"So did ya have some other reason 'sides to stop me from havin' sex with an enemy that ya called me back?" Lancer asked Reisi once he showed up in the man's office. He was still wearing his Hawaiian shirt so of course he got as many stares as the first day he went out with it on.

"In a way. That Rider will also be one of our two opponents tonight."

"And you're worried that if I went too far that I'd hesitate to kill him. Well, don't. My legend shows I'd kill my opponent regardless of our relationship. The issue is you. Rider's Master is Mikoto. If Rider's fightin', then his Master should also be there if he isn't too much of a coward. I don't know how long ya two have been lovers. Can ya really bring yourself to do what I did to Ferdiad?"

"We just have sex with each other. We don't care for each other or anything. I told you that we're opposites. As such, we'll never love each other."

Lancer just narrowed his eyes in concern. He knew his Master was most likely denying the truth. "Whatever you say...I understand you'll be feelin' better by then, but maybe not completely. So don't push yourself hard enough to pass out." And especially not mentally either...

"There isn't any reason to worry. Now, please materialize your SCEPTER 4 uniform. I can't stand to look at that thing any longer."

As Adolf was returning to the Ashinaka train station with a sack full of fruits and vegetables he just bought, he noticed an orange roll out of the sack and hit the ground. He bent down to pick up the orange sphere before it rolled away. Upon returning to looking up, he was horrified to see Neko sitting on Berserker's shoulder, moreso because people were staring at the two.

"What the hell, you two?!" He was making sure to keep his voice down to an angry whisper as he spedwalked over.

"We're just walking around. What's the issue?"

"Everything! Didn't you think bringing Berserker out would attract too much attention?! He should be in spirit form out here!"

"Berserker shouldn't have to hide himself from people."

Adolf facepalmed. "...I swear sometimes it's like trying to reason with a brick wall." Then he spoke loud enough for everyone staring to hear. "Just bring the project back to the robotics club's storage."

'Oh? You're passing me off as a robot?'

'Yes, so try to act like one. Just stay in material form all the way back to the island.'

As they went to board their train that just arrived, they passed a blue-haired man with pale skin, his red eyes flicking to Adolf. "You should be careful about allowing that kind of Servant out here, Master. I know Tokyo is one of the few places where the Mage's Association can't act on supernatural events, well, not without permission from the Gold King or Prime Minister, it could still attract other unwanted attention."

"You know what Berserker is?! What in the world are you?!"

"I'm just a witness to the incoming miracle, nothing more."

"Are you involved in the War?!" But the mysterious man had already begun walking away.

Kuroh came across a Caster vigorously using a broom on the floor. She looked completely focused on her task.

"What are you doing?"

"It isn't any of your business, but you can help by finding the feather duster for me."

"Are you trying to be a housekeeper?"

"Master is allowing me to stay here for free. It isn't enough to repay him just by cooking."

"You act as his sword and shield for the War. Don't you think that's enough?"

"Of course not! And maybe I can help build him an atelier for magecraft when he returns from his meeting!"

"I think maybe you're working too hard to please him."

Whatever, boy. Oh, and while you're getting the feather duster, fetch the mop and fill a bucket with water."

"I'm beginning to think you're trying to turn me into your personal slave..."

Ryuuhou went into he and Andy's room to retrieve something only to bear witness to what was happening at the table placed in the center of the room. Andy was attempting to arm wrestle Lancer but was failing miserably. He was grabbing Lancer's hand with the one not being held and was trying his hardest to pull it down, even using his aura to enhance his strength, but all to no avail. On the other hand, Lancer was grinning and his arm remained as still as a statue. He wasn't going to send Andy through the floor but he isn't going to call it quits.

"You're picking on a human like this?" Ryuuhou asked, sweatdropping when Andy's struggles only resulted in the side of his head banging on the table.

"Hey, it was the kid who asked me!"

"And you aren't going easy?"

"Let him win? That's no fun!" He then looked to be thinking it over when Ryuuhou glared at him. "...Okay. Andy, if ya move my hand a millimeter then you win."

"It's like trying to bend a steel wall!"

"That's not gonna stop ya though, right?"

"I think my shoulder'll dislocate first! Can't you cut down on the resistance by a few hundred tons?!"

A cashier at a fast food restaurant in Mihashira Tower looked up in surprise as Daikaku came over.

"It's unusual to see you eat here, Gold King. Did something happen?"

"Archer and I got in an argument turned violent, well, very mildly on his side. It started with him questioning who in fact is the Master and who's the Servant in our relationship. Then it escalated after I said some things that I really shouldn't have. Then he flew off somewhere after he launched like five swords at me as warning shots. Honestly, I'm afraid I won't be able to control him when the time comes, except with my Command Seal. I'm afraid to actually go out and fight because I think he'd enjoy seeing me dead. I'm just looking to have some quick stress relief."

"I'm sure this'll all blow over."

"I hope you're right. I wonder what he's doing to cool down..?"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

In Tama, several excited kids were swarmed around Archer.

"Gil, Gil! How did you get so good at soccer?! Tell me!"

"Can you help me get my ball down from a tree again?"

"Hey, Gil! Did you read the latest Jump? Let's talk about it!"

"Gil, why do your things always look so flashy? It's cool and weird at the same time."

"Gil, my mom wants to meet you. Don't know why."

"Gil! Hina just pushed me! Do something!"

Archer was laughing heartedly. "Enough chatter, mongrels! I'll see to your requests one at a time! But feel free to praise your king as much as you want while I'm doing it!"

"Wasn't sure you'd actually keep your word to come," Mikoto said as he and Rider emerged from a shadow of the cargo pier, facing Reisi and Lancer. Even though chilling wind blew around them, no one looked cold aside from their breath being white mist.

"So you were counting on me chickening out? Sorry to disappoint," Reisi coldly replied.

Mikoto narrowed his eyes. Reisi told himself he imagined a tinge of sadness being mixed in because it was gone in a second, replaced by anger. "This means you're gonna hafta die now. I hope you're aware of that."

In response, Reisi released his Sanctum without a word, clearly ready to fight. "Same to you. But I assume you knew that the moment you decided to call me." He unsheathed his saber without giving the creed of SCEPTER 4 or anything of the sort, just a simple "Munakata, ready".

Meanwhile, the two with them were eager to fight, seemingly ready to spring into action at the drop of a hat. Not only were the Servants' gazes similar, predators who locked on their prey, but their grins made them look like feral creatures.

Lancer moved first, spear being thrust at Rider and ignoring Reisi's shout of "I didn't give you the cue to start yet!" Rider's own spear deflected it with ease but Lancer was close enough to where he could grab a fistful of green hair with his free hand and yank down the other's face to his rising knee. Rider, being of equal Strength, managed to place his free hand on the knee and stop it just in time.

Right as his Servant managed to fall back after using his spear to slash at Lancer, who had to release the other Servant to block with his own spear, Mikoto launched several large balls of fire at him but a wall of blue aura stopped the pounding blows.

Mikoto had to turn his attention to Reisi when the other King began striking at him. This allowed both Servants to continue attacking each other. At one point, Gáe Bolg grazed the enemy's right cheek, a tiny amount of blood coming out and Rider's smile got more animalistic.

"You actually wounded me?!" Then he laughed like he's deranged. "This just got a whole lot more fun!"

At that time, an ice attack from Reisi slammed into a stream of fire about to hit him and instantly creating a dome of steam around him. While Mikoto was now too far away for a quick attack, him having jumped back on a storage container where he launched that attack, the enemy Servant was close enough. Reisi burst from the mist on Rider's right side, saber in an icy inferno going for the Servant's neck. But the King was surprised when the blade wasn't even scratching the skin, like striking any other Ghost Liner with a normal attack.

Rider sighed and brushed away the blade with the back of his hand like removing some dust. "Cute attempt. But, unfortunately, not good enough." Reisi staggered a step back as this Servant fixed him with a piercing glare, akin to a raptor about to go for the kill.

"Wake up, Reisi!" Lancer's shout snapped him out of his trance in time for him to see the head of Diatrekhōn Astēr Lonkhē go for him. Lancer grabbed his Master and pulled him away, all in an instant. "Leave him to me."

"My attacks don't seem to be working on him!" Reisi exclaimed.

A body that reject almost all attacks. It was blessed, or perhaps cursed, by his mother. This is what the Noble Phantasm Andreias Amarantos grants Rider. Only strikes dealt by one with the traits of a god, the Divinity skill, are permitted to injure his body.

The thick tendon on the back of a person's ankle is known as the Achilles tendon. Due to how infamous the name Achilles is to the world, many would know that this place is the weak point of the mentioned Heroic Spirit. Attacks damaging his Achilles tendon will take down Rider's Andreias Amarantos and make it so even non-divine attacks can inflict wounds upon his body, along with cutting the speed of his Dromeus Komētēs down to 30%.

Lancer and Rider were currently exchanging blows. "I must be a special case - Son of a bitch!" He had been cut off when Rider planted his foot on Lancer's chest and sent him flying back.

"I'll tell you what it is. It's because you're related to a god. Closely, since that slice didn't have reduced damage."

Lancer smirked. "Thanks for the flattery. I won't tell you which one, but my dad's a chief god. This means I have above-average Divinity. So your body has the protection of gods...I encountered some Greeks while I was alive and your scent is like their's...Reisi! His True Name is Achilles! Go for his heel if possible!"

"Well, fuck." While the enemy correctly guessed his True Name, he doesn't have enough clues to make the opposite happen. In the end, it doesn't matter for this battle. The enemy's Divinity is B or A and there's absolutely no way the Master will have even a single attack land unless Rider lets it.

As Reisi began fighting Mikoto again, who came down at him much like a bird, Lancer ripped out a few strands of his hair when he was a couple dozen meters away from the other Servant and threw it at him. A first-rate catalyst for magi is their bodies. So hair allowed years of growing or blood can be potent when used in magecraft or can extend it.

Several fiery blasts erupted in Rider's face, throwing off as much heat as the lava Mikoto failed to swallow Reisi up with, forcing him to shield his eyes. Even with the speed Servants are able to react at, he couldn't do anything to stop Lancer from punching him back through several containers; Rider's spear was thrust down to lessen how far he was sent back.

"You bastard..." Rider grumbled before clashing with Lancer in a high-speed battle. They were going dozens of times the speed of sound, probably at well over Mach 100. And it looked like they were still accelerating each second! Two merciless beasts: one a savage wolf and the other a vicious raptor. Two animals designed to hunt relentlessly and brutally kill.

Meanwhile, Reisi had just put out the blaze that consumed a quarter of his longcoat, vest, and button-up shirt as well as leaving, luckily, a first-degree, bordering on second-degree, burn on his back. Still, he wanted to curse himself for not reacting in time to use a stronger aura to defend against Mikoto's sudden back attack.

The Red King grinned at Reisi's obvious discomfort. "I think I've only damaged ya like that one other time."

Reisi pointed his saber at Mikoto's face after managing to ignore the pain by running some of his internal aura to the burn. "You won't get that pleasure again."

"You said that last time and yet I did." The two Servants nearly collided with him. "Shit! Watch it!"

Mikoto then went at Reisi and soon steel kept clashing with flesh. It ended when he grabbed the Blue King by the front of his uniform and pushing the man on the ground on his back. Reisi hissed from the stinging of his burn then realized Mikoto was on his hands and knees over him.

"Su -" The sudden mouth on Reisi's was insistent, desperate. Like a starving man attacking his meal. It was as if Mikoto was fully aware the War could tear them apart and now wanted only to be with Reisi.

Lips pulled away and calloused fingers then wrapped around his pale neck. While Mikoto was pressing down, it wasn't enough to strangle the Blue King; he could still take raspy breaths. It's like he's hesitant to kill this man who's supposedly his enemy. There was no resistance when a blast of blue from the dark-haired man violently forced the other to back off.

"Suoh! This is a battle!"

"Munakata, all this makes me wanna ▅ ▅ ▅ ▅ ya so badly. I don't even know what I was doin' durin' that."

Reisi got up and resumed his battle stance. "Focus!"

The battle between the two demigods was actually approaching the speed of light now. Anything they even brushed against was destroyed much like the material was exposed to a bomb exploding. Eventually, Rider suddenly looked around. "Hey, Lancer?" He stopped.

Lancer also stopped, looking annoyed. "What now?"

"Where exactly are we?"

That's when Lancer actually took in where they are. It was nowhere near the cargo pier. "Shit! We didn't even realize we were movin' away from our Maters!"

"At least both are Kings. They don't need much support from us against the other," Rider admitted. "But I can't help but wonder how they're doing."

Back at the cargo pier, a raging storm of fire like the heat of magma surrounded Mikoto. Reisi was only able to neutralize it with a thick coat blistering cold winds from his aura, chunks of ice helping to dissipate the heat. He launched large spears of ice as well. While most of it melted once it drew closer to Mikoto, the clash of the two opposing AOE attacks slowed the melting enough to cause multiple cuts and stab wounds to litter the Red King's body.

Somewhere outside of Tokyo, Rider went up to Lancer. "Soooo, wanna continue where we left off this afternoon?"

Lancer shrugged. "Sure, don't see why not." As he and Rider were about to kiss, a voice broke into Lancer's head and a vein instantly bulged in his forehead.

'Lancer! I need some help here!'

"Oh. My. God!" he growled. Then he sighed in defeat. "I swear we can't get any time alone for this..."

"Your Master just SOS you?" Rider asked.

"Yeah, but how'd ya know that detail?"

"My Master just did the same."

"I suppose we'll hafta pick this up another time. I'm beginnin' to think that won't happen, though..."

When they took off, Rider's acceleration exceeded Lancer's and even hit the speed of light. This confused Lancer since the other Servant would've used less mana overall to overwhelm and defeat the spearman. Does he perhaps have a similar issue that Lancer has, where he hesitates to kill those he trusts? Lancer doesn't think all those fishing sessions were enough time to build trust, but he was the one to move in on the Blue Servant already.

Rider couldn't take out his chariot to move even half this speed; it guzzles too much mana. Just it hitting max speed consumes enough mana to summon a Servant, all without any aid. It would've burned through his reserves way too quickly and taken enough mana from Mikoto to leave him defenseless or even dead. Right now, though he is taking some mana from Mikoto along with his own, it's much less draining if he goes this speed on foot and he'll still reach his Master in an instant.

Okay, make that a tiny fraction of a second since he senses he overshot Mikoto by just over 1,000 kilometers. He was looking for big-ass swords in the sky instead of sensing his Master's exact location to know when to stop. He should have done that since both Swords have vanished.

When he got to his Master, he saw Lancer pulling Reisi away from Mikoto. His longcoat was in shreds and several burns dotted his body. But Mikoto wasn't faring any better. He was covered in wounds ranging in severity.

"Lancer! Let's call it a night for now! I have a feeling these two will kill each other instead of just one going down," Rider said as he grabbed Mikoto, who looked ready to fall.

Lancer spat in frustration. "Fine. Y'know, I pegged ya as likin' battle as much as me."

"I do. But I'm also sensible, like you, hopefully."

"Yeah. Looks like this is another thing we'll hafta pick up another time."

"So the Servant from last night is the son of that bastard Peleus and that ugly whore Thetis," Caster grumbled while watching the fight from her room, specifically right after Lancer said Rider's True Name. Then she let out an angry sigh. So it's this one and Heracles. Yes, she can tell he's the Berserker even though his appearance is slightly altered. "So my past come back to me in this manner."

"Watch how hard you're pressin'!"

"Shut up already, you baby!" Rider snarled. He was busy applying ointment to Mikoto's wounds. "Just take better care of yourself!"

Izumo walked over right as Mikoto bitched again and could hold back a chuckle. "I didn't know ya could do that."

"Chiron taught me all sorts of things, including how to make certain medicines for injuries." Rider looked around. "Who has the yarrow?!"

"It's a good thing we can get this shit from the drug store..." Izumo muttered then spoke up. "Kamamoto's got that on his list of things to get. I have stuff in the first aid kit to help until he gets back." He looked down at Mikoto. "Are ya sure ya don't wanna go to a hospital?"

"Last time I did the underworld goons found out I was away so they rained hell on HOMRA. Rider says he can fix me up no problem and I just need to have bandages cover the wounds until they close, so it's fine."

Izumo doesn't know if Rider intentionally made Mikoto bark out a string of curses harsh enough to make Tatara cover Anna's ears. "Get used to this." The Servant remained unsympathetic. "Unless you learn to defend better."

"I can't believe I need you to heal me two nights in a row." Reisi grumbled as he allowed Lancer's rune magecraft to tend to his wounds in his office.

"This wouldn't happen if ya took care of yourself better. Isn't your aura better for defense than offense? Either it fuckin' sucks there or...No, I'd say it fuckin' sucks with shieldin' your ass."

"Maybe if a certain someone didn't guzzle my mana then I'd probably have better control of my magecraft!"

"Don't blame me! I relied mainly on my own reserves! It's your fault for getting too cocky last night! I dunno why ya got the shit kicked outta you tonight. Maybe it was the same."

"I don't want to be called overly cocky by you of all people!"

"And yet I'm here without a single scratch."

"You got lucky is all."

"You've seen the rank of my Luck stat. I doubt it. I can't always be watchin' over ya. You need to keep yourself from dyin' too. Read up and practice new magecraft or whatever."

"Okay, you're also a skilled mage. Why can't you teach me how to use runes?"

Lancer pulled his hand back, pausing the healing. He groaned and rubbed the back of his neck. While Reisi has a point, he doesn't think he has the patience to teach and how would he do it gently enough anyway?! If he goes with Scáthach's training methods, he'll most likely end up killing his Master himself! "Seri might have my ass...'Sides, I'll probably be gone in a couple of weeks or less. We wouldn't get far."

"It doesn't matter. Just teach me the basics for now. I can study on performing the rest of the applications after the War."

"I'm gonna be truthful here: ya might not live through it."

"I'm aware, but this could raise my chances for survival. So I need you to teach me rune magecraft."

Lancer clicked his tongue in annoyance. If only his Master wasn't a first rate mage and Lancer didn't have his rune magecraft downgraded, he could have used a rune to make Reisi forget this ridiculous idea without it being resisted! "Man, ya won't just let this go, huh? Fine, just know that anything that happens to you is your fault. We'll start tomorrow. For now let's just focus on patchin', you up."

A high-pitched scream tore through the otherwise silent night in the bar, jolting Rider awake. "Anna?!" Faster than a blink of an eye, he was in her room. Anna was sitting up in bed, clutching the covers to her chest and shaking like she's freezing.

As soon as she saw Rider she dashed over to him, tears flying from the corners of her eyes. The little girl wrapped her arms around him, buried her face in his abdomen, and began to sob uncontrollably. Rider, a little unsure of what was going on, moved one of his hands to Anna's back, patting it gently as she got all of her crying out of her system.

"Mind telling me what's going on?"

"I had a scary dream. Can you stay in my room tonight?" Anna pulled back slightly. She still had her hands pressed to Rider's side, but now her fingers were curled on the orange shirt he now wore, fisting the fabric into her palms. "Please?"

Rider sighed in defeat. "Alright, I'll stay here tonight. You're lucky my other weakness is seeing girls cry right in front of me."