It was a warm summer night in Redrock. The streets were not empty, but the people on them were sparse. While it was not a small town, it was not an enormous city, either. It was a location that straddled the line between town and city, and therefore the nightlife was also a reflection of this. Some people were out on the streets, and yet many remained in their homes. This night was ideal for the beginning. There were many locations in which someone who desired to remain unseen could inhabit. The forest outside of Redrock. The burnt-out remains of the Rickert mansion in the North, left as a monument to the tragic deaths that had occurred there. The unseen catacombs beneath the city that were as old as the nation. For tonight was the beginning of something that the relatively peaceful town of Redrock had never before encountered. Tonight would be the beginning of a battle that had once thought to have been silenced, but was no longer.

Tonight was the beginning of the battle that would decide who claimed the omnipotent wish-granting machine known as the Holy Grail.

Redrock's old Church, an impressive building based upon the gothic style of architecture, housed a foreign representative of the Catholic Church this night. And for many nights after this, indeed. She sat quietly. Naturally, she was prepared to meet each and every team that would be informing her of their participation. There were already some who had registered as such.

The blue-haired Executor let out a small sigh.

She was without a meal, and it would be a long night.

---

She had prepared in advance.

The last remaining member of the Varianbec family, their homunculus heir, had prepared a great deal for this night. It could be said that this night was part of the reason for her existence. At the moment, the small, tan-skinned girl was in the bath. It was a bit of routine before she would embark on her next mission. That mission was a simple one, and it was one that the girl with silvery hair had absolute confidence in her ability to fulfill.

She would crush the enemy masters. She would ensure their Servants were destroyed. To Estelle Varianbec, this was almost a foregone conclusion.

It wasn't simply due to her capabilities as a magus, though those were, of course, quite considerable. Estelle felt she could effortlessly outdo almost any other mage who would be participating. Why ever would she believe anything else? But no, as she emerged from the water, her maids quickly hurrying to dry her off and clothe her, her mind went to her true weapon. Her victory.

Her Servant.

She had summoned her two weeks prior, her catalyst performing its function... well... almost perfectly. It had been obtained for her by her family, who had left it behind for just this purpose. Wherever they had disappeared to, Estelle was thankful for the gift. When she had summoned her, the weight on her mana supply was tangible, but did not greatly impact her vast stores of magical energy. She would be able to operate at full capacity quite easily regardless of how long she stayed corporeal.

For there was, truly, no question of her victory.

Her last item of clothing, a large bow, was secured on her neck.

"Do be careful, Lady Varianbec," implored one of her many maids, bowing to her as she left the baths.

Naturally, Estelle felt such concern was simply unnecessary.

"You shouldn't worry," she said, brightly, "The only ones in danger are the enemy. I'm sure I'll crush someone tonight!"

With a cheery laugh, Estelle proceeded out of the room.

It was time.

"Berserker," she began, "Are you ready to destroy them all?"

Tonight, the Holy Grail War would begin.

@Rin@Raineh Daze@KoL@PKMNB0Y@Anza@King Cosmos

The flight to Redrock had, surprisingly enough, gone without incident. It was a miracle to the woman who, now lying prone on her bed in the middle of her hotel room, though that something terrifying would happen en route, and that she would somehow accidentally end up among the deceased before any of this had begun. There were enough movies and shows that she knew of the idea of a 'battle royale', even putting aside those games that her clients' children found all the rage these days, but with that knowledge had also come some rather lofty expectations.

"Aaah... It hasn't even been a day since I've arrived and the jet lag is draining me of all my willpower..." she moaned to herself, fumbling to pull out the few pieces of paper that her mother had (hastily) written on before her flight. It was a summary of the ritual that was to be used for the sake of summoning a Servant to fight alongside, one that Astrid honestly was still trying to figure out. She couldn't argue about the supernatural, though; after all, her body was proof enough that it did exist.

After a few minutes of contemplating sleep, Astrid finally managed to push herself off of the bed and ordering a cup of coffee from room service. It was late, after all, and trying to find a chain coffee store open at this time of night was, frankly put, a dumb idea.

---

With a warm paper cup of coffee now in hand, Astrid silently slipped out of the hotel and made her way off to some deserted area in the forest nearby. There was a brief hesitation as she reached a clearing, but that was soon brushed out of mine as the woman slowly began to pace around, dropping stones engraved with runes around the perimeter. Each shone with an otherwordly light as she moved to the center and, with a complicated expression, began to copy the circle her mother described onto the earth below.

With that settled, Astrid began to recite the chant written out for her, slowly causing the mana in the air to twist and bend around her. All at once, the half-Valkyrie felt a familiar presence in front of her, though it was quite distinct from what she knew. She faltered for a moment, worried about what the end result could be, before simply deciding to continue; she had quite literally shed blood to complete this, after all.

As the summoning finished, though, what stood before Astrid was a white-haired woman wielding a lance, and her response at this point was almost instinctual in nature.

"E-elder sister? No, aunt? Wait, what am I saying?!"

@KoL

Most Masters would probably not be sat on a park bench when the war was due to start, wondering about where they were going to spend the night--or more likely the day, if Assassin was correct. But here Ami was, having only barely managed to get onto a flight and to Redrock and now giving the convenience store sushi she'd found (it was at least somewhat familiar) a frown. This small package represented the last of the money she'd managed to bring here...

At least there were no awkward stares going to her uniform now, like there had been earlier in the day. It wasn't that she'd forgotten about it standing out in another country so much as... not had chance to go home and change. Clothes that didn't stand out represented another use of money that she didn't have.

"What do you think we should do, Assassin...?"

---

Whilst one Master pondered how to buy clothes, one of the war's Servants was busy rifling through a costume shop for a hat. She knew it was here somewhere; this had played out the exact same way every time before. Ah, there it was, somewhat obscured by a magician's top hat... and with that, her witch look was complete.

Now to just wait for the tell-tale pull of her Master's summon. Another thing that only varied by a matter of seconds at this stage in the war...

"Um, well..."

There were a number of things that had been totally unexpected when she was initially summoned. The fact that she'd been summoned to Japan was a pleasant surprise, though she was aware the war was not to be occurring there(upon arriving in America she was no longer able to use her flag, and it felt a little harder to breathe). Arriving in the US without any sort of base of operations, however, was not. A battle couldn't be fought without somewhere to fight it from. Constantly being on the street, on the run as vagabonds, wouldn't do well for either of them. Especially her Master. While Assassin herself was capable of entering spirit form and using little to no resources(something she wasn't too eager to do, but would do if her Master needed to) the silvery-haired girl was well aware even as... well, she wasn't a Magus exactly, was she? The girl samurai didn't know anything about magecraft, but she could tell that her Master wasn't really a magus. But she also wasn't a totally mundane human, given she could summon and support a Servant.

Still, that didn't mean being out on the street was a good idea at all. Seated beside her Master, Assassin looked thoughtful.

"Well... we need to find some place to stay, first!" she declared, with a firm nod, "It's important to have somewhere to work out of, and to rest. As a Servant I don't need to sleep, but you certainly do, Master."

Assassin folded her arms across her chest, nodding in a self-satisfied fashion.

"Once we do that, we can start planning out next course of action! I definitely want to try that ice cream stuff by the way, Master."

@Raineh Daze

North of Redrock, a tall shadow strode through the charred ruins of a fallen mansion, bearing a long black case sealed tight with silver clasps.

Past the crumbling walls he walked, sleek black shoes crunching over blackened fragments that might have been ruined furniture, or perhaps human remains. It wasn't as if anyone could tell at this stage, and the figure didn't seem to care, grinding all beneath him to dust as he made his way to the southernmost edge of the wreckage, where tall windows had once provided a charming view of Redrock and its environs. The glass was long gone, now, but the perspective remained.

The figure crouched, setting down his box and clicking open the clasps one by one.

As he pulled open the lid, its contents were revealed: small, black-feathered forms, cold and silent in death. Each one was a work of art, born of intensive practice and meticulous reconstruction. Any magus worth their circuits could cobble together familiars from animal corpses and captured spirits, but here the bodies had been stitched and preserved with such care that, but for their stillness, they were virtually indistinguishable from living crows.

Their creator stood, and spread his arms, and they burst free from their resting place. Flapping, flapping, catching the winds and dispersing in all directions. And in their wake a deep laugh echoed through the ruins, as Kazamyr watched his eyes and ears take flight.

---

Wars didn't begin with their beginnings.

Histories might speak of grand declarations, of armies marching forth from open gates in gleaming, deadly formation. Were one to ask the tacticians, however, they would say otherwise. For a war to begin you had to have forces raised and gathered, weapons forged and stocked, maps drawn and plans made and chains of command established. War required purpose, preparation, foundations to be established well before any true commencement of hostilities.

This war was no exception. Different in its means and methods, perhaps, but the core principles remained the same. Which was why Kazamyr had been readying himself from the moment he'd heard of the Grail's existence.

And why, he suspected, the most unprepared Masters would be first to fall.

Crows perched on high vantages and flew overhead, most natural, others not. Those Masters who had seen fit to hide away indoors or conceal their presence altogether would evade their sight for now, yet on the night of the Grail War's formal beginning, some had already revealed themselves.

A girl in the woods, drawing runes that glowed with ethereal light as she conducted her summoning. A light caught by beady eyes concealed amidst the trees, eyes that instantly discerned the presence of magecraft.

Another young woman, sitting on a park bench with a companion. Her uniform stood out like a sore thumb even in a crowd, and already a black-feathered shadow was innocently perched on a lamppost nearby, silently eavesdropping on her conversation.

Any magus so foolish as to visit the church, if they squinted hard, might catch a small lump crouched on the rooftop, watching and waiting for any sign of approach.

Leaning back on the leather seat of a small black car, quietly squirreled away in an open-air lot near the town center, Kazamyr grinned.

"Found them."

He'd taken care to conceal his presence in the city, arriving by bus and taking care to avoid standing out. His registration, such as it was, had been sent to the church a week past in the form of a long and obnoxiously cryptic letter. And his illustrious companion, his weapon in this war of magic and skullduggery, had been summoned early and well out of sight, with the aid of a small shard of ivory supposedly broken from the tusk of an elephant ridden by Hannibal himself.

"Lancer's in the woods, and Assassin's not far from here. Could be easy marks if we take them by surprise, but the others haven't shown their faces yet..."

He turned, smiling blithely at an unseen confidant. "So, what does the master tactician say? Think you could take one down if we give it a shot?"

@King Cosmos@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@PKMNB0Y

A cheery humming sound echoed through the cavernous chambers somewhere deep in the catacombs below the city of Redrock. In any normal night it would already be weird to find someone this deep, in a place where most of the malignant, hateful wraiths gathered giving it a well-deserved reputation as a dangerously haunted location; the fact that someone not only did come here out of their own volition but also hummed a cheery tune while using a carved bone to draw a magic circle in the earth was basically unimaginable.

“There, this should do it, DEATH!” Kirsi said to herself as she finished covering the summoning circle with the contents of a few bloodpacks that she acquired not long after her arrival at Redrock. As soon as she was done with her preparations, Kirsi placed an yellowed piece of paper, a page of the original recordings of the Salem Trials, in the center of the candle lit room.

With this last step done, Kirsi began the summoning ritual. She didn’t have any idea what would happen if she failed with this, but if she succeeded, victory was pretty much certain. After all, there’s no way anyone else would get a better Servant to fight a Holy Grail War in America, right?

“Come to me, Caster!”


A powerful gust sweeped away the aether that lingered in the air as soon as Kim finished her ritual, revealing the beautiful form of the Servant she called forth. Lancer’s armor shone like pure silver under the moonlight and her hair swayed in the nightly breeze as she turned her attention to the person before her.

“I, Servant Lancer, have answered your summ— Uh… sister?” she said in a surprised voice. Lancer was taken aback by the other woman’s excitement before she could even introduce herself properly and seal their contract. However, after taking a moment to look over her Master again (or better, to notice the familiar feeling emanating from her), Lancer understood it.

“I see, so you are one of us as well. At least in part,” Lancer said said in an introspective voice. “In fact, the more I look at you the more you remind me of ‘him’. Before we go any further, answer me: Why is it that you called me, Master?” she added, raising a hand to her chest as she felt it tighten suddenly. She could only that her Master’s answer was a proper one, after all, Lancer didn’t want to go through the pain of killing someone she loved once again.

But, if she had to...

Thomas instructed the bellboy to place his suitcases just inside the doorway before dismissing the hotel employee with a moderate tip. Walking deeper into the suite the Magus turned around slowly and took in the appearance of what was to become his workshop for the foreseeable future; the lavish penthouse apartment was a bit more extravagant than he was comfortable with, not to mention far too expensive, but in this situation it was far more important to choose a location for its security than comfort.

Walking over to the window which covered one wall of the room Thomas gazed out over the city; Redrock was a far cry from London, but it was larger than he had expected it to be during his research. His rented apartment dominated the entire top floor of a hotel in one of the more upscale areas of this small, forgotten slice of America. Why such a place needed a luxurious hotel like this he didn’t know, from what he had seen on his arrival business was hardly booming for them, but ultimately it was of little concern; he would just count it as a little bit of good fortune that it was here and also that the penthouse was currently uninhabited.

Turning away from the window he returned to his suitcases and selected the smaller of the two, carrying it over to a coffee table and placing it down on its side. He undid the clasps and flipped it open, swiftly beginning to remove various implements, parcels and packages from its interior; he had much work to do to prepare for the upcoming war. It would take some time to make this place into a suitable workshop, much to be done before he could consider it even remotely safe from attack or detection. Much to be done; at the very least he wanted to establish the basic defences before nightfall.

He began with the bounded fields, focusing on making them undetectable rather than powerful; he had other methods of protection to rely on, ones that would not act as a beacon to anyone with the means of detecting magecraft, so he opted for subtlety over brute force. Hiding his presence was the more important than layering defences. A field to avert the eyes and make the penthouse seem uninteresting, a field to mask the use of any magecraft happening inside, a field which would hopefully go undetected for the duration of this war.

With that done he moved on to other business. He would strengthen the field later, when he had more time; the field had taken some time to establish and outside the sky was already turning orange as the sun began its descent. Luckily the next few steps were simple and quickly performed so long as the necessary preparations were made beforehand, which he had of course done; simple, but no less effective for it. A Witch’s Bottle crafted and hidden somewhere in the apartment, a device to attract the effects of any curses or debilitating magecraft aimed at his person while inside his workshop, a Witch’s Ball to thwart any attempts at scrying or divination, ensuring that anyone who sought to peek inside would see only a mirrored reflection of themselves staring back at them.

These early stages of the Grail War were perhaps the most hazardous and the most crucial; entering into the battlefield with no workshop, no knowledge of your opponents and with some of the greatest heroes in history as your adversaries. How you spent your time here could make the difference between life and death in the long run. A Magus was nothing without the proper preparation after all.

It was in his favour then, that he had already performed the most important action before leaving the UK.

“Archer; prepare yourself. Tonight we are going hunting.”

@PKMNB0Y

----

In response to his master’s question Rider materialised in the passenger seat, the leather covering creaking under the sudden weight. Anyone peering through the windows would have seen quite an odd sight as Rider had yet to don clothing suitable for this era and was still wearing his armour and leopard skin cloak; at least he had forgone his crested helmet for the moment. Rather than answer Kazamyr immediately Rider spent a moment peering through the windscreen, his hard gaze not focused on anything in particular, as though deep in thought.

“I believe I am at a disadvantage in this war in a number of ways. Unlike many heroes I was never known for my own strength of arms, it was my strategy and my army that made me famous; in this war, deprived of my army as I am, if I were to try to engage one of the more combat oriented classes like Saber or Lancer directly, I would likely fail.” There was no fear or bitterness in the words, merely a calm and patient analysis of one’s own abilities. “The forest is not a favourable battleground for us; the trees will impede the movement of my elephants and give the enemy too many chances to flee. If Assassin is truly out in the open we should target them as a priority; given the way they operate we may not see them again until their knives are at our throats. However we should be cautious. I do not think an assassin would let themselves to be caught so easily; they may be trying to lure us into a trap, using themselves as the bait. Stay hidden, and let me face them alone.”

@Anza

Once the half-Valkyrie managed to snap herself back to her senses instead of accidentally blurting out more embarassing nouns at the Servant in front of her, she took a deep breath and righted herself. She had never seen the woman in front of her before, but her mother gave off the same sort of atmosphere, if only weaker. In other words, the one she had brought forth was another Valkyrie, which... All things considered, was something that she should have expected.

"Ah... Right. Mother had mentioned something along those lines..." she mumbled sheepishly before producing the replica weapon from her clothing. "Though if you had to ask about your reason for being called, I believe that's less your fault and more of mine. Honestly, I am only here at the behest of my mother, who insisted that I come to find 'brave warriors' or something to that degree. I'm not entirely sure how any of this functions, but... That is a quick summary. If you want to speak with her, I would be happy to try and set somethi--are you all right?"

Cutting off her dialogue midway through, Astrid stepped forward with a worried look on her face. Even if a Servant was a supernatural being whose existence defied expectation, a universal sign of pain like that wasn't anything to scoff at.

@KoL


An old man, equally dapper in appearance despite his own greying hair and aging looks, let out a soft chuckle before taking a sip of his tea. There was a brief pause before he answered, but there was a devilish grin on his face as he spoke.

"Ah, but Master, we have the element of surprise on our side so long as we stick to the darkness," he stated, picking up his cane and tapping it against the large coffin-esque weapon leaning against the wall. "Nobody would be able to grasp my true identity based off of my attacks alone--after all, even you had misgivings about who I was when I was called forth. But revealing my weapon once would give away information to our enemies, and that would most certainly lead to further conflicts where we bleed away any secrecy we may jave held otherwise. Masquerading as a pair of old dandies on a trip may give us far more leeway in scouting our opposition than attempting to draw first blood, would it not?"

With that said, the Archer took another sip from his cup, savoring the aroma and deep taste of the drink in front of him before lettig out a deep sigh.

"Let the children run themselves ragged as the adults handle the dirty work. That is how the world runs, am I correct?"

@King Cosmos

The schoolgirl's frown deepened as she devoured the sushi. Not because the food was bad; in many regards it was perfectly acceptable, but because of the... unhelpfulness of Assassin's answer. "I know we need to find somewhere to stay, I was hoping you might have some idea of how to do it. We could just ask people, but that would put them in danger..."

That was one thing that had been emphasised well enough that it had driven her to take part in the war at all. Magi--and wasn't it strange that people like that could even exist? It was still hard to believe, even with one of the Shinsengumi attached to her person--apparently had no qualms about killing people to get what they wanted and she didn't want to introduce that sort of trouble to her family. In fact, since she'd been informed, Ami had been extremely reluctant to part from a weapon just in case, even for the length of a plane flight--though rationally, anyone wanting to get her there would have just shot down the plane.

For instance, with the sushi eaten, one hand was back around the sheathed sword.

---

There it was--a pull that she'd once or twice resisted to see what happened, keeping an eye on her Master. The results had been... less than pleasant. Nobody ever wanted to meet an older version of herself, especially one apparently so thoughtless as to forget that their entire arrangement was for the sake of knowledge and the improvement of humanity. Kezia had no intention of going down that route if she could help it.

But at least that alternate her had been a Caster. Not that it had been good news for her Master...

She allowed the ritual to pull her along, guiding the exit location of the portal to a catacomb chamber she'd walked a thousand times. But a summoning had to look impressive, and Kezia helped it along, slowing the rift's opening just a second longer to briefly show the backdrop of stars, doing nothing to suppress the eerie noise that her contract seemed to engender as a constant reminder...

And for her own part, it only took a small trick of magecraft to generate a cloud of voluminous smoke as Kezia herself passed through, sitting perched upon a broom, and looking once again at her Master's face. Alive. Very much alive. And if she could do anything about it, she'd be keeping the short girl that way. There weren't going to be any mistakes this time.

"I guess that you can call me Caster, if you want."

As he listened to Archer’s arguments Thomas walked over to the case he had left on the coffee table and closed it with a click; his preparations, at least those requiring more exotic ingredients, were finished for now. The Servant was correct of course, as expected of the criminal mastermind he knew this kind of warfare well; it would be wiser to keep their heads down for as long as possible and let the others wear themselves out. He was even right about Thomas being unsure who it was he had even summoned at first, though he would never admit that his confusion was more due to the fact that he had wholeheartedly expected his servant to be wearing a deer stalker and smoking a pipe than anything else.

Archer was correct, and yet… “You are right, of course. However I cannot feel at ease just sitting back and letting others advance their plans without doing something; my magecraft requires an inordinate amount of preparation to be effective and even if we plan on staying hidden until the last we would be in a much better position were we to be a little more proactive in the early stages of this war.” Thomas walked over to the coat rack by the door and retrieved his long coat and hat. “Alas I am not overly skilled at information gathering without having something to work with first. Which unfortunately requires us to venture outside.”

Placing the hat on his head and slipping into the coat Thomas looked over at Archer still sitting in his chair and sipping tea; hopefully the Servant would join him of his own volition as he was well aware that he would be unable to make him come with him otherwise. “Do not concern yourself Archer; despite my poor choice of words I have no intention of getting involved in any conflicts just yet. Scouting, tracking and preparation are a part of hunting as well, just as much as the kill if not more so.” Reaching into his coat pocket the magus pulled out an innocuous looking pair of glassed and put them on. “All I need is to see their faces and then we can begin our plans.”

@PKMNB0Y

"Um..."

Truthfully, this wasn't a situation Assassin was used to. In life, any bases of operation that the Shinsengumi required were easily accessible, at least during her active period. And she had always had somewhere to call home. Being completely without either of these things was an utterly foreign experience for the silvery-haired girl. And, once again, it was far worse for her Master than it was for her, at this stage.

"Eh-heheh, this is a pretty tough situation, isn't it?" she mused with an awkward laugh, one fight touching her cheek as she did. They certainly couldn't go sitting in the park all this time... "... Maybe we could make an alliance with another one of the Masters?"

It might have seemed like a bad idea at first, but right now it seemed like the only possible option they had.

"We could put off our fight until the end of the war, and in exchange they'd give us somewhere to stay. I guess it's kind of risky, though..." Assassin trailed off. She honestly didn't even like her own idea very much, but they had to do something, and staying with a civilian wasn't an option. "Aaah, this is pretty difficult!"

@Raineh Daze

To say that Kirsi was expecting the summoning ritual to happen in the way it did would be averting the truth. She had no idea how Caster would look like when she decide on which Servant to summon, but the fact that she seemed pretty normal, for a Heroic Spirit, didn’t surprise the youngish-looking blonde as much as the eerie sound that accompanied the summoning.

“So, is it true, then? Did I really make it?” Kirsi said once Caster spoke. “If that’s the case, I guess that you can call me Master. But, my name is Kirsi, Kirsi Eirisphere. I’ll be counting on you from now on, Caster,” she added in an upbeat tone.

“Now that we are done with the contract, I guess that we should go to the Church and present ourselves to the Overseer, right? According to this map, there’s a tunnel that’ll take us right there,” Kirsi pointed to one of the many exits that would take them through the labyrinthine underground of Redrock while flapping a piece of yellowed paper. “I bet no one will see that coming.”


“I see. Bringing honor to one’s family is a noble commitment. I have seen countless battlefields before and guided many young ones like you until they learned how to walk with their own legs. I can assure you that your faith was not misplaced,” Lancer said to her new Master, letting go off the hand that she held to her chest.

“I suppose that you want to begin as soon as possible, right?” Lancer said as she raised a hand and drew a string of runes in the air. “We should begin by…” she interrupted herself, pointing towards a nearby which promptly burst in flames, destroying the familiar that spied on them for sometime. “Replying to the invitation that has been extended to us,” Lancer added as the magical creation fell to the ground burning.

"Team up... but how would we find them..." Ami wondered, looking around at the park. Nothing seemed terribly out of place as far as the girl was concerned and if there was some kind of surveillance, then it was certainly above her skill to detect. Could magical observation even be detected? That wasn't very magical of it if it could be picked up. "Do we go looking around for the first enemy Servant? Or do I just ask out loud 'if anyone is here, can they please come out so we can talk?'"

It was probably a bit inconvenient for any eavesdroppers that until then, Ami and Assassin had both been speaking Japanese. And unfortunate for the schoolgirl, as it made her look more competent than she really was.

---

"Of course, Miss Eirisphere, but first..." the witch said, stepping lightly off her broom and forward--then plucking the map from between her master's hands. The girl was just a bit too hasty for her own good... and then turning the yellowed page around to hand it over the right way up, "As you can see, you had the map upside down and the correct tunnel is... that one."

She would rather not spend three hours lost in the wrong catacomb and arrive at the church when someone else was more likely to be there. IF they got going right now, they could get in and out before any later Masters might arrive--the Japanese one probably didn't have a clue about the Overseer's existence yet, let alone the idea of introducing yourself--and after any of the war's early starters had already gone and introduced themselves.

"I'm confident if we go now, we won't encounter any resistance."

Once her Servant had relaxed and responded in turn, Astrid nodded and quietly put the spear in her hands away. There was a bit of silent brooding about the idea of 'bringing honor to one's family' being taken as the reason for why she was here, but in this case it was probably better not to debate too much about it. Despite being a Servant, after all, the Lancer in front of her was once (and still probably was) her mother's superior, in all senses of the word.

Before she could respond to the idea of 'beginning', however, the sight of Lancer casually casting rune magic in the air caused Astrid to pause and stare. The words were familiar to her, of course, but there had been no indication that she could perform such spells without a medium over the course of her upbringing.

Or maybe that was because her mother never taught her as much...?

"Beginning... Well, that seems logical enough," she responded, watching as something burning fell to the ground. "Give me a moment to clean up the boundary and we can leave. I'm more curious as to what you mean by 'invitation', but I'm assuming it has something to do with whatever you just killed over there."

@KoL


The response from his Master caused Archer to nod in turn, and after a bit of a pause he placed the cup he was drinking from back down. Concealing the presence of a Servant was nothing too impossible, and though he was no Assassin, the old man had enough confidence that being discovered was still far from likely.

Tapping the coffin-gun on the wall twice, the Archer watched silently as it dematerialized before he moved to pick up his own outfit—an overcoat and a trilby—and put them on in turn. Leaving his Master to wander about unprotected would be the height of folly, after all.

"Very well. If you wish to explore this backwater town, then I shall follow. Perhaps there might be something of interest in the meantime," he remarked, spinning his cane casually in the air before planting it on the ground. "I, myself, am not particularly accustomed to how the American underworld works, but there is no better time than the present to find out."

@King Cosmos

Rider's words left Kazamyr scratching his chin and frowning. He'd have thought a man with such a fearsome reputation as Hannibal would have been more aggressive, more eager for blood. Instead, however, the freelancer had found himself paired with a logical and contemplative Servant, one who planned out every move with the calm brilliance of a master chess player. Is this what the ancient warlords were really like, then? Ah, I learn something every day...

With this in mind, it made all the more sense to heed Rider's words. Not that Kazamyr was left with much choice, since his familiar in the forest was promptly incinerated by what seemed to be a very perceptive Servant. Either a particularly versatile Lancer, then, or a Caster who happens to wield a spear. Either way, not an opponent he wanted to go up against. If she could track and eliminate his familiars, then trying to find and ambush her would be difficult.

"Solid reasoning... Assassin it is, then!" Without another moment's hesitation he jammed his key into the ignition, pulling out of the lot and onto the streets of Redrock. At this hour traffic was quiet, leaving him free to drive fast and smooth down the long black roads, past the faint lights of a sleepy town and the scant wanderers who saw fit to leave their homes at this hour. Any shadowy passerby could be a disguised Master, or a cleverly concealed Servant, perhaps already aware of his presence. Kazamyr gripped the wheel hard, delighting in the tension. Six magi and six legendary figures all out to kill him, and he still didn't have the faintest idea where most of them were.

"No sign of movement yet," he relayed to Rider, still watching Assassin and her master through his familiar's eyes. "And if it's a trap, they're doing a damn good job of hiding it. I could be wrong, but I don't think a mage that young would have the experience to set up a hidden ambush and the acting ability to sound so uncertain in herself." After a few moments more, he pulled to a halt on the side of the road, only one row of buildings remaining between him and the park. "If you want me to keep out of sight, then this is as close as I can get."

There was a light tapping on the roof of the car as another crow landed there. "My familiar can lead you straight to them from here. I'll keep watch, try and let you know if there's any sign of the other pairs showing up." If Rider did end up deploying his elephants, there was a chance this fight could attract unwanted attention, and possibly spiral out of control.

And wouldn't that be fun to see?

@King Cosmos@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze

Most of the journey was conducted in silence, Rider taking the time to mentally compose himself for the battle to come. At the same time, however, he couldn’t help but marvel at the vehicle his Master was driving; civilization had surely come a long way from the days of riding horses and elephants, he would need to try out some of this era’s machines for himself before this war was over. As a Rider he had to skills to push them to the limits of what they were capable of.

As they approached their destination his Master began to inform him of their enemy’s position; Rider listened to the information carefully before turning to face the Magus in the driver’s seat. “Perhaps this young girl does not possess the means to detect your familiar, but we should not assume the same is true of Assassin; we should avoid assuming anything at all. Underestimating your opponent is a dangerous folly, but overestimating them can be just as disastrous; given out lack of information however, it is perhaps best that we err on the side of caution.” Glancing towards the steering wheel Rider spotted the way his Master’s hands were tensed around the object, but mistook it for nervousness rather than excitement. “You seem tense Master. There is no need; despite my earlier words I do believe we can win this war, even if our opponents are stronger, so long as my strategy is superior to theirs.”

Opening the door to the car Rider stepped out and onto the street. At this time of night the area was empty, so no passers-by saw the strange spectacle that was a fully armoured Carthaginian stepping out of a vehicle in modern day Redrock. Placing a hand on top of the car Rider leant down and looked back into the car. “I will engage Assassin directly; if possible I will kill her or her Master, but if I am not able to I will retreat. If any other Servants approach our fight I will retreat. I will not come back to the car if that is the case, lest I lead them to you; watch my fight with your familiar and leave if I do. I will find you later.”

Closing the door Rider stepped away from the car and looked to the familiar that his Master had said would lead him to Assassin’s location. “Lead the way.” The reanimated bird took flight and Rider followed it with haste, the familiar leading him into the park and towards the bench that Assassin and her Master were sitting on. As soon as the pair were in sight Rider stopped, certain that they were indeed the pair he was looking for by the way the familiar continued towards them and perched itself on a tree above their heads.

Taking deep, calming breaths Rider simply observed them in silence for the moment. The girl was young indeed, still wearing what he recognised as a school uniform from his knowledge of this era, though he couldn’t help but notice the sword at her waist. The woman sitting next to her in the brightly coloured robe must then be Assassin. Neither seemed to have noticed his presence yet, which was unusual, so he stepped out from the trees and onto the main path some fifty feet from their location.

He began to walk in their direction, a round shield of bronze and a scimitar appearing in his hands as he did so. A direct approach was perhaps unexpected coming from one renowned as a master strategist, but given his lack of resources and his opponent it was for the best. He did not have an army to flank their position, or to organise into an ambush. He did not have the ability to sneakily approach even a Berserker, let alone one summoned into the Assassin-class. If he had one advantage in this it would be his superior martial prowess in a straight forward duel and even that was something he couldn’t be certain of until he saw this hero in action.

This was, perhaps, the most irrational plan of battle he had ever come up with in all his years as a military leader. “I must be growing foolish with time.” He mused as he approached his opponent. For all he knew his opponent could be stronger than he in battle or they could possess some Noble Phantasm that would foil him. If that was the case he would have only his strength and his wits to rely on; thankfully, his wits were quite good and he was capable of bringing to bear and absurd amount of power if needs must.

He stopped again thirty feet from them and called out his challenge. “Assassin! I, Rider, challenge you!”

@Anza@Raineh Daze@VitaVitaAR

“DEATH!” Kirsi said in a surprised voice when Caster corrected her mistake with the map. She couldn’t believe that she had slipped up like that right from the beginning of this Holy Grail War. Then again, it wasn’t her fault that this map was that hard to read; indeed, it could only be blamed on the people that thought that adding this much ciphers and secrets to a simple map was a good idea.

“Erm, I guess that I should thank you for that,” Kirsi said to Caster as they began to follow the right path. “I don’t get why these Illuminati had to make everything so complicated. Anyway, do you have any idea of what you’ll do when we win this war? As in… do you have a wish you want to fulfill when we get the Grail?” the youngish-looking blonde asked in a tone that made it sound like she was certain that they had this war in the bag already.


“A magus of this era -- one of our enemies, no doubt -- was spying on us through a familiar. At least I don’t believe such a low-effort work would be the creation of a Caster Class Servant. To me, it seems like they are ‘inviting’ us to a duel, if they are being so careless,” Lancer said, answering Kim’s question about her previous comment

“Once you are done, we can leave. I would suggest to be on the lookout for ambushes. In fact, if you wish, we may fly our way back to the city and then you can decide what out next step will be,” Lancer said as she stepped away from the summoning circle. “If you aren’t able to do it on your own, I can carry you,” she offered in a matter of fact way.

"Well, I think it would have to be meeting under the right circumstances, um..." Assassin trailed off for a moment. The only option she could think of was, maybe, scouting out one of the other Masters to confirm they really were a Master, then approaching them during the day so it wouldn't lead to a fight they weren't prepared for. Aside from that, well... she could only really see it ending poorly. Not in her defeat, of course. The girl samurai was confident in herself! But they weren't there to have a fight, they were there to find somewhere to stay. There was quite a large difference between those things. But if they approached during the day, it was unlikely that the other Master would like the chance of risking the discovery of the Holy Grail War by ordinary citizens of Redrock. "So... during the day, when-"

She paused for a moment. Her Master was calling out to anyone who might be eavesdropping... and just when it seemed as if there wouldn't be a response, suddenly a man seemed to emerge from no-where. It was instantly obvious, even before he introduced himself, that he was an enemy Servant. The fact that he had introduced his class made it at least somewhat obvious what they were up against. Assassin didn't like fighting before they had even found somewhere to stay.

But...

She was a Manslayer. And a manslayer was always ready to fight. To kill.

Assassin rose to her feet. Raising one hand, a flurry of lights that looked almost like the petals of a cherry blossom seemed to drift into the air as her katana materialized.

"Master, do not involve yourself," she said, simply, stepping forward, "I think it's time for me to show you my skills with a blade."

Placing both hands on the hilt of her sword, she drew the blade parallel to her head, sliding her feet into a ready stance.

"I will accept your challenge, Rider."

She paused for a moment. Then, wincing slightly, Assassin looked back over her shoulder towards her Master.

"Ah, er..." she trailed off for a moment, "Unless you want to do something else, Master?"

@Raineh Daze@King Cosmos

The half-Valkyrie paused as she considered the implication behind being 'invited' for combat by an enemy magus. Being spied on was certainly something to be expected, but to think that it was a familiar like that...

Well, it wasn't as if she knew all too well what that entailed, but something about the prospect of combat sent a shiver down her spine. Be it out of worry or anticipation, the young woman was all too unsure about what that would lead to.

"N-no, I can fly," Astrid responded, shaking her head as she moved to go retrieve all of the runes that she had placed around the area earlier. "I'd rather not, though, in case someone tries to attack all of a sudden. I'm sure they're unaware of my lineage, and something like that could prove to be essential in overwhelming an opponent."

Once all of the runes had been gathered, though, Astrid walked back up to her Servant before glancing back at the woods through which she had arrived here from.

"I think that seeing a person flying above the forest is less subtle than trekking back through it, but the possibility of danger is much higher if we take the slow route... Very well, Lancer. Let's return to Redrock for the moment. It would probably do us well to get you some clothing so that you may blend in with the crowd," she finally stated, subconsciously feeling for her wallet as she spoke.

It wasn't as if she was lacking in funds, but there was only so much that she was comfortable spending at once. The cost of the trip here was already a bit painful as it was...

@KoL

With surprisingly good reflexes, Ami was on her feet and in position to draw her sword when Rider announced himself, only to look a bit sheepish as her Servant reminded her which of them was really there to fight... certainly not the schoolgirl whose main goal was to survive the war intact without anybody going home and doing something to her family.

Still, if Rider had come out so openly and not just attacked... he couldn't be that confident, could he? Rider wasn't the best class in a fight, not like Saber or Lancer, so maybe he'd be more willing to talk now and leave killing each other until later? It would only put the problem off for a little while, but if they could eliminate the more dangerous opponents together...

"Ah... do we have to be fighting each other? There might be more dangerous enemies we can't defeat alone."

---

A wish, huh? Always the same question, and always the same answer--except for maybe the first few times: "If I had a wish, then it wouldn't be one that this grail could grant." When you started to mess with time, you got a good idea of exactly what sort of things were able to cause paradoxes.

Their journey ended quickly enough--it was entirely unsurprising that the catacombs lead directly to the church--and Kezia lead the way into the church. It wasn't likely that the Overseer would decide to do anything, but this woman worried her in a way that most magi or church agents couldn't even begin to.

Though she was confident that if it absolutely came to it, then she could win the ensuing fight.