Cross-posting my fic that I've been working on for a while so it's easier to find it among my works. The prologue's length is not a gauge as to the rest of the chapters' length.
Summary: Nine mages summon Servants into the Holy War… some purposely, some on accident.
Theme Lyrics: Is there anybody out there trying to get through?/My eyes are so cloudy I can’t see you/Look now, look all around/There’s no sign of life/Voices, another sound/Can you hear me now?This is planet earth/You’re looking at planet earth.
( Continue? )
She clutched her hands to her chest as she began the incantation, reaching her hand out as she finished the incantation. “I doth proclaim… thou shalt come before me. My fate is with thy sword. Obeyest the summons of the Holy Grail… if thou obeyest my will and reason… then answer my call! I hereby pledge that I shall be all that is good throughout eternity and I shall suppress all that is evil throughout eternity. Thou, the Seventh Heaven, clad in the Great Trinity of Language-emerge from the circle of constraint, Guardian of the Scales!” The summoning circle flashed of a brilliant light, and as she squinted through the light, she saw the figure she had summoned.
A man clad in golden armor with golden hair to match and piercing red eyes stood before her with his arms crossed. “Answer, mongrel. Are you the Master who summoned me?” he commanded in a voice that could shake anyone caught off-guard. A moment of silence passed between the two. “Are you?”
The woman curtsied, pulling the length of her skirt and wide as she could allow. “That, I am… King of Heroes. I am Beatrice Castiglioni, from the Ushiromiya clan of mages. You may address me however you wish, although I give you permission to call me Beato,” She rose to her feet. “You are free to do as you wish, my Archer, though I ask only in return for your assistance if I am in danger in this Holy Grail War.” A red mark appeared on her right hand, and she kept up her usual demeanor as she offered her hand to him. “Would you accompany on a nightly walk, so we can survey our battleground?”
With a bemused look on his face, the Archer took her hand, and walked with her outside, changing his clothes into a casual attire. “I do hope that for your sake, Beato, that this world is as charming as you are.”
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A young man with silver hair was shuffling a deck of tarot cards, imbuing each one with a defensive or offensive essence into them. “The coins suite… this could mean a great fortune is upon me,” he chuckled, and placed them in a pentagram formation to finish imbuing them with his power. “I place a part of my Persona into these cards…” He gathered the cards up and squeezed them in his hands, and much to his surprise, a light much brighter than his magic flashed.
When the light subsided, a blond boy with green eyes holding a scythe stood on the table he had been using to fuse his cards. “I ask of thou… art thou the Master who summoned me?” The boy asked as he pointed his scythe at the silver-haired man.
He rubbed the back of his head, not quite sure how to answer. “If I’m to be honest… I believe I did summon you, but I wasn’t even trying to summon anything…” The younger-looking boy set the scythe down, and laughed. “Hey… I didn’t mean to… what are you, if I may ask? My name’s Narukami Yu.”
The scythe-wielding boy picked up one of the cards of the coin suite. “I am a Rider-class Servant of the Holy Grail War. It seems to be your coin fusion that summoned me, Master Yu, as that’s my primary motivation for ferrying the dead across the Styx. You must be a pretty powerful mage to summon me without an incantation. So I’ll gladly serve you in this Holy Grail War.”
Yu smiled sheepishly as red marks appeared on his right hand. “I’m quite afraid to ask… but could you take some time to explain it to me…?”
“Ohhhhh dear….” Rider only proceeded to stare at his master with an overwhelmed expression as he began his lengthy explanation.
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The sound of a wheelchair creaked in the large but certainly not empty mansion, and the young green-haired girl in it moved her chair to the summoning circle she had convinced her friends (more correctly her pawns) to draw for her. She was capable of walking, but her legs only occasionally could support the weight of her body after what her family had done to her. She clenched the immortal feather in her hand tightly, and took a moment to snarl in hatred. “Monaca will make them pay.” She smiled before she dropped the feather in the center of the circle, and stuck her hand out, as if to reach for the Servant she was summoning.
“ I declare… you shall come before me. My fate is with your sword. Obey the summons of the Holy Grail… if you obey my will and reason… then answer my call! I hereby pledge that I shall be all that is good throughout eternity and I shall suppress all that is evil throughout eternity. You, the Seventh Heaven, clad in the Great Trinity of Language-emerge from the circle of constraint, Guardian of the Scales!” A pillar of light shot up through the house, and when it subsided, a silver-haired woman with one wing and red eyes stared at Monaca, and the woman held her hand over her mouth. “You’re Avenger-chan, right? Monaca is happy to see you!!” Monaca squealed in excitement.
The Avenger-class Servant bowed before her young Master, and took the young girl’s hand. “I am. I am of the Avenger Class, and you are my Master, Lady Monaca. I will do all I can to assure that what you seek is achieved, Milady.” She glanced around the room for a moment. “… It seems that as a Servant, my ability to twist the world to the opposite of what I say is removed. Then I truly can serve you. You may call me Sagume if you like, although it would be best if you called me by my class name outside of your home.”
Monaca turned her chair around. “All right, Sagume-chan. Monaca is tired… so can you take me to bed and watch over me…?” Her demeanor had turned rather apprehensive, and Avenger found herself lifting her Master out of her chair to take the girl to her room. “Thank you… Sagume-chan…”
Avenger stroked Monaca’s hair. “I know not what you fear… but I’ll protect you from that fear, Milady Monaca.”
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A man with silver hair stood by the pier of Fuyuki City, taking a brief moment to inhale the salty taste on the air. Behind him was the summoning circle he’d drawn, and a hand rested on his shoulder. He had been quite unsure if his thing had worked, so he hadn’t even checked if he’d summoned the right Servant or not for this war, but a quick look at the owner of the hand on his shoulder put his worries at ease. He found himself face-to-face with a young-looking woman with short orange hair and blue eyes, clad in a dress of purple. “I ask of thee… are you my Master?”
His heart skipped several beats to the point that be backed up and nearly started to go over the railing into the pier. “Y-yeah, I’m your Master…!” he stammered out. “… Damn… I’ve heard the legends that the sorceress Circe was beautiful, but… I’m quite honestly surprised… I pulled it off, summoning a beautiful Caster as my Servant…” he started laughing. “I, Bakura Ayamiya, have pulled it off!”
The Caster-class servant crossed her arms. “Are you dim-witted or something? Of course you pulled it off. I may be known only in history as the Sorceress Odysseus overcame, but I’m at least powerful enough to be considered for the position of Caster. Do you want me to turn you into swine to prove that I’m Circe?”
Bakura waved his hands frantically at her. “No, that won’t be necessary, my beautiful Caster. L-let’s return back to my place. I’m gonna need some rest so we can decide strategies in the morning.” He felt a blush creeping up on his face as she linked her arm with his. “Caster, is that really necessary…?”
Caster rested her head on his shoulder. “I’d rather cling to you than lose my Master. Even if you might be a fool, you’ve definitely got me amused, so it’ll be a pleasure to serve you.” She looked up at him and smirked. “I see you are weak to my beauty.”
“O-Of course I am!!” he protested. “I summoned one of the world’s most beautiful sorceresses in history! How can you expect me to not be charmed by you, Caster?!” He covered his face with his free hand.
Caster rubbed her head against his shoulder. “I will have the most fun serving you, Bakura.”
“D-don’t just suddenly call me by my name like that…!”
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A particularly muscular man with dark hair smiled as he finished up the summoning circle he had drawn in the courtyard of his family’s summer home. He set down the ancient and surprisingly not destroyed manuscript from the year 1120 in the center of the circle, and chanted the usual invocation for summoning a Heroic Spirit. A bright light flashed, and once it subsided, he lowered his hand from his eyes to gaze upon the woman in the center of the circle.
“Answer me. Are you my Master?” the green-haired, white dress-clad woman asked of the man, clutching a book to her chest. The man nodded and held his hand out to her. “May I ask the name of the Master who summoned me into the Ruler class?”
The man helped her out of the summoning circle. “My name is Jonathan, Jonathan Joestar. I attend a college in England for Archeology, but I’m here in Japan for the Holy Grail War. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ruler!” He added a bit softly, “I had been expecting a man, since you were written down in history as a man, but I’m fine with a woman as a Servant. Especially a Saint like yourself!”
Ruler looked over her Master with a gentle smile. “History, as I’ve known, tends to overwrite things. I’m quite pleased to have a Master like you, if I’m to be summoned into this war.” She looked a bit uneasy for a moment. “… If I’m being summoned into this war, that means that somebody else summoned an Avenger… worry not, though, as whatever your wish for the Holy Grail, I will defeat all opposition to grant that wish, Master Jonathan.”
Jonathan led her into the house to get out of the elements. “You can just call me Jonathan. ‘Master’ reminds me of growing up with my adoptive brother too much. You’re welcome to eat and drink anything you like, and you can sleep in any of the rooms… well, except for mine. I already have someone back home I would rather share a bed with,” he said with a sheepish smile. “… Is that too obscene for me to say to a saint?”
Ruler laughed softly. “It’s all right to have someone you love, and what I may believe has most likely changed over the years. I once aided Dante through Heaven after he witnessed many things, so such things don’t bother me.”
Jonathan quickly hugged her. “Well, I’m happy to have a Servant like you, Ruler. I’ll see you in the morning!” He headed off to his bedroom, and Ruler stood in the hall with an astonished expression on her face before ducking into a room for the night.
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Out of a summoning circle stepped a red-haired and red-eyed girl with a large lance, and she locked eyes with the red-eyed, brown-haired boy before her. “Answer me. Are you my Master?” She demanded as she pointed her spear at him.
He touched one of his gloved hands to his mouth. “That I am. I’m Goro Akechi, the Master who summoned you for this Grail War. You definitely seem to be the Lancer I intended to summon. I suppose it wasn’t such a bad idea to do the ritual out in the forest. Still, as someone who believes strongly in science… this is quite ironic.” He turned around and motioned for her to follow him.
Lancer put her spear on her shoulder and followed Goro out of the forest. “You say you’re a man of science… so are you a mathematician or a scientist, Master?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing like that. I’m actually a detective, Lancer. I would have thought that when you were summoned into this era, you would have received knowledge that the world is rapidly advancing with science and technology. Crime is investigated and punished with technology using science these days,” he remarked as he adjusted his tie. They finally reached a small house on the outskirts of the forest, and he invited his Servant inside. “I should probably ask… when we win, what do you wish to do with the Holy Grail, Lancer?”
Lancer sat herself in the first chair she spotted, and put her spear in spirit form. “Nothing in particular. I’d just like to have a particularly good battle in this war. I’m glad you’re confident about getting the Grail, though. A feeble-minded Master would piss me off greatly. What is your wish for the Grail, Master Goro?”
Goro cautiously took a seat across from her. “It has a lot to do with my current standing in life. But if I could do something about with my father, I’d really appreciate the Grail’s help in that. All we need to do is crush a mere eight other Servants, and both our wishes will be granted.”
Lancer looked around the room for a moment. “Yeah, no problem, I’ve got no problem with that. It’s another silly wish of mine, but I’d also love to sample as many foods of this era as possible. Valkyrie work is really demanding, and if you don’t eat enough, you won’t be able to do your tasks.”
Goro found himself smiling with amusement. “Right, right. In the morning, we can go to a cafe or something, but right now, I’ve just got ice cream, rice, and fruit. Help yourself.”
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In the basement of a large mansion, a young girl with dark hair struck a dramatic pose as she was finishing her summoning ritual. “Thou, the Seventh Heaven, clad in the Great Trinity of Language-emerge from the circle of constraint, Guardian of the Scales!” she declared, and a bright light engulfed the basement. The wings on her costume finished flapping as the light subsided, and to her surprise, a woman with curly blonde hair and blue eyes in a seductive outfit had appeared in the circle. “It… it worked… Yohane is truly a fallen angel!!”
The blonde woman laughed as she touched her lips. “Art thou the Master who summoned me, young lady?” She asked as she took a step towards the younger girl, who stumbled over her grimoire on the floor and fell on her behind.
“Yes! I, Yohane, not Yoshiko, am your Master, Berserker!” She tried to declare proudly, and tried to strike another pose. After a moment of silence, she took her Berserker’s hand and stood back up. “I’m of one of the great Magus families-or rather, my spirit as Yohane the fallen angel was reborn into the body of their daughter! My magic power is truly beyond compare, now!”
Berserker just smiled, almost mockingly, at her Master. “Whatever you say. I’ll call you Yohane if you so wish. It’s quite different having a young girl as my Master, but I don’t mind. It’s nice to have a Master I shouldn’t seduce, and you remind me of the child I had left behind when I was caught.” Yohane led Berserker back up into the house. “Do you know if your family has a large wine collection? It’s difficult for me to enjoy life if I can’t have some wine.”
Yohane plucked the feather out of her little bun on her head. “I believe so! Though… I am quite surprised… for a Berserker, you don’t seem to devoid of reason… Yohane doesn’t see it as a bad thing, though.”
Berserker began to rummage through the cabinets of the kitchen for wine. “You’ll see why I’m Berserker class in battle, Yohane. It’ll be a lesson to you that as a woman, your anger is something people should fear,” she spoke in a singsong voice as she pulled out two wine glasses and a bottle of wine. “Would you like some, Yohane?”
Yohane looked around frantically, and nodded. “I… I’ve never had wine before, but I’d certainly like to try it! I’m fifteen, so it shouldn’t be a problem!!”
“Fifteen? In my day, we were drinking from a much younger age,” Berserker laughed as she poured some wine for her Master. “Times really have changed.”
——————
After chanting the spell for the summoning of a Heroic Spirit-though in the case of this summon, the name didn’t truly fit-a man with dark hair who was dressed in a wrinkled suit with a red surprisingly well-taken-care-of tie channeled his magic into the circle, and a bright light flashed. A man with blond hair in a much nicer suit had appeared, and he regarded the other male much like one would if they were passing a random person on the street. “I ask of you… are you my Master?” He asked in a surprisingly polite tone.
The dark-haired man stumbled back, falling on the pavement of the parking garage he had performed the summoning in. “Y-yeah… duh, I’m Tohru Adachi, and I’m your Master, Assassin…” His normal change of speech had changed back to the casual tone he preferred to use. “Ah, sorry. Well, welcome to Fuyuki City, Assassin…” Assassin still stood in the circle, so Adachi got up on his own. “Let’s go back to my apartment. It’s a lot quieter than in the main city.”
The mentions of quiet seemed to intrigue Assassin. “Very well. I much prefer quiet, myself. It allows me to plan wisely for my kills.” He began to follow Adachi. “… Master, I do hate to complain, but should you look so wrinkled? The way you dress, you seem the type to wear your socks inside out, and that level of slobbery is something I can’t tolerate. You would stand out.”
Adachi clenched his teeth, but kept walking. “I don’t have time to iron my clothes every day. I work as a detective… maybe while I’m at work, you could do that for me.”
“I just may, Master…” A glance back revealed to Adachi that Assassin was smirking, and a pang of questionable emotions rang through his body.
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Late into the night, a young artist was reading through some of his reference books to get a better idea of how to work vampires into a subplot in his manga. In his hand, he held a journal he’d bought that the seller had claimed belonged to a vampire hunter, and he applied some of his innate magic ability to the journal, mostly to see what it’d do to the journal. “How now, slayer of the vampire? Do you intend to show yourself?” The journal gave off a brilliant light that knocked him off his feet.
A woman with red hair clutching a sword stepped out of the light. “Answer me… are you my Master?” She asked as she pointed the sword at him. Not wanting to be stabbed, he nodded quickly. “Very well. Then I, Saber, shall destroy whatever stands in your way to win the Holy Grail. What is your name?”
The artist rubbed his eyes. “I’m Rohan Kishibe… what the hell… did I actually… summon a vampire hunter…? The Holy Grail? Saber? I have no clue.”
Saber sheathed her sword and picked up the notebook on the floor. “It seems… I was summoned by someone who doesn’t even know about the Holy Grail War… and I can’t… remember my true name… It’s not the worst situation to be in…” She knelt next to Rohan, smiling as she tossed the notebook. “Well, that has nothing to do with you or me for right now, Master… or would you prefer for me to call you something like Praetor, or Rohan-sama?” she asked him excitedly, holding her hand out to him to help him up.
“Praetor is just fine.” He sat up, taking her hand so he wouldn’t fall again, and he noted that red marks resembling a weird tattoo had formed on his hand. “So… Saber isn’t your real name… What is that Holy Grail War thing you were talking about? I’ve read the legends about it, but didn’t think it even existed.” Hey eyed the sheathed sword. “Were you some kind of valiant knight who slew vampires or something then, Saber?”
Saber laughed softly. “Oh, no, though slaying vampires does sound familiar to me. Anyway, humans with magical potential summon Heroic Spirits into this world, and those humans become our Masters. We Spirits and our Masters then must destroy the other Heroic Spirits, and we can claim the Grail. You could also destroy the Masters, but it’s not a requirement, Praetor. There are many classes of Heroic Spirits, and of the main seven, they say the Saber is the most powerful of all… but a Servant can only go so far if their Master doesn’t have strong magic ability.” She made her sword vanish and threw her arms around him for a surprise hug. “I don’t believe that’ll be a problem, though, Praetor!”
Rohan quickly tried to pull her off him. “Get off, Saber! Personal space!” He gave her another disapproving look. “Aren’t you being too friendly and touchy-feely, Saber?”
Saber rubbed her cheek against Rohan’s. “Not at all. You remind me of someone I must have felt affection for! Plus… with how much Mana I consume, and you don’t seem the type to have built up the amount of stamina needed to keep me filled with Mana… so you’ve got one of three options!”
“By your excitement, I doubt I’m going to like any of them, Saber,” Rohan groaned. “The things I do for references…”
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