Chapter Text
"The holy grail war is a sacred ritual done time and time again and I will not let you taint its practices with your bad habits!" Sensei yelled. "I understand that you couldn't sit still for five minutes to save your life, but you could at least act like you're paying attention."
"Why do I even have to fight in this war?" I groaned. "Isn't there other people that could do it?"
A look of anger crossed my sensei's face, a sign that the question I asked wasn't the right one.
"You should feel above honored to be a part of this war, besides servant or not, just from that crest on your hand you're going to become a target."
Sensei grabbed my wrist, pulling my hand up in front of me and showing me the red crest that had appeared their last night. The very same crest that nearly gave me a heart attack at six a.m. this morning because I thought my hand was bleeding.
"But what if I don't summon a Saber?" I asked. "The only class I'd even be fine with other than Saber is Berserker."
Once again, I had said the wrong thing. Sensei's eyes widened to the point that they looked like they were going to burst from his head, as though he was so genuinely surprised by my words, but still wanted to show his anger at what I said. So, essentially, the exact same face he had most of the time he talked to me.
Sensei took a deep breath and then let out a large exhale before speaking again. "I pray to the grail you summon an Archer just to teach you a lesson." He muttered.
Sensei began to pace the room, walking around his desk and the chair before it as though circling prey. Knowing the fact that I was on that chair, he very well may have been.
He stopped suddenly, then looked at me with worry. I felt the complete tonal shift in the room, what was once a sensei yelling at his hyperactive student had suddenly changed to an adoptive father who wanted nothing more than his son to be okay.
"This war is not like any of the ones I have told you about Akimitsu, there's something more going on and I'm scared that its going to be too much for you." Sensei began. "For whatever reason I can tell that this time, there will be no surviving master other then the one who wins, and I'm going to be honest, I'm not fully confident you can win."
A sinking pit opened up in my stomach, and my leg that hadn't stopped bouncing since I sat down suddenly froze up. It was such a sudden thing for him to tell me, all my life sensei has been the one to believe when other's didn't. For him to say I might lose, that was enough to cause my heart to stop.
However. It wasn't enough for me to lose confidence.
"I want to summon my servant." I said firmly. "No matter what I will win this, Saber or no Saber, I will prove myself to the grail."
A faint smile came over my sensei's face and I realized I had been played. He knew me best, he knew exactly what he needed to say to get me to do what he wanted, but I didn't care.
My name is Akimitsu Blackthorne and I will win the Holy Grail War.
"Very will then, tomorrow we will summon you a servant." Sensei smiled
The man I call my sensei is Valentino Blackthorne, the man who's doorstep my parents left me on when I was a baby.
Did my parents know he was a mage and that was why they left me on his doorstep?
I don't know.
What I do know is that either one or both of my parents must've been Japanese to leave me with the name Akimitsu, and I know that again, one of both of them were a mage. Something that is evident by the magic circuits running through my body. Given that information, it would make a lot of sense that my parents were mages, after all, my sensei has been a professor at the Clocktower since before I was born.
Sensei taught me everything I know about magecraft, and for whatever reason never let me leave his estate.
This Holy Grail War would be my very first time leaving the Blackthorne estate, the very first time I would meet people other then sensei and his maids. Why he only had female maids is something I will never understand.
The following night was painful. Not in a literal sense, but in the sense that after going to bed at nine, I laid in my bed, staring at the roof for hours upon hours and then found out that it had only been five minutes since my head hit the pillow. After more and more time of tossing and turning, I eventually slipped into a dreamless sleep.
When I woke up, the sun was already streaming through my window.
I got up quickly, feeling refreshed and ready to summon my servant, but before I left my room I noticed something that caused me to hesitate.
There was a rock, sitting on my bedside table, and not a small one either.
It was easily as big as my hand.
Something about it compelled me to take it with me, so I shoved it into my bag and then ran out of my room to go find sensei.
"This is where we will be doing the summoning ritual." Sensei told me as he led me into the garden.
There was already a magic circle drawn out on the ground, filled with various lines and symbols I didn't recognize.
"Once the ritual is over, you, me and whoever you summon will board the plane to America, where the war will take place." Sensei told me. "I have prepared the ritual in such a way that you do not need to use an incantation, you merely need channel your magic through a catalyst once in the middle of the circle."
"I don't have a catalyst." I said quickly.
One of sensei's eyebrows rose. "You didn't the gift I left you?"
I shook my head.
"I thought it was very noticeable, maybe I should've left a note." Sensei muttered.
"Oh! Wait. You don't mean this rock, do you?" I asked, pulling the rock I found on my bedside table out of my bag.
Sensei nodded. "That rock is a shard of the round table, I had to pay quite a lot of money for it. Then even more to make sure it would get here in time."
A feeling of excitement exploded within me. "A shard of the round table almost guarantees that I'll summon a Saber!"
Sensei gave me a smile.
"Who's it going to be? Lancelot? Gawain? Bedivere? Or maybe even Arthur himself?" I said excitedly.
"It will be much quicker for you to do the ritual, then it would be for me to think of an answer to that question." Sensei stated. Then he added; "Much easier too."
I took off my bag, placing it at sensei's feet, then walked to the magic circle, shard of the round table in hand.
As I stood in the middle of the circle, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to clear my head before focusing deeply on my magic.
"Trace On!" I yelled, my eyes shooting open.
I felt the circuits in my body turn on, my magic channeled through me into the shard of the round table and the magic circle below me began to glow, a bright red light.
There was something similar to an explosion of energy and a cloud of dust obscured my vision.
"Is it the scrawny boy or the old man that summoned me?" A voice called out.
I blinked the dust out of my eye, trying to find out where the voice came from.
Were they behind me?
In front of me?
"He is your master, Saber." Sensei stated.
The dust began to settle and the shadow of an armored form appeared in front of me, before more dust settled and I could see my Saber clearly.
Saber was wearing a thick, steel armor, that wrapped his frame in such a way that I couldn't tell their gender, but I knew anyway because the stories of the round table only ever mentioned men, I could also tell that he was shorter than me, even if only by a few centimeters.
"Saber, as your master, I ask, what is your true name?" I yelled, my voice cracking.
For a brief moment I considered using a command seal, a moment not short enough that it didn't make me feel foolish for thinking so.
Saber stabbed his sword into the ground, crossing his arms and placing his hands on the blade's guard. Then his head turned towards my sensei.
"Don't worry, I trust him." I told them.
Saber nodded. "Very well then, I am Mordred, knight of the round table and son of king Arthur!"
"Then, Mordred, I am you master." I said with confidence. "Akimitsu Blackthorne. Together we shall win the grail!"
"I like your confidence Master!" Mordred cheered.
He let go of his sword, and it disappeared as though it was never there in the first place. If he wasn't a servant, that would have surprised me. Then Mordred removed his helmet and for the first time I got to see my servants face.
"A woman?" I exclaimed, more than a little disappointment in my voice.
"Huh?" Mordred growled, a mixture of annoyance and confusion in her voice, as though this was the first time she was hearing about being a girl.
All of a sudden Mordred's sword returned to her hand and she charged at me swinging.
My body reacted on instinct, and I materialized the first sword I could think about to my hand. Excalibur.
The sight of her father's blade caused Mordred to hesitate, but only for a second before she continued her swing. The fact that I was supposed to be her master didn't matter to Mordred in the slightest.
Each swing of her sword felt like it had the force of a cannon behind him, and she swung at a speed almost too fast for me to keep up with, leaving block or keep blocking as my only options.
My sensei told me that the reason I cant study the same magecraft as other mages and the reason why he's kept me hidden all my life is because of my projection magic. Any sword I've seen, even through someone's memories or an image, I am able to recreate. That is why the sword of King Arthur is in my hand right now. I was told that there was someone else with projection magic in the last Holy Grail War, and that mine is essentially an upgraded version of his. I wonder if he'll be involved in this war too, only seventeen years later.
After a few more minutes of fighting, Mordred strike broke my fake Excalibur, knocking me off of my feet and I fell flat on the ground. She stabbed her sword at me, and for a moment I saw god, but the tip of the blade only pierced the earth beside my head.
Mordred smiled proudly, her messy blonde hair falling loosely over her face.
"This Holy Grail War is going to be real fun. Don't ya think so master?" Mordred asked. She held out her hand to help me onto my feet.
"I think fun is going to be an understatement." I replied as I grabbed her hand.
Mordred yanked me up then whispered in my ear, her voice laced with anger. "You call me a woman one more time and I'll kill you. Even your status as my master wouldn't stop me."
"But your face looks so femi-."
Mordred cut my sentence short by putting her hand over my mouth, pushing me back so she could look me in the eyes, then forced a smile.
"...Masculine." I said, my voice muffled by her her hand.
"You've certainly summoned an interesting servant Akimitsu." Sensei stated. "Now, we need to hurry or we'll miss our plane."
Mordred's eyes lit up like a child on Christmas day.
"We're going on an plane?" He exclaimed.
Sensei nodded. "First however, we need to get you some clothes you can wear. I don't think that they allow armor on planes and I'm assuming you wouldn't want to take spirit form for it?"
Mordred shook his head aggressively.
Sensei's eyes flicked between him and I. "Mordred's about the same height as you, take him up to your room and let him choose some clothes to wear, I'll go start the car."