Vice Grail War

"Glad we could come to an understanding..."-Junji said as he shook Albert's hand.

"For now we could start making a move onto other areas...maybe gather some intel on the other servants and masters without taking too many risks?"

Saber moved next to Amelia to talk. Was it just a coincidence that someone she knew was summoned?

"What do you think? The other servants might be people we know...If there's anyone close to you, what would you do?"-She asked the mage. before she could properly reply, Akane stretched and sighed

"Well, it's not like we have all that many options, if you are here, there must be something really important you want, yes?"

Saber

The Saber and Caster teams made their way south where Amelia and Albert had been. To their west lay the town where Albert had gotten his gear from, with the lake directly north. To the east lay the church where Albert and Amelia had started the Grail War in. Upon entering, they'd see a familiar little girl floating in the air, wearing a pair of panda-printed pajamas under an oversized white lab coat. She turned as the others entered the church.

"Oh, hey. Welcome to our church. Nobody looks injured...can I help you four?" She asked, cocking her head. Iris internally took note that an alliance had already been formed, and by two of the strongest Servants no less. Iris then waved at Amelia. "And hello, former student. How's life post-Gateway treating you?" The sorceress asked, looking toward the sky. She wondered if those two would ask where the priest who was originally at this church was currently.

“Hello, Iris. I would say I’m doing alright.” Amelia smiled at Albert. “We’re just visiting, really.” Iris nodded at Amelia’s statement.

“Well, that’s what these churches are for. Heal those who are injured...and have a place where no fighting can happen. For if you try…” Iris held out her hand, and in a swift motion...bopped Amelia on the head with a plastic inflatable mallet that squeaked upon impact. Amelia paled a little and stepped back, dragging Albert with her.

“Don’t do anything stupid.” She whispered to him. He mutely nodded. He had grown used to this enough to believe that a little girl in pajamas was very threatening to his teleporting super soldier companion.

Akane looked at the interaction and smirked nervously, it was a rather innocent threat, but one that she felt could easily be reinforced.

“So, who is doing the healing then?”-Akane asked the mage.

Iris waved her hands. “That would be me! Well, sort of. Usually I’m with my Master Ryuji at the eastern church, buuuuut the guy that was running this one is out right now. Where could he have gone…” Iris tapped her chin thoughtfully.

“Um, normally aren’t the priests supposed to stay at their churches? It seems like it would be a serious problem if somebody needed him and he couldn’t be found.” Amelia asked.

Iris leaned forward, floating like she were laying on her stomach across a couch now. “There’s nothing in the rules about our movements. Just that the building itself is a sanctuary, and it’s our job to enforce that. Perhaps he’s doing something important out in the field.” Iris flipped over so her front was facing upward, her two long strands of hair flopping down toward the ground.

“He’s the local priest. I still can’t get over him being involved in this. I hope the Buddhist temple I go to isn’t.” Albert let himself smile.

Akane and Junji looked at themselves, but decided not to say anything. Even if Amelia and Albert were allies, any piece of info could change that in the blink of an eye.

“Well, shouldn't you look for him then? If he’s not here, he’s basically leaving all the work to you”-Junji replied.

Iris hummed to herself as she turned her attention to Junji. “Hmmm...but then I too would be gone. Ryuji can’t staff both churches himself, hm? Unless you have an idea of where he is…” Iris glanced at Akane and Junji.

"I have no idea, but you could start by checking the area we just came from, it's plenty close to this Church"- Akane told Iris as she looked her straight in the eyes, hoping she could catch a hint.

Iris stared for a second, before nodding her head. “Ooo...duplicity. I will take a look indeed, Saber. Hm…” Iris tapped her feet against empty air. “I suppose I could help you out as well...long as you don’t tell my master, kay?” Iris clasped her hands together, and smiled.

“Every Servant summoned came from our universe. And in that city over there…” Iris pointed to the eastern window. “...two people that you know very well are fighting, Saber. Do with that information however you please~” Iris chirped, leaning forward onto her stomach as she stared at the four people before her.

“Thank you, Iris. We really appreciate it.” Amelia didn’t know exactly what Iris’ game was. She might actually be helping them, or just saying something to make them do something entertaining. It was impossible to tell with somebody so powerful and capricious.

Akane was not very fond of this information, if she had to fight people she knew so things could go her way…

"Well that's just great, thanks for the heads up I Guess"

What was she to do? Venture into the city? Even if she went there, would she fight anyone there? What if she found Callis? Her sisters? The sole idea of it made her stomach turn.

---

Lancer

Both Laura and her master made it to the bridge that led into the city. The destruction caused by Archer and Berserker's battle was now easy to see, with pedestrians being barricaded out further by police. Strangely, a vine snaked its way toward them, raising up the holding a piece of paper up to the two. Inside would read: 

Dear Master and Servant,



We write to you requesting a simple, cordial meeting. Master to Master, Servants stay 20 meters back. If you agree, please raise whatever weapon you possess into the air as confirmation.





Thank you,



Rider

---

Assassin

Anemone watched the actions below with her deep red eyes, able to see the heat signatures charging across the battlefield. She finally nodded her head. "It's time. They're heading for the stairs. I'm going in from one of the broken windows, you head them off if they try to run.” Anemone instructed.

Victor smirked and flicked his spent cigar away, raising his hammer once more. “About fuck’in time! Do whatever you need to, Assassin!” He instructed, Anemone smirking as she dove off the side of the building, running down the side. She lashed out her kusarigama chain and hooked it to a windowsill, silently swinging inside and ducking behind a desk.

She then reached into her bag and took out a white business jacket, putting it over her black shirt and tying up her hair to appear more like an office lady. Anemone completed the look by putting a pair of non-prescription glasses on her face.

Peeking out from behind the desk, Anemone saw that the more lean woman was holding a green-haired girl as she ran, likely her Master. The rampaging larger woman was obviously a berserker, and she couldn’t see who her master was yet. When everyone was sufficiently distracted, Anemone would leap out the window once more, grabbing onto the window below and grabbing onto the sides of the pane, slicing the bonding points so it popped off the siding and careened toward the ground below in one piece. Assassin slipped into the floor below, hiding behind a desk as she prepared for the fight to join her on this floor.

—

Rider

After much preparation, Cadence’s fortress was now complete. But there was one final piece to the puzzle she needed to do. Stepping out of her golem, Cadence stumbled when she hit the ground.

“Rider?” Reiko asked with concern. Cadence snorted when she realized how weak her legs were. She used her chair so much, simply walking around felt foreign. Cadence grew more plant matter to shore up her leg muscles and walked out of the forest, Reiko jogging to keep up.

“W-where are we going, Rider? Didn’t you want to stay in that forest?” The young girl asked. Cadence nodded her head, then stared up at her target: A massive bridge that connected them to the city center. Looking down, Cadence saw exactly what she wanted: seaweed. The doll focused her magic into making the seaweed grow, diving lower into the rock and getting thicker as it wrapped ground the foundation pylons. The bridge was attached at each side of the river, with a steel arch truss keeping it stable.

Glancing to the right, Cadence felt the presence of a Servant. “...we have company…” Cadence said. Reiko’s eyes widened as she tried to find who Cadence was referring to. Her eyes then fell upon two faint images near the other bridge over the river.

“W-what should we do?!” Reiko squeaked. Cadence frowned and took a piece of paper and pen from her dress, penning a letter.

Cadence folded the paper and creased it, then gave it to a vine that snaked along the ground to stop at Aimon and Laura’s legs, offering the letter to them. Cadence watched intently from afar at the two’s body language.

"I-" no more than that escaped Laura's lips before she fell silent, turning into one direction, then another, something Aimon could only take note of because his Servant had materialized before him after she had ceased to speak. From a quick analysis of her body language Aimon could tell that she had noticed something significant.

"Hm?" Aimon raised an eyebrow and waited for his Servant to elaborate. "There's action happening already, both in the city and in the forest to the side. I can't quite tell if it's fighting and who'd be involved, but there's definitely stuff happening that's not normal. Guess I made a good call after all!" Laura added the last part with a grin, clearly satisfied that Aimon's wait and see approach was being proven inadequate. "Well, in that case I leave it up to you to pick our destination. There's clearly something to that instinct of yours so we may as well make good use of it." Aimon answered, seemingly not the least bit bothered by Laura's minor gloating.

Yet before his Servant managed a reply Aimon noticed something peculiar. A vine right in front of him, looking quite out of place, not least because it was standing up straight and offering him a note.


"Dear Master and Servant,



We write to you requesting a simple, cordial meeting. Master to Master, Servants stay 20 meters back. If you agree, please raise whatever weapon you possess into the air as confirmation.





Thank you,



Rider"

"Slight change of plans." Aimon said as he flicked the note over to his Servant for her to read its contents as well. "Lancer, if you would, your spear will suffice." Aimon addressed his Servant with what could only be interpreted as an order, perhaps the most obvious and direct one he'd used so far. "I don't know about trusting this sort of things..." Laura said, still not materializing her spear. "Who said anything about trust? We're investigating, probing, seeing what we can gain. Worst case scenario, you fight them. Just consider it a faster way to get what you're after."

Laura gave him a small look before materializing and raising her spear.

Aimon smiled slightly. The whole scenario was a calculated risk. A calculated risk he came up with rather quickly, but was still confident in. The Master who wrote the note was one of two things, naive or scheming. A distance of twenty meters may as well be engagement range for Servants. So either they don't know that, or they do know and wish to exploit it. If it's the former then Aimon might find some use in this Master. He wasn't necessarily looking to manipulate them, but a clueless sort would certainly be easier to direct and work with. On the other hand, if there was malicious intent behind the meeting, well he was confident enough in his own abilities to react to the situation and he rather liked the initial outlook in regards to his Servant. Laura was a Lancer, a close combat specialist, yet with more range than a Saber. She also had a shield as it happened, meaning that she had something to fall back onto if emergency defensive measures were necessary. Furthermore they were not going into this wholly blind. One of the pair, Master of Servant, had a measure of control over plant-life and if the note was sincere they'd be meeting with the Servant Rider. They were entering this with an information lead.

Mai kept charging forward, not realizing Akabane leapt over her until she crashed into a room and took a shot to the back. She let out an inhuman howl and turned toward the sister she couldn't even recognize, charging at her shoulder first.

Meanwhile, Fuji clicked his tongue when his curse was countered so easily. With the chaos his servant caused, he should've already been winning, so why were they fighting back so hard!? Just fall down and die! He brought his reinforced arms up and jumped to the side to avoid the knife, coming away with a gash in his arm and a scratch on his side, a preferable outcome to having his lung pierced. The stairs were now free if Toko and Akabane wanted to run, but Fuji didn't notice it yet, instead taking out three shadowy feathers from Pandora's box and throwing them toward his opponent. If they merely touched Toko, they would burn their silhouettes upon her skin. Bearing the Mark of Coroniae would bring Toko bad luck. Not as powerful as Fuji would like, but every feather that touched her would increase the potence of the curse.

It should have seemed strange. Out of place. An office lady running toward him in panic. Why would she do that? Berserker's rampage was destroying the floor and he was throwing darkness and feathers at someone else. He was clearly one of the people causing the chaos. Her behavior made no sense. It should have tripped so many alarms in his head, he should have jumped back or even attacked her too. But instead, he didn't even register her presence until he felt a piercing pain in his back.

"What..." He said, not fully realizing what happened. Mai on the other hand had a better grasp of the situation, at least in the sense that the sudden flare of killing intent let her know her master was in danger. She stopped her charge and jumped, massive arms outstretched, trying to grab the offender and tear her limb from limb. Neither she nor Fuji realized that he was poisoned yet.

Approaching the meeting, Aimon saw exactly what he had expected. A girl, introducing herself in a fidgety yet shy manner and a… well a Servant. Aimon had to stop himself from guessing at her identity. In his mind he had started listing figures of history and myth that could fit her but abandoned the effort when he remembered that the Servants they were granted in this Grail War were somewhat unlikely to be Heroic Spirits they would be familiar with.



“Greetings.” Aimon addressed the two women before him in a flat and neutral tone. Laura did as Rider and hung back, though not quite as far as the other Servant, she had taken up a position that was a compromise between standing behind Aimon and standing by his side. “My name is Aimon Duritt Redfox, a magus of the Clock Tower. Or rather, formerly of the Clock Tower I should say.” Aimon continued in the neutral tone. His introduction was a balancing act. Don’t give away any useful information, but make it clear he was someone of note. He glanced behind and to the side towards Laura. “And that there is my Servant… Lancer.” he added, with a slight pause when he added his Servant’s class to the conversation.



“You’re rather to the point Miss Kaneko.” Aimon observed. “But being to the point is perhaps both necessary and desirable in a situation such as this one. If you may, tell me what magecraft your family practices?” he asked with a subtle glance towards the plant life around them. “And oh, Rider was it? Can I feel that something is going on? As we’re in a Grail War right now I think I’m safe in assuming that there’s always something noteworthy going on, but I cannot say that I know any details. Mind sharing what it is that has you distressed enough to seek an impromptu alliance?”

---

“Clock Tower…” Reiko repeated in surprise. He sure looked the part of a high ranking mage. This man probably had more magic in him than her entire family put together. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a green rectangular card with strange symbols etched upon it. “Erm, we focus on card sorcery! I’m uh, sure you know of it…” Reiko muttered. She knew this was one of the weaker disciplines of magecraft, since it substituted a large pool of mana with creating these cards over time.



Cadence nodded her head, speaking up from her throne. “...Distressed is…the wrong word…” Cadence muttered. She pointed toward the nearby bridge, where traffic had ground to a standstill and hundreds of people lined the streets. “...a battle has clearly already begun…and if I am remembering correctly…there are 7 teams. If two are fighting, and we’re here…” She glanced at Aimon. “...would it not improve our chances of winning by working together…?” She asked, putting the pipe back up to her lips.

---

“I see. That will suffice.” Aimon said with a nod after Reiko had produced her cards. He didn’t think much of the magecraft himself, but he cast no further judgment on the magus before him. He had left the Clock Tower precisely to avoid that mindset. “Let none say that I’m a conceited mage-upstart who doesn’t respond in kind when negotiating with others as equals.” he said before producing his Ars Astralogia and expanding it ever-so slightly. He held it out in front of himself for Reiko and Rider to see. A light blue translucent sphere with a myriad silver, azure, violet and gold stars, dancing and chasing each other as miniscule dots. “I’ve been taught Astormancy by some of the “lesser” Animuspheres, those who could spare the time and had the willingness to entertain an outsider. Since then I’ve been devoted to the craft as this Mystic Code is proof of that.” as he finished speaking the Astralogia collapsed onto itself, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. “I believe you now know of me, as much as I know of you.” he added before turning his attention towards the Servant. “I can’t disagree with what you’re saying, but at the same time all of that would be true at any other point of the war and would hold true for any ally you managed to snatch up. Berserker, Caster, Saber, what does it matter if strength in numbers is all there is to it?” he supplied with a slightly sardonic smile. He couldn’t help but feel that Rider was trying to make up for her Master’s somewhat timid nature and was seeking safety in alliance. It wasn’t necessarily a bad deal for him. He had been worried at the start that the Servant would do all the talking, but the girl magus had been respectable enough to approach him herself, that was good enough for him.



“Ah… one more thing. Perhaps more important than anything discussed so far. The Grail, what do you seek to gain from pursuing it?”

---

Reiko and Cadence watched the strange sphere with interest, Reiko only barey understanding what Astromancy even was. But she sucked in air, staring at the magus with determination. “I…want to win to help my family! They have been losing magic ability for a while…and the Grail can make us respected again!” She said, eyes sparkling. Rider pondered her response longer. She knew exactly what she wanted…but would that be revealing too much?



“...A second chance…” Cadence said flatly. They appear to have been honest so far, and it wasn’t like this revealed much. “And you…?”

---

“Ah. I see.” Aimon said in a somewhat surprised tone. It wasn’t that Reiko’s wish caught him off guard because it was unusual, but rather because of how familiar it sounded. He could picture them in his mind, the dozens if not hundreds of washed up magi, Clock Tower hopefuls and students who barely managed to get into a class. If they were to know of Reiko Kaneko right now, all their prayers and wishes for successes would be with her, a shared dream of recognition. In his heart of hearts Aimon couldn’t help but find it pathetic. In a way it reminded him of what ran away from when he had left the Clock Tower. Nevertheless, he wouldn’t hold it against the girl. It was somewhat difficult to picture her as a groveling Clock Tower serf doing all they could just to rise up out of the sea of mediocre magi. As much as the wish itself was objectionable her demeanor and attitude about it was fine if a bit naive.



“I don’t think it’s a wish anyone would hold against you.” Aimon added. He also nodded at the wish supplied by the Servant. It was simple enough to understand, and quite frankly he felt like these entities from another world were just a bit too far removed for him to truly read into whatever wish they might have. “Well, you’re in luck. As it happens, I do not have a wish for the Grail. I am more interested in the war itself. The process if you will. What happens. The people it attracts. I want to see it carried out to the end and be a witness to it. If I’m to gain something in the end, I suppose I’d call it insight. Astronomy is my forte after all, consider it an obsession with fate and destiny if you must.” Aimon finished explaining his wish or rather his lack thereof.

He looked over towards his Servant and gave her a nod. Laura in turn crossed her arms and shook her head. “Eh, pass.” she said. Aimon raised an eyebrow but decided to not press her on it. It wouldn’t do him any good to gain one ally, but then lose another in his Servant. “As you can see Lancer isn’t the talkative type. I hope you’ll be able to tolerate that much. I’ll see that I make it up to you in some manner.” he appeared to be ready to say something else but then turn around and walked up to his Servant, talking with her for a moment in secrecy. “It’s somewhat clumsy to have to do it this way, but I take it you have no objection to us cooperating with them?” he asked his Servant, wanting her input and final approval to go through with this.



“Yeah sure, I don’t see an issue with calling this an alliance or whatever. Just don’t expect me to trust those two blindly. Or trust you blindly for that matter. Though… there’s one more thing we need to talk about but I guess now’s not the time nor place for that.” Laura finished, her arms still crossed.



“Very well.” Aimon said with a nod and then turned around. He was making many promises today and he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that. “Master Aimon and Servant Lancer accept your proposal to form an alliance.”

---

The decision made Reiko’s eyes sparkle. “Really?! I-I mean, I am glad to form this team with you, Mr. Redfox! Lady Lancer!” She said excitedly. There was an actual Clock Tower mage helping them now, something her family could only dream of going to! Cadence had a more muted response, shifting her throne to approach Reiko and wrap a vine around her, pulling her up next to her once more.



“...well done…” She muttered to her Master, Reiko’s jaw dropping in surprise. “I-it was partly your help too, Rider! But thank you!” She reached over and hugged the plant doll once more. Cadence stood still as a corpse, but gave her back 2 pats. Her attention then turned to the others.



“...I look forward to working with you both…” She said flatly. Cadence didn’t trust these two in the slightest…but she had to play nice if she wanted to survive this death game.