Chapter 9

"Master, this is it!" Saber exclaimed. His smile and eyes were wider and filled with more excitement than Issei had ever seen. He looked as if they had already won the war. Unfortunately, Issei couldn't partake in the premature celebration.

"S-Saber…" He muttered, staring worriedly at his parents.

Saber after calming down slightly, took notice of his surroundings. Issei's parents and Irina were all staring at him, their mouths agape. His smile quickly faded as the realization dawned on him. "Oh uh, r-right…" he said, chuckling softly to himself.

"Issei, dear?" Issei's mom said in a flat tone, not taking her eyes off of Saber. "Who is this boy and where did he come from?"

"He's… uh, well… a little help here Caster?" Issei called out, in the hopes that the other servant would hear.

Caster indeed listened, and materialized behind the couch his parents sat on. "Understood." She waved her staff over their heads, causing them to suddenly lose consciousness. Simultaneously, their eyes closed shut and they slumped onto the couch. Just like that, they were sound asleep. With two down, there was one left. However, as she moved on to Irina, the orange haired girl was already on her feet.

The white robes had been discarded, tossed onto the ground without concern. Underneath, which now showed on the surface, she wore a skintight black suit made for flexible movement. She looked to be both agitated yet ready to fight. The latter was even more evident by the two handed katana she held in her hands.

"Where'd that come from?!" Issei thought. Things appearing out of nowhere certainly wasn't a foreign concept, at least not anymore, but it was always coming from something he knew was supernatural.

Irina grit her teeth. "Two servants?" she muttered aloud.

In a split second, Issei's eyes ran up and down her body. Despite the attire, there were multiple parts where skin was exposed. The fact that she knew what Servants were was more than enough proof that she was at least related to the conflict. He looked for a red tattoo to be anywhere on her body, but found none. Rather, he got lost looking elsewhere. Issei felt fortunate that nobody seemed to notice, especially not his childhood friend. If she followed his eyes, she would probably be disgusted.

The fear of that outcome may have been what caused Issei to break his line of sight and re-evaluate the situation. His friend looked about ready to fight two Heroic Spirits. Considering what he knew, she wasn't going to stand a chance, especially not without a servant of her own. Even worse, she didn't look like she was about to stand down. Saber had yet to draw a weapon and Caster hadn't moved an inch, but if Irina attacked either of them, things could change very quickly.

Each second became extra weight on Issei's back. They pressed on him to do something, anything at all that would stop the situation from unfolding any more. A moment later, she lunged forward with her sword held up, and Issei sprung forward.

"Wait!" He shouted, putting himself between the Heroic Spirits and Irina. With him in between her and her target, Irina stopped mid-way, rapidly losing focus. In the process, she also lost her footing, and instead of a lunge, she fell forward.

What a ridiculous life Issei led. One moment: an old friend was about to put herself in serious danger against two superhumans. The next: there was a yelp, and all he could see was black. He wasn't unconscious, as far as he could tell. He still heard everyone's voices, particularly their surprised gasps, and the back of his head ached. He couldn't see anything, like something was covering his eyes. His entire body felt heavier and something soft, like a pillow, pressed against his face.

It was something he had never felt before. Or perhaps he did feel it at some point, but so long ago that it was completely gone from his memories. Whether it was one or the other mattered not, for in that moment of blindness, he felt a sense of unadulterated bliss. He knew exactly, or at least had a good idea of his current predicament. It was a scenario he had only ever dreamed of, never once thinking it would be a reality. The feeling was unparallelled, and in that moment, he wished for it to never stop.

Yet all good things must come to an end. For Issei the end came sooner than later. As it did, he regained his vision, and realized how close he was to being in harm's way. He could see Irina above him, or more accurately on top of him. Her sword was quickly found sticking into the floor right beside his head.

He was speechless, his heart pumping wildly for more reasons than one. Irina quickly dismounted, allowing him to get off the ground. After getting back onto his feet, he watched as Irina pulled the sword out of his floor. All the while her face was a light shade of red and she mumbled something to herself. Interestingly enough, he quickly noticed that Asia was almost the exact same. If he didn't know any better, they were mouthing the same things. Caster looked completely indifferent. Saber stared directly at Issei, subtly smiling while holding a thumbs up.

"What do you mean 'good job'?" Issei interpreted and demanded. Saber must've heard, but there was no response. Shrugging of the gesture, he turned back to Irina, who seemed to have recovered. "Um, Irina."

"Y-yes!" She exclaimed, looking awkwardly at Issei.

"About those two, Saber and Caster…"

"Yeah… so you're in this war as well?" With a heavy heart, she asked.

"Just Saber. If it helps, it wasn't on purpose. I just happened to summon Saber when I almost died." Issei said, trying to console her.

"Accident or not, you know what participating means right?" Irina asked, looking scared at Issei.

"Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of fighting ahead of me. Heck, I just barely got out of my last one alive." He said, chuckling self-deprecatingly while scratching his head.

"Issei. If you don't mind me saying, I think you should quit." Irina declared, locking eyes with Issei. "It's more hassle than you should have to deal with. It's not too late to forfeit. All we need to do is transfer your Command Seals and Servant Contract, and that'll be the end of it. You won't have to be in danger any more and can live a regular life."

"Thanks, but I can't do that. The winner gets a wish granted right?"

"Is that wish really worth risking your life?"

Issei nodded his head. However, he seemed to be nodding to reassure himself more than Irina. To him, it was worth it. The prize at the end, the golden glory rivalling heaven itself, was preceded by pain and suffering well beyond what a normal person would experience. Even so, he wasn't going to just quit. Unfortunately, there was most certainly things he wasn't looking forward to.

"I see." Irina muttered, keeping her eyes off of Issei. The Katana transformed, losing its shape and size completely. In a moment, it was no longer even a weapon, but a ribbon-like string tied around her arm. "If that's the case, I should tell you that we'll be enemies in this war."

"What?!" Issei exclaimed, his eyes filled with doubt. Sure, she knew they were servants, but he didn't see any command seals on her body. Then again, her outfit covered most of her body, save for her face, upper arms and thighs.

"I didn't come just to visit… I came here on orders from the Church, and one of those orders was to obtain the Grail."

A cheap shot, or at least it felt like that. Issei grimaced, keeping his mouth shut lest shout in defiance. Even so, his discontent was more than obvious by his look alone.

Following the short and suffocating silence, Asia raised her voice and offered her own thoughts. "Can't we cooperate? At least until we're the only ones left? Even at the end, the Masters don't need to be killed, right?"

"Really?" Issei turned, looking at Asia with hope filling his eyes.

Irina looked at Asia, as if confused about something. "You are… no, nevermind… I would love for us all to be allies, but that's not up to me." Irina answered. She slowly removed her gloves, showing off her hands and their lack of Command Seals. She wasn't a master, or at least didn't appear to be one. "My partner's already decided we wouldn't be siding with any other masters. There's nothing else I can do."

"Then there's no other choice, huh?" Issei asked.

"I'm sorry, but… I-I think it's best if we don't meet again Issei. Y'know, at least until this is all over. So, goodbye." Her voice trembled, as if about to cry. She didn't even seem to breathe as she picked up her robe and put it back. Without making eye contact, walking towards the front door… "May God be with you."

She left without saying another word. After they heard the door shut, Issei breathed out a heavy sigh.

"Issei, are you alright?" Asia asked, coming to Issei's side with a look of concern. He didn't respond, and Asia stepped away from him.

"I'm sorry Master. I shouldn't have shown myself." Saber frowned.

"No, it's fine. Would've found out eventuallylater anyways. Better that it happened sooner than later I guess." Issei replied, picking up the scrapbook that Saber dropped. He flipped through the pages, eventually landing on the page Saber had left on.

The picture of him and Irina as kids. He felt the urge to smile, reminisce on those days, but couldn't. Instead, his heart felt heavier than usual. He did his best to ignore it, focusing on the "sword" in the background. It was a sword with a curved golden guard. The sheathe was white and gold, with a large green gem near the center.

"So, what's so important about this thing?" he asked, showing Saber the picture.

"That sword, it's is my true Noble Phantasm, my personal sword from when I was alive." Saber answered, his eyes shifting with confusion. "It looks a bit different, but I can still tell it's the same one. I made it look like that whenever It's not in my possession."

"You can do that? I thought you said you couldn't use magecraft, or magic or whatever." Issei countered, looking disbelievingly.

"Well, I didn't exactly do it myself, but I knew someone who was pretty good."

Just like that, it made sense why he was so excited over it. It was as Yuuma said. Without his Noble Phantasm, he was far weaker than he should've been. Unfortunately, retrieving the weapon was no easier of a task than before. Regardless, it still belonged to Irina's family. In other words, they were a long way from obtaining the blade.

Whatever they were going to do next, it was a problem for later. With things having died down, Issei soon remembered just how tired he was. His eyes gradually became heavier and heavier. Both he and Asia looked over at his parents, who were still sound asleep. Their relaxed expressions looked all the more enviable.

"I think we could all use some sleep." Asia suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds good. Night Asia." Issei replied, heading towards his room.

"Good night."

"Is something wrong Irina?" The blue haired girl asked.

The orange haired girl walking beside her had been unusually quiet. Her greeting was normal, but after that, she was silent. All she could hear from the girl were her footsteps and her breathing, which was also heavier than usual.

"Did something happen at your friends' house?" Irina shook her head frantically. The girl sighed. "You're bad at hiding your emotions."

"I know." Irina whispered.

"Will they let us sleep in their house?"

"...no. I don't think we can."

"That's fine then. I never expected it to work anyway." The blue haired girl shrugged her shoulders, taking out a wallet from under her robe. "We have more than enough to find a place to live, at least until we win. Even more fortunately, the Devils residing in this city have agreed not to interfere."

"Oh, that's good."

"I also came across Asia Argento earlier today." She continued.

Finally, an expected reaction. Irina's face lit up with surprise, her eyes wide and locked on her partner. However, that appeared to be the furthest extent of her response. Irina would normally assault her with questions, curious to know more about the experience. Instead, she continued to stare silently, with something akin to fear in her eyes.

"After her exile, I didn't expect to ever meet her, let alone in japan. To think I'd meet a witch on this mission, it's an odd thing."

"What was she like?"

"I didn't talk to her much. She did seem timid, probably scared or ashamed. I don't blame her, after what she did." The blue haired girl continued, pausing as she looked at Irina. She was mumbling something to herself and despite their proximity, she couldn't make sense out of it. After a moment of incoherent whispering, Irina suddenly stopped walking in the middle of the sidewalk.

In an instant, Irina seemed to do a full 180. Her lips curved upwards into a thin but noticeable smile, and her eyes lost their uneasiness.

"Xenovia, I need to call my parents." Irina suddenly declared, with the energy and life that she should have had. "Also, we need to find a post office that does international shipping."

"Umm, ok?" Xenovia said, raising a curious eyebrow.

"Don't worry, I just need them to send me something. It'll definitely help us."

Xenovia's eyes narrowed, suspicious of her partner. "If you're planning on using the Church's money to have a painting shipped to us-"

"I said that wouldn't happen again!" Irina exclaimed, a little more than defensive on the subject.

"As long as you don't forget." Xenovia said, letting a thin smile surface on her face. "If you're sure it'll actually help, then go ahead."

With a seemingly renewed spirit, the two continued to walk down the street. As far as they knew, they were alone, they of course wouldn't have discussed such matters if they weren't. However, they were wrong. They were in fact being followed, but they wouldn't ever know. The unnatural shadows that followed them moved well beyond their reach. Not that they were in any real danger. A single one of them was formidable enough, even for the two agents of the Church. However they remained hidden; watching and listening.

END