The school rooftop was a pretty plain place.
Not that Shirou really cared either way but he could easily spend his lunch break there.
Though right now he was studying a marking that was clearly the anchor for a bounded field that surrounded the school.
He didn't know what it did but he was certain it wouldn't be nice.
And the only reason he wasn't getting Caster to deal with it was because he didn't want to give away anything to Tohsaka.
Seriously, he had spent far too long hiding for him to simply go up to her and say 'hi Tohsaka, did you know that I am actually a magus that has been living in your territory for years without telling you?'.
Besides, given his name he would've expected her to figure out the fact that he was a magus.
Well… not quite a magus, but he had a very solid grasp of magecraft so that was something.
Of course, the whole fact that she clearly knew someone else in the school was a master wasn't much of a surprise, he also knew himself courtesy of the command seals that littered his arm and were currently hidden by a simple illusion Caster had put on them.
And then he heard the door open.
"Emiya-kun?" oh crap, it was Tohsaka.
"Hello Tohsaka, I don't see you up here often," he responded in his typical tone, then again, he had spoken to her often enough and pretty much always kept his circuits inactive when he was around her so she couldn't detect his Prana.
The fact that Caster had done something to mask the command seals ability to detect each other only made it easier to play the part of the normal person.
"Uh…" she clearly didn't know how to respond to him, so he decided to do something to take her mind off it.
"Hey, Tohsaka, do you have any idea who's vandalizing the school?" that seemed to draw her attention.
"What do you mean?" she definitely sounded confused and so he decided to point out the rune that anchored the bounded field.
"Well, someone is drawing on the walls," he said in an irritated tone, "see?"
And when she looked at the marking he could see her eyes widen briefly before narrowing.
"I see… I'll see if I can get to the bottom of this," she said with a 'happy smile'… he didn't believe it, she was the second owner of Fuyuki, there was no way she wasn't the sort that was capable of vivisecting her closest friend for knowledge.
Though he did hope she wasn't.
"Thanks Tohsaka, I really don't want Issei to have any more trouble than he already has to deal with," he idly wondered if she had come down with a fever what with how red her cheeks were going.
"I-it's nothing," and with that statement that he could swear sounded almost embarrassed, she turned her back on him before stopping in her tracks.
"Well well, what are you two doing together?" ah, that self-important, condescending tone meant there was only one person it could be.
"Hello Shinji," he said with his usual calm tone.
"Emiya… I have something I need to discuss with Tohsaka and you are getting in the way," his arrogant classmate stated with a superior smirk on his lips.
Shirou didn't care.
Then again, Shirou was perfectly willing to let everyone use him as a doormat even if he was technically an average one with superior projection skills and a decent repertoire of magecraft in his arsenal.
Shinji didn't even have magic circuits despite being born into an old family of magi.
He was definitely happy that his father had taught him all that political stuff before he passed on, who knows how useless he would've been if he hadn't been told.
"Oh, is it important?" he asked, though given how the boy clearly had a magical tome in his hands, he was probably going to be talking about the Grail War.
Especially if that book was what Caster had called 'a book of false attendant'.
"No, it isn't," Tohsaka stated firmly, though given the glare Shinji gave her for that statement, it was clear the other boy did not think the same way.
"Yes it is!" the arrogant boy almost snarled out, "though if that is how you want to play it then I suppose I can take advantage of it."
Shirou found himself raising an eyebrow at the blue haired teen's sudden change from snarl to smirk.
"Rider, eat him," and with that statement, Tohsaka's eyes widened, a beautiful woman with purple hair appeared out of nowhere, ready to slaughter him…
And Lancer intercepted her.
"Yo Rider," the Irish battle nut said with a cocky grin, "miss me?"
"LANCER?!" Shinji seemed shocked at the revelation that Lancer had been there all the time, "so Tohsaka, you were Lancer's master all along?!"
He sounded enraged by that though given how Tohsaka was just standing there gawking at the confrontation that really shouldn't be happening in the middle of the day, it was clear she had been just as shocked as he had.
"What?" she managed to get out before shaking her head, "no, my servant is Archer which means…"
And with that the two other masters looked towards him and he let out a sigh of defeat.
"Fine… I am the master of Lancer as of yesterday," he admitted, "so Lancer, I take it you've met Rider before?"
"Yeah, it was back when that Kotomine guy had me testing the waters for that arrogant prick he has hanging around the church," the blue clad spearman stated with a grin, "she's almost as fast as me."
Shirou for his part simply felt like sweat-dropping at that statement.
"Though I do feel kinda bad that our fight won't continue much longer," the Irishman said with a sigh, "though we'll get to fight much more later."
And before anyone could react, a familiar swish of purple appeared behind the servant of the mount and pressed a dagger to her arm.
"Rule Breaker," and with that Shirou felt another new command seal burn itself onto his arm and another tiny drain on his prana appear.
And the book in Shinji's hand burst into flames.
"Wha?!" the arrogant boy dropped it before backing away, "Rider! What happened?!"
"You're contract has… been terminated," Caster stated with her grin adorning her face.
"Seriously Caster? Is that really the best you could come up with?" the man in blue asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Shut up Lancer," the cloaked woman commanded with a twitch in her features.
"Both of you, please stop this… and where's Assassin?" Shirou asked.
"Here," oh, looks like Assassin decided to capture Tohsaka while everyone was distracted.
"Dammit… how many people have you allied with Emiya-kun?" she was clearly trying to sound confident despite the knife pressed to her throat.
"None," he admitted, "Assassin, please release Tohsaka."
"Heretic," one word that explained everything to him.
"No, Assassin, you can't kill the heretic," he could see the frown adorn her face before she released the only human girl there, "sorry about that Tohsaka, Assassin doesn't like Christians."
He could easily see the twitch in her features at that admission.
"Emiya-kun… could you please explain to me why you are ordering about three Servants?" she was clearly unhappy with the situation, so he just shrugged and told her the truth.
"Because they're all mine… and Rider is now too," he could see her features darken at that admission.
"You know Emiya-kun, I guess I seriously misjudged you," she stated with an undercurrent of rage in her tone, "I thought you were a good person, always willing to help everyone, always prepared to go out of your way if anyone asked anything of you."
He really didn't understand what she was talking about right now.
"And here I find out, you're a magus who's currently supporting four servants at the same time," okay… now why did she sound so betrayed? "tell me… tell me how many people you're slowly killing to do this?"
"What is it with people and that question?" he found himself asking Caster, "first Saber and now Tohsaka."
"Wait, what do you mean first Saber?" the young girl asked in surprise.
"Oh, Saber asked that same question when I summoned her last night," why was Tohsaka suddenly going pale and… was that urine he smelled?
Looking over to Shinji, he realised that, yes, it was urine he smelled.
"Y… you summoned Saber?" the nervousness in her tone was clear and she was definitely finding the knowledge that he had multiple servants difficult to deal with.
"Yeah, and she asked the same question you just did," he admitted.
"It isn't an issue," Caster stated bluntly, "normal Magi have to find a method of collecting extra prana if they wish to maintain several Servants, usually by taking it from the people in the local area… you on the other hand can just make more out of nothing."
"What do you mean make more out of nothing?" Tohsaka asked with narrowed eyes.
"Do you really want to fight a True Magician with five servants at his beck and call?" Lancer's statement seemed to make the two human's go pale in disbelief.
"Lancer! You weren't supposed to mention that," Caster told off the spearman.
"I'm not a True Magician," he moaned out, seriously? Why was she just so damned insistent that he was?
"Yes you are," the fact that Caster, Lancer and Assassin said it in unison only made it even more annoying.
"W-what do you mean he's a True Magician?!" Tohsaka was clearly unnerved, so Caster decided to simply tell her what she kept telling him.
"He has mastered the Denial Of Nothingness and can just make more prana if he ever needs it… though he has also created extra magic circuits so even if he lost the ability to use it, he would still have massive quantities of prana flowing through his body," it was a simple statement, one that in the end, didn't really change anything now that the girl knew he was supporting five servants without any help.
"And you," the second owner of Fuyuki pointed towards the Servant of the Spell, "can sever the contract between a Servant and their master? Correct?"
"That's right," Caster seemed almost happy at the thought that the young girl understood the position she was now in.
"This is so not fair," she muttered before turning to him, "Emiya-kun, I am not stupid, in this situation I don't think I can beat you in this war."
Well, he supposed that was the truth, given how he had far more manpower than she did.
"I will surrender my Archer to you under a few conditions," well, he supposed that sounded promising, "you do not try to kill me."
"Deal," he said immediately, causing her to blink.
"I wasn't finished," she growled out.
"And I was just accepting that first part independent of the rest," he admitted making her blink in surprise, "I don't want to kill anyone, that's why I'm stealing all the servants, so they don't have to die either."
She seemed stunned at that admission before she shook her head and continued.
"The second condition… is that you make me jewels… lots of jewels worth millions of yen," he nodded, it wasn't like it would be hard for him to project a few jewels after all, "and lastly… that whatever wish you have for the Grail doesn't cause mass destruction... the last one is non-negotiable."
"Alright, deal," he admitted before noting how she was fidgeting nervously.
"And I want this deal sealed with a Geass," her words were simple and many magi would quickly deny such a thing but then again, he wasn't a typical magus.
"Alright," she looked at him in shock at his quick acceptance.
"T-then let's seal the deal," and with that the girl walked over to him, stood directly in front of him and stared straight into his eyes.
He wondered if her fever had gotten worse when he noticed just how red her face was going.
"T-there, all done," and with that she girl backed off before a man with white hair, tanned skin and a red coat appeared behind her.
"Uh, Tohsaka, I think you should go to home," he stated bluntly, causing her to send a glare his way, "well, with your fever and all…"
He didn't get to continue his statement as Lancer burst out laughing.
"Lancer… what's so funny?" he asked as Caster pricked the Archer with Rule Breaker and he felt yet another bond form with him.
"Sh-shut up!" he almost backed off upon hearing Tohsaka yell at the laughing Servant before turning back to him, "I-I'll be expecting entire bags full of gems by tomorrow!"
And with that she stormed off the roof of the school, leaving him with a hysterical Lancer and a clearly amused Caster and Archer… Assassin and Rider just kept their stoic demeanours throughout it all.
Shirou was briefly relieved to discover that Caster had erected a bounded field around them so no one would interrupt earlier but that was for another day.
"Lancer… why are you laughing?" he asked bluntly.
"You never told me you were a ladies' man," the blue clad man asked with clear amusement in his voice, making him frown in confusion, "she clearly has a major crush on you."
"What are you talking about?" his question simply made everyone freeze.
"Do you think he's screwing with us, in denial or just that oblivious?" Lancer asked Caster with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't know… but I'm going to put my money on oblivious," she muttered matter-of-factly.
"Seriously, you guys can be jerks at times, you know that?" he muttered before giving them all instructions to astralize while he returned to class.
He was pretty happy he had had a big breakfast what with how he didn't get a chance to eat anything over the lunch period.
Sometimes having a ravenous Tiger at the table can be a good thing after all.
XXX XXX XXX
EMIYA was not happy.
He had been through countless Grail Wars, he knew almost everything there was to know about it.
And he remembered ALL the wars that involved a True Magician.
So he knew it was stupid to try and kill the younger Emiya.
Probably because he'd get screwed over trying to do that.
It was the problem of facing someone capable of producing infinite amounts of raw power and use it to empower multiple god like beings.
Besides, killing this other him wouldn't help end him because this other him was most certainly not him.
He was Casters enemy after all.
But hey, if he remembered correctly, this was the first time he had ever been on the side doing the curb-stomping, so it might make a nice change of pace.
Though he idly wondered who this new Assassin was, she wasn't someone he had ever really seen before after all.
Meh, it wasn't important, besides, a six on one against Heracles with an infinite amount of prana empowering everyone? That might actually make it a relatively easy battle for a change.
And if they managed to recruit him as well then…
Well, he supposed he could cover them all while they dog piled Gilgamesh.
He really liked that idea.
The Golden King wouldn't know what hit him.
He just hoped this other him didn't decide to try and recruit him as well, that would just be annoying as hell.