Sunny Nun

After escorting my mother to her room I reenter my father's room to find Shinji speaking to Jack about some kind of plan.

"Allow me to suggest something with my all encompassing wisdom!" I exclaim catching the duo's attention.

Narrowing his eyes in suspicion he reluctantly urges me to continue as Jack simply looks on angrily,

"We should go to the church."

"Why would we do that?" He asks in turn ever so slightly exasperated, it would seem he understands not to trust priests.

"Because Shirou's probably gonna be there."

"Of course he is," Shinji mumbles irritably, not even questioning it, he stands up in clear annoyance.

"We're going now aniki?" Jack asks cutely though I can feel my skin bristle ever so slightly at hearing another person refer to Shinji as their brother.

"Yes, Assassin we are." He responds sighing,

"You know if you sigh so much all your happiness will go flying away." I say somewhat cheekily, getting a quick glare in response as he moves past me. Jack also takes the time to give me one of those classic big eyed yandere stares that might send shivers down your spine.

"Let's just get going already." He sighs yet again, seems like he might be tired, maybe I should tease him less?

'Nah!' I think while giggling as I trail after him.

--

"Assassin stay hidden for now," Shinji whispers as we get closer to the not at all creepy church,

"Okie Dokie, aniki" As Jack calls him her brother once again she emphasizes the word while looking at me through the corner of her eyes, clearly she's trying to provoke me, but I'm not falling for it I'm more mature than that.

"Stop it Nori."

"Stop what?" I ask

"The sparks." He responds pointing at my hands, confused I look down to find a small amount of electricity quietly dancing between my fingers more than ready for me to just start blasting.

'Maybe my powers being connected to instinct isn't as much of a cheat as I might have originally thought.' Focusing slightly on calming my "not anger" the sparks disappear quietly.

"You do know Jack has information erasure as one of her personal skills though right?" I ask thinking more clearly about his decision to have her hide,

"Nori, come on, you don't need future vision to know that whoever is watching over this grail war is probably cheating and probably a master." Well, he isn't exactly wrong in his statement, but who would've thought my big brother could be this smart, anime logic would usually dictate extreme ignorance for the sake of the plot.

"I have no intention of showing my hand to anyone. That includes Shirou and Rin so keep your big mouth shut." He continues,

"Why keep anything from Rin and Shirou? You know it could get all of us into big trouble when we make plans and stuff."

"That is none of my concern, the only thing I'm worried about is-" He begins this statement only to be interrupted by a shrill screech of a person right at the large double doors of the church just a few feet away from the gate we've finally arrived at.

"It took you guys long enough to get here!." The unfamiliar and surprisingly childish voice yells causing my brother to go on full alert, this person was very much expecting us. The steel gate opens slowly with a sound that in the daytime wouldn't ever be worth noting but during the stillness of the night was almost deafening to the ears.

"Nori stay close to me at all times." Is all Shinji leaves me with before striding confidently to the short blond haired nun which stood waiting for us.

'It's always blond huh, I get the feeling the anime industry doesn't know any other ways to tell the audience someones a foreigner or something.'

Following closely behind him the girl enters the church just before we reach her as if baiting us in like a worm on a fish hook.

"Now that everyone's here It's time I introduce myself!" The nun exclaims standing directly in the middle of the church, her golden hair glowing beautifully under a single calm stream of moonlight.

"It's about time!" a certain popular tsundere angrily exclaims from my left, looking over I see both Shirou and Rin sitting slightly uncomfortably on both ends of one of the many pews common in these kinds of churches. The gap between the two being very pronounced.

"Shinji? Minori? So you two are also-" Shirou starts before being interrupted by the nun.

'I'm starting to see a pattern here.' I think letting a slightly amused smile fit itself onto my face.

"My name is Akina, no last name! And I am the master of Berserker in this grail war!" She claims happily, surprising me slightly with her forwardness and looking around the room it's clear that I'm not the only one.

Suspicion visibly seeps into Rin and Shinji as they both stand on alert. With Shiji moving slightly closer to me and Tohsaka standing up.

"Why are you guys so stiff~ I can't attack you in a church you know, goes against the teachings and stuff." The now named Akina twirls her finger whimsically in the air like one would twirl a strand of hair.

"I hope you don't expect all of us to reveal-" Rin begins, but yet again the short blond strikes interrupting with a statement of her own,

"Oh no~ no~ no~ I don't need anything like that, I just need to know who's sticking around in this little Ghost-Death-A-Thon!" Her carefree tone sends a visible shiver down Shinji's spine as his eyes widen ever so slightly in some kind of realization. Though I have no idea what that realization could be.

The air grows still as Shirou stands up while appearing confident it's clear to everyone in the room that he's completely out of his depth.

"Do we have to kill people to get the grail?" He asks with a small bit of hope in his voice, though I'm sure he already knows the answer by this point. It's a bit unfortunate that this grail war seems to be even worse for his ideals than a regular one.

"Hmmmm~ Technically if you don't like the thought of killing particular people like let's say~ your friend there we can transfer her command seals to another person you don't like."

"But someone still has to die right?"

"That would be correct."

Shirou seems to struggle with this fact a bit before my ever reliable big brother steps in. He marches over to the would be hero of justice with a slight anger to his step pulling me along.

'Maybe my big brother got a spark of big protagonist energy and is going to give an impassioned speech about how Shirou's wish isn't wrong!' Those thoughts however are soon shattered as Shinji stands eye to eye with Shirou, the heavy glare being an indicator that whatever was about to come out of his mouth was not going to be the kind of passion I was hoping for.

"You should drop out Shirou, you aren't magus material at all." He states, causing Rin to snort in the back, I could swear I heard her say something along the lines of, "You aren't much yourself," it wouldn't be surprising and it definitely wouldn't be untrue Shirou naturally is better at magecraft than Shinji given that he has no real magic circuits to speak of and all.

"I can still fight and help you guys."

The silence which falls between the two as they stare each other down creates a tense atmosphere begging for one of them to give but when neither of them does Akina steps in.

"That's exactly what he means you know, both you and Ms.Tohsaka aren't magus material at all." She says calmly, oddly though a small but warm smile replaces her former childishness with a look in her big blue eyes that only a mother could give to her children so filled with love and affection you wouldn't be called crazy if you mistook her face for a beacon at that moment. The slight moonlight only highlighting her features all the more.

"It's no offense really! Actually, it's a compliment, most mages are… inhuman, they lack a certain warmth in their hearts that even psychic's possess."

"So you're saying we're too nice for our own good? Really?" Rin asks sarcastically, in response Akina asks a question of her own.

"Tell me Ms.Tohsaka, why did you bring Shirou here? You know killing him while he had no knowledge of the situation would have been best. So why?"

The question leaves Rin flabbergasted, bumbling over her word for an excuse of some sort though failing to find something she merely grits her teeth with a well pronounced blush.

Shirou hearing this lowers his gaze slightly to his left hand where a command seal in the shape of six wings lays glowing red.

"It would be a bit of a shame if you left the Ghost-Death-A-Thon though, having a Cherubim command seal means the grail thinks you're the second most likely candidate to win."

'This is my first time hearing about that. I wonder what rank Shinji is.'

Shirou tightens his fist in response, as he battles with what choice he'll make. While he struggles with his inner crisis, curiosity takes hold of my heart as I wonder what servant he could have summoned, with everything being so different in this game I would think he didn't summon Baber so who else could he have called on to make him so likely of winning the cup. Heat builds up in my eyes as yet again I activate my Mystic eyes searching for the answers I seek through Shirou.

Suddenly my whole head recoils as if I were punched, a gut reaction to what I had just found, causing those in the room to turn to me.

"What's the matter Nori?" Shinji asks,

"Err- well I've got some bad news…" I start before scratching the corners of my eyes for bugs. It's a strange phenomenon, the overuse of my eyes doesn't hurt nor is it particularly strange, the feelings of bugs crawling under my skin making me itch wherever they tread. It's most often focused around my eyes. When I go too far the sensation grows stronger and a feeling of biting occurs, like when a mosquito takes a bit of your blood it's not painful, I can barely feel it, but the discomfort that comes with it is almost maddening.

"Nori?"

"Oh! Uhh right! Even if Shirou wanted to back out he can't." I say simply, getting a wide eyed stare from Rin and an angry one from Shinji.

"Oh? Why's that?" Akina asks curiously,

"He isn't really human anymore. His servant and class card are literally in his body making him some kind of pseudo servant."

""What!?!"" Both Shinji and Rin shout,

"Oh, that really is bad." Aniki comments innocently,

"Yup! Though I personally think it's fine."

Looking over at Shirou I can see him steel his resolve like the protagonist he is. Really radiating that big protagonist energy indeed. My brother seems to think differently however as he makes a point out of glaring at me for some reason.

I can't fully tell what exactly about this situation has him so angry, the fact that Shirou has a really good chance of winning the game, or if it's because he's a tsundere and wants Shirou to be safe. Though either way as long as we stick with Shirou the chance of anyone dying besides like Illya is close to none… probably.

"Why do you seem like you don't care at all?" Rin asks her eyes flashing with the slightest bit of disgust,

""Well it's not something that can be changed right?"" Both Akina and I respond at the same time, causing both of us to look at each other a bit surprised.

Letting out a scoff Shinji turns on his heel yet again dragging me along with him towards the door.

"We can't just leave like this, you know we have to form an alliance with the sword and tsun!" I claim tugging his arm,

"We're going to be attacked the moment we leave this church aren't we?" He asks ignoring my previous statement,

"Now how do you know that?" Instead of giving a response he snorts and continues onward.

"She's right though, teaming up would be for the best." Akina says softly, turning her back on us to stare at the church altar, her expression dripping with sadness.

My brother however doesn't stop and we exit the building. The very second we step past the threshold of the door sparks fly off of my body haphazardly forcing my brother to let go of me.

Slowly but surely as sparks became more frantic and the instinctual fear rising within me began turning into a full blown panic attack a certain sound was getting louder and louder. The sound of a horse slowly clip-clopping its way to us as a foreboding warning of the end.

Just as the mysterious noise stops two women appear within view just beyond the church gates though all of my attention is focused on one familiar face riding a horse while in dangerously skimpy black armor, her lance already in her hand pointing in our direction.

"Shinji! We should run!" I yell frantically grabbing his hand with my own only for him to recoil back as he's shocked again.

He stares at me silently taking a moment to gauge the situation, once he's done thinking he finally asks,

"Nori, what exactly are we dealing with here?"

"Shinji, that is THE Artoria Pendragon, one of the staple girls of the Fate franchise! THE saber face. The only version of her that isn't crazy strong is like her lily form!"

While slightly confused he seems to understand the situation more based on his more serious expression.

"Am I really going to have to work with those two?" He mumbles under his breath facing the opponents who stand before us.

"Look Shinji, if we don't get their help we're screwed period, point blank, end of discussion!"

'Why is he so opposed to working with them anyways?' I wonder, now turning my own eyes to the second servant standing directly next to Artoria.

While the servant is clearly feminine a hooded black mantle with a single extended tail coming out of the back in the shape of two triangles. She gives me this awful feeling deep in my gut, the more I look at her the more my electricity reacts as if this were who my instincts were attempting to warn me of and not that walking, taking force of cataclysmic nature next to her.

As I gazed at her I could tell she was staring back even with the hood covering everything but her lips. For a few moments, the world stands still as we stare one another down only to rapidly shift within a single moment forcing me to break eye contact to look at my surroundings.

My eyes widen as I notice something that could only really be described as horrifying,

'Why am I suddenly in the street!?! How'd the church get all the way back there!?!' the questions zoom through my mind though I already know the answer, it's an extraordinarily simple one, after all, teleportation.

Rapidly I turn my head back towards my apparent foe to find her staring me down with a single ominous red glow radiating from under her hood.

'This is definitely not some bottom tier servant.' Is the last thought to come to mind before I reluctantly prepare myself to fight, knowing for a fact that I don't have a chance in hell of winning.

--

Artoria Pendragon Alter (Lancer):

Strength: A

Endurance: A+

Agility: C

Mana: A+

Luck: D

NP: A++

--

Class Skills:

Magic Resistance (B) - Can repel almost all mediocre mage craft, but not High-Thaumaturgy and Greater Rituals.

Riding (A) - Allows Artoria to ride all vehicles and beasts that aren't Divine or dragons. She mostly uses this skill to ride her horse Llamrei.

--

Personal Skills:

Mana Burst (A+) - A skill in which Artoria infuses her body and weapon with mana to increase performance and expel for more destructive attacks.

Charisma (E) - Normally this skill raises the morale of troops though in her alter form it doesn't have this effect making it mostly useless.

Protection of the Ends of the World (A) - Ranks up all parameters besides MGI and LCK when in combat.

--

Noble Phantasms:

Rhongomyniad (A++) - a Divine construct comparable to Excalibur. It's true form is "the tower that fastens the surface of the World onto the planet." It's true name and power are sealed by the thirteen restraints however and half of said restraints must be released before it can be used properly.