Something was different.

Archer's memories weren't the most reliable at the moment, as his years of Counter Guardian service and improper summoning had messed with his memories, but he knew something was off. Tonight was a turning point in his life, after all. This was the night where he was stabbed by Cu Chulainn, where Rin would save his life, and where he'd dive headfirst into becoming a hero of justice.

So then who was that foolish boy Cu Chulainn was chasing?

Archer felt conflicted. Not only were things different from his foggy memories, but there was no way that innocent bystander would survive. He looked to his Master, trying to see what her orders were. His eyes narrowed when he saw she was even more confused than he was.

"There were still students around here?" Rin muttered, cursing her carelessness.

"So it would seem," Archer replied. "It saved my life, actually…,"

"Wait a minute, where did Lancer go?" She panicked, looking around frantically.

"He chased after that person calling the police. He's a witness threatening to bring more witnesses in, so Lancer probably went to eliminate him," Archer supplied with a shrug, his weapons dematerializing. Rin gasped before giving her Servant orders.

"Follow them Archer! Bring back that boy! I'll get the one that ran inside the school while you do!" She ran off as Archer turned into his spirit form, chasing down the two currently fleeing the scene. It didn't take long to catch up to the two, and he could see Lancer positioned behind the mystery boy, ready to stab him when he turned around, much like how Lancer stabbed Emiya Shirou long ago in a different life.

And then something strange happened.

Before Archer could materialize and block the spear, the boy rolled away from his would be killer instead of doing the instinctual thing of turning around to face someone speaking to you. As if that wasn't odd enough, the boy summoned some sort of Servant-like thing from Command Seals on the back of their hand. So was he a Master too?

That didn't make sense. In fact, a lot of what was going on in front of him didn't make sense. A seemingly normal human trained by the same teacher as Cu Chulainn? Just who was this Fujimaru Ritsuka…?

At the very least, the boy was safe. Archer could tell Lancer no longer had any intention of killing this Fujimaru Ritsuka, so he could head back to his own Master. Knowing that this boy wouldn't die would take a load off her mind, and the fact he was a mage meant he didn't need his memories altered.

It didn't take long for the hero to return to Rin, the Archer having to hide a smirk as he saw Rin doing her best to catch up to his past self to erase his memory. The boy wasn't making it easy though, as in his state of panic, he didn't seem to realize it was a beautiful woman chasing him down instead of a battle hardened warrior.

He couldn't hide his smirk after seeing Rin using a low powered Gandr to incapacitate Shirou.

As Rin worked her memory altering magic, Archer looked out the window, patiently waiting for her to finish. That's when he noticed.

The boy had come back.

Why? Emiya Shirou was in no danger. Rin wasn't like other mages, she wouldn't-

Of course. Fujimaru Ritsuka didn't know Tohsaka Rin. The boy likely thought Archer's Master would kill off the witness like any other mage, a loose end easily tied up. It was admirable, in a way, but what most people would admire as courage and heroism only made Archer feel sick to his stomach. The boy was throwing away a free ticket to safety, risking his life in order to help some complete stranger.

He couldn't let the boy waste his life.

Archer waited around the corner, his grip tightening on Bakuya as he swung at the boy. It was an easy swing for a boy that survived Cu Chulainn to dodge, even if he ended up crashing into the wall. Archer walked over to the boy, raising his weapon into the air before giving some advice for the future, something he hoped the boy would take to heart.

"You shouldn't have come back. Playing hero… will only get you killed,"


Fujimaru Ritsuka could only think one thing as he saw Archer bring Kanshou down on him.

"Slow…,"

Archer was swinging in a way that Ritsuka could easily dodge, even from his bad position. Ritsuka couldn't help but smile at this. Even under a different master, even with those cold and calculating eyes, Archer couldn't bring himself to needlessly hurt someone innocent. Instead the man was trying to scare the boy away, probably so his Master wouldn't kill him.

That was the kind of hero Emiya Shirou was, after all.

Still, Fujimaru couldn't take that advice. He wouldn't let that other poor soul get killed, not while he still had the power to do something about it! The Command Seals on the back of his hand glowed as he prepared to summon a Shadow Servant…

Only for both Archer and Ritsuka to be completely taken off guard by a red spear blocking Kanshou.

"Lancer?!" Archer called out in shock, leaping back as Cu stood in front of Ritsuka protectively.

"What are you doing here?" Ritsuka asked, equally shocked. Cu chuckled as he took a stance.

"Come on, we both know she'd kill me if I just let you run in without any help," Cu grinned at the boy. "Go, do what you came to do. I'll make sure this pesky guy won't interfere," With a smile of gratitude, the Master of Chaldea scrambled up to his feet and went to rush back down the hall.

He could see who he presumed to be the Master of Archer kneeling over the body of someone else, probably the one that stumbled into the scene. Even if the person was hurt, it might not be too late, not while he wore this Mystic Code! He held up a finger, charging a white and blue Gandr at the tip, the energy flying out as a warning shot at Archer's Master, who let out a yelp of surprise.

Ritsuka began to charge a second Gandr, only to have it dissipate due to the shock of seeing the Master's face. That… that was Ishtar and Ereshkigal's vessel! This was the woman that managed to mellow out a pair of Mesopotamian goddesses?

His shock gave the girl time to recover, so she held up her own finger, firing a black and red Gandr at her assailant. Ritsuka weaved to the right, dodging the shot as he returned fire, the girl having to move out of the way of the shot. She got to her feet and fired off three consecutive shots of Gandr, forcing Ritsuka to run toward the wall, jumping against it and returning fire with the one Gandr he could muster.

She growled and rushed at him, her legs glowing with the signs of Reinforcement as she crossed the distance between the two in an instant, her swinging her leg to try to catch Ritsuka as he slid down the wall. The Master of Chaldea managed to kick off the wall, flinging himself to the other side of the hall just as her leg met the well, cracking it and leaving an imprint of her shapely leg.

Ritsuka used this time to rush past her and head to the unconscious body, powersliding to his side as he held out his hand, a green glow surrounding it. As he came to a stop by the body, he placed his hand on the person's chest while quickly wiping around and pointing his other hand out, ready to fire point blank. However, to his surprise, the girl managed to swat away his hand and throw a massive kick at his side.

Ritsuka only had a split second to register the pain before he realized he crashed through a wall, his Mystic Code protecting his fragile human body as he felt his body get buried into the other wall. Coughing, the boy pulled himself out of the wall, bringing his hand to his lip. He could feel his blood staining his hand, but he ignored it. He couldn't waste his healing on something like that.

He took a deep breath, getting into a fighting stance as he stared down his opponent. "This Bajiquan needs no second strike," He muttered to himself as he activated the Instant Enchantment. Using the Mystic Code's power, he dashed ahead, his speed far greater than he could manage on his own, taking the girl by surprise. Ritsuka gritted his teeth as he came to a stop in front of her, raising his foot into the air and slamming it down, cracking the ground from the force alone. "Wu… Er Da!" The boy shouted as he mimicked an attack he saw the Bajiquan Master Li Shuwen do many times, his open palm lashing out and striking the girl right in the chest.

Unlike the Bajiquan Master he so desperately tried to mimic, the girl was only pushed back by the force of the attack, the attack failing to defeat her on the spot. She instantly retaliated by rushing forward, lowering her upper body to be closer to the floor before she popped up, striking Ritsuka with a Tetsuzanko, the force of her shoulder now sending Ritsuka into the ceiling.

"Come on, kid, you can do better than that, can't ya?" Cu called from down the hall. "If Teacher finds out about this, you're gonna be put through the wringer for it!"

"Not… helping…," Ritsuka coughed out as he fell back to the ground. He looked up, seeing Rin running towards him to follow up on her attack, so he quickly spun on the ground, extending his leg to sweep the girl's feet out from under her, causing her to fall to the ground.

Quickly, he stood to his feet, catching his breath as he rushed to her, leaping into the air, wrapping his legs around her neck, tightening his grip by locking his knees together. With a yell of determination and with very good core muscles, Ritsuka flipped backwards, twisting to the right. He placed his hands on the ground, shoving his shoulders into her knees, which caused her to lose her balance, and fall prey to gravity's whim. Ritsuka used his core and legs to drag her head into the floor, twisting at the same time to make sure he landed on his back and her on her shoulder.

All this happened in a split second, the Hurricanrana stunning the girl. Ritsuka used the momentum of the attack to roll back to his feet and rushed to the boy on the ground, activating his Mystic Code again. Green energy glowed on his fingertips as he fell to his knees and went to thrust his hand onto the victim's chest, but before he could, he realized something important.

The person he was trying to save… they were breathing… It wasn't even his magic helping them, they were just fine even before he got here. He blinked. Did he mess up twice in one night?

He quickly turned to the girl, who was finally getting back up. She got into her stance more, a look of determination on her face. That… didn't look like someone that wanted to kill a person.

"Wait, wait, hang on, time out!" Ritsuka called out, using his hands to make a T. The girl looked at him confused.

"Time… out?" She repeated in a confused tone. "Time out?! What do you think this is, some sort of game?!"

"No, no, no, not at all," Ritsuka quickly reassured her. "But like, I thought you were going to kill this guy, keeping magecraft a secret and all that jazz. If he's safe, then we don't have any reason to fight,"

"What? Kill him? No, I was just going to alter his memory and send him home!" She claimed, her face turning red with anger. Ritsuka scratched his cheek, his embarrassment as plain as day.

"Oh… s-sorry. If I knew that, I wouldn't have Hurricanrana you then." Ritsuka muttered. Well, all's well that ends well, he supposed. With that misunderstanding taken care of, he turned to see who exactly he was fighting so hard to save.

Wait a minute!

He recognized the face of this guy! This was Muramasa's vessel! He slowly looked back to the two Servants clashing down the hall. He knew Muramasa's vessel and Archer didn't have the best relationship, even if he didn't know the specifics of why. Both being in the same Holy Grail War… it was kinda hilarious in a cosmic sort of way.

He let out another groan as he stood up, his muscles screaming in protest, bitching about how they wanted rest. "Lancer! We're good here, she wasn't going to kill him after all!" He called out. With a nod, Lancer disengaged from his battle from Archer and leapt to Ritsuka's side, Archer quickly following suit and standing by Rin's side. "Yeah so… um… sorry," Ritsuka said again before holding out his hand. "Fujimaru Ritsuka," He said with a smile. "What's your name?"

He watched as the girl stood up, composing herself and straightening out her school uniform, a small smile coming across his face as he watched. She really was cute.

"Tohsaka Rin," she replied, finally giving Ritsuka a name to give Ishtar and Ereshkigal's vessel beyond 'Really cute girl that looked a lot like him'. She stared at his hand, eyeing the Command Seals on the back of it. Ritsuka noticed, looking down at them before shrugging.

"Oh, I'm not Lancer's Master, if that's what you're thinking." He clarified.

"Yeah, I just like the kid." Cu supplied.

"So you're a Master teaming up with Lancer's Master, and you just walk up to me so brazenly?" Rin commented, looking very annoyed.

"Okay, wait, hang on, hang on," Ritsuka held up his hands as his mind raced. Should he talk about Chaldea? He wasn't sure. Did Chaldea even exist in this world, or even at this point in time, whenever it was? Even if it did, could he talk about it with someone else? His gut instinct told him now was not the time to go opening such a can of worms, but he didn't like the idea of lying.

"Why else would the great Irish Hero Cu Chulainn help some random Japanese boy?" Archer threw out the verbal jab, fishing for more info as he folded his arms.

"Oy, I'm not heartless, oh nameless Archer," Cu shot back. "Sometimes a man has to just help his junior. And besides, Teacher would kill me if I didn't." Ritsuka paused, looking over to the taller blue haired man. Cu looked back at the boy, a wide shit eating grin across his face. He knew that Ritsuka knew that he knew what he was doing.

"You're an ass, you know that?" Ritsuka stated in a deadpan voice. Cu just shrugged.

"I think it's part of my charm." the Irish hero waved off the boy's concerns.

"I didn't realize screwing with people was called charm back in Ireland," Ritsuka muttered as he looked at Rin. "Okay, so. I'm a traveling… well, not magus... I guess spellcaster would be the best word to use here," Ignoring the negative connotations of that word, Ritsuka pushed forward. "I was walking outside of the school, heard the noise, and well… all this happened." So far, no lies were told, although he had a feeling this would bite him in the ass later.

"Uh huh… or maybe your "Teacher" had you keeping an eye on Lancer while they stayed completely out of danger," Rin shot back, as she folded her arms, her and Archer accidentally looking like a matching pair. "That is provided you're not just lying about not being a Master."

"Why does it matter if I'm a Master?" Ritsuka asked before motioning to Cu. "Like, if Servants are being summoned instead of Counter Guardians, something bad is happening, right? So we should be working together to take care of it." Archer's eyes narrowed at that, looking over the boy before answering.

"This a Holy Grail War…" Archer explained slowly. He was beginning to believe this boy was even stupider than he was first led to believe. Ritsuka blinked, the gears in his mind turning.

"Oooooh," he finally said dumbly. "I… didn't realize that...," He shook his head. "You know what, that's not important right now, what's important is him," He pointed to the redhead laying on the ground. "Did you actually finish altering his memory?"

"No, someone attacked me in the middle of me doing it." Rin fired, staring Ritsuka in the face. The boy only raised his hands in surrender.

"Yeah, that's on me. Look, you should finish doing that before he wakes up. I'll move outta the way so I can't mess anything up. You can even have your Servant watch over me to make sure I don't run off. We can finish sorting out these details after that guy's safe, okay?" Ritsuka offered.

Rin looked over at Shirou Emiya lying on the floor. She didn't want to admit it, but right now, the most important thing to her was to get him out of here. She sighed and nodded. "Alright, Archer, escort him down the hall and make sure he doesn't get any funny ideas." Her Servant thankfully agreed with her, putting a hand on Ritsuka's shoulder and leading him down the hall.

"Hey, kid. Join the War. We still have some spots open, and I bet you'd summon someone fun to fight." Cu suddenly offered as he walked behind them. Ritsuka could only chuckle.

"I'll consider it, alright?" The boy answered, honestly wanting nothing to do with the war.

"And with that, I'm gonna go!" Cu called out. "I'm already probably in trouble for this stunt, if I leave my Master waiting any longer, they might restrict me even more."

"Wait, no! You can't just leave without explaining Scathach!" Ritsuka shouted, to which Cu shrugged.

"Our Teacher's actually immortal, she taught both of us. Later!" Cu explained with a grin. The blue Lancer waved to Ritsuka before his body disappeared into the air, leaving the Master of Chaldea alone with an Archer that wasn't his own.

Ritsuka leaned against the wall, folding his arms across his chest so Archer could see that he wasn't doing anything with them. It was awkwardly silent between the two. Ritsuka wanted to ask about what Archer had said earlier, what he meant by it… but he couldn't find the words to say. He didn't know why, but this Archer felt colder than the one he knew, and he couldn't see a way to break through that frosty shell.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for Rin to finish up. The Muramasa vessel's steps were like a drunken zombie as he stumbled home, his memory of the night wiped away. Rin soon walked up to Ritsuka, sighing to herself. She couldn't believe the Holy Grail War hadn't even officially started yet and it was already giving her a headache.

"Okay, so those things on your right hand look like Command Seals, and yet you say you're not a Master?" Rin asked, deciding to prioritize that over the apparent connection a Japanese boy had to an Irish legend.

"Not here, no," Ritsuka commented as he offered his hand to her. "They're… similar, I admit, but these are basically an emergency store of mana that let me do an emergency healing or a big burst for an attack." He felt bad about misleading this girl, even if he wasn't strictly lying. She seemed nice. "I can see the why you'd think they were like your Command Seals though,"

Rin's eyes narrowed. That just seemed a little too convenient. Something didn't seem right here, but she didn't have much to go off of. There were only three options here. Either he was a Master and he was lying, he wasn't a Master and he was still lying, or he was telling the truth. Now what was she going to believe…?

Suddenly, a new thought came to her mind. Did it matter? If he wasn't a Master, then letting him go didn't change anything, and if he was, then they could just take care of him later.

"Archer, what do you think?" She finally decided to ask through her connection to the Servant. Maybe having a second opinion would help her here. She could hear Archer grunt over the connection.

"I'm not sure. When he was trying to lure away Cu Chulainn, he seemed genuine. And he didn't summon a Servant then, just used magecraft and that connection to Chulainn's teacher," Archer admitted. "I would say he might be trying to con us, but he seemed actually surprised that this was a Holy Grail War,"

Rin digested the info and finally came to a decision. "Alright, Fujimaru. I'll let you go for now," After all, he wasn't hurting anyone, and if he was part of the war, they'd just fight later. She walked up to him to look the boy in the eyes. "Just know, I will be keeping an eye on you, and if you're lying to me, I will find out, and I won't-," she poked him in the chest. "go," another poke. "easy on you. Got it, Fu-ji-maru?" she punctuated each syllable of his name with a poke.

"Got it." Ritsuka confirmed. With a sigh, Rin headed down the stairs, Archer giving one last hard look at the Master of Chaldea before vanishing into his spirit form once more. When the two left, Ritsuka let out a sigh of relief.

Well, that was awkward.

It wasn't the worst first contact he ever had on these adventures, but that didn't do much to alleviate the embarrassment he felt. Taking a deep breath, the Master of Chaldea leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves as he slid down to the ground.

In the empty building, with only his thoughts to fill the silence, Ritsuka reached into his pocket to pull out his communication device in an attempt to reach out to Chaldea. All he got back was static. He didn't even know if the signal went through back to Chaldea. He took a deep breath and pulled out his wallet as he mentally went over his current situation.

One, he didn't have a Servant. That was a huge problem, as Shadow Servants could only get him so far, and while he had no plans to interfere with the Fifth Holy Grail War, he knew in his gut that there was no way things would be that easy. The War and him were intertwined at the moment, whether he liked it or not.

Two, he didn't have a place to stay for the night. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem. After all, he was very used to camping out if need be, but with no contact with Chaldea, he had no ways to get supplies. He also didn't have a lot of money, probably only enough for one meal, so renting a room in a hotel was out.

Three, and most importantly, he had no clue why he was here. Was he even here to solve anything? There was never a time when he was taken to a new world just for kicks, there was always some sort of problem he needed to solve. He only hoped it was something simple, like a time loop or something. Last thing he needed was some world ending threat.

With a sigh, he picked himself off the floor, stretching a bit. Now wasn't the time to get overwhelmed or depressed, now was the time to take action. He headed out of the school, walking down the dark roads, nothing but the street lights and the stars above to guide his path.

He wandered a bit aimlessly, unfamiliar with the layout of the city of Fuyuki. After all, he had really only been here twice, once while the city was in ruins, and once while being led around by Lord El Melloi II. The occasional car passed him by, but besides that, his walk was uneventful. It was so strange. Usually by now he would be attacked by monsters, or even people, but besides the Holy Grail War, everything seemed so… peaceful.

Time passed, and he kept walking, but nothing unusual caught his eye. Finally, after about an hour of walking, he found himself at a park of some sort. It was a large park, devoid of people, which was to be expected considering the time of night it was. However… something about it… unsettled Ritsuka. Although the park looked peaceful, he still felt something was wrong, a large pit forming in the middle of his stomach. What was this feeling?

Even though he didn't like it, this vague feeling was the only lead he had, so against what many people considered better judgement, he headed into the park. The deeper he went into the park, the sparser the grass and trees became, and the bigger the pit in his stomach grew. He was beginning to get an idea of what this feeling was. He had felt it many times throughout his journey, and would feel it many more times in the future.

Pure malice.

Whatever happened here, it was extremely horrible. Even though his connections with his Servants, some being basically curses made manifest, made him more sensitive than the average human to things like lingering feelings and the like, he shouldn't have been able to track by his feelings alone.

He took a breath to steady himself as he looked around, only for his heart to nearly leap out of his chest when he heard the piercing scream of a woman. The scream itself was haunting, and most definitely wasn't produced by human lungs. He clenched his fists, looking for the origins of the scream as he held up his hand, his Command Seals glowing as he summoned yet another Shadow Servant. This time, the Shadow took the form of the Persian hero Arash, the hero already drawing his bow and looking around the area.

Not even a second later, and Shadow Arash fired off an arrow into the darkness to the right of Ritsuka. Whipping his head around, Ritsuka could barely make out what Shadow Arash had attacked, and the very sight of it sent a chill down his spine.

Black mud. Black mud that pulsed and oozed, with glowing red spots that mimicked eyes, which radiated pure malice. The revolting pile was a caricature of the human form, an attempt to be a beautiful young woman. It trudged forward towards Ritsuka, its steps uncertain as its weight kept shifting, the mud constantly adjusting in an attempt to keep form.

Shadow Arash kept firing at the creature, but the arrows had little effect on it, the creature moving closer and closer to the two. Ritsuka took a step back, before the sound of a twig snapping caught his attention. Whipping his head around, the Master then realized… he was surrounded by these mud women, about six in total. Gritting his teeth, he held up his hand, another Shadow Servant beginning to manifest, this one taking the form of the Irish Hero Fionn.

"Fionn, up!" Ritsuka issued his simple command, the Shadow Servant grabbing onto the Master of Chaldea, taking a giant leap into the air, the Arash following him. "Alright, hit them with your Noble Phantasms!" The two nodded and prepared, Ritsuka feeling his mana being drained, causing his breathing to grow a little heavy as the two fired.

Fionn went first, thrusting his spear forward as water began to swirl around the tip of the weapon, forming into a perfect sphere of water that fired out into a thin beam of water. The beam struck the ground between the six monsters, a bubble forming and growing larger, the bubble soon engulfing them all. The bubble then popped, exploding out into a whirlpool that contained the mud women in its rough torrents.

Arash then drew back his bow, the arrow shining like a star as the Archer aimed for the center of the whirlpool. With a soundless yell, the Shadow fired the arrow, the projectile striking the ground and going off like a small bomb, utterly destroying the creatures inside. Ritsuka sighed and watched as the Arash began to dissolve into particles of light, the backlash of his Noble Phantasm destroying the Shadow completely.

The Shadow Fionn landed, placing Ritsuka on the ground. "Well, that certainly seems like bad news," Ritsuka muttered. He suppressed a shiver as he thought about the imposing figure of Tiamat and the mud that she made. Certainly, some mud people didn't mean things got that bad…

Right?

Before he could ponder this more, a sharp pain went through his left hand, causing the boy to scream in pain. Looking down, he could see a large nail going through his hand, with blood streaming out of the wound. "GOD, WHAT THE FUU-," before the curse could leave his lips, Ritsuka was thrown to the ground by some force pulling on his injured hand, the pain only getting worse.

To add insult to this injury, he was then dragged across the ground like a fish on a fishing line, his body being torn into the rocks and the branches his body scraped by as he was dragged along. He had to squeeze his eyes shut just to ensure that his eyes wouldn't be hit by any stray debris his body might come across.

After what felt like forever, he finally came to a stop, the Master of Chaldea opening his eyes to a beautiful sight. A familiar Servant stood above him, holding a chain in her hands as she stared down at him, eyes hidden by a blindfold. Being under Medusa like this wouldn't be the worst thing ever, if it wasn't for the fact it was her weapon embedded into his hand.

"What…," Ritsuka gritted his teeth, talking through the pain. "What the hell do you want with me?" Medusa didn't say anything, instead putting a foot on his chest to ensure he couldn't get up.

"What do we want with you?" A sleazy voice answered instead, causing Ritsuka to crane his neck, seeing an arrogant boy with hair like blue seaweed and a book in his hand sneering at him. "It's simple. We're under orders to take you out, outsider,"