There was something quite wrong here. This much was certain as Shirou glanced at the people in front of him, and then towards his primary assailant who'd yet to place her weapon down. She was staring at him with a look of euphoria that was quite like how a child acted around new toys or new playmates.
Either or, but he shook his head to rid him of such thoughts. If he read into it too much, he would not get anywhere. Instead, proper communication was key, something the others in modern military apparel were keen on starting before hostilities could recommence.
"I-I think we all got started on the wrong foot," A woman said, and through the white cross labeled on the top of her green helmet, he surmised that she was the medic of the unit.
The woman had long black hair tied into a ponytail, and was rather tall compared to the other woman in her unit. Her bangs made a square shape on one side, while the other was more loosely parted. On her person was a green Kevlar vest, with matching camo pants, combat boots, and various pouches on her legs and on the bag she carried.
Her name was Mari Kurokawa, something Shirou would learn later after proper introduction, but not now when he saw the playful gleam in his former assailant's eyes.
"Oh, but I think I started on the right one~?"
The little girl in a dress hefting a large battle axe was still as jarring as ever. Shirou could tell that he wasn't the only one somewhat disturbed, as many people unsteadily shifted their weight between their feet.
"Ms. Mercury, please." Mari forced a smile, her hands clasping together.
Ms. Mercury pouted, but eventually eased her stance, her axe double-headed axe disappearing into the shadows. "Well, fine. It was just a little greeting," she murmured.
"Attacking someone isn't a greeting," Shirou countered with a grunt, scratching the back of his head as he too eased his stance. He sheathed his sword, and let it dissipate along with his armour.
A snort echoed.
Shirou could already guess who.
"It is when it's for verification," Ms. Mercury grinned, fumbling for something she kept tucked away in a breast pocket before tossing it towards him.
He caught the thrown item and raised a brow when all he saw was a piece of paper with the new world's writing scrawled over it. He'd probably have to get Reines or Waver to run a translation on it. The only reason he was able to speak comfortably now was due to their intervention in the first place. Language spells were beyond him, but Waver had made him a simple sigil worn as a necklace.
It did little for reading writing though.
"This is?" He decided to be direct.
Ms. Mercury blinked at him in a stupor before clicking her tongue and crossing her arms impatiently. She likely assumed she'd already said enough. That or the letter was already quite specific.
Too bad he couldn't read.
"I am Rory Mercury, Apostle of Emroy, God of Darkness, War, and Death." She curtsied lightly before her gaze fell over his ears, then to Tuka and Caila.
So that subtle energy he could sense from her was in fact Divinity, or Divine trait.
"I take it you're an Apostle of the Elven God?" She continued.
He wanted to deny the claim, he really did, but his pointed ears, and Tuka and Caila's solemn attitudes were forcing his hand. "Something like that," he muttered out.
"Then all the more reason. The port city by the sea will be the host of the next Council of Apostles. The letter there tells the location and how to gain access. In short, an invitation."
He looked over the letter again, and suddenly furrowed his brows when common sense hit.
"Then isn't this your invitation?"
Not many people should know of him becoming an 'Apostle of the Elven God,' other than the elves in the nearby village.
"Yes," Rory admitted. "So?"
"What do you mean so? This is yours." He tried to hand the invitation back, but she nimbly dodged him.
"It's boring," she complained. "And besides, they know me enough to let me in on sight, but they don't know you. Something tells me it could be interesting this year so I may even come along."
When it was put that way, it almost sounded reasonable.
Shirou thought to himself for a second before he soon pocketed the invitation away. He could already sense Rory's mischief, but recalling the mission he had to accomplish with Merlin and Arturia, the Council of Apostles was a meeting he would need to attend anyway.
"If that's settled, then let's start this again."
A man clapped, causing Shirou to glance over. Based on how the others in the military unit grew silent and deferred to this man, it was safe to assume he was the captain or leader.
This man was named Itami.
"We are part of a country, or kingdom may be a better comparison, but anyways. We're from a place called Japan, and are members of an organization known as Japan's National Defence Force, Recon Unit Six."
Shirou managed to keep his features straight when he heard the introduction, but for a moment, Gray's eyes widened before she continued to tuck her head between her shoulders and keep her head bowed low. Don't get her wrong, she was horrid around strangers, but it didn't mean she wasn't listening in.
Presently, only Shirou was aware of the existence of a Second Gate, meaning Gray was likely brainstorming how modern humans found their way into this world. If an alternative path existed, she and every other magus would have to consider if that path led to the same home world or a different one. In the first case, extermination and secrecy was a high possibility, but in the second, that meant an extension on a new playing ground.
"Wait hold on a second."
Itami's introductions were suddenly interrupted by his own team member, a man named Kurata who was the first to realize something.
"Y-You actually understood us?"
Ah, that made sense, but it wasn't Shirou who answered.
"Translation spell," Gray muttered despite her reservation, telling it directly how it was. In her own way, she was fishing for information. Waver had taught her well.
Lelei and her teacher, Cato, listening in from the back perked up at the answer. They too administered a translation spell in order to speak with Itami and the others. This posed the question, were Shirou and Gray fellow mages? Lelei and Cato couldn't seem to find the right timing to indulge their curiosity with how fast the conversation flowed.
"Oh, doesn't that sound useful," Itami's response was rather laid back when compared to the others who were still murmuring to themselves, but the man was on point. "In any case, it makes things easier. The name's Itami, leader of unit six currently on rout to slay a Dragon."
'You mean on rout to die?'
Gray's silent expression said it all.
"What about you all? Wait, those ears…"
"Captain, real elves,"
"Kurata, shut up," the other woman in recon unit six, Kuribayashi elbowed her compatriot.
Tuka shied away from the attention, but Caila squared her shoulders and huffed.
As for Shirou, he was more preoccupied with how to answer when Merlin kept insisting, he play along with half-truths.
"We're also tailing a Dragon," Shirou eventually admitted. "If its red, we're likely tracking the same one. However, it's not the Dragon we're really after."
There were no conflicts of interest.
Itami hummed, but he was unnaturally quick to be accommodating after he grimaced from someone yelling through an ear-piece he was wearing.
Judging from the knowing looks of Mari and the others in Itami's unit, they were all in on whatever was being instructed to Itami.
"If you're following the Dragon anyway, would you like to join us?" Itami asked, sighing.
On one hand, Shirou could see Tuka and Caila shaking their heads when Itami pointed at the back seat area of the military Humvee, but at the same time, this was also a chance to start friendly relations.
Better him and Gray than the standard magus. Besides, Gray wasn't opposed. Nervous, yes. But not against. She was likely treating this encounter as a scouting mission. The secrecy of the moonlit world was something she had no choice but to prioritize.
"That sounds acceptable," Shirou answered, much to the chagrin of his escorts.
It was quite cute, but the two elves were being increasingly quiet and tense from the moment they entered the vehicle with Shirou. Listening to what they were saying, Shirou didn't know whether he should correct them or not. They were being paranoid due to riding in the stomach of some unknown tamed 'monster.'
"Be careful at all times…it may eat us. If possible, try to locate a uvula. In the worst case, it might throw us up. Smell carefully, I think I can smell its gastric juices."
'You mean diesel?' Shirou kept a lid on his mouth as he sat down on a back passenger seat.
"Ugh-agh, yes!" Tuka swallowed and made a weird noise at Caila's remark from frayed nerves.
Caila nodded gravely, then turned to face Shirou. "We will protect you."
"I'll um, be in your care," Shirou replied stiffly.
"Here."
Caila suddenly gave Shirou a pouch. He opened it, and then stared for a bit longer than he probably should have.
Pepper?
"Make it sneeze. Make it itch." Caila insisted, cupping Shirou's hands with her own for reassurance. "Trust me. It if taste's bad, one's first reaction is to spit it out. We'll stay alert."
'Good. Stay alert after locking your seatbelts in.'
Shirou waited until Tuka and Caila were seated before helping them secure their seatbelts with much protest on their parts. This was going to be harder than he thought.
In contrast, Gray was having her own difficulties.
"The light in this lamp seems to be run by magic."
Lelei and Cato had quietly approached Gray. In their view, her subdued and silent demeanor might have made her more approachable to them. Cato was the one speaking while Lelei listened on the side.
"Are you a mage?" Cato asked while looking from the lamp that resembled a gilded birdcage, then back to Gray.
"Magus," Gray blurted out without meaning to.
"Magus…magus?" Itami mumbled to himself in the front seat with doubt before shaking his head when Kuribayashi clearing her throat interrupted his thoughts.
Everyone was practically bunched into the back of the Toyota as it drove forward guided by the light of distant fires.
"Is that just some fancy way of saying magic user or wizard?" Kuribayashi generalized.
If Gray or Shirou were more traditional magi, they would have scowled, but neither of the two were the sort.
"Essentially, yes," Shirou answered as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn't bother explaining further when there was no need. They could just think of it as they will.
Unfortunately, more gazes turned to Gray when Shirou didn't elaborate.
Gray grew uneasy.
If they were asking for an explanation, then they were asking for too much.
Gray's features flushed as she did her best to force down her fluster. It was one thing to speak to people she knew and were comfortable with, but present company left little in that regard. They had no set rapport, and she wasn't the type to get cozy with others so easily. Inwardly cringing, she tilted her head down and pulled the front of her hood further over her face.
They blinked at her, waiting like birds to be fed, but she would give no quarter. The few words she'd already spoken to these strangers had already been her limit. Any more, and she didn't know if her voice would be able to maintain its clarity under the pressure of their stares.
'Go away. Why me? D-Do I look alright? Did it matter?'
She was just short of her throat making a whining noise at their persistent eyes.
If the message wasn't clear to leave her be, Shirou suddenly moving to sit beside her wasn't making it any better. No, perhaps he'd noticed her troubles and had intervened. Waver said Shirou was a good person, soft even, so Gray could have expected it. However, Shirou was the last person Gray wanted to be near right now through no fault of his own.
Gray tensed.
She was no fool, and was in fact, rather academically gifted under Waver's tutelage. If she couldn't recognize that Shirou's current physical alterations were a result of spiritual possession, partial or otherwise, Gray might as well apologize to Waver for being a third-rate student. But this begged the obvious question.
Who's spirit exactly was descending into Shirou's body?
It had to be none other than 'hers.'
Gray pursed her lips, and grew even more reserved, doing her best to seem smaller and smaller, content to be a wallflower.
"Not a very talkative person, is she?" Cato sighed in disappointment when Shirou acted as a shield.
'Yes. Yes, I'm not talkative. How did you know? Please leave.'
Gray's expectant eyes that peeked through the gap in her hood spoke volumes, but no one present knew her well enough to interpret her true thoughts and just smiled at her. Gloomily, she turned back to focus on her feet, cursing her stunted social skills.
"That's not for me to say," Shirou deflected, garnering attention to himself and away from Gray.
Obviously, Gray was thankful, but a petty part of her that focused on Shirou's current appearance refused to be grateful.
With Shirou's intervention, the interior cabin of the vehicle fell quiet for some time. Only the sound of the engine, or 'heart' as Tuka and Caila like to put it, echoed amidst the crunching dirt under the heavy-duty tires.
The treeline of the forest they were just in had transitioned into an open plain. Like it or not, the speed of a modern vehicle far surpassed simple walking. At the rate they were going, they may catch up to the target faster than he'd assumed.
The scent of the magic energy he could feel was also on point, meaning the assumption that the stray magus was tracking the Dragon was verified.
It was at this point that Shirou decided he had to sort everything about before entering a battlefield.
"We're going to have to get something straight here," he said, calling everyone's attention to him. It was quiet, so when he spoke, naturally several heads turned, Itami's included. "Beyond my thoughts about you all wanting to hunt a Dragon, my associates and I are after someone else that could prove more dangerous if taken lightly."
"That being?" Itami raised a brow.
"A fellow magus also after this Dragon."
The members of Recon Unit Six glanced at each other before Kurata tapped the handle of his gun and spoke with undue confidence. "Don't worry. We've got your back."
That's what worried him.
Itami and the others acted as if he and Gray didn't know what firearms were capable of, but in the same vein, they didn't know what magecraft could do either. More importantly, there was something bugging him that he couldn't ignore anymore.
"Not that we don't appreciate the help, but why would you so readily give it?"
Try as he might, Shirou couldn't understand it. If their target was the dragon, then why trouble themselves with him? He was never the smartest, but he was sharp when it mattered.
"Ah, that-" Kurata glanced at Itami for direction.
Itami grumbled, but turned towards Shirou regardless. "Let me ask you something else first. Does the name…Britannia mean anything to you?"
Butterflies fluttered in his stomach, but he features remained unchanged.
"No."
"-Lie."
"Mr. Cato!" Lelei widened her eyes and slapped a hand over her teacher's mouth, but it was already too late.
Shirou's eyes widened as he snapped his head towards Cato, and the rest soon did the same.
Different from Shirou, Gray, and Rory who were thinking about other things, Itami and his unit grew suspicious.
"What do you mean by lie?" Itami probed.
"…" Lelei glared at her teacher, who grew sheepish.
Cato wilted like a pruned leaf.
"Sorry, it's a bad habit of mine when meeting strangers." Cato lowered his head before caving under the pressure of the eyes directed on him. "I have a minor magic that can tell when someone's lying."
The revaltion had Itami thinking, but it was Kuribayashi who vocalized it.
"Then-"
Shirou instantly schooled his features when several stares went back to regard him, the most intuitive of which was Itami who kept both Shirou and Cato in his view when he spoke again.
"The Sword in the Stone?"
"…"
"Knights of the Round?"
"…"
"Camelot?"
"…"
"King Arthur?"
"…"
"He's not speaking."
Rather smart really.
Itami was gauging Shirou and Cato's reactions simultaneously to each question, but Shirou kept silent. Cato had fumbled the first time by blurting out the truth, but he was more conscious with Lelei staring flatly at him.
Unfortunately, Gray was the one that reacted this time when King Arthur was spoken.
Enough was enough. Shirou cut into the conversation.
"I believe that we are going off topic," he U-turned everything back to what mattered. "I'll put aside why you want to help us for now, but the fact that you're hunting the Dragon means that you're likely to run into our target. There are some things you should know. Don't engage recklessly, and if something seems off, just let my colleagues and I handle it."
Itami and the others glanced at each other, but if this was the only concession, it was ageable enough.
"Okay, we'll do it your way."
Negotiations were always, give and take.
Kuribayashi grunted as she hopped into the front passenger seat of the Toyota, unclasped her military helmet by the chin, and then removed it in a single motion. The helmet wasn't really needed anymore. They'd exited combat, and the feeling of her hair sticking to her brows was getting stuffy.
Half-an-hour of uneventful driving had passed already, and they'd stopped for a short break, giving Kuribayashi the chance to switch cars.
There were two military vehicles, and only Itami and the driver remained on the other one with Shirou and the others. The rest had retreated to the other vehicle for some privacy after recent revelations.
Present company included only herself, Kurokawa, and Kurata. The only other things in the secondary vehicle were supplies such as rations, ammo, and gear.
"Sooo," Kuribayashi drawled, looking at the faces of her fellow recon members. "What are the bets on that conspiracy theory? You know the one about ancient Romans being spirited away into this world to start the Empire, and oh- maybe that little Legend about King Arthur vanishing after the battle of Camlann and maybe starting a new Royal Bloodline here? Cause I want to double down before the report comes out."
It was an attempt to lighten the mood, but all Kuribayashi got was awkward silence.
Bummers.
"This is going to be a pain," Kurata could already imagine it.
"It might not be that bad?" Mari mumbled with a degree of schadenfreude. "The captain will handle it."
"You mean if HQ isn't already having trouble with foreign relations. They're more likely to send a diplomat."
"You know, I came here to relax and not think about politics," Kuribayashi grumbled.
"Go ahead, no one's stopping you." Kurata gestured to the back seats. They weren't leather or cushioned like most consumer vehicles, but fitted with metal plate.
"I think I prefer shotgun," Kuribayashi kicked her legs up on the dash while Kurata continued driving. "Just try to avoid pot holes and- aw dammit, what did I just say?!"
Jostled, Kuribayashi quickly adjusted herself and glowered at Kurata, but when she did, she realized the man had tightened his jaw shut.
"That wasn't me," he muttered, leaning forward into the windshield and then glanced up, squinting his eyes.
Kuribayashi got the hint.
She hissed, popping her head out of the passenger window, and turning her neck to stare up at the massive lizard gliding in the air in the distance. It was huge. The equivalent of two flying buses with a nasty cut over its torso. What had jostled the vehicle was the Dragon's mighty wing beats producing stifling air currents.
Shielding her eyes, Kuribayashi glanced to the distance where another settlement was burning into ruins. From the looks of things, they'd caught up to the Dragon, but had now also caught it's attention.
"Brace!" She yelled into the back of the car in warning when it zipped overhead.
However, the Dragon ignored them, its focus on the lead Toyota, vengeance palpable.
Rather than land and drew near, it seemed apprehensive and chose to remain in the air out of reach.
It craned its head back, wings flapping into a low glide.
"D-Don't tell me," Kuribayashi muttered, watching the Dragon's chest inflate, embers leaking from its maw. Hurriedly, she grabbed the radio in the vehicle and began calling the other car's transmitter. "Fire! Fire! It's going to breathe on you!"
No answer.
Kuribayashi tensed, jumping into the back compartment to ready their weapons while keeping visual through the wind shield.
A roaring sound of thunder echoed as a torrent of crackling hellfire rained down.
"Shit!" Kuribayashi cursed, pausing while loading the RPG just in time to see the other vehicle ahead blocked out of sight by the flames.
Gritting her teeth, she moved and pulled the radio back to her mouth. "Captain! Captain, are you alright?!"
Again, no answer.
Smoke rose into the sky amidst the burning plains, but inexplicably, the roar of an engine remained.
Through the wall of flames, a military green Toyota pierced through the veil, shrouded in golden light.
Atop it, and wearing shining armour with sword drawn, was Code Name: Arthur.
Numerous eyes widened in the silence.
The clacking sound of Kuribayashi nearly dropping the RPG in her grip, echoed distantly in her ears.
/-/
Meanwhile, Shirou did his best to steady himself on the roof of the military vehicle. He'd acted on instinct when he'd felt the build up of magic energy directed on him and the others.
The Dragon had come for vengeance. That was abundantly clear as he made eye contact with it above him. It didn't dare to draw close, likely due to their last encounter.
He had to make a choice.
The odds of reaching the dragon let alone dodging were slim in an ordinary vehicle, so he opted to defend from the room.
Arturia had other ideas.
He wasn't quite sure if this would work, but he was letting Arturia take the reigns from here and freely control his body.
'Trust me,' she said.
So, here he was on the top of the Toyota facing the Dragon looming in the sky.
For a second, he felt Arturia tap into their reserves of magic energy, and then understood her intentions to an extent.
Riding: B
Since "knights" were soldiers proficient in mounted warfare, Arturia's Rank in Riding was a given. Motorcycles and automobiles are treated as "modern mounts," thus a degree of Riding Skill was applicable.
When Arturia spoke, she spoke through him.
"Toyota, steed of the distant future."
Ugh. Saber?
"If you are truly fit for service…then overtake this baptism of fire!"
Blue magic energy swelled and bled into the car, covering it entirely.
"Kick about-!"
A Toyota flying the colours of Royal blue and gold would appear.
"Llamrei II!"
Dammit Arturia.
She was getting carried away.
Was this because she missed that motorcycle, she told him about?
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