Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to their respective franchises.

Gohan didn't really know what to think as he simply walked down the street from the alley he had left, taking in the sights, sounds, and most of all, the people who were still alive and going about their day as normal. He passed two high school girls with their cell phones out, gossiping from the sounds of it, their uniforms a white shirt under tan vests and a dark brown long skirt that ended at their knees.

Another was a salaryman in a navy blue suit walking at a brisk pace, occasionally glancing at his watch. When he arrived at an intersection, he could see the traffic officer ahead, calmly giving the appropriate signals to the passing cars, a whistle between his lips as he allowed some schoolchildren to cross.

The young Master kept his composure, though it would be quite a challenge for someone to be under duress while surrounded by such... calm. Nothing at all like he had expected. No ruined buildings, the sky wasn't a polluted black, and the air was as fresh as it could be, except for the fumes from the cars, but even that was negligible in such an idyllic-looking city.

Dressed as he was in his Chaldean uniform, he didn't seem to attract too much attention other than furtive glances, his threads perhaps easily mistaken for a school uniform from a different school than the girls he passed. "Is... this really Fuyuki City?" Gohan asked himself, half wondering if the Rayshifting had gone wrong and sent him off course from his actual destination, or if he had landed in a much different era than the expected 2004. "First things first, " he continued, having noticed something else was wrong long after he had regained his bearings, "I need to find Aozaki-san."

Flaring his senses, it didn't take long for him to locate her unique life signature, which was about another block from where he was. "What could she be doing there? And just how did she get there? Weren't we supposed to arrive together?" More and more questions with little to no answers was bad enough. "No need to panic. Just find Aozaki-san and plan our next move."

Soon enough, fortunately, he found her window-shopping, of all things, looking at what was on display in what could only be a clothing store. When he was within her peripherals, she turned to him with a smile and waved. With a two-finger salute, she greeted him with a casual "Yo!"

He sighed in relief. "Aozaki-san, just how did you get here?"

Aoko stood at her full height and began to explain, "It wasn't exactly my fault, since I have no idea. When I opened my eyes, I was, if you can believe it, on the roof of that building right there." She pointed in the direction of what looked like a small apartment building from across the street from where they were standing. "I tried to look for you at first, but then I remembered that you could just sense where I was and waited nearby. I guess I was right."

"I see," Gohan said slowly, trying to rationalize how the Rayshifting could have gone so wrong. Not only were they not in the right era, but they were far away from each other. "Is this even Fuyuki?" He wondered aloud, looking left and right. Aoko hummed to herself as she also looked around the seemingly peaceful city.

"It's Fuyuki, alright," she confirmed. "I recognize some of the landmarks." She pointed to a small park in the distance two blocks away from them. "We should be in the houses district."

"What about the year?" Gohan once again enquired.

"Try checking your phone," Aoko proposed. "Does it still work?"

Gohan chided himself for not doing so sooner, though there was always the possibility of compatibility issues with how much of a gap there was between the eras. He fished his cell phone out of his pocket and was right in his assumption, because as soon as the screen lit up, he could not get a signal, as the infrastructure needed to support the technology was still far from what was available, as he keenly noticed that the phones of some of the people he had passed were still common for the current timeline. "It still says 2014," Gohan revealed. "I can't get a signal at all."

"Damn," Aoko cursed lightly. "Alright, the first thing we should do is not lose our heads. Whether this is just a minor miscalculation or we're genuinely way off the mark, we still landed in Fuyuki, which means the mission is still on." Unless this is all some kind of illusion.

"Uh, right," Gohan agreed, though hesitantly, looking up to meet the other woman's eyes. "Any idea where we can set up camp?"

The brunette scanned the street once more before turning to her Master. "We need to go somewhere private. If this is the year 2004, we can't risk being out in the open with our pants down like this. And if a Grail War is happening, there's bound to be some Familiars crawling about for anything suspicious. Namely, Servants like yours truly."

Gohan nodded before the both of them vanished in a flash of movement. Much to Aoko's intuition, however, the timing of their departure could not have been more exact, for as of that instant, one of those very Familiars coming from around a corner barely managed to catch their forms, leaving behind only faint afterimages.

Elsewhere…

"Huh?"

"What's wrong?"

"I thought I..." There was a pause, and the voice seemed to hold a hint of ambivalence as the next words came out. "It must have been nothing."

"It could mean something."

"Could be, but right now, we're flat-footed," the voice shot back. "It's still too early."

"Nothing is 'too early' in a Grail War. Better to cover all our bases so soon into the game."

"Let me handle that. You just need to worry about security for now."

The one the other voice belonged to sighed. "Fine. I'm gonna be making some sandwiches. What fillings do you want?"

"Ooh, make mine with extra egg."

Elsewhere…

Gohan and Aoko were both sprinting through a wooded area, passing and navigating through numerous trees with such ease that it was as if they were one with the wind, but they were careful to keep their pace relatively even so as not to cause too much of a stir. Any faster and they might just kick up enough debris to alert other nearby Familiars.

When they finally reached the clearing Aoko had in mind, they both took a moment to catch their breath. While Gohan found a ledge to sit on, the brunette Servant scanned the area of Fuyuki's outskirts where they were to set up their base, familiarizing herself with every contour to have a clear escape route just in case. Along the way, they hadn't neglected to take in more of the city, and Aoko managed to grab a newspaper to mark the date; January 25th, 2007.

"2007?!" Gohan exclaimed in shock after Aoko handed him the newspaper, rereading the numbers to make sure he wasn't seeing things. "B-But... this doesn't... shouldn't make sense."

"You're telling me," Aoko agreed, leaning against the rock next to Gohan, her arms crossed over her chest. "Either we were sent here by mistake or something screwy is going on. Exactly what, I'm not sure, but the best thing to do right now is to set up a base and a Bounded Field. The last thing we need is for someone to get the drop on us so soon."

Gohan could not have agreed more as he put the newspaper down next to him and jumped off the big rock, his hand going down to open the case that contained all their capsules. Picking the one that contained the house, he pressed the trigger with his thumb, then simply threw the object at an appropriate distance. As the capsule exploded, a large cloud expanded in front of them before dissipating to reveal the domed dwelling that would be their home base.

Seeing this, Aoko predictably whistled in barely disguised amazement. "Hot damn!" She ran up to the now-standing house and swept her eyes over it, taking in as much as she could, then put her hand on the wall to see if it was real. She had previously read the files about what the capsules were, but as the tried-and-true saying goes, 'seeing is believing'. "It's like magic! Is what most people would say, but this is more like something out of science fiction."

"It is," Gohan said amused, "but where I come from, this is practically commonplace, courtesy of the Capsule Corp. The company that manufactures these."

Aoko continued to just drink it all in. "I'm telling you, kid, if I'd had something like these capsules with me when I was traveling, I wouldn't have had to carry around an old suitcase all the time, or ever."

"Yeah, but I think carrying a suitcase shouldn't be that cumbersome," Gohan countered. "Me and my mom get along just fine without capsules back home in Mt. Paozu. Except for when we have to pack and...okay, maybe they are that convenient."

"I rest my case," Aoko shot back smugly. "Now, come on! I want to see inside." In a reversal of the usual dynamic, it was as if Gohan was the mature one of the duo, while Aoko had taken on the role of the child, overexcited and eager to take a crack at the portable house that had just appeared in front of them.

The two circled around the large estate to find the door, and Gohan turned the knob to welcome his Servant inside. When he turned on the light, Aoko's face seemed to light up as well. She was reminded of the Western-style estate of the Kuonji family she used to board in, as opposed to the Aozaki compound, which was traditionally Japanese, as the house seemed to have more of the former aesthetic.

She took a step forward when her eyes traveled downward to find a genkan, a corner to place her boots on. "Hey, is there a Japan in your world?"

Gohan shook his head as he put his own shoes on the corner. Looking up, he hummed to himself as he remembered. "Not really called 'Japan,' but just such a place that comes to mind is Gengoro Island. It's the closest in customs and geography to Nihon."

"Really?" Aoko wondered aloud in awe. "Gengoro Island..." She tested the name, remembering an old folktale about such a place formed by water droplets falling from a jeweled spear in the sky. "An island borne from the heavens. How poetic."

"Hm?" Gohan turned to her, to which she waved dismissively.

"Alright," Aoko began more professionally, "first things first, I'm going to start setting up a Bounded Field. You stay here and call headquarters."

Gohan nodded, the two of them working together to make sure they were on a more functional level to better proceed with the mission. They still had to investigate the strange time discrepancy or how they had deviated so much from their intended temporal destination. Until then, they had to be vigilant in case something else went wrong for them.

Some time before they left, Caster had briefed the two of them on some last-minute renovations she and the staff had made to the main house, namely that the shield that served as the main summoning catalyst had been installed in the living room, where they would be able to communicate with Chaldea, as well as transport resources and other items back and forth. This meant moving or repositioning some of the furniture to make room not only for a more portable version of the mana engine, but also for the entire shield, which was twice the size of the wooden coffee table that had to be placed in the adjacent corner. Fortunately, there was more than enough room.

When the telltale glow of the shield was on, a holographic panel emerged from the center, soon showing the faces of Kirschtaria, Romani, and Caster. "Well, this has gone beyond all our expectations," the Director of Chaldea remarked dryly, Romani looking more worried, thrown off by the truly out-of-nowhere sequence of events. Caster was more thoughtful, no doubt trying to find a reason why events had gone even more off course.

"Director," Gohan addressed the blonde, "could the Rayshifting have made a mistake?"

"The coordinates were as we set them, calibrated to place you specifically in the year 2004, right around the time of the Fifth Holy Grail War," Kirschtaria countered. "But given the obvious, there could only have been a glaring error."

"What kind of error?" Gohan couldn't help but ask.

"That's what we're still trying to figure out," Kirschtaria replied. "In the meantime, the best course of action for both of you is to keep a low profile. Keep interaction with the locals to a minimum, ideally while you look for any clues on your end as to what might have caused the error."

Gohan could only nod. "It's better if we keep each other informed. We'll have a conference call at exactly 18:00 to discuss our findings. Until then, good luck"

"Yes, sir," Gohan said with a nod.

Outside, Aoko was almost done setting up a perimeter around the house, using strands of her hair as material to wrap around wooden effigies she had carved with protective runes, and then planting them in key areas to provide the most optimal protection. While she had always been terrible at conventional magecraft, what she excelled at were the basics of the basics, which Alice was more than adamant about drilling into her in order to improve her chances of survival in the Moonlit World. The most prominent of these lessons were the bare essentials that made up witchcraft, and while she wasn't a Caster per se, and thus unable to take full advantage of the class's benefits, she was still, in effect, a mage, taught by one of the best of the best.

The only caveat to her Bounded Field was that it was hardly specialized, and even someone fresh out of novice could break through it in time, let alone someone at her sister's level. High in concealment, but low in defense, and with the mandatory function of detection in case someone who wasn't her or her Master came near. Other than that, she clapped her hands together for a job well done.

When she went back inside, Gohan told her what they had talked about. "Laying low, huh? That shouldn't be too much of a problem. As long as we can figure out how we got here in the first place, we can take things easy."

Gohan's eyebrows furrowed. "I don't think we should be so blasé about the situation."

Aoko held her hands up. "I didn't mean that we're just gonna bum around all day, I want to know what's going on too, but we can do things at our own pace. Takes a lot of the tension out of it. We need cool heads right now, kid."

Gohan's cheeks took on some color as he turned his head slightly. "Right. Sorry. N-Not that I panicked or anything."

"Aw," Aoko cooed, "you're cute when you lie like that."

Deciding that they needed to get settled first, Gohan showed Aoko to her own room, but not before the mage saw fit to set up a workshop in the living room. "Every mage worth their salt has a workshop," she explained to the young man, taking on the role of de facto teacher. "It's how they're able to carve out a territory, which can lead to all sorts of benefits if you know what you're doing. In a workshop, you can tinker with your magecraft, do horrible and highly unethical experiments, torture some poor unfortunate soul or just goof off if you feel like it."

Gohan winced uncomfortably. "I... could probably do without the experiment and the torture, thank you."

Aoko snorted. "Yeah, you don't look the type. But appearances are always superficial, especially when it comes to mages. Pro tip. If you ever find yourself being wooed by a hot number, always remember the kind of girls your mother warned you about."

Gohan blinked. "...That they string you along before dumping you for a much more handsome and richer guy?"

It was Aoko's turn to blink, keeping her smile on. "...Yeah...sure..." Guess the kid's mom knows her stuff. "Anyway, moving on. Let's get a few things out of the way first. Namely, your Magic Circuits."

"Yeah," Gohan said with a shrug. "I have them."

"But have you ever used them?" Aoko inquired. "Activated them?"

Gohan shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I was never much of a mage. Even when Mr. Piccolo tried to teach me magic. Heck, a little over a month ago, I didn't even know what Magic Circuits were or that I even had them."

"Well, I guess that's another thing we have in common," Aoko remarked with an amused huff. "But I've actually had formal training in the past, and needless to say, I've taken a lot of those lessons to heart. So, I could probably give you a good sense of the basics before moving on to the more advanced subjects."

Gohan tilted his head, brows furrowed in question. "I thought you said you weren't that much of a mage."

"I'm not," Aoko confirmed. "But I have just enough of a grasp of the basics of spell theory to adequately train you. The main reason for my low aptitude has more to do with how specialized my circuits are." She raised her arm as she made the said circuits light up, and Gohan heard again that distinct sound that tickled his ears. "Any kind of magecraft I do, regardless of its rank, will always be inferior to those whose circuits are more refined for the traditional type of casting. In other words, mine aren't up to normal standards, since magecraft is essentially about replicating miracles. Destruction? Easy as pie. Something so drenched in simplicity can hardly be considered miraculous or bordering on the impossible, which is as anathema to your atypical magus as water is to oil".

The Half-Saiyan gaped at the woman's explanation. It seemed that the world of magecraft was more than what he had initially glimpsed on a superficial level. "Does that mean that any magecraft I do will also be average?" Gohan asked after being informed of his own quality in circuits.

Aoko shrugged. "Them's the breaks. But just because you're likely going to be bad at something doesn't mean you can't at least try. And who knows, maybe you'll get lucky. I sure as hell did."

Gohan still looked a bit unsure. It was not as if he had ever wanted to be a magus. A scholar, perhaps, but as he learned more about mages and the culture that surrounded them, he could safely assume that an academic career was the best option for him. Not that a magus himself was devoid of scholarly pursuits, only that... more often than not, it was of the morally questionable kind.

The kind that produced monsters like the androids.

He shook his head from the thought, and Aoko must have read into his demeanor, so she changed the subject. "Alright, as part of your first lesson, help me set up the workshop." Gohan looked up at his Servant/Teacher and nodded, a smile on his lips.

The renovations weren't the only changes or items Chaldea had left at the pair's disposal. Books and some grimoires, mystic codes, and other items were stored in a secure trunk where Aoko fished out what she needed. Let it not be said that Chaldea wasn't the least bit prepared, in all likelihood reserved for any Caster-class Servants they were to summon. Soon enough, the brunette had set up an adequate workshop for herself and her Master, clearing the way for her to begin in their lessons.

"So how do I do it?" Gohan asked, his tail wagging in a way that Aoko honestly thought was adorable, as if he were more of a dog than a monkey, her expression softening at the reminder.

Aoko cleared her throat. "First of all, you have to understand that Magic Circuits are actually part of the soul. What you usually see when they're activated is just the material manifestation on the body, mimicking a sort of extra nervous system, leading to the common misconception that they're a genuine part of the body. They're purely metaphysical, as opposed to biological."

"Da Vinci-san already told me about that," Gohan revealed.

"Right," Aoko acknowledged, stroking her chin as her mind raced with Alice's lessons and her own experiences. "Normally, when you activate your circuits, you have to focus Od through them to process the necessary magical energy to invoke magecraft. Spells, curses, you name it. Try it if you can do it."

Gohan cupped his chin in thought. "Focus Od through my circuits. Hm..." Nodding to himself, he got down on the floor and sat cross-legged, hands on his knees. Like his usual meditative exercises, he began with a deep inhale and exhale, his chest rising and falling with each cycle of breath. Then he closed his eyes, while Aoko watched with an analytical eye, hopefully creating a framework for them to properly coordinate a lesson plan.

With his vision obscured, all the boy could see was black until he heard Aoko speak again. "You must already know where your circuits are, right?"

"My tail," Gohan replied quietly.

"Mhm," Aoko nodded, taking note of that particular detail, "try to get a feel for your circuits. Locate them with your mind and get a firm grasp on them first, from there, you should allow your Od to flow through. Don't push. Take things slow for now."

Gohan nodded before starting, falling into a familiar pace as he would with his mentor. Following the words of his Servant, he concentrated on 'locating' his circuits. He knew exactly where they were, but until now he hadn't really grasped what it meant for him to 'know' where they were as he began to 'find' them throughout his body. Soon, his eyebrows knitted as he began to feel a dull sensation coming from behind, specifically his tail. He continued to concentrate, synchronizing his mind and body as his internal energies proceeded to circulate.

He buried himself in silence, his mind beginning to intertwine with his body unbidden, allowing his Od, his Ki to flow through his frame, a viscous warmth washing over him. After a few minutes, he felt a shift in the air, which was normal, but instead of the usual path, he directed his focus to the intended action. He started small before letting more and more trickle in, keeping his control to the bare minimum so as not to restrict the flow, and pouring too much might just cause something unintended on his part, Kirschtaria's warning fresh in his mind.

Aoko smiled as she watched the boy's circuits light up, slowly, little by little, like tiny embers, and no doubt he was beginning to feel a tingling sensation that caused his facial features to betray the burgeoning sting, his eyebrows twitching sporadically. In fact, Gohan could not help but feel a distinct tingling around his base and spine, almost the same as he had felt when he first assumed Super Saiyan.

She was gradually impressed, as her own beginnings were hardly smooth or fruitful, taking at least two weeks before she could even get a spark to manifest, which only pointed to the boy's own prodigious talent in comparison. Or maybe he was just more experienced, considering what she had already read in his profile.

Letting out a breath, Gohan finally stopped his meditation and opened his eyes in time to see the dim room glowing slightly with his prana. He looked down at his hands and could see some faint lines winding around his skin before disappearing. It was strange, familiar to a point, but only to a point. In such a cogitative state, he vaguely recalled images flashing through his mind, blinking in and out like headlights, of a lush green forest, of animals roaming, but what had caught his attention the most, what had given him the most pause...was a tiny bird flying gracefully over a clearing before being cruelly shot through by an unknown assailant, which was as far as the vision went before that part had brought him out of his concentration.

"Excellent," he heard Aoko say, clapping her hands in praise that helped to further break him out of whatever stupor had come over him. "Not bad for a first attempt."

Breathing in and out to steady himself, Gohan beamed up at her, the brunette now sitting on the arm of the nearby couch. "Well? How did it feel?" She continued to ask.

Gohan tilted his head thoughtfully. "In what way, specifically?"

"Like your body heating up," Aoko clarified. "That's normal, by the way."

Gohan tried to remember the sensations he experienced, to remember exactly what he felt when he activated his circuits for the first time. "It doesn't really feel any different than an aura," he thought.

"Aura?" Aoko asked, and as soon as she said it, Gohan let his Ki flare up, the suddenness and force of which managed to startle her, sending some loose papers that were part of the workshop flying. "Whoa!"

"Sorry!" Gohan exclaimed with a wince after causing the brunette to fall over the couch.

Aoko regained her bearings soon enough, though the smile on her lips suggested she wasn't the least bit upset about it as she marveled at the phenomena, the boy's Ki enveloping his form, resembling a thick veil of steam that danced and flickered. "You have got to teach me that!"

"Uh..." Gohan blinked, dissipating his aura before snorting, and they both burst into laughter.

At around 18:00 hours, they had their conference call with Chaldea. "Well?" Aoko enquired, sitting on a sofa with her arms folded as she and Gohan faced the holographic image of Kirschtaria, who seemed to be going through a tablet.

The Director looked up from the tablet and addressed them. "According to the set coordinates, you were supposed to reach the year 2004, but for some reason, something threw you both off course."

"Let me guess," Aoko sighed. "You don't know the cause of it."

"We tried everything," Kirschtaria informed them with clear irritation. "We checked the system, the Coffins, nothing seemed to be out of order, but whatever it was, once you were already through the portal, only then did your route deviate."

Gohan's stomach knotted with worry. "What now, sir? Do we... go back?"

Kirschtaria seemed to think for a moment before answering, "No. As far as you two have strayed from the intended era, there is still an anomaly afoot. Remember where you two are right now."

"2007..." Gohan murmured in thought, realizing the implication.

"Exactly," Kirschtaria confirmed. "Three years after what was supposed to be the Fifth Grail War. And yet..."

"Fuyuki is still standing," Aoko said introspectively. While setting up the Bounded Field, she had taken a pair of binoculars out of the house to get a passing view of the city. There were a few possibilities as to what might be going on. As she had speculated earlier, they could be trapped in an elaborate illusion, one convincing enough to fool their visual, auditory, and even kinesthetic senses. Or worse, they might be in some sort of Reality Marble modeled after the pre-war Fuyuki. "Should we really be leaving so soon?"

Kirschtaria shook his head in the negative after another brief pause. "For now, I suggest you conduct an investigation on your end. According to CHALDEAS, the Singularity has yet to be resolved. For all we know, the true anomaly may not even have been the war itself, but something else entirely."

"And if we turn up with nothing?"

"Then we'll rayshift you back to Chaldea," Kirschtaria concluded. "Try again."

Aoko sighed, seeing nothing else that could be done about their situation. "Kirschtaria, is it possible that this is just a Reality Marble? Maybe the work of a Servant in the War."

"Possible, but I would think twice before jumping to such conclusions, Aozaki," Kirschtaria advised. "Goetia could simply have set a trap to throw us off. Whether it's an illusion, a Bounded Field, or even a Reality Marble, we cannot coast by on mere guesswork. For now, maintain a steely vigilance, both of you. Chaldea, out."

With that, the transmission ended, leaving them alone to ruminate on the Director's words. Gohan's thoughts were muddled with worry about what it could mean that they had landed in Fuyuki three years late from the scheduled Grail War. Has someone won the Grail? Where was it now? Could it really have been corrupted? All this and more was swirling in his mind when he was brought back to reality by Aoko, who stood up to stretch. "Well, now that that's over with, we can relax." She turned to Gohan. "Just keep practicing for now. Keep working on accessing your circuits until you're able to do so on reflex. After that, we can move on with some basic spells. You should be good with that."

Gohan nodded after a moment. "Y-Yeah…"

Aoko cocked a brow at seeing his still lingering anxiety. "For now, we should keep working on fortifying the house. We're not from this era, so we should also do our best in blending with the locals. That means ditching the uniform and slipping into something more suited for the season, since it's early January." Gohan noticed that the clothes she was wearing were the ones she was first summoned in, as opposed to the orange and white combat suit, which could only be an effect of the Rayshifting.

Pulling himself together, he stood and nodded in agreement. "Alright. Let's get to work." As part of the lesson that followed, Aoko taught the boy how to draw protective runes on the walls. These runes would serve to strengthen the house in the event of an attack. Other measures included setting up additional stations around and outside the perimeter, which his flight helped with, as it made it easier to set them up on high trees, using the brush and snow for camouflage.

"Remember, mages thrive in places where there are leylines, which are veins filled with mana," Aoko continued to lecture, the two of them standing outside the door of the house and observing the terrain, which was still covered by a veil of snow. "These veins are usually underground, the deeper the more potent. In terms of formalcraft, it will help supplement our magecraft, but also give us extra power for whatever other avenue we might use."

Gohan nodded after his senses had flared out, picking up the energy that seemed to flow along the land like an underground wellspring. "When you have your circuits well in hand, I'll be able to start you on formalcraft. One of the tenets of being a skilled magus is being able to draw from the Greater Source. Even with your monstrous reserves of Od, I'd rather have you be well-rounded than specialized. Your circuits aren't that high quality, but even if you have a hard time, I want you to beat whatever limits you have to the curb and spit on them for good measure. There won't be any room for compromise under my tutelage."

"Right," Gohan nodded again, getting familiar vibes from his lessons with Piccolo. What came next was a smile from the woman, who was still dressed in her Servant clothes, even in the open, which was still very much cold from the season.

"Come on, it's getting dark," Aoko waved and the two of them entered the house.

Some time later, Gohan was in the kitchen, preparing food for himself and his Servant. A large rice cooker was boiling with over 20 cups of rice, enough for both of them. He checked the indoor grill that was installed on the counter as part of the stove, where four slices of salmon were roasting, dabbing some sauce on them for better flavor. He was wearing a black t-shirt and shorts, an apron tied around his waist. Next he checked the large pot where the curry was simmering, perfect for the occasion, the spiciness complementing the cold winter.

"Something smells good," Aoko said as she entered the kitchen in a new shirt and shorts, drying her hair with a towel from the bathroom. The shirt she was wearing was white with the Capsule Corp. logo printed on it. "I never thought I'd miss a hot bath like this."

"How is your room?" Gohan asked, setting up the table as Aoko sat down.

"Like something out of a posh hotel," Aoko remarked, draping the towel over the chair next to her. "It even has a balcony and a French window. I almost feel bad."

"Nah, you can have it," Gohan said. "I'm fine with mine."

Aoko shrugged before looking around the kitchen. "It's hard to believe that all this could fit into such a tiny thing."

Gohan turned to her as he tended to the stove again. "Do you see the logo on your shirt?"

Aoko looked down, stretching the front of the shirt to get a clear view. "Capsule Corp," she murmured, then looked around the kitchen and noticed that some items were embossed with the same logo. "Must be a pretty big company."

"The leading company in the business of making everything portable," Gohan revealed as he stirred the curry. "They're... pretty big, I guess. It's safe to say that our entire society practically runs on capsules. Nearly everything, from office buildings, to even houses can be moved with the press of a button."

Aoko whistled. She could only imagine how economical that must be. "So how did a kid like you get hooked on all this fancy hardware? Sponsorship?" That had also been part of the report, in case any of the boy's Servants wanted to share in the use of the capsules, especially the vehicles if they had the Riding attribute.

"The current president is a long-time family friend," he replied. "She and my father met when they were still kids."

"Ah," Aoko said with a grin. "Let me guess. She and your old man were a thing?"

"Not... really," Gohan replied pensively, looking up in thought as he tried to remember the story of how his father and Bulma had first met. "I don't think they ever dated. Just friends."

"I don't know. Sounds like a classic case to me," Aoko replied slyly. "A boy and a girl meet, they become friends, one thing leads to another. I mean, come on."

By now, Gohan could tell that the young woman was partly teasing. "She shot my father in the face with a handgun."

Aoko's smile stiffened. "I see..." Well, as first encounters go, this... certainly wasn't the worst, considering the things she'd seen and done. "How...old were they?"

"Bulma was 16," Gohan replied. "Dad was 12. There is a little context to that. Bulma traveled around the world looking for the Dragon Balls after she found one in her basement. After some research, she found out what they were, invented a device that could locate the other six, and on the way, while driving through Mt. Paozu, she accidentally ran over my dad with her car.

"..."

"I know it sounds... strange," Gohan admitted, "but my father was fine. He told me so. The car Bulma was driving, which he first thought was a monster, came out of nowhere and knocked him off his feet while he was carrying a big fish he'd caught for dinner. He said it still hurt a lot, but other than that, he was just stunned. Bulma tried to ask him if he was okay, and he got so mad at her that he threw the car while she was still in the driver's seat."

"..."

"She wasn't seriously hurt, but she was pretty spooked, and that's when she pulled her gun on him in self-defense," Gohan concluded, while Aoko just continued to stare at the boy as if he was telling her that Tokyo Tower had grown legs and walked away. The Chaldeans who were watching and listening had similar looks at the boy through the monitors. "And, before you ask, the bullets didn't do much except sting his face."

"His…face..." By this time, Aoko's expression was frozen, one eyebrow raised and a hand resting her head on the table.

"Yeah. She ended up emptying the whole clip on him too," Gohan added with what the brunette hoped was not an unironic smile on his lips. "Really funny story they told me on my eighth birthday."

"...So, is the food ready?"

Gohan was more than a little happy to say, "Yeah. Let's eat."

Chaldea…

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...I'm going to see what's on the cafeteria menu for dinner," Pepe said as he walked to the door, the prospect of food enticing him. But mostly to shave off the awkward atmosphere that had descended on the control room.

As soon as the door closed, Caster finally let out a good laugh. "Imagine if you will that Xuanzang Sanzang shot Sun Wukong with a pistol when they first met."

Some of the staff could be heard choking back their own laughter. Romani could only shake his head, though a smile was undeniably on his lips. "Bulma..." Kirshtaria thought to himself before tapping on the terminal to bring up the woman's profile on the monitor, taken from the catalog of videos on Gohan's smartphone that had been integrated into the system's private server. She looked to be in her thirties, wearing the white blouse she had worn on her son's birthday, with neck-length purple hair, red lipstick, and cream-colored pants. In addition to her parents, they could see a man some ways behind her, sitting alone with his arms crossed, and looking away from the proceedings. According to Gohan, this was the woman's husband and another full-blooded Saiyan. The man who had been a more formidable enemy than Piccolo in the past, having nearly wiped out their version of Earth.

"But to think," Kirschtaria continued, "that this same woman would take such a man as her husband."

"And this child could only be their son," Romani added, pointing to the infant in the booster seat next to his mother. "A half-Saiyan like Sūn-kun."

"Well, we don't really know the whole story," Da Vinci interjected. "For all we know, any number of things could have happened to bring the two of them together. A most...unlikely couple if ever there was one."

"Well, at least their species won't have to go extinct," Romani remarked with a twinge of consideration, though he highly doubted; and with good reason, that the Saiyans themselves ever held such sentiments towards other races, let alone those they had wiped out for a galactic warlord.

"I'm sure their universe was really torn up by the whole thing," Hinako piped up from her end, her sarcasm palpable.

Romani turned to her. "I don't approve of how they lived their lives, let alone the things they did, though I'm sure not all of them adhered to their barbaric customs. By all accounts, the way Sūn-kun described the Saiyans easily marks them as irredeemable, but given the circumstances of his and Trunks' birth, I'm willing to bet that there's more nuance to it."

"Sūn-kun did mention that after his father landed on Earth as an infant, he suffered a head injury, based on the accounts Master Roshi told to him by the man who first adopted him, which might explain how his instincts were curbed," Caster recounted. "Fascinating, wouldn't you say? That whatever inherent savagery may have been present in the boy could only have been dampened by what must have been a case of traumatic brain injury."

"Right," Hinako said with a roll of her eyes. "And then there's that guy." She pointed her finger at the picture of Vegeta, as if to remind everyone that the man was not just a petty criminal who had seen the error of his ways. The ancient immortal would be the first to proclaim that she was by no means a traditionally 'good person'. However, most of the terrible things she had done in her life had never been out of true cruelty, nor had she ever gone out of her way to kill for pleasure or on a mere whim. If she ever took a life, it was always in self-defense or when she happened upon a real scumbag that no one would miss. And because of her status as a Xian, unlike True Ancestors, she's never had a real need to feed on blood.

"We are hardly in a position to judge, Hinako," Kirschtaria said, as if mirroring her thoughts. "If only you knew the depths of our misdeeds in the Lostbelts."

"Yeah, I can imagine," Hinako scoffed. "At this point, I've heard everything. Not the least of which is that my alternate selves became Servants after fighting their version of Chaldea, which doesn't sound like a bad deal all things considered. Being with my beloved has always been my greatest desire. It's the only thing in this godforsaken world that can still move my heart, which has survived both the monotony and the ugliness of life. So, no, Kirschtaria, in all the centuries of my existence I've never felt the need to consider myself a proud bastion of righteousness. At least you can be sure of that."

Kirschtaria was not the least bit offended, nor did he have the right to take such offense at what was bluntly the honest truth. He couldn't have put it more succinctly than the opinionated Xian, who was so unlike most versions of herself that were more reserved and introverted according to the Returners' accounts.

"Hm," Caster hummed in thought. "So this Bulma is the one who serves as the Sanzang of her world, but instead of going to India, she had gone on a journey to collect the Dragon Balls for what we can safely assume was the purpose of fulfilling a wish."

"And along the way, she met Sūn-kun's father for the first time," Romani followed. "The Sun Wukong of their world, who goes by the name of Son Goku. But instead of a monkey born from the Earth, he was an alien child sent away to avoid the destruction of his home planet."

"And," Caster continued, typing commands on the terminal again and the images shifted to show two of the other guests at Bulma's party, "let's not forget these two." Oolong, who could be seen toasting with the other guests, and Yamcha, who raised his glass as well.

"Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing," Romani explained. "Or, according to Sūn-kun's account, Oolong and Yamcha."

Hinako blinked. "Yum cha? Wūlóngchá? Seriously? Both of their names are puns on tea."

"Well, it can't be any more bizarre than Wukong's birth name," Caster said. "Kakarot, which might as well be thematic, since Saiyans seem to follow a naming convention involving vegetable puns."

Romani snorted. "And Sūn-kun's real name is Gohan, which still follows the food theme a bit."

"Is everyone in their world named after puns?" One of the technicians blurted out, drawing a few laughs.

"I'm sure there are those with normal names," Kirschtaria thought aloud, and the laughter faded. "Well," he turned to Caster, who nodded before typing again on the terminal, and a video recording of Gohan activating his circuits for the first time appeared. "Not bad."

"Yes," Romani agreed. As inferior as the Half-Saiyan's circuits were, the fact that he was able to activate them at all on the first try was impressive, when it would have taken others days or weeks. "He still has a long way to go."

"As powerful as he already is, the best he could ever amount is a third-rate aptitude for magecraft," Caster noted, a hand on her chin as she assessed the boy's performance. "A great irony if I've ever come across one."

"Traditional magecraft may be beyond him, but Wùfàn has shown himself to be of the tenacious sort," Kirschtaria commented, glancing at Hinako. "No matter where he falls, he has more than demonstrated that he has what it takes to be a fine magus."

Elsewhere…

It should have been easy. Once she had disposed of the scum, she would have been a shoo-in to fill the now vacant slot. How could the Grail have rejected the summoning? Did it lack the right catalyst? Did her time without a Master weaken her so much? What could have gone wrong?

"No..." The thought flickered through the web of possibilities. "How...?"

Could it be... that the Grail had found another Master? Impossible. Her being a magus had been enough of a loophole for her to take her former Master's place, so how could the Grail have denied her? Had someone sneaked in at the last minute?

"Who could have..." Her next words crumbled with the indignant gritting of her teeth. "No matter! I still have more power than the mages of this era. I will simply improvise. Like I always do." Her tone wavered as she trailed off, as if she had been in such a precarious position before, but she was a survivor. Nothing would stand in her way of achieving what she had once prayed to the gods for before abandoning them altogether. "With the resources now at my disposal, I may just-"

She whirled around to fire a burst of magical energy, narrowly missing and stunning the mysterious intruder who had dared to trespass on her territory. Her outstretched right arm brimmed with mana, drawn from the leylines of the temple she now inhabited, her trail of good fortune having run into a slight snag with this violation of her domain. "Who are you?"

The figure rose from the pile they were in after being grazed by the attack, the wall behind them now showing a smoking hole where the energy had gone through, hopefully with no one behind it at that very moment. They were dressed in all black, from head to toe, in an ensemble that would have made it difficult to discern their gender, but Medea had a good idea that they were female. Even her face was covered by a hood, leaving only a small gap to reveal her eyes, and even then the darkness of the workshop made it difficult. How this individual was able to enter her Bounded Field at all was of greater concern to the Caster, for nothing but a mage of equal or greater rank could so much as shake it.

Caster drew more from the leylines, muttering the Divine Words needed to bring out five magical circles around her, all primed to fire her Rain of Light. "Answer me, wretch. Who are you?!"

The figure simply stood at her full height in silence, as if watching her from afar, before a movement of her arm caused one of the circles to fire. To Caster's astonishment, the blast was prevented from hitting its target by an invisible barrier that caused the normally lethal beam of light, devastating enough to kill a Servant, to simply fizzle out harmlessly. Now, Caster was not one to panic so easily. She had been through too much to be caught off guard, but the fact that her spell was so easily nullified made her understandably wary of this mysterious foe.

The figure, who had dug a hand into her cloak pocket, pulled out something and held it out to the Caster, arm outstretched, not caring that the limb might just get hacked off by an already peeved Servant.

Putting aside such greater emotions, Caster narrowed her eyes analytically to make out through the darkness what it was that the girl now held in her hand.

A strange orb... giving off an unusual signature of magical energy.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, but I took a small break from writing. Thank you for any feedback in advance, and enjoy.

Also, no, I am not interested in a collab or illustration of my work. To any who see reviews asking for such, I must reiterate once more that they are scammers.