Merlin sat back down with an annoyed and disappointed look on her face. Sabine was going to ask what happened until Marinette stopped her, Merlin wasn't the type of person who dealt with frustration well. Her constantly yelling at Arthur whenever he did something wrong was enough evidence for that. She didn't like Shirou, that was for sure, she kept her eye on him until Artur returned from the bathroom and handed her something. Her focus was back on her plate and she continued to eat.
Leticia soon approached the table to distract herself from Karna and Arjuna bickering, they were going to drive her insane and she left Minami to deal with them. Minami was hard core, more than she was and knew how to put the boys in their place if they started to act out. Arthur stood up and gave Leticia his chair so she could talk with Marinette as he stood on the other side of Marinette's chair.
They kept war business out of their conversation since both Tom and Sabine were there listening in. Leticia then leaned in close and said that Ruler wanted the masters to know that she was going to stay asleep for a bit longer. Ruler felt like she had no place in the war as it was and that Leticia was doing a good enough job with Karna.
"Oh, I also wanted to ask you two something." Leticia looked to Marinette's parents. "You see, my husband really likes something called a Clafoutis, and I have no idea what it is or how to get it."
"Ah yes," Tom said, "I think I can make that for you."
"Really, oh thank you so much. I've been looking all over for one and found absolutely nothing."
"Leticia," Karna went up to her. He was eating a macaron and had a bowl of them in his hands, behind him was Arjuna, who kept stealing one every chance he got. "Can you make him stop?"
"I'm related to him by marriage, you're the older brother, you do something about him." Leticia said as she also took a macaroon from the bowl.
"You must be Leticia's husband," Sabine commented.
"And that's your brother behind you?" Tom asked.
"Yes," Karna caught Arjuna at the right time and smacked his hand before he grabbed another macaroon. "I said stop."
"Okay, that's it!" Merlin grabbed the bowl from Karna and raised it above her head. "You two play nice or the sweets go away!"
Merlin kept the bowl over her head and walked off with it, Karna went over to Leticia and stood next to her while Arjuna headed back to his table. Merlin smashed the bowl on Shirou's head then went back to the table. Leticia kept them entertained with her stories about Fuyuki and how she worked for the church for a while before becoming a full time student, she was in Paris on a study break and was planned to get back to work after she returned to Fuyuki.
When Sabine and Tom asked Karna about his life, he was vague to say the least. Leticia made up the story about them going to school together and met not long after the brothers transferred. It was believable enough that no one questioned it. She didn't mention anything about him being a superhero, so Marinette's parents assumed he was the same as Ladybug and Chat Noir, much to her chagrin.
Marinette, without thinking about it, leaned on her left hand. Something she was careful about before but forgot since Leticia was there. Leticia's command seals were on her back, making it easy to hide with a simple shirt, but Marinette's seals were in her hand and she forgot to wear her gloves. Her parents immediately saw that there was something strange on her hand. When her father asked if she got cut, she looked at her hand then buried it under the table.
Her parents were all over her and trying to get her to show them what was on her hand, Arthur got in the middle of them as Merlin clung onto his leg to get the attention on her. Both Leticia and Karna tried to calm things down to no avail. Tom and Sabine both asked if it was because of the mark on her hand that Marinette rarely kept her over the table.
Tamamo looked over at Marinette's table to see she was in trouble and made a move. She got Karna and Arjuna from their tables to help and the three went to get food. Tamamo tripped over herself and smashed the plate into Arjuna's back, which in turn made him fall into Karna. The two started fighting loudly as Tamamo leaned down to grab the plate, when Karna pushed Arjuna, Arjuna fell over Tamamo and hit the table hard.
The plates smashing was enough to get the entire party to look at the scene. Tamamo was apologizing repeatedly while Karna and Arjuna yelled at each other. Arthur took that time to grab Marinette and drag her away. Tamamo quickly made a run for it before Minami and Leticia broke the boys up. They were all in a load of trouble.
In the heat of battle, Tamamo's bow fell off and she went to the girl's bathroom to get it back up. She tied her hair in a bun to keep it from falling and taking the bow with it, then left the bathroom, behind her was Lila, who watched her put the bow back up. Lila had been watching Tamamo and Adrien for some time and was looking for dirt on Tamamo.
"Tam-Mizukume, where did you run off to?" Adrien asked, he just barely caught himself before he used her real name.
"This fell off," she pointed to her bow.
"Did anyone see you fix it?"
"There were people in the bathroom, but I doubt anyone was watching."
"You have to be more careful. You can't go off like that without your bow."
"Okay husband!"
"Mizukume," Nathalie said as she cleared her throat. "Will you please stop calling Adrien that?"
"Nope." Tamamo smiled then ran off again to play with the cake.
"What do you see in her Adrien?" Nathalie sighed.
"She's different from the other girls." Adrien answered, "and I like that."
Shirou stayed in his little corner until he looked up at the ceiling, it started to shake just a bit, enough to make the chandelier's lights flicker. He stood up, a move that wasn't unnoticed by Merlin, she kept an eye on her while he looked up and walked in a circle to get a better view of the lights. She put her leg out and tripped him when he got too close to her, he fell forwards then crawled back to his corner.
Tamamo also looked up, she sensed that something was on its way and running on the roof. She jumped, grabbing Adrien with her as they both fell to the floor. Before Nathalie could ask what Tamamo was thinking, she heard the window break and a metal ball drop. It was thrown directly at Adrien and Tamamo got him out of the way. She told him to get out and Nathalie with him, she would handle the rest.
The ball opened up and released a gas that covered the room up to the ceiling and knocked out many of the people inside. Others used cloths to breathe or ran into another room, Tamamo held her breath and grabbed a metal bowl. She put the bowl on top of the ball and used the cake to weigh it down. Merlin told Marinette and her parents to get out of the room then opened the doors to let out the gas, and when she saw that something was outside, she summoned her staff to investigate.
Arthur summoned his sword just as the other servants prepared for battle. Jack the Ripper was near, and so were her masters. Glowing birds entered through the broken window that soon turned into swords, they were shot one by at the servants. Tamamo jumped before the others reacted, her mirrors surrounded her and she shot balls of fire at the swords. Karna followed with his flames, with their powers combined, they burned away the gas and the deflected the swords.
Arjuna kept his eye out for anything suspicious, then, the lights were all broken. The only lights that remained were from the glow of each servant's weapon, but that was only enough to help them at a small radius, they couldn't see the walls or the ceiling. Arjuna spun his head around to see that something was moving in the room. Before he took a shot, Karna was already on it, the shadow was kicked back, and with the flames from Karna's lance, they saw who it was.
Jack the ripper's black suit kept her hidden despite the flames and bolts of lightning being shot at her. She used her mist if they got too close to hit her, throwing them off guard. None of the other servants were able to hurt her, she was too quick for them to attack her and when she got away, they split up. Arthur and Tamamo headed for the two corners on the right side of the room while Karna and Arjuna searched the left corners.
"Arjuna!" Minami yelled out.
"Master!" Arjuna yelled back.
"Get the prince out of here! He's the target!"
"Arjuna?" Ali asked. "I thought his name was Adam."
"Not right now!'" Minami threw a gem in the air to signal where she and prince were.
Arjuna and Karna ran to Minami's side, Karna kept Jack at bay and Arjuna put Ali's arm over his shoulders. Arjuna and Ali made it out of the room where Merlin was outside and fighting with Iris. Iris used her strings to summon more birds and was at odds with Merlin, Merlin had a sword in her hand and was deflecting the swords Iris shot at her. Merlin was surprisingly good at swordsmanship, there was no question as to who taught King Arthur how to use a sword.
There was also an explosion, Berserker and Rider were fighting against Kaede, who had them back to back just make sure he didn't get the jump on them. Rider summoned his chariot and boarded, he helped her up as well and were both in the air when Berserker charged her weapon. Bolts of green lightening shocked the ground, enough to burn through every vial Kaede threw at them.
"Daddy! Mommy! We have to leave!" Jack went through the window and yelled loud enough for Iris and Kaede to hear.
"What a mess," Kaede said as he and the girls fled. "I can't believe we couldn't do something this simple."
"Are they gone?" Tamamo asked once the other servants entered the room. She and Karna were working on lighting the room with candles until the police arrived.
"They left quickly," Arjuna commented. "What were they after?"
"If pattern recognition has taught me anything," Tsubasa said. "I say they're after another Grail piece."
"Why do they have to keep making mess out of Paris?" Arthur asked. "Surely collecting these Grail pieces doesn't need a full-scale attack on innocent people."
"You would be surprised with the Einzbern family." Minami stated, "breaking the rules is common with them. In the last war, they summoned a Ruler class servant instead of a Berserker, ended up failing badly and being the first kicked out."
"I remember something like that," Arthur thought hard about the last war. "Yes, it was Archer who found and killed that Ruler a day after the war started, I only heard about it from Archer's boasting and from the Ruler assigned to the war."
The police showed up within the hour, by then, the servants were helping out the people who had passed out before the fight and Shirou was trying to cover it up as a gas leak. Minami had convinced Ali to stay quiet until after the investigation, she didn't want news of the war to get out. She took Ali in another room with Tsubasa and Yakumo to give a short explanation of things in the vaguest way possible.
They explained it as a game they were playing and how Jack was going against rules and getting other people involved. Which wasn't a lie. All they did was leave out information about having to kill each other and who the servants were. Ali did ask about Karna and Arjuna, and if they were the same people from the books he had read in school, to which Minami said that they weren't, it was a coincidence and nothing else.
They were lucky that the police took Ali's statement as an effect of the "gas leak", seeing as how they thought he was out of his mind. It was risky to tell him, but it did provide Tamamo with some laughs seeing the faces of the police when they questioned him. Both the servants and masters lied about their whereabouts, saying that they were either hiding under a table or passed out. Some of which was true because Tsubasa and Yakumo were under tables when Jack arrived.
When they returned home, the servants changed to their usual clothing, they were more comfortable in that than in the fancy outfits their masters picked out. Arthur was spread out on his bed, fighting Jack wasn't easy, probably the hardest yet. She used the darkness to her advantage and her mist to throw him and the others off track. Even with help from Karna and Tamamo, there wasn't much of a chance to stop her without taking out her mist.
Marinette entered his room with a letter from Shirou. Merlin finally convinced him to order a cease fire against the other servants except for Jack. The same thing he did with the first Caster. While they were doing that already, it was nice to have it official to stop Karna and Arjuna from trying to kill each other when their target wasn't Jack. Merlin was also relieved to see Shirou was doing his job again, she was about to kick down his door at the church.
"That's what I'm saying," Tamamo's voice rang from the other side of the school wall.
"What's going on here?" Arthur asked as he entered the classroom with Marinette.
"I keep telling husband to be more careful, but he never listens to me."
"I know how that feels, do you know how hard it is to keep Marinette from getting in trouble?"
"I don't know what do about him."
"I don't need babysitting," Adrien said.
"Tell that to me again when you've almost been killed by one of Jack's attacks." Tamamo said, leaning on her right hand.
"I can handle myself."
"No, you can't. I fought Jack; I know how strong she is. You don't stand a chance. Hell, you probably don't stand a chance against me."
"We're not doing this again."
"Yes, we are."
"They really do sound like a married couple," Arthur commented.
"It's been like this ever since we got in class," Nino said. "She's really hardcore on him."
"I thought Arthur was hardcore." Alya giggled.
"He is," Marinette said as she sat down.
Class begun a few minutes after Adrien and Tamamo were done fighting with each other. Tamamo laid down the rule that he wasn't allowed to be out of her sight, the same Arthur put on Marinette. Unbeknownst to them, someone was watching them, Lila had her many notes on Tamamo and ready to bombard Tamamo the second class was dismissed.
Lila stopped Tamamo on the stairs and asked to speak to her in the girl's bathroom, where she proceeded to lay out every single problem she had. First was the fact Tamamo was always around Adrien, second was her fox ears that no one else seemed to know about, third was the nickname "husband" that Lila despised, and fourth was how the other students saw no problem in her sudden arrival to the school and close connection to Adrien.
Tamamo didn't answer any of those questions, beyond the "husband" nickname, she explained that it was a cute nickname for Adrien. That was Lila threatened her, saying that her reputation would be destroyed, and Adrien would hate her. That no one would ever want to be with her again unless she stayed away from Adrien.
"Let me tell you something, Lila." Tamamo started. "You don't know the first thing about me. You have nothing against me."
"I can still ruin your reputation." Lila said.
"Go on, I have a lot to do today, so I don't have the time to deal with you."
"You are going to regret this."
"I'm sure it won't be as much as you will when you find out your lies don't work on me." With that Tamamo left the bathroom and had Lila not too far behind her.
"What was that?" Arthur asked.
"Looks like Lila has a new target." Marinette explained.
"In what sense?"
"Nothing to do with the Grail War."
"I'm going to need more than that."
"She's probably going to destroy Tamamo's reputation like she did with mine."
"She has problems."
"You're telling me."
Lila proceeded to do everything possible to make Tamamo look like a terrible person, but Tamamo was a step ahead. She had a spell on her locker that kept it from being open by anyone who wasn't her, she didn't leave her bag out of her sight, she was by Adrien's side at all times, so never had the problem of being alone with Lila, and she acted so cute, that no one would suspect her of wrongdoing. There was only one option left to get under Tamamo's skin, and that was to remove the bow on her head.
In class, Tamamo was playing with her book when Lila snuck up on her and took off the bow. Most of the class was taken back by what Lila did and some didn't expect to see she had fox ears. Tamamo sunk under the table in shame and the entire class turned on Lila for doing something like that. She and Tamamo were sent to principal's office with Adrien tagging along to help Tamamo.
The principal saw that both of the girls look sad, Tamamo because she was ashamed that she embarrassed Adrien and Lila putting on a show. Lila claimed she didn't know and it was an accident, that she was about to fall and just happened to grab Tamamo's bow. Adrien had his hand on Tamamo's back to comfort her, something Lila wished he was doing for her.
"I'm here," Leticia walked in with Karna behind her. Adrien looked at her with some confusion, Leticia normally had her hair down, but at that time, her hair was in a braid.
"Where do you want these?" Karna asked.
"This is really not a good time," the principal said.
"Mister Karna! Ruler!" Tamamo nearly jumped out of her seat.
"Hey, quiet Caster, I'm only here to fix the mess Shirou made and I'm going back to sleep." Ruler whispered to her then spoke normally to the principal. "Excuse me, we're just going to drop these documents off and leave. Karna, what are you doing?"
"An accident," Karna said.
"Don't you get started."
"That was a lie."
"Karna, what did I say about using Discernment of the Poor on random people? Out, out, out, this is not our business."
"Take us with you!" Tamamo begged. "Please!"
"Can they leave?" Ruler pointed to Adrien and Tamamo. "I have some business with them, apparently."
"But we're not done yet." The principal said.
"I asked if they could leave," Ruler looked directly at the principal, her eyes glowing for a second.
"If it was an accident, I suppose I can let them go."
Ruler took the two outside to talk, she hadn't properly introduced herself since Tamamo and Adrien joined after Leticia took over. She was the Ruler class servant and watched over the war, she also had special authority that put her at odds with Shirou. When Adrien asked about how Karna knew Lila was lying, Ruler explained that "Discernment of the Poor" was an ability Karna had to detect lies. Something she told him not to use.
She also had an idea, since she had Adrien and Tamamo with her, she wanted to do some experiments with them. Just to see what they could do in the war. Tamamo agreed, anything to get out of the school, and Adrien followed her. Tamamo demonstrated her fighting skills to Ruler with Adrien coordinating her attacks. Ruler judged that against other servants, Tamamo would have a hard time if Adrien didn't step up his game, seeing as how he didn't know much about her abilities.
Ruler wrote a list of things for Adrien to work on if he wanted to have a fighting chance with the other servants. At that time, the only one they really had a chance against was Rider. When Adrien asked why, Ruler reserved her knowledge for later, it wasn't her place to reveal who Rider was and why Tamamo had an advantage over him.
There was also the problem that Adrien wasn't a mage, he couldn't protect himself if a master fought him. Even his fencing skills didn't match up against someone like a Tohsaka or a Matou, the two ancient mage families. Ruler also hammered it in that he wasn't allowed to use his power aa Chat Noir in the war or use Tamamo against a super villain. The two had to remain separate, to keep the war a secret and his identity safe.
Ruler dismissed them and went on her way with Karna. She had to pay a visit to the other masters to get some rules straight with them. After the incident with the party, she wasn't happy about how they went about it. Especially Jack, who broke the rule of not getting non war participants involved in war. She wished him good luck and was gone after she and Karna headed towards the museum.
"It looks like they're having fun," Tsubasa said as he watched Arthur and Merlin fight.
"Hey Arthur, you did it again." Merlin said just as she clashed swords with Arthur. She looked up to her staff and blasted him in the face. "How many times do I have to tell you not to only focus on the sword? What if someone else pulled that on you? You would be dead."
"Are you okay?" Marinette asked.
"I'm fine!" Arthur yelled back. He headed to the benches and sat down to take a break.
"Hey Merlin, mind if my Rider spars with you as well?" Tsubasa asked.
"I don't mind." Merlin responded, Rider summoned his sword and went after her.
"What do you think, Arthur?" Tsubasa looked to Arthur.
"He's going to get his ass kicked." Immediately when Arthur said that, Rider was hit so hard back, he made a hole the tree when he collided with it. "Like I said."
"Merlin wins again!" Merlin cheered herself on, she was quite proud of beating Rider in one shot.
It was lucky that she wasn't the Caster of the fourth Holy Grail War, she would have won by the first day with how powerful she was. She continued to cheer for herself until Arthur dragged her away by her cloak. Rider got back up and stretched, that was the first time any servant had beaten him so badly. Even if she couldn't kill him, she was proving to be the best opponent he fought.
Tsubasa mentioned that Ruler had talked to him earlier, she told him to keep an eye on things with Jack, that his servant was to be prepared if Jack struck again. When Marinette asked why, Tsubasa got Rider to summon a shield. Rider was a special case servant; he was able to use different weapons than what he already had. His spear, a sword that Tsubasa gave him for back up, and the shield.
The shield itself was able to create a miniature world to absorb any attack or be an attack if he pushed it towards his enemy. Tsubasa was given the right of way to use the shield if Jack ever used her Noble Phantasm, or if she posed a great enough threat to Paris. Karna was also to be present in case Jack's mist was used, he could his flames to burn through.
To say the least, Ruler was prepared for any move Jack made, and she did it without the consent of Shirou. Since he was the one organizing the attacks, he wasn't going to be told a single thing.