage of them will always be a last resort that should only be employed if a situation is truly out of hand.

Putting myself between those two, while a very appealing idea, is impractical due to how quickly they are flying though the forest, and considering the shockwave of Mordred's initial jump caused what I believe is her Prana Burst ability, I would most likely be unable to get into that position in the first place.

The third option, well, I recall that I could make my thoughts known via telepathy through the Master and Servant connection. Sure, usage of that ability was usually by accident at first, and I recall a few instances where Arturia misinterpreted hearing what I thought for something I would never say (to her face) and took it out on me in the dojo, but overall I think I've learned a lot about the technique. Such as the ability to give my Servant auditory hallucinations via telepathy. And when you consider that there are few noises more irritating than sound of fingernails scraping chalkboard, when you combine that with an angry, commanding tone you get-

"MY TWO SERVANTS, I ORDER YOU STOP FIGHTING IMMEDIATELY AND RETURN TO ME!"

A very hard to ignore order. I can hear the sounds of battle finally stop in the distance, although I don't get the impression that they're coming back towards me. I start looking through Arturia's eyes with shared perception to see that they're just a hair-trigger away from resuming their battle. I do notice, however, that Mordred has barely received any damage from the fighting, and from Mordred's vision, I can deduce that Arturia was noticeably injured before she started healing herself due to some of the blood covering her.

"MASTER! HOW IS MY FATHER ALSO YOUR SERVANT?!" Mordred screamed back into my head. Fortunately, I made time to prepare what to say for the 'Negotiate with summoned Servant' part of my checklist, so I was more than ready to handle this.

"Arturia is a Saber from the previous Holy Grail War that occurred 10 years ago. Although her abilities are restricted by her Saber class and she is still considered a Servant, I had summoned her as my familiar over a month ago. Despite the fact that I do not have a command spell to control her, we agreed that in exchange for her cooperation I would give her my wish on the Holy Grail. Do not fight her or you will force me to use a command seal." I explain with haste.

"Master, are you an idiot? There's no point in keeping him as a Servant. Having the two of us as Servants will just split the power in half between us, and if I kill him you will be able to make your wish upon the Holy Grail." Mordred speaks with condescension. And referring to her 'father' as 'him'. Seriously, if I had a wish to make, it would be to get all this gender confusion about Arturia straightened out…No, I'm pretty sure that's an impossible wish, considering that I am still struggling to comprehend it. Why the hell did Merlin ever think that it would be a good idea to give Arturia a penis? On second thought, I don't event want to know, and I need to stop thinking about that and get back to convincing my Servants to not kill each other.

"You're underestimating my ability as a magus. While it is true that the rate that I can resupply you with prana during battle would be reduced, did you honestly feel lack of energy while fighting with your fath-…Arturia? You didn't even realize that Arturia was also my Servant if I can guess by your first question, and yet I managed to provide both of you with sufficient power during your...dispute.

As for the wish upon the Holy Grail, I have little desire for it as my wish can be achieved by my own power, but I will take measures to ensure that it does not fall into the hands of an unscrupulous magus." I would have said 'fall into the wrong hands', but considering her Lawful Evil alignment, that might have not gone over so well.

"Master, you don't need my father's help at all to win! You can see that I am already far better than him, so just leave everything to me!" She exclaims.

…Fine then, but even if we don't need Arturia's help, we just won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Very well. Arturia can store huge amounts of power in reserve and has C-Rank Independent Action which will allow her to fight normally without me providing prana to her for an extended period of time. This means I can concentrate on giving you all of the prana I can produce during combat, and Arturia will be relatively unaffected by this. Therefore, you can be responsible for fighting all of the Servants, and Arturia will only serve as my bodyguard. If we go by this plan you won't have to concern yourself about keeping me safe so you can focus entirely on your battles. Is that fair?"

I once again looked through Arturia's eyes to see the expression on Mordred's face. She gave a look of contemplation, a sigh, and then a bright grin.

"Alright, then it's a deal. I'll let my father watch how much I've surpassed him. Now, tell me where our enemies are so I can go ahead and vanquish them!"

I'm beginning to get the distinct impression that this will be a long night. At the very least, the "Get out of England as soon as possible and return to Fuyuki" part of my checklist should be relatively easy.

I couldn't keep calling my two Servants Arturia and Mordred if I want to keep their identities a secret, so I decided that henceforth Arturia will go back to being 'Saber' and Mordred will assume the codename of 'Falchion'. Of course, Falchion vehemently objected to being the one with the codename, but frankly I'm used to calling Saber by her class name. She finally settled down after I admitted that while it might be an act of favoritism that I chose Falchion to have a codename, it was definitely an act of favoritism that I chose the codename 'Falchion' since it is my favorite type of sword, and it is by no means an insult that I chose it for her.

Still, the travel by plane back to Fuyuki was uncomfortable. It wasn't the ride, it was just the thought of being right in the middle of two heroic spirits that are mortal enemies while on an easily destroyed plane that is currently several kilometers off the ground made me a tad paranoid.

Because we're stuck in this plane for the next few hours, I should take the time and apologize to Saber if she thinks that I am dismissing her role to that of a mere bodyguard.

"There is no need for that, Master. I understand that you decided to make a few concessions in your agreement that I was inferior to Falchion." Saber stated in an irritated tone, as she picked through her airline meal in an unusually slow pace.

Damn it, I'm using telepathy by mistake again. I really did think I made progress with that. "Wait, does Falchion know?"

"I do not think so, rather, I am beginning to believe that it is the nature of our contract that allows you to easily…and accidentally share your thoughts with me." Saber speaks into my mind. "You should not have to worry about her reading your thoughts by accident."

"Now if only I could get you out of my head, I'd be set." I reply.

Saber turns to be and gives me a look of disappointment. "Considering that your Servant was the one who betrayed and killed me, and the occasional 'experiments' involving me that you feel necessary to perform, I believe I am entitled to this assurance that you will not deceive me."

"For the last time, it was very important to know if extremely spicy food could be used to incapacitate a Servant!" I respond while sighing.

"I'm going to go take a nap or the jet lag is going to be a pain. Please wake me up when we get to our destination." I politely ask, in an attempt to change the subject.

"Of course, Master. It is good to see that at least you have confidence in my ability to do menial tasks." Saber responds while still giving me a begrudging look.

I decide it's not worth arguing with her further on this matter, so I'll use self-hypnosis to quickly send myself to sleep. Perhaps after a good snooze I can think up of a way to make it up to her, but in the mean time I'll try and focus on getting my two Servants to not kill each other.

…Defeated in single combat, Mordred collapsed while still impaled by Rhongomyniad.

"Never remove that helmet before other people." Morgan le Fey had ordered.

Freed from that mask his mother forced on him, and with a face identical to Arturia exposed, he said,

"…Fa-ther,"

He reached out to touch the King with his blood-soaked hands at least once, but not even that wish was granted as he fell.

After leaving the airport in the morning, I decided to walk home. While I could certainly afford a taxi ride, it's a beautiful day for a stroll, even though the weather is cold enough to make my breath white.

It is only a minute into our walk when Falchion starts hovering in front of me and asks "Master, can you do something for me?"

Considering our fragile alliance, I'm not sure if I'm in any position to deny her requests. "Name it." I reply.

"Buy me some clothes."

…Now I'm curious.

"Shouldn't you be able to wear one of Saber's outfits? And why would you even need them? Isn't it nice to be able to fly around like that?"

"Master, I don't want to put on THOSE clothes my father is wearing. And it is not nice to be able to fly around, this spirit body makes me uneasy, and I need my feet on the ground to keep my composure."

Well, I thought that the white collared shirt with a ribbon, blue skirt, and long black socks looked good on Saber, but it's not like I'm terribly concerned about saving money, so I decide to relent.

"Fair enough. We'll head on down to ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ and after that we can ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ there if you want."

"Master, ▅▅▅ ▅▅▅ feeling well?" Saber inquired. I ▅▅ not okay ▅ ▅▅, but ▅▅▅ ▅ nothing she can do, ▅▅ I shouldn't ▅▅ ▅▅ bother her.

"▅▅▅n't worry,▅▅ ▅▅▅ ▅ headache. ▅▅ be fine." I lied. ▅▅▅▅▅ can't read ▅▅ thoughts ▅▅▅▅ now, so I ▅▅ get away ▅▅▅ ▅▅▅.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅"

I awoke in my bed gripping a penny knife I made myself. It's nighttime, but I check my wristwatch, and I find that this time I'm only missing yesterday's memories after we decided to go clothes shopping.

No, I'm not missing those memories. They aren't there, because they were never made, so I can never retrieve them.

I don't know exactly what this condition is or the cause of it, but I remember my failed attempts to deal with this. I couldn't even rely on what I wrote in my diaries because there was NOTHING I would recall from reading them, and I couldn't trust myself to be honest in them.

It was by chance that I found a workaround, as I had noticed while looking over one of my cooking knives that I could recall making a meal while using it during one of the memory gaps. I had discovered that bladed weapons can be used to take in and collect the thoughts of its owners, so I would keep at least a knife on me whenever possible so that I could store those memories outside my head and retrieve them later.

With the experience I gained from those outside recordings, I was able to figure out when I would stop making memories, which was both good and bad. While I would be able to figure out that I needed to start recording my memories to a knife, at times I…They would go into an existential crisis, like believing that they would disappear after I got back into control.

It doesn't matter, and they don't matter. I don't care if the cost of saving someone is being erased from existence…No, I don't need to confirm my convictions right now.

What I really need to figure out is why Falchion is asleep in my bed. I still have my clothes and she is wearing a t-shirt and boxers, so I believe nothing serious happened at least. However, I'm pretty sure I vehemently opposed Saber's clumsy seduction attempts by trying to sleep in my room, so it doesn't make sense that she would be able to convince me to-

Don't worry, I'll only kill you if you treat me like a woman.

I can see from the memories stored in the knife, I was far more afraid of Falchion's wrath than dealing with her attempts at seducing me. In addition, Mordred did rebel when Arturia denied Mordred the throne, so it's a not a good idea to deny Falchion access to my bed. Therefore, I should stop fretting over that decision and-

So, it appears my Master is unaware of his perversions.

Worry if I accidentally grope her in my sleep.

This is going to be another long night.

I woke up much later in the morning than my usual 5:30 time inside my undecorated room, most likely due to the uncomfortable atmosphere last night, and I thank that I can wake up anytime now since I am 'self-employed' instead of attending my second year of high school. To be honest, I did like attending school, but I'm never going to settle down with an ordinary job, especially if I already have the means to discreetly acquire large amounts of wealth, and I need to focus on my magical studies.

Falchion had already left my bed, so I decide to finally 'download' the memories I've stored on my knife. Although it's better to not overexert myself by thinking about all the memories that I took in, I look over the highlights of what I have recorded, all of which involve Falchion. It seems that Falchion has completely disregarded my abilities as a magus other than being able to provide her with prana, not that I blame her considering how little talent I have in magic outside of formalcraft(also known as 'thaumaturgy for dummies'), which I can't use much of due to it requiring knowledge that I don't have. Falchion also claimed that when I summoned her, my 'perversions' caused her to gain some weight somehow, though in reality I'm almost certain it's a reflection on how much I screwed up when I first summoned Saber as my familiar. I did note that Falchion did not eat or drink anything yesterday, as I assumed that if she wanted to do so, she would ask, and she certainly isn't shy when it comes to making requests.

Falchion did seem interested in the fact that Saber was training me in swordsmanship, and wanted to spar with me later today, but first I'll need to put some clothes on and eat breakfast. Considering I need to get used to it, I take off my clothes and pick out my underwear in addition to one of the dozen sets of my protective clothing. Each set has chainmail concealed between two layers of Kevlar, and are colored to resemble a black long sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans, so it won't be immediately spotted as suspicious while wearing it. The chainmail itself is the special part, however, as each of the tiny links were made from swords I had crafted myself. Every link was checked several times by using reinforcement magic to fill the gaps in its structure, and then reforged to manually close the gaps I found within it to make them as strong as physically possible. Since the links are so small, they don't hinder my movement at all other than their weight, so it's the best concealable armor I am able to make.

"You know that body armor isn't going to be of any use against a Servant." Falchion chided from behind me. "And it won't save you from the magical attacks that an enemy Master could use."

"Perhaps, but it is better than no protection at all." I reply, as I start to wonder how Falchion snuck up behind me without me noticing.

And then I remembered that I'm not wearing clothes right now. Alright, keep cool, don't embarrass yourself and-

I panicked as I quickly put on my boxers, grabbed my shirt and pants, and ran out of my room and into the bathroom, then locked the door and fell back on it. Fortunately, Saber seems to have not 'forgotten' to lock the bathroom door this time while taking a bath, so I have a moment to-

"Why did you run off like that?" Asked Falchion as she materialized in the room and gave me a curious look.

I'm never going to have a moment of peace, aren't I? Falchion's spiritual body can pass through walls, so she can essentially go to where I am at any time.

I tried to calm myself down, until I notice that she's wearing a pair of daisy dukes, a tube top, and short black socks; an attire which is making it very hard to not see her as a woman. While I'm sure that her hatred of being called a woman would make this ironic, I'm pretty sure bringing up the subject would lead to a messy death. As well as telling her my honest opinion on why I just ran away from her.

"Well…I…Erm…Um…I'm not really awake yet, and you surprised me?" I weakly respond, as I try to put on a smile.

"Humph. So this is what your month of training with my father has amounted to? You must be pathetic." Falchion noted as she looked down on me with a frown, although after thinking about that comment I now put on a genuine grin.

"Funny, I'd thought you'd say that Saber was just a poor teacher." I chuckle as I put my clothes on, but I see that Falchion's face is now flushed.

"Er, that might be the case, it's just it could be that…you're still lazy, so…I'll talk to you about this later." Falchion stutters out before turning into spirit form and leaving the room.

...Well, that could have gone better. Then again, it could have gone far worse, so I'll count this as a victory. Thinking about it though, why do I consider my own Servants to be the greatest threats to my life?

After finally getting around to making and eating breakfast, I went into the dojo for the morning sparring session (The reason the sparring session is in the morning is because it usually takes until the early afternoon until I recover from Saber's merciless beatings). The dojo itself has some bounded fields to prevent loud noises (frequently from my cries of pain) and prana from leaking outside, as well as some fields to prevent damage to the dojo from the fights within.

For fighting, I had the pleasure to make several dull metal swords for Saber's use. Granted, we could have just agreed to not use magic and fight each other with shinai, but I figured I needed to learn how to use reinforcement magic while fighting, so we needed swords that wouldn't break with a single swing. As for me, I wear black fingerless chainmail 'materialization' gauntlets to these practice sessions. They differ from my chainmail body armor as instead of each link being focused on providing protection, they are instead used to store a sword in a way similar to the storage of Black Keys of the Church. By passing my prana through a link in the chainmail, it will materialize the sword in my hand, and quite a few of these swords are the dull swords I use in these practice sessions. My style is to duel-wield dao (although I believe the type of dao would be called falchions as well) since it's awkward to throw swords otherwise, and I just focus on survival as I seriously doubt I could compete with any Servant for long.

As an example, Falchion didn't exactly understand that our sparring session was for my improvement, assumed that this 'duel' we agreed to was an attempt to impress her, and promptly cracked my head open less than a second after the match began and knocked me out for an hour.

"Shouldn't you have known that there is an unspoken rule in sparring to NOT KILL YOUR OPPONENT?" I ask Falchion while we leave the dojo.

"Hey, you got better, didn't you?" Falchion weakly responded from behind me. I don't bother turning around to look at her; I just want to focus on making lunch, so I head straight into the kitchen.

"I am never going to practice with you again." I reply with disdain as I start cooking lunch.

"Yes, I believe that is for the best." Saber happily agreed. I can see her beaming as she sits down at the table, most likely content with the fact that she is the only one allowed to work out their frustrations on me.

Falchion didn't come into the living room, so after I finished cooking, I brought the food over to the table and sat down to-

I was walking Sakura back to her home when I came back into control. Nothing of note happened in that time according to my knife, as Falchion did not eat dinner along with me, Saber and Sakura. It really does seem that Falchion will not eat any food, which is good considering that I had to buy another refrigerator to deal with how much Saber eats.

I check through Saber's eyes to observe that she is standing guard at my house, and through Falchion's I can see that she is nearby, using a pair of black roller shoes she bought yesterday and A-Ranked Riding skill in her parkour (Do I even want to know how that works? …Yes, I want to see her try rocket-powered roller skates sometime.).

The reason I am escorting Sakura Matou is because she is a possible Master in this Holy Grail War. I know that she is a magus, and I am sure that by calling Arturia 'Saber' that she's figured out that I am a Master, but I am glad that she still trusts me enough to look after her. Granted, Shinji, Zouken, or a hired representative could be the Matou Master of this war, but I won't confront her about this. Sakura would be a valuable hostage someone could use to extort me and/or the Matou, so I'll need to ensure her safety in order for me to have peace of mind…Well, I won't have peace of mind until I figure out why exactly Sakura is suffering so much. I did give Sakura an ordinary pocket knife for her to keep, and while I can't retrieve a coherent thought from that knife, I know she is in pain, which is something I plan to address before this war is over.

I dropped off Sakura at her mansion and exchanged meaningless goodbyes, and I begin my first nighttime patrol of the city. Falchion zips over to me once we are out of sight of the mansion and starts traveling in circles around me. Falchion's wearing her red jacket now, and it seems she's going fast enough that the air is blowing it and her hair around like a powerful wind. She does have a look of boredom on her face, so I decide that now's a good time for a conversation as any since I won't accidentally communicate my thoughts to Saber when she's so far away.

"Hey, Falchion, did I ever mention to you why Saber will be guarding my home unless we're in battle?" I ask, as I could honestly have explained it before and forgotten.

"Yeah, you said something about having trouble providing him energy, so he has to eat and rest in order to compensate, and he can get to anywhere in Fuyuki city within a few minutes so it's not a problem for him to guard your workshop." Falchion answers in a casual manner as she comes to a stop and starts walking by my side. I really wish Falchion would stop referring to Arturia as a male though, even if she is her 'father figure', but I won't let that distract me. The important thing to know is that Falchion is not asking why-

No, the important thing to know is that my command spell engraved on my right hand is hurting, which indicates the presence of a nearby enemy Master. I stretch my senses out, and I get the feeling that the Master is waiting ahead of us.

"Saber! Come to me now!" I order telepathically as I come to a halt.

"Master, what's wrong?" Falchion asks with…enthusiasm? She's already materialized her armor, and she has a slight grin on her face.

"An enemy master." I reply shakily. At least she's better prepared than I am. Even after the brutal training Saber has put me through, I'm shivering in panic at the thought of putting my life on the line.

"Heh, can't wait for me to see me in action, right?" Falchion chuckled as she misinterpreted my fear for excitement.

No, its not just fear I'm feeling, as I am not just wondering what could go wrong. My curiosity is getting the better of me, and my mind is overwhelmed by thinking of all the things that could happen next. But I know Falchion is strong, so I don't need to worry about losing. This battle will just be a stepping stone to my path to victory.

"Yes, Falchion, I want to see the fruits of my labor, so show me your strength." I reply after regaining my composure and putting on my materialization gauntlets.

It's true that I do want to see how well I have prepared for this war.

I had strengthened my body, prepared my mind, and studied my magic.

To provide as much prana to Falchion as I can, I will use my magic circuits to their fullest, which will produce a tremendous amount of heat. I must use self-hypnosis to ensure that my will won't falter to the pain of the temperature, and I must reinforce my body's thermoregulation in order to ensure I won't cook myself to death. To do these three things at once, I will need to say an incantation to convince myself that it is possible, so I speak the words that describe who I am.

"My body is made of blades. My mind is steel and my circuits are fire."

Servant Stats

Saber

Servant Class: Saber

Master: Emiya Shirou

True Name: Arturia Pendragon

Sex: Female

Height / Weight: 154cm / 43kg

Alignment: Lawful Good

Strength: B

Endurance: B

Agility: C

Mana: A

Luck: B

Noble Phantasm: A++

Class Skills:

Magic Resistance: A

Riding: B

Personal Skills:

Independent Action: C

Charisma: B

Instinct: A

Prana Burst: A

Noble Phantasms:

Invisible Air: (Anti-Unit) C

Excalibur: (Anti-Fortress) A++

Falchion

Servant Class: Saber

Master: Emiya Shirou

True Name: Mordred

Sex: Female

Height / Weight: 154cm / 43kg

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Strength: A+

Endurance: A

Agility: B

Mana: A+

Luck: C

Noble Phantasm: A++

Class Skills:

Magic Resistance: A-

Riding: A

Personal Skills:

Battle Continuation: C++ (This skill is effectively at C-Rank, but the power of this skill triples after dying and allows for one to make a single last attack. This skill represents the fact that, due to being bound by a strong curse, Mordred gave Arturia a fatal wound when she swung her sword right after her death.)

Instinct: B

Prana Burst: B+

Noble Phantasms:

Rhongomyniad: (Anti-Unit) C

Rhongomyniad: (Anti-Army) C+

Clarent Blood Arthur: (Anti-Fortress) A++

OMAKE

I thought the 'Get out of England as soon as possible and return to Fuyuki' part of my checklist would be easy.

"Get to the cockpit! GET TO THE COCKPIT!"

I thought 'What's the worst that could happen?'

"IT'S TOO LATE! LANCELOT JUST TOOK IT OVER!"

I thought I was prepared for the Holy Grail War.

"Hello, Onii-chan!"

I thought wrong.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

BERSERKERS ON A PLANE

COMING SOON TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU

Author's notes: I'll admit, I could have really expanded on this first chapter, but it would be a lot of telling what happened prior to the summoning of Falchion and not showing it. I have tried telling this story with the beginning being earlier in the timeline, but after writing a few false starts before giving up on them due to a mix of frustration and disinterest, I decided to skip ahead and imply and/or reveal what events have happened in the past of this alternate universe. For the most part, the only major changes to this universe are Shirou's development and self-training as a magus, so the events and setting will start off similar to the original visual novel. I did initially make changes to Shirou's personality in order for him to actually be somewhat compatible with Mordred, mostly because canon Shirou's opinion that "No matter how strong [Saber] is or how armored she is, I think it's wrong for a girl to have to fight" would get him quickly killed by Mordred's hatred of being called a woman. (Well, either that or Shirou would be gar for Mordred, but someone else can write that)

Shirou's discovery that "bladed weapons can be used to take in and collect the thoughts of its owners", is based off of the canon jewel magecraft, as it is mentioned that "people's thoughts tend to go into jewels" in the visual novel, so this particular ability has its foundations in canon.

As for Mordred/Falchion, the in-universe reason why Mordred had gained the Noble Phantasm "Rhongomyniad" and lost "Secret of Pedigree" is that, similar to how Vlad the Impaler in Fate/Extra and the one in Fate/Apocrypha barely resemble each other, this Mordred is a different incarnation of her legend compared to her Fate/Apocrypha counterpart. Arturia acted as the catalyst to summon Mordred due to Mordred's status as a clone of Arturia, and since Arturia is summoned in the form of "myself about to die", Mordred was also summoned in that form as well. Because Mordred was about to die after being freed from her helmet, but impaled on Rhongomyniad, I found it suitable to switch the two Noble Phantasms she has. I also saw fit to give Rhongomyniad its own Invisible Air passive enchantment so that Mordred could keep some of the hidden identity advantage that "Secret of Pedigree" gave, among other reasons.

The reason I decided why Mordred should not have "Secret of Pedigree" is because that since this story will be mostly told from Shirou's perspective, there would be no way to explain the expression on Mordred's face while she is wearing her armor, a restriction I truly desired to get rid of for the sake of the narrative. While the "Secret of Pedigree" ability works in Fate/Apocrypha, it is partially because of the third person omniscient narrator. In a translation I read, during a battle it was said that while Mordred had her helmet on, "Unconsciously, [Mordred]'s cheeks drew into a grin". I can't say that in my story due to Shirou's point of view, so while it was fortunate that I could make a good in-universe explanation for why she doesn't have "Secret of Pedigree", I honestly would have justified taking it away from her one way or another.

One more thing, Taiga will not be in this story because I don't want to write about a minor character that I find incredibly irritating. In fact, don't think it's even worth the effort to make up an explanation on why she isn't around, so she will be "Lady Not-Appearing-In-This-Story".

Let me know what you think, I'd like to hear some feedback on my writing style before things start to get serious.