Flaming orange energy collided with shining blue as two women wearing strange clothes clashed in the air.
Their every clash reverberated across the air, producing shockwaves and waves of mana that would have alerted half the nation if it were not for the barriers set up beforehand.
Rin Tohsaka, the heiress of the Tohsaka clan of magicians, wore a red dress with white frills and flares along with a long pink cape. Cat ears sat atop her head as a cat tail swayed behind her. Her gloved hands holding the artifact given to her by her potential teacher, the enigmatic and powerful magician called Zelretch.
An artifact shaped like a wand from a magical girl anime.
This is Ruby. The magical artifact that draws power from the Dimensional Gap to power spells and abilities of its wielder, and in some cases, even allows them to create whole new forms of spells altogether.
Opposite to Rin, Luvia Edelfelt, the heiress of the Edelfelt family, wore a similar outfit to her rival except that hers was blue, and she wielded the twin artifact of Ruby called Sapphire. Unlike Rin, however, she did not have cat features. Instead, she had dog ears and a tail.
The two rivals glared at each other, their magical energy surging to the limit.
Rin waved her wand, creating colossal fireballs. With another swing, they fell like meteors upon Luvia, intending to end her life.
However, Luvia was just as much of an accomplished mage as Rin, so it was easy for her to protect herself.
Pointing her own artifact, known as the Kaleidostick, at the incoming fireballs, Luvia channeled her defensive spells.
Magic circles sprang forth into existence, forming a barrier that completely blocked the fireballs by absorbing them.
Yet, the Edelfelt heir was not done.
With another wave of her Kaleidostick, the absorbed fireballs were shot back towards Rin with double the speed and triple the firepower, which forced Rin to dodge the incoming blows.
Seeing that ranged attacks would not help her gain an advantage, Rin flew forward, aiming to close the distance with her rival, a thought that Luvia shared as she too accelerated towards Rin.
Once again, they clashed physically as they crossed wands as if they were wielding swords, producing another explosive shockwave which forced them apart.
Their staring contest came to an end when Ruby the Kaleidostick finally got tired of their childish fight.
"Would you two cut it out already?"
Rin instantly exploded with rage at those words.
"Shut up, Ruby! She picked this fight, so it's her fault!!"
"...If children who dream of being magical girls saw this, they'd cry, you know."
Seeing that Rin was far too distracted bickering with her artifact, Luvia took the opertunity and charged up her magic, taking the stance of a lance thrust, as dozens of magic circles manifested around her.
Sapphire drew energy from the Dimensional Gap, turning it into mana, and then used the magical circles created by Luvia as the guide to condense said mana into a single point, producing a powerful beam of energy that could kill even a High-Class level being.
Unfortunatley for Rin, she was far too late in noticing the attack.
Hastily, she pointed Ruby at the incoming beam, her voice cracking with panic.
"Ruby! Put up the barrier! The barrier!!"
What followed was an explosion so epic that if it were an anime, people would be staring with awe at the visual effects.
Unfortunately for the Tohsaka, this was real life. Worse yet, this time, she was the butt of the joke.
As the smoke cleared, what was revealed was her tattered form with Ruby sporting a comical patch on her central star.
"The barrier is always up, but it can't fully negate such a powerful mana blast, ya know~"
Luvia finally relaxed, having landed a solid hit on her rival. Her need to gloat coming forth with how sorry a figure Rin cuts right now.
"Jeez. You are such a stubborn pest. Tohsaka. Won't you just disappear already?"
Silence reigned in the area before an eerie chuckle cut through it.
"I see....I see how you feel now."
Rin Tohsaka's grin became twisted as she brought out an artifact that does not belong in this world.
A Class Card.
"If that's how it is, I'll end it right here and now!"
Seeing the Class Card in her rival's hand, Luvia tensed before she smirked and brought out her own Class Card.
"Very well. Let's settle this, once and for all."
Without hesitation, both girls placed their Class Cards on their Kaleidosticks, calling out the invocation taught to them by Zelretch.
"Archer: Include!"
"Lancer: Include!"
However, instead of the flashy light that would shape their Kaleidosticks into weapons of myths and legends, nothing happened.
The two teenagers could do nothing but float there, dumbfounded, before their minds caught up with reality.
"Huh!? Ruby!? Include! Didn't you hear me!?"
Rin tried to force the Class Card into the Kaleidostick somehow by slamming it repeatedly into Ruby's star while Luvia stared at her own stick with confusion.
"What's wrong? Sapphire?"
"Good grief.....I can't put up with you two anymore."
"The Grandmaster lent us to you two to track down the extradimensional objects that we call Class Cards. To that end, he wanted you two to cooperate and complete this mission quickly and get back to the Clock Tower before the other magical organizations learned of their existence and sought them out as well."
Luvia could not help but laugh out in her strange, rich lady way when she heard Ruby's words.
"Do you hear that? Rin? Your own stick is chiding you. My qualifications as a wielder must really be-"
"No. You too. Luvia-sama."
Once again, silence reigned as Luvia gathered her thoughts after that devastating betrayal.
"What?"
"Luvia-sama. Due to your arrogance and disregard for the mission, resulting in this clash that could have easily exposed us to the current owners of Kuoh, which would bring all kinds of troubles to the organization, I'm afraid I must conclude that you are unfit to be my master."
This time, Rin smirked.
"What was that about qualifications?"
"B-Be quiet!"
"Well~ there you have it. So..."
Ruby forcefully freed herself from Rin's hand, just like her 'sister.'
Sapphire somehow bent her stick body and bowed to Luvia.
"Though it's truly selfish of us-"
""We shall take our leave and search for a proper master for the mission.""
Finally, Rin Tohsaka snapped.
"WAIT RIGHT THERE!! YOU WOULD DEFY YOUR MASTER WHEN YOU ARE ONLY MAGICAL STICKS?!"
"Heh. Rin-san. You are no longer my Master, so there is nothing to defy here."
Similar to her rival, Luvia exploded as well at this sudden twist.
"Why you...I'll never forgive you for this! Sapphire!"
"Apologies, my former master. But like Nee-sama said, you are not my Master anymore, so there is nothing to seek forgiveness about."
"Oh, that's right! You two...We cancelled the transformation, so you ought to do something before the residual magic fades and you fall."
As if gravity was waiting for Ruby's words, the two girls instantly fell from the sky, tumbling towards the river below before they managed to catch themselves with their magic.
Unfortunately, they caught themselves too late as they only managed to slow down their descent instead of flying, causing them to slam into the river like rocks, all the while loudly cursing the Kaleidosticks that were busy undoing the privacy barrier around the area and shooting off into the distance, searching for 'proper' masters for themselves.
Yet, none of these participants were aware that somewhere nearby, the shadows on the rooftop of a nearby building stretched, revealing a hidden figure wearing a red cloak over black body armor, who was staring speechlessly after witnessing the whole debacle.
The ornamental dagger in his hand, the lesser-known artifact of a certain King of Knights, which had allowed him to conceal his presence and hide himself in the shadows, faded into motes of light as he dismissed the projection.
'What the hell was all that? Is magecraft this versatile in this world? And why were Rin and Luvia wielding such powerful mystic codes? More importantly, why did they have Class Cards with them? And an Archer class card at that!'
'Did the worst-case scenario I imagined come true? Are there other Class Cards aside from mine and the two they had spread across this town? Or even across the world? Multiple decks even?'
'No. This can't stand. I need more information. But how?'
'I can't approach Rin and Luvia directly regarding this. Putting aside the fact that its been three years since I last saw those two, I know them far too well. There is no way they will willingly tell me the truth, no matter the circumstance.'
'Then, who else can I approach for information?'
'Shit. This is really bad. If an Ainsworth-style Holy Grail War is really a thing in this world, or something similar to it is about to happen, I will have to keep an eye on my family and make sure they don't get caught up in this mess.'
'But, again, how do I do it without coming off as suspicious!?'
'Such a troublesome situation!!'
Frustrated beyond words, the figure ran across the rooftops, chasing the trail of the two magical afterfacts after confirming from a distance that Rin and Luvia were fine.
Unfortunately for the young man, the sticks were far too fast and left him in the dust.
Worse yet, during the chase, he ended up stumbling across another Stray Devil, forcing him to take care of it as well before heading back home empty-handed.
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Author Notes: Read 5 chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/Ruijard1