So, new chapter. Thanks as always to Old Man of the mountain for the translation.

I hope to find a beta reader soon to at least correct the pronouns. I swear I will keep looking until I find someone!

Having said that, enjoy reading and leave a review to let me know what you think of the story.

"You...are not King Arthur..."

'No shit Sherlock...'

So...what the fuck happened? I'd like to know actually, too. One moment I was walking just behind All Might to go meet Nezu to take stock of the situation right after killing All for One, and the next a magic circle appears under my feet bringing me here, wherever I was currently.

The main problem? In front of me are Emiya Kiritsugu and Irisviel Von Einzbren, but not the ones I know. Although the German woman had apparently not changed one iota, Kiritsugu is definitely younger than the one I met in Japan after meeting Illya, although he still has that perpetually tired and/or dead look that he tries to hide under an impassive mask, despite the obvious shock of the moment.

I looked at myself. I'm still wearing the Astrea Type F2, I'm connected to Veda (although it seems to be able to provide 'only' tactical support for the moment, since I can't track the main terminal anywhere), but there is no external or internal damage in the armor, and Sefer is no longer attached to my back. Everything works perfectly without any problem, which should not be possible given the results of the battle with All for one. It was as if I had been refurbished, although that is not quite right.

Then there was my body. I'm not even how to begin to define the feeling I currently felt. It was like being a stranger in your own skin...like when I first woke up in my new body in the hospital.

The only rational explanation I can think of is that I was summoned as a servant, or something like that.

"But...that's impossible! We used Avalon as a catalyst, the evocation of King Arthur had to be practically guaranteed!" whispers Irisviel, as shocked as her husband, although she was much more vocal and expressive in showing it.

"That's not really how it works in reality," I reply, making her gasp when I respond suddenly because of the metallic voice. I also looked around, noticing that I am in a kind of church, with an altar behind me, where an unfamiliar yet familiar scabbard is kept in a larger case. It has old inscriptions that are not fae letters and I can tell that notable sacred attribute without even having the need to scan it with magic "Using a catalyst in a ritual like this allows you to summon a specific servant rather than a random one that is more compatible with the master, that is true, but if that same catalyst is tied to the history of multiple users then the location, the time, the conditions under which the summoning takes place, the summoner himself and any other variables present will also be determining factors. Since Avalon was used for a time by both myself and Arthur, I eventually appeared...even though I had no intention of being here to begin with..."

"You didn't respond to the summoning...?" mutters Iri to herself, confused to death by my response "That doesn't...No, it doesn't matter. If you are not King Arthur, then who are you?"

"You don't need to know that," I reply dryly, causing her to wince again when with a movement of my arm I destroy the altar and scabbard used to call me here, watching with disdain as the sight of the relic crumbles as if it were made of glass "And it is quite rude to call me by such a poorly made forgery. Excalibur that Avalon were given to me for a very specific reason, not stolen or extorted from anyone, not to mention that I never impersonated him. Who the fuck came up with such an idea in the first place?"

Yes, I may have taken that particular point a bit personally, but can anyone blame me? I've never told anyone besides the magic trio, Sapphire, Ruby, and Scathach that I have the Excalibur prototype, nor have I ever used it in front of anyone (Serafall saw it when I was using it as a stambelle for a few moments after I had taken down Artoria lancer, but I don't think he realized it was Excalibur, since technically the original disappeared with 'King Arthur' long before it was born). I'm moderately sure that no one even knows it exists to begin with (except maybe the seraphim and cadres, who were the ones most in touch with the biblical God); so why am I being fingered as a false King Arthur! I have never even had anything to do with House Pendragon...not yet, at least.

Maybe something happened in the future? But-

[Name: Jack Kurogane (Lily)

Type: anti-hero, heroic spirit

Region: Musutafu/Japan

Alignment: chaotic-neutral

Class: Foreigner

Statistics (Astrea F2):

· STR: B (D)

· END: A (D)

· AGI: B (D)

· MANA: EX

· LUK: C

· NP: EX

Class skills:

· Existence outside the domain (E-)

· Object creation (A)

· Territory creation (C)

· Independent Action (EX)

Personal skils:

· Pioneer of the Stars (C)

· Erosion of Mystery (B)

· Innovetor (C)

· Golden rule (B)

Noble Phantasm:

· Prototype Excalibur (anti-fortress) (Ex)

· Avalon (barrier) (EX)

· Celestial being head (self) (C) ]

I blinked as information flashed before my eyes for an instant. Were those my statistics? I wasn't too surprised that I was a Foreigner, since I don't even come from this universe and someone must have put me in this body, however, it is a bit worrisome that that someone somehow has influence over me, even if only marginal judging by the first class skill...

"...Just to clarify, are you Saber?" asked Kiritsugu noticing that I had frozen for a moment, cautious and with my hand close to his trench coat, probably in a desperate attempt to use an emergency bullet origin if necessary.

"No, I am a Foreigner class servent," I reply, only adding to the general confusion.

"Foreigner? I've never heard of such a class before," Irisviel replied, her face contorted with doubt, concern, and a bit of distrust.

"That's one of the extra classes known from...it's not important. Fact is, I'm not saber, although I still got Excalibur at some point as I mentioned," I reply, shrugging without the slightest interest in their state of mind. Frankly, at the moment it was more urgent to understand where (although the vaguely familiar setting makes me think of the Einzbern base in Germany) and how I had ended up there "If I appeared in this class instead of saber anyway it is only the fault of you Einzbern who tampered with the summoning system. You have no one to blame but yourselves for your stupidity."

Was I in my timeline or another like Zero? The atmosphere doesn't really feel different from back home (if you ignore the decidedly colder temperature of the snow-covered mountains), but then again I had never been good at detecting such things. The Astrea can sense surges or differences in ambient mana like when someone turns on their magic circuits or uses some magic, since it leaves fingerprint-like traces, although some people are better at hiding their signature than others, but I haven't mounted anything on this armor to monitor ambient mana levels specifically, like I'm monitoring water pollution or something.

It's a small but annoying difference that perhaps I should have considered earlier, although in retrospect, I didn't expect this kind of situation at all to be honest.

Maybe I can fix it now? 'Celestial Being head' seems to work similarly to Gate of babylon, so maybe I can take something from my labs and build something to check?

On a separate note, exactly when did I get the equivalent of a vault that functions as a pocket dimension? Is it actually a pocket dimension or does it function that way because it is considered a noble phantasm? How important will my company be in the future to make it a fundamental part of my legend to this point?

I really want to know, but the Grail is not giving me any kind of information about the future 'me'. Could it be because I have technically lived in this era that I don't need information concerning it like other servants? Or are there other issues that I don't know about?

The more seconds I spend here, the more questions arise and I still don't have a shadow of an answer, dammit...

"What exactly are you talking about?" asks Kiritsugu impassively, perhaps realizing that I was distancing myself again "What exactly did the Einzbern do? And how do you know that? The information about how the grail works is not known even to the top leadership of the mages' association or the church, so how can a newly summoned servant know more about them than a caster?"

I turn my gaze toward him.

"Initially the Greater Grail had several restrictions on the servants it could summon, though the most 'important' to have been violated, the ones that may have actually done damage are two," I say holding up two fingers, pretending to ignore Irisviel's stiffening when I specifically said 'greater' Grail "The first was that it could only summon the seven major classes: Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin and Berseker; the second was about the type of summoning. I don't remember whether you could specifically summon only 'heroes' or not, excluding anti-heroes or monsters, but no servant could have divine attribute, without exception."

"..." Kiritsugu looked at Iri, seeking answers, who, however, was worried and confused evidently even more than he was.

"And we all know here how wizards behave," I conclude with a shrug, "If they can break or distort the rules for their own benefit they are willing to do that and more for their own goal, no matter what might happen if things go wrong or cause trouble. You in particular should have seen enough of such scenes to imagine how they turn out."

Kiritsugu did not dignify me with a response, turned on his heel and walked out at a somewhat accelerated pace.

"Kiritsugu? Kiritsugu, wait-!" Irisviel followed him, somewhat agitated and worried by the grim expression on her face.

Honestly, I don't know whether he simply trusted me (which is virtually impossible) or had simply decided to take a heroic spirit's warning seriously (again, I doubt it), but I didn't even need to ask his destination.

I just followed them in silence.

My stay at the Einzbern mansion is...no boring. Painfully boring.

Almost 48 hours have passed and my summoner has still not spoken to me. After he left the small church in the palace where he inadvertently kidnapped me, as anyone could guess he had gone to have a chat with Jubstacheit. Needless to say, there was much shouting.

Irisviel, frightened that they might come to blows, asked me to do something, and to end any discussion I showed them that I had both Avalon and Excalibur. The bitter blood between the two had remained when the machinations done during the third war had actually come to light, but I didn't care much considering that at the very least I had confirmation that Angra had been summoned and killed first in just two days, besides the fact that they hadn't bothered to examine the greater grail since then to check if they had broken anything else.

After all, besides the fact that they had tampered with it for their own benefit, it had also been idle for over a century. An inspection for possible maintenance seems the least, doesn't it? No, of course for the wizards and their useless egos the answer was blatantly a fucking giant 'NO'...

Needless to say, my 'master' was far from happy with the information and was now paranoid about the idea that the Grail might have some defect or damage that might impair its operation. He was so paranoid that he had even forgotten to ask me for further information about it.

I also had the distinct feeling that old Jub did not like me at all.

It probably didn't help that I razzed him a bit for having the church screw him out of a fortune in exchange for a fake Avalon, but hey, what could I do? He was the same son of a bitch who tried to use Illya as a grail in my timeline and most of the time the cause of his death. Literally the only reason he wasn't dead yet is because first he has to deliver the stuff I asked him to Einzbern Castle in Japan that we will use as a base. After that he will die along with all his other compatriots.

What? Even though I'm not in my timeline and the one in this world is not my Illya (and maybe Chloe), it doesn't mean I'm going to leave her exposed to supernatural threats. There was no way that Jubstacheit would leave the Emiya family alone once he knew about the destruction of the Grail, he would surely try to take revenge on them like he did with Kiritsugu post-Zero, but in this timeline they don't have to worry about a problem that doesn't exist, right?

Yawning, bored.

"Are you sleepy Foreigner?" asks Iri, drawing my attention "I didn't think servants needed sleep."

We are currently in one of the many rooms in the villa. Apparently, the new father is with newborn Illya because looking after his daughter helps him calm down. Honestly, it is quite an amusing sight to see the normally stoic Kiritsugu on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"I'm bored, not sleepy," I correct her with a shrug.

Fortunately, in this prehistoric castle, after much wrangling, Kiritsugu had managed to have a telephone line and a power generator installed to power his office, which I was currently using on my own without his knowledge. I had taken a look at all his files concerning enemies, while meanwhile Veda had begun to gather information about the other six competing pairs, and there were two in particular that caught my attention.

The confirmed in-game masters were the same: Kiritsugu Emiya, Kotomine Kirei, Takyomi Thosaka, Kariya Matou, Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald, and Waver Velvet. I had also flushed out Ryuunosuke Uryuu, who, however, still does not seem to have his command seals despite being theoretically a few days away from the official start of the deathmach, which in this timeline begins in February.

However, what unnerves me most about the results are two.

Kayneth's wife, Sola-Ui Nuada-or whatever her name is (how fucking long is her name!?), was seen by the cameras of some random smarthphones on a road in England, accompanied by a stranger.

To be precise: a young man with long, disheveled white hair that seemed almost transparent, and a gaze as sharp as a steel blade. He wore black jeans, a gray sweater under his leather jacket, black loafers and a long crimson scarf.

His description matches Karna's. And that leaves me uncertain how to deal with it.

Thanks to his skill 'Discernment of the Poor' perhaps I could convince him of the danger of the Grail and that the war had to be stopped to avoid disasters of unimaginable magnitude, however, even if he listened to me it is not certain that he would cooperate. His mentality is that of a soldier. He respects orders because they are given to him by the master, without questioning them unless unforeseen factors emerge that could undermine said orders or his own summoner. And considering the mindset of the average magus...well, a cease and desist is virtually impossible. I'll either have to kill the servant or rip the command seals from the master depending on the situation, though I'm hoping for the latter more, since I don't like my odds against a monster like Karna, even knowing all his weaknesses...not to mention the otere the corrupted grail would receive from a servant as powerful as he is.

Then there is Gilgamesh. A female version of Gilgamesh. As if her male counterpart wasn't already a pain in the ass, now I find myself dealing with a menstruating Gilgamesh! The golden hair, the lavish accessories, and those eyes that have the haughty, superior air I could not have mistaken for anyone else's...

Bullshit aside, knowing the character he has as an adult, unless his personality is closer to kid Gil (and with my luck I highly doubt it), he will try to kill me on principle since according to his vision I would be sneaking into his garden, or some such bullshit since I have reincarnated in this world. With his precognition, he will understand, the only unknown is the 'when' not the 'if'.

Ergo, it must be cut down as soon as possible, or otherwise distracted while I destroy the grail so that it is not assimilated and feeds it.

The rest of the participants will range from 'annoying' to 'unexpected' at worst.

Kariya is only participating to free Sakura, recently adopted by the Matou, so if I save her and kill the worm, he and Berseker (the only servant I have not been able to confirm is still Lancelot, for obvious reasons) are out of the picture. With my resources it's easy, it won't even take me 24 hours.

Waver and Rider, by contrast will be troublesome. The former may or may not be cooperative depending on how you approach him, but Iskandar? Even if he agrees to let go of the Grail it will still be dangerous to let him loose in this era given his hunger for conquest, and that is if he agrees to cease hostilities in the first place.

Tokyomi is of no use to me either while alive or dead, not to mention that with Gilgamesh's independent action and the amount of mana in this era, killing him will do very little good. I will just tear up his Rule Breaker contract and not leave Rin an orphan (unless someone else kills him of course).

Kirei must die. There is no doubt or anything else about it. I will get rid of him at the first opportunity.

And finally, Ryuunosuke Uryuu. It pains me to admit it, but it's better to let him summon Gilles. That murderer is a real son of a bitch and deserves to die horribly as soon as possible for everyone's sake, however if I kill him now the last master-servant pair will change and I have no way of knowing if for the better or for the worse (more inclined toward the latter considering the trend). If I prevent him from committing more murders right away, rather than a weak servant like Bluebeard maybe another monster like Morgan could come out and make it more complicated. Not a situation I'm willing to risk. Besides the fact that I don't know if I could deal with an enemy of that caliber, the collateral damage we would cause with an all-out battle of our own would be too great.

Of course, this last master could be changed anyway, but at the moment Veda has no records of other people having anything like command seals anywhere in the world. I have also infiltrated places like devilnet since I have the access data, the Vatican servers, the grigori and the rest of the factions in the world that have information sites to check, but nothing.

War aside, I actually confirmed that the timeline, even if it was mine is set just before the Bloody Valentaine. Not only because of the map and the date, I also checked Jack. Not little 'me' but 'real' Jack, before I obtained his body. He is with his family in Italy and they are planning to come to Japan for Shizuku's son's wedding...

This only increased my questions. For some reason I can't dematerialize like servants normally do, so I thought I was classified as a living Servant, but instead I was definitely summoned as a servant through and through, which makes me wonder then what kind of problem there was in my case. Will it be the fault of mystery erosion interfering in some way?

The only similar precedent I can think of is with Merlin, who had himself summoned to Babylon in the same way by Gilgamesh. We are considered 'dead' because we are summoned before our birth, or reincarnation in my case, though still I cannot explain why a counterfeit copy of Avalon functioned as a catalyst, even though it is a symbol associated with the King Arthur myth.

Perhaps it is because I have a close relationship with his daughters? Kuro has always made it very clear what he wants from me, while with Illya I have always covered the older friend/brother(?) figure, although since the class card hunt ended he has started to become a little more irritable when the twin flirts with me or tries to go further, in a very different way than simply being seen naked by me because they are one a carbon copy of the other down to the last bend (if one ignores the changes that have occurred due to the prolonged merger with the class card). It cannot be ruled out that in the future my relationship with either, perhaps both, will become significant enough to make it a factor in my summoning.

Although it still doesn't explain why I remember being summoned. Even if I were registered to the throne, the me who had just finished fighting in Kamino should not have memories of being in Germany because in theory a servant is not summoned while alive...unless he makes a pact with Alaya like Artoria did when he was dying, which didn't happen with me. Even if I were dead for some reason, and I would remember it, I would never, ever do any such bullshit without it, especially since Veda watches over the magic trio in my absence and will not stop functioning with my departure (besides the fact that she can still clone me if need be and insert my memories into my copy. Or do as with Kuro and move me directly into a new body via a stack).

All the unknowns about my summoning lead to all the subsequent questions: how do I go back? Can I do that? What are the requirements? Do I have to destroy the grail? Will breaking the contract and disappearing bring me back to where I was summoned? Or will it cause some other problem? How much time has passed in my timeline since I was summoned? Did something happen while I was gone? Did the fact that I was apparently ripped away from my reality cause problems for my world?

I leaned against the back of the ergonomic chair, thinking about the information I have and how to start moving.

"What's bothering you?"

"Mn?" again I pay attention to Iri, who in the meantime had made herself a hot tea.

"Your expression. It's very similar to Kiri's when he thinks of plans for his most dangerous jobs and is worried," she informed me, causing me to raise an eyebrow. I had removed my armor once I entered and secured the room, but was I so distracted that I didn't notice that he was watching me? "No, I simply have known him for years and you have quite similar characters in some respects; therefore, I understand what you think in these situations."

"...you are dangerous," I admitted, rather upset that he could understand my neutral facial expressions.

"Ara, I'll take that as a compliment," she chuckles as she mixes hot tea.

"Mn" I really didn't have anything else to add.

"So what's bothering you?" he asks again, taking a sip of tea.

"Enemies," I reply, trying to bring attention to a problem other than my own, not wanting to reveal information about the future to Iri "I've checked Kiritsugu's files, and I've researched my means from here as well. Apparently we're going to be dealing with some pretty problematic servants."

"Servant? Do you get an idea of who they are even though you haven't even met them?" she asks rather surprised and curious about this new information "is this one of your noble phantasm? Does it allow you to see the future in any way?"

"No, but I have my own means to gather information faster than anyone else in the world anywhere on the globe, even in my own time, where the technology I have created is far ahead of where it should be," I reply, looking a little oddly at the map of the whole but different Japan I know. The map prior to the Bloody Valentaine "The servants we will be up against are: the hero of charity, Karna, of El-meloi; the king of heroes, Gilgamesh, of Thosaka; the king of conquerors, Iskandar, of Waver Velvet; Hassan-i-sabbad of Kotomine Kirei, who apparently can split into about a hundred different bodies. I don't have any information on the Matou's Berseker other than the fact that it's master is Kariya, while the last pair has not really been chosen for the time being."

"Those...those are very specific and ancient names..." says Iri very usefully, rather interjected that I had actually found the identities of the servants so early on, unaware that this came from another source, though she is obviously skeptical about it.

"I've already found ways to counteract them if that's what you're worried about," I inform her, "The problem is where to draw them to fight, because with many of them the collateral damage will be enormous and with a tidal wave of casualties if we collide near population centers, which I'd like to avoid...and that rules out the other problem..."

"...I knew it, you are very similar to Kirtsugu, you know?"

I look at Irisviel, not understanding what she meant by that last exit.

"What do you mean? It seems normal to me to gather information and prepare for inevitable confrontations in the best ways possible," I point out, not understanding what he was referring to "Besides, I highly doubt it. Sacrificing a few for the majority? Maybe I might consider it to save strangers, but I would never put the lives of people close to me above those of others I will never see again, no matter what kind of long-term benefits it brings me. I wouldn't even do it if the fate of the world depended on it, let alone for such bullshit as the Grail War."

"Emh...Foreigner?" the albino woman asks rather uncertainly about the sudden vitriol against her husband, and the fact that I had just mentioned a few things that the magus killer did not advertise about his modus operandi.

Yes, I am not really a fan of Kiritsugu. I find it hard to believe that he couldn't put together a strategy to take Illya back after the fiasco with Angra, or that he didn't have contacts from whom he could redeem favors for extra help given his health condition. His origin bullets would surely have collapsed the bounded camp around the Einzbern castle, so the hardest part would have been breaking in and escaping.

And that doesn't even count as not warning Shirou about the Einzbern and the rest of the mages. Of course, he couldn't have known that the war would start 50 years in advance or how that idiot would get caught up in it, but did he really not believe that a bastard like Jubstacheit would just make him pay for it by holding Illya captive and let him die with the knowledge that he would have no future because he would use her as the next lesser grail?

Nor do we open the can of worms that was the plane crash with Natalia.

I had always considered him a fucking idiot before, but what little bit of respect I had for him because of his ideals was completely dead after he shot down the plane.

Rationally speaking, I knew it was the 'safest' choice, but again, if there had been a loved one up there, I would have set off a plague rather than shoot for fear of the epidemic spreading.

Once on the ground, rather than Natalia could have broken through the cockpit windows and gotten out, since the rest of the plane was pressure sealed for the safety of the passengers she was supposed to carry at high altitude; therefore, until the airport operators open it, it is completely sealed. There was no reason to blow it up over the ocean from my point of view. It was only Kiritsugu's fault and the way he operated that he lost his foster mother.

"We are not alike, we are at opposite ends of the spectrum," I reply dryly, without a hint of hesitation, "Our goals may cross paths, and so I have chosen to collaborate for the time being, we may even use similar methods to approach battles, but I assure you that we could not be more different even if we tried."

I simply refuse to be like him.

"...You say that, but I see many similarities between the two of you actually emerging as we talk," he comments casually with a somewhat sad smile, "Were you also trained to fight?"

"More a necessity than anything else. As a scientist, I discovered a lot of things that all the mundane nations raved about before I meddled with the supernatural and they practically compete over who gets to my inventions first, others thought that since I'm just a slightly smart 'kid' I was easy to get rid of, other times it's out of pride from a bunch of idiots who can't accept that they don't measure up, or I was simply deemed a threat to the status quo," I reply, listing the most frequent cases "I made my robotics hobby my job, reaching heights unexplored or unattainable for the majority, and not everyone was okay with that, so learning to defend myself was necessary to continue my research."

Yes, the fact of my age seemed to be a hot button for new parents. When I took off my armor and they saw a youthful appearance despite my size they were almost puzzled. Irisviel tried to make a joke about it about my 'cute' face and macho physique, which brought out the detail that I am for all intents and purposes 16 years old currently. She was so shocked to find out that I am a teenager, that she regarded scars and implants more carefully and hardly said another word until the next day. She and Kiritsugu stuck to Illya for the rest of the day, leaving me to do my research in peace.

My 'master' has not yet spoken to me.

"That's probably the reason why Kiritsugu has been so angry the last few days," Irisviel said, making me raise an eyebrow at the turn the talk had taken. "People so cruel that they would force a child to perform such impressive feats that he would be registered as a heroic spirit by the throne..."

"From the way you say it, it almost sounds like he's seen my past," I point out to him, frowning, trying to hide the brief flash of panic that went through me at the idea of him seeing my memories.

"More than your past, it looked like every parent's nightmare," the woman replied, staring at the porcelain cup with a grim expression "He saw only a few moments, like impressions when you blink, but whatever it was, it was so horrible that it made him wake up screaming. I had never seen him so frightened before."

"What exactly did you see?" I ask, trying to figure out if the dream cycle had already done damage I should be worried about.

"He didn't quite get it either," Irisviel replied, taking a sip of his drink "He said there was a devastated city, lots of dead, a giant that looked like evil incarnate howling at the sky...then he woke up."

So he saw fragments of my struggle with All for One? Fortunately, it didn't go back any further. If it's something so pointless, then it wasn't a problem. That fight was incredibly chaotic, but it had little to do with the supernatural (more or less); therefore, I don't particularly care that he saw it.

"The confrontation with that enemy was inevitable. He was too dangerous to be let loose, especially when he became that thing," I reply, regaining my composure "I was the only one there who could do anything at that point. Doing nothing would have been infinitely worse, so it was my duty to eliminate it."

"The fact that you are so used to such situations would only irritate him more," Irisviel replied, setting the cup down on the decorated saucer. "After giving birth to Illya, Kiritsugu has become incredibly susceptible to such events when children are involved, much more so than before. When he sees what's out there and how anything could hurt or kill our daughter, he can't help but think about how everything could go wrong and get the call he never wants to hear, without any warning..."

"You speak as if you will not be present in his life," I point out.

Irisviel looks at me and smiles sadly, even more than before.

"It will be like this. I am the container of the lesser grail. I was originally created for that, but since I was scared of leaving him alone after our relationship began, I decided to conceive and leave our daughter to him. Our hope..." she informs me, massaging her belly with a nostalgic air "I was designed to be one of the possible Grail vessels. A model that could also self-manage itself in combat until the end of the war, but after numerous failures and results that did not live up to expectations, the series of creations ended with me and the decision to hire an outside wizard to be the representative. After Illya's conception, because of the rather unique circumstances of her birth, she was considered more suitable and changes had secretly been made to prepare her for the role while I was still pregnant with her. Fortunately, I realized this in time and prevented it by convincing the head of the family to use me instead of her, so..."

"...you never thought of leaving?" I ask curiously, knowing that he had decided to leave the Einzbern family in Kaleid and interrupt the ritual, although the situation was a little different.

I never asked the Irisviel of my timeline what exactly happened during his Grail War, but this beginning always seems to me more like Zero than Kaleid, even the course of events varying slightly from the canonical one.

"...I can't," he replied, letting out a resigned sigh, "We have a chance to achieve the utopia that Kiritsugu has pursued all his life. Although I will not be a part of it, I will be happy to play my role as long as they have a happy life, far from any tragedy."

The resignation of those who had already accepted death and the hope toward a better future with which they said it made me nauseous. No one should throw their life away like that, even if it is rather hypocritical coming from me.

"...Meh, have it your way," I reply quite dismissively, back to staring at the rather dated laptop monitor by my standards "As long as our goals coincide I can also play along, but then we go our separate ways."

"Thank you, Foreigner."

I ignored the response of the neo-mare, who had absolutely no idea what I had in store for her.

Forty-eight hours later, all participants are notified by the supervisor of the appearance of the seventh servant that marked the beginning of the war, along with official withdrawal of one of the masters.

"So this is the place where Kiritsugu was born?" says Irisviel, inhaling the forest air as she descends from the Assault Container "I wish I could have seen a little more of the city..."

This is a vehicle that I had sketched out and left aside when I designed the second-generation Gundams, with the purpose of repairing them in the field if needed. It was later taken up by Ian and Linda Vashti, two scientists recruited by Veda who then modified it to be able to carry up to four Gundams, their equipment, meisters, and a small group of twelve engineers in addition to the driver of the vehicle itself for any eventuality.

As tall as a two-story house and as long as a trailer truck, the Assault Container is made entirely of E-carbon and is generally powered by GN particles stored in a GN Condenser, but it can also take particles from Gundams anchored at their stations, directly from GN drives if necessary. The Container can not only operate in space and in the atmosphere, but is also able to go in and out of it smoothly. it is armed with two GN Large Beam cannons, two GN Beam cannons, and can fire GN missiles from eight launchers. It can also generate at GN-field and cloak itself if necessary.

Since I didn't trust entering the country by public transportation, I pulled out this travel (which was rather strange initially since from what I understand Ian was still working on it and it wouldn't be ready until next month) and we arrived in a few hours without any problems directly at Einzbern Base halfway between Gojima and Hirayama, literally in the middle of nowhere.

"Not right here actually," I correct her, walking down the ramp with two drones carrying luggage behind us.

"I know, I'm just saying!" she complains somewhat childishly "It would have had a different effect to say it though getting off a regular plane!"

"Is there something wrong with my middle?" I ask with a raised eyebrow "Even though we were traveling at supersonic speeds with gravitational control inside we-"

"That's not what I meant," Irisviel sighs resignedly, "Seriously, couldn't you have just let me enjoy the trip? It would have been nice even without thinking about all that utility stuff!"

"I still don't understand what's wrong with my mode of transportation," I say again not understanding the connection, "Does it make sense to waste hours flying? Jet lag is not a pleasant feeling, in fact it is quite disorienting, not to mention that we would have less time to poke around before hostilities began. With a scheduled flight we would have arrived in the late afternoon and been spotted right away."

"Huh?" the albino woman stops in her tracks, looking at me like a deer dazzled by headlights "Poking around? You mean...?"

"You stayed around your castle in Germany all the time, didn't you?" I ask rhetorically, "I thought you might want to relax a bit before you don't have time anymore with the battles ahead of us."

She remains a little open-mouthed in surprise before throwing her arms around my neck with a beaming smile.

"YAY! YOU'RE THE BEST!"

She didn't really react to the sudden act of affection. In fact, usually the Irisviel I'm used to is more eccentric than that, so it didn't really unnerved me all that much. Besides, she's married, and as much as I don't like Kiritsugu I wouldn't put the horns on him either. The NTR crap in real life was a bridge that I simply refused to cross.

"Mn" didn't really react when he forcibly dragged me down to go unpack.

Late in the afternoon of the same day, in a low-rise hotel, Kiritsugu knocked on the door where she knew Maiya was waiting for her, making the signal they had agreed upon.

The woman in question opens a crack to check that her boss was alone and then opens it, letting him in, only to lock it again.

"...but what?" murmurs the magus killer, seeing that one of the beds had been pulled over the other to make room for two containers occupying the same space as a three-door closet.

"Our equipment was replaced," Maya summarizes, "Foreigner intercepted our movements and brought in new equipment. According to him, the things we were using were too outdated."

Kiritsugu's eye twitched slightly, almost imperceptibly. Changing equipment on the day the war begins would delay or completely blow up all the plans prepared in advance. Perhaps he could have agreed to it knowing in advance, but so suddenly? What on earth was he thinking? How should he fight with new, untested equipment?

"Foreigner and the lady arrived this morning, then started moving to public places," reports his subordinate "By doing so, all the other masters will think that the lady is Foreigner's real master."

"I understand," the man simply replied, preparing to check that his Thompson Contender and origin bullets had not been tampered with by the rebel servant.

To his chagrin and annoyance, there was only a note warning him that while the bullets were passable and therefore unchanged, she had reinforced his weapon a bit and removed wear and tear that he had not seen accumulate over the years despite maintenance. Now the Thompson's firepower was high enough to damage a servant, even if it could not actually kill him, but the modified grip still reduced the recoil to just below what it had before the modification, plus the fact that with the materials upgrade of his mystic code, the minimum reloading time had dropped to a third of a second since he could now sustain that velocity without damaging the frame.

'Although it is one year old, Illya is lighter than this weapon...'

"There was movement in the Thosaka mansion last night," Maiya warned him, drawing his attention again "Here is the footage."

Kiritsugu turns to look at the CRT screen. You can't see it very well, given the speed at which the bullets are being fired, but the end Assassin came to after being pinned down really didn't leave room for too much interpretation.

"What is your opinion on this?" asks Kiritsugu, staring at the old TV set with a frown, with mixed thoughts about it.

"I think everything went too well," Maiya replied, agreeing on one of her unspoken doubts "The time between the Assassin intrusion and the Thosaka servant attack was too short. Assassin-class servants have the cloaking ability of presence, I doubt it could be detected so easily."

"That's not quite right."

The two assassins point their weapons toward the reflex voice, observing the Gundam Command Core leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

"Foreigner?!" almost gasps Kiritsugu upon seeing his summoning "What are you doing here? You should be with Iri!"

"I am not here," Foreigner specifies, opening the helmet of his armor, showing the lack of piloting as he moves slightly away from the wall , "I am commanding it remotely while my main body is with Irisviel. But you would know that if you responded to my contact attempts. You're really unreliable, you know that?"

Hearing this the magus killer immediately regained the shred of demeanor he had lost and frowned upon hearing his servant's admonition.

"...what do you mean that's not accurate about assassin?" asked Maiya, not wanting too many distractions, knowing full well that her boss would lose his cool if he argued too much with foreigner.

"Exactly what I said," replied the servant, "Even if the Thosaka had not made arrangements in advance with the church mediator, there would still have been several ways to counteract the concealment of the Assassin's presence...not that Gilgamesh needed it anyway. One of his noble phantasm allows him to see the future, and even if he does not actively use it he still receives passive signals that would have made his presence known to him anyway."

Despite his irritation, this time Kiritsugu took note of his servant's warning, which led to new questions, however: what kind of arrangements did the magus family make with the church? Why did Thosaka choose to display his servant in such a flamboyant manner, if keeping his identity secret is crucial so as not to expose weaknesses? What kind of plan was she hatching?

"To answer your questions in order: given the past relationship between the Thosaka and the church, the casualties this ritual has reaped so far, along with the summoning of various divine spirits that will surely alert the various supernatural factions, it is entirely likely that they are trying to end it with this war and give the Grail to them rather than to some other force at play" Foreigner suggests, causing Kiritsugu to involuntarily contract alertly, for fear that he was reading her thoughts, only to realize soon after that he was not getting signals from their connection "As for the servant thing...Gilgamesh is Gilgamesh, it doesn't matter what kind of version comes out, it will announce itself as soon as it appears with some pompous phrase about him being the one true king, or something like that. He's the type who doesn't take orders from anyone, he does what he wants when he wants because he feels like it. Between Noble Phantasm and personal skills one seal of command won't be enough to make her obey, not that they were of any use anyway since she would have gotten rid of his control right away; so if she's cooperating it's out of simple curiosity. It means that what her master is up to at the moment entertains her, so she'll play along until he stops entertaining her or finds something better to catch her attention."

"...You seem to have a lot of information about Gilgamesh," states the obvious Maiya "How?"

"I've had the misfortune to see various versions of her, although they were mainly male," the servant replied with a shrug "More than were healthy for anyone's mental health, but good or bad if her abilities are always the same, no matter what period she is summoned to."

Kiritsugu stared at the servant in silence, with mixed thoughts. Was he supposed to be happy that a young boy was so good at gathering information or angry for the same reason? The paternal side and the mercenary side inside him collide, causing him to slowly falter at the thought that-

"Kiritsugu" Maiya distracts him from his inner mound "Assassin's master, Kotomine Kirei, requested asylum from the church after the loss of his servant."

"Officially," Foreigner warns them again, "the assassin of this war is referred to as 'Hassan of hundred faces.' Simply put, he can manifest his multiple personalities in a hundred different bodies. The one killed by Gilgamesh was only one of them, but all the other operatives remain. The priest knows this, but since the church is by no means neutral in this conflict he omitted that point in the official statement so they can act undisturbed while everyone witnessed the death of one of the pawns. I am currently monitoring them, no need to send family members."

Once again, Kiritsugu does not know what to think of his servant's frightening efficiency in intelligence gathering. The way he conducts himself, how he prepares, how he analyzes his targets, and his unpredictability are making him almost more uncomfortable than Kotomine Kirei does, because unlike the priest, he has no way of finding information about him other than the command seals or the dream cycle, since he is not at all willing to share anything.

Nothing beyond the nightmare he had in Germany...

Maiya, once again, stares at her mentor/partner getting nervous with an almost visible frown seeing the emotions almost emerge in her gaze.

"...I see," he merely says, looking at the containers "What about those instead?"

"A small gift that will come in handy," Foreingner informed him, "Not even close to the technology I usually use, but it had been in storage gathering dust for quite a while, so you might as well use them. Even if Assassin attacked you, you could easily rip apart everything he throws at you with those toys."

The containers open to show its contents, which almost makes Kiritsugu blink at how high-tech and different it was from the stuff he usually uses.

"This is a nanosuit I created a few years ago. It is old, but it will do what you need. Its codename is 'Nomad'...well, that's the name of the integrated tactical support AI, but at least it's better than 'nanosuit 1.0' I guess," Foreigner corrects himself at the end. "It is capable of adapting and absorbing energy in a myriad of forms such as heat, sun, radiation, static electricity, kinetic energy, and even from 'carbon dioxide. In addition, artificial muscles can be programmed for a huge variety of purposes, and allowing the operator to perform superhuman feats far superior to those of known quirks...with the exception of All Might. Consider its maximum performance on grade E or so, compared to servant parameters"

Kiritsugu freezes upon hearing this. As much as he would not have wanted to, he felt his jaw slacken despite trying to maintain his stoic demeanor, although with the servant he has summoned, it is damn difficult even for him.

Maiya also had a similar reaction, but like Kiritsugu, she was ignored by the servant.

"The main functions of the Nanosuit are its ability to dedicate energy for a specific function that increases endurance, and greatly enhances certain properties of the wearer. Effectively, there are four of them in total: Armor, Strength, Speed, Concealment," lists the servant "Armor mode diverts the suit's regenerative energy supply capacity by absorbing the kinetic energy of incoming projectiles and other damaging forces, which are sources of dangerous levels of heat and radiation, in effect making the user temporarily invulnerable who is then able to withstand impacts that would normally be lethal. Note that armor mode will not increase the rate of energy regeneration. In this mode, the Nanosuit's energy supply is depleted only in the process of resisting enemy fire. When not under an external threat, the suit's energy reserves will regenerate at 100%. In the Force mode, the Nanosuit injects a steroid substance, which is easily absorbed into the bloodstream through the skin. These steroids produce effects that provide superhuman strength as long as the mode is active. In the Speed mode the wearer inhales oxygen in large quantities, and undergoes an injection of nano-bots that enter the bloodstream. The Nano-Bots hyper-accelerate the flow of blood through the body, stimulating reflexes and increasing the rapid contraction of muscles in order to increase dexterity and agility. In addition, this mode supports the use of Nano-propellers that enable better movement in water and zero-gravity environments. The "Sprint" function of the Speed mode diverts the Nanosuit's energy flow to the brain, causing the user to have an incredibly high speed of receiving external stimuli. In addition, this allows the user to escape or shoot much faster. The increased dexterity mode Speed also gives the user the ability to reload "heavy" weapons more quickly. Since the user can perform melee attacks faster, more damage is ultimately done, but using Strength mode to use short melee attacks is recommended. It is recommended to use Speed mode and its associated "Sprint" function when attempting long jumps or when trying to climb very steep slopes. Once cloaking is activated, the Nanosuit alters its outer surface through the use of a crystalline generator, which can refract light, microwaves (radar), and radio waves to render itself completely invisible to the naked eye and most surveillance equipment. The mode requires bulk capacitors to operate for a long time. Concealment capability is reduced when walking is fired. Staying crouched greatly increases the period of use of the mode. Interestingly, the mode also makes the weapon invisible: in fact, the crystalline surface of the Nanosuit also expands on the weapons. Are there any questions?"

"..."

"..."

"...It really doesn't matter if you didn't understand everything I said. Nomad will monitor you all the time, so if you need help he'll take care of it," the servant continues, ignoring the nonexistent reactions of the two people in the room to the barrage of information he has just received, as he pulls out one of the weapons in the container to show it to the two "As for the weapons, I have replaced the old Walther WA2000 with another weapon of my own creation, the Storm PSR. It is a rifle equipped with an X-Ray Scope that allows the player to see through objects to see enemies. As an added feature to take advantage of the scope, shots can be charged, passing bullets through the vast majority of materials, both supernatural and non-supernatural, unless they are overpowered things like noble phantasm. These shots consume up to five rounds of ammunition per charge. The charge level can be seen to the right of the scope and is visible while pointing down the scope and when in hipfire position. When the ammunition in the magazine is four or less, the number of bars will decrease. It has a 30-round break-action magazine, no idle sway and minimal swing on the move."

The more Foreigner talked about his inventions, the more pronounced Kiritsugu's frown became, however.

"How old were you when you created these weapons of war?" he could not stop himself from asking.

"Kiritsugu-"

"I don't remember. Six, maybe?" the servant replies indifferently, interrupting Maiya, with a shrug "At that time I used to put together everything I could think of if it would work, but a lot of things were left gathering dust in storage. Like this equipment I'm giving you. I honestly didn't think I would get them out anymore."

Kiritsugu's expression grew cold, feeling that he was creating things to kill even before his teacher/mother caught him with her, making him distractedly wonder what kind of life he had made to treat the subject with such indifference.

As if his mind wanted to mock him, an image of himself teaching Illya how to use a gun briefly crossed his mind when she would have been old enough to wield one. In a hypothetical scenario where old enemies would make it necessary to teach him how to defend himself, which could very well be a few years from now for all he knows, or worse, becoming entangled with the supernatural.

"This, on the other hand, is the Titus-6" Foreigner, completely unaware of his inner mound, puts down the Storm PSR and picks up another weapon and shows it to the two "It fires three rounds of highly explosive flechette bullets that stick to surfaces before exploding; it must be reloaded each time it is fired, as each magazine contains only a single three-round burst. In contrast, the under-barrel weapon is automatic with a 50-round high-caliber magazine. They are armor-piercing, therefore-"

"Stop it," Kiritsugu interrupted him, "Just...stop it."

Foreigner looks at him, conveying no emotion, which only makes Kiritsugu more uncomfortable.

The magus killer, emits a sigh and decides to leave the room from the hotel, leaving the other two behind.

Maiya turns to the servant with an almost frowning expression.

"You should leave," says the woman without half-measures, "Your presence distracts him, and it will be fatal to him in this conflict. He needs to stay focused so he can return to his daughter alive. Avoid approaching or talking to him unless necessary."

"Mn...ask Nomad for instructions then," replied the servant, indifferent even to Maiya's passive-aggressive tone "However, report to him that the Einzbern have been eliminated."

Omake: a blood problem.

A little eight-year-old girl watches pedestrians walk by on her way home from school.

He watches a couple hold hands and talk happily about things he cannot hear from that distance.

He observes a dog playing with his master, who laughs when he brings the ball back and licks his cheek.

Observe children playing soccer, laughing and smiling without a care in the world.

Envy pervaded her.

Why couldn't she smile like them? Why was she different? What was wrong with drinking when she was thirsty? Why is this such a horrible thing? Why can't she be happy by drinking? Why-

"A blood-based quirk?"

"!"

Toga Himiko gasps when a child's voice, perhaps around her age, alerts her. Black hair and blue eyes with green undertones stare at her with a neutral expression.

She observes her...peer? Extremely uncomfortable as she realizes that she bit her finger and was sucking her own blood. Ah, yes she was thirsty, not having taken her medicine.

"Pale complexion, pronounced dark circles under the eyes, thinned pupils, and...self-injury? No, you almost look like you're eating yourself...how long has it been since you drank blood?"

She didn't really understand what the foreign boy wanted, but the way he examines her makes her uncomfortable. She reminds him of the doctors her parents take her to if she smiles, even for a moment.

"Do you want to drink some of my blood?"

"...Huh?" Himiko for the first time speaks, or rather makes a surprised sound.

"I know about quirk, and it's obvious there's not enough blood in your diet. I don't even need to run tests to see that you're missing quite a bit of iron, which is rapidly depleting you," the boy specifies, "Do you want to drink some of mine to recover?"

"...may I?" asks Himiko feebly, hopeful, but also terrified that she can be happy and be well, without having to always feel the thoughtful sense of fatigue that has accompanied her for weeks "Okaa-san and Otou-san will be angry..."

"I'll take care of them," he replied, offering him an arm after raising his shirt, "Drink now. You need it."

Himoko should have been wary of strangers. But she was tired. She was thirsty. He felt lonely, caged, constantly uncomfortable and afraid that everyone would yell at him if he raised the issue again. She no longer wanted to see the bad lady who made him drink strange drinks.

So he timidly nibbled the wrist of what would later become his savior, although he did not know it yet.