Hello everyone, I finally bring you the long-awaited chapter of the week. At this time, our protagonists decide to participate in the Fourth Holy Grail War. At the moment nothing important will happen like the beginning of the first battles or the appearance of one of the Fate side, so enjoy this.

On reviews;

Maxim7: Yes, I too plan on having Ichigo and the others learn little by little about Mordred's true circumstances, and I'll start now.

Angelvan105: Thank you that you like my story so much, really. He also planned to continue with the 2 versions and I will not rest until completing them both. As for how Ichigo will end all of this, that remains to be seen because I have something in store for him. Once again, thank you very much.

As for why Ichigo was careless to reveal his Servant's identity, I thought I had said it earlier. It was an accident!

ZeroXSaber; Well, maybe Tokiomi was playing with our former Substitute to get some advantage and it seems that he benefited from it very well.

I can't wait to see Mordred's reaction upon she realizing the carelessness her Master made. Surely she will kill him.

Chapter 6: Welcome to Fuyuki

20/09/2020

The sun had risen from between the mountains of Kyūshū, bearing witness to the dawn in Fuyuki City. Many of its citizens had caught the signal to get up and start the day. They all started with their respective jobs and made the most of the day, all unaware that the next few nights would be fought a contest on a supernatural scale that no one could speak and witness.

Leaving that aside, our protagonist was snoring while his body was still lying on a bed with the sheet and the blanket that covered it white. His face buried in the comfort of his pillow. It had been quite a long and hard night for the young former Substitute since he had suddenly arrived at this place and all he wanted was to sleep in peace and forget the stress before starting the day.

BIIIIIIIHH!

The scandalous sound of his alarm clock echoed throughout the teenager's room, who in an instant lazily raised his head and watched as the alarm clock was still screeching like hell. So crazy that even the former Shinigami's ears hurt like a hammer blow.

Lifting his torso up, Ichigo reached out to the device and switched it off by pressing a button. Once the infernal shriek was finished, silence once again reigned. Ichigo stretches his arms up as he lets out a big yawn. He then moved his bare feet to the floor to use them for support and to stand up to their full height out of bed. Instinctively he peered out the side window to see a couple of buildings come into view. Ichigo walked to the window that was a few feet away.

He stopped to take in the panoramic views of the city, and this served to remind him that he was no longer in Karakura Town.

Flashback

Ichigo grunted for the hundredth time. Despite having overcome his shock and knowledge that at this very moment he and his friends were no longer in their hometown, worse still, they were not in their world, and he had made the decision to forcibly enter a war of magic that until now he had never heard of so that they could return to their world, that did not fix the new situation they had to deal with.

It had been a couple of minutes since Ichigo and his friends, plus the Servant known as Mordred, left that church once the orange haired boy had made his decision to participate in the so-called Holy Grail War to obtain that Grail and ask to return them to their world at once.

That would have been easier said than done since for this he had to face 7 talented magi whose tricks they did not know what they were capable of, although he deduced that they would not be satisfied with pulling a rabbit out of a hat or making something disappear, but he knew he was going to be a pain in the ass having to deal with them since, of all the so-called Masters, he was the only one who was not a magus, and he was already quite frustrated at not having his Shinigami powers to fight them.

As for the Servants, also known as Heroic Spirits, they were the only ones who should face and kill each other while their respective Masters could only act as a support or a spectator, depending on their abilities, and unfortunately Ichigo only touched him as a spectator, which was not his style.

Leaving that problem for another time, the former Substitute and his friends were still wandering the dark sidewalks of the city in the middle of the dark night since they left the church in search of an apartment or hotel to spend the night before starting with the war, and that was the big problem they had to deal with before facing the other Masters.

They did not know at all this damn city that was not supposed to exist in their world and they did not even have a map to orient themselves. Fortunately, Ishida looked on the Google of his mobile for any information about an available hotel and fortunately he found one that was known as 'Golden Koi' but located in a neighborhood that would be 15 minutes from his position according to the Quincy's Google Maps GPS.

Ichigo couldn't be not only in the worst place, but at the wrong time, since it is already after 23:00 and they should all be asleep by now. The problem was how to be able to rent a couple of rooms if they didn't have enough money to pay them, but suddenly Urahara intervened saying that they had a plan for that problem without the need to pay. While his friends were curious to know what the shopkeeper plan was, Ichigo was a bit skeptical of this and couldn't help but have a bad feeling that it wouldn't be good.

Now the other problem was that as long as they kept walking, most likely a Master with his Servant would appear out of nowhere ready to attack them, however, his own Servant was anxious for that to happen.

"How much is left?" Ichigo asked with weariness in his voice.

Ishida sighed at this. "I already told you there is only about 10 minutes left." The Quincy scolded in annoyance. "Look, do you see those 2 buildings in front there?" He pointed to a couple of buildings that stood out from the others and were within a couple of meters of them.

"Right next door is the Golden Koi."

"Are you sure?" Ichigo asked as he looked at the pair of buildings doubtfully.

"Yeah." Ishida reprimanded again.

"It's a bit weird that they call him that way, don't you think?" Orihime said softly as she pondered the name.

"Surely it would be to bring tourism there." Ishida pointed out as he continued to inspect his GPS.

"Maybe it's also a restaurant that serves tents of any kind." Orihime continued speaking while making a fanciful list of buffets that could be found there.

"Sushi, Suki-yaki, Okonomi-yaki, Tempura, Yaki-tori, Soba…"

And as she kept adding more to the list, his friends looked at her as a total stranger.

'She just thinks about eating…?' Ichigo asked confusedly. Unknowingly, someone else joined her.

"Mnnn, if Yoruichi-san was with us, I'm sure she would have devoured everything there is." Urahara commented while fantasizing that too.

Ichigo rolled his eyes upon hearing Urahara's comment.

'Yeah, if Yoruichi-san was here, I'm sure she could have kicked you in the balls if she had heard you say that.' Ichigo thought sarcastically as he also fantasized for that to happen.

"The truth is that you have a good imagination." Ishida whispered under his breath seeing how common these 3 were right now.

"Hey, what are you talking about?" Mordred asked as she got into the conversation next to Orihime. She had her elbows raised while her hands glued together at the back of her head. "What did you say what kind of food was served there?"

Orihime seemed surprised by the question the Servant asked.

"You really don't know anything about Sushi, suki, okonomi and tempura?"

Mordred just gave a look that said, 'What do you think?' in sarcastic expression. Fortunately, Ishida corrected his friend.

"Inoue-san, I don't think Mordred knows much about Japanese food because she is foreign, do you understand?"

"Seriously?" Orihime asked as she kept looking at Mordred.

"Well, never mind. I'm sure you will love what we Japanese do here. We are very good at making all kinds of food. Hey, what is your favorite food?"

The Servant looked at her slightly confused before paying more attention to what she had said.

"What?"

"I say what is your favorite food. What did you used to eat in your country?"

Mordred tilted her head up a bit as she reflected on the things she used to eat when she was alive more than 1,500 years ago. The truth, living in the time of the High Middle Ages, the type of food was quite scarce, and she did not have a specific favorite food either.

"Potatoes, bread, vegetables, vinegar and rabbit." She responded as he remembered in her childhood how her witch mother gave her those foods.

Orihime just looked her with a little amazed to hear the few foods the blonde eating. "Seriously?" The bubbly girl asked confusedly. "Didn't you used to eat desserts like ice cream or delicious cake?"

Mordred just gave another look that said. "What do you think?" making it clear what she was talking about.

"Inoue-san." The Quincy spoke again. "In the Middle Ages there were no desserts. They ate what one could get in nature, such as animals or fruits."

"Oh, I see." Inoue nodded before changing the subject. "Well, never mind, I'm sure you'll love what's in there."

Mordred just gave the other chattering girl a slightly skeptical look. "And how do you know that?"

"Because I know how every food in here tastes." She replied with a big smile on her face.

Gmmmm!

Orihime flinched at the sound of her stomach and immediately put both hands on her belly to rub it.

"My, it seems like after talking about so much food, I just remembered that I hadn't had dinner before." Orihime said embarrassed with her face flushing pink. She turned to Mordred.

"Hey, aren't you hungry too, Mordred-san?"

She cocked her head away again before answering.

"Well, after all the shit I had to go through to get here, I need to fill myself up with something too."

"Well let's hope we get there soon before they close." The bubbly girl exclaimed enthusiastically before turning back to the Quincy.

"Hey Ishida-kun, how much is left now?"

"We still have a little way to go, but we're doing fine." Ishida replied as he kept looking at his GPS.

Orihime was almost immediately disheartened upon hearing that as she still had too much way to go and she didn't know if her stomach would hold for it.

"Don't worry guys." Urahara spoke in his typical jovial and cheerful voice. "I'm sure this will be worth it after all the strange things that have happened to us. Besides, you can't be prepared to go to war on an empty stomach."

"I think so, Urahara-san." Inoue replied in return by playing along. "You have to be ready for anything on a full stomach."

"Do you two want to calm down?" Ishida exclaimed in a dizzy tone. "I haven't been able to eat anything since we got here either. And the truth is that I get hungrier every time you talk about food."

"Oh sorry, Ishida-kun." Inoue apologized.

"The truth is that you are a bit strange." Mordred commented as she joined them as well.

"Uh?" Orihime exclaimed confusedly not understanding what her new partner meant. "What do you mean, Mordred-san?"

And so, a new pointless chatter formed between Inoue, the blonde, Urahara, and Ishida at times, leaving only the former Substitute alongside Kon (mounted on his right shoulder) as the only ones who did not speak. Ichigo was ahead of them to stay out of the conversation, but that didn't stop him from hearing them chat. Actually, he didn't bother him that much, but talking about food was also whetting his appetite. With all this Holy Grail War shit I was giving him some unbelievable headaches, and this was definitely a better time if they didn't get to that hotel the Quincy mentioned wearing glasses ASAP.

"I wish I could have that food Orihime-san was talking about." Kon spoke as he fantasized about being able to eat despite his status as a living 'inanimate object'.

Ichigo just looked at his little comrade over his shoulder in surprise.

"You won't be serious." Said the incredulous teenager. How could a Mod soul accumulate sustenance in a stuffed lion with no real internal organs? "You don't have a stomach."

"I would have it if I were in a different body." The stuffed lion replied, not happy to be still in this ridiculous body of stuffed cotton and cloth. "Why did you have to lose your Shinigami powers? It was fine with your body, and I could also try any food."

Ichigo couldn't help frowning more at the idea. The fact that the Mod soul, despite being close companions, couldn't help but wonder what he would do if he possessed his body only to gorged himself on food even the former Shinigami disliked. The idea almost made him want to vomit.

Nor could he forget the problems he did him when Rukia mistakenly brought him from Urahara Shop thinking that it was a simple harmless Substitute Soul that consisted of temporarily possessing a body while his soul left said body to be used by the substitute.

He never forgot the troubles he caused in his absence when he did mischief in his class, and he never wanted to go through it again.

It would only be necessary for Kon to take other people's bodie to do whatever he wanted, and that was something Ichigo feared.

And so after a few grueling minutes, the former Substitute's group reached their destination, and they couldn't tell that they were too impressed by the sight they saw.

Head on, across the street stood an average-size building that appeared to be 54 meters high and had at least 15 stories. However, the most striking and scandalous part for our protagonists was without a doubt the huge banner that was stuck right in the middle. It had the name of the hotel written in large kanji letters, and on each side of the sign was a funny picture of a golden carp smiling just as the name indicated.

That image caused several mixed reactions to our protagonists. Ichigo was awkwardly disconcerted as he stared at the image on the poster. Ishida just adjusted his glasses to make sure he was seeing well while his face was equally tense. Mordred also looked with puzzled the outrageous and ridiculous drawing.

As for Orihime, well, she seemed rather enthusiastic about the cute drawing like a girl delighted to see a circus. Typical of her.

Lastly, Kisuke just gave a pleasant smile as he looked at the poster like a work of art.

'I guess Kūkaku-san should get over that…' The shopkeeper thought with amusement. Speaking of the dreaded pyrotechnic from the Rukongai, unknowingly, the reactions that the teenagers were having were the same as they exhibited when they saw his old friend's new house.

"Okay, guys, we've already arrived." Urahara announced to remove the tension. Of course, not many were satisfied by what they saw.

"Are we really going to stay there !?" Ichigo asked incredulously as he pointed to the ridiculous hotel.

"What kind of jerck would put those weird pictures in there?" Mordred asked as she looked skeptically at the poster.

"It does look very eye-catching." Ishida commented in a low voice not knowing what he was saying.

"It looks fantastic to me." Orihime applauded enthusiastically.

However, neither Ichigo, Uryū, Kon, and Mordred shared her enthusiasm about it.

"What's so great about that…?" Kon asked as he kept looking at the poster.

"Well guys, shall we go in?" Urahara said with his jovial voice ignoring the teenagers' reactions as he indicated them to enter.

"Haiii!" Inoue sang as she set off to catch up with Kisuke. Instead, Ichigo, Uryū, and Mordred were still standing in place as they found themselves undecided on what to do.

"Are we really going into that shabby building?" Kon asked Ichigo who hadn't answered yet. It was clear that he did not want to go through the same thing at Kūkaku's house.

"Bah, what difference does it make." Mordred replied as she was the next to cross the street to enter inside. She cared very much that he had an extravagant and ridiculous banner, as long as she can stock up and eat well, it would be fine.

Ichigo and Uryū seeing that the 2 were the only ones who were alone (counting on Kon) had no choice but to follow them and sighed reluctantly. The 2 teenagers kept up by crossing the street and reached the other end where the hotel doors were. They noticed that there were not many people and that seemed a good sign since there was no queue.

The first thing they found once they got inside was the reception room where few people were still working at this time of night. Our group watched them closely until Urahara's eyes fell on a receptionist who was busy with his computer.

"Well? What's your plan?" Ichigo asked with crossed arms waiting for Urahara's great 'master plan'.

And as before, the shopkeeper smirked wickedly sending chills to the former Substitute, questioning what exactly he was going to do. He couldn't ask when he was prompted by his former sensei to accompany him to the reception desk and his friends followed behind equally worried about what the former Shinigami captain was going to up to.

Once they got to the counter line they were immediately greeted by the receptionist.

"Can I help you with something?" The man asked looking at Kisuke. The teens tensed a bit wondering what Urahara was going to do to rent the rooms while Kon just froze like a normal doll to avoid attracting attention. Instead, Urahara just looked as confident as ever.

"Yes, me and my friends come from far away and we would like to rent about three rooms to spend a few days here."

The receptionist just blinked slightly confused by the words of the man in front of him before asking again.

"Excuse me, can you tell me your name?" He asked with a nervous little smile.

Kisuke offered his own smile alerting the teens to any sudden movements. They didn't take long to see it when the shopkeeper took out of his pocket a kind of silver lighter with a chain attached to the top and at the other end a small white bird's head. Ichigo recognized the object instantly.

Kisuke moved the lighter right into the man's face, and before the latter could react, Kisuke pressed a button causing the lighter to expel white smoke that sprayed his face.

The teens watched this in shock as the receptionist began to fall forward unconscious, but Urahara stopped him when he used his cane and hit him on his forehead causing his 'soul' to come out of his body. Ichigo and the others were totally horrified by this.

Urahara ignored their reactions as he caught the now inert body of the receptionist and carefully placed it on the counter table. He then turned his attention to the soul of the man who was unsurprisingly lying on the ground unconscious by the artifact known as Kikanshinki. However, the part that caught his attention and surprised him was that he did not have a chain of fate tied around his torso.

Normally a Soul Plus always has a chain of fate protruding from its chest hours after death and this is connected to its living body, but when said chain is cut, the soul can no longer return to its body and live. This soul was not supposed to be an exception since, if he did not have one at the moment, then it would be an unmistakable sign that he could transform into a hollow.

And yet, Kisuke did not notice any signs tied to hollowification, which quite intrigued the former president of the S.R.D.I. He could only come to one conclusion.

"What the hell are you doing!? Have you gone crazy?"

Urahara turned to look at the enraged former Substitute glaring at him with daggers for the act he did with that man. Orihime and Uryū could only stare in confusion and horror.

"Why did you do that?" Ichigo yelled once again drawing the attention of the receiving staff.

The former captain ignored the adolescent's fury and noticed the Mod soul still perched on Ichigo's shoulder.

"I need your help, Kon-san." Urahara spoke in a mysterious way.

The stuffed lion just looked him a little confused not understanding what the shopkeeper wanted from him. However, there was no need to know, when Kisuke grabbed it without warning and then placed it on the counter.

"Hey, what the hell are you-

His words were cut off when the shopkeeper hit the stuffed's head with his staff causing the little green of Mod soul pill to shoot out from behind and be caught by the shopkeeper's free hand. The stuffed lion now collapsed lifelessly on the table and did not move anymore.

None of the teenagers could understand what the shopkeeper was doing now, but some had a slight idea of what it was going to do next. And true to their suspicions, Urahara introduced the pill into the receptionist's mouth and made sure it swallowed it.

And like a zombie or something, the receptionist's body came to life when he suddenly opened his eyes and blinked a few times before getting up and standing with a start.

"Hey moron, what are you playing at, huh?" The Mod soul within the receptionist's body screamed indignantly. His voice was roughly the same as Kon's, but more manly.

"Sorry about the scare, Kon." Urahara apologized feigning regret. "But you need to use the body of this receptionist to rent a couple of rooms for us."

"Is this your plan?" Ichigo yelled in disbelief. Of course, not everyone shared the point of view of this exaggerated plan.

"Of course." The shopkeeper exclaimed naturally as if he saw nothing wrong with his plan. "It is necessary to do this as we do not have enough money to pay for all this."

Even so, they still did not agree with this. As for Mordred, the Servant was the only one who did not understand anything of what was happening here. She kept looking at the scene with total confusion and all she could register was that a few moments ago, she saw how the strange man with strange hat and wooden sandals approached one of the receptionists and had asked him where he could rent a pair room.

As expected, the receptionist asked his name, but instead of answering, the guy took out a strange device from his pocket and activated it in front of the other man's face, emanating a small smoke screen and the next thing that happened was that the man fell into unconsciousness. Probably a sleeping spell.

The next thing that happened was that while the receptionist fell asleep, the wizard with the strange hat hit the receptionist's forehead with his cane surely to avoid his fall.

He didn't have to be so brute.

Then came the reactions of her Master and his friends for the action of the weird man, but he ignored them when he turned to the strange talking stuffed lion and told him that he needed his help for something, but he did not say what when he picked it up without warning and put it on the receiver's table. The next thing that happened was that in the same way as before, the strange wizard hit the teddy's torso with his cane, and quickly reached out from behind catching something, while the teddy fell seemingly lifeless.

The last part and perhaps the most puzzling and confusing was that the hat magician put what he had caught in his hand into the mouth of the unconscious recipient and swallowed it. A few seconds later, the receiver suddenly woke up from the wizard's apparent enchantment but noticed that something had changed in him. His voice did not seem to be the same and it seemed more or less similar to that of the stuffed lion.

'What the heck is going on?'

"Anyway, why don't you consult your computer to help us?" Urahara asked looking at the possessed receptionist.

The Mod soul just blinked in confusion. "What? What do you want me to do?"

Immediately, the former captain let out a disappointed sigh when he realizes that the modified souls were not designed to capture the memories of the people he possessed, so it would be useless for Kon to know how the registry of people who come to settle here works.

"Ishida-san, can you help Kon-san out?" He asked to Ishida.

"You want me to do what ...?" The Quincy asked not understanding his role now.

"I need you to help Kon-san register us here officially on his computer." Urahara replied. "I know this is a difficult task, but can you help us?"

Ishida found himself in a difficult decision to deal with. It is true that he is ranked number 1 among the top 20 students at the Karakura Town Institute, but he also did not have much of a hacker idea like movie agents do. All he had to do was log their names into the receptionist's computer to legally rent the hotel rooms, but he couldn't say if he would get it done quickly before other employees here realize what they're doing.

But this would be much better than staying the night out there like beggars waiting for the other Masters and their respective Servants to hunt them down.

Without much choice, the young Quincy decided to take the risk and leaped back from the counter to side with the possessed receiver. Then he walked over to the computer and started fiddling with the keys. Ichigo and his friends watched in silence as Ishida struggled to operate the computer, trying to analyze its data and hack it so that their names matched.

It took him less than half an hour when the geek from the Karakura High school managed to register their names after a lot of effort, and then he took 3 keys to the rooms selected as '80, 81 and 82 'located on the 10th floor and handed them to Urahara. After finishing his work, Ishida went back to his friends and the shopkeeper took Kon's pill from the receptionist and then stuffed it into the stuffed lion to the frustration of the Mod soul. He then shoved the receptionist's sleeping soul inside his body, and with his memories altered, there will be no problem with him finding out that they were illegally infiltrated.

With everything solved, the team of the former Substitute had access to the rooms and immediately went up by an elevator to the chosen floor. Then they searched a couple of rows of doors for theirs, and after a while, they found each one with the right labels.

"Well, here we are. Choose your rooms." He indicated the shopkeeper to his young companions to choose a room for the night. After a little debate, Ishida was the first to speak.

"I'll stay at the 81." The Quincy replied as he pointed to the key to said room.

The shopkeeper turned his attention to the remaining 3, though he did notice one in particular. "And you?"

Ichigo just stared with his trademark bored look as if this matter didn't matter much to him, but he decided to answer anyway.

"In the 80."

"I also!" Inoue exclaimed hastily, drawing the attention of her companions who immediately looked at her in surprise. Orihime just stared in total embarrassment at the gazes of her classmates and regretted her words.

"Oh say yes, say yes." Kon whispered in Ichigo's ear excited about the idea of sharing a room with the bubbly girl.

"I also." Now everyone turned their attention to Ichigo's Servant, who unlike Inoue, was not in the least embarrassed.

"Don't get me wrong, I only do it to stay close to my Master, as that is the duty of a Servant to ensure the safety of his master."

The 3 teenagers were a bit stunned by her words, but Urahara was the only one who kept his composure seeing the logic.

"I suppose you are right." He said before turning to Kurosaki. "Kurosaki-san, I think you should stay in the same room with Mordred-san."

However, the Master of Mordred was not overly convinced by this.

"Is necessary?" He asked with his arms crossed.

"Of course, the relationship between a Master and his Servant is more or less similar to that of a Shinigami and his Zanpakutō. I think you'll be fine with her." Urahara answered with conviction.

Even so, Ichigo still wasn't too sure he wanted to share his room with a mean, tomboyish girl despite saving him before that hollow. The orange haired boy snorted at what the shopkeeper said. Was their relationship similar to him and Zangetsu? The old Zangetsu, unlike her, was more calm and passive, and as for his inner hollow, well…. he didn't want to talk about it, as, at this point, he would prefer the tomboy knight more than that ghostly mocking imitation of herself trying to assimilate him repeatedly.

With a sigh, the Master of Mordred agreed. "All right."

"Good." Urahara hummed before turning to Orihime. "Inoue-san, you better stay with Ishida-san, okay?"

Orihime looked a bit disappointed but agreed anyway when she went with the Quincy. Although some didn't know it, Inoue also had feelings for the bespectacled boy.

"Alright, guys, from today you will sleep in your respective rooms and tomorrow we will plan what to do, understood?"

They all nodded in response. Uryū distributed the 2 remaining keys to both Ichigo (80) and Kisuke (82) and then they all entered their respective rooms. When Ichigo, Mordred, and Kon entered theirs, the first thing they found was a cavity suitable for up to 3 people. Next to it there was a door that led to the bathroom, further on was a spacious living room where there was a sofa, a couple of chairs and a television.

Kon jumped off Ichigo's shoulder and walked to explore the environment.

"Wow, this place is bigger than Ichigo's room." Exclaimed the talking lion as he turned on himself observing the environment. Ichigo only frowned slightly as they continued walking through the room. Passing by, they came to the bedroom where there was only a large bed with a couple of nightstands on each side and a large closet. There was also a curtain that covered the terrace.

Ichigo was the next to approach the window and pulled the curtains aside, to see the night views of the city.

"Wow, this must be bigger than Karakura Town." Kon exclaimed surprised by the panoramic views of the city.

Ichigo had to agree to that. The views were quite large with numerous buildings stretching as far as the eye could see and from his position were taller even from this position. The teenager was not used to witnessing such sights as he did not go out so often except on summer vacation from Karakura to another city, so this was a unique experience.

He just hoped to finish as soon as possible.

"Oi, Ichigo." Said teenager turned to look at his Servant behind. "You better go to sleep, while I will watch the night."

Ichigo and Kon were surprised by what the blonde just said.

"Are you going to stay up all night?" Ichigo asked incredulously.

"Of course, Servants don't need to sleep necessarily, but since I haven't eaten today since I arrived, I need to have something to recharge." Mordred replied. "I'm going to have something from here."

With that said, she turned to go to the exit.

"Wait a minute, where are you going?" Ichigo asked seeing his Servant who was going to leave.

She stopped and half looked away from her Master.

"What do you think? I'm going to that restaurant they have there to give me a good feast."

"And where are you going to get money for it?"

Mordred seemed to consider this for a moment as she considered her options of obtaining money to pay for it. It was then that an idea occurred to her.

"Hey, can I ask your pet to help me?" She asked when she turned her body back to look at Kon.

Both Ichigo and Kon stared at her blankly.

"You mean Kon? What are you going to do?" Ichigo asked, having a bad feeling about this.

She just smiled before answering. "I just need him to help me dissuade the one in charge of this, like he did with that receptionist before."

Ichigo's expression became more tense and horrified upon hearing what she intended.

"What? You can't do that."

"What's up with that? I need to eat right now." The blonde snapped. "If you feel calm, I'll will take that man in the ridiculous hat to accompany me."

Still, Ichigo didn't seem to agree with that, since he didn't want to get into any more trouble besides fooling the receptionists out of being here.

"Oi, can I go?" Kon suddenly asked, making Ichigo look down at him. "I also want something to eat, and I need to take someone's body to do it. Don't worry, it will only be for a little while."

Ichigo just gave an exasperated sigh. There really was no way to stop all of this and he was too tired to do anything about it, plus the blonde seemed to be too stubborn to listen to him and didn't even want to think what kind of retaliation she would do if he tried to get in her way. With all this, he had no choice but to allow it.

"Okay. You can go if you want."

Mordred and Kon smiled upon hearing that.

"But don't get in trouble, alright?"

"As long as an asshole doesn't bother me." Mordred answered confidently.

Ichigo didn't say anything about it as he looked her a bit skeptical, hoping no one was stupid enough to annoy his Servant since otherwise the only thing they'll win will only be broken bones and a trip to the hospital.

"Okay, I'm finally going to have some fun." Kon said excitedly. "I wonder if I can invite Orihime-chan."

"No. Leave Inoue alone, she'll be sleeping." Ichigo retort.

Kon just frowned when he saw that a certain jerk wouldn't let him be with the bubbly girl.

"Ok I'm leaving." Mordred stated as she turned again to leave and is then joined by Kon behind her.

Ichigo just watched them leave the room and close the door behind and waited for none of them to come up with mischief. With that, he decided to lie down on the bed and go to sleep at last.

End of flasback

And those were the events that occurred on his first night in this strange parallel world. What began with an ordinary day in his world, had now become the prologue of a new adventure that brought him and his friends to this world so similar to his so that he will participate in a new war of which he does not he had heard of or wanted to participate, but in the end he accepted this quirk of fate reluctantly if it meant being able to return to his world and get things back to normal.

Observing the incredible panoramic views of the city known as Fuyuki, somewhere apparent in Kyūshū, from the window of his room on the 10th floor of the Golden Koi, Ichigo was glad that he was not in another strange world like in Soul Society, which seemed as if it had gone back 400 years back in the Edo period, or the Hueco Mundo that was without a doubt quite a creepy world because it was just a vast lifeless desert and Gobi-like oasis, and the most depressing thing was that there was no day and the entire sky was covered by a dark night with a crescent in the middle as the only existing source of light. He was really pleased that he didn't hang out there again.

He still didn't know much about this alternate world, except for the absence of his hometown and possibly his self from here and the rest of the people who lived in Karakura Town. He also did not know beyond that about whether there is also a Soul Society or Hueco Mundo here, but he will have time to find out that. The only thing he had in mind here is that there was a class of humans with supernatural powers like the Quincy known as magi, although I did not know if they were the ones who could do cheap tricks like pulling a rabbit out of a hat or something. There were also the Servants or Heroic Spirits, which according to Urahara, were spiritual entities comparable to the Shinigami or the Arrancars like the Espadas, so they were enemies to be taken into account.

Ichigo wondered if he would be able to defeat the 7 Masters even without his Shinigami powers, but he will leave those worries for another time once he argued with Urahara. He had to focus on more serious things, and with this resolve, the Winter War veteran cleared his doubts and prepared for war.

Seeing that it had been a while since he had stayed to take in the views, Ichigo decided to turn around and headed towards the bathroom that was not too far to start the day. Another thing he wondered was whether his Servant was one of the strongest as she boasted. According to the words of both Kisuke and Tokiomi, Mordred belonged to the Saber class, who were well-known for being exceptional swordsmen such as the Shinigamis captains or Espadas. He still didn't know how strong his was, except that she managed to beat an ordinary hollow with incredible ease, although that didn't surprise him too much, since defeating those creatures was like child's play even for him when he had Rukia's Shinigami powers.

But he also did not know if she could do something similar to what the Shinigami like the Shikai or the Bankai did, but he would ask in time.

He also didn't think Ichigo got along with the infamous Knight of the Rebellion due to her stubborn and annoying demeanor. Since they met, he and the Knight of the Rebellion had not considered each other as comrades in arms and much less friends. It wasn't that her fiery tomboy personality bothered him so much, just that from the beginning they didn't respect each other, since she considered him as an inept Master for war, which he didn't care too much about since he had not heard of the war, nor did he want to participate in it.

The other thing he didn't like about her was that she sometimes took advantage of his short temper to tease and laugh every now and then at his annoying reaction. He didn't know whether to consider her as an equal to Rukia or Hiyori due to their similar personalities or behavior. Hell, why did he always end up with companions similar to these 3?

He definitely didn't think they ended up getting along. However, he knew that they had to collaborate in this since the 2 had a common goal and it was to get the Grail and have their respective wishes granted. And for this they will have to work as a team whether they want to or not to defeat the other Masters and Servants until only they will remain standing and everything will be over at last.

Ichigo's hand reached for the doorknob of the bathroom door, and he opened it giving him access to the room. The first thing he notice when entering was the strong spray from the shower and a few meters later a slim figure in the bathtub. Said figure was obviously naked allowing the dew to fall on her body enjoying the warm sensation. The figure in question was obviously female, roughly his age, and luckily, she was facing away from Ichigo. What stood out the most, however, was her long, unruly-looking blonde hair that protruded from her head and almost reached her lower back.

The minutes spent there were quite tense as Ichigo's eyes were still on the mysterious bathing girl as a blush slowly grew on his face. It was then that, almost casually, the girl's head turned back to see the intruder stared her a few meters from her.

Ichigo was more horrified as his blush rose all over his face. The girl for her part just look him with a very feminine confused expression, causing Ichigo to think that she was not his aggressive Servant.

Unfortunately, he was wrong...

"ASSHOLE! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT !?" The Knight of the Rebellion bellowed in all her fury for having spied on her privacy.

Ichigo immediately left the bathroom when a shower of shampoo bottles or other bathroom fired towards him. He barely managed to dodge a few throws when he turned to her.

"I'm sorry-

*PLASH*

His apologies were not heard when a small bottle of shampoo slammed right into his snout. Needless to say, it was very painful when the boat slid down leaving a flushed mark on him and a small line of blood emerging from his nose. Ichigo covered the wound with both hands while moaning in pain.

"Close the door now!" Mordred yelled again threateningly. Heeding, Ichigo immediately closed the door. Moments later, Ichigo removed both hands from his muzzle still looking a bit red and cursed under his breath for his bad luck and for that bloody tomboy taking a shower.

Kon who had been on the couch all this time, heard the scandal caused by Mordred and Ichigo, leaned over and saw Ichigo right in front of the bathroom door still growling from the sudden incident. The Mod soul seemed a bit surprised by this.

"So does that mean you weren't the one who had entered the bathroom earlier?" Kon asked curiously, drawing Ichigo's attention.

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked as he looked confusedly at Kon from a distance.

"You see, a time ago I woke up when someone opened the bathroom door. I didn't look to see who it was, but I thought it was you, but now I see that it wasn't you." Kon recounted how he then began to laugh at the teenager's misfortune for having entered the bathroom and intentionally witnessing a naked Mordred.

"Hey, how was it? Did you see her boobs?" He kept asking the Mod soul bringing out his perverted side. Ichigo frowned more irritated when he saw how his annoying partner was letting him look like a pervert. Just as he was about to reprimand him, he suddenly heard the sound of the door being tapped lightly from the outside.

"Who is it!?" Ichigo yelled looking at the door in a pissed off way. A moment later I hear the voice.

"It's me, Kurosaki-kun." Orihime's soft voice from outside answered in a tone a bit intimidated by Ichigo's scream.

The orange haired boy's expression softened as he recognized one of his closest friends.

"I just wanted to tell you that if you, Kon-san and Mordred-san are not too busy, can you go to our room to have breakfast together?"

Kon's expression lit up with excitement upon hearing that the bubbly girl was inviting them to have breakfast with her.

"Say yes, say yes." Kon urged Ichigo to accept Inoue's request. Ichigo just let out a huge resting sigh before answering.

"Okay, we'll go right away!" Ichigo yelled from the other side. Orihime smiled in response.

"Thanks, I'll be waiting for the 3 of you in the other room." She said as she left immediately.

Picking up on this, Ichigo decided to dress appropriately to go out. Apparently, the only clothes he had available were the same ones he had used before coming to this world since he had not bought another here, and he did not know if he would have time to do so, but for now that was irrelevant. Going to his closet, he took the white shirt and put it on top of the white one. Then he turned, albeit ill toward the entrance to the bathroom still occupied by his Servant but decided to re-enter to be hit by an enraged shower of shampoo bottles.

The boy knocked on the door several times.

"Oi, Mordred, can you hear me?" Ichigo yelled for the tomboy knight to hear from the other side.

"What do you want!?" Mordred yelled from the other end clearly annoyed at the interruption.

"I'm going to Inoue and Ishida's room on the other side. You go too when you're done."

"Okay!"

Having received her reply, the Master of Mordred was finally able to leave and headed towards the exit.

"Come on, Kon." The teenager urged towards the Mod soul, who taking this as a sign, took a great leap towards Ichigo's shoulder.

"By the way," Ichigo started remembering something that happened last night in his absence. "What did you and Mordred do down there?"

"Oh well, you see, she and I invited Urahara-san to dinner down there and he gladly agreed." Kon started recounting what happened while Ichigo paid attention. "We were lucky that the restaurant was open at this time, and we took the opportunity to go in. There were few people and what Urahara-san did was that he made me possess the manager of the restaurant so that he would allow us to eat as much as we want without the need to pay, and I also took the opportunity to enjoy the feast." And to make his point, Kon rubbed his stomach with both hands as he remembered gobbling all kinds of food with that man's body.

Ichigo only frowned a little as he imagined the Mod soul stuffing itself inside the restaurant manager's body and hoped that they had left everything as it was before, although surely the manager would have stomach aches from the things Kon forced to fill his stomach.

"And how did Mordred behave?" Ichigo asked a little concerned that it was likely that his Servant had gotten into trouble.

"Hmm, I didn't pay too much attention as I was distracted eating a roast chicken, but I remember a punk approached her and tried to flirt with her, only to get a hard punch in the face and he poor was knocked out. How scary, right?"

Ichigo had to sigh in internal exasperation. He knew this could have happened.

"After gorging ourselves, we left the place satisfied and left it as it was before." Kon finished.

Ichigo compiled the last bit of information and could only mentally sigh again that things had turned out okay, at least in its own way. With everything heard, the former Substitute decided to leave his room and went to the one where Ishida and Inoue were, which was right next to it, and whose door was half open so that he could pass easily.

Once inside, they found Ishida and Inoue who was waiting for them.

"Ohayō, Kurosaki-kun and Kon-kun." Orihime greeted cheerfully. Ichigo and Kon smiled back at them.

"Ohayō, Orihime-san." Kon greeted as he lowered himself from Ichigo's shoulder.

"Yo, Inoue." Ichigo raised his own friendly gesture. She smiled at them in return, before noticing that someone else was missing here.

"Where is Mordred-san?"

"She is taking a shower in my room." Ichigo replied as he made a small nod to the right to indicate the direction of his room.

"Well, would you like some toast?" The bubbly girl asked, indicating the small kitchen with a toaster on the table.

"Hai, arigatō." The boy kindly thanked. The girl blushed slightly as she started off with the toaster. Kon frowned a bit envious of the bubbly and kind girl's affection for the orange-haired boy.

"I see you have a knack for making girls surrender to you, Kurosaki." Ishida commented while adjusting his glasses. That was not well heard with good ears from the former Substitute.

"Shut up! As if I was a womanizer like you." Ichigo replied annoyed by the comment. Then he put his anger aside when he noticed the Quincy sitting inspecting a laptop, and although he didn't want to admit it, he was genuinely curious.

"What are you doing?" The former Shinigami asked.

"I'm glad you asked. While you were asleep, Urahara-san managed to send me important information about this world and what its main differences are with ours." Ishida answered calling the attention of Orihime who had put the 2 loaves in the toasters, and then went to where the former Shinigami and the Quincy were to listen to them.

"The truth is that this is a bit complex, so pay attention." The Quincy said as he prepared to give his explanation while his 2 friends (plus Kon) paid attention. "As Urahara-san said, apart from Karakura there is no Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, therefore, there are no Shinigamis, hollows and Quincys in this world."

"Well, we already know that. What else?" Ichigo interrupted wanting to skip what he had heard, and get straight to the point. An act that annoyed the other teenager a bit.

"Well, as we expected, since in this world it does not have as much spiritual compatibility with ours, it uses another similar source coming from Gaia."

"Gaia?" Ichigo repeated without being related to that name. At the same time, Orihime brings him a plate of 2 freshly made toasts with a pot of butter on the table.

"In some cultures, especially Greek, Gaia is the very incarnation of the Earth since it represents its will and the vital energy that gives life to its inhabitants. Imagine that the Earth, more than a simple astronomical object in the middle of the universe, had own will or soul as a living being." Ishida explained capturing the attention of the 3 who seemed interested in the subject.

"You say the Earth is alive or something?" Inoue asked curious.

"More or less." The Quincy corrected as he adjusted his glasses. "Gaia is the will that gives life to the world through a great source of energy that it produces known as mana, which acts as the life force of the planet and occupies the atmosphere. Let's say it is more or less similar to reishi, but naturally . "

While Inoue was paying close attention, Ichigo only settled for chewing on one of her buttered toast, and the Quincy couldn't tell whether or not he was paying attention too, but he didn't bother trying.

"Well, in this world there are two types of Magic Energy produced by Gaia, one that I had already told you before, the mana; which is the greatest magical energy found in the entire environment including the atmosphere. It is known as the 'Breath of the planet that fills the world and nature.' The other source is known as od, what is life-force energy found within living organisms such as humans and animals, and it is an element very similar to reiatsu." Ishida explained to the two. "Technically speaking, both manna and od are the same element, but the difference between the two is their abundance. Mana can be found almost anywhere and in large quantities, which is why magi call it Greater Source, while the od, which is the internal energy of humans and animals, is much less in quantity, is called it the Lesser Source.

Despite their apparent presence either in the environment and the generated by an individual, most human beings are not fully aware of its existence, just like the humans of our world who are not aware of the spiritual world through their surroundings. However, the magi managed to channel and actualize it in a series of supernatural phenomena known as Mystery."

"Mystery?" Orihime asked confused.

"The Mystery is the source of all supernatural phenomena that the world produces, and magi use it to create artificial variations known as magecraft or Thaumaturgy, which are normally only possible by supernatural beings."

Ichigo, Orihime and Kon listened carefully to that last part with interest as they heard the origin of the magi of this world and how common they had with the Quincys.

"Apparently, this world has a fairly long history, but the development of thaumaturgy had been going on for many generations. It is not known exactly how old it is, but it is thought that it must be 900 years, 1,000 years, 3,000 years, 5,000, or even more. The magecraft has been around for many centuries, there's no way to know who it came to existence or how long it's been around."

"Amazing. And what are those magi capable doing, Ishida-kun?" Orihime asked curious.

"I'm not sure yet, but I think their abilities for both attack and self-defense are similar to the Kidō spells of the Shinigamis like the Hadō or Bakudō." Ishida replied. "But I also think that they can also create spells using the mana from the environment around them, just like we the Quincys do use reishi from the atmosphere to do our own tricks. Currently there are a large number of magi living all over the world regardless of nationality or religion, all of them going unnoticed in human society. Apparently, there was a time when those who practiced magecraft lived among humans, but the latter began to fear them due to their supernatural and inhuman abilities that began to hunt them to their extermination."

Ichigo, Orihime and Kon cringed upon hearing that last part. Although magi were still humans beings despite their supernatural abilities, common people did not see them as such, and therefore they decided to exterminate them.

"During the Middle Ages, innumerable persecutions were carried out against those who possessed inhuman powers such as wizards, sorcerers and witches, hanging them, beheading them or burning them alive at the stake. They exterminated most of the face of the Earth, but those who survived the purge managed to hide and separate themselves from human society to preserve their power and continue to develop it in secret. Apparently there is a community of magi on a world scale known as the 'Mage's Association', an international institution self-preservative and self-defense organization formed by practitioners of magecraft for the purpose of controlling, concealing and developing it. The Mage's Association is divided into three main branches, the Clock Tower in London, Atlas Temple in the Northwest Africa, and the Wandering Sea integrated in Northern Europe."

"Wait, you mean to say that this Mages's Association is something like Harry Potter's Hogwarts School?" Orihime asked curiously seeing the relationship between these institutions of magic with that of the famous British novel.

"That's right, Inoue-san. Almost the same." Ishida replied with a smile.

"Harry what...?" Ichigo asked a bit confused without having knowledge of that name. Both Inoue, and Ishida, except Kon, were surprised by this.

"You really don't know about Harry Potter?" Orihime asked the orange haired boy.

"If it's one of those novels that Tatsuki and your friends watch, then no." Ichigo replied as he rubbed the back of his head. Ishida only sighed at the lack of information from his former rival, but then decided to ignore him and keep counting.

"You see, the Association it has many laboratories and research bodies that seek to advance the progress of Thaumaturgy, as well as institutions that transmit their secrets to the next generation. Also, it has set up research institutions and established and enforces laws that forbid the criminal use of magecraft in order to promote the development, or perhaps regression, of magecraft. Honestly, I would like to study there one day."

"Then stay in this world then." Ichigo said almost sarcastically.

"I wish I could." Ishida muttered a bit irritated by Ichigo's tone.

"I would like to study there too, but I can't stay either as I would miss Tatsuki-chan and the others." Orihime said also excited to be able to study in one of those institutions similar to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry of Harry Potter. "It sure would be fun to learn magic, and who knows, maybe we could become great wizards, don't you think, Ishida-kun?"

"I agree." Ishida answered with a smile and Orihime did the same. Which was not shared by Ichigo and Kon.

"All right, if you have finished, already, I would like you to continue telling more about that." Ichigo said hoping to change the conversation.

"Very well. Although the Association is a kind of institution and its emphasis lies on the pursuit of knowledge, apparently it also shares certain things in common with the Gotei 13, since also seeks to increase its own military strength and reserves the use of force to protect itself from entities that threaten its existence, such as other mage organizations, supernatural forces seeking to punish mankind for meddling with areas that should not be touched and the Holy Church."

"The Holy Church?" Orihime asked curious at the mention of the name.

"Yes, according to what I read, the existence of the Mage's Association is totally unknown to the whole world, but there is an openly hostile faction to them known as the Holy Church. It is an international religious organization founded sometime in the 8th century, apparently carved after the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church. This is a very powerful faction around the world since that works within the same sphere as the Mage's Association. It made up of religious fanatics who insist that so-called heretics must be destroyed and magi are no exception. They are a major force that has a tenuous relationship with the Association.

It appears to coexist peacefully with the Association, although this has not always been the case since it becomes very hostile towards magi who abuse their power in the human population, and therefore it is made up of Executers, that are basically magi hunters, well-trained assassins specialized in killing magi. Apparently the Church was responsible for the extermination of the magi during the Middle Ages."

"Wait a minute." Ichigo said suddenly. "That old man from the church was a member of that Holy Church, right?"

"Yes, Kotomine Risei is a member of the Holy Church." Ishida replied.

"And if that man in red who is supposed to be my enemy is a magus, why are they together if they are supposed to be enemies?" Ichigo asked not understanding why 2 members of enemy factions were together without seeing any sign of hostility.

"That is what I am going to tell you now." The Quincy said momentarily before adjusting his glasses. "I will tell you about the Holy Grail Wars.

It all started around 1790 when three families of powerful magi; The Einzberns, of German origin, the Tohsakas, from whom Tokiomi is descended, and the Makiris, came together to secretly form an alliance and create what would later be called the Heaven's Feel ritual, or the system of the Holy Grail War. At that time, the Mage' Association and the Holy Church were engaged in a battle to the death, so the three families chose a land in the Far East, where the Church could not monitor, and that place was Japan since it was still in period of isolation with the rest of the world for which the two factions could not intervene with what those three magi were plotting.

Apparently, despite its isolation, Japanese magi of the time already had some contacts with their Western counterparts in the early Tokugawa Period, and even the Tohsakas of that time were hidden Christians. Once their alliance was made, the first thing they had to do was find an ideal ground to establish the Heaven's Feel, a land that was irradiated with magical energy and that was Fuyuki, which at that time was a small property bought by the Tohsakas as their new residence. The official story was that the Tohsakas acquired the newly founded settlement as their landowners to turn it into a commercial enclave later with the foreigners making Tokiomi as its second owner. The other story was that there was a second ulterior motive and that is to use the terrain as the main setting for the ritual. Now, if you wonder why it was decided to establish the ritual precisely here, it was not because of its remote or remote location from the population, but because of its abundance of magical energy in the Ley Line."

"Ley Line?" Ichigo asked.

"It is about a large number of networks that circulate around the world where the mana generated inside the Earth flows to the surface. Is something like the nostril or the mouth of the Earth."

Ichigo, Orihime and Kon could only stare in awe as they processed that the Quincy said. The nose or the mouth of the Earth? It is one thing to say that supposedly this Earth had a soul or a will of its own, and another is that it had holes that would sound pretty crazy. Uryū saw their reactions, but decided not to argue and continue.

"You see, each network of lines is converged at a single point where the mana emerges to the surface and extends to form the network. These points can be geographic locations commonly mountainous elevations like Mount Fuji in Honshu, or Olympus in Greece. Here In Kyūshū there is a point where mana flows with more force and extends throughout almost the entire region being Mount Enzou, which coincidentally is not far from here. That is why Fuyuki became one of the areas of the world that contains a high concentration of magical energy and was chosen as the ideal ground to establish the ritual."

Ichigo gathered that last bit of information and his mind suddenly clicked as he realized that this sounded quite familiar to him about a similar phenomenon occurring in his world.

"Wait a minute. Isn't this similar to the Jūreichi from Karakura?"

The Quincy gave him a deductive look before answering. "Indeed, yes"

Ichigo and Orihime looked at that in amazement. "You see, as you already know, Karakura was influenced by the Jūreichi, so it turned it into an area that contained a greater concentration of spiritual energy. The same here, except with magical energy. In fact, Fuyuki is the source where it converges all the magical energy of Kyūshū. Returning to the story, once the right place was chosen to establish the ritual, the Einzberns were in charge of designing and building the artifact that would later be referred to as the Holy Grail and hid it somewhere on Mount Enzou, right on the Ley Line for it to be charged with mana. The truth is that I still don't know how this works, but it seems that the artifact is like a large energy vessel or an electronic device that needs to be charged with the energy emitted from the Ley Line, but that would carry a great risk.

Because the Fuyuki Ley Line is necessary for the city to continue to exist as well as its surroundings, if something bad happened, for example, if the entire source was drained, the entire city would disappear from the face of the Earth, just like than Karakura if Aizen got away with destroying the Jūreichi to create the Ōken."

Once again, the two of them widened their eyes in puzzlement as they recalled what the unhinged Shinigami once tried to do with his hometown in order to achieve his sick plan, and now it turns out that an equally catastrophic event could take place here too.

"Luckily, those magi were moderate enough not to sacrifice an entire population to achieve their goals, so it was decided that the Ley Line magical energy supply process would be slow and moderate so it would not endanger the city. The plan worked, but the process took 10 years." Ishida took a moment before continuing. "Before continuing, you should know that the Heaven's Feel ritual was not going to be a full-blown war as it was intended to be a ritual for the three magi to achieve their respective wishes without bloodshed. But suddenly two problems arose that would be an inconvenience in their plans, and it was that the magi who originally planning to utilize it realized that the system could only allow for one person to utilize it. Though they had the same goals, their opinions on how to reach them were different, so the unforeseen aspect caused them to break off their alliance.

However, they instead agreed to proceed with the system and means to create the Grail, but they would then become enemies when it was summoned. But it was not only that, as the second problem was that even though the Grail had been heavily charged with magical energy it was still not enough to fill it completely and complete it and they needed to find an alternative source without risking draining the Ley Line. Said source would be the souls of the Heroic Spirits."

Ichigo and Orihime just stared without understanding what the Heroic Spirits had to do with this.

"Although the Grail was not yet complete, with much of the energy it had absorbed from the Ley Line, the Grail was able to extend its influence to the Throne of Heroes, and thanks to the influence of its creators, they were able to invoked three Heroic Spirits and make them return to Earth. The idea was to use the invoked Heroic Spirits to kill each other, and thus use their souls to fill the Grail as extra energy."

"Wait, didn't Tokiomi say that once a Servant was defeated he would return to that Throne of Heroes?" Ichigo asked puzzled upon hearing that contradiction.

"Under normal circumstances, yes, but as they are somehow tied primarily to the Grail, their souls would return where they would be used as extra energy until the ritual is finished." Ishida explained. "However, there was a problem, and it was that the three souls of Heroic Spirits were not enough to fill the Grail with energy, and more would be needed. Therefore, the three magi had brought in four outside magi with the call of "We've succeeded in manifesting the Grail. If you'd like to witness this miracle, join us and become Masters." It was thus that the conflict of only three individuals became seven. It will only be necessary for six Heroic Spirits to be defeated to fill the Grail completely, and once it is ready, any wish can be formulated."

Ichigo recorded all the information and now he understood how this absurd competition of magi or Heroic Spirits worked and the need for the latter to kill each other in order to complete the Grail and that this latter could grant any wish. However, there was something he did not understand.

"There is something I do not understand. Why are those Heroic Spirits invoked and subordinated by these magi to participate in this war?"

He was right in that question. Since Mordred did not seem to be unconditionally subordinate to him and acts independently, in addition to the enthusiasm that she expressed for wanting to participate despite the fact that it seems that only magi were the only ones in being able to claim the Grail and Servants only seemed to be only pawns to achieve it. He almost had the feeling that this was not so.

"I was glad you asked that question, Kurosaki." Ishida said as he adjusted his glasses before speaking. "You see, apparently, the Heroic Spirits are not obliged to participate in the ritual unless they too benefit from having their share of the Grail wish. That is the main reason why the Heroic Spirits returned to the world of the living, responding to the invocation by the Masters and subordinating themselves as their Servants to fight together and win the Grail at all costs."

Ichigo and Orihime became thoughtful at the idea that the Servants also wanted their share of the prize.

"So, does that mean that the reason why Mordred-san appeared was for that?" Orihime asked suddenly.

"Yes, for Mordred there are no exceptions." The Quincy replied before looking at Ichigo. "The reason why Mordred answered your involuntary call and became your Servant was because she wants, unlike you, to obtain the Holy Grail and therefore her wish, whatever it may be. And even though she sees you as inappropriate to be her Master, she will continue to be on your side, even if it is constitutionally for that purpose. "

Ichigo didn't say anything as he absorbed that last information. He had already suspected something similar that the blonde was still on his side despite not being what she expected for some kind of benefit, and that was the Grail.

Orihime thought the same as well, wondering what the wish Mordred wanted would be.

"Going back to history, the first war took place around 1800, I don't really know how it was, but in the end it ended inconclusively without there being an official winner. I don't know what could have happened, but maybe there was a failure in the Grail so it did not manage to complete its second phase of development by absorbing the souls of the fallen Heroic Spirits, so all its energy was drained and the Grail was inactivated without any of its participants reaching it. The Grail had to undergo a recharge period which would last 60 years.

After that span of time, the Heaven's Feel resumed as the Second Holy Grail War around the 1860s. At that time, there were no rules for Masters and their respective Servants to follow, and it turned into a wave of murders in which no one survived." Orihime only stared solemnly as she imagined the number of victims in that horrible contest.

"It ended with no victory, and the Three Families took it as a lesson to create more precise rules such as bringing in a third faction; the Holy Church, whose job it was to watch over any claims of the Holy Grail. The Church sent a supervisor to act as a mediator between the Church and the Mage's Association to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands and if the Holy Grail turned out to be a true Relic, then the Church would avoid the ceasefire agreement and loot it from the hands of the magi. The Third war occurred in the 1930s before the World War II. The truth is that I could not find any apparent information about what happened, since no details were given." The Quincy spoke with a tired tone which slightly disappointed his friends. "In any case, unlike the second, there was no victims, and its existence remained a secret even after the Allied occupation in the country to this day. Right now, the fourth is taking place and it may not be the last."

The friends of the Quincy absorbed all the information given by him about how previous wars worked before this. For the chosen Master, he did not give a damn what the Founding Families really wanted, as his only wish was to be able to return home with his friends and never get involved in stupid things like this again.

"But..." Inoue suddenly spoke after a short silence as she looked at Ichigo worriedly. "That doesn't explain why Kurosaki-kun is involved in this if he's not one of those magi."

"While it is true that Kurosaki does not belong to the same line of the Founding Families, but in reality it is no necessary that a participating magus is not related in any way with them, since anyone can do it." Ishida explained.

"Yeah, but that doesn't explain why me, if I'm not a magus." Ichigo retorted almost irritably.

The Quincy just sighed. In short, that was the main mystery they had to solve. Why did the Grail decide to attrack someone who was not a magus, was not aware of his role here and of a world far from the influence of Gaia? That was a great mystery, but considering what Tokiomi told them about this Grail having a conscience and a will of its own, and part of its personality is capricious, maybe it was playing or testing Kurosaki since he was a candidate to be a Heroic Spirit, although that would not be known for sure.

"Well, anyway we have no choice but participate." Was the Quincy's definitive answers, causing Ichigo to deflate for not finding an appropriate response. "Don't worry, since we are here, we will help you win."

Those words surprised the former Substitute upon hearing them.

"Wait, what...?"

"It's true. Ishida-kun and me have been talking about it, and we have also decided to help you win the Holy Grail." Inoue replied so sure of herself despite the circumstances.

Ichigo was at a loss for words. Since he was the one to blame for his 2 friends being unintentionally involved in this, it had become his responsability and the main reason to participate in the ritual to help them return home at once. He thought that he would have to fight alone with his Servant since they were the only ones who could freely participate and have the latter take care of the rest, but this he was not expected.

"You can not be serious." Ichigo asked incredulously. "This goes between magi and Servants."

"Yeah, but you're not a magus, so you won't be able to do anything to back Mordred and she would have to fight two opponents alone at the same time." Ishida explained momentarily. "With my skills we will turn this problem in our favor."

Still the non-magus Master was still not overly convinced by this. He did not like to take advantage and depend on others to achieve his goals while he just watched. No, that was not his style to stand aside and watch one of his friends get hurt or worse in front of his eyes without him doing something about it to help them.

No, there has to be another alternative!

"I'll go too!" The 3 of them turned when they heard the enthusiastic voice of Kon who was on a sofa, whose expression said that he also wanted take part in the fight. "I too will take part in this and crush those magi."

Of course, none of them took it seriously as they looked at the talking stuffed lion with skeptical glances.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" The Mod soul asked uncomfortable by the stares.

"Sorry, but how are you going to do it?" Uryū asked confusedly with no intention of offending.

"It is not obvious?" Kon question almost offended. "I can possess someone who looks strong and I will be formidable when it comes to fighting." He replied confidently as he imagined about taking the body of someone with Chad's caliber and being as strong as he wanted. "Or if I have a chance, I can possess one of those Masters to leave their Servant at a disadvantage."

"Is not that. No offense, but I don't think it's necessary to take someone else's body." Uryū replied in the same tone.

"It's true, what would happen to the soul of said person?" Orihime questioned softly seeing that this was also a bad idea. The stuffed lion into depression when he saw that his plan not be carried out.

"B-but are you sure?" Ichigo asked forgetting about Kon and now looking at his friends concerned. "I appreciate your help, but I don't think-

"Are you still thinking like this?" Ishida retorted to the former Substitute. "I understand that you are only worried about us, but we are not only worried about you, but also about ourselves since you are not the only one who wants to get out of here."

"It is true." Orihime said suddenly. "During the 2 years that passed since you lost your Shinigami powers, Sado-kun and I were arguing about what to do about it due to your situation. We agreed that since you no longer had the power to defend yourself, we made a promise that we would get stronger. So that when the time comes, we will be the ones to protect you."

Ichigo froze over this.

He had no idea that both Inoue and Chad had been doing this for the 17 months since he defeat Aizen, just for him.

"Don't take this on by yourself..." Ishida spoke with conviction. "This is what friends are for!"

It is true that the Quincy and the girl had lived through so many battles and difficulties either in Soul Society or in Hueco Mundo and he fully trusted their abilities when watching them fight any opponent, but still he could not be worried about their safety when facing to opponents they did not yet know, although he hoped it was not a Servant.

He remembered the moments of doubt and worry he felt when they traveled to Hueco Mundo to rescue Orihime from the Arrancars, but his friends made him reconsider so that they would trust and each one would go a different path, trusting that they would meet again once their mission was done.

That was how it had been, and even though he had felt like Chad and Rukia were defeated, he still refused to distrust them despite his great concern. Just was a luck the Gotei 13 forces that came in time to save them.

Now he had to go through this all over again by blindly trying to trust his friends to achieve his goals. He saw the expressions of Ishida and Inoue who despite their doubts, they were not willing to give in to anything no matter how dangerous the circumstances, and he did not think he would listen to their pleas. He also remembered what Inoue told him earlier and had no choice but to respect her decision.

"Okay, you win. But don't face those Servants."

"Don't worry, we'll intervene if one of his Masters tries to attack you." Ishida replied with a happy smile that the former Shinigami let them cooperate.

Inoue also looked the same way and was also confident that her abilities would be useful to them in war to heal serious injuries from either Kurosaki or Mordred.

Speaking of Ichigo's Servant. Where is her been?

"Oi, oi, what were you talking about?" The 3 of them were almost startled by hearing the harsh feminine voice and turned back to see the blonde knight wearing her outfit from yesterday.

"Mordred-san." Orihime exclaimed in surprise. "Ohayō, do you feel like having breakfast?"

Mordred ignored the other girl and only focused on her Master.

"What have I missed?" She asked as she walked towards with her hands in her pockets.

"Uh, is nothing." Ichigo replied an instant later. She stopped beside him.

"And that stranfe man who accompanied us?" She asked again in reference to Kisuke.

"Urahara-san is exploring around the city and has already finished reading the entire book containing all the information about the war and I just explained it to Kurosaki." Ishida counted to the blonde.

"Oh perfect." She said with a satisfied smile. "Well, Master, I hope you are ready for the night."

"I told you not to call me Master." Ichigo snapped out being sick of nicknamed that strangely uniform way. Mordred could not help but laugh.

"Sorry, sorry." She said as she while giving several patted on Ichigo's back. "I had forgotten, Kurosaki."

"Ichigo." Her Master corrected, not wanting her to call him otherwise uniformly.

"By the way, Ichigo, weren't you going to take a shower?" Mordred said pronouncing 'Ichigo' with little emphasis as she reminded him of what he was going to do before the incident.

"Haven't you showered yet?" Orihime asked looking curiously at a tense Ichigo. The boy did not want to tell his friends why he did not have time to bathe and prayed that Kon and the blonde did not tell about this.

"Well, I better take a bath now." Ichigo said to avoid his friend's question and go for a bath now. However, he stopped and looked at his Servant to ask her an important question.

"By the way, did you use up the hot water?"

She simply shrugged before answering. "No idea, but maybe."

This made the boy frown more. He still was not sure, but she probably wasted the hot water since she had long hair so she might take her time shampooing too much.

"I better take a shower here." He said how he decided not to try the shower in his room and decided to bathe here.

Ichigo's friends could only watch without saying a word as the other teenager retired to the other bathroom to shower there.

A few minutes later

The rest of morning passed as normal while everyone did their own tasks. Ichigo enjoyed his warm bath with the mist of the water relaxing his muscles. Uryū was still sitting checking his laptop reviewing new information Urahara provided.

Mordred for her part, took some toasts made by Orihime. They were not really her favorite food, but they were all there was, and she ate them without a problem. After breakfast was finished, the Servant began to relax and watch a bit of television while sitting on the sofa. She picked up the remote and began pressing various buttons in search of an entertaining channel.

Once finished showering, the eighth Master had dried his body with clean towels an unsurprisingly put on the same clothes.

'I should buy new clothes.' The teenager thought to herself since he should not keep wearing the same clothes every day. Ichigo thought that he should go buy new clothes in some store around the city, but soon he ruled out such an option, since he did not want to risk venturing around the city to find one since he did not know what its surroundings were like.

With that in mind, he decided to stay here until it was time to start the war, which will be under cover of night according to the rules.

The orange haired boy came out of the bathroom freshly showered and the first thing he saw when he came out was his Servant sitting on the couch extending his right arm with the remote control in hand pointing at the TV to change the channel, and Orihime was by her side.

For a moment he seemed a somewhat strange sight to see the blonde using something modern considering that she lived in a time where electronic devices did not exist. He wondered if Inoue was the one who taught her to use the controller so easily.

"What happen, Kurosaki?" Ishida asked seeing how Ichigo had been standing like a statue a few moments ago seeing Mordred and Inoue sitting together. The Quincy could not help being curious as he wondered what wrong whit the Master of Mordred was, and that is why he decided to get closer to find out what was going on. "There is something wrong?"

Ichigo glanced slightly at his former rival next to him and prepared to ask.

"Ishida, in what era did Mordred live?" He asked curiously making the other teenager look at him somewhat strangely him. "I mean how old is her."

Despite the strange question, the bespectacled boy decided to answer. "Well, approximately more than 1500 years ago."

"And at that time there were modern things like the remote control?" Ichigo asked as he kept looking at his Servant from a distance. Ishida still did not understand where Kurosaki wanted to get to with all this, but when he looked at what he was looking at, he immediately understood why.

"Oh, if you meant that, let me tell you that it is true that if someone from a rather remote past came to our present time, they would surely get a heart attack when they saw things that did not exist in their time like television or a car, and Mordred is no exception." Ishida explained in detail before adjusting his glasses. "But, apparently the Grail aside from bringing people who once existed in the past back to life, it also grants them some knowledge of current life so that they can perfectly adapt here." His eyes sparkled intellectually. "I even heard that they could also instinctively drive a car or pilot an airplane."

Ichigo's eyes widened in puzzlement upon hearing that.

"What? Are you serious?" He asked incredulously.

"Well, that's what I read in the information Urahara-san got out of that book." Ishida replied with a smile.

Ichigo could not tell if what the other boy was saying was true or if it was some kind of practical joke, but he decided not to know.

"Tch, isn't there something worthwhile?" Ichigo's Servant growled as she kept pressing the buttons on the controller several times to change channels. It had been a while since Mordred had tried to find something entertaining in this modern era object like a series or action movie like 2 warriors fighting each other with swords, but unfortunately it only came out things that she did not understand such as romantic things or drama, all boring.

"What a shit." She snorted again as she changing channels.

On either side, Orihime and Kon could only stare at her in confusion as she still directed her irritated gaze to the television while her hand still directed the remote control. The former wanted to reassure her and stop changing channels nonstop before she lost her temper, but on the other hand she was also afraid to interrupt the Knight of Rebellion seeing that it seemed she was in no mood to speak.

It was only after a few moments that the blonde finally gave up reluctantly and put the remote aside to lie on the couch. She sighed in exasperation.

"I can't stand this. What a boredom, and on top of that I have to wait for nightfall." She said between complains as she adjusted her head on the sofa.

Orihime looked at this with some regret and saw her opportunity to speak to her.

"A-ano, Mordred-san."

She cocked her head to the side to look at the other girl.

"How about we talk a bit?"

The request from the orange haired girl confused the blonde. "What do you mean?"

"It's nothing, I just want to chat a bit while the time passes until it gets dark and you and Kurosaki-kun will go out to fight. The truth is that waiting so long without doing anything is quite boring, so the best thing would be talk to kill the boredom."

Mordred only gave the other girl a skeptical look but agreed that right now she was getting bored and it was going to be a pain in the ass to keep waiting until nightfall and the first battles began.

"What do you want to talk about?" She asked lazily.

Inoue considered her options on how to interact with her normally. She still remembered her first interaction with her at Ichigo's house, and it seemed that she did not like to talk too much about her past or her parents for what it seemed, and yesterday she understood why when that red magus, Tokiomi, told them her infamous story as the supposed son of a king of Britain and how her ended his life. The stories treated her with a bad reputation, but the true motive and circumstances of her actions were still unknown, so it is time to know the truth.

"I would like to know a little more about you." The orange haired girl answered. "Can you tell me where in England you lived?"

Mordred seemed to consider the other girl's question and turned her gaze to her.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I know you don't want to talk too much about your past, and I don't want to burden you too much, but I can't think of any other way to kill the boredom except to talk, but at least we can get to know each other better." She replied with a soft smile.

Mordred internally sighed at that. It would have been so easy to turn down the other girl's offer and put her aside, but she did not have much of a choice about it either, except to wait until dark without doing anything. Maybe it was worth it a bit so that the curious girl learned from her past and stopped bothering her with her questions.

With a soft sigh, she began to speak.

"I do not have many memories of my childhood, but I remember that I was born and used to live alone with my mother isolated in a small fortress in the middle of a lush forest."

Orihime nodded upon hearing that.

"Did you live alone with your mother?"

She only nodded in response but did not say anything else.

At this point, Orihime wondered if she would dare to navigate further into Mordred's past to get to know her better even though she did not want to, but her curiosity tackled her to know more.

"And your father?"

As expected, Mordred's face turned to her to look at her with an unfriendly expression at the mention of her 'father'.

Besides her, Kon just wondered tense and confused why that reaction.

"If you don't want to talk about it, its fine." Orihime said keeping her composure and a smile. "I just wanted-

"He was not." She cut her off suddenly.

"Eh?"

Now Mordred's gaze was at the ground in a dejected state, causing both Orihime and Kon to look at her silently.

"My father was never in the day I was born, and I spent all my childhood without knowing him or knowing about him. My mother was the one who raised me alone and took care of my education." She counted on a solemn voice causing Orihime to look at her somewhat surprised.

Her father never with her throughout her childhood?

"But wasn't your mother the wife of a king? Shouldn't she be queen or something?" Kon asked puzzled by the circumstances in which she and her mother lived.

Silence was the only response that came out of her a moment later and it continued until it became clear that she did not want to talk about it. It was then that Orihime decided to change it.

"How was your life in that fortress?"

Mordred just gave the other girl a cryptic look but answered anyway.

"Bored. My mother let me do whatever I wanted, but she never let me go outside. "

Orihime was stunned by this. "Didn't she let you out?"

She shook her head in response. "How we lived in the middle of a forest infested with wolves and bears, my mother forbade me to go out since it was very dangerous, and that is why I spent all my childhood without going out and knowing the outside world."

Orihime and Kon could not help but listen in bewilderment to what they had heard. Did her mother never let her go outside and always keep her locked inside?

"She also didn't let me interact or talk to people and that's why I've never had friends."

"But why!?" Orihime screamed almost hysterically. She could not believe that a mother would not even let her daughter interact with people. "Why did your mother do that?"

"Hmph, why do you care?" Mordred asked with little annoying in her voice.

"I find it hard to believe that a mother would do that to one of her children like go outside or make friends."

"That's right, what kind of mother would do that?" Kon exclaimed agreeing with Orihime.

The blonde gave a little grunt and began to get fed up with the reactions of those last 2 as if they wanted to pity her, which she did not want.

"All the days that I spent living in that fortress were eternal and were always repeated over and over again, and the only thing I could do was look outside from the window of my room but nothing else. It was at that moment that my mother finally told me about my father, and I quickly became interested in the supposed man who taken part in the ritual of my birth."

She was a little more silent as her mind wandered more in the memory.

"I was quite surprised when she rebelled me that my father was none other than the famous King of Knights Arthur Pendragon, the legendary man who defeated the Saxon invaders and is said to have killed a fearsome white dragon with a spear. I was really happy to know that he had his own blood running through my veins for what should I have been a prince in first place."

'A prince?' Orihime and Kon both thought in unison. 'You would say a princess.'

Ignoring the thoughts of the two, Mordred continued.'

"However, there was a problem and that is that my father did not like women." He answered to Orihime and Kon's surprise.

"For which my mother explained to me, my father was a man totally disinterested in everyday life and he only interested in the chivalric doctrine. It was why my mother had planned to become me a full-fledged knight like my father so that my mother and I could reunite with him. But there was another problem…" Orihime and Kon paid more attention. "It turns out that women could not become knights, and since I was born a woman, my mother decided to raise and educate me as a man."

"What she did what-

Orihime's expression was totally taken aback upon hearing that with wide eyes in shock, even Kon was also staring in disbelief.

"Did your mother raise you by making you think you're a man!?" Orihime asked hysterically, unable to believe what she heard.

Mordred gave him a vague look. "Of course, she started by giving me a male name like Mordred."

It was then that Orihime remembered what Tokiomi had told her earlier that all the stories and legends remembered Mordred as a man, even his name was also male. The fact that his mother, whoever she was, raised her this way even in public would explain all this.

"My mother had hired a warrior to teach me how to use the sword and fight with it to become a knight and serve in my father's court." Her melancholy expression indicated how hard the next part of her life had been. "For the next years I had been forced to train hard tirelessly every day with a heavy sword like any man would, wear armor and endure the harsh conditions in order not to show weakness to anyone. It was thanks to my great strength of will that I achieved to survive those devious trainings and achieved to harden myself both in body and soul and made myself stronger than any other man, all in order to become a good warrior worthy of joining the Knights of the Round Table and being a perfect knight."

Orihime could only stare in amazement as she reflected on how much the blonde had to endure to become as strong as she is now, and it was not surprising since she wore that thick armor in combat that looked very heavy, but for the warrior, the volume represented nothing.

"Arriving on that day, I joined my father's knights, and the time I spent fighting against his enemies was essential since in this way I would have earned his respect and trust, and would also recognize me as one of his children."

It was then that her expression faded a bit, looking a bit nostalgic. "But he never did. My father never recognized me, and he never saw me as his own blood." She tried to hide it, but sadness had crept into her voice.

Orihime and Kon got puzzled looks from what she said.

"The King never recognized my power to the bitter end; even though, in matters of both rule and sword, I was on the same level, he never saw me as anything but a disposable tool and he never appreciated my skills or anything. All that hard work at being the perfect knight, wasted."

Suddenly, Mordred's melancholy expression disappeared to be replaced by rising anger.

"It was at that moment that I realized that the father I had so idolized never existed and I swore to take revenge on him by destroying everything he had created."

The atmosphere had turned awkward as Orihime and Kon looked equally uncomfortable at the malice-filled aura of the king's denied daughter. It was then that she drew a crooked smile on her face.

"I managed to fulfill my revenge and proved that the legendary King Arthur was no the big thing when I ended his life, even though he ended mine as well, but I didn't care."

Once finished, Orihime processed the last part and could not bear to feel so much pity for what happened to the blonde in life. Despite having only known it from Tokiomi's version, she now knew the true circumstances that she had to endure, and it goes without saying how tragic and miserable Mordred's life was.

Her mother raised her alone in the absence of her father in the middle of a forest far from civilization without having contact with anyone and would not let her have friends, which was quite sad.

She was forced to train hard in fencing and other intensive and tough training to toughen her up into a full-fledged warrior so she could join her father's knights, which she accomplished. Mordred just wanted her father to recognize her and love her as one of his children, but he did not.

Orihime still did not believe it. Her father, an important figure in the life of every son and daughter who was always with them to help them and mature so that he could build a future, rejected her that simple.

And in the end, all this ended when father and daughter killed each other just as Tokiomi recounted.

Really tragic.

"It's horrible..." The orange haired girl moaned wistfully.

"That's right!" Kon snapped suddenly, and unlike Orihime's pained expression, the stuffed looked with indignant unrest. "What kind of father would do such a thing?"

The 2 girls turned to the left to look at Kon.

"I don't really know who this King Arthur would be, but it is clear that he is an insensitive bastard who does not love women. Hmph, guys like him make me sick."

The 2 girls froze in place as they looked a bit puzzled at the talking stuffed, but Mordred soon broke the silence.

"Well, you are right on that." She said as she crossed her arms looking forward. "Besides being a failure of a father, he was also a failure of a king. Everyone said that my father was a ideal king, an perfect ruler, the best of all time. But in the end, he screwed up, because due to his arrogance and inability to understand his subjects giving them only unhappiness and misery, his reign was destined to disappear even if I had never rebelled."

Orihime was once again perplexed. Was King Arthur that ruthless even to his own subjects? Despite having heard a little about him from Tokiomi as a righteous ruler and defender of the weak, she had no idea that he also had a very dark side that contradicted the former.

"Well, at least I proved that I am better than him." Mordred boasted as she put her hands together behind her head and then leaned back to get comfortable. "However, I am still not too satisfied until I finally have the Grail in my hands and can get my wish."

Something caught Orihime's attention upon hearing that. She recalled that Ishida had told her and Kurosaki that the main reason why the Heroic Spirits participate in this is because they too want to make a wish to the Grail. If that were true, she could only think what Mordred's wish was.

"Mordred-san." The blonde opened one eye to look at the other girl and hear her. "By any chance, the wish you are going to ask the Holy Grail is that your parents love you and form a happy family?"

Considering how unhappy Mordred's childhood was with parents who did not pay much attention to her and did not value her, it is normal that she was very sad and bitter, and that is why she wants to have a united family. After all, what child would not take the opportunity to reconcile with a better family?

However, her illusions were shattered when she heard the blonde's mocking snort.

"What my parents love me? Are you stupid?"

Orihime could not help but shudder at Mordred's rude tone and her gaze as if she had hostile intentions.

"Why would I make a wish like that? Let them rot in hell!"

The other girl just blinked in puzzlement at that. She was disappointed to hear that she did not want to reconcile with her parents.

"So, what do you want?" Kon asked. "Become king?"

Mordred looked at the stuffed lion for a moment before turning forward with a solemn expression.

"Far from it… I have no desire to become king through the Holy Grail." She answered with conviction. "My father would never recognize it even were I to ascend to the throne that way. Listen carefully, all I wish is the opportunity to wield the Holy Sword of Selection."

"The Holy Sword?"

"Yes. Many says that my father gained the right to rule by drawing the sword which had beaten back all those who boast of their own strength."

Orihime immediately remembered that during the conversation with Tokiomi, he had revealed to them about the Holy Sword that, according to what, a young Arthur managed to grasp it from the rock and became king.

"For that very reason, If I succeed in pulling the sword out of the stone, then I will be recognized as worthy of being king, and my father may finally recognize my power."

Orihime nodded upon hearing that. She was still a bit disappointed that the blonde did not want to reconcile with her parents, but at least she keeps thinking of him so he would recognize her for her accomplishments. And being king in the same way seems like a perfect method.

"Well, now that you know what my goals are, I hope your friend will me get to the Grail, but seeing as he is, I doubt that he will not go too far with how incompetent he is." Mordred said in disappointed as she still felt a bit frustrated that her Master was a complete third-rate incompetent without knowing any megacraft, so her chances of winning this war were slim.

Orihime just looked her a little disappointed to see how Mordred still kept belittling Kurosaki for not being a magus or a good Master like the other participants. She understood that fact well, but if he had not lost his Shinigami powers, she would be sure Mordred would have admired him.

Anyway, even without his Shinigami powers, Orihime still admired Ichigo above all for the kind of person he is, she even learned more from him during his adventures in either Soul Society and Hueco Mundo respectively.

"Don't worry, he will..." Orihime spoke softly with a smile, catching MOrdred's attention.

"What are you say?"

She just gave a solemn smile as her mind wandered to the moments when she had seen the determination of the orange haired boy.

"I know Kurosaki-kun very well and I know that he would do anything to achieve his goals. Do you remember when he told you that he would participate voluntarily when we left the church?"

The blonde navigated a bit with her mind and remembered the precise moment when unexpectedly the orange haired boy who since they met she had despised him as an inept Master, and yet he had shown her since he had left the church, his devotion and conviction of voluntarily join the war as a Master and although she did not want to admit it, she had also been amazed at the determination that emerged from his words, as if he were a different person than the one she knows today.

"Know that he wasn't actually telling you because he wanted to impress you or was trying to appear strong. Whether he uses powerful words or not, he always says them as if he was taking an oath. He was always like that."

She remembered the moments when the Substitute Shinigami used such words when they were about to go to Soul Society to save Rukia or when he was about to confront Grimmjow for the last time when he spoke those words full of confidence with a smile that he would definitely win.

Now Mordred was watching the girl with a little more attention.

"But in any case, I think he makes a promise to himself and saying it out loud to make it come true." She turns to the blonde with a good smile. "So don't worry, even if Kurosaki-kun is not what you expected as a magus, he still has that tenacious spirit of a warrior, and although he did not want to participate in this in the first place, he already made his decision, besides that he already has his own reason to fight."

"That's right, Ichigo may be an airhead, a jerk, ignorant at times, but he's one of the most wonderful person in the world." Kon praised too. "Sometimes I even get envious."

"It's true, you'll see that he won't let you down." Orihime finished emphasizing her smile more.

The minutes that passed between the 3 of them very quiet since they finished, and it was only broken by the blonde when she blurted out a question.

"Do you like that boy?"

"Eh?" Orihime's face started to blush upon hearing that.

"From the way you described him, it is clear that you like him. You two are you lovers or something?"

The orange haired girl could not contain her blush any longer when she heard what the blonde had said. "L-L-L-Lovers? No, is not that it! Kurosaki-kun is only my friend."

"Hoooh?" Mordred purr mischievously clearly enjoying the embarrassment situation of the other girl. Her smile widened a bit more. "Just friends?"

"O-of course yes. We are nothing else." She replied with a nervous smile.

Then, having enough of fun, the Servant decided to end this. "Well, be that as it may, I hope you're right about him."

And with that statement, she got up from the couch and walked away from her. "Remember tonight is when the fun is going to start."

Both Orihime and Kon just watched as she left room and would surely go to Ichigo's. Orihime only had her own thoughts on how things were going to unfold in the next few nights, and she just hoped Ichigo would come out in one piece.

That is all for today. It's really been super long, but it was worth it and I hope you guys had as much fun as I did.

For those curious about the part where Ichigo catches Mordred off guard in the shower, it was to hint at the scene where Shirou caught Artoria off guard she taking a shower. The difference is that since Mordred was less tolerant and kind than her Father, it was to be expected that this would explode in a shower of shampoo bottles.

Well, I just hope you enjoyed it, and leave a comment to I know your opinion.

Ja ne!