"So, Shirou,"

The air quivered and snapped in short succession, cracking under the physical forces being exerted upon it and ripping grass from the earth beneath the silver-haired beauty.

"Nice shot."

"She missed the bullseye by 3 millimeters."

"Bite me." Gray huffed at her friend, rolling her eyes.

"That may be true, but not everyone can stand level with you or I." Heracles of Greece, legendary hero and conqueror of the Twelve Labours, let go of the string of his own bow.

The air once more cracked under the weight of the fired projectile, stripping what little grass remained at his feet and throwing it to the four winds.

"Usually, she can. I think she's just gotten rusty." Shirou replied, lining up his own shot and firing, tracking the flight path and eventual connection with his target unerringly.

"I'm trying not to put too much stress on Add. Morgan managed to piece together all the fractured parts of his personality but pushing him too far before he recovers and wakes up will kill him for good." Gray responded, rubbing a gentle hand along the edge of her beloved weapon.

Because the simple fact of the matter is that she was unbelievably lucky to have had her friend's creator actually around to work on him. Sure, Morgan Pendragon may not be exactly the same of Morgan Le Fay, but she still had the same basic knowledge base and also enough skill to do things with Magecraft that made even Ciel, Semiramis and Xuanzang baulk. If there was anyone that could have saved Add from the fate of his noble sacrifice, it was her.

And she had, at least mostly. She had taken all of the cracked and separated shards of what had been Add's personality matrix and painstakingly welded them back together at the younger girl's request, muttering the whole while about the ingenuity of the craftsmanship behind her friend and the strength of the Bounded Field that he, himself, existed as around Rhongomyniad.

However, once broken, nothing could ever be put back together perfectly the same again. She had likened it to that one pottery repair technique that Shirou had showed her back in the Clock Tower, kintsugi. The pieces could be put back into the same shape, could be perfectly aligned and even possess a beauty that it simply hadn't before its breakage, but it would never again be that unbroken, unblemished pottery.

It had, in the end, come down to a simple option that Morgan had laid bare at Gray's feet. The woman having simply explained the two paths that lay before her and allowing her to pick which path she wished to traverse.

She could either keep the memories of Add, turning his physical shell into not just a protection for Rhongomyniad but also a type of storage medium that she could access as she wished. Giving Gray the ability to revisit any of Add's memories from his point of view but losing her friend in the process. Or, as Morgan had told her, she could use the parts of him housing his memories to recreate the lost parts of his personality core. Reviving her friend at the cost of all of his memories, a friend with a painfully familiar face and comfortingly annoying personality, but none of the memories to share and enjoy.

She could either keep her friend alive in spirit, but not in body, or keep him alive in body, but not in spirit. Either way, he would be gone, a part of him lost forever, and Gray had been left with the final say.

Yet despite her sadness, it had barely taken her two seconds to decide on her answer. An answer so confident, and so truthful to what she knows Add would have asked of her anyway, that the only hesitation that had wracked her form had been that of getting her words out in between the tears that made their way down her cheeks at the loss of her first companion. She had gifted him a second chance at life, one unburdened by the weight of his past and the loneliness that had plagued him for over fourteen hundred years.

So, it made sense to all who knew that she was being especially careful with the physical form of her friend, wanting to make absolutely certain that nothing bad happened to him.

"You told me what Morgan said, and you know that she meant rescinding any of the seals on his form. He's built to hold Rhongomyniad inside him from now until the moment that the sun swallows us all whole, Gray. We both know that he can handle you putting your back into practice."

Even if some people –like Shirou– thought that she was babying the pseudo-personality just a little bit more than was necessary.

To the right of all three of them, a gunshot went off, their designated target engulfed in a split-second blooming of flame before it died out, allowing them all to see the accuracy of their fired shot.

"Not much drop across the travel time but you drifted right a bit too far." Heracles informed Ciel, patting a hand on top of her head and getting a tight, and somewhat twisted, look in response.

She was superhuman in her own right, a monster that made even those amongst the Ancestors think twice when her name came up, an existence that stood at the top of whatever field she chose to enter purely because that was just the kind of latent talent that lay within her.

Yet now, with all the advantages of her talent and her use of a 'firearm' –as much as the Seventh Holy Scripture could be called a regular gun– she found herself trailing behind others in a test of physical strength and practiced skill for the first time in her life. It was something that both elated her and grated at her down to her very core and she couldn't quite come to terms with that unique dichotomy of emotions just yet.

"Don't feel too bad, they make everyone feel like that." Olga Marie Animusphere, twelve-year-old genius and future superpower in her own right, grunted as she pulled the drawstring back on her own bow and fired.

Her target was, of course, much closer than any of the others, and made of a far more traditional padded surface –Shirou had stolen it from Homurahara Academy earlier that morning– but despite her lack of practice or experience with such a weapon, she was doing well.

Of course, they all thought it was cute that she was trying so hard to emulate Gray and Shirou, but they did their best not to mention or let that show in front of her. Since she still tried to hold herself to the standards of a 'proper' magi and the poise and finesse that they were expected to hold.

For all that she had seen the chaotic and crazy sides of even such legendary figures as King Arthur and Morgan, she had also seen them at their most serious and knew that every story she had ever been fed about the unmatched refinery of a magus to be an utter load of crap. Compared to the poise and refinement of figures truly considered legendary, what a regular, modern, magus had was insultingly paltry.

"Anyway-" Gray stressed, eager to move the topic onto something that didn't make her so aggravatingly sad, or give Shirou another chance to tease her, "You gave a pretty flowery reason back at your house but I know that's not like you, so why have you decided to wait a whole day before sending the Servants into the Tear?"

"What, can't figure it out on your own?" Shirou snarked back, grinning cheekily at the glower that his friend sent him in return.

"With you it could be any number of reasons, I want to know exactly what it is."

"Now that she's brought it up, I'm quite curious as well." Heracles responded, resting his bow gently against the ground and looking curiously down at their red-haired leader.

In response, Shirou merely let out a long, soft, breath before he looked over at the both of them, able to feel Ciel and Olga's looks from behind him, however.

"Quite simply, I wanted a single day so that everyone could coordinate before the mission, and also so that I could not have to worry about the increasingly more involved running of a city for one more day."

"Huh. It's not like you to run from any responsibility you might have. You feeling alright?" Gray asked, leaning forward with a raised eyebrow while Heracles merely just frowned down at Shirou.

"Taking one extra day before I just into things isn't running." Shirou huffed, levelling a flat gaze on the silver-haired young woman, "Besides I'm going to need your help with some stuff tomorrow, so I thought you'd also enjoy not having to do that right this moment." He smirked at her, making her stick her tongue out childishly at him for a moment.

To anyone else it may have a been an innocuous statement said purely to do nothing but tease and annoy her. In the hands of Shirou, Gray was certain that it was still designed to do exactly that. However, she also knew Shirou better than anyone else, save his girlfriends and family, and thus knew that there was something else going on.

Namely, in the fact that he didn't outright state what he would need her help with. If it was truly something that would annoy her, he would make sure to tell her, just to get more of a reaction out of her.

There was always that possibility that it could be something she actually wouldn't mind doing, and thus he didn't want to ruin his fun by informing her yet. That was something that she couldn't quite discount it being, but there was also the chance that whatever it was wouldn't be taken well by one of their other companions, and thus he wanted to avoid any sort of trouble that it might bring up by mentioning it.

Unfortunately, knowing Shirou, that was an equally likely scenario. As much as pretty much everyone in his life was trying to make him confide in at least someone whenever he came up with ideas like whatever it was that was cooking inside that forge-warped mind of his.

"Fine, if you say so. Though you aren't wrong about using this day to coordinate properly, I think I overheard Artoria and Medusa discussing how they were going to travel within the Reverse Side."

"See? It's all good." Shirou grinned, turning back to his target and firing another arrow in a crack of air once more, not even blinking as his hair fluttered chaotically in the strengthened breeze.

Following that, however, Heracles tilted his head to the side minutely and turned to look behind their makeshift firing line, catching the attention of all the others.

"Something wrong, Heracles?" Ciel questioned, giving him a look halfway between curious and worried.

"No, there's just people approaching us. I didn't recognize them, so I was curious who they were." He stated simply, getting a couple understanding nods and drawn out 'Ah's.

A few minutes later, after a couple more shots from all of them, four of which consistently buffeted the rest of them with swirling winds, their guests finally arrived. Their appearance initiated with a rustle of a bush and an excited gasp that had Shirou grinning slightly despite himself before they had even left the anonymity of the shrubbery.

"SHIROU!" Ayako Mitsuzuri, Captain of the Homurahara Archery Club and school-friend of Rin, launched herself out of the bushes while grinning brightly.

It was a teethy, feral type of grin. The exact same type of grin that seemed to come pre-packaged into any person or thing that dared to name themselves a 'rival' of Shirou Muramasa-Emiya.

Following behind her, reluctantly, with a thinly veiled glared aimed directly at Shirou, was her younger brother, Minori Mitsuzuri. If Shirou didn't know the source of Minori's glare, he may have been confused or offended, but fortunately for the both of them, he did.

Even if the younger teen thought that he'd managed to hide it from Shirou completely.

That glare, and the hatred that it stemmed from, quite simply came from his unrequited crush on Sakura Matou. The younger teen being classmates with the equally younger girl and having fallen for her gentle demeanour and helpful nature the first time that they had been paired together to work on an assignment during class.

Since then, he had been trying to spend time with her during school and work up the courage to ask her out, everyone in Homurahara had known about it, and yet constantly found himself unwittingly blocked off by Shirou himself. This had led to his annoyance at the red-haired teen growing and growing until it eventually morphed into genuine anger.

However, as Shirou was both close to Sakura and a good friend of Ayako, he had been unable to do anything except silently vent his frustration through passive-aggressive remarks and 'hidden' glares like this.

Given the type of rumour-mill that Homurahara Academy was, and the fact that one of his girlfriends was the Queen Bee –with one of his girlfriends being her only real contender– it had taken Shirou all of about five minutes to learn of it when it had first started, and even less time to find out about any changes since then.

Ironically, the only two people unaware that everyone knew about this situation –including Ayako– were Minori and Sakura herself. Minori because he was the main topic of the rumours, and thus everyone avoided talking about it while he was within earshot, and Sakura because, quite frankly, her attention was pretty firmly stuck on Shirou and not much else.

Also, Rin thought it would be fucking hilarious if they were the only two oblivious to it all, and thus took measures to keep it that way.

"Mitsuzuri, hey!" Shirou greeted with an easy grin, waving a hand in the air.

His grin only grew a little more teasing as he saw the way that Ayako's face twisted up in reply to his greeting. The brunette stomping up to him and poking his chest sharply, not that it really did much to him.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Just call me Ayako! AY-A-KO!"

"Wow, that's a weird way to say Mitsuzuri, Mitsuzuri."

"AYAKO!"

"You're going to give my sister a brain aneurism if you continue, Emiya. I would appreciate if you stopped." Minori sighed, missing the way that Gray and Olga's expressions tightened when looking at him as he did so.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Minori wasn't the biggest fan of Shirou, and both students of Waver were undoubtedly close, if not inside, that acclaimed bracket of intelligence. And quite frankly, neither of them took well to those that didn't like their loved ones, though they could certainly act civil enough, should Minori be able to keep it to such a tame level.

"Alright, alright, Ayako." Shirou relented, placing a hand on her shoulder and rolling his eyes as all the annoyance in her expression and body language disappeared as if it had never been there to begin with, "So what brings the both of you here, and why'd you come all the way out here to begin with?"

"Well, Mr Perfect-Shot-Rules-Everything-Now," Ayako begun, crossing her arms with a confident smirk and resting all of her weight on one leg, "Iiiii wish to sign up to the Fuyuki Armed Forces!"

Unfurling one of her arms from where it was crossed, she jabbed her own thumb into her chest with a proud smile and closed eyes. Her free leg lashing out to hit Minori's shin and making him hiss quietly and go ramrod straight to avoid doubling over in pain.

"As do I!" His voice came out higher pitched than normal and strained, likely in an attempt to avoid letting out some kind of pained whine.

For half a second, Shirou thought about dropping all kinds of pretences and simply just asking the two of them what the hell they both meant by that. The thought one that was sweet, tantalizing, and tempting in its simplicity. However, as loathe as he was to admit it, Shirou had been taught better than that, by many people, most of whom were still around and in Fuyuki to make him regret it.

Which was why, with a small tilt of his head and crossing of his own arms –his bow disappearing into motes of prana– Shirou merely did as those versed in the politician's game were oft to do; he gave them what they were looking for without giving them a thing.

"And why come to me about something like that?"

"Well, we know you personally." Ayako began, getting a small nod in return.

Familiarity, an understandable reason to go to him while asking for something.

"Plus, like, everyone in Fuyuki knows that you've pretty much done a full takeover, though not everyone really knows who you are."

Authority, another understandable reason for her to come to him to ask for something, also an annoying one. He could practically feel the look that Olga was levelling on his back and knew that she was going to put those propaganda lessons of Waver's to use.

Only in the exact opposite way to why he had taught her about them in the first place.

"And also, I've seen you walking around with that smoking magician lady, the one with the silver hair, and ordering around other members of the FAF."

Ordering other members of the Fuyuki Armed Forces around? The only people he had ordered around in public recently were-

'Raiga you rat bastard.'

Alright, Shirou now knew what he was dealing with, though one part of her sentence intrigued him.

"You mentioned the silver haired woman, her name is Morgan by the way….Why?"

"Oh! Cause I can do this now!" Ayako grinned brightly and raised one hand into the air between them, closing her eyes and scrunching her face in concentration.

And there, misting out of her fist in the most inefficient way possible, was Ayako Mitsuzuri's very own Od.

Shirou couldn't even lie and say that he wasn't surprised, because quite frankly he was. With all the reports of people awakening the ability to use Od, and by extension Prana, he had never expected someone he was actually close to, to have done the same. Guess that's what he got for assuming that any part of his life would be uneventful.

Silently, Shirou's outwardly passive gaze turned to look at Minori, who only silently shook his head himself, getting a small nod in return.

'Alright so it's only Ayako that has the ability to use Prana, not the both of them. That's a little less of a headache, I suppose.'

"Alright, that changes things." Shirou said calmly, doing his best to ignore the quiet snickering from Gray behind him.

She was enjoying this, he just knew it. He would get his revenge somehow, he didn't know how, but he would.

"Exactly! And you know how good I am with a bow, Shirou." Ayako grinned, though Shirou could see straight through her.

The two of them had spent enough time talking about videogames while practicing their archery, or helping others with their archery, that he knew exactly what games she had played in the past and enjoyed. Which meant that Shirou could practically see the daydreams of her being able to fire super-powered arrows and being a magical archer even though she hadn't said a single word about them.

Not that he was surprised about that, the worlds views and opinions on Magecraft had been increasingly more broadcast with each day that passed and with each new person that unlocked the ability to access their previously dormant magic circuits. It was a shame that even with everything happening with the Reverse Side of the world, and the sheer Mystery flooding the world, that it wasn't forcibly developing magic circuits in those that didn't previously have them, but he supposed that life just couldn't be that ideallic.

At the rate that things were going though, being able to use Magecraft may actually become the new normal. Especially with previously inert circuit-holders like Ayako suddenly gaining the ability to not only activate their circuits but also actively release their Od.

"That's true, you're both skilled with a bow. And if you can expel your Od like that, then you would be a valuable archer." Shirou nodded his head slowly, his face seemingly carved out of stone.

"See Minori? He gets it! Hey if we join the FAF does that mean that we'll get proper training on how to use magic?"

"It's not magic." Shirou shook his head quickly, getting a surprised blink from his friend, "It's called Magecraft. Magic, or True Magic, is something entirely different and on a much higher scale."

"So Magic is just stronger?" Ayako asked, getting a quiet click of Shirou's tongue as he thought over how to properly explain the difference to her.

Luckily for him, however, he wasn't alone and had the first apprentice of Waver Velvet, Lord El Melloi II, right there to help him out.

"If I may?" Gray spoke up, getting a small nod and a grateful smile from Shirou before she turned to face Ayako and Minori and gave them both a polite smile, "Magecraft is what practically everyone who can access their Od, internal energy, and thus Mana, external energy, and combine them into Prana uses."

She began her explanation, holding a hand out for each of the energies she spoke of and then clasping them together over her navel.

"This is because Magecraft is, in a very simple way to explain, the scientific recreation of supernatural phenomena through supernatural means. There is research, knowledge and experimentation done where we work on formula's, components and arias to find the right combination to recreate existing phenomena."

"Like creating a fireball?" Ayako questioned with an intrigued tilt of her head.

"Simplistic, but yes. Precisely. In terms of Magecraft, a fireball is nothing but sparking a flame to life and then tweaking its shape, travel distance and speed, and volatility. Fire is a natural phenomenon, some would argue the oldest, and thus one of the easiest things to do, so long as you have a fire element. True Magic, on the other hand, is akin to creating a new phenomenon that has never existed before and cannot be explained. There's no formula to pour over, no way to measure or predict its output. It is, to the mind of anyone that can't use it, utterly alien."

"That's seems extremely odd. What does a 'created phenomenon' even look like?" Minori questioned with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow, trying to look aloof but unable to hide his interest in what Gray was explaining.

"Hmmm. Here's how I once heard it explained." Gray offered with a small bounce on the spot and a hand motion at her side, "Imagine that you have a jar full of marbles of all different colours. You've seen someone pull out a black marble before, so you use mathematics and science to manoeuvre the marbles around to pull a black marble out yourself every time you reach in. Sometimes its larger, or smaller, or a different shape, but it is still fundamentally a black marble. That is Magecraft."

Both Ayako and Minori nodded to show that they were following along the analogy so far, only to give matching looks of confusion when they saw Gray grin widely.

"True Magic would be if someone waltzed up to the jar, reached a single hand in and pulled out a functioning motorcycle."

The confused looks went completely blank as they tried to keep up with the complete 180 that the analogy had taken, both of them clearly trying and failing to reconcile that knowledge with what they knew of the world.

"I….see what you mean now." Minori muttered with a scrunched-up expression, looking down at the ground.

"If you think it gets any better after learning that, wait until Morgan gets her lessons up and running." Shirou snorted with a small smirk, getting a starry-eyed look from Ayako.

"So, you really will help me learn about this stuff if I join the FAF?"

"Morgan wants to teach as many people as possible now that all of this is happening. Now that we know you can use Magecraft, you'll be taught even if you don't join the…FAF." Shirou trailed off, suppressing the twitch in his hand as he said the name of what was technically now his army.

"That's great to know. I know that Ayaka has been super interested since her own powers awakened." Ayako grinned confidently; her hands planted on her hips as she nodded firmly.

"Ayaka…You mean Sajyou?"

"Yeah! She awakened too! She's actually the one that suggested looking for you to learn to use them instead of trying to figure it out ourselves."

Alright, so two of Shirou's classmates had activated their magic circuits, cool. That was good to know. God what he wouldn't give to be inside his forge right now.

"Right, I'll let Morgan know and hopefully she should have her lessons up and running soon."

"Got it!" Ayako nodded and saluted seriously, once again kicking her brother in a flash of movement to force him into following her lead, "Do we have any kind of operation center or training for the FAF yet?"

'She's having fun with this. I can just tell…' Shirou sighed internally, mentally waving off a curious tug from Artoria's side of their mental bond.

Now that he was aware of Raiga's actions, and the fact that they would now end up recruiting more people into 'official' positions since he had done so, Shirou would have to organize those sorts of things, wouldn't he?

Heavy is the head that bears the crown, or so goes the saying.

"Not yet, however if you go to the Fujimura compound that's where majority of it is handled for the moment. I'll sort something out soon."

"Understood! Let's go Minori!" And in an ecstatic whoop and a rustle of leaves, the both of them disappeared back into the greenery towards Fuyuki proper.

"You don't have any ideas for where they'll be organized or how, do you?" Gray asked stoically, stood beside Shirou and staring at the bushes where the two of them had disappeared to.

"Not in the slightest."

"Looks like you better get on that, King."

"I hate you."

"You're a shit liar."

"Big brother I can help Morgan organize the thaumaturgy lessons!" Olga joined in excitedly.

"I know that you may not be devout yourself, but I am willing to help out and offer lessons within the church of our ways to those that are interested as well?" Ciel offered pleasantly, only keeping her peaceful smile steady as Shirou looked sharply out of the corner of his eye towards her.

Shirou didn't want to let any of the major superpowers create a monopoly within Fuyuki, as doing so could lead to the others developing an animosity towards them, which they quite frankly could not deal with right now. It was one of the reasons that he had stayed his hand from communicating with anyone back in the Clock Tower, or that he had done commissions for in the past.

Yet an idea was beginning to form itself within his mind, one that only he –heir of Muramasa and Gilgamesh alike– could have possibly thought of and found to be a viable option.

"That sounds like a good idea-" This time it was Gray who gave Shirou a sharp look out of the corner of her eye, wondering what exactly it was that her friend was planning now, "I'll be sure to let people know about it."

"Thank you. You are truly gracious, Shirou."

"I'm doing my best. After all, this is a bit of an unprecedented situation for all of us."

XXXxxxXXX

That afternoon, Fuyuki Streets

Artoria let the breeze ruffle her bangs peacefully as she made her way down the street in some more casual clothes, followed closely by Percival. The tall man clad in casual clothes of his own –jeans, a black muscle shirt and a leather jacket with a wool-inlaid interior– that even Artoria could see were making multitudes of women around them follow him unerringly with their gazes.

Of course, just as women, and a couple men, were following Percival with their gazes. So too did multiple men, and a couple women, follow Artoria with those very same looks, drawn in by her brilliant golden hair and kept there by her figure that not even her knee-length skirt and somewhat loose white shirt could hide.

"My King," Percival begun, getting a silent side-eye from the woman as the two of them walked, which was about as good as a proper response as far as the Knight of the Round Table were concerned.

While Percival was beyond pleased to see his King showing her emotions more and being far more 'human' than she had ever been in her life, the experiences and knowledge that he had of 'King Arthur' still served him well. Right now was just an example of that, but a poignant one to him, nonetheless.

"I know that you have shown severe displeasure in leaving Lord Shirou due to your infatuation with him-" Percival began, looking curiously at Artoria as her usual elegant gait shattered and caused her to stumble over a slightly upturned piece of pavement.

The wide-eyed, owlish look that she gave him was so out of place on her expression that it took every ounce of willpower and self-control he had not to break and let it show in his expression. Yes, for as much as he would never level a disparaging comment on his King, it was truly a wonderful thing to see her so expressive.

With an embarrassed clearing of her throat into her fist, Artoria straightened back out and smoothed her expression over with the kind of control that only someone as legendary as her could ever hope to have.

"I hardly see how you came to that conclusion, Sir Percival."

"-But leaving that aside," Percival continued as if Artoria had never spoken, clenching the fist opposite to her and outside of her view to stop himself from breaking out into a grin as wide as one of Merlin's own, "What do you feel about this quest to go and free Merlin? While I have no doubts that having him around would be nothing but a boon for us and our forces, I still cannot help but find myself incensed at him for his disappearance shortly before….Camelot."

Both of their expressions darkened at the remembrance of how their precious city, and eventually the kingdom it had been attached to, had burned and crumbled under the machinations of Morgan Le Fay and the treachery and betrayal of multiple of their trusted allies. Yet where Percival's expression was nothing but anger and pain, as small as the tells were on his face, Artoria's was a mixture of rightful anger and mournful sadness.

Because for as much as there had been things out of her control, and for as much as Morgan had twisted and prodded to get the outcome that had come to be, Artoria was unable to ignore her own contributions to the eventual fall of her kingdom.

She wondered idly, if Mordred was here right now, if she appeared out of thin air right in front of Artoria, how would she feel? How would she act in the face of the child that she had never asked for, nor wanted?

It wasn't Mordred's fault that she had been created, nor was it her fault the ideas that had been planted in her mind before they had even met face to face, Artoria knew that. Yet it was her fault the actions she took as a Knight of the Round Table. It was her fault how she reacted to the rejections that Artoria had continually and without mercy hammered her down with, something that she could admit that she could have handled far better.

Both of them had their faults, and things that they did wrong. But did knowing that, understanding and accepting it, now mean that Artoria would feel differently if her unwanted child landed in front of her right this moment? She didn't know, and it felt strange for her to think that.

But Mordred wasn't the topic of this conversation, Merlin was. That was a whole new can of worms that Artoria didn't know how to feel about, and very soon she actually would be forced to confront it.

"I still think that going to get him is the best choice, both from a logical perspective and an instinctual one." Artoria began slowly, letting his earlier comment slide but not forgetting it, "But I have to agree that my thoughts on him at the moment are…complicated."

The two of them turned down a street as they walked, Artoria uttering a small platitude to a middle-aged woman that came up to ask if Fuyuki was really under control of some new Emperor before they both moved on, murmurs fading into obscurity behind them.

"Between falling for Morgan's schemes after all of his overconfidence and blustering, using me as a time-capsule messenger of all things, and the knowledge of what his 'secret project' was, I've found myself with cause enough to be justifiably angry with that man."

Percival, had he been a better man, would have liked to defend Merlin and his honour against the words and anger of his King. However, the man found himself with very little will to actually do so.

He had always thought him to be a poor influence for people to be around, let alone children like his Master. The fact that he had apparently been around Artoria at a similarly young age, no matter how tangentially or far removed, made him feel incensed in more than one way. He could only thank God that Artoria seems to have had a strong enough sense of ideals and self to ward off all but the most innocent influences of such a man.

"That's completely justified, my King." Percival responded easily, turning and thanking an elderly lady who –correctly– deduced that he was a confidant of 'their protecting Emperor' and had come out to gift him and Artoria an offering of food.

"Yet there's still that childish part of me, I suppose, that misses having him around as an advisor, no matter how annoying it got at times. It was routine, no matter how sporadically he was actually in the castle."

"And thus, it makes it comforting." Percival finished with an understanding look.

"Precisely. Though I can't lie and say that I don't have plans to punish him once he is released from his prison." She said coldly, her hand raised and curled into a fist that practically radiated power.

Percival didn't react outwardly other than a shaky smile, not sure whether to feel sorry or not for the pain that was sure to be coming Merlin's way for all of his slights against the blonde-haired ruler.

"I think the worst part, however, is going to be meeting Vivian again." Artoria explained, her eyes dazed in thought and her expression pensive as the both of them walked.

Which was, perhaps, why she completely missed the scrunched-up look of worry and confusion on Percival's face as she spoke.

"The last time I saw her was as I was dying at that fateful lake. Seeing her again, especially after everything that happened with both Morgan's…I can't help but wonder how I'm going to react when I see her. I can't imagine it will be well, however."

"I….see. Well I'm sure that, given your history, Lady Vivian will be more than accepting of your hesitance."

"Yes, I suppose she might be." Artoria nodded, not saying anything further and letting the both of them fall into silence.

Percival liked to believe that he had a rather good grasp on a variety of his King's moods and mannerisms, having been one of her most loyal knights in life. Which was why he had noticed what probably no one else currently around possibly could have, and that which she had thought was still hidden.

Why had Artoria lied about meeting Vivian being the worst part of going to free Merlin?

XXXxxxXXX

Meanwhile, Brunestud Castle

A pale man with a sharp, square jawline, high cheekbones and slicked back black hair made his way peacefully through the elegant halls of the castle of his fine Lady, Altrouge Brunestud. His gleaming black plate armour shining in the flickering lights of the numerous candles used to light up the interior of his Lady's Victorian-era style abode.

At his side, going in the opposite direction to him, two ghouls shambled along, brainlessly dusting down the walls and furniture along the hallway. Their skin an ashen grey and their more human-like features having either melted or sloughed off entirely while angry red welts circled their abdomen and arms.

Walking out of a room and making their way dutifully down the hallway, once again in the opposite direction to him, two undead in much simpler plate armour than his own clanged down the hall. No doubt doing the rounds in their regular inspections, as quite a few of their own kin were conscripted to do as well.

A scant few years ago, there would have hardly been as much cohesion amongst his Lady's blood-kin as this, in fact it had been the one point where he and his fellow bodyguard, Fina-blood Svelten, had actually agreed on something and argued against their Lady. While Fina may be a far more carefree person than he, the both of them stemmed from military backgrounds and thus kept their own blood-kin in a well-maintained routine at all times.

Prior to the invasion from the Golden King, Altrouge had done no such thing. She had kept a few servants here and there, but otherwise pretty much just kept her forces on standby. Forcing them to weather the sandstorm of time while mindlessly shambling about throughout her territory, occasionally drinking and/or eating those that accidentally stumbled too far into her territory for the Church to kick up too much of a fuss about.

After that invasion, though? When the Golden King had not only culled a full third of his Lady's forces but had beaten her to the point of complete defeat? After that, she had pretty much been forced to redefine not only how she went about dealing with things troubling her, but the way that she treated and used her forces as well.

Now her forces not only looked, but acted, far more like a proper army befitting the rightful Princess of the Dead Apostles, but had the numbers to back it up too.

Walking up to a particular door, the man in black raised a gauntleted hand and politely knocked on the ornate wood. A small smile spread across his lips as the twin-doors quietly swung open with a bowed greeting from two maids, nightmare's that had expressed a wish to stay at his Lady's side as often as possible, rather than be simple shock troops or military commanders.

With a silent nod towards the both of them, he made his way into the room and looked between the two other figures stood before him.

One was the muscled form of his fellow bodyguard, Fina, dressed in his typical mixture of a pure white formal naval captain's get-up and pieces of brilliant white armour to match that of his own pitch-black set. Though whereas he wore the entire set, usually sans helmet when not in a fight, Fina tended to wear only the greaves, breastplate and gauntlets. His legs, lower-abdomen and upper arms entirely exposed for anyone to tear through as they wished, not that it would really keep an Ancestor down for long.

The second was his fair Lady, Altrouge Brunestud, currently in her young-teenage looking form as she stood on a small wooden step to stand high-enough above the table before her to see the whole of it properly.

Despite the situation, Rizo-Waal Strout reminded himself not to laugh, nor show any form of amusement over the height-related issues of his Lady while in this form. The poor last nightkin to do such a thing had been turned into a new coat of paint for the walls so fast that he hadn't even been able to blink, let alone realize that his master had swung a hand at him.

"You called for me, my Lady?" Rizo greeted elegantly as he knelt before her with his head bowed, getting a small scoff from Fina that had him shooting a sharp glance at him from the corner of his eyes.

Oh, if only it wasn't for his blasted Song, then he could age the fool into non-existence at his whim. Did the man have no concept of manners and refinement? He was from that great 'Age of Enlightenment' or whatever they wished to pat themselves on the back for, was he not? Perhaps the man truly was just destined to become a pirate from day dot, what a horrid fate.

"I did, Rizo." Altrouge nodded regally, making a smooth hand gesture for him to rise from his position before her, "Because I believe that the time has finally come upon us."

"The time for your counter-invasion, you mean?" Fina responded with a dark grin, his arms crossed over his chest and his pale, almost white, hair shifting to frame his features in a way that Rizo would almost claim to be 'roguish' if not for the fact that just looking at Fina's face made bile crawl up his throat.

"Precisely." Altrouge nodded once more, her eyes seeming to glow in the dim candlelight of the room, "Two years ago that golden-haired puppet dared to invade my lands and lay a hand on me. His play is over, done and dusted, but that of his successor is not. And as luck would have it, I have an interest in him myself."

"The Muramasa brat?" Fina questioned with a raised eyebrow, "I've heard you talking about him a couple times, but this seems a bit beyond that. Are you planning on adding him as one of your legion?"

"No. If the actions of Gilgamesh were to be followed, entrapping him in any way would be an exercise in futility. As enjoyable as it may be to turn him into a thrall. Razing him and his allies to the ground is my current plan for his fate."

"A complete and proper invasion then, not just you and Primate Murder waltzing in." Rizo summarized with a short nod.

"Precisely. However, the firepower available to Muramasa is far too high currently, multiple Servants, while individually inferior to an Ancestor, is nothing to sneeze at." Altrouge explained simply, pointing a finger down on the table where a large, ornate map of the globe was laid out. "You and your blood-kin will be arriving to Japan first as a vanguard, of sorts, Rizo."

"Understood, my Lady." He nodded and bowed briefly in understanding.

"Due not only to the numbers that we'll be bringing, but some additional complications on Fina's end, we'll be quite a bit behind you. So, understand that unless something happens and you manage to deadlock entirely into a grinding siege of attrition, there will be no reinforcements coming for you."

"I will not need them, my Lady." Rizo answered seriously, before his expression quirked slightly, "Though I am curious. If you believe it to be possible for that to happen, why not simple have the three of us arrive at once?"

"Because I need you to sow chaos. Break their cohesion and give them no time to rest or recover so that they cannot hope to fight back once we arrive. Otherwise, the chance that they can mount some kind of formidable defence once they realize we're coming is far too high."

"Ah, a Vanguard in the truest sense, then." Rizo commented, getting a small, demure grin from the girl.

"Exactly. I trust that you have no qualms about your role?"

"Not in the slightest." He shook his head, plans and tactics already buzzing around inside his skull like a hive of particularly disgruntled hornets.

Though, a thought did occur to him that had him looking over at Fina with what one could barely manage to call a smirk of amusement and derision rolled into one.

"And exactly what kind of problem have you found yourself in to be upsetting our ladies plans to such an extent?"

A growl left the blonde-haired pirate's lips before he forced himself to take a deep breath and calm down –slightly– at a blank side-eye from Altrouge.

"Fine, if you must know, there was an incident a couple weeks ago that's kicked a few bee hives."

"If we're going to be discussing your screw-ups you must give me more than that, Svelten."

A loud groan left the man's mouth as he placed both of his hands on his face and tilted his head back momentarily.

"Fine, whatever. If we're doing this, we're doing this. So, about two weeks ago, I'm off the coast of Croatia-"

XXXxxxXXX

Side Story: Irisviel's Driving

"So, I get that you wanted to get out of the house for a bit-"

The car lurched to the left so far that the two right-side wheels left the ground for a solid three seconds before they slammed back down as the car dangerously rocked left and right around a couple other vehicles on the road.

"But did driving have to be your go-to method?"

Rin and Luvia both silently heaved into their mouths as the car lurched right this time, rocking dangerously as Irisviel turned to look away from the road and towards Rin and Luvia, who was in the backseat much to her consternation, and left the twin-tailed ravenette to make a mad dive for the steering wheel to stop her from killing all three of them.

"Of course it did! Kiri was so nice to buy me this car I couldn't just not use it!" Irisviel grinned brightly, getting a shaky smile from Luvia as she watched her rival desperately try to steer the vehicle with one hand while leant over the divide between the driver and passenger seats.

"Right. And…why bring us too?" Luvia asked queasily, hoping that she managed to keep it all off her expression.

"Well, you're going to be my daughters-in-law. It's a good idea to spend time together as family." Irisviel smiled, and while normally such an admission would make both young women feel soft and bubbly inside, right now they couldn't quite dredge up the mental willpower to be that distracted.

"That's…so nice of you." Rin uttered shakily, rapidly pulling back into her own seat as Irisviel finally turned back around and continued to steer of her own volition.

"Isn't it just? Too bad that Sakura couldn't join too." Irisviel pouted dramatically, hitting the brakes far, far too late into a corner and far, far too hard, throwing the tail end of the car into a far wider curve than the front.

From the top of the retaining wall beside the curving mountain road surrounding Fuyuki, three pitch black wolves dove over the edge, their front paws barely touching the smooth bitumen of the road before the side of Irisviel's car clipped all three of them head on. Throwing them either back into the retaining wall or over the railing and down the cliff-face that the road sat atop.

And throughout it all, Irisviel merely continued to hum happily, only making the briefest of sad faces when she struck the wolves before shrugging and turning the next corner.

'Well, this is it.' Rin thought dryly, as the car tipped onto two wheels yet again, 'This is how I die. I should have just gone to watch that archery pissing contest of Shirou's instead of agreeing to this…'

XXXxxxXXX

Hello hello!

Another chapter has arrived, and I hope that you've all enjoyed it! Honestly, I would have preferred to get this out last month, but between my injured wrist and getting a promotion at work (I despise 9-5 jobs with my entire heart and soul) having the smaller workload this month really helped out in ways that I never could have foretold.

There was quite a bit of upcoming arc setup in this chapter if I'm honest, and there's some stuff that I'm quietly setting up for the future in this chapter too. I won't be very surprised if some of you manage to notice what I'm setting up, but if you manage to figure out why I'm setting it up that way, I'll be legitimately surprised. It took quite a bit of research for me to create what I'm setting up and if somebody else is lead down the same path then colour me genuinely impressed.

Shilling Corner Time!

Discord code: ctMzhq3 OR plasmaassassin

Original Story: Young Swordmaster's Journey (On Royal Road)

AND NOW TIME FOR REVIEW REPLIES!

Chapter 46:

AidenJacksonSmithDSBB: Yes, Yes it was being. And whaaaa? Nooooooo.

Darkscythe Drake: S-tier danger ranking if ever there was one. And probably, most likely.

WeAreTheWord: My beta's have admitted that these days they have very little work to do because my grammar and punctuation have gotten a lot better since 2018

Conner Kumiai: Well now. You brought up something interesting. Is it? Or has something happened to it? Who knows.

Rajo: Honestly the fact that Morgan hasn't fucked Shirou dry yet is the greatest showing of her willpower in the entirety of the Nasuverse and you can't prove me otherwise.

AnimeFan13579: Don't tempt Shirou man. The only thing that's stopped him from raiding Atlas is the fact that he doesn't know that one of their superweapons is a sword. What do you think would happen if he got the idea/ability to make a world-ending blade?

TheSlySage: There are things that can stop the command seals from teleporting servants to their Masters. We've even seen it before in heracles v Gilgamesh in the ubw anime.

Zukafew119: Hello once again! You made a comment about why Scathach can't go because she ascended to a goddess of death and combat? In the nasuverse I don't believe that ever happened. She entered the Land of Shadows as a human and that's where she was right up until she merged with her Servant self. The guy screaming out that its Godzilla isn't anyone in particular but they usually always have some poor Japanese salaryman in a suit be the one to yell it out, also I had the scene from Austin Powers Goldmember in my head when I wrote it and that's what the guy is wearing in that. My favourite Necron is obviously Trazyn, though Illuminor Szeras is a very strong second place pick. And I shall leave that a mystery.

Chapter 47:

Hnh058513: Thank you very much, and eyyyy nice

MagmaLich: You're welcome and thank you

Mythic Imagination: Thank you very much, its nice to hear that

Spedyalarm: That's right. Suffer.

TheLastGarou: I appreciate it, thank you. And thank you for the compliment on the story too!

Old steamer: I feel like I just got hit with an advertisement in my own comments. I don't know how to respond to this XD

REVIEW REPLIES OVER!

Thank you all so much for your understanding with the break last month, as sudden as it was, and all the comments that you left. By the time you're reading this I will have deleted the March Hiatus chapter and left this one in its wake, just so that you're all aware.

I'll see you all next month! And please send help I can't stop collecting ttrpg's. I want to make a living off my writing but at this stage it will just all disappear into rulebooks and monster bestiary's ;-;