Her footsteps echoed through the darkened halls of the underground lair, her sense of direction long since stolen from her by the endless identical corridors. She'd have gotten lost for sure way without the pair currently at her side to guide her way; fortunately they knew their way around inside the winding darkness. Just a few days ago she hadn't even know magic was a thing that really existed, and yet these two - people claiming to be her friends, if only she could remember them - had come into her life and given her a crash-course in what it was like to be a magical girl, which is what she apparently was; and now, they were guiding her deep underground to meet the rest of their team.
When Kazumi awoke inside that briefcase, with all her memories seemingly nonexistent, she couldn't have imagined any of this was even possible.
"Hey, remind me again where you're taking me?" Kazumi asked. "Sorry. I guess my memories still haven't come back to me yet."
"That's fine," the girl with blue hair - Misaki Umika, Kazumi reminded herself - said. "It might take you awhile before your memories all come back. There's something we'll need for you to do once we've arrived, but once that's taken care of we're just going to monitor you for a couple of days until we're sure your memories have come back."
"Are you sure they will?"
Umika nodded. "Yes. I'm sure they will."
The party of three stopped before an open door, the musty smell coming from within making Kazumi's nose crinkle. "We're here," the other girl, the one with short orange hair - Maki Kaoru - said. Sticking her head inside, she called out "Hey, Niko, we brought her. You wanna see her in here?"
"Bring her in," the voice inside the musty room spoke. Their voice was flat, devoid of emotion, and it sent a chill down Kazumi's spine. Silently, Umika and Kaoru nudged Kazumi, and she entered, not entirely sure what she would find.
The décor inside the room was sparse; a few bookshelves cluttered with volumes, and a single desk, behind which was seated a girl with platinum-blonde hair who was hunched over a laptop. The girl looked up from her laptop, and for a brief moment Kazumi thought she saw something resembling an emotion flash in the girl's eyes, before she asked "Did you have any trouble when you went to collect her?"
"She had no memories when we found her," Umika replied to the blonde's question. "Aside from that, nothing out of the ordinary. Our extraction went off without a hitch."
"I'm glad to hear that," the other girl said, before finally addressing Kazumi "I'm Kanna Niko, by the way. I trust you found your way here all right?"
Kazumi nodded. "Yeah. Would have gotten lost if these two hadn't been there to give me directions."
"You'll find it easier to navigate once your memories return. Until then, it can be confusing to find your way around."
"That's why we're just going to monitor you for a couple of days," Umika chimed in. "We don't want you going off and getting lost while your memories are still blank."
Kazumi nodded. "You said before there was something you wanted me to do for you before you let me take it easy; mind telling me what you need me to do?"
"You've come at something of a bad time," Niko said. "We're in the middle of a dispute with another faction of girls from Mitakihara. They've got… Well, I guess you could call them weapons, of a sort. They're called servants; they're magical entities who take the form of figures from mythology and history, and as far as we can tell they aren't a normal part of our system of magic."
Niko snapped her fingers, and at her side a woman appeared out of thin air. Impossible? Yes, but Kazumi had seen enough of the supposedly impossible to not write anything off at this point. The amazing appearing woman's hair was loose and pink, falling around her face save for a single braid which hung down to her shoulder, and over her clothes she wore a white smock with a blue Maltese-style cross emblazoned on the front. "This is Assassin. She's one of our own servants. We've all got them; it was the only way for us to be at parity with the other faction." Niko gestured to Umika and Kaoru as she spoke, who each nodded in turn as Niko added "You'll meet the rest later when Asami and the others return. Maybe not Caster, unless you're particularly unlucky."
Kazumi had barely arrived here - wherever
here was - and already a stranger was bombarding her with what was probably very important information. So, she did the first thing she could think of; she asked "Why's that?"
"Caster hates being disturbed when he's working," Umika said. "And he's
always working."
"Only 'cause you're such a slave-driver."
Umika glared at Kaoru, responding to her jab with "You
know what's at stake if Caster's work isn't perfect. I can't afford to let him make any mistakes. None of us can."
Niko cleared her throat, saying as Umika and Kaoru immediately silenced their bickering "Can the two of you
please have your little lovers' quarrel somewhere else?" The pair nodded, and Niko continued, addressing Kazumi. "Sorry about that. I'm sure you've seen for yourself how
lively they can be when they get at it."
"Yeah," Kazumi said, scratching at the back of her head. "So, I take it what you want from me has something to do with these 'servants' you were talking about; is that right?"
"I'll come out and say it. There are seven classes of servant, and currently we're one short. We need for you to summon the missing servant, Lancer."
"What do I have to do?"
With her head, Niko gestured to Kaoru, saying "Maki will brief you on the way. I need to speak with Misaki about something important."
Blue and orange looked to each other, nodding. Kaoru said to Kazumi "Come on, I'll take you to where we're heading next," as she gestured for Kazumi to follow her. "We've got everything set up from when the rest of us summoned our servants. All you have to do is not get lost, and to repeat after me once we're ready to begin the ritual." When Kazumi made no response to Kaoru, she added "I'm sorry. I know it must seem like we're just throwing everything at you and hoping it sticks. We'll have time to explain everything in greater detail once Saki and the others are back from their trip, but for now you've just got to trust us. Easy, right?"
Kaoru's hand briefly brushed against Kazumi's own as they walked; it was surprisingly warm. Or perhaps it was the overwhelming coldness of the tall, double-wide doors they had just passed that made her hand seem so warm. "What's behind those doors?"
"That's…" Kaoru shook her head, muttering something to herself before saying "That's Niko's private workshop. It's off limits to the rest of us. Lots of dangerous stuff in there, you know? Best to just forget about it."
Kazumi nodded; but despite understanding Kaoru's words, something within her tugged at the thought of what lay behind those doors. She wouldn't have time to ponder what lay beyond, because after just a few more turns the pair had arrived. The room was wide, with a tall ceiling and no decoration to speak of, save for the elaborate circle drawn into the stone floor.
"Just hold out your hand," Kaoru said, standing in front of the circle and posing to demonstrate for Kazumi. "I'll guide you through what you need to say to summon your servant."
"Do I at least get some time to think about this?" Kazumi asked, getting into position in mimicry of Kaoru's form. "I'm sorry, I know that sounds selfish of me to ask when you're all counting on me, I just-"
"You'll be fine, trust me. Just hold that pose, and repeat after me.
"Fill; fill; fill; fill; fill…"
"Repeat five times, but when each is filled, destroy it."
"Heed my words; my will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny. If you heed the Grail's call, and obey my will and reason, then answer my summoning!"
"I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world. That I shall defeat all evil in the world."
The circle swelled with light, and were it not for Kaoru's hand to guide her own Kazumi would have instinctively brought it up to shield her eyes.
"Seventh heaven clad in the great words of power, come forth from the circle of binding, guardian of scales!"
As she spoke those lines,
the light of the circle erupted, blanketing the dark room in white, before subsiding and revealing to Kazumi the form of the servant she had summoned. She was tall, clad in a dark, skintight bodysuit decorated with black and gold. Her pale face held sad eyes of deep crimson, framed by locks of dark auburn that fell to her waist. At her forehead, resting in the center of a thin chain which hung from her rear-facing veil, sat a small but brilliantly-shining ruby. Kazumi was at a loss for words, so Kaoru opted to speak for her. "Nice work, Kazumi," she said, patting Kazumi on the back.
The woman that had been summoned knelt before Kazumi - that felt really weird, having someone kneel before her - and said "I am servant Lancer. I guess I should call you my master?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess so," Kazumi said, offering a hesitant hand to Lancer. "Sorry. I'm really new at all this. I don't know what I should be saying at the moment."
"Then say what you feel, master. It isn't my place to complain."
"Okay!" Kazumi redoubled her efforts to offer a hand to Lancer, saying to her "I'm Subaru Kazumi. It's nice to meet you!"
Lancer took the hand of her master, saying "Likewise. I am servant Lancer. It is good to meet you, my master."