You dangle helplessly in front of your allies, and the smug expression on Rin's face makes you want to punch her, woman or not, she's enjoying you being placed in this situation far too much. If you thought she was actually capable of such a thing, you'd have suspected her of having a hand in this. But then again, Rin isn't really the sort of person who is bright enough to successfully pull something like this off. Sure, the girl is intelligent, but it's not the sort of Machiavellian intellect you would need in order to trick or put other people into compromising situations. No, this was the doing of Archer and Rider.

"Everyone..." You address the rest of the room, but dangling off the ground in Rider's incredibly strong grip as you are makes it a very awkward situation. "Sakura... Your Servant, if you would." Yeah, you might want to apologize to everyone, but there's just no way that you're going to try apologizing when you're being hoisted up in the air like this.

"R-right! Rider, let Shinji down. I didn't ask you to do that, did I?" Thankfully, Sakura obliges your request to be put down. You can always rely on Sakura, it seems. Even when it's her Servant who is half the reason for you being in this situation at all. Well, it wasn't like it was on Sakura's orders, so you don't mind so much. It's just Rider getting ahead of herself and acting in what she assumes to be her Master's best interests again.

"No, Master." Rider looks a little confused by Sakura's order. "I just didn't imagine you would've been happy with being... spied on like this." Rider sounds genuinely confused at how well Sakura is taking things. You also would've expected Sakura to have been a little more upset, but the girl is hard to read sometimes, even for you. So it's possible that she actually is, but is just hiding it incredibly well. Despite how much you've trained your charismatic ability, it only really seems to excel on the sort of people you wouldn't even bother learning the names of. Well, there's a limit to what you can expect to be able to do with persuasive ability alone. Especially on strong willed and stubborn people. You definitely don't have as much trouble with Rin as you would if you hadn't spent so long mastering your conversational skills as you have.

"Why should I be? If anything, I'm happy that Onii-chan is always keeping an eye out... or I suppose an ear out for me. It's not like I haven't gotten curious about what he gets up to when he leaves town." Sakura seems completely unperturbed by being eavesdropped on, much to the surprise of the Servant lifting you up into the air. Rider then awkwardly drops you to your feet, and you sort out your disheveled clothing a few moments after you hit the floor standing. "So, if you're going to do something like this again, I want you to ask my permission first. Understood?" Sakura's voice is soft, but there's a firmness in the command. Wait a minute, she... she couldn't possibly have been following you, could she? No way, you're certain that you would've noticed if Sakura followed you. You can't imagine being sneaked up on by Sakura of all people, the amount of skill difference between you and her when it comes to stealthy pursuits is tremendous, after all.

"Then please, accept my apologies, Master. Shinji. I acted hastily... It was on Archer's suggestion that I even went through with this." The violet haired woman begins to try to shift the blame onto Rin's Servant, and though he probably is guilty of planning this, it remains that Rider is the one guilty of actually grabbing you and treating you like some common spy. You are the leader of this faction, and such disrespect isn't really something you can tolerate. You'd want Rider punished if you didn't know that she wasn't just doing it because she is devoted to the idea of keeping Sakura safe.

"My suggestion, Rider? What ever could you mean by that? It was just a nod to confirm that our leader was listening in on us, I didn't expect you would go to such a level as hoisting poor Shinji here in front of everyone." Archer effortlessly shifts most of the blame onto Rider, well, it's Rider's fault for deciding to go along with Archer's prank. You don't think he was really expecting Rider to go to such a level either.

Rider begins to look rather lost, even though she's wearing a blindfold and you can only see half of her features. "Look. It's fine, Rider. I don't blame you for what you did. What I was doing was rude, I know... so I owe you all an apology for eavesdropping. It's just..." You take a deep breath. "It's just that I wanted to know if you thought I was doing a good job as a leader or not. It's not really like I have much experience in leading." Well, that's not entirely true, you've certainly had quite a lot of practice when it comes to running your company from the shadows, but there's a big difference between running a company and properly running a small group of people like this. In many ways, this is more difficult. You only need to take a look at Saber to see why. Saber was almost perfect as a King, and very rarely made mistakes when it came to actually ruling her country, instead, it was the actions she took around her inner circle, her most trusted allies, that ended up tearing Britain apart and taking her life, as well as the life of her daughter... son... Mordred and pretty much everyone else of note. "And I don't just want to ask, because if I did I would never have any sort of guarantee if you were being honest with me or not."

Illya smiles happily, and for the first time you notice that she doesn't seem to be all too upset by your actions either. "Oh I don't mind. It's something you expect in the home of a talented magus like yourself, Shinji. To be observed, I mean. You'd have to be stupid to think that you weren't being watched in a place with bounded fields like this." While Illya is correct in her assumption that the Bounded Fields surrounding your house are very advanced, their capability to record the actions taken within your home are limited at best, you focused more on outside observation and focused more on active defenses on the inside of your house. But you aren't about to reveal the actual composition of the bounded field network that makes up your home to anyone at the table. Allies or not, that information is on a need to know basis, and nobody here actually needs to know, even Sakura.

You're still relieved to hear that Illya is letting you off so lightly though, and it seems like her sentiment is shared by most of the people at the table thanks to how she explained things for you. Even Rin seems to have begrudgingly accepted her logic and you finally sit down at the table in order to eat your breakfast.

You seemed to have been forced to jump through multiple hoops in order to even get the opportunity to eat the traditional Japanese breakfast that Archer decided to cook for the people at the table who specifically aren't Sakura and Illya. Sakura has almost finished eating her rather large stack of pancakes while Illya is elegantly and slowly eating hers. Everyone else seems to be handling their food about the same. Though everyone does seem to be enjoying themselves. Monica however has remained strangely quiet since you walked in.

The food is just as impressive as you would expect anything cooked by Archer to be. He's on a level far beyond the current you, and you can't even argue against that assessment. Everything has been cooked to perfection and served with utmost skill. The rice, the fish, the miso. The quality of the food is more like something you might see on some sort of TV cooking show's final round, and the taste is perfect too. You mentally curse at Archer for having a greater level of skill than you, but then you realize that if you were ever to meet a theoretical future version of yourself, he would be at least as skilled as Shirou's future counterpart in cooking. It's a shame that you missed getting to see Rider's reaction to Japanese food, as well as the general reaction of the table to Archer's cooking expertise, but you suppose that it can't be helped.

Rin gets up suddenly and looks at the clock on the wall. "Well, I'll be off, everyone. Good luck doing whatever it is you're planning on doing in the day time... and please nobody get into any fights? It's enough of a headache for me as things already are. I don't need to be the one the Mage's Association hold responsible for a leak in the secrecy of magic." Rin begins to leave the room. "Let's go, Archer. We're leaving... Please make sure you all stay safe, alright?" There's a hint of concern in Rin's voice as she leaves the room. Everyone is just about finished eating now, even Illya only has a few scraps of her rather generous portion of pancakes that Archer must've ended up making his... younger/older stepsister.

Of course, revealing the existence of magic isn't something you really had on your mind for today's activities. But you really ought to spend the day doing something, even if it's not all that productive. First, you'll wait for Bazett to get back, and then you'll...

>...head to the arcade with your companions.
>...head to Touko to ask for help.
>...start trying to track down Shirou.
>...try to find Caster, even if you know you'll probably have very little luck.
>Write-in...

>>4456316
Head to Touko we have to deal with Betty's curse

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>>4456316
>>...head to Touko to ask for help.
Specifically for
>Dealing with Betty's Mystic Eyes
>Helping in tracking both Shirou and Medea

After that we should make true of our promise with Illya and hell, maybe even take Sakura with us. But for now, business is in order. Although, how dangerous would it be to take Illya to Touka?

ALSO let's make sure we are /fa/ as fuck at the very least.

>>4456316
>>...head to Touko to ask for help.

>>4456316
>...head to Touko to ask for help.
We should bring Ilya with us since Avenger's still out of commission.

>>4456316
>...head to Touko to ask for help.

We also need to get that liquor sometime today.

>>4456329
>>4456348
Supporting both of these.

>>4456316
>>...head to Touko to ask for help.
Bring Sakura and Illya with us.

>>4456316
>...start trying to track down Shirou.

>>4456316
Didn’t we want to go to arcade with Illya? I imagine that would be more fun for her if we were going together. But I suppose it is an opportunity to get shit done otherwise.
>head to Touko for consultations
>give the girls some debit cards so they can have fun to hearts content

>>4456329
>how dangerous would it be to take Illya to Touka?
Illya still doesn’t know we are friends with Shirou, something we need to fix or it will inevitably punish us.

>>4456316
>>...head to Touko to ask for help.

>>4456602
>give the girls some debit cards so they can have fun to hearts content
Isn't everyone rich as fuck anyways?
Rin is rich even with Kirei trolling her.
Bazett is wealthy but due to her autism she prefers spending jack shit and living in low class accommodations.
Monica should be fairly wealthy after all our payments to her.
Only Sakura actually needs our debit card desu.
Ilya is rich as fuck.

>>4456316
>...head to Touko to ask for help.

>>4456316
>...head to Touko to ask for help.

>>4456316
>...head to Touko to ask for help.
CALL IN THAT ALCOHOL ORDER SOON FOR SHUTEN OR WE'RE DEAD

>>4456316
>>4456665
I want to back this >>4456847
Let's make a phone order on the way to Touko.

My fucking ID changed twice in the span of 6 hours. "/cqCnpA2" is Me I swear.

>>4456323
>>4456329
>>4456331
>>4456348
>>4456360
>>4456447
>>4456584
>>4456602
>>4456603
>>4456665
>>4456677
>>4456692
>>4456814
Bros... that alcohol... we need it ready so Shuten doesn't Dead End us... Remember?

We can do that over the phone >>4456857

>>4456857
True enough, adding "Phone us some kickass alcohol" to my post >>4456329

>>4456857
I have changed my vote already.

>>4456857
We can make a few phone calls, pull some strings.
Besides, Shuten said 11pm, not am. We have more than enough time to meet up with Touko and then get the alcohol.

>>4456876
Yeah. But if we buy really high quality expensive stuff it can take quite some time before it arrives.

>>4456882
Can't we just use our truth magic on any alcohol to make it the tastiest alcohol in the world.

>>4456882
We're one of the richest men in the world.
We should have people to figure out the logistics for us, and other people to execute our commands as fast as possible.
It shouldn't be an issue.

>>4456883
Theoretically we could but I feel like if we tried that QM would tell us something like "Shinji doesn't know what concept of tasty alcohol means" and we are gonna have to be creative.
I think it's both faster and safer to just buy best stuff we can find.

We should get Shuten Miller High life. The champagne of beers.

>>4456891
It is better to overdo it than to miss our chance.

>>4456894
I believe she prefers harder drinks.

>>4456896
Then popov vodka.

>>4456894
I was about to suggest international shit that she might not have been able to taste in her previous life like German alcohol or Argentinian Fernet but then I remember we are basically in 2003 or some shit. We might still be able to order it online and wait for a bit before getting it delivered, so maybe we can hang that promise about Shuten's head.

>>4456898
I'd say Japanese whiskey and some trappist beer. Also some American wine and Japanese plum sake.

>>4456898
We are the head of multimillion company. We do not order goods online. We make a call and goods get delivered to us on supersonic jet.

>>4456896
>>4456897
I think she prefers harder things, like cocks pounding her for an hour

>>4456906
Cocks are not a drink.

>>4456912
Semen is

Okay we might need a list of stuff to order, right now we have
>>4456894 Miller High Life
>>4456897 popov vodka.
>>4456902 American wine and Japanese plum sake.
I'll also add Argentinian Fernet an Peruvian Pisco Sour for that extra exotic flavor, maybe something from the middle east too?

>>4456918
Unless we are shooting sperm with alcohol qualities out of our dicks I don't think w-
...wait, can we pull that off?

>>4456923
Jack Daniels

>>4456923
My first 2 posts were trolls. The third is actual legit good stuff.

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>>4456923
Shuten would probably prefer high quality sake over wine.

>>4456923
Some wine from Australia? Europe? Chile?

>>4456947
The US since the 00s has been known to have the best wines and even cheeses now.

>>4456923
We shoul buy high quality sake or something. Definetely not wine or beer.

>>4456923
From middle east would be arak https://www.thespruceeats.com/arak-middle-eastern-alcoholic-beverage-2355492

>>4456947
Best wines are from Italy and France. I have never heard of great american wines.

>>4456954
Sake is a wine...

>>4456956
Yeah like in the 50s

>>4456959
I meant to say that we should buy a drink native to a country she hails from and not a foreign beverage. Sorry I did not express myself in more understandable way.

>>4456960
Could You give an example of a great american wine please? I have simply never heard anyone emphasize american wines above others.

>>4456965 https://www.albanvineyards.com/ California is now the wine capital of the world.

>>4456965
The best wine from 2003 was a Napa Valley creation from a 2001 bottle.

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>>4456974
>>4456976
Thank You for enlightening me. Thogh i feel like calling California a "wine capital of the world" is a bit much.

>>4456988
Looking at international competitions Cali has the most wins. I'm an actual alcohol.

>>4456988
That's misleading.
It's based on exports and not production.
A lot of American wine would be sold locally considering they are the largest singular market.
In fact six years ago they were producing 3.3 million tonnes of wine a year compared to France's 4.2 million

>>4456997
https://www.statista.com/statistics/240638/wine-production-in-selected-countries-and-regions/
This should be more objective I believe.

>>4456923
>shooting sperm with alcohol qualities
it's probably possible with truth magic, though good luck getting other anons to agree

After about twenty minutes of waiting, Bazett arrives back with Lancer, having apparently bought about 30 cups of instant ramen and absolutely nothing else... an... interesting choice of sustenance, but you suppose that it's quick and easy food. You can't imagine Bazett has any skill at cooking and as an enforcer, such varieties of food are probably all they ever really eat on missions. You can't imagine they go out to eat at restaurants or something, even if they are paid pretty damn well. When you need to be available at a moment's notice to get into what may very well end up being a battle to the death while also spending a lot of time squatting in abandoned building, convenience food and fast food are probably all you get to eat.

"Alright everyone. First off, before we head to the arcade for the day, I need to go and take care of something. Bazett, would you mind staying here at the mansion? I don't want to leave it without a Servant guarding it, and I intend to take Illya and my sister with me." You don't really know what Touko will make of either Sakura or Illya, she's never really met any of your friends or family. Of course, that suited you just fine. In fact, you don't even really intend to have either of the girls go in to meet your teacher, it's just simpler to have them with you for the journey so that when you head to the arcades afterwards you don't have to head all the way back to your mansion and waste time.

"Very well. Though I'd prefer if I had a time in which I could expect you back." Bazett makes a relatively reasonable request. You are the leader of this faction after all, so actually being given a time when she and her Servant can expect to be able to go out at night in a group is quite the important piece of information.

"Seven or eight PM ought to be a reasonable estimate, if not earlier. I've got a few things I need to do around town, not least take Sakura and Illya to the arcade." Of course, having Illya with you when you go looking for Shirou will be... well, difficult. Though you don't actually need to have Illya with you if you do manage to find the boy, you can always just have her go back to the mansion. "Oh, and Rin should return when the school-day is up, unless she gets distracted doing something else, that is." Which knowing Rin, is a possibility, at least.

You will also need to order the alcohol you promised Shuten as soon as you possibly can, but then again, a single text ought to be sufficient to have it sent to you as quickly as it possibly can be. Though it might not be fast enough to arrive in time for your meeting with Shuten. Ah well, even if it doesn't arrive in time, it hardly matters. Shuten is your enemy anyway, it's really a wonder that she even let you go at all. You guess that the mere promise of alcohol was enough that the hedonistic oni would hold off on disposing of an enemy Master even if her master wished her to do so... What an awful Servant Shuten is. That she would so willingly throw away what could and probably would have been a massive strategic victory for her Master away just on a whim. Whoever her Master is must be terribly frustrated with their Servant already.

"Sakura, Illya. I'll just go and get my own Servant, and then we'll be going, alright?" You call out to the two girls as you begin to leave the room. With any luck, your perpetually tired Servant will have woken up for her breakfast. Hopefully, Touko will be able to help you think of a way to disable the curse affecting your Servant, as well as helping you track down both Caster and Shirou, if he's even still alive. Theoretically, Medea might be a better magus than Touko is, but that's only theoretically. Touko is probably the more talented of the two of them, except she's held back by how much weaker magecraft has become since the Age of Gods. You have no idea just how terrifying Touko might be if she had the same opportunities as a magus that Medea was given. She's become terrifying enough with just an average number of magic circuits, you have no idea just what level she might've reached if she was born thousands of years ago. You suppose there's no point in thinking about it though, the fact that she still far outclasses you as a magus despite you having immense potential however is enough for you to have nothing but the utmost respect for the woman.

As you head upstairs to your room again, you prepare yourself to see Betty still asleep on the bed. You've considered forcibly cutting off the mana you're providing to her in order to force her into spiritual form before, but for some reason you aren't entirely certain of, it seems that you can't really interfere too much with the link between yourself and Betty. Of course, you had already theorized that it was somehow different from a typical contract a Master has with their Servant based on your command spells alone, though you've been so busy that you haven't actually had much of an opportunity to actually take a good look at them. While you can probably mess with your link to Betty with Truth, you don't really know if using up almost half of your magical energy to make such a change is a viable thing to do. Attempting to change existing truths is not only energy intensive, it's also only temporary in most cases, though you have a little bit of wiggle room when it comes to dealing with things that the world considers unnatural, at least.

You open the door to your room and surprisingly enough see Betty sitting on the bed, apparently having finished eating and just patiently waiting for you to arrive in your room again. You don't know why she wouldn't just use the mental link to call you, but it's of no real concern. She's probably just a little bit drowsy still... Though how somebody can remain drowsy when they spend seventy five percent of the day asleep you have no real idea. "Good morning, Master." The girl is polite as she greets you, and you notice that she seems to have tried to straighten out her outfit a little bit, presumably some time after she woke up.

"Good morning, Betty." You greet your Servant with a smile. "How did you enjoy your breakfast?" You're in something of a hurry as your allies are technically waiting on you, but that's no reason for you to be impolite to your own Servant. It won't hurt Illya and Sakura to wait for an extra minute or two.

"Oh, you mean the pancakes? They were quite... nice. But... But I think they were missing something..." She sounds a little sad as she mentions her partial dissatisfaction in the breakfast. If Archer were to hear such negativity directed towards the one skill he has that isn't focused on slaughter, he'd be terribly wounded. It's one of the Counter Guardian's few skills that doesn't revolve around murdering people and one that he allows himself to have some sort of pride in.

You frown as Betty reveals that she wasn't entirely satisfied with her breakfast, you're about to ask Betty what she thought was wrong with the food, until the girl in a burst of energy suddenly tries to take back what she just said. "B-but don't get think I didn't like them, Master. It's just..." The girl sighs. "They made me feel lonely." There's a great melancholy in her voice.

"Lonely? What do you mean?" Of all the emotions for pancakes to be able to stir up, you hadn't expected loneliness to have been one of them.

"I don't really get it myself. But... I felt like I wanted to share them with somebody... but then I realized that I was by myself." You realize just how much mental strain that this girl must be under. You've already figured out that she's some sort of Foreigner, that's completely obvious to just about anybody that knows what Foreigners are and has taken a look at the girl and her abilities. But you aren't entirely sure just what might be lurking within her body. Whatever it is, between the bouts of incredible sleepiness, the curse of hatred, and that the girl has issues with her memories, you can only assume that it's bad news. Then again, basically everything in the Lovecraftian Mythos is bad news, from the lowliest Shoggoth all the way up to Azathoth itself, pretty much anything would spell doom for a human if they encountered them.

"Well, cheer up, Betty. Today I'm going to try to get that curse of yours sorted out." You reveal to the girl your intended plan of the day. Of course, you really do hope that Touko can actually look at the girl long enough to come up with a solution without falling victim to the curse of hatred Betty has. You'd actually really like to know more about the entirety of your Servant's skill set other than falling asleep at the worst times and almost getting you eaten by a demon in the form of a little girl. But you don't really know if you'd end up getting anywhere asking her again. It's pretty obvious that her memory is fragmented somehow. In fact, the best way for you to learn about Betty would probably be through sleep, ironically enough.

She perks up a little as she registers just what you mean by that, and she seems to recover a little bit from the state of sadness that she was in. "Alright, Master!" She actually sounds a little bit happy all of a sudden. You sigh, while Betty is clearly strong, she's possibly one of the most unreliable Servants possible. At least with somebody like Gilgamesh or Shuten Dōji you can plan around their personalities in order to make the best use of them. How exactly are you supposed to be able to plan around a Servant that randomly falls asleep and is incredibly difficulty to actually get to wake up again? You suppose it will be tolerable if you can just remove the curse that afflicts her. At least then you won't have to worry about your allies turning on you and your Servant because of the mental interference from her ability warping their minds into feeling hatred for the sweet and innocent little girl.

She quickly assumes spiritual form and begins following you as you walk back downstairs to meet your allies.

After a quick explanation as to how exactly the day is going to go, you find yourself in your rather large garage looking at the vast selection of vehicles you've managed to amass in the relatively short time since you started your company along with Sakura, Illya and Rider, with Betty remaining close to your side in spiritual form, apparently trying not to fall asleep until you manage to get an answer from Touko about resolving her curse. The underground garage is bigger than most people's houses, and contains dozens of luxury vehicles, as well as a small selection of Supercars and Bikes... speaking of which...

"I would... Like to request that I do the driving." Rider is speaking to you with an uncharacteristic level of respect. Almost as if the usually blind woman can feel the caliber of the vehicles in the room. "As a Rider, my skill in Riding is A+. Therefore, it would be the safest and most practical choice if I were to be the one doing the driving." You look at Rider for a while, and you swear for a moment that you can see the woman sweating. It's really very obvious that she wants you to allow her to be the one doing the driving, but the problem is that every supercar in your collection is one with only two seats.

>Have Rider drive everyone in one of your luxury cars. That ought to be enough to satisfy her.
>Allow Rider to drive by herself in one of your Supercars, you'll drive everyone else.
>Deny Rider's request to drive. You're still kind of annoyed with her actions from earlier.
>Tell Rider she can pick any car and that it belongs to her from now on.
>Write-in...

>>4457245
>>Tell Rider she can pick any car and that it belongs to her from now on.
It's nice to be rich.

>>4456946
Cant believe i would see something i ate every week in qst board

>>4457245
>Tell Rider she can pick any car and that it belongs to her from now on.
We have PLENTY of money. Giving up a car or two isn’t much of an issue. Although considering how Rider normally drives. It makes me wonder if we perhaps have a Trueno on hand.

>>4457245
>Tell Rider she can pick any car and that it belongs to her from now on.

>>4457245
>Tell Rider she can pick any car and that it belongs to her from now on.
But.
>Have Rider drive everyone in one of your luxury cars. That ought to be enough to satisfy her.
No time for fun. We got places to be!

>>4457269
We have a whole day. Let Rider have some fun. We can drive everyone else ourselves.

>>4457245
>Tell Rider she can pick any car and that it belongs to her from now on.
its nice to be rich

>>4457245
.
>Tell Rider she can pick any car and that it belongs to her from now on.
"What car would you like to ride?" Then when she chooses one, throw her the keys and tell her "It's yours now."

>>4457245
>Tell Rider she can pick any car and that it belongs to her from now on.
Toss her the keys and go "its yours now"

>>4457245
>Have Rider drive everyone in one of your luxury cars. That ought to be enough to satisfy her.
sure why not.
I'm not sure about "that it belongs to her from now on", does that means the car she choose going to be something like saber's bike or something?

>>4457245
Can we buy her a helicopter?

>>4457245
>>Tell Rider she can pick any car and that it belongs to her from now on.
>>Write-in...
Except Berser-Car.

>>4457374
We should really invest in berser-car tho

>>4457245
>>Tell Rider she can pick any car and that it belongs to her from now on.

Santa came a bit early

>>4457245
>>Tell Rider she can pick any car and that it belongs to her from now on.

>>4457281
Support

>>4457318
>>4457245
Yeah, that seems nice.
Support.

>>4457351
Helipcopter? Pfft, how about an L-39?

". . .their $200,000–$300,000 price puts them in range of moderately wealthy pilots looking for a fast, agile personal jet."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_L-39_Albatros#Civilian_use

Or even better yet, the world's leading distributor of MiG parts:
https://www.aso.com/listings/spec/ViewAd.aspx?id=174993

>>4457748
You’ve been watching the NATO days?

But regardless, as nice as fighter might be, it would need an airstrip to land and takeoff. Chopper would be more versatile and could be used for transportation. Although idea of getting shot down is not very appealing, though maybe there is anime bullshit that could forestall that...

>>4457748
Since we can afford it we should just get her a f16 f18 or f15., spy plane would be u-2.

>>4457770
Period correct helis would be eurocopter tiger, MI - 28 havoc, MI hind, ah1 super cobra,. Best probably being the boeing apache.

>>4457245
Changing my vote
>Deny Rider's request to drive. You're still kind of annoyed with her actions from earlier.
Just give her a normal bicycle. It's her canon ride anyway.
She might be Sakura's servant, but if she want to ride any of the cars she need to earn it.
From now on, I'm going to choose the route of "what would real shinji do" fuck it

>>4457810
The real Shinji dies like a bitch in almost every iteration of Fate. I was under the impression the whole premise of this quest was us avoiding canon Shinji's fate using our knowledge of future events.

>>4457245
>>Tell Rider she can pick any car and that it belongs to her from now on.

>>4457810
>rEaL sHiNjI
Damn, I hate you people.

>>4457836
I mean, doesn't mean we can't act a bit douchey and like a spoiled kid from time to time. I feel that'd give this Shinji a bit more of substance or character, not saying "HURR DURR GO EVIL!" But rather, a sassy and cocky Shinji with that trademark evil laughter but that is, through actions, a good person.

>>4457245
>>Deny Rider's request to drive. You're still kind of annoyed with her actions from earlier.

>>4458183
chose this not because we act like "DAH REAL SHINJI DURRRR" but because as the leader you have to punish snake women sometimes and can't give everything away and let people have everything they want fo rno reaosn

>>4457245
>Deny Rider's request to drive. You're still kind of annoyed with her actions from earlier.
Rewarding people who publicly humiliate you for no good reason isn't a good look.

"Alright, Rider. You've convinced me." You feel a little strange giving the go-ahead to drive to a woman who wears a magical blindfold almost all the time and thus is unable to see, but Rider has on more than one occasion throughout her appearances displayed that the blindfold doesn't actually hinder her at all, and she's more than capable of the incredible spacial awareness one would expect of a Servant despite actually lacking the ability to see under usual circumstances. It's truly impressive that she's capable of such a thing.

"R-really?" The woman sounds a little out of character in how happy she is as you give her your approval when it comes to driving, and she seems to relax just a little bit as she walks around the garage, occasionally touching a car or a bike as if they were living creatures... Servants are weird when it comes to vehicles. So long as she doesn't decide to name her car or something, it'll be OK. But you think that things might get a little embarrassing if she starts treating a car like some sort of mythical beast

"Mhm. Just pick whatever car you want to drive, lack of space doesn't matter either, if you pick one that isn't large enough to carry everyone, I can just drive everyone else, so don't feel like you have to make a decision for the group here." You smile as you allow her to pick anything she wants, and you can see from the uncertain smile she returns that she must be feeling at least a little bit guilty about what she did to you back at breakfast already.

Rider spends quite some time ogling the vehicles before she finally seems to decide on one of them. "This one. It appears it's only capable of housing the driver and a single passenger though..." Rider seems to have chosen the Koenigsegg CC8S. Somehow, you knew that the woman would end up going for one of the supercars in your collection and not one of the luxury vehicles. The woman is something of a speed demon, after all, God only knows what sort of limits are going to be broken if she actually decides to push the Koenigsegg with her Riding skill. The supernatural attributes of the skill should allow the car to go beyond the natural limits, but you don't know to what extent.

"As I said, Rider. It doesn't matter. I suppose this just means you'll be driving Sakura, and that Illya will be driving alongside me today." You then proceed to walk over to a metal cupboard near one of the walls, unlocking it with a key from your pocket before you pull out a set of keys. A set for the Koenigsegg as well as a set for your Bentley. "Here." You toss the keys to the tall woman who snatches them out of the air effortlessly. "The grail ought to have told you all you need to know about cars, right?" She nods. "Great, because that one belongs to you now." You bequeath the vehicle to the Servant without even blinking. Sure, it's quite an expensive vehicle, but the price of getting another one if you actually wanted to is really just pocket change to you. Despite your great wealth, you don't really go nuts all too often with it, in fact, your (admittedly quite large) collection of expensive cars is really one of the few indicators of just how incredibly rich you actually are. Your clothing is high quality, of course, but there comes a point where quality maxes out, and you're just buying articles of clothing for the name alone... and really, it's not like you have many people you need to actually impress.

The woman stares at the key in her hand in silence before she looks at you, though with her blindfold still on, all she really does is look in your direction. The sooner you can convince Touko to hand over a pair of Mystic-eye killers for Rider, the better. It can't really be that easy for the woman to wear that blindfold for the sake of others, and even if she is incredibly experienced in battling while wearing it, being able to actually see would be a major boon for Rider. While there's theoretically nothing stopping her from taking off the magical blindfold sealing her ability other than the damage it could potentially cause to other people, Rider still isn't the sort of person to just take that risk. After all, a single glance from her could potentially spell death to somebody if she isn't careful, and while you, Illya and Sakura could probably resist the petrification of the eyes due to sheer quantity of magical energy alone, and the Servants in the house should be capable of resisting the effects for long enough to avoid Rider's gaze, somebody like Rin, Shirou, Bazett or Monica could very easily find themselves getting petrified entirely by the powerful Mystic Eyes.

Your haste to get Rider a pair of glasses to seal the ability off isn't helped by your knowledge that the woman actually really enjoys reading books, and she's unlikely to have much luck reading while she purposely blinds herself.

You suddenly realize just how long Rider has been staring at you in silence, and you've been too preoccupied thinking about things to even properly notice. "Something wrong, Rider?" The woman doesn't really seem to know how to react to being given such an expensive gift.

"I... I give you my most humble gratitud-" Rider seems genuinely grateful as fully realizes the meaning behind your actions. It's good to be rich.

You don't need to be thanked to this degree for giving Rider a damn car so you cut her off. "You don't need to thank me, Rider. I'm the leader of this little faction, so it's my duty and my responsibility to ensure that everyone is given the tools and equipment they might need or want in order to get the job done. In your case, if you need a fast vehicle, then it's up to me as the leader to provide it to you, right?" You don't really enjoy receiving unwarranted praise, sure, if you've done something truly exceptional that deserves such praise, then you'll happily bathe in admiration, but receiving such adoring praise when it's something so simple as giving somebody a car to drive is just a little too much for you.

"Even so, that won't stop me from being grateful to you that you've given me such a... fast vehicle." Rider is the sort of person who gets excited over being able to ride a normal bicycle instead of a granny bike, so you can really only begin to imagine just how much Rider must be excited about the prospect of getting to drive the Koenigsegg. You merely smile and shrug as you walk to your own vehicle, instructing Illya to sit in the front and opening the door for her before you get in the car to begin the relatively short journey to Garan no Dou.

A short while later, and you arrive. Sakura's face is as pale as chalk and she looks just a little bit queasy as she gets out of the Koenigsegg alongside her comparatively completely fine Servant. Rider... may have gotten a bit carried away with testing out her new car, and she did some pretty incredible things with the supercar. In truth, Rider had already made it to Garan no Dou about three times there and back before you finally arrived yourself. You saw her stream past you at one point at what must have been about two hundred miles per hour as she made truly impossible turns and adjustments with ease, not even once coming close to hitting anything. Such apparently reckless driving should have definitely ended up in a crash, but the crash never happened. You feel bad that Sakura was just put through that, but she's putting on a strong face, at least.

"Alright everyone. Stay here for now. I'm going to go in and see what the situation is. I'll be back out to fetch you if Shishou says that it's OK for you to come up."

"Shishou?" Illya repeats as you refer to Touko by the respectful title you normally refer to her by.

"What else am I supposed to call my mentor?" You shrug. "It would be far too disrespectful to a great woman if I were to just call her by her first name, you know?" As much as you've grown in skill as a magus, you're still not at Touko's level, and you won't really be able to call her Touko in person until you've actually proven yourself to be her equal in magecraft and no longer somebody she needs to train... then again, you might just keep calling her Shishou anyway, you've kind of gotten used to using it overt the years. "Anyway, sit tight everyone." You command your allies as you walk into the building.

It doesn't take too long to reach Touko's office, and just as you imagined, the woman is sitting down at a table tinkering with something. Her glasses are off and she seems to notice your arrival without even looking. Not even bothering to look up at you as you enter the room "Ah, Wakame-kun. What brings you to meet me today? Last time I checked, I had agreed to a break in your formal lessons for a week or two until the Grail War was resolved... speaking of which, how is it going? I was thinking of getting involved myself." The woman jokes with you as she remains tinkering with something.

"Haha... Please don't just joke about something like that, Shishou. You getting yourself involved in the war would just be too unfair to the other Masters..." You don't doubt that Touko could probably hack her way into the Grail War somehow, but you'd really prefer if she didn't. There's enough potentially dangerous and in some causes, definitely dangerous, Servants just roaming freely in Fuyuki as it is. The last thing you need is for Touko to summon some sort of monstrously powerful Servant to crush the rest of the competition which may or may not be done with gratuitous collateral damage. Thankfully though Touko is at heart a good person, so you know she won't involve bystanders. Doesn't mean that you need her getting herself involved, especially if she wasn't already chosen by the grail as a Master.

"Alright, I won't summon a Servant. You have my word, Wakame-kun." The woman's voice is reassuring as she says that, though she continues to work what looks like some sort of small rectangle with writing you can't decipher scrawled all over it. "But really, what did you come to meet me for today? Do you need my help on something?"

>>Pick all that apply.
>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse."
>"Do you think you can make a Servant stronger somehow? A Servant container is just like a really complicated puppet, right?"
>"I need you to try to find my friend, Shirou Emiya. I think he's a Master, and he's gone missing.
>"Would you mind helping me track down one of the Casters of the war? She's a magus from the Age of Gods. None other than Medea of Colchis herself."
>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes."
>Write-in...

>>4458186
>>4458203
Oh, fuck off. We gave a speech about the importance of trust and then proceeded to break that trust. They don't owe us anything and we deserved that.

>>4458215
>>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse."
>>"I need you to try to find my friend, Shirou Emiya. I think he's a Master, and he's gone missing.
>>"Would you mind helping me track down one of the Casters of the war? She's a magus from the Age of Gods. None other than Medea of Colchis herself."
>>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes."

>>4458215
>>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse."
>"I need you to try to find my friend, Shirou Emiya. I think he's a Master, and he's gone missing.
>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes."

Low priority
>"Would you mind helping me track down one of the Casters of the war? She's a magus from the Age of Gods. None other than Medea of Colchis herself."

>>4458213
Look at my servant, mystic eye killers.

>>4458215
>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse."
>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes."
I'm pretty sure there would be some drawbacks to picking more options, let alone all. Also I feel like the rest is kinda our job to accomplish, getting Touko involved in the grail war more directly just seems wrong to me.

>>4458215
>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse."
>"I need you to try to find my friend, Shirou Emiya. I think he's a Master, and he's gone missing.
>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes."

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>>4458215
>>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse."
>>"I need you to try to find my friend, Shirou Emiya. I think he's a Master, and he's gone missing.
>>"Would you mind helping me track down one of the Casters of the war? She's a magus from the Age of Gods. None other than Medea of Colchis herself."
>>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes."

ALSO for the last one, ask if it can be two pairs instead of one. One for Betty and another for Rider-Although we can use the latter to "bargain" with medusa, surely we can come up with a rather interesting agreement that will benefit both parties.

>>4458215
I have absolutely no idea how you're going to count these votes, it's going to be an absolute nightmare.

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>>4458247
Changing my vote now that I think about it, we are asking her for too much. At the very least, let's limit ourselves to three things that won't bore her too much.
>>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse." (So Betty isn't ganked by accident)
>>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes." (Bargain chip for Medusa, pic maybe related?)
>>>"I need you to try to find my friend, Shirou Emiya. I think he's a Master, and he's gone missing.(We know the guy's Archer Achilles Heel and if the priest and him decided to get serious then he's plan B)

She DID say she's always watching us so I doubt it would be that hard to find her.

>>4458259
The whole situation with Medea seems to me like if we actively try to find her she will go "You want my help too bad, therefore your not worthy of it. Go fuck yourself."

>>4458259
I support this. 3 things limit seems reasonable.

>>4458215
>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse.
>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes."
>"I need you to try to find my friend, Shirou Emiya. I think he's a Master, and he's gone missing.

>>4458215
>>4458316

>>4458259
Support. Trackinn down medea would be nice and all but I think going with these 3 seems like the best option for now.

>>4458215
>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse."
>"Would you mind helping me track down one of the Casters of the war? She's a magus from the Age of Gods. None other than Medea of Colchis herself."
>>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes."

Can't ask her to make us stronger just seconds after getting her to promise not to interfere with the Grail War, and Shirou's probably Shuten's master anyway.

>>4458393
>Shirou's probably Shuten's master anyway
Are You serious? Shirou summoned a Saber. Shuten's master is probably Zouken.

>>4458215
>>4458259

>>4457767
NATO days, never heard of that but sounds pretty neat. I see L-39s pretty often at American airshows, though.

>>4457851
This. Like, does being an actual human with flaws are such an alien concept to anons?

>>4458215
>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse."
>"Would you mind helping me track down one of the Casters of the war? She's a magus from the Age of Gods. None other than Medea of Colchis herself."
This one, I would prefer if we just ask for some tips instead of full blown help. I would rather find her myself.
>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes."

Can we ask her about foreigners because yesterday we learned that Nyarlathotep exists and just decided to ignore him.

>>4458215
>>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse."
>>"I need you to try to find my friend, Shirou Emiya. I think he's a Master, and he's gone missing.
>>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes."

>>4458446
There is a fine line between "being an actual human with flaws" and "willingly choosing to make bad decisions that will bite us in the ass".
Pride and overconfidence which we already have are flaws. Being abrasive to our allies for no other reason than to be "the real Shinji" or "to have character flaws" is an equivalent of shooting ourselves in the leg just to be edgy.
I mean seriously have You ever looked in the mirror and thought to yourself "Fuck! I just don't have enough flaws. Guess I gotta start shooting heroin into my veins".

>>4458215
>>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse."
>>"I need you to try to find my friend, Shirou Emiya. I think he's a Master, and he's gone missing.
>>"Would you mind helping me track down one of the Casters of the war? She's a magus from the Age of Gods. None other than Medea of Colchis herself."
>>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes."

>>4458627
Abrasive in what way? We still provide them the necessity, we're just being more in your face because rider kinda did us some shame. I want her to learn how to treat people better in shinji's kind of way.

In your mind, being shinji means we're being auto abusive. You don't (and by your post) refuse to see a character deeper.
People don't trust someone because they're always nice, people trust others because they learn their flaws, tolerate it and developed it into the better way.

I like being shinji because if he didn't grew up in a toxic family, he would be that kind of a jerk ass dork that act spoiled, but actually good hearted in an unexpected situation. I like flaws like that because it doesn't follow the "safe" boring route, because it feels human, and have a room of development and unique interactions with others characters.

You refused to see that part of Shinji. Always choosing to be the goody two shoes, boring and shallow nice guy.
Which I personally think it is uninteresting and always lead to a boring and expected safe result. There's no creativity in that, there's no exploration in that. And I hate it.

>>4458644
>People don't trust someone because they're always nice, people trust others because they learn their flaws, tolerate it and developed it into the better way.
That may be true for when two people are trying to become friends. We on the other hand are trying to become a leader. A follower does not need to know of leader's fears, flaws and insecurities. That knowledge would not boost follower's trust in leader but would have an exact opposite effect. It would plant doubt in leader's competence. Competence is the singular most important thing for any leader be they african warlord or class president. It may come as a shock but laughing maniacally and developing character flaws just because it "feels human" and gives You "unique interactions" does not inspire confidence in our abilities as a leader in others.

I didn't come to this quest hoping to create deep and complex character and then watch him to interact with canon characters in dramatic ways. I came to this quest intending to reshape canon events of Fate universe in cooperation with other anons into whatever we desire. I will not speak for others but for Me there is no allure in playing a "jerk with a heart of gold" trope.
In no small part because it's been done so many times.

Also, I am sorry I have refused to see that part of Shinji's character that doesn't exist. That was uncool of Me.

>>4458652
Well I wouldn't intrude others choosen route either, this is qst after all. Even if my vote will be the unlikely one to get the most vote, I'll still choose it.

>>4458660
That's cool anon. I was here from the first Shinji thread and some routes chosen by others made Me cringe so hard I had to take short breaks. Making our vote and hoping for the best is all we can do.

>>4458215
>"I need you to take a look at my Servant. I think she's probably asleep right now, but I'm hoping you can think of a way to disable a skill or curse."
>"I need you to try to find my friend, Shirou Emiya. I think he's a Master, and he's gone missing.
>"Do you... Do you have a pair of Mystic Eye Killers I can borrow? One of the Servants in my faction has a really inconvenient pair of Mystic Eyes."

>Curse, Track Shirou, Track Medea, Mystic Eye Killers
>>4458224
>>4458226
>>4458639

>Curse, mystic eye killers
>>4458237
>>4458239

>Curse, Track Shirou, Mystic Eye Killers
>>4458243
>>4458259
>>4458316
>>4458324
>>4458347
>>4458589
>>4458691

>Curse, Track Medea, Mystic Eye Killers
>>4458393
>>4458457

Hey WhatIsAQM. Could You clear something up for me please?
I have reread this thread and din't quite understand if we ordered alcohol for Shuten or not.

>>4458860
He takes things in steps. We're dealing with Touko and after that eventually shuten

>>4458884
Ok thank You. Sometimes I just can't into words.

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>>4458809
Just wanted to go on a lovey-dovey date with Medusa and teach her the wonders of the modern world while healing her broken heart.

There's only going to be a single update today.
My weekend schedule always ends up being a little too hectic for my liking.

>>4458860
Not yet.
You need to properly decide what you want to buy her first anyway.

>>4458918
Thank You for answering.

"Well, first off. I need to ask you if you can help me break a curse... or if not break it, at least get it under control." You decide it would be best off if you brought Betty's curse up with her first. The sooner that you manage to get that resolved ,then the sooner you can have your Servant start actually actively making appearances alongside you. Right now, only Illya and Sakura have actually seen your Servant, and you don't even know if the effect of the curse are temporary or not. For all you know, it's possible that the two girls will still loathe your servant even if you manage to get the curse disabled somehow.

"A curse? What type? Is this to do with a Servant?" Touko catches on quickly, as you'd expect her too. This woman is one of the greatest prodigies that the Mage's Association has ever had, even if she was a little bit overshadowed by her sister, who despite being the wielder of the Fifth Magic, is nowhere near Touko's skill level in pretty much any form of magecraft... except destroying things, of course.

"Right. My Servant, she's apparently a Caster, but she's got what I can only imagine is some sort of personal skill that makes it so that anybody who looks at her other than her Master is afflicted by a great hatred for her." You try to explain things to your teacher as plainly as you can. She's one of your best bets at actually getting a solution to this problem, after all.

"Interesting. Of course, I might be able to solve the curse, but the problem that I'll face is that... well, I don't know whether or not I'll be able to resist the effect of the curse long enough to do so. I'll need to actually take a look at this Servant in order to determine whether or not it's actually possible at all." It's about the answer you were expecting, Touko has a lot of skill as a magus, that's for certain, but even she isn't able to determine something with such little information. You reach out to Betty with your mental link to the girl, only to quickly realize that your Servant has once again fallen asleep. Honestly, you really need to think of a way to get your Servant to stop falling asleep, she did say something about drumming though you don't really want to test that method right now. If it doesn't work, you'll just look silly.

"Well... I suppose that can wait then, my Servant is currently... out of action." You don't really want to come out and say that your Servant has a bad habit of falling asleep randomly to your teacher either. In a way, it's kind of embarrassing just how many deficiencies that it seems your Servant has. At least Betty makes up for them somewhat with her ability to summon extraordinarily powerful familiars. While they aren't a match for a Servant in a single confrontation, those familiars of hers could easily overwhelm a Servant if they were summoned in numbers. Not to mention whatever other abilities that she might be keeping from you, you get the feeling that Betty has actually shown you very little of what she is actually capable of. Of course, as she's clearly a Foreigner, it's kind of to be expected that she's tremendously powerful. In a way, Foreigner is kind of a cheat class for a Servant. "OK, then something else I wanted to ask you... Could you track somebody for me?" You'll try to wake Betty up after you've gotten the rest of what you want to ask Touko out of the way.

"That depends entirely on how much information you can give me about who you want me to find." Your teacher pauses and looks you dead in the eyes. "I'm only doing this for you because of the situation with the grail war, I want you to understand that, Wakame-kun."

"H-huh?" You don't quite get where Touko is going with this.

The woman puts on her glasses with no small amount of flair, before she begins her explanation in a matter-of-factly sort of way. "Under normal circumstances, I'd have given you the tools you needed to learn how to magically locate somebody yourself and told you to figure out a method for yourself, but I understand that you don't have the luxury to continue practicing your magecraft right now... So I'll do it for you. Even if I think that it's something of a waste of a good motivator to have you learn." That's... rather cold, but Touko can just be that way sometimes, it's just how she is when she's wearing her glasses. You don't really know just what to call how she acts in regard to whether she's wearing glasses or not, Schizophrenia? Split Personality Disorder? Super Bipolar Disorder? Advanced Chūnibyō? An interesting character trait that Nasu gave her? Regardless, of what exactly is the cause for her personality shifts, it's pretty clear that Touko would much prefer if you could do this yourself. At least she's reasonable enough to do you a favor though, as expected of Shishou. She talks tough but deep down, it's pretty obvious that she just wants what's best for you. While it might've been a little heartless that she wouldn't save Sakura herself, you can't really argue with the results. It was because of her refusal that you were motivated to learn about magecraft after all.

That's... not to say that you weren't already incredibly motivated to learn magecraft, but having an actual tangible goal and target to reach really does wonders for development. "Oh... well, thank you, Shishou. I really appreciate it. But... what sort of information do you need about him, I'm pretty confident I can answer just about anything about Shirou."

"Alright, first off, this is pretty easy and quite obvious, but his name. Preferably his full birth name if you know it." Touko lights up a cigarette and begins to smoke. You really wish she wouldn't smoke so much, though you can't say anything. It's not like smoking is going to do her any damage, considering that this is just a puppet body she's using... probably. You can really never be sure with Touko. She's a far trickier magus than Medea is, which is hilariously ironic, considering that one of the two women bears the epithet 'Witch of Betrayal'. Really, Medea is pretty much about as straightforward as you can get when it comes to how she goes about her magecraft. Sure, she might be able to use Rule Breaker, but even then, you feel like her powers are being squandered by her usage of them. You suppose that her lack skill with subterfuge can probably be attributed to the period of time she comes from, magecraft was something that didn't need to be concealed back then, after all.

"Uh. Yeah, I... I don't actually know his birth name. Well, not his original family name, at least. He goes by Shirou Emiya now though. I'm just... worried that he might've gotten himself killed by getting himself involved in the Grail War and not being nearly prepared enough for it." You were prepared to deal with the Grail War you read about in Fate/Stay Night, and you had gotten Shirou to a level where he might've been about that level too, but what neither of you most certainly were not prepared for was whatever this farce of a Grail War is. Honestly, you don't even know how many Servants are lurking now.

"Oh, right. The Magus Killer's kid. I kept an eye on him for a while out of concern, but I decided that he was pretty much harmless after observing him for a while... Well, that at least makes things a little bit easier. I don't need you to give me any more information. I'm already familiar enough with him to take care of things from here." Touko then proceeds to begin to trace dozens of runes in the air with a finger, literally writing the runes onto the air itself and leaving the runes she traces behind her as strange faintly glowing lines that float in the air. "First off, I'm going to determine whether or not he's still alive." You frown as she mentions the possibility. "What? It's simpler than figuring out where he is and if he's dead then there's no point in searching any further, right?"

"No." You sigh. "I suppose you're right, how exactly are you determining that anyway?" You are really quite interested in knowing more, but you then realize that Touko can't really tell you her methods for the sake of ensuring the mystery behind them.

"Oh it's relatively simple actually, I'll spare you the details on how it interacts with the recently deceased, but I'm using my runes in order to determine whether or not your friend's spirit left this world recently, he's quite... distinctive, when it comes to his magical energy." That sounds... impossibly complex, actually. "It shouldn't take long to find out now, I'm just about done." She finishes tracing the large circle of runes in the air, which hovers there for a moment before the gentle blue light turns to a harsh red. You hold your breath as you look at the alarming color, before Touko speaks up. "Ah! Good news, Wakame-kun! It seems that your friend isn't dead!" You feel the tension leave your body as she reveals the complete opposite to what the red light had you believe. "Now that I've confirmed that he isn't dead, I can just add a few more runes onto this..." Touko proceeds to trace another circle of runes around the floating red circle, though when it's finished, it flashes green and red before suddenly disappearing entirely.

"W-what happened?" It's pretty clear from the unamused expression on Touko's face that that was not at all supposed to happen.

"Now... that is odd." Your teacher doesn't even seem to recognize your presence in the room as she states her mind on what just occurred.

"What's odd, Shishou? Did you find him or not?" The suspense is killing you, and you want to know just what the hell happened and if it's going to get in the way of you finding Shirou.

"No, unfortunately, I didn't. But that's not what's odd about this. It seems that somebody didn't take kindly to my looking for your friend, and sent a curse back towards me through the connection... Of course, it was a powerful curse and I may have been killed if I was careless, but unfortunately for this mystery attacker, it'll take more than just hijacking a tracking spell to deal with me. Their curse tripped one of the switches for the spell that forced it to shut off entirely, curse included." Touko sounds incredibly smug as she reveals her victory over her would-be assailant. She doesn't even sound upset that somebody just tried to kill her... Then again, this is the woman who is practically unkillable thanks to having a nigh unlimited number of spare bodies in reserve.

"So, you're trying to tell me..." You begin to speak before your somewhat uncharacteristically enthusiastic teacher cuts you off to start speaking again.

"Yes, your friend is alive, but it seems like something is blocking my attempt to track him down." A chill runs down your back. You hadn't really considered it, but there's a chance that Shirou is being held prisoner in the temple alongside Avenger, isn't there? At least he's not dead, but the fact that even Touko was unable to locate him is a major point of concern. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to be of more help in finding him, but you can rest assured that I'll make a superior tracking spell that bypasses the defenses of whoever is trying to keep me out... In the meantime, is there anything else you need?"

You hold up a single finger as she offers her aid once again. "There is... just... one more little thing." You feel a little guilty asking your teacher for so much when she's already been of so much aid to you in the past, yet in exchange you've never offered her anything... Well, not to the same value, at least.

"What's that?" Touko sounds interested in your sudden awkward behavior, she's probably gathered that you are going to ask her for something else already.

"I need a pair of Mystic Eye Killers, one of the Se-" You get cut off from talking as Touko raises a hand to shush you.

"Done." Touko reaches into her inside pocket and throws you a pair of glasses immediately, which you effortlessly snatch out of the air despite the somewhat high velocity of the glasses. "It's my spare set, after an... incident in the past, I started looking into ways to manufacture them relatively cheaply. It's not like I have two sets of eyes though, so I don't mind giving you that set." You smile at Touko as you put the glasses in your pocket. You're sure that Rider will appreciate them later on. "But now I suppose we ought to get to the important part. Your Servant you wanted me to take a look at, you might as well try bringing her out now." Touko is quite fast when it comes with wanting to go ahead with any sort of magical endeavors. You suppose that as a magus as good as Touko is, being able to inspect a Servant in great detail isn't an opportunity that shows up to them very often.

>Try to wake Betty up by flooding the link you have to her with magical energy.
>Try to wake Betty up by playing random surfaces as drums.
>Try to wake Betty up by yelling at her through the mental link.
>Try to wake Betty up gently through the mental link through words alone.
>Disregard having Touko look at your Servant for now.
>Write-in...

>>4459479
Time to go blue man group. Let the drumming commence!

>>4459479
>>Try to wake Betty up by flooding the link you have to her with magical energy.

>>4459479
>Try to wake Betty up by playing random surfaces as drums.
Take notes from famous drummers like Phil Collins of Genesis, Lars Ulrich of Metallica, Stewart Copeland of The Police, and Keith Moon of The Who. There's others too, but those four come to mind for me.

>>4459502
Supporting this, let's DK this shit

>>4459502
Support

>>4459479
>Try to wake Betty up by playing random surfaces as drums.
Just play a constant beats of bolero

>>4459502
Support

>>4459502
Support

>>4459502
Support. Also, why aren't we carrying a pan around?

>>4459479
Try to wake her up by words at least once, then get drumming if it fails

You sigh, and randomly begin tapping on one of Touko's desks quietly. Betty said that drumming ought to wake her up, so this is probably your best bet at waking her up so you can have your teacher actually take a look at the girl. After all, there wouldn't be much of a point to visiting Touko at all if you didn't actually manage to even have her take a look at your Servant, this was the entire point of the trip, after all. So you can't just leave without fulfilling that goal. Even if Touko can't provide any assistance, you still need to have her examine Betty.

Touko arches an eyebrow as she notices you just randomly starting to drum on one of the desks in the room. "Wakame-kun... What... What exactly do you think you're doing?" Touko is clearly worried for you as you start drumming louder and louder.

"I need to wake my Servant up, and she told me that drumming might be effective." You say with a completely straight face.

Touko gives you a concerned look before shrugging. "Carry on then." She's clearly just a little bit bemused by your sudden antics, but what else are you supposed to do? You don't really know of any other way to wake up a sleepy little girl who is the host for some immeasurably powerful horror from beyond the stars other than to do what she suggested.

You end up drumming as loudly as you can on one of the many surfaces around the room before you finally hear you Servant start to stir. Making noises through the mental link you have with her when you finally stop drumming. 'Nnnnn, Master, did I fall asleep again?' She soon manages to properly wake up. Seems like the drumming actually was effective. Though seeing as you had to drum for a good five minutes as loudly as was physically possible without reinforcing yourself or destroying things, it's really not a viable way to wake her up should you require her assistance in a dangerous situation. Ah well, being able to wake her up has it's merits anyway. At least now you won't be forced to walk into a dangerous situation without her awake in the first place.

'You did, Betty. But it's not a problem.' You can hardly blame the girl for her shortcomings. After all, it's not like Foreigners are a standard class of Servant or even of Heroic Spirits in general. In fact, it strikes you as more than a little bit odd that Foreigners would even be on the Throne of Heroes at all... unless Betty wasn't summoned from the throne. She's certainly not a living person like Saber is though, because she can take spiritual form. So she probably wasn't summoned to the present from the past. But that's about all the information that gives you as to the origin of your Servant. Seeing as Foreigners are classed almost entirely as Threats to Humanity just by existing, then it makes no practical sense for them to somehow be on the Throne of Heroes. You'll probably have time to think about the origin of your Servant later on, but even know you can tell it's unlikely that she came from the Throne, and even less likely that your summoning was a standard one at all. Your strange messed up command spells are proof enough of that.

"Shishou. Prepare yourself." You tell your teacher to get ready for the curse. With any luck, being prepared for it will make it a little easier for her to resist succumbing to it's effects. She merely nods to give confirmation that she's ready for you to present her your Servant. "Alright, Betty. Show yourself." You command your Servant, who slowly and shyly materializes behind you. She seems a little bit apprehensive about approaching Touko. Though it's not like you can blame her, Betty might be a Servant, but that doesn't stop her from feeling fear, especially around somebody like Touko, who is just about one of the most terrifying people alive in this era when she wants to be.

Thankfully, Touko doesn't seem to be all too affected by Betty's curse, as despite there being a frown on her face as she sees the small girl step out from behind you, she makes no other real reaction to the presence of the girl. "Alright. I think I've got a grip for now, but that is quite a potent magical ability there. To be expected of a Servant, I suppose." Touko observes with neutrality in her voice as she continues to look at your Servant. "Now, come here girl. I need to take a look at you."

Betty is still fairly hesitant, but you nudge the girl forwards. "Think of it like a... Doctor's appointment, Betty. She's going to help you with your curse." That seems to work somewhat, as Betty then slowly walks the rest of the way to your magecraft teacher all by herself.

"Alright, this shouldn't hurt at all, I just need to access one of your spiritual cores in order to... examine you." Touko places her right hand on the center of Betty's chest and closes her eyes. Well, you hadn't actually thought about it, but closing your eyes around Betty would probably work to disable suffering from the effects of her ability at all. It's based on direct line of sight entirely, as far as you can tell, so purposely blinding yourself by doing something as simple as closing your eyes would easily end up removing the danger from the ability altogether! Of course though, you aren't about to force the entirety of your faction to walk around with blindfolds on like Rider. In fact, you got Rider a pair of Mystic Eye Killers specifically to avoid her not being able to make use of her eyes.

You wait for a while in silence as Betty stares at Touko with apprehension on her features still. Touko's face is one of deep concentration, and you can really only begin to imagine what she's actually up to. Minutes pass like this, and you find yourself hoping that your allies aren't getting bored downstairs. You suppose that Rider can always just entertain herself by taking her new supercar for another ride. It's not like the woman is going to get bored of doing that for a very very long time indeed.

"And... we are done!" Touko suddenly opens her eyes and looks at your Servant with a smile. "I found what it was that was causing this curse, and the truth is, it's actually a Personal Skill that your Servant was misusing horribly." Touko lights up another cigarette and begins smoking without any concern for the rest of the people in the room. Then again, she's a puppet, you can regenerate, and Betty is a Servant. You really ought to pay less attention to how much you dislike smoking when you know that it can't actually do any harm.

"What... do you mean?" You ask your teacher for clarification.

"Well, I'm not sure if it was caused by accident or just a general lack of experience, but one of her skills is the ability to cause other people she targets to have hatred gravitate towards them.h However, for whatever reason, your Servant was targeting herself with that ability. Don't worry, I've sealed that ability off for now, though it's only a temporary sort of seal. If your Servant wished to do so, she could very easily break the seal placed upon her skill." This is... excellent news! Not only has Touko managed to go ahead and seal off the ability, but the ability itself, should your Servant actually manage to get a grip with her powers is totally overpowered. If it works on a Servant, then you can just have her cause your enemies to hate their Servants so much that they order their deaths! It's a rather heartless use of a horrifyingly powerful ability, but it would resolve the war very quickly indeed. You get the feeling that Touko might be withholding some information from you, but you really can't complain. God only knows what she found examining Betty.

Status Updated!

"Wait. I was?" Betty speaks now, clearly confused at Touko's assessment of the situation. "I... I'm sorry for causing you trouble, Master." Betty turns to you with guilt in her eyes, clearly upset at her failure.

"Don't worry about it, Betty. You've got a lot to learn about your abilities anyway, I'm not going to hold something like this against you." You smile at the girl as you try to cheer her up. "Think about the positives, would you? You can be seen by people now, and in time, we might even be able to figure out a way to get that ability completely under control!" She still doesn't look happy with her failure as you try to tell her of the opportunity such a development actually represents, but she doesn't have nearly so much guilt in her eyes now. You're not going to blame your allies for making mistakes that are completely beyond their abilities to actually get right. Least of all your own Servant.

Touko goes back to fiddling with one of the magical items on one of the many desks in the room as you try to make your Servant feel a little bit better about things. "I take it that you're done here now then, Wakame-kun? I imagine you've got more important things to do than to spend the afternoon with your teacher." She pauses for a moment, and you can feel the displeasure in her voice. "But don't worry about your friend. He's still alive. That much I know. I'm not about to allow myself to be beaten by whatever nobody is trying to prevent me from locating him, either. I can guarantee you that much. It's a matter of pride. I'm not about to allow myself to get defeated!" Touko declares with a burning passion. "Of course, if I find your friend, then I'll get in contact with you."

"R-right. Thanks, Shishou." Goodness, what a terrifying woman. Even when what is obviously some sort of barely restrained hatred isn't directed at you, it's still enough to cause you to feel just a small amount of fear. You would hate to have this woman working against you more than pretty much anybody else you know. Even Shuten Dōji can't inspire fear in you like this woman can.

You bid your teacher farewell and have your Servant follow you without having to take spiritual form for the first time. You'll finally be able to properly introduce Illya, Sakura and Rider to your Servant without fear of having them try to murder the poor girl. Your thoughts turn back to Rider, and the pair of glasses in your pocket. As well as to Shuten Dōji once again. You did promise you would get her alcohol, and you don't really want to break your word to her. You get the feeling that you won't survive very long if you try to break a promise with such a powerful Assassin. While she might not be all too invested in carrying out the orders of her Master, she'll almost certainly try to get revenge on you if you end up lying to her.

>Multivote!

>Mystic Eye Killers
>>Give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers immediately.
>>Tell Rider that if she acts good you'll give her the Mystic Eye Killers.
>>Offer to give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers if she does something for you (what?)
>>Withhold the existence of the Mystic Eye Killers from Rider.
>>Write-in...

>Alcohol for Shuten
>>Get Shuten the highest quality Wine available, delivered by jet.
>>Get Shuten the strongest alcohol you can find that isn't just absinthe or something.
>>Just buy Shuten a six pack of beer from the local convenience store.
>>Try to experiment with making an alcohol through Truth Manifestation.
>>Don't buy Shuten anything, you probably aren't going to run into her again anyway.
>>Write-in...

>>4460193
>>Give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers immediately.

>>Get Shuten the highest quality Wine available, delivered by jet.

>>4460193

>Give the glasses to Rider. It's why we requisitioned them in the first place.

>Get Shuten a selection of finest wines, California, Italy, France, Chile, Australia

>>4460193
>>Give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers immediately.
>>Get Shuten the strongest alcohol you can find that isn't just absinthe or something.

I may be wrong, but wouldn't Shuten prefer something that would theoretically get her fucking wasted?

Making alcohol with Truth Manifestation sounds seductive but I am afraid of Us spending too much mana and being useless when the war resumes.

>>4460193
Optics Slaughters.
>Give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers immediately.
It's like her birthday or something.

Sexy Oni
>Get Shuten the highest quality Wine available, delivered by jet.
>Get Shuten the strongest alcohol you can find that isn't just absinthe or something.
>Buy Shuten a six pack of beer from the local convenience store.
All. Do all.
Besides Truth Manifestation, we need to save our mana for god knows what might happen.

>>4460193
>Offer to give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers if she does something for you (what?)
Put on a maid outfit for a day during downtime day

>Get Shuten the highest quality Wine available, delivered by jet.
I'd prefer sake, but I know nothing of it.

>>4460199
We promised her high quality alcohol tho.

>>4460193
>Give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers immediately.

>Get Shuten a selection of finest wines, California, Italy, France, Chile, Australia
because we promised her quality
>Try to experiment with making an alcohol through Truth Manifestation
because this will actually fuck her up. she'll be so shocked at the strength of this alcohol she might end up joining our side entirely

>>4460193
>>>Give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers immediately.
and
>>4460193
>>>Get Shuten the highest quality Wine available, delivered by jet.
>>>Get Shuten the strongest alcohol you can find that isn't just absinthe or something.
>>Try to experiment with making an alcohol through Truth Manifestation.
Third one for shits and giggles, and to see if we even can.

>>4460193
>Give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers immediately

>Get Shuten the highest quality Wine available, delivered by jet.
>Get Shuten the strongest alcohol you can find that isn't just absinthe or something.
>Try to experiment with making an alcohol through Truth Manifestation.

File: ju6cv9swcp9y.jpg (51 KB, 500x387)

51 KB JPG

>>4460193
I know I'll probably not get my vote but
>Offer to give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers if she does something for you (what?)
"Let's go on a date, Rider"

and
>Get Shuten the highest quality Wine available, delivered by jet.
>write-in

I've got from the previous discussion
>American wine and Japanese plum sake
>Argentinian Fernet
>Peruvian Pisco Sour
>Jack Daniels
>Arak

Let's have her experiment the world's best alcohol and then offer her entertainment that'd make "The gods green with envy" but only if she works with us. We should also buy some cheaper stuff and try to TRUTH it into being the best shit ever and have Monica or Bazette give us the green light. This makes me wonder if we are able to maintain Shuten ourselves? We got a shitton of mana technically and Shuten's a fucking BEAST so I doubt reinforcing will be something we need to spam unless we need to go full damage control. We also need to find a way to regenerate our Od, how much mana do you think touching the maids will restore for us?

>>4460300
Fuck it, supporting this.

>>4460193
>Give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers immediately.
>Try to experiment with making an alcohol through Truth Manifestation.

>>4460300
you have my support fren

>>4460300
support bro

>>4460300
I really want to see Sakura freak out now

>Witch Trial: - (A+)
That would have been insane buff for Avenger.
>>4460193
>Mystic Eye Killers
>>Give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers immediately.

>Alcohol for Shuten
>>Try to experiment with making an alcohol through Truth Manifestation.
Red wine and blood.

>>4460300
Support

Can we not waste a huge chunk of our magical energy on this, please?
It's all fun and games until we run into something we can't properly fight against because Shinji is too exhausted.

>>4460300
Support. Holy fuck this is good.

>>4460428
I mean it's not like we don't have a whole group that can help us if we go too deep (Even Rider and Sakura are, technically, better off than us in terms of offense and defense, we are better suited at scouting after all seeing as Betty is asleep 9 times out of the ten we need her) and if you are really worried about Shinji being a target then I guess Monica'll have to put in the work. We kinda hired her for that.

>>4460357
>Sakura finds out that we are being lovey-dovey with Rider
>Slowly starts to lose her sanity over it
>We swoop in, hand pressing against her hip and another having a thumb trace around her lips
>Go full "bad boy" on Sakura as we tease a kiss, leaning, whispering sweet nothings, but never give her the satisfaction, leaving her wanting.

At LEAST this'll put a theoretical bandaid should we end up down a more degenerate route/choosing another gal.

>>4460300
>>4460477
We are the only good healer in our group tho. Mana that we are going to spend on wine creation could be difference between life and death in the future.

>>4460193
>>>Give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers immediately.
>>>Try to experiment with making an alcohol through Truth Manifestation.

>>4460486
I mean true enough, but at the same time we gotta increase the chances of Shuten finding us more important than her master herself, we still aren't in the clear after all. Hell, we can even try and pull Truth in front of her, making the drink even tastier and I'm pretty sure that'll get her whole attention on us. No fucking way she'll let someone as valuable as THAT be harmed.

Besides I'm not saying to dunk all of our mana on it, and if it's a success we'll probably don't need to worry about getting ganked by an enemy servant while Betty's asleep.

>>4460486
Also I think I understand the confusion, I'm not talking about wine creation but rather, enhancement of the wine we already have which I DOUBT will put much of a dent in our mana reserves. We aren't OG Shirou who fries his circuits trying to do the most minimal stuff, I doubt enhancing will do much-Ergo why I suggested started experimenting with cheap stuff.

>>4460300
+1

>>4460193
>Give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers immediately

>Get Shuten the highest quality Wine available, delivered by jet.

>>4460193
>>4460300
Supporting this anon.
Let's fluster the cutesnek.

Man.
Kind of a shame we didn't bother learning how to make Truth Based mystic codes.
I'm kinda hoping we can try to combine truth and reinforcement to straight up upgrade concepts like how alcoholic something is beyond physically capable limitations.

Give Rider the Mystic Eye Killers immediately.
>>4460196
>>4460198
>>4460199
>>4460204
>>4460217
>>4460226
>>4460287
>>4460312
>>4460361
>>4460490
>>4460544

>Offer the Mystic Eye Killers in exchange for a date
>>4460300
>>4460302
>>4460351
>>4460354
>>4460375
>>4460431
>>4460535
>>4460552

Looks like no date for Rider.

>Highest quality wine by jet
>>4460196
>>4460198
>>4460207
>>4460552

>Strongest alcohol you can get
>>4460204

>Buy Shuten a lot of alcohol
>>4460204

>High quality wines as well as truth manifested alcohol
>>4460217

>Strong alcohol and fine wine as well as truth manifestated alcohol
>>4460226
>>4460287

>A large variety of different alcohol
>>4460300
>>4460302
>>4460351
>>4460354
>>4460375
>>4460431
>>4460535
>>4460552

>Truth manifestation alcohol
>>4460312
>>4460361
>>4460490

I think that's about everyone's vote.

You leave Garan no Dou with Betty following close behind you. You can tell that the girl is much happier that she's no longer under the effects of her curse already... but you can also tell that you're going to need to buy the girl some more... normal clothing. While her current outfit doesn't stand out like some Servants outfits would. She still can't really blend in while she's wearing that antiquated looking dress. It wasn't a problem before, because she was forced to remain in spiritual form at almost all times anyway, but now that the girl is actually going to appear in public with you, a new outfit is pretty much required. Same with Rider... Especially for Rider, actually.

Before you leave the building, you retrieve a burner-phone from your pocket and send a text to one of the many people you have on your payroll to acquire something for you. That being expensive alcohol of the highest quality with one single stipulation. You don't care how much it will cost, but it has to be at one of the warehouses that you own by nine PM tonight. You have a lot of confidence in your employees, you wait for a reply before you actually leave the building to go and face your allies, and after a single minute, you receive the confirmation that you were looking for. Of course, the people you have on payroll for the purpose of... acquisition may not be entirely... well, they aren't exactly fond of the law. However, they are fond of being paid large amounts of money for the job of rapidly acquiring and delivering items that their employer might find himself needing. The group also does a lot of work for the Fujimura group now, last time you checked. Mostly stealing evidence and the like, nothing too serious. Regardless, they'll get you what it is that you're after, be it through legal means or otherwise. You have come to understand that purchasing anything of particularly high value can be something of a hassle when it comes to paperwork, and you really don't have the time to waste on the paperwork when there's an Oni who has no compunctions about consuming humans waiting for you to deliver the goods to her.

As you push open the doors that lead out of Touko's office, your shady dealings being dealt with, you melt the burner phone into a pile of molten plastic and ashes with a rune and toss it aside. You'd rather have your dealings with criminals unable to be traced back to you. As far as they are concerned, you are merely a wealthy supporter of the Fujimura group, even if this particular branch is on your payroll. You try not to get too bogged down in criminal enterprises, but sometimes it's good to have friends in... well, low places. While you certainly haven't needed to order anybody killed, you could very easily make a few calls and have it be made so. Of course, the same is true of magical assassins... and you haven't really needed to make use of any of them either. Not unless you count employing Monica as a full time bodyguard, as it's clear that she enjoys her work with you far more than she ever enjoyed her previous occupation of hunting for contracts from magus families that need something to be taken care of. Monica is a killer, that's obvious from just how she dealt with that vampire back when you visited Misaki Town. Though you don't know just how prolific she was, you haven't really looked into it either, mostly out of respect for the woman. It's clear to you that her past makes her uncomfortable enough without you going prying into it.

Your eyes quickly adjust to the winter sun as you step out into the street to face Sakura and Illya again. It seems that Rider has decided to wait for you within her vehicle, because of course she has.

"Ah, Shinji. You took your time. Are we going in now?" Illya sounds quite a bit impatient as you finally emerge from the building, you didn't really keep them waiting that long, and you can't really invite other magi into Touko's workshop without permission. It's rude to do something like that, and some magi would actually attempt to attack you over such a thing, considering it an insult. Of course, Touko is hardly like a normal magus, but you still don't want to encroach on her... relatively good nature. She still has her pride, and she'll still murder somebody without remorse if they slight that pride of hers, however, her pride is the sort of thing that you can't really hurt unless you insult her directly, and honestly? You'd have to be a complete imbecile to think insulting a Grand-rank Clocktower Magus was a good idea for your health anyway. Well, that or inexplicably confident in your own abilities. Or you suppose you can just be immortal... Then again, Prelati found out the hard way that just because they are immortal, it doesn't mean that bothering Touko is a good idea. Had she not been 'convinced' to stop, it's more than possible that Touko would still be out there, slaughtering Prelati wherever they showed themselves.

"Apologies for the brief delay, but it turns out that I had quite a bit of success in this endeavor." You put an arm behind the girl sticking closely behind you. "Sakura, Illya. I want to introduce the two of you to my servant properly. I understand that this isn't your first time in seeing her for either of you, but at least this time you'll actually be able to look at her."

"H-hello." The little girl steps out from behind you to greet Illya. Choosing to focus on the girl who appears to be close to her own age instead of the older looking woman. If Sakura is offended by this choice though, she doesn't show it. She instead just stares silently at your Servant. "My name is Betty. I'm supposed to be Caster, but I don't really like that name..."

Illya sighs as she looks at the young girl trying to socialize with her, and after a brief moment of deciding, decides to play along with the young girl. "Hello there, Betty. My name is Illya. Let's be friends, alright?" She gives your Servant a sweet smile, a massive contrast to how she acted the last time she saw your Servant. It looks like Touko really did manage to disable the skill, and what's more than that, the skill doesn't seem to have any lasting effects on the people who once fell under the effect!

"R-right!" Betty seems happy to have made a friend so easily, her silver hair is somewhat similar to Illya's own hair, now that you think about it, though Betty's hair has far more of a silver color to it, compared to Illya's hair, which is more of a platinum blond. Still, at a glance, their hair could be mistaken as the same shade. "I want that too." Betty seems happy to have met Illya under the impression that she's managed to make a new friend her own age... Well, you aren't about to correct Betty's assumption. Besides, while Illya might theoretically be about twenty or however old she is, it's not really like she has the life experience one would expect of somebody that age. Nor has her body or mind really developed much either.

"Now that I've finally managed to get that out of the way, shall we head off to the shopping district now, everyone? I think it might be a good idea if we were to get the Servants in our alliance some outfits to call their own. What do you think, Sakura?" You turn towards Illya moments after asking Sakura the question. "Of course, it shouldn't take too long, and the arcade is very close by the clothes shops. It's just... I don't think we can really have Rider walk around wearing... that outfit..." Really, it's such a scandalous outfit that merely having her walk around wearing it would be enough to cause rumors to spread. "Actually, speaking of which... Rider! Get out here please! I have someting I want to talk to you about!"

The woman seems startled as her name is suddenly called. She's apparently been too distracted just staring at the dashboard of her new vehicle. It must be quite fascinating for a woman from mythology to be introduced to such a creation. A true testament to human engineering, to create vehicles that are on par with the speed that could only be reached by legendary beasts in her era. It really does go to show how far technology has come since her time. It's funny that a heroic spirit from an era long passed has a greater appreciation for the modern world than the magus still living in today's world. "Yes, Shinji...-sama?" Rider pauses as she says your name, before attaching a really quite unexpected honorific.

"I've got a present for you. Here, catch." You fetch the glasses out of your pocket and toss them towards the woman after she leaves her car. She easily catches them as they get close to her before she stops to examine the glasses, it's clear that she thinks that you must be playing some sort of stupid prank on her by the look on her face, so you decide to clarify. "Those are Mystic Eye Killers. They act as seals for Mystic Eyes that can be seen through like a normal pair of glasses. I just thought that somebody like you might appreciate them. I understand that wearing that blindfold all the time must get a little bit troublesome, no?"

"I... I... How did you-" Rider seems to be struggling to pick out the correct words as she stares at the present. If she didn't think that you were some sort of clairvoyant, seer or oracle before. You're pretty certain that this particular gift has effectively confirmed the suspicion in her mind. It's really not that far off a guess to make, when you think about it. In a way, you can see the future, or at least you did once... Though you can't really say you have the potential to see the future that approaches you now. What knowledge you have from the original story is still very useful.

"It doesn't matter how, does it? Just accept the gift, Rider. We've got places to go and clothes to buy." You evade her question with ease. You can't be bothered to explain yourself to her, and if she's going to ask how you could have possibly guessed her identity... There's really not that many candidates that a beautiful woman with a face covering could actually be. At least none with the fame that Medusa enjoys... or well, it's not like she actually enjoys her fame like most heroic spirits do. She's known as a monster, after all. Which really, just isn't the right thing to call her... well, at least in this form. She's undeniably a monster as the Gorgon, after all.

Rider nods meekly as you give her enough really quite valuable gift. The woman clearly has no idea how she's supposed to act around you now. To Rider, you have become something of an incomprehensible existence. Your actions make hardly any sense and you know far too much to what people around you believe you ought to know or even what you ought to be capable of knowing.

"If you don't mind, Onii-chan... I'll... I'll be riding with you this time..." She looks at her Servant, who looks a little bit guilty. "Rider... Rider seems to get a little bit carried away with excitement when she drives." Yeah, something of an understatement. But Sakura is just trying not to hurt the older woman's feelings, so it's not like she's about to be brutally honest with her Servant. If you were in Sakura's position, you would almost certainly be reprimanding Rider for acting like she did when she had control of the vehicle. Funnily enough though, despite the ludicrous speeds Rider reached, she was still probably at a lower risk of crashing her car than you were. Her skill is quite literally supernatural, after all. You can't exactly compete with that even with all of your accumulated knowledge about the proper operation of vehicles or handling animals.

"That's fine, Sakura... Shall we get going then?" Your adoptive sister nods, and before long, everyone has taken their rightful places and you are moving along swiftly towards the shopping district.

You end up splitting up from Sakura and Rider in order to purchase clothing for both Betty... as well as Illya, who pronounced excitement at the idea of going clothes shopping. Thankfully, it seems that Illya does get along quite well with your servant, but their relationship right now isn't really a genuine one. Not yet, at least. It's funny, but even though you know that Illya is mostly humoring your Servant, possibly out of guilt for falling under the effects of her curse earlier, it's almost a certainty that her friendship with Betty will eventually become a genuine one. It's not like Illya has any actual friends if you don't count yourself... or the maids, who are literally conditioned to love and adore her to the point of dying for her.

As Illya and Betty look around the junior section of an upper class clothing shop, you find yourself watching the two girls, fairly bored with the whole situation. You wouldn't know the first thing about what women or even girls find appealing to wear, so it's mostly Illya doing to choosing and Betty readily agreeing with her new friend on whatever decision she makes about clothing... You did tell Illya that she could buy whatever she wanted without limit. You have the money of course, but you don't really know if you have the patience for this. You're basically just being ignored by the two girls as they shop for clothing excitedly. You share none of their enthusiasm.

As you stare at the girls as they look through the dozens of racks of expensive dresses, you almost feel as if you see something out of the corner of your eye... a purple sparkle of light... It was probably just some reflection from the room, but you can't really be confident in that assessment. You might just be having your eyes play tricks on you though... you know you're bored enough for it at least.

>Investigate the flash of light by yourself.
>Call Betty and Illya over and head in the direction you saw the flash.
>Ignore the flash of light. Whatever it is, it's either unimportant or it's an enemy Servant. You don't really want to have to deal with either right now.
>Call Sakura, have her and Rider head over to the store you're in to watch out for activity from a potential enemy Servant. This is the best way to actually catch them. Rider ought to be fast enough to pursue them.
>Write-in...

>>4461182
>Write-in...
Telepathically tell our servant "Betty, I will go this way, I want you to check clothes near where I will be heading and prepare yourself if anything goes afoot, but act as if you are unaware of my doings."

Also ask her via our link if she can make a stealthy creature that can hide, say, inside our clothing or hell, even our shadow?

>>4461182
Investigate the flash of light

>>4461187
+1
Could it be Medea here clothes-shopping too? Or a Second Servant we have not seen yet?

>>4461187
Support

>>4461182
>Investigate the flash of light by yourself.

>>4461182
>>Call Sakura, have her and Rider head over to the store you're in to watch out for activity from a potential enemy Servant. This is the best way to actually catch them. Rider ought to be fast enough to pursue them.

>>4461187
Sounds too complicated for our betty, you sure we're not ruining her enjoyment time?
Just kidding, supporting this.

>>4461187
I'll support this

>>4461187
Supporting

>>4461187
Support.

>>4461187
this is good, supporting

You reach out through to the mental link between you and your Servant, quickly deciding that something might be wrong. Of course, it could've been anything. There's no reason to suspect foul play, but with your luck, you can never be too sure. 'Betty. I think we might possibly in danger. I'm going to turn to the right and walk forwards, I'm going to need you to discreetly follow me and prepare yourself for a potential attack. There might be an enemy here. Act as if you're unaware of my suspicion if you can though, OK?' Hopefully Betty isn't terrible as an actor under pressure. The last thing you need is for your Servant to give the game away in case there is an enemy here.

'I understand, Master.' Betty's response is short and conveys a relative understanding of the situation, thankfully. She doesn't even really show a response to what you told her physically, instead she just continues to flick through the dresses with Illya. You slowly begin to move towards the direction you saw the flash of light come from.

As you near the flash of light you brush you suddenly think of something that might be quite helpful, given the circumstances. 'Betty... Those creatures of yours, what exactly happens when you aren't uhm... using them?'

'Oh them? I just put them in storage!' Storage? You... You don't really know what the entails, and honestly, you aren't even sure you'd be able to understand even if you had Betty elaborate. It's possible that she's using some sort of pocket dimension in order to store the creatures she creates. Whatever she does with them when she's not actively using them though, it seems that the strain on your is decreased massively.

'Well, that's good. Then could you... make me something right now? I don't really know the limits of that ability of yours, but I would prefer if you could create something capable of hiding on me just in case I'm attacked... oh! Better yet, can you make something that hides in my shadow?' You understand that it's a bit of a long shot to expect so much of your Servant, but it's possible that her ability to create familiars will allow such a thing, after all, you haven't really seen any true limits to the ability show up just yet. For all you know, Betty has the ability to create whatever she wants without limit... well, without limit other than your magical energy reserves. You wonder if it's simply limited to her own imagination or if she's creating the beasts from some sort of template, either way it's an incredibly useful ability. The only real problem with it arises again from Betty's terrible habit of falling asleep. It seems that she's about the only person with the capability to actual command the creatures, and especially the only one with the ability to pull them out of wherever they are whenever she's not actually directly using them.

There's a brief pause as Betty seems to think about your request while you wander towards what might just be an enemy Servant with caution in your eyes. Even though she's gone silent, Betty still maneuvers herself and Illya around the shop in a way that Betty will be close enough to defend you should she have to do so while remaining completely inconspicuous as to whether or not she's aware of the possible danger. The act is really helped by Illya in this case, who is completely unaware of what might be going on in the shop. 'I thought about it a little, and I feel like I might have something that can help do that!' Betty finally gives you a positive answer to your question about unseen familiars, and at the moment she gives the positive answer, you can feel your magical energy beginning to drain, not in one single lump like what you've come to expect from Betty using her ability, but a slow drain as it feels like your energy is pulled away from you in hundreds of small lumps.

You look over at your servant and then realize that her shadow seems to be... shifting oddly? It's really a very odd thing to see, but you're apparently the only person in the building who can notice the oddly moving shadow of the girl. Then, the drain on your energy stops, as do the movements of the shadow, and it seems to return entirely to it's normal shape. 'What on Earth did you just do, Betty?'

You said you wanted something that could hide in shadows, so I made you a lot of little things that can!' There's a tone of self satisfaction in Betty's voice as she reveals her success in fulfilling your request, and at that very moment, her shadow seems to come alive once more, as hundreds of large insect sized creatures begin to crawl out of her shadow and towards your own. It's just about all you can do not to jump in shock as you see the creatures. They look a lot like traditional insects would, except for their legs. Where you would expect spindly legs befitting of insects, these black insects have what can only be called small knives for legs.

There's a very slight clacking noise emanating from the horde of eldritch bugs as they crawl towards you, and you simply wait for them to merge into your shadow. Illya is too distracted by looking at a particularly pretty dress to even notice the horde of monstrous bugs crawling the short distance between you and Betty with rapid pace. Their pace is also impossibly rapid for such small insects, and the small horde covers the very short distance easily and at around the pace of an average human running as fast as he could! It dawns on you just how horrible these creatures would be to deal with if you were just an average person. Not only can they perfectly blend into shadows, but their legs look sharp and thick enough to easily pierce and cut through human flesh.

Betty is still pretending to stare at clothes even as this all goes on, and before long the entire horde has finished relocating to within your own shadow. You could easily forget that they were there if they didn't inspire such wariness in you. With any luck, they'll be able to defend you from whatever or whoever has decided to show up in the clothing shop.

As you take one more step towards the flash of light, there's another flash! But this time, the flash comes from directly underneath you! You quickly look down to find yourself standing right on top of some sort of magic circle, which is glowing brighter by the millisecond! It's already too bright to read the lettering that forms it, and you don't have long before it takes effect! Could this be some sort of magical land mine?

>Reinforce your body, dive off the magic circle as quickly as you can.
>Let it activate, it might not be a lethal trap and there's really nothing you can do to stop it now.
>Try to use your counter magic on the magic circle!
>Call out to Betty and Illya to warn them!
>Write-in...

>>4461526
I love Betty. Might be a dead end but reinforce and jump back off the circle and protect Betty.

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>>4461526
Uh, this makes me wonder if Betty can pull a Johnny Joestar and "pocket" us, Imagine us suddenly appearing behind enemy lines with a Truth-enhanced gun pointed at their backs. We really need to train some combos with our servants because goddamn, we gotta see the extends of Betty's powers even if it means mana drain because she might be hella OP. Anyways
>Reinforce your body, dive off the magic circle as quickly as you can.
>"BETTY, PROTECT ILLYA!"

>>4461526
Counterspell!

>>4461526
>Counterspell!

>>4461529
Supporting this.
I think it's pretty obvious that Betty is super OP and is just held back by inexperience.
We already figured out she's connected to Azathoth so theoretically she could be far stronger than Abby is.

>>4461526
>>Try to use your counter magic on the magic circle!

Guys what if this is Medea fucking about and trying to get us alone for a chat?
She's associated with purple magic isn't she?

>>4461574
Yes but safety first. If it really is her doing something innocuous to talk or whatever, we can call her out on causing a misunderstanding AND a disturbance AND go "why didn't you make it obvious in a way that wouldn't be seen as possibly hostile?!"

>>4461589
Medea is physically incapable of acting like a normal person when doing magic stuff.
Besides that she probably wanted to separate us from Betty.

Hmm, not many votes today.

>>4461574
If it's really Medea wanting to talk She should have chosen something other than glowing magic circle appearing right under our feet out of nowhere.

>>4461526
>Reinforce your body, dive off the magic circle as quickly as you can.
Didn't we actually need to see the person who cast the spell to counter it?

>>4461526
>>Reinforce your body, dive off the magic circle as quickly as you can.

>>4461526
>Let it activate, it might not be a lethal trap and there's really nothing you can do to stop it now.

>>4461616
I've been busy with shit and every time I check in to vote the thing I'd want already has a bunch of votes so I haven't bothered.
I'm only the one guy though, maybe folks are just busy in general.

>>4461526
>>Let it activate, it might not be a lethal trap and there's really nothing you can do to stop it now.

>>4461526
>Try to use your counter magic on the magic circle!

>>4461526
>Let it activate, it might not be a lethal trap and there's really nothing you can do to stop it now.

>>4461618
>>4461642
>>4461526
Changing.

>>4461526
>>4461547
Changing to
>>Let it activate, it might not be a lethal trap and there's really nothing you can do to stop it now.
Let's get this dead end and move on

>>4461526
>Reinforce your body, dive off the magic circle as quickly as you can.

>>4461526
Changing from >>4461536 to
>Let it activate, it might not be a lethal trap and there's really nothing you can do to stop it now.

>>4461526
Also changing
from >>4461641 to
>Let it activate, it might not be a lethal trap and there's really nothing you can do to stop it now.

Y'know what? For the memes, changing >>4461529 to
>Let it activate, it might not be a lethal trap and there's really nothing you can do to stop it now.
>>4461526

At least it sounds like a fun decision to make

>>4461526
Welp
>Reinforce your body, dive off the magic circle as quickly as you can.

>>4461526
>Let it activate, it might not be a lethal trap and there's really nothing you can do to stop it now.
DEAD END

>>4461526
>reinforce your body, dive off the magic circle as quickly as you can

I get that everyone wants a dead end because we wanna get back to Illya/Betty SOL. But if we just wanted that then why the fuck did we pick to investigate anyways? Did we want a dead end THAT BAD.

>>4461727
I believe if we dead end here we will be back to current choice not the previous one.

>>4461727
I'm just assuming anons want information? Personally prefer to die less but whatever, maybe it is just Medea teleporting us or something.

>>4461727
I just thought that'd be the funnier option at the end, and besides we'll probably respawn from the previous option so at the very least we'll know what to expect. Besides if its a teleportation spell we can just use a command spell.

>>4461727
Actually, I'm pretty confident in my assumption that it's not an offensive spell

>>4461526
>Reinforce your body, dive off the magic circle as quickly as you can.

Medea teleport would be good. Abduction to the temple of servant corruption decidedly less so...

>>4461526
>>Let it activate, it might not be a lethal trap and there's really nothing you can do to stop it now.

well shit.

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Interesting...

>>4461882
If we ded, I want our shinji to call OG Shinji a fucking fruit and a faggot

>>4461882
Oh hello.

File: Ok.gif (1.17 MB, 480x270)

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>>4461882

>>4461882
The fuck is hidden in this bros?

>>4461896
You'll see. Or just turn up the brightness or something.

>>4461896
A cute girl

>>4461896
It's a tiger.

>Idiots keep forgetting there are fates worse than death
I can't believe you've all done this.

>>4461916
Anons are too gung-ho about dead ends, I hope this option leads us to be raped by manaka in the temple and mind fucked as a lesson. All without a dead end of course.

>>4461882
I see youknowwho......yeah its a dead end folks.

>>4461934
Yeah honestly I was a bit let down that it was just the "revert to last checkpoint with Fuji-nee and the gang". Was expecting some eldrich horror to revert the timeline but at the price of some burdensome geas.

>>4462064
You have yet to get a non-standard dead end, you ought to know.
There are a few ways for you to get dead-ends with lasting consequences...
You just...
Shouldn't assume that there's always going to be a safe timeline to retreat to.

>>4462064
It would get really bad, really fast. To be honest writing that would probably be more of a hassle then it's worth.

>>4462073
You should permanently kill someone for the people who keep voting dead ends on purpose.

Reinforce
>>4461527
>>4461537
>>4461619
>>4461620
>>4461646
>>4461655
>>4461727
>>4461749


Counter
>>4461530

>Let it activate
>>4461642
>>4461645
>>4461647
>>4461648
>>4461653
>>4461702
>>4461867
>>4461620
>>4461623

You know I just realized that it might actually be a draw unless I miscounted.
There was a lot of changing...

>>4461526

changing to
>>Reinforce your body, dive off the magic circle as quickly as you can.
from >>4461867

>>4462094
Oh hey, one off. We could change to reinforce... but do we want to?
Wait you counted >>4461620 as Reinforce tho, it's 2 off
>>4462097
Now it's tied.

>>4462099
Ah!
I knew something was up in my count.
Well now we actually are tied.

>>4462097
Come on anon. Are You not curious what's gonna happen if we just stand there? Where is your spirit of adventure?

>>4461526
>>4461623
Ah fuck it, don't drag this on. Change to
>>Reinforce your body, dive off the magic circle as quickly as you can.
Now we'll never know what the Mystery Circle does. Way to go, being smart and all.

>>4462103
nah bro. I had to eat a burger to realize i was wrong. I dont want to eat another.

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>>4462111

>>4461526
>Let it activate, it might not be a lethal trap and there's really nothing you can do to stop it now.
I want anons to face the consequences of their choices.

>>4461526
changing from>>4461645
to
>>Reinforce your body, dive off the magic circle as quickly as you can.

Burger-anon has persuaded me with his wisdom and charisma.

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>>4462126
Have a crunch N munch

>>4462117
Whats the vote at?

>>4462127
Thanks anon. I am actually eating a strudel right now.

>>4462128
9-6, Reinforce is winning

>>4462128
I believe that reinforce has taken a considerable lead now thanks to vote switches.

y'all went from "fuck smart decisions, all my anon homies love abusing dead ends" to "there is a fate MUCH worse than a dead end" REAAAAL fast, huh

>>4462147
If there wasn't a draw I wouldn't switch.