Altria Pendragon Yggdmillennia felt like a lucky girl as of now.
For all of her life, her family has been nothing but a joke among those who bear the name Yggdmillennia.
Ever since the end of the Third Grail War of Fuyuki, Pendragon, like any other family of magi, decided to join the big clan of Yggdmillennia after the elder, Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia give the chance for some of the lesser known families to be part of the bigger families.
This wish all started thanks to her family's failed research in an attempt to recreate Caliburn and Excalibur, two legendary swords wielded only by their ancestor, King Arthur Pendragon of Britain.
At first, after the long dead of the king himself and his illegitimate heir, Mordred, the family decided to indulge themselves in the art of magecraft, wishing to recreate the broken Sword of Appointment and subsequently restarted the era of glory within Camelot.
It is unknown if they really are King Arthur's royalty families, or just imposters wishing to have the name Pendragon be part of them, but unsurprisingly this research takes times and sources from them, turning these Pendragon nobilities into nothing more than lesser families of magi.
By joining Yggdmillennia, they must have wished that they are able to recreate the two swords, the sheath; Avalon and even the spear that holds the bridge between life and death itself, Rhongomyniad and retake the titles of nobilities for them.
Too bad what they made are Mystic Codes; simply Mystic Codes and not the fancier Noble Phantasms, something those four are known as.
What do these result instead are self-depreciation the family started, making fun of their incapability to even use Rhongomyniad when the weapon is clearly still laying around and inability to produce weapons as good as even Clarent.
But what does this has anything to do with Altria?
She has no idea how the name 'Arthur' and 'Altria' has anything to do with each other, but she knows that the name is a mockery of her ancestor, and the fact that she will have to carry the name of a pathetic family as the next heiress, something her cousin Mordred seems to be really laughing onto her face.
Even as the next heiress she is discarded from family business quite easily by her father, Gawain Pendragon Yggdmillennia when almost all Yggdmillennia families are busy with "something" in Trifas.
But with the Command Spells somehow just appear on her hand, she decided that she has a wish for the grail; a wish to not be associated to such family and to show them Altria is not just a joke name for them to bite onto.
Unfortunately for her, as she is now ready for her Servant summoning the same night as she reaches Fuyuki, she stumbled upon this strange human with an ability to summon a massive minotaur out of the ground, she realized her wish is now just a dream.
Now she lays there on the ground, battered up with her clothes torn up, bruises and blood all over her body, bones broken on her limbs and the red lines are no longer on her palm.
She also realizes that she is now stuck inside a strange kingdom with nobody but weird monsters in it. She sees a person, standing close to her, looking down at her with a face similar to her, but with a wide smile and yellow eyes.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Akira thought he has seen everything.
Metaverse. Shadows. Personas. And now Servants. Magecraft. Magi.
When he heard that he is going to go to another world, mixed up of his world and others, he thought he won't be seeing another Persona user.
He thought that he is going to be the sole person with Persona among people who can use magic in real life.
He thought he is going to be the odd one.
But then Sakura get her Persona.
Maybe he should have expected the possibility of having Persona users appearing before him; that he is not the first one to have such ability.
Now that he is looking at his cousin wearing a more absurd costume after a mechanical flying horse entering her body, and seeing her face without any sort of mask, he has one option of explanation; she is a Persona user through a different means.
She is first confused with their whereabouts and calling them Ido… Ido what? Whatever she called this place means that she is not familiar with Palace. She also called a Shadow as a Mirage.
The only term that is the same as what he knows is that fire spell she is using right now to burn of that Kodama in front of them right now.
She called it, "Agilao!"
With that kind of connection, obviously she is one aspect from his world, and a Persona user just like him. Thanks to the current world's timeline, he can perfectly deduce that she is not new of this.
Quickly shaking his head off, he takes out his gun and tries to help her from afar, shooting his gun straight to Kodama.
"Tsubasa, let me help!" he charges forward, taking off his mask and now summoning Garuda to his side, "Agidyne!"
He shoots out a huge flame toward the floating spirit, burning it alive as it is now disappears from their sight.
"I knew it!" Tsubasa screams out, moving close to him, "You are a Mirage Master!"
"Mi-what?" the words somehow caught him off guard.
But then she looks at him, having some sort of thought in her head, "Wait, no. You don't seem to have a Performa with you. Are you perhaps a Persona user instead?"
Wait, those two terms are not the same?
She still rambles as she stares at him, "You changed your clothes like me, so you should have been the same as me. But then you summon more than one… um Mirage/Persona thing. I have never seen anybody did that, but I've seen Aigis-san summoned different Personas once."
There's another Wild Card?
Wait, no… why is he so surprised? He already seen Akechi did that with Robin Hood and Loki…
Still… knowing that before them both, there are other Wild Card Persona users who may have signed contracts with Velvet Room, the world must have been in danger like all the time and he just so happens to be selected by Yaldy as the next Wild Card…
He really needs to ask Igor about this…
If only Lavenza just stands around the town with blue door beside her like always…
"That's the heathens that killed one of us!" more people with yellow eyes now running toward them, pointing fingers at them and closing in, "Get them!"
Akira notices them first, now calling out the girl beside her, "Get ready! We will have to fight them off first if we were going to get out of here."
She simply nods, holding her spear close to her.
The group is going to get close to them, but then something jumps in before the two, wearing red cloth around his right hand, covering some of his naked, muscular upper half as the red-haired man now strikes some of them down with blades of black and white.
The ones that didn't get strike stop on track, startling heavily from his appearance, "Wha- It's the Great Hero!"
Great Hero?
Akira has his eyes turning toward this strange man with red hai-
"Emiya-san?" Tsubasa cuts off his observation, calling out to the man first before he could assess the identity of this man.
Hmm… he does looks like Shirou Emiya… but a bit too muscular…
Could it be… they are inside his Palace?
He has a Palace?
Those who have Palaces are either those who views the world in perverse manner or those who is in the state of suicidal despair.
Those who view the world in perverse manner are, simple to say, bad people.
Shirou is not a bad person. He would do a lot of things that help other people, like fixing heaters, or cleaning up the club room till night.
But then he looks happy enough with what he is doing that it is impossible to see him thinking of killing himself like Futaba did.
…
But Futaba spent her life being Medjed; exposing corrupted people are stuff alike.
Is… Is Shirou… alright?
He returns to reality, now looking at Shadow Shirou, who glares straight toward those groups of Shadows people.
One of those people kneel before him, calling out to him, "Great Hero! Forgive us! We are simply doing our job of finding people in need of help!"
The other one screams out, "Great Hero, those people behind you claim to not need of your help! Only heathens would say something like that!"
"Really?" Shadow Shirou is now glaring straight at him, "But you guys are ganging up against them… doesn't that mean they need help after all? Especially when there's a girl here."
Not want to be rude, by there's something wrong with that last statement.
He now pulls his blades up, growling at them, "In order to be like the Legendary Hero himself, I will become the hero of justice for these two. Trace On!"
What was that?
The two blades now lighting up with green lines with Shirou charges forward, slashing all of the shadows, killing them all with few strokes.
Now… this is another thing he did not expect to see today, or ever.
A Palace ruler fighting and killing his own denizen… Is he really a ruler of is he just a cognition?
But then who is the ruler?
With all are no longer there, Shirou turns toward the two, moving close to the two, "Are you two okay? Do you need any more help?"
"W-we're fine…" Tsubasa mutters, looking at him, "Emiya-san, what are you doing here?"
"Here?" he looks around, looking confused, "This is my Battlefield."
"Battlefield?" she seems confused with the location's name.
"Yeah," he nods, "This is where I train myself to be as legendary of a hero like the Legendary Hero himself."
His eyes seems to be looking toward somewhere, and from where they stand, Akira can clearly see the landmark which he may be looking at right now.
Far from there, close to what could have been a campsite, a huge statue is seen in there, standing straight among some rubble-like base.
The statue is of a man with messy hair style, wearing a coat as he holds onto a boy in his arm, looking straight at the boy.
It seems the statue is crying, but he can also see a smile on the statue's face. Is the statue crying out of happiness?
Before he is able to ask the detail of the statue, more Shadows appear close to them.
One of them calls the hero out, "Great Hero, we need your help!"
Shirou quickly turns toward them, nodding at them, "I'll be there."
With the Shadows now disappearing from their sight, he turns back at the two, "Then, if you need my help, always feel free to come and meet me. I will do anything to help. It is the work of a hero of justice after all."
He runs off from there, leaving them to themselves.
Akira quickly grabs Tsubasa's hand, muttering words to her, "Follow me."
The two then moves away from there, not realizing a group of people in masks nearby, watching them as the two disappear from the sight.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shirou Emiya is a male student of Homurahara and is widely known for his literal kindness.
Every day he is looking for an excuse to help people out. He fixed a lot of stuff the school has to offer, to the point they saved up so much money not doing paying for any maintenance work.
He also sometimes offers his hand in cleaning his class and a clubhouse.
For him, those are nothing but training for his path to become a hero of justice.
Shirou has been obsessing over this moniker ever since he was little.
It was when he was saved from the fire of Fuyuki long ago by his now-adopted-father, Kiritsugu Emiya. He saw the man smiled and cried with so much happiness when he first saw the man's face.
He wants to smile like that. He wants to cry like that.
That is why he is passionate of being a hero now. It is the only path he felt worth of.
It is the only path he knows he can be like that man…
His father, along with his mother, Irisviel von Einzbern, now returned home after so long staying overseas, doing whatever job they have out there; bringing home news of an upcoming war between magi.
They even brought with them a girl only wished to be known as Saber, who now sticks around his mom like a bodyguard.
He knows that Saber is a Servant; a hero of the past who is capable of slaying more dangerous enemies.
But she is but a girl, and a girl shouldn't go out there, fighting for her life. It is a job of a man.
This is what he has in his mind when he steps between her and that Lancer guy.
He was joining his mother and Saber for a walk after she adamantly asking for him to be her tour guide after so long not staying in there.
But in the middle of the road, they met up with the enemies; another man with red hair with his Servant Rider, another girl.
He wants to help her, but the two ladies seem really eager to "fight like knights" that they decide for a more honorable fight, making him staying in the corner close to his mother.
Kiritsugu has told him not to interfere in a fight between Servants, but he can't just do that, not when people are killing each other here!
People die when they are killed!
When that blue-clad Lancer joins the fight, that's when he decided to jump into the fight.
"Trace On!"
Pulling out a nearby pipe, he strengthening it with Reinforcement, quickly striking him by surprise, hoping for him to be pushed away.
He is so deadly wrong.
Instead of actually taking the man by surprise, Lancer kicks him off after breaking his pipe with his attention is still toward Saber.
It seems the man really doesn't want to fight her, but has been ordered to do so.
He and Rider of Red move forward to attack the blonde girl once more, but luckily a silver-haired female in red appears before them both.
"Trace On!" she exclaims with a smile on her face, slowly pulling out two blades of white and black, deflecting both spears from both Servants.
"Idiot!"
Shirou, who is still hurt by the kick, turns to his side, now seeing a familiar schoolmate running into the scene, approaching him and helping him to stand up, "I have never seen an idiotic magus like you before! Don't you know you are not supposed to face enemy Servants with mediocre spell like that!? Your dad is correct; you really are an idiot!"
The red-haired boy mutters out loud, staring straight toward her, "I just… I want to save Saber…"
"Saving a Servant!?"
Rin quickly turns toward Irisviel, screaming out at her, "Ms. Emiya, did you tell him not to do just that!? Did you tell him that Servants are called Heroic Spirits for reasons!?"
Iri seems startled by her attitude, "I… I did, but he can be really stubborn…"
Throughout the conversation, Shirou manages to look away, now seeing the red-haired Master just stares at him.
He can see from his face, the man looks really uncomfortable looking at him.
But then he pushes himself off from her, breathing heavily as he now looking at the fight between four Servants.
Lancer is now having his fight alone with Saber as it seems the newly appeared Servant decides to take on Rider instead, having the two fights to happen a bit far from each other.
The four keep on fighting nonstop, till suddenly another being appear like a comet, crashing down in the middle of the fight.
He sees between all four of them, another female, white haired, tanned skin and in red and black attire, clad in fire, stare at all of them before turning toward Lancer and Rider.
"Retreat for now," she speaks up to the two, "We still do not have a full team of Masters and Servants and my Master do not wish to face the enemies with less number by our side."
Lancer snickers before jumping away from there, while Rider simply shrugs, regroup with her Master as the two walk away from there.
The female now turns around, looking at Saber as she mutters, "As a fellow Saber, I would like to have the honor of fighting you the next time we meet."
She jumps and disappears from there, leaving the Blue Team all by themselves.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Touma and Astolfo are now walking back home, slowly as the two did not speak even for once.
This, of course, irks the crap out of the talkative Servant, and so she enacts what the adjective means, "Man, what a fight! That Saber is really strong, and so is that other Servant, but I can't tell what her class is. Maybe she is a Rider like me?"
But he did not mutter a single word.
Rider quickly turns toward his Master, looking confused, "Master, why have you been so silent? Is something bothering you?"
Touma is quickly snapped out of his train of thought, quickly turning toward his Servant, "Ah… nothing… I was just thinking about that guy who attacked Lancer."
Astolfo is quickly being reminded of that, "Oh, you mean that red-haired kid? If I didn't know any better, I would've thought that he is your relative. People nowadays really do have strange hair colors."
"You are the one to talk. Red hair is way more common than pink hair."
Rider quickly shows a motion of being hurt, "Wah, your words hurt me, Master. How could you do such thing?"
Touma simply ignores him, with his mind is still onto that kid's actions.
Astolfo quickly brings up another topic, "Master, where is your friend? She is supposed to be on the lookout, watching out for any civvies, right?"
"Now that you mentioned her…"
The two quickly turns their heads around, looking for Tsubasa as their eyes caught what could have been mistaken as "two people teleported before them".
As the statement goes, Tsubasa and a messy-haired man pops out before them, with the girl breathing heavily as she mutters, "Those people are relentless…"
She pulls her head up and quickly stands up straight in shock, "Touma, you're here? How's the fight?"
But instead of answering her question, he instead gives off another question, "Where did you come from? Who is that kid beside you?"
It seems the night just gets complicated…
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
At least not as complicated as whatever inside the mind of Saber of Blue right now.
After the fight with the other team's Servants, they have finally returned to the Emiya's home residence, bringing in Shirou for further treatment. It seems Lancer kicks with some serious force there.
With the bell now rings, the front door opens up as little Illyasviel opens up the door, looking up and the first thing she sees is a downed Shirou, in which she immediately responds with a huge scream of concern, "O-Onii-chan! What happened to you!?"
"Illya, would you please prepare the couch for your brother?" Irisviel asks nicely of her as she nods, quickly going to the living room and clean up the mess of the couch (seems to have some junk food on it, and she claimed it was Leysritt's).
As Saber goes to close the door, she sees Archer approaching Illyasviel with a wide smile on her face, hearing her mumbling, "My~, what a cute little thing you are~!"
Now that she sees the two close to each other, she can't help but wonder how the two share so many resemblances. They both have the same hair color, the same skin tone and even the same eyes.
Does Einzbern has a hero in their family's ancestral? She does not have the answer; she is not summoned from Throne of Heroes like others. Her knowledge is as far as what the grail gave her.
The door soon opens up again, with her Master, Kiritsugu now entering the home, quickly making himself known for them all, "Sorry I am late, Iri. I had to find the store that still opens that sells the medicine needed."
Rin quickly stands up, facing toward him, "Where were you when this happened? Shouldn't you be with them when your own Servant started fighting?"
"I couldn't risk showing myself to the enemy. Red Lancer's Master knows that too. They weren't around him," he responds to her as he tries to help his son out.
"You saw the fight?" Rin is shocked.
Archer nods, "He is. I saw him on the rooftop nearby."
"And you didn't even bother telling me that!?" Tohsaka is now turning toward her in furious.
She quickly looks away from her eyes, "He was using a sniper rifle. I figure that he wishes to conceal himself to provide backup for Saber if anything goes bad. That's usually how the Magus Killer did his job."
Her words caught Emiya's eyes, "That's an impressive knowledge for a Servant. Did the grail give you that?"
"Nope. It's a personal knowledge of mine," she gives him a wide smile.
Saber simply stares at the two. She couldn't help but feeling warm looking at the two interact with each other; it almost felt like they have met and fought together before.
Somehow that feeling hurts her.
Even with the second summoning into the grail war, she has never spoken to her own Master, not even a single word. There is always this strange feeling of awkwardness between them.
There is a tinge of jealousy inside her. Maybe she wish to be able to speak to her Master like Archer did to hers?
No! She is the King of Britain, Artoria Pendragon. As a king, emotions are nothing but a source of downfall of an empire. Emotions are what making Camelot disappear from the map of today's world.
Right now, that Holy Grail will be her priority and with that power of wish-making, she will wish to rewind all times where her people suffer and do what is right for them.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Your cousin is a Persona user…" Touma mumbles, "And he can go to an Idolasphere-like place?"
It seems that anytime someone caught him doing something strange, this home ended up becoming a place to discuss all there is to say.
Just like with Sakura and Jeanne, Tsubasa now brings in her friend, Touma Akagi and his Servant, Rider into this home for further discussion of the "magic trick" they made before them.
Akira speaks up, explaining what a Palace is toward them all, and each them seems to have concern over what the place basically is.
"A strong, distorted desire turned into a world of its own?" The young Oribe mumbles, trying to take in whatever he just told them, "Such thing is even possible?"
Touma quickly responds to her, "I can see it being possible. We have a 25th hour filled with shadows, a world inside TV and even a dimension within buildings, a world made up of people's desire is not far from that."
Akira simply looks at him speaking all of those stuffs he never heard of. 25th hour? TV world? Are those how previous Persona users have their adventures?
He then speaks up, wondering, "Then, you guys can use Persona too?"
Tsubasa quickly speaks up to him, "No, the one you saw me called out is my friend, Caeda. She is a Mirage, a group of otherworldly heroes. She is not a Persona at all."
Touma joins in the conversation, "The one who partners up with Mirages are called Mirage Masters. They basically Persona users, but quite different."
Akira then turns to look at Rider, who he has noticed has been staring at him with quite a thinking face for a while now and finally speaks out loud, "But you are a Servant too, right?"
"Eh?"
"Rider, what are you talking about?" the red-haired fellow demands an answer, "He is clearly a human."
"Not really a human. I can tell that he is a Servant, even though he has some sort of human-like feeling to it. The Servant part of him is really faint, unless you stare at him long enough."
Really? Is that why Lancer couldn't figure him out before?
Wait, doesn't that mean Tohsaka's Servant can tell about him already?
Tsubasa seems confused, "How can there is a Servant and a human at the same time?"
Rider quickly shakes his head, "I don't know the detail, but I've seen one before. I have this faint memory of meeting one in one of the instance of me being summoned. There are this type of Servants called Pseudo-Servant, where a Servant instead possessing a human's body instead."
Damn… didn't know that's a common knowledge…
All look at him, with Tsubasa is now even more confused, "But he really is my cousin. You really are Akira Kurusu, right?"
"I am…"
Rider tilts his head, "Maybe you are Demi-Servant instead? A human absorbing the power of Servant? Either way, you clearly are a Servant."
Touma sighs, shrugging his head off, "Can we not fret on the detail? Whatever it is, you two are clearly doing something in that palace."
With that, Akira explains to them on the whole "changing heart" business, which seems to be accepted by them quite easily.
Tsubasa springs a question, "You mean that, in that Palace we were in, you can still someone's heart and make them repent? That seems to be a good way to make criminals confess. Why aren't the police getting this power instead?"
Akira quickly shakes his head, "Within the Palace, the Rulers are in the state of vulnerability at best. The best thing you could do is make them scared of their life to the point of willingly repenting their crimes and let you steal the Treasures easily. At worst, you can just kill the Rulers' shadows and in turn give them mental shutdown instead."
"Wait!" Touma suddenly stands up, "Are you saying that those mental shutdown cases are all thanks to the whole Palace thing? Does that mean there are others like you too?"
He nods, "Quite possibly. I have been wondering who have been going around, making people fainted left and right."
Tsubasa now turns toward her friend, "This is big, Touma! We should be telling the SEES about this!"
"You're right," the redhead nods, "If someone is capable of such horrifying thing to other people, then they need to be stopped!"
The girl suddenly realized something, "Ah, but nee-san won't come home tonight. She is too busy with her work again."
"It's already too late to just go out and meet her, right?" his eyes now turning to the window, seeing how dark the sky outside is, "We should just wait till tomorrow to tell her that."
Tsubasa nods in agreement.
Her head then turns to see her cousin, "Kurusu-kun, about your work as the Phantom Thief…"
What about it?
"Can I join you?"
"Join me?" Akira wonders in confusion, "Why?"
She responds to his question almost immediately, "We are here because there is a report that a door to Idolasphere can be seen around here. Helping you out may give us a clue of that."
"Idolapshere?" he questions the term.
Master of Rider replies, "It's a place where Mirages roaming around. Their gates are inside or near some of the buildings and Mirages can kidnap people into this place. This is why this place needs to be contained if found."
Tsubasa speaks some more, "Besides, you said that a Palace is formed when someone has a really strong desire twisted and distorted that often harming others. There is no way I can just ignore that."
Akira quickly mentions to her, "That's not the only way a Palace could form, though it is a common way. Another type of Palace is for those who are in deep despair borderline suicidal."
"All the more reason not to leave that place alone!"
Touma joins her, "I would like to join you too. A hero should help those in need!"
Astolfo stands up, "Master, what about me? I am a literal Heroic Spirit. I should be helping out too! As a knight, there is no way for me to ignore the plea of help!"
Akira sighs, shrugging, "I suppose it would be great to have friends around. Exploring Palace alone is way too dangerous, even for me. Sakura won't be around after all."
"Wait, Sakura?" his cousin notice his word, "As in, Sakura Matou? She's a Persona user too?"
"She just got her Persona. It was when we explored her brother's Palace."
"Owh?" she seems amazed, "So that's what happened to him! That's how a change of heart happened?"
Touma suddenly looks around the place, with his eyes covering all grounds before mumbling, "It's already close to midnight, so we should get to sleep now."
"You're staying with us?" Joker wonders.
Astolfo excitedly speaks up, "We're going to be housemates for now! We should get along."
He grabs the man's hands, both of them as he shows his bright smile to him.
Akira felt tons of discomfort coming from his smile, but he can simply nod as a responsive action.
Oribe stands up, speaking up to the two guests, "Then, I should show you where your room is. Follow me then!"
With the three now disappear from his sight, Kurusu sighs as he rests his body onto the couch. He also rests his face as he closes his eyes.
Things are getting way more hectic than his previous life. Holy Grail War… other Persona users…
It's official. He will be asking so many questions to Igor the next time he gets to go to a Velvet Room.
BZZZZZTTT….
WEEEEEIIIIUUUUU…..
?
Why is there a sound of radio nearby?
He slowly opens up his eyes.
The TV is turned on.
That's weird. He didn't remember turning the TV on.
Maybe his butt did that for him?
Akira goes to reach the remote, noticing that the remote is actually near the TV, which is quite far from where he is sitting at.
Oookaaayy….?
How is that possible?
His eyes couldn't help but drawn to the TV, as it seems trying to reconfigure itself before showing something on the screen.
It shows a blonde female, wearing a royal garb as she smiles wide toward the camera, "I welcome thee to my castle, and this is where I prove my worthiness as the heiress of the Pendragon family."
Akira stands up in shock, "A-Altria!?"
That's it for today.
Yes, TV World is here. How? I shall explain that next time.
No, Dark Hour won't be here. Mementos can fill up that role easily.
Who is the Saber of Red? I'm sure most of you can figure her out already. Who is her Master? I'm sure most of you can't do that. Hints: Her Master is already appeared in the story.
Next: A new transfer student is supposed to be in Homurahara but she is stuck in a different dimension. Somebody else watched the show and decided to be a hero. Akira is about to look for his new friend as well, but a certain heiress decide to finally confront him about it and now he had to face off against her Servant.