Until few years ago, Yu Narukami is just a normal kid that has nothing to do with the moonlit world.
It is not until he was transferred to Inaba that fates decided to play around with his life.
At the moment he arrives in the rural town, a serial killing immediately took place.
It is no ordinary killing by the way. It is a killing using the strange world inside the TV. The victims of the murder are all being thrown into the TV, and the dangerous denizens of the TV world, alongside its toxic atmosphere slowly kill the victims, having their bodies found days later.
There, Yu gained the power of Persona summoning, even getting new friends in his journey whereas they created the Investigation Team, a team of wannabe detectives (with a real detective in the team later on) as they try to stop the murder from happening after some of them are at the receiving end of the attempted murder.
At one point they nearly capture someone believed to be a culprit of the murders, Taro Namatame.
Unfortunately while everyone tries so hard to get to him, he ended up kidnapped Yu's cousin, who he sees as his lovely little sister that he care so much.
The poor little girl's frail body could not handle the toxicity of the fog in the TV World, and the Investigation Team took their sweet time defeating a giant Shadow appeared from Namatame himself.
Nanako Dojima is… dead…
He avenge her death by throwing Namatame into the TV World, but that did nothing.
Throughout those years of despair, he found himself walking the earth, looking for something for him to take his mind of his guilt.
As he goes on, he learned that Investigation Team has been officially disbanded when all of the members were forced to transfer away from each other when the fog in Inaba, caused by Namatame, are deemed too harmful.
Inaba is now a ghost town, with rumor stating that it was a battlefield between Shadows and a different team of Persona users.
And within his journey, he found himself meeting someone named Shirou Kotomine, who he ended up befriended after saving him from the TV World with the help of Marie.
The man told him all about magi, and even helping him open up his magical circuit and putting him into the Clock Tower.
When asked why he helped him, the tanned priest simply stated that he is fascinated by someone who "allied with a god of Shinto without any repercussion."
At some point the man also asked for his help in "bringing salvation for all mankind", but Yu simply denies his offer.
He does, however, asking for a rain check, in case if he ever truly needs his help.
Having him joining the Clock Tower somehow lead him to meeting this young, blonde little girl, who reminded him of Nanako when he first sees her.
She seems shy when first sees him, hiding her face behind a computer.
A girl, in Clock Tower, is playing with a computer.
She seems really fascinated with the computer, even saying that she wish that she is a hacker instead of a magus.
That is after she finally opens up to him.
Her name is Rin Tohsaka, and apparently she is from a branch family of the main Tohsaka lineage, and is there because she is supposed to be waiting for her older cousin, who also has the same name as hers, strangely enough, to play with her.
The girl was quite talkative, and as she speaks to him, she mentioned of a Holy Grail War, a tournament with the victor being given a wish-making artifact capable of any wish, even reviving the dead.
That's why he is in Fuyuki now; aiming to get the grail all for himself. He cares naught for whatever that Magus Killer rambles about something strange about the grail. If there is something that could finally make his uncle happy again, this will be it.
"Otou-sama…"
His servant, Caster, snapped him off from his trance on the rain outside, quickly pulling himself toward her, "What is it?"
Caster, or rather, Tamamo no Mae, the spirit of a demon fox who Izanagi inside him recognized as his daughter, Amaterasu, points her finger toward the TV as she seems to be complaining of something, "That TV is strange. I didn't even turn it on and it's already turning by itself. It even shows Saber as if she owns some sort of TV show or something."
"Wha-!" Yu quickly stands up, looking toward where the TV is at.
She is telling the truth.
"I welcome thee to my castle, and this is where I prove my worthiness as the heiress of the Pendragon family," Saber speaks up as she seems to be holding a sword, looking straight toward the castle, "Come to this castle of mine, and show me if you could even defeat the king of Camelot herself."
The screen abruptly shuts off, leaving only the confused Fool all by himself, with his eyes fixed on the screen of the TV.
Somehow, while questions over questions are playing inside his brain, the sound and the visual of the white noise played put him in some sort of trance.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Somewhere else in Fuyuki, Shirou Emiya also witnessed the strange TV show while he was all alone, resting up outside at the living room for some reason, also having questions inside his head.
But, instead of questioning the whereabouts of an unknown stranger in blue sailor uniform, he expresses concern toward a certain hero, "Why did I just saw Saber on the screen?"
As his eyes are now focusing on the white and black streaks on the screen, he unconsciously standing up, slowly moving toward the lighted part of the screen.
His right hand moves forward, trying to reach the screen when a voice calls out to him, "Onii-chan, what are you doing?"
His sister, Illya just stands there near the stairs, rubbing her eyes as she mumbles the question in a sleepy manner.
"I was…" he hesitates for a moment, looking back at the TV, "Switching off the television. I was about to go to sleep anyway."
Illya simply nods, walking away as she climbs the stairs, back to her room.
Still feeling the pain of the injury, Shirou decided to just sleep at the living room for the rest of the night as he lies on the couch once more.
He moves his eyes and scans the TV with prana, but he sees nothing wrong with it.
Sighing, he decided that he was just seeing an illusion. He has never felt such pain in his life after all.
Back then when he was a little, where he always mistook magic circuits as something you had to create from your nerves, the pain he felt from some of the failures he made were bad, but his body simply heals up very quickly.
Somehow, lately, he felt tons of pain when he messed something up.
It's like for the first time ever, he feels a huge amount of pain all at once.
Though, that won't deter him from his dream to be an ally of justice. That should be part of being a hero after all.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
While the redheaded magus did nothing to the TV, Akira, on the other hand, has his hand already moving into the TV.
Huh?
That sentence felt so wrong, as if it shouldn't make sense no matter how you said it.
But it is the truth.
Drawn to the noise of the TV, Kurusu tries to put his hand into the TV, and now finding his hand slowly being sucked into the screen.
"Kurusu-kun!"
He felt a tug from behind, pulling himself off from the screen as he and whoever is behind him falls onto the floor.
The white screen switches off by itself, with him now looking at the one who just saved his life; Tsubasa.
The girl looks around, quickly finding herself looking at her cousin, "Kurusu-kun, are you okay?"
"Y-yeah…" the Fool mutters, trying to help her and himself standing up, "What… what was that? The TV… I touched the TV and it just…"
"It's the TV World."
What?
What kind of strange combination of words she just spoken of?
Wait, he remembers of her saying those words earlier.
He didn't know what that thing is, but he knows it has something to do with other Persona users.
"What is a TV World?" he springs a question.
Instead of answering, she responds with, "I'll tell you that tomorrow, okay? It's already midnight. We should be sleeping tonight if we didn't want to go to the school late again."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It was a bright, sunny day.
During this type of day, it is very normal to see kids running around, playing what games they could think of.
What is not normal to see is a young boy standing all by himself in shades under a tree, practicing his magecraft.
First he focus his prana, slowly turning his nerve into-
"Kid, you shouldn't be doing that. Nobody practices an emergency action when they don't need to."
The practice is interrupted, with the young red-headed boy quickly loses control of his prana. His nerves, instead of turning into magical circuits as he intended to, burns off his arms after exploding.
The boy quickly turns toward the source of the voice, clearly annoyed by this interruption.
Turning to the side, his face instead turning silenced.
He is looking at a dark-skinned man in tattered brown huge cloak, covering his whole body as he seems to have a noticeable white hair, even if it doesn't seem to be much of hair.
The man looks like he is resting under the tree, with his face shows some sort of exhaustion and tiredness.
He also notices that at one spot of the cloak is a huge red mark; he is clearly bleeding.
"This?" the man notices the boy's eyes looking directly toward the wound, "It's nothing, really. This isn't even that bad. I've had worse injuries than this one."
Injuries? Was he involved in some kind of a fight?
"Don't waste your time minding other people's business," the man mutters, looking away.
He slowly pushes himself up, as much as possible with the red mark is apparent to the boy of what it really is; an old, frozen blood.
The man, at least, isn't injured on the outside.
Breathing heavily, the man find himself still leaning on the tree behind him.
His eyes now turning toward the kid, "Where are your parents? Didn't they teach you not to get close to a stranger?"
The kid simply responds with, "My dad and my mom are busy outside of Japan. They left me with my sister and their two maids."
Somehow, the man smiles, even if the smile doesn't seem intentional on his part.
He even whispers to himself, "Isn't that a good thing? You should take advantage of that situation while you can."
The man turns back to him, wondering of something, "Kid, your parents are magi, right?"
The boy nods.
"Don't worry," the man speaks up to him, "I am also one. Though, I am bad of being a magus."
KLAK!
With that, something falls off from his cloak, gaining the attention of the young red-headed child.
A gun.
The man quickly grabs the gun, putting it inside his cloak as he mutters, "Shouldn't have let a kid saw this thing…"
The kid is now wary of him. Slowly, he asks a question some may not ask, "Are you… a bad person?"
"Bad?" the man responds to him, "You mean, like, evil?"
The man is now looking straight at him, giving off an unpleasant feeling coming out from him.
The man then simply sighs, "You're right. I am an evil person. Just now I've shot down a cruise ship with people in it, with my own magecraft. Pretty evil, is it not?"
With those words muttered, the man finds himself fallen once more, as he continues, "If being evil is what it takes to be a hero… I'll gladly be that way."
The man seems to be lamenting on himself, with his expression shows some sort of feeling. The kid sees this, interpreting this as some form of regret.
The kid opens up his mouth, "Mister, is being a hero a bad thing?"
"A bad thing? I don't know. I've lose that dream a long time ago. When I was your age, I made a promise to my dad to realize his dream of becoming a hero. I failed to keep that promise."
The man looks down, "Now I am too old for that dream… just like my dad…"
"A hero… is to save other people… but what I did is anything but that."
The young boy keeps on looking at him. He sees the feelings he emitted, is something similar to the smile he sees from his father not too long ago.
It is not the same, but it is quite similar. He does not know what that feeling is, but now he wanted to avoid feeling this one.
The man turns toward him once more, "Kid, a magical circuit is not one to be made, but something that is already existed inside you. You have a maid, right? Go pester her about that. If she is who I think she is, I'm sure she'll give up and help you with that."
What is this?
The man suddenly gives him a piece of advice for some reason. Why would he do that?
The man sighs, "I am going to regret doing this."
He now stands up, taking out two guns with blades attached onto it as he starts twirling the weapons around before gripping on them firmly.
The young boy now has his eyes fixated on the black and white blades. He sees the blades as something cool, as if he is really drawn to them.
"Gotta go, kid. I have a job to do."
"Wait!" the young kid calls out to him, "What's your name?"
Somehow, he really wants to know this man's name.
The man snickers, "I have no name?"
Eh?
"I've long since discarded whatever name I had. It is not even a real name of mine."
The kid speaks up, "I'm Shirou Emiya."
"I know, kid. I know."
The young kid now sees the man slowly disappears into nothingness… what?
Wait, hold on. What just happened?
Where did the man go?
"You're here."
The kid's head quickly turns around, now seeing a man in suit, standing near him as he quickly speaks up to the man, "Dad, you're home…"
"I had a bit of work here. Your mom is at home right now."
His father's phone suddenly rings as he turns around, answering the machine, "Kiritsugu here. The ship's gone? It was blown off in the middle of the sea? A nuclear bomb is in there? Are you sure about that? It was going to the port here… I see…"
Shirou heard of this conversation.
Blown ship?
That man from earlier told him that he just shot a ship with people in it…
No, the ship was heading toward here.
That man just saved his life, and everyone else in here.
He is a hero… just like his father is…
The kid grips his hand. He found what he wants to be in his life.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shirou wakes up suddenly.
He just saw a dream he never thought he would see.
He then turns to the side, seeing Saber sitting close to him.
"Saber…" he mumbles, "You are… here?"
The blonde woman now turns toward him in confusion. She seems to be watching a magical girl anime along with Illya.
The little girl also notices of him waking up, as she quickly walks close to him, "Onni-chan, it's time to go to school!"
"Ah… yeah…"
As he tries pulling himself up, Saber quickly speaks up with a concern look on her face, "How's your injury?"
"It's nothing. I can at least go to school by myself."
"Should I follow you there? The enemy might use you to get to Master."
"I can take care of myself. I am a man after all," Shirou dismisses her, now standing up as he groggily walks out from the living room and back to his room.
Kiritsugu enters the room, staring straight to where the stairs is.
He then turns toward Saber as his Servant notices his stare.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad?"
As they are going to the school together, Tsubasa has decided to explain everything she can to Akira.
The girl responds to his question, "SEES for short. They started as a school club back in Tatsumi Island, but then grow into their own thing as time went on and started to become an official group under Kirijo Group. They were reformed as one after an incident in Inaba before."
She continues with her explanation, "Now, almost all Persona Users are members of the SEES. Fortuna made an alliance with them since we Mirage Masters are almost like them in some way, so if anything, we can inform each other and even ask for their helps if we needed to."
Kurusu springs a question, "Did they have anything to do with the TV World?"
"Not really, but some of the members had been in there before. A friend of mine, Rise-senpai told me that the TV World is a place where some of people's inner conflicts are manifested as a Shadow self and at some point, even created a dungeon of their own with that conflict as its theme."
"That sounds a lot like a Palace to me," Fool responds to her words.
"It is, but it's more of people's guilt over something most of the time," Oribe corrects him as she resumes, "If a Shadow appears before them, the Shadow will keep on pushing their conflicts onto them, forcing them to deny them and in turn, the Shadows will grow stronger and will endanger their original selves."
"It's different than Palace then," Akira concludes, "If a Palace is formed from guilt, a Shadow of the ruler will appears and being hostile to us Phantom Thieves, but it is more of trying to protect the ruler, even helping them overcoming their guilt on purpose. One Shadow I met even contributing in becoming a Persona willingly that helped us against a really strong enemy."
"Really!?" his cousin seems shock over this, "I've heard that all Shadows are dangerous beings before, so this is the first time I've heard one being so nice."
He reminds her, "Remember back in the Palace yesterday? That Shadow that looks like Shirou helped us against those enemies before."
"Ah!" she seems to have noticed, "So that's why he helped us. Wait, does that mean he feels guilty over something?"
"Quite possibly. It is very rare to see a helpful Shadow, but I only met one of those before, so there's not much going on with that."
He feels like there's more than just being guilty. Should he be checking on Shirou?
No, it is clear to him that while Shirou having a Palace can be quite a priority for him, Altria is still in danger as of now.
Who knows how long she can stay in there without getting harmed?
"Senpai also told me that when someone is trapped in the TV World, the place around starts raining. By the time the rain stops and fogs appear, a dead body of that person will be found after the fogs disappear."
That's the answer.
Then, this takes a lot more priority. A Palace can wait, but a friend's life is more important.
This is what always happened after all. Sometimes his friends found themselves in trouble inside the Palace, and the whole operation will be dismissed for the day.
It is easy to say that the Phantom Thieves do have the 'power of friendship' with them.
Tsubasa finally finishes her words, "I'll be calling her after this and ask for her advice, so you should sit tight for now."
He simply nods as he now reaches the gate, not realizing another stare from a certain female.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx
As usual, it seems Akira has decided that he will definitely spend his lunch break with Sakura.
After all, she is the first fellow Persona User he met. Why not people with similar attribute flock together?
"How's Lancer?" he asks her as they munch on their food.
She replies with, "Can't believe she is actually a lot nicer than the one we saw in nii-san's Palace. I haven't been with her ever since she was summoned, so I don't know much about her. But I do feels like she really loves having me as my Master. She obeys me almost instantly."
"Must be different living in there right now, what's with your brother is in juvenile."
She simply nods. He can see there is a smile on her face. She must have really hated him.
The girl suddenly turns her head around, "Senpai, who is that person you walked with yesterday?"
Whaaa-?
Suddenly the air feels a bit different here.
He can feel some heat coming out of her eyes. Her tone even sounding less friendly than earlier. There is also this feeling that forces him not to run away from this subject, even if he didn't intend to.
"Just a tourist I made a friend with yesterday. She came all the way from England and just so happen to meet me when she got lost, so I helped her find her way."
"Really?" Sakura asks him, with the consonants are being pressed for clarification.
He quickly nods.
The purple-haired girl sighs, "That reminds me of something. I heard that today my class is supposed to have two transfer students coming in, but only one person shows up."
Hmm… strange…
She continues, "I think I heard from the teachers saying that the missing student is a foreigner."
Wait, a foreigner student? Could it be that Altria is that missing student?
So she's not a tourist?
Suspicions arise inside him as he started to wonder if her arrival here is not a mere coincidence.
As he ponders on this question and more, he still did not notice of prying eyes nearby, looking straight toward him.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Well, it's not like he can do anything about her as of now. Entering an unknown area without knowing anything is really dangerous.
Akira barely knows what a TV World looks like. Does he need a map in there? Is it really the same as Metaverse?
For now, he should be waiting for more info from Tsuba-
…
…
He is about to go toward a floor lower and straight home when he notices of a twin-tailed girl simply standing before him, eyes straight at him, frowning over something unknown to him.
"Can I help you?" he politely asks her that question.
Rin speaks up to him, "I am grateful of whatever you did for my sister. I didn't know the cruelty she faced throughout her life living with Matou family."
Well, of course you won't know anything. Sakura seems to be pretty good at hiding it. Even with that kind of treatment received daily, she still able to face forward with a smile plastered on her face when in school.
Some people are like that after all. He remembers Shiho Suzui, Ann's best friend who has been molested for quite a long time yet she tries her best acting like nothing happen just so that Ann won't suspect a thing.
The girl speaks up again, "But then you dragged her into the Holy Grail War, making her a substitute master for her brother."
He would love to correct her words, "That's not true. Sakura is the real ma-"
"There is also the fact that you are a not a Master of Blue, and that makes you my enemy."
Rude.
Also, she seems to have either a bad memory, or a massive ego, or an inability to actually listen to people. He would love it if he could lean to the first point, but then there is this one simple truth of her being really smart in this school.
"Don't get me wrong," she now pulling her hand up, gesturing in number two closed together, fingers pointing at him, "I didn't really like this method either, but our team leader told us to abandon all chivalry and use any method or opportunity necessary in order to win the war."
With that, familiar red and black beams are shot repeatedly at him, forcing him to quickly move to the side and dodging the shots.
That was close…
"Gandr?" he speaks out loud, and Rin quickly catches on his words.
"You really are a magus then, Kurusu-san. There is no way a non-magus can recognize a simple Scandinavian curse."
It is? He wouldn't know. He's not a magus.
He pushes his head, peering at her, now seeing her hands covered in magical circuits- my god, that's way too many!
He is going to stay there all day with that amount of circuits. From what Sakura told him, Gandr didn't take much of prana, so it is quite a preferable way of attacking.
He knows he will have to fight a Master or a Servant one way or another. He never thought it would be this fast.
He didn't see her Servant here, so she must have been set as a trap in case he either runs to the rooftop or reaching the outside.
Quickly, he can feel his clothing burning, now having him wearing his Phantom Thief outfit, meaning he is ready for a fight.
Pulling out his gun, he jumps out of his cover, pointing his weapon toward her, and quickly pulls the trigger few times.
Rin startled to see his weapon, quickly pushing herself into the cover instead as she sees the bullets reaching the floor and ricochet somewhere else.
"A modern weapon? What kind of a magus are you!?"
Obviously the rarest one; the non-magus magus.
Taking this chance, he moves close to the window and opens it up.
Tohsaka seems to have move out of her cover, this time seeing his foot already on the edge of the window.
"Wha- this is the second floor! What are you trying to do!?" she screams out, somehow looking concern at him.
Giving off a wide smile, Joker jumps off from the building, straight to the ground and landing perfectly without breaking anything.
His status as half-Servant is quite handy here.
Without wasting any chance, he quickly runs out from there.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
And he is right about where Archer is.
As soon as he approaches the field, he is greeted by an arrow shot near his foot, making him stopping on his track.
Pulling his head up, he sees the girl in red, holding white and black blades, standing in the middle of the field with a wide smile on her face, "Hello there~!"
Along with that, he can hear footsteps reaching him from behi- wait, hold on!
Did she jump out of the window like he did? How did she get here so fast?
"Well, I guess I couldn't run away from any of you."
As he said such words, his eyes say otherwise, trying so hard to figure a way to escape the battle.
Against heroes of the old, he would love it if he didn't fight any of them. Some of them are truly monsters weird powers, either actually real or made into existence thanks to their legends.
Could his non-complicated Persona magic is even up to par against their magecraft?
Who knows?
Archer swings her blades around, suddenly sprinting forward as she shouts at him, "Here I come!"
"Ose!"
The caped leopard man Persona appears right before the white-haired girl manages to slash him down, deflecting her blades with his own.
Ose then pushes her off, breaking the two blades into pieces as she is now forced to stand away from the creature.
Rin seems to be in total denial, "D-did you just called him 'Ose'? As in, one of the demons of Goetia!? That's impossible! Nobody should be able to summon any demons or any other non-human beings as a Servant! You not only summoned three different Servants, but a demon one? I cannot accept that!"
She keeps on screaming, "There must be a secret behind that! I know it! That must be your familiar! Of course, that should be the only explanation for that!"
Well… one point for Rin Tohsaka, maybe…
"Wait… then which one is your Servant!?" she screams out what seems to be a question.
He would like to treat that as a rhetorical one and focus on escaping this Archer before him. Now that her blades have been brok-
Owh, come on!
Widening his eyes in shock, Archer has her blades reappears inside her hand, grinning wide, "Quite a strong familiar you got there. But I am kinda disappointed that you use your familiar against me instead of calling your Servant instead."
Maybe he should be telling them that he IS a Servant?
Nah…
With his mask returns to his face and Ose disappears, he searches through the sea of souls before pulling out another one, "Yoshitsune!"
A katana-wielding samurai appears, now ready for a fight against Archer as she moves forward.
Yoshitsune moves forward and strikes her, but somehow she simply steps aside and escapes the strike, actually reaching him and smashes her blades onto the samurai, forcing him to defend himself with another of his blade.
But Archer quickly stumbles when the samurai disappears out of nowhere, now having Joker runs toward her.
"Garudyne!"
He shoots a wind out, hitting her as she spins and kneels down from the force of the wind.
Joker then jumps above her, taking this chance and starts spamming his bullets against her.
"Archer!" Rin screams out at her own Servant, as she pulls out her gems, ready to support her.
But the girl in red doesn't seem to have a need of that.
Instead, few swords appear around her, floating and acting as defense mechanism against his hot leads, deflecting each attack with ease.
Archer chuckles, "You are one interesting Servant."
Wait… whaaaaaa-
"WHAT!?" Rin screams out at her, "Are you stupid!? Why would you call him a Servant!?"
The girl turns to look at her Master, "That's because he is. You are a Master, didn't you sense his's Servant's aura near him?"
"Isn't that's just his Servant sticking close to- Hold on!" the twin-tailed girl seems to have notice of something, "That Servant's aura still lingers around him when he jumps over you, and that aura is with him all the time!"
Crap…
He should get going now.
He needs a distraction.
"Ishtar!"
For some reason, Rin looks like she flinches a bit when the name of the goddess of love and war is summoned, appear near him in the form of beautiful blonde woman with uneven horns.
Archer somehow shows a big smile on her face, "My, my, that's no ordinary familiar."
"What do you mean by that?" Rin turns toward her.
"It's just like Ose, this emits quite an aura from her. I thought that's just how familiar feels like coming from him, but this one has some divinity in her. Feels like she is a real goddess."
"That is correct, my child," Ishtar smiles at her, before turning toward her Master, giving a smile while making Rin quite uncomfortable, especially by how little she covers her skin.
For some reason, her hands are fidgeting with her gems.
Archer, on the other hand, opens up her mouth wide, "Wha- Don't tell me summoning something like these is your Noble Phantasm? That's cheating!"
Says someone who still have swords floating around.
Akira wastes no time ordering his Persona to commence an attack, "Ishtar, Maziodyne!"
"Understood, Master," she nods as she flips herself around.
Two stream of lighting starts shooting from above, getting them startled as they are barely surviving the attacks.
"Again," Joker speaks up, ready to escape them.
Another Maziodyne are about to be shot, but Archer quickly moves her fingers onto her right hand, "Not this time!"
She reveals a black band around her wrist with lines on it, as the lines fly off from the band and start to form a shape, all the while she mutters, "The Carven Bow: Failnaught."
Failnaught? One of the Knights of Round, Tristan's bow?
"Phantom Canceller!"
With a scream, Archer shoots out a beam that goes straight to where the lightning is about to hit, forming a huge gust of wind as the lightning simply disappears, as if they are getting swallowed.
That… thing just ate his Zio! That thing just ate his ZIO!
Archer sees this opportunity and pulls out a white thin sword, charging forward and strikes him down, except he pulls out his knife to defend himself against that attack, merely being pushed away from her.
That is quite a troublesome skill. Is that a Noble Phantasm? Feels like that thing used quite some prana here.
Damn… well, he just had to keep on fighting till he finds that one opportunity he can take to escape.
Archer seems to be really persistent, moving close to him and start spamming strikes onto him, not letting him off from her sight and not even let him do anything else.
"Able to summon gods and demons to your side; what kind of Servant are you? What is your True Name?" she suddenly barrages him with such questions.
He simply grunts, moving off away from her and prepare to pull out another Servant, "Siegfried!"
A dark-skinned man in red armor appears before him, standing in stance, holding tight to his sword.
Archer smiles even wider at him, speaking out to him, "That is really cool! You even summon a hero by your side. You don't even need to pull out this grail war nonsense just to summon one. Alaya would kill to get that ability of yours."
"Still," she pulls out some more of her swords around her, even the black and white blades she used before, "It is my duty to defeat the enemy Servant. I am a fellow Servant after all."
She then charges forward, with the swords around her are launched forward.
"Vorpal Blade!" Akira screams out an order.
Hearing that, Siegfried goes for a single strike, not even having the enemy reach him yet.
But, that action seems to have been enough as streams of slashes in the form of white lights appear all around her, taking and breaking some of the blades around her while knocking others down.
Fortunately for her, she is stuck in the middle of the strikes, not moving from the spot, "That is sooo close~!"
"Enough!"
Finally, something stop them from fighting even further.
Jeanne enters the scene, calling out to Rin, "Master of Archer, withdraw your Servant from this unnecessary fight."
"Wha-" the girl is clearly not taking her order well, "R-Ruler! What are you talking about!? I am fighting an enemy Servant!"
"He is not a Servant of Red.'
"Wait, really?" Archer turns toward, already dismissing her blade, "Strange…"
Rin pushes questions onto her, "Ruler, what do you mean by that? What do you mean, he is not a Servant of Red? What is he then?"
Ruler simply responds with, "He is a Servant on the neutral side, like me. He has a different duty that does not concern any of you."
"I… I see…" the heiress seems silenced, looking away as she now turns toward Akira, "I-"
"Sorry for the fight there," Archer moves close toward Kurusu, bowing slightly at him, "My Master just doesn't like you making her sister as a Master."
"Overprotective, huh?" Akira mutters, "I understand. Sisterly love can be quite troublesome."
"I know, right~?" she chuckles, before wondering, "Say, what is your Servant class?"
"Fool."
"Wh-" It's Tohsaka's turn to get close to him, "What kind of class is that!? I have never heard of that kind of class!"
"It's… a…. a special class I was summoned into."
Archer seems to be doing a bit of thinking, "Fool… like the Tarot card?"
Her Master turns toward her, "The Tarot card, Fool… the new beginning of a life… that sounds a bit too powerful to be a Servant's class."
Jeanne coughs a bit, getting their attention as she mutters, "Then, my work here is done."
As she is about to move away, she suddenly hears her stomach growling.
And now, everyone is looking at her.
"Eh?" Archer springs a question, "Ruler, are you hungry? Shouldn't you, as a Servant, not feeling starving at all?"
"Ah… well…" Ruler seems to be unable to speak, and she seems not wanting to answer that question.
Akira sighs, walking toward Jeanne, "Then, you should come to my home then. I'll cook something good for you."
"Wait!" Rin speaks up, "I still have a lot of question! You are not running away from me this time!"
"Sure, let us all go to my home together."
"What about this guy?" Archer points out toward Siegfried who is still standing there.
Somehow, nobody points out how Akira's eyes are still burning…
As he dismissed him, he couldn't help but notice that Jeanne D'arc is wiping something from her eyes and cheeks.
She notices his stare before quickly gives off a smile for him, "W-we should get going now."
With the party moving away out from the school, none of them realized that a girl in black ponytail just stares at them, standing side by side with a purple-haired man, also with a ponytail, wearing a kimono and a sword is strapped behind his back.
The two walk away from there.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shirou decided that he is going for a grocery shopping that evening, pretty much what he always did for the household. It is something that Sella would willingly to give up on.
He also get to go this very good store that somehow makes him feel like at home; Junes.
"Every day is great at your Junes~!"
That song is quite catchy, he had to admit. Sometimes he ended up humming the song while at home. It has this hypnotic feel to it.
"Saber, you really didn't need to come with me," he speaks up, looking at the blonde Servant in white shirt and blue skirt, staring at him with a stern face.
"I cannot do that, Shirou," she replies to him, "Kiritsugu told me to watch over you. Your actions before will garner the attention of the enemies."
"I can protect myself."
"So do I."
Shirou simply decides to be quiet and keeps on picking for ingredients.
"Stuck inside a TV? That's ridiculous. Otou-sama, I have never heard of this dimension called 'Midnight Channel'. Is it a Reality Marble? The grail didn't tell me about this."
The redheaded male quickly pulls his head up, looking around.
"It's Caster and her Master," Saber speaks up, gaining the attention of the young Emiya.
His eyes caught the sight of what appears to be a grey-haired man walking alongside the pink-haired girl in striped sweater.
Those two are the people Saber mentioned.
TV… midnight…
Could they be talking about the one from last night? The girl with Saber's face?
Slowly he sneaks forward, following the two with Saber calling out for him, "Shirou, what are you doing?"
He keeps on stalking the two, ignoring Saber's words as he now stops and seeing the two standing before the TV section.
The girl turns to look at him, "Otou-sama, why aren't we doing this at our room?"
The man simply shrugs, "Force of habit, I guess?"
He slowly approaches one of the bigger TVs, and starts to look both sides of them, before moving his hand across the sc-
The hand is inside the TV…
Wh-what?
"Trace On…" he whispers to himself, using his scanning ability and scans the TV.
There doesn't seem to be any different than normal TV, but somehow the man is able to enter the TV slowly and disappears.
The girl in pink is nearly screaming, but closing her mouth with her hands, before trying the same thing.
She managed to do the same, entering the TV fully with no problem.
Now Shirou decides to do the same.
He approaches the TV, looking both ways and confirming that nobody is around before moving his hand close to the scree-
"Shirou, stop," Saber grabs his hand as he is in shock.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
[Earlier that morning]
Sakura, as usual, sitting inside her class as other girls seem to be gathering around her.
It seems she has no problem making friends as she thought it is going to be, what's with the issue with her brother.
Maybe she was reading too much into this? She was so sure that people are going to look at her as if she is a criminal if people learn about that.
The teacher soon enters the class, with all students sit at their own tables.
"Class," he speaks up to them all, "We have a new student starting today. She just transferred here from Tokyo and I hope you are being nice to her. We are supposed to have two students today, but sadly the other one is not here today."
He then turns to where the door is, calling out to whoever is outside right now, "Come in."
Sakura sees a black-haired, ponytailed girl enters the class, seeing that she didn't wear their uniform or brown and white, instead wearing her own black blazer with checkered skirt.
The girl looks at them all, speaks up with no tone of voice whatsoever, "Good morning, I am Shiho Suzui."
The teacher speaks to her, "Suzui-san, you should… sit beside Sakura. She is that purple-haired girl over there."
The girl slowly walks toward Sakura and goes to sit where the empty desk is at.
Sakura stares at her, seeing how something about the girl's eyes that scream familiarity to her.
She has this urge to speak to her, to at least be acquainted to her, thanks to the same sense of familiarity the girl gave her.
"Hey, my name is Sakura Matou," she whispers to her.
The girl turns toward her, slightly nod as an act of greeting.
End chapter.
It has come to my attention that some people have hard time reading this due to numbers of characters.
To that, I ask that you guys don't read this story like a map.
If you have hard time following characters, simply do what I always do; follow the characters as they appear in the story.
I use this trick when watching anime like Naruto, or playing games like Kingdom Hearts; both have numerous characters and overly complicated plots.
In this chapter, there are less Kiritsugu, less Sakura and no Shinji. Do not follow their story.
In this chapter, there are Yu, Shirou and obviously, Akira. Follow them all.
The story is very simple, really. If they are not mention in the present, then they do nothing until being mentioned.
On a serious note, I am really sorry if you find this story hard to follow. We didn't even reach Tokyo yet.
Oops, spoiler…
It is also come to my attention that people have been confusing Archer of Blue as Kuro.
She's not.
It has been mention so many times that Archer looks like Iri or Illya. Last chapter, Saber mentioned that both Archer and Illya have the same hair color and the same SKIN color.
It should be noted that Kuro has a dark skin and her hairstyle isn't even close to Illya. She also has a different voice actress.
It should be noted that EMIYA, who also fits the same condition, has never been confused with Shirou.
It should also be noted that most characters in this story are in no way came from Fate/Kaleid world, who are so dumb they couldn't differentiate a nice white skinned girl and a slutty dark skinned girl.
This dumd anime logic has been oppressing our mind for too long. It needs to stop.
Please call 1-800-KURONOTILLYA and you too can make a difference.
Next: Alongside Touma and Astolfo, Akira finally ventures into the TV world, and on the way, they meet Yu and Caster and the two fight. Meanwhile, Rin and Archer are being ambushed by Berserker of Red.
Red team is still in need of Caster and I intended to have a character from SMT4A to be the Master. Tell me who should be the Master (again, not Nanashi. Please stop asking him to be Ruler either) and who should be the Servant.
Blue Team:-
Saber = Kiritsugu Emiya & Artoria Pendragon
Archer = Rin Tohsaka & Archerko
Lancer = Sakura Matou & Medusa
Rider = ? & ?
Caster = Yu Narukami & Tamamo no Mae
Assassin = Olga Marie Animusphere & ?
Berserker = Flat Escardos & ?
Red Team:-
Saber = ? & ?
Archer = Kotone Shiomi & Athena (Aigis)
Lancer = ? & Cu Chulainn
Rider = Touma Akagi & Astolfo
Caster =
Assassin = ? & ?
Berserker = ? & ?
Neutral:-
Ruler = Jeanne D'arc
Fool = Akira Kurusu