Chapter One: The Dead, Live

2018, September 14th

The thing that had worried Yuji more than after they could not find Mechamaru, was something out of the corner of his eye that he had noticed on Megumi.

They were all waiting for a ride back now that their trip had been a bust, discussing on what to do next. Confused, Yuji leaned downwards to get a better look at what he saw. "Huh." Yuji mutters to himself.

On both of Megumis hands, the top of them had all turned a bright red from the end of his palms to the tips of his fingers, leaving only his nails untouched. Megumis pushes the head of Yuji away, annoyed, before noticing what Yuji had been staring at.

Paying more attention, both Nobara and Utahime also stop their talking to all stare at Megumi. Shocked just as much as anyone else, Megumi takes the time to inspect his hands with a furrowed brow.

"Did you get paint on your hands or something, Fushigoro?" Yuji asked.

In response to his words, Megumi shakes his head as he uses one hand to scrub at the mark before switching to the other. Holding up his hands for the others to see, the marks are perfectly unchanged despite his efforts. It takes everyone not long to come to the same conclusion as Megumi from the faint cursed energy it gives off. "I've been cursed?!"

Eyes dilated, Megumi takes a second search to see where this cursed energy could have come from. But nothing had appeared abnormal to him before this. There had been no flare or cursed energy and no large concentration anywhere near them. His hands shake as he struggles to catch his breath in his panic. He had seen a red mark this same colour before!

"Shit." Nobara curses. With practiced ease, both her hammer and nails find their way into her hands. Next to her, Utahime pulls out a phone and types rapidly while Yuji puts his hands up in a defensive stance. Megumi feels his mind blanks in horror as he sees Yuji.

Across the back of Yujis hands is another red mark, though this one is much more detailed. Two heads split in half by a line and facing two different directions, looking eerily similar to Yuji himself on the right-hand one, with the one of the left having two eyes. *Like Sukuna* the voice in Megumis' head that has still yet to panic says.

Not losing focus but confused at Megumi, Yuji comes closer, just in case he needs to cover him. "Fushigoro, what's wrong?"

Shell-shocked, Megumi could only continue to stare in horror at Yuji. "These marks, they are just like the ones that affected my sister…"

Gasping and horrified, Nobara whirls to stare at both Yuji and Megumi. "Wait, the same marks that leave people in comas?"

Pale, Megumi nods.

Somewhere deep inside of Yuji, Sukuna sits up from his throne, now invested in the outside world.

The trip to Tokyo Jujutsu High had been a mix of fear and panic as they had made haste to return. Utahime had called both Gojo and Shoko, informing them of the situation. They ushered all of them into the morgue and inspected them individually.

All four of them gathered in the morgue after their examinations, with Gojo and Shoko sitting across from them. The silence weighed heavily in the morgue, but the only thing that provided any relief from the tension was Gojo's frown being replaced with his normal easygoing smile.

Shrugging with his hands outstretched to the side, he chuckles, annoying Nobara and Megumi. "On the bright side, it's not a curse like you thought it was. At least not a curse on you specifically." Tapping an index finger to his head, his good cheer seems to have a tinge of being excited. "Honestly, it's not something I've seen before. But it's nothing particularly dangerous as far as I can tell."

"Eh!?" All three of the students say simultaneously. Megumi is the first to talk over all the rest, tensing in frustration. "What do you mean? It's full of cursed energy. It's even a similar color to those marks."

Adding on, Yuji has a hand to his chin. "It's only Fushigoro, and I who had the marks. Why are we different?"

Putting his hands up in mock surrender, Gojo only seems more amused. "Now, now. No need to get so mad about it. This is the work of magecraft. I'm sure your great teacher will find someone to solve this for you."

Lost, Yuji tilts his head. "Magecraft...?" In contrast, the rest of the room seems more wary at the mention of the subject, but not unfamiliar.

"Ah, didn't I tell you?" Surprised, Gojo muses to himself before dismissing the thought, surrounded by his exasperated students and colleagues alike. "Well, anyway. Magic is real, but few people even know about it or use it. Apparently, the more people know about it, the weaker it gets. So nowadays it's mostly a dying thing." Dismissive, he waves it off.

"Gojo, do you know any magic?" Yuji can barely contain himself. His worries faded away in the face of his excitement. "Will we be able to do cool stuff like the Avatar? Or be a wizard like Merlin or something?"

Throwing his head back and laughing, Gojo drops his head back down to shake his head for no. "No, no, nothing like that. You'd need to find someone who knew magic to teach you, convince them to do it and then hope you have the talent for it. There was no point looking into it. Well, not until *now* at least."

Megumi frowns. "You can't hassle the Mage's Association, you'll start more problems than we can even solve."

With a vicious growl, Nobara smacks one fist into her open palm. "Those jerks over in London are always looking down on us Sorcerers, I say if they want trouble we'll show them not to underestimate us."

Megumi scowls at her. "Are you stupid?" Her reaction is immediate as she straightens her shoulders, glaring back at him as he continues. "Don't pick fights with them."

"As fun as it would be to fight them, I have a better idea." Cutting through their brewing argument, Gojo's confidence leaves everyone speechless. "Lets keep this whole thing between us, okay?" He turns his head towards Shoko. "Let me know if anything else happens."

Without waiting for anyone's comments or agreement, Gojo is there one moment, and gone the next. Shoko's only reaction is a slight widening of her eyes. Facing Gojo's students, she gives them a look over. "You two with the marks. I want you visiting every day." As an afterthought, she adds another line after a pause. "Kugisaki, keep an eye on them and let me know if anything changes."

Nobara gives a confident grin, and an upraised fist in response. "I've got it covered."

Next to her, Yuji doesn't seem to pay attention. "Oh, Ieiri. What are we going to do now that we are like this?" Unsure, Itadori crosses his arms and stares at the roof, thinking out loud. Megumi quietly stands to the side, staring at the marks on both his hands.

"Same as usual, though all three of you should probably wear gloves or something to cover up." Shoko says. Nobara drops her hands, confused. "Wait, all three of us? Why me too?"

"You wouldn't want the higher ups to use this as an excuse to do something to Yuji, right? They'd probably ask questions. So best to come up with an excuse or something on your ends."

They all nod, though more reluctantly on Nobaras end until a thought comes to her, and she brightens up.

Unbothered by their reactions, she stares back at them. "It's just a thought though, otherwise do your days as normal? I'm sure Gojo will come back to say what he finds." Her voice lowers as she talks to herself. "It's be nice to learn medical magecraft too if they have it."

Nodding at her words, Yuji turns on his heel to leave with a backward wave and a carefree smile. "See you later then, Ieiri." Taken aback, Nobara follows him. "Bye Ieiri!" She shouts.

Only a few steps behind them, Megumi quietly ponders as both Nobara and Yuji argue on what type of gloves to get.

As much as Megumi warned Nobara against mages, over time, it was more and more tempting to learn magic himself. If it could help him save Tsumiki...

Well, he'd think about it when he got there.

2018, September 19th

Gojo sighed as he read over the notes he had both gained from his family records, and those he had paid Mei Mei to gain on things related to red marks like those on his cute little students. He leaned backward in his chair while he planted his feet on the desk in front of him.

Searching through all of this had been a pain in the ass, but if the results here were true...

He couldn't contain his smile as the possibilities made their way through his head. "A holy grail war, huh?" The most famous of people all throughout history, fighting to the death. It sounded like a lot of fun, especially if he could fight them, too.

Gojo checks the back of his hands to make sure he hadn't gotten lucky while he wasn't looking. They were still just as blank as before, though. Taking his feet off of the bench, he leans in to stare at one part of the entire leaflet that Mei Mei had sent him.

He is focused on the point of 'Dismantled in 2014', and his finger tapping on the line is the only sound in the room as his good humor quickly fades. He could contact five possible previous participants to find out more.

All with their own problems, to boot. The Matou family. With three members being Sakura, a Shinji and a Zouken. But as far as anyone knows, their magical potential has fallen in recent generations. Meaning that even if Gojo could contact them easily, and they'd have the knowledge. They would lack the power to be useful for anything. He preferred allies who were powerful.

A man in high standing at the Clock Tower, a lord El-Melloi the II or otherwise known as Waver Velvet. Apparently, he was on his way out of being the lord, and was handing off the responsibilities to his heir or something like that. Also, a high-profile person who would certainly give Gojo results.

But it would mean having more eyes over here in his business than Gojo would want or need.

There were two participants who had married each other after the war that Gojo got a good laugh out of. It wasn't every day you fell in love with your competition from a death battle. Rin Tohsaka, who lived in and controlled the land of Fuyuki, and her husband Shirou Emiya. While the husband liked to travel a lot, Tohsaka typically stayed between two locations. Both of them mentioned seemed like they would be dangerous if negotiations failed, for mages anyway.

Apparently, Tohsaka had access to something like a powerful shikigami on top of being an accomplished Magus. Not bad, he privately thought. Hard to be acknowledged by a place that looks down on where you are from.

Taking the time to read over the documents that pertained to the individuals in question, he spots one detail before he returns to staring at the names. Gojo's fingers dance over the page as he considered his options. A finger stills on one name as he gives a carefree smile. "Ah, what the hell. Let's go for the wildcard."

Flipping out his phone, he types several messages before making a call. "Mei Mei, I'll see you soon. We are going to see that place I told you about to get some gifts for the party. Feel free to bring whoever."

"See you soon." The voice of the woman in question answers before she hangs up. Gojo pockets his phone and takes one last quick read through his notes, humming to himself. Picking it all up, he places it back into a bag he used to take them here before he teleports away.

##### 2018, September 20th

Fuyuki, as far as Gojo was concerned after being here for the last hour or so, was a peculiar place. While a city like Tokyo might overall have more cursed energy than this place because of being about four times its size, it was a close call to make. Way more than it should be at least.

Certain locations in this town were drowning in cursed energy. It was enough to make his own stores of cursed energy feel small in comparison. Multiple tragedies had occurred here throughout the ages.

But despite all of this energy and plenty of reason for curses to form, the amount of curses here were weak or in small amounts. But he needn't get ahead of himself. He had more important things to focus on. *For now*

Lowering his sunglasses, Gojo stares across from him at a western styled mansion, double checking his phone. He nods to himself before striding up to the front door and knocking.

A woman around his age with aqua eyes and long wavy brown hair that flowed downwards opens the door. With a long red jacket, a white polo neck jumper, a black miniskirt, and long leather boots. She raised an inquiring eye at the man at her doorstep, somewhat taken aback. "For a serious meeting, I wasn't expecting such... colorful clothes."

In front of her house stands a shameless Gojo with a couple of shopping bags full of souvenirs, wearing pink sandals, floral shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. With a carefree and dismissive wave, he chuckles. "Just making sure that people's back home had the right ideas."

"...right. Please, come inside." Stepping out of the way, she leaves the door open for him to step through. Gojo doesn't take long to make his way inside before she closes the door. "What brings the strongest Sorcerer to my doorstep? Your messenger was sparse on the details." She guides them both throughout her house, where they stop at what Gojo can only assume is the living room. Choosing the larger white chair, he makes himself comfortable while the owner sits across from him, her eye twitching.

Already seated in the room is the form of a quite striking young blonde girl with a ponytail, wearing a black suit and calmly drinking tea. Glancing around the room as he ignores the people inside of it, Gojo is interrupted from his curiosity by the slowly fraying temper of the woman across from him. "So, Gojo. Why are you here?"

His focus now directed towards her, he hooks his sunglasses on the inside of his collar before he puts his hands behind his back as he relaxes. The brown-haired woman lets out a brief gasp at seeing his eyes before recovering her composure. "So the rumors are true. You have pure eyes."

Amused, he winks at her. "How am I supposed to answer your question if you are too busy getting lost in my eyes? I'll have you know I'm a principled man who doesn't normally go for married women." He gets rolled eyes from her before moving on. "I'll assume you are Rin Tohsaka, and this is your shikigami or something like that." He motions his head towards the blonde.

"Shikigami?" the woman in question asks. Now revealed as Tohsaka, the woman in red turns her head towards her confused companion. "Think of it like a familiar, although what he and I consider being a shikigami is likely very different." The girl nods in her understanding, surprisingly composed to Gojos eyes.

"Oh I have no doubt. But what I came here was for something else." Pulling out sheets of paper, he places them on her front desk. "I heard you could be considered quite experienced in holy grail wars." Leaning forward, his friendly attitude is lost for a second as he stares both people in the room down. "And that you dismantled it some years back. How is it that my students seem to have markings just like those seen in the wars?"

His eyes are good enough to see the break in composure with the subject at hand. For the first time, the blonde girl is unnerved while Tohsaka has paled in shock. Almost absently, Tohsaka leafs through the papers and stares at one in particular. Even under his eyes, he can't see any signs of her knowing about this situation until he mentioned it.

"Y-you want me to teach some of your students?" Almost choking on her tongue in shock, she locks her eyes on the number of zeroes written on the paper.

Back to being friendly, Gojo leans into his chair. Though he doesn't miss that, the blonde girl had her hands gripped as if she was holding a weapon. As far as his eyes could see, that wasn't the case, but that could change at any time with strange waters like this. How *exciting*.

"Some of my students are really behind, you know? I heard you are pretty skilled in a lot of different things, and having your advice on what is going on could be useful." Smugness pours off of him. "It's not a bad deal, right? Right?"

Greed shines in her eyes before she musters it down with a force of will, wiping a small amount of drool from her mouth. "I assume all the legal details aren't just the things you want me teaching?"

Pleased at her question, he nods enthusiastically. "Yep. Personally, I'd want you to check if they have the talent for Magecraft, and if so, help them learn how to use it." Tohsakas face pinches at this part of the deal but doesn't outright deny it. "The other one will be consulting you on the details for this 'holy grail war'." He puts his fingers in quotation marks to emphasize his point.

Holding out a hand for a handshake, he grins at her. "So what do you say, Rin?"

Tohsakas' hand moves as if to shake his, before the blonde girl speaks up. "Rin, let's discuss this with Shirou before agreeing to anything."

Sheepish, her hands drop. "I'll get back to you this afternoon, Gojo. Just give Saber here your phone number and she will call you."

Getting up from his spot, Gojo reaches into his pocket to exchange numbers with the now named Saber. Afterwards, they engage in small talk as he is led to the front door. "Well, this has been an interesting morning. If nothing else, I'll see you all later."

Waving backwards without even facing them, he walks away from the property before being lost in the streets of Fuyuki.

Saber frowns at his departure, bemused. "A strange combination. I did not think to meet someone who was both prideful and acted the fool."

Closing the door, they both make their way further into the house. Sighing, Tohsaka flops her way onto one couch and places an arm over her face. "Ugh." She groans.

Placing a cup of tea in front of Rins seat, Saber takes her own seat with a fond glance at her companion. "It wasn't so bad, was it, Rin?"

Groaning further, Rin turns to mutter into the couch. "I felt like I was stuck talking to Barthomeloi in a clown outfit, and I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry."

Amused, Saber shakes her head before taking a sip from her tea.

2018, September 20th

"You know, this isn't so bad!" With a grin, Mahito laid back on his fold out chair, enjoying the sunshine in Dagons domain. To the side, an almost forgettable black haired, blue-eyed waitress offers him a glass of a multicolored drink before offering one to the to the rest of his companions.

Sullenly, Kokichi Muta sits in his own chair. Wedged between both Geto and Mahito, his hands itch in the need to kill patchface here again. Letting out an annoyed breath, he sighs.

"Mah, I was hoping you'd try something. It would have been interesting to see what happens when someone breaks a pact." Curious, Mahito stares at Kokichi out of the corner of his eye with a pout.

Scowling back at him, Kokichi glares at him with distaste. "I plan to live. So throwing my life away after coming this far isn't going to happen."

A chuckle from Geto draws everyone's attention, stopping the conversation. "Mahito, I didn't expect you to take the servant part so literally. Especially considering your servant is Berserker." Putting a hand to his chin, he seems thrilled as he watches the waitress. "I never could have thought you'd get something like this. It's fascinating."

Chuckling with him, Mahito glances over towards the seat furthest away from him. His good mood sours for a moment. "I know, right? It makes me jealous that you have two of them."

Everyone's gaze turns to follow, staring at the figure lying on the seat. The face of Itadori Yuji stares back at them. "What? It's not like any of this is my fault." Unbothered by the stares, he continues to enjoy the sunlight before taking a sip from his drink.

"You'll have to forgive me. I got a little greedy." Geto sticks his tongue out playfully. "Once we get these servants in order, the rest should follow come at the end of October. We don't want to reveal our hand too early."

Mahito slumps downwards in annoyance but doesn't argue. Their gazes naturally drift towards the far-off figure of Dagon, who has a dark figure floating in the water next to them. "So... where is your Caster? They seemed really interesting with that whole wanting to be a woman thing." His grin widens unnaturally as he reminisces. "Some of their ideas were really interesting..." Mahito licks his lips.

"They are off collecting materials. They had a couple of ideas of things to make for next month." Seemingly unconcerned, Geto gives a shrug. Mahito makes an indecisive noise before dropping it.

Kokichi stares up at the sky. Waiting and counting the days on where he can finally be free of his pact after October 31st. "Sorry guys, looks like I can't help like I hoped." He whispers to himself. The mark on the back of his hand burns, only compounding his frustration.

2018, September 23rd

"Why did Gojo want us to travel this far out in the middle of nowhere?" Annoyed, Nobara fans herself with her hand in the heat. "And why is it so hot at the end of September anyway?!" Frustrated, she stomps her foot.

All three of them wait in the shade underneath one of the larger trees. Nobara and Megumi had to take the rest of the trip by foot after being driven to the base of the mountain of Jujutsu High, which resulted in them being drenched in sweat, while Yuji was fine.

"Be quiet. It's too hot to be that energetic." Megumi complains. Taking a seat next to the tree, he slides his back against it.

Her mood only deteriorates faster as she glares at Megumi. "Eh? Did you say something? Huh?!" Leaning forward to glare down at Megumi, he merely pushes her face away from him, annoyed now as well.

"Hey, look over there." Pointing at something among the trees, Yuji tries to make out what is moving through them. Before they can make out the group, the familiar voice of Gojo calls out to them. "Hey-o! If it isn't all my students." His voice raises in excitement. "You're gonna love this."

Emerging from out of the forest, Gojo with his hands in the pocket of his work uniform comes with the familiar form of Nanami to the students, though oddly Nanami also has gloves on. The two strangers of Rin and Saber with them are more surprising. Both of them seem to have less cursed energy than even the windows the students worked with.

"Now I'm sure you are all very excited, but let me introduce you to your new teachers!" Dramatically, Gojo frames the two strangers with his hands, a massive grin on his face. "The one in red is Rin, and the one next to her is Saber."

Rin, with her eye twitching, gives a small bow before plastering a friendly smile on her face. "It's a pleasure to meet all of you. Please just call me Tohsaka. All of you." Her gaze is pointedly directed towards Gojo who ignores it.

The blonde girl who seemed a similar age to the other students gives a professional incline of their head. "I look forward to teaching you." All three students seem at a loss for words as they stare at Saber. The first to react and break the brief silence is Yuji, who bows back. "Itadori Yuji! I'm into girls like Jennifer Lawrence! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Tohsaka glances to the side and scratches at her cheek, already at a loss. "How am I even supposed to respond to that...?" Sabers' response is surprisingly composed as she gives a nod of acknowledgement to Yuji.

Behind Yuji, Megumi stands up to only punch the back of his fellow students head, knocking him to the floor. "Don't mind this idiot. I'm Fushigoro."

With the heat forgotten, Nobara glances over at her new teachers and seems pleased by what she sees. "I'm Nobara Kugisaki. I look forward to working with you."

Cradling his head as he crouched on the ground in pain, Yuji turns his attention to Nobara, chagrined. "Hey, how come they get the proper introductions, but to us you just bragged and sighed?!"

Scowling, Nobara knocks Yuji back to the ground with her foot. "Shut up!"

Staring up at the sky for a moment as the students bicker, Rin sighs. To her side, Gojo laughs to himself quietly. "Gojo, I sure hope the money is worth how troublesome these kids are going to be." Rin says.

"Give it time. They grow on you." Now facing the rest of his students, he raises his voice. "Alright everyone, let's take you all to your new super secret base."

Falling into line, everyone follows Gojo down a path only he seems to know. Stepping into line to get closer to Nanami, Rin motions towards Gojo and whispers. "Is he always like this?"

"Unfortunately." Nanami mutters.

The trip to this location Gojo mentioned doesn't take long for their group to traverse. A lonely logging cabin stands in the forest by itself. With a shit-eating grin, Gojo puts a hand on one hip and the other to wave at the building behind him. "So, what do you think?"

Most people's reactions are unimpressed, while Rin merely glances it over. "If there isn't functioning water, I'm leaving." She says.

"Ah, don't worry about that. I got all of that stuff sorted. Most of the building is done underground, anyway." Placing his hands back into his pockets, Gojo takes a moment to bask in his success. "Not bad, right?"

Refusing to take the bait, Rin addresses the students. "Lets all head inside where I can make sure our talks are private. I'm sure there is a lot to discuss."

Getting general sounds of agreement, everyone makes their way inside of the cabin. Considering it's fairly simple outside appearance, the furniture and appliances are all surprisingly high quality.

Megumi watches his two supposedly new teachers the whole time, curious and a little wary. With the way both of his teachers move, there's no doubt they've had training in a fight before. Considering the lack of cursed energy, but Gojo still wanting them here…

That meant they were mages then.

Once within the lounge room, Tohsaka takes the time to close all the blinds before reaching into one of her pockets. Pulling out various gems of different colours held between her fingers, she places them before chanting something in German only she and her companion understand.

Lights fill the room in various shades and colours, with Gojo pulling down his blindfold during it all. Shocked faces fill the room, with Gojo instead being pleased. Once the lights die down, Rin tosses her hair behind herself with one hand. A self-satisfied smirk covers her face. "There, that should be good enough for us to talk."

"Was that needed?" Fond exasperation colours the voice of Saber.

"Hmph." Pointedly not facing Saber, a brief, mischievous expression flitters in before reverting to being serious. "Of course it was."

Before she can say anything further, Nobara points at the both of them and raises her voice in anger. "You're a Magus?! What are one of you doing here?" She takes a moment to realise in her fury, her temper puttering out as her voice drops. "Oh." Her tone is flat. "You're here for Itadori and Fushigoro then."

Giving a piercing stare at Nobara for her tone and comment, Rin moves on. "That's correct. I'll be here to understand what's going on with those who have a mark, and to see if you all have any talent for magecraft."

Nobara clenches her fists and grinds her teeth, interrupting the flow of Rin. "I refuse."

Equally annoyed, Rin glares back. "Good, I have no intention of training an ungrateful brat." Her nonchalant shrug and malicious smile are particularly vicious. "I get paid either way."

Already marching towards Rin, Nobara has to be held back by both Megumi and Yuji. "Let me at her, I'll teach her fo-!" Megumi covers her mouth, cutting off her comment and causing her to grunt. Leaning down, he whispers in her ear. "Shut up before you do something that'll get us in trouble."

Locking Nobaras hands behind her back, Yuji gives an apologetic glance toward Rin. "Sorry Tohsaka, Kugisaki isn't normally like this."

"Rin," Saber's one word is filled with enough chastisement to make her companion grimace.

"It's fine Itadori, I'm sure she has her own reasons." Taking a moment to collect herself, Rin blinks owlishly as she sees Gojo has somehow gained popcorn in between them, entering the building and now. Besides him, Nanami watches silently but with a judging gaze. "Regardless." Rin says. "Let's have a look at one of you first. Fushigoro, please take off your gloves and let me see your marks."

Obediently, Megumi makes his way forward and pockets his gloves, showing off how the back of both of his hands are all red. Leaning forwards to get a better glance at it, Rin nods to herself. "Itadori, you next. And please stay quiet while I concentrate."

Having let go of Nobara, Yuji peels off his left-handed glove to show his own two faced marking. Now having both examples in front of her, she takes a few minutes to try various spells, leaving the students confused about what she is even doing.

After a couple of minutes of this, Rin takes a couple of steps back. "It's just like you thought, Gojo. All three of them have command seals, though it's been changed on some level."

"Command seals?" Yuji asks. Both boys take the time to step back towards their own seats and sit down.

Rin frowns. "I suppose now is as good as any time to explain." Taking a deep breath, she presses one arm to her stomach, using her palm to hold up her other arms elbow. Using the propped up arm to help emphasise her points as she talks. "Those marks on your hands are a symbol of a powerful wish granter, the holy grail." Before anyone can interrupt, she amends herself. "Although this holy grail in question isn't the real one that Christ's blood had been in…"

Over the course of an hour, Rin would go into detail of what the holy grail is and the various parts involved. What a heroic spirit is, and the various classes. While there were occasional questions, everyone involved stayed quiet. Most surprising to everyone involved was that Gojo didn't interrupt, only eating his popcorn while paying attention. Nanami had his own notebook he wrote on.

"…which brings us to the more concerning parts." Rins' voice drops, now sounding distinctly worried. "There are some differences in the command seals that you all have, meaning there could be likely even more changes to this war." Her grimace is plain to see. "Your seals are made up of both magical energy, and what you call cursed energy."

"Which means that the holy grail already makes use of cursed energy, making it fundamentally different from the grail you fought for, correct?" Nanami adds in.

Proving his suspicions, she nods. "The only confusion I have is on how this war has even come about. The grail itself has been completely dismantled."

Chiming in from the side, Gojo raises a hand like a student trying to ask a question. "So that means someone must have researched it during the dismantlement and figured out how it works, right?"

Rin, displeased, can only agree. "That's the best bet I have. Someone must have figured out how the grail works in that short time frame, transported it to Tokyo and set up this entire war while changing how it works." She lets that sink in. "I don't know of anyone who can do a task like this in four years. It's basically impossible. I'm completely stumped." Rin drops her arms and slumps.

Grinning, Gojo stands up. "Which means the next best option is to just go ahead with it and do the riskier option." Both of the other adults in the room grimace.

"Riskier?" Yuji asks.

Gojo claps his hands together. "Yep! Servants are summoned with knowledge of where they are, as well as what they summoned for. So with the help of our wonderful new teacher here, we have changed the summoning chant."

"Which leaves which of us two to summon the servant?" Megumi finishes.

"Oh, there's nothing to worry about there. Nanamin has got it covered." Amused, Gojo rises with a slap to his knees. "He too has a mark, and we went over with Rin on how magic works and all that." Unamused, Nanami glares at Gojo.

"You too Nanamin?!" Shocked, Yuji almost shoots to his feet.

With a stern stare from Nanami, Yuji settles back down. "Yes. From what I was told, I gained my mark around the same time as you two did. Gojo learned of it and sought me out."

"It's a good thing Shoko is typically the first to learn of things like this. I'd rather those old geezers remained ignorant." Serious, Gojo gives a pointed stare to everyone. "I know they'd try to use this to their own benefit and make things much worse."

"I'm not saving you if you get yourself into too much trouble, Gojo." Rin says.

Completely unbothered, he smirks. "Don't worry, they couldn't do anything to me even if they wanted to. I'm more worried about my cute students here." Now impatient, he makes shooing motions at everyone as he raises his voice. "Now everyone, out. I've been wanting to see this whole super ghost summoning all day. It'll only be me and Nanami inside, and we'll bring you back in once it's all sorted."

Everyone moves to get outside, with Yuji dragging his feet. "Wait, really? How come we can't see?"

"It's so that the servant summoned doesn't recognize you all as masters and tries to kill you before the situation is explained," Rin explains instead of Gojo answering.

In front of them both, Nobara turns her head in their direction with a pointed stare at Rin. "And also so they don't attack your own servant, right?"

Unbothered, Rin nods. "That's right. The servant inside shouldn't be able to sense us out here, for now."

Having made their way outside, Yujis mouth opens in shock. "Wait, Saber is a-" He cuts himself before the realization strikes him. "Oh."

Completely merciless, Megumi nods. "It's not like it was something being hidden."

Yuji sulks as they get a far enough distance.

Having made their way into the specifically prepared side room, the markings were as perfect as they could get. Enough to satisfy Rin, at least. Nanami lifts his wrist to check the time, only a few minutes left until he would be stuck working overtime. On his day off, no less.

A sigh leaves Nanami's throat as he rubs his forehead. Not one to miss anything, Gojo tilts his head in his companion's direction. "What, having second thoughts?"

"No, not at all." Immediately shooting Gojo down, Nanami shakes his head. "Just lamenting on how much extra work I'm sure all of this will be." More annoyed, he scowls. "And I'm sure you would have done this summoning with those two instead."

"Probably." Gojo shamelessly admits. "But they would have been *fine.* That's the whole point of getting an expert on magic here first. Between my six eyes and Rin, I doubt there will be much to be surprised by."

Nanami stares at Gojo blankly. "Then all the extra precautions must be Rins' idea."

"Yep." Gojo makes sure to enunciate his answer clearly.

Checking his watch once more, he nods to himself, choosing the wise choice in his mind to ignore Gojo. "Unpaid overtime truly is the worst."

At his confirmation, Gojo places a hand on Nanamis' shoulder for them both to be under the effects of infinity.

Peeling off the glove hiding his command seal revealed a simple red mark in the shape of a ruler, with two lines dividing it into three pieces. He began the first part of the chant he had memorized, having both his ten magic circuits and his cursed energy at their maximum efficiency.

The supposed normal function for this ritual is for it to use the magical energy of the person involved. But it was clear to see for Nanami now what this was doing instead. Over time, the circle gained in light that it emanated. It drained him of his cursed energy, all siphoned towards the cursed command seals on his hand. Making a noticeable dent in his reserves, but not touching his magical energy at all.

Results like these were not outside of their theories, at least. A wind blew outwards from the circle and built up in speed and ferocity the longer it lasted.

"...seventh Heaven clad in the great words of power come forth from the circle of binding, Guardian of Scales."

A great light blinded Nanami, leaving him blinking to get the spots out of his eyes, even with his sunglasses. Standing in front of him, a figure stood in the fog left by their summoning.

Strikingly similar in appearance to the companion of Rin, Saber. Similar in age to Gojos students, she struck a vivid image in her mix of both bright and dark colors. Instead of Sabers bun, this girl had her hair tied in a black bow.

The similarities stopped after there. The girl had greyish-brown eyes, a black scarf, short white kimono tied by a black and light blue obi, a white handled Katana that was in an equally white sheathe, a light blue haori with the edge of the sleeves lined with interconnected triangles of white facing inwards and intricate black thigh highs.

Spotting Gojo first, she glances at him and is unsatisfied by whatever she was looking for, hurrying on. Almost immediately after, her eyes tracked down Nanamis' location. Eyes flickering to his command seals that are on his hands before landing on his face. Her expression cold. "...I ask of you, are you my master?"

End of Chapter One:

Well, well, well. Uh hopefully I managed to catch the general character beats mostly right. There's some differences in some characters just by nature of a merged world like this, but personalities will be planned to be mostly the same. Updates will probably be a lot slower compared to my other story. Thanks for reading.

Till next time.