FateBleached Apocrypha part 1 Factions

by TransG1fan

The Holy Grail & Hogyoku: both of these devices created for the purpose of granting wishes. So what happens when the worlds that created them collide? Aizen decides to watch as the Grail war in Trifas unfolds except he's decided to make some modifications: instead of 2 factions how about 6? And Ruler gets help from a certain substitute soul reaper and midget soul reaper.

6. Chapter 6 Final day of Peace

Fate/Bleached Apocrypha

Part 1 Factions

Okay can't believe that this will be the last exposition heavy chapter, at least for this part of the story. That doesn't mean that there will be no more exposition scenes mind you but the rest I will certainly try to not bog later chapters down too much like these last several have been. Thank you all who've stuck around til now.

A few quick shout outs for some non-guest reviews.

fabianemmanuel15: I read your review and did make a few changes to chapter 5 as you did point out an error I made, and I did try to rectify it to the best of my abilities. If there are still issues don't hesitate to pm me.

Once again, I don't own any of Bleach or Fate. They belong to their respective owners, and I highly recommend supporting the official release of both franchises. Now onto the next installment.

Personal thoughts, Servant/Master (also Jeanne and Laeticia internal) communication,Zanpakuto speaking, Inner Hollow/regular Hollow speaking.

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Chapter 6: Final Day of Peace

Unknown . . .

His head ached as he came to. He opened his eyes as everything was blurry and he immediately squeezed them shut again due to the bright light that invaded his vision. He then heard voices that he didn't recognize. He opened his eyes again and was finally able to take in his surroundings. He looked to be in some sort of lab. But the people that were running it, while in some kind of uniform it was one he didn't recognize. His other senses began to kick in. Like the fact that he was on a hard surface, he was in some kind of tube, and that he knew that the people were speaking in another language and yet he could understand what was being said.

"Were you able to salvage the research that Dr. Abarai tried to destroy before his attempted flight?" asked an obvious male voice.

"A thousand apologies, Lord Yggdmillennia. While we were able to piece together the crucial parts for this experiment, sadly the other 60% of the data was lost in the fire that started by him before his death." Responded someone else. Yggdmillennia? Abarai? Why are those names being said here? And where am I? he thought to himself as his mind became clearer. He then heard a loud crash and he was startled enough to look over and saw something truly terrifying. In another tube that was the same size as his but it was what was inside the tube that scared him. It was some kind of reptilian creature covered in green scales and several serpentine eyes as well as wicked looking clawed feet and a whiplike tail. It was about the size of a man and it was thrashing around like crazy desperate to get out. A faint glow could be seen under the creature. Causing it to slow it's movements until it seemed to slide to the floor exhausted. He heard several sighs of relief.

"You all needn't worry. My skills as a mage have rendered even this magnificent creature to heel. Granted it's only a juvenile Bašmu but thankfully it and subject B22, due to their young ages should be able to complete the merge and adapt to the changes quite quickly." Said the one now identified as Lord Yggdmillennia. He looked over and was shocked as he recognized who the person was that was called Lord Yggdmillennia. Darnic!? He thought but before another thought entered his mind, the now identified Darnic spoke again. "Now let us commence with our latest experiment for project chimera." He declared. He looked over to see other people fiddling with some kind of controls and then he saw the tube he was in light up with some kind of circle of light and weird design patterns.

Suddenly he started feeling sick. Like his he wanted to throw up. And then he felt pain and he glanced over hearing something cry out and he saw the creature writhing and roaring again but he also that it's skin was being peeled off and flaking. The pain intensified and he cried out. He looked down and saw to his horror that the same thing happening to the creature was happening to him as well his skin was peeling and flaking off. As were his muscles and tendons and finally his bones were melting. He had no idea how long this was happening, but it felt like an eternity. He lost sight in one of his eyes and all he could think was two questions as he continued to scream in terror and horror The pain! make it stop! And What is happening?!

You were never supposed to see this! You need to wake up idiot! He heard two voices that were achingly familiar that it comforted him to know that they were there. But still this nightmarish vision didn't seem to want to end. Suddenly he felt like everything went numb and cold with the last coherent thought, though whether it was his or not he wasn't sure, was a sad I'm Sorry. Then he heard another voice that sounded familiar.

"Wake up, Renji." It commanded.

=Soul society – Seireitei – Renji's private quarters – bedroom

Renji's eyes shot open instantly and he gasped for air as sat upright as he felt sweat dripping off him. He took several deep breathes as he stared at nothing. Then he felt something on his body like a calming presence that felt familiar but he dismissed the notion on how absurd the situation was, so he focused on his breathing. After a few minutes he calmed down and registered that he was in his bedroom of his private quarters in the squad 6 barracks. So it was nothing but a nightmare. Or was it? It felt too real. "Are you well now, Renji?" asked the voice that finally pulled him out of his nightmare. He looked up and was mortified instantly to realize that his Captain was now standing in front of his bed in his private quarters while he was essentially almost naked in his bed. While he appeared stoic as usual Renji had come to understand the subtle changes in both his captain's expressions and his reiatsu. And now he felt the latter and it was laced with concern.

"Captain! What are you doing here, sir? And what time is it?" asked Renji. He looked over to a bedside clock and realized that it was already 10 am. "Shit! I'm so sorry for my tardiness at the office Captain. I'll-" Renji started but was interrupted by Byakuya.

"You haven't answered my question yet, Renji and I don't like to repeat myself." Said Byakuya cutting him off. Renji nodded. Byakuya seemed to accept his answer. "Now to answer your first question: When I came into the office several seated and unseated soul reapers came to me and asked to assist you saying that they were worried for you. They heard you screaming and tried to see what was happening but your reiatsu was lashing out wildly and emitting such a pressure that all but a few of the high seated officers were able to endure the onslaught from outside your quarters and couldn't even approach the door to get in. When I arrived, I was the only one who could both enter and actually get close enough to see what was the cause of all this hence why I'm the only one present." Finished Byakuya.

"I'm sorry, Captain. I didn't mean to cause such a ruckus so early today." Said Renji more than a little embarrassed that he got so many people worried for something as trivial as a nightmare. Byakuya then turned around and began to head out of his bedroom.

"I suggest that you freshen up, Renji. Once you're finished, head over to the office immediately so we can discuss this without unwanted listeners." Said Byakuya.

"Yes, Sir." Replied Renji. Once his captain exited the room, Renji quickly took a deep breath to collect himself and then quickly got out of bed and headed to the bathroom and took a shower.

20 minutes later he was now dressed in fresh shihakusho and was tying his hair up and grabbed both his lieutenant badge and his white headband. As he made his way out of his room he looked out at the rest of his quarters and couldn't help but blush in embarrassment at the fact that his Captain had seen the cluttered mess that was his living space. Guess it's a good thing he only saw the living room and my bedroom and didn't get curious about the rest of the place. But knowing him he's going to give me so much crap for how I'm so disorganized at home. Renji thought sullenly. With that he took a deep breath and exited his quarters as he tied on both his badge and his headband.

As he closed the door, he was surprised to see so many other soul reapers standing outside his quarters who were looking at him with concern. One of them stepped forward whom he recognized as their recently promoted 3rd seat Rikichi Yuki. Renji knew him as someone who had idolized him and had joined squad 6 specifically due to the idolization. Though the two had actually gotten to know each other as time had gone on, Rikichi hadn't quite seemed to shake off that idolization. But the two had formed a good and reliable working relationship and Rikichi had proven to be very good at handling day to day operations of the squad when both he and Captain Kuchiki were off on missions. "Lieutenant, are you alright?" he asked with genuine concern. "The rest of the squad was worried and wanted to know how you are." He said.

Renji honestly felt a bit touched by that and tried to put on a reassuring smile for them. "It's alright. It was just a stupid nightmare. Nothing to be worried about. I'm just sorry about all that trouble I caused." He said. This seemed to cause everyone to look more relieved.

"We're fine, sir." Said one other male soul reaper.

"It's nothing we can't handle." said a female soul reaper. Variations of these were spoken for a few minutes before Renji coughed politely and got everyone's attention.

"Alright then. Since everyone seems to be doing alright, how about you all get back to your posts and duties. Squad 6 isn't going to run itself, after all." He said in a more lighthearted tone. With that everyone saluted crisply with determined smiles and dispersed back to their duties, save for Rikichi. At Renji's questioning look. Rikichi explained that the Captain had asked him to wait for Renji and then follow him to the office as the Captain had instructions to give him once they arrived at the main squad office. Renji was a little surprised that Byakuya hadn't just relayed all his instructions at once, but he figured his Captain had a reason for that. "Well let's not keep the Captain waiting any longer." He said and with that they headed to the office.

=Soul society – Seireitei – Squad 6 Captain and lieutenant office – 10:30 am Tokyo time

Byakuya was going though paperwork that had accumulated somehow over night and was nearly finished when he heard a knock at the door. He looked up and sensed that it was Renji and their new 3rd seat Rikichi Yuki. "Enter." he said as he continued to look through the documents. Sure enough, the two men he sensed were now entering the office. Byakuya immediately handed some papers over to Renji who took them over to his desk and he then turned to their 3rd seat. "3rd seat Yuki. You've been overseeing the training and the day-to-day activities over the last few days. Report." Ordered Byakuya. Rikichi immediately did so informing the duo that there had been nothing of note other than a few injuries during training, Missions had also gone smoothly, and while Hollows were still a problem on patrols, even they seemed to not be too serious, and all had been dealt with. This satisfied Byakuya. "Alright. I'll need you to continue as you have been for at least today and tomorrow for certain but afterwards, unless something comes up that will need our attention again, you will be resuming your regular duties." Said Byakuya. Rikichi gave a formal bow.

"Yes Captain." He said immediately. Byakuya nodded.

"You may go then." Replied Byakuya. With that Rikichi turned and headed out the office. Once the door closed, Byakuya snapped his fingers and a Hako barrier activated much to Renji's surprise. "Now Renji. Tell me what happened in this nightmare of yours." He ordered. Renji was a little embarrassed but knowing that his Captain wasn't going to let up on such a question he decided to simply go for it. He told him everything he could recall down to the last detail including seeing Darnic and that Bašmu creature. When he was finished he looked at his Captain properly and was surprised that his Captain was looking at him with surprise and wide eyes. "Are you certain of all this Renji?" asked Byakuya cautiously. Renji thought about it and nodded.

"Yeah that's all I remember Captain. I swear." He said.

Renji, I want you to draw what those symbols that you saw in your dream and then take a picture of it. When we speak to Urahara later today you are to send them those photos and have him puzzle through them." Said Byakuya.

"And what are your thoughts on this, Captain?" asked Renji.

"I think it's most likely that what you experienced wasn't actually just a nightmare but rather a memory. A long-buried one most likely about your own death in the world of the living." He said. At Renji's stunned expression Byakuya pressed on. "You're aware that when we konso souls to the afterlife we don't rob them of their memories, rather after a while of being here many choose to forget about the past and try to live their new lives here in the present. The fact that seeing something like Darnic's picture last night might've triggered a memory that had been buried is not unheard of for other soul reapers. What does your zanpakuto have to say on any of this?" asked Byakuya. Renji thought of that for a moment and gave a look of surprise.

"Actually Captain, it feels like Zabimaru has completely receded from my mind. He doesn't even feel like he's present even in the back of my mind." Said Renji. Byakuya closed his eyes as he contemplated something.

"Then the most obvious explanation is that your zanpakuto knows what this whole thing is about and now doesn't wish to talk about it." Said Byakuya.

"Then what do you think I should do? I want to go to this final meeting and hear what the head Captain has to say about all of this later on, but I also want to help with the research and figure out what all this with my dream means as well. I don't know where to start." Said Renji getting frustrated.

"Well there are only six Servants left to research and after that, once you've finished all the paperwork here at the office, then you're dismissed for the day and I will inform you of when the meeting is starting. You can use that time to commune with your zanpakuto." Said Byakuya. Renji considered this and nodded in acceptance. "Good. Then let us head for the family library. I also want to look into this Bašmu creature that you brought up as well." Said Byakuya. He then snapped his fingers and dispelled the Kido and the two headed for the door. Then a loud growling noise was heard. Renji blushed in embarrassment, but Byakuya kept himself facing forward. "I'll have the staff make you a quick snack once we reach the mansion." Said Byakuya acting as if nothing happened.

"Thank you. Captain." Said Renji rather pathetically. With that the two men exited the office.

=Soul society – Seireitei – Kuchiki Mansion – family library and archives – 10:45 am Tokyo time

An older Servant woman who was the head librarian was looking over a list of documents at her desk when she heard the doors to the library open. She looked up and saw none other than the head of the Kuchiki Clan and his adjutant. But considering that she saw them over the last couple of days their coming here wasn't nearly as odd. Though the said adjutant holding a plate of onigiri was an odd addition. Still she bowed and showed respect to her lord. "My lord. Welcome. How can I be of service?" she asked as she straightened up. He then showed her a list on a piece of paper. The head librarian looked at it and it caused her to quirked an eyebrow. "Also I need you to add the creature called the Bašmu to that list of any and all books referencing all those on the list and the Bašmu." He ordered.

The head librarian nodded very well my lord. Where will you be for me to deliver the books?" she asked.

"My home office. The both of us will be there for the rest of the morning and the early part of the afternoon." Said Byakuya.

"Very well. It will be done my lord." Said the head librarian.

=Romania – 30 mi outside of Trifas – Ruler's base – ruler's room – 5 am Romanian time (11 pm Tokyo time)

As ruler was sleeping her face scrunched in pain as if she was hurting as she was tossing and turning.

Dream/Vision . . .

She saw what appeared to be a church and at the alter was a man with white hair that was spiked and he was a bit short but seeing his hands told her he was tanned very dark. He also wore a pair of silver earrings but that was all she could see besides his black clothing. Then her vision showed only his golden eyes and then everything became white.

Reality . . .

Jeanne then woke up with a start. "That vision. . . was that . . .of the Master of Red who was the priest? Was that. . .Shirou Kotomine?" she asked aloud.

=Romania – outskirts of Bucharest – chapel – Shirou kotomine's personal quarters – same time

Shirou was resting in his personal quarters shirtless when the door opened causing him to wake. He looked to see that it was his Servant Assassin of Red. "Assassin. I'm surprised to see you here so early." He said a bit groggy. As he wiped the sleep from his eyes, he noticed that there was a dove perched on her hand. "So is it safe to assume that the Gardens are finished?" he asked a little less tired.

"Yes. They are and I wanted you to come take a look at them. Now will be the time to do so in case there's something that I need to change. Though given your earlier requests and instructions, that shouldn't be an issue. And afterwards I have some very interesting information that you need to hear." She said. Shirou K. got up from his bed and put the top of his cassock on.

"Then lead the way, Assassin." He said calmly.

=Romania – outskirts of Bucharest – outside of chapel behind it – minutes later

Outside, out of sight from those not in the holy grail war, was what looked to be a city that looked very out of place in this country as many of the buildings looked ancient and from the middle east. Assassin turned to her Master and held her arms out in a grand gesture and a dazzling smile that complemented the rising sun. "Behold my nostalgic gardens. For this is the 'Hanging Gardens of Babylon'. Well what do you think, Master?" she asked coyly.

"Quite Marvelous. So the living quarters are prepared for all our potential guests and the modern conveniences as well?" he asked with a gentle smile. Assassin turned to her Gardens.

"Of course. I even made sure that there would be enough space for all of the participants to come here. Not that it would be a likely scenario but I figured that it would be best to be prepared regardless. I also fulfilled and incorporated all your other requests as well. I must say that when the other factions finally see this in all it's glory, I'm sure all the other factions will be completely dumbfounded." She said confidently and then gave a haughty laugh befitting of her status as an empress.

"Excellent work. With the ceasefire ending at sunset today, now would be our best chance to strike. I'm sure everyone is getting anxious and wants to get started with the war as quickly as possible." Said Shirou K.

"It will no doubt be a fierce battle for the opening salvo. So I expect a spectacular opening." She declared grandly, her arms extending out in a grand gesture and her smile still dazzling.

"So all that's left is to wait for sunset, then assemble our Faction and then we will begin." Said Shirou K. as he turned towards the rising sun and extended his hand out to the sun before making a fist in his hand. "We will end this tragedy once and for all. The greater Grail will soon be ours." He said seriously.

"You shouldn't make such boasts like that you two. It makes you look weak" said a male voice that sounded like it was right next to them. This caught the pair off guard and they immediately began to look around for where the voice came from but saw no one.

"Whose there?!" demanded Assassin. Then they heard the sound of footsteps. Assassin of Red immediately summoned a magic circle and fired her chains at whoever was coming out the door. The figure was revealed to be none other than Caster who upon seeing the chains coming his way, yelped in surprise and ducked to the side of the door. This let one of the chains become embedded into the wall.

"Was there a reason for you to take a shot at me like that, Empress of Assyria? The day has barely begun, and I don't think that I've yet to say anything today that would warrant such a reaction." Said Caster looking a bit nervous.

"Caster did you say anything just before we saw you?" asked Shirou K. Caster looked confused.

"No Master. But since you're here I thought that I could ask if I could perhaps have one of those, I believe they're called typewriters, so that way I can write my newest creation far more quickly." Said Caster looking very interested.

"So what were you doing for the last two days if you're just now requesting such a device?" asked Assassin looking annoyed.

"What else but writing." Said Caster. "I've been writing the old-fashioned way as a means of filling up the time. But now that this is the last day, I figured that now I should start to pick up the pace of my writing. Hence my request for such a device as a typewriter or perhaps a laptop as those are just as fast. Not to mention I've heard that the latter has several functions like suggestions and predictions for writing prompts. I can just imagine how much time that will save me. And the more time I save the more new plays I can write." Said Caster getting more excited about the prospect.

"And how is Berserker of Red been doing?" asked Shirou K. This seemed to snap Caster out of his excitement and answered far more coolly.

"What else talking to his axe claiming it's his wife. Though he has proven to be a good sounding board for me to read my plays to, both old and new. He's proven to be quite calm despite his class. Makes me wonder if he was let loose, would he go on a rampage or would he just be content to stay here until he's ordered to face the enemy." Said Caster, becoming contemplative and thinking aloud.

"Don't make me use up a command seal to keep you from following through with that thought. We just need to get through today and then we can let Berserker loose." Said Shirou K. Caster looked at the pair with a curious expression.

"Me thinks I interrupted something?" Asked caster.

"Never you mind. I was merely showing our dear master my noble phantasm. He seems to approve of it. Now if there's nothing else why don't you leave, caster. I have important information that needs to be relayed to him." Said Assassin of Red haughtily.

"Actually, Empress I do have one final thing I want to ask before I leave. I wish to pose thee a question. I know the wish of our dear master over here hence why I decided to throw my lot in with him. And I know that our dear berserker wishes to grant his wife her true form. And my wish is to simply see this Holy Grail war come to its conclusion and be able to write about it. Obviously, I have not been able to ask the rest of our group due to the obvious mistrust. And also, the fact that they have not spoken to us directly since the factions initial meeting. So, the only person I have left to ask this question is you, wish do you have for the Holy Grail to grant you?" Asked caster. After a few minutes assassin responded.

"I do not have a wish. But I do have a goal. That goal is to reestablish my position of power as an Empress in the current era. I was able to do so before without the help of a grail. And I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to do so now. Especially now that my noble phantasm is complete." Said Assassin confidently.

"Those are bold words Empress. But surely you are aware of those in our own faction who either share similar goals or are simply intimidating and powerful enough to oppose you. Like our rider and Archer for example. Given who our rider is, I'm sure he has a similar goal to you and would happily challenge you outright for it. And Archer, I would not be at all surprised if he has some kind of counter to your gardens. What say you?" Asked caster.

"I will not deny that those two do in fact pose the greatest threat to my goal, but that is precisely why I'm counting on the other factions to deal with those two for me. With any luck there will hopefully be at least one other servant in the other factions who will either keep them busy or outright defeat them. If not, I am well aware that both of them have a fondness for wine. Would be hardly a problem to say . . . slip something into their drink without them noticing." She said with a conniving smile.

"Let's not start plotting to kill our allies just yet. We need them to fulfill our objective of obtaining the Grail. As to your request, Caster, I'll see about getting you a typewriter but only if you don't cause trouble and stay in your quarters today." Said Shirou K. Caster quirked an eyebrow.

"Oh? And why would you bargain for my cooperation, Master?" asked Caster.

"I got a call from Lord El-Melloi II yesterday evening saying that Ruler is going to pay the Red Faction a visit at the Bucharest hotel room base to relay some important information regarding the unusual anomalies for this war." Said Shirou K.

"And let me guess. You're not going due to your unusual circumstances and don't want a direct encounter with the mediator, right?" asked Assassin of Red. Shirou K. nodded. "So what did you tell them?"

"That I'm helping you complete your noble phantasm and that it will be ready near sunset. And it was agreed that we'll meet up later and they'll relay what was talked about from the meeting. Even though they voiced their suspicion of my motives yet again." Said Shirou K. looking sad.

"It can't be helped. Considering that neither has reached out to the other, trouble cooperating is expected. Hopefully the fear of combat that's to come will now force everyone to cooperate. But now I do have to talk to you considering my familiars. They've been stationed all over Trifas and a few in Bucharest. And now they've reported back to me and have uncovered some interesting information including finding out the True Name of our Saber of Red." Said Assassin with a self-satisfied smirk.

"Excellent. Then let's head inside and I'll get some breakfast started. We can discuss the details there." Said Shirou K. He was followed by Assassin and Caster.

=Romania – 30 mi outside of Trifas – Ruler's base – Ichigo's room – 7 am Romanian time (1 pm Tokyo time)

Ichigo woke up to his alarm. He looked around and realized that he was in a room that wasn't his normal one. "Right. I'm not at home." He said aloud. Yeah, which means we don't have to deal with the old goats' antics! I can't tell you how wonderful that is, king. He heard his inner hollow cheering. Ichigo groaned as he scraped his face with his hand. "Well, I'm surprised you're still here. What happened? You went and hid for the last two days, and I haven't heard from you since our fight with that berserker." Ichigo asked curiously. Look don't worry about it. As long as you stay away from Goldie, then that won't happen again. Oh, and don't ask about what the deal is with me and him, because I have no interest in answering you. Said his inner hollow snarkily. This just got Ichigo more than a little upset. "Seriously! Since when did you decide to give me the silent treatment or cold shoulder? What happened to the whole 'ohh if I ever get weak, you're going to come in and take over' shtick?" Asked Ichigo angrily though he tried to keep the noise down so as to not disturb anyone else who might still be sleeping. I did Take over after you almost died you idiot. Or did you forget that? asked Ichigo's inner hollow. Suddenly ichigo's mind Began racing. He thought back to that fight. The fight that almost killed him. Where he almost failed to protect his friends. Where he almost killed one of them. He still felt the tightening of his neck due to Ulquiorra the 4th Espada using his tail to constrict his airway. The emerald green eyes staring at him emotionlessly. The face that was as pale as a marble statue save for the black tear streaks from his eyes. The complete Monotone of his voice. The tip of a claw resting right where his heart was. And finally, the pain. The excruciating pain. And then the numbness. See you do remember king. And if I hadn't stepped in when I had everyone would have died. And let's not forget all the times I saved you back when you were rescuing the queen. The pineapple head, kenpachi, and that pretty boy nobleman. All those times you survived was because of me. Not to mention it was only by harnessing me and my abilities as a Hollow and mixing them with your soul Reaper powers that you even were able to stand half a chance against all of the other hollow opponents you faced back in Hueco Mundo. And yet after all that you still keep treating me as if I'm some kind of abomination that has no right to exist. His Hollow finished ranting. For a few moments it was quiet. Finally, his hollow spoke once again. I'll be keeping an eye out for when the fighting starts. And I expect to be allowed to come out and have some fun. with that His hollow receded back into his mind. leaving Ichigo alone with his thoughts. He sighed in frustration. "Well, I may as well get up since I'm not going to get back to bed anytime soon after that. And what did he mean by the queen? Was he talking about Rukia?" He asked aloud sounding confused. He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind, and decided to just go freshen up in the bathroom.

=Romania – 30 mi outside of Trifas – ruler's base – dining area of kitchen – 7:30 am Romanian time (1:30 pm Tokyo time)

Ichigo finished freshening up and headed out to the kitchen figuring that he may as well get started on making breakfast. So he was quite surprised to see someone else already up. There sitting at the dining table with a pile of papers next to her was none other than Jeanne. At the center of the table was another stack. She looked up to see him and smiled warmly. "Good Morning Ichigo." She said.

"Ohh good morning Jeanne. What are you doing up so early?" He asked.

"I had a revelation very early this morning. As a result, I couldn't really go back to sleep. So, I decided to come here and finish up the homework for Laeticia. I did promise that her school grades wouldn't suffer as she was serving as my vessel." She said with a small laugh. Ichigo Found himself smiling at that too. But his look quickly turned thoughtful at her first comment.

"You had a revelation? What was it about?" he asked.

"It was concerning That red master, Shirou kotomine. While I wasn't able to see his face, the fact that I had a revelation about him tells me that it is absolutely critical that we meet with him in some capacity especially in the very near future. Perhaps it will answer my question as to my unusual summoning." She said. Ichigo Grew thoughtful Then he looked at the pile of papers in the middle of the table.

"So, what's all this?" He asked curious.

"Ohh Mr. Urahara got the senkaiodan Gate working. apparently, they as in he and Yoruichi, spent the entire night field testing it. In fact, shortly after I woke up, I was informed not only was the gate working but they had just successfully sent over a few mundane items successfully. So, it was deemed a good idea to have your homework be sent over as part of the field test and as you can see from this pile, it worked. Now kaien has successfully crossed over and is currently residing within Karakura." She said happily.

"That's great. That means he'll be safe now." He said with a small smile. As he grew thoughtful, he shrugged. Well it's either I get started on my homework or I get started on breakfast. He thought to himself. With that he headed over to where Jeanne Was seated and took the stack of papers. He quickly found all of his math papers and decided to start there.

"Ohh you're going to start your math?" She asked.

"Yeah, it's my best subject. I figured I'd knock it out first." He said nonchalantly. Jeanne Looked hopeful at this.

"In that case I have a request. Could you help me with the math?" She asked. Ichigo Quirked an Eyebrow as she explained. "I'm not that good at math but I promised Laeticia that I would try to get her homework done for her. Most of it is pretty straightforward and the knowledge provided to me by the Grail does allow me to understand concepts that came after my time. But for math, I can only do simple math like adding and subtracting. Laeticia also struggles with math so as a result it's been a challenge for us to get it done let alone if we got it right." Jeanne admitted embarrassed. This caused Ichigo to smile warmly.

"You do know that your homework is most likely written in French, which I can't read, right?" Ichigo pointed out. This seemed to cause Jeanne to look even more embarrassed. "You forgot about that didn't you?" he asked now teasing her.

"My deepest apologies." Said Jeanne bowing deeply.

"Jeanne it's okay. I was partly teasing. But I can't read French so if I help you with the math portion, you're going to have to translate it to me in into either Japanese or English as I can actually read, write, and speak in both." Reasoned Ichigo.

"Of course. Thank you so much." She said happily bowing deeply once again. Ichigo shook his head at this but he looked at her fondly as they both sat down and pulled up the paper. Neither of them noticed that a couple of plushies were watching in secret the whole exchange with keen interest.

As the pair settled in, Jeanne noticed Ichigo looking thoughtful. "Something on your mind?" she asked.

"Tonight is most likely the start officially to the war, so that's when all the fighting starts. I can't help but wonder, what wish is so important to these people that they are willing to fight and kill each other for it? We know a few wishes for some of the participants, like the white Faction Master, but what of the others?" he thought aloud.

=Romania – cave of King's Mountain – white Faction's home base – living/dining area – 7:45 am

Gin woke up and was surprised to find that the table was already set with what appeared to be a meat dish for breakfast. He gave a perplexed look at this as he saw Manaka already sitting down and eating her fill. She looked up and giggled at his expression.

"Not used to eating meat in the morning, Mr. Soul Reaper?" she asked him teasingly.

"Not a breakfast that consisted of only meat." He shot back with a small smile though it was more teasing than leering. He then took a seat and began to dig into the meal. "At least it's cooked." He noted.

"Both Assassin and Archer were the ones to go out and hunt for this meal. So you should show some gratitude to them for their efforts." Manaka answered haughtily. Gin pointedly ignored her and instead looked past her.

"Well it's rude to not announce yourselves so why don't you all come out and make yourselves known to everyone?" he suggested. This caught Manaka off guard as all the Servants materialized save for Berserker of White who was absent. All of them looked surprised though Caster and Rider's masks hid their expressions.

"You could actually see us even in spirit form, Master?" asked Atalanta shocked.

"Given that I'm technically a spirit myself, sensing and seeing other spirits is a no brainer for me. Even if you Servants go into your 'spirit forms', I can still see you. Honestly I'm surprised that your other Master here can't see you when you go into spirit form." Said Gin with a bit of a sarcastic tone.

"Who says I can't! I could see Ichigo and that other female soul reaper just fine when they were fighting my Servants when they all originally got here when those from the Black Faction couldn't see them at all. Not to mention that since you never brought up that you're in a gigai or not, I think it's safe to say that you're in your soul reaper spirit form and I can see you just fine." Said Manaka outraged at his accusation.

"That's true. Care to share how you became spiritually aware enough to see Soul Reapers?" asked Gin with a full-on slasher smile grin.

"That's a se~cret!" Manaka replied with a singsong tone. Gin responded with a complete pout at being denied information flat out. "What? You didn't seriously think that just because I'm a child and that we're technically teammates that I would divulge everything to you after turning over Servants to you, did you?" she asked teasingly.

"The thought did cross my mind." Gin admitted still pouting.

"Well too bad. If you want to know then you'll have to earn the right to that information." Said Manaka giggling enjoying the fact that she could dangle a carrot over Gin. As for Gin himself he gave a side smirk at the girl's antics.

"Alright but perhaps you all wouldn't mind indulging me in answering something that will require less earned trust. Like what is the wish that each of you is fighting for?" suggested Gin. "I already know Manaka's but what about the rest of you?" he asked. This gave everyone pause. Then Caster spoke up.

"I personally have no desire for the Holy Grail. My only wish is to complete my noble phantasm. My ultimate golem, Adam. That I can easily accomplish with my own two hands though I sadly lack the necessary resources but with other Factions participating I'm certain that I can acquire that which I need." Said Caster as a matter-of-factly. Gin gave an impressed look.

"Wow. Someone who actually is ready and willing to grant their own wish their way rather than relying on others to do it for them. I can honestly respect that." Said Gin though his tone made it difficult to tell if he was being sarcastic or genuine.

"I will go next. I merely wish to serve the Master who summoned me out of gratitude for doing so. And while my contract has technically changed to you, know that while I will serve you without question, if my original summoner's life is threatened than my loyalty to her will trump mine to you, do remember that." Said Karna firmly with his eyes piercing towards Gin. Gin actually frowned at that.

"So you're a soldier through and through. Hmph. As long as you don't start going on about justice then at least having you around won't be too bad." Gin conceded.

"As far as I'm concerned we are Servants and our duty is to serve those who summoned us or those that hold our contract. Personal morality is secondary to that." Said Karna his tone coming off as arrogant.

"Have to say, your tone makes you come off as an arrogant asshole but when you actually listen to your words, what your actually saying is very different to the tone in how you're saying them. Still I agree with your statements. Morality comes second to achieving one's goals." Said Gin confidently.

"And just what is your goal?" asked Manaka curious.

"Ah, Ah, ~Ah. I asked a question first. And so far, only Avicebron, and Karna have answered. I know your wish, Manaka. And I'm aware that we currently are lacking a Saber class Servant so no wish for that one. But that still leaves Perseus, Atalanta, Robin, and Lancelot." Gin pointed out while wagging his finger like he was scolding a child for doing something bad.

"Given the deteriorated state of Lancelot's mind it's unlikely to get an answer out of him. But based on his legend it's likely that he wants to kill King Arthur for all of the terrible things that kicked off the tragic end of the Arthurian myths particularly surrounding him and Guinevere. And given that two versions of King Arthur has already been summoned into two of the other factions, it's entirely possible that he too will be able to grant his own wish with his own hands without the assistance of the Grail. Though I must make this clear that this is merely speculation on my part due to Lancelot's inability to communicate in a way that's understandable to anyone." Avicebron theorized. Gin shrugged but made no comment.

"Not to mention that I will never allow that to happen so his wish will certainly be denied before the Grail war is over." Commented Manaka.

"Then I guess I'll go next. Given as to the fact that I was one of very few Greek heroes to actually have a happy ending in my myth, there's nothing that I particularly want for a wish so I will follow Karna's example and commit myself to serving and fulfilling my master's wish." Said Perseus.

"So we've got two servants with no real goals and instead will commit themselves to fulfilling the goals of others but at least you're not hypocrites and toss morality aside for the said goals. Huh. I can honestly respect that." Said Gin actually sounding sincerely impressed in his analysis.

"I guess I'll go next. I'll admit that I did at one time have a wish for the Grail but honestly now, I'm just here to have a good time." Admitted Robin.

"A hedonist. I can respect that even more. You seek that which makes you happy even if others don't agree with you. And you completely rely on yourself to fulfill that goal." Said Gin sounding impressed and even adopting a smile that wasn't mocking as his default one seemed to be. He turned to Atalanta. "So that just leaves the only other girl in the group. So how about you?" he asked, looking very interested in her answer.

"Unlike most members of our faction I do actually have a wish that only the Grail can grant. I wish to create a world where all children are loved and give affection by their parents." She declared without hesitation. Gin then gave her an uncanny slasher smile which made everyone feel very uncomfortable.

"Oh, I'm going to have fun with you." He said in a sinister tone. Atalanta was immediately on edge not sure what he was implying and was getting ready to summon her bow.

"What is that suppose to mean?" she growled defensively. Suddenly Gin schooled his features to be less threatening and appeared to have a slight smirk.

"You'll find out in due time." He said in a more teasing tone.

"And what about you? What is it you wish for?" asked Manaka looking very curious. Gin's smirk grew as he answered teasingly.

"That's a se~cret." He said. Manaka Gaped at this for a few minutes.

"WHAT!" she exclaimed.

"I never said I would tell you my wish and you could've easily told me to go screw myself and not give me an answer to my question. You made the assumption that I would respond in kind." He said with a teasing smile. Manaka gave an annoyed pout at this. "So what is my assignment for tonight as it will be the start of the fighting?" he asked.

"Why should I even bother with answering you?" she said annoyed by his antics.

"Well, if you won't tell me then I'll just go off and do my own thing and not tell you and you may not like what I have in mind." He pointed out teasingly. Manaka pouted once again as she knew that he made a good point.

"Oh fine! We won't be engaging in any fighting tonight." She admitted exasperated by his antics. He quirked an eyebrow in surprise at this. Realizing that he was caught off guard by her answered she pounced on this and replied haughtily. "Why should we engage in fighting our enemies when we can sit back and enjoy the show for tonight. It'll hopefully help thin out the numbers so that when we do engage with the other Servants they'll be in a weaker position than now when they'll be fresh."

"So we're just going to sit back and watch? How boring." Gin pouted in disappointment.

"Who says that's all we're going to do?" Manaka asked with a smirk. But she sighed with resignation. "I will require Atalanta's services tonight so that means that I need to inform you what we're actually going to do, tonight." She admitted.

"Well don't be all depressed on my account." He replied in a sarcastic tone. "So, what do you need her for?" he asked.

"She's to act as scout and bodyguard along with Robin for Avicebron as he wants to track down and capture a Hollow live and bring it back to his workshop to examine and tinker with it." She explained as a matter-of-factly.

"Excuse me?" he asked in surprise.

"Ever since these Hollows were first mentioned I have been very curious about them and want to get my hands on an . . . .active specimen. I want to see if perhaps they can be utilized in some way by our faction since my golems cost resources and sadly, I need the remaining resources to finish my noble phantasm. So, if we can harness Hollows to act as our main forces than we can compete somewhat with the other factions and while everyone is fighting each other, tonight is the best night to try and snag one." Explained Avicebron.

"And let me guess you want me to assist as well in capturing one, right?" asked Gin pretty sure he knew the answer. Avicebron nodded. After giving some thought he nodded. "Sure I suppose it beats being stuck here getting bored." He replied flippantly.

"You have my sincerest thanks." Said Avicebron. Manaka nodded at this. Well at least it means that I won't have to put up with his annoying antics. It's also a good thing 'My Prince' didn't see how silly I was acting thanks to this Gin. I wonder how he's spending his last day of peace? she thought to herself.

=Romania – outskirts of Trifas – Emiya's base of operation – kitchen 8 am

Arthur rubbed his ears surprised that they were feeling hot as he was cooking another breakfast.

"Are you okay, Arthur?" asked Illya, looking concerned while everyone, including Berserker at Illya's insistence though he was off to the side rather than at the table, was waiting to be served breakfast.

"I'm fine. It's just that my ears were feeling hot all of a sudden." Said Arthur trying to reassure her. This only seemed confused all three children, but Iri giggled.

"You know, they say that if that's what's happening it means that someone is talking about you." Said Iri with a teasing smile. Arthur merely looked confused. He simply shrugged and served everyone breakfast.

"You know I must say, pharaoh, that I'm surprised that you decided to join us and eat with us." Said Kiritsugu looking to Ozymandias as the latter drank some wine.

"Your surprise is understandable, advisor, as is your curiosity. The truth is that I never dined alone. I always had company whether it was my wife and our children in a private setting, grand banquets with diplomats or priests, or even surrounded by Servants as they would taste the dishes to ensure it wasn't poisoned though the latter would not sit at the table to dine with me. So, while eating with my subjects as an equal is certainly unusual, dining with others as a whole is not. I suppose that since this will be the last day that we all will be able to have such opportunities to eat like this, I wanted to indulge if only a little. After all, once I retake this era to be my new kingdom, I will most likely not have such opportunities to eat in such a setting again or they will be very rarely." Ozy explained. He then took a bite out of breakfast. "I must say Arthur, perhaps you and Shirou will be competing as to which one shall be my royal chef." He said with a mirthful smile.

"If we both survive the war though I am certain that I would rather not serve as a chef to anyone other than myself, pharaoh." Said Arthur.

"Pity." Replied Ozy not looking the least concerned as he continued to eat.

"So, I wanted to ask what's the strategy going into tonight? I know that Dad is taking Arthur, Arash, Heracles, Pharoah Ozy, and Diarmuid with him but what are the rest of us to do?" asked Shirou E.

"You two and your mother are going to remain here with Caster and Jackie. The magical and mundane defenses will protect all of you while your mother's scrying abilities will allow you all to observe the fight. Jackie will stay due to both her being a child but also as a last line of defense with Caster. Hopefully it won't come to that though. As for myself and the remaining 5 Servants, I plan to have Archer stay with me for most of the night while the other's will engage with enemy Servants. The plan will be pretty simple. We'll come around and head to the back of the fortress of Yggdmillenia, but we will not enter tonight." Explained Kiritsugu as he started eating.

"Why not?" asked Iri a bit surprised.

"Because the defenses of the fortress both in terms of combat forces and magical defenses will be at their peak tonight and the Black and Gold Factions will be expecting attacks from all sides tonight. So we will just run interference with any other enemy factions who might want to sneak in the back in the hopes of nabbing the Grail. This way we can gage the strength of at least one other faction of Servants as well as hopefully weaken the Faction in question." Explained Kiritsugu.

"What about these Hollows you mentioned earlier? Should some of them show up tonight aren't some of our Servants unable to actually see them? Won't that make fighting them difficult?" asked Iri.

"I can see them as can Saber and Lancer of the ones in our group. We'll have to guide the blades of those who can't see them. However, it's most likely that Ruler and her group will be the ones to deal with them. They just told us how to defeat those creatures should they be unable to actually get there in time." Said Kiritsugu.

"So if we see these Hollows show up, we leave them alone unless they attack first?" asked Diarmuid.

"Technically yes. However, if either of Ruler's bodyguards shows up, I want Berserker to engage with them." Said Kiritsugu. This surprised his family and most of the Servants even said Berserker paused in his eating at this.

"What?!" they exclaimed.

"Why do you want that? Ruler's party is neutral." Said Arthur in surprise.

"Because I want to see if they can fight on par with Heracles. I'm not expecting them to kill Heracles outright but if they can take even one life from Heracles like Kisuke managed to do yesterday in tonight's bout should they make an appearance, then I want to approach them later." Explained Kiritsugu.

"I see what you're getting at, Advisor. You want to test these bodyguards and see how strong they are, and our Berserker is the best for testing them." Said Ozy with a smug smirk. Kiritsugu nodded.

"If they succeed at achieving the task I've set for them, should they appear, I'll explain the next phase of my plan for that. If not, then the test will end tonight and will go no further. But that's going to depend on whether we encounter either of these bodyguards or even a Hollow while we're engaged with another Faction tonight." Finished Kiritsugu.

"Do you really think we'll fight another Faction tonight, Dad?" asked Shirou E.

"I have no doubts about that. It's just a question of who will be facing." Replied Kiritsugu.

"Yet you clearly have some idea so please, advisor, enlighten us." Ordered Ozymandias still eating his food.

"Honestly, the Red and Black Factions have enough bad blood between them that they will most likely face off against each other head-on tonight. Then there's us, so the only other possibilities are the Blue, White, and Gold Faction. Since we ran into Caules on the first day of the ceasefire and he knows that we are the Silver Faction, it's very likely that the Einzberns know which Faction we are on and we've already deduced that they are most likely the Gold Faction. So following this line of thought it would be the Gold Faction as the most likely Faction we'll face tonight as one they would be protecting their territory, striking at the Faction they have bad blood with, and hopefully weaken us in the process." Kiritsugu replied as he took a few bites of the food.

"But would they really risk letting others know of the tampering of their Servants so early in the War, Daddy?" asked Illya.

"That's the only reason why I'm leaving it as only a possibility albeit one that I feel is the most likely scenario. The next most likely one is that we face off against the Blue Faction. We know that the Matous are part of the Blue Faction. But again given that Sakura was a former Tohsaka, I'm uncertain if Tokiomi would willingly hurt his former daughter. So it's more likely that they are in an alliance or they are the white Faction. Either way they will probably attack from the back as Tokiomi wants to simply get in and grab the Grail then get out and return it to Fuyuki where he can conduct the ritual in it's proper place. That will be true whether the Tohsakas are either the White or the Blue Faction. The only difference is whether we already know at least one of their Servants and all the Masters or if all their Servants save for Lancer of White who we know is Karna are a complete mystery along with a few of the other Masters. If the Matous and Tohsakas are allied and apart of the Blue Faction then that just leaves the White Faction as the only true mystery save for the identity of one Servant." Said Kiritsugu as he continued eating.

"I am pleased to see how thorough you've been in your strategizing and your logic. Yet it seems that you've overlooked something, advisor." Said Ozymandias with a small smirk. At Kiritsugu's confused expression he elaborated. "You have a Caster class Servant who is known for her Clairvoyance. You could simply ask her what tonight's future may hold." Ozy pointed out.

"Actually I think it would be best that he not be too reliant on my predictions, Pharaoh. Afterall, predictions aren't always accurate. They show the future as it was when I read it. Telling someone to do this, telling them why, any action I, you, or anyone here takes could change the outcome. And that goes for anything we do, or any prediction ever seen. Time, especially the future, is always in flux." Said Queen of Sheba meekly.

"Yes. But if the timespan of the Future, at least in this instance, is small, say mere hours later, than it's far easier to predict what will happen. Of course, if you still refuse than I suppose I can just use my imperial privilege skill and just do it myself, but it seems like a waste especially when we already have a Caster Servant whose perfectly able to do it." Said Ozy with a teasing smirk.

"I never said I wouldn't do it. I just meant that any predictions I make should be taken with a grain of salt and that the Master of Saber should trust his own abilities and not rely on just my predictions only." Caster said.

"Alright how about this? Say one hour before sunset, before we head out you use your Clairvoyance as that way the future time will be not as in flux, as you say, as it would be if you did so now. The smaller the timeframe you have the less likely things are to change and turn out far differently. Sound fair enough?" asked Kiritsugu. The Queen of Sheba thought about this for a moment and then nodded. With that everyone continued to dig into their breakfast. Then Iri spoke.

"You know I just realized something. So far, we've gotten to know all of you and yet no one has actually talked about what they want from the Grail. You all know that our family has a collective wish to be able to be a proper family in peace but what about all of you? The Servants get a wish after all, and you all had to have a reason for answering the summoning so what are your wishes?" asked Iri. This caused several of the Servants to ponder the question before Diarmuid answered.

"My wish has already been granted, my lady. To be given another chance to serve a lord faithfully until the end be it by the sword of by the passage of time." Said Diarmuid.

"And a most fitting wish it is for a knight. As for myself, I have no wish. At least not one that the Grail can grant. For the only true thing I want is to be with my beloved Nefertari in this new era but given how she is merely a part of my legend, she never made it onto the throne in her own right. As a result, it's a wish that will never be granted as the Grail can't revive those who died and were never recorded onto the Throne. So instead, I intend to establish this era as my new kingdom where I shall reign over it as a pharaoh and the people as my subjects. And I intend to do so on my own without the assistance of the Grail." Declared Ozymandias.

"So, you're trying to make do with what you've got and do so on your terms." Shirou E. thought aloud.

"Yes. And you'll find Master of Assassin and Lancer that those who achieve their desires with their own two hands are rewarded many times over than those who are instantly given what they want by something else. As while it satisfies them initially, they then grow bored and move on quickly to something else and thus are never able to be content or satisfied. And if they are given things so easily then those things can also be taken away from them as easily. Mark these words young mages." He said looking at the two child mages.

"While I may not agree with the idea of subjugating the entire world to become your kingdom pharaoh, I do agree with the latter advice." Said Arthur as he finished serving everyone at the table with more helpings of Breakfast.

"Are you saying that you also don't have a wish, Saber? Given how your legend ended I would think that you might at least have a wish." Kiritsugu pointed out. By now Arthur had sat down with his breakfast at the table.

"Before I answer that I want to hear what the other Servants want from this war." Said Arthur. He looked at Illya. "Master of Berserker and Archer, do you know what Berserker desires from this war?" he asked. Illya paused in her eating as she looked over to Hercules who also paused in his quiet eating as he looked at her. She closed her eyes for a few moments. He gave a low grunt but said nothing else, at least nothing that anyone else could understand. Then Illya opened her eyes with a small smile.

"Berserker says that he really doesn't have a wish for the Grail either. Instead, all he wants is to battle strong opponents as he enjoys the thrill of battle. But that's it." She said smiling happily. She turned to Archer. "And what about you Arash?" she asked curious.

Arash, along with the other Servants who had been quietly eating Saber's food and enjoying it stopped and grew thoughtful. "Honestly. I also don't have a wish that the Grail could grant. I only have one desire. I lived as a "hero" to save innocent people, and nothing about that will change from the time when I was alive. Even now, I have not forgotten how I once lived as a hero who saved the people, how I once waged everything for the sake of the people." He replied.

"So you wish to spend your time as a Servant the same way as you did when you were alive." Said Iri. "How admirable." She then looked over to Jackie. "We already know that Assassin's wish is to have a family which we are more than happy to provide." She said happily. Jackie giggled as she was given head pats causing others to smile at the wholesome scene. Shirou E., still smiling, looked over to Caster who was already finished and was asking for seconds. Saber got up and got more food for her and others who wanted seconds.

"What about you, Sheba?" he asked.

"You can just call me Makeda. That was my name in my homeland of Ethiopia." Said the now named Makeda. "As for a wish. I suppose that I'm the only one who actually has a wish that only the Grail could grant. And that is to be reunited with my beloved Solomon and to be able to be the happily married couple we were denied in life. Beyond that everything else I can accomplish on my own." Said Caster.

"Well since Solomon is on the Throne it's very likely that the Grail could summon him. Provided you got your hands on it." Said Kiritsugu. He then looked at Arthur who finished serving another round of breakfast. "So that just leaves you, Saber. What is your wish?" asked Kiritsugu. As Arthur ate a little breakfast first he gained a contemplative look before he spoke.

"I will admit that I did originally have a wish and it was to save the Britain of my time to form an eternal utopia. However, due to circumstances that happened to me during my summoning in which I met Pharoah and Arash, I realized that my wish would ruin the potential lives of those in the present who either hailed from or who now live in Britain by either changing them to other people entirely or causing them to cease to exist altogether, and thus I became determined to protect the present over the past. Though what those circumstances are, are private so I respectfully ask you all to please not pry. So as of now I really have no wish for the grail. I suppose that my current desire is to live in the present and continue to protect it. Though if I really had any wish, it would be to meet Mordred again and apologize for my terrible treatment of him whether it was the Mordred of my timeline or this one and perhaps my knights and Guinevere as well for how things turned out in our collective myths. I feel like I owe them that much. But that is all I can really think of using the Grail for if they haven't already been summoned." Answered Arthur.

"So you accept the past for what it is and are trying to move forward into the future. I'm glad to hear that. A ruler who has regrets of their rule or its conclusion regardless of whether that conclusion is good or bad is a fool and unworthy of being given the title of ruler." Praised Ozymandias.

"I can't help but wonder what my counterpart in the Blue Faction wishes for. Did they find peace like I did or are they still chasing after the same dream that I had once sought after?" he asked aloud.

=Romania – forests outside of Trifas – Tohsaka's base of operations – kitchen/ dining room – 8:30 am

Kariya, Ayaka, Cu Chulainn, and Sakura were all finishing up making breakfast when Aoi and Rin came in followed by Caster, Archer, Saber of Blue and shortly followed by Assassin of Blue, her mask now removed and keeping her distance. Berserker and Rider of Blue were both sitting at the table ready to be served. Kariya turned to see who came in and smiled gently. "Oh good you're here just in time for breakfast." He said. Ayaka looked over as well.

"Where's Uncle and Kirei?" asked Ayaka. Aoi gave a peaceful smile.

"Kieri is in his room looking over some papers that he received from the church though I don't know what they're about. As for your uncle, he is currently finishing up his morning care routine which includes caring for his goatee. And they say we women take so long to get ready for the day." She said with a slight giggle.

"I knew that he always tried to be elegant in everything he did, said, and appeared but I never realized how much care went into maintaining that goatee of his as well." Said Kariya playfully.

"Of course, Father puts so much care into his appearance. A proper mage must take care to present themselves to others as always being in control and that includes looking their best." Rin recited though she did smile at the end of her statement.

"I meant no insult to Lord Tohsaka, Rin. I just meant that I'm used to the more relaxed and carefree environment that my Kido teachers fostered during mine and Sakura's training." Said Kariya with a slight smile.

"Kido? Translated that means Demon's way. Just what sort of magecraft were you learning, Master of Berserker?" asked Paracelsus looking concerned.

"Oh, it's actually not that bad. The people teaching us are spiritualists. People who are more in tune with the spirit world and manipulate the mana in the air a little differently than mages. They've also made it their mission to hunt down and slay hollows, the monsters Uncle Kariya told us about earlier, to protect ordinary humans from them. If you want, I can demonstrate a low-level Kido for you, Caster." Explained Sakura. Caster seemed intrigued and nodded, motioning for her to demonstrate. "Okay. Bakudo #4 Hainawa." Sakura chanted. Then she held out her hands and then started generating a crackling yellow energy rope within her hands. As she concentrated everyone watched as the thick rope energy thinned out split and wrapped around her fingers and looked like puppet strings. She then directed the strings to extend and carefully wrap around a pretzel like dough that had been recently fried and was covered in poppy and sesame seeds. Then gently lifted it up and slowly walked over to where Serenity was and presented the breakfast item to her. "For you." She said simply with a smile. Serenity looked stunned.

"You do know that anything I touch will become poisoned, right? And that we Servants don't require food?" she asked, trying to regain her composure.

"I know. But once you take it, I'll dissipate the Kido and therefore will eliminate the chance of being accidentally poisoned by you and as for the no food, just because you don't need it, doesn't mean you have to deprive yourself of it. Besides I'm offering it." Sakura explained. After a moment of hesitation Serenity finally took the pretzel and Sakura dissipated the strings. Serenity then bit into the food and gave a pleasant hum.

"It's delicious. Thank you." Serenity said with a small smile. Sakura smiled back. Rin was clapping happily enjoying the display she saw in front of her.

"That was amazing, sakura." She said in awe.

"I must say. That was quite a fascinating demonstration. So that was Kido." Said Paracelsus looking intrigued.

"Yeah. Technically that was a low powered Kido and one that I modified for the task I wanted it to do. By carefully controlling my prana I can manipulate the spells to do something different and use it in a way that was not originally meant to do. In this case taking a binding energy rope and changing it to strings that I can use to manipulate objects." Said Sakura. Paracelsus nodded in understanding.

"I thought you were under a Geis that prevented you from talking about your training." Said Aoi surprised.

"I am as at the time my Kido teacher was very distrustful of me and wanted to have some leverage over me should I attempt to betray him. As such I can't discuss very much about Kido or my teacher without his express permission or unless I'm with people already in the know. Sakura on the other hand had no such restrictions so she can speak about it freely if she wants to." Said Kariya.

"I see. Well I'll ask you about it later. In the meantime I have something for you." Said Paracelsus as he reached into his pocket and pulled out an amethyst necklace. Sakura looked excited at it.

"You finished it." She said happily. He nodded and motioned for her to turn around. She did as instructed. Medusa got up from her chair and while she was blindfolded, she seemed to be eying him like a hawk in case he did anything to hurt her. But all he did was put the necklace on her and stepped away. She turned around and was admiring it. "Well, what do you all think?" she asked. Everyone complimented her on how nice it looked on her.

"Okay breakfast is ready everyone. So, let's eat." Said Ayaka happily. Everyone was served and sat at the dining room table save for Serenity who was standing off to the side still eating her Pretzel but she seemed content all the same. At first everyone was quiet as they ate, simply enjoying the food. Then Rin spoke up.

"I wanted to ask all of you something. What are your wishes for the Grail?" she asked. Everyone looked at her in surprise. "I mean I know that father has his goal that he wants to achieve, and we, the Masters of Blue, are all assisting in that goal, but the Grail only needs 7 Servants to get it to work so odds are that you guys will get to have your wishes granted. So, what are they?" she asked looking curious.

"Rin that's personal and it's very rude to ask that outright." Scolded Aoi.

"It's alright Master. While I can't speak for the others, I for one have no problems with answering a question and your daughter clearly meant no harm in asking. She's just curious as is expected of children." Said David with a friendly smile. "But to answer your question, Master of Saber-" David began.

"You can just call me Rin." Said Rin her cheeks flushed with embarrassment from her earlier scolding.

"Rin. Manners." Said Aoi exasperated. David merely chuckled as this.

"Very well, Lady Rin. To answer your question, I honestly don't have a wish. I simply answered the call because it was made. I'm content to let things play out and have them fall where they will." Said David.

"So, you don't want to be reunited with your family?" asked Rin clearly confused. David looked at her with a sad smile.

"Your heart is in the right place, Lady Rin. But the Grail can't revive those that aren't on the throne so the only member of my family I could be reunited with again is my first born surviving son Solomon. And besides the rest of my family is now in heaven with our God and I would not ever want to rob them of eternal peace and paradise." David Answered.

Kariya and Sakura looked a bit uncomfortable as they had more knowledge of the afterlife than most people did and hearing what other people believed the afterlife was like and knowing how things really were and having to keep it a secret made them feel awkward. They both schooled their features into a neutral expression and hoped that no one noticed anything.

"Does anyone else want to share?" asked Ayaka shyly.

"I'll go next. My wish is to simply fight strong opponents." Cu declared proudly.

"That's it?" asked Rin looking nonplussed. Cu looked at her reaction in confusion.

"You were expecting something different?" Cu asked.

"Well, it's just that you can do that without the Grail. But I thought Servants answer the summoning because they have a desire they want fulfilled." Said Rin clearly still confused.

"And on that you're not wrong, Rin. But those desires don't have to rely on the Grail to grant them. For example I might want to visit my homeland as it currently is, I can do that by simply making arrangements with my Master to go to Ireland and see how much things have changed. After that I would just continue existing until my contract is up. The same applies to my actual wish of fighting strong opponents." Explained Cu. Rin still looked a little disappointed but said no more on the subject. She looked over to the other Servants.

"Okay so what about the rest of you? That is if you want to share." she added quickly as she saw her mother frowning at her forwardness.

"I suppose that I'll go next. I wish to be free from the monstrous curse that turns anyone who looks at me to stone or at least the curse that slowly turns me into the creature gorgon. After that I desire to live a life where I'm not feared or ostracized for my appearance, and to be able to form genuine connections with others without the threat of petrifying them. This is because there is no way for it to be removed unless by the Grail or by the Goddess Athena who cursed me or by Zues whose Authority as the King of the Greek Gods trumps Athena's authority as a goddess. With both Gods gone to Avalon at the end of the Age of Gods the Grail is the only other hope I have of removing my curse. But I will protect Sakura even at the cost of giving up the chance of getting my wish granted. Rest assured on that." Said Medusa firmly. Sakura blushed at this in embarrassment. Rin smiled at this.

"Alright. I'm counting on you to keep her safe, Medusa." Said Rin.

"As am I." added Kariya. He then looked to his own Servant. "And you? What's your wish, Jekyll?" he asked.

"Honestly? I just want to remove Hyde from myself permanently. I made a mistake with my creating the serum that brought Hyde into existence and with the Grail I can correct it." Said Jekyll.

"You regret the things you did in the past, Jekyll. I can relate as I also feel similarly towards the things that I did in the past as well. So, my own wish is to correct my own rule as King of Britain." Said Artoria.

"Wait so you want to go back in time and redo your rule as the King of Britain?" asked Kariya in surprise. Artoria nodded.

"Yes. My Kingdom fell to ruin because of the mistakes that I made as King and as such I must correct them that way I can save Britain." Reasoned Artoria. She then noticed Kariya had a troubled expression. "You don't agree with my wish, Master of Berserker?" she asked quirking an eyebrow.

"One of the things that I learned from my Kido teacher is that it's alright to fail at things be they large or small. Failure and experience are the greatest teachers anyone can have in life. As it's through failure and the experience of it that we can learn from it and become better than we were before." Said Kariya sagely. Artoria smiled at this.

"Your teacher was truly a wise man. I agree with this. I have experienced failure as a King and I want to go back and correct my mistakes. That way I can make Britain better than it was the first time." She said satisfied.

"That's not . . ." Kariya started but at Artoria's confused expression he stopped. "Never mind." He finally said. "So that just leaves Caster and Assassin. So if you don't mind, what are your wishes?" he asked looking at the remaining Servants.

"My wish is pretty self-explanatory. I want to have this body be cleansed of it's poison so that I can be able to interact with and even love someone without having to worry about killing them. But if that can't be accomplish, then I want to have someone who's immune to poisons for the same reason." Said Serenity. With that everyone looked towards Paracelsus as he was the only Servant left to reveal his wish. On this he gave a melancholy expression.

"I simply wish to serve my contractor faithfully to the end so that I may atone for my sins in the past." He said looking ashamed.

"Sins?" asked Ayaka looking curious. After a few moments Paracelsus answered.

"This will be a lengthy explanation. During the events of a previous summoning, I came across an individual who had somehow obtained a direct connection to the Root though how they achieved that was never revealed to me. As a mage, I sought to obtain the secrets and knowledge that could be found there at the Root and thus I made a deal. I was to betray my original Master and switch the contract over to said individual and then act as their Servant from the Shadows as they could somehow support multiple Servants easily but had originally summoned the Saber class Servant. In return at the end of my previous summoning, I would then be granted access to the Root through them once they had achieved what they wanted. For the sake of the fact that there are children present, I won't go into detail about some of the things I did as it's not appropriate for them and it's not something to be discussed over a meal that is meant to be enjoyed with company. What I will say though is that during the final days of my summoning I came to discover that the one who became my Master after my betrayal had no intention of fulfilling my desire as the other Servants lives, mine included, were needed in order to achieve their desire. Only their Saber class Servant was to be spared being used to fuel the grail for the granting of their wish on grounds of their infatuation with that Saber class Servant. As a result, I was left to realize how pointless and wasteful my actions had all been. I had lost so much and gained so little for it and in the end, I was killed by the Saber Servant of that Master because while he didn't get his wish granted which said Master was trying to grant, he chose to keep his principles intact even if that meant going against a Master who, while in love with him, was evil. Which our shared Master at the time turned out to be due to the terrible acts they committed to fulfill their desire. That's why for this summoning I had vowed that I would faithfully serve the one who summoned me and remain loyal to them to the end no matter what. That is my only wish for this war." Said Paracelsus looking very solemn.

"What was that Master doing that would be considered evil that a Saber class Servant would betray them?" asked Rin.

"Again, it's not something I would discuss over breakfast meant to be enjoyed by company. But just know that they were doing something that was unequivocally evil and needed to be stopped though sadly I died before that happen so whether that saber Servant was successful or not, I don't know." Paracelsus admitted sadly.

"Redemption. That is indeed a noble wish to have, Caster. You truly have my respect." Said Artoria with a sympathetic look. Cu Chulainn on the other hand was eying Paracelsus with an unreadable expression. But said nothing. For several minutes no one said anything and just quietly ate their breakfast. Then Sakura spoke up.

"Hey Artoria. I wanted to ask you a question." She said. Artoria motioned her to continue. "Well since there are at least 6 Saber slots that are being filled up for the war I wanted to know if you think that some of them might be filled in by your knights like that one was your male counterpart in the Silver Faction?" she asked. This caught Paracelsus' attention.

"What?!" he asked shocked though only Cu Chulainn was still watching him as everyone else was focused on Artoria. Assuming that he was shocked to find Artoria's male counterpart had been filling in one of the Saber slots, no one paid him any mind and waited to hear Artoria's response.

"I will not deny that the thought had indeed crossed my mind as the Knights of the Round are some of the most famous knights in myth and legend and since many mages view the Saber class as the strongest and most outstanding class they will try to summon a Saber Class Servant. And if not me than certainly try to summon some of my knights." Answered Artoria diplomatically.

"And what are you going to do if you have to face off against your own knights?" asked Aoi curious but concerned. Artoria grew thoughtful at this. Then another voice spoke up.

"I'm quite curious about this as well, Saber. Especially in light of what Kirei has managed to uncover about the Red Faction." They said. Everyone looked to the door leading down the hallway towards the bedrooms and saw Tokiomi looking as elegant and impeccable as ever followed closely by Kirei.

"What do you mean by that, Master of Caster?" asked Artoria curious.

"Kirei just got done reviewing information sent to him from a trusted informant in the Church and was able to uncover some very interesting information." Said Tokiomi. He then proceeded to tell them that in addition to finding out Iskandar as the Rider of Red, apparently some church agents stationed in Trifas overheard a commotion near the town Graveyard. There was a near confrontation between the gold and Red Faction that occurred yesterday. There it was revealed that the gold faction had at least three Casters and their True Names were Merlin, Guinevere, and Gilles de Reis. While at least the Saber of Red was revealed to be none other than Mordred. This shocked everyone present.

"I thought our Faction was to be kept a secret from everyone including the Church. So how did you not arouse suspicion." Asked Kariya genuinely surprised.

"I believe that it was relayed earlier, though if it was to Lord Tohsaka only or not, I'm not sure, but my brother Shirou Kotomine is a participating Master for the Red Faction. And I contacted my colleagues shortly after our arrival in Trifas telling them that I was in Romania to support my brother. Since then information has been passed to me under the assumption that I'm funneling that information to Shirou." Explained Kirei.

"But in reality, he's relaying that information to our faction." Tokiomi said smugly. He then looked at Artoria. "So, I ask the question once again, Saber. What are you going to do knowing that some of your opponents are in fact those that served you in life?" he asked with a more serious look. Artoria looked thoughtful for a few minutes and then answered.

"While I'm shocked at this development, I think that in the case of Guinevere and Merlin they may be more likely to join me rather than fight against me. Though with another version of me here their loyalties might be split as they wouldn't know which Arthur they would serve. My guess is that they will wait until one of us is defeated and then swear felty to the remaining Arthur."

"And Mordred? How will you handle him?" he asked. Here Artoria expression looked stony.

"Mordred's entire existence was with the intent to kill me by my sister Morgan and while I personally bear Mordred any ill will or hatred, they will no doubt be compelled to kill me once again be it be because of their own hatred towards me or through Morgan's machinations. So, if I find myself facing them once again, I assure you that I will put them down once again." She rationalized. Tokiomi looked satisfied. He then came and sat down with Kirei at the table. Ayaka brought them both food and began to eat.

"Father I wanted to ask what the plan will be tonight? You know since it will be the true start of the Holy Grail War?" asked Rin and with that the tension that started to be felt in the room with Tokiomi's arrival, began to ease up.

"The plan will be quite simple. We will all be here at the base under Caster's protections and Caster will be monitoring the other Servants via scrying from the base as well. I will have Archer and Assassin go on a separate assignment, but we'll wait till it's closer to evening before I explain what that is as it will be just as dangerous as what I'm going to ask of the other Servants?" said Tokiomi.

"Which is?" asked Sakura keeping her tone and face neutral.

"Saber, Lancer, Rider, and Berserker will make their way to the Black and Gold Faction's Fortress and while the Black and red Faction will be fighting each other, our Servants will approach from behind and sneak in. Once inside they will make their way to the Grail chamber which will no doubt be underground and then once they've made it there. Caster will guide them through a ritual that will help them teleport the grail to our base." Said Tokiomi. Meanwhile Archer and Assassin will hunt down and capture Ruler and bring her to our base as well. With any luck Assassin should be able to use her poison to take out her bodyguards and since I have Kisuke's student and Sakura, I can use them as bargaining chips to get Kisuke to cooperate. Then I can force Ruler to use her command seals to have all the other Servants save ours commit suicide. Then we'll transport the Grail to Fuyuki and then have her commit suicide. This way they'll be no loose ends to worry about. Then once a Servant activates the ritual and I make my way to the Root and gain the power and knowledge there, then on my return we'll have our Servants commit suicide as well so there will be no potential betrayals. But it would be best to not let the children know the latter part just yet as they're young enough that they'll object to such necessary actions. They are still thinking too much like humans and not like mages yet. Understandable given their ages. This will then sadly have to be a first harsh lesson in what it means to truly be a mage. Tokiomi thought sadly. He was bought out of his thoughts by Kariya.

"Putting aside the fact that this is most likely just phase one of some elaborate plan, you're aware that there will be at least 3 other factions that we'll have to worry about even if the Black and Red Factions are taken off the table, right Lord Tohsaka." Kariya reminded him with a suspicious look.

"I'm well aware of that, Kariya Matou. I'll even admit that the white Faction is a near complete mystery save for Lancer of White being revealed to be Karna but the Silver and Gold Factions we have at least some idea now of what we're dealing with. For the Silver Faction, the Magus killer will be the only Master we'll have to worry about as most likely the two homunculi that you said were with him will most likely be kept away. I have no doubts that those two are probably supporting more than one Servant so they will have to stay at their base to be safe as for the other two, no doubt that either the boy is supporting the Assassin and Caster as they are the two weakest Servants for a non-homunculus mage to support with out it nearly killing him or there's an unknown Master working from the shadows that we are not aware of. But the Magus Killer will be the only true threat amongst the Masters." Said Tokiomi.

"And their Servants? One revealed himself to be Ozymandias and their Saber we can deduce is most likely a male version of King Arthur, according to Kariya." Kirei pointed out.

"Our saber will engage with theirs and the two will be evenly matched. As for Ozymandias, I'll admit that he's formidable but even if he does appear I'm confident those two and Berserker will most likely be the only Servants that we'll have to engage with due to the strain it will no doubt cause their Masters, and we will have 4 Servants. So, we'll have the advantage in numbers even if only slightly. Also, our Berserker can make it so that he isn't detectable by Servant senses. But even if he fails Medusa can use her mystic eyes to turn Rider of Silver to stone. While that's going on our Lancer will engage with the Berserker of Silver until the other 2 will join him to take down said Berserker together. Then saber of Silver will have to face off against 4 Servants and even he won't be able to last long against multiple Servants." Explained Tokiomi.

"That's assuming that their Berserker won't be that strong." Argued Kariya.

"It is a calculated risk, yes but I'm confident that Saber and rider are the Silver Factions strongest Servants and that the rest range from decent to mediocre to potentially very weak." Said Tokiomi confidently.

"What makes you so sure of that, darling?" asked Aoi genuinely curious. Tokiomi's expression softened slightly.

"For the simple unpredictable quality of the relics used for catalysts in summoning. It's well known that mages will often purchase relics on Black markets so as to remain anonymous but at the cost of not knowing if what they are purchasing is the genuine article or an elaborate fake. The Einzberns were well known for purchasing items from the Black market so it's likely that when the Magus killer stole from them, he probably had no idea which ones were fakes and which ones were true relics and so it's likely that aside from Saber due to the Einzberns announcing that they had found Avalon, almost all his other relics were chosen by luck. And having two strong Servants is already fortunate but to have an entire faction of strong Servants is just not possible. Our own Servants consist of 3 top-tier quality Servants and 3 decent Servants and 1 that would be classified as poor quality. The only exception to this would be the Red Faction but that's due to the Clock Tower as a whole working together to ensure such an outcome." Explained Tokiomi.

"Okay but what about the Gold Faction. If they've already accidentally shown that they have three Casters and have cheated, then what's the chance that they haven't cheated further?" asked Sakura curious. Tokiomi eyed her for a few minutes before he answered.

"Very Astute observation . . . Lady Matou. It's well known that the Einzberns have tried to corner the market for relics that have any dealings with King Arthur and his knights so it's most likely that they did tamper with the system and since almost all the knights with some exceptions fall into the Saber Class and some of the Casters were from Arthurian legend it stands to reason that most likely the rest of the Faction is made up of Sabers. Which circles back to the question when I first walked in, Saber of Blue. What are you going to do if you have to face off against your knights?" asked Tokiomi eyeing her with interest.

"I suppose it will depend on the knight in question. Aside from Lancelot, Tristain, Agravain, and Mordred whose loyalties were all questionable, almost all of my other known knights were loyal to me and I have no doubt that if any of them have been summoned, then unless they are the former 3 since Mordred is Saber of Red, I'm confident that they'll side with us if only due to my presence and plea for them join us rather than fight us." Said Artoria after she thought for a moment. This seemed to satisfy Tokiomi.

"So the only true uncertainty is the White Faction as we only have the Lancer of White known to us as Karna. As for Berserker of White he was dressed as a knight but his armor was black and that was when he wasn't completely shrouded in dark mists." Said Kirei.

"He did draw a sword during his fight and I can draw it out on paper if you wish." Said Jekyll. To everyone's surprise he pulled out a napkin and a pencil from his breast pocket and drew. A few minutes later he showed it to Lancer who nodded and then showed it to Artoria. Her eyes widened with shock.

"So you recognized it?" asked Tokiomi. Artoria closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath.

"Yes. This is Arondight. It's the sword that was given to my most outstanding knight. Lancelot du Lac." She replied with a sense of dread.

"It seems that the knights of the round are being brought together for this war." Noted Kirei.

"I need to make it known that Lancelot is the only knight to have bested me in combat though granted he didn't know who I was at the time. And even in his current state it's possible he will be more inclined to kill me rather than serve me once again." Warned Artoria.

"If he's the Berserker of White then who would be the Saber of White?" asked Rin looking nervous.

"We'll most likely find out tonight, Rin." Said Tokiomi as he and Kirei began to dig into their breakfast. The rest were finishing up theirs.

=Romania – 30 miles outside of Trifas – Ruler's base – kitchen/ dining area – 9 am

By now Jeanne and Ichigo had set up most of breakfast and thankfully others had begun to wake up and made their way to the dining room. "Rukia. Nice of you to join us." Ichigo teased.

"I had to write my reports in triplicate last night, and it was a lot of information to write down! Besides you both were yakking away for several hours which disturbed my sleep earlier this morning. What were you two doing?" asked Rukia indignantly.

"Homework. You know the stuff that students do when they go to school. Of course, you would know that if you didn't have me doing your homework for you." Replied Ichigo sarcastically.

"I merely use the schoolgirl persona as a cover while I was fulfilling my duties as a soul reaper. So, I don't necessarily need to do homework as once I leave everyone's memories of me save for those spiritually aware will be replaced and the homework will be rendered null and void." Rukia responded haughtily. Now Ichigo looked annoyed.

"Then why is it that whenever you come to Karakura, I have to help you with or outright do your homework?" he asked.

Jeanne meanwhile, with Ririn and Noba's help in their plushie forms, was finishing with setting the table and had been tuning out the argument as she realized that while the two were arguing there seemed to be no real anger in their exchange. She smiled getting a feeling of nostalgia. They can let themselves be this way with each other and know that their friendship won't be negatively impacted by any hurtful words. It's so nice. It's like the times that Gilles and I would talk when it was just the two of us but even then we were never as close as these two obviously are. Jeanne thought gaining a sad expression. Rukia turned to her. "What about you, Jeanne?" she asked catching her off guard. "What are your thoughts concerning homework?" she asked genuinely curious.

"Oh well. I'll admit that while it can be challenging, I just like the implication that comes with it." She said. The other two looked at her in complete confusion. So she elaborated. "For someone who came from a background where education was a luxury that only the nobility or royalty were allowed and even then boys were taught far more than girls were, knowing that now education is not only opened to everyone but is required for all children really makes me happy about how far humanity has come from my time." She said with a smile. She looked and saw the two's emotions shift rapidly on their faces from confusion, to realization to sadness to acceptance all in the span of just a few seconds. "Did I say something wrong?" she asked confused now herself.

"No! I mean when we're like this, it's easy to forget our situation. Just talking, making breakfast, complaining about homework, it's easy to forget our true situation and yours." Said Rukia in a slightly sad tone. Jeanne smiled sadly at this.

"It's probably due to the fact that no fighting has occurred yet. I'm sure once it gets underway moments like these will be a precious commodity. But there's no need to discuss heavy topics yet until Kisuke and Yoruichi show up and eat. Then we can discuss strategy for what we'll do today." Said Jeanne hoping to dispel the sad mood.

"Alright. In that case were you both able to get your homework done?" asked Rukia.

"We both got the native language, English language, math, science, including chemistry as one of Laeticia's elective courses knocked out before we both stopped to start getting breakfast ready at least for this week. She and I both got a pass on P. E. and for what her country calls 'professional immersion' and I got a pass on cultural studies as those have to be conducted with active participation for the time being. And we're hoping to get the rest either finished tonight or at least done before Saturday." Ichigo rattled off.

"Wait. What day is it?" asked Rukia confused.

"Thursday. Jeanne met us in Karakura Sunday, we left the next day which was a Monday, then we've had a three day ceasefire which ends tonight making today Thursday." Explained Ichigo.

"Alright so I know that if the Senkaiodan gate works Ichigo will just be able to send his stuff through and it will reach the teachers by next week But what about you? How are you getting your stuff back to your host's teachers?" asked Rukia.

"I had to extensively use my charisma skill to get them to both hand over all the homework they would be handing out for the next month and grant me, or rather Laeticia, extensions on the turn in dates as well as extensions for anything that would be handed out after the month is up. And that was on top of getting them to let her leave when the school semester just started." Said Jeanne.

"Your semester just started? It's February and we're already halfway through ours." Said Ichigo in surprise.

"I think it might be a cultural difference between how the two school curriculums operate." Suggested Jeanne.

"Alright. So, what do you have left for your homework?" asked Rukia.

"I've got social studies, art, and the paper portions of music and home economics left to do for the week." Ichigo rattled off.

"And I have philosophy, history, geography, and civic and the other two electives which like the aforementioned chemistry Laeticia picked out as Art and the Spanish language left to do for the week." Jeanne rattled off.

"Jeanne's agreed to help me with the social studies section of my homework, and I help her with the paper portion of Art. The rest we're doing on our own." Said Ichigo. With that the three placed the breakfast items on the table, sat down, and began to eat while keeping the conversation light. They asked Noba how his new plushie form was holding up for him to which he replied that while this turtle form was bulkier than his old one, it was fine and he was grateful that Urahara happened to find another plushie in town yesterday on such short notice. About 15 minutes later Kisuke was dragged in by Yoruichi the latter looking very refreshed and the former looking like death warmed over. Kisuke blearily looked around as if he was confused by what was going on.

"Good morning, Mr. Urahara." Said Ririn cheerfully.

"Oh. Right. It's morning." He said in realization. "What time is it?" he asked.

"Mid-morning." Answered Noba simply.

"And we still have a lot to do before evening falls, so we need to get started." Said Yoruichi. She then dragged him over to the table and dished them out breakfast and then went to brew him some coffee. As the three younger ones continued to talk Kisuke was silent as he lethargically ate breakfast when Yoruichi brought him coffee he sighed happily and proceeded to down the whole thing. Yoruichi simply shook her head and looked at him fondly. "This is what happens when you only get 3-4 hours of sleep for several days in a row Kisuke." she teased.

"It's necessary for right now. And besides once I get back to Karakura I'll only have three projects to work on including helping Kaien. Since the Grail War should take place over the course of a month I can catch up on my sleep then." He said seeming to get back to himself now that he had caffeine in his system. "Okay so what's the plan for today?" he asked as he proceeded to eat his breakfast.

From there it turned into a strategy session. It was decided that Jeanne, Ririn in Rukia's gigai, and Kisuke would stick to the plan of going to the Red Faction that was in the hotel room in Bucharest. Yoruichi would still go to the church that the other members of the Red Faction were located to do reconnaissance and hopefully get the last 3 Servants but there would be an addition to the plan. Ichigo, Noba in Ichigo's body, and Rukia would accompany her but while she went off to do reconnaissance they would go to Shirou Kotomine and talk to him directly about Hollows. Despite the surprise Jeanne explained that if her vision was anything to go off of, this Master didn't wish to interact with her though she's still wasn't sure as to why. So she felt that it would be better to have them go and talk to him as perhaps it would be easier to get information out of and he wouldn't be as skittish as he seemed to be around her. Perhaps try to fish for information on the whereabouts of the other Masters and they could even reveal that they were told Assassin, Caster, and Berserker's true names but only if it came up in conversation.

When asked about Aizen, Kisuke interjected that it would be best to not bring him up outside of warning Shirou K. about him. Also they would stick to the cover stories they told the Black Faction but not talk about themselves unless directly asked but Kisuke would tell the other half the same things that Yoruichi discussed with Manaka. As for the different retellings to different members of Red simple. Kisuke was certain that Gilgamesh had a similar ability to Karna to be able to tell when someone was lying and considering how powerful he was, Kisuke simply didn't want to become a human pincushion so opted to tell as honest an explanation as possible without revealing that they were in fact soul reapers. By contrast, aside from Shirou K. potentially being an ally to Aizen and that he was already had not started on the right foot with his so called allies they felt giving him the less truthful story would hopefully help them see if he could tell if they were lying right off the bat and in the long run would hopefully get the Red Faction with Gilgamesh to be more incline to work with Jeanne and by extension them in the future should it come to that. The two will stay at the church until Yoruichi flares her reiatsu to let them know that either she got what she needed, or she was spotted and had to leave. A single flare for the former and two flares for the latter. Kisuke will be able to sense her as well. When that happens Ichigo and Rukia are to leave and head back to the safehouse and if they get back there first, they can use that time to train and sharpen their skills. Kisuke and Jeanne will leave when they get done with explanations and then head back to the safehouse.

Once all are back they'll contact the soul society and get the meeting out of the way. With any luck they'll be done before nightfall and make the necessary preparations for the night. Ichigo voiced wanting to get his and Jeanne other homework done for the week as they already got half of it done this morning if there was time before that evening. After that they'd head over to the black Faction's fortress once evening hit as that was where most of if not all the action was likely to take place at. From there they'll play things by ear and keep an eye out for Hollows.

"So it looks like we've got a plan for the day." Said Rukia happy with the plan. "So, when do we get started?" she asked.

"As soon as we get done with Breakfast and get Noba and Ririn in their respective gigai and body while you and Ichigo will be going in your soul reaper forms to see if he's spiritually aware." Said Kisuke. On this no one objected. So with that everyone finished breakfast and got the necessary preparations done as they got ready to head out to see the Red Faction.

=Romania – Bucharest – hotel suite/Red Faction base – living room – 9:45 am

Iskandar, and Mordred were currently playing a video game that looked to be 1v1 fighting game with the latter looking extremely irritated and the former looking excited. Achilles was sitting off to the side with a confident smirk as he watched the two go at it in virtual combat. Reines, Kairi, and Gray were sitting at a coffee table on sofas not too far away and were playing some kind of card game. Gilgamesh meanwhile was simply sitting on a golden chair sipping on wine observing all there was in the room. The only one who wasn't present was Waver. A shout of 'NO' was heard getting everyone's attention as it was revealed to be that Mordred had just lost another round to Iskandar.

"HAHA! Yet another victory for the King of Conquerors!" he said triumphantly. Mordred growled in frustration at her loss.

"Alright. My turn." Said Achilles taking the controllers from Mordred as he sat next to Iskandar and quickly started a new round. Mordred decided that it would be best to go over to where her Master was and see what they were doing.

"So what's this?" she asked.

"It's a game that requires luck and skill to beat. I saw several students at the Clock Tower, especially those that came from the U.S. playing it. Apparently it's a really popular card game over there." Said Gray as she placed a card on the center pile, it was a red 4.

"I was intrigued and played a round with a few of these Americans and found that I actually found it quite fun so I ordered a deck of them for myself." Added Reines as she placed a card down on the center pile, this one being a blue 4.

"Apparently the goal of the game is to strategically get rid of all the cards in your hands before your opponents do and to keep from getting any extra cards as that will increase your opponents chances of winning cause you have to get rid of those extra cards as well." Said Kairi. He placed his card on the center pile. "Uno." He said with a grin and showed that he had no more cards in his hands and revealed that the card was a black card with for colored squares a red, a yellow, a blue, and a green square. The girls all looked shocked at this and saw that he had no more cards left in hand.

"WHAT?!" the girls shouted in disbelief. Gilgamesh laughed at the sight.

"How? You said that you've never played this before and this is the second time that you've won." Said Reines gobsmacked.

"Ever heard of beginner's luck?" asked Kairi with a smirk.

"Impressive, Mr. Shishigou." Complimented Gray. Reines simply pouted at this and then sulked, looking away with her arms crossed and looking at the two Servants that were still playing their video game. Mordred looked curious at the cards but then looked over to her Master.

"Not that I'm not also impressed, Master but why are we just wasting time playing games on the last day of the ceasefire?" asked Mordred.

"We're waiting for Lord El-Melloi-" he started only to be interrupted by Reines.

"The 2nd." She emphasized. Kairi looked at her but continued.

"Anyway we're waiting for him to make some calls. One is to Ruler and her safehouse to confirm if and when they're coming over to relay some information that according to you and Lancer they would do today. And the other is to relay that information and coordinate with the priest and see what's to be done." He finished.

"What's to be done is that we're to prepare for our guests as they are on their way." Said Waver as he entered the room.

"Brother. I take it that you're referring to the priest and Ruler?" asked Reines as she rose up from her seat and walked over to Waver. Waver shook his head.

"Father Shirou Kotomine told me that he's going to remain at the church as he's helping Assassin put the finishing touches to her noble phantasm." He said. This got everyone's attention. Waver elaborated. "Apparently Assassin or Semiramis' noble phantasm is one that requires physical materials as it was one that either she never had in life or it was never completed in her lifetime. So while most of it is completed according to Shirou, he is doing some last minute inspections that due to it's supposed size will take most of the day. As for Ruler when I spoke to her separately on the safehouse number, she's already made some arrangements so that her Servants will visit Shirou separately while she and Kisuke Urahara will come here and talk to us about the anomalies of this war." Said Waver.

"And yet you seem to find the Father's words suspicious, Brother?" asked Reines though her knowing smirk indicated that the question was mostly rhetorical.

"Father Kotomine revealed that while he'd looked through every tome of his private library and contacted every one of his colleagues in the church, he claimed that aside from folktales of a Japanese demon called a Yokai specifically the Yuki-onna or snow maiden there is very little else that matches the iced based noble phantasm. But given that it's based in folktales, he suspects that it might be a situation a Servant using a human vessel to be able to manifest. Given that already over 40 Servants are currently summoned I can certainly see that as a possibility." Said Waver.

"And the other Servant you saw, Teacher? The one with orange hair?" asked Gray curious.

"He's had absolutely no luck on that front. I suspect he's getting paranoid. He tried to ask me if it might be best to eliminate Ruler's Servant's due to them being complete unknowns in this war. When I pointed out to him that the same could technically be said of the other 4 Factions that even he had no idea about and that Ruler's group is neutral so even less of a reason to be antagonistic, he then tried to bring up Kisuke being an outsider and questioned if Ruler might in fact truly be neutral. When I revealed that they would be coming to talk to us about the anomalies of the war and their findings, he immediately dropped the topic and gave his excuses. Saying he'd contact us later when he was finished and invited us to see Assassin's noble phantasm. Something about using it to invade the Black Faction's territory." Explained Waver.

"Between the missing Master's of Red and now his desire to get rid of the arbiter and her Servants, should we really even bother to continue to work with Father Kotomine at this point?" asked Kairi. "Why not just make our way to the Black Faction's location on our own tonight? It might be safer for us that way." Kairi pointed out.

"Politics sadly prevent that from being a possibility. I relayed all the information we've gotten so far back to the Clock Tower, which isn't much, and the other Lords at the Clock Tower are scrambling to both try and investigate who the other Faction's Masters could be and trying to use other mages who've been stationed in Trifas to locate the missing Red Masters. And that's with them also running counterintelligence against mages in Trifas who've allied themselves with Yggdmillenia. And the Church wants to see if the Grail is a fake or not and on the off chance that it's the real deal they want to grab it for themselves. So you can imagine that the Church isn't going to take too kindly to us mages refusing to work with the only non-mage member of our group on grounds of suspicion with no tangible proof to said suspicions. And we need the Church's cooperation in order to keep the War a secret and that cooperation is going to be even more vital now that there are over 40 Servants involved. So sadly we will have to head over to Father Kotomine's location and present a united front to the other Factions at least for now." Said Waver.

"Surely you have a plan, Brother. Even if we will have to work with the priest you have some way of ensuring that he won't try anything." Said Reines.

"Of course, Reines. That was the whole point of Kairi and Gray along with their Servants heading to Trifas yesterday to set up a second base for us in case things go south with Father Kotomine. As for tonight, the obvious way to head off any potential issues would be to have one of our Servants present at all times. That one will act as a bodyguard while the others are off fighting." Said Waver.

"I would also recommend not eating or drinking anything that you don't see the priest consume first. Though best not to refuse anything that is offered." Iskandar chimed in. This caused the rest of the faction to look at him in surprise.

"Why would you say that, Rider?" asked Gray in surprise.

"Semiramis is considered to be the world's oldest poisoner. That is she's the first person in known history to kill someone via poison." Iskandar answered this caused Gilgamesh to frown.

"Like a snake. And on top of that her appearance reminds me of a particular useless goddess. As if I needed anymore reason to not want associate with that woman." He said with disdain as his down the cup of wine in one gulp.

"How do you know about her in the first place, King of Conquerors?" asked Mordred genuinely curious.

"The Assyrian empire was conquered by the Persian empire who, in turn, became mortal enemies of the Greeks, my brethren. As a child my teacher, Aristotle, not only taught me the epic poems of Homer but also History covering the great empires of the past. From Sumerian to Persian. So the name Semiramis did crop up in my lessons. Particularly due to the fact that she was the only empress to rule an empire, even for a brief 40 years." Iskandar replied.

"If that's the case then it's most likely that she'll know how to make all kinds of concoctions from lethal to benign. Probably wouldn't be much of a problem to mix up a poison that's tailormade to interfere with senses and perceptions but not kill the one who consumed it." Said Reines with a sly smirk.

"In that case best to have our mystic codes on hand as a further preventative." Said Kairi. On this no one objected.

"So what is the plan for tonight?" asked Achilles.

"To satisfy everyone that we are in fact presenting a united front we will head over to the church after discussions, after we grab a bite to eat. This way if we're offered anything we can use that as an excuse not to eat or drink anything. Then after the Servant is decided to be the bodyguard the rest will simply meet the Black Faction head on." Said Waver. This caused many of the Red Servants to grin at that.

"Ah. So we will simply clash headlong into the fray with the enemy. I like your way of thinking, Master." Said Iskandar followed by a hearty laugh.

"There really is no reason to not go with such a bold action. The Black Faction will be waiting for an attack of some kind and their defenses will be at their strongest along with having all their Servants at peak performance. Not to mention the other Factions might decide to join in the fray simply to test their Servants and see how well they measure up to one another. Besides after no doubt quite a bit of building tension over the last few days, we may as well blow off some steam and kick this Grail War off properly with a bang." He said with a rare smirk. This was shared by the rest of the faction.

"So, mongrel, how exactly are we to decide which Servant will play the role of bodyguard while the others, as you say, 'blow off some steam'?" asked Gilgamesh as he poured himself another glass of wine.

"Perhaps we should come to a consensus by comparing each other's wishes to see who should be the one to play the role of bodyguard. I say the one who's desire doesn't require the Grail to grant their wish has the least amount to gain from getting the grail and thus should be the one to stay with the Masters." Reasoned Iskandar.

"The problem with that suggestion is that it's parameters are too subjective. Everyone has different ideas of the concept of 'worthiness'. We need something that is as objective as possible to make that decision." Said Reines feigning boredom.

"Very Astute, Reines." Said Gilgamesh with a smirk.

"Still I'm very curious to know everyone's wishes. Master's and Servants alike." Said Gray looking interested.

"Well since we were hired by the Clock Tower, part of the agreement was that we were not to try and take the Grail for ourselves. So we Masters of Red aren't supposed to have a wish for the Grail." Reasoned Kairi.

"True but for the sake of argument, if you could have a wish what would it be?" asked Achilles looking intrigued. Everyone paused in thought at this. Then Waver spoke up.

"I've come up with a solution, but I'll reveal it after everyone has had a chance to reveal their wishes if they want. I'll even go first. I truly have no desire for the Grail." He answered.

"Seriously?" asked Mordred shocked.

"My goal is to bring Magecraft into the modern era and I already have a few plans to achieve that. I don't need the grail for that to come about." Waver responded. Iskandar laughed heartily at this.

"Ambition like that and the ability to achieve it with your own two hands. That I can support wholeheartedly, Master." Iskandar said jovially.

"I suppose that I'll go next for the Masters. My king already knows that my only desire is to reach the Root as it's the only thing that I know that I can't achieve on my own. Beyond that everything else I could want I'm confident that I can achieve on my own as well." Reines chimed in with a cheeky smile. Gilgamesh merely nodded in acknowledgement at this.

"I would like to have the Grail restore my original face." Admitted Gray shyly. Achilles gave her an encouraging smile which seemed to cheer her up a bit.

"That reminds me, Lady Gray. Yours and Saber's face look very much alike. Obviously there's differences but one might mistake you for sisters. May I ask what is the connection?" asked Iskandar.

"I'm sorry. But since Saber hasn't revealed her True name to anyone other than her Master and my teacher and I was told not to reveal it without her permission I can't say why there's a resemblance between us." Said Gray as she pulled her hood up shyly.

"Pity." Said Iskandar disappointed.

"I suppose I'll go last for the Masters. I'll need to provide some context for my wish. A few generations back my ancestor made a pact with an entity. In hindsight many might now call it a demon. The pact resulted in my family regaining the prominence that they lost prior to the pact. For a time, the Shishigou line became one of the greatest necromancer families of the Far East. But after I was born it was discovered that I would be rendered sterile or rather the cost of the pact was a curse that I was given in exchange for that prominence. As a result, I will be the last of the Shishigou line since I can't produce a child." Said Kairi.

"Can't you just adopt a kid and have that one be the successor?" asked Mordred clearly confused by the story.

"I tried that, and she died because of me." Said Kairi looking sullen. He then rolled up his sleeve and activated his circuits revealing an intricate design on the left lower arm. "As I'm sure you all know that in order to have the family's legacy pass onto the next generation, the Magic Crest has to be successfully inherited to the chosen heir to a family otherwise all that knowledge and techniques become lost permanently. Well, I adopted a distant relative of mine a few years back and we were able to get to a point where both of us felt that the compatibility was good enough that we could go through with the transfer of the Crest but, sadly it resulted in their death. It was after I autopsied them that I discovered why that had happened. The Crest itself, once it's given to a host other than me, will generate a poison that will kill them and ensure that they die in agonizing pain. So, with her death I resigned myself to being the last of my line. I went on to become a prominent bounty hunter for the Clock Tower." He finished. Waver looked at him with an unreadable expression but said nothing.

"So, you want the Grail to undo your curse so you can have kids." Summarized Achilles.

"You sound like my wish is a letdown. And after I went through the effort of revealing my family's shame to everyone." Said Kairi with a smirk.

"Hey, Master can I ask you something?" asked Mordred though she was staring off a bit when she spoke. He looked at her and she spoke again. "Do you still remember them? Your dead child?" she asked. Kairi didn't say anything at first. But then he spoke again.

"There are some things you never forget." He said with a sense of finality.

"On that I think that everyone here can agree with." Said Iskandar solemnly. For a few moments everyone became lost in thought as they were thinking about regrets from their own lives. Then Reines coughed politely getting their attention.

"Alright so now that you know us Masters and what we would be fighting for if we weren't under contract with the Mage's Association. So now let's hear what you Servants want from the war." Said Reines.

"I thought you had no interest in learning that." Said Waver looking annoyed.

"I said that I think that it's pointless to use them as a deciding factor for whose to be our bodyguard for the night. I never said that I wasn't interested in learning about the wishes of the other members of our faction." Reines defended.

"Now. Now. No need to argue. Besides, Master, you said you already have a method to decided fairly concerning that, right?" asked Iskandar. Waver looked at him and nodded. "Then let us continue. Since you went first of the Masters I'll go first of the Servants. My wish is reincarnation." He said proudly. This caught everyone by surprise.

"I thought that you wanted to conquer the world. That's why you were trying to recruit all the Servants from all the Factions." Said Mordred looking confused.

"That's my goal. A goal that I will achieve with my own two hands. But with my current body made of magical energy, I'm tied to always needing a source of energy to keep me in this world. Reincarnation will grant me a body of flesh and blood and I can function on my own completely thus will truly be free to do as I want, including achieving my goals." He said with a big grin. He then turned to Lancer. "And what of you, my fellow Greek. What is it that you desire from the Grail?" he asked.

"Honestly, I don't have a wish for the Grail to grant. My desire has been the same as it was when I was alive. To live as a hero. That's something that will never change. Perhaps maybe I'll find something that only the Grail can grant but for now that's my answer." Lancer answered simply.

This answer seemed to delight Iskandar. "Then I might know who you are. And I eagerly look forward to fighting alongside you tonight to see if I'm indeed correct." He said jovially. He then turned to the other two Servants sitting with the Masters. "And what of you two?"

"I guess I'll go next. Without giving away my True name, my desire is to recreate a test that was given to prove kingship and when I successfully complete it, it will force my father to acknowledge me as his heir." Said Saber.

"Oh you are that confident that you can complete this test without issue?" asked Gilgamesh.

"Of course. It's the only way to prove myself as worthy in the eyes of my father. And if he was successful than as their child I will have no issues either." Said Mordred with a cocky smile. Everyone then turned to Gilgamesh.

"Well Goldie? What is it that you desire from the Grail?" asked Iskandar cheekily.

"The Grail is nothing but another piece of my treasury and I will personally fight for it only so that I might see which Servant is truly strong enough to be worthy of it's possession. Though if any were to swear personal fealty to me, I will be more than happy to hand over a grail to those who become my vassals." He answered haughtily. "As for my desire, it's quite simple I want to see if I will find entertainment in this upcoming war and fighting strong opponents. Perhaps I might find an opponent that I can release the true power of my treasury on." He said with smile of delighted anticipation. Iskandar laughed at this.

"Well then I look forward to taking your treasury from you for myself, Goldie." He said happily. He then turned to Waver. "So what is this method that you've devised that will guarantee a fair and objective choice for the role of bodyguard, Master?" he asked.

Instead of answering, Waver went over to Gray, who looked at him curiously. "Gray, hold out your hand but ball it into a fist, please. I will do the same." He said A look of realization came over her face and she did as she was told and Waver followed suit. The two immediately shook their fists three times and then one had their hand flat while the other kept theirs as a fist. Waver gave a sour look.

"It seems you lose teacher." Said Gray shyly holding up her flattened hand. Kairi smirked at this.

"So, we're going to have our Servants perform a tournament of the ancient art of jan-ken-pon. Well, I can't think of a more fair way to decide who's playing our bodyguard tonight." Kairi said with a slight chuckle. At the confused looks of the Servants the Masters quickly explain what jan-ken-pon (rock, paper, scissors) was and how to play it. The Servants seemed intrigued by the game and agreed to go through with the tournament.

"Alright, so shall we decide who's going to be the bodyguard now or later?" asked Mordred.

"We'll decide after Jeanne and Kisuke have finished speaking to us. They should be here shortly." Said Waver. Reines reached under the coffee table and pulled out a suitcase and set it on said table. She then opened the latches and revealed that it was holding a silver liquid. Reines merely dipped her gloved hand in the liquid and activated her magic circuits.

"Aufwachen, (awaken) Trimmau." She chanted. With that the liquid slithered out of the suitcase and onto the floor and then morphed into the form of a maid with her eyes closed.

"You called for me my lady?" asked Trimmau in a monotone voice.

"We're going to be having guests soon. Please prepare tea for all of us." Reines ordered.

"Right away, milady." Trimmau answered as she curtsied and became an amorphous blob that moved over to the kitchen to start preparing the tea. Reines turned to Waver.

"Brother, how long before Ruler's arrival?" she asked.

"Before he hung up Kisuke told me it might be about half an hour before they arrive and that was 20 minutes ago so we should expect them within the next 10 minutes or so." Answered Waver.

=Romania – outskirts of Bucharest – outside of a chapel/ Shirou's base – 10:10 am

Ichigo, Rukia, and Noba (in Ichigo's body) along with Kisuke, Jeanne, and Ririn (in Rukia's gigai) stood outside of a small chapel which itself was just outside of the capital. It was a modest church, but its intricate carvings and statue lined façade showed that it was as lovingly crafted as some of the grander churches in the city proper.

"So this is the church that this Shirou guy is supposed to be at?" asked Ichigo with a neutral frown.

"Yes. According to the leader of the Red Faction, Father Kotomine claimed to be unable to come to the meeting that Kisuke and I will attending with the other members in the hotel. Claimed that he was busy helping Assassin with setting up their np. Thanks to my vision early this morning, I think that it actually is because he just doesn't want to interact with me at all if he can help it. Though I admit that the reason is unknown to me." Said Jeanne.

"And that's where our two trio's come in. Jeanne Kisuke and Ririn will head to the hotel now that we know where we need to go. As for the other trio, you all should go in first and I'll sneak in after a few minutes. If you can, try to get a picture of Father Kotomine. Maybe it will shed a little light on this situation one way or another. Once I use the signal, try to find a way to leave and if you all aren't out in about 30 minutes I'll come in after you and try to help bail you three out." Said Yoruichi as she lept onto the ground.

"I would add that if Ichigo's group manages to leave successfully have him flare his reiatsu and we'll know either before the 30 minutes are up or after if you require some extra help." Said Kisuke.

"Well I think we've covered all bases so we'd better get going. Good luck." Said Ririn in Rukia's gigai. With that she, Jeanne, and Kisuke all left at a leisurely pace. With that the remaining group eyed the church and the human trio approached the door. Noba opened it and entered in first. As the trio entered, they could hear two voices conversing, one masculine and the other feminine not too far away but no one could see the owners of those voices.

"I see. So that's who our Saber is. That would explain why I couldn't see anything despite standing in front of them. Still I'll need to wait to find an opportunity to confirm it." Said the masculine voice.

"You doubt my familiars' abilities?" asked the feminine voice sounding hurt though whether that was in jest or not was difficult to tell.

"Hello?!" shouted Ichigo. Ending the conversation of the voices. The trio walked towards the alter but found no one in the empty sanctuary. The trio heard footsteps and saw a Japanese youth about Ichigo's age dressed in a black long sleeved shirt and pants and black boots but was wearing a clergy collar signifying his role as a priest as well as silver earrings. But what was strange was that despite his youthful and Japanese features, his skin was heavily tanned which complimented his golden eyes nicely and both were contrasted by his short spiky snow white hair. The young priest's eyes widened in surprise at the trio, clearly not expecting them but quickly regained composure and gave a polite friendly smile.

"Oh. Hello. I wasn't expecting anyone. How can I help you?" he asked politely. The trio eyed each other and nodded before Rukia stepped forward and bowed politely which the priest returned.

"We're looking for Father Kotomine. Would you be so kind to inform him that he has guests who wish to speak with him on a private matter?" asked Rukia politely.

"May I ask what the information is?" asked the young priest.

"Well I suppose that we need to know how much you know of the current situation. That is have you noticed people who seem 'out of place' and do you know why their here and who or what they are?" asked Noba in Ichigo's body. The young priest's smile became a bit more genuine as he responded.

"If your asking if I'm aware of the Holy Grail war and of Servants yes. So you can speak freely about it to and in front of me. So what's the matter you wish to speak with Father Kotomine about?" asked the young priest.

"It's about the anomalies for the War. When Ruler found out that Father Kotomine was unable to attend the meeting with the other Red Masters, she decided to send us over and give him the information that he would be otherwise missing out on as a way to show fairness for all the Masters." Said Ichigo. This made the priest look thoughtful and then looked at the trio and spoke.

"Very well. May I ask who you three are?" the priest asked.

"I'm a Caster-class Servant. My True name is Rukia Kuchiki." Said Rukia.

"I'm a Saber-class Servant. My True name in Ichigo Kurosaki." Said Ichigo. The priest's expression turned to a look of confusion. "Is something wrong?" Ichigo asked.

"Oh. No. It's just very unusual names." Said the Priest. He then shifted his gaze over to Noba in Ichigo's body. "And your twin, Ichigo, was it?" he asked.

"That's part of the information that we want to discuss with Father Kotomine." Said Rukia politely but firmly.

"I understand. Allow me then to introduce myself. My name is Shirou Kotomine." Said Shirou K. He then held up his hand showing the back which had the blood red tattoo of command seals on full display. Rukia, Ichigo, and Noba's eyes widened at this. "And as you all can now see. I'm one of the Master's of Red." He said with his smile turning into a teasing smirk.

"You're Father Kotomine?!" asked Noba in surprise. He sure doesn't look like a guy in his 80's or 90's. Ichigo thought to himself. Then his expression became deadpanned. Something the now named Shirou K. immediately noticed.

"Is there an issue?" he asked.

"Two things. One is that you're the third person I've met whose name has Shirou in it and you have white hair. The others were named Jushiro and Toshiro." Said Ichigo. This made Shirou K. look like a deer in the headlights. He really hadn't been expecting that answer.

"And the other?" Shirou K. cautiously asked.

"You're a lot younger than I had expected you to be." Admitted Ichigo.

"What were you expecting?" Shirou K. inquired looking curious.

"Well. . . .you know. . . smelly, old bald guy. Clutching a cross necklace. And grumpy." Admitted Ichigo looking slightly embarrassed. Rukia elbowed him in the gut causing him to double over in pain.

"Ichigo! That's rude!" she exclaimed with a scandalized look. She immediately turned to Shirou K. and bowed deeply. "I'm so sorry, Father. Please forgive his idiocy." She said in a panicked tone. Then both looked when they heard the sound of someone snickering. The trio looked to see Shirou K. was the one snickering. Realizing that he was being stared at he quickly regained his composure and coughed into his hand.

"Well I will say that's an unexpected answer but not the first time I've had my youth be pointed out. But now that that's out in the open why don't we all sit down and you all tell me what it was Ruler asked you to come talk to me about." Shirou K. suggested.

"Just one thing. Which Servant are you the Master of?" asked Noba.

"That would be me. Assassin of Red. My True name is Semiramis. Nice to meet you, Servants of Ruler." Said assassin as she manifested in front of them. The trio politely bowed to Semiramis which in turn seemed to amuse her.

"Now then you all said that you had information about the anomalies?" asked Shirou K. as he sat down in the pews. The trio followed suit. Rukia reached into the inner folds of her shihakusho. The now identified Master/Servant pair tensed only to look confused when she revealed what looked to be a sketchpad. She flipped through it and then she turned it around so what she had been looking at was now facing the pair. Their shocked looks at the drawing featuring cutesy rabbits and bears rendered the pair speechless. Only the clicking of a camera snapped them out of their collective stupor. They looked and saw Noba placing what they both identified as an iPhone in the jacket pocket. At the questioning looks Noba answered.

"When Kisuke heard about how the other Servants reacted to Lady Rukia's drawings, he asked that someone get a picture of other Servants reactions so that he could see them for himself." He said though the pair looked suspicious but said nothing. Rukia coughed and took a deep breath.

"Alright let's get started with the explanations." She said in an authoritative tone.

=Romania – Millenium fortress/gold and Black Faction's base of operations – dinning hall – 10:25 am

The leaders of the Secession Movement, consisting of Darnic, Angelica, and old Man Acht, along with Fiore, were all sitting at the dining table with several gems in the center that were emanating a white light and was revealed to be a projection of the fortress that was large enough to span the width of the table. The Servants were absent from the room.

"So we are in agreement as to how we will combat the attacks that will no doubt come tonight?" asked Darnic.

"Yes. Due to Gilles mistaking the Saber of Red for his ideal version of Jeanne there is very little doubt that he will either need to be forced to fight via a command seal or we can simply relocate him and his creations to another side of the castle." Said old man acht.

"Why not simply let him not fight Saber of Red but have his creatures still be deployed against the Red Faction?" asked Fiore.

"Because he will use them to protect her against any of our forces who will try to eliminate her." Angelica pointed out.

"Can we confirm Saber of Red's identity?" asked Darnic. Old man acht nodded.

"All members of the Gold Faction save for Gilles can confirm that Saber of Red is indeed Mordred. Child and heir to King Arthur." He said.

"To think the Knight of Treachery was a woman. Makes me wonder about how many other supposedly male Servants were in fact female but history recorded them incorrectly." Thought Angelica aloud.

"How are the defenses and status of the combat forces?" asked Fiore. Darnic gave a proud smile at her for how she was acting as a leader in training.

"Thanks to the combine efforts of the Einzberns and Musik families, we've been able to make close to 10,000 homunculi including 500 battery type homunculi. The rest are combat and service Homunculi. 90% combat and 9% service types. The combat forces are ready for deployment." Said Old man acht.

"And what about the additions that have been made by our Caster class Servants?" asked Angelica.

"Sadly, Guinevere's skills lye in healing so while they will be necessary when the fighting ends for the night, she can't contribute much before then." Said Old man Acht.

"And Merlin?" asked Darnic.

"All of his efforts have been to reinforce and set up defenses for the Grail chamber which I have looked into myself. My assessment of them is that it would take an anti-fortress noble phantasm to get through all of the defenses and traps that Merlin has set up and that's not factoring into account the fact that we have two Sabers and a shielder guarding the Grail on top of all that. Merlin has assured me that his skill of Hero Creation will allow him to boost any of our Servants that are deemed heroes in legend." Said old man acht.

"Pardon me lord Einzbern but I'm a little confused. Aren't all Servants technically Heroic spirits?" asked Fiore. Old man acht looked at her for a few minutes before smirking.

"I'm glad to see Lord Darnic's choice of heir is a very keen observer." He said in an satisfied tone. "But to answer your question, Lady Fiore, Merlin's skill will only affect those who were, in their legends at least, heroes even if by definition of today some of their feats would be thought of as questionable by 'human' standards. Let us use your Black Faction for example. Your saber, Archer, and Rider Servants would be able to be boosted by Merlin with his skill even if your Saber did assist a king in cheating a contest. The legends themselves don't paint him as villainous for doing so. By contrast even though Lancer and Berserker of Black are painted sympathetically for their actions through justifications, their legends still frame them as doing things that, by 'human' standards, would be considered villainous." Said old man acht.

"That is where Medea comes in. She's not nearly as restrictive with her abilities as Merlin. I will admit that Roche's abilities as a golemancer would've been highly boosted if he had a Servant that specialized in his field then we would be able to make an army of golems to compliment our homunculi forces instead of the 20 or so that we have now. But Medea is one of the top 5 most powerful Caster class Servants one could summon and with Siegfried as our Saber should we need to use her other noble phantasm to summon a dragon to help take out our enemy forces, he can then step in and slay it once it's fulfilled it's purpose." Said Darnic with a satisfied smile.

"So the two of them will be monitoring and boosting our Servants when our enemies confront our forces and Servants of Black are deployed somewhere within the inner ramparts of the fortress." Said Angelica as she manipulated the image of the fortress to show what she was referring to for the location. "Guinevere will be on standby to heal any Servants that are injured. Most likely with the other two Casters as well. What about the last Caster of Gold? Since we don't want him to face off against the Red Faction where would be the most ideal place to station him and his summoned monstrosities?" asked Angelica.

"The most ideal place to place him would be in the back of the fortress." Said Darnic as he rotated the image to show the back of the fortress. "Medea, along with our own abilities, have been busy at work shoring up our magecraft defenses at all the entry points in the castle. And with two Casters monitoring everything I'm confident that we'll not be caught off guard so easily. This will give us the ability to freely move our forces without needing to worry about being attack from behind." Said Darnic.

"But isn't Medea known as the Witch of Betrayal and if Gilles knows that his 'Jeanne' is in the battle isn't it likely that he'll betray us as well?" asked Angelica.

"Archer has assured me that since her Master is a child she will not put him at risk for repercussions should she do actions that we do not approve of. He told me that they have some history together and has said that if she does anything that will put me at risk he will step in and deal with her." Said Fiore though she looked slightly uncomfortable saying that.

"And Gilles' abilities as a mage are subpar at best outside of his ability to summon those monstrosities and he's otherwise insane. So, we will have one of Hassans' personas to observe him from the shadows and if he steps out of line to kill him. We have already confirmed to him that Jeanne will only be observing the fight and won't directly participate in fighting unless her life is at risk. Combine that with potentially facing against any Faction that might try to attack us from the back and he'll hopefully be occupied enough to not be a problem at least for tonight." Assured Darnic.

"Very well. With the defenses seemed to be in order, what about our offensive forces?" asked old man acht.

"Our homunculi combat forces will be deployed to act as support for our Servants. Should the enemy be able to conjure up minions they will engage with them. But that will be their main function. From there we will allow our Servants to do as they wish. Lancer, Berserker, and Saber will take care of the frontal assault on the fortress. Saber and Lancer will be the main attack force while Berserker will simply cause chaos throughout the battlefield." Said Darnic as he rotated the fortress image back to the front. Then he showed the topmost pinnacle of the fortress. "Archer will be stationed at the top of the fortress to observe and to snipe enemies from a distance and Rider will be providing aerial support with his flying mount." Said Darnic.

"And I will be deploying Assassin to scout out and either observe or kill any Masters, save for the Matous, that might be out tonight to observe the fight." Said Angelica.

"And only Sir Gawain will be deployed out with the main fighting force in the front. Shielder and the other two shall remain in the Grail Chamber. This will at least convince everyone that our alliance is genuine and not show our hand yet to those who don't yet know of our tampering with the summoning system." Said old man acht.

"Well then with all this in mind, is there anything left to discuss?" asked Angelica as the image of the fortress vanished and the gems powered down.

"As a matter of fact, there is." Said Darnic. He then proceeded to tell the leaders what he knew of Karakura, the events surrounding that place, and the information that Ichigo and Rukia were from there as well as his speculations about the soul society being there. And Yoruichi and Kisuke and their ulterior motive for supporting Ruler.

"Grandfather Darnic, I wanted to ask what do you think this means for Ruler's Servants as well as Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihoin. Do you think that they were honest about what their goals were?" asked Fiore.

"According to your Servant Fiore, he was confident that the information we were told when Ruler came to talk was legitimate and since Ruler seems to take her job of being impartial seriously, I'm inclined to believe what she told us. I also believe that her Servants, at least for now and if they really are Servants, will do their part in helping Ruler police the War and deal with these Hollows. This will mean less problems for us to worry about." Said Darnic.

"And what of these two outsiders? You told me about the deal you made with that Lady Shihoin. And what is the connection to our Assassin of Black?" asked old man acht. Angelica then revealed what her Assassin told her of the Shihoins actually being co-founders of the Order of Assassins, much to the group's shock.

"Considering that they're concerned about this Aizen character being a traitor who's at large and potentially could try to interfere with our War, it might be prudent to allow them to monitor the situation if only to get this Aizen removed from the picture. And if what was shown and what we saw from all 5 was anything to go by, it would be foolhardy to underestimate them should they decide to step in and stop the War from proceeding. Especially if this Aizen character is as dangerous as they claim he is." Said Angelica.

"Agreed. Still, we'll keep the rest of the Gold Faction in the Grail chamber and hopefully Merlin's added defenses will work on these Kido users as well should they turn out to want to seize the Grail for themselves." Said old man acht. On this no one objected.

"Then I believe that this meeting is adjourned. Let us prepare ourselves for tonight' s battle. We will be facing the Red Faction in earnest after all." Said Darnic with a smug smile. A smile that old man acht returned.

"Yes and then once we've annihilated the Red Faction, I would very much like for us to deal with the Silver Faction once and for all." Said old man acht sinisterly.

"Then we'll deal with the remaining factions of Blue and White once we get that far." Added Angelica though her face remained neutral. On this everyone agreed.

And then once all the other Factions are eliminated it will just be us and the gold Faction. The sheer volume of Servants will ensure a way to the root will be guaranteed and it will allow for more than one to enter. So theoretically Lord Einzbern and I and even Angelica could both enter and gain True Magics together. Angelica's loyalty is assured but the minute Lord Einzbern attempts to betray us then the gold Faction will outlive it's usefulness. I also better make some contingency plans should there be an issue. If that Ichigo Kurosaki is in fact a living being then perhaps I can use him as a body for myself to prepare for the next Grail War should this one be derailed somehow. Darnic thought to himself. Meanwhile old man acht was having similar thoughts.

With any luck we won't lose too many of the gold faction Servants. With the other Servants eliminated than only the Black and Gold factions will remain. Darnic is just like any other mage, and I know he'll want to use our Grail to get to the Root. He's also well known for allying and betraying everyone he meets as long as he gets what he wants. Best to keep a close eye on him and keep as many of our Servants in the Gold Faction as possible. That way should betrayal happen we will have what's necessary to combat our former allies. As for these outsiders and Ruler's Servants, we might want to look into this. If these Servant's aren't in fact Servants perhaps we can capture either one of them and either see if we can use them for breeding stock or perhaps improving our homunculi designs. Thought old man acht.

=Romania – Millenium fortress/gold and Black Faction's base of operations – Library – 10:45 am

Astolfo found himself wandering through the fortress without too much of a care in the world and eventually he found himself at the library. He went in and was surprised to find someone else already in reading a book. "Oh. Hello Lady Fiore. Why are you not using your wheelchair?" he asked. This caused the Fiore look a like to giggle.

"I'm afraid that you're mistaken. I'm actually Caster of Gold." She introduced herself as she got up from her chair." She said with a gentle smile. Astolfo gave her a surprised look.

"I thought that was Merlin." He said looking confused. The female Caster had a panicked look on her face only for Astolfo to wave it off. "Well I suppose it doesn't matter. If you're on the gold Faction, then that means that we're allies. Hey! You know I've been wanting to ask a question to the Gold Faction Servants but haven't had the opportunity to ask any yet." He said looking excited. This caused the female Caster to look curious.

"Oh and what would that be?" she asked.

"I wanted to know what wishes your faction has for the Grail should you win it." Said Astolfo. He then proceeded to tell her all the wishes everyone from the Black Faction both servants and Masters as well as the gold Faction Masters. "So now the only people left to ask are the Gold Faction Servants. You know since you're here I want to ask. Do you know your Gold Faction members pretty well?" asked Astolfo. The female thought about it for a moment and then smiled and nodded.

"With the exception of one, I think I know my fellow gold Servants pretty well." She said.

"So what are your guys wishes?" asked Astolfo.

"Why so curious Sir Paladin?" she asked coyly.

"Oh! So you do know me." Said Astolfo getting excited.

"Of course. As a token of good will for our alliance between the Black and Gold Factions, the Leaders decided to exchange True names of the Servants between the Factions." Said the Gold female Caster. This seemed to satisfy Astolfo.

"I see. Well to answer your question I ask because I'm curious as to what everyone is fighting for. What wish do you have that you'll fight with everything you have for it?" he asked. This caused the female Caster to go into deep thought for a moment. Then she answered.

"Well one of our members is obsessed with the mediator so with her summoned he'll probably want to be reunited with her properly. But I can only speculate based on what he's mentioned in his ramblings. As for the other members of Gold, we all came from the same collection of legends. We all want to redeem ourselves from how things went tragically wrong in our collective mythos. So we'll serve our Masters faithfully. And that is our collective wish. Though I suppose that if there were anything else, we would like to know if our King has been summoned and if so, we would probably swear fealty to them." Admitted the female Caster. Astolfo nodded in understanding.

"I can't say I blame any of you. If my king Charlemagne was summoned I would immediately swear fealty to him once again if given half a chance." Admitted Astolfo.

"Even though that would mean going against your Master potentially?" asked the female gold Caster. Astolfo nodded. "You're either very brave or very foolhardy." She admitted.

"It's amazing how often those two coincide with eachother." Astolfo replied with a smile which the gold Caster returned and even giggled a bit at his antics.

=Romania – outskirts of Bucharest – outside of a chapel/ Shirou's base – basement – 11 am

Yoruichi was busy making her way through the church and was now entering the basement. Didn't find too much value in the private quarters or office. Only an extensive library of many historical and mythological books, a few papers that looked to be testimonials, and that spirit board thing that was mentioned during one of our meetings. The only thing of note was some bank history concerning substantial payments to various countries of Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey. Good thing I got pictures of all of it. We'll analyze the data later but now after looking everywhere save the sanctuary the only other place to look is the basement. Yoruichi thought. She then heard noises approaching her direction and decided to hide and got her iPhone at the ready in case she needed to get pictures.

"Light seeking light doth light of light beguile, So, ere you find where light in darkness lies, Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes!" Said a well dressed man as he seemed to be quite foppishly dressed and moved with a spring in his step as he quickly made his way up the stairs leading out of the basement. Following up behind him was a taller and burlier man who appeared shirtless and had an armored skirt and pants and was carrying what looked to be another man's body in a suit over his shoulder like a potato sack.

"Why do you constantly speak in riddles, Caster? Asked the burly man looking at the now named Caster with a quirked eyebrow. Caster looked at him in surprise.

"My dear Berserker. These are but lines from my plays that I wrote. I merely quote them for whenever the situation I feel calls for it. In this case we've literally come out of the darkness and into the light by seeking it out in said Darkness. Though I do admit that depending on how you wish to see it there are many ways to interpret my words on both a surface and deeper level if one feels the need for it." Said Caster. Unbeknownst to them Yoruichi had lined the iPhone up and had been taking photos of the pair and was trying to get a picture of the body that was being carried.

"Well I for one would appreciate it if you tell me plainly where I'm supposed to be taking my former Master's body." Said the now named Berserker gesturing to the man thrown over his shoulder.

"You make it sound as if we are disposing of a corpse. Your former Master is merely unconscious and we were given strict orders to take both him and my former Master to the prepared quarters for them both in the Gardens." Said Caster looking a bit put out as he turned around and headed out. "Come, Berserker. I will show you the quarters we are to take our former Masters to." He said as the two headed towards a door that headed outside. After the door closed Yoruichi then emerged from her hiding spot.

Good thing that I turned off the sound of the phone. That was embarrassing back in the cave. Well. . . let's see what's down here. Thought Yoruichi as she headed down the stairs. Immediately her instincts were on high alert. She smelled something burning and saw a purple smoke permeating the hallway. Hmm. That smells like Bird of Paradise. She thought after taking a whiff of the smoke. It seemed to be coming from the only lit room in the basement. After a quick look around and sensing for anything out of place she then proceeded to head into the room. She didn't expect what she saw.

In the room that was lit by an eerie red light though she couldn't determine it's source, she saw a woman that was slumped in her chair in front of a table. Yoruichi hopped onto the table and checked her. The woman was breathing shallowly. Yoruichi placed a paw on the woman's neck to feel a pulse. Weak but steady. And judging from her position she looks like she just fell asleep. She then got a good look at the woman. She was a woman of European descent who was bespectacled and had her brown hair done in a low ponytail. And the only noticeable attire was her conservative green dress.

Satisfied that the woman was alright for now, Yoruichi did a once over of the rest of the room and saw that it was clearly a place where people gathered and were meant to converse judging from the chairs that surrounded said table. She then noticed a tea set with two cups set up on opposite sides of the table and an incense burner in the center. Said burner appeared to be the source of the purple smoke that was drifting out of the room. This must've been left to burn and had filled the room to fill up with smoke. And since I'm not seeing any windows, while the door isn't air tight if left closed long enough it would cause the smoke to build up and eventually consume all the oxygen in the air of the room but a single incense stick shouldn't have the ability to do that unless. . . . Yoruichi cut her thought off as she headed over to the burner and quickly examined it. At first she came up empty until she carefully lifted the burner to see the underside and sure enough there was a magecraft circle on the underside of the burner. After carefully placing it back down Yoruichi then went over to the tea set.

A quick check showed that the tea was cold. She then leaned into the cup an took a whiff of the tea scent. Peppermint and I can barely pick up the faint smell of almond. Wait a minute. Bird of Paradise and almonds can be dangerous to humans if they aren't careful. Immediately she pulled out her phone and shifted into her human form and quickly took pictures of everything she felt was necessary.

"Oh my. What do we have here?" said a voice she recognized as belonging to the Caster of Red coming from behind her. She turned her head but not her body to look behind her to see that it was in fact Caster looking at her with interest.

=Romania – Bucharest – hotel suite/Red Faction base – living room – same time

Meanwhile Kisuke, Ririn, in Rukia's Gigai, and Jeanne were sitting at a table with tea and biscuits already half eaten. Opposite the trio were the other members of the Red Faction. The group seemed to be mulling over everything that had been relayed to them. It was a lot to take in. Between explaining and demonstrating gigais, Kido, and gikongans and explaining hollows and even a truncated description of Zapakutos and their functions the group was going to need a bit of time to think about things. Good thing we decided to tell them more or less the same things that were relayed to the white faction the only addition was the Zanpakutos and even then it was just it's description and by invoking it's name it changes shape but not calling it shikai and not even mentioning bankai. thought Kisuke as he munched on a biscuit.

"Alright. I think we understand now. But there are a few questions that are left to be asked." Said Waver.

"As expected. What are they?" asked Kisuke.

"While I can understand the need for bodyguards in assisting you, Ruler and thus summoning Servants for yourself, why bring in outsiders? While the Hollows would certainly be an issue for this War, I'm confident that we could've figured out how to deal with them eventually." Said Waver

"In other words, you think that I have an ulterior motive. Well, you're not wrong but Hollows do play a role in mine and my wife's presence. Just not the only one." Admitted Kisuke.

"Your wife?" asked Kairi looking surprised though it was hard to tell since he was wearing dark sunglasses.

"Since we've been here explaining things for close to an hour, I don't want to get too caught up in details and thus take away from you anymore time than is needed. But yes, my wife also came with me. She's investigating some things for us at the moment and thus couldn't make it." Said Kisuke.

"So, then what are your reasons for helping Ruler, Mr. Urahara?" asked Gray shyly.

"My main reason is simply curiosity. Think about it. A battle royale where one gets to see epic heroes and villains fight each other to the death for a chance to achieve their greatest desires. Who wouldn't want to observe such an event?" asked Kisuke with a small, crooked grin. Archer seemed amused by this answer as he made a noncommittal noise at this but gave a slight smirk at this. "As for my other reasons, they are business related. One is I want to prevent any Servants or Masters from being harmed by Hollows." Said Kisuke. At their confused looks he elaborated.

"There is no record of Hollows ever devouring partial souls like that of Servants yet we've concluded that Servants are powerful enough that even a small gathering of this many is enough to potentially attract Hollows here. I'll admit we haven't encountered too many yet, or at least no abnormally high amount of them yet, but there also hasn't been any fighting yet and most factions have been tucked away behind their bounded fields in their bases which could be playing a role in the scarcity of the hollows. That is most likely going to change once the fighting gets underway and I don't know about you, but I really don't want to know what would happen to a Servant if they were bitten by a Hollow. Given that you Servants already have the option to devour human souls as a means of supplementing sustenance should you find yourselves in a pinch for magical energy, do you really want to see what happens when a Servant becomes corrupted and turns into a Hollow?" asked Kisuke. That caused many of the Masters to pause in thought. "And that's not even getting into other problems that would possibly result from this outcome. Like what will happen to the Master? Will they be affected by this transformation like becoming Hollows as well if the contracts aren't severed or will their souls just be devoured through the contract unless it's severed? What would happen if that piece of the Servant's soul were to return to the throne? Would it corrupt the rest of the soul turning the Servant into a Hollow on the throne? And if so, would it have long term consequences for the rest of the Servants on the throne? Would that part be permanently shaved off from the rest of the Servant's soul and never return and how would that affect the Servant that loses the piece?" Kisuke continued to ask. The Masters and Servants either looked concerned or were neutral about this line of questioning.

"Do you ask because you want to see something like that happen to satisfy your curiosity?" asked Iskandar looking at him with a neutral expression.

"No. I ask because this is a war. A life or death struggle no matter how much you want to dress it up otherwise. So as to avoid myself being caught off guard I come up with every possible scenario and find ways to counter all those that will end with me or my comrades dying." Said Kisuke with a stern expression.

"In other words you treat every battle or even encounter as if it will be your last and you prepare for every possible eventuality." Said Achilles sounding impressed. "You could rival Odysseus in terms of being a strategist." He said with a smirk.

"I'm flattered with the comparison. Odysseus was actually one of my favorite characters from the Iliad and of course the Odyssey." This caused Rider and Lancer of Red to smile at that comment before Kisuke continued. "But getting back to the subject, if such scenarios are to be avoided then it's critical that Ruler's Servants be allowed to do their job of eliminating the Hollows unhindered but inform you how to best defend yourself against them should they not be able to get to it immediately. So that we don't have to think about these questions. After all prior planning prevents piss poor performance." Said Kisuke.

"And what's the other reason?" asked Reines. Jeanne and Ririn looked at him concerned. But Kisuke was hardly phased.

"The other reason is that I highly suspect that an old nemesis of mine named Sosuke Aizen might be responsible for the overabundance of Servants and has an ulterior motive for using the Grail War for his own means." Kisuke admitted. From there he launched into another explanation covering Aizen's misdeeds and keeping from mentioning any dates. Thanks to the explanations on the gigais they already know that I'm older than I appear along with their knowledge of me thanks to photos. But I really don't need them knowing just how old I am as that could lead to some unintended consequences that I don't want to be responsible for. We really don't need another Quincy genocide on our hands except have it be mages. thought Kisuke.

"What exactly does this Sosuke Aizen want with the Grail?" asked Waver.

"Not the Grail, the Grail War. As I already told you he was inspired by the Grail to make a non-mage equivalent in the form of the Hogyoku. It does the same function of granting one's deepest desire. But unlike the Grail it's going to most likely grant you what you want, the hogyoku works differently in that it grants one's deepest desire even if you aren't consciously aware of it, but it can only manifest the desires of those with the strength to carry them out. So, for example if one claims the desire to let's say. . .. they wanted to become one of the most powerful mages currently alive on the proclaimed grounds of wanting to outperform their peers, the hogyoku would look within the heart of that individual and might find out that their true desire for power is to protect a loved one within their family. If they were deemed strong enough to carry out their true desire than the hogyoku would manifest that desire." Explained Kisuke.

"What does it deem as strong enough?" asked Kairi.

"Meaning would you be able to carry out the said desire should it be manifested? Say for example reviving the dead. Even though we are powerful humans we are still only humans and the hogyoku was made by human hands so it can't grant that desire to us. As humans that is something we will never be able to do so that desire would never manifest." Kisuke explained.

"Even with these gigais you told us about?" pointed out Mordred.

"Those simply fake the ability of being alive. I can make them realistic to the point that it would be nearly impossible to discern from a real body and one of my gigais. Right down to allowing you the ability to procreate and have all of the mundane if embarrassing bodily functions." Said Kisuke with a goofy smile. This caused many of the male servants to look very interested while many of the Master's groaned in irritation at what their Servants might be thinking. Jeanne was blushing at this.

"Getting back to this hogyoku, the way it functions sounds almost the exact opposite of how the Grail works. Both require an extra step to get to where the wish is granted but that seems to be all they have in common. For the Grail, it ultimately can only amplify the scale of realization of wishes within working methodologies but is incapable of granting true miracles. Let's use the original example you gave of wanting to become the most powerful mage in existence. The Grail could make that surface level wish happen but only if there was a methodology that was applied. For the Hogyoku, based on how you told us it worked, it's possible that their wish would be granted as long as the Hogyoku deemed them worthy of getting said power. By contrast The Grail might go with the simplest method to get that wish granted like simply killing off any mage that's more powerful than them regardless of who they are until all mages left alive would be weaker than them." Said Waver.

"So it's basically a monkey' paw." Concluded Kisuke looking a bit disappointed.

"That's only applicable if the Servant or Master use the grail as a means to an end rather than the end point itself." Jeanne defended.

"Alright so it sounds like this Aizen guy has a better version of the Grail already so why does he want to observe the Grail War?" asked Mordred.

"I suspect that he wants to see how well you Servants will perform and if he likes what he sees, then he might try to steal the Grail so that it will allow him access to the throne and the Servants on it." Suggested Kisuke.

"You think that he'll want to summon an army of Servants to do his bidding?" asked Gilgamesh looking skeptical.

"The last time I fought Aizen, which was only a few months ago, he successfully rallied about 10 of the most powerful Hollows he could get and with some experimentation made them extremely powerful. Now how powerful were they? For context, while there are 13 Captains that make up the heads of each division within our organization and several former Captains that, like myself, while not technically part of the rank and file anymore for various reasons, can all fight Servants like Lancer of White though how much damage we'd do to him would vary from one Captain to another especially with his armor being a factor. And I would be hesitant to say that any of us would straight up defeat him. Now those 10 Hollows he managed to fight for him could, on a combined power level, beat half or more of us Captains both current and former. So, for Servants I would calculate that the 10 Hollows in question could at least defeat about half of the Servants currently summoned at least on a pure power level." Kisuke explained. With many of the Servants looking interested and the Masters looking with wide eyes.

"But for all that, Aizen made one small miscalculation. Raw power means nothing without training. They were able to bring raw power to the table and some were able to fight on an instinctive level with swordplay as if it was the most natural thing in the world. But if you have an opponent who has years of training and has refined their skills down to a fine point, then they can simply outpace you in a fight and find ways to outmaneuver you or simply have more tricks up their sleeves than you. Servants, from what we've been able to deduce, don't have this problem for the most part. Some are very weak in terms of raw power but you mostly make up for it in terms of bullshit abilities that we simply can't counter. For example, there's a Servant with the ability to, if they close the distance, flip causality to ensure that their weapon always hits their target. Perhaps there are some Servants who can in fact counter this ability but we Kido users simply can't or at least I'm not sure how we could. Essentially Servants are quality over quantity in terms of fighters." said Kisuke.

"So in other words to answer your question Archer of Red, Yes. We do in fact believe that Aizen wants to observe the Grail war and see if he should invest in summoning an army of Servants to do his bidding." Said Jeanne speaking for the first time in a while.

"Could this Aizen character really summon and maintain a lot of Servants at once?" asked Waver as he was coming out of his state of shock.

"With the combination of the Grail and the Hogyoku and his own power, which is nothing to sneeze at, I can see that happening." Kisuke admitted.

"So you came to assist Ruler due to curiosity, revenge, and to prevent us Servants from getting eaten or at least bitten by Hollows. Is that about right?" asked Mordred.

"Pretty much." Ririn answered.

"Well there is one final reason. I also have a request that I'm personally making to all the factions. On the Blue Faction there are two Master both are Matous that are my wards and students." Said Kisuke.

"And let me guess, you want us to not target them." Said Reines looking very interested.

"The Servants are fair game obviously, but the two Masters I would like it if they would not be targeted." Said Kisuke. This seemed to get Waver's attention. He then gained a thoughtful look.

"Before we say anything, I wanted to ask does the name Kurosaki mean anything to you?" asked Waver. Kisuke paused and held eye contact with him before he answered.

"Yes. I do know them. I'm good friends with the current patriarch and was named the godfather to the current children." Said Kisuke.

"Then perhaps we can make a little deal. If I survive this war and we don't target the two Masters you mentioned, I'm assuming they're Kariya and Sakura Matou as there has been little to no mention of any other Matous besides them, then I would like it if you could get me into Karakura and grant me an audience with the Kurosaki Family." Said Waver. The visiting trio all gave neutral expressions before Kisuke spoke.

"What reason do you want to meet with the Kurosakis?" asked Kisuke.

"To be straight forward, I want to see the potential of the Kurosaki family and see if they have declined in terms of quality for mages and if they have then I'm content to let things be and not mention their location to anyone back at the association." Said Waver.

"And if they haven't?" asked Kisuke with a calculating look.

"Then I want to extend an invitation to the Kurosaki's, more specifically the children, and see if they would consider learning magecraft at the Clock Tower. More specifically at Norwich and in the department of Modern Magecraft Theories. I feel that if they've learned kido or other supernatural abilities perhaps they would be willing to share what they have with the rest of the mage world." Suggested Waver.

"Even though Mages are well known for their tendency for secrecy? Not to mention that the politics of that school are extremely cutthroat. There's no guarantee that the Kurosaki children will be protected from mages that will go to any lengths to either use them for study or from kidnapping them for breeding stock." asked Kisuke.

"Not if they enter the school under the protection of a Lord at the Clock Tower. It's policy of the school to prevent higher ranked mages from sniping at new potentials if only to prevent retaliation on those that they wish to apprentice for themselves. So if they were to agree to learn magecraft under the tutelage of my brother, than his status as a lord will guarantee their protection for the duration of their time there." Reines assured them.

"And after they leave?" asked Kisuke.

"That will depend on how things turn out. As I'm sure you're aware, Magecraft will be rendered obsolete as it currently stands with how technology has quickly begun to replace or out do Magecraft in multiple areas. The only way for it to remain relevant is by bringing it into the modern era and I have found a few ways to do that currently by bringing out my student's full potential. But I feel that it can be done through other ways, but politics have kept me at a stalemate. I feel that if I can gather families from outside the Clock Tower's current structure, then I can start to finally convince the other lords in the remaining factions of other departments of following suit with our approach to teaching Magecraft." Said Waver.

"Is that the only reason?" asked Ririn looking curious.

"I also observed your spell that you used against Lancer of White and through those observations I saw how you were able to use similar techniques to mages and yet while much of the sorcery of our time is but a fraction of what it once was during the age of gods, your Kido seemed to not be degraded or it's strength was on par with grand rituals and after you cast it you barely looked like you were breaking a sweat. Most mages not only need a yr to set up grand rituals but even after they've cast it once most of them are left completely depleted without assistance and those that aren't are left severely weakened that many can barely move let alone be ready to engage in a sword fight right afterwards. If these techniques can be taught then learning how to perform them and having new lineage mages being able to learn such things and possibly other abilities be they Kido or otherwise could not only help in revolutionizing magecraft but also finally start to deteriorate the gatekeeping between the Traditionalists and the Visionary factions." Said Waver professionally though there seemed to be an underlying tone of passion that he was trying to rein in.

"You do realize that even if what you say is true on your end that could have the consequence of the Kurosaki's being targeted by bitter mages whose entire world view is left in the dustbin of history. As their godfather, I can't help but be concerned for their safety." Kisuke pointed out.

"That is a possibility, I won't deny that. Which is why I would like to work with you in coming up with possible safety contingencies should the Kurosaki children decide to come to the Clock Tower if I'm permitted to speak with them." Said Waver still keeping a professional tone. Kisuke didn't answer for several minutes as he looked down thoughtfully. Then he looked up at Waver and spoke.

"I'm usually pretty good at being able to tell when people are lying to me or at the very least being deceptive and I have to say either you are one of the best liars I've ever met or you are the most honest mage I've ever met, Lord El-Melloi II. I can get you into Karakura and get you an audience with the Kurosaki family, but I won't be advocating for you. You'll have to give your sales pitch to them and persuade them on your own." Warned Kisuke.

"I would expect nothing less." Admitted Waver giving a small smile.

"Then we got a deal." Said Kisuke. Holding out his hand. Waver looked pleased as he took it in his and the two men shook on it. Then Kisuke reached into his pocket inside his coat and pulled out what looked to be several bracelets. Two of them looked to made of semi-precious stones and the other two were made of metal. This caused everyone, including Jeanne, to look at them in confusion.

"These Bracelets are standard Hollow repellant items for the Masters at least. These should keep all but the most powerful Hollows from attacking you." Said Kisuke as Waver and the rest of the Red Masters picked them up and examined them. Reines even used magecraft to see what these bracelets had and what spells were inlaid into them. As she did so her eyes widened comically as she looked at Kisuke.

"How long ago did you make these? There's . . . like 5-7 spells all interwoven and inlaid within and on the bracelets surface. Not to mention that the amount of magical energy packed into these is on par with mystic codes that are stocked with a year's worth of magical energy." Exclaimed Reines looking at him is shock.

"Well I was pressed for time and wanted to at least get the 4 of you some kind of Hollow repellant item so I settled for making the lowest count of spells and standard repellant item that I could make in one night and I had to make 4 of them. If you wanted the version that had all the bells and whistles which consists of about 30 detection and protection spells than I could only make one and bring it over as a show piece." Said Kisuke nonchalantly.

"Hold on you made all of these in just one night?" asked Kairi in a shocked tone. Kisuke nodded.

"Of course. You see back in Karakura I own a shop that sells both mundane and magic items. Mostly it's just grocery and candies that ordinary people want or need but I also stock up on hand crafted magic items that I sell on the side. While most of it is pretty harmless like tarot cards, horoscope calendars, and even semiprecious stones with alleged mystical properties I also sell things like these bracelets and other Hollow repellant items along with gigais and gikongans but those have to be requested by name so I know not to sell them to those not of the supernatural world." Explained Kisuke.

"Strategist, swordsman, Spell Caster, Entrepreneur. I must say I'm impressed by how broadminded you are Kisuke Urahara." Said Gilgamesh with devious smirk.

"I gotta put food on the table and have mouths to feed. So the latter is necessary for my livelihood. No pun intended." Said Kisuke without missing a beat. "Consider these Bracelets collateral until the terms of our deal are fulfilled. If you would like a different variation of these bracelets I'll be more than happy to make ones that will be more tailormade for you. Now is there anything else that we need to discuss?" he asked.

"I do have a question. You talked at length about Aizen and that he'll be observing the war but do you know where he is? And what will you do once you find him?" asked Gray.

"As I said, we don't have any interest in the Grail aside from Aizen's involvement with it but as of right now we honestly don't know where he is hiding out at the moment. As for what we'll do once we find him? Our goal is to capture and either seal him away or find a way to permanently kill him before he tries to do any summoning of his own and gets a potential army of quality warriors at his disposal. At least that's our hope. Otherwise we will have another war on our hands but the stakes will be significantly more weighty then just fighting to get your greatest desire." Said Kisuke. "Anything else?" he asked.

"Yeah I got one. You told us about these zanpakutos and what they are but you haven't demonstrated it to us yet. So why don't we see it?" asked Mordred. Kisuke thought about it for a moment and shrugged. He then took his cane and revealed it's hidden blade form and then chanted: "Awaken, Benihime." And everyone watched in surprise at what they saw. It literally changed it's form and now looked like an actual sword.

"I see. So your Servants noble phantasms are in fact these zanpakutos. That would explain why the priest has been having a hard time finding anything on them. Their weapons were forged from their very souls." Concluded Iskandar.

"That's more or less correct." Said Jeanne.

"The zanpakutos are a reflection of the wielder making each one as unique as they are so while some are elemental, others can be just melee, and some have special abilities that are tailored just to them. So it's no surprise that your priest has been having a hard time finding anything on Ruler's Servants." Said Kisuke. "Anything else?" he asked. After a few minutes of no one saying anything. Kisuke turned to Jeanne. "Then I think our business is concluded." He said.

"I agree." She responded then turned to the rest of the Red Faction. "You have my sincerest thanks for allowing us to talk to you about the situation concerning the anomalies for this war." Said Jeanne as she got to her feet along with Kisuke. Suddenly they noticed Kisuke flinch and looked over towards the door as did Ririn.

"Something wrong?" asked Mordred.

"Just sensed something. Nothing anyone here needs to be worried about. Anyway thank you for your hospitality. Oh and one other thing." Said Kisuke as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card. "If you're interested in buying any other products from my shop be they tailor made or just want to see my wares, here's the number of the shop to call. I sincerely hope to be doing continued business with all of you." Said Kisuke with a goofy grin. With that the trio left the apartment.

"Well, that was a very interesting meeting." Kairi commented on after a few minutes waiting for the footsteps to recede out of earshot.

"Yes, especially since there were things that they left out." Said Gilgamesh with a smirk.

"My King?" asked Reines looking confused.

"I agree Goldie. The fact that they didn't confirm or deny if Ruler's Servants were in fact Servants at all." Said Iskandar also looking intrigued. At the Masters curious looks Iskandar revealed how since it was confirmed that all three of the people who were seen with Ruler that first night, claimed to be her Servants and all used the same type of weapons. Yet Kisuke came out and revealed that he at least was pulling a prank on everyone, but his skills showed that he could go toe to toe with a Servant along with the other two, it begged the question if the other two were also pulling a similar ruse.

"Do you think it could be a case of the other two merely being counter guardians. Afterall those often are nameless individuals who made a deal with the planet." asked Gray.

"That is still a possibility, mongrel. But I am doubtful of it." Said Gilgamesh.

"If you were suspicious of it my King, why didn't you call them out. Perhaps threaten with force to get them to admit the truth." Asked Reines quirking an eyebrow.

"The man has admitted to being extremely resourceful so who's to say that he didn't already have a strategy at the ready to counter us should violence have broken out? Besides they were being truthful at least about their goal." Said Gilgamesh.

"You mean about having no interest in the Grail and only wanting to apprehend this Aizen before he decides to get his hands on it?" asked Waver.

"Yes. Simply due to my vast experiences of being around people who live and breathe deception I can tell the subtle nuances of those when they speak whether they are lying or being truthful. So while they are being deceitful if only by omission, I will allow them to continue as they are as they are trying to safeguard my treasure. Besides I want to see where this goes." Said Gilgamesh with a game smirk.

"Right actions speaking louder than words. You want to see what their actions will reveal what their words won't." said Achilles catching on with a smirk of his own.

"Precisely, mongrel. So we'll keep this information to ourselves at least for the time being." Said Gilgamesh.

"You don't want to tell the priest?" asked Kairi.

"The priest is also being informed of the same information we now have so there is no point in doing so. Besides do you really think that if the priest actually found any information, he would relay everything to us given he's already outright lied concerning your other colleagues?" Gilgamesh asked. This caused everyone to think about this for a minute.

"I think we get what you're saying, my King." Said Reines. Gilgamesh nodded satisfied.

"As a final note I will say that I'm actually looking forward to this evening as it should prove to be very entertaining." Said Gilgamesh with a smirk.

=Romania – outskirts of Bucharest – chapel/ Shirou's base – sanctuary – 11:30 am

"I have to say this is not at all what I had been expecting." Said Shirou K. as he was mulling over all this new information. Like with the rest of his Faction with Kisuke, Ririn, and Jeanne, Rukia, Noba, and Ichigo explain and demonstrated gigais, Kido, and gikongans as well as explaining Hollows to the pair. The difference, unbeknownst to Shirou K., was that they left out talking about zanpakutos and Aizen to him and Semiramis.

"Do you have any questions concerning the things we talked about?" asked Ichigo.

"I think you answered any immediate questions that came up during your explanations. I suppose the only question right now is what are your goals for the Grail?" he asked.

"Well since we are Ruler's Servant's we don't have a wish for the Grail ourselves." Said Rukia quirking an eyebrow.

"That's the official line but Servants were people once. They had dreams, aspirations, fears, desires, just like anyone else. So I'm certain that there is something that you want but officially you can't say as that would ruin your neutrality." Said Shirou K. Rukia, Noba, and Ichigo looked at each other. "If it makes you feel any better, I will treat your words as if it were confession. What you say will stay between myself, each other, and God." Shirou K. assured them.

"That's the thing. None of us really have any desire for the Grail to grant. At least none that we can't accomplish ourselves." Said Rukia.

"Perhaps you can indulge me as I'm curious what you want to accomplish that you're convinced the Grail won't be needed." Said Shirou K. looking very interested. The trio looked at each other again and then looked at the pair.

"We want to prevent a traitor to our organization and the one responsible for our current state of being counter guardians from potentially taking the Grail and using it for his own ends." Explained Rukia. From here Rukia carefully talked about the 13 Court Guard Squads without mentioning the afterlife and gave him the same cover story they gave the Black Faction but this time they chose not to give away the name Sosuke Aizen's name to Shirou K.

"I see. And what do you think this traitor wants with this Grail?" asked Semiramis looking suspicious.

"We believe that he's currently observing the War to see how this plays out and if he likes what he sees he might steal it and use it to summon an army of Servants to use as he pleases." Said Noba as a matter-of-factly. This caught the pair by surprise.

"Surely you jest! There is no way a single human could summon an army of Servants and have the reserves of magical energy to maintain them all at least not without depleting themselves in the process." Said Semiramis.

"Kisuke was able to wield powers that were able to allow him to go toe to toe with a Servant which according to Ruler is something that mages of the current era can't do save for the Assassin and perhaps the Caster Class." Said Rukia with a smirk. Semiramis looked at her with narrowed eyes and a look of disdain.

"I think we have to get going as I'm sure Ruler and Kisuke have already finished their meeting with the rest of the Red Faction and we don't want to take away any more of your precious time." Said Ichigo.

"Just a moment. I wanted to ask one final question. It's about your noble phantasms." Said Shirou K. This caused the trio to pause but before suddenly everyone heard an unearthly howl off in the distance. Rukia whips out her phone.

"Ichigo a few Hollows are nearby, probably in the downtown area." Said Rukia.

"Alright. Let's go." Said Ichigo.

"Wait. Let me come with you. I want to see these Hollows up close." Said Shirou K. as he got to his feet.

"That's too dangerous!" said the reaper trio in concern. Shirou K. gave an almost fond smile.

"I need to see them so that way I have a visual memory of what they could potentially look like. It's one thing to be told, it's another thing to see them in the flesh so to speak." Reasoned Shirou K. The trio looked at each other in concern. But in the end they agreed.

"You do realize that I won't be able to do much to help you as my specialty is in poisons." Semiramis pointed out.

"It's alright, Assassin. Since they're the mediator's servants, then I have no reason to be worried for my safety, right?" Asked Shirou K. Eyeing the trio.

"Of course. Noba will get you to our destination while we use flashsteps." Said Rukia as a matter of factly. Shirou K. Nodded at this. With that Ichigo and Rukia headed towards the exit and Noba activated his portal and offered his hand to Shirou K. who took it and followed him through. Semiramis looked at the spot her master left with a frown.

"A horse. A horse. My kingdom for a horse." Said a male voice. Semiramis was startled and looked over to the door off to the side of the alter and saw a foppish dressed man walk in as he waved with flourish.

"Caster what are you doing? I already gave you a task to do with Berserker." Said Semiramis in an annoyed tone. However she looked a bit curious at him. "Why do you have dried blood coming from your nose?" she asked suspicious.

"The task is already complete but we hit a slight snag. I believe that an Assassin class Servant managed to infiltrate our base but who that turned out to be I was unsure." Said Caster.

"What?! Impossible! My bounded fields would've detected anyone entering my territory." Semiramis exclaimed. But then she remembered the blood and calmed. "And the dried blood?" she asked.

"The Assassin decided to appear in the buff and then showed me her bountiful exotic bosom. I didn't stand a chance." Said Caster unashamed. "I woke up and she was gone and Berserker was finishing up the task you gave us." Semiramis glared at him and suddenly a magic circle appeared beneath him and had several black chains appeared and wrapped around him.

"Why Lady Empress?! All I did was answer your question honestly." Exclaimed Shakespeare as Semiramis simply walked away and disappeared in a shower of blue particles. "What did I do?" asked Shakespeare completely confused as to how he got to this point.

=Romania – Bucharest – inside the city – streets – 11:50 am

Shirou K. found himself out on the streets with Noba. He saw mass panic as people were running for their lives but didn't know which way to go. An unearthly howl caught his attention and he looked over to his left and saw a black creature that had hulking muscles with a hole in the center of the chest but had a dog's head and was wearing what looked to be a canine mask. "Capcaun?" asked Shirou K. Noba looked at him confused but answered.

"No. That's a Hollow." He said. Then another howl was heard and saw that at least two more had made their appearance from the other direction. Shirou K. widened his eyes is shock. These other two creatures had the same two features of black bodies with holes in them and white masks though their overall forms were different. These two had features that reminded Shirou K. of Pricolici. The werewolf/vampire hybrids that were thought to roam around this country in their pursuit of blood and flesh of humans. Without thinking Shirou K. pulled out several handles of Black keys and was getting ready to pump his spirit energy into the handles to produce the blades. But once again Noba stopped him. "Wait." He said simply.

Then Rukia and Ichigo flitted into existence. They were back-to-back with Rukia sizing up her single opponent while Ichigo sized up his duo. Then both draw their blades, Rukia with a standard katana and Ichigo with what Shirou K. could only describe as an oversized kitchen knife. Then both disappeared from sight before reappearing right in front of their opponents. These Hollows then lunged at the two of them. But neither looked particularly worried. Using that teleporting trick they both zipped around landing various hits on these Hollows' bodies and leaving nasty gashes in said Hollows. They all roared again. This time in pain. As pieces of their bodies seems to either drop off them or go flying in a spray of blood and gore. Finally the pair slice through the masks of the trio of Hollows. One separately and the last one together. Ichigo cutting it horizontally while Rukia cut it vertically. Both then turned towards Shirou K. sheathing their blades as the Hollows turn to black dust and fade away.

Shirou K. noticed that the people seemed to look around confused and felt the danger passing picking themselves up and some wondered if some kind of explosion happened. But shortly after that many began to start walking or hurrying to their destination. It was like nothing had happened. He looked and saw that despite the fact that he was able to clearly see the pair of Ruler's Servants most of the ordinary people just walked right on by like they weren't even there. This happened even when the two were moving towards Shirou K. Once they were standing right in front of him, they motioned towards an empty alleyway which they entered.

"Do you have any questions?" asked Rukia once they were far enough that passersby couldn't hear.

"Why do people not seem to be able to see either of you?" asked Shirou K.

"It's because of the fact that one of our skills renders us invisible to all but those who are spiritually aware. Or rather only those who've experienced or have witnessed death." Explained Rukia. This seemed to cause Shirou K. to become thoughtful.

"It seems that I have quite a few things to consider. But this is your essential duties in addition to protecting Ruler and helping her oversee the war, correct?" he asked.

"Make no mistake. While we did agree to help Ruler and protect her till the War is over, our primary duty is protecting innocents from Hollows and purifying said Hollows so that they and the souls they consumed will be sent to a peaceful afterlife." Said Ichigo. Shirou K. nodded then turned to Noba.

"Will you please be so kind as to take me back to the chapel?" he asked Noba nodded and opened a portal and the two went through. No sooner did the portal close did the duo hear their names being called.

"Rukia! Ichigo!" said a voice the pair recognized as belonging to Jeanne. They turned towards the source and saw that Jeanne was indeed heading towards them followed by Kisuke and Yoruichi perched on his shoulder, and Ririn still in Rukia's Gigai. As soon as she caught up to them, she took a few minutes to catch her breath. Then she composed herself. "We felt several Hollows nearby. Were you both able-" she started only for Ichigo to hold up a hand to stop her.

"We were able to deal with them before things got out of hand." He assured her giving her a small smile. She sighed in relief at this. Noba's portals appeared and he stepped out of it.

"The priest has been safely returned to the chapel." Reported Noba.

"Good then let's all go get something to eat and then groceries as we're running low and we need to stock up for at least a few days. Then once we're back at the safe house we'll compare notes." Said Kisuke. With that the septet headed further into the downtown area.

=Romania – outskirts of Bucharest – chapel/ Shirou's base – sanctuary – noon

"So how was your little trip? Did you learn anything valuable?" asked Assassin.

"Yes. Quite a few things. The saddest of which is that if it weren't for our circumstances, Ruler's Servants would be valuable allies to us." Said Shirou K. sadly.

"You sure about that? Between needing to deal with Ruler so as to not uncover who you are before we get the Grail and you do what needs to be done and your end goal being what it is and their job being made obsolete by it, I don't think they would've ever sided with us as long as those objectives remained in play." Said Semiramis.

"You bring up good points. And there is still the rest of our Faction we'll have to work with and this unknown Assassin Servant that managed to sneak in despite all the defenses that were set up." Said Shirou K. sighing as he got to his feet. "the latter we can't do anything about save that we'll have to hope that what they uncovered doesn't make it back to the rest of our faction as it will make our current alliance extremely fragile."

"And the other two?" asked Semiramis looking thoughtful.

"Those will have to be played by ear to see where they go." Answered Shirou K. Suddenly an obnoxiously loud growling noise could be heard and echoed throughout the sanctuary and Shirou K. flushed in embarrassment and Semiramis actually giggled.

"Perhaps you'd better get something to eat as today has been a long morning, Master." Said Semiramis teasing. Shirou gave a sheepish expression.

"Very well. Perhaps some food will help me think a bit more clearly." He said as he headed out of the sanctuary and out of the chapel to get food. Semiramis once again disappeared in a shower of blue particles.

=Romania – forests outside of Trifas – Tohsaka base – Caster's workshop – same time

Paracelsus was in the middle of preparing some concoctions that were shown to be growing gemstones when he heard a knock at the door. Curious he turned to it. "It's unlocked." He said. The door opened and revealed it to be their Lancer and Assassin of Blue the latter not wearing her skull mask. Paracelsus blinked in surprise. "Lancer. Assassin. What can I do for you?" he asked as he got to his feet. Lancer looked at him with a neutral expression.

"Came here for two reasons. One was to let you know that the girls are all in the kitchen getting the midday meal made and they want us up there soon. And the other was to talk to you." He answered. Paracelsus quirked an eyebrow at this. His gaze shifted to Assassin.

"And you, Assassin." He asked.

"I'm simply here to make sure things don't get out of hand." Said Assassin simply. Confused Paracelsus shifted his gaze back to Lancer of Blue.

"During breakfast you said some interesting things and I wanted to follow up a little bit on that. Since the girls aren't here maybe you'd be willing to indulge my curiosity." Said Lancer attempting to be casual but Paracelsus saw that Lancer was tense.

"Such as?" asked Paracelsus still quirking an eyebrow.

"What were some of the actions you committed during your previous summoning? Why did you react the way you did when it was brought up about their being a male counterpart of our Saber? And finally what was the name of your master?" asked Cu Chulainn still with a neutral expression. Paracelsus gained a melancholy expression.

"I'll answer the second question first. The reason I reacted the way I did was because the Saber class Servant who defeated me was none other than a male King Arthur. He was the Saber of that whole war." Confessed Paracelsus.

"Do you think it's the same one that's been summoned here for this war?" asked Serenity with a curious look.

"I can't be certain and even if it is, I have no way of knowing if he even remembers me. One because we only met each other briefly a few times throughout that war and even then it was just us fighting or me watching him fight. And two I'm not certain if he even kept his memories of that war. Afterall Serenity you were the Assassin of that war and you don't seem to remember me at all." Paracelsus pointed out. Serenity gasped at that.

"We were combatants together in a previous summoning?" she asked Paracelsus simply nodded. Serenity grew thoughtful. "I don't have any memory of that war." She confessed looking at him.

"Perhaps it's best you didn't. As it you were affected by my list of sins as well." Confessed Paracelsus.

"Which were what, exactly?" asked Cu Chulainn.

"You want a list of my crimes then fine. Here they are: After my Master signed a self-Geass scroll that would result in his death should it be violated with the Rider of our war, I then went against the terms of the Geass which since I was contracted to him caused it to rebound and kill him. When the Master of Berserker died, I took his corpse and turned him into a ghoul and then presented it to you Assassin as apparently the two of you developed feelings for each other." He explained emotion bleeding out of his tone. Serenity looked shocked and horrified.

"We did?" she asked. Paracelsus nodded.

"I have no idea how but somehow you both developed feelings for each other over the short span of time but in the end that Master died from your poisoned kiss. And later after he was made into a ghoul you once again mercy killed him confessing your love to him. The next day you went on a suicide run against Saber and promptly lost." Confessed Paracelsus without emotion.

"I guess that's why I don't remember anything." Admitted Serenity.

"Anything else?" asked Cu Chulainn narrowing his eyes.

Why does he want to know so badly? Thought Paracelsus but he continued all the same his tone becoming robotic as he continued. "I also assisted in kidnapping hundreds of girls ranging from 10 to 20 and brought them to where the Grail of that war was being held. There those girls were to be sacrificed to the Grail. The reason is that ordinary human souls are less powerful than even a sliver of our souls when we're summoned. It takes well over 100 human souls just to equal a fraction of ours, and since my previous master wanted to keep Saber alive after the war, the most obvious way to allow that was to compensate by gathering the necessary magical energy from other sources. In this case other human souls. As to why they had to be girls I confess to not knowing about that. Finally, the last but most egregious of my crimes was when I befriended the daughter of my first master but after I switched sides and before my treachery was discovered, I cast a fatal curse on her convincing her that it was a good luck charm. Somehow, I don't know how, her Father found a way to suppress that curse so she could survive past that war before he himself died due to the effects of Geass but when I saw her last, I deduced that even with the curse suppressed if she was lucky she might make it to the next Grail war and use it to remove the curse. Otherwise she would most likely die before she reached the age of 20." Said Paracelsus with down cast eyes as he stared at the ground.

"And what was your first Master's name?" asked Cu Chulainn his voice sounding strained.

"Aritoshi. Aritoshi Reiroukan." Answered Paracelsus. Suddenly he felt his back impact the wall behind knocking over various test tubes. He felt the wall cave underneath his back and he felt his windpipe being crushed. Paracelsus gasped for air his eyes wide in shock at what was happening. He looked to see that it was Lancer who was currently crushing his windpipe. His eyes crackling with fury and his handsome face now contorted into an animalistic rage. "W- What?" he tried to ask only to be stopped with Lancer asked his next question.

"Was this daughter's name by any chance Misaya? Misaya Reiroukan?" he asked angrily. Paracelsus' eyes widened further in shock.

"You-" he tried to speak but Lancer cut him off.

"I was the Servant that she summoned 10 years later. I admit that we didn't have the best relationship as a Master and a Servant, but all she wanted was the curse removed so she could actually live her life. The life she should've had. The life you stole from her!" he shouted that last part. "I swore that I would look for the Servant responsible for killing her whenever my next summoning happened and kill them. Sadly, she'll never know that I was successful as the war dragged on too long and the curse killed her before she could get the Grail. And now here we are." He said his face giving a slasher smile. He held out his free hand and was preparing to summon his weapon when a kunai knife came into their line of sight.

"That's enough, Lancer of Blue." Said Serenity calmly with a neutral expression of her own. Lancer looked at her in surprise and anger.

"Seriously, Assassin? You're really going to protect him? Even after all he confessed to doing and knowing that you also suffered due to his actions?" asked Cu Chulainn angrily.

"I won't deny that. But I can't be upset about something that I no longer remember. And I need to ask you what good would killing him here will do? The Master who suffered from his sins is already dead as you said. The only thing that it will result is getting into trouble with the leaders of our factions now." Reasoned Serenity.

"So what am I supposed to do? Let him continue on as if everything is water under the bridge?" growled Lancer.

"If it will give you peace of mind then put a Geass on me." Said Paracelsus surprising the other two Blue Servants. "I will willingly subject myself to one if it will mean that you'll believe my desire for redemption is genuine." Said Paracelsus through a strained voice. After a few moments of contemplation Lancer then brought his free hand to Caster's chest. He drew what Serenity recognized as runes though she couldn't begin to comprehend what they represented.

"Alright. It's done. These runes will act as the stand-in for a Geass. The terms are thus: should you even think about bringing harm to any of the girls in this Faction, be it through your spells, mystic codes, bounded fields, items, anything, these runes will cause your core to burst killing you instantly." Threatened Cu Chulainn.

"And the male masters?" asked Caster of Blue. Lancer closed his eyes.

"I will admit that aside from the Master of Berserker I don't trust the other two men in our Faction." He admitted reluctantly. "Hence why my concern is only with the girls in the Faction."

"Very well. I accept the terms and conditions of this Geass." Said Paracelsus solemnly. With that Lancer finally released him. "I'll get this cleaned up so that my Master doesn't find out about this." Said Caster surprising the pair. "The last thing we need is for my Master to make a rash decision without any context. Besides it's best to keep this between us." Said Caster as he begun to repair his workshop. "Please let the others know that I will be up shortly after I finish up some preparations in my workshop." He said as a matter of factly. After a few minutes of hesitation the pair walked outside the workshop

=Romania – 30 mi outside of Trifas – ruler's base – outside – 1:30 pm

Ruler's group arrived at their base with bags of groceries in hand. "Alright. Let's get the groceries put away and then we'll get the meeting underway so that way we will hopefully be done before sunset on our end." Announced Kisuke as the group headed inside.

=Soul Society – Seireitei – squad 10 barracks – Captain's office – 8:30 pm (Tokyo time)

Toshiro was going over action reports and reviewing others that needed his signature. Suddenly he heard his phone go off. Immediately Toshiro pounced on his phone and answered it. "Hello?" he said. These was a pause as he listened from the other end. "I see. 20 minutes? Alright. I'll let them know. We'll be ready on our end by then." He said. And with that he ended the call. He sighed and then texted the other three who were helping with this development. The text read as followed: Urahara called. The meeting is in 20 minutes. Bring the notebooks and files. Get here to squad 10 as soon as possible. At least Rangiku already went home tonight. Thought Toshiro offhand. With a sigh he then started to get the stand set up. Sure enough, 15 minutes later, Byakuya, Renji, and Jushiro arrived with all their materials. Once everyone was inside he activated the barrier as everyone got situated.

"Well at least this one's not happening past midnight on our end." Commented Renji.

"On that we can all agree." Admitted Jushiro with a light smile.

"Well let's call them and get through this. Afterall they need to get themselves ready for when nightfall comes on their end." Said Toshiro as he placed the call and started the projector.

"Yes and with it the official start of the Grail War." Commented Byakuya. A tension suddenly settled in the room. Then Kisuke and the others' faces appeared on screen.

"Ah good afternoon and evening Captains and lieutenant." Greeted Kisuke. "So shall we get started?" he asked.

(Heavy dialogue incoming. If you don't want to read skip to the next scene change)

=Romania – 30 mi outside of Trifas – ruler's base – living room – 1:50 pm Romanian time (8:50 pm Tokyo time)

"So who's going first?" asked Ichigo curious, now back in his body, and Rukia, in her gigai, respectively.

"We may as well. As we did look into how the last six Servants died in case their might be anything of note in their myths. We'll start with Atalanta. Since we covered her final fate last time of being turned into a lion, Renji and myself tried to find any other references that might point to some other fate or at least her death but aside from a few that said she had a son though no record of what happened to him, after being turned into lions she just disappears from all records." Reported Byakuya.

"There's not even a record of either of them being killed by other hunters not much else on her besides what was discussed last time. So all we did was simply verify the legend that was discussed last time." Added Renji.

"Honestly I wasn't expecting much else for that Servant." Said Yoruichi with a shrug. "Alright let's move onto the next one." She said.

"The next one is Robin hood and while his death is explicitly stated there's no special method in order to do it. Basically he went to a nunnery where a cousin of his lived after he got wounded in some scuffle and then under the guise of treating his wounds betrayed him and basically bled him to death without him realizing it until it was too late. That's really all there is to it." Summarized Renji.

"Okay and Perseus?" asked Rukia.

"He has the most varied of potential endings. One supposes that due to his demigod status he might be alive to the present. But since he was summoned as a Servant we can safely discount that one. So the only other two records of his death have him either dying of old age or he was murdered by a cousin or half brother depending on the version and his body is placed in the heavens as a constellation after his death either way." Reported Byakuya.

"So either way his death didn't require any special circumstances. That's good. Alright. Were you able to find out how the last three Servants died?" asked Yoruichi. Byakuya and Renji both nodded. "Okay how about we look over the last three and you can let us know how they died in case there might be anything that counts as special circumstances we need to look into for these last three Servants." Suggested Yoruichi.

"That is acceptable." Said Byakuya.

"Alright so who do we start with?" asked Ichigo.

"How about we start with Berserker of Red?" asked Rukia.

"Very well. Berserker of Red. True Name Eric Bloodaxe." Recited Jeanne.

"According to our research, Eric Bloodaxe, also known as the Bloodaxe King, was a king who ruled over Norway around the 9th or 10th Century. However, his reign as a king was not even as long as three years, having only reigned for about that length of time and then being driven out from the throne. He escaped to England afterwards and became installed as a mere provincial feudal lord. Nevertheless, what caused his nickname to become well-known was the brutality of massacring his many brothers in order to ascend to the throne during those three years, and the existence of the "witch" Gunnhild, who was rumored to have supported him. However, even if his nickname, the Bloodaxe King, was without elegance, and even though he dealt with his brothers in blood, that tyranny of Eric's did not come to a stop. And underneath that, it is said that the "witch" Gunnhild, who married Eric, was operating behind these scenes. Gunnhild was a staunch female magic user, but at the same time, she seems to have deeply loved her husband Eric, and after the death of Eric, Gunnhild produced poetry on behalf of giving praise to him. According to those, Eric was the sixth king on the throne after the hero of Scandinavia, Sigmund, and he is said to be welcomed as a great warrior by the Great God Odin. Though given the bias of the source, it's claims need to be taken with a grain of salt." Said Byakuya.

"And how did Eric himself die according to your research?" asked Kisuke.

"Apparently his reputation preceded him when he came to England and several other feudal lords decided to simply do away with him. He was led to deserted area and was killed brutally by a consul and his son and the king he was serving under repossessed his lands and ruled them after his death. And that's it as far as our research is concerned." Finished Renji.

"So unless he's in Norway or England he'll get no geographic boosts or fame boosts due to not being very well known outside of his killing spree." Noted Kisuke. He then looked at Jeanne. "So what are his parameters?" he asked.

"Parameters are as follows: Strength is B, Endurance is B, Agility is D, Mana is D, Luck is C, and finally his Np is C." Jeanne rattled off.

"So calculated as is, his overall power level is C rank. So a low seated officer, probably a 13th to 12th seat at best. So not the weakest of the Servants but definitely on the weaker end of spectrum for Servants." Noted Kisuke.

"Alright then is there anything extra we should know about him?" asked Toshiro. Jeanne shook her head. "Then let's move onto his Class skills." He said.

"Very well. He has one class skill and that's Madness Enhancement which is B rank. Now that we have all the Berserkers accounted for, I need to bring this up about this particular Class Skill and that is that it boosts parameters up one rank though whether it's all or certain ones depends on the rank of their madness." Admitted Jeanne.

"You did mention that Berserker of Black's madness enhancement did boost her strength and endurance when we got to her but we didn't do anything else with it." Noted Kisuke.

"Don't a few of them already get boosts due to fame or geography?" asked Renji.

"Yes and the madness enhancement merely stacks onto those boosts." Explained Jeanne.

"Alright let's do a quick recap of the Berserkers power level adjusted with this skill in mind along with other power boosts they might get." Said Yoruichi.

"Of the 6 Factions only 5 summoned a Berserker and of the 5 we have Berserker of red with only this skill as a boost and at B rank all his parameters are boosted, Berserker Lancelot gets this at C rank so all but mana and luck are boosted but he also gets protection of the spirits which bolters the luck parameter and he's sporting worldwide fame so all his parameters are bolstered again, Heracles only has both this skill at B rank and worldwide fame boosting all his parameters, Berserker of Black has her madness at D rank only boosting her strength and endurance parameters but she's also sporting worldwide fame, and Finally Jekyll and Hyde have their madness ranked A so all parameters are boosted but it's the only boost he gets as he sport no geographical or fame boosts." rattled off Jeanne.

"Okay so a quick recalculation. The no boost ones stay the same but for all their boosts accounted for, that now puts Berserker of Blue of Jekyll and Hyde at a B rank perhaps a 5th or 4th seat at best." Calculated Kisuke. Everyone looked at him incredulously.

"It boosts him that much?! He was only at a 15th seat without them! Now he's a 4th seat?! Exclaimed Ichigo.

"Believe me this is just as shocking to me as it is for you. And keep in mind that's his only boost." Said Kisuke.

"What about Berserker of Red then as he's in a similar position to Hyde?" asked Yoruichi.

"With this boost in mind, his power level overall is now B rank. So he's now at a 7th or 6th seated officer at best. Again a very substantial boost from his non boosted 12th seat power level." Noted Kisuke.

"While impressive, keep in mind that as Berserkers they don't have much in the way of strategy so their power levels might not matter if they are predictable in how they fight." Pointed out Jushiro. This calmed everyone substantially and they focused back on the remaining Berserkers.

"Alright. How about we look at Berserker of Black as she and the remaining ones all are sporting extra boosts besides this skill." Suggested Toshiro.

"Alright so with her fame boosts and madness that puts her overall power level at 4th seated officer so slightly more powerful than the original 6th seated officer she was calculated to be the last time." Calculated Kisuke.

So not a significant jump as the other two. Still in light of this we should do a final review of the factions before the end of the meeting." noted Byakuya.

"So all that's left is Heracles and Lancelot. Which one should we reevaluate first?" asked Renji.

"Let's do Heracles as he's the most straightforward of the two. So while without boosts is the same the two boosts together give us a new rank of EX basically so well up in the Captain Bracket for power level that I would dare say only the most powerful of Captains could fight him on equal terms." Calculated Kisuke. Everyone save for Jeanne was stunned and silent.

"Given that he has been summoned in his weakest class and with the least amount of his soul present and he's still that powerful, do you see why he's one of the most sought-after Servants for a Grail War." Asked Jeanne rhetorically.

"Maybe sicing Kenpachi on this guy might not be a bad thing if Aizen decides to take him as his Servant." Renji commented looking a little pale at the idea.

"Let's move onto Lancelot then. So with all the boosts for him calculated that puts his new power level at EX rank though not EX like Heracles. So still a Captain but slightly less powerful than Heracles." Calculated Kisuke.

"That's not saying much, Hat n Clogs." Commented Ichigo with a deadpanned expression.

"Alright. We clearly need to reassess the Factions save for gold due to the boosted Berserkers at the end but we also still need to finish looking into Eric Bloodaxe and his fellow Red Servants. So let's do that first. Jeanne could you please tell us his Personal Skills?" asked Toshiro. Jeanne nodded.

"He has two. They are Supporting Curse Arts which is C rank and Battle Continuation which is B rank." Jeanne rattled off.

"We've heard of the latter skill before and at this rank. So I think we can just move onto the other one." Said Jushiro.

"Very well. Supporting Curse Arts is a Skill that causes the parameters of opponents to decrease by one rank. Or in your terms lowers the power level by a rank. So if they are at Captain rank than this skill will knock it down to a lieutenant level. And the effects of the curse will last between 5-10 minutes. But then he has to wait that same amount of time to be able to use it again. This is a curse from Gunnhild, his wife, which she gave to help her husband in battle. Apparently he takes a stance and holds his weapon aloft and anyone looking at it will instantly be effected by this curse." Explained Jeanne.

"Considering he's insane it makes sense that his wife would fashion a mystic code for him that required no higher-level thinking on his part when he goes into battle." Commented Yoruichi.

"Actually, the axe is one of two nps. The stance itself is the ritual to activate the curse." Jeanne pointed out.

"Okay. So if that was it for his skills let's move onto his nps." Said Ichigo.

"He has 2. They are Half-dead Blood Axe: Blood-sipping Bestial Axe which is C rank and anti-unit. And the other is Bloodbath Crown: Bloody Coronation which is B rank anti-unit (self)." Jeanne rattled off.

"I'm sensing a theme here." Said Kisuke smirking as he was highly amused by this. Rukia rolled her eyes at his antics but looked at Jeanne.

What can you tell us about these nps?" she asked Jeanne.

"I'll start with his weakest one. Half dead blood axe is his main weapon as a Servant. It is the result of the processing of the remains of a demonic beast Eric allegedly had defeated into an axe. Though which one that is or whether there is any validity to this is unknown to me. Regardless of whether this is in fact true, as a Servant his main armament seems to be at least partially sentient as when it strikes its opponent, blood is absorbed into the axe thus weakening the opponent in the process. The absorbed blood then temporarily powers it up making its strikes even more dangerous. Now whether this is due to the blood 'nourishing' the axe or if this is part of that curse support skill that had been mentioned earlier is difficult for me to say. But if blood isn't periodically fed to the axe regardless of its origin, then the axe will become more brittle until it becomes as fragile as glass. Then a single precise strike would cause it to shatter, leaving Eric weaponless. But not necessarily helpless." Explained Jeanne.

"Could you elaborate on that?" asked Byakuya. Jeanne nodded.

That's where his second np comes into play, the Bloodbath Crown. This np is the materialization of the story of how he completely exterminated all his close relatives and became the King of Norway. Although it is not an Anti-Army np, it is suited for fighting multiple enemies. Basically, he grows a pair of horns on his head as a sign that his madness has reached a breaking point of being completely blinded by rage which his wife Gunnhild had a hand in to help support him. Then he'll charge into his enemies and mince them without caring at all about his own damage. Of course, that means he also suffers quite a bit of damage. However, that damage in return will be proportionally severe. So, the master better have a way to heal him after he uses that np otherwise Eric is unlikely survive even one deployment of his second np." Explained Jeanne.

Alright so overall Berserker of Red is pretty straightforward. He has a curse support skill gifted to him by his wife, a skill that lets him keep going after he's been fatally wounded, lack of sanity and two nps that are all offensive in nature one is at the sealed zanpakuto level, and the other is at Shikai level. Overall, he seems to be just a battering ram to soften up competition until either he or his enemies are eliminated." Summarized Toshiro.

"Sounds like he'd fit right in with Squad 11 if he were to join the ranks though whether or not his lack of sanity wouldn't drive him to murder all of his fellow members or not is not something I really want to picture too much." Commented Renji.

"Let's move onto Caster. Oh. And before I forget here's a picture of the two Servants, Berserker and Caster. Caster is the one fully dressed." Added Yoruichi as she sent everyone a picture of the two.

"Is it safe to assume that the fully dressed one is Caster while the shirtless one is Berserker? And why is the latter carrying someone?" asked Renji looking at the photo.

Once we're done discussing the Servants, we'll tell you how things went on all sides on our end. But your suspicions on who's who, Renji, is correct. Why don't you, Ichigo, field this Servant's summary as you seem to know Caster of Red the best." Teased Yoruichi with a smile. Ichigo nodded.

"Okay. In very simple terms Shakespeare is one of if not the world's most famous poet and playwright in history. And is certainly the most famous one that hails from Elizabethan England. Which was named after the reigning monarch of the time Queen Elizabeth I who ruled from the late 1500s to early 1600s. His fame has been so far reaching, to the point that he is thought to be representative of authors of the western world. I'm going to say right now that despite all this regard and fame half of his life is shrouded in mystery in terms of both his professional and especially his personal life. One of the few facts that his known about Shakespeare's personal life is that his father was an affluent man in Stratford, so he was from the precursor of the middle class and came from the same town, but it is uncertain if Shakespeare received a higher education beyond that of primary schooling. It's also well known that in his early days as a playwright, his productions revolved around comedy, then historical drama, before he changed his style for tragedy. At the same time, he also played as an actor in the underground, and he was the target of slander and derision from influential people though that was more due to jealousy than due to any true criticism according to records. To this day Shakespeare still has a large influence over modern literature, so much so it can be said that those with no knowledge of his works are thought to be ignorant. It is also said that those looking to trace the source of any piece of modern literature will always find a Shakespearean creation. Having written too many plays to list, his four great tragedies are "Othello", "Macbeth", "Hamlet" and "King Lear" though "Romeo and Juliet" is an honorable mention. But that's really all there is about the man behind the works. Even his death is shrouded in mystery. Some say it was due to an illness like cancer, or some think that he died suddenly after a hard night of partying with friends and getting a fever. But he did die in April of 1616 at about the age of 52. And after his death his friends gathered up his plays and published them in a book called First Folio so that no one else could take credit for his work." Summarized Ichigo.

"Well needless to say he'll be sporting world-wide fame for his parameters. Said Yoruichi.

So, is there anything anyone wishes to add about Shakespeare before we see what he can do as a Servant?" asked Yoruichi.

"Surprisingly, Ichigo Kurosaki more or less summarized everything that Renji and I found out about this man save for a few details namely that he was married with 3 children. Beyond that nothing else." Admitted Byakuya. He turned to face Ichigo. "I'm a bit surprised that you know so much about this particular individual, Ichigo Kurosaki. Dare I ask why?" asked Byakuya.

"It's because he's a fan of his work." Rukia answered for him.

"RUKIA!" Ichigo exclaimed clearly embarrassed. Rukia looked at him confused.

"But didn't you mention to me that you were learning English specifically so that you could read his plays in their original language?" asked Rukia innocently. This caused everyone to either snicker or give small smiles at this. Ichigo just looked mortified.

"Alright let's get on with the assessment. So given who the man is, I think we can all agree that he gets fame boosts. So what are his parameters?" asked Kisuke.

"For Shakespeare his strength is E, along with Endurance, Agility is slightly better at D rank, Mana is C, Luck is at B rank, and finally his np is at the highest at B rank." Jeanne rattled off.

"Well, he's gonna need that boost with parameters like that." Commented Renji.

"Let's see without boosts, his overall power level is C- rank. So that puts him at low seated officer level a 19th seat at absolute best. But with his fame boost his rank is B rank. So that puts him at a high seated officer level a 10th seat at absolute best." Calculated Kisuke.

"So not the weakest like Arash and Giles but definitely on the lower end of the spectrum for Servant power levels." Observed Rukia.

"Slight sidenote. When Jeanne told me that the Berserkers were going to be recalculated due to their Class skill, I also quickly double checked my calculations on the power levels of the other Servants trying to keep their boosts in mind and found that 3 needed to be redone." Admitted Kisuke sheepishly.

"Will this affect their overall assessments that we did of them earlier?" asked Byakuya quirking an eyebrow.

"Not really. It'll just affect their power levels and maybe affect the standing of their factions but that's it." Admitted Kisuke.

"Okay so which ones did you have to recalculate? And what's their new power levels?" asked Ichigo curiously.

"Excluding the Berserkers, the 3 that I made a mistake on and had to recalculate were Archer of Red aka Gilgamesh who we originally thought was a 3rd seat but was actually recalculated to be a 6th seat same as Rider of Red Iskandar. The next one was Assassin of Black aka Hassan of the Hundred Faces who we originally thought was a 6th seat but I recalculated them to actually be a 15th seat at best. Finally Archer of Silver aka Arash I made a major miscalculation and had him listed at an unseated officer level and in reality his power level is at an 11th almost a 10th seat level, interestingly enough same as Shakespeare's power level." Admitted Kisuke.

"Well like you said, our overall assessments of their skills and abilities don't change, merely their power levels and perhaps the overall power levels of their factions but that's it." Said Jushiro with a small smile.

"Before we look at that, we still need to finish up assessing Shakespeare's skills and abilities along with information on Semiramis." Reminded Toshiro. He looked at Jeanne. "So is there anything extra we need to know about him as a Servant before we move onto his skills?" he asked.

"Just that although he is a Caster, Shakespeare can use almost no Magecraft. He also has absolutely no fighting power. However, his fame has spread across almost the entire world, and the illusions created by the "theatrical troupe" have become a form of magecraft. And though incapable of dealing direct damage, it is perfect for wreaking chaos and confusion, but he also sometimes sends his own allies into disorder. That being said he's the best when it comes to powering up his Master. According to Shakespeare's own admittance, the more of a character that his Master is, the more his writing excels. In other words, strengthening his Master and having him fight as an Assassin is Shakespeare's style of fighting in a Holy Grail War. Naturally, no matter how much he strengthens his Master, the chances of them beating a Servant is extremely low." Explained Jeanne.

"So wait. Let me see if we understood you correctly. He can't fight physically, the only magecraft he can use is the illusions which can be used to just either cause chaos to both his enemies and allies or use his writings to power up his Master. Is that about right?" asked Toshiro looking flabbergasted. Jeanne nodded.

"Then what are his actual skills?" asked Jushiro with a quirked eyebrow.

"He only has one class skill which is Territory Creation at C Rank. He does not make a Workshop but rather a "Study", where he can spin stories." Said Jeanne.

"He doesn't have Item Construction?" asked Kisuke curious.

"That's correct. He lost this skill in favor of a personal skill. Speaking of which I think it would be best to move onto his personal skills right now." Said Jeanne.

"So what are his Personal skills?" asked Byakuya.

"He has two. Self-Preservation which is B rank and Enchant which is A rank." Jeanne rattled off.

"Which one is the replacement for Item Construction?" asked Renji.

"That would be his Enchant skill. To put it in very simple terms it's a Skill that causes concept endowment towards weapons. It could also be called "Literary Masterpiece Endowment". It drags out a power surpassing the limits of said weapon. But while meant to be used on weapons it's able to add powerful functions to other's important items. Basically, through this ability Shakespeare strengthens his Master's fighting abilities. He himself is the audience, watching the battle, inquiring about the master's every state of mind. It consists of making a passionate poem that begins with the following preface: "I will now explain this person's amazingness in minute detail, so please listen without thinking it tedious, everyone." For Shakespeare with his extraordinary fame, he can produce even Noble Phantasms of C~E rank. For making an E rank Np, it would be at the level of turning a pebble lying anywhere on the road into a Np. For D rank, it would be a mass-producible manufactured item like a modern weapon. To reach C rank, it needs to be weapon with sufficient spiritual status for a literary master like him to express. It can raise the sharpness of a blade by saying "it can cut all things" and increase the sturdiness of the blade by saying "it can receive all attacks", but either way, it requires literary expression great enough to move the readers in order for it to take effect." Explained Jeanne. This got everyone shocked. Kisuke picked up his cane sword and examined it for a few seconds then turned to Jeanne.

"Do you think that it's possible that he could further enhance weapons like our zanpakutos?" asked Kisuke. Jeanne became thoughtful about this before looking at Kisuke again.

"I can't say for certain. We already believe that sealed zanpakutos are equivalent to C rank nps already. He could endow them with traits they would normally not have or enhance what's already present while sealed but I don't know if that would extend to Shikai and Bankai since that's never been tested before." Admitted Jeanne.

"If he could though that would be pretty impressive considering his otherwise lackluster parameters and power level." Added Ichigo. "Is it safe to assume that once Shakespeare dies those enchantments he did also disappear?" he asked Jeanne nodded.

"So, while intriguing, unless he switches sides and joins us all we have to go on are theories and speculations for how this skill would affect us. I think we need to get back to his other skill and we still have to discuss his nps." Said Rukia. Reluctantly everyone did as she suggested.

"So can you give us a better understanding of his last skill?" asked Yoruichi.

"Self-Preservation. Though we already established that Shakespeare possesses no combat capabilities, so long as he preserves his Master's safety to the lowest possible degree, he maintains the skill to escape from nearly all harm—meaning that he never engages any opponents himself. Shakespeare favors a "high risk, high return" tactic, where "returns" is related to the fruits of his observation. As then he can utilize his nps on the target in question more effectively." Explained Jeanne.

"So as long as his enchant skill is used to preserve his Master's life however little, then this skill will give him a guaranteed exit strategy from a battle scenario. Have I understood that correctly?" asked Toshiro. Jeanne nodded. "Well it does make sense for him to have this skill considering his lack of any physical fighting ability. So if that's it for his skills than what are his nps?" asked Toshiro.

"He has three 3 nps. They are The Globe which is C rank, First Folio which is B rank and finally All the world's a stage which is his most powerful np at Ex rank." Jeanne rattled off.

"Now I'm intrigued. Let's start off with the weakest one and work our way up to the strongest." Said Kisuke.

"Actually, I'll start with First Folio as the Globe acts something of a supplement to that particular np." Said Jeanne. When no one objected she proceeded. "Alright. So as I said earlier the first np to discuss is called First Folio: When the Curtain Rises, the Applause Shall Be as Ten Thousand Thunders. It's an Anti-unit and anti-heart np which I will explain shortly. In simple terms this np is the ultimate play that Shakespeare invokes. Depending on the circumstances, when invoked, the effects may vary. The primary effect of First Folio is to "show a story" to someone by "setting a stage", where he will recreate places, events, and people from that person's life. Like almost everything else about Shakespeare this np doesn't deal any physical damage, but it is the worst possible thing to face for certain Heroic Spirits. The main purpose of np is to destroy the minds of his opponents by showing them images of their pasts while Shakespeare narrates their faults to them, leaving them both mentally and emotionally scarred. Basically, there aren't any heroes who don't have some kind of guilty conscience or those that have regrets in their pasts. The way this np technically works is that regardless of friend or foe, he institutes the target as a character in a drama of his making. Then on top of that, he confronts the target with a difficult challenge. To heroes, it would be their past regrets; to anti-heroes, it would be the moment they lost themselves. Shakespeare can expose the traumas that everyone holds inside themselves, and by ridiculing or criticizing them, he can completely break their hearts. In regards to the target's life, it replays the scenes that mentally damages the target the most. In Shakespeare's words, it inflicts despair hence it's classification as an anti-heart np. A theater np meant for Heroic Spirits' spirits if you will. An np that closes the world, brings forth the script and forces the story along. Also, from the curtain rising to the curtain call, the target cannot receive or deal physical damage. The probability of being drowned and trapped within this np is greater the more someone is confident of their physical strength. The only ones who can overcome this np are those who can declare that they have not a single dirty stain on their lives. As I'm sure all of you can understand there are very few who can believe in something and have no regrets at all. If it's someone who can directly confront the trauma they hold, they might be able to somehow manage to overturn Shakespeare's piercing words. Though, when a Servant has had their heart broken by this np, it leaves them in a vulnerable state. In this state, they are completely defenseless, and as long as they don't have an np which automatically responds to malice, they can't deal with any attack. This np originates from the "first" book that was published as a collection of Shakespeare's plays after his death that Ichigo mentioned in his summary of Shakespeare's own history. Therefore, Shakespeare himself did not directly participate in making it." Finished Jeanne.

"That sound extremely devious. Since he can't deal any damage I imagine that this np is meant to have someone else come in and finish off the Spirit in question after Shakespeare has successfully broken them, correct?" asked Toshiro. Jeanne nodded.

So how does his 2nd noble phantasm come into play?" asked Byakuya.

"You're referring to the np called The Globe: The King's Men. The best way to think of this one is that it's a miniature magecraft version of Shakespeare's 1st np, First Folio. Unlike it though, it does not consume a particularly large amount of spirit energy. It is Shakespeare's theatrical company, which was patronized by King James I. It summons and controls at will shadow actors without any combat capabilities. He does this by summoning a simple wooden puppet by speaking a command. Shakespeare is only able to replicate individuals by himself. He decides the phrases these shadow actors will say, but they automatically follow the target they are mimicking for all the details (like the normal intonation and addresses), so they will not be exposed with respect to that point and are incapable of thinking or acting independently. Even if you theoretically understand that they are impostors, a very strong will is needed to break out from this magecraft. Given that Shakespeare himself was also an actor this np permits him to also accurately assume the aspect of another individual, passing scrutiny while disguised even if he interacts with those to whom the personage he portrays is well-known. It is used for the purposes of social engineering. When he is done using the puppet it reverts back to it's wooden faceless form. This np can be used without First Folio but it's at it's best when used to supplement it." Explained Jeanne.

"Before we move onto his last one, I have to ask. Can he use either of these nps on us? Or does he need information on us prior to deployment? Asked Kisuke. Jeanne looked thoughtful for a few minutes.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. For Servants he need only know the True names of them and then do research on them and that's how he can get his critiques on them when he uses his Folio on them. For Masters he gets hardly any chance of such things unless when he activates his np it gives him all the info he needs and then he can apply that to said Masters. But as far as I know he's never used it on a Master previously. So for now I would say that it's unlikely." Admitted Jeanne.

"So then all that's left is the final np for him. What is it?" asked Yoruichi.

"His final np is called 'All the World's a Stage, and All the Men and Women Merely Players. This one is by far his most powerful as it's and anti-world EX ranked np." Jeanne rattled off.

"That seems like a bit of a jump in power and scope. Does this one do actual damage then? Cause you've made it abundantly clear that Shakespeare has a habit of not inflicting damage on people" Renji commented. Jeanne shrugged.

"It really depends on what Shakespeare wants. You see this np is the crystallization of how Shakespeare views the world. He sees the world as a stage and the people around him as characters rather than people. And he views himself as the ultimate playwright. So the technical parts of this np goes as follows: He'll recite the entire quote that makes up the name of this np." Began Jeanne.

"Which is 'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts'" recited Ichigo. This caused Kisuke and others to smirk at him but Ichigo ignored this.

"Then once he's done this then anything he writes afterwards will eventually become reality." Said Jeanne.

"WHAT!?" exclaimed everyone.

"Let me rephrase that. I mean to say that he can influence events in the world with his writings. I need to be clear that he can't just write whatever he wants and it will automatically happen. For example he can't just write 'And then a dragon manifested suddenly.' But if he knows about Medea having the ability to summon a dragon and how her personality works either through observation or through research on her then he can write a scenario where a series of events will occur to make that scene a reality. So if he wrote something like 'becoming desperate she decided to use her dragon np on her opponent who she knew that she couldn't take out on her own.' Then a series of events will happen to push her to become desperate as she's facing off against an opponent that she knows she can't win against on her own. It falls within her actions and personality and it makes logical sense." Jeanne elaborated.

"So in other words he has to write a scenarios that both makes logical sense and doesn't cause the person to act outside of their normal behavior. If he does that then reality will bend itself to make his writings become the new reality. And if he doesn't do it in this exact manner?" asked Toshiro.

"Then the words on the paper remain as such. Nothing more. Though keep in mind that Shakespeare does like to instigate drama as long as the previous two requisites are met and if his level of drama isn't being enacted than he'll do whatever he can make the world around him as dramatic as possible. I also need to emphasize that in order to prevent these writings from coming to fruition his writings have to be destroyed. Not Shakespeare himself. Since even 500 years after his death, his writings are still integral to modern literature, then this np follows the same idea. Even if Shakespeare is killed, as long as his writings remain than they can still affect reality itself." Said Jeanne.

"I will say that if it not for his nps I was going to write him off. Similar to Berserker of Blue prior to the recalculation for him." Admitted Renji.

"As was I. But now with this knowledge I can't help but wonder if due to his ability to warp reality Shakespeare will probably find some way to survive the War itself which could then allow him to even win the Grail War." Admitted Ukitake.

"Lady Jeanne, are you saying that he views the Grail War as a play?" Asked Byakuya as he quirked an eyebrow. Jeanne nodded.

"And as a playwright, I think he'll be too preoccupied trying to learn who all the players are before he even bothers to use this np. And if things are already going in a direction he likes, which is filled with drama, then he won't bother using it at all." Said Jeanne.

"Wait. So he has to know who all the 'characters' are in order for this last np to work?" Asked Renji looking confused. Jeanne nodded.

"Servants are easy to write and get a feel for their personalities as all Shakespeare has to do is look up their legends and extrapolate on them for the war. Mages are a little trickier but do to having a culture with several default goals and objectives there's very little variation on mage's character unless they're true outliers. So he can again extrapolate from there and apply that to the Grail War." Explained Jeanne.

"But since he doesn't know about soul reapers or how we operate as individuals, he has to observe us otherwise-" Rukia started.

"Otherwise you'd be unaffected by this np. And due to just the sheer amount of participants involved with this war, I think we can say that at least for the first half of the war Shakespeare is unlikely to use this np as he will have to learn at least who all the servants are first. Keep in mind that at best he only knows the names of at least two factions' worth of servants, his own and the black faction as the red faction comes from the mage's association and they want to eliminate Yggdmillenia. And it's unlikely that aside from my telling of there being 6 factions he doesn't know who makes up the other 4. Not to mention that there's the chance that his master might outright ban him from using it or use it in a limited capacity with a command seal." Explained Jeanne.

"Alright then in summation we have a Servant who's at a 10th seated officer at his best and who will not be able to do any physical damage but through his skills and nps will either be able to assist his Master and can escape from any situation as long as he helps his Master in some way. And he can either mentally break a Servant as long as someone else will administer the killing blow or he can warp reality to his liking as long as he has had time prior to observe those he deems 'characters' and his writings make logical sense and doesn't feel out of character for those he's writing about. The former two are at a sealed zanpakuto level and shikai at best while the last one is at a high Bankai level, right?" Summarized Toshiro as he looked around.

"More or less." Confirmed Jeanne.

"So while not an issue right now, definitely someone we need to be wary of in later stages of the war and that's if his Master doesn't outright ban him from using that last np." Said Ichigo.

"Well then in that case let's move onto the last Servant. Assassin of Red Semiramis. Does anyone have a picture of her?" asked Kisuke.

"Noba got one of her and her Master while we were talking with them today and I will say that Shirou Kotomine doesn't look like a guy in his 80s or 90s." said Ichigo as he handed the phone to Kisuke who did a double take at the photo.

"Yeah you're right. He doesn't." he said and then fiddled with Ichigo's phone then handed said phone back. He fiddled with his own phone and sent the picture to everyone else. Jeanne looked at the photo along with everyone else and she gasped at it.

"I don't believe it." Said Jeanne.

"I know. And it makes me nervous as to what he did to look as young as he does." Said Rukia looking uncomfortable.

"No kidding. I'd say he looks slightly younger than Ichigo." Said Renji as he looked at the photo.

"No. I mean that this picture isn't one of a Master and Servant but rather two Servants." Said Jeanne looking stunned. Her words caused a similar effect on everyone else.

"WHAT!?" they all exclaimed.

"My True Name discernment skill is kicking in not just due to Semiramis in this photo but also to the seated young man and my skill is telling me that his True Name is Amakusa Shirou Tokisada." Revealed Jeanne.

"Really!?" asked Jushiro looking astonished. Jeanne nodded.

"Didn't you say that Heroic spirits can't form packs with other spirits save for us soul reapers? So how is this the case with these two?" asked Byakuya looking skeptical.

"I have a few theories. But we do still need to look into Semiramis as a Servant as well. So why don't we save Shirou for last like we did with me yesterday and we'll discuss this unexpected development afterwards. Alright?" asked Jeanne. Reluctantly everyone agreed. "Okay so Semiramis parameters are as follows: Strength is E, Endurance and Agility are both D, Mana and luck are both A, and NP is B." she rattled off.

"And since her title is Empress of Assyria and Assyria pretty much stayed relegated to the Middle East, I think we can safely assume that she gets no geographical boosts and outside of historical circles most don't even know about Semiramis so no fame boosts either. So that puts her overall power level at C rank or at a low seated officer level perhaps a 14th seat at best. So not off to the strongest of starts." Calculated Kisuke. Everyone turned and looked at Byakuya.

"I do need to make a few things clear. That the very name Assyria is actually what the Greeks referred to this region and Semiramis is also what the Greek variation of her name is. So many of the sources that Renji and I looked at wasn't actually from that region but rather Greek sources that came long after the empire itself was gone. Their original spoken and written language was Akkadian and the few sources that are from them they have her named as Shammuramat, who was the wife of Shamshi-Adad V who ruled from 824-811 BC. So during what is classically known as the Iron Age. According to the Akkadian sources, prior to becoming his wife not much is known about her though many believe she was of high status before marriage. She became her husband's primary consort and by the time of her son's reign it's possible that she became co-regent. While disputed, it is clear that she was among the most powerful and influential women of the ancient Near East and the Iron Age in general. She is also the only known Assyrian queen to have retained her status as queen after the death of her husband and the only known ancient Assyrian or Mesopotamian woman to have partaken in, and perhaps even led, a military campaign. Supposedly she accompanied her son on a campaign against the Aramean Kummuh in Aramea and both she and Adad-nirari, her son, are credited with expanding the borders of the empire in all directions into Levant, Anatolia and Ancient Iran. In some inscriptions, local governors made dedications not only to the king (as was customary) but exceptionally also to Shammuramat herself. All evidence suggests that Shammuramat was among the most renowned figures of her time. Historians also seem to agree that after a period of political prominence she resigned from being queen allowing her son to fully control the empire and became a temple woman at one of the prominent temples in the empire, most likely the Nabu temple in Kalhu where statues had previously been dedicated to her. It's also widely believed that Shammuramat probably died around 798 BC at the age of 52. Keep in mind that this is what Renji, and I believe to be the historical figure that she is most likely based on." Said Byakuya.

"That sounds oddly heroic for someone who's supposedly in the Assassin class." Noted Rukia looking confused.

"Captain Kuchiki and I found it odd too. But after further research we think that while Shammuramat's, I really hope I said that right, Greek name is Semiramis, we came to the conclusion that the legend of Semiramis, is actually an old Mesopotamian myth that got passed down from different cultures before finally being written down by the Greeks and the character of Semiramis herself is most likely an amalgamation of real and mythological queens from Mesopotamia as a whole." Said Renji.

"So then what is the legend of Semiramis?" asked Yoruichi.

"According to the Greek retelling, which is the oldest retelling of the story we could find, Semiramis was born from the Syrian mermaid goddess Derketo and a human man. But shortly after she was born her mother killed her father and she was left on the waterfront by her loveless mother. But because she was a demigod she didn't die. Instead she was wrapped in the warm wings of a dove, and fed with the dove's milk. Semiramis was then found and educated by the royal shepherd Simmas until she married Onnes, an old general; but she was then taken away by the Syrian king Ninus, the founder king of Ninevah, who fell in love with her thanks to her beautiful face. Many of whom believed her to be the reincarnation of the goddess Ishtar. This forced Onnes to commit suicide, and after Semiramis earned the favors of the king with original battle plans, she married him and formally became queen. A few days after the marriage, she killed the king with poison and reigned as a regent over Assyria for the next few decades. This is the oldest case of murder by poisoning in legends. From there she ruled for about 42 years and led several military campaigns greatly expanding the empire, where only against the Indian monarch did she lose and she also supposedly built many great buildings in Assyria including the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Beyond that the only thing of note is that her death is highly debated. Either she was killed by her son, she became a deity, committed suicide, or was buried alive by her enemies. She was then immediately succeeded by her son. Interestingly enough while her story did have negative slants in ancient times many actually viewed her legend positively. It's only when Christianity became prominent that her portrayals became more and more negative. Though it did make a semi-recovery by the Renaissance. As a result Semiramis is looked at more neutrally for better or worse in the current era." Finished Byakuya.

"Hm. I wasn't sure what to expect with this Semiramis but the real and fictional versions seem to only have tenuous connections at best." Noted Toshiro.

"That was our observation as well. Afterall the Hanging Gardens are said to also have been built by another king as a way to show his wife his love for her." Noted Byakuya.

"Maybe not. Slight sidenote. Recent findings have actually caused researchers, who study Herodotus and his listing or 7 wonders of the Ancient world, to reevaluate the location of those gardens. Many think that based on his descriptions of the place and the differences in the Akkadian and Greek Languages that the gardens location was in Ninevah rather than Babylon. And since Semiramis is said to have married the founder king of that city, it's a possibility that she might have been the creator of the Gardens in the first place. Or at least the gardens should be in the city of Ninevah rather than Babylon." Remarked Kisuke.

"I'll admit that while all of this is fascinating, we still have to discuss Semiramis' capabilities as a Servant. Not to mention that we now have the unexpected addition of her Master who somehow is also a Servant to now discuss." Said Jushiro helpfully.

"Right apologies. As the world's oldest poisoner, Semiramis uses poison as her weapon of choice and her method of Assassination." Started Jeanne. "But before I get into some extra information on her I want to let it be known that she also has the double summon skill at B rank."

"Alright so what's her other class besides Assassin? Rider?" asked Toshiro. Jeanne shook her head.

"No. Caster." Answered Jeanne. Understandably everyone was surprised.

"Not what I was expecting given both her historical and fictional record." Noted Yoruichi.

"Well this is due to her having class skill of item construction and since her specialty is poisons she needs to know how to make them. But this is also due to her being labeled a witch in her legend and allegedly even resurrecting someone from the dead through means of magecraft." Said Jeanne.

"Seems like a weak excuse to give her that classification." Commented Rukia looking skeptical.

"Personal thoughts aside it's what she is. Having lived during the Age of Gods, she is knowledgeable in magecraft. In fact, it should be noted that she could probably put up a good match against Karna, with the strength of her mysteries. Semiramis' main armaments are chains and the like from her wedge-shaped magic circles. Her skills with poisons allowed her to recreate the Greek Hydras venom. She is also capable of producing magical traps in the form of chains." Explained Jeanne.

"That could be the true reason for her to be given the classification of a Caster. I assume that without said chains she can't truly fight?" suggested Kisuke.

"It's a high possibility." Jeanne conceded.

"Possible and ironic given her legend and the historical figure she takes after." Noted Byakuya. "Since she is a demigod is it safe to assume that she also has the divinity skill as well?" he asked.

"Yes. Her Divinity is also C Rank. Semiramis as a result of this heritage also has the ability to form the scales of the Sacred Fish on her hand as a means of defense. She can also summon a shield formed from the scales to defend others. It's possible for them to be able to block physical blows from the likes of Clarent though they would most likely break shortly after."

"Then let's move onto the rest of her Skills. Starting with her Class ones. You mention that she has Item Construction?" asked Jushiro.

"Yes. Again her Item Construction skill is also only at C Rank. But this is because she can't make any other items outside of those that deal with poison. As for her other Class Skills she has two others. Thet are Presence Concealment at C Rank. What makes it unique for Semiramis is that the condition of dropping the Concealment to attack someone does not apply to poison something." Explained Jeanne.

"That explains what I found while snooping around the chapel today." Said Yoruichi. She then relayed that she found the two AWOL Masters that appeared liked they'd been either drugged or in this case poisoned and were alive though they were both definitely unconscious and were being moved from the chapel to some other location though she was almost caught in the process so she didn't see where these Masters were being taken. She then sent them photos of all she had going on in that room in the basement.

"So the man in the photo is in fact one of their missing comrades?" asked Byakuya.

"Most likely as both match the pictures that we have of them." Said Ichigo. "And her last Class Skill?" he asked.

"That would be Territory Creation which is EX Rank. The reason for it is tied to one of her nps which we will get to shortly." Said Jeanne.

"Okay so what about her Personal Skills?" asked Rukia.

"Besides Divinity and the double summon skills she has one other. And that's Familiar (Dove) at D Rank. This skill allows her the use of doves as familiars. They can be directed by thought alone, without the need for a contract due to them keeping her alive when she was a baby.

By taking pieces of paper in their mouths, they can locate their targets, deliver the message, and immediately leave upon completion. They can track down magical energy sources, especially those possessed by Servants, allowing them to keep track of their locations any time upon entering the country. I have no doubt that she has spread them throughout the entirety of Romania to act as a network of scouts to carry messages and collect information." Explained Jeanne.

"Now that you mention it. I did notice an awful lot of doves while we were in Bucharest today but didn't think anything of it." Said Ichigo sheepishly.

"More than likely, she's been keeping an eye on her Master since he left the chapel and was able to let him know when I was nearby to know when to leave." Said Jeanne. "But that's it for her skills. All that's left is her nps. She has two, one that is her main one and one that is special circumstances."

"Let's start with her main one." Said Toshiro.

"Very well. Her main np is called Sikera Ušum: Arrogant King's Alcohol. It's a B rank and anti-army np. Her certain-kill np as an Assassin, it is the manifestation of the poisoning of her husband, the first murder by poison in record. If she were summoned as a normal Assassin without the Skill "Double Summon", then Semiramis would use this Noble Phantasm as her main weapon instead. And she wouldn't be able to use her 2nd np. I'll get to that momentarily once we're done with this np. You recall how I said she creates chains as a means of attacking. Those are the manifestation of this particular np. Now they can just be regular chains but they can also be laced with poison mostly in it's tips like a scorpion's tail. When this np is invoked, the magecraft Semiramis uses is laced with poison along with her regular attacks. Heroes who possess legends where they withstood poison will be more likely to survive against this np whereas on the other hand, if they have an episode where they died to poison, the damage is doubled. Semiramis can select different types of poison to be used, as well as alter existing poison's composition unleashed by the Noble Phantasm, such as having poison be composed of the Hydra's venom." Explained Jeanne.

"She's now the 3rd Servant that has a specialty in poison. Then what is her other np?" asked Jushiro.

"It's the one she gets access to with her double summoned skill. It's called Hanging Gardens of Babylon: Aerial Garden of Vanity. It's an Anti-world Ex rank np. It's also her most powerful np. Due to the gardens origins being either due to her or another royal building them, her claim being far more dubious, she has to get physical materials in order to bring the Gardens into existence. Because this np is thought to embody "vanity" itself, the conditions for its activation are strict. It is necessary to gather a fixed amount of a very specific type of soil and stone and the entire process of assembling the garden takes at least three days." Said Jeanne.

"So that's what those payments were that I found in the priest's personal quarters." Said Yoruichi. She proceeded to tell them and send more pictures of a ledger that showed substantial payments to various countries for soil, rock, minerals, wood, water, and vegetation.

"So her Master was acquiring the materials to bring her Gardens into existence." Said Ichigo amazed.

"And with the 3-day ceasefire they've had the time needed to create them without interference." Noted Rukia looking concerned. "What do these Gardens do as an np?" she asked.

"As the name suggests, it manifests as an "enormous fortress hanging in the air". Though saying it's Anti-world is a bit of a misnomer, it would be more accurate to call it a giant Bounded Field. It is an enormous fortress capable of housing thousands of soldiers, assembled with systematically ordered floating masses, covered in floors of marble, stone balconies, many pillars, and every kind of plant life entangled and intertwined over the construct in a manner described as a "unification of unsightly disorder and luxurious beauty." It contains a throne room used as its main means of control, allowing Semiramis to cause it to activate by touching a large jewel on her throne's armrest. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are designed to look like an upside-down palace, with the interior being reversed so the floor is on the ceiling. It does not boast great speed though, taking an hour to travel probably the distance from Bucharest to Trifas, but it is capable of moving towards an enemy stronghold and "hanging" midair to prepare for attack." Said Jeanne.

"So it travels at roughly the same rate as a car going 60 miles per hour to get from point A to point B. So while fast, it's not much faster than traveling by a car or rather other Servants mounts will most likely get to arrive at a battlefield before her fortress does." Said Kisuke.

"That's true but the only way for enemies to attack is with flying mounts or at least some other type of flying device, and she can easily defend it with her flying Dragon Wing Warriors and powerful magecraft. Preparing spells before battle, she can immediately generate magical circles around her, above the opponent, and below the opponent to be launched at her leisure. Her abilities are normally fairly low, but she boasts that nothing is impossible for her within its confines. Even if it is to travel to another country, it is always treated as her personal field that increases all of her parameters in rank, boosts her fame level to the highest class, and revise attacks in her favor, adding extra firepower to her attacks. It becomes possible for her to utilize magecraft that reaches into the realm of Magic, using 12 floating pillars that boast EX-ranked blasts capable of overwhelming even A-ranked Magic Resistance. Now thanks to my EX ranked Magic Resistance I'm probably one of the few Servants that can in fact take those blasts and completely block them with my flag. Also all other Servants who enter her domain will have their own fame reduced to zero." Explained Jeanne.

"Okay before we continue, let me calculate that. So when she is in her Gardens her overall power level gets increased to a High seated officer level probably a 5th seat at best." Calculated Kisuke. "Is that all her gardens do?" he then asked.

"While she would not normally be able to construct an army sized amount of Dragon Tooth Warriors, creating three thousand for use in one battle is an easy task for her while she's in the gardens. Within the Hanging Gardens, Semiramis' power and Authority is truly absolute. She would not only be able to restrain even Karna with just a single wave of her hand, but she could also have her power be enough to take down Vlad III in his Legend of Dracula form. Though I'm probably one of the only Servants that perfectly counters her due to my high magic resistance. Furthermore, when Semiramis is within the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, she can even summon creatures of the Phantasmal Species if they have an anecdote related to poison, such as the Bašmu. Also in this current situation, since she was summoned with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon as one of her nps in the Assassin-class, then the Sikera Ušum Noble Phantasm can only be invoked at the throne room in the Hanging Gardens. Upon activation, its effects turn the surrounding environment into poison. It can also add poison to even the air and spirit energy itself of the surrounding area, the atmosphere receiving a "poison" environmental property." Explained Jeanne. Everyone looked stunned.

"Wow. I don't know what to say other than ask if this thing has any weakness?" asked Renji still in somewhat of a surprised stupor.

"The greatest weakness of this np is that she only gains all its benefits within it and becomes nearly powerless upon leaving its confines, but it has no great impact on her due to it being a moving fortress that she has no need to leave. It can be compared to barricading herself in a fortress able to deploy weapons of mass destruction, likening a frontal assault on her as her enemies presenting themselves to be killed by her. In a normal Holy Grail War, this np wouldn't be used in the first place. And in either a normal or even special circumstance war like this one, as long as Semiramis doesn't secure an excellently concealed location beforehand, the Hanging Gardens is useless as an np. And most of all, Semiramis won't willingly try to make the Hanging Gardens unless her Master is interesting enough." Finished Jeanne. Toshiro pinched his nose in hopes of staving off a headache.

"Alright so in summation, we have and Assassin with Caster capabilities and who specializes in poison. She also has the ability to create a network of familiar spies though her favorite birds. She's a demigod whose at a low seated officer level. And she has two nps. One is Shikai level and deals with her specialty of poison. While the other is a Bankai level that is an aerial fortress with everything that she needs to fight without having to leave the safety of the fortress. And while she's in that fortress her power level gets boosted to a high seated officer level while taking away geographic and fame boosts of all other Servants that step onto the gardens. Does that sound about right?" he asked. Jeanne nodded.

"Now we need to discuss the elephant in the room. Like how is it that her Master is also a Servant as well?" asked Kisuke.

"The only way that could happen is through the process of Incarnation." Said Jeanne. At the obvious question she elaborated. "Incarnation happens when the summoned copy of the Servant's soul has been able to gain a body of flesh and blood. This means that they do still have access to their powers as a Servant as long as they have a contract. But if they don't then that's fine as they don't require a Master to stay in this world they just won't have access to their Servant powers unless they have an innate np. Like say Siegfried's armor of Fafnir for example as that is his skin so even if he gets incarnated and loses access to his Servant powers his skin will still be impenetrable save for his weak spot." Explained Jeanne.

"But how did he managed to get incarnated?" asked Jushiro.

"Considering his file saying that he was adopted 80 years ago by the Kotomines I think that he most likely was incarnated during the 3rd Holy Grail War. Most likely he was the winner of that war until Darnic stole the grail thus Shirou might have had more to his wish but it was halted at Incarnation of himself due to it's theft or that in itself could have been his wish. Unless we ask him directly these are merely speculations." Said Jeanne.

"Do Servants age when they are incarnated?" asked Byakuya.

"Depends. In the case of this Servant he has an np that allows him to not age, but for most other Servants they do age normally, unless there is some kind of magecraft or condition that slows or halts aging, even if they have a contract. The usual condition is divinity. Those with direct divine blood have their aging either slowed or halted altogether depending on conditions of divinity. For example, Medea is technically the grandchild of the titan and sun god Helios. If he had been an Olympian like Zues or any of the other major deities of that pantheon than Medea would've just aged like a normal person for her time because of how diluted her divine blood would be though her skill in magecraft and her being a follower of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft and magic, would also play a role in her not aging. But because he's even older than the Olympians even though her blood is more diluted it's potent enough that along with her skill in magecraft she would either age very slowly or not at all. A few other examples I can give are Achilles, Cu Chulainn, and Karna. All three are the direct children of deities both minor and major yet due to their close relations none of them will age past their prime no matter how old they get. And we already covered Chiron and his parentage, and he won't age a day no matter how long he lives in this world." Said Jeanne.

"What about those who don't have divinity?" asked Yoruichi.

"Again, unless they have some other condition then they will age just like regular people should they be incarnated. Myself being a prime example of that. The only ones I can think of where this won't be true are those who have some kind of other component in their blood like dragon's or fae blood being the first to come to mind. Merlin and his half incubi nature being the most obvious. Otherwise, the only others I can think of would be both Arthur, Artoria and Mordred due to the former two having a part of a dragon with them and that would slow their aging not halt it, while the latter had both the blood a dragon and fae and thus would halt it once she reached her prime." Explained Jeanne.

"While we're on the subject how does incarnation differ from what I would be able to do according to what the Grail told you?" asked Ichigo genuinely curious.

"Again, I have no idea since Justeze didn't elaborate on that." Said Jeanne sadly.

"I might have a theory concerning that." Said Kisuke. This got everyone's attention. "Well our zanpakutos are used for purification on souls. Well if a zanpakuto stabs a Servants spirit core what if it read their connection to the throne as some kind of foreign entity that needed to be removed and thus tried to purify the soul of it's influence?" he asked.

"But that could cause irreparable damage to the rest of the soul still on the throne along with the mind and body." Exclaimed Jeanne alarmed.

"Exactly. So what do you do to prevent say the soul from being ripped apart or worse cause the person to go insane or even have the soul commit soul suicide? Well to me I would think the simplest solution would be to pull the rest of the soul along with the mind and body from the throne and reunite the entire person in the world of the living. But to ensure that the three components can survive such an ordeal and have time to rebuild and strengthen the connection between the three components of mind, body, and soul, to me, the most obvious solution would be to latch onto a power source to draw the energy from until the person's connection between those three components has strengthened enough to survive on it's own. Which in this case would be Ichigo so they would have to form an emergency contract upon his stabbing of them and then once they've recovered, they could voluntarily end the contract and live out their new lives just without their powers as Servants." Kisuke elaborated.

"But that still doesn't answer the question as to why Ichigo is the only one who could carry out this method." Rukia pointed out.

"That's fair. But I have a theory for this as well, though I have no proof to go on. But my working theory is that due to Ichigo having a naturally born body rather than an artificial one created from scratch like a gigai, he has a true anchor to the current era even if he can enter and exit his body. By contrast gigai's, while they can be made to have long term connections to the soul reaper, they are still artificially created from scratch. And while they can act as an anchor as well, I imagine that unless the contracts are established when the soul reaper is in their soul form, if the contracts are established while in a gigai, then unless a gikon is placed in that gigai, when the reaper exits the gigai the contract might stay with the gigai and with no soul present would have no energy to draw from and thus would read the Master as dead and the contract ended." Explained Kisuke.

"But wasn't it revealed that we could form contracts with Servants including summoning them albeit through a slightly different incantation?" Renji pointed it out.

"True and I am taking that into account with this theory. The way I see it if the Servant is summoned fresh from the throne or the contract changes hands, there's no issue with us not having a true anchor to the current era due to our connections with our zanpakuto for either and being accepted by the planet as a whole. That existing contract and that acceptance already makes us Master candidates hence why we can perform the summoning or take those contracts in the first place as Jeanne told us earlier. By contrast, if my theory is correct, physically pulling them from the throne into the current era will cause strain and trauma on the Servant and their soul that in order to recover they will need someone with a true anchor to the current era. Hence why Ichigo would be the only one to pull this off. He is a currently living person but has powers of a soul reaper and has enough energy that he could easily support a good number of Servants. At least if my theory is correct." Admitted Kisuke.

"I'll admit that the theory does hold water but until we have an opportunity where the other Factions aren't going to come after us if we tried to find out, I would really not recommend attempting this unless we don't have any other choice. The last thing we need is for the other factions to gang up on us and cause war with them and the soul society." Jeanne cautioned.

"I agree. We've seemed to have gotten sidetracked so why don't we see just who and what this Shirou is capable of." Suggested Toshiro. On this no one argued.

"Unfortunately since Renji and I weren't aware of this one being a Servant we have nothing on him." Said Byakuya.

"That's fine I actually can take over this part as I was there for the events surrounding this individual." Said Jushiro with a small smile.

"YOU CAN!?" exclaimed Rukia, Ichigo, Renji, and Toshiro in surprise.

"Yes. You see by this time I had actually been promoted to Lieutenant of squad 13 and this was actually my first assignment at that rank. I was sent to investigate this young man and report back what I saw but as time went on I ended up witnessing the events that led up to, during, and after the Shimabara Rebellion." Said Jushiro.

"Wait. I know this. That's the rebellion that led to the country wide banning of Christianity in Japan, right?" asked Ichigo. Jushiro nodded.

"Yes. And Amakusa Shirou Tokisada was the teenage leader of the Shimabara Rebellion. He was born in the Edo period. He was a boy of miracles who could nearly be called a saint. However, at least a good half of his lifetime is wrapped in mystery. He who concentrated on his studies since childhood began to perform many miracles at the frontier for a time. Having healed wounds and walked on water, he eventually began to be enthusiastically worshiped as the son of God by the peasants that believed in a highly scrutinized and foreign religion. I merely thought that the boy was simply supernaturally gifted as he proved that he could see me and we actually interacted. Though at the time I kept the fact of my being a soul reaper a secret. Funnily enough we actually got along great." Said Ukitake with a slight chuckle.

"Unfortunately, the reality is that Amakusa Shirou Tokisada was merely a Spellcaster. I can say thanks to my skill I know he wasn't taught Magecraft but it was something that came to him naturally but very rarely. His use of Magecraft was mostly subconscious, so he most likely had not even realized it himself. It just so happened that he was born with the power to exercise the miracles called Magecraft, and no one around him ever pointed it out, and so he was revered as a boy of miracles. Perhaps mages who were in the country at that time had suppressed those whispers." Said Jeanne.

"That's a possibility. But getting back to Shirou, over the course of that year, the rulers of the land, the Matsukura clan had drastically raised the taxes causing over taxation to the people. It also didn't help that a famine hit that year causing mass starvation to the area. These events forced the weak to fall in despair as they were unable to even resist. As they continued to be exploited, the people found salvation in Christianity, the words filled with love that couldn't be defeated by starvation, poverty or despair. However the Matsukura clan tried to take even that from them. They began killing any who were open about their faith as practicing Christians. For the people of Shimabara it was no longer exploitation but it was murder. The people were provoked and they rose up and revolted. They feared of having their right to live taken away, then overcame their fear of dying in battle. Amongst them was Shirou. Nobody knew whether his presence there was a coincidence or the will of God, but before anyone realized it, Shirou was leading them, though under the instruction of several Rōnin. I myself healed the sick and injured where I could and even offered council to Shirou from time to time but did still try to maintain my duties as a soul reaper. Before long, former-vassals of Konishi Yukinaga, a daimyo who had been far more tolerant of those of the Christian faith, had him as leader then establish a rebel army against the Edo Shogunate. Together with the peasants of Shimabara, who were suffering with the harsh environment of the times, rose a large-scale insurrection. This is where I had to step back and not to participate directly any further. But I continued to watch the tragedy unfold." Said Jushiro with a troubled expression.

"What happened to the rebellion, Captain?" asked Rukia looking concerned.

"Despite taking the uprising lightly at first, the Edo Shogunate got serious due to its punitive forces being defeated and sent out Elder Matsudaira Nobutsuna as the supreme commander. Shirou led the defense of Hara Castle the daimyo's former stronghold, and defeated the strongest of the Shogunate attackers in a series of coordinated defensive surges. Matsudaira Nobutsuna brought on starvation tactics to the revolting army that had shut themselves in Hara Castle, and estimated the time when they were running out of food and ammunition to start his general offensive. By the time it was over 37,000 people, including Shirou were massacred by the shogunate forces, with the exception of two survivors. And ironically both survived due to my intervention. One was a boy I sent before the actual rebellion got underway with a message to the shogunate in the hopes of taking the daimyo out of power due to evidence of personal hording of funds from skimming money off meant to go to the shogunate and was funding his own personal vanity projects. The other was another young boy named Chiemon it was the only time I personally intervened and saved him from the massacre. I then took him away from the battle and found a couple that was childless and left him there with them. I checked up on him after the rebellion was over and found that he'd been successfully taken in and had been taking to his new life with gusto. It was probably the only true silver lining of that whole mess. Both he and the messenger boy had both been the only survivors of that whole ordeal." Said Jushiro with his face now sullen.

"I have to ask, how did Shirou die?" asked Toshiro delicately.

"After his rebellion ultimately failed, Shirou was sentenced to execution by decapitation. I was there to konso as many of the people as possible but I will admit I wasn't always successful. I was there to witness his final words which turned out to be a prayer. He said 'So, God. Give me another chance. Next time, I won't lose sight of the bigger picture. I will eliminate all obstacles, enemies and hardships in my way. Next time, I will obtain all the good in the world. A world where everyone is happy, everyone is good, and everyone is perfect. I will exterminate all evil and create a new, pure world.' He truly had bore no ill will as he was about to die. After that he was decapitated at least that's what my memories tell me but given what we've learned about the throne, I can say now that is most likely a fabrication as he was most likely taken to the throne after that prayer." Said Jushiro.

"We thank you for sharing with us that part of your life Ukitake. Even though it clearly still hard for you to talk about." Said Kisuke graciously.

"Well now we need to know what he can do as a Servant." Jushiro said his determined gaze shifting to Jeanne. "What are his parameters?" he asked.

"His parameters are as follows: Strength is C, Endurance is C, Agility is B, Mana is A, Luck is B, and NP is C." Jeanne rattled off.

"Okay and since we aren't in Japan, and he was never canonized as a saint he's getting no fame or geographic boosts here in Romania. So that puts his over all power level at B- rank. So a 10th seated officer at best currently. We already have his abilities as a human with his profile from the church but what abilities as a Servant?" asked Kisuke making the calculations.

"Actually, I wanted to ask what class is Amakusa Shirou Tokisada?" asked Byakuya.

"His class is the same as mine, Ruler. Which does answer the question of my current predicament." Said Jeanne.

"It does?" asked everyone. Jeanne nodded giving them an amused smile.

"Yes. You see technically a single Ruler is supposed to be summoned for a Holy Grail War if circumstances dictate it. And a Ruler summoning a Servant isn't unheard of as long as they remain impartial. But the fact that this Ruler is clearly on one side, I imagine that Justeze realized something wasn't right and decided to summon another one. But since one was already present and was incarnated, that meant that the only way for me to exist and carry out my duties properly was to find a work around. In this case using a compatible human host to anchor me to the living world." Explained Jeanne.

"That actually makes sense when you say it like that." Said Ichigo as everything clicked into place for him mentally.

"So is there any other extra abilities we don't already have on him?" asked Rukia.

"Due to his training as an Executor, now that his connection with the Grail has also been reestablished, he can still display superhuman physical capabilities in his current state, easily running at speeds exceeding sixty kilometers per hour or 37. 30 miles per hour and being able to fight on par with an average Servant. Amakusa Shirou was made to become a Ruler by foul play, his summoning, most likely in the Third Holy Grail War, fooling the system into thinking he was qualified because otherwise the chances of summoning him would be very low. As a Servant, he would be third-rate if he weren't Ruler. Shirou was neither outstanding in combat nor proficient in Magecraft to the level of a Caster-class Servant. He is more of a Spellcaster than a Magus. He may barely be able to qualify as a Caster at best which might be the class slot he filled to fool the grail back then. He was ever heedful and never gambled, fulfilling his duties even as he thoroughly cemented his defenses. In addition to his above average swordsmanship skills. But everything else we've already covered in his profile after his incarnation." Finished Jeanne.

"Very well then let's move onto his Skills." Suggested Byakuya.

"Alight. For Class skills he has 3. They are Magic resistance at A rank, True name discernment which is B rank and finally he has God's resolution (fake) which is C rank." Jeanne rattled off.

"While we've technically heard these skills before, I'm curious upon comparing them to yours. Why is his magic resistance weaker than yours despite both of you being Rulers?" asked Toshiro genuinely curious.

"It actually goes back to our relationship with our faith. While both of us are Catholics and military commanders who both came from obscure origins, we both came from very different cultures. My country had Christianity embedded into it's culture, while in his Christianity was only beginning to take root in his country. And while both of us were executed, I was canonized as a saint while Shirou was made an example of and actually helped galvanize Japan in suppressing Christianity for at least the next 2 centuries. So ironically despite being a part of the church, the sacraments of the church are effective against him hence why our magic resistance skills are Ex rank for me and only A rank for him." Explained Jeanne.

"Okay. True name discernment is the same as yours in rank and we already know what this skill does. So what is God's Resolution (fake)?" asked Kisuke.

"This skill is most likely a result of his actions in taking the seals from his teammates for Berserker and Caster in addition to his own Assassin. As a result he has three command seals for each Servant he's acquired the seals for unlike mine where I have two for all the participating Servants and was granted them by the Grail. So functionally the skill is the same but his is fake due to circumstances." Said Jeanne. "Now as to Personal Skills, he has three. They are Prayer for the Long Journey which is A rank, Charisma which is C rank, and finally Baptism Rite which is B Rank." Jeanne rattled off.

"We can skip charisma as both of you have it at the same level and we already understand why you both have this skill. So then that leaves his other two skills. What can you tell us about them?" asked Toshiro.

"Prayer of the Long Journey is essentially the same as my Revelation skill but unlike me where the Revelations came from my visions and hearing God's lament, Shirou's skill is tied in with his general miracles that legends say he performed. As a result while mine happens at random and without my control his can be called on at will somewhat though with varying levels of success. For example, while he could use this skill either to help navigate a battlefield or simply to travel how but how successful he will be able to call upon this skill varies and isn't consistent. Perhaps one day he could use it perfectly to decide where he needs to go to safely navigate a battlefield and not be wounded but the next day he'd only be able to use it successfully to figure out what a specific Servant might do or their True name. But then the next day he might just be able to use it to travel."

"So in other words while yours comes at complete random, his whenever he calls upon it, it will randomly decide what and when he can utilize this skill successfully, Right? Have I understood you correctly?" asked Yoruichi looking thoughtful. Jeanne nodded.

"And his last Skill?" asked Renji.

"Baptism Rite. It's a type of magecraft that changed style into a church form. Which is effective on a spiritual body. Now whether this will work on creatures like Hollows or even Soul Reapers I have no idea though given what you've told me about them, I'm inclined to believe that they will at least affect Hollows in some way. As to how he gets this, by linking his two nps which we will get to shortly, it is even possible to make him go through a sublimation process or allowing him to channel his emotions into this magecraft technique. Like channeling his desire to protect into this rite and then that in turn makes it very potent. His Baptism Rite can become extraordinarily powerful that it wouldn't be possible for a human to pull off. Honestly it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he would be able to exorcise Vlad if he went full vampire" Jeanne commented.

"Is that it for his skills" asked Byakuya. Jeanne nodded. "Then let us move onto his noble phantasms." Said Byakuya.

"Very well he technically has 3 but can only really use two unless there are special circumstances that allow him to use the 3rd. His two main ones are left hand Xanadu Matrix and right hand evil eater. While his last one is called twin arm big crunch which is also one that needs to have certain conditions met to be able to use." Jeanne rattled off.

"Then let's go over the main ones first." Said Kisuke.

"To put it in very simple terms his arms are connected to the Thaumaturgical Foundation or the root which allows him to effectively use any sort of Magecraft acting as an Almighty Skeleton Key." Explained Jeanne.

"A what now?" asked Renji looking confused.

"A skeleton key is a key that is designed to fit many different locks like a Master Key to an entire building. So to follow this analogy Shirou's arm nps act as a way for him to use any Magecraft he wants even if he's not trained for it specifically. Though I'm assuming that since each arm is given a different name they both function on their own slightly differently, right?" asked Kisuke. Jeanne looked unsure.

"Well yes and no. You are correct in your understanding of how his nps work both are D rank and anti-unit. But what I stated earlier is essentially their true function. His arm nps make it possible to use, to a certain degree, even Magecraft that the user shouldn't know of as general knowledge. They are handy and convenient nps, but even if Shirou was summoned as a Caster, he still wouldn't stand a chance against a first-rate magus like Medea. However, this modest blessing of being able to use any Magecraft without needing to master them, hence why both nps are D rank, could allow him to still pull off feats like gaining complete control of the Greater Grail should he manage to get his hands on it. But each arm does do some things on their own. The full name of his left arm np is Left Hand - Xanadu Matrix: Left Arm - Foundation of Heaven's Blessing. The left arm allows for reinforcement and strengthening of his body. It has the effects of "eternal youth", allowing him to withstand over half a century without aging even while incarnated." Explained Jeanne. Everyone sighed in relief at this.

"So that's how he looks the way he does. I was genuinely worried that he did something terrible to look that way." Said Ichigo his tone relieved. Jeanne gave a small smile to this.

"Finally, his left arm has an ability similar to the "Mind's Eye (Fake)" Skill which we covered earlier with Heracles. But that's it for his left arm np. The full name of his right arm np is called Right Hand - Evil Eater: Right Arm - Wickedness Predation. On it's own the right arm gives him supportive abilities such as Precognition and possesses an ability similar to the Mind's Eye (True) Skill which we covered when talking about Chiron. By combining the two, the arms strengthens his Baptism Rite skill." Explained Jeanne.

"So his two main ones can function on their own but together let him use magecraft of any kind and strengthen his Baptism rite skill. Is that about right?" asked Yoruichi.

"Yes But all of this is achieved under normal circumstances. It's when certain conditions are done that his 3rd np can be in play." Said Jeanne.

"And just what is his 3rd np and what are the conditions in order to allow him to use it?" asked Jushiro.

"I'll answer the second question first. The condition to gain access to this np is pretty simple. He needs to have access to a large amount of mana or spirit energy. In order to completely make use of it as an np, he must first somehow establish a Magical Energy supply route usually different from his Master on account that mages don't have the energy reserves to allow this. Naturally the source in question would usually be the Grail itself but given how powerful soul reapers are I would estimate that if he established a contract with someone of a Captain level he could this np. Otherwise, because it requires an excessively vast amount of spirit energy, it is usually impossible to employ this np." Explained Jeanne.

"So what is the np?" asked Toshiro eyeing her with interest.

"His 3rd np is called Twin Arm - Big Crunch: Dual Arm - Zero-Order Convergence. This one is an A rank and anti-army np. By connecting both arms to the the well spring of spirit energy wherever that source is, excessive Magical Energy is inserted in the Magic Circuits of both arms and are made to rampage. The result is a destruction-type np that turns into a miniature black hole and swallows all beings in the surroundings before it collapses on itself and then causes a massive explosion that will hopefully kill all of his enemies in the area." Explained Jeanne.

"I'm sorry let me see if I understand this right. You're saying if he has the energy for it he can actually call up a black hole as a way to swallow up his enemies or kill them in the follow-up explosion? Asked Ichigo shocked. Jeanne merely nodded. This left those who knew what he was talking about speechless while everyone else looked confused.

"Um. What's a black hole?" asked Renji.

"Right, I forgot that none of you know this. Okay in very simple terms. The stars that you see in the night sky have a finite lifespan though that lifespan can be millions of years old. In other words some stars you see in the night sky are older than the soul society is which is about 3, 000 years old. Any way once a star reaches the end of its lifespan it can die in a number of ways, but it depends on how big the star is in terms of mass. Smaller stars can create nebulas or cradles that give birth to new stars while the core shrinks down to a small light that is barely given off any energy making it indistinguishable from the new stars created from it outer layers or If it's a large mass star then it will explode outward violently in a phenomenon called a supernova while the center collapses on itself and becomes a center of gravity so dense that not even light itself can escape it. So the fact that Shirou here could theoretically create a smaller version as part of his np if he has the energy for it is a bit terrifying because the obvious question is how does one counter a Black hole upon it being created? And the short answer is that you can't at least not by any known means. If my understanding is correct, we would simply have to outlast him so once he ran out of energy it would explode." Reasoned Kisuke.

"But if he was working with Aizen and Aizen gave him his energy, that might be a role reversal on our part." Jushiro pointed out.

"That is assuming that Aizen would even allow a transaction to occur in the first place." Byakuya countered.

"Fair point. Okay so now that we have everyone as far as we know, we should probably do a final evaluation on the factions now that we have all their boosts accounted for." Suggested Yoruichi.

"Actually I had one last question concerning the Servants, or those with divinity. We know that at least 1/3 of them have divine blood and that, with exceptions, almost all of them have access to authorities or powers over something that their parents ruled. So my question is which Servant has divine blood, what authorities do these same Servants have, and finally can they use them in a combat scenario?" asked Toshiro.

"Fair questions. To answer the first one there is approximately 14 Servants with divinity. So 14 that get some kind of extra powers from their divine parentage. But as I said yesterday, there are for sure two exceptions. That being Heracles on account of him being summoned as a Berserker. Since he's the only Berserker with the divinity trait. If he were summoned into a class where his mind was still intact, he would have access to lightning on account of Zues being his father. The other exception is Medusa while she is technically a full earth goddess and has divine blood, her curse negates her ability to use her authority over the Earth in any capacity." Explained Jeanne.

"Slight side tangent. Which Faction has the most divine Servants, and which classes have the most divine Servants?" asked Kisuke looking curious.

"I'll answer your 2nd question first. If Medusa wasn't an exception, then Lancer and Rider would be tied for the most with 4 Servants in each class. But since she is, Lancer has the most with 4 Servants with divine blood. Followed up by Rider and Archer with 3 in both classes. As for which Faction has technically the most divine Servants that would be the Red Faction with 4 divine blood Servants followed Silver and Blue who are tied with technically three Servants with divine blood though both each have a Servant that can't use their authorities, and finally White and Black are tied for last as both have only 2 divine blood Servants." Answered Jeanne.

"None for the gold Faction. Interesting." Noted Jushiro.

"True but everyone in that faction can either be boosted by Merlin who himself has demonic blood or they've already received blessings from other sources to boost them, predominantly the fae." Jeanne pointed out.

"Understood. So with the exception of Heracles and Medusa what about Captain Hitsuguya's 1st question?" asked Byakuya.

"I'll start with the Red Faction as it has the most and work down to the factions with the least. So for the Red Faction, Semiramis' mother was, according to her myth at least, Derketo the Assyrian mermaid goddess and in Assyrian mythos and she is considered a fertility goddess. So Semiramis benefits from this by having her beauty be so enhanced by her divine blood that while it's not a skill her beauty is said to charm the hearts of most men that look upon her in fact many of her time thought her to be an incarnation of the goddess Ishtar one of the oldest goddesses of beauty in human history and due to her mother being a mermaid she can conjure up fish scales to act as a shield for defense both for herself and others. So, in terms of combat one can be used strictly for defense and the other can be used to charm opponents long enough for her to inflict poison onto them. So she could use her authorities in a combat scenario but only under specific conditions." She said Toshiro nodded in acknowledgement and motioned for her to continue. "Next is Gilgamesh he is the child of Ninsun the Sumerian goddess of cattle so naturally Gilgamesh has this authority as well though I struggle to think how this could be used in a combat scenario." Jeanne admitted. At this Renji, Ichigo, and Yoruichi guffawed and laughed out loud at this. The others were left speechless.

"So what does he stand in front of a herd of cattle and command them to stampede his enemies? Cause that's the only combat scenarios that I can see working for him with that kind of power." Commented Yoruichi before she fell to the floor laughing. By now Rukia was stifling her giggles and Jeanne was smiling highly amused.

"Well he'd be a very successful rancher." Said Ichigo trying to put a more positive spin on this information.

"Makes me wonder if his overpowered nature as a Servant is a way for him to compensate for how lame his god powers are?" asked Renji with a goofy expression. As a result, no one was certain if he was being honest in asking the question or if was attempting to joke. Jushiro coughed slightly but turned down the handkerchief that was offered and spoke.

"As amusing as this bit of information is, we need to keep going as we still have to get through the others." He pointed out. This seemed to calm everyone down and they slipped back to business mode but the mirth was still clearly present on everyone's faces. Jeanne cleared her throat and continued.

"Since we covered Achilles and he ability to use and manipulate water due to his mother being a minor sea goddess, I won't go over it here again. Similar to with Iskandar, as I already covered why he can use lighting despite being a historical figure. But with that that's it for the Red Faction. Do we want to do an evaluation now or wait until after I'm done with all the Divine blood Servants?" she asked.

"Let's do the latter so we can have full context with all the factions once we do the evaluation for the factions." Suggested Byakuya. Jeanne nodded.

"Very well. Then I will do the Blue Faction next. I've already covered Medusa so we'll skip over her and I also already covered Cu Chulainn when talking about him specifically at our first meeting so I also will pass on him." Said Jeanne.

"He has power over fire right?" asked Toshiro. Jeanne nodded.

"More like he draws power from the sun during the day and should he activate this skill of his volition it lets him bypass other non-divine skills and is naturally gifted in all things due to his father Lugh being both the king of the Irish pantheon the Tuatha Dé Danann and the god of the sun, and talent. So the only other Servant with divinity is David due to his being the ancestor of someone who became divine, in this case Jesus Christ. But he receives this because of a descendant so the most benefit he gets from his divinity is he can use it to bolster anything on him but only one thing at a time for max limit of about 5 minutes. This can be all his parameters getting boosted to one rank to boost his overall power level, one of his skills to make them more potent or even his nps to make them more powerful but once those 5 minutes he has to wait 15 minutes before he gets use of this again." Explained Jeanne.

"Quick calculations show that if he uses it on his parameters on top of his fame boosts due to his status as a biblical figure that puts his power level at an A rank. So almost at a captain level for about 5 min." calculated Kisuke.

"And if he wants he can boost his nps power from B and A rank respectively to A and EX which we established as B rank at Shikai and A and EX at low and high level Bankai level respectively." Toshiro pointed out.

"I'll admit that while at first this temporary boost seems like a disappointment, I'll give credit and say that it can actually be a handy skill." Jushiro commented. "Is this it for Blue?" he asked. Jeanne nodded.

"I'll move onto Silver. Since I already covered Heracles, we'll skip over him. So the next Servant is Ozymandias. Since Egyptian mythology has the pharaohs there both be the children of and the incarnation of the god Ra, this ends up having unexpected effects. Unlike the other sun demigods Ozymandias can actually call forth the sun even in the middle of the night but once the sun is shining then everything that the light touches becomes his territory that he controls." Explained Jeanne. This caused Kisuke to smirk as he pulled out his fan and covered his face.

"So in other words 'everything the light touches is his kingdom'. Literally." said Kisuke with a goofy grin. Ichigo looked at him with a deadpanned expression.

"You did not just say that." He said.

"It fits this situation, Ichigo." Said Yoruichi snickering. Jeanne and Rukia shared a confused shrug.

"I don't quite understand what's happening but yes that is more or less what Ozymandias is doing. And while on a sunlight battlefield all his attacks and even his nps are boosted though they can function fine even at night with no sun." said Jeanne looking to the other reapers who all looked as confused as her and Rukia. By now the pair had calmed down and Ichigo refocused back on everyone else.

"So who's the last one for Silver?" he asked.

"Diarmuid Ua Duibhne child of Donn a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann with authority over the dead. Thus Diarmuid has that same authority though I admit that I'm not sure how he can use it since there are no legends of him ever using his father's authority over the dead during his tale." Said Jeanne looking at a loss.

"Well we can at least say that he's obviously spiritually aware and could probably see us and hollows even if his Master couldn't upon summoning. But that is just speculation." Suggested Kisuke.

"Alright so all that's left is White and Black with two divine Servants each. Which one do you want to start with?" asked Renji.

"Let's do White as we've already covered Karna so we can skip over him with his authority over the sun. This is the one that can harness the flames of the sun for attacking. So the only one left for this Faction is Perseus and his father is Zues with his authority over lightning." Explained Jeanne.

"So how does Perseus utilize the lightning compared to Iskandar?" asked Jushiro.

"While Iskandar uses the lightning while on either of his mounts to travel on the air, Perseus can use lighting to travel on lightning itself to get to his destination." Explained Jeanne.

"So wait he can ride on lightning itself to get to his destination?" asked Ichigo in surprise. Jeanne nodded.

"The reason for this is that Pegasus consumes far too much energy to use as a practical mount and his cloak only obscures his location and identity, so to get to his destination he uses his father's authority to travel quickly from point A to point B. And given how fast lightning travels you could be forgiven for thinking he was teleporting." Explained Jeanne.

"Then all that remains are those of the Black Faction." Byakuya pointed out.

"Yes. I'll start with Medea as I did say she was the grandchild of the titan of the sun Helios. So naturally she also has some authority over it." Said Jeanne.

"But she's a grandchild not a daughter so doesn't that mean that her blood is more diluted?" asked Kisuke.

"Yes. It's the reason she doesn't have Divinity as a skill as a Servant. But she does still have divine blood. Though the effects of it are understandably weaker but she gets High Divine words and thanks to her blood probably has the best affinity for them and any offensive spells with fire are far more potent than it would be for someone like Caster of Blue but that is really all the influence her grandfather has with her as a Servant. So now the last one is Chiron. We've already talked about his parentage with his father being king of the titans and titan over the harvests and time and his mother was an oceanid but the authorities Chiron has access to are over water, harvests and even time." Said Jeanne.

"I'm sorry you said over time?" asked Toshiro with a look of disbelief. "How is that possible?!" he exclaimed.

"He doesn't use his time authority too often as it would drain his Master of their energy far too fast so he uses it only when he feels it would be necessary. But he can use it similar to Kirisugu's Time Alter magecraft but he also can halt the flow of time itself for a brief period but again if he uses it too much it will hurt his Master so he uses it very rarely relying on his own skills and talents as a combatant. He also uses the water same as his student if he's near a body of water and as for harvest I really can't see him utilizing that authority in battle. Off the battlefield I can see and application for it but on it not really. And that's it for divine Servants." Finished Jeanne.

"Then let's do some final assessments and then move onto housekeeping before we finish." Said Yoruichi.

"The gold faction doesn't really change as there were no additions either from having a Berserker or Servants with divine Blood." Said Jushiro.

"Do the divine Servants and the authorities they have really change the overall states of the factions?" asked Rukia.

"Not at first glance but knowing that they have these authorities and knowing that only a fraction of their souls are present and they are still at the power levels that we determined earlier it does put into context just how dangerous to us these Servants are either as individuals or as teams. And why it's crucial to see how we wish to go about dealing with this situation especially if Aizen does more that observe during this war." Yoruichi pointed out.

"Getting back to the final assessments everything we said on the gold Faction yesterday still stands so we can move onto the rest. I would also say that our initial assessments of all the Masters is still valid save for Shirou Kotomine and his hidden Servants status. Along with the threat level that the factions pose to Jeanne. So really the only things that change are the Servants of the remaining factions as well as where they, save for gold, stand for who is likely to win without taking into account any other unexpected surprises." Said Toshiro.

"I also think the assessment for the Black Faction is also the same since we have already determined the madness enhancement boost for Berserker only slightly improved her status from 6th to a 4th seated officer in power but everything about her is designed to make her a sacrificial pawn. Then aside from now knowing about Chiron and Medea's divine blood granting them both authorities over various concepts the only thing that truly changes is that those two might now actually be bigger threats than Lancer of Black and this boosts their chances of both along with Lancer surviving past the halfway point of the war." Noted Byakuya.

"White Faction's original assessment also still stands as Berserker was the only one affected by this information as we already were aware of Karna and his ability to hit well above his weight class and his affiliation with fire and now we know Perseus uses lightning to get from point A to point B in lieu of him not using his mount. And we already know how strong Berserker was before this information." Noted Kisuke.

"Alright then all that's left would be the Red, Blue, and Silver factions." Said Renji.

"Then let's look at Silver. Arash's status remains the same in that he's the weakest Servant of his Faction though now the gap is not nearly as egregious as initially thought. Going from unseated to an 11th seat in terms of power level. Hercules status even with boosts remains unchanged and he gets no authorities to work with. Lancer and Rider are the only ones with authorities but all they really do is potentially supplement their already existing abilities. So it looks like our original final assessment remains unchanged even with this new information." Said Kisuke.

"So why don't we look at the Blue Faction next?" asked Rukia.

"Well Medusa doesn't really have any authorities and the remaining ones that also have divine blood either we already know of or it can temporarily boosts his power level but for them nothing changes. The only true surprise is Berserker. The difference in his boost going from a 15th seat to a 4th seat is surprising." Admitted Yoruichi.

"It might be better to think of Jekyll being at a 15th seated officer level while Hyde is at a 4th seated officer level." Jeanne pointed out. Yoruichi nodded.

"Understood. But even with all this extra information it seems like our original final assessment still stands for this Faction as well." Yoruichi concluded.

"So then the only Faction left is Red and we didn't actually do a final assessment on them yet." Ichigo pointed out.

"Very true. But we know of a schism forming in this Faction and we assessed the side that we think is able to work together. And while we know that 3 of them have divine blood it doesn't really change anything for that side of the Red Faction. So now we can assess the other half. We know that the two other Masters besides the priest have been incapacitated and I believe should be thought of as nonentities at this point. The rest are all servants and as far as threat to Jeanne I think this one is going to be the biggest threat to her since the only Master left is also a Ruler Servant. And thanks to your communing with the Grail Jeanne, we know that if we focus on him it will hopefully lead to drawing out Aizen. That aside this part of the Faction has only one with divine blood and while it helps her defensively it doesn't change her status overall. The 4 Servants of this part of the Red Faction are surprisingly on the weaker end in terms of power level. They have 3 high seated officers and one low seated officer that being Caster, Berserker and Ruler for the former and Assassin for the latter." Said Kisuke.

"Shockingly a bit underwhelming for this part of the Faction." Ichigo commented.

"True. And of the 4 here I don't see Berserker making it past the halfway point simply because at his strongest he only has a np at a Shikai level. As for the others, they all have at least one np that is at a Bankai level. Of those 3 I think it's most likely that assassin has already been preparing her Gardens and with them unless her Master is killed she will be nearly untouchable by any Servant unless she makes a severe miscalculation and underestimates her opponent letting them get a solid hit on her as she probably suffers from the same weakness as Casters in that she's not physically very strong." said Kisuke. Jeanne nodded.

"And as for Caster and Ruler or Shirou, I can already see him trying to get the Grail and make a contract with Justeze in order to give himself access to his black hole np. That could be at least partially what he's after but until we can question him directly we have no idea about what he's truly after. But it might be a safe assumption that both he and Caster will remain in the background until the final stages of the war where then I'm sure that they will enact some kind of failsafe though that's assuming that Aizen actually allows things to get that far. But that's the only way I can see the last two even making it past the halfway point as otherwise they'd both be dead before then and Assassin, unless she chose to form a new contract with someone else, then she would die as well along with her Master. So unless they play the role of deception this part of the Red Faction I don't see them making it past the halfway point of the war." Finished Kisuke. Rukia gave a sigh of relief.

"Well at least we're done with the assessments for everyone." She said relief evident in her tone. She looked around and saw everyone was feeling the same way.

"So as far as who has the best odds of making it to the halfway point in the war, we agree that Blue, Silver , Gold and half of the Red faction are likely to make it to the halfway point in the war with most of their Faction in tact while the other half of Red, Black and White are likely to lose half or more by the time they make it halfway. Any objections to this?" asked Renji. There were none.

"So then all that left is counter classing and house keeping before we call it." Ichigo commented.

"Quick question. Should we count Amakusa Shirou for the counter classing since he's a Ruler like Jeanne?" asked Yoruichi.

"I would recommend against that. We Rulers take half damage from the regular classes and deal normal damage to them, with the usual exception of Berserkers. We are strong against Moon Cancers and weak against Avengers." Said Jeanne. At the confused looks of others Jeanne gave a quick rundown of the extra classes of Ruler, Avenger, Mooncancer, Alter Ego, Pretender, Foreigner, and Shielder. And who countered who. With that cleared up everyone agreed that neither Ruler will be counted as part of the counter classing save that Amakusa would be referred to as Ruler and assumed that he would be hiding his identity til the late stages of the war.

"So then what we felt would happen last night still stands with the exception of adding Berserker and Assassin of Red as we agree that Caster of Red and Ruler will most likely wait until the end stages before making their move if they want the best chance of victory due to the former unable to deal any true damage unless using his OP np and that one needs information before hand to work and the latter to hide his status as a Servant. With the adjustments made for the boosts, we can say that the three Berserkers that are ranked as high seated officers might make it at least to the halfway point but past that is unlikely. But the two with Captain rank power levels are still the most likely of this group to make it to the end. As for the Rider, Caster, and Assassin triads, those still remain the same with the addition of Assassin of Red being counted to make it to the end as we can safely assume that her Gardens are already constructed and she's had the entire ceasefire to do so and unless those are destroyed she has a fortified position where she can do as she pleases and not have to worry about enemy retaliation. And as long as Caster of Red stays in the gardens as well he and Ruler will be difficult to even get near to. Beyond that everything else we speculated yesterday still stands. For both the Cavalry and Knight class triads." Said Toshiro.

"So in other words, Berserker of Silver, Black, Blue, Red, and White, Rider and Caster of Blue, Caster and Assassin of Black, Rider, Caster, and Assassin of Silver, Merlin of Gold, Shielder, Rider, Assassin, and Caster of Red, Ruler, Rider and Assassin of White, All 3 of the Sabers of Gold, Saber, Archer and Lancer of Blue, Archer, Saber, and Lancer of Black, Saber and Lancer of Silver, Archer and Lancer of White, and finally Saber, Archer, and Lancer of Red we agree would all make it past the halfway point of the War, correct?" asked Byakuya. On this no one argued.

"Interesting even just factoring in those at a 10th seated officer or higher that still puts a grand total of 37 Servants making it past what we presumed was the halfway point of the war. Though with this many I suppose that's no longer the case." Observed Jushiro.

"Then upon further analysis we can already say that those making it further would be Assassin, Ruler, and Caster of Red will last the longest due to deception, Gold would all be eliminated due to loyalty to Arthur though which one I'm not sure. Berserkers of White and Silver would also make it. Of the knight triads, Saber, Archer, and Lancer of Blue, Archer and Lancer of Black, Saber of Silver, Lancer of White due to his nps, Archer, Saber, and Lancer of Red, the former of the last three for the same reasons. And then for the Calvary triads they would be, Rider and Caster of Blue, Rider and Caster of Silver, and finally Rider of white." Kisuke rattled off.

"That puts the numbers at a more modest, 20 so that would make it roughly half the Servants not counting Jeanne." Observed Ichigo.

"So then of those 20 the ones most likely to make it to the end would be Saber and Lancer of Blue, Saber of Silver, Archer and Lancer of red, Lancer of white, Caster of Blue, Rider of Silver, and Rider of white, along with Assassin and Caster, and Ruler will make it to the end whatever it might be." Said Rukia.

"While there are quite a few scenarios that can be thought of, I'm leaning heavily on Archer of Red being the one most likely to win simply because there really isn't a way to counter him unless he truly decides to not take the war seriously otherwise he has a counter for every Servant present including Ruler." Said Kisuke.

(Heavy dialogue ends)

=Soul Society – Seireitei – squad 10 barracks – Captain's office – 11:20 pm Tokyo time (4:20 pm Romanian time)

"Okay. Aside from some housekeeping things is there anything left to discuss? And for that matter what time is it?" asked Renji as he got up and stretched.

"Almost 11:30 pm for us." Answered Toshiro.

"And it's about 4:20 pm over here for us. What time does sunset occur? Since the War is going to officially start tonight, we might need to stop soon so that we can get ourselves prepared for it." Said Ichigo on his side of the screen.

"Well we're in the month of February and we haven't yet hit the spring equinox yet but we're past the winter solstice so if my calculations are right sunset will be falling between 5:30-6pm here. So we have roughly an hour to an hour and a half left before the war starts." Said Kisuke.

"In that case there really isn't anything relevant that needs to be discussed here." Said Jushiro.

"So what will you be doing on your end Captain?" asked Rukia curiously.

"I highly doubt any of us will be sleeping tonight knowing that you all will be involved in a war in another country so we may as well get our presentation together and then we'll head over to the Head Captain's office first thing in the morning on our end. And from there we'll see what happens." Said Jushiro.

"And what about all of you besides the obvious?" asked Byakuya.

"Well since we're this close to start of the war officially I might stick around if only to see how things play out. As for the rest of us I would recommend that you all get a light snack but get something ready that we can heat up later as we might be too exhausted to make a proper meal when we get back. And then get a quick nap but set your alarms for 5:30 so that way we can get up and go as soon as possible as I'm not sure how late the fighting will go. I recommend Ririn use Rukia's gigai and Noba use Ichigo's body as his portals and her illusions will be useful tonight. We'll figure out the rest later." Said Kisuke.

"I do have one question before we stop. What are we going to do about Amakusa Shirou Tokisada? Now that I know he's a Ruler Servant should I try to expose him to the other factions?" asked Jeanne.

"I'd advise against that. Mages don't trust technology as a rule so revealing that his identity was revealed through the use of technology is going to be met with skepticism or outright rejection at worst. And we still don't know what Amakusa Shirou is after and since he probably won't make any moves until later on in the war, we have a grace period to simply have you do your role as arbiter. So let's use that. With any luck the fact that you aren't trying to pursue him to meet him anymore will either lead to two possible scenarios: him lowering his guard and make him get cocky which will leave him open to making mistakes, possibly exposing himself to others in the process. Or the opposite will happen, he'll get paranoid and try to get you eliminated which will no doubt cause many Masters to become suspicious of him thus potentially exposing himself." Explained Yoruichi.

"So, you think I should just do nothing and carry on with my role as the Arbiter?" asked Jeanne looking uncertain. Everyone nodded

"I know that seems counter intuitive but sometimes the best strategy is to simply do nothing." Said Rukia with a reassuring smile.

"Then if there's nothing else we'll call it a night here then. Good luck then to all of you." Said Toshiro reluctantly.

"Thank you and thank you again for all of this. I don't think I would've figured things out before the fighting started without your help." Said Jeanne in gratitude.

"You're most welcome, Lady Jeanne. Try to be safe everyone." Said Jushiro with a smile.

"My warning last time still stands, Ichigo Kurosaki." Said Byakuya narrowing his eyes slightly as he looked at Ichigo sternly.

"Understood, Byakuya." Ichigo replied seriously.

"Don't forget to kick some ass while you're there, though." Said Renji trying to be lighthearted on this parting.

"We'll be sure to tell you all about it when we finish. Goodbye Renji, brother." Said Rukia with a determined look.

"Alright you 3 go and get something to eat as Yoruichi and I have one last thing to ask these guys before signing off." Said Kisuke. Looking a bit confused, the trio still left like he asked leaving the adult pair with their colleagues in the Soul Society. Then Kisuke looked towards the screen.

"So what is it you wanted to ask us?" asked Jushiro.

"Well I actually wanted to discuss something with you before you make your presentation to the Head Captain." Said Kisuke.

"And that is?" asked Byakuya.

"I would like it if you could make a case to allow for the Visoreds to come to Romania in place of personnel from the Soul Society." Said Kisuke bluntly. That caught everyone off guard.

"What?" asked Renji surprised.

"I said-" started Kisuke only to be interrupted by Byakuya.

"We heard your request. The question is why would you want us to do that? The Visoreds are convicted criminals." Stated Byakuya.

"You weren't there for most of the events surrounding the Visoreds, Byakuya but I worked with Shinji, Love, Rose, and Kensei and Lisa was Shunsui's lieutenant and Mashiro was Kensei's lieutenant, and I can say with certainty that none of them would willingly gain Hollow Powers which they were convicted of a little over 100 years ago." Jushiro stated.

"Not to mention that Hachi was Tessai's lieutenant and Hiyori was mine and both of their characters I can vouch for and we now know that Aizen framed me for that crime of granting Hollow powers to others in the first place when he left the Soul Society after Rukia's botched execution." Added Kisuke.

"And I can personally vouch for them saying that I witnessed and worked with the Visoreds in the Fake Karakura Town battle. They all assisted us in the battle with both Aizen and his Hollow followers." Said Toshiro.

"Look. We all know that there are still 3 empty Captain positions opened for squad's 3, 5, and 9 thanks to Aizen and his cronies defection. We either don't have the personnel to replace them or those that could take up those positions have refused the promotion for their own reasons. Well 3 out of those 8 Visoreds are in fact the former Captains of the 3 vacant positions." Yoruichi pointed out. Byakuya sighed.

"I see where this is going. You hope that by giving them more opportunities to prove themselves then the Central 46 will be inclined to not only overturn their previous ruling of them but also potentially reinstate them to their previous positions. Correct?" asked Byakuya quirking an eyebrow. Kisuke and Yoruichi nodded.

"Their assistance in the Battle of Fake Karakura Town has already made it so that the search and kill on sight order was canceled now we just need to finish clearing them of all charges." Said Yoruichi confidently.

"But aside from the 3 Captain positions all the others have since been filled in by others so what's going to happen to those who can't be reinstated?" asked Renji curious.

"Well they've not really interfered with things outside their former duties of slaying Hollows and Konsoing souls before when they were in exile so now that won't change save that they won't have to be looking over their shoulders all the time. Plus there's the added bonus of saving the Soul Society from wasting resources and personnel in helping us resolve this matter here in Romania." Said Kisuke.

"In other words if all else fails, we can argue that if something goes catastrophically wrong we won't potentially lose any other high ranking personnel save for Rukia and a member of squad 4 the former being a single lieutenant and the other we're not sure on though we can say they will be a 10th seat or higher and either of those are easier to replace than Captains." Said Toshiro though he and the others were frowning at his statement.

"I know that that last comment sounds harsh but it might be the argument that the Head Captain will be inclined to listen to. At the very least we can keep that argument in our back pocket if all other lines of argument fail. So do you think you can do that for me?" asked Kisuke. The other Captains and the lieutenant all eyed eachother before looking back at the pair and nodded. "You all have my sincerest thanks."

"Alright then is there anything else that needs to be discussed?" asked Yoruichi.

"Nothing that can't be talked about at a later time." Said Toshiro.

=Romania – 30 mi outside of Trifas – ruler's base – living room – same time

"Well then if there's nothing else then we bid you all adieu, gentlemen and pray that we all see you on the other side." Said Kisuke. And with that he turned off the screen. Yoruichi looked at him.

"Kisuke do you really think any of them will want to return to the Soul Society even if they're offered their old positions back?" she asked.

"Tell me honestly, Yoruichi, if it weren't for the fact that it was me who was exiled and that we got married due to no longer being constrained by things like social standing rules, if you were offered a position of some kind to go back to the Soul Society would you have taken it?" asked Kisuke. Yoruichi thought about it for a moment. Then answered.

"It would depend on the position. But otherwise yes I would. Don't get me wrong I like being able to have time to spend with you but when you're busy and I have nothing to do, I find myself bored out of my mind and trying to find ways to enjoy myself. I feel like I'm listless otherwise." Admitted Yoruichi.

"I imagine that the same is true for them as well. Except that up til now they've had the extra problem of constantly being on guard for anyone that might want to kill them be it on Aizen's or Soul Society's orders. So being offered a chance to finally have a purpose in their existence again might be just what they're looking for and even if they decline they can finally enjoy their exile and not have to worry about anyone trying to kill them anymore. Either way they can finally have peace of mind and a purpose again. I owe them all that much either way." Said Kisuke as he looked down at the floor. Yoruichi leaned over and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek.

"No one has worked as hard as you have to try and fix things for them, Kisuke." She said tenderly. Kisuke gave a small smile. With that the pair got up. "Well why don't we go get something to eat? We've got quite a night ahead of us." She said.

"Sounds good." Said Kisuke as he got up and followed her out of the room.

=Romania – outskirts of Bucharest – throne room – 5pm (Romanian time)

Waver and the rest of the Red Faction walked into what appeared to be a throne room the girls were looking around in awe as they walked inside while the two older male mages were looking around with suspicion. The Servants were glancing around as well but while Rider and Lancer were looking around impressed, and Saber had her face obscured by her helmet, Archer looked almost bored. They then looked up a flight of stairs where an overly elaborate throne was situated several stories high. Sitting on said throne was none other than Assassin of Red and standing next to her was her Master, Shirou Kotomine. "Lord El-Melloi II. Thank you for coming along with the rest of the Red Faction." Said the latter.

"You told me that you were helping Assassin complete her noble phantasm. So the fact that we're here is it safe to assume that it's finished?" asked Waver.

"Indeed." Answered Shiro K.

"Ruler told us that she sent her Servants over to make sure that you were brought up to speed regarding the anomalies for the war. Is that right?" asked Kairi.

"Yes. They were able to bring me up to speed on what has been discovered over the course of the war so far and what information they've shared with the other factions for the sake of impartiality." Answered Shirou K. "Now then the last two Servants shall arrive soon and once they do-" Shirou K. started only to be cut off by a loud and boisterous voice.

"Oh for I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Thou who art as Black as hell and as dark as night." Said the figure who strode in as if he was a performer with his arms outstretched and a cape fluttering as he walked. "Tis fitting, no?" he asked as he took a deep and graceful bow. Assassin of red sighed in annoyance.

"Should I just assume that you are referring to me, Caster?" she asked somewhat rhetorically. The now identified Caster stood up straight from his bow as he looked to her and Shirou K.

"Who else would I be describing O Empress of Assyria?" asked Caster.

"So you're William Shakespeare, then?" asked Waver. Caster then looked to him in astonishment only to gain a look of joy.

"Oh so you do recognize me, dear mage. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be recognized as such." Said Caster of Red.

"Considering I was born and raised in England it would be hard for anyone of our country to not know who you are." Answered Waver sardonically.

"Ah so this is Histories most well-known scribes, eh? Well perhaps you would be interested in joining my army?" asked Iskandar with a confident smile.

"I'm afraid, noble King of Conquerors, that I must decline not because I don't want to but because my talents would be completely useless to you." Caster answered immediately. "You see my talents as either a warrior or a mage are nonexistent to completely inept at best. I am a weaver of tales only, I'm afraid." Said Caster.

"Nonsense. It is the scribes that ensure our legends are past down for others to know of. I would happily welcome you int my ranks even if only as the army's official scribe." Replied Iskandar. This caught Caster off guard and he then appeared to be in deep thought then he looked at Iskandar.

"Forsooth, I care not who shall be the victor of this Great Holy Grail War but as long as I'm allowed to witness its conclusion and write about it then if you, King of Conquerors, were to win then I will happily join your ranks." Said Caster with a grin.

"Most excellent. I look forward to having you in my army." Said Iskandar as he laughed boisterously.

"Well those two seemed to be getting along like a house on fire." Said Kairi looking exasperated.

"While your antics are highly amusing, mongrel, what is the point of your drivel?" asked Archer with a slight smirk on his face.

"I say only truth Archer of Red, as I'm sure you're all aware that the reason for why all of us have been gathered hither, is because the curtain is about to rise on this performance. Isn't that right, O Empress?" asked Caster with a sly grin looking at Assassin once more. With that all the Servants looked excited sans Saber whose face remained hidden. "Legendary heroes shall soon begin slaughtering each other in a race for supremacy. As such, I Caster of Red, shall do my best to observe from the sidelines." Said Caster dramatically.

"What!? You're not going to be fighting at all?" asked Reines looking shocked at this declaration.

"Correct!" exclaimed Caster without missing a beat as he looked towards Reines. "I wasn't jesting when I said that my skills as a mage were inept at best, Lady mage. Nor my skills as a warrior being nonexistent. Yes but you gods will give us some faults, and these faults are sure to make all of us human. As one of the most well renown weavers of stories my abilities as a Caster are that I can only write about others and I have absolutely no desire to write about anything else. For example I can't write about myself as I find it far too troublesome." Said Caster.

"So you're desire is to witness the end of this war and document it?" asked Gray looking very curious.

"Indeed. Lady mage. It is not just my desire, it is something that I must accomplish. Even more so now that these anomalies have been occurring as of late. Cursed souls that consume the living and the dead, outsiders with powers that rival even Servants, and Ruler's two unknown bodyguards both of which have yet to truly show us their full potential. Be it fortunate or not, perhaps even some despairing revelation, I know in my heart that witnessing this tale and all its twists and turns unfold until the very end, is the duty I was assigned to in this war." Exclaimed Caster near the end as he spread his arms out in a dramatic pose. For a few brief seconds no one said anything. Until Saber spoke up.

"Is this idiot always this much of a ham?" asked Saber looking towards Assassin.

"Try having to be in the same building as him for 3 days and he acts like this." Said Assassin tiredly. Then Archer began to laugh.

"Well Caster it seems you've made me highly amused. So much so that I've decided to not interfere with your desire. You wish to see this War to it's conclusion then I will allow it. Do not squander such an opportunity." Ordered Archer of Red.

"Please perish the thought, O golden Archer. I intend to take every opportunity that comes my way to fulfill this duty of mine." Said Caster more casually.

"Caster's antics aside, now that all of us are here and the preparations are complete, we must move forth." Said Assassin as she tried to appear regal on her throne.

"Are you sure about that, Empress? Cause I only count six Servants here and the only one absent is Berserker." Lancer pointed out. Assassin looked down at all the assembled Servants along with Shirou K. and both realized that Lancer was right.

"Caster, you were with Berserker last, where is he and why did he not accompany you here?" asked Assassin looking annoyed.

"The answer is quite simple, lady Empress. He asked me why we were meeting up with the rest of the Red Faction and I told him that we were getting ready to head out to meet the black Faction head on at their fortress of Millenia Castle. He then conversed with his ax for a few moments and then took off. Most likely he's heading there ahead of us as we speak to face off against the Black Faction." Answered Caster.

"WHAT!?" exclaimed Assassin as she rose from her throne. "You didn't try to stop him?" she asked.

"Respectfully, Empress but just how exactly was I supposed to do that?" asked Caster seeming like he had no regrets as to what happened. Assassin looked like she had just swallowed a lemon.

"It's trivial. Whether he accompanied us or went on ahead of us the outcome is the same. Perhaps he will soften up the enemy by the time we get there. Afterall did you not just say that me must move forth?" asked Archer looking highly amused. Assassin looked just as annoyed. A hand on her shoulder from Shirou K. caused her to calm down as she sat back on her throne.

"Very well. It's high time we got underway ourselves. Since this is the great Holy Grail war, we should try to show off a bit." Admitted Assassin.

"Wait, Lady empress. I'm a little confused. You spent the entire ceasefire fortifying this castle so why are we abandoning it to go and face our enemies." Asked Gray confused. Assassin's expression turned to fond amusement.

"I'm afraid that you're quite mistaken, Master of Lancer. We are not abandoning this castle, but we are going to meet our enemies." Assassin replied. This answer confused everyone. Suddenly the ground shook for several minutes causing the masters to get on the ground while the Servants remained standing still. When the shaking stopped, they still felt like they were moving but it was far smoother travel than before. "Why don't you all take a look outside?" Assassin suggested with an amused smile on her face. The rest of the group immediately ran out to the nearest balcony and were shocked to find that they were now at least a few miles above the Earth's surface and not only that, but they were moving or rather flying.

"You gotta be kidding me." Said Kairi surprised at this sight.

"So much for being discreet." Said Waver pinching his nose to stave off a headache. Assassin's voice could be heard above them on the 2nd balcony.

"Surprised, aren't you? Behold my noble phantasm: the Hanging gardens of Babylon. As you can see this castle does not exist to defend. It is an aerial fortress to be precise." Bragged Assassin. Archer merely glared at her.

"HaHa. I see. So we shall use this to invade our enemies territory. Quite a bold strategy." Said Iskandar looking quite jovial. Then Shirou K.'s voice could be heard.

"If we keep going at this speed, it won't be much longer before we are close enough for the Black Faction to spot us. So, then I humbly suggest that we all prepare ourselves for battle." Suggested Shirou K. with a determined expression on his face.

Unknown forest . . .

The forest was relatively quiet with only a few local wildlife scurrying around. But that relative peace was shattered when the rhythmic thumps could be heard scaring the animals away. The one responsible for those thumps was a muscle-bound figure. His chin length messy curly hair swaying with his movements though two large stumps on either side of his head remained inert. His armored torso and legs made a clinking sound as he moved. Yet his face looked determined, and he was smiling sinisterly. He continued to charge forward. This was Berserker of Red Eric Bloodaxe. He made his way down a forest path but suddenly the ground lit up with magic circles along with others surrounding his position. Beams of light fired from everywhere and the impacts caused the area to be covered with dust that had been kicked up by such actions. For several moments only dust could be seen. Suddenly the dust was swished away revealing Eric with his ax now in hand showing that he used it to clear the area of dust. He then brought his axe close to him and spoke.

"Well dear. It seems that this was the right way to go. If mage traps have been set, then we should be near the enemy stronghold soon. So, let's enjoy ourselves tonight." He said to no one. He chuckled darkly. "Don't worry dear. I'll be sure you'll be sated with the blood we'll be spilling tonight." He said quietly. Then he shot off in the direction he was facing continuing to run through the forest.

Above Eric either didn't notice or care that there was a one eyed brown bird like creature whose eye was following his every move.

=Romania – Millenium fortress – throne room – 5:15 pm (Romanian time)

"Comrades. Regardless of the time of day, the Servant you see is heading straight for Millenium Fortress as we speak. While it's obviously a Berserker, we've not been able to confirm from which Faction they come from." Said Darnic as Vlad III sat on a simple throne next to him as he stood and relayed this information to the assembled Masters and Servants of the Black and Gold Factions. They were watching a live feed magecraft projection from one of their familiars as they were following the Berserker. Caules raised his hand to which Darnic gestured for him to speak.

"Uncle Darnic. I do wish to point out that I did see Berserker of Blue earlier on during the ceasefire and this one doesn't match his appearance at all." Reported Caules.

"And Saber and I encountered a Berserker attacking Ruler before the ceasefire took place that was later confirmed to be of the White Faction and this one doesn't match that Berserker's appearance at all either." Gordes spoke up.

"So then by process of elimination that means that this Berserker either hails from the Red or Silver Faction." Deduced old man Acht. By this point the footage from the familiar stopped showing that the Berserker had in fact destroyed the familiar following him. Fiore turned to Darnic from her wheelchair.

"So what's to be done Uncle Darnic?" she asked.

"With the Ceasefire mere minutes away from being officially over the only logical thing for us to do is ready our defenses. No doubt that we will be the center of the fighting from multiple factions tonight due to our possession of the Greater Grail." Answered Darnic. Then Vlad III rose from his throne and looked directly at Darnic.

"Well then Darnic, tell me of your strategy. We shall let the curtains rise on the glorious battle that awaits us tonight." Said Vlad III with a confident smirk. Darnic merely bowed to him.

"Of course, my lord." Said Darnic humbly. And with any luck we will be able to see just what Ruler's allies and Servants are truly capable of. Thought to himself with a devious smirk though he made sure no one else saw it.

End of Chapter 6

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Author's notes: Gin was a difficult character for me to write as he's supposed to be playing the part of a snake ready to fight and betray everyone around him to achieve his goals yet we get glimpses of what Gin could've been in the manga where as a child he was teasing and mischievous which does carry over as an adult but with far more bite than before. I figure with Manaka he's met someone who reminds him of himself in that they are completely devoted to one person and achieving their goal no matter the cost and to hell with everyone else but Manaka is slightly more thoughtful and even kind to those who won't interfere with her plans and is open to allowing others to work with and help her while Gin will go it all alone and refuses help from anyone. Also, since there are more than enough Servants that will easily fill the Grail to capacity to grant hers and Arthur's wish means that that she has no reason to pull off the disturbing things that she pulled in Prototype Fragments and Ayaka and Arthur haven't even met yet so Manaka has no reason yet to go full yandere but those tendencies are there but more subdued for now. It's due to this slight mellowing of her character why Gin tolerates Manaka as for him it's like looking into a distorted mirror of what might have been. So their dynamic I imagine to be one of acquaintances that understand each other more than anyone else ever will. Hopefully he still feels like the character from the manga and anime. I'd appreciate feedback either way if he still feels like the same character or if I went too far off the mark.

I'm having Kiritsugu only address the Servants by their Class names save for Ozy who he addresses as Pharoah and Jackie. Reason for this is because my reading of Kiritsugu is that while he doesn't in this timeline see Servants as tools he also doesn't want to get too close to any of them as there's a very good chance that some or all of them will be killed during the War and he wants to maintain that social distance from them so that the parting won't be as hurtful as if he lost one of his family. He addresses Ozy as pharaoh so that he doesn't piss off a powerful Servant who could easily kill him and Jackie he addresses as such due to his wife already wanting to adopt her and so he's trying to strategize a way to not have Jackie do too much fighting in hopes to ensure she survives past the Grail War and can then be properly adopted by them. Iri and the children, however, have no qualms with using the True Names of their Servants and address them as such in the privacy of their home. Tokiomi addresses the Servants also by just their class names but that's more due to the mage mentality of seeing Servants as just overpowered familiars. Kirei just follows his lead but the rest of the Faction see the Servants as people and address them by their real names

I'm not entirely sure if there is an already existing Kido spell in the cannon material that allows for Sakura to do what I have her do in the chapter. I just picked Hainawa due to it being a low-level Kido spell that a child could learn it, a bakudo spell so it's not destructive, and that Kido spells canonically can be modified to suit situations that the casters needs them to be. And given that Sakura has, in this story, been around the likes of Kisuke, Hachi, and Tessai, all of whom are Kido Masters I can certainly see her being personally tutored by one or all of them since her adoption and as a result would be far more skilled at Kido at her age than most soul reapers would be. All that being said though, if there is in fact a Kido spell that performs a similar function to the one I have her use and I just missed it, then please let me know. I would greatly appreciate it.

I'll be honest I'm not entirely sure what time of the year Fate Apocrypha is supposed to canonically take place. I just know that the year is an alternate timeline of 2004. So I decided to stick to the Bleach timeline for events as at least up until the time skip when the lost agent arc occurs we get some solid time stamps: Ichigo gets his powers in mid may, his mother's death is June 17, his birthday is July 15, and the winter war is, according to the bleach wiki, occurring over the course of one full day. That being Nov 1st. As in the entire Hueco Mundo arc and the Fake Karakura town arc all canonically take place in the span of a day. Something that I personally find wild given that the whole Arrancar arc is the longest arc in the story. That being said I did place the Winter war about 3 months before the start of the story so technically that means the Holy Grail War is happening at roughly around the start of February. This is why I have Ichigo and Jeanne doing homework as both of their country's schools would be having semesters at this time. As to why I don't write about snow or problems with the weather, my head cannon is that it was a particularly warm winter that year and most of the snow has already melted away though on a side note most of the Masters wear long sleeved shirts, pants, or jackets and the Servants just don't register temperatures regardless of what time of year it is so the cold weather is at least somewhat being taken into account for this story.

I know that technically my names for the Clock Tower Factions aren't entirely correct. But by the time I had checked the names of them the date to correct my mistake in the first chapter I used it in had expired so that was just a mistake on my part. The True names according to the wiki are the Aristocratic, Democratic, and Neutral Factions. For mine they are the Traditionalists, Visionary, and Neutral Factions respectively. Personally I don't see too much of a problem with the names I chose as they convey more or less the same thing that is in the wiki page but if you think this is a problem do let me know. As for my choosing to put Waver in the Visionary Faction when the wiki page has him in the Aristocratic or Traditionalist Faction, my reasoning here is twofold. One is while the events of FSN (Fate/Stay night) and Apocrypha are mostly the same we don't actually know if Waver still stayed in the Aristocratic Faction in the Apocrypha timeline. Yes this is due to him being a bit role in that story but FSN timeline also has the Lord El-Melloi case files manga series and that gave us, the readers, a clear indication on where he stood and why within the workings of the Clock Tower. The Apocrypha timeline doesn't so I'm choosing to say that this timeline his attitude about merit over bloodline still stands in his eyes but now he also wants to be reunited with Iskandar again. The other reason is now with rumors and now actual proof of there being other individuals whose power could rival or surpass the abilities of Magecraft, he sees his beliefs of merit over bloodlines actually being proven true and he wants to find out if it's teachable and secure a way to bring it to his students and through this bring Magecraft itself to the current era.

In case it wasn't obvious Shakespeare's last np doesn't actually exist on the type-moon wiki. This one was purely one of my creation. But the inspiration was based on a scene in cannon Apocrypha. When Shirou used a command seal to ensure that Shakespeare didn't add his story to Shakespeare's list of tragedies. Shakespeare indicated that he could somehow make it so the current story of the Grail war would either end in triumph or tragedy had Shirou not used a command seal on him. This was actually a very intriguing moment for him that despite being weak he could still be dangerous if underestimated. Semiramis' warning to Ruler later on about Caster's dangerous power added to that. So it was very disappointing to find that his actual np only mind screws with a person and if someone breaks them out of the mind screwing then the np is rendered virtually useless. So the series basically wasted an otherwise fun and interesting character. So for this story I figured I'd make him a bit more meta. And what's more meta than a fanfic with a Servant with fanfiction writing powers.

But the reason for the restraints on his newly created np, that being he needs to observe those he deems characters to get a feel for their personalities and then can only write situations that feel like something said character would do and it makes logical sense within the rules of the world, is because while Shakespeare did essentially write historical fanfiction in his Histories, he went about it in a more subtle way. Given that he was to be careful to not insult his royal patrons at the time as it could lead to his death he only took liberties where he knew no one would care about accuracy like Richard III where that character was completely vilified to make Henry VII seem good. But even when Shakespeare had complete creative freedom with his stories he still tried to make his characters feel like people as to him they were more interesting to write than perfect characters whom the story bends around with no effort which is why even in his comedies there are scenes that could lead to potential tragedy due to the characters actions and it's only due to the author's mood as to what end the story will have. So it made sense that such self-imposed restraints would carry over to his Servant form. I sincerely hope that those who've read this far won't be offended by this addition to Shakespeare as a Servant and that I haven't ruined him as a character for anyone.

Now as to why Shirou K. is being made known this early in the story to the main characters, my reasoning comes from my incorporation of technology into this story. I've always wondered why Nasu always kept technology and those that know how to use them to either bare minimum or almost nonexistence. The original works I understand as being written before technology of today was standard but even in current stories where they are supposedly taking place in a futuristic setting, aside from fgo, the characters we follow in current stories either have no understanding of it, except the Servants, or barely know how to use the most basic of technology like a microwave or a refrigerator. For my story I wanted to explore how having multiple tech savvy characters could affect the story. And as we've already seen in past chapters it's paid dividends for Ruler so far. So, it made sense that it would also allow her to realize who Shirou K. is far sooner in the story than in cannon. But that doesn't mean she knows what his motivation is yet despite this advantage, so she still has to do the grunt work for that.

Also as a sidenote I've been trying to use the most updated versions of the skills for the Servants on the Typemoon wiki but for Shirou K's final personal skill I chose to stick with Baptism rite simply because I couldn't figure out how to explain the Grail of Burning Heaven name as of right now he's not connected to the Grail yet. He hasn't even successfully taken it from the Black Faction yet so I decided to leave Baptism rite as the skill name for him in this story.

I'm aware that giving Chiron the ability to manipulate time seems overpowered at first glance but I'm operating under the belief that he actually likes his Master and he needs that anchor alive long enough to get his wish granted so he's smart enough to know that overusing that power will take a tremendous toll on said Master. Instead it would be more in character for him to only use it when he encounters his student Achilles or perhaps even Hercules as both he knows he would lose against without using that power while others he'd be more inclined to observe and learn about first before making that call to use his powers over time. Otherwise, he'd rather rely on his experience and prowess as a warrior.

Finally Faction and Servants with their power levels with boosts for the current war in mind (bold and Italics means soul reapers now know their identities): Blue: Saber – Artoria Pendragon – Captain, Archer – David – lieutenant (his divinity skill can boost this temporarily to almost a Captain level if he chooses to do so), Lancer – Cú Chulainn – lieutenant, Rider – Medusa – lieutenant, Caster – Paracelsus von Hohenheim – lieutenant almost a Captain, Assassin – Hassan of Serenity – 11th seated officer, Berserker – Jekyll & Hyde – 15th seated officer for Jekyll and 4th seated officer for Hyde

Black: Saber – Siegfried – 10th seated officer, Archer – Chiron – lieutenant, Lancer – Vlad III – lieutenant (while in his territory) – 5th or 6th seat (outside his territory), Rider – Astolfo – 14th seated officer, Caster – Medea – 5th seated officer, Assassin – Hassan of the Hundred Faces – 15th seated officer, Berserker – Frankenstein's monster – 4th seated officer

Silver: Saber – Arthur Pendragon – Captain, Archer – Arash – 11th seated officer, Lancer – Diarmuid Ua Duibhne – 3rd seated officer, Rider – Ozymandias (Rameses II) – lieutenant almost a captain level, Caster – Queen of Sheba – lieutenant, Assassin – Jack the Ripper – 6th seated officer, Berserker – Heracles – Captain

Gold: 3 Saber – Gawain – Captain, Bedivere – lieutenant almost a Captain level, Kay – lieutenant almost a Captain level, and 3 Casters - Gilles de Rais – unseated almost a 20th seat, Guinevere – 11th seated officer, Merlin (alive but hiding true stats) – mid-level lieutenant, and Shielder – Galahad – Captain.

White: Saber – not summoned, Archer – Atalanta – 6th seated officer, Lancer – Karna – 5th seated officer, Rider – Perseus – lieutenant, Caster – Avicebron – 15th seated officer, Assassin – Robin Hood – 3rd seat, Berserker – Lancelot du Lac – Captain

Red: Saber – Mordred – lieutenant, Archer – Gilgamesh – 6th seated officer, Lancer – Achilles – lieutenant almost a Captain level, Rider – Iskandar (alexander the great) – 6th seated officer, Caster – William Shakespeare – 10th seated officer, Assassin – Semiramis – 14th seated officer, Berserker – Eric Bloodaxe – 6th seated officer

Ruler – Jeanne D'Arc – lieutenant almost a Captain level

Ruler – Amakusa Shirou Tokisada – 10th seated officer

Quick reference: EX and A rank nps are equivalent to high and low powered Bankais respectively, B rank is equivalent to Shikai, C rank is equivalent to sealed zanpakutos. D and E ranks are weaker than sealed zanpakutos and would be destroyed by them easily.

For kido: Ex- negates all Bakudo kido but #99-#90 Hado kido spells do effect Servants, A- #99-#80 for Bakudo Kido and #89-#80 for Hado Kido, B- #79-#60 Kido, C- #59-#40 Kido, D- #39-#20 Kido, and finally E- #19-#1 Kido.

For power levels: Ex- captain level, A- lieutenant level, B- high seated officer level (3rd- 10th seat), C- low seated officer level (11th-20th seat) D- unseated officer level, and E- non-Soul reapers

Thank you all very much for reading this. Hope you all enjoy. Next up will be the start of the War and we will see if I can truly do the fights justice.

Enjoy and Bye!