Fate/Stay Night: Umbra Bello

Blaze2121- Well, the MC barely knows how to shoot Gandr, and has no idea how he even summoned Assassin in the first place, so the odds of him summoning another Servant are rather slim. Especially a Divine Spirit like Ishtar. As for Fou, well, he's showing up for the first time in this chapter, but the explanation won't come along for a *while*. The real explanation won't be until about two or three story arcs in. Remember, MC has no idea about Grand Order, and therefore no idea what Fou is.

Also, side note. Fuck autocorrect. There were at least twelve mistakes in the last chapter that weren't in there when I was writing them.

Chapter VIII: Familiar Sights/End Prologue pt.1

Date: 02/ 01/2004

Time: 9:47 am

Location: Miyama side Harbor, Abandoned Warehouse


A sniff of the air.

They were close.

He'd been tracking this mana for weeks. Cath Palug believed this to be impossible, but this… they couldn't mistake this mana for anything else. More than worth going out of his way in his search for something beautiful to look for the source.

Using his small size, he crawled into the building through the open vents.

"C-Come on! Give me a b-break!"

There was someone here… but it wasn't whom he was looking for.

"Oh you'll get a break when YOU break!"

Another voice. Again, not the one the Familiar was looking for.

Still, he took a moment to look at the situation.

From one of the vents, he had a bad angle to see what was going on. And…

okay… what was going on?

One human female appeared to be beating the crap out of a human male with a stick. The male had one as well, but only barely seemed like he knew what he was doing.

"P-Please! Slow down for a bit!" the male called out, nearly having his stick knocked out of his hands.

"DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR!" the female was shouting as she rushed him, and delivering a harsh beatdown, knocking him to the ground.

"'Gah'!... owwwwww…." the male groaned in horrible pain.

The woman relaxed for a second, realizing her companion was in no condition to continue the fight.

"Oookay. Take five." she decided.

"'heuugh... bleh'.." he could only groan in pain.

Cath Palug would dismiss all of this. He would just move on believing if there was ever anything important here, it was gone now. But something held him here. It was an old feeling. One he hadn't felt since…

He had to stick around. Just to be sure.


"y-you enjoy this don't you..?" I accused my Servant as I tried to catch my breath laid out on the floor.

"'Gasp'! You would accuse this humble Assassin of enjoying harming her own Master?"she answered with an obviously fake, offended inflection, and an innocent smile on her face. "Orso, you wound me!"

Heh, part of the problem is because I can't.

… oh! Hello there!

It's been a while since we've last talked- er… narrated? Where the hell have you guys been? There's been at least… two, maybe three chapters worth of stuff that was kinda just skipped over.

Regardless, it's been about three weeks for me, so let's get caught up to speed.

Largely, we stuck to the plan. The last few weeks have consisted of 'training', recon, 'training', recon, 'training', recon.

All in quotations, because 'training', has really hit a wall.

First of all, that book? Turns out someone ripped out quite a few pages. Either because Kirei was having a laugh at me, or a younger Tohsaka had taken them out for some reason.

Some basic Formal Craft, and that Gandr is the extent of what I can do for now. Just about everything else either requires materials I've never heard of, or is missing entirely from the text.

I can form a basic bounded field, so long as it isn't too big. I got an alert system running around the HQ 24/7 now that should inform me of any intruders, and uses a rudimentary illusion to make it seem like this place doesn't exist, buuut it's pretty spotty. I'd bet any/mage worth their salt would see through the illusion upon a second look, and tear through the alert system with another. I suppose it's more designed in the hopes that it gets the odd civilian, or incompetent Master to stay away. I used one of those Gems to set it up… but broke about three others in the process when they blew up in my face because I have no idea what I'm doing.

Oh yeah, by the way, I nearly died again when one of those things almost blew up in my hand last week. That was fun.

Suffice to say the Gems seem to pick and choose when they want to work right for me. The way I've come to understand it is because of how such magecraft works. The Gems are attuned to certain spells, so trying to get them to do a bunch of different tasks is like trying to get an I-Phone charger cord to work with a Samsung phone. They might both use electricity, but the hardware just doesn't match up. This all served as a good reminder that magecraft is a dangerous thing that will kill me if I'm not careful.

I also figured out a little something called the 'All Tongue". A spell based on a rune that should help with translating most, if not all human languages. Bare minimum? It works on Japanese. That's what matters right now.

And then there's elemental Magecraft, whose first page is missing. I can only assume this is where it was supposed to mention how to figure out which element I'm attuned to. As I cannot find any mention of how to do that anywhere else in the text.

And then there's stuff to do with finding one's origin. Thankfully the page is there… but the only methods to discover said origin it mentions either require materiels I don't have (or know how to get), or are apparently dangerous to ones mind.

So, yeah. In short, the most I can hope to do for now is practice some formal craft, and some simpler runes until the war starts. I'll never be as good as a legit Mage, but I'm not completely helpless now. I might just be able to pull off a cheap shot to save my life in a pinch.

Beyond that, I've been training physically as well.

I'm not going to be competing in the Olympics anytime soon. But, again, not as helpless as before here.

I know that there's supposed to be a kind of reinforcement magic that would improve my abilities… but after having what equates to a magical grenade blow up in my hand, I've been really cautious about magic that could very easily backfire. Knowing the number of objects Shirou has sacrificed to practice a similar craft, I'm hesitant to do the same thing to my legs, and lungs. Especially so close to when the war is supposed to start. I don't have a magical sheath inside of me to provide an OP healing factor.

So, I've been doing it the hard way. Running, planking, squats, and plenty of tea. Gotta get that cardio.

I'll be the first to admit that whenever I did start working out in the past, my laziness would get the best of me. I'd never really push myself to go that extra mile… or a mile to begin with. But, I guess the imminent fear of death is a real motivator for me. Who knew?

Well, that, and Okita has been a big help. Serving as a Servant personal trainer. In fact, it was on her suggestion we start doing… this.

The idea was to train my reaction time. It also really gets the blood pumping, so I count it as cardio. I certainly wasn't planning on fighting a Servant head on anytime soon, but, again, this kinda thing could end up saving my life.

This isn't so much Kendo, as it is more beat the crap out of each other with a stick until the Master is too tired, or bruised to move.

Well, you know what they say~? Pain makes for an excellent teacher.

"...You okay Master? I know I got a little carried away…" Okita starts, with a hint of worry

"Well, my everything is gonna sting for the next three hours, I'm gonna have to do a grocery run later, then we gotta go scout out the school, and I still got magic training to do. So, you know, basically normal." I gave a half-hearted joke.

"Oh good. For a moment I thought I might've beaten the complaining out of you." she carries on sarcastically.

"That's my secret captain. I'm always complaining." I say as I sit up. Then I start listing off my to do list."Right then. Next- breakfast."

"Great! I sometimes eat that. Only, try not to burn down the warehouse this time~?" she requested, laughing on the inside on how ridiculous that entire event was.

"Hey, come on! I only fucked up two times out of twenty seven." I respond sheepishly.

"Yes. Two times we could've burned down our warehouse in just under two weeks." she almost starts laughing out loud.

I roll my eyes at this, and make my way over to the area that had exploded with the gem.

As luck would have it, that explosion ended up putting a crater in the concrete big enough to make something of a fire pit out of. With that in mind, I ended up investing in proper cooking equipment.

For a while most of what I've made has been western style foods. While I doubt I'll ever be as good as my father when it comes to cooking, I think I'm good enough for someone that does this for a hobby. For the last week or so however I've been trying to work my way into doing Japanese style foods. It was my attempt to cook rice that actually almost burned the building down the first time. I'm going to be doing a Japanese breakfast today, see how that works out. Miso. Steamed rice, and umeboshi.

Standing by my equipment, I sigh as I ready myself.

"Well, here goes something."


Twenty minutes later….

"Aaaaand~! Grubs up!" I declare, lifting the lid off the pot with Miso in it

"Ah…" Okita takes a whiff of the aroma. "Not bad. That's a smell to get the morning going."

Getting everything together, yeah I think so too. It doesn't match what I usually think of as breakfast… but I think I can work with this.

After about a minute of eating, I think I might've undercooked the rice just a tad. It's at the point where you know it could've used a bit more time, but certainly isn't inedible.


Okita wasn't the only one who thought it smelled good.

In fact, to the current inhabitant of one of the vents just above the two, it was a bit overwhelming. Fou leaned in closer to get a better smell of it but-

CREEE

Oh… crapbaske-!


CREEE

"Huh?"

"Huh?" we both get slightly jumpy at the loud noise.

Looking around, we both know we heard something...

"Maybe the keepaway bounded field wasn't as well set up as I thought it was?" I find myself wondering aloud before-

"F-Fooooooooouuuuuu!"

"Wha- 'ooof'!"

"M-Master!?" Okita stumbles to grab her blade to strike at whatever just landed on my face, and knocked me to the ground.

And that very thing was-

"...Kyu?" it seems to ask as it looks me in the eye.

-Kinda adorable.

"Master! Step away from the squirrel!" Okita demands.

Picking the creature carefully off my face I try to get a good look at it, and thought-

"...(Is this a pokemon..?)" I wonder in disbelief.

-and now it's pouting.

Stop-Stop-Stop-Stop being adorable!

Fwoooosh!

And now the cooking equipment just lit up on fire because… reasons?

… fuck my life.


Theme Song- Fate/Stay Night - "Brave Shine" (FULL Opening) | ENGLISH ver | AmaLee


Ten minutes later…

"Okay, now that that's out, and we're not trying to murder a small animal, we can get around to asking an important question- what exactly are you?" I come around to finally asking the small creature.

Said creature tilts its head, as if asking me a question of its own/

"Well, it's clearly some kind of phantasmal beast." Okita explains, "In a way, creatures like him, and Servants have something in common, we're both spiritual entities. So I can tell you this much, there's more to this thing than meets the eye. For one thing, something like this should not exist in the modern era without some kind of support, much in the same way you provide me mana."

"And that tells us… you think this is someone's familiar?" I remember reading about those, and how they work. For most modern animal familiars a magi uses the leftover thoughts of dead people, and transfers them over to a dead animal, then reanimates the bodies while using their mana to create a sort of connection between them, and the new familiar. Technically, one doesn't need a dead person to create it from what I understand, however, the reason they do it is because it's difficult for a human mind to control an animals. To use a familiar analogy, it's a simple software incompatibility. Without some atypical connection with the animal in question (like having the concept of the creature as your origin for example), a lot of the ordinary functions one would expect of a familiar would be impossible. No combat abilities, no remote viewing, no real line of communication between you, and the familiar, and little direct control. What you've essentially created in that case, is little more than a pet, and a drain on mana reserves. And a fairly dull one at that.

In summation, a Magi takes the software of a dead humans neural net, and places it over a dead animals. They then reanimate the body using their mana, and voila! You got yourself a familiar.

Now, what does this mean for our fluffy intruder?

"He's under someone's control." I find myself saying. To which Okita nods seriously.

"Exactly, which is why I'm saying we need to kill it now, and prepare ourselves becau- stop petting it!" She pouts.

I blink before realizing she was right. I don't know when, and I'm not sure why, but I've been scratching the familiar's head this entire conversation. It seemed to like it I guess.

"S-Sorry..!" I stop myself, to the creatures disappointment. "Go on."

"... you realize someone is probably spying on you through it? Right?" the Assassin glares ineffectually at me.

I find myself thinking about this for a moment.

"...Actually, I don't think so." I realize allowed. "The bounded field I set up ought to warn me if anyone around here has negative intentions. Even if they did slip through it without detection… right in the middle of our base, even this familiar would be tripping the alarm right now. An enemy Master wanting to spy on me would qualify under harmful intentions. Whoever's familiar this is, they aren't my enemy. Which begs the question… where exactly do you come from?" I question the creature, who is now sitting down in front of me, listening to the conversation.

A Magi should be able to talk through their familiars, so I should be talking to them right now.

In fact, if they valued this familiar, or secrecy, they should've either made it run, or destroyed it remotely by now. None of this made sense for a typical Mage controlling it.

"Pruuo..?" the creature went. Sounding kinda like a curious cat.

No stop! Cease this cuteness!

"...'sigh', are you sure this won't become a problem?" my Servant sounded defeated. Realizing where I was going with this.

"No, but… killing everything we're suspicious of would be rather hasty. So, until we have reason to believe otherwise… let's roll with this for now." I decide.

"If you say so…" she sounded unsure, but would go along with this.

"So, strange creature, what exactly is your deal?" I turn to the squirrel-cat-dog-thing.

"...Kruo?" it carried on.

"I mean… well, first can you even understand me?" I believe most familiars at a level where they look unique tend to have some form of sapience, however limited. Technically their minds are based on the remnants of a human one, overlapping an animal one, so it likely resembles a hybrid of the two.

It took a moment, looking like it was considering my question, but nodded uncertainly.

"Hm, neat. Well, since that's established, and we're cool with that, what's the plan here? I figure if you wanted to leave you woulda done it by now… so I guess you wanna stick around?" I ask it.

I don't have a particular problem with an anomalous familiar hanging around. If there was an issue with it being a spycam for another Master, it's gone now. Or at least highly unlikely. Besides, I could use an adorable mascot. Y'know, to maintain morale… or something.

If there's one thing RPG's have taught me, it's that taking on strange companions almost always doesn't end terribly.

It seemed surprised to hear this for a moment, then considered my offer, then seemed to come to a decision.

"Fou!" they responded positively.

"Well, good to have you on board-... huh, you go a name there?" referring to a semi-sentient creature as it was rather rude.

"...Prou?" it seemed to be wondering why I was asking a question it physically couldn't answer.

"... well, until I'm told otherwise, how about another alias for now?" it didn't seem opposed to the idea, "How about… Scrat?"

It shook its head no. Apparently, it didn't work for him.

"No? Maybe Rockey?" another no, "Conker?" that's a no.

"Fou!" It called out, a little irritated.

"'Sigh', alright… how about, just Fou?" going back to the pokemon idea…

It paused from making another complaint, and seemed to be going along with the idea before nodding.

"Fou it is. Welcome aboard Fou." we shake han- well, my hand, and his forelimb. And he proceeds to climb up on my shoulder so he's sitting there like a parrot.

"...'sigh', (why do I feel like the oddest sense of annoyance right now?)" Okita wonders while watching me give Fou attention..


Same Day- 4:15 pm

Location- Miyama City- Backroads

"-so then my buddy Brian did a backflip, snapped the bad guys neck and saved the day. Anyway, that's how Goku could totally kick Superman's ass in a fight." I finish up my story as we round a corner, groceries in hand.

"I wish I could say any of that made any sense whatsoever. But... if you say so." my Servant somehow seemed to shrug in indifference despite being in spirit form.

"Yeah, you could say that Saiyan wasn't… monkeying about!"

"Is that supposed to mean something oooor…?" oh. Did… did she not- oh.

"Have... I just been rattling off about random crap you don't know about again?" I don't know why I thought she knew about those things…

"Yes, but… you seemed quite passionate about the subject, so I didn't want to-."

"No-no I just… it was a bunch of little things that pissed me off about that, and… know what? It ain't important." I try to stop myself from falling into a stupid rant. "If you don't want to hear it, just say so."

"Your call."

I chasties myself. I don't think Okita cares for the stupid bullshit that goes through my head sometimes.

Thing is, before all this, I'd have these conversations with myself internally so it doesn't bother anyone. But now that I can communicate telepathically with someone, the monologues about stupid shit just seemed to evolve into dialogue. I just subconsciously end up drawing her in. It almo-

...

I just felt... a sudden tone shift. Like… like an aura of just… pure brokenness just overcame the area… I feel like someone just got punched in the gut by the ex they still have feelings for after having to put down their dog.

Pausing to look around for the source…

"Okita… do you… feel that?" I ask carefully. Just to make sure I'm not the only one...

"Hm? Feel wha-?... oh." she stops in sudden realization.

Oh... There it is.

About twenty meters in front of me there was a girl, they were short, with purple hair that had a ribbon in it, and was wearing a school uniform. The aura just seemed to be emanating from them. Their hair fell before their eyes, blocking my view of them… but I could, somehow, still feel the emptiness.

Some tall blonde asshole (at least, that's the feeling I got from looking at him) was just walking out of view. Somehow, I just knew he had something to do with this.

Strange. Something seems familiar about all this, but I just can't place where….

Okay… there's obviously something going on here. Question is what to do about it… or if I should do anything about it.

Maybe I should... go ask her what's wron-?

Now hold it right there pal~!

Have you ever considered- you're a social retard?

Well… that's mean.

Hear me out.

You know more about magecraft than you do about human interpersonal relations right~?

… you're not incorrect.

Then wouldn't it stand to reason that ~whateeever~ you do, you'll probably only make it worse?

… I hate it, but you got a point there brain.

s'what I'm here for.

Besides, whatever happened here is nunya business. Unimportant people drama is the last thing we need to be focusing on so close to the war.

...right. You're right. I don't know what's going on, and shouldn't get involved. Still… she's kinda standing in the direction we need to go…

So…?

I can't just… walk past her and pretend like nothing's wrong…

Why not?

...dude!? This person's obviously in some form of distress!

So what? We've already established this doesn't pertain to you right? And even if you did want to do something to help, you'd just make it worse.

No no no-no-no-no-no-no-NO, this isn't right! I-I'll just walk by- and ask if there's-

'MENTAL BITCH SLAP'

'GAH"!

Now you listen here! I'm gonna guide us through this, and you're gonna shut up and do exactly as I tell you.

A-Alright…

Following my brain's instructions, I do my best to casually walk by like I'm not paying attention to the world around me.

Step. Step. Step. Step.

Step. Step. Step. Step.

I had almost made it past her when-

"((Quiet sounds of barely contained depression))"

'MENTAL SHELL SHATTERING'

"H-Hey? I-Is something wrong miss-?" well fuck. I tried.

NOOOOOO YOU FOOL! YOU"VE DOOMED US ALL!

C-C'mon? Maybe it won't be as bad as you thin-

"N-No. What could p-possibly be wrong in this scenario..? I'm completely fine." she responds in a half-broken voice. Though, I'm not sure if that last part was for me, or her.

…'inhale'…'outhale'… ooooh boy...

...You were saying?

… okay, maybe we can play dumb and pretend we don't speak passive-aggressive-sarcasm?

Oh no you don't 'pal'!

"Well, is there anything I could do to help?" wh-wha!? BRAIN!?

You, and your conscience walked us into this emotional minefield, Imma watch you dig us ou-

"No. There's nothing you can do." she affirmed with resigned finality, and started walking away.


"'GrrrrRrrRRRRRAAAAARRRHHH!'"

"God- OH GOD NOOOAARAGGHHHH!"

"m-mom? Mommy!?"

I can't do anything.


I wanted to say something. But… the words just died in my throat.

In another moment she was gone, and I just felt like I allowed a life to grow dimmer.

"... 'sigh', feel like there were probably a billion better ways I could've handled that…" I chasties myself.

"Probably." Okita spoke up after being suspiciously quiet the entire time, "But, she said she didn't want help. Sometimes it's for the best to not get involved in others personal affairs. Especially affairs I don't know anything about."

"Yeah… guess you're right. We don't know what's going on here. Probably just some highschool drama I'm reading waaay too much into." yeah.

"Yes. Besides, I'm sure it will work out juuust fine. I foresee that girl has a bright future ahead of her with no outstanding problems that will have to be addressed by anyone, especially any problems that have anything to do with the Grail War, Masters, or bug-monster-men" Okay… she seems to have a lot of pent up… something.

"That's…. oddly specific Okita…"

"Don't worry Master~!" she assures.

"I wasn't worried…"

"I'm sure this little meeting will be entirely unimportant, and won't foreshadow anything of any concern. Ever." she states firmly.

"Okay… so long as you're sure about that…"

"'Course I'm sure!... actually, something totally unrelated to this topic, but, would you mind not making me dinner later?" yup. This is totally unrelated to that person.

"Huh? Why?"

"No reason." she seemed to shudder in spirit form at some thought or another.


Next Day- 7:06 pm

Location- Homurahara Academy, AKA- "Grail Central Station"

"Y'know, with the benefit of hindsight, we probably shoulda taken care of this two weeks ago." I transmit the anecdote to my Servant as I'm looking through the school Library.

"Weird right? Musta slipped the Authors mind that this would be an issue." Okita remarks for me while in spirit form. Knocking through the 4th wall in the process."That, or he couldn't come up with a better reason for us to coincidentally be here right now."

Ignoring that for now, "True. But it's a good thing anyway. At least at this point, we can get a look at the sigils Shinji set up so we can get an idea of what it'll take to bring them down for good ahead of time. Speaking of..."

We'd made quite a mess in here looking for the damn things. I know one is definitely set up here because of the show.

Quick refresher for those of you who don't remember, the little bastard is going to use these devices to turn everyone in the school into mana soup. I remember that the best Rin could hope to do is slow them down, but I hope with a little help she can slow them down a bit more. At least long enough so she can figure out how to really destroy them.

I know that Rin, and Shirou did get him to turn it off, but we're working with a considerable butterfly effect at this point. A lot of what happened then was dependent on Caster making her move, and with me being Assassin's Master, there's room for debate about how that will change her strategy. Hell, most of the last half of the show is a wildcard now without Sasaki.

Odd. When you remember he was kinda stuck standing around for the entire show one might think taking him out of the equation changes little, but actually, no. Without him, no one slows down Saber in confronting Caster, no one slows Archer down as he tries to murder Shirou that time, and, again, no one to fight Saber at the end. He's essentially serves as a gigantic, unnecessary pain in the ass.

Regardless, I'd rather not risk the lives of the students here on an assumption that everything is gonna go well this time.

"Fou? You're up." I called on the squirrel thing who did a mini-salute, jumped from my shoulder, and began sniffing around.

We figured he'd have a nose for this kinda thing, so we decided he'd be our bomb-sniffer dog.

"Fou! Fou!" it called out, mimicking an English Pointer at a specific bookshelf.

"Wow, that was quick. Good job!" I told him, scratching behind his ears as I looked at the area he was pointing to. And sure enough, 'Huh, right under ten copies of 'War and Peace'. Diabolical."

"Great, we found the mini-Macguffin. Now, how do we deal with it?" my Servant asked.

"Honestly, I can't help but wonder why a school would keep this many in stock- riiight, Amazon isn't really a thing yet-"

"MASTER!"

"Wha-!" one of the books fall out of my hand and land on the floor, causing somewhat loud slamming sound in the process.

"Please focus! The sigils. How do we get rid of them?" she asks firmly.

"R-right… maybe we just get rid of the bookshelf? Take it out of the school? That might do it for this one, but I'm not sure what we'll to if any of them that are actually attached to the building…" I try to think of the options here.

Still, I think if any of this was a real option Rin would have tried it, as opposed to just slowing the thing down. I'm sure Archer would be strong enough to move this thing around. They could easily get it out in the middle of the night when no one was around to see it.

"Regardless, we just take care of this one, and we'll at least have gotten him to waste resources. And considering Shinji's entire reason for setting this up is a Mana shortage, if we do this enough, he'll consider this building to be a waste of time, and capital, and move on to a different plan. Hopefully one that risks less innocent lives. Or, if he's stubborn, and tries to double down on this idea, it will be less Mana for him to use against us, and more on setting these things back up. The key to beating Shinji with ease is a war of attrition. He physically can't keep up with the other Masters in terms of magic energy. Stop his attempts to counter, or alter that fact, and he'll be as helpless as a baby seal against a group of drunken sailors." I explain the base idea here.

"Sounds like a plan. Still, probably best to take care of this when we have backup so no one can ambush us while we're moving furniture around." Okita realizes.

"Good call. Besides, we should just focus on locating the rest for tonight. We'll figure out how to remove them all properly latter." Just about the only time Shinji would have a clear advantage over us would be if he got the chance to pull a cheap shot because we were distracted.

I'll still say his knowledge of magecraft is probably better than mine at this point. He's got all of the Matou family's research available to him after all. But knowing about something, and the ability to apply that knowledge are two different things entirely.

With me able to supply my Servant properly, as Okita has told me her Mana supply is just fine, Assassin will likely have a significant edge over Rider if the two were to face off.

If I were to fight Shinji man to human filth… I can't say I'd really know how that would turn out. I don't know if he actually knows any form of self defense techniques. If he does… well, it's certainly in his favor. If not… it's really up in the air.

"Right then- let's go." I say, putting the books back.


Courtyard…

"That's all of them inside the building. 'Bout five so far. We'll do a sweep the courtyard, then check the roof… actually, Okita? Odd question but," I speak aloud as I exit the building. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about explosives would you?"

"Not... really, why?" she asked.

"Well, I was just thinking, 'if we get everyone to stay home from school the next few weeks there wouldn't be a problem' right?"

"... I mean, I guess. No students, no victims for the bounded field. But what does that have to do with- NO I'm not helping you bomb a school!" she refused, predicting my plan.

"Now hold on and listen! I wasn't suggesting we do it with anyone actually inside, I thought maybe we could rig a small bomb to blow up an unoccupied room or two just as the first people arrive in the morning. Maybe play a creepy, distorted message over the PA system for added effect? Make it all seem like a real serious threat. That way they'll have to cancel school. They get out of school for a while, and no one gets hurt… well…"Gears turning in my head…

"I don't think I like where this is going... please stop before this gets out of hand-" my Servant begged, but it feel on deaf ears.

"Maybe we can rig an extra one for Shinji?"

"Oh, being ignored..."

"'Gasp', we can call it "Project: Garbage Day"!"

"Master. This sounds like a terrible idea that could very easily backfire." Assassin stated, deadpan. "And will probably end up getting a lot of civilians hurt by mistake."

"'Sigh', I know… I ain't lucky enough to pull that off without unnecessary casualties. Moot point anyway. You don't know how to make things go boom, and my only explosives are those gems, and those are hardly reliable." I admit to defeat on this front. "And I don't think we'll be meeting anyone that does know a thing or two about bomb making on this venture anyhow."

"... so, the bounded field?" she guides us back on topic.

"R-Right. Now if I were a dangerous megalomaniac, and I'm not, where would I.." I began to think before Fou made himself useful once more.

He began sniffing around while sitting on my head, but before his eyes seemed to grow wide. But before he could call something out-

"MASTER! Steel yourself!" my Servant warned, tensing up at something I couldn't sense.

After a brief moment of confusion, I try to prepare my body to move when-

"There once was a Lancer on a rooftop…"

"Oh..." My eyes grow wide, "...shit."


End Theme- Disney's Hercules - GO THE DISTANCE (Michael Bolton) - Caleb Hyles Cover


And that's a cliffhanger. Let me know what you guys think. I particularly want to know how you all think I've gotten the characters so far.

Part 2 of Familiar Sights should be coming out just about over a week from now at the rate I get to work on stuff. I just wanted to get something out in a timely manner.