Fate/Stay Night, Fate EXTRA, Fate Extella, Fate Hollow Ataraxia, Fate Grand Order, Fate Zero, Fate Kaleid Prisma Illya, Fate Apocrypha, Fate Prototype, Fate: Today's Menu for the Emiya Family, Fate Requiem, Fate Strange/Fake, Fate School Life, Fate Unlimited Codes, Fate Capsule Servant, Fate Lord El-Melloi II Case Files and Fate Type/Redline are the creation and intellectual properties of Type-Moon and Nasu Kinoko.
All other franchises and characters mentioned within this story are the intellectual properties of their respective copyright and trademark holders.
Fate: Shallow Ataraxia.
It had been two months since Saber left.
The red haired young man in a white wifebeater and blue jeans stood at the doorstep of his old, newly repaired backyard shed, staring at its floor in silence, even as the bright Sunday morning sun entered from behind him, bathing the whole shed in warm, nearly tropical luminosity.
His mind kept on flashing back to that evening, the one when he had first met her.
Emiya Shirou had been having a really bad night. So far, he'd fallen asleep until late at school, been stabbed, somehow recovered but in extreme pain, been found by and ran all the way home from a maniac skeleton in a fascistic uniform chasing and shooting at him, and was now bleeding to death in the storeroom in the back yard where his father had sometimes secretly taught him magic (at least until he gave up, moved by a combination of his own paralyzing physical weakness and Shirou's complete ineptitude at magic). And now…
"Are you… my Master?"
Now, things were just getting fucked up…
"Are you my Master?" the gorgeous young looking blonde in the long blue dress with armor plate on the chest and gauntlets repeated, with a voice that was cold and devoid of any feelings.
"Gah...!" Shirou blurted out.
"That is a 'Yes', then," the woman nodded. "Negatives are usually conveyed as 'Geh'..."
Then the wall behind her exploded into one million splinters, and something broke in, slamming into the girl like a train at full speed. However, somehow, the young female managed to block it with an armored glove, then to swiftly swing the sword hilt she had been carrying up, slashing through a section of her attacker's decaying ribcage, although missing its center. All of this, despite the hilt not being apparently connected to any sort of blade that Shirou could see.
The figure, which sure enough, was the self proclaimed 'Judge', backed away with a nasty, vicious cackle, a gun in each hand.
"Yesssssss!" he hissed. "It'd been too long ssssssince another hurt me. I've missssssed the pain, the sssssssharp caresssssssss of a bladed edge for ssssssssssso long..."
"Foul creature of darkness," the woman growled, keeping her sword ready and easily falling into a protective stand before Shirou. "I can detect your cruel killing intent even easier than I'd see the light of the sun in the middle of the Summer. And it's not even the dutiful urge to slay an enemy in war, is it?"
He trained his guns on her, although she didn't even flinch. "That'sssssss right. I'd kill every woman, child, elder and unborn in thisssss world if I had the chance. All are the ssssssame, for there are no innocentssssss. Life isssss a crime, the sssssentence isssssss death!"
And he opened fire.
"Sempai, are you okay?" a voice was asking him from behind now.
He didn't even need to turn back to know who this was. So he didn't. "Yes, Sakura," he said, nodding absently. "How about you? Did Rin break another toaster, or something?"
As he turned around, the slightly younger, busty young woman of purple eyes and hair, wearing a simple white summer dress and sandals, laughed slightly, waving his concern off. "No, no, nothing like that! I was on my way to the supermarket, and just decided to pass by, to see if you were fine. Since..." she looked down, smile disappearing slowly, "You know..."
He took on his words with concern for a moment before speaking again. "I'm sorry. It must be difficult for the two of you, as well."
"Well," Sakura said, with a faint air of 'Can't be helped' about herself, "Oneesama's probably taking it the worst, but you know her, she's gotta put on a brave face all the time. Would... Would you terribly mind if you could walk me to the market and back, Sempai? We... We haven't talked that much since then."
"Oh, sure thing. Sorry, that's my fault entirely," Shirou offered, walking out and closing after him. "It's just that, well, everything's changed so much lately, it seems we barely can keep up, right? Please wait here a moment, I'll go put on a shirt."
"Yes, thank you," Tohsaka Sakura softly said as she waited outside, and Shirou entered his old, large house. When he walked back out moments later, pulling on a black and white jersey, she expanded on it while they walked for the front gates. "It's our fault too, Sempai, we could have called, even Onesama's not that hopeless with a phone."
"I heard Tohsak- Rin's busy right now, though, isn't she?" Shirou asked as they began walking down the sidewalk. "Even busier than usual, I mean."
Sakura took the habitual quick few glances in every direction before making sure there was nobody in listening range, even if most people in the Mahora District were aware of these things to some degree by now. "Yeah, she spends most of her time with Ala Alba, now. She even stays to sleep over at Negi-sensei's some nights, but... I'm not complaining, really!" She held her hands up. "It gets lonely at times, but we had to cut the umbilical cord someday, and it's important work, right? I'm thinking of buying myself a dog, that could help. Or I could finally get to it and contract Netflix already."
Shirou smiled. "Maybe you can get Illya-chan to room with you every now and then? I'm sure Fuji-nee would appreciate it." There was a pause, then, and his face grew serious. "She won't talk to me about it, so please tell me, are they closer to a solution?"
"That's part of the things Sensei's negotiating with Mundus Magicus," Sakura exhaled. "I don't know. Oneesama tells me they're working on it, but I'm afraid I don't understand too much about those things."
"Neither do I," Shirou reminded her gently. "That's... okay, they are saving a world at the same time after all. I just wish... I could pitch in, too. I've been reading every book Dad left behind, and there's nothing on the subject there. Nothing. If he really intended to go back and rescue Illya-chan, why didn't he have anything on the subject?"
Sakura had no answer for this, so for the time being, she only remained silent and downcast.
While walking back, he carried Sakura's bags, and he sounded in slightly higher spirits now.
"And she really said that?" Shirou chuckled. "Ah, Konoka-san will never change, will she?"
"No, but come to think about it, it's true, if her father hadn't had all those responsibilities, I'd be her sister now," Sakura fondly said. "In all honesty, I don't know if I ever could keep up with her. She's really mischievous, when you get to know her well."
"I really should drop by at Eva-san's again one of these days," Shirou breathed in. "Even though I'm not sure she would want me around anymore..."
In the end, he hadn't headed there that day either.
Now, as he rested shirtless on his bed, he thought back on this, and he couldn't help feeling ashamed once more.
If even Tohs- If even Rin could keep in frequent contact with them, why couldn't he?
Was he in shame of not accompanying them to Mundus Magicus in their times of need?
Was he thinking, to some unconscious level or another, they would reject him after losing touch for this long?
Was he afraid to establish links again, so he wouldn't miss them like he missed Saber?
Or was it something else? Were Archer and Rin correct the whole time, and he was too dense to understand even such basic things?
Shirou stared at the bedroom's ceiling, and thought back of the Holy Grail War. Every Servant was gone now- Saber, Monster, Rider, Archer, Berserker, Vigilante, Caster, Assassin, Shielder, Judge, Destroyer, Temptress, Trickster and Lancer. In addition to that, Gilgamesh and Kirei had lost their lives, and now, looking back on those fights, Shirou found himself missing them as well, odd as it could seem, even as a sharp ache returned to his upper back, one that even Konoka's hands hadn't been able to fully dispel yet.
The young man sat on the bed and rubbed his shoulder, then rotated it a few times, which usually could make the pain dull back to tolerable levels. Not so much this time, however, and Shirou walked to the bathroom and washed his face with cold water, then slapping himself on the cheeks several times, looking into a mirror.
A first silver-white hair, stiffly, poked from the front of his scalp, almost like an ahoge.
"No way," Shirou muttered, reaching for the scissors, chopping it off, and studying it between his fingers, with a frown. "So soon?"
The white hair was rigid and sharp, almost like a miniature sword. Shirou had the vaguest feeling, for a moment, that someone was bitterly laughing at him, somewhere.
He probably was right.
Shirou woke up from another night of recurring troubled dreams to find a small, furry white animal sitting on his chest. It had blue eyes, the long ears of a rabbit, and the fluffy, thick tail of a fine feline breed, so it probably was from Australia.
"Fou! Fou!" the adorable creature said, reaching down to lick Shirou's cheek with a raspy, wet pink tongue.
"What... What are you doing here?" Shirou asked, taking it in his hands and sitting up on the bed. "Don't tell me they are bringing animals from Mundus Magicus already. Negi-sensei really should know better..."
"Fou! Fou! Fouuuu!"
"Well, it appears you're a well behaved boy! Or girl," he said, gently setting it on the floor, then heading over for the door, pulling his shirt off. He made his way to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, used the toilet, undressed, and took a soothing shower. He'd worry about the small animal and whether it had owners or not later. Then he remembered Sakura's words the day before. If it didn't have a master, maybe she would want it? What did it even eat, though?
He'd have to look it up on the Internet, or perhaps ask Lala-san's sister Nana-chan, odds were she'd know. Come to think about it, maybe it was hers? Then what was it doing here? Nana's pets never escaped her, so that probably wasn't it.
Shirou toweled himself dry, put his pants back on, and stepped back out. While doing so, he thought he heard a familiar voice coming from his dining room.
"Fuji-nee, is that you?" he called over.
There was a small whimper in Fujimura Taiga's voice.
It wasn't very usual, for her of all people to ever whimper, so he slung the towel over his shoulders and began following the sound. "Fuji-nee? Did you get your toe caught again, or- Ah!" he said, coming to a halt on the dining room's doorstep.
His homeroom teacher and legal tutor, a short haired young woman in a casual blue suit, was being held down against the floor, by the table, with someone looming over her, holding both her wrists together over her head with a hand, the other holding a frighteningly long and large club. The other person, whoever they were, was wearing a voluminous football team mascot suit, that of some sort of cartoon tiger, and from Shirou's angle, he couldn't see their face, although he could still divine (correctly) their perfidious toothy grin as they held the proud 'Tiger of Mahora' a defenseless hostage.
Taiga, noticing his arrival, turned a truly scared face towards him and said, "Shirou...! Save me from the sexy, sexy intruder...!"
Shirou wasted no time twisting his wrists around, summoning Kanshou and Bakuya, the twin blades, into his hands with a flash. He'd been attacked by a classmate in a Bonta-kun costume before, so he hardly was a stranger to this kind of event. Some disgruntled flunked student had hired a punk and sent him to harass her in a tiger costume, those things happened. Or perhaps Matou Shinji was to blame. Or Honnouji might be testing some kind of new weird Gokou uniform by messing with Mahora again. Regardless of the reason, Shirou was not about to let anyone harm his best beloved mother figure and freeloader.
"Hey, you!" he told the stiffening cosplayer. "Let her go right now!"
Then this person snapped their head back, still showing the same crazy smile, and Shirou gasped, not because this person was a woman- the last few months had taught him a lot on women's capacity to match men's abilities to make messes out of everything- but because she had the exact same face as Fuji-nee.
Even the evil grin was the same!
"Gao!" the woman roared, leaping off Taiga and bouncing onto Shirou, who barely could skip back in time, avoiding a club slam that openeda wide hole on his floor.
"I knew it, the eggheads at the labs are cloning now!" Taiga coughed, reaching over to grab a broom, then snapping it on the intruder's back as she advanced towards Shirou. "I mean, I can't blame them for wanting more of me around, but-!"
"Not now, Fuji-nee!" Shirou said, trying to keep the relentlessly advancing stranger at bay, and wishing he'd summoned weapons with longer reach for this task. It was too late to switch right now, in the middle of blocking the woman's blows, every one of which was making his arms feel like they were half-breaking inside, despite all of his training. If he didn't know any better, he could've sworn she was a Servant, but being close to her didn't feel at all like proximity to Monster, or Caster, or Archer.
The woman in the costume was easily pushing him back, even as Taiga ran to the dojo to look for a sword. "Who are you!?" he asked her. "Why are you here?!"
"I'm the mighty Jaguar Warrior!" she boasted, with a voice that was Taiga's own. "Slayer of the Alien God! A better question would be, who are you?! You smell like Muramasa, and a bit like Nameless, but-!"
Ah, so she could talk after all. Honestly, with her being a Taiga, he wasn't sure whether that was for the best or not.
After an extra moment of being shoved against the door while Taiga returned wielding the sharpest of Kiritsugu's swords and yelling, realization sank in. "Nameless?!" he said. "You know Archer!"
"I knew many Archers! Some of them even used bows!" she chuckled, easily kicking Taiga back without even turning on her. He clubbered him across the head, making him drop out on his back, hitting the grass. She lifted the club over his head. "Now tell me how to go back, or else-!"
Another voice stopped her in the middle of the act. "Lancer! That will be enough!"
"L-Lancer...?" Shirou blinked several times, glancing back over his shoulder, and there she was again, as if she had never left in the first place. The same petite, ever valiant and beautiful majestic presence in blue. He lacked the words to continue, then, so the real Taiga did it for him.
"Saber...!" the teacher gasped, staring at her with enlarged, fascinated eyes.
The 'Jaguar Warrior' smirked, with a glint in her eyes, looking at the armed King of Knights slowly striding towards them, her fabled sword quite visible in her right hand in its entirety. "Oh, so you survived as well! Of course you would! You don't die so easily when you are kil-"
Saber pointed a finger at her and shouted, "Get off Shirou on the double, Lancer!"
"Oh, so this is the famous Shirou. I knew it! I knew it the whole time!" Jaguar Warrior said, quickly pulling back and off him, raising her hands. Emiya and Fujimira could only watch on in total bafflement. "Granted, from your descriptions, I was expecting more from him, his house, and his food, but..." She took a hand to her mouth and noisily sucked on her sauce-stained fingers. "What there was in the fridge wasn't half-bad either way!"
"What the hell, Saber," the actual Taiga muttered, while Shirou only could look on in helpless silence, dispelling the blades as he gazed and gazed upon Saber, seemingly more golden than ever under the radiant sun. "How are you even alive? Did they clone you too?"
"I'm not a clone, hag!" Jaguar Warrior snapped back at her. "If anything you're a clone of me, I was alive long before your civilization rose from the mud! Not that I'm old or anything, time's just relative after all!"
Shirou ran to Saber and caught her in a crushing hug, pressing her against himself as if never wanting to let go.
The green eyes widened. "Shirou..."
"Saber..."
The brightly luminous, slender figure of long white hair and golden eyes stood triumphant over the beaten, humbled Servants felled all around her, laughing maniacally.
"That's more like it, vermins!" she boasted, with a voice that echoed across the whole remains of a shattered universe. "Pay tribute to your god! You shall die on your knees, just like you should have lived! Do you see now? How pointless every struggle was? Every breath mankind draws is naught but boastful arrogance! Stalling the inevitable! You should just roll over and perish already!"
At last, indeed, the human kind's greatest were subdued in body and spirit by this unbeatable foe.
"Yes... It's all been in vain, after all..."
"We were so naive, all of us...!"
"I can't move anymore... I don't have the strength..."
"It's all lost, all lost!"
"Uuuuuu..."
Only one of them still struggled to keep herself up, propped on her long standard bearing the French banner. "This... This won't do..." the tall, blonde woman decided, forcing herself to stand straight, then half turning to look at her scattered comrates and their half unconscious collective Master.
"O Lord... I shall raise my flag once again for the salvation of this nation... Nay, for the salvation of this world!" she shouted.
"Ah?" the Master said groggily.
"All things righteous have burned away. All that is holy has died," Servant Ruler, the Holy Maid of Orleans, stated. "Within a mere second, our future was taken from us!"
The Alien God vessel blinked, then facepalmed. "Oh, what the fuck."
"Hear me!" the blonde shouted. "O, Heroic Spirits, mighty warriors who have gathered here. Though we may be rivals, we must stand together now!
My True Name is Jeanne D'Arc. In the name of our Lord, I shall become your shield! This battle will be a long journey that takes us back through human history. However, there is no need for despair. There are thousands of encounters waiting for you!"
Slowly, the dropped champions began stirring back. The dead wind, crafting pungent smells of death and fire, seemed to crack around her as she moved the standard in careful, measured circles.
"Even if this entire planet becomes a battleground for the Holy Grail War! Even if everything on this land turns into eternal ruinous grounds! Even if powerful enemies await us at the end of our journey... Our fate has not yet been decided! So, let the battle begin, Master!"
"What the bloody hell, this corny speech AGAIN?!" her Alter self accused furiously from the ground. "It's the same one you gave against Goetia! And last month, when Heracles got that bout of diarrhea! Get yourself some new material, will you?! If you don't want to pay Shakespeare, I will, whatever, but say that one more time and I kill you myself!"
The true Jeanne only held her small nose high, proudly. "I refuse to read anything coming from Monsieur Bard's quill, I am sorry."
"You are supposed to be a Saint of Forgiveness, damn it!" her pale, corrupted counterpart growled.
Regardless, the Servants began pulling back unsteadily, refusing to yield just yet. If this was to be their last stand, so it would be. They wouldn't have become Legendary Souls if they had been the type to quit.
In the case of Artoria Pendragon, she knew someone she had to keep on fighting for, no matter what, to the final breath. And so, roaring like the dragon she was, she lifted Excalibur once again and led the charge onto the Seventh Beast, the maremagnum of doomed warriors howling after her, following her into a last desperate blaze of glory...
"And then we all died, including the Satan Who Art As Lucifero herself," Saber finished her story, sitting along the 'new' Lancer, Taiga and Shirou at the young man's table, and finishing her latest bowl of rice and eggs. The small white animal sat on the table instead, playing with an orange. "Well, all of us but Lancer and I, I suppose. I have to imagine the power of our bonds to this world brought us here as reality was shattering and reshaping itself all around us. When I woke up, I was in Kiritsugu's shed again, and then I heard Lancer's growl..."
"I have no idea how I am supposed to be connected to this place," Jaguar Warrior said, stuffing her mouth as well with a similar bowl, "but the result was to be expected anyway! None may slay the powerful Jaguar Avatar! Funny thing, though, technically, if the Master was blown up, then we should be gone, so I suppose she's still alive somewhere. Hah! Good ol' Master!"
Saber frowned, while Taiga and Shirou could still do nothing but reeling at her whole story. The clock kept on ticking on the wall, school hours already long blown.
"That is correct, although I suppose my former contract with Shirou might be keeping me alive here," Artoria Pendragon mused, nodding at the fool's words. "Shirou? Are the seals back upon you?"
Shirou blinked, then shook his head, showing her the clear backs of both of his hands. "No, I haven't felt the rash either. Are... Are you sure you're still a Servant, Saber? No offense, and I can't really describe it, but... something about you doesn't feel quite the same anymore..."
"Don't say nonsense, Shirou," Saber chided him. "After moving on from this War and coming to peace with myself, I achieved full Heroic Spirits status, it makes no sense if I had just turned back into a human being. Although..." she doubted suddenly, looking down at herself.
"Yeah, that's a whole load of bull, kid," Jaguar Warrior said. "If I weren't a Heroic Spirit, I couldn't take an astral shape like this... Oh, shit. W-Wait, that didn't come out right, let me see..." She clenched her teeth and made as if taking a really painful, strained crap, before starting to panic on her chair. "Ahhhh! Not good, this isn't good at all! What happened?! Is this the Foreign God's final curse?! I'm trapped in this weak, frail human body?! ¿Es este el fin del Sorprendente Nagual? Am I to become old and sick from aging in this already old vessel...?!"
"Hey, you're the same physical age than me!" Taiga reminded her.
"Yes, that's what I'm saying!" Jaguar Warrior despaired. "I'll become a withered crone before I realize it!"
"Okay, now I'm going to hurt you...!"
"Now, now, it isn't that bad, Lancer... well, I suppose you aren't a Lancer anymore then," Saber, who was not a Saber anymore either, tried to placate her, patting her on the arm. "That, too, is part of the cycle of life..."
"Yeah, maybe for you, who lived a whole life as a human!" Jaguar Warrior said. "I'm actually a god, I'm supposed to be an immortal! This is only a temporary body I was taking over, remember?! I was cheated out of an eternity that was rightfully mine! Outrageous! Unacceptable! Heads shall roll...!"
"What a noisy body snatcher!" Taiga sneered. "If you're so worried about that, I'm sure Sku-chan will manage to do something about it, geez!"
Jaguar Warrior blinked. "Sku-chan? Wozzat?"
"Oh, Lady Skuld is still around?" Artoria asked. "How long has it been?"
"It's the two months anniversary now," Shirou said.
"That is strange, from our perspective, it's been far longer..." Artoria mused. "Very well, let us call them. Did she finally find her sister?"
"Yes, she did."
"That's good to hear. And what about Professor Negi and his father?"
Shirou sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, that's kind of a longer story..."
"You don't look at your best, if you will forgive me for saying this," Artoria said.
"You are forgiven," Skuld, Norn of the Future, Junior High 3-A Student Number Thirty Two, said as she was ushered into the room by Shirou, along a very surprised Rin, Sakura, Negi Springfield and Hasegawa Chisame. As soon as she entered, the first thing the black haired young girl did was ignoring Artoria and Jaguar Warrior altogether and rushing before the small white animal instead, gasping in shocked horror. "No, forget that, you aren't!" she quickly corrected herself, eyeing the creature and shuddering from head to toe. "Wh-Where did you bring him from?!"
Artoria sighed, deciding to be polite before addressing her former classmate's strange quirks. "Nice to see you again, Rin, Sakura, Professor, Hasegawa-san. I'm glad to see you haven't lost any limbs during your recent adventures. Sorry for not being around to help defend Mahora from those interdimensional demons."
Rin took a hand to her own mouth. "Oh my God, I can't believe it even now...! I saw you vanish, like so much vapor...!"
Sakura had her own theories on the subject, but she stomached them back with dutiful properness. "Likewise, it's good to meet you again, Saber-san."
Negi, after a moment of wide eyed surprise, bowed. "D-Don't worry, you did so much for all us, we couldn't possibly have asked for anything else..."
Skuld chewed on her lower lip, backing away from the white furry thing. "Y-Yes, I could! As a matter of fact, I just did! Why have you brought this... being upon us?!"
Artoria sighed while Jaguar Warrior just eyed the newcomers very strangely, and the ponytailed girl with glasses answered by doing the same to her. "Don't worry, Lady Skuld, I know he's half rabbit, and I was wary of him myself at first, but rest assured there's nothing to fear from Fou..."
"Fou! Fouuuuuuu!" the small animal said, wagging his tail.
The short goddess shivered, never taking her eyes away from his. "You... You gave him a name! What are you doing with him?! Are you his apostles?! What do you want from us, we always were helpful to you, Saber!"
Artoria and Jaguar Warrior shared a perplexed look before the latter frowned at Skuld. "Are you sure you're a goddess? Skadi-chan's old colleague, right? You just look like a bad bundle of nerves to me!"
"She's been working overtime lately on an important project," the short redhaired boy in the dark green suit said, Chisame frowned and putting a hand on his shoulder. If Skuld was freaking out over this, she reasoned, odds were there was something very bad about this critter indeed. "I believe you should start explaining everything from the start, since the last thing we knew of Saber-san was she disappeared after the Great Grail was destroyed... again..."
"It's not destroyed for real, right?" Rin gulped, pulling a chair and sitting down. "We've gotta do it all over again?!"
"No, no, the Grail is fully obliterated, this time I made sure of that and wasn't pulling any punches," Artoria reassured her. "The world should still exist ten years from now on, when the Chaldea Organization rises to the task of protecting human history from complete incineration..."
Chisame facepalmed. "I knew it!"
Artoria nodded. "Yes, I had missed your usual optimism and can-do attitude, Miss Chisame. Life is an ongoing struggle, as they say, and Chaldea will start summoning Servants from all across history to fight a common threat, that of the Seven Beasts of Humanity. I was one of the first to answer the call, and Fou here is Chaldea's unofficial mascot, sent by Merlin himself as proof of his allegiance to his cause. But that's okay, too, he actually hates Merlin's guts."
"FOU!" Fou said, grinding his tiny sharp teeth bitterly.
Skuld paled even further. "Oh Father Almighty, it's even worse than I expected...!"
"Wait, wait, wait!" Chisame told Artoria. "Hadn't Sailor Pluto blocked the timestream access after the fiasco with Chao, precisely so these things wouldn't ever happen again?! Then what are you doing here?!"
"To be perfectly honest, we don't come from your future, we were summoned in an alternate timeline, where the Caster's Master won the Fifth War and then founded Chaldea," Artoria allowed. "But I'm fairly certain this is the timeline I was summoned from by them. I remember you, and Makie, and Class Rep, and Professor Despair, and furthermore, in that timeline, the War took place in Fuyuki, not Mahora."
"Okay, so you're our Saber, that's great news," Rin smiled. "What happened to Vigilante and Monster? Were they summoned, too?"
"I'm sorry, Rin, but Vigilante never was in Chaldea's gacha," Artoria reported with a heavy heart. "The Chaldea system only allowed summons of the seven original Classes, plus Alter Ego, Moon Cancer, Avenger, Ruler and Foreigner. I did meet with Monster again, but she was summoned under the Berserker Class."
Chisame flinched. "Moon Cancer? Really?!"
Now Sakura smiled again. "Fran-chan!"
Artoria kept on speaking moodily. "I'm sorry, Sakura, but during our last battle, only Jaguar Warrior, Fou and I seem to have survived. If it's any consolation, I'm sure Vigilante and Bers- Monster have gone back to their reward in the Throne of Heroes," she studiously avoided having to look at the paling visages of the Tohsaka sisters. Sakura reached over and tightly squeezed Rin's hand. "We're sorry to disturb you with these news, but apparently victory over the Alien God threatening human panhistory seems to have had an unexpected side effect on us. When we appeared here after our final clash with her, we... appear to have been turned back into flesh and blood." She reached over the table and grabbed Chisame's hand, making the other girl yelp a little. "See? I'm fully tangible at all times now, and so is she."
Then there was a sharp sound of threatening Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii cutting through the air.
"Ah, Miss Matoi, you were here," Artoria quietly said, letting go of Chisame's hand as a girl with short black hair seemed to just appear behind the Class 3-A student.
"Yes, always," Tsunetsuki Matoi nodded her confirmation. "Always!"
"An Assassin?!" Jaguar Warrior gasped.
"No, no, no, this is all bad!" Skuld had begun pacing back and forth, pulling on her hair. "A mass summon of Heroic Spirits?! All at once?! That's simply impossible, The World would never allow it! For that to ever take place- How many of you answered the call? You, Frankenstein's Creature, and- Nagual, right?"
"Riiiiight," Jaguar Warrior dryly said, scoffing.
Artoria sighed. "If you need to know, there were my son Mordred, Gawain, Lancelot, Galahad, Agravain, Gareth, Tristan, Bedivere, Jeanne D'Arc, Evil Jeanne D'Arc, Lolita Santa Claus Jeanne D'Arc, Gilgamesh, Nameless, Cu Chulainn, Medea, Heracles, Oda Nobunaga, Iskandar, Sherlock Holmes, Queen Cleopatra, Diarmuid of the Love Spot, Me from Another Universe Where I Became an Inhuman Goddess, Scathach of the Land of Shadows, the Voyager Space Probe, Leonardo Da Vinci, Medusa, Medusa's sisters, Francis Drake, Blackbeard, those two lesbian pirates, Quetzalcoatl, William Shakespeare, Angra Mainyu, Gilles de Rais, Professor Moriarty, Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Bathory, Jack the Ripper, Kiyo-"
"The hell are you saying, Angra Mainyu was there too?!" Skuld cried out.
"The guy who corrupted the damn Grail in the first place?!" Chisame added while Negi, Sakura, Rin, and even Shirou blanched.
Artoria shrugged. "Strange bedmates and all of that. Not in the literal sense, of course."
"Like half of the people in that list are supervillains and mass murderers!" Shirou said.
"We had an avatar of a Lovecraftian god, or whatever the hell Abby was, too," Jaguar Warrior said indifferently.
Skuld drooped her shoulders as her face became an exaggeratedly distraught caricature, and then began weeping into her hands.
"Hey, hey, cut it out, kid!" the real Taiga said. "They still defeated this evil god thing, right?! So what's there to worry about? It's not like any of those maniacs are running loose around here anyway! Only one of those weirdos made it to Mahora!"
"I won't allow you to call Saber here a weirdo!" Jaguar Warrior challenged her.
"I wasn't talking about her!"
Rin took a hand to her mouth. "Oh my God. Two Fujimura-senseis in the same place. The world will never be ready..."
"You fools!" Chisame threw her hands up, startling Negi and Sakura. "Don't you get it?! What Skuld is trying to say is, if you two made it here, well, you three-!"
"Fou fou fou," Fou nodded, apparently content at her amendment.
"- then others must have made it too!" Chisame continued. "Maybe that thing you were fighting, as well!"
"I doubt that, everyone seemed very dead by the time the ever consuming light engulfed us all," Jaguar Warrior said.
"Yes, but then again, we thought the same about Musashi in Olympus and yet she found a way back," Artoria said. "Still, what are the odds of something like that happening again? Nobody could have survived that."
"YOU did!" Sakura slammed a hand on the table while Chisame, Rin and Skuld all shared a very weary look.
Jaguar Warrior grinned, slapping a hand on Artoria's shoulder. "That's different, little girl who isn't familiar at all! I'm the greatest divine warrior fighting on Chaldea's behalf, and she's the King of Knights! Of course we'd be more durable than any other Servant!"
Artoria nodded, rather proud of herself.
"Okay," Skuld grumbled, pointing at Fou. "Explain him, then?"
"Uhhhhh... luck favors small adorable animals?" Jaguar Warrior offered.
"There are thousands of baby seals who would opine differently!" Chisame said.
"Oh, come on, Osakabehime Junior!" Jaguar Warrior taunted her. "If there were any other Servants running around these grounds, surely-"
"DON'T SAY IT!" Chisame cried as Shirou, Negi, the Toshakas, Matoi and Taiga all tensed up in terror. Skuld had just gone to bash her head on a wall.
"- we would have heard of them already!" Jaguar Warrior said smugly, and folded her arms.
Chisame, Shirou, Negi, the Toshakas, Matoi and Taiga all made distraught faces of the ilk Skuld made after being told about 'Abby'. As for Skuld herself, she was just resting with her face planted on the wall, waiting.
Negi's cellphone rang. "Yes, Sensei? Uh huh. Right. I see. Well, I'll be there right now. You have cleared the area, right? Nice. Yes, Sir. Of course, Sir. On the double, Sir. Goodbye..."
He lowered the phone, then said, "Unspeakable horrors from beyond waving black tentacles are wrecking our commercial district and have smashed a cafe, harassing the waitresses while a man with fish eyes waves a black book around."
"Huh, he hasn't killed anyone yet?" Jaguar Warrior scratched herself on a cheek. "Master really has done wonders for Gilles-kun, hasn't she?"
Negi sighed, closed his eyes, and darted back and out of Shirou's house as his hair turned into living lightning.
"He couldn't do that before," Saber calmly observed while getting up and unsheathing her sword. "Exactly what have you been doing during these two months?"
"He's fast," Artoria said as they finally caught up with him, proving that she indeed was, or had been, Shirou's Servant.
"Well," Chisame sighed as Jaguar Warrior put her and Matoi on the ground, "like I was saying, he underwent special training with a copy of Evangeline. The procedure was supposed to make him an immortal creature like Magus Erebus, but Asuna jumped the gun and interrupted it for fear it'd hurt him, so basically he's using the bootleg variant of that technique now."
"Who's Magus Erebus?" Jaguar Warrior asked.
"We'll talk about that later!" Skuld said, bringing her scooter with the Tohsakas to a screeching halt by their side. She pointed at the small blur zooming across the surface of the gigantic black mass of tentacles amidst the ruins of the Radish restaurant. "Nagual, help him with that! Artoria, look for De Rais and bring him down, he can't be taking a great effort to hide, that's not his style! Rin-san, gather the onlookers, set a perimeter around the site, and hold the line while Takahata-sensei arrives!"
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Shirou said, looking around after getting off Artoria's back. "If the teachers haven't made it yet, they might be busy elsewhere, which means..."
"What can she know about how Caster operated?" Artoria muttered, nonetheless zooming by towards the destroyed cafe.
Skuld shook her head as she saw her off. "I kept on files from across the history, how long did she spend away from me?" she wondered, pulling out a handheld device with a Banpei face and beeping antens, and taking readings of the area. "I don't get any signs of an active Saint Graph, which means that, if Caster is indeed nearby, then he's not a Servant anymore, either. Technically any of us could kill him with a lucky enough shot, should it come to that."
Chisame only watched on, half awed and half concerned, as Negi took hold of the main two tentacles of the multi eyed aberration and pulled on them in opposite directions, tearing the squealing thing apart. A twisted male voice could be heard shouting "Jeanne...!" and then half a dozen of other monsters erupted from the ground, surrounding Negi from all directions. The boy sighed and began punching them down, even as Jaguar Warrior laughed and joined the fray with gleeful abandon.
"Remember back when he'd resort to creative spells first, and only when that failed, he'd use brute strength?" Matoi mused, watching on. "I miss those days."
"Inugami was a bad influence on him," Chisame agreed, pulling her Pactio card to her forehead. "Yuuna? Tell Akira and her Senshi pals to move their butts to the Radish, Sensei needs some help right now...!"
"Oh, Jeanne, I knew you wouldn't disappoint...!" the mad, greasy faced summoner in the black robes was saying as, behind the mass of the downed monster and towards the back of the half-wrecked building, Artoria scoffed, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against a wall. His bulbous eyes span erratically, bony hands gesturing exuberantly even as she squeezed. "What are you waiting for, then? Stop greeting me, pleasant as it is, and join me again on the crusade! There is so much yet to do, Jeanne...! The Beast was only the beginning, you and I-"
"Caster, it's me, not her!" she roared on his face. "Come back to what little sense you ever gained under Master! If I haven't beheaded you yet, it's only out of respect for her and Jeanne, but I swear I will if you don't-"
He frowned, and squinted, and looked carefully at her face, shadowed by his blasphemous creations blocking the sunlight. "... oh. It is you," he whispered, sounding rather disappointed. "The next best thing, but-"
"That's what I said!" she said, rattling him high. "How did you survive that, Caster?! Are you the Beast's Servant now?! Don't dare lying to me, you damned soul!"
"The... Beast's...?" his face contorted in an extremely strange fashion, and then he began laughing derangedly. "Oh, no, no no noooo! No, Jeanne...! You told me, quite a few times, over and over, that I was never to side with the Beasts, and I always remember-!"
"You've just forgotten I'm not Jeanne!" she repeated, smashing him down on the bar.
"That's irrelevant for what we are discussing," the mad nobleman said, still calm, for lack of a better word, under the pressure. "I'm doing this entirely on my account, dear False Jeanne of Knights. If Chaldea's forces were wiped, my obligations with them are canceled, is that not logical? So I killed the Beast, and mine is now the right to do whatever I please of this world I saved. Should I decide to destroy it, why shouldn't I?"
Artoria snarled, pressing the tip of Excalibur against his throat. "I can think of two good reasons. One, so we can move on already and look for Jeanne. And Jeanne. And even Jeanne! The other, because I cut your neck, with no Master to summon you back. Yours is the decision, Sire."
Gilles looked into her eyes, paused, and then gulped slightly, putting the book down even as Negi blew a hole through the largest of his new babies, and Jaguar Warrior sliced another by half. "We have been both softened by War," he mused. "How did that come to be? It shouldn't work that way...!"
"Oh, so you decided to spare him," Matoi observed, seeing Artoria drag a constantly muttering De Rais behind herself, following a sighing Negi with a ripped shirt and a very satisfied Jaguar Warrior. "Isn't that guy a serial child killer? Just saying."
"He's the Saint Graph projection of a long dead serial child killer's original soul, Miss Matoi. In this world, he hasn't killed anyone yet," Artoria said evenly, shoving him at Shirou's feet, where the madman cursed under his breath and dusted himself off with airs of great dignity. "I tried to question him, but as expected, there's not much you can get from him even under the best of circumstances." She looked around. "Won't this cause much of a difficulty for your clauses of secrecy, Professor? Having acted in the open this way?"
"After a space gate opens over a school and demons pour out, there's not much one can do to keep masquerades working, Saber-san," Chisame sighed. "No time to think of that for now, the Sailor Senshi and the teachers are all tangled elsewhere! Your buddies are alive, alright, and being major pains in the ass!"
"Oh, no," Artoria said. "Now what...?"
"Do I know you?"
The small, dark skinned, pink haired and golden eyed temptress in skimpy red and black smirked, walking away from Touko-sensei's prone, twitching, badly kissed and drained form, and towards the wide eyed, paralyzed Kakizaki Misa.
"N-No..." the purple haired older girl shook her head in utter and abject fear, grasping the luminous needles between her fingers even more tightly than before.
"Are you sure?" the little girl purred, swinging her hips and taking her fingers to her lips. She licked them sensually, then sucked on two of them, ever looking at the junior high student. "I think I've seen you, somewhere, before..."
"I, I don't think so!" Misa stuttered, faced with the only being in creation she was truly and completely terrified of. "Well, it's been a real pleasure, but in truth, I came here looking for an evil perp, and you're obviously just a good girl enjoying some quality time with a respected teacher, and I can value that, so I'll be going...!"
"So soon...?" the tiny seductress folded her arms behind her back and hurried her playful skip ahead, all the while Misa kept on backpedalling, even faster. "Don't be that way, I'm not from around here and need a good Oneechan to show me around this school! We could enjoy ourselves for a while, maybe you could help me find my sis- OWWWIEEE!" she whined as a metal fist came down on her head.
"Here you are!" Artoria barked, standing behind the former Archer, with a balled up hand and a vein popping on her forehead. "Chloe von Einzbern, Chaldea's most evil Servant!"
"My name's Kuro, dammit...!" the little girl whined, sitting on the ground and clutching the huge fresh bump on her head. "This is child abuse...! No wonder you never could connect with your son...!"
"S-Saber-san!" Misa gulped, then running ahead, making sure to step on Kuro before throwing herself into the King of Knight's arms. "My hero...! Wait, you haven't changed from magical ghost to magical zombie now, have you?" she asked, pulling back from her just as quickly. "I mean, you were supposed to be dead! Again!"
Kuro pouted, looking back at them. "Saber-san, you knew this cutie the whole time and you never told me about her? You never brought me to this Singularity! I thought you my friend, Saber-san!"
"I honestly have no idea what did I ever do to give you that impression, Chloe," Artoria replied in a perfectly honest tone.
"Don't call me that!" Kuro insisted, standing back up. "Well, I'm glad to see you again, anyway! If both of us made it out alive, there's a good chance Illya, Master and Miyu are out there too!"
Artoria nodded. "Fou, De Rais and Jaguarmura-sensei are all alive and accounted for. This is the timeline I originally hailed from, so I have friends looking for the rest, and they received possible tips on other troublemakers such as yourself."
"Gilles and Sensei, huh? Well, you can't win them all," Kuro lamented, still rubbing herself on the head. In truth, she loved Sensei very much, but some things were best left unadmitted. "Wait. Saber Gilles, or Caster?"
"Caster."
"Even worse...!" Kuro moaned. "And you didn't off him when you had the chance?"
"You know Jeanne, Jeanne and Master wouldn't like that..."
"Oh, like anyone cares about what the second Jeanne wants! Besides, if nobody sees you, nobody can accuse you of anything!"
"Kuro, no."
"It's Gilles!"
Misa blinked at Artoria. "Saber-san? When you say 'Master'... Oh my gosh, you've been cheating on Shirou-sempai, haven't you?!"
"Yes," Kuro said. "With me!"
"My lips have never touched yours!" Artoria growled at the small liar.
"You ate the Valentine chocolate I gave you, though! One I had placed loving kisses on before!"
"You did?! Oh my God, I think I am going to be sick..."
Misa looked back and forth between them. "I don't get it. Saber-san, have you been to- Never mind, on second thought, I don't want to know! Just tell me, where's Negi-kun right now?"
"Can't you just call him with your card?" Artoria asked.
"Dammit, woman, that just doesn't make for a good dramatic cut to the next scene, though!"
Miyazaki Nodoka and Ayase Yue bravely descended into the depths of Library Island.
"Where's Negi-sensei, though?" asked the slightly taller girl as they illuminated the hallway ahead of them with their flashlights.
"He's dealing with another of those loose ends, he'll be fine," Yue said, wishing she was sounding as confident as she wanted to. "If he ever needs me, he'll summon me with his card, but right now, you've got more need for backup."
"I can take care of myself as well, Yue-Yue," Nodoka promised, keeping her Clow staff in the other hand. "I even have all the Class cards, now, and those are the perfect counters for them. Besides, if they really were working with Saber-san this whole time... they can't be so bad, right?"
"You never know. I had to fight side by side with Tsukuyomi for weeks, and I still don't trust her." Yue then brought a finger to her own lips, as they approached the large door at the end of the hall. "Behind me," she whispered to her best friend.
"No, you step behind me," the Card Captor whispered back. "I've got more firepower."
"Oh, for the love of..."
They ended up kicking the door open side by side.
"Library Island Security Department!" Yue shouted. "You may think you didn't trigger any alarms, but you did! Put those books down, right now! This area is off limits for anyone but authorized staff!"
Greatly mortified and embarrassed, Shikibu Murasaki put the rare tome she had been reading on the table. "I told you this wasn't a good idea!" she told the person who had broken into the Restricted Antiques Chamber with her. "It was dishonest, and besides, of course we'd be found out if we can't keep an astral form..."
Shounagon Sei frowned and lowered her own book. "I don't see how I was being dishonest! I wrote this myself, for Kami's sake!"
"I've gotta save Dad," Yuuna said while running up the street.
"Oh, for the love of God, Yuuna-chan!" Ako said as she and Makie raced after her. "You're not thinking clearly...!"
"Of course I am, my mind's never been straighter!" Yuuna chewed on her lower lip, turning the corner and making a final beeline for her old house. "Dad's not at his post right now, when he's most needed, that only can mean the forces of darkness got him! And right when I thought he could just move on, too...!"
Makie and Ako shared a mildly exasperated look. "She's the real problem with letting him move on, isn't she?" asked the former.
"You're noticing it only now?" Ako sighed, stopping behind her as Yuuna pulled her keys off the pocket of her shorts, then panicked, fumbling to open the front door. "At least she's going in without pulling the gun out, that's some prog-"
"The gun, of course! Thank you, Ako-chan, you're a bro!" Yuuna took a moment to summon one of her Artifacts into her hand as Ako just groaned and Makie patted the nurse's back. Finally, she got to open the door and pushed it open. "DADDY! Never fear, I'm here to... Ohhh, no, nooo! I'm too late...!" she despaired at the horrible scene on display before her.
Medea, Princess of Colchis, frowned from where she'd stopped kissing Akashi-sensei, the man's neck covered on hickeys, his glasses askew, his shirt half-unbuttoned, and a faraway look in his eyes, mouth coated on messily applied purple lipstick.
"Too late? I wish!" the woman told the distraught girl, waving a hand at her. "Is that any way to barge in and greet? Wataru-sama did teach you better manners than that! And look at those shorts! I go away for two months and you start dressing like... like... like Nero on a free day! What will the neighbors- Oh, good afternoon, Ako-chan, Makie-chan," she told the two girls peeking in behind the rattled and pale Yuuna. "Nice to see you again, as splendid as ever! You have some time to spare this weekend, don't you? Lately I've been traveling around, and I got so many beautiful ideas for designs from all around human history, you'd look so lovely in them...!"
"Ah," Ako said very quietly. "Now I remember why I used to back Yuuna-chan up on this topic."
Makie's eyes shone. "Awesome! More pretty fancy dresses...!"
Headmaster Konoe Konoemon opened his jar of pills and popped one into his mouth, then began rubbing his bald temples with those long, bony fingers of his.
Last month's blow to the Masquerade in his jurisdiction had left him just this close to lose his leadership of the Kanto Association, and only a combination of Kansai's support, Senator Godel's ever uncomfortable arguments on his favor from Mundus Magicus, and the strengthening of the Kiryuuin family in Honnouji had made sure he retained his job, probably even his freedom.
Nobody wanted the task of countering Honnouji's advances right now, as they grew bolder and more desperate in these times of turmoil. And with good reason; Konoemon honestly was starting to believe he was getting too old for this at last, as Kiryuuin Ragyo was a kind of adversary he was not all that used to face, a combination of cutthroat modern corporate executive and old fashioned warlord. One or the other, he could handle easily, but against one who combined elements of both, and while he had so many other things on his plate... he wasn't sure how he would deal with that on top of everything else, honestly.
Then there was the matter of the support from Kurt, since that boy never did anything without expecting a bigger payoff in return. Oh, sure, he claimed acting as an act of gratefulness to Negi-kun, and no doubt he'd convinced himself of that to some degree, but the old man knew he would demand for compensation and act on leverage sooner or later. Kurt-kun was often difficult to read, too, although Konoemon supposed he could trust Takamichi to handle him in his stead as he focused on everything else.
However, today's events had never factored into his plans for an already unstable situation. Clock Tower had already tried moving in like vultures after the Fifth War fiasco, and only Zelretch's hand had saved Rin-kun from being the first escapegoat in a process that would probably have continued with the magi trying to undermine Mahora and take over their assets. Today's incident would surely give them another excuse to try again, and that was without counting the property damage and threat to lives these newcomers could bring along, if they really-
"Excuse me, Sir," Minamoto Shizuna said, peeking into the office carefully. "I know you didn't wish for any visitors unless they were really important, but... I believe this one would count as such, Sir."
Of course. He'd expected for a person of interest to show up sooner or later, under the present circumstances. Well. Since the guards set all around the building had not called and reported any problem, odds were this fellow would come in peace. And an assassin would have just sneaked in without any warning. Of course, there always were the insane ones you couldn't predict, but he'd known the job would be dangerous when he first took it. "Sure thing, let them walk in, Minamoto-kun."
A very, very tall man of melancholic eyes and long white hair walked into the office, clad in black armor and holding a massive longsword sheathed by his hip. "I'm sorry to disturb," he offered respectfully, head bowed.
"Please take a seat," Konoemon breathed, gesturing at a chair.
"Thank you," the man said awkwardly, doing so and placing his hands on his knees, almost like a scolded child. "I'm sorry, I just appeared in your school without knowing how I got here. I wandered around until I overheard news concerning some ruckus in your campus. At first, I thought of heading there and confronting the causes directly, as, well..."
"Yes...?"
"My apologies," he said. "I haven't introduced myself, sorry. Sometimes I forget, I'm not under that promise anymore... My name is Saber, Siegfried."
"Oh, ho, like the fabled German hero of song," Konoemon patiently said.
"I'm sorry if I sound boastful, but I am the fabled German hero of song," Siegfried took a fist to his own chest. "Regardless, I also have to apologize because I suspect the ones wrecking this much chaos are my comrades in arms. Knowing their capacity for destruction well, and since I didn't want to have anything else to apologize for, I decided asking for the highest office of authority available so I could ask for permission to act and engage into epic combat, the likes of which will probably destroy most of your academy. I asked around, and they directed me here."
"I see," Konoemon said, tapping his fingers on his oddly shaped skull and briefly wondering if this young man actually was Kaga-kun's distant ancestor. "No, to be honest, I'd rather have you sitting quietly here until my employees have dealt with the situation, thank you very much."
"Naturally," Siegfried said, although in truth now he seemed quite disappointed. "Um, sorry, but I couldn't help but overhearing, you called your assistant 'Minamoto'?"
"Yes, what of it?"
"I was actually wondering if she might be somewhat related to one of these comrades of mine. There is..." for a moment, he seemed to make vague hand motions around his chest, "something about her that reminds me of Raikou-san, even if I cannot tell exactly what..."
Konoemon arched a bushy white eyebrow up.
Negi landed on his feet on the stage, assuming a kempo stance, and frowned at the legend standing before him.
On one hand, for all the training her had undergone, he still wasn't confident he could beat someone like Saber-san. On the other, if they really had been brought back to full life, now they could be hurt and subdued through physical means. He was no Kotaro, so the gender of the antihero currently facing him did not bother him that much. A quick analysis of her appearance further reassured him, that this probably had been no top tier Servant.
The dragon motif to the long tail sprouting from the person's lower back and the sharp horns protuding from her bright pink hair spoke of an ancient Eastern Europe royal house, one he'd read about while in Merdiana. Unless there had been mistakes in the recording of genders through this house's history, akin to those surrounding King Arthur and her knights, there was a single woman in that lineage who had achieved enough fame as to qualify for a Legendary Spirit. The cruel smirk on her face, the self absorted beat to her skip as she stopped shortly before him, only added to his theory.
The slim, petite girl in the black dress leaned ahead and blew a coquettish kiss at him, flipping her fingers armed with long pink claws. "Sorry, little boy," she purred. "But I don't take fans to the stage. You'll have to get down!"
"I'm here to cancel the concert," Negi said, raising his fists. "This stage is meant exclusively for usage in the upcoming Sports Festival!"
"Oh, a doubter!" she sneered in disgust. "This is what security's here for." She gave a step back and clapped. "Security...!" she whined. "Do the job I'm paying you for...!"
"Sec-?" Negi said right before a blur came from the backstage, and mighty hands were slammed against his chest, blowing the breath out of him. He recoiled, feeling his torso in fire, and then looked at the man who had just dashed to step in between him and the smiling girl with the spear. He was an older, graying gentleman, not as elder looking as Konoemon-sensei, his eyes hidden before round dark glasses. His own Chinese martial arts stance spoke of skill and power on its own, and Negi winced, breathing in and measuring him before rushing him, unleashing a barrage of nonstop blows on him.
Each punch boomed like a miniature thunder, even as the older man blocked them with his forearms and fists, visibly putting an effort to keep up. Negi could see now he was faster than his adversary, and that the latter couldn't launch a counterattack as long as he was in his lightning form, but at the same time, his was only an incomplete form of the technique, and if the fight prolonged itself too long, he would burn out of energy for it, after which all bets would be off. So he lashed down with a kick to the man's stomach, hoping to dispense enough punishment as to subjugate him quickly. Yet as he kept on pressing the attack, Negi realized this wouldn't be such an easy task. Whoever this man had been- and from his style, Negi had an educated guess on his identity as well- he'd amassed a legend on merits to probably equal the legacy Jack Rakan would later leave in Mundus Magicus. He was in for a fight...
This fear was compounded when the man swung a hand through Negi's attacks and hit him right under the throat, choking him briefly and feeling like he was back in the Neo Ostian arena. The young man took a hand to his neck, struggling to regain his breath. No wonder every teacher sent to shut them down had been beaten back!
Still, Negi persevered. As the man moved in to complimenent him and then launch a follow up attack, he sprang back and socked him in the jack, then to apply an elbow to his chest, and next-
"Enough! Enouuuuugh, I say!" the pink haired girl said petulantly, stepping in to break the fight and clapping her hands. "Shuwen, you're terrible security if you can't even get a kid off my stage, why couldn't I have landed next to Young You instead?" Then she smiled saucily at Negi, licking her lips. Knowing the look, he was even more wary. "You. I like you, you've got scenic presence! What's your big problem with the arts then?"
"I was unaware you were going to make art..." Li Shuwen huffed, dusting himself off and stepping aside, in a good mind to just leave already.
"Um, this is property of this academy, and you took posession of it by force," Negi told the young lady, who had moved on to gently caress his chest with her claws. "In addition to that, you've beaten several of our security enforcers down..."
"Oh, those uncouth pigs?" she sneered, bopping her fist on him. "Interlopers! This stage wasn't being used, it was being left to waste, why shouldn't I take over and put it to good use? You're still young, stick around and I'll teach you about the divine right of the rich. It starts," she said huskily, taking a hand to the back of his head, "with grabbing hold of whatever suits our fancy..."
"Yiii!" Negi said.
"Liz-chan! Cut it out!" a female voice said from below.
The wannabe idol winced. "Oh, shit."
Negi and Li Shuwen looked down, at a young lady wearing a tattered, blood and dirt stained, formerly white uniform with black boots. She had relatively short orange hair, tied aside in a short tail. She also sported an ahoge, noticeably more curved than Artoria's and pointing the opposite way.
She pointed up and shouted, "I can't believe it, we are separated like that, and the first thing you think of when you Rayshift elsewhere is staging a concert?! Not even making sure to see if we're alive or not?! For shame, Liz! What the hell!"
The dragon girl pouted and rolled her eyes back. "I'm not a scout, Manager...! Anyone left alive, they'd see the publicity for my concert and come listen to me! I mean, you would, wouldn't you? That was my master plan the whole time! Much better than combing this run-down, has-been place for everyone, don't you think?"
Negi stared down in disbelief at this unassuming, normal looking girl. "Are you the Master of these... Servants?"
She blinked. "Oh! You know about Servants! Then... you are a Master as well? Where's yours?"
"Maybe he's a Servant himself?" Shuwen guessed, evenly looking up and down at him. "He's certainly got the makings of one."
Negi sighed, rubbing his eyes with a hand. They paid him too little, he only realized this now. "No, I'm not. But a few of my best friends are Masters... or used to be Masters, I suppose I should say. Do you know Emiya Shirou and Tohsaka Rin?"
The orange haired girl blinked. "Those two guys Artoria-chan's always going on about? And who are you then?"
"I'm Negi Springfield. Didn't she ever mention me?"
"No, I can't say I remember her ever doing that."
"It doesn't ring any bells to me either," Elizabeth Bathory admitted.
"I don't believe she and I ever conversated at all," Shuwen said stoically.
"Figures," Negi sighed. "Well, I shouldn't have expected for anything else anyway..."
"I'm Fujimaru Ritsuka, Master of Chaldea!" the girl below said, waving in a friendly, somewhat vacant minded manner. "Nice to meet you, Negi-kun, have you seen a girl kinda shaped like an eggplant with big boobs walking around here?"
To be Continued.