"What happened to you?" asked Rin. She knew Shiro had been going to Karakura more often than normal, but all she could get out of him was that Ichigo had something to do with it.

"Ichigo," he said flatly, crashing on her couch.

Rin had given him almost free reign of her house, seeing as how his projection spell was actually helping her complete something that her ancestors had been trying (and failing) to complete for over a century. It might take a few more years, but Rin was completely confident that she would be able to complete the Jewel Sword that Zelretch had tasked her ancestor with.

They were friends, but Shiro was infinitely more polite than any other Magus she knew. Hence why he was free to come and go from her house within reason. Shiro was too polite to abuse that privilege, but he did occasionally crash on her couch or a guest room whenever he had a bad day and needed someone to complain to.

"I know it was Ichigo, but how the hell did he wear you down?"

"I had something in me that my dad left behind, and Ichigo had an acquaintance with a similar power. He sparred with me while she examined it...and there was a major difference after."

Rin raised an eyebrow. She knew Ichigo had found a Mystic Code geared towards absolute healing in Shiro one night, but he never said which one.

"So is it true that the reaper twit is gone?"

"Arcuied apparently called in the girl's family. Did you know that Rukia girl was from a noble clan? According to Ichigo her older brother was really pissed when he found out that she had been embarrassing the name. He came himself to drag her back, and last Urahara heard she was put on probation and given a warning. Oh, and apparently Ichigo has a contract with the Soul Society so they can call him in for help when anything happens in the living half."

"About time that girl left. So did Ichigo finally wise up to Arcuied liking him?"

Shiro smirked. It wasn't a very friendly one, but one that was far too reminiscent of her own. She approved.

"Arcuied set Len after him and after that they made it official," he said evilly.

Rin blinked, before laughing long and hard. It would take something like a succubus dream to make someone as thick as Ichigo realize that the White Princess actually liked him romantically.

She had entertained romantic notions towards him at one time, but those had been stomped out when she realized how dense he was sometimes. She had been thirteen at the time.

Ichigo was more than a bit irritable. This had something to do with a certain apostle that had entered his territory.

Altrouge Brunestud had shown up to see just who or what had caught Arcuied's attention enough that she lost her depression over the mess with Shiki. Thankfully without her pet, Primate Murder.

It was well known that the two historically did not get along well. In fact as Ichigo had once put it in front of Urahara, it was like dealing with Karin having Orihime as a sister. The two simply didn't mesh that well.

Fortunately he was able to play off her presence among his friends as a cousin from abroad.

"Altrouge!" said Arc happily, pouncing on the apostle.

"Dammit Arc, get the hell off of me," snapped Altrouge.

"So this is the Black Princess. Want some blackmail on Arc?" asked Karin grinning.

Altrouge stared at her for a moment.

"I only came to see who managed to break this idiot out of her depression. She should have stayed asleep after what happened," said Altrouge.

In fact it was only because of Zelretch's request that she had woken up so early at all.

Ichigo walked in with two cups, heated to the same temperature as the human body. Thankfully he had found a spell to pull that off without involving the microwave, as he didn't want to explain why the smell of blood came from it.

Arcuied took one and he handed the second to Altrouge. She raised an eyebrow.

"How surprising that a Magi such as yourself willingly caters to something like me," she said.

"Someone. You are not a thing, and despite your origins you still have a mind of your own. Around here we don't discriminate based on race...though if you were like the fallen apostles that Arc hunts then it would be an entirely different situation," said Ichigo.

Altrouge's eyebrows shot up. This Ichigo was certainly an intriguing person, if he was willing to ignore the fact she was a vampire. He even served them blood heated to just the right temperature, and after taking a sip it was her favorite blood type to boot. Seeing him handle her sister just showed how easily he meshed with Arcuied.

Still, she would have to see what sort of person he was before she left this alone.

"OH MY GOD! IT'S SOOOO CUTE!" squealed Karin.

Altrouge sweatdropped. That was not the reaction she had been wanting when introducing Karin to Primate Murder.

"Karin, you're supposed to freak out when you see something like that," said Yuzu tiredly.

"Why would I freak out over something as gorgeous as this?"

"I may have forgotten to mention that Karin fully plans to find a wolf and turn it into her familiar once I let her. She has a serious thing for dogs and canines," said Ichigo sheepishly.

Arcuied was just laughing at Altrouge's expression when she saw Karin's reaction to Primate Murder of all things. Ichigo would swear she even took a picture to show Zelretch.

Needless to say Ichigo was not surprised in the least that despite how Altrouge felt about Arcuied, she got along with Karin like a building on fire.

Though he had to put his foot down when Karin tried to arrange for the Black Princess to join the girlfriend bandwagon.

"Kurosaki. I need a word with you," said Uryu.

"What's up Ishida?"

"This."

Ichigo stared. This was two years too early for Command Seals to start showing up!

"You're a Master in the upcoming war?" he said in shock.

"Is that what this means?" asked Uryu.

"Command Seals. Rin has the incantation to summon with, but she was going to wait until the others started to bring out their Servants before she tried her luck."

"Do you think she would mind if I borrowed that book?" asked Uryu.

"Ask her or bribe her well enough and I don't think she'll care. The only catch is that she'll likely demand that you team up with her during the whole mess."

"Doable. Coincidentally did you know I recently came across a family tree of the Quincy clan?" asked Uryu.

"Really?"

"And you won't believe who I found on it."

"Who?"

"Your mother. According to the records Masaki was thrown out of the clan for marrying a soul reaper, who you know we didn't get along with."

"So the reason I couldn't learn magic with you and your dad is because my mother was kicked out?" asked Ichigo, sitting down with his lunch.

"Apparently. I can talk to my dad about it, if only to see if he would be willing to share some of the lesser secrets, but don't get your hopes up. The Quincy are more like the Fraga nowadays."

Uryu was given the basic incantation and told that he could have any Servant but Berserker seeing as how he had already been drawn.

He took a deep breath, cast a longing look at the last present his grandfather had ever given him, and started the incantation.

"Silver and Iron to the Origin.

Gem and the Archduke of Contracts to the Cornerstone.

The Ancestor is my Great Master Shweinorg.

The Alighted Wind becomes a Wall.

The Gates in the four directions close, coming from the Crown, the three-forked road that leads to the Kingdom circulate.

Shut (Fill). Shut (Fill). Shut (Fill). Shut (Fill). Shut (Fill).

Repeat every five times.

Simply, shatter once filled.

I announce.

Your self is under me, my fate (doom) is in your sword.

In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.

Here is my Oath.

I am the one who becomes all the good in the World of the Dead,

I am the one who becomes all of the evils in the World of the Dead.

You, Seven Heavens clad in three words of Power, arrive from the ring of deterrence,

O Keeper of the Balance!"

Uryu felt a little light headed as something drained on his prana and took form. The Command Seals lit up and he felt something connect to them.

"I have come when called. I ask of you, are you my Master?" asked a young girl's voice.

Uryu coughed a little before he said "I am."

"Servant Caster at your command, Master," curtseyed the girl.

Once the smoke fully cleared he got a good look at her. She was young, a little under or near ten, with light blond hair and vibrant blue eyes. She wore a gothic lolita-style dress and had a small hat to keep her hair out of her face. Her hair was in twin pigtails that went down her front.

"So you're Caster?" asked Uryu.

"Uh-huh! Now me and Master can have tea parties whenever we want! We can even bring other Servants in to play too~!" said Caster childishly.

"Let's see...Caster class, special ability...territory creation?" said Uryu looking up the Caster. He looked at the childish little Servant and had to ask what her Noble Phantasm was.

"You want to see my special place? Okay!"

Uryu found himself in a strange tea party. He noticed an odd hat on the seat Caster made him sit at. Seeing the Ace on the sleeve he chuckled.

"I've always wanted to see what it was like as the Mad Hatter... Wonder where the March Hare is," he said.

Uryu, for all his grumpy attitude, was an avid fan of anything to do with Lewis Carrol's work Through the Looking Glass. He had the jabberwocky poem memorized by heart. In fact his project that he had high hopes would earn him an entry into Clock Tower or Atlas was his recreation of the Vorpal Sword. Rin, when she heard of it later, offered to help him create one.

Apparently the idea of Uryu being that big a fan of Alice in Wonderland was amusing enough to get her to help.

"Hey Master? What's your name?" asked Caster childishly.

Uryu blinked. What was his name?

"Ishida Uryu. But I suppose you could call me Hatter," said Uryu jokingly. Caster clapped her hands in delight before she put the large top hat with the ace in the brim on his head.

"Welcome to my tea party!" she said happily.

Uryu would later wonder how he had managed to get Alice from the story as his Servant...though he would deny to his last breath that he had acted like the Mad Hatter at a tea party.

"So you got a child Caster?" asked Ichigo.

"That means Berserker, Lancer and Caster have been summoned, leaving Assassin, Saber, Archer and Rider," said Rin.

"We both know Shiro will get Saber...especially since that Noble Phanstasm I accidentally found will draw that one," said Ichigo

"You never did say which one it was," said Rin.

"I would prefer to wait until after he draws Saber to tell you. More fun that way. So that leaves Assassin, Rider and Archer. Which one are you going to draw Rin?"

"Since I won't get Saber I'll try for Archer. How about you?"

"I'll leave it to the luck of the draw. Speaking of which, I have two extra tickets to England for next week. Care to join me? Uryu's already claimed one," said Ichigo.

"Absolutely! Shiro might not be able to go, but there's no way I'll miss out on making an impression on those stuffy nobles!" said Rin, snagging a ticket from Ichigo's hand. He chuckled.

Ichigo, Rin, Uryu and his Servant Caster (she would sit in his lap astralized) boarded the plane while Arcueid would stick around Karakura to insure that Karin and Altrouge didn't get into too much trouble.

Altrouge loved hanging around Karin, as they both liked dogs. Since Karin didn't treat her any differently than she would Arcuied, they got along great. She had a real friend for a change.

Shiro would take some time off from his Magus training to hang out with Sakura Matou, Rin's younger sister and Shinji's adopted one. He had a bad feeling things weren't that good at home, and he was going to find out what was going on if it killed him.

"Ah London... a more polluted city outside Tokyo I have yet to see," said Ichigo, casting a discreet air-cleaning charm around his head. He passed the spell around to Uryu, Caster and Rin and soon they had sighs of relief.

"So who's going to give us the grand tour?" asked Rin joking.

"Normally Zelretch would, but he's off world and screwing around with some other poor sap. Waver said he would show us around the common areas and the places where the guests are allowed to go. He's hoping to see what I summon apparently."

"You're planning to summon over break?" asked Rin.

"I got the Seals last week, shortly after Uryu showed me his. Better to get it over with and learn how to fight with my Servant before some jerk tries to steal them from me," countered Ichigo.

Rin and Uryu were properly respectful to Waver, who was one of the rare few people in the Clock Tower who could speak more than passable Japanese without stumbling over the language. He seemed intrigued by Uryu's attempts to create a vorpal blade and was absolutely enchanted by Caster.

He also winced when he heard that Rin planned to get an apprenticeship with Zelretch through Ichigo.

"So our choices on the return home are plane or an all expenses paid cruise and getting a plane back to Japan?" said Rin.

"Apparently Uryu did something to amuse ol' Fang Face enough that he was willing to front the cash for the cruise. Something about more potential entertainment if we accepted," said Ichigo grimacing.

"Cruise. No way am I passing up a free trip on an ocean liner, even if we are getting off when it stops at Greece," said Rin.

Ichigo went to tell Zelretch their decision. It was a four-day trip to Greece, and ten hours of nonstop flying back to Fuyuki. And another day into the school year before he got back to Karakura.

He already had his dad writing a note to the school that he and Uryu had caught something abroad and would need two days off before they could return to class. That would give them a day to settle back into their usual routine.

"So when are you summoning your Servant?" asked Rin.

"Tell you what...you two get to be the first to meet them," said Ichigo. He was going to do it before he left.

"Finally!"

Ichigo went into the cleared room Zelretch had set aside.

"Silver and Iron to the Origin.

Gem and the Archduke of Contracts to the Cornerstone.

The Ancestor is my Great Master Shweinorg.

The Alighted Wind becomes a Wall.

The Gates in the four directions close, coming from the Crown, the three-forked road that leads to the Kingdom circulate.

Shut (Fill). Shut (Fill). Shut (Fill). Shut (Fill). Shut (Fill).

Repeat every five times.

Simply, shatter once filled.

I announce.

Your self is under me, my fate (doom) is in your sword.

In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.

Here is my Oath.

I am the one who becomes all the good in the World of the Dead,

I am the one who becomes all of the evils in the World of the Dead.

You, Seven Heavens clad in three words of Power, arrive from the ring of deterrence,

O Keeper of the Balance!"

Unlike Uryu, Ichigo had the sense to cover his mouth and nose to keep the smoke from gagging him.

"Servant Rider has answered your call. I ask of you, are you my master?" said the rather beautiful woman with long purple hair and a blindfold.

"I am."

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Why are you wearing a blindfold? Doesn't that make it hard to see?" he had to ask.

"I can sense things perfectly fine, and this blindfold is more for your protection than my own. I do not wish to kill my Master out of carelessness,"she answered calmly.

"Why? It's not like your gaze can turn me into stone, right?" joked Ichigo.

Rider looked at him impassively.

"Right?" he said, hoping that the joke wasn't the truth.

"I would rather not say."

Ichigo put his head into his hand. Of course...he would end up summoning the anti-hero Medusa. And this explained why Zelretch thought it would be entertaining to have them take a short cruise to Greece.