AN: I'm back folks, sorry this took so long. "JawgerpilotFTW," that's basically why I did it, I wanted to get it out of the way, both for the practicality of not having to do it and for the lack of space to put it in logically. Could it be a bit too fast? Maybe, but it works. "Jebest4781" and "kingdomlily," tell you what, if enough people ask, I'll work on making the Omakes into a story, it might take even longer but I will give it go. "Stratos263," it's fate, what do you expect? "Archer Chef," maybe, but I doubt I'll do it. On with the fic.
Speech
Thought, magical communication
Higher Being (i.e. Demon, Grail, ect) speaking, Berserker Class talking, Scene/POV change
Higher Being thinking
Day 2: Breakfast and the day
Emiya Residence: Naruto's room
Naruto was slow to fully wake. Perhaps it was his exhaustion from all the energy exerted the previous day…Or perhaps it was the two warm bodies close to him? Yes, it was definitely the second choice. Looking to his left he saw his house bound lancer, she was in a simple blue dress that did little to hide how busty she was, and a vast swath of her cleavage was on display.
Fighting back the urge to ogle the beautiful woman, he turned his head to the right and was met with the sight of Mordred. She was out of her armor, and the clothing she wore was also rather revealing, what caught his attention though was her face. She was actually rather attractive when she was relaxed, of course he had seen her life and how she looked at various states, but to see her like this in real life was a surprise.
The question was, how to extricate himself from this situation. He ran through several scenarios before the sound of a rampaging Taiga was heard: "Naruto! I'm here for breakfast!"
The loud call of the wild teacher woke his two servants, who were ready to attack before he signaled them off. "It's just my school teacher and legal guardian. For now stay in astralized form, she's not aware of the supernatural world, and I would rather not have to explain the sudden appearance of nine women in my home, especially as none of you possess modern clothing that I am aware of."
The servants agreed, though some like Nero were galled at having to hide their presences. Making breakfast was easy enough, but he knew his servants were eyeing the breakfast with want. Internally he promised to work out a logical explanation that wouldn't jeopardize the secret of Magecraft today, so they would be able to attend every meal as soon as possible…even if it would put a strain on his supplies.
Gilgamesh's voice broke into his thoughts: "It will no doubt be a strain on you to provide food for us, so when you do come up with a logical reason for our presence, I will reward you by providing you funds to resupply. Do not think this a hand out, merely a logical decision taken based on the facts at hand."
Naruto thanked her as he set the food out. He noted Sakura was missing. Now it may have been simply due to illness, but he was paranoid with the Grail War going on, so he considered sending one of his servants to check on her. But he discarded the idea, the patriarch of the Matou family might take it as a declaration of war.
While he doubted the old man would be able to stop his group, it was better to ere on the side of caution. After all, the man HAD a large part in making the Grail Wars system. There was always the possibility that he would know some way to subvert a servant from their master, and that was a can of worms he did not want to open.
Then the doorbell rang. He assumed it was Sakura. He assumed that right until he opened the door, and came face to face with his sensei, Segata Sanshiro. He was stunned, he hadn't expected his sensei for another month, what with how busy he was.
A rumbling laugh pulled him out of his shock: "Well Naruto, are you going to let me in or are you just going to stare in shock?" The blond blushed at getting caught, and ushered his sensei in, while giving a brief overview to his servants, on the off chance they hadn't seen his training through memories yet.
Segata took a seat on the left side of the table, across from Taiga, who had long since gotten over seeing the famed martial artist. Naruto was quick to set a plate out for his sensei, who was looking casually around the room while making conversation, as if looking at the minor changes to the décor. But it was soon obvious he had identified where every servant was.
The martial arts master spoke: "Naruto, have you informed Taiga of what's going on?" The blond's eyes widened. He knew his teacher couldn't possibly mean to let his "guardian" in on the Grail War. The laws about keeping Magecraft a secret were strictly enforced by the Clock Tower after all.
But still, he would answer: "Er, no, I haven't." The headshake Segata gave him told the magus he did something wrong. But what? It was in the rules that Magecraft was to be kept a secret…unless…He resisted the urge to facepalm, but his expression must have given away his train of thought as Naruto's sensei nodded.
A chuckle escaped the tall martial artist's lips: "I see you figured out the loophole. Allow me to explain while you make additional plates for your companions." Naruto nodded as he carried out the suggestion of his sensei.
Meanwhile: Across Town:
One of the figures from the night before strolled through town. Despite their status as a servant, they walked in the open, due to a cosplay convention being in town. It surprised her to know that there was an "anime" based off her adventures.
People wanted to take pictures with her, which was nothing new, albeit it was annoying. However with how "good" her "cosplay" was she did manage to get some free stuff…including some food. Both physical and prana wise. Apparently some pedophiles thought she would make a good target, they didn't live to regret their choice of targets.
Still though, the Caster had a mission to recon the city, and she needed to get back to it.
Back at the Emiya resident:
The explanation had been short and to the point. Apparently Taiga, despite her personality and appearance, was easily able to make the leaps in logic necessary to understand why she hadn't been told that Naruto and the others were magical, and the basics of the Grail War.
Of course she was not pleased. Especially as she couldn't help her students, but she understood that there wasn't much she could do to help. So she settled for meeting the servants the blond summoned. The teacher was shocked two of her students had been wrapped up in this death match of course, though that was nothing compared to Naruto summoning NINE women.
The teacher had been naturally distressed by this. She knew the blond wasn't likely to try anything inappropriate without the permission of the women…But she knew nothing about the ones he had summoned…though a brief introduction had been enough to allay those fears, but create new concerns.
Everyone had heard of his servants in some form or another. King Arthur and Mordred were both famous and infamous the world over, the tale of the Round Table were extremely well known…Even if you had never read or saw anything about the legends, you likely knew their names. Joan of Arc was slightly less well known, but even so as a renown catholic saint she was well known enough for her summoning to make sense.
Only Scathach and Gilgamesh were more obscure, the witch more so than the golden armored woman. But beyond that the other main surprise was the genders…People traditionally being thought of as men, being women. It made her head spin, how much of history was wrong?
At any rate she had to get to school to set up the classroom, and Naruto had to get there to attend…after he cleaned up. The Lancer version of Arturia offered to clean up, as she had nothing better to do, but the magus declined, he made the mess, he would clean it.
It took ten minutes to do so. Time he used to think of a potential plan of action. The blond had potentially the largest number of servants, it would make logical sense to deploy at least of few of them to scout the city…However, at the same time that would be a gamble.
The throne of heroes contains beings from all eras and realities. Who's to say that his servants wouldn't run into a sniper and get killed from a distance…or god forbid SUPERMAN and be unable to even really INJURE the Kryptonian. Yes, he had thought a lot on the possibilities of the Grail based off what little he knew.
After he finished cleaning he headed off, leaving his residence in the capable hands of his housebound servant and his sensei. Along the way to school he ran into Rin, and the two went to school together. While they were on their way Naruto gave her a headsup that Taiga knew about Magecraft now due to the actions of Segata.
Needless to say the second owner was annoyed, but she couldn't really go against the foremost magical enforcer in Japan. But the Toshaka heiress was nothing if not adaptable, she could deal with this new wrinkle, it could even be beneficial to have the services of the local Yakuza for helping to clean up battle areas.
Concerning to both of them was not running into Sakura on the way…but sick days were possible. And considering Shinji didn't like Naruto it was not unlikely that he would not have called the blond to let him know. Nor really did the Mataou head seem the kind to care enough to call.
Though they hoped she would be on the school grounds, however this was a false hope. Sakura was nowhere to be found, the servants confirmed it be scouting around. In fact neither was Shinji. This was coincidental, and in magic coincidences usually were not to be trusted. But for now there was nothing they could really do…this was reinforced when Naruto felt a foreign magical field over the school.
They would have to stay behind to find out what this was. The school day past slowly; concern for their friend, and secret sibling in Rin's case, kept them from fully focusing. Thankfully it wasn't a test day; still, it was obvious that something was on their mind to even the most dense of observers. But they were left alone, as the teachers trusted them to come to someone able to help them if needs be.
The day passed uneventfully beyond that, except for Naruto canceling the martial arts and kendo clubs meetings for the foreseeable future. The clubs were disappointed of course, but understood when he pointed out that the string of murders was continuing unstopped. Because of that the two magi were able to explore the campus after school, trying to find out what was causing the magical pressure.
Whatever was causing it was well hidden. After a half an hour of searching none of them had spotted anything, this led to a hypothesis that whatever was causing this was hidden by magic. Just as this realization occurred, they were attack.
There were three attackers. One was a knight clad in black and silver armor from head to toe; he had an arming sword at his side and a lance in his hand. His two companions were both female. On his left was a purple haired woman wearing a blindfold and a short dress with thigh high boots, she carried twin daggers of some sort attached to chains.
The last woman was clad in grey armor Romanesque with red highlights; she had two short swords clipped to her belt. Her skin was well tanned, her hair was black; and in her well-proportioned face were a pair of dull blue eyes that seemed to have had the life sucked out of them.
Nero recognized the second woman, and gasped: "General…Antony…" The armored figure glanced at the Emperor, and a vague sense of recognition entered her eyes. A weak and fragile smile made its way to the lips of the Roman general.
When she spoke her voice was sounded like broken crystal, beautiful but feeling wrong: "So…at least one of Octavian's descendants went on to rule Roma…if you are anything like he was, then you must have done well by the Empire…"
Before Nero could do more than shakily nod, for she had done as well as she possibly could, the second woman spoke. Her voice equally as wrong sounding: "A descendant of someone you knew?" The mechanical nod of the swordswoman was gut wrenching, the red dressed swordswoman nearly fell to her knees and burst into tears.
Naruto's eyes were cold as ice as he took this in, and as focused as he was, he was the only one to see the clenching of the black armored knight's fists. Before anything else could happen, the black knight charged forward and started attacking Naruto, trying to separate him from the others; the other two servants moved to hold off the combined servants arrayed against them.
They were rather effective at this task, as whoever controlled them had apparently burned a command seal or two to ensure they could hold them off. This was annoying to the eleven allied servants, they outnumbered them five to one, and yet they couldn't aid their master or ally respectively.
With Naruto:
The blonde skidded to a halt after being taken out of the building. In his hands were a scutum and gladius Hispania, an influence from watching the Legions of Rome through the eyes of Nero and the infantry of Camelot; the scutum had a hole in it where he used it to block the lance.
He got into a ready stance as the knight came into view…They were in the courtyard where he died. He was determined not to have a repeat. His opponent would not make it easy though. His skill with a lance, a cavalry weapon, on the ground was phenomenal.
A long weapon intended for horseback use, it punctured targets well, but it was meant to use the speed and extra force of a cavalry charge to do its maximum damage…and yet he used that unwieldly weapon as fast and accurately as a spearman would his preferred tool. Naruto redirected the lance strike, but was unable to follow up, his sword's length stopping him from doing so; and his enemy would never let him change his blade…or would he?
I mean…he was a knight…it was worth a shot. And with that in mind the whiskered teen spoke: "I don't suppose you'd let me change my blade? It's not exactly a fair fight right now…" To his surprise, the knight backed off and nodded. But he didn't look the gift horse in the mouth, and changed his short blade out for an arming sword…also taking a chance he changed the scutum out for a kite shield.
Once the shield and sword were ready the black armored knight charged again. The lighter weight and greater maneuverability of the kite shield allowed Naruto to hold off the deadly lance more effectively. Meanwhile the arming blade was able to score several hits on the armor of the knight, but not fully penetrate, either due to hitting a well-rounded part of armor or a well-timed dodge, which was frustrating as the arming sword was designed to fight plate mail armor.
Still though he managed to hold the servant at bay; even when the armored figure began to speed up even further, likely do to a command seal…Granted the blond had to start tapping into his origins to stay ahead, but it was still doable, albiet not as easily as before. And it was about to get harder.
By now Naruto had figured out the armor the knight wore was their noble phantasm. But he hadn't figured out their class. He was about to find out the hard way, as the black armored knight jumped backwards and summoned a brown horse clad in black armor and panoply. Now his foe was mounted, and had the power and speed of a horse behind his lance, this was bad.
The knight laughed as he saluted: "Well done. Few last as long as you have. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Prince Edward of England, The Black Prince." That explained the black armor at least… "You may have survived this long, but do not expect your luck to hold much longer. Prepare yourself sir!"
The knight prepared his charge, and Naruto changed his equipment out again, this time for a great sword, it was an odd type, very thick and heavy. A spear, pike, or pole arm would have been a more conventional choice, but those were better for formation fighting when fighting cavalry. Most axes and other hand weapons wouldn't have the reach or power to deal with an armored knight, hence the massive sword…but there was a downside to that plan.
One the knight instinctively grasped: "You will only have time to make one strike with that blade, so you intend to gamble it all on that one strike to stop me…not a fully foolish idea, but retreat to the building and using a spear and shield in a confined corridor may serve you better."
Naruto had already thought of all that of course. On a surface level it may seem smart, but it was a beginner's trap. The prince had obviously been given at least two command seals to kill him, boosting his stats. Therefore, if he tried to run, he would be run down by the mounted warrior before he could cross the two hundred meters to the nearest hallway.
No, he had to make his stand here and now, or he was doomed. As such he entered a combat posture, and waited. He had to time this perfectly. As the knight charged, just as fast as the blond expected him to be, the sword shifted slightly. His timing had to be spot on, he tapped deep into his origin to ensure he managed it…All Naruto could hear was his heart beat…finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he side stepped the charge, and brought his sword down.
The massive blade sliced through armor and horse alike, spraying gore and viscera in an arc. The horse collapsed, dead, causing the English Prince to go ass over kettle in a roll. But the armored figure managed to get to his feet and block his foe's strike, though his weapon was badly damaged.
A natural lull in the fighting happened, "That blade is not normal." It was a simple statement, there was no accusation. It was the kind of thing one would expect of a veteran warrior, the calm certainty and easy grasp at the nature of the weapon used against him.
The magi nodded: "Correct, this is the Dragon Slayer. A fictional sword from a modern tale. A blade too large and heavy for most to use, all expect one…the Black Swordsman. Through this man's adventures this blade has slain thousands of demons and other supernatural beings…This usage has soaked into this weapon… I'm sure you can figure out the rest."
The prince nodded, and readied himself for battle again…but by that point his "master" had had enough. He ordered the entire team to retreat, something the Black Prince did willingly. But not before tossing a piece of paper at the blond; when he saw it had been caught, he vanished via astralization, content that his message had been delivered.
As Naruto opened the paper, and read it, his servants and allies arrived. They got there just in time to see the blond's face set in an emotion they had never seen from him, cold fury. A roar tore from his lips: "SHINJIIIIII!"
CHAPTER COMPLETE!
NEXT TIME: Day 2: The stand of a Royal
Omake: A year after the last
Shiro was right, it WAS an interesting day a year ago. Apparently the "fossilized" eggs in the treasury weren't really fossilized. That day they hatched, into three dragons. They were still small right now, being barely larger than a medium sized horse, and thus vulnerable. This state of affairs led to them being declared a secret until they had reached maturity.
Beyond that the military HAD been disciplined and fully integrated. The Drothraki were even more terrifying to face now, because now not only were they masters of mounted warfare, but they could hold ground as elite light infantry if need be. The forces had expanded three fold in effective combat forces, over the year, mainly due to their smart usage in crushing bandits…as well as infrastructure being improved. With the improved infrastructure and lack of bandits and threats, the populace exploded…and with a larger population base, the military likewise increased.
Now though? There was a new threat. Apparently, the Blackfyres, the other branch of the Targaryen bloodline, were still around. And they had come to destroy his branch of the family. They were led by Prince George, a skilled tactician and the last of the Blackfyre line. The army they assembled was two hundred thousand, not a major threat in and of itself, but what they had in support was…A fully grown black dragon.
The monstrous black beast was fifty feet long, with a wingspan of one hundred fifty feet, and further clad in additional armor made of valerian steel. It was a monster that would call for the forces of ALL the kingdoms to stop…and even then it was likely that the Blackfyres would win. At least, if Shirou played by the rules.
Magic however, was not in the rules of this world. Calling on the Kaleidoscope, the displaced magus called on the skills of his archery specialized counterparts, and traced a bow. He stood on the highest battlements of Harrenhal, and waited. When he spotted the dragon, he traced Hrunting, and forged it into an arrow.
He then took aim….and fired. The "arrow" released with a sound like howling wolves. It flew straight and true, and annihilated the great beast. He then dismissed his bow as he ordered his army to destroy the invaders.
Once the Blackfyres were gone, he would have A LOT of explaining to do to his wives and family…As well as work to do to rebuild the destruction wrought.
List of Revealed Servants:
?: "John of Nottingham," Prince Hector, and Cu Chulaain
Rin: Archer, Sir Gawain, and Assassin
Naruto: Artoria, Mordred, Lancer Artoria, Queen Arturia, Gilgamesh Queen of Heroes, Nero, Joan of Arc, Young Artoria, and Scathach
Shinji Matou(?): Unknown Knight, ?, and ?
?: ?, ?, and ?
?: ?, ?, and ?
?, ?, and ?: ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, and ?
Anyways, review please.
