[Shirou found Illyasviel watching him across the street. The two faced each other, in silence, before an ambulance rushed through robbing Shirou's attention. When he turned back to Illya, the girl was already gone.]
"Illya!?" Miyu and Kuro exclaimed at the same time.
"Me!?" Illya echoed the same surprise. "I'm in the movie!?"
"It's your time to shine, Illya!" Ruby cheered.
"It's not her..." Sapphire said.
Irisviel felt her vision go blurry, but didn't cry. That little girl was her daughter. Her real daughter. She had grown so much. But happiness in that family could only last for so long, and soon the realization of how lonely the girl must be hit Irisviel pretty hard.
"She disappeared like in a horror movie. How creepy!" Ritsuka felt a shiver run down her spine.
[The city in ruins appeared again. A lone child stumbled through flames.]
"For Heaven's sake!" Martha got scared with the sudden change. "This place again...!"
Atalanta clenched her teeth until they nearly broke. Witnessing that child alone was painful enough, but the fraction of despair coming from his wounded heart reached her as if she had looked in a mirror, finding herself as a baby.
Jeanne noticed Atalanta's suffering and wanted to comfort the woman, but didn't got close. She always wondered why the huntress avoided her and after seeing the fragment of Trifas the reason became pretty clear. The saint didn't thought she was wrong, but couldn't blame the huntress either.
"Emiya!" Atalanta roared. "All this is just a nightmare or not?"
Emiya just looked at Ritsuka, his face saying "maybe it's a spoiler, do I answer or not?"
"It doesn't matter in this case... I want to know too..."
"Right now, Shirou Emiya is dreaming, but everything here happened." Emiya revealed without a hint of emotion in his voice.
The answer made everyone surprised.
"Shit..." Jeanne Alter felt a glimpse of guilt discovering that the man was engulfed in flames when young. If she knew that Archer had gone through something similar, she would have got hold of herself on some things said to him in the past... at least a little.
Artoria didn't have the surprise factor, thus didn't seem affected as many there, but she was suffering just as much. She could face her past mistakes without problems, but witnessing her old Master suffering like that was too much.
"So this is what Fuyuki looked like inside that accident." El-Melloi II had seen the whole thing from afar, but he paid little attention at the time, dealing with all the grief over Iskandar. "Surviving something like this... how is it possible?"
Watching others suffer was a hobby to Reines, but that was beyond her limit.
"What a strange world we live in," she said.
Gray, who was just as stunned as the rest, looked at the girl in confusion.
"Every time I interacted with that guy, I never gave him the slightest bit of attention. I always thought he was just a knucklehead, asking myself what Luvia saw in him." Reines glanced at Emiya and went back to the lone boy. "Who knew he had all this behind him."
[The current Shirou Emiya appeared, following the same path as the boy, and watching with a blank stare.]
"That's why this guy is always suicidal on missions." Robin noted upon realizing how unusual, in such an environment, was Shirou's blank stare and Archer's lack of expression.
"Shimabara hell all over again." Shirou Amakusa felt a terrible nostalgia there. Another hero who came from a world of flames like me.
[This dream again. After this, I was saved by Kiritsugu.]
Tamamo had no idea how this Kiritsugu managed to save young Emiya. Not only because the flames and all that destruction, but also the thousand-curses scattered in that place, enough to nullify any kind of healing magecraft.
Miyu found herself wanting to know if her brother went through something similar. She knew that Shirou had been saved in an accident by Kiritsugu, he told her that, but never specified what accident was. In hindsight, she should have asked... it's something he probably wanted to get off his chest.
"I don't want to watch this anymore!" Illya buried her face in her legs.
Irisviel and Atalanta shared the same look of regret. Even if some things were unpleasant in those fragments, they weren't really harmful for these children, but that movie had barely started and it was already being darker than all the previous fragments together.
"Poor children..." Parvati was sad for Emiya, but also worried about the girls.
"Once a Goody Two-shoes, always a Goody Two-shoes, huh, Parvati?" Kama sighed. "If these girls came to watch a Holy Grail War expecting cuteness, they're all idiots. To uncover Archer's secrets we must suffer seeing such miseries."
Parvati looked at Kama with a serious look, "When you say 'miseries', I feel like you're not referring to these ruins..."
"Oh, I'm definitely not. Hehe. By 'miseries', I mean all those pathetic scenes from Shirou and Sakura! Just a romance-addled goody-goody like you can like this kind of thing!"
[Shirou stopped walking when he felt a hand pulling his clothes and found Illyasviel behind him.
"If you don't summon yours soon, you're gonna die, Big Brother."
Shirou woke up, startled.]
"Looks like we've been split into groups again." Gawain noted. "I have to say, I never expected to find myself in a bedroom with fellow servants and a young boy waking up."
They were in Shirou's room, watching the boy rubbing his eyes after such strange dream.
"I still can't believe the ruins were real," Jeanne said.
Gawain felt very sorry for Archer. Unlike Lancelot, he didn't have any serious issues with that man, except for a few moments of jealousy. Next time I'm going to give him a break from the kitchen and use what Percival taught me. I bet my king will be happy too!
"Damn you, fragment! What a waste of time!" Nero complained. Disliking was a kind way to describe her feelings toward that fragment, and the hatred became even worse when she saw the stress Ritsuka was suffering. "It's neither art nor entertainment. It's an insult to the importance of cinema! Umu!"
"I find all this very interesting!" Reines chuckled.
El Melloi II noticed her intentions right away.
"Reines, don-"
"I beg to differ!"
"Huh? I thought you'd be loving all this, Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. Weren't you the one who was the king of theaters and won over a thousand competitions in a row? This singularity is the future of your beloved art!"
"Future!? This is nothing but an insult to my legacy as an artist! Art was made to reach the hearts of those who appreciate it and not to swallow them! There's nothing genuine about making this real. And the only thing this Singularity causes is claustrophobia! Umu!"
"Really? I disagree. I was planning to find a way to bring the data about how this singularity works to my world. I bet I'm going to make good money with it!" Reines smiled. "Did you hear, brother? You'll be able to pay your debt that way. Am I not a great person?"
"Fool, fool, fool! I won't let you commit such sin! You deserve to be put down by the flames of my sword!"
Jeanne and Gawain ran to hold Nero from attacking Reines (who was laughing).
El-Melloi II had no patience for that madness. He leaned against the bedroom wall as he waited for the next scene. With closed eyes and a good cigar, his body relaxed.
"Look who's with us, me."
"It's not Medusa again, me."
"But that's also fun."
"I fully agree."
El-Melloi II widened his eyes. "Oh no, not you two!"
[TODAY]
Ignoring the chaos and El Melloi II's cries for help, Emiya barely hid his smirk when his theory seemed to be advancing.
["Late last night, there was a massive gas leak in a large-scale facility in the New City district of Fuyuki..."
Shirou and Sakura were cooking while Taiga was waiting for breakfast on the table.
"It is believed that the leak originated in one of the underground restaurants..."]
Medea was so focused on the chance to see Kuzuki again that she forgot that she would probably be one of the antagonists of that fragment. At least she could feel reassured knowing that Ritsuka wouldn't think less of her for some dubious acts...
"And if you do, Master, you'll have to recognize that Emiya made evil acts too."
[Sakura let the plate in her hand fall to the floor as she saw signs of a future command seal on Shirou's hand.]
It only took Artoria a few seconds to realize what that meant.
"So, Sakura has always been a mage…" Artoria wasn't that much surprised. During the war she thought Sakura was just a normal girl from the context given to her about the Matou family, and she didn't think beyond that because was not necessary.
["Senpai... I have a favor to ask. Can you come home as soon as possible after school today?"]
All groups were outside the house watching Sakura leave, but the TV news kept echoing in their heads:
["Early this morning, in a home in the Miyama Town discrict of Fuyuki, four residents were found dead. Reports by the Fuyuki Police Department claim all victims were murdered with a sharp blade-like object."]
Cú pretended to be deaf and blind when he felt Scáthach's gaze on him. Damnit, Teacher, why you gotta be so smart! She managed to connect the dots too fast. And it wasn't like he was proud of those things, if someone is to blame was that damn priest.
"Some problem?" Mash asked.
"Of course not, Shieldy."
"Of course not..." Scáthach repeated next to him.
"Jeez! When did you get behind me?" Cú wiped the sweat running down his face.
[That day Shirou walked alone to school.]
"All this walking is bad for my back." Muramasa sighed. But it wasn't just walking that was making him tired. "Look, kiddo, I know ya seem to have some connection with my vessel, but..." Muramasa took a deep breath and once more used all his strength to try to pull Kuro out of his right arm. "I'm not him!"
"LALALA. What the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't grieve!" Kuro sang to herself.
"This don't make a lick of sense!"
[When Shirou walked through the school gate, he felt something strange dominate his instincts, to the point of being so focused that only Mitsuzuri caught his attention by shouting in his ear.]
Muramasa and Kuro stopped fighting when they felt that too. The boy didn't noticed, but the pair immediately understood the danger in that school now.
"A Bounded Field, huh?" Cú Chulainn commented. "I forgot this existed."
"A dangerous one." Scáthach looked around. "With a complicated network. I'd like to take a good look at how it works, but for now I feel like it would be hard to break down."
"Seems like the war will finally start," Muramasa said.
Mash gulped.
"Ugh, get the stick out of your ass already, Mash!" Mordred smiled. "This is where the fun begins!"
[Later, Shirou went to visit Sakura's classroom, but she had already left and, in her place, he ended up finding Shinji.
"Oh, if you're up for it, you can-"
"Don't trouble Mitsuzuri too much."
All sympathy in Shinji was swept away hearing that.
"Watch your tone. I don't want an outsider telling me that."]
"That kid has a very fragile ego." Lancelot saw a fair amount of aspiring knights like that. He always tried to advise them on some mistakes in posture, but they never listened to him. The result was always the same: they persisted in the error and were defeated.
[Shinji suddenly breaks into a smile. And clearly nothing good is going to come of it.
"Can I ask you to do something for me, too?"
"Sure. What is it?"
"Stupid cleanup work for stupid archery club!"
"Isn't that your job?"
Shinji persisted with the idea saying that he had important things to do. He decided to act cynically and asked Shirou to take his place once more, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"All right. I don't mind." Shirou replied with a smile.
Clearly Shinji was not happy with that result.]
"To think I would find myself agreeing with trash. "Mr. Nice Guy" there is an idiot! I thought I'd see something different from Archer, but it seems that stupidity is embedded in their soul." Jeanne Alter didn't like Shirou's benevolent attitude. It only took a few neurons to understand that he was being used by that blue-haired idiot. "He's the type I hate the most! A stujerk! A damn slave, that's what he is! And by choice. This movie sucks! Change the protagonist right now! Although... Meh, leave him alone. If it's to choose between him and Sieg, I'd rather keep him!"
"I don't think it's that bad," Boudica replied. "From the family album, I'd say he still considers Shinji his friend, even if Shinji himself doesn't. They're childhood friends after all, those friendships you try to keep."
"I don't see a problem with that either. Shirou clearly just wants to keep the friendship between them!" Gareth agreed.
Miyu was happy hearing the two women saying that. Gareth was right, this Shirou and his brother just wanted a world where everyone helped each other. It was living with Illya and the others that she learned how cooperation could solve problems much faster than trying alone.
"Sieg and Shirou aren't that different, they just want the best for those close to them." Parvati added.
"Great, I had to fall into the 'goody two-shoes group'..." Jeanne Alter complained, walking away. "I'm out. To hell with Shirou!"
"I get her point. The problem is that Shirou needs to understand that there are people who just want to use you and Shinji is clearly one of them. If he doesn't learn that, he's going to have a pretty sad life," Ishtar spoke.
Parvati and Gareth didn't answer, they agreed on this point.
Ishtar said something important. Too much benevolence has been the cause of the death of many heroes in my time. Chiron could list a great number of them.
[School announcement said that was time for students to leave. After that, a sequence of scenes of what Sakura was doing after school started: reading in the park, walking around the city, looking at the fish in the aquarium.]
The servants around Kama jumped in surprise when the little girl hit the wall with a punch. The impact spread through the environment, but the wall remained intact.
"He's not just a simple idiot. He's a blind and deaf idiot!" Kama had no doubt that asking him to come home early was one of the first requests Sakura made to the boy since they first met. And Shirou ignored the girl without a second thought.
Parvati focused on the aquarium scene, wondering if this was how Sakura felt about herself.
"Sakura..." Medusa felt pain seeing Sakura so lonely.
"I'm getting dizzy from this change of places so fast..." Ritsuka complained.
[Meanwhile, Shirou was still cleaning the dojo. When finished, he noticed how much he became distracted by the cleaning.]
"That's Emiya for you. It never changes." Tamamo laughed.
"It's true. I've never seen anyone impress Nightingale like he does. I think Emiya must be the only servant she puts her faith when the subject 'cleaning' is brought up. Can you believe she almost ripped my tongue out when I ate an udon that fell on the ground?!" Musashi complained. "Crazy woman."
"Did you get it before 3 seconds?" Ritsuka asked.
"Of course. Within 3 seconds it falls under the rule. It was safe to eat!"
"So you're definitely right!"
"Right!?"
[Shirou simulates a bow in his hands, but gives up in the process.
"I should go home..."]
"Looks like he miss archery after all," Sasaki said.
"I understand the sentiment. Despite the fact that most of my life I spent with a sword in hand, there were many moments when I missed my bow," Tristan answered.
"Heh. I used to sleep with mine when I was alive. And the few times I was without my bow, I couldn't fall asleep at all." Robin chuckled.
[Shirou's reverie was interrupted when the battle going on outside caught up him.]
"We're together again!" Martha said.
"I guess we'll witness another important scene then," Amakusa replied.
Cú didn't even have to leave the dojo to guess who was doing that. He sighed noticing that he would earn a fair amount of death threats for what would happen next.
Shirou ran towards the exit and everyone followed him. But the moment their feet step outside, the group found themselves on a hill.
"That's Sakura, right?" Astolfo pointed to the girl going up the road.
Ishtar looked at the direction the girl was going and her eyes widened.
"Look who's over there!"
A blonde man was waiting.
"What's he doing here!?" Ereshkigal exclaimed.
"Huh? I didn't know Gilgamesh participated in this war." Artoria Alter was interested in that man's presence. It would be a good enemy for her counterpart to beat.
Iskandar whistled. "So he really won our war."
El-Melloi II frowned. How can he still be here?
But before they could focus properly on that man, the scene switched again and they were back at school. Specifically in the courtyard with two servants and one girl.
"Emiya!"
"Cú Chulainn!"
"My beautiful vessel!"
But that scene ended quickly too. They were back on the hill and Sakura was now a little ahead of them, getting close to the blonde man now smiling.
"I think I'm going to throw up..." Ritsuka put a hand over her mouth.
"Senpai..." Mash could only rub the girl's back.
The switching between places was becoming exhausting even to the eyes and minds of the servants. It was like they were being teleported non-stop.
"Calm down, Master, things will get better," Musashi said.
"See, stupid girl! I said this fragment sucks!" Nero yelled.
Reines shrugged.
["Who's there!?"]
Their eyes went directly to Shirou running in fear.
"Oh, no!" Raikou said.
Scáthach already knew where to look, focusing on her pupil who disappeared from the courtyard.
"How pathetic, chasing a child..." She could only shake her head in disappointment.
Cú looked away, embarrassed.
[Another change of scenery. This time, Shirou's desperate voice kept ringing in their ears while Gilgamesh stopped in front of Sakura and moved his lips, telling her something the movie didn't let them hear or understand.]
Emiya remembered seeing Gilgamesh interacting with the girl in his war, but never thought about it. And Rin didn't wanted to discuss the event either.
"This whole immersion thing really is a double-edged sword..." Ritsuka was ready to give up.
[Shirou stopped running in the middle of the school. He gave a few chuckles, believing he had gotten far enough to lose his pursuer.]
But he was the only one who came to that conclusion. All the servants who filled the corridor around him knew he was wrong.
"No, Shirou, keep running!" Jack and Nursery begged.
"Big Brother!" Illya clenched her fists in worry.
"As much as it was a mistake stop running, he's still a human. He needs to breathe..." Jeanne spoke.
"Yes, but he needs to recover quickly, because a servant doesn't need to worry about breathing," Artoria Alter said.
["Hey, there."
Sakura widened her eyes and turned towards the school, at the entrance of her house, apparently sensing Shirou's death.]
None of the servants opened their mouths to say anything (except Ritsuka who finally threw up), some with no reaction and others simply surprised by the boy's sudden end.
[Silently, Sakura stared the faraway school, before taking a deep breath and entering her house.
Then the opening credits began.]
"I'm blind!" Astolfo screamed in despair.
"You're not blind. Whoever's responsible for the singularity made another change to the way we watching the fragments." El-Melloi II explained. "Now I would guess that we won't be switching locations as much as before."
And the teacher was right. Instead of the world changing around them, their vision was blocked by the movie scenes.
"It's like a VR headset!" Astolfo noticed. "Tomoe must be loving it! I mean, if it's like this in her viewing room too."
"Hmmm... that's a little better..." Ritsuka was happy about that. "This way I don't think I'm going to throw up again."
"Didn't I say it would get better?" Musashi patted the girl on the back.
"It looks like we're still in the same place and position before we lost our sight," Atalanta noted. "I'm still holding Jack and Nursery's hands. And I can smell the same people that were around me before."
El-Melloi II found in that a curious change. Ritsuka didn't give any orders like yelling "Start!" or "Pause!". But the fragment settled for her comfort anyway. [I]Sherlock said that our "enemy" doesn't seem to want to hurt Ritsuka and I changed my mind about this guess when the ruins affected her... but this silly change makes me confused again[/I].
[Shirou's body was left in the hallway, a puddle of blood spreading underneath him, as his face grew more and more pale.]
Irisviel hugged Illya and Miyu.
"I can see even with my eyes closed..." Illya tightened her grip on the woman.
El Melloi II sighed. You're a damn idiot, perpetrator.
[A red pendant appeared.]
Different from simulating the world, by covering their vision like this the fragment showed the scenes like a normal movie.
[A silhouette that clearly depicted Rin was doing something with Shirou. Shirou then got up off the ground, apparently fine.]
"It's Ishtar's vessel again," Ritsuka noted.
"I think she was the one who saved Shirou, Senpai," Mash said.
"Hmmm…so that's how the kid was saved? I've always wondered about that." Cú whistled. "This girl never ceases to amaze me."
"Even with Gáe Bolg, you couldn't kill a child? You really are useless theses days, pupil!" Scáthach scolded.
"Are you happy with him surviving or not!?"
"Thank god!" Illya smiled.
"I mean, Illya, he's the protagonist... usually, they almost die all the time, but the plot always saves them somehow!" Ruby said.
"Don't be insensitive, Ruby," Sapphire complained.
Ishtar's only concern was how beautiful that jewel of Rin was.
"So..." Robin frowned. "Why the hell the first thing he did after waking up was clean up his blood from the floor?"
[Shirou took the pendant and went home. There, Lancer attacked him. Shirou dodged at the last moment and managed to run away.]
"AGAIN, SETANTA!?" Scáthach summoned her lance in rage. "DIDN'T ALL MY YEARS OF TRAINING GIVE YOU ENOUGH SKILLS TO KILL A DAMN CHILD!?"
"LEAVE ME ALONE, TEACHER!"
"WE CAN'T SEE ANYTHING RIGHT NOW! DON'T SWING THIS LANCE AROUND HERE OR YOU WILL HURT SOMEONE!" Robin Hood remembered that he was the one standing next to these two.
"Haha. Who would have thought, Mr. Nice Guy is kinda stupid, but he's not useless," Mordred said. "He's fightin' Lancer even though he's just human and useless."
"What?" Jekyll asked. "Is he useless or not, Mordred?"
"Yes."
[The command seal on Shirou's hand intensified before he summoned Saber. And so, the master and his servant met for the first time.]
Artoria blushed when she saw the servants' reaction. Most clapped their hands, and some — maybe her knights, maybe not — roared, creating a chorus of admiration. Part of the reason many were there (not just these servants but those in the other rooms as well) was to see how the King of Knights performed in a real Holy Grail War.
"Good entrance, father, but mine was better!" Mordred smirked.
"Sorry, I didn't see," Artoria replied.
"Right!?... What...? But you were in the viewing room with us..." Mordred was confused. Suddenly, her eyes widened. "FATHER, YOU TELLIN' ME THAT YOU WAS SLEEPING!?"
Emiya didn't need the fragment to show the meet between Shirou Emiya and Saber, this scene he would never forget. But he was happy seeing all that commotion for Artoria, she deserved it.
["So deplorable. All too premature. All too poor a summons."
Zouken appeared, underneath his feet were waves and waves of insects.
"We have all the players, but the quality of the players and the precision of the stage are lacking. This Holy Grail War is a far cry from the grand ritual we sought. However we cannot cancel something that has already begun."
Even bigger and more disgusting insects were on the walls. Some creatures looked like giant spiders.]
The mood swift was too big when Saber was replaced by Zouken. Before they were shouting and applauding, but after there was just silence.
"This old man!" The sight of that place filled Raikou with disgust. She found many Oni hideouts less grotesque than that.
Parvati felt her eyes fill with tears. It was a very bizarre feeling for her. Fear, anguish and anger dominated her body and she didn't know why.
"Senpai..." Mash gulped.
"Mash?"
Mash was unable to continue talking, but her doubt still echoed inside her head: why did that scene seem to be from someone's point of view?
[An insect appeared on top of the Emiya residence, watching Saber and Lancer's battle that ends in few seconds.]
"Why is the movie skipping my scenes!?" Cú Chulainn complained.
"Not just your scenes, most of them since Shirou was attacked," Musashi replied. "Looks like the person responsible for the singularity doesn't like you."
"This is not funny, samurai!"
"To be honest, I'm getting a little confused..." Ritsuka complained too.
"I bet Medb is laughing in her viewing room," Kuro said.
"And Bazett would be crying…" Illya replied. "With all these familiar faces I wonder if we'll ever see a pseudo-servant of her..."
[Saber was wounded only in her shoulder after a blow from Gáe Bolg. Lancer left soon after.]
Scáthach frowned. The fact that Setanta used his Noble Phantasm but failed to kill his opponent spoke volumes about Artoria's skill... or her pupil's incompetence.
She's really pissed! Cú concern about his future only grew. Man, I hope the fragment doesn't skip my rematch with Archer. That one wasn't so bad. And killing the priest was cool too...
Unknown to him, Scáthach decided to give Setanta one more chance. If he didn't have a good performance and a good victory in his next battle, she would make sure to show the mysterious enemy that there was more than one way for a servant to leave that Singularity...
[Archer got injured by Saber and Rin used one of her commands to make him disappear.]
"Holy shit. Made Cú run away and pretty much beat Emiya. Two servants at once. That's what I call an entrance!" Ritsuka was astonished and made sure to praise her. "Artoria?"
"Emiya... that..." Artoria didn't even hear Ritsuka calling her.
Artoria was pretty sure she hadn't hurt Archer in that moment, let alone witnessed Rin using a command seal that soon.
The command seal she would use to calm down the situation between me and the idiot, Emiya noted.
["If they are roped into this ritual, it is destiny that they killed each other, no matter who it is."
Sakura appeared as soon as Zouken said that.]
"Senpai, I have a bad feeling about this."
"Me too."
[Shirou, Saber and Rin headed towards the Church.]
"What is this coat, Father?" Mordred laughed.
If it was just Mordred, Artoria would just ignore it, but hearing her knights laughing as well made her angry.
"Shut up or you'll see!" Artoria said.
They stopped at once. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty!"
"There's no reason to laugh! My king is beautiful in that raincoat!" Gawain defended her.
"I heard you laughing too, Sir Gawain!"
"FORGIVE ME, MY KING!"
"They're not wrong. You look ridiculous in that outfit," Artoria Alter said.
"You should wear it too. It suits you." Jeanne Alter teased.
"Shut up, man-eater."
"What did you say, you fat dumb whore!?"
"BE CAREFUL WITH THE DAMN FLAMES! C'MON, GUYS, DON'T START FIGHTING! WE'RE-STILL-BLIND, GODDAMNIT!" Robin yelled.
Emiya sighed seeing (or hearing) all that chaos. Gathering a large number of servants in the same place never worked before.
"Am I the only one who likes it? Yellow looks good on her..." Musashi said.
[Zouken's monologue ended with the trio arriving at the church.]
"And we're back to the simulation," Ritsuka said.
Their vision returned to normal and they were all at the entrance to the church.
[Saber refused to enter the church. And the pair of Master continued.]
Ritsuka turned to Artoria, looking for an answer.
"The church is neutral ground. That's why I didn't want to go in."
["I don't know why a half-baked Mage like you was choosen for a Master. But the guy we're about to meet will explain the Holy Grail War to you. Though, he's quite the despicable figure."]
Ritsuka giggled hearing that from Rin.
"I feel good that I wasn't the only master in the world who started out as an amateur mage."
Mash smiled, remembering the early days. Nobody expected anything from Ritsuka and the girl proved to everyone how strong she was.
"I wonder who's going to be in there though. From that old man's monologue and Rin's words it sounds like it's going to be someone important."