Chapter 12: Wrong kind of summoning
"So…" I begin as I slide the cup of coffee in front of Lucoa "Run this by me again?"
"I need your help to convince the boy who summoned me that I'm not a demon." She replied as she took a sip of her coffee, her eyes visibly opened slightly as she tasted it and a small smile graced her lips.
"That's what I thought you said…" I sigh and rub my forehead "I'm going to need the whole story here."
"Its actually part of the reason I decided to stay in the human world." She began "It happened when I was walking home after visiting Kobayashi and Tohru, I sensed that that a child nearby was performing a summoning ritual."
"Right…" I gesture for her to continue.
"I figured that it would be best if I were the one to appear, I was also pretty curious as to what type of child would be performing a summoning."
"So, how does this relate to me?"
"Well, after I agreed to be their Servant-"
I choke on my coffee "Servant?" I say in-between coughs "What do you mean Servant?"
"I mean I serve them." She replies and tilts her head "Why? What were you thinking of?"
"Nothing." I wave her off "Nothing important. So you agreed to be a servant because you were curious about a summoning ritual, and because you didn't want to some kid to summon some kind of elemental."
"Yes." She nodded "It turns out that his family is from a long line of mages and…Emiya? You've gone pale, are you alright?"
Oh. Oh, crap.
There's a family of Magi living here.
And I set up a workshop on in their territory, that kind of thing would get me killed by the magi back home.
"I-I'm fine." I wave off her concerns "So, you need me because?"
"They think I'm a demon." I raise an eyebrow at her "I was hoping that as another mage, you'd be able to talk some sense into them."
"What about Tohru?" I ask "Wouldn't she also be able to help you?"
She shakes her head "Tohru and Kobayashi are busy, otherwise I would have asked them for help. Its not a big issue for me-"
"But you'd rather they were thinking you some kind of soul stealer." I finish and let out a sigh.
"My summoner actually thinks I'm a succubus."
"…" I very pointedly look away from her, if I didn't know she was some kind of dragon goddess I'd probably think the same.
"Will you help me?" She pleads, her eyes fully open and staring into mine. I pinch the bridge of my nose.
"Yes." I say eventually "I suppose I can help you, it would also be in my best interest to meet with the kids family."
"Mage things?"
"Mage things." Meeting with a mage family heir about a confused summoning, not exactly my forte but I should at least be able to clear up the misunderstanding. I don't see much going wrong.
No wai-!
"This is Shouta-kun's house." Lucoa announces as we come to a stop, instantly I'm surveying the premises for any kind of bounded field. Although if its a long line of mages I'd probably find it very difficult to detect it on the fly. "Come on in." Lucoa announces as she steps into the house and takes off her shoes.
"Is it really alright for me to be in here, unannounced?" I ask, not following her in just yet. I'm also concerned about magical traps to kill me or something.
"It's fine." Lucoa replies "No one else is home at this time." That's the worse moment to enter a Magus house though!
I'm staring at the open door with an emotion akin to dread, my luck has always been abysmal. I take a step into the house and tense myself for any kind of trap. "Pardon the intrusion." I say on reflex.
Nothing happens. I scrunch my face up in confusion. That's weird.
"I'm using one of the rooms upstairs." Lucoa breaks me out of my stupor as I turn to face her again "We can wait there until someone comes home."
"R-right." I reply, still staring at every corner of the house expecting some kind of magical trap to set me on fire or cut my legs off or something. When nothing happens I am left even more out of my depth than before.
It's common knowledge for magi to set up bounded fields and defences in their workshops and homes. Even I know that, yet I haven't seen a single sign of any kind of magical defence.
Are the magi on this world different or something?
"Unfortunately, Tea is all I can offer." Lucoa offers me a small cup of store bought Tea as I take a seat. I sip it, its bland and cheap. Exactly what I was expecting, not wanting to be rude I continue drinking my cheap tea.
"So…" I search for a topic to talk to her about "What's Shouta like?"
"He's always really fidgety while I'm around." She replies "I've even tried sleeping and bathing with him to try and get him used to my presence."
I set my tea down and clean out one of my ears with my pinky finger "...I beg your pardon?"
She pouts and crosses her arms "Even after all of that, it hasn't worked in the least."
"No, you said something there-" I'm interrupted by the sound of a door opening in the house, I'm instantly back on alert. Lucoa seems to shake out of her pout and smiles.
"Ah. That must be Shouta back now." She waves her hands and instantly a small purple circle manifests on the table in front of me and shows a small purple haired boy entering the house. He freezes as he stares as the two pairs of shoes and looks around nervously.
"This is the kid that summoned you?" I ask, as she nods I furrow my brows "We're gonna need to have a talk on what is socially acceptable to do."
"Eh?" She blinks at me in surprise as the magical circle dissipates, a few moments later the door to the room opens and Shouta's head pops in and makes eye contact with me.
"Ah!" The boy exclaims "She invited people!"
"Welcome home, Shouta-kun." Lucoa greets the boy, before I can nod my own greeting the boy points at her.
"A-a familiar can't be acting on their own!" Oh boy, he's kind of a novice, isn't he? "Y-you demon! Are you planning to gather your allies and take over our home!?"
What?
I clear my throat "Actually, I'm a human." I point to Lucoa "She invited me over to clear up a misunderstanding. My name is Emiya Shirou. I'm a...local mage."
"Huh?" Shouta blinks in surprise at me, then seems to muster up the courage to step into the room fully "Magatsuchi Shouta. Nice to meet you. I didn't know there were any local mages."
"I'm a recent addition to the neighbourhood." I sigh "I didn't actually know there were mages living in this city either."
"Ah." He awkwardly scratches the back of his head "I see. Well, father would probably know more about this than I do."
I nod, then remember why I'm here "Ah yes." I gesture to Lucoa "She called me here to tell you she isn't a demon."
"Huh?" He tilts his head in confusion then looks over at Lucoa.
"I'm not actually a demon." Lucoa says as she smiles reassuringly at the boy "I'm a dragon."
"Eh!?" He appears more taken aback by this than I expected "But I used a demon summoning circle!"
"Wait, wait, wait." I interrupt the boy with a frown "You were intentionally trying to summon a demon?" he nods "Why?"
He becomes slightly downcast as he turns his head away from me "Because I wanted to be accepted as a full-fledged mage."
"So...you performed a summoning to prove you could?" I ask, he nods and my frown intensifies "Did you at least have some kind of safety system in place in case you summoned a malevolent type of demon?"
"Huh?" He blinks as me "Why would I need that? Aren't familiars bound to their summoners?"
Oh...Is this how Rin felt when she first saw my Magecraft. In which case I apologise to her, very, very deeply and am grateful for her tutelage.
"You'd be right if you were trying to form a contract with an animal or a low-level Spirit." I say "But a demon has a certain level of free will, which would probably be displeased with being summoned for such a lowly reason… No offence to you."
"O-oh." Now he's looking a bit more scared.
"Still." I shrug "You succeeded in summoning a Dragon. How many mages can say they've done that? Also… can you show me the summoning circle you used."
"Why?" Lucoa asks me, I turn to her and reply.
"I need to study the difference between the summoning circle he used and the ones I'm used to." I turn back to him "Do you still have it?"
"Yeah." He nods "Follow me."
"You're not making fun of me… are you?" I ask Shouta while staring at the cauldron in front of me.
A cauldron…
An honest to God cauldron… I feel like I'm being made fun of.
"No." Shouta shakes his head "This is the summoning space that Lucoa-san came out of."
I turn to the dragon goddess behind me and raise an eyebrow "You were summoned in a cauldron?" she nods at me. Good thing it was her then, I suspect a demon probably would have killed the kid on principal of being summoned like this.
I turn back the cauldron, its sitting on top of an actual summoning circle. A ring of symbols which I am unfamiliar with are running around the floor, seems the magecraft of this world is slightly different to what I'm used to.
Its similar enough that given time I could probably figure it out. I wouldn't be able to do anything with it but it is more than enough to at least understand the basic principles in case I ever encounter a less than friendly mage.
I wonder…
I reach forward and touch the summoning circle, and instantly my left hand burns slightly.
I wine as I draw my hand back and stare at it...Oh.
"Crap…" I whisper out, I'm staring at faint red marks etched onto the back of my hand "Crap, crap, crap…"
"Emiya-san?" I can faintly hear Lucoa's voice behind me "Is something wro-" she's cut off when the summoning circle in front of us bursts into life.
The cauldron full of liquid fizzles and begins bubbling rapidly, a slight winds kicks up in the room as Lucoa shields Shouta.
"What's going on?" He calls out in panic "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything!" I blurt out "The circle reacted to me!"
There's a massive kick up of liquid as smoke fills the room, I cough out a few times and wave my hand in front of my face to clear away the smoke.
It quickly becomes apparent that I'm not the only one in a coughing fit, behind me Lucoa and Shouta are also trying to clear their throats.
However there is a fourth cough.
Directly in front of us, where the cauldron was.
I am having a very, very bad feeling about this…
The smoke begins to clear and I make out a figure in front of us...
AN: Cliffhanger!
Hahahaha! I'm evil!
Also wanted to get a proper poll up for People to vote on what Servant they want to see.
Link: Found out Links don't work so good.
So just put look on my profile, you can vote there.
Voting will end in 2 days.
Then I'll do the most voted character.