"Who was that?" Tsubasa asked Ari when he returned home to see she got off the phone.
"It was dad and Uncle Shinji. They've sent another care package." Ari explained.
"That sounds like dad and Uncle Shinji. Oh, how's mom?"
"Mom is doing fine. She's been cleaning the training room and putting a whole bunch of books in it. Don't know why."
"Sounds like you got a good family going." Rider commented.
"It's a good thing they were all friends when they were in high school." Ari sighed.
"Dad and Uncle Shinji did have a... strange relationship." Tsubasa waved off the thought of his uncle and dad when they were in school.
Ari also mentioned Lord El-Melloi II, a man who worked at Clocktower and who the two got to know through their studies as mages. He worked with the mages association and checked up on them every so often. He wasn't too happy when he heard Ari had Rider transferred to Tsubasa but didn't have time or will to do anything. He wished them good luck in the war and gave them a warning, he did some research into Shirou Kotomine, and found some information that was alarming.
Tsubasa ordered Rider to go with him as he did some investigation of his own. when he really thought about it, it was strange. Shirou Kotomine immediately took on the job as mediator to the Fourth Holy Grail War instead of his brother Kirei, who was fully ready to take the job. There was also the fact that no one knew anything about him before he became a priest at the church. No records of his childhood existed, and his father was long dead before the Mages Associate could question Shirou's existence.
Shirou was in the church with Kaede and Assassin, Assassin had found another piece of the lesser Grail. At that point, the lesser Grail was only missing the top part of it. Shirou was proud of himself that he was close to repairing the Grail, something Kaede didn't care about in the slightest. Kaede left just as Tsubasa entered, Tsubasa was shocked to see what Shirou was doing and bombarded him questions immediately.
Shirou just excused himself with the notion of being the overseer of the war and said how important it was for the Grail to be reconstructed. Tsubasa wasn't so sure about that, the war was going along fine without the lesser Grail. Shirou assured him it was all good intentions and shoved Tsubasa outside before locking the door. Assassin danced around Kaede, who looked like he wanted to talk.
"Berserker!" Yakumo yelled, "where are you?"
Berserker growled as she materialized by his side. He had a scowl on his face, Assassin had up and left during their battle, leaving him with Iris, who left not too long after that. The Einzbern family was pissing him off, if it weren't for the slow pace of the war, he would have killed a servant by then. It didn't help at all that there were some servants who could wipe out the entire city if they wanted to, and none of them were doing a thing with their power. Paris should have been a wasteland if the war was like the one in Fuyuki before.
Berserker pulled on his shirt, she saw Saber and Marinette as they were walking with some others to school. Saber, a servant that avoided death by Archer, Assassin, and the last Caster, he was lucky to say the least. Yakumo told her not to bother with Saber. The only servant worth paying any attention to was Assassin, she was the only one who didn't have anyone after her. Archer and Lancer were clearly going to only pay attention to each other, Saber wiped the floor with Caster so no one was touching him, and no one could touch Rider even if they hit him with a nuclear bomb.
Berserker was also lucky, she and Yakumo weren't on anyone's list, but he wished they were, he was bored and demanded some action. There was also the topic of the new Caster, Tamamo was new, so didn't have anyone after her just yet. Yakumo ordered Berserker to find Assassin at kill her, he was done with playing nice and demanded some action come from the Holy Grail War.
"Shirou didn't give you any information, did he?" Iris asked Kaede when he returned home.
"I've been collecting these Grail pieces for weeks and he's told me nothing," Kaede said.
"Surely there's a good reason he's doing this."
"I wish I knew...that man has kept so many secrets from us, it's making me suspicious."
"What about Ruler?"
"She didn't know either, last I spoke to her, she told Leticia was taking over and all questions should go to Shirou."
"That just takes us right back to square one," Assassin said as she balanced herself on the chair leg.
"Jackie no!" Iris grabbed Assassin and held her.
"I suppose I'll keeping gathering the pieces, as dangerous as it is, maybe he'll tell me when the Grail is back together." Kaede sighed, "I'm going out again."
(Just commenting, I've aged down Tsubasa to 17 and Ari to 15. This because I did math on Rin and Sakura's ages in Fate Apocrypha and found out Tsubasa being 31 made no sense.)