Drawing Out Caster

TYPE-MOON Universe, Earth, Japan, Fuyuki City.

Two days have passed in relative peace since Tatsuo infiltrated the Ryuudou Temple for the second time. During those two days, not much of note has happened. Illyasviel has not made another move to eliminate any of the other Masters, and no one has run into Caster or her mysterious Master.

Though, Shirou, who still remembered Elicia saying something about asking him something on the night they were attacked by Berserker, started getting restless. So, during the lunch break at school, he went to find Rin, who was also there at the time, to ask her about it.

"Hey, Tohsaka-San." Shirou said as he approached Rin, who was walking through the first year's hallway of the school. "I've tried to stay patient, but I can't get it off my mind."

Turning her head after hearing Shirou's voice, Rin knew exactly what he wanted to know. However, she found herself completely exasperated by the fact that Shirou did not have a sense of timing or place.

"Emiya-Kun, I'm flattered." Rin said, cutting off Shirou before he could ask his question. "But I'm not interested in dating while I'm still in high school."

"Huh?" Shirou intoned in confusion as he stumbled forward.

Meanwhile, Rin, who barely even turned her head to respond to Shirou, kept walking until she reached a certain first-year classroom. She then took a step in side and waved at Sakura, who was sitting at her desk with a pair of lunchboxes sitting on top of it.

"Sakura, sorry I took so long." Rin said as she smiled at her little sister. "Are you ready to go?"

Hearing Rin's voice, Sakura looked in her direction and smiled. Then, she picked up the two lunchboxes and made her way towards the door.

Meanwhile, Shirou came to a stop completely when he saw the classroom that Rin entered. Also, he remembered the conversation he had with Sakura only two days ago. And when he did, he could not help but clinch his fists in frustration.

'I appreciate the thought, Senpai.' The sound of Sakura's usual gentle voice rang out in Shirou's head as he watched her, and Rin leave the first-year classroom. 'But there was nothing you could have done. You know how powerful the Matou Family was in Fuyuki. Even if you had brought the issue to the police, nothing would have happened. I might have even brought you trouble. And that was the last thing that I wanted to do.'

'How can I become a Hero of Justice if I can't even save a friend when she's in trouble?' Shirou asked himself as he clenched his fists so hard that his nails started biting into his palms.

Just like that, Shirou watched Sakura and Rin walk away with self-loathing, completely unaware that two Servants were staring him down, thinking he would be an easy target without his Servant. One of those Servants, Archer, was hoping that he would attack in his frustration, too. That way, he would have a reason to kill.

Yet, to Archer's disappointment, Shirou only turned around and walked away, completely forgetting the whole reason he approached Rin in the first place.

Meanwhile, Rin felt quite guilty for brushing off Shirou the way she did. Sakura, on the other hand, only glanced at Shirou for a moment before focusing on her lunch date with her sister.

At the same time, none of the three Masters realized that someone was watching them ever since Shirou first approached Rin. This person was a man in his mid-twenties standing at 5'11" with short black hair, bangs that covered his forehead, black eyes, and a stoic facial expression wearing a dark green suit and a pair of glasses. And when this man, Kazuki Souichirou, saw the trio of three Master's separating, he turned around and went on his way without saying a word.

The next few hours passed without incident, bringing the end of the school day. And just like most days, the students either left the school to return home or go to participate in their club activities. Meanwhile, the teachers had a meeting and prepared for the next day. Yet, everyone eventually left the school, and Kazuki Souichirou was no exception.

However, when he left, Souichirou was not alone. Instead, he walked side by side with Ryuudou Issei, as they both lived at the Ryuudou Temple on top of Mount Enzou.

Along the way, the two chatted about a few things related to school and martial arts. But nothing too deep. Though, if anyone were to see the expression on Issei's face, it would be easy to see the admiration he had for the teacher walking next to him.

"Issei-Kun." Souichirou said in a nearly emotionless tone while turning towards an alley. "Go on ahead. I just remembered, I need to stop somewhere and pick something up."

"Huh? I don't mind going with you, though, Sensei." Issei said, a little confused by the sudden change of topic.

"No, it's alright." Souichirou said as he adjusted his glasses and started walking towards the alley. "It won't take long. Just go on without me."

"If you say so." Issei, still a bit confused, replied as he turned and started walking towards Mount Enzou again.

Souichirou, on the other hand, walked through the alley, reaching the next street over. When he did, he scanned his immediate surroundings, noticing a young woman, maybe a couple of years younger than him with brown skin and a friendly smile on her face, playing with some kind of mobile device that he had never seen before.

Yet, despite this young woman seeming so innocent, Souichirou felt a sense of danger from her.

"Oh, you've got good instincts." The brown-skinned young woman, Elicia, said without looking up from her lPhone, which she was using to text Tatsuo through the [Dimensional Chat], as they found out it could be used to communicate during missions a few days ago. "You tensed up slightly as soon as you saw me. And it was so minute that no one other than me would have even noticed, either."

"Who are you?" Souichirou asked as he took a step towards Elicia. "And what do you want from me? I've had a long day of teaching, and I'd like to get back to my house and relax."

"Yeah, I've heard that teaching can be exhausting." Elicia said with a nod of her head while continuing to look down at her lPhone. "So, I'll keep this brief. I wanted to meet your Servant, Caster. And I thought that you would be the fastest--- Whoa!"

*Bang!*

While Elicia spoke, Souichirou continued drawing nearer to her. Then, once he was in striking range, with no hesitation and very little in the way of preparatory movement, he attacked, aiming a swift, powerful punch at Elicia's throat.

Yet, despite the sneak attack, Elicia managed to avoid the blow. As a result, Souichirou's fist slammed into the wall of the building Elicia was leaning against while she chatted with Tatsuo, sending small chunks of debris flying as he left a small pit in the wall.

"That was so~ unnecessary." Elicia said without looking up from her lPhone. "If you didn't wanna talk to me, you could have just left. There's no need for violence."

Ignoring Elicia's comment, Souichirou narrowed his eyes when he saw how easily Elicia avoided his sneak attack. At the same time, he raised her danger level to the max as he took his fighting stance.

Souichirou then launched himself forward without a word, throwing a flurry of blows, one aimed at Elicia's forehead, the next at her liver and the last at her heart. However, Elicia, still without looking up frrm her lPhone, swayed her head to the side, slapped way the liver shot with her left hand, and turned her body to the side to avoid the fist aimed at her heart.

Elicia then ducked slightly, sliding under Souichirou's outstretched right arm, while continuing her turn. Then, when her back was to Souichirou, she grabbed his wrist with her left hand before stepping backwards with her left foot, and pulling down with her left hand.

As a result, Souichirou was easily flipped over Elicia's shoulder. However, thanks to his years of martial arts training, he broke his fall, rolling across the asphalt without taking serious damage before popping up to his feet, the only evidence of their altercation being a slight tear in the shoulder of his suit.

"Anyway, like I was saying, I just wanna meet your Servant, Caster. Elicia said, finally looking up from her lPhone before putting it into her purse.

"Who is Caster?" Souichirou asked in a monotoned voice. "I have no idea who you could be referring to."

"Right." Elicia replied while rolling her eyes. "It was just a coincidence you tried to kill me with a sneak attack when I mentioned her the first time, right?"

"Exactly." Souichirou replied while nodding with a straight face.

In response, Elicia only shook her head. She then took her own fighting stance after slipping her lPhone into her pocket.

"Well, I'm sure she'll come to you if I beat you up." Elicia continued. "And even if she doesn't come on here own, I bet you'll use one of those [Command Spells] if I beat you up bad enough."

Though he did not say anything, Souichirou did take note of the fact that Elicia never mentioned killing him. And with that, he made a serious misunderstanding, thinking that Elicia would not kill him.

That won't be necessary." A female voice said from the roof of the building Elicia was originally leaning against. "But I am curious, how did you know I was Souichirou's Servant? And what do you want with me?"

"Well, I guess you won't accept, 'I'm good at my job' as an answer, will you?" Elicia asked, not dropping her guard as she looked up towards the rooftop.

At the end of Elicia's line of sight, a woman wearing a hooded, bluish-purple robe, that left only the lower half of her face visible, floated above the roof while looking down at Elicia with an annoyed expression on her face.

"I have neither the time nor the patience for your games." The robed woman, Caster, said in a flat tone. "Either answer my questions, and gain the chance to keep your life, or refuse and force me to drag the answers out of your corpse."

"Wow! That was so cliché." Elicia said with an exaggerated show of shock on her face. "You're just like the witches in fairy tales, aren't you?"

"What... did you... call me?" Caster asked as she lowered her head in anger.

"Huh?" Elicia asked while tilting her head innocently. "But I didn't call you anything."

"I see." Caster replied while lowering her head even further. She then continued, the anger in her tone becoming clearer and clearer with every additional word she spoke. "So, you intend to mock me to the end… Very well. In that case, I have no interest in knowing why you wanted to meet me. Instead, just die."

With every word Caster spoke, a magic circle appeared floating behind her. And by the time she was finished speaking, more than forty magic circles, each primed to fire a different spell lit up the night's sky.

"I guess she didn't like something I said." Elicia muttered as she looked up at the magical display in the sky. "I wouldn't do what you're about to do, though. Believe me, it won't end well for you."

"Oh, is that because of your Assassin Servant?" Caster asked in an imperious tone. "I'll admit, in most cases, the Assassin-Class counters the Caster-Class. But I'm no ordinary Caster. And the petty tricks of some lowly assassin that only knows how to strike from the--- Urgh! *Cough* *Cough*"

*Splatter!*

"Know your place, Witch." Tatsuo, after stabbing his trench knives through Caster's back, their tips protruding from her chest, said coldly, Medea looking down on him clearly dealing a blow to his pride. "I am no mere Assassin. And this should make that point rather clear, I think."

Seeing his Servant in such a predicament, Souichirou was surprised and enraged. Meanwhile, Elicia let out a sigh of exasperation.

"We wanted to talk to her first, remember?" Elicia said as she stood up straight, shifted her weight onto her left leg, and put her right hand on her right hip as she looked up at Tatsuo. "But we can't talk to her if you kill her."

"She's not dead." Tatsuo replied nonchalantly. "I missed her vitals on purpose. But she's gonna have one hell of a time recovering from this, though."

With that, Tatsuo gently lowered Caster to the roof of the building. He then helped her sit down in front of him before carefully pulling his blades out of her., as too not worsen her injuries.

"Go ahead and heal yourself." Tatsuo said coldly as he stood over Caster. "But you should know, I can kill you before you can cast anything if you get any funny ideas."

Instead of replying or doing anything to heal herself, Caster simply stared at Tatsuo angrily.

"What's wrong?" Tatsuo asked, feigning ignorance to the reason behind Caster's glare.

Once again, Caster did not respond. Instead, she turned her head towards the edge of the roof just in time to see Elicia raise herself and Souichirou onto the roof with her threads.

"Stop messing with the poor woman, Assassin." Elicia said while shaking her head. "Just heal her already. Then, we can have a talk and determine if we're going to have to fight in the future or not."

"Fine~." Tatsuo replied as he started carving a magic circle into the roof around Caster.

Meanwhile, Caster watched Tatsuo with a hint of intrigue. Never did she expect an Assassin-Class Servant to be able to use Magecraft. However, Elicia took even more of Caster's attention than Tatsuo's knack for Magecraft. Because when she looked at her, Caster felt as though the two were kindred spirits.

"[Plenary Blessing]." Tatsuo chanted as he injected [Energy] into the magic circle.

In the next instant, a ray of golden light fell from above Caster, healing her injuries. By the time the light faded, the only evidence of her injuries were the tears in the front and the back of her cloak, and the blood stains that accompanied them.

"Alright, now that you're healed, let's have a little chat." Elicia said with a cheerful smile on her face.