---

Akari had been moving with haste towards the shrine mostly because she thought if she didn't it wouldn't be a good idea to take a long long time walking and yet. Raikou calling her to slow down would cause her to realise she had been walking at a pace that would of also looked suspect. So with embrassement she'd slow back down again until she was walking beside her servant. It was a pleasant stroll rife with small talk, Akari complenting her servant on their dress sense. The fact that she thought her 'mom' looked pretty cool with the swords. Even off-handledly asking if she could wield one of them. Course this was all small talk for the most part, Things to waste time as they would make their way towards the shrine.

"Right! Mom." Akari would say her pockets filled to the brim with 'snacks' to offer to the shrine as well as to keep her energy up for the long night. "I think we've arrived" She'd say about to start on one of her big pep-talk filled speeches about how she saw this ghost at the shrine and she thinks that maybe that shes totally real now cause of this and if she can find this spirit they could have an edge.

But the spirit found them first. "W-woah woah hey!" Akari would say in surprise to the strange, familiar, yet ornate girl with clothing totally inappropriate for the time period. She may also be totally hiding behind Raikou for a moment. "Hey there, um. Spirit." Akari would say her words a little strangled in her throat as she was trying to blurt out some sort of words. But this ghost was real so... How did she avoid getting cursed!

---

Hideyoshi blinked twice for a moment at his old leader so casually accepting his services again. His clothing would become something a little more dignified, while not as incredible as his armour or magnificent as his robes as the second great unifier, he looked like a proper soldier of Oda Nobunaga's forces. The second stage of his ascension. Well at least he could protect his master now.

He smiled though at how casual Nobu was being, Like meeting an old trusted friend under agitating circumstance to be sure. But still it was enjoyable Though he would be the first to admit that making a mockery of the Fool of Owari would be a terrible idea. He knew full well how much she liked to hold a grudge.

"Hey, Sandalbearer is still a important job y'know" He'd say falling back into his grinning self, he motioned at Nobu's Master as she told them that he'd be working with them "Yo. How's it going, Sorry but if the Boss orders it then I gotta do it. Hope we get along friend." He said casually referring to his enemy as a friend. After all, all a foe was, was a friend that required a bit more effort.

Gathering information; it was a simple idea, but in practise something that many people lacked the delicacy or subtlety to do properly. Any bumbling idiot could find information by looking in enough places or asking enough people, but what was the point if you alerted everyone to your intentions in the process? The trick, of course, was to acquire the information you wanted without letting anyone know that you had it or indeed what you were looking for in the first place. When asking questions you often gave away as much intel as you gained after all; an adage that was as true in war as it was in the backrooms of society or the halls of the Order.

Thomas knew all this, he was adept at it, but given the situation he believed that keeping himself and his intentions hidden and discrete was going to be… tricky. An old English gentleman such as himself didn’t exactly fit in this small Japanese rural town, without even getting into how eye-catching his bodyguard was. Illusions, unfortunately, were not his forte, so unless he wanted to remain locked away in his workshop there was no choice but to expose themselves;.

Upon leaving his workshop Thomas had chosen to stick to the outskirts of the town, so as to avoid as many sets of eyes as possible. His destination was a shrine that lay near to the town itself, at least according to what sources he could find. With no other leads to go on his only recourse was to head to locations where he suspected the other Master’s might visit; the local shrine being the most obvious choice. The sound that may or may not have been a gunshot just now was also an obvious choice, but getting too close to whatever had caused that was something he’d rather avoid for now.

@Gummi Bunnies

----



“Woah” As Archer’s first arrow flew his way Saber twisted his body in mid-air in order to dodge the projectile, narrowly avoiding it. If any more had come his way he would have been hard pressed to avoid taking damage in that moment, but luckily Archer seemed content just to reposition and prepare another arrow instead of pressing him advantage.

Okay, so he couldn’t outspeed his opponent, despite what his Master might have said. Removing his footing wasn’t going to work if he could reposition faster than Saber could cut the poles out from under him. Taking to the air wouldn’t work either, lest he make himself a sitting duck with nowhere to go. What were his options here…

“Keep him occupied, right.” If all he had to do was chase his opponent around and play tag for a while then that was fine, but he might as well try and push his opponent a little bit while he was at it.

The Archer was faster than him, but he was probably thinking that he wanted to keep the high-ground as much as possible right now; he’d started the duel on a pole and as soon as it was cut down he jumped to another one. Odds were, he’d do the same again and if Saver couldn’t catch Archer where he was then maybe he could catch him where he was going to be. Charge in like he was going to cut the pole he was standing on, then change directions when Archer jumped and cut down the pole he was heading for instead. Saber might not be as fast but once Archer committed to the jump he was likely stuck and since Saber didn’t need to move with as much precision he might be able to get their first.

The weird illusory effect that suddenly appeared around Archer that made it seem like there were multiple versions of his opponent laid over each other would make things a little trickier, but his overall strategy didn’t change. Bokuden dashed towards the pole Arche stood on with sword in hand, ready to abruptly change direction as soon as Archer made a move.

@Anza@KoL@Crusader Lord

"Now that I’m seeing you, I realized something, Saber," Subaru said mentally. "A battle is like a dance. And now, you should be the one taking the lead," she continued. This encounter was beginning to get rather suspicious. Not only could she feel some magic energy that didn’t belong to any of them nearby, meaning that they might be under surveillance, but now there was this illusion spell. It clearly wasn’t the doing of the other girl. With her senses as heightened as they were now, Subaru would have noticed it.

Unless she had some sort of Mystic Eyes of Illusion. "Maybe I should bring a Mystic Eyes killer with me the next time we go out of the mansion," she thought.

"I suppose you won’t be bothered if I kick things up a notch, right? Very well then, Allegro!" Subaru said, addressing the other girl this time as she changed the tempo of her melody, speeding it up even further. Soon enough, she produced a bounded field that drowned all the noise around them, except for those she chose not to. Now, even the least of Archer’s and his Master’s movements would be audible for saber and Subaru, rendering their illusions considerably less effective when Saber and Subaru could concentrate on sound, rather than sight.

@Anza@Crusader Lord@King Cosmos

---

The girl's direct inquiry aimed towards Haru was enough to snap her out of it, bringing herself back to the reality of the situation. This wasn't just a phenomenon that involved the meeting of spirits from the past. It was a phenomenon that Haru found herself weaved right into it, and that her actions held a heavy weight to what could happen. Yeah, this was more nerve-wracking than being a casual practitioner of a specific sport getting thrown straight into the big leagues years after calling it quits beforehand. Even when she wanted to escape from this situation, it wasn't really an option to leave it as it is. She simply had to go along with it as well as she could.

"Well, um... I guess so? That doesn't mean I'm... completely clueless, not really. Just got to get... used to this, yeah." Haru would trip over her words here and there explaining herself. She really needed to get herself together if she was going to survive any of this in the near future.

Then, her attention was brought over to Archer, who determined that the two pairs present would work together. At least from what she could gather here, the other Master and their Rider didn't seem to be an immediate threat, and seeing as Haru was unsure on how to adapt to this new situation by herself...

"Oh! Uh, sure. That's fine with me, it's definitely better that Archer here does take the lead than me personally, but I hope this works out too." She didn't see a problem with it personally as she awkwardly greeted Rider.

@Raineh Daze @Crusader Lord @1Charak2

---

---

---

There were only two kinds of thoughts circulating in Kiyohime's head as they took a walk toward the village's shrine. One, she was constantly thinking about what could spice up their nightly stroll together. Then, she was feverishly planning ahead to take care of their foes should they get spotted and engaged in battle. Either way, both trains of thought revolved around her Master.

Upon approaching the shrine, she instinctively frowned from the aura that their destination gave off. It wasn't a stretch in logic to think that the other Masters and Servants could be here. The shrine's setting was practically asking for that type of attention, and it only put Berserker in more tension than she was before. As she followed Thomas's lead, she obsessively kept her attention out for anything that could ambush them.

@King Cosmos

---

Well, Rider had just gotten a nice change of wardrobe! Very nice. It was at least one step in all of this, considering what her servant had to do to get to full power. Hmm. But this at least solved the first problem, and made him more usable to boot. If nothing else, having some kind of allies in all of this would be better than not. Better than getting shot in the face on first contact at least.

On the other hand, the master of Oda Nobunaga was not someone that seemed to be rather...acclimated? Acclimated. Not that she wasn't having to take this all in, but when it came to magecraft she was used to seeing oddities. Well, odd things kinda sorta like this. Maybe...ah, perhaps she shouldn't ponder on that too much.

[color=F1493]"I mean, you summoned quite the pick for someone who doesn't seem so acclimated to things like this, very tatcial,"[/color] the gun-toting girl said to Haru, giving a wink and putting her own arms behind her head in a causal manner, "But don't worry! If you need someone to walk ya' through the magecraft-y stuff, there's me too! And don't forget Rider here, he's got quite the punch once he gets rolling!"

She was confident in that much, though her gut feeling about Haru seemed to persist regardless. The woman didn't seem much on first impression, but maybe she just needed someone to show her the ropes? Like basics or something. Something like that. Probably would have time to talk about it later, though, given what was going on right now.

---

---

...Canceling the sound, eh? He couldn't hear a thing about them, but he still had his eyes on the situation without a doubt. Wasn't much of a surprise though. A musician was a musician, just like an oni was an oni. But that made it all the more exciting and challenging. However, he'd have to change things up a little bit in order to keep up with what was going on.

'If our opponent wants to strike up a tune to cut past the illusions, then let's give them a performance to match!'

As the Archer communicated to his masters, a certain glee tinting his tone somewhat as he made his move. The Saber before him charged forward at him again with another attack seemingly ready, but the Archer-class servant already had another attack and move readied. Leaping back off of the light-pole once more, as he'd done the first time, the servant made it seem as if he was leaping back to the next pole in turn.

'Wait for it...wait for it...now!'

This time the bowman unleashed three arrows at the same time at his opponent, timed to almost the moment he would have 'landed' on the next lamp post. Yet rather than land, he would ultimately narrowly overshoot the lamp post on purpose this time. A feint, in other words, timed to try to catch his opponent by surprise by barely overshooting the lamp post and unleashing an attack at an odd time. Even so, the servant would already be preparing his next shot by the time he would land on the ground a ways beyond the lamp post he had made it seem he was moving to.

"Still, the first task we have to do doesn't change," Nobunaga said, looking at the other two and then back to her Master. This was someone who definitely needed more in the way of confidence, "We need to scout the area and understand the land. This is even more important if you're going to do that castle trick again..."

Not that the nearby landscape offered the most promising look in that case, between being low-lying and rice fields. Even worse was how this valley controlled absolutely nothing of importance and was barely worth protecting from a strategic perspective. Not that an incline would matter much against Servants compared to a castle itself.

"Though maybe it doesn't matter if we can just find somewhere big enough?"

@Crusader Lord@Gummi Bunnies@1Charak2