Two steps in the bag... Wait, that's not how the idiom goes.

One step forward

"Please lay him down here!" Koyuki requested anxiously.

Rider put Shige down on the hastily prepared wooden table. He was breathing raggedly in his unconscious state. The moment she had arrived at the scene of the battle she had been holding him in her arms. Koyuki's words had barely reached her, but she managed to register her plea to take him to her home. She had carried him all the way here with a grave expression until she was finally forced to set him down.

The blonde woman watched as Koyuki rushed through the supply room and brought back some first aid material. It didn't seem like she was very confident in using it, but she did her best. Shige's injured hand and leg were already wrapped in cloth, but the blood had soaked them completely.

The attacker, that enemy Master, he had pierced Shige's hand and leg with a sharp needle, which left the wounds relatively small, but it didn't close up as it should. It didn't appear to be infected at least.

"His hand w-w-wasn't pierced completely." Koyuki stuttered and tended to the right hand with the Command Seals on it. "I can use a Kuji-in to boost his vital energy, but i-it won't heal the nerves… s-s-so… we should bring him to a hospital-"

"…." Rider glanced at Shige's pained face. This was the second time she had seen him lie in front of her, beaten and weak. The first time was during her very summoning, but hadn't she sworn to protect him back then?

She clasped the pendant in her fist.

With a firm motion she put it on her protégé's chest. In an instant he glowed in a foreign violet hue. Koyuki shrieked as the boy's hand shot up. The open wound was not bleeding anymore. Shige trembled for a few moments and then coughed. His eyes opened just a tiny bit.

"Sano-senpai!" Koyuki leaned back in and tried to hold his shoulders in place as he twitched. "Can you hear me?"

"R-Rider-san…" He called out to her between coughs.

"I am by your side." She knelt down next to him.

"D-did… did we… did we win?" His coarse throat made it hard to understand him.

"You survived." She replied softly. Survival itself was victory for now. Shige's face relaxed a little.

"Sano-senpai, we need to get you to a hospital. Your wounds have stopped bleeding, but you still need treatment-"

"No! It's fine… I can't go to the hospital." Shige adamantly denied her while raising his head and then fell back onto the pillow that had been pushed under him. "Just let me… rest." He muttered and then closed his eyes again.

"But…" Koyuki was lost. She clearly was not used to these stressful situations. She never had to make tough decisions on the fly.

Rider knew why he had said that. If Shige went to the hospital he would be unable to participate in the Holy Grail War. He would be questioned and put attention to himself.

Without even hearing his reasoning she knew. He did it for her.

"Koyuki." She called out to the worried girl.

"Y-yes Rider-dono?" She gulped.

"The pendant will keep him together. Treat him as best as you can and he should recover on his own." It was a callous statement. She knew it sounded heartless.

Koyuki looked on deep in thought and then nodded quietly.

Rider stood up and walked out of the room, onto the moonlit terrace. Just as she looked up with her blue eyes, a spot of red joined the scenery. Archer leaned against a tree close to her and simply watched over the garden with a thoughtful expression.

Deftly, she sat down cross legged on the porch and sighed.

"Speak your mind." She requested without tearing her gaze from the moon.

"Shigechiyo-sama displayed true bravery today. He had cornered a magus all on his own." He said while slowly stroking his goatee.

Rider did not reply to such trite praise.

"I regret having arrived so late. Koyuki-sama was inspecting the puppet you had brought to us." He nodded towards the entrance of the burial chamber that was build below the shrine about a century ago. Inside there was a cold and dark room which was used for the purpose of laying corpses down and preparing them for the burial ceremony. Right now it was used for the first time in almost a decade, unbeknownst to the shrine's owner.

Rider lowered her gaze from the serene white moon and slowly moved it across the entrance in question.

"I felt the force of your clash, but our reaction time was… regrettable." He crossed his arms and apologized quietly.

"You arrived before me. I should thank you for intervening in Shige's fight."

The events flashed before her eyes. After she was humiliated by Caster she had felt something odd. Just for a second the connection to Shige, forged by their contract, seemed to be cut. Her heart had sunk into her stomach and she had rushed over the city on top of Gyllir. In mere seconds they had sped across the blurry streets and reached the place where Shige had collapsed.

There had been no sight of who did this to him. Only the hurried steps of Koyuki echoed through the street.

"I did nothing of import." Archer appeared to have his own regrets. "If he had not hesitated at the last moment…" He cupped his mouth in thought.

"It was my fault." Rider said with squinted eyes as she rubbed her arm. "I told him to contact you. It was my stubbornness that made me think I could deal with this enemy before anything would happen to him." She gritted her teeth. If she had been calm and collected at that moment… she would never have let Shige run off on his own. Especially when he was hunted by an enemy Master. How could she have been so blinded by rage?

"For whatever reason it seems that Caster's Master did not intend to take Shigechiyo-sama's life." If she interpreted his unreadable face, it was probably the only reason he hadn't killed the man on the spot.

Perhaps it was pity for someone so young. Maybe he simply had no interest in Shige at all. To be at the mercy of one's enemy was shameful nonetheless. Like Master, like Servant it seemed.

"We were utterly humiliated." She admitted with a balled fist.

"Your battle did not end favorably then." Archer surmised.

"She toyed with me." She nodded with a shadow over her face. She curtly summarized her fight for him.

"Hm. A trickster then." The red-clad soldier moved away from the tree and leaned against the walls of the temple instead, diagonally to Rider. Usually she would have been uncomfortable with someone standing behind her, but she appreciated it this time. "Do you believe her words? Is she not the one we sought out?" His intelligent eyes were now hidden from her, but she could feel his inquisitive gaze on her back.

"I cannot be certain. My Mystic Eyes did not work on her." She explained and held her head. The repercussions of overusing her power were still assaulting her mind. Did she tell a lie? Or did that girlish smiling face speak the truth?

"The enemy of our enemy is an ally." Archer said lightly. "And the puppet master is an enemy to us all."

"Don't be foolish. They are all enemies. Plain and simple." From the side he could see her cold smile.

"She spared you for a purpose."

"Probably."

"Is it not so you could take care of an enemy that she cannot defeat by herself?"

"Fighting puppets with pawns… I will never allow myself to be used that way ever again." She kicked a bit off sand into the air.

"Then so it shall be. We will outwit both parties and show them our worth. Loss, humiliation, wounded pride. Those things have no permanence in a war. As long as we still take breath we can return from the precipice of defeat." He spoke with a gentle, yet firm voice that could have rallied the troops in an instant. A General through and through.

"You remind me of the Skálds. They had a way with words, playful, dancing inside your mind. But they seemed to believe what they said in the end and so the people believed their words in return." Her nostalgic memories were a comfort now.

"Do you believe my words as well?"

"I have not yet heard your singing voice." She laughed and then rose from the porch. Her mood had improved, but she did not forget her failings. Instead she would use them as a step to rise above her previous self.

"Song and wine are for nights such as this." He said smiling. "Yet I could not raise my voice around the injured." And the smile turned into one of sympathy.

"Shige will recover."

"I do not doubt it. Your certainty is infectious." He folded his hands inside his sleeves. "If my eyes did not deceive me, Shigechiyo-sama's body has been poisoned by magic. My Master had not noticed, but you must have felt it."

"I know." She revealed.

"And yet it was all spilled out of him in an instant." He raised a hand before she returned inside. She stopped. "Have you noticed?" His sharp eyes were far from accusing, but he would not let her pass until they cleared this up.

"What?"

"The pendant."

She nodded. It would have been impossible to miss for her. The artifact was what kept her in this world. The strong flow of prana tunneling from it into her spiritual core was powerful as ever.

When she had picked up Shige from the ground she had also taken the pendant with stiff hands. It was undamaged from the fight, pristine and humming with a mystical power. The casing was made from an otherworldly metal and the wooden marble in its center spun in place ever so slightly. But one thing had changed since the last time she had seen it.

A small wooden thorn had grown out of the marble.

When they inspected Shige he had a tiny scratch on his chest, right around the area that a pendant would hang.

"Is there something you hide from your Shifu?" Archer's question was still not accusing, despite the deliberate wording. He merely showed his concern.

"…I will talk to him about it." She promised and then pushed past Archer's arm.

He stayed outside with an unreadable expression. The moonlight was only covering half of his face.

"Great power always comes with a price."

A few hours later Shige had regained consciousness and sat up inside his futon. His body felt sore, but other than that he was surprisingly okay. Once again he felt a small pressure covering his entire being, but it was not painful. His hand and leg were bandaged even though the bleeding had stopped already.

Koyuki seemed infinitely relieved to see him back up and he could have sworn that Rider-san was glancing his way with a hint of worry.

"Err… sorry for letting that guy get away." He felt he had to apologize at least.

"It was our fault." Koyuki shook her head understandingly. "I told Archer-dono not to shoot."

"Why is that?" Shige had no recollection of the events after he got knocked out naturally.

"Ah." Koyuki reacted just as confused as him. "I… am not sure. Something about his aura made me feel like I could trust him." She whispered.

"How did that crazy guy look trustworthy?" Shige's eyes became dull in response. As far as he remembered that violent bastard had looked like a criminal who beat up kids for fun. The whole unkempt hair and damaged coat look really wasn't trust inspiring.

"I really don't-" She fidgeted around. "P-please forgive me." She lowered her head.

"I wasn't mad or anything." He calmed her down with hand gestures. Making her look guilty was a crime.

"Shige, you suffered a great deal due to my negligence." Rider-san finally spoke up.

"Is everyone going to apologize now?" He felt embarrassed. "Rider-san was just trying to do the right thing."

"Shige…" Her deep blue eyes met his, which forced him to avert his gaze. "No, I cannot let this stand. You are the one I swore to protect. If I had to make a choice between capturing the puppeteer and saving you, the answer is obvious." Her determination was renewed.

Shige looked at his knees below the blanket and smiled faintly.

"That's right! Friends need to stick together!" Koyuki nodded cutely. "We will save everyone with our combined power." As naïve as she sounded, it was exactly that bright nature that helped them get over their mistakes.

"I agree wholeheartedly. In the interest of that goal we wish to give you an update." Archer had entered as well and bowed his head slightly to the awoken Shige. "Are you able to move?"

"Sure thing." He forced himself up and almost tripped over the blanket. Rider caught him and offered him a shoulder. She was still slightly taller than him, so it was easy to lean on her. If only it didn't make his face heat up so badly!

"If you would Koyuki-sama." The great hero was acting completely subservient to his Master and let her take the lead.

Koyuki showed them the way to the underground room. The key for the lock was in her hakama. How she had gotten a hold of it was probably not important.

"Auntie is asleep right now. I made Sora check." She explained. "We left in a hurry so I could not tell her that we were gone."

She really wanted to tell her aunt? Shige didn't know whether she was just precious or dangerously carefree.

They descended the steps and immediately were greeted by the smell of disinfectant and mold. An unappetizing mix.

Of course most people's stomach would have revolted anyway upon seeing the corpse of a middle-aged man barred inside the center of the room. His face was still contorted in a horrific smile with wide open eyes. Dried blood was spread all across his face and clothes.

Shige was already unsteady on his feet, but now he felt nauseous too.

Surprisingly Koyuki seemed to be fine with this view.

"His license said his name is 'Hiroyuki Sada'. He is… I mean was a detective."

"Police?" Shige felt a cold shower down his back. They had a dead cop in here?!

"Ehm… no, more like a great detective that would capture a phantom thief." She explained it with one of her favorite childhood stories.

"Oh, a private eye." Now he got it. He felt guilty for being relieved by that… that was still an innocent man dead.

"I inspected him to find any signs of possession." She explained matter of factly and hovered her hands over the limp body. "There was no spirit residue at all. His body was empty. The soul had already left when Rider-dono brought him here."

"I-is that normal?" Shige asked while trying to not look the corpse in the dead eyes. He failed.

"It is not uncommon." She said with a low voice. "Uhm… the last time I saw an empty shell like this, the spirit had devoured the soul completely. But this is different." She seemed to have trouble finding the words.

"His soul was torn apart." Rider suddenly interjected.

"Y-yes… I have come to the same conclusion." She nodded sadly.

"Which means?" Shige couldn't keep up.

"The parasitic entity overtakes the host. That much is common for possession. But this evil spirit… or whatever it is, it completely destroys the host when it leaves." Koyuki explained so he could follow.

"Huh?" That made Shige freeze. "B-but the trio that attacked me was fine! They didn't get their souls destroyed." They had been walking and talking like usual.

"That bastard did it to give me a warning." Rider said with one hand on her waist and anger in her voice.

"So it wanted to show us that it will kill the hosts should we try to do anything to them." Archer concluded.

That was not good. Not good at all. It would make it really hard to stop the puppets. Even incapacitating them would not save them if the puppet master wanted them dead.

"Koyuki." Rider caught the shrine maiden's attention. "That thing talked about you like it knew you."

"W-what?" The poor girl was caught off guard by that.

"When it figured out that I wanted to bring this man to you, they immediately finished him off." The facts put new light on the situation.

"Could that mean… that they are afraid of Yukimura-san?" Shige asked with surprise.

"I hope so." Rider-san nodded. "You must have something that can become dangerous to them." All three of them looked at Koyuki with imploring expressions.

The pressure was strong, but Koyuki just stared against the wall in thought. Her musings ultimately turned out fruitless. She shook her head.

"I cannot think of anything. Maybe mother or Aoki-dono could, but I am not…" She clasped her hands together and looked down in shame.

"Master." Archer was standing behind her and put a warm hand on her tiny shoulder. He really towered above her when they stood so close to each other. "It may seem like there is no answer to the questions that trouble you, but nothing will be solved overnight. The heroes you look up to have faced trials that would bring them to the edge of their ability. Sometimes even beyond. The answer always arrives when we need it the most, but not a moment sooner."

She looked up to him with shining eyes. Somehow he always found the right words.

"We probably need it soon." Shige whispered while rubbing his neck. The pendant dangled over his chest ever so subtly.

Inside the hotel Ahnenrast.

"Hngh." Collingwood grunted.

"That young boy really made a mess of you, didn't he Master?" Caster rubbed balm on his swollen face, as well as salt into his wounded pride.

"I was winning until Archer arrived." He knew it was pointless to defend himself in front of this one, but he could not stay quiet. Also the way she spread that stuff actually really burned.

"Do not move so much… My my, is that so? You seemed to be pushed into a corner even before his arrival." She finished her treatment with a light clap on his cheek, which made him feel like a child even more.

"You really just watched me, huh?" His voice somehow found new ways to sound annoyed.

"It is prudent to let men duke it out until they are satisfied. Elsewise they will ramble on about their pride." She shrugged and then sat down on the extravagant couch. For once she did not try to sit in peculiar spots.

"You didn't fare any better this time." He pointed at her injured side. Although she had insisted it would heal soon, he could still tell that she was not completely back to form. "Are you going to be fine?"

"Why yes, I feel better already, knowing that you do care after all." She said with a sharp smile.

He glared at her until she finally added more.

"Now that we have returned to the ley-line I will be able to recover much faster. The fight with that stone-faced woman has exhausted my resources ever so slightly."

Knowing her tendency to exaggerate the good and underplay the bad, he could tell what was really going on. She had actually been quite exhausted during her battle and was unable to recover until she could refill her mana reserves. But a Caster should have much bigger mana pools than a normal magus.

"Hmph. You are transparent once again Master. You were just belittling me in your mind." She acted indignant, but it was a rather obvious act. "It is true that my reservoirs are sizeable, but I cannot access them completely."

"Why not?"

"Conservation. Would you prefer that I faded away from lack or prana?"

"Like I'd believe that." He wasn't that stupid. It might be true that he could not provide her with appropriate amounts of prana due to the magnitude of her spells, but her reserves were far greater than that.

"You are most unkind." She smiled unapologetically. "A magician always keeps a trump card in their deck."

"Could you drop this act just once?" He sighed.

"What would be left if I did?" She tilted her head funnily. "I was mostly serious though. There are many enemies lurking in the night. If I had used all my energy on recovery there would have been nothing left to fend off the ghastly shadow that followed us."

"So Derickson's Servant really was on our trail…"

"That or the citizens of this picturesque town have taken a liking to watching our street performances." She joked with one hand on her cheek.

Bad news all around. Caster was nearly defeated by that tenacious boy's Servant and now Derickson was on the prowl again. If they were lucky they would defeat each other.

He felt a surprising twinge in his heart when he pictured that fight. There was no reason to feel guilty and yet… Imagining Derickson standing above the corpses of the boy or the girl made him feel angry. Maybe it was because they were just kids. Men like Derickson and Rézny did not care about such minor details though. Only victory would stop their fists and legs.

"That Rider's lance is nothing special, but its curse has slowed my healing." Caster was the one to restart the conversation. She touched her side, which didn't seem to hurt as much as before. Either the pain killers Collingwood had given her finally started working or she really did heal faster with the ley-line below her. "I would prefer not to face her in the open again. Her phantasmal beast far exceeds my speed."

"Seems like we are always at a disadvantage." Collingwood's right hand went through his hair.

"An astute observation, coming from you." She chuckled. It wasn't a laughing matter, but he had no energy left to scold her.

"Next time I'll be able to take the boy down and then get his seals." Now that he knew how to penetrate the protective barrier it would be easy to take him out. He wiped the blood covered needles with a kitchen towel. Not exactly elegant, but it would do.

"What about his cute little friend?"

"Hm?"

"The girl in the unusual outfit. Reaches up to your chest maybe. Gullible appearance." She traced the girl's outline in the air with a light construct.

"Ah, her." He had not much to say to that.

"I expected more of a reaction, considering how she made you hesitate." Caster's eyes were sharper than arrows whenever she wanted them to.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." He flatly denied her and looked at the cleaned needles.

"Do not tell me you were charmed at first sight?" She raised a brow.

"Don't be stupid." He sighed again.

"You owe her thanks anyway. Had she not stopped her eagle-eyed friend, you'd be headless now." She casually remarked on his barely avoided death as she dissolved the light construct.

"…you would have done something before that happened." He replied uncertain. "Right?" He added to be absolutely sure.

"Who knows~?"

He threw the bloody towel after her, which she gracefully dodged, and then moved into the kitchen to get something to drink. His throat was dry. Without much trouble he picked out a milk carton from the almost empty fridge. Due to their order not to enter the apartment, the staff had not refilled anything of course. It definitely wasn't perfect, but he preferred not relying on 'Madame Leger's credit card too much.

"If I may be so bold to make a suggestion." Caster's voice echoed inside the spacious kitchen and the next moment the milk was gone from his hands and inside her much more petite ones. "Tomorrow we should focus entirely on reconnaissance. No surprise fights to the death." She winked and then finished off the entire milk in one long gulp. Afterwards she shook it a bit to make sure it was empty and then threw it through a gate straight into the trash bin.

"Okay." He didn't disagree with her plan. It was not like he tried to get into deadly situations whenever he could though. Also he really wanted that milk.

She licked her lips.

"We have a debt to repay and nobody likes a debtor who is overdue." Her dramatic words were moving for sure.

"You missed a spot." He pointed at his own cheek to tell her where she was still covered in milk.

It was mildly flushed when she wiped it off with her sleeve.

Around the Town Hall where the confrontation had taken place things had quieted down.

A hunched over figure was sitting on a rooftop with a good view of the entrance and everything that could transpire here. The only thing pulling attention to the darkness clad man was the glowing spot of his cigarette.

He slowly exhaled a cloud of smoke and looked down with his uncovered left eye. The other half of his face was completely covered by dark blue hair.

Down there another shadowy figure left the community hall. The man was rather tall and had the aura of a hound. Goal oriented and fierce. His sharp senses almost alerted him of the smoker's presence, but in the end he just moved into the dark alley and disappeared.

That guy was the second person to leave this night. But he never entered. Had he managed to slip past his superior senses?

The first one was the coward, Collingwood. He had been intercepted by a weak looking nobody and another Servant. He wasn't interested in weaklings or Servants.

Their fight was meaningless to him. It was absolutely against his principles to interfere with a hunt though. Collingwood was hunting a pathetic prey, but he was hunting nonetheless. Even a coward like him was following his natural instinct. He could respect that.

The Servants had left a trail of destruction as their fight spun the expanses of the city, but he had barely given them another look.

That guy who just left…

He looked strong. He could sneak past his senses. He was strong, right? He was hiding some pretty interesting weapons. He must have been strong!

The cigarette was crushed in the man's hand. He didn't even flinch when the burning tip was pressed to ashes inside his palm.

Leroy Derickson smiled with his bared teeth.

He had found new prey.