I'm sick of waiting!" proclaimed Rin. Her father had been in London helping his colleague Kyo research the Chaos Grail incident of ten years ago for weeks and didn't want to wait any longer for him to guide her through the process. She had what she needed: the pendant her father said was rumored to originate from Atlantis itself. She had also called the priestess, who was also in London, and she claimed only three masters remained- of the Rider, Archer, or Saber class
She stretched out her hand over the seal she constructed with jewels she collected
"My will creates your body. Your blade creates my destiny
If you heed the Grail's call and obey my will and reason, then answer my summons!
I hereby swear I will be all that is just in the world, and I will defeat all evil in the world.
Seventh heaven-clad and the great words of power- come forth from the circle of binding- guardian of justice!"
A bright blue light filled the room. "I did it!" she said. "Wait…"
She ran up to the living room and looked at the clock. "Shit! I forgot the clocks were an hour behind since I received those artifacts! I was an hour behind the proper summoning time!"
She heard a slight thumping sound on the ceiling.
She ran to her father's study and went to the balcony.
She looked up on the roof and found a boy about her age standing on the roof with a red sleeveless tunic and messy black hair. "It would have been nicer if you could have summoned me outside you know…"
"Why you…"
"Sorry. Forgot my manners." The servant jumped onto the balcony as she moved back into the study.
"I am Van Fanel of the Rider class. I assume you are my master; correct?"
"Correct…"
"Good. That pendant did its job well."
"That means you must listen to what I have to say! Understand!?"
"Easy, master. Of course I will…" Rider replied "This place definitely brings back memories. I wonder if Hitomi is still around…"
Rin was frustrated she didn't get the Saber-class servant she wanted, but she felt safe with this servant in her hands. Now she needed to get some rest. She made sure to finally reset her alarm clock.
"So, we're still alone on the Chaos Grail committee?" Kyo asked as Tokiomi left the meeting.
"Of course we are. I have been laboring way too long to convince the damn Clock Tower that we need to organize to finally track down and destroy the Chaos Grail for good," he replied. "They were practically begging for this committee to be formed ten years ago. But now, they are claiming it to be a 'waste of resources' and they've stripped our team down. By now Rin will have summoned her servant without me. I wanted to help her personally since we need a good servant to take it out. I need to leave very soon to help her."
"I'm going too. I have to bring Caren back to Fuyuki to oversee this Grail War and also attend Granny Kasumi's funeral."
"We're losing a lot of good allies I knew I could trust." Tokiomi replied "We lost Irisviel to 'old' age, and now your grandmother's gone. Who's taking care of Sakura right now?"
"Irisviel gave me and Maiya control of the Emiya estate. She's going to be living at that house for the time being under the care of a neighbor who's one of the teachers at the school."
"Well. We are going to have to move much more carefully than last time" Tokiomi said. "We don't know who is or isn't our allies. That is something we learned the hard way last time. I will meet you at the airport in a couple hours."
"See you there…"
"I'm heading off to school." Rin said to Rider.
"Why are you putting yourself at risk by going to a school on the eve of a war you're participating in?" Rider asked before she was able to leave. "Not to mention all the murders that have been circulating in the newspaper. All of which are, coincidentally, decapitations."
"I am not at risk with that many people around."
"Yes. But it's likely one or more of the students are mages participating in the war."
"That's ridiculous. None of my classmates have the capability to summon a servant. The only mage family in the school is washed up"
"That you know of. If you're ambushed, you are in grave danger. Because of the imperfect summoning, I don't have the strength to summon Escaflowne just yet."
"Gah! I thought the Rider class was supposed to be composed of Riders!"
"If I'm not able to defend you properly, You will surely die."
Rin grew bright red and blurted "I am perfectly capable of defending myself!" before storming out.
"I'm such an idiot!" she said to herself. "I spent over ten years training for this and not only do I summon a Rider and not a Saber, but I screwed up the summoning! Stupid!"
After class, she was about to leave when her servant asked, "Leaving already?"
"Yeah…" she replied "As I said. There's no way an enemy master could be here"
"Well. That's where I believe you're wrong." Rider replied, "Because I'm picking up multiple signals of nearby magic activity."
"Impossible" said Rin. "Now I wish I still had that tracker handy."
"Do you know where that is at home?"
"Nope."
"Long time, no see, Tohsaka" a smarmy looking boy said behind him.
"It definitely would have been best that way, Shinji," Rin replied
"Well, look who's boss."
"Like you have a chance, Matou" Rin said before making her exit.
Kyo walked into the secretary's office and asked, "Do you by chance know when they'll finally be done doing 'research' on my Azoth Sword?"
"Funny you should mention that…" she said, brandishing the blade wrapped in cloth "it just got turned back in to the office a few minutes ago."
"Thank God." Kyo replied, retrieving it from the secretary. "It's been several weeks, and I was beginning to wonder what they were really doing."
"According to Atrum, who gave it to me, it's definitely in prime condition."
"I'll make a note of that."
He left the office and met with Haruka outside. "You have the blade?"
"Yep. About time too. Let's get to the airport. We don't want to be late."
Kyo was fixing to make his exit when he was stopped by security. "What's the trouble?"
"There has been an incident. Campus is under lockdown."
Kyo showed his faculty ID. "I can handle it. Just point me in the direction."
"You won't be too happy about this…"
"It's getting real late, Rider," said Rin. "I think we're in the clear now."
Rider continued to scan the PE field. "I'm certain someone's nearby… or maybe I'm just paranoid. Anyways, I guess I'll follow what you say. If anyone was going to strike tonight. They would have by now."
Rider's suspicions were proven true, however, as a scary man turned the corner as they were leaving. He stood out with his dark skin, eyepatch, and bulky vest carrying what appeared to be multiple grenades. Despite carrying grenades, his weapon of choice was a massive, bloodstained, Scottish claymore
"Oy," the man said. "We have scored the jackpot. This lass must be the master we're looking for."
"Stand back, master. I'll handle this!" Rider said, pulling out a sword of his own.
"Ya bloody fool. This blade has tasted its share of blood, but it can still take some more, laddie!"
Rider blocked the blade, but he struggled to counter his opponent's massive sword with his own blade that was much smaller in comparison.
"Damn it," Rin thought "If only he had been summoned properly, he could unleash his full potential."
Rider tried going on the offensive by attempting to outmaneuver the servant, but the servant was able to block every single one of them.
"It's no use lad. My blade has reached full power. Besides, you must be of the Archer or Rider class. A servant like you has no chance against a Saber class in sword-to-sword combat."
Rin and Rider was fighting a losing battle. Rider was up against a dangerous swordsman and he had no way of gaining the upper hand without his noble phantasm.
However, Rin was about to be bailed out as several pink blasts of energy attacked Saber from above. Saber dodged them in the nick of time
The servant that attacked from a second-story window appeared to be a young, pink haired girl in a frilly dress with a wooden bow. Her master, Rin was able to identify easily.
"Sakura?"
