Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor
"Sprechen sie Deutsch?" The dark-skinned girl said as she realized that I couldn't understand a word she was saying.
"Ugh, sorry. I don't speak Dutch either."
"Okay, English it is," the girl said in perfect English. "Was hoping you spoke German. I don't get enough chances to work on German... Also, Deutsch means German, not Dutch."
...I knew that. I was just still a little out of it from... Whatever the hell happened. "Sorry, uh... Who are you? And where am I?"
The girl suddenly got in my face and checked on my eyes, before waving a finger in my face. "Okay, good. No concussion as far as I can tell. Anyway, I'm Chloe and you're in the forests around Mount Enzou in Fuyuki city."
Fuyuki, which was destroyed when Leviathan sank Kyushu? Well, my next question was obvious. "What year is it?"
Chloe blinked. "2011."
I then cursed.
"Are you... Alright?"
"Yeah, just a little..." Actually, now that I was waking up properly I felt... Great. Like I had been living somewhere where the air was thick with... Something or other and now I was breathing properly for the first time in a long time. "Yeah."
"Okay then. Look, this isn't exactly a safe place to be sleeping," Chloe explained. "Lately there's been some serious stuff going on around here and it'd be best to get out of here. If you don't have anywhere to go I have a friend with extra room at her place and—"
There was a sound of a twig snapping and I was suddenly starting to pick up an awful smell.
"Kuso," Chloe said under her breath, and then... There was sort of a black tornado around her? Her clothes were replaced with something outright scandalous. I could only describe it as a black armored bikini with a red jacket and... open-faced skirt thing?
Out from between the trees came a number of shambling corpses. No more than a dozen, but... I shuddered, unable to think of anything but a fate I'd recently avoided.
Chloe conjured a bow and an odd-looking sword. Cruciform, red handle, black blade. And then, just like Mr. Saito, she turned it into an arrow, nocked it to her bow, and fired, embedding it just left of the center of the shambling thing's chest.
That shook me out of my funk. I reached for Opal and... Opal! I had no idea where Opal was and... Damn. Okay, one emergency at a time, deal with that when the zombies were dealt with. Searching myself I found that I still had my card holster and it felt full. Drawing a card at random I shouted "install!" and when my transformation was complete joined the fray.
It'd been a while since I'd used Assassin. It felt like sliding into a comfortable glove that I hadn't had a chance to wear since last winter.
A spray from Assassin's automatic handgun pulped one zombie while burying Phantasm Punishment in another's brain seemed to do the trick for taking it out.
For some reason, Chloe had stopped fighting, another weird sword in hand, so I decided that I should deal with the rest of the zombies myself. "Chronos Rose!"
From my perspective what happened next was a minute of running around and slashing at or shooting zombies before returning as best as I could to my original position.
My hope was that from Chloe's perspective I would have said my Noble Phantasm's name and then the zombies would have fallen apart around me.
Chronos Rose's effect ended. At first, Chloe seemed shocked...
...And then she was right in front of me with the tip of a sword at my throat. Something black and curved, with a matching white blade in her other hand.
"Where did you get that card!?" She asked, panicked. "Why that card!? Why that knife!?" she said looking at the combat knife in my hand. 'Why that gun!?" she said as her eyes went to the contender at my hip. "Why!?"
"I, I don't know? I found it?" I had no idea why she was reacting like this and no idea how to calm her down.
I was saved from being potentially gutted by a hair-triggered exhibitionist by a sudden shrill cry of "Princess!"
Looking up, Opal was flying around in the sky repeatedly shouting "Princess! Princess!"
"Down here, Opal!" I called out hoping that the sudden appearance of my magic wand would defuse this mess and not make it worse.
Opal did a midair u-turn and then swung down to come to meet us. "Oh, Princess, I'm glad you're alright. When that child's power reacted with mine I tried to hold onto everyone but we got separated and... Chloe? Chloe von Einzbern? Please put down that sword."
Chloe lowered her sword and looked confused. "There's a third kaleidostick?"
"Yes. I could have sworn that Sapphire told her Master about me and my Princess," Opal said a little put-out. "Regardless, if we're in the Fuyuki where Chloe von Einzbern exists, that means." What looked like a crude satellite dish on a robot arm and some kind of radar equipment manifested from Opal's form. "Yes, this is where my sisters are. We can ask Sapphire for help."
"And Ruby?" Chloe added.
"...Yes," Opal replied. "Her."
"So, uh? What was that about?" I said gesturing to the sword still in Chloe's hand.
"Sorry, look... My... We had some experiences with the people who invented those things, the Class Cards, and they were not positive. They hurt a lot of people, including people I care about and that my friends care about... And then I saw that specific spirit and..."
"Wait? Do you know who Assassin was?" I asked. "I've figured out most of them and I think I know who Rider was, but I haven't a clue about Assassin."
Chloe looked down. "That card is someone who deserves better."
With that somber note, I uninstalled Assassin and Chloe... somehow returned to her original outfit and...
"How do you do that? Are you a Magical Girl, too?"
"Kinda, it's complicated," Chloe handwaved. "Look, if I didn't burn that bridge you can still come with me. My sister's Ruby's Master and she's..."
"Ruby's Master and Sapphie's master are romantically entangled."
Chloe interrupted "It's kind of creepy that someone I just met knows that much about us."
"I only know what Onee-sama has shared with me," Opal defended with a huff.
"So, what's up with the zombies?" I asked.
"They showed up a little bit ago," Chloe explained. "They don't seem to be made of any locals and so far they haven't attacked any civilians but they're not exactly something we can just let wander around. Our best guess is that there's a vampire in the area that's looking for something. The girls and I have been taking turns patrolling and dusting any that we run into but it's a short-term solution," she continued. "We called in backup but it's gonna be a little bit before anyone gets here."
"Oh," she added as an afterthought. "I'd really appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone from the church that I can project black keys. I don't know how touchy they get about that kind of thing and I just don't want to deal with that."
That last bit sort of flew over my head so I just shrugged.
"Anyway, I was patrolling last night and toward the end of my shift I see some bright lights in the sky with one touching down on the mountain so I investigated and found you."
"Princess," Opal said from her usual perch hidden in my hair, "could you try calling Berserker? She, Lisa, Victoria, Lisa's friend, her dog, and... As far as I can tell they're all in this world and unless things have gone horribly awry they should be in this general area, but..."
"Uh, Kelly!" No answer.
"Well, she can't have been destroyed or unsummoned. You still have your command spells," Opal said.
"My what now?"
"The red marks on your hand. They're sealing spells you can use to command Berserker," Opal explained.
"Oh, that's what those are," I said with a shrug.
"Try using one to force Berserker to your side."
I looked at my hand and thought about it long and hard. "Let's try that as a last resort. If someone did that to me I'd be pretty pissed off and Kelly is..."
"So, wait, you have an actual Berserker?" Chloe asked. "Like, an actual Servant?"
"Yeah."
"How did you pull that off?"
"I don't like to talk about it."
The march back to civilization didn't take that long. The mountain was apparently a focal point of the city. It would have been no time at all but apparently, the mountain belonged to a temple and the most direct route passed right through it. Chloe didn't want to risk any unwanted attention from the residents who might be up doing early morning chores or exercises.
Still, in almost no time at all, we were in town, and soon after we were walking down a street until I was met with a strange sight.
On one side of the road were just normal houses like you'd expect in a nice suburb. On the other was a god damned mansion. Huge and luxurious with decent-sized grounds.
On the road between them were two girls Chloe's age. One looked like an albino while the other was dark-haired. Chloe immediately ran ahead and pulled them so that one was under each arm. "Taylor!" She called out, "This is Illya and Miyu. They're my harem."
"Kuro, why are we speaking Eng—wait, what?" Said the albino.
"We are not your harem," the other said somewhat woodenly.
After proper introductions were made, Opal emerged from my hair to greet her sisters. "Onee-sama," she said to the blue one with affection. "Ruby," she said bluntly to the red one.
"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Ruby replied. "So you made a mistake and now you need your big sisters' help to clean it up?"
"I wouldn't put it that way," Opal said with a voice full of bitterness.
"Ah ah ah," Ruby said. "Say it. Say 'Ruby onee-sama, please help me.'"
"Ruby, stop being a jerk," the albino, Illya, chastised.
"I am tired of your condescending attitude," Opal began unheaded, her non-existent teeth gritted.
"And I'm tired of your disrespect," Ruby replied in a similar tone.
Opal exploded, "YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS BECAUSE FATHER LIKES ME BEST!"
Ruby responded by tackling Opal and the next thing I knew the two of them were rolling around on the ground with Sapphire trying to pull them apart.
After a moment of awkward silence, Chloe turned to Illya and said "I don't say this enough, but you're a good sister."
"Love you too, Kuro."
Any further awkwardness was interrupted by an explosion in the distance... Back in the direction that Chloe and I had come from.
Chloe said that 'kuso' word again. "Okay, break it up you two," she said to the wands, "we need to get going ASAP."
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Somebody ticked off Gilgamesh."