Britain.
A very well-known place to both the common and magi world, for better or worse. The breeding ground for knights and madmen wasn't exactly pretty. It reeked of piss, blood, thievery… anyway.
Cities were cramped, smoky, and unfriendly, where every alley reeked of yesterday's ale and someone else's misfortune. The cobblestones were slick with rain more often than not, and even the sunlight, when it bothered to appear, looked pale and sickly through the fog.
The countryside wasn't much kinder. Muddy roads stretched on forever, cutting through hills that promised nothing, but windburn and sheep. Villages clung to these roads like barnacles, their thatched roofs sagging, their people hardened by work that rarely paid off.
It was a land of contradictions: proud, stubborn, and endlessly tired. The kind of place where you learned quick to keep your coin close, your head down, and your patience thin.
On a regular Monday inside London, a boy was looking through his backpack on the bus. His standard white shirt and blue jeans uniform was unkept, his green hair a bit too long to be shoulder length and his face was dead enough to destroy a mirror.
'Did I forget something?'
Actually, his mind wasn't even looking inside. He strongly detested the feeling of being watched, which was happening right now. Ever since he stopped to take a donut from the coffee shop near his house, this has been going on.
He would have run away home if he didn't live alone.
He couldn't tell who it was or where it came from. Whenever he got the idea to look around, dread started to creep into his soul, and he marched on with his day.
PSSSSST
He stumbled for a moment and got outside in the station, his gut continuing to warn him. It was a bad idea to go into some unpopulated streets, but…
He made random turns with each opportunity while checking the time for school. Not that he considered it very important at this point. He would rather get away and sleep in a sewer.
Yes, why did he even try to continue going? He wanted to go home. He needed to.
"..."
But he couldn't. He might have chosen to forget, but his body didn't. Going home while being followed is…
Unacceptable.
"..."
"..."
He turned his head to the right and almost jumped.
There was a woman right beside him. Her aloof appearance and demeanor didn't help her intensely blood red eyes. Except that, she was truly white. Like him, the human version of Killer Rabbit stared at him.
His heart started beating strangely, as if he met his natural predator. He oddly notices every detail going on, the birds chirping, the sounds far away of workers, the sun shining on the white fabric, the laughter from a kindergarten on the other street, the missing watch on his hand, his phone being called and then everything stopped. Her gaze doesn't feel like the first one.
"W-Were you following me?" He stammered in fear.
Her lack of expression didn't change, yet she also didn't move away… No, she was fixated on his right eye. What was once a blue color morphed to almost completely white with each of his words pouring out.
"You were…?"
She didn't feel any danger even with this phenomenon, nor did she recognize what it was. She didn't hear of this set of eyes. As such, she moved her hand an inch closer. That was it, an inch was all it took.
A new feeling surged in her heart. Even while killing Demon Lords, this didn't arise.
Until now. Regardless of her own self, it reacted with something inside of her. Like a certain Magician did way before, the universe was being set on one future, cutting off any parallel endings.
She will die, that's what that part of hers said to her.
There was no magical energy, no curse, nor a Divine Construct. A hand approached her abdomen. Pain spread throughout her entire nervous system and signals rang out in every single resistance she once had. All of this happened in less than a second and she blinked slowly.
Her body was failing her, yet she now looked at the detached hand in her. A path to her death was opened and yet so was one to the user's. Physical damage went off her mind, but confusion persisted. Was simply approaching such a threat? Humans couldn't tell what or who she was. They told her that and she thought it proved to be true.
She fell down with what was once a man on top of her. Even in this state, she co-
"!!!"
Iron taste.
Her body contracted.
Out of all, now the closest True Ancestor to perfection was also the closest to fall.
~~~
Inside a dimly lit office, a man with long black hair kept sighing over and over. Even more so than the usual, which is what annoyed his sister enough to leave.
"What a mess." He clicked his tongue. "You get some free time one day and someone dies… Story of my life, huh."
"..." A girl in a hoodie sulks in the corner.
Mondays sucked.
Lord El Melloi II already had enough traumas to deal with, but his nightmares' gallery has added one more. He probably won't forget the scene from a week ago.
He ignored the multiple stacks of papers 2 hours of free time caused and opened a drawer, getting a letter. It was way too flashy to be official with stickers that a child would use yet he gulped from the blood on it.
It read:
'ARCUEID AND DAMIAN WOULD LIKE TO GO TO SCHOOL!!!'
There were multiple drawings of hearts with the overall background resembling a castle… he thought at least. The sizes were all over the place and it managed to look like something a baby would give their parents at the end of the day.
"..."
"?" His apprentice also took a peek.
Disaster struck and he's in the middle of it. Again.
~~~
"..." Waver looked dumbfounded.
"...H-Here."
The next day, Gray gave him a cute drawing of him, her and Reines. She promptly got scolded for not drawing Trimmau too.
---
I need to defend myself for a second. I don't really go against canonish pairings such as Shirou and Artoria etc. But I REALLY really hate Shiki. Arcueid is peak tho.
Also some stuff about her will be changed because this is Fate, not Tsukihime.
Special thanks to Melegant for helping me out and if you wish to read something better, check out Bleap on webnovel (MSJgg9DE2M for his discord server if you wish to join).