[x] Don't say anything. Let things go naturally.
It was a very silent and awkward next half an hour. Archer was sitting next to her master looking at the map and forming some sort of plan I guess. The maid was cleaning up after herself, demolishing the fallout shelter and putting away the expensive looking medical equipment. Kirei was staring at all of us with those blank eyes of his, which is legitimately freaking the Hades out of everyone. Rin and Luvia are looking at each other, trying to form opinions of the other.
After a long time, it was the the fake priest who broke the silence first. "While it was very interesting to observe all of you." He stood straight up. "We unfortunately don't have all the time in the world and thus we must resume to business."
Quickly both the magi heads regain their composure and payed her attention to him. "Of course, off to business then." Luvia cleared her throat. "Now then, your name is Assassin right?"
"Last I check... it was."
"Now then, you know what a leyline is right?"
I gave a smile. "My other possible class is Caster. That should be enough of an answer for you."
"Hmmm... intresting. That's good, means that we won't have to waste time explaining technical details." She clapped her hands twice. "Margaret! We require refreshments! Also be sure to call Auguste and tell him he is late. I have been waiting 4 hours just for a simple grocery run."
She bowed, dusting off some cement mix from her uniform. "At once milady, I'll be sure to contact Auguste." She went off.
"Now then. To begin things I'll talk about how I entered the war and my rather unusual circumstances since it pertains to why I'm here." She took a deep breath and resumed. "It... wasn't really my original intention to enter the war in the first place... you see it all started at one of my personal estates in London, Britain..."
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3 weeks earlier
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I remember getting out of bed. I was wearing one of my custom designed lingerie which I don't mean to brag but I have to say that they really show off my well developed curves. Anyways back to the story, my hand felt itchy but I was still a bit sleepy and so paid no heed to it. Sooner or later however I found that there were strange marks on my right hand. At first I thought it was a prank by either one of my cousins, my few siblings or possibly one of the hand servants. So I tried to scrub it off but much to my surprise they wouldn't come off. I decided to hide it with a glove and would have hid it for the entire remainder of the war if it weren't for a certain priestess with a rather scandalous outfit found out and revealed it to everyone much to my frustrations and her amusement.
Soon afterwards I found out that I was selected by the Grail to participate in the 5th Holy Grail War and wouldn't you know it the entire Edelfelt house was in uproar. Some wanted me out of the war, others accused me for planning to participate in the war from the very beginning while quite a few thought it was time that we Edelfelt go and regain the honor we lost in the Third Holy Grail War. The arguments grew so much that I was very much sick of it all and in a rather hasty fit I stormed out of the house in the midst of the night. Of course that was yet another stupid mistake on my behalf.
As I took a stroll in one of the business sectors I met her. That damn albino found me and upon seeing my command seals (I forgot my signature gloves that day) decided to kill a possible candidate i.e. me and sicced her giant of a Berserker on me. Of course using my bountiful combat prowess I managed to survive a blow before being thrown into an antique pawn shop. Now this is the point of the story where you may or may not believe me but that pawn shop I crashed into was actually a summoning spot for a servant from around the Second Holy Grail War and as such still had a functional summoning circle in the basement, yes it surprised me very much as well.
Now I can safely assume that you already know the name of my servant due to her very bombastic personality now can I? Good. Because let me make it clear that no matter what it was never a compatibility summon (I would rather die than find out that a servant most compatible with me is Japanese). Now since I made it clear that it was a catalyst summon the question now is what's the catalyst? Well you see the catalyst was a musket of Japanese origins dated all the way to the age of the Sengoku Jidai. The store owners knew that much but what what they didn't know was that it was the personal musket of one Oda Nobunaga which was lost to time and was picked up by a small time con artist who didn't knew what he got his hands on and as such this gun went from one country to another before finding its way into London.
Now at first I was confused, then happy, then enraged at the fact that I summoned a Japanese servant (this was before I found out about the catalyst thing). Now this is the part where I was quite ashamed of myself because as I was too busy arguing with my own servant that little albino went and setted up multiple magical traps around my person and I would have been a smoldering pile of gunk on the wall if it weren't for my own servant grabbing me and protecting us with her Magic Resistances (she claims it's for pragmatic reasons, she still needs an anchor to this world after all). Getting us out of there, I instructed my servant to bring us to the closest wooden area possible which just so happens to be the Epping Forest, because if we fought in the city then we'd have the entire Clock Tower on our hind.
Now there we were making our stand in the middle of a forest. I remember all sorts of familiars around the forest. Many of them are curious magi wondering about the ruckus happening nearby while others seek to see a glimpse of the Holy Grail War which for many is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Of course since I had an audience I thought it would rude of me not to give a good show and so I simply gave my Archer a single command, "We got an audience Archer. If you're as strong as you say you are then give them a good show will you?" I still remember that cocky smile from that time and while I can't reveal the exact specifics of the fight since I wish to hide the abilities of my servant to any possible eavesdropper but I will at least tell you in the terms of you commoners...
----
Now
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"We kicked some ass," she had a proud aura around her. "At least I think that's what you commoners would say?"
Rin was staring at her with a disbelieving look on her face. "You mean to tell me that this weak excuse for a servant went and fought a Berserker to a stand still?!" Her eyes were twitching.
The Archer looked playfully offended while Luvia was suppressing a noblewoman's laugh. "Ever heard of the phrase 'Never judge a book by its cover?'" She was stifling a giggle. "And who said it was a draw?"
There was a silence. "You mean to tell me..." Rin was reevaluating Archer. "That you beat a Berserker?"
"Hmmm? Are you impressed now?" Archer said as she was back in her full servant outfit, arms crossed and with a matching proud aura to boot. "Are you ready to recognize me as the one true ruler of Japan-"
"No." It was precise and blunt.
She was metaphorically knocked back with a metaphorical fist straight into a metaphorical wall. I can see her metaphorical face slowly bleeding with metaphorical blood, man that's a lot of metaphors.
"Okay, resuming with the story. We were both in bad shape and sowere limping back to my mansion carrying each other as we shared a laugh leaving behind us a albino crying in the middle of the forest who got what she deserved, stupid brat. I know she's an Einzbern but I couldn't even care even if I tried. Upon coming home I caused yet another uproar and the usual happened, magi politics, accusations, a few attempts on my life and the Mage Association breathing down my neck for making a few dozen big smoldering craters in Epping Forest and other such collateral damages all which I at least tried to limit as much as possible, nothing I can handle." She said as if it's just another day in the life of a magus, or more accurately her's.
"Hmmm? That must've one hectic week for you huh?" I asked.
"It was more exciting than usual that's for sure." She took a sip of whatever high grade tea they had.
Rin was thinking to herself as she processed the information. "So the Einzbern are knocked out of the competition? I dunno it seems like it's too early..."
Luvia took on a more serious expression. "I know, they're not one to throw the towel that early. I had used some of my connections to spy on that little albino and what I found was that she went and Summoned a Saber somewhere in London about a few days after her defeat."
Rin's eye twitched. "You mean to tell me..." She looks pissed. "That's the reason why I couldn't get a Saber?!" She whipped her head towards the fake priest. "Kirei! Why didn't you tell me this?!"
The fake priest gave a shrug. "It had slipped my mind."
"So..." She was looking at her shaking hands. "I was doomed from the start huh."
I rolled my eyes as I slapped my hand onto the back of her head. "Oh grow up will you."
"Hey! You can't treat me like a child!" Rin looked at me angrily.
I raised an eyebrow. "You do realized that I'm significantly older than you right?"
She was glaring at me. "The point still stands!"
"Ahem?" Everyone looked at Luvia. "Now that I got your attention again, I would like to finally get to the heart of I what I wanted to talk about." She leans
forward. "Now I asked if you guys knew about ley lines and I asked because this pertains to what has been happening to several ley lines of the world."
"Huh? What has been happening?" Rin asked.
"You see, someone's been messing with the ley lines and it was been messing with the magic of other magi."
"Tell me more."
Luvia nods. "The Clock Tower sensed some sort of disturbance happening right here in Fuyuki and it's causing a ripple affect on other ley lines across the world. Mind you it only effects those drawing power from the ley lines but even then it's still causing problems around the world. A village somewhere in the frozen land of Russia had disappeared and in its place a mount of otherworldly crystals. On a remote Filipino island a society of giant carnivorous plants rule unchallenged, all of which are the results of some mad experiments gone wrong. In Los Angeles, there's a poor magus' ashes that are still on fire to this very day. All connecting this are that fact that all locations are located on top of or near ley lines. The Clock Tower, if I'm to be honest, is freaking out. They've never had a problem on this scale before and so have sent me here not only as a investigater but to also as a way for me to make up for all that servant combat at London which I say is a good deal."
Rin was in deep thought. "I think I get what you mean. When I was summoning my servant a certain incident happened."
"Oh?" Luvia was listening close.
"When I summoned Assassin, instead of appearing in the circle she appeared on the floor above me, causing an explosion and the dustruction of a good chunk of my furniture up stairs. All of which she had finished cleaning and fixing."
"Oh? When I did mine she appeared right on top of my head." She gave a small glare to Archer.
"What? I couldn't control it okay!"
She gave a sigh. "Well that wasn't the only thing that happened."
"What else happened?"
"You see," She looked at her servant. "There's a reason why my Archer seems so weak."
"That reason is?" I asked.
"One of my skills is corrupted." Archer interjected.
The fake priest raised an eyebrow as both I and Rin leaned forward.
"It's the skill that raises my power to servant levels and without it I'm but a mere human in spirit form. I can still use it but I would need to force it and thus increase my prana consumption which tires my master to no end unless I stop using it. After the first battle I was carrying her more then she was carrying me as her body was barely functioning with its lack of prana especially since I had just used my Noble Phantasm. She was bed ridden for two days."
Rin was silent for a while. Finally she spoke. "I wonder... if it effected other servants." Then she looked at me. "Assassin, is there anything you're not telling me?"
"Eh? Me? Hiding anything. Heheh..." Good job me, digging yourself deeper.
"Assassin, when I summoned you, you freaked out and didn't even knew you were in the war until I told you about it." Everyone was now looking at me. "As your master I need to know if anything is wrong... especially if it hampers our performance in this war."
"Uh..."
"And don't you dare use 'But you know my powers!' as an excuse, this problem might not even stop at effecting servant's powers, what if, it effected something more fundamental, something that's more essence then matter and I should worry since I summoned you right next to the ley line that's been causing all these problems." The air is tense. I'm sweating hard.
[] "I... I may not exactly be Medea and I might be from another part of the Kaleidoscope..."
[] "My memory is... kinda scrambled and incomplete..."
[] "I don't know okay!"
[] "..."
[] Write in
