Route K: New Argonian covenant.

-Page K01-

I retract my hand, and I continue to look at Caster. Our talk is finished, and if I don't say anything the mood will chance to awkward quickly. "So, Caster…" Is there something I've been forgetting? Oh yeah, one thing comes to mind, one important factor that hasn't been spoken about. "This master of yours, who is he?" Though I do not remember much, he hasn't appeared at all during our stay here. He didn't even have anything to say about the terms of our alliance. I'm starting to feel like Caster's master doesn't even have anything to say, as if he is only a puppet master.

"Oh, you're right." She mentions offhandedly, like she's talking about a bug. "I guess you would prefer to know all your allies. I've no problem showing you my master, but my own servant Assassin will hide in the shadows for a little while longer. Not even my master knows its true identity and form."

Cirno speaks up, a worried look on her face about Caster's words. "You summoned a servant? Caster, you broke the rules!" She points at our ally, her worry now replaced with anger.

Caster clicks her tongue, realizing that she slipped. "It's true, I summoned a servant. However, am I not a magus? Am I not someone practicing magecraft from the age of the Gods? Manipulating the Grail to select me as a master is child's play for someone like me. And it's all with good intentions at mind. After all, having an extra servant at my side makes it a little bit easier for me to prevent the grail from being summoned. I also need only one alliance instead of two this way."

Cirno and I look at each other, but our anger quickly goes away. There's still some distrust about this, but we can forgive her for this. After all, she does speak the truth.

"But enough about that subject. I believe you want to see my master." She pulls her hood up again, hiding her face in the shadows once more. "Now if you would please come out, my dear Souichirou."

Souichirou? There's only one person I know who has that name and lives on this hill. That person is a magus and a master? Cirno notices the surprise on my face, asking me who the master of Caster is. As he steps out of the dark, his face visible, he proofs my theory correct: "This person is my history teacher… Souichirou Kuzuki."

He walks over to Caster, standing a step in front of her and a bit to the right. He stays completely silent and lets Caster do the talking. He's only a little more silent then when he's teaching. Caster speaks up in his place. "It seems that you're acquainted with my master. That speeds things up a bit. Now, I would like to speak a bit longer with you, but neither my master nor you should be able to both keep up your appearances as normal law-abiding people and staying awake." She asks for my teacher to take 'that' out of the pocket, unknowing what she is talking about.

As Kuzuki moves over to me he takes a black obsidian sheet out of his inner pocket and hands it over to me. I perform structural grasp on it, determining the concept of the item:

It's a rectangle of smooth obsidian, with no other materials in it, sized to fit inside one's hand. The structure on the inside is abnormal, with many different crystallizations moving into one another, held together by prana foreign to my body. Its purpose, however, I cannot decipher. I want to ask about it, but Cirno beats me to the punch:

"Caster, what is this thing?"

Caster explains its purpose, how though resonance of the internal crystallized material it is possible to talk to one another over infinite distances if both parties have such a magical tool, pulling out her own slab of rock to reinforce her words. It's capable of speaking with someone even if they are at the other side of the world.

In other words, she reinvented the portable telephone. Maybe next time she will give me a magical book that contains as many books as a library, that way I don't need to buy myself a Digital Book. I briefly ponder if I should ask her about it before deciding that I don't really read all that much and probably don't need one.

"Thank you, Caster." I take some steps back, and say goodbyes. "You'll call me when we need to discuss something, right?"

She give me a nod, and a smile appears under her hood. Even though it is a chilling smile I lightly grin back, wondering if this Grail War isn't as bad as it seems.

Cirno and I walk down the stairs of the temple and go on our way home to get some sleep. Cirno changes out of her Caster form, returning to her origin.

"So… does this count as a win, Shirou? I'm somewhat conflicted…" She asks with worry as she jumps on my back. I slightly stumble from the sudden impact but I quickly walk right again, now with her hanging over my shoulder. " I mean, I know the strongest always wins, but this time it feels slightly wrong."

"Win… if we manage to stop the manifestation of the Grail thanks to Caster's help then yes, this was a win. However, it's Assassin I'm worried about. Do you remember anything about you fighting it?"

She thinks about it, but there's nothing to remember, even for her. Neither of us have any memories left of the fight. Only the state of the area before and after the battle is left, the rest is a scramble that I'll never remember, no matter how hard I try to recover those memories.

"I thought so." That means that Assassin, even as our ally, might become the most dangerous enemy in this war. "Remember what Caster said about it, other than its ability to make people forget they fought with it?"

"Uhm…" My strongest servant thinks, but has no answer. So I tell her about what has been bothering me:

"Caster said that Assassin holds natural advantages against you, and I doubt that her ability to make us forget the battle is such an advantage."

"Hah, if I were to be beaten by something as simple as type advantages I would never have become the strongest. Besides, even if they are resistant against my ice I can simply switch forms to counter that." She claims with full confidence, not even making a suggestion that she is lying.

Counter? "You mean to say that you have even a form for that?"

"Yep. My eight form, Inverter, is perfect for dealing with those pesky people that do not die quick enough from my all-powerful ice. So even if that is the advantage the old lady is talking about, I'll still easily win. It's pathetic to think that the strongest will be beaten by something as lowly as the Assassin class!"

"If you say so, Cirno." Although I cannot find myself in her calling Caster an old lady, and I tell Cirno not to call her that from now on.

She pouts, claiming that she can say what she wants. She then turns red and quickly looks away, muttering a few words: "If you insist…"

"Don't worry about it. But on another note, what do you think about this alliance, Cirno?" I want to know about my own servant too, wanting to know if she shares my opinion.

"I don't care, and I probably never will. At least you decided to ally with the weakest servants, that means that I can spend all my time on the stronger ones. So if anything I think that you made the alliance with the best possible servants."

"You honestly don't care?" I know that my servant is somewhat of a braggart, and in this form not really caring about much beyond being the strongest, but to think that a legendary spirit like her doesn't care about strategy at all. Even among heroes she's a real weird one.

Cirno simply laughs, laughter that dims out as she let out a big yawn. "Well, I'll just beat up the baddies. You can determine in what order I'll cryo-freeze them. But for noooow…" She falls asleep on my back, only her breathing indicating that she's still alive.

Sleeping like this she doesn't feel like a servant, just like a young girl. But that's okay. I will make sure that she can live a normal life to her heart's content.

Cirno. Caster. Assassin. Kuzuki. Tohsaka. Shinji. And the other two human masters too: I'll make sure that they all make it through the war alive. Someone like me, who only lives because others die… I'll make sure that this time everybody lives. I'll make sure that the Grail will not come to fruition. Even if it costs my own life.

I lift Cirno back to my own house, where I simply place her on a futon in one of the guest rooms before falling asleep myself. It's been a tiring day, so some rest is welcome. I fall on my bed, and I drift off into dreams.

The next morning I wake up, having another dreamless night behind me. I switch from yesterday's clothes to my school uniform and go to Cirno's room, where my servant is sleeping.

"Oi, Cirno, wake up." No response. She keeps sleeping as if there's not a care in the world. "Hey Cirno, wake up!" I nudge her lightly, but she still continues sleeping.

Waking others up is not my strong point. I go to bed alone and in the morning I usually wake up alone and if that doesn't work I have Sakura and Fuji-nee to wake me. Perhaps I should wait for those two to arrive, they can wake her up while I prepare breakfast. After all, if I don't move to the kitchen now I will absolutely lose the lofty job of breakfast chef to Sakura.

There's enough in house to prepare standard English breakfast for four, and considering the time I should start cooking it. Eggs, bacon, beans, sausages, white pudding, soda bread, toast and tea; with the skill of a professional chef I prepare the food. There is one thing that I really pride myself on, and that is my cooking skills. Even if all else fails I will still make it through using that.

Time flies as I cook, and before I realize the two women have entered my house. They enter the living room, greeting me while I'm cooking. I ask Sakura to wake Cirno up, who does so with pleasure.

From the corners of my eyes I see Fuji-nee following Sakura to Cirno's quarters. That's going to be a rough wake-up.

Thirty seconds later and my hunch proves correct. A loud voice booms through the house as the queen of the Asian grasslands loudly shouts the name of her finishing move: "Tiger Feint Kick!" The only sound to beat hers is that of my servant loudly screaming in pain, the sound causing my house to shudder in fear from the legendary heroine. But even so I continue cooking, making sure that food will be ready soon so that that duo can make up though their equally hungry stomachs.

From the inner yard I hear a tiger being hunted, who in turn is playing with her hunter. Fuji-nee is surprisingly able to keep up with Cirno, even in her base form. Sakura has apparently had enough from the two of them playing so she starts preparing the table while casually chatting with me:

"Good morning, Sempai. Did you sleep well?" I try to convince Sakura that I've slept enough, but my own body betrays me as I let out my lack of sleep in the form of a yawn. Sakura looks at me with slight anger, not happy that I once again stayed up late for my training, which is an excuse I won't bother to change. She scolds me lightly, telling me that I should care more for my own health. I should follow her advice after I'm done with all this Grail war stuff.

"A-Anyways, Sakura, how is it going with Shinji?" I ask her about her brother, and with a slightly pained expression she tells him that he's a bit angry at me, threatening to kill me for breaking his nose. He even wants her not to visit me, but Sakura is brave enough to go to my house, which is a good improvement from how she was two years ago when I first met her. "Yes, that was an unfortunate accident. I should go and apologize somewhere in the future." Preferably after his servant Rider has been dealt with. "Anyway, food is ready, can you help me carry it to the table?"

The two of us take the food towards the dinner table, and I go outside to call the two playing their game of tag. Upon haring me shout that breakfast's ready they turn towards each other, as if confirming their unanimous thoughts.

"Food!" The two shout in unison before sprinting towards the dinner table. Breaking sprinting world records on their way to the table the duo sit down, both licking their lips in anticipation. After saying our thanks for the food the two wolf down their share of the food, as Sakura and I simply look in slight amazement at their eating skill. If the Grail has a class container for servant Eater, these two will probably fit the criteria.

Making a mental note here, I have the right to smugly say "I knew it!" in case Cirno actually has a form based on her ability to eat… even if it is probably useless in battle.

Sakura and I avert our focus from the other two present and simply eat our food while casually chatting about ordinary stuff. I'm glad that even in this whole war mess there's still someone to whom I can talk about such normal stuff. Sakura, a very simple and normal girl who has nothing to do with magecraft… I'm glad that she's entered my life, as my dear friend. With no romantic subcontext. Yep, zero love. Absolutely.

(It is now impossible to gain Sakura Love Points on this Route.)

Once again those weird words pop up in the lower right of my screen, but I pay them no mind, because I don't care anymore about these strange words. Ignore them. Ignore them. Ignore them. As expected, after a few seconds the words go away, letting me continue to eat.

When I'm almost done with dinner I feel something in my pants vibrate. I can easily guess what it is, Caster's magical phone. I ask to others for a brief leave and answer the phone in the entrance hall.

Pulling the slab of rock out of my pocket I notice a big red circle on one side of the rock. Pressing the circle reveals a blueish image of the face of Caster, who then starts talking to me:

"Good morning, boy. Did you sleep well?" Caster's lips move, the image probably showing her from the top of the mountain temple.

"Good enough, Caster, but that's probably not what you call for." Either there's a problem or a request. I personally hope that it is the latter, because that means I can do something for her to help her.

"Correct. If my hypothesis is correct then your little servant is capable of switching class containers. I don't know which land's hero has such a thing in her legend, but that's not important. There are simply a few types of magic I want to figure out, and I believe that two Casters will make more headway in it than one."

So she wants a research agreement. "That's not something I mind, but there's a few problems that we'll run into. First of all, there's a cool-down period on every form that's usable. Her Caster form can only be used after nine hours spending time in her base form. She'll stay in that form for at least until noon."

"So she'll stay in that cute form for so long? Oh my, I didn't expect that! I need to get the goth loli clothes, the meido, sailor fuku-" And she continue rambling on about stuff I do not understand. The face on the rock starts to get blurry, as if she is moving through her house looking for things. Half a minute of searching later she coughs, and returns her attention to me. "Anyhow, that's not a problem. What are the other problems?"

"There's just one. There are two other masters at school, of which one knows that I am a master and he is very likely to attack me on sight. The other is not aware of my existence as a master, but might cause more irritation, and there's also the possibility of a fifth pair attending Homurahara high. Can Assassin at least come with us to protect us at school?"

"Impossible." What? Is Caster withholding something? "Due to Assassin being summoned by another servant there's a small issue where it's unable to leave the place it receives prana from, in its case the temple grounds. However, my dear master has been magically enhanced by me so that he's easily capable of fighting against another servant on a fair level. If you simply drop your little servant off here in the morning I'll have Kuzuki wait for you until you get here, along with little glasses-in-law." She says her goodbye and hangs up. Glasses in law? Is she talking about… nah, that can't be right.

I return to the living room, where I tell a slightly altered version of what transpired: As discussed before Cirno will stay today with Caster (Which for some reason both Sakura and Fuji-nee accept as a totally legit European name), who is Kuzuki's fiancé. As repayment I will go to their place after school to fix some broken equipment. The last is a part I added myself.

The female tiger looks at me with a somewhat tired face, proclaiming that I'm way too nice and should focus more on what I want myself. Which is somewhat strange to say, considering that wanting to help others is my goal, even if it is something as simple as this.

But even so they accept it as me being me, even Cirno not saying anything about it… although it might've also flown entirely over her head. Two minutes later Fuji-nee leaves on her moped, preparing today's classes. The trio of us also leave early, having to bring Cirno to our ally. She's capable enough to go on her own, but I will look very, very irresponsible if I let an apparently twelve year old girl roam the street, especially when there's a magus out harvesting people's prana.

The three of us leave the house, on our way to the foot of the temple. It's a forty minute walk from my house to the temple, but nearly half of that time is spent walking the stairs from the foot of the mountain up to the temple. Only twenty minutes are spend on moving towards the temple, which is filled with meaningless banter between the three of us.

When we arrive we see three people waiting at the bottom: The two allies, Kuzuki Souichirou and Caster, together with the person who Caster did describe as glasses-in-law, my friend Ryuudou Issei. The two males are in their normal uniforms, but Caster's hood and cloak are replaced with a black shirt and a long tan skirt. It quite fits her and she can be considered a great human beauty, but it's somewhat hindered by her dodgy elven ears. She takes a rather long glance at Sakura, before giving a creepy smile that makes my spine freeze.

"Hello again, kids. And you too, miss…" Sakura introduces herself, and she asks if Caster's going to be the one to take care of Cirno. It is at this moment that I realize that Sakura has given away the name of my dear servant.

Damn.

It's like giving away one of your cards while playing poker: really stupid. The only advantage lessening the blow is that I've given my trump card to a servant we're allied with and has no intention of fighting us for the Grail. At least it's not an enemy… unless it's Shinji, I doubt he would actually utilize such advantages… although his servant looks rather calculating.

"Yo, Emiya." I hear Issei greet me. I turn to him and greet him back. "It seems we have a broken radiator at the temple, and not even the monk in charge of the few electronics we have can fix it. I heard from Souichirou that you would fix it for him in exchange of his foxy fiancée taking care of your… niece, correct?" Roll with it, Shirou.

"Yes, my niece, Cirno. Apparently she from old man Kiritsugu's mother's side, even if Kiritsugu never really talked about her. I only learned about her existence a few weeks ago."

"Hmm, it's rather shameful of Cirno's parents to drop her off at a relative they hardly know. What in heavens is that couple doing?"

I doubt that they still exist in this world, so I simply answer that I don't know. No leads that can bite me in the back does not sound wrong to me.

"It is time to go." I hear Soichirou say in a calm but commanding voice. He's probably right. He himself has no lessons to give during the first hour of today's school, because those are only meant for the homeroom teachers. However, we students are still required to attend those lessons, especially the student council president has to be on time. If he doesn't arrive on time then school will become a chaos unlike ever seen before.

The four of us move in a hurried pace to school. We still talk somewhat… and by that I mean Issei and Sakura talk with me as the mediator. Kuzuki stays silent as always.

From the talk it shows that Issei thinks quite positively over Sakura. According to the student president she is someone who has the right attitude for a future wife, a good yamato nadeshiko, so to say. She's somewhat shy and soft-spoken, but she has a great inner strength, according to Issei. To think that he, who is pretty much anti-woman and especially anti-Tohsaka, would speak so positively about one. That probably comes because Sakura and Tohsaka have two of the most distant familial connections in all of Japan.

Issei x Sakura… it sounds like a pretty good combination. A traditional Japanese man and a traditional Japanese woman, it is the true traditional pairing. The only thing standing in the way is that Issei plans to follow the path of monkhood. Truly a shame, it's a pairing I would've otherwise shipped.

We eventually arrive at school, where each goes his or her own way: Kuzuki to the teacher's room, Sakura to the first years, and Issei and I enter the second year classroom, where classes are about to start.

School is as boring as ever. I don't plan to go to college after this, the only thing on my mind is becoming a hero of justice. There's no need for difficult 6 year long courses on law or medicine when the only law I need to follow is helping everyone and all healing can be done by a well-placed healing spell. I can better spend that time rescuing others.

All I do at school is the usual stuff. Follow classes half-asleep, fix stuff during the break, eat lunch with Isseic at the same time… The only thing that would've been worth mentioning is if Shinji would try something here as revenge. Tohsaka is completely unaware of my status as magus, Berserker's master is a little kid of ten or so, and I'm doubtful that Lancer's master is another student of this school. If anything I expect the chance of him serving some sort of representative from a big magi organization more likely than Lancer's master being another student.

Lucky for me Shinji is absent, probably still having his nose fixed. That, or he is preparing to ambush me, which… is worse.

Because there's no Shinji at school, there nothing interesting out there, so it quickly becomes evening. For once I'm not going home with Sakura, with her saying she has some home issues. That translates to 'I have to take care of my brother', which is kind of my fault, so I can't blame her for this.

I need to get Cirno back from Caster's place. Because both Issei and Kuzuki have afterschool business to attend I'm walking all alone to the temple. It's only a half hour walk, of which most is spend walking the stairs up the mountain

But I'm not so far yet. I'm only five minutes away from school, walking along one of the outer streets of Fuyuk-

Killing intent from my left. Whatever it is, if I don't dodge it I'm dead! I stumble backwards a bit, and see a nail on a chain flying past my face, impaling the place I would've walked into. I look to the left for a second, and see the purple-haired servant I met yesterday.

Revenge.

That's probably her mission. Kill the master Emiya Shirou for punching Shinji in the face. He probably didn't even give her specifications, considering he isn't within sight bragging about himself.

Another attack is launched at me, at speeds beyond dodging. Even if I can see the attack properly, it's no use if I my body cannot react to it. Dodges quickly become scratches, which then become cuts. I run into an alleyway to dodge her assault, and for some reason it stops.

Did I lose her? No, I haven't even begun to flee. Doesn't she have orders to follow me and kill me? Warily I continue to flee until I suddenly hear a voice speak out to me:

"Aren't you going to use a command seal to summon your servant?" Rider speaks the words as solemn as ever, but I can see that it's an obvious taunt.

Summon your servant and waste your command seal. A normal master only has three of them, and using the third will make you lose your right as a master. Make a master waste those is a valid strategy.

However, I have nine. With nine command seals, I should be allowed to waste- no. I cannot allow myself to think like that. That would only be playing into my enemies hands.

"Sorry, but I don't think that wasting them is a good idea." I see a steel pipe lying on the ground, and I pick it up as I'm running. I reinforce it to its limit, making I durable enough to block even those nails of Rider.

"Then you're either reckless or a fool." She suddenly jumps down on me, only barely allowing me to block her attack. As I get hit I notice an odd feeling. Compared to Lancer, Caster and Cirno… this servant lacks weight behind her attacks. If the others feel like unsurmountable mountains, then Rider is a steep hill, difficult to climb, but I can overcome it.

"Is this your full power? Either you're holding back or you're simply the weakest of servants."

Then she speeds up. The cuts become deeper, more deadly, and I cannot keep up anymore. Another nail flies, successfully penetrating my right leg, which she then uses to swing me around and throw me into a dark alleyway. I hit the trash gathered up in a dead end, with the only exit locked off by Rider.

"Care to repeat that statement?" Rider asks mockingly, clearly not liking it that I called her the weakest.

I'm screwed. If I fight I'll lose. Running is impossible. There is only one solution left: The marks on my hand glow bright red as I use one of them to summon my servant right next to me:

"Cirno!" On command the air in front of me displaces itself as Cirno appears in her Caster form. She was probably still busy with Caster trying to invent some new form of magecraft or so, but now her eyes are set to protect. With a single gesture she summoned a bunch of colorful glowing orbs and scatters them all the way through the alleyway. They ricochet off the walls, creating a complex yet beautiful pattern of magecraft through which Rider is currently weaving her way through.

"Stop." With a single word Cirno makes all the orbs stop moving, each of them turning white, frozen like ice. Rider ducks under one of the orbs, slicing it in half with her nail, as the released energy causes a small implosion that barely affects the enemy.

And with only the faintest of hand gestures Cirno turns the orbs into crystal-like mirrors, each shining like the dust of diamonds.

From Cirno's hand three lasers shoot into three nearby mirrors, which get reflected and multiplied by all these crystals in the alleyway.

Rider observes it, and charges straight through. The distance is fifteen meters. A servant like her can cover that distance starting from standstill in a second. With all the mirrors in the way that lowers to slightly less than two.

But she needs to survive it first. From the mirrors seventeen lasers shoot at Rider. If she continues moving our way she'll get hit by four. If she retreats she'll get hit by two. Her sides are closed by walls of reinforced concrete. Even if she goes sideways another three beams will pierce her. If she jumps another four will penetrate her, and the rest will kill her if she decides to stop moving.

She'll choose the path of least damage, probably retreating while twisting her body so that only minor parts of her body are hurt.

But she doesn't.

She sprints right through. The lasers don't even faze her. It's like they get cancelled on hit. A shocked Cirno raises several barriers of ice, which do succeed in stopping Rider, but not her nail that simply pierces through the ice and makes a hole in my servant's side.

I check Rider's status, and see the problem: Magic Resistance. This servant is age of gods, a time when magic was commonplace and so was natural resistance to it. As a servant, this person can negate almost all magecraft, so a form like Caster is the absolute worst to use against her.

But even so Cirno doesn't change forms. She simply adjust her strategy by not firing spells at her. Instead she turns the water particles in the air into sharp icicles and throws them to where Rider is standing. This time she completes the spell first and only then throws it, making it not a spell but a projectile.

And Rider has no protection against projectiles, forcing her to jump ten feet back. The mirrors have already disappeared, as object that only pointlessly drain prana have no reason to exist.

"So, Caster-class servant, if that's what you really are," Rider speaks calmly. "You should see that your magecraft doesn't affect me, and these icicles of yours will only get me in a surprise attack. I recommend that you use your Noble Phantasm, Caster, or your chances of winning are less than 1 percent." Another taunt, this time from Rider trying to figure out my servant's ultimate weapon.

"That's as good as 99% to me!" Cirno boasts, before creating nine magic circles in the air that fire very large laserbeams. I doubt that this is her Noble Phantasm, but this barrage make it look like it's raining light.

However, even though each of these beams are as strong as a high-ranking spell of a first-class magus… they should not be able to hurt Rider. As expected, she moves through the first and second without any damage.

Third fourth fifth, no exceptions. Sixth seventh, no, the seventh is somehow effective!

The beam strikes Rider on her left shoulder, only barely missing the vital areas. Rider dodges to the side, but the damage has already been dealt:

Rider's left arm is covered in third degree burn wounds, just like her shoulder. The fact that it's even still attached is a miracle. Her face is burned to the point that normal people will never recover from it. Her clothes are melted onto her body, and she must be feeling excruciating pain right now.

"What was that?" Rider spits out, glaring at my servant.

"That was simply pure power." Cirno speaks to her. Even though her Caster form is much more humble, there's still an underlying tone of arrogance in her voice. "I've learned it from a certain witch I used to pick fights with. Even if you can withstand my power, if I keep firing then I will eventually crit and kill you, Rider."

"Hmph." Rider simply looks at us before fleeing away from the battle. I try to follow but Cirno stops me. "Don't, Shirou. You're in no condition to follow her." It's true, so I stop my pursuit as quickly as I started it.

Cirno looks at my wounded body, and uses her magic to lighten the pain. "I'm sorry, but healing isn't my forte. At best I can simply cool the wound and prevent it from opening up." I look at my leg that is has been covered up by some frozen material. Even though it is frozen and crystallized, it doesn't feel cold. I walk a few steps, which thankfully goes completely normal.

The two of us walk to the temple, where Caster is probably waiting for our return. Our tempo is calm, but we stay wary. My leg is still wounded, just like Cirno's side, so we are easy prey.

But even so, Rider is wounded, Berserker and it's master seem honorable, and running into one of the others is a miraculously small chance if we are not looking for them either. If we stay calm it will end all right.

We simply walk our way to the stronghold, and to pass the time I set up a discussion with Cirno: "Thanks for rescuing me, Cirno."

"It was nothing," She says with an innocent and pure face, "It's something every servant would do for their master."

"Yes… right." I sometimes forget that we're not simple friends, but that we have a complicated relationship between master and servant fighting in a war. But even though we were forced in this relationship, I'm sure both of us would get along in normal circumstances. Not wanting to lose our simple talk to awkwardness I ask Cirno how her day was.

"Well, my classless form kind of dislikes you after what Caster did to me." I am both angered at Caster for doing what she did to my servant and a bit confused about the pronouns she is using. But anger reigns, and if what Caster did is bad enough I'm willing to break up our alliance.

"Cirno." I ask to my servant, angered by the situation, "What did Caster do to you?"

She looks at my face, and upon noticing my anger calms me down immediately: "Don't worry master, it's nothing harmful. Caster simply has a weird obsession with dressing kids like me in my base form in cute clothes."

That's softer than expected. And also something I didn't expect from Caster. But something is still bugging me about the way Cirno talks. "But why do you speak about yourself as if you are multiple persons?"

"Mainly because we are." The answer reaches me with surprise, as all my thoughts disrupt for a second. I softly show my shock, but Cirno is willing to explain: "All these forms of mine are different parts of the myths surrounding one person. If my base form is the child-like form that got me famous, then the other nine are ways I developed into. Some are based around future events from the base's timeline, such as reaching maturity like this form, others are based around my relations with others or my famous fighting moves. Others are based on alternate universes, where I perfects math or have swordfights on motorcycles."

"Hold on. Swordfights on motorcycles?" That sound very awesome and something I want to see. "Really?"

"Yes. It's almost as cool as card games on motorcycles. Or swordgames on cardfights, whatever that means."

"I lost you." I don't understand it any more. "And I believe we're getting off track."

She notices it, and continues telling me about her different forms: "Yes, uhm, anyways, all these forms have different histories, learned different life lessons, and became different people… however, the ten of us share memories, and our opinions over them differ greatly. For example, from my perspective my base form is my past youth, while looking at me from her form I am a possible future self. Where I used to brag all the time about how I am the greatest and the strongest this me is embarrassed by saying such stuff, and being dressed in those clothes is something I call cute too even though I used to dislike that kind of thing."

She speaks with both nostalgia and embarrassment over her young self. "So you are Cirno in her later days of life?"

"Not… exactly." My servant replies with great difficulty. "Actually there are two forms that can be considered adult forms of me, but they are achieved by different results: It's comparable to touhoumon, maybe you ever played it."

"No, can't say that game rings a bell. What's the comparison, Cirno?"

"In that game a puppet can evolve in two ways: Natural growth or tempering with the form through special stones. Each method produces a different evolved puppet, and it's the same for me. Just like there is a form that is created through natural growth, there's a form created from shady drugs and pills, of which the latter is how I came into existence."

So essentially, she's a byproduct from a normal growth, an alteration created by altering nature. "So what's the difference between these two adult forms of yours, other than how it was achieved?"

"Well, class abilities and way of fighting aside, there's our outlook on life. She's somewhat cynical, giving advice in lightly insulting manners to those around her." Sounds like someone I would never get along with. "I try to stay more gentle and kind to my friends, but we both have the same heart of gold."

Even though their way of showing it is different, their goals and ideals are the same. I might need to rethink my opinion of that other form. "So it's just your way of showing your love and friendship that's different, right?"

"Uhm, yeah." She suddenly starts to blush, as she looks at me with the cutest yet most confused face I've seen her make thus far. "Also, there's one more major difference between the two of us."

Another one? "What is that then, Cirno?"

"Well, uhm, this." She places her hands und-let me repeat, she places her hands under her… rather well-developed assets that I never really paid attention to before, and she lifts them up a bit, showing off their soft elasticity. "Mine are… somewhat bigger than my other form." Somewhat my ass, even Sakura and Rider are smaller than those.

"Uhm, I see…" I turn my head away, making sure I don't stare at her body anymore. "But you can stop that, you know. You've… made your point clear. So please stop." Stop before I get a nosebleed from this, please, I already feel my blood pressure rising exponentially.

We awkwardly and silently continue walking to Caster's base. When we arrive we see Caster standing on the stairs, who greets us back with her ice grin. After a short greeting she observes our current wounded state, and easily heals the two of us. She asks for Cirno to help her finish what they were busy with before I used a command seal and disrupted their work, almost blowing up the temple by the sudden imbalance.

"Sorry." I apologize for it, as it was my fault that their experiment almost failed. Caster forgives me, and tells me that Kuzuki, and by that note Issei, have safely arrived back at the temple. But before the strategy meeting can commence she wants to finish the project she was working on with Cirno, so she asks me to do something for myself on the temple grounds until she's ready.

And with that Caster picks up Cirno and teleports away, disappearing into pink butterflies that die out in the moonlight.

Lonely I jog up the temple stairs, eventually arriving at the gate. I promised to fix their heater, but after I was shown where the heater is I found it surprisingly easy to fix, only taking around ten minutes to solve the problem. Meanwhile Caster doesn't seem to show any sign of being finished. I have some time for myself now, How should I spend it?

A) Talk to Caster and Cirno

B) Speak with Kuzuki and Issei

C) Investigate Assassin

D) Search the temple alone

Status Screen Improved!

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