That girl seemed familiar. He thought to himself, as he watched the little miss work her magecraft.

Hakuno Kishinami. A name he had never heard, yet couldn't deny the vague feeling of recognition. They definitely hadn't meet during his life, nor when he was summoned into this Holy Grail War. It was more akin to the feeling he got whenever he looked at that Archer, albeit without all that irritation. Since she seemed to recognize him, that really only left one option, they had meet in a previous grail war.

However there was a problem with that conclusion. She wasn't wary of him at all. From the moment she was summoned not a hint of fear or suspicion graced her face. Even if she did know him there should have been some apprehension in her, especially since she was summoned in the middle of a battle. Yet, there was none, in fact she took stock of the situation quite quickly.

Within the short time she had to analyze things, she deduced her enemy's and allies, as well as distracted Lancer long enough for him to prepare a higher powered spell. The only time she tensed up was when he let loose a little bloodlust towards her master.

She was clearly more of a tactician than a warrior. Everything about her screamed non-combatant, from her long dress, to the way she held herself, and her little effigy. All of that lead to another problem.

He had her name and how she fights, yet he couldn't place her to any Heroic Spirit in the throne. With all that info it should have been easy, but nothing matched up a hundred percent.

Well, he supposed that it didn't really matter who she was. Whether they met before was ultimately irrelevant right now, in the end they were allies.

It was a shame the current situation was so bad, he would have loved to fight her. It was nothing more than a gut feeling, but he felt she could give him the heart pumping battle he was after.

"Heh. I always did have bad luck." He murmured.

"Did you say something?" The little miss asked, still not looking up from her work.

"I said you're sure working hard." He said, before walking and grabbing some of the stones she was working on.

"Hey! Don't touch those without permission!" She exclaimed.

His only response was to smirk while examining the stones. They weren't to bad, and would be useful for a distraction.

"Hmph." She showed her irritation before returning to her work, and said "you know during your explanation you never mentioned Saber's true name. Did you neglect to mention it, or do you just not know?"

"I know it. Nobody who's been struck by her Noble Phantasm could ever mistake her." He said, drawing her attention. "The most famous holy sword to exist, even in your time period. Excalibur."

"!"

"A sword that belonged to King Arthur, the King of Knights." He finished.

She stood up and said "You're telling those two to fight King Arthur? Mash's Noble Phantasm hasn't even been released yet, and Hakuno can't even use one of hers."

"The young lady has her shield." He said.

"But her Noble Phantasm-"

"A fight is about more than just Noble Phantasms, as long as they can hold out long enough victory is ours." He told her. "I'm sure the little Caster has more than a few tricks to stall out Saber."

"Haah." The little miss sighed, before asking "And what makes you so confident you can beat Archer?"

"Heh. You should know, when fighting a Caster you should never give them time to prepare." He answered.

She gave him an unimpressed stare before pinching the bridge of her nose. "Well if you're sure. We should head to the front of the school, it's almost time to regroup."

"Lead the way." He said

"Haa. Could today get any worse?" She asked herself.

The Director didn't really look happy as she paced back and forth, with Caster watching in amusement. That was the sight me and Mash were witnessing as we awkwardly stood in front of the school.

"So, what do we do now?" I asked.

The Director stopped pacing and took a deep breath, before answering. "I wanted to go over our plan, so we don't just charge in and get ourselves killed."

"Oh. So why don't we do that?" I asked, and it seemed that question was enough to get her to snap.

"Because we're waiting for YOUR servant!" She practically screamed at me. "Where is she!?"

Ah. Right, I guess Hakuno still wasn't back yet.

Mash spoke up "Um, I'm sure she's still preparing, maybe?" Although, her defence seemed more like a question. It was enough to placate the Director a bit.

"You're right, she seemed far more competent than some others I know."

She was definitely talking about me or Roman. Probably both of us.

"Maybe she just fell asleep." I suggested, and the flat look I received told me what she thought of my suggestion.

"Servants don't need sleep. I swear, when we get back to Chaldea you are in for a lecture, and you're going to listen to every word of it."

"Ahaha. Roger that Director." I said, scratching the back of my head.

The Director grumbled something about idiots before Caster spoke up. "Well since it seems the little Caster isn't moving anywhere, why don't we see what's taking her. Who knows, maybe she really did doze off."

"You two are being ridiculous, there's no way she could have fallen asleep in this situation." The Director said, as we made our way back into the school.

I had dreamt of that burning city once more, with smoke clogging the sky and heat creeping up to me. It no longer bothered me as it once did. I had long since grown used to it. However, the heat burning my face didn't have anything to do with that dream, but rather, the current situation I found myself in.

I was sitting on the very desks I had fallen asleep on, with Ritsuka smiling awkwardly, Cu trying not to burst out laughing, and Olga looking utterly defeated. I had apparently been sleeping long enough that they came looking for me.

Which led to me stewing in my embarrassment, and finding the floor suddenly very interesting to look at. It didn't help that Fou had decided to remain planted atop my head.

Thankfully Olga decided not to drag my embarrassment out. "Haah. Let's just get this over with." She sighed, then straightened up.

"As it stands our current objective is to eliminate Saber and restore this Singularity." She began, gaining all our attention.

"With the problems Chaldea is having right now, even if there were reinforcements, we won't be getting any. We're on our own." She said.

"So what's the plan?" Asked Ritsuka.

"Since the Archer will most likely be guarding Saber, we're going to divide and conquer. Caster will lure the Archer away as soon as he shows up, while we go and engage Saber." Olga explained.

That was a sensible idea. Fighting them at the same time would put us at a disadvantage, despite our superior numbers. All the Archer really had to do was get a lucky shot on Ritsuka and it would be over. Something made much easier if we were focused on Saber.

Turning to me and Mash, Olga continued. "Once we get to Saber it'll be up to you two to stall her until Caster finishes his fight."

Saber, she was likely to have some form of magic resistance. My Code Casts wouldn't work well against her. But they should work fine on Mash, with her defence and my support we should be able to stall Saber for a while. However, neither of us really has a means to actually defeat her. Meaning success hinges on Cu beating the Archer.

"Well, that seems simple enough." Said Ritsuka.

"Unfortunately, we don't have the time or resources for anything more complicated than this." Olga said, as Cu spoke up. "Besides, sometimes simple works best."

Olga turned to him and asked. "And you're certain you can defeat Archer?"

"Of course. I've fought him enough times now to know what makes him tick. He's not getting away from me." Cu replied.

I was still having trouble seeing Cu as a Caster. I knew he could use Runes, but I guess I underestimated the extent he could use them to. Caster or Lancer, either way, I knew that there were few who could match him when it came to a one on one duel.

"Then, if we're all on the same page let's get going." Olga said

"Yes Director!" "Roger that!" "Fou!" Mash, Ritsuka and Fou enthusiastically replied.

I couldn't help but be infected by their enthusiasm. The nervous feeling I got before a battle was still there, but for some reason it felt more bearable after Olga's speech. Maybe it was some quality that as a leader she possessed?

Regardless, our spirits were high despite the dire situation, as we began to make our way to Saber.

AN:

Hey all. Another chapter for you, and so close to finishing it in a week.

But anyway, since I touched on it this chapter I'll talk about what I'm doing with the servant memories. I know in FGO they for the most part retain their memories, but I don't really want this fic to turn into a bunch of servants recognizing Hakuno. So I decided to have them keep a very vague feeling of recognition depending on how close they were in extra and extella, barring a few special exceptions.

On to the questions in the reviews. I do plan to change Hakuno's class eventually. It's one of the few things i have a concrete plan for. I don't want to outright say it, but I will say that there's a very vague hint in the prologue. Also it's a fairly long term plan I have for it, so for the foreseeable future she will remain a Caster.

I'm not going to lie, the chants for the Noble Phantasm completely slipped my mind. So thanks for reminding me. But since I've already shown her using the effigy without it I'm thinking about keeping the chant less version until later in the story, and then upgrading it via interlude. One of the ideas I had in the beginning was to make Hakuno similar to Mash in that, they improve as the story progresses. It's one of the reasons I made a fanfic instead of making a servant profile and calling it a day.

Lastly I have not seen the zero of extella, although the premise seems pretty awesome.

Next chapter we're finally getting fights. I don't know whether I'll split it into two chapters or one long chapter.

Anyway, that's all I got for now. I'll see ya.