Fate/Broken Verse

(Finals and final papers suck. Nearing the end though! :D)

As Akira tried to hide his embarrassment and act all cool, which did not seem to work very well, he just listened and considered as Oda spoke. He himself had some own ideas.

"Yeah. I think if we go to the Harbor, we might run into another Servant who would also investigate, or the one behind it. And also...hey, wait! Don't just go reading through all my stuff!"

Incidentally, Oda would learn that Akira seemed to be a fan of more supernatural and magic and fantasy based manga and comics, and would find things such as Assassination Classroom, Knights and Magic, and such. And if one observed his place of residence, one might think from the clear lack of organization that he was a bit...lazy...

The fact htere was a blanket located under the couch seemed to indicate he actually slept there himself a few nights, and there was another in his workshop.

"I did have a dream...it was really weird...I wonder if it was a dream or a memory..." Akira mentioned, though he left out the part about him dying. "I think we should investigate the scene first, and decide our next action based on what we find there...well, almost. We do have one detour first..."

As he said that, his stomach growled louder then expected and he got a bit more embarrassed.

"Yeah! We need breakfast! Food will help with stamina and thinking! I will go get dressed!"

With those words, he went back into his room and got dressed for the day.

Oda grinned as it seemed Akira agreed with her plan to investigate the harbor. "Eheheh! Glad you agree with my plan of action!" She replied seemingly ignoring his words about reading through his things. Boy, with all his books just sitting about how could she resist digging through his stash of books? She also wanted to see if she could dig up any little hidden gems that he did not want found. But unfortunately that was not the case here.

Still, as the Castor servant went to go get dressed. Oda simply crossed her arms and nodded. Breakfast before victory as they say! While Akira went off to get dressed. She began to raid his fridge and began to look for food. She was expecting stuff like instant noodles, frozen pizza, canned foods...Basically easy to make foods to help herself.

Of course! She was his ally after all and allies share their food! He definitely would not mind her getting the pick of the best food. Besides, as the Demon King she needed her energy! And what better way then eating a bunch of canned food! Who needed to begin cooking anyways. With high hopes of easy junk food she rummaged through his fridge.

Once Akira was ready, he checked over his supplies. Various marbles, his smartphone, his portable staff, a book, and countless other components. He clothes had hidden and concealed runes covering his clothes, and he put on a blue cap that would help conceal his presence and mana.

If Mages had a military, they would wish to be equipped with what Akira had right there.

Meanwhile, what Oda would find in his fridge and freezer would consist mainly of fruit, yogurt and other related dairy products, eggs, bacon, sandwhich ingredients, and food that could be made or reheated easily and used as a snack. A good part of it was healthy...but a good part of it was also clearly there for him to quickly make and eat.

There was also some pizza that didn't look bad either, and was still quite eddible. It seemed he was sensible enough to not keep bad food in his house. Or, apartment anyways. Though the rest of it was pretty much a mess.

And as he did, he tapped his foot on the ground and suddenly, the front door of his apartment turned into a portal that led to somewhere near the harbor.

"Public transit really is quite boring and troublesome, after all".

As Oda concluded what was in Akira's fridge...She spent no time at all stuffing her pockets full of snacks for the road. Of course obviously she had no means to drag a microwave with her, so obviously she should not bring some canned goods that needed heating right? Wrong! There was a Castor with her. She can always ask him to light a fire and cook their food on the go with ease! She was a genius! Heck why not, she grabbed some bacon as well for the road.

After raiding the fridge, it started to look neat. Then again she just grabbed a bunch of stuff with her for the road. He would thank her later no doubt! Once their...Supplies were ready, Oda stepped behind Akira as he turned his front door into aa portal. "You Castor's and all your fancy tricks...Really saves us effort! Muahahaha! Let us advance for the Demon King! Charge!" She grinned happily as without rhyme or reason, she stepped through the portal.

Perched upon the top of a lighthouse, Assassin was looking over New Tokyo's harbor. Her long, violent red hair glinted in the morning sunlight, bright enough to guide the ships in, which would conflict with the entire purpose of her Servant Class... if her presence wasn't so easily ignored. Nobody working at or visiting the harbor paid the red figure upon the distant lighthouse any mind, even when they were looking out at the view, almost as if a sheet of normalcy had been pulled over her. Her fiery, swirling eyes stared at the people below as they had for the past two hours, searching for anything peculiar...

A gentle snore came from beside her, then a shifting movement, then a blur. Assassin shot her hand out without even a flinch, catching a falling young woman by the hood of her jacket. There was a yelp, then a gagging sound, then a thud as Assassin threw the woman back on the domed rooftop of the lighthouse with only one arm, but the strength of a bear. The woman immediately shot up again.

"A-Assassin!" she gasped, "I'm sorry, I just - I was up so late and you dragged me out so early, I -" Her green, framed eyes suddenly went wide and she crawled forward with an anguished cry to gawk over the edge of the lighthouse. Lo and behold, at the bottom of the lighthouse beneath them was a pile of books and papers that had fallen from her lap. On top of them, a lidless, silicone coffee cup. The sound that came out of her mouth was ungodly. Luckily, it was too shrill to be picked up by human ears. She fell back and rolled around in a frenzy, "ASSASSIN THAT WAS SO IMPORTANT DO YOU KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE THOSE TEXTBOOKS WERE?!" Big, fat tears welled up in her eyes. "You should have saved them, not me! I'm going to be dead anyway if I don't get that essay in by the 12 am deadline -"

Assassin's stoic face was unchanging as she uttered bluntly, "Your structured paragraphs discussing how the internet and its abundance of false information and cult-like followings could create Mysteries for the modern era, thereby reestablishing 'true Magic' and bringing about a new age of pop culture Gods, is both highly absurd and unnecessary for the task at hand. This is a war, Mage."

The young woman wiped away her tears on her hoodie sleeve with a pout, "I still have a future to prepare for once it's done..." she mumbled, "And my name's Alicia, already..." She let out a large yawn and rubbed beneath her purple-rimmed glasses at the equally purple bags drooping from her eyes. Peeking under her over-sized jumper sleeves was a red, harsh mark on her hand - Assassin's Command Seal. "I have class at nine thirty, just so you know..."

"You will likely not attend it."

"I would never -!" Alicia shut her mouth at Assassin's smoldering gaze, glancing away in embarrassment. She let out a big sigh and melted into a puddle, "Yare yare, why did I agree to this?" She groaned and turned over onto her back, looking up at the sky. When Assassin had introduced herself, well, if you could call it that, Alicia had just sneakily healed a fox that was on the verge of being road kill (heh, get it?). She was not expecting a red-clad superhuman to suddenly drop from a lamp post and demand a full demonstration of her abilities. She especially did not expect to find the armed and deadly warrior sitting at the foot of her bed when she had come home.

Was it true what Assassin had told her? The Holy Grail War had returned, and was taking place right here, in New Tokyo and she was summoned without a Master? The Command Spell that had appeared on her hand after their ritual was complete seemed to say so... but why would any Servant seek out her out as a Master, and not a fully-fledged Mage from the Mage's Association, was beyond her understanding. Then there was the other matter. When Alicia shook Assassin's hand and introduced herself, Assassin had cried. Weird. She shook that from her head and hummed. "'Winning the Grail War' is a nice thing to put on a resume, hmmm?" she murmured, "And Grandfather might finally pass his Magic Crest down to me, he'd be so impressed! Can't think of a wish I particularly desire from it, though..." she tapped her lips with a single finger before sticking it up in the air, "Ah! Eradicating acne!" Some more thinking. "... Or... world peace or something like that..."

Assassin suddenly stood, eyes shut and nose in the air as she sniffed. She let out a long, quiet breath. "A Servant."

Alicia drew her knees against her chest, face pale. "Uh oh."

"On," Assassin commanded and put on knee on the ground, gesturing for Alicia to climb on her back, "Your magic circuits are so underwhelming, your mana residue is practically non-existent. You should blend in with the non-Magus just fine. I need you close while I determine the situation."

"O-Oh? Is that so..." Alicia said thoughtlessly, climbing onto the woman's back. Her eye suddenly twitched and she shouted into her Servant's ear, "H-HEY! Hang on, is that why you wanted me as your Master?! Because I'm weak and unnoticed?! I'm an A-grade Magus! In my classes, anyway - EEEK!"

Assassin jumped from the lighthouse, Alicia clinging onto her for dear life. "You are not my Master. I have no Master, Mage." As soon as she nailed her superhero landing, she began to fade away. "Follow."

"B... But you're invisible..." Alicia babbled, then heaved and began to trudge after where she thought she could sense Assassin's presence, though she didn't have any at all... she heard a sudden clicking noise in thin air from the opposite direction, then another a little further ahead. "C-Coming!" she cried out and jogged after the clicks... towards the Servant Assassin could sense...

Akira still had his suppression magic tools on to hide his pressense and of those near him, but they did much more then that. Yes, the magic power suppression that he had also served another purpose. It was to let him use magic around people without htem noticing so easily.

Otherwise, people walking out of a random door that had an inside different then what should be there, or what was normally there, would possibly attract attention. It also allowed some other flexibility, but in this case you now had the ability to use that door without causing all that fuss.

"Ahhh...I love skipping traffic in the morning".

Akira said that. Granted, he barely cleaned his apartment and random junk was tossed everywhere, but one could sympathize with him if they knew of what morning traffic could be like.

"So, now...what would be going ar...ound...the hell?!"

Akira exclaimed that as he looked at something impossible. No no, not just impossible, it was beyond impossible. It was something that absolutely should be not there. THe moment he saw that thing, Akira went to the nearest dock worker.

"Hey! Hey! What happened here?! What is that ship?!"

"Oh this...looks like this ship here....ahh, the Titanic! Yeah, a marvelous ship aint she...though, I dont remember when she got in exactly".

Yes, the ship in front of Akira and the others was the ship known as the Titanic. Although information transfer that occurred from the Grail did not cover everything, often only covering what the Master knew, something major like the Titanic event would certainly be among the information that any Servant would know about.

Although, Akira seemed particularly unnerved by it for some reason.

"Why the hell is that....!!!"

And then, he sensed something that made him freeze in place as the worker kept talking.

"Anyways, you shouldn't wander around here kid. There was a huge fire, apparently a large number of things exploded. And, weirdly enough...there was some homeless person talking about a ghost with a lance...but, he was probably just have some delusion".

Those words also concerned him. Akira had thought that maybe Berserker was the cause, but the word "Lance" stuck out to him like a sore thumb.

And on that note, he had a bad feeling that something was approaching at the same time. What that was though, he could not say for certain, but...given what was just said, he now had to consider a new idea.

"Oda...be very careful. Its possible...all this chaos was set up to lure people in...that we are right now inside one big trap".

Looking around the docks after arriving through the portal Akira had covienently had on hand to easily shorten what would be a much longer walk. There they were standing in the rather burnt docks, and on the water there lay the massive gargantuan ship that she obviously has not seen in person given her origins but has knowledge about given how the grail works by ramming every little detail in your mind to ensure you were caught up in history. The massive ship known as Titanic.

Supposedly sunk by an iceberg and had a romantic drama made about it. Yep, sappy stuff about a massive ship that just crashed into an immovable iceberg that gently floated by water. People must have been drunk while at the wheel...Then again it would probably take a whole hour to even turn the ship. With how big it was, it’s no wonder such an expensive project was overly dumb. Yep...They should have added rockets or something to the side. Then it be a good idea.

Nodding to herself, Akira was busy speaking to a man more surprised and unnerved than anything. What’s the reason? It was simply a massive ship that should be at the bottom of the sea making home for underwater creatures and here’s it was at port looking brand new and the worker was not even remotely worried about it. Almost as if it just belonged there.

Of course Akira had told her to remain on guard. It could have been an ambush. “Alright, I’ll keep my peepers out for trouble. Still, I wonder what the year is. We got a giant ghost ship in front of us, I mean. I’m sure there is no Rider Servant that commands the titanic. And the worker does not even seem surprised like it still sailed instead of being destroyed.” Oda started before looking around.

“I mean, there was already enough mystery. King of knights in a book doing something that I should not say, the missing grail, a Minotaur capable of it’s own reality marble, how we are not vanishing without any master to supply us mana, our incomplete power, and the reactions of the people. Indeed! This is such a situation above all holy grail wars!” She began to laugh out loud at this prospect. They were making history here! In fact! They were in a situation that was beyond odd! A great mystery indeed!

“If this is a trap! Then let the enemy come! Be it Servant or monster! For I am the Demon King Obu Odanaga!...No wait...Oda Nobunaga...The Demon King Oda Nobunaga!” She exclaimed out loud as he put her hands on her hips with a confident grind. “By Oda, For Oda. Let’s stand and fight my fine ally! It’s two of us! That already means we are super powerful! And this is...Kinda like my homeland? I mean it’s a mix...Do I get home field advantage?” She closed her eyes nodding to herself.

With an ultimate shrug, she dug into her coat and pulled out a cup of yogurt that she snagged from his fridge and began to eat from it. “This is pretty good.”

"Stop," a familiar, monotone voice echoed in Alicia's head. She immediately froze up. "Don't approach the harbor any further."

"What is it?" she whispered quietly to her Servant, into her hands with the pretense of trying to warm them up with her breath. Her green eyes flicked over to a blue haired kid and loud girl that had arrived recently.

"Turn away. You're too close."

Alicia tugged on an earring nervously as she moved across the docks. Today, her earrings were Rubik's cubes. Yesterday, books with the entirety of Jane Eyre printed in them in writing for ants. Anything that didn't have any place dangling from her earlobes, she wore there. Leaning on the railing a fair way from the two newcomers talking to the dock worker, she took out her kitty-themed phone and began taking pictures of the Titanic.

"You're going to have to delete those."

"I know, I know. I'm just trying to look busy, okay..." she mumbled, knowing that she had to delete them, but not planning to. "There's already footage of a Minotaur on my Facebook feed... Did you see the Servant?"`

No answer.

Alicia hummed. "I wonder who they are..." she breathed, "Why won't you tell me? I can be useful. I'm not much use if I don't know where the enemy is. I can send a familiar..." She held out her pinkie finger and a ladybug came to land on her fingernail.

"No."

The ladybug flew from Alice's fingertip and she went back to glumly taking pictures of the Titanic. "I know you told me that we're not engaging with the boat today..." she mumbled, "But, uh, before we destroy the source of its manifestation, can I... there's something I'd like to ask... it's hard to explain... and kind of weird, when I can't see who I'm talking to..."

"What."

Alicia suddenly gripped the rails with fire in her eyes and sudden vigor, "We MUST perform 'I'm flying Jack'!"

...

"What is that? A combination attack?"

"Nooo, you know! From Titanic! The movie!" She flapped her arms out, imitating Rose, "I thought you got knowledge of our world when you are summoned?"

"You're too loud, Mage. I have enough knowledge to function. Your pop culture references are distracting. We are not doing "I'm flying Jack" on this ship. Too dangerous. I told you, we are not engaging. ... They are. Get away from the harbor."

"Huh? Oh..." Alicia felt a sudden cold loneliness as the presence of Assassin left her. She looked around - which was silly, she couldn't see her Servant anyway - and gave herself a small hug. There was a shiver of nervousness down her back. Did Assassin have a plan - and if she did, why couldn't she have trusted her with it?! Agh, how frustrating, to have a Servant so independent from her. Who did she think she was, Archer? Alicia plugged the upbeat tunes of a Kpop song in her ears and scooted over to get out of the way of what she assumed to be an incoming battle.

Assassin materialized upon a tall building overseeing the harbor, dagger in hand. She threw it up and caught it again, a seemingly disinterested expression falling over her face. Here they were, teetering near the bottom of this trap's funnel. How interesting it would be to turn on the water that would wash them down. With a sudden whip of her arm, the dagger was arching over the harbor - and she had disappeared once more.

The red-bladed dagger struck the hull of the Titanic with a chink.