A/N:

Here a day early again. Heck yeah!

Originally, I planned for Chapter 4 to release on today, the 13th, but I moved it back by one day because of personal reasons. the 13th of November isn't really my…favorite day, put briefly.

But then I thought: no. I'm not going to let a goddamn date hold me back, so I'm going to own today!

Which basically means y'all get an early chapter release. You're welcome, lol.

So in the footer Author's Notes in the last chapter, I said that Chapter 4 would be the longest, at nearly 12k words. Well…I kind of lied. It became over 18k after I added extra scenes to flesh out the story more. I don't normally go back and add more content to chapters I had already finished, but I did here because I thought it would fit.

I won't say what scenes I added, but essentially it meant either Chapter 4 would be the longest yet, at over 18k, or I split the chapter into Chapters 4 and 5.

I decided on doing the latter. lol.

So now Act I has an extra chapter, technically.

Glad you guys liked 3.5- Accelerator was a character I was a bit scared on characterizing, but I'm glad I did him mostly justice. I picked his Servant for a particular reason (even though it was technically Cornelius that picked him, but eh, who cares about that guy?), so I hope you will enjoy their developments in the future!

But now, it's time to go back to the main cast! I'll see you all below.

Chapter 4: A Certain Newcomer

P.O.V.: A Certain Child of Light

"There's something about this city…that shouldn't be."

Those words eat away at Cu Chulainn as he jumps across from building to building under Academy City's night skyline.

He normally never would heed the words of someone he didn't trust, especially someone that gave off a vibe such as that Archer fellow, but for some reason, his words sent a chill down the Caster's spine.

And he was never a person to really feel fear. Not that he was scared, per se, but after his conversation with Archer, it was as if the air itself felt different.

The atmosphere of Academy City. He hadn't noticed before, but there's something…suffocating about it. Nothing that should bother a warrior like him, but it was as if someone, or something was lightly pressing around his neck; enough to at least be a nuisance, but he couldn't simply knock it away.

'Ah, dammit.'

The Caster shoves the Archer's words to the back of his mind as he focuses on his task at hand. Thanks to his Class-given skill Territory Creation, as well as his naturally high instincts from still being an experienced warrior of Ulster, it wasn't too difficult to sniff down the faint tracks that Assassins leave behind.

He's called the Hound of Culann for a reason, after all.

He stops a block or so away from what looks to be a massive hotel, or perhaps an apartment building of some kind. There were no people outside; only the occasional security bot that sweeps the ground. Thanks to his Master giving him general intel of Academy City's layout, he knew that this area was high in dormitories for students; this one likely belonging to one of the schools within the Garden of Learning.

'…There they are. That damn sand bug.'

He narrows his eyes just at the top of one of the distant buildings, just across from what he understood was Tokiwadai Middle School's dorm.

A black, shadowy figure appears from nothing, sitting quietly on the building's ledge. He spots it producing a blade, and they twirl it in their hands as they seem to study the building intently.

Caster scans the building himself, and senses a mana presence far higher than most of the ordinary signatures in the building. Most people had a low inner Mana- or Od- value, but there is one that has at least a five or six times higher signature than the others; enough to qualify as a Magus.

However, considering mages aren't allowed within Academy City's borders usually, he deduces it to one other, more likely possibility:

'There's a Servant concealing their energy in there.'

He peers over to the Assassin. 'Finding a way to deal with them, huh?'

Caster hops off the building, letting his body fade into azure so the Assassin wouldn't notice him sooner. 'Like I'd let you.'

He didn't particularly care for the Servant within the building itself- or even their Master, which if he had to take a guess, is likely on the younger side. Caster isn't one for morals; if he has a job to do, no matter how gruesome, he'd see it to the end. And of course; his job now was to chase down this damn Assassin.

He lands on the rooftop of the Assassin, and lets himself un-vanish. Unnaturally, the Assassin twists its head around to face him, before corking its whole body afterward. The way Assassin moved… '…That's disgusting.'

Like some sort of bug, and less of a humanoid.

"Oi, you got some friends of yours, dontcha?" Caster says, manifesting his staff as he walks forward cautiously, letting himself size up the Assassin as the two Servants stare each other down.

"Ah…would you…like to meet them?" The raspy voice of the Assassin croaks out as their limbs don't move fluidly; but crack as if they were rusty old machinery.

Chulainn stops, his eyebrow raising.

A millisecond later, he feels it. A presence to his right.

"Ansuz!"

The Caster announces, immediately calling forth a fiery runic symbol that bursts to life on his side, lighting ablaze the knife-wielding hand that tried to lash out at his neck.

The just-manifested Assassin cries out in pain as the flames quickly travel up their arm and wash over their entire body. They fall to the floor, groveling and rolling as inhuman moans spurt out of their masked-covered face.

Caster pays it no mind, and rushes full force toward the first Assassin, who hops off the rooftop, inciting him to chase.

Of course, the Hound of Culann isn't perturbed, and runs after him with the full intent to slaughter.

As he rushes through the darkness of Academy City, he recalls back to the times he was alive. His very last battle— where he stood against Queen Medb's army of thousands strong.

He smirks as he senses several other energy signatures, each identical to the Assassin he was chasing, start to appear from nowhere and encircle him.

'Outnumbered, am I?'

The Irish Child of Light had slaughtered thousands, single-handedly, before he was finally put down.

'No problem for me.'

The Assassin in front of him spins around abruptly, firing a blade aimed between Caster's eyes.

The knife flies through the air faster than a gunshot. He didn't choose to parry, or block, or even dodge.

It careens towards his face. A pressurized force appears between his forehead at the blade, succinctly halting its advance and effortlessly blowing it away.

Protection from Arrows.

Any projectile of a certain rank or below is rendered harmless to him.

The Assassins seem to notice. Cu narrows his eyes as he senses one Assassin start to approach him from behind.

'You fool.'

He opens his palm, and a reddish polearm appears in his hands. The Assassin notices, but it's already too late to move away.

After all, it's a spear that performs its kill before it's even announced.

"Gae Bolg."

The Caster spins around, and suddenly lowers his guard and thrusts forth, all in a single breath.

A crimson light pierces the Assassin before the spear even makes contact with its body. They grunt as a sharp pain crushes their heart, stabbing out the other side of their chest.

All of the other Assassins halt to witness one among them be skewered like a fish. Caster throws the limp body to the side, and scoffs as he senses what must have been a dozen or more Assassins corralled around him. "Anyone else?"

The Assassins' stare remains continuous. Unmoving.

Caster's eyes narrow. 'This doesn't seem right.'

There is something…inherently inhuman about these Assassins. They seem less like humans, and more like puppets with a protocol. Even their speech was somewhat warped and inhuman.

While Servants were inherently spiritual bodies, they do maintain a semblance of their humanity in their personalities, with the exception of Berserker. But these Assassins…

'They don't seem like they're all individuals.

More like a hive mind. A part of a whole.'

And that wasn't even getting into how abnormally weak they feel for a Servant. They'd be high-level familiars otherwise, but they were easy pickings for the likes of him.

Suddenly, the cloaked warriors all hop away in the same direction, forcing Caster to chase them down. 'Even if they're leading me into a trap…

…I'm pretty sure I can kill them, Master and all.'

XXXXX

The fight transitioned quickly from the rooftops to the highway. The sparse passersby were bound to notice Caster as he chased down a good number of what would seem like strange cloaked cultists. He didn't pay any mind to their opinions, however; he had a job to do.

Sprinting faster than the vehicles around him, he starts to get suspicious as the roads start to go downwards- through the surface of Academy City and straight underground. Caster only knew circumstantial information about Academy City— he wasn't aware that there was a whole school district below the earth.

Coming out from the tunnel, his field of view opens up to a subterranean utopia. Nearly identical to the Academy City on the surface, but with a huge screen dome that simulates the night sky.

The Underground School District, or District 22. Its small size compared to the rest of the districts is made up by the fact that it builds down rather than out.

Caster grimaces as he watches the Assassins hop off the highway and into the city streets below. Without missing a beat, he follows his pursuants into the darkness.

'Why down here?'

Aside from being underground, this place wasn't very different from up above. If their Master was down here, then they were stuck in here with Caster just as much as Caster was stuck here with them.

As he lands in the underground city streets, most of the Assassins had already seemed to slink into the shadows. The one or two that remain continue further into the heart of the city, where there was an artificially-planted forest.

Caster enters the woods, and immediately notices his vision obscure from the thick treetops. 'Cutting off my sight, are we?'

As a Caster, he wasn't bothered. His class has a higher perception for magical energy, meaning that even the elusive Assassins aren't easily able to sneak past him.

"Come out, you sandbugs." He announces into the darkness. The trees only gently flutter their leaves in response. "Leading me all the way out here won't make a difference for any of you."

…

No response. Sensing around himself, he didn't even feel any nearby Assassins. 'It's almost as if…they evacuated the area.

Why—?'

The Caster bursts out above the treeline, his attention toward something utterly inhuman.

A long, black tendril extends at him, trying to wrap itself around his legs. He swipes with Gae Bolg to fend it off, and just as quickly as it had reached for him, it contracts back into the darkness of the forest.

'What the hell was that?'

The energy signatures of the Assassins suddenly appear in droves all around him; at least two dozen all converging on his location. Gritting his teeth in frustration, the Caster lands back in the forest, and readies his staff and spear simultaneously as the shadows around him begin to move, coiling like snakes.

A black force rushes toward him from the rear.

"Ansuz!"

The Irish warrior raises his staff to the sky, releasing several bolts of streaming orange flame. They roar into the woods, searing past the trees as they heat-seek their targets and strike with blazing accuracy and intense heat.

The Assassins that converged on him cry out as they're struck, or grit their teeth as they're forced to retreat behind the safety of the trees.

For the Assassins, there was no true way to harm the Caster. Their strength was numbers; something that this particular Servant was all-too effective against.

Even if there were a hundred, or two hundred of the Assassins, he would still stand his ground like a boulder to the wind.

He can sense their magical energy begin to fluctuate. "Getting desperate, are we, sand bugs?!"

The Assassins say nothing in response, and instead begin to accelerate as they swarm around him like bees. Clicking his tongue, the Caster grips his red spear tightly.

For all intents and purposes, he is up against a small army. Therefore, the situation is perfect for Gae Bolg's second use.

He bends his legs, and bursts into the air. The Assassins immediately follow him, using each other's bodies as springboards to close the gap between them.

The Caster twirls in mid air, and raises his spear above his head.

The Assassins reach out their arms, and announce their unity.

"We are all as one,

And one as all.

A shadow with a hundred faces.

Go…Zabaniya!"

It was as if they were throwing themselves desperately at the Caster, sacrificing their very bodies in an attempt to touch his body and curse him.

The Child of Light would not let that happen, however.

The spear lights aflame with a crimson glow, illuminating the approaching Assassins with the imminent coming of death itself.

A spear that curses its target to death, is about to barrel upon them.

"Your hearts are mine!

Gae…BOLG!"

Veins pop on the Caster's forehead as he thrusts his arm forward, and releases his Spear's True Name with the force of an incendiary missile.

The Anti-Army variation of Gae Bolg— one that strikes not just one, but many opponents with the curse of absolute death. While it cannot reverse causality, it's imbued with an effect that renders all defenses useless.

The Assassins stare at Death itself behind their masks as it crashes into them like an armor-piercing round.

Skewered, like meat on a stick. A sickening crunch of bones breaking and flesh tearing sound out as the spear pierces through several Assassins— and its overwhelming shockwave from its release blows the others away back toward the earth.

It was a flash of crimson light that appeared for only a second, pummeling into the forest like a meteor.

A resounding boom echoes through District 22, shaking its foundations to the core as a fiery explosion overtakes its forest.

Caster lands just outside of the forest borders atop a building, watching as dozens of trees are flattened— and hundreds of others have their pines and leaves blown from their branches.

There was no leftover dust— the heat from the eruption vaporized any air particulates. On the sizzling ground were the bodies of a dozen or more Assassins, either with entire limbs blown off, or chests pierced through the heart. Within seconds, they all glitter into ashes, and eventually flake out of existence.

'Pathetic.'

Caster reaches out his arm. This isn't even a fight for him— more a warm up, than anything. "Come, Gae Bolg."

…

'What?'

His most trusted and most powerful spear is also the most loyal. And yet… 'It's not calling out to me.'

He jumps down from the building, down into the damaged woods once again. Reaching out his arm, he feels no energy signature reaching out back to him.

His spear had vanished.

"!" He jerks to the right as something whips at his body at speeds much faster than the Assassins. "Those damn tentacles…!"

He hops out of the way as they loop around and stretch out to him again. Calling his staff, he blasts several spheres of fiery light at the tendrils, hoping their heat would burn away at its darkness.

The balls of fire strike true.

But turn to nothing as the tentacles seem to consume them, absorbing their heat and negating their damage. Caster's eyes narrow. 'There's something off about this.

It can just…eat magical energy like that. If it were to touch me…'

His survival instincts kick in, and he reaches into his pockets to reveal several ruby-colored gemstones, engraved with runic symbols.

As he lands back on the ground, he releases the runes, which form a square-shaped Boundary around his body. A translucent light emits from each one, surrounding him in a box of magical energy— strong enough to even protect against a Noble Phantasm.

Primordial Runes: a gift from and taught by the Queen of Shadows herself. Magical gemstones that possess Mystery from the Age of Gods.

'…What the-?!'

And yet, they are rendered utterly useless.

The tendrils wrap around the Runes, turning them black and corroding them. They melt into the appendages, and the barrier breaks right before his eyes.

And a sharp pain shoots through his stomach.

Caught off-guard, a tendril had pierced through the shield and struck him in the gut. Gritting his teeth, he slaps the arm away with his Staff and rushes backwards, not letting any more get close to him. He lands a safer distance away, his teeth grinding in pain as he checks the damage to his body.

A black void, nearly perfectly circular in diameter, is present on his stomach, spreading along his clothes and his skin like a cursed disease. 'Damn…!'

This wasn't any old curse. He could feel the energy draining at his very life force. '…I'm on borrowed time now.'

There were only a handful of artifacts or Noble Phantasms, from his knowledge, that could reverse these effects. Unfortunately, none of those belonged to him.

It would only be a matter of time before the curse spread to his Spirit Origin.

Suddenly, the Caster jerks his head up as he feels a…presence just ahead of him.

"What…the actual hell is that?"

Something is standing in front of him.

Transient, dark, and voidal.

The source of the tendrils that had cursed his body. Gripping his staff, the Child of Light finally understands Archer's words fully.

"There's something about this City…that shouldn't be."

He is staring at it, right in the face. If this isn't the main problem, it's certainly one of them.

"Archer entrusted me with that information…guess it's my job to take action against it."

Standing tall, Cu Chulainn's body is suddenly surrounded by swirls of orange flame. They burn away at the curse on his torso, keeping it at bay and slowing its spread. "If I'm to really kick it, here…I'm at least taking this thing with me."

He holds his runic Staff in front of him, and announces.

"O Giant of Timber, be eaten away by fire."

In front of him, a massive inferno bursts outwards, incinerating any nearby trees as a presence climbs out of the hellfire.

Towering over the treeline, massive arms, torso, body, and legs of wood stand tall; a wooden puppet of flaming hell.

"Become a cage of flames and burn away karma itself.

Wickerman!"

The giant opens up its chest, revealing a cage where the flames are most intense. Even Servants, which are resistant to the elements, are burned away by its sheer heat.

The giant falls— directly onto the abyss of darkness.

Caster watches onward, his Noble Phantasm aiming to burn everything before it into cinders.

"Too bad, Caster."

A dull pain crashes through the right side of his chest.

He tries to break away, but tendrils of darkness were already wrapped around his legs. A pool of something dark and muddy forms around his ankles, sinking him in like quicksand.

In front of his very eyes, the Wickerman is extinguished.

In this battle, the darkness consumes the light. The fire is silenced, and the wood is consumed greedily by the presence before him. In fact, the heat and the pure destructive force his Noble Phantasm is supposed to provide hadn't even affected it- and may have very well made it even stronger.

Cu's head turns slowly, to meet a masked female Assassin with long, tied lavender hair. One Assassin had survived- and possibly more, from his Noble Phantasm.

Caster scoffs, even as his vision blurs, and as he tastes something metallic flow from his mouth and down his chin. "If you really wanted to live up to your Class's namesake…why didn't you crush my Spirit Origin, Assassin?"

The purple-haired mask tilts her head at the Servant's cockiness, even near-death.

"Orders from my Master. Your life will continue on, Child of Light.

Continue on…and be cursed to serve the Mud of the Grail."

Caster's eyes widen.

Down to his knees, he can do nothing to resist. The Assassin pulls her arm out his chest, and inspects his blood keenly as black tendrils grip his body, blackening every corner of him.

'Damn…this is really…the worst…turn of…events…

…Wait.'

Something pulses within him. Despite the tendrils corrupting his body, they don't consume his Spirit Origin. Rather, they wrap around it and slowly convert the very energy into something drastically inverted.

He wasn't being turned into food for that thing, like his Noble Phantasm was.

An unfathomable pain shoots through his entire body as his veins and arteries shrink and expand violently. The Caster roars out in pain as his body begins to pulse…

…and warp spastically.

In the last dregs of his sanity, the Child of Light recalls the kids he met in that room.

The boy with the strange right arm. The girl who supposedly could use all Five Elements.

'I wonder…will they be enough…

…to defeat me?'

His eyes glow red, and a pained cry of insanity breaks the sudden silence of District 22, before he's completely covered in the darkness.

P.O.V.: A Certain Unlucky Level 0

The first thing that Touma Kamijou hears when he finally comes to his senses is the sound of an incessant alarm clock.

Just like how ordinary folk would put an alarm at their bedside- only for them to smack it into snooze mode a few seconds later, and curl back into bed- Touma asserted to place one on the vanity counter in the bathroom, next to the sink. He thought about placing it next to him, but the more than arm's-length distance between the bathtub and the sink meant he had to physically stand to turn it off.

"Urgh…"

Like always, he feels a crick in his neck, and one of his arms is sore from laying on it all night in the cold bathroom. Due to the bathroom being built in the interior of the apartment, rather than next to the outside wall, there wasn't any natural sunlight that came in to calmly soothe him awake.

Instead, all he gets is a jolt of a sharp, loud ringing, and the unnaturally white lights of the restroom to force him out of his slumbery state.

He grabs the edges of the bathtub and pushes himself up to his feet, then trudges across the bathroom to the alarm clock. Yawning as he clears his eyes of sleep, he clicks off the alarm without looking, then peers down at the time.

"Ah…wha?"

7:45 AM.

Home room starts in fifteen minutes.

"Guh—! DAMMIT! DAMN MY LU-!"

He was about to exclaim his, quite frankly, daily misfortune that never seemed to escape him ever since childhood. However, he quickly covers his mouth as he realizes that there was a particular lack of pitter-pattering of footsteps on the other side of the bathroom door.

'Index is probably sleeping,' he thought, 'and if she is, then Tohsaka-san probably is, too.'

He sighs, and washes his face hastily with cold water before exiting the bathroom with some hurriness in his steps.

There isn't any time to make breakfast; however, he did have a guest at his place. Leaving the apartment without at least making the two girls something is inhospitality at its worst.

He weighs the benefits and downsides of tardiness or being impolite, and chooses to be the former.

'It's not like Komoe-sensei isn't used to me being late. She'll probably let it slide…right?'

He crosses his fingers as he pulls out some whole-wheat bread. Index likes to eat a lot of carbs, and he figures that if she's going to keep stuffing herself, she at least should eat healthy.

Kamijou throws it into the toaster like a basketball star from across the kitchen. To his surprise, they actually land.

With the toaster doing half the work, all he has to do is crinkle some lettuce and fry off some ham. He figures he'd make something decent for the two girls; at least give them some options when they wake up.

In record time, and miraculously with nothing spilling or breaking, he pats himself on the back as he places a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on one plate, and a ham, cheese and lettuce sandwich on the other.

He looks back at the clock; it took less than five minutes.

'If I run, I'll only be ten minutes late, probably!'

He speed-walks to the kotatsu and places both sandwiches on the table. 'They'll have to pick who gets which…Oh well!'

Touma switches into his school uniform and brushes his teeth simultaneously- something he's had to pull off multiple times in his high school career. Once done in the bathroom, he rushes back to his, er, Tohsaka-san and Index's bed, and grabs his school bag.

As he leans down, he catches the sight of a dark haired beauty at the corner of his eyes.

Laying in Kamijou's commandeered bed, Rin Tohsaka's cheeks are blushed slightly pink. Touma deduces it must be from the heater that had kicked on an hour or so ago. It was noticeably warmer in the living room than it was in the bathroom.

Index had stolen the majority of the bedsheets, causing some of Tohsaka's smooth, pale yet peachy legs to stick out of the covers, curled up near her torso to keep most of her warm. Her arms are wrapped around Kamijou's pillow- apparently as revenge to Index for stealing the blanket, Tohsaka had taken the pillow.

Her dark brunette hair, which she normally keeps up in twintails, cascades around her face and body peacefully. Her chest rises and falls in tandem with a gentle breathing that Kamijou can hear coming from her nose- which is much more silent than the snoring Index usually does.

Speaking of Index, she is also sleeping— though shuffling slightly back and forth in place, as if having a bad dream.

His eyes gaze back to Tohsaka, who lays still like a leaf on a morning lake.

"Ahem."

Perhaps he'd been looking at her a little too long, as a male voice causes his back to stiffen and petrify upwards like a pencil. "Ah—"

He turns, and sees a white-haired, red-clothed Archer leaning against the wall next to the television, his narrow eyes peering right at him. "Don't you have somewhere to be, Kamijou?"

"R-Right." Touma could feel his face starting to heat up as he lifts his bag and heads toward the door. "Sorry…"

"No worries." He looks back to Archer, whose face softens an iota. "I was a teenager once. I understand, in a way. Besides…"

Archer looks at Tohsaka for a moment as well, then closes his eyes and responds neutrally. "I don't exactly blame you."

Kamijou chuckles, "Y-Yeah…"

Despite his best efforts, Touma wasn't anywhere close to perfect. If Archer hadn't caught him, who knows how long he'd be sitting there, still?

Sighing, Kamijou waves to Archer. "Well, I'm off."

The last thing he sees is the Servant start to turn to glitters as he shuts the door to his apartment behind him.

XXXXX

Thanks to the embarrassment of this morning, Kamijou's run to school had been nearly record-breaking. Instead of the calculated fifteen-to-twenty minutes late, he had gotten through the school gates only ten minutes past the bell. All he had to do was get a tardy slip from the office, and off to homeroom he would go.

"Ah, I'm way out of time…damn misfortune…!"

He rushes up to the shoe lockers and starts removing his outdoor shoes. As he opens up his locker, he catches someone walking up adjacent to him, removing their shoes as well. Judging by their bare lower legs and the hem of a dark skirt, they must be a female student.

"Late too, huh?" Kamijou asks out of courtesy, since they did just come up next to him. He was too focused on putting the back of the shoe over the soles of his feet to make eye-contact with the person, yet.

"A little. Hopefully they forgive me, the walk here was a little confusing…"

'Confusing?' Kamijou thinks as he slips into his last shoe. 'It's been the new school year for several months. Even new students should know their route to here…'

He stands up straight, and takes a look at the girl in question.

She stands a few centimeters shorter than him, the top of her head reaching to his eye-level. She has dark, ocean colored hair and large eyes of the same shade, with oval-shaped glasses. She's wearing the typical female school uniform for his high school: a dark sailor uniform, with white lining, and a white bow in the middle.

'Not anyone familiar.' Kamijou immediately posits in his head. His high school is decently close-knit, and while he didn't know everyone's names, he had an idea of everyone's faces. The girl before him was most certainly a new one.

"I don't believe we've met before." Kamijou extends his hand. "Touma Kamijou. Nice to meet you. You a transfer student, or somethin'?"

The girl nods studiously, at first preparing to bow, but instead accepts Kamijou's offer of a handshake. "N-Nice to meet you. Yes, you are correct. My name is Ciel."

Touma blinks at both her name, and the way she was speaking. Unlike his own, and typical Japanese natives, who speak Japanese their own way, Ciel's Japanese was perfect- aside from a few stutters, it was as if she had learned from a textbook, likely because she did.

'Definitely not an Asian name. Sounds French…I think.'

He finds himself gazing at the clock along the wall, and suddenly realizes why he had rushed to school so quickly. Panicking, he throws his outdoor shoes into the locker and starts speedwalking off. "Well I wish I could stay, but I gotta go…!"

"Oh!" Ciel nods, "O-okay! I'll see you around?"

"Sure!" Kamijou waves, before walking as fast as he can to the attendance offices. 'Komoe-sensei, please have mercy on me…!'

XXXXX

"Damn my luck…"

She did not have mercy on him.

For being late, he was given the oh-so gracious gift of more remedial lessons after school- even more than the two idio- students he normally was with during those times, that being Tsuchimikado and Aogami.

It was either that, or the tardiness would be on his record, and he'd have to attend remedial school on Sunday- the one day off he had.

Needless to say, he did not want to do that, so he opted to do them now.

His head buried in the desk in defeat, he listens with his ears to Komoe-sensei, as she continues to teach the class about some chemistry concepts.

"Now, Emiya, can you tell me how many moles are in this…oh right. He's absent…"

Kamijou's ears perk up, and his head lifts as Komoe looks to the back of the room.

Turning his head, he finds that indeed: the seat where Shirou Emiya typically sits is vacant. He must have missed when Komoe-sensei marked him off during roll-call.

He taps the shoulder of the student in front of him. The long-haired girl moves her hair behind her ear as she leans back and lets Touma whisper to her. "Himegami-san, you know what happened to him?"

While he knew that Emiya wasn't super-close with Himegami, he did know that Himegami's best friend, Fukiyose Seiri, did exchange words with him often. He was hoping that Himegami, by proxy, may have an idea.

Instead, she shrugs her shoulders. "Probably sick. There has been a bit of a bug going through the school…"

She trails off, and leans forward to return to listening to the lecture.

'Sick, huh?'

It was a decent enough explanation, though Kamijou finds it unlike Emiya to get sick. Even when under the weather, he finds the strength to go to school. It would probably take getting bedridden to keep him at home.

'Oh well, must be a bad case of the flu, then.'

Just then, the phone rings at Komoe-sensei's desk. "Oh! Excuse me for a moment, class."

She hops off her stool by the board and answers the phone. "Hello? Ah, yes. Almost forgot about that. Right. Mhm. Thank you."

Komoe sets down the phone, and turns toward her students. "Alright class, we'll be taking a small break from chemistry for now. I need to introduce you to someone."

Kamijou raises a brow. 'Wait…'

He recalls the French girl from the entrance.

'That's just a coincidence, right? There's dozens of classrooms in this school—'

"Just like Himegami-san from a month or so ago, we have a new transfer student! Although this one isn't just from outside of Academy City- they're from all the way across the world!"

'Just a coincidence.' Touma nods to himself.

"Are they a boy or a girl?" Aogami asks from the back. Kamijou inwardly cringes at that question.

"They are female, yes." Komoe-sensei puts up a finger, and her face forms into that signature lecture-y mode. "I know what you're thinking though, Aogami-kun. That's why I have you seated away from her!"

"Aw, man…"

Touma hears the snickers of students from across the classroom, but they all silence as the door to the classroom slides open.

The spiky-haired student blinks in genuine surprise, for it was not a coincidence.

It was fate.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet our transfer student from France, Ciel!" Komoe gestures to the new girl, who bows out of politeness.

"H-Hello everyone. Nice to meet you! Did I say that right…?" She turns to Komoe-sensei for confirmation, and the petite teacher excitedly nods her head. "Right! My name is Ciel. It's a pleasure to meet you all!"

All of the students say their individual greetings, some overlapping one another.

"Oh damn!" Touma hears the crass voice of a certain blonde idiot from the back. "Ciel-chan, you're kinda cute— OW! What was that for?!"

"For being rude!" He watches as Fukiyose pulls back her fist, threatening to smack Tsuchimikado across the face again. "I swear, do you have to hit on every girl you see?"

"I'm pretty sure you hit me more than I hit on- OKAY, don't smack me! It was a joke!"

Pretty quickly, the class devolves into madness. A large number of the boys are practically falling over themselves, seemingly enamored at the prospect of a foreign girl entering their ranks.

The girls, meanwhile, are trying their best to be nice, and also pipe down the boys from exploding the room into even more chaos.

And Kamijou finds himself in the middle, watching neutrally as Komoe-sensei shows Ciel a seating chart, and directs her to a seat in the column next to Kamijou.

Ciel spots his gaze, and smiles kindly as she makes his way to him. "You have quite the rowdy class, huh?"

Touma chuckles. "Yeah, you could say that."

Of course, he hid the fact that he often became a part of that rowdiness, but at least not during the mornings. He was always too tired to get involved in Tsuchimikado and Blau's antics in the hours before noon.

To his surprise, the seat that Komoe directed her to was right next to him. He supposed it made sense; that seat had been vacant since a certain…person that Kamijou didn't want to think about transferred out a year ago, so Komoe's been finding a way to fill that spot in for a while.

Ciel sits down next to him, quietly getting out her things as the poor miniature teacher in the front tries to get everyone to settle down.

"Class, please, calm down, everyone back to your—!"

"Hey Ciel-chan, you into Japanese boys?"

"Ciel-san, wanna exchange phone numbers? I could give you notes for homework!"

"Ciel, let's go get something to eat after school! I know a really good place for spicy food."

For some reason, Ciel's ears and eyes perk up as one of the male students says something about spicy food. "Eh? Do they have curry?"

"I'm…" the student scratches the back of his head. "Not sure?"

"Hm. Maybe. I'll pass for now, though, thank you." Ciel waves him off as she gets out a chemistry textbook. "Oh…Kamijou-san, right?"

Touma blinks. "Huh? Oh yeah, that's me."

Ciel smiles, a bit sheepishly. "So I only started studying Japanese a few months ago-"

'Wait, WHAT?'

For only a few months of study, her speech is almost perfect!

"-reading is a bit tough for me. Mind if you can help me with the kanji?"

Kamijou nods kindly, "Yeah, sure. English definitely isn't my strong suit, but I can help you with Japanese for sure."

"Thank you!"

The unlucky teen suddenly feels several pairs of eyes glaring into the back of his head as if he had broken some sort of unspoken code. Looking around, the gazes were off of him, but he could tell several of the male students had suddenly given him the cold shoulder, as if to say:

"Oh. I see how it is, Kamijou."

Touma sighs, 'All I did was talk to her…'

Komoe-sensei had given them permission to push their desks together so Ciel could be helped by Touma more, which only served to make certain students even more jealous of him.

'Oh man. This is going to be a long period, isn't it?'

XXXXX

To his surprise, Ciel's knowledge of kanji wasn't elementary.

If he had to guess, she's roughly at a middle-school level: basic kanji were a walk in the park for her, but more advanced kanji she struggles with, which is where he came in.

Despite the two whispering to each other, Komoe-sensei paid no mind to them. She's aware that Ciel needs the extra help to understand some of the words she's writing on the chalkboard and in the textbook, after all.

Before Kamijou knew it, the bell to the home room period ended and many students got up from their feet and stretched as they prepared to go to their next class.

As Ciel is gathering her things, Kamijou asks, "What's your next period?"

"Oh! Um…History, I think. Then I am getting tested for an Esper Ability." She responds, again, in crystal clear Japanese.

"Ah, Ability testing, huh?" Kamijou sighs, "Between you and me, not my forte. This school is for high schoolers that are Level 2 and below…I still haven't even cracked to Level 1, yet."

Ciel laughs lightly, "I'm sure you'll rank up soon, no?"

"I've been Level 0 for ten years."

"Oh…that's rough, Kamijou-kun."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Touma sighs, and picks up his bag as he prepares to get to his class. Thankfully, most of the boys have moved on from Ciel, since they apparently think he destroyed their chances, or something.

'Really, if I didn't run into her in the hallway, this probably wouldn't have happened.'

He welcomed it, of course.

"Hey, Ciel?"

"Hm? What is it, Kamijou-kun?"

"Wanna meet up in the cafeteria for lunch? Normally I'd eat with Emiya, but with him being gone, and all…"

He feels the brightness in her eyes glowing as he asks that question. "Sure! What kind of food does the cafeteria have? Is there curry?" Her excitedness is like that of a child at an amusement park.

Come to think of it, Touma does recall her asking one of the boys earlier if that spicy food restaurant had curry in it. 'Must be her favorite food.'

"Uh…maybe? For broke folk like me, though, all they can muster up is a sandwich. Maybe some chips if I get lucky."

'Ha, me and luck. Goes together like oil and water.'

"Well, we'll find out when we get there, won't we?" He can see the luster in Ciel's glasses shine as she pushes them up like a scholar. "I'll see you then. Have a good morning, Kamijou-kun."

He smiles. "Likewise."

As he enters the halls to get to his next class, a sudden, miraculous dawn settles over him.

Watching as Ciel walks down the opposite end of the hall, his jaw slowly drops. 'Wait…I talked to a girl, and it didn't go badly.

Is my…is my luck turning around, after all?!'

Chapter's a bit on the shorter side, I know. But trust me: Chapter 5's over 10k, so it'll balance itself out in a few days.

Also— poor, poor Cu. Can't catch a break. Like I said, the story's going to be somewhat reflecting Heaven's Feel, although as you can probably tell, I didn't copy everything word-for-word, lol.

I was also sick of Cu not getting a badass kill in the HF route, so I decided to give him that, here. He gets to show off a bit before uh…yeah.

As for the second half…I think this is the second time I've described Rin in detail like that.

I'm not biased. Definitely not.

Even though Kamijou is generally a good guy, there are times when he's caught um…lackin', per se. Most of his encounters with the opposite sex are completely accidental (lmao), but even he isn't a Saint, by his own admission.

Dude said he can't have any…alone time because Index is always with him. That's rough, buddy.

So personally, I think if he saw Tohsaka sleeping in his bed like that, yeah, he'd catch himself staring for a moment too much. Dude's a teenager. What can ya do?

…anyway, Act II progress has begun! Though the first chapter of it isn't complete. I'll get back to you on that soon. I'll see you all in the next one.

Next Chapter Release: "A Certain Lilac Flower" (November 19th)