"I ask of you: Are you my Master?"

This girl staring down on me while I was seated on the floor asked. I'm in a very bad situation now and her appearance doesn't make things much better.

"Hey, speak up kid."

She spoke up, a little louder this time. I understand a bit of this whole master deal, but something about this situation is very, very wrong.

"Hn-" I couldn't even make out words.
"Hey, speak up idiot. I can't hear you!"

She is clearly growing agitated, and I couldn't help but turn my head slightly while blushing. It's not like I'm intentionally ignoring her; while I'm not great with words it's not like I'm shy and am unable to normally communicate with others. However…

The girl who stood before me had black hair, or maybe dark blue, slightly flared out. She wore a stern face and her red bang on one side tapered away. Even ignoring her scowl she would normally be called cute if you were just admiring her face.

"What's wrong with you? Did I really get paired with such a useless person?" She said while poking me with her sword.

No, it wasn't a sword. No matter how I looked at it, this was one side of a pair of scissors. It was crimson in color, so even though her poking me drew a little blood it blended right in with the weapon.

But her cute face, or dangerous looking weapon weren't what left my speechless. As she closed the distance and put her face closer to mine, my face became a much brighter red. I turned my head hard to the left while looking away and finally she glanced down.

"Wh-What the hell am I wearing? What did that old guy dress me up in? Is he some kind of pervert!"

What stopped me from looking out of embarrassment was her outfit. I guess it could be called a sailor uniform, a semi-standard uniform for Japanese female students, however the top barely covered the top half of her chest, and her "skirt", if it could be called that was barely inches long, and was dangling onto a pair of straps from her top about as low as they could for any form of public decency.

She sighed, "Well, whatever it's not like I'm not used to this type of outfit. Damn I know I told him what my wish was but I didn't want it granted half-assed like this! Hey, kid. Let's start over, are you my master or not?"
"Y-yeah, I guess I am"
"Alright, then let's form our contract!"

She looked really excited for some reason, I was a little bit scared. But before such emotions could carry my thoughts very far she plunged her sword, scissor blade, whatever, straight onto my left hand that I had been resting on the floor. I almost screamed in pain until I realized it didn't hurt. When she withdrew her weapon I looked where her sword had pierced me. A mark was left, it looked like a crimson red tattoo, almost matching with her sword. It looked like an extravagant pair of scissors over a diagonal crescent moon. According to the information I received the other day this was probably my command seal.

"Alright Master, pact's formed… and uh, am I supposed to call you Master? It feels weird"
"It's fine, my names Ryouichi Kobayashi"

"Alright Ryo it is, fits you much better than Master. You don't have the dignified appearance of one after all," she laughed.

Somehow I feel like I was being insulted.

"Alright now let's go kick some ass!"

She grinned at me, turned around in the classroom I was in and rushed straight to the window.

"W-wait, this is the third story!"
"Hah, say that sooner, idiot! Just kidding, as if I care about little details like that."

She jumped out the window without even opening, using her hands and arms to cover her face. I ran towards the window half-expecting to see the worst, however what I saw was against the realm of physics, instead of falling straight down, about halfway to the ground she placed her feet on the wall and ran down the wall until she hit the ground and continued forward for a little bit. She glanced back up at me and screamed, "Stay up there you'll be safer!"

She ran towards the open field I had previously run away from, but I guess I should explain why I, why all of us are in a situation like this.

I'm Ryouichi Kobayashi, average Japanese high school student. I don't do anything overly poorly or well and don't stand out at all. Well I guess if you look up my family tree we're descended from an important family but that doesn't mean much in today's world.

My story begins a few days ago, I received a letter in the mail. Rather than a letter, it was an extravagant invitation looking envelope. Upon opening it I looked at the letterhead. A cross? Was this from a church? I'm not even Christian why did this come to me? I glanced down and began to read.

Greetings Master Candidate,

You have been sent this invitation because you have been chosen as one of the 7 potential candidates in the area to take place in the next Holy Grail War. This is a sacred event that allows us to bear witness to the great Holy Grail of legend. Momentarily someone will be there to take you to our Church where I will explain further.

P.S. Participation is not optional.

This looked like junk mail, I crumpled it up and tossed it in the wastebasket. A moment later, the doorbell rang. I was the only one home so I went to get the answer it, "Yeah I'm coming!"

I went to the door and unlocked it. What greeted me was a sight right out of an old American alien film, two men dressed in jet-black suits, wearing dark sunglasses with clean-cut haircuts. I couldn't get many thoughts out as shortly after one of them chopped at my neck and I faded to blackness.

As I awoke, I stood up on a long wooden bench. I glanced around and saw several wooden benches, as well as a podium with a cross on it. However I wasn't alone, looking around I saw 6 others all looking like they just woke up too, maybe they were taken by the men in black too? Wait, there was a little girl in the front right bench swinging her legs casually, clutching to a stuffed dog. I guess even elite government agents were nice to children.

We looked up at the podium as one of the men in suits took to it, lined up behind him were several of them all dressed the same; however the one on the podium stood out among all of them despite wearing the same outfit. The reason was he was clean shaven, from head to toe, or at least his head and parts that were visible. It looked as if a single hair didn't grow on him, and the light from the chandelier above us shone off his head, almost blindingly.

He glanced down at us and spoke, "Greetings Master Candidates, I am the host of your event."

Our event? I thought, was this optional?

Of the seven of us, a boy sat in the back right on a bench alone, he put two fingers on his half-frame glasses and pushed the frame up before speaking, "Our event? I believe the letter said it wasn't optional and you dragged us out of our homes to be here."

Yeah, you tell him glasses guy. His looks, his attitude, I bet he was a class rep- no, even student council president! You could usually tell these things by looking.

"Oh they didn't do any mean things to get me here, they just told me they could bring back Zwei!" The little girl in front happily exclaimed while holding up her stuffed animal for all of us to see.

"As you can see, there is benefit for you to participate in as well. The winner of our event will be granted one wish, any wish. No wish is beyond the realm of possibility of the Holy Grail."

Everyone else seemed to perk up a bit from hearing this. I didn't really care much, didn't have much to wish for after all. But at this point given that they had us abducted from our homes I felt like it would've been more of a hassle to try to wiggle my way out of it.

"Very well, it appears I've gotten your attention. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Mr. Smith, the priest of this church."

I don't think any of us believed him.

"The Holy Grail War is a long-standing tradition that has happened numerous times. Think of it as a large scale tournament"

"So, are we gonna draw lots and fight in some arena?" A skinny boy near me asked. His hair was bleach blonde and spiky, and his shirt with its sleeves ripped off exposed his twig arms. On closer glance he appeared to have somewhat toned muscles so maybe he works out? Didn't do much though.

"As much as I would like to see that, unfortunately the Holy Grail War is much more primitive in execution. To put it simply, it is a battle royale between you Master Candidates."

Hey, what the hell? I better not end up with a pot lid as a starter weapon.

"But do not worry, it is not so primitive you will simply be fighting each other in some grand melee. All of you are deemed at least as potential mages, some of you may realize your potential or even come from traditional mage families, this battle be based upon that."

These guys connections must run deep. It's as he said, while the Kobayashi family isn't exactly some type of historical mage family, apparently if you go back far enough we branched off a sister family of some big mage family whose name was forgotten over time. I even tried to learn a little magic but I couldn't do much besides really basic spells. I could never do anything technology couldn't already do but better, so I sort of stopped practicing.

"S-So, are we supposed to be fighting with our magic? I… don't really know how to use Magic" A reserved girl spoke up. Well, spoke up is a bit of an exaggeration, it was more of a whisper. She had her green hair done in a large braid and wore large glasses. Looked to be a standard bookworm type.

"That isn't the primary method of fighting but it is not against the rules. The primary method is through the summoning of a servant; one of seven major hero archetypes. These are legendary heroes of old, gathered across time from the Holy Grail itself…. Is what I'd like to say…" Mr. Smith seemed a bit depressed.

"What do you mean, you'd like to say?"

This time a other boy spoke up, he had grey-hair and rose up from the back Like most of the rest of us he wore some type of school uniform so he must be in the same boat as us, getting abducted from home before we even had a chance to change.

"Well, that is the Holy Grail is a bit off. While preparing for the event, we learned that it is unable to summon traditional heroes of legend. Honestly, we're not sure what it's going to summon, hopefully they're not scary monsters huh?"

The not-so-priestly priest said something very disturbing.

"Awwwww, I hope I can fight with something cute~" A bubbly girl spoke up leaning forward on her bench. She had bright red hair, tied in a pair of twin-tails. She spoke as if she had no care in the world, or more accurately nothing to fear. Was it air-headedness or confidence I pondered to myself.

"Do not worry, they will be heroic in some form, that is an iron-clad rule. However the power output of the Grail is not strong enough to draw from the pool of legendary heroes it maintains, so the servants this time around may be…. Less heroic then usual. However do not worry they are bound to obey you within reason. While they may possess personalities of their own, it's in their best interest to respond to you. You will also be given a set of command seals that will serve as an ultimate order to allow you force them to listen to you, there are limitations behind them but you can figure that out as you go."

This wanna-be sci-fi villain sure likes to avoid explaining important details…

After we were released from the church, we all proceeded our separate ways. The student council president-looking guy looked like he wanted to speak to one of us, but turned and walked away. I wasn't really sure who he was trying to talk to but it didn't matter much.

Before we were released we were told how to summon our servants. Basically the process entailed making a magic circle, and using a catalyst to bond a spirit to our world. Ideally the catalyst would be something that would inspire thoughts of a strong hero in our mind, but apparently it really didn't matter much. Afterwards we would infuse some magic into the circle and poof, our servant should show up. Also the magic circle didn't have to be specific in design, the words from the priest were something like "Just follow your heart". His personality and looks really didn't match up at all. There was a bit of an unknown because of the whole "We're not really sure what's gonna come out" thing but we had our command seals to force our servants to obey.

I honestly considered abandoning this whole deal but the priest said there was a winner. Which meant there were losers, so there would be a good chance I'd get targeted at some point. Trying to win the thing seemed pretty inconvenient but it was probably a bad idea to act unprotected from here on out. We were assured that our lives or the lives of those around us weren't in danger in this fight as the grail would fix everything.

I lost myself in thought and walked around a bit, I decided to go towards my school, after all if I wanted to do this I should do this away from home. It's not like my parents are ever home but I'm not sure what kind destruction a summoning would cause so better to at least do it somewhere open.

Arriving at the school, I looked around a bit to ensure it was empty. I decided to do it in the baseball field. I could probably use the mound to draw the magic circle. Of course I didn't know who or what would get summoned, if I did it on a baseball mound would I summon Ichiro?

As I approached the baseball field I saw a shimmer of light in the distance. It was closing rapidly and I had a bad feeling about it. Following my instincts to duck the object whirred over my head. I turned around and saw a beautiful silver spear. Hey weren't our lives not supposed to be in danger? In what way is that not dangerous!?

"Please don't dodge, I'd like to end this as fast as possible. A second later, a young girl no more than 14 or 15 appeared by the spear. She wore a traditional school uniform with a white top, blue skirt and blue accents on her top. She grasped the spear in her right hand and thrust towards me. By sheer luck, I tripped up and fell down dodging the spear low as my head hit the ground. It hurt, but the pain indicated I was alive. As I glanced up I saw pure white. Maybe I was dead after all? Out of instinct I reached out for it...

But what I felt was definitely not the "light". By feel alone instead of a warm, enveloping light they were silky in texture.

"Kya!"

I had a bad feeling about this.

"Y-you… are all Masters into such lewd acts!" She screamed and slapped my hand away. I ran into a generic love-comedy situation I never expected to see in real life. Flustered, she kicked me away. Well instead of a kick it was more like a punt, by the time I was done I had traveled over the baseball field and into one of the third story classrooms. While it definitely hurt, I was apparently still alive. It must have something to do with the whole "Our lives weren't in danger" business.

At this point I had little time to waste. I needed help to defend against the girl, so I felt it was time to try out this summoning ritual; it was the reason I came to school in the first place after all. I ran towards the board and picked up a marker. I intended to draw the circle with a dry-erase marker but apparently they were out of ink when I tested them. What the hell who was on duty!?

I looked around and couldn't see anything, I also needed a catalyst. Something, something that would make me think of a hero. All I saw were desks, maybe if I found something that looked like a weapon here- as if! This is a classroom there wouldn't be any weapons here!

Browsing anything and everything around me, I looked into the trash bin by the Teacher's desk. In the bin I saw a pair of scissors that had broken into the two halves. This was probably the best I could do. I reached and grabbed one of the halves. Looking around to see what I could make my circle with, I couldn't find anything. I came to a chilling conclusion and looked at the broken pair of scissors in my hand.

Normally, I hate doing anything I don't need to. I'm not lazy per se, but if I don't need to do something I prefer not to do it. However apparently in a life or death situation my flight or fight response removes those inhibitions from my personality, because what I did without even thinking was beyond anything I could've imagined myself doing.

I cut open my right index finger with the pair of scissors, drawing a decent amount of blood. I immediately got on the ground and drew a medium sized circle. I didn't think of what I wanted to draw, I was just drawing; after all our circle should be from the heart. I drew a slightly smaller circle giving it a double-layer look. Inside the second circle I drew a star and a little dot on between the two circles next to each point. Looking at it closely I basically drew a pentagram with blood. Whatever I summoned might be even worse than the girl trying with the spear, is what I should've thought but instead I grabbed the handle of the broken scissors and thrust it into the ground infusing magic into the handle. Even without anything in the way of formal training, basic mana manipulation like this was as natural as flipping a switch. I was thrown back as I was blinded by a flashing light.

Apparently, I'm to be called Saber, an old guy dressed in all white told me before beckoning me into a portal. This isn't a situation most girls would normally fall into let alone agree with, but he said I could have any wish granted if I followed through with it, and… well there's someone I have to meet again no matter what. The one who was with me through thick and thin. It's why I went through with this and why I found myself once again in battle in a somewhat familiar uniform with a weapon I thought was gone forever.

To get this wish granted, however, I need to win. I was summoned by an unreliable looking guy so I'm probably going to have to do this alone, but first things first is to keep him safe. Something about our contract must've given me some insight to his thoughts because I know before I arrived he was attacked by a this girl standing before me, wielding a spear.

I kicked off the ground and flew towards her, drawing my blade back.

*clank*

Our weapons met as I approached and slashed towards her neck. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. I pulled back and slashed at her chest diagonally, she repelled it with the base of her spear and spun around pushing me back and thrusting toward me. I leaped back gaining my distance.

She sprinted towards me and thrust the spear into the ground, using it as a pole vault she flipped into the air slamming the spear on the ground as if it were a hammer. I took a step back, and stepped onto the spearhead to keep it on the ground. I definitely had her this time, I swung my blade straight towards her neck.

"Young Lightning!"

Before I could react she had given my abdomen a weak palm strike. However what followed was a secondary impact which almost felt like electricity flowing through my body. I was blown back a few feet from the impact. A normal person might've gone quite a ways from an attack like that.

The distance between us gave the spear user the clear advantage. I was hesitant to make a move and we stared each other down for what seemed like an eternity. As if to break the silence, she gathered her spear in one hand, pulled back and launched it straight at my head.

No, it was just a few inches above my head. Did she miss? For a split second I considered countering, but she was too skilled to make a simple mistake like that. Finally I realized what lie behind me on a third story room.

"Oh no you don't!" I used all my strength to kick off the ground. I arrived on the wall above my Ryo just a moment before the spear did and swat it away with my scissor blade.

She dashed towards the spear and picked it up before I could try to take advantage of the situation. Staring each other down we took a brief reprieve from the fight.

"Tch, you're pretty good, what's your name?" I genuinely complimented her. It's not like I had any reason to hate her. After going through so many battles I wasn't sure I could lose to anyone, let alone someone who looked to be my junior a few years.

"It's customary to give your name when you ask for someone else's isn't it?"
"Yeah I guess that's rude of me, apparently we're not supposed to use our real names, I'm called Saber."
"... I'm supposed to be called Lancer. Sword Shaman of the Lion King Organization"
"..."

"..."

"I-I think I know what you want to ask. I'm a "sword" shaman… right?"

She nailed it. Furthermore she called herself Lancer, given that I'm Saber it'd make more sense for a "Sword Shaman" to be a Saber like me.

"It's just a title given to us, don't think too much into it please…"
"Got it."
"And um… before we continue… would you like to cover up a bit more?" She blushed looking away.

I rested my head on my hand and sighed. It's been a little bit since I've worn something like this but I've lost any sense of shame long ago. Since my opponent was being so sincere I couldn't help but respond in kind with the truth.

"Uh, well, I'm not sure how it works now but previously I used to get stronger the more skin I exposed…. And I imagine the guy who sent us over here had something to do with it."
"How lecherous… is everything involved with this Holy Grail War deviant in nature?"
"I… you may be right..."

We stared at each other awkwardly for a moment. As if to break the silence we both readied our weapons and got in a battle stance prepared to re-engaged… however what we heard put us both on guard.

Darkness blacker than black, darker than dark,

I beseech thee, combine with my deep crimson,

An unknown girl's words resounded through the area. It felt like it was coming from everywhere at once so it was difficult to pinpoint the location, but both of us were looking around for her just the same.

The time of awakening cometh.
Justice, fallen upon the infallible boundary,

It continued, by now we realized that it was coming from over the school's PA system. Without knowledge as to where the broadcast room was there wasn't much we could currently do.

Appear now as an intangible distortion!

I desire for my torrent of power a destructive force:

Now we had both been on guard, prepared for anything. We even turned opposite directions and backed into each other almost as if we were about to combine forces for this unknown attack.

A destructive force without equal!

Return all creation to cinders and come forth from the abyss.

After what seemed like an eternity of chanting, it seemed we were nearing the end. As the chant wound down something felt wrong about the space between us. Instinctively we both leaped away from each other just before the area was consumed by in light. It created a large magic circle and light shot up towards the sky from it. Continuing to run away, I realized we made the right decision.

"Explosion!"

The area we were just in was consumed in an explosion of epic proportions.