[District 7] - [July 13]

Within the reflection of the countless surround glass panels, a ripple effect fluctuates around Aogami's falling body.

"Oho, you're finally asking for my aid. How surprising~"

Through the closed eyes of Aogami Pierce, an ethereal foxy woman could be seen encircling him. Her pale white skin was similar to snow, her white fox ear twitched in amusement. Her long white hair reached to her waist as her bountiful breast threaten to free itself from the tight bound of her white kimono. Her white tail gently waved in the air, passing right through his body. The only tint of color within her appearance was her topaz like eyes.

"C'mon, Yomi. I'm falling to my death here," Aogami replies, pausing in between extreme fear and the urges to roll his eyes.

"Human, you're in no sign of danger. My aid would be unnecessary. Besides, you kinda deserve it, considering all the things you did these past years. As they say; "Karma is a bitch", isn't it?" She snickered.

"No danger? Sure, falling from a thousand meters tall building won't turn my fleshy body into a fine paste. What would a human like me know about gravity?" Aogami rolled his eyes, not that she could see it while his eyes were closed, of course.

"Hm~, if you still wish for my aid, what do you offer in exchange?" She whispered into Aogami's ear as if she was the devil.

"Strawberry shortcake?" He shrugged.

"Tempting, but I already ate it two full moons ago," she said, playing with his wildly fluttering blue hair. "How about your entire wallet? It has been a while since I last emptied it."

"Hey, I don't want to be another Touma here! Spare me at least that," he exclaimed in a shaky voice.

"Oh, negotiating are we? Funny, but the ground might be the one laughing instead of me," With a huge grin, she rotated Aogami's body, allowing him to face the ground. "Hm~, what would I, a non-human know about gravity anyway~"

"Oh... you drive a hard bargain, one that I'm certainly not going to be refusing anytime soon," he said, pulling out his wallet and checking it in midair.

"Dammit, I forgot to make a deposit," he muttered in regret before closing his wallet.

*Sigh* "Fine, you win," he said, slightly raising both of his hands in a sign of defeat. "Oh, also put me behind Misaki. I need to confirm a burning question of mine."

"Hm~, you never change, human," she chuckled, wrapping her white, ghosty tail around his waist and embraced him from behind.

"He disappeared!" Misaki exclaimed as she watched Aogami's vanishing act through the eyes of a bystander below.

"Teleportation perhaps? If I was Aogami, where would I go?" Misaki asked herself, and jabbed a taser behind her, touching against a stomach that wasn't there before.

"How!?" Aogami asked in utter astonishment, his hand was a few inches away from Misaki's bountifully mountains.

"That's simple. My idiot predicting ability knows no bound," Misaki smiled. "Now, meet your maker!"

A surge of electricity coursed through Aogami body, in a moment of mind-numbing pain he roared, "My hope and dream!" before dropping to the ground in a thud.

"How cruel of you, Misaki. You wounded me and nearly killed me, I didn't know you were this sadistic, but nevertheless, kinky," Aogami said, "staring" at the clear sky. His stiff body wasn't able to move a muscle, if he could, he would be trying to take a peek under Misaki's skirt right now.

*Sigh* "It not like you were going to died. I have an Esper on the standby to catch you," she explained.

"So, a Level 0 huh? I didn't know they can teleport nowadays," she stated. "Now, spill it."

"Just for clarity, I'm really a Level 0. My ability is that I can see dead people. You know, ghost, spirit, youkai, and etc," he answered, tempted to fall asleep under such a nice day.

"Ghost? Yeah right, how do you explain the sudden teleportation?" she said, doubting every words from this pervert mouth, yet as she sees it, he doesn't seem to be lying.

"Duh, I asked my ghost friend to help me. Say hello, Yomi," he said, and in response, a sharp gust of wind blew past them, but not enough to lift Misaki's skirt.

"You can't expect me to believe such nonsense, do you?" she replied with her arms crossed. A gust of wind couldn't explain the existence of a literal ghost. After all, it wasn't all that difficult to predict the flow of wind through precise enough calculation.

"Gez, Misaki. You're friend with Touma, the God of Pestilence, whose right hand has the ability to destroy anything "supernatural" with a simple touch. Is it that hard to believe in the existence of ghost?" He asked, tapping his now responsive finger against the ground.

"Afterall, you're aware of the existence of magician, are you not?" he asked. At that moment, she could have sworn that a tint of blue flashed in his closed eyes.

'Impossible, only Shirou and I could have known of the event last year,' she thought. In her earlier year, Misaki used her power with reckless abandon for privacy, and still somewhat today. On one peaceful afternoon, she happened to chances upon Shirou's unconscious body lying in an alleyway. Someone had punched him hard enough to dislocated his jaw, and Shirou seemingly passed out from exhaustion. Curious of what had happened to her close friend, she took a peek in his memories. It was an unexpected find.

Misaki said nothing, simply stared at Aogami. They both knew, and that was all that was needed to be said.

"Alright, you're probably wondering where Touma disappeared off to, isn't that right?" he asked, moving his neck a bit. "Well, I hate to say it but he got involved in something he shouldn't, again."

"This Holy Grail War, what exactly is it?"

"It's a magical battle royal with magical ghosts for a magical cup."

His response was rewarded with a kick toward the side of his gut. It would have hurt if his body wasn't temporarily paralyzed.

"Be serious."

"Gez, can't you be a little bit more trustful?"

"I only trust people I can fully read the mind of, and your is a little bit blurry," she replied, an expression of disgust resurfaced itself upon remembering his memories.

"Fine. At its most simplify concept, the Holy Grail War is just that. Seven pairs of magicians and magical ghosts of historical legends fight for an omnipotent wish," he explained. "It takes place in another reality, and Touma being Touma probably broke something and unwilling entered into it."

"And how exactly do you know all of this?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Isn't obvious? Yomi told me," he said as if it was the simplest thing in the world. At this point, Misaki gives up on questioning him.

"Is there a way you or your "ghost" friend to get my Prince out of there?" She asked, biting her lower lip in concern.

This was way outside her realm of specialty. She knew as much as Shirou when it comes to magic, so, basically nothing. Aogami mentioned magical ghost and if that was the cases, maybe he can figure something out. Aogami wasn't completely trusted, but it was better than nothing.

"Afraid not."

"You're useless."

"No need to be so rude about it."

Well, there goes all her hope, not that she expected that much from him.

"Relax, It's Touma, he has been through worst," he said somberly in an attempt to cheer her up. "Besides, Shirou is also there."

"W-what!? What did you say?" She yelled, tempted to lift him by the collar of his shirt and shake the information out of him.

"No need to yell, I'm right here you know," he said, waving his right arm in the air. "And Shirou is a participant in the war as it seems. Well, from what Yomi said, anyway."

"Why was he there? I thought he was gone like usual. You know, disappearing for a few days to be the judge of that underground cooking tournament and forgot his phone back at his house." Her eyes widened upon understanding the prospect of the two unlikeliest friends of her life being stuck in an out of this world event.

"Cooking... tournament? How would I know? It not like I have the answer for everything," he sighed to himself. With his body no longer paralyzed, he slowly got back on his feet.

"Hey, where are you going," she called out to him.

"To school, obviously. I may not look like it and my grade certain doesn't reinforce the fact, but I'm the proud representative of my class," he stated with a knowing smile. "Shouldn't you also be heading back to your school, little miss Mental Out?"

"As a Level 5, I can afford to skip a few classes. Besides, don't you think you can get away so easily. Be it from you or your "ghost" friend, I still have more question I needs to ask," she said, pointing a TV remote at him.

"Such misfortune."

"Hey, don't steal my Prince's catchphrase."

[Mirrored District 7] - [July 13]

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" "▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" "▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

How could he, Souichirou Kuzuki, a human, stand against a mighty servant such as Berserker?

Weaving out of the way of Berserker's onslaught of attacks, he casually adjusted his glasses out of habit.

That's simple. Souichirou Kuzuki wasn't a simple man. He was a magical assassin.

He was raised as a tool by a shadowy organization for all of his life, and he was sick of what life had to offer him. To him, taking another life was as easy as breathing, but unlike the other insane members of his organization, he lacks what they called "passion". He wanted to leave, but it was no simple task to do so. Perhaps it was fate that the organization sort of disbanded overnight due to unexpected financial instability and overwhelming gap of manpower. Those problem definitely didn't stem from the fact that his hand was soaked in blood that night, mere coincidences. Now, for one reason or another, he became a teacher.

Academy City was hiring for this summer teaching job and a few days ago was supposed to be his interview for it, but the Holy Grail War happened. Oh well, as a former assassin, adjusting to the unexpected was life.

('Caster,") he signaled in his usual monotone thought.

A clear blue haze surrounded him, dilating his perception of time, and overall speed to evade another series of swings while in close combat with Berserker.

Also, having a Caster who wield magic from the Age of God definitely helped with survival.

Clenching his first, he landed a punch that could easily shatter a metal wall, but against the skin of Berserker, it merely bounced off harmlessly. His right arm blocked Berserker's right hook and was flung into a vending machine.

His arm was shattered, but otherwise "fine". Shards of glass fall of his brown suit as he narrowly dodged an overhead swing of Berserker.

Good. His attention was focused on him, away from his master. Just as planned.

His palm impacted Berserker's heart in the hope of generating a powerful enough shockwave to rupture his heart, but once again, nothing. As expected of a Servant's body, he couldn't hope to damage it using his fist.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

'There!' He adjusted his glasses in a moment of intense tension and dodged a powerful cleave. Normally, such a powerful swing would destroy the whole foundation of the building behind him, but this was a trap set up by Caster beforehand.

The ax-sword was stuck within the building, and as Berserker's muscle bulged to pull it out. A magical circle lit up under him and trapped him in a bubble of time and locking him in place.

('Caster.')

"Rule Breaker!" Caster voice yelled in the distance. The layer of threads that was acting as Chloe's shield exploded as Caster twisted the dimension around her by teleporting to it. Before Chloe was able to react, an iridescent and jagged dagger had already plunged into her gut. Just like that, Chloe connection with Berserker was severed and in turn, an array of Command Seals engraved itself onto Caster's body.

Chloe eyes widened in response and willed the threat of the coat in retaliation, but found that she wasn't able to use her magic.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" Berserker roared and burst out of his time lock, his anger literally overpowered True Magic itself. Abandoning his ax-sword, he raised his fist in a mad charge. Souichirou tries as he might, was unable to match the sudden burst of speed from Berserker.

"Restrain yourself!" Caster commanded as the Command Seals covered her body activated with a crimson red.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" Berserker stopped dead in his track as a violent shockwave of wind blasted at Caster, removing her purple hood that hides her face to reveal an incredibly beautiful woman with purple hair and sharp ears. Her eyes were in tears as her expression was stiffen with horror.

"Caster, are you alright?" Souichirou asked in his emotionless voice as he ran up to her.

"Y-yeah, I'm f-fine," her voice was shaking as much as her legs were trembling.

"Berkerser! Kill them!" Chloe commanded as she shook Berserker's muscular leg. "Why aren't you listening to me! Wait, my Command Seal! Why can't I use my magic? What did you do to me!?"

"Hush now child, you have lost," Caster said, placing her tender arm onto Berserker's shaking, muscular chest.

"Give him back, he's mine!" Chloe yelled, acting her age and started pulling on Caster's robe. "Please, it's the only I have left."

Caster took a glance at Souichirou, and in response, he gently grabbed Chloe by her arm and dragged her away from Caster.

Levitating to his height, Caster placed her hand next to Berserker's head, she closed her eyes as her hand began to glow with a tint of pink light.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" Berserker roared, the ground shook as the unmoving Servant fury echoed in the empty street. Caster, although fearful, willed her courage together to ignore it.

"What are you doing?" Chloe asked, staring angerly at the robed Caster.

"Oh great demi-god Heracles, why are you scumbering to Hera's madness once again? Are you not stronger than that?"

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" A defining roar once again escaped the vowel of Berserker, it was filled with conflicted emotion.

"Your labors had been completed, are they not?"

"▂▃▄▅!" Berserker's slowly closed, until it's completely shut.

"God's plaything we all are, but will that be forever?"

"▂▂!"

"If you can hear me, then…"

"..."

"Wake up you idiot!"

Caster slapped him, barely impacting his blacken skin. Slowly, Berserker's eyes opened. It was no longer rage fill, nor was it blood red. A gleam of recognition dawn within the once raging giant consciousness.

"Medea?"

Touma Kamijou once again took a sip of his seemingly bottomless thermos of coffee. He sat comfortably on a soft couch within a mansion somewhere in District 3. Sitting across from him was a serious individual who introduced himself as Shinji Matou, and standing next to him was his Servant, Rider.

"Are you really the Imagine Breaker?" Shinki asked, staring dagger at his right arm from the edge of his seat.

"That's my ability, yes," Touma replied, taking a sip of his coffee again. He had explained it to them the power of his right hand, and like everyone else, they doubted it.

"If that's the case, may I test it?" Shinji said, pulling out a piece of paper.

'Test? Weird, but whatever,' Touma thought.

"Sure," he replied in an uncaring, if not lax tone.

Shinji grabbed his arm and dropped the piece of paper onto the palm of his right arm. It gently falls into his touch and instantly tore into scrap in a sound of glass breaking.

"I can't believe it. You exist! I thought it was just a stupid myth," Shinji exclaimed cheerfully as he clutched Touma's right hand tightly. "Please, help me."

"What?" Touma said in surprise.

'Huh, I guess magic exists, that's neat,' he absentmindedly noted.

"I apologized for my behavior," Shinji said, returning to his seat and adopted his serious expression once again. "You see, I entered into this Holy Grail War to-"

"You keep said war, what is it anyway?" Touma interrupted.

"Right, you're an outsider and an Esper at that," Shinji rubbed his chin. "How would I explain this? Hm… well, I think of it like a game. Seven pairs of participant, some with more advantage than other, expecially those belonging to a powerful clan. Proportional to their advantage, the master each summon their servant with a catalyst of their choice. If not, they rolled for their servant in somekind of gacha system. Servant are not made equal, but a poor master can weight down the best of Servant. Afterward, they fight in a battle royal. Alliance will be formed, betrayal will happen, but by the end, one servant will stand among the corpses of six fallen hero. Their prize for doing all of that. A wish."

Touma nodded, and took a sip of his coffee. The whole concept was somewhat simple to understand, but still alot to process.

"Ahm," Shinji lightly coughed, refocusing himself. "My uncle, Kariya Matou, was cursed by our semi-immortal and extremely evil ancestor after he killed him.. It's really complicated, trust me. But all you need to know is that he is dying and I wish to save him. It is the least I can do for him. But after my encounter with Purple Saber. I'm not as certain of my possibilities of winning anymore.

"Basically, I want to use the Imagine Breaker to lift my uncle's curse," he concluded. "I know, you just meet me and aren't extremely trusting of me, but I'm willing to sign a Self Geass Scroll if-"

"I will help you, It's what I do. I can't leave a troubled person even if I wanted to." Touma said, sleepishly scratching the back of his head.

"But-" Shinji wanted to ask if he was certain, but that shouldn't be what he should be saying right now. "Thank you for believing in me. Most people won't."

"Anytime," Touma replied, accepting his hand. "By the way, how do we leave this place, this parallel reality I mean?"

"Oh, that's simple. Someone just need to use the grail, or in rarer cases, destroy it. Without its powersource, the overlayed reality will crumble away and reality will return to normal," he explained, taking a bite from Rider's baked snack.

Touma once again nodded in confirmation.

"There is no need to worry about it. Rider and I will protect you to the best of our ability until we are the last remaining pair, then we will surrender in order to minimize the conflict," Shinji reassured. "Besides, you're the Imagine Breaker. If the myth is true, you should have no problem vanquishing the opposing Servant, especially with our help."

'If you say so. Hm, these snacks are rather tasty, I should ask for the recipe later.'

Shirou Emiya knew he might be stepping into a minefield, but he was willing to blow himself up once or twice if it meant that he could know the truth.

Saber began her story. "As you know, your father, Kiritsugu Emiya was a master in the previous war that took place in Fuyuki City ten years ago. He was hired by the Einzbern as their representative for the Holy Grail War and entered along with your mother, Irisviel von Einzbern, and his assistant, Maiya Hisau.

"Your father was a complete mystery, he spends a large portion of the war ignoring me and refused to discuss any strategy with me. It was rather infuriating, but nevertheless, I admire their wish of saving the world."

'Saving the world…' Shirou echoed those words in his mind.

"The war was pretty normal. I spends most of the time with Iri, racing her on my motocycle. We almost drove over Lancer at the harbor. Did drove over that creepy Caster who claimed that I was some French saint. I mean, do I look remotely French to you? Rider suddenly appeared out of no where and challenged every one to a race for the grail, inspired by what he called "Maria Cart". Then this golden bastard and one of my knight joined. Seeing that I was clearly at a disadvantage I summoned my ditched my motocycle and summoned my mount. Caster got jealous that he can't paricipate and summoned this eldritch abomination and interupted everything. He was killed off pretty quickly, and then there was an after party. Apparently Assassin also got jealous and decided to crash the party, they were delve with pretty quickly via Rider's army. It was all around a good time, one of the few enjoyable moments of my after life," she smiled at the fond memories. "Too bad it all goes downhill from there. The end."

"The end? Saber, what about Kiritsugu?" He asked.

"Right, him," she muttered, balling her fist in rage. "First of all, your father seemed to have some kind of vendetta against this priest called, Kotomine Kirie-"

"Wait, Kotomine Kirie?" Shirou exclaimed upon hearing that name.

"Do you perhaps you know him, master?" She asked, somewhat interested.

"Yeah, he owned a Ramen Shop back in Fuyuki and is known for making this extremely spicy Mapo Tofu," he explained.

"That's interesting if not a little strange," she remarked, failing to picture the priest owning a ramen shop. "Continue on. Besides his strange obsession with the priest, who was strangely nice, your father was everything I loathe. Our ideology clashed multiple times, especially after he held Lancer's master fiance at gunpoint and force him to use his command seal to force Lancer to commit suicide, and ordering his death after a promise of words. Shirou, Kiritsugu, well, it was technically me who finished him off, but HE -well, Maiya shoot him- killed a man in a wheelchair who clearly surrendered. How cold hearted must he be? I may have been an emotionless king, but at least I care for my kingdom.

"I knew your father as the cold, caluculating and seemingly emotionless if not extremely capable master than he was. He disrecarded all form of chivary, honor and common sense if it meant that he will gets the result that he wanted. His mask was usually, if not rarely broken when he interacted with Iri.

"I was fine with following his order, but after I found out that he was cheating on Iri with Maiya, I was ready to end his life there and then, but for some unexplain reason, Iri was fine with it." Saber slammed her fist against the wall, creating a large hole to the next room. "Perhaps it was bias on my part, but I now understand Lancerlot rage."

Shirou didn't know what to say to this, but he still believed in his father to be a good if not morally misguided person.

"In the climax of the war, he betrayed me. Well, it's nothing new that I haven't experienced before, but nevertheless, I was rather mad, extremely mad. He forced me to destroy the grail, all while claiming it was corrupted by some other priest who wished for world salvation. I mean, wasn't that what he wanted, world salvation? I swear, that man," she growled, restraining herself from punching another hole in the wall.

"I don't really know what happened afterward, but apparently a fire broke out due to the Grail's mana. Your father and Kirie were fighting to the death... again... over their ideology or something stupid like that," she concluded the story.

'Corrupted…' Perhaps it was the naive self within him, but that word etched itself into this grand puzzle.

*Growl* Interrupting his concentration, his stomach echoed a soft roar.

"Shirou, you must be hungry. I shall serve you this apple. It's the least I can do to take care of my cook... master. Yes, master," she said, wielding a golden dagger in her hand she quickly peels the skin off it and cuts them into pieces before serving them on a small plate. A proud look surfaced itself onto her face as she completed her task.

"Ah, thank you," he said, continuing his prior thought while absentmindedly eating a piece of it. Before he knew it, Saber had already eaten all of it.

Caren Hortensia stood in silent within one of the few churches in Academy City. She stared her Servant petrified figure in daze and questioning herself on what to do with it.

Suddenly, she snapped her finger as a revelation dawned upon her. Taking out a bottle of mineral water, she placed on the ground and kneel before it. After praying for a few minutes, she stood up with the bottled water in her hand and unseal it.

"Oh lord, free this man from his binding, sin, and curse," she prayed, splashing the content at Purple Saber's petrified face.

Slowly, stone returned to flesh and clothing.

"NANI!?" Yelled Purple Saber after his mouth was able to move, seeming continuing his susprise prior to him being turned to stone. It was loud, Caren covered her ears in annoyance.

She wonders why his Magic Resistance didn't mitigate some of the effects of Rider's Mystic Eyes, but it was probably because its rank was too low to be effective.

Now free, Purple Saber calmed down and looked at his master with a miserable expression.

"Master, my Noble Phantasm was destroyed," he said, slumping down on a nearby bench.

"Yeah, I saw that. A mysterious adversary indeed," she nodded, her expressionless face fails to express her concern. Who could this spiky haired individual be? She couldn't sense any traces of mana within his body, and he destroyed Saber's Noble Phantasm with a single touch.

"What do we do? As a swordsman, I can't fight without a sword and normal sword will be ineffective against other Servant," he stated, he tried to call his weapon again, but the connection was completely destroyed.

"There is always the Black Keys," she stated, pointing at the sculpture of the Lord crafted from thousands of colorful black keys in her boredom. Of course, this was done with an important intention behind it. It serves as an amplifier for all of her magic and would give her an edge if another master were to challenge her in this domain.

Purple Saber said nothing, an aura of depression further clouded his surround as he sat still in contemplation. In his hand was a Black Key, he dangled in front of him and made to attempt to wielded it.

"This isn't a sword..." he sadly muttered.

'Maybe I should combine them to make somekind of Black Key katana," Caren thought.

"Rin, where are we going?" Archer asked as he followed Rin in his spirit form.

"I'm tracking Lancer, of course," Rin replied, looking through her gem-made for traces of the Servant or their Master.

"It's dangerous for you to be out in the open like this. Besides, you could have left it to me. I'm an Archer after all, tracking an injured dog is a simple task."

"Dog? Weird thing to compare Lancer with, but alright. And for the last time Saber, you are not an Archer. Get it through that thick skull of your," she sighed.

Archer stood there for a solid minute, eyes closed and hands trembling.

"I need to kill myself, and fast," he tiredly muttered under his breath, dragging his palm across his face. "I didn't think Rin would be this bad. How did Aias the Great dealt with it?"

"You coming, Saber?" Rin called. "I can't be doing all the work, can I now?"

*Sigh* Archer reluctantly followed after, lightly clutching a red gem pendant in the palm of his hand as he did.

"Damn you Alaya."

AN: Curing Berserker's madness should be something Medea is capable of. What will happen to Chloe now? What will Shirou do? How will Shinji deal with the God of Pestilence incarnated?

To be continued.