Fate/Stay Night.
-Unlimited Bandanna Works.
Produced by - Weebee.
Developed based on the works of Nasu and Rumiko Takahashi, no copyright violation intended.

Since this is a fanfiction, we do not have the funds for a flashy animated route opening. We thank you for your understanding.

Sources for this fic will be the UFOTable adaptations of Fate/Zero and UBW, plus the VN's initial version. Unfortunately, since it takes me some time to read through the VN due to low vision, the Anime will probably take priority a lot. Other secondary data will be used, but given that the Nasuverse is huge, complex, and there are about six different translations for the same concept depending on who was doing what and when, anything outside of the sources above may be ignored or mangled. Any type-lunatics have been warned. This will probably hurt, especially since I'm willingly changing some fairly important parts of how Mana, Od and Magic Circuits work for the purposes of the crossover.

Thank you, and on with the show!

Chapter 1: I ask of you... Wait, what?

1/31..

Constant, careful steps, following the previous line but never overlapping, energy tightly controlled to prevent accidents, the throbbing pain in his leg reminding him what would happen if he failed again. Ranma Saotome stepped through the long practiced motions of the Hiryu Shoten Ha, moving in a spiral towards a center. Although this time there was no opponent chasing him; no one else to cover the other half. He'd been trying to work out how to use the technique by himself, as he'd once seen Cologne do, but hadn't been able to figure it out so far. He hoped that going through the motion on a larger scale might help.

He'd figured out a way to infuse the ground with hot, emotional Chi, and was moving along the pre-prepared lines emanating cold. His previous attempt had, technically, worked. It'd also picked up a tree branch in the winds and tried to tear his leg off with it until his loss of concentration had caused the tornado to collapse. Still, it had worked.

Reaching the center of the spiral, he threw one hand into the air, channeling cold energy through his fist and into the sky. And… nothing happened. He remained stock still, his eyes glancing around the abandoned lot he'd moved to from the forest after his first attempt, but everything remained still. Irritated, and wondering how things had failed so horribly this time, he lowered his arm. Nothing at all had happened!

That was when the ground around him began to crackle with energy, a line of light drawing itself inward from the edge of the spiral. Acting on instinct, he leapt out of the center of the spiral, turning in mid-air to see a pillar of white light burst from the ground and shoot into the sky.

Flipping once in the air, he landed back on his feet, staring at the still rising energy pillar. "How'd I end up with the Perfect Shi Shi Hokodan? I can't even get depressed enough for that." Shielding his eyes, he thought he could just barely make out a human figure in the light. This was confirmed when it died down, revealing a very familiar looking man in a pair of black pants and a dusty yellow shirt.

The man stepped forward, head down. "So. Are you my -"

"Ryoga? What are you doing here?" Ranma cut him off. "Look, right now's not the best time to fight, though I gotta admit diggin' under me and blasting a Shi Shi Hokodan out of the ground was a pretty neat trick. Caught me totally by surprise. Bit too much early warning, though." The martial artist crossed his arms across his chest, and nodded sagely.

The man's head immediately shot up, and his eyes widened. "R… Ranma?"

Ranma blinked, confused by his bewildered rival. "Of course! What? Were you trying to hit someone else?"

It was at this statement that Ryoga brought a hand to his eyes and began laughing. "Of course… of course it would be you," he choked out.

Ranma stepped forward slowly. "Um… P-chan, you all right?"

"And of course, you have no idea what's going on," Ryoga shook his head. "Let me guess, you weren't even trying to summon a servant, right?"

"Summon a servant? Do you think I'm rich enough to hire one?" Ranma asked, though even as he did, he began to notice that something was off about his rival. For one, Ryoga was bigger. Not just taller, but more muscular, and all around older looking than he should be. His face was more weathered, a few new scars visible here and there. His clothing also seemed slightly different, his rope-tied pants replaced with heavier leather, sections almost looking padded, and the tip of the umbrella peaking out from over his shoulder gleaming with a metallic shine. Everything just felt off, and a sensation slowly crawled up his spine that screamed 'wrong.' "P-chan," he stepped back a bit. "What the hell happened to you?"

Ryoga's laughter trailed off, and he shook his head. "It's hard to explain, but something has gone very wrong. I shouldn't have been summoned by you!" The fact that he smashed the ground in frustration after saying this actually reassured Ranma slightly. "You're not even a..." He paused, and then blinked. "You're providing me with Mana. How are you providing me with mana?"

Ranma just shrugged. "I'd answer you if I had any idea what that is."

The lost boy, if that was still the right descriptor, clenched his fists and twitched for a moment before bringing himself back under control. "Mana is a form of magical energy," he started slowly. "It's what servants like me need to keep going, and what our masters provide us. The problem is that only mages can generate it, and last I checked, you weren't a mage."

"Huh," Ranma shrugged again. "Yeah, I'd say that's weird, if I even knew what a servant was, why you say you're one, and why you look ten years older."

"I..." Ryoga was cut off by a chuckle nearby, followed by a cheerful voice.

"Having to explain things to your master, huh? Pretty pitiful if you ask me." Both martial artists turned in the direction of the voice to see a man in a blue bodysuit standing on the sidewalk in front of the vacant lot, holding a red lance in one hand which he was casually resting against the ground.

"Says the foreigner in spandex with a lance at midnight," Ranma shot back after taking in the man's appearance. "Don't think conventions are open this late."

The foreigner in question smirked. "Well, if fighting the masters fails I'm sure you can make them give up through pure insults. Still, I'm afraid that's not an option here."

"Lancer, why are you here?" Ryoga asked, surprising Ranma. "If it was just to attack us, you would've done it by now."

"I'd ask how you knew I was a lancer," the man said, and then tapped his red weapon against the ground. "But I guess it's pretty obvious. As for you… no idea."

"It'd be better to keep it that way, honestly." The bandanna wearing martial artist shrugged.

"Best for you, maybe," Lancer replied, falling into a martial stance. "Unfortunately my master disagrees."

Ryoga sighed, reaching over his shoulder and drawing the heavy red bamboo umbrella from off of his back. The gleam of metal from before turned out to be a silver cap and set of heavy spokes that probably made the thing much less useful in fending off rain but a lot more painful to be hit by. "I kind of expected that, to be honest," he admitted, falling into his own stance.

"Y'know, I like to know why someone's tryin' to kill me before a fight starts," Ranma complained.

"This isn't about you, stay out of it," Ryoga snapped. "I'd suggest you hide, but I doubt you'd listen."

"Fine, if you say so," Ranma said, stepping back and crossing his arms. "Good luck, P-chan. I'll be here if he kicks your ass."

Lancer raised an eyebrow at that, but only allowed it to bother him for a second, kicking off to charge at his opponent. Ryoga met him in place, parrying the first few experimental blows with his umbrella. "Not really a sword, is it? More of a club," he said, conversationally.

Ryoga didn't respond, pushing forward when his opponent's next attack went wide and slamming into Lancer's chest with his shoulder, ignoring the lance that was brought down across his back and punching him in the stomach with his left hand.

The blue clad man staggered back, quickly recovering his breath."And first strike goes to the unknown!" The man smirked, but suddenly switched to a much more serious expression. "It won't happen again."

Lancer once again charged in, red lance moving in quicker, but much more precise patterns. Now Ryoga's blocks were only just in time, a few near-misses leaving shallow gashes on his arms. What really startled Ranma, though, was how much faster Ryoga was. Even though he was losing ground to his current opponent, his speed rivaled Ranma's own, and that was while wielding his umbrella, which was almost definitely heavier than it had been before thanks to its additions.

As if to prove this point, the lost boy shoved himself back from his opponent, reaching up to his forehead and removing several bandannas in a single motion. Seeing the cloth solidify into blades wasn't surprising, but the glowing edge of blue energy that they bore as he threw them caused Ranma to blink a bit. That hadn't been any kind of Chi he'd seen before, though something about it tickled at the back of his head.

"Bandannas? Really?" The blue clad man asked as he spun his spear in front of his body, the projectiles deflecting off into the ground around him. "Got to admit, I have no idea who you are, but you're not really much of a threat." Ranma's teeth clenched at that along with Ryoga's., but he was surprised when the lost boy nodded. "Looks like I caught an Assassin class out of the shadows, I guess."

Ryoga winced, and then firmed his stance, bringing up his umbrella again. "Ranma, you have to run."

"Not gunna happen," Ranma replied. "I wanna know what's goin' on here, and-"

"If you don't run he's going to kill us both!" Ryoga interrupted angrily. "Now get out of here and-"

"Hey now," The blue guy interrupted. "Who said anything about that? My orders were quite clear. Believe me, I know." He tapped the side of his head with one finger. "Killing either of you wasn't an option in this fight."

"Then why..." Ryoga blinked, obviously surprised.

"I'll leave you to figure that out," Blue said, before turning to Ranma. "But seriously, kid. My advice? Order your servant to kill himself and get as far from this city as you can. Both of you are out of your depth."

"Order him to kill himself?" Ranma asked. "What the hell's that supposed ta-" He was interrupted as the blue lance-wielder literally vanished before his eyes. "Okay..." He said, slowly turning to Ryoga. "I know I'm startin' to sound like a broken record here, but..."

Ryoga raised one hand, staring past the younger martial artist for a moment before nodding. "He's gone. Servants can disperse into mana and stay around, so I had to make sure."

"Right." Ranma said, looking at him strangely.

"Look, I can explain everything," the lost boy started, "but it probably shouldn't be here. Summoning me here without wards to suppress the magical energy you released probably means that every mage in the city's got an eye on this place. Do you have a camp set up somewhere?"

"Yeah," Ranma gestured towards the street. "Edge of this section of the city." He'd found a park nearby that he normally would have had no problem camping in, but for some reason even standing in the place made his skin crawl and there had been almost no grass growing there.

"Right, I can tell you some of this while we head there," Ryoga nodded, and then immediately turned, walking towards the back of the lot. Ranma reached out without thinking, grabbing him by the collar and tugging him around.

"At least some stuff hasn't changed," the pigtailed martial artist muttered.

HR.

"So, seven servants, each has a master, you compete against each other to have this grail thing grant you a wish," Ranma summed up, cutting out the history Ryoga had included and getting down to the parts he considered important as the two made their way through the thin tree cover at the outskirts of Fuyuki city. "And you signed up to do fights to the death for some random wish granting thing?"

"They aren't really fights to the death," Ryoga disagreed. "While it's true that a lot of masters view taking out other masters as one of the easier ways to win, all you really have to do is defeat the servants. And we, well, we aren't entirely alive to begin with."

"You look plenty alive to me," Ranma disagreed, punching the taller man in the arm.

"Yeah, well I'm not," he countered. "I'm just a copy of the heroic spirit that the grail made. A familiar, basically. If I die, all that will happen is I'll go back to the throne of heroes, where my original self is."

"Throne of heroes, huh?" Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Didn't really expect you to become some great hero. I mean, it's good that you did... do?" He shrugged that off. "But it's not really where I figured you'd go."

"Surprised me too," Ryoga said, laughing nervously.

Ranma didn't say anything for a few moments, as the two entered a small clearing where his tent and supplies were set up. "I've only got one tent..." he said, uncertainly. "This'd probably have been a lot easier if you still had your pack."

"I don't really need to sleep," Ryoga waved the concern off as Ranma knelt down next to the covered pit he'd previously prepared for a fire and rolled up the leg of his black pants. "How did that happen?" Ryoga asked, taking note of the bandanna tied around the pigtailed martial artist's lower leg, a white compress under it showing small splotches of red.

"Tried training with the Hiryu Shoten Ha out here," Ranma replied, fishing around in his pack for something new. "Unfortunately I forgot to restock my first aid stuff from my last trip so I had to make do."

Ryoga grunted, having had to do similar things many times himself.

"What the..." Ranma asked, as he pulled the compress away. There was no wound under it, instead a bright red, intricately patterned tattoo of curved and jagged lines, drawing into a central point

"Your command spells," Ryoga explained. "Any three orders you give with them, I have to do my best to obey. It's the symbol of your contract as a master."

"Wait, so when that blue guy said I should tell you to kill yourself, he meant with these things?" Ranma asked, looking at the new tatoo on his leg like it was a poisonous snake.

Ryoga nodded, and then sat next to his former rival, his eyes distant and expression deep in thought. "You might want to do that, actually." Seeing Ranma's shock, he continued on, "The Assassin class, the one I'm in, is specialized towards stealth and killing enemy masters. It... isn't the best class for me, even if it's the only one I'm strong enough to be summoned into right now. I want to claim my wish on the grail, but... there's not much chance of us winning this, especially since I know you won't willingly kill other masters."

"You sayin' I should?" Ranma glared. "I ain't going to let someone die just so we can get our curses cured, or whatever."

"That's not what I meant!" Ryoga yelled, glaring at his 'master.' "And I didn't become a servant just to try to cure Jusenkyo. That's kind of pointless once you've died. I just... never mind what my wish is, alright? It's important enough that I want to pursue it, but I'll understand if you don't want to risk your life over it."

"Nah," Ranma shook his head. "Guess I'm in, but... it had to happen right now, huh?" Ryoga looked at him curiously, but he didn't respond. Given the situation, he doubted the lost boy would react too well to the reason Ranma had gone on this training trip to begin with. "I'm gonna head to bed," he said, quickly standing. "You sure you don't need to sleep?"

"I'm fine," Ryoga nodded. "I'll keep an eye out for other servants."

HR.

Lancer stood on a rooftop near the outskirts of Fuyuki city, casually surveying the skyline while trying to ignore the pain from his chest and stomach. It'd go away eventually, but he'd decided not to waste the mana to heal it immediately. He had to admit, that new servant had packed a bigger punch than he'd expected. Letting him get his hands on you in close combat wasn't a good idea.

"Ryoga, huh?" He asked, walking to the edge of the roof. He didn't recognize the name, and the strangest part was how casual the master was in using it, as if he somehow knew the other. Lancer knew this was impossible, there hadn't been a true heroic spirit created for quite a long time, and there certainly wouldn't have been one in the lifespan of a teenaged human, but he wasn't sure how else to explain it.

Then again, he hoped it didn't much matter. It was obvious that the kid was out of his depth, and his servant wasn't powerful enough to protect an unskilled master. With any luck at all, the kid had taken his advice already.

Tilting his head to the side, reacting to a sound only he could hear, he scowled. "Yeah, yeah. I've got it," he said, waving one hand dismissively before leaping off of the roof closer to the center of town.

HR.

"No." Ryoga said, flatly as he knelt across a small cooking fire from Ranma, the pigtailed martial artist tending a boiling pot of stew.

"Huh?" Ranma looked up at him, obviously puzzled. "Why not?"

"Just... I'd rather not," the bandanna wearing man said, shifting uncomfortably. "Secrets of my school, and everything."

"I could just make you," Ranma said, pulling up a spoonful of the soup and taking a sip.

"You could," Ryoga nodded, "but that would be a waste of a command spell."

Ranma dropped the spoon into the pot immediately. "What? No, I didn't mean that thing, I meant... this!" He abruptly lunged forward, bringing a fist around in a textbook, highly telegraphed strike to Ryoga's jaw. To his surprise, the other didn't even bother moving, his head rocking back sharply from the blow but falling back forward again with little evidence of discomfort. "What the..."

"I'm a servant," Ryoga said as Ranma looked down at his fist, puzzled. "I feel the force, sure, but you can't truly hurt me without a fairly large amount of magic. So no, I will not be sparring with you." Ranma only retaliated with a much stronger, Chi assisted punch. Ryoga rose with the blow this time, staggering back, but his face was still unmarred and he gave no sign of pain. "Are you done?"

Ranma reluctantly sat back down and poked at the stew pot irritably for a moment before commenting, "So I interrupt my training trip to do this grail war thing, so you can have a wish, and I get nothin' out of it?"

"Well, the master and servant both get a wish... I think." Ryoga looked uncomfortable, before quickly changing the subject. "Besides, why are you out here on a training trip? There hasn't been a major incident since your fight with Saffron, right?"

"Yeah," Ranma looked down into the pot. "I'm... I just figured it was about time to get a better handle on my Chi, that's all. I mean, we've just been sorta frantically makin' it up as we go along the whole time, but the ways I've seen the ol' ghoul use it," he shrugged. "If I could learn that..."

"Sounds like you," Ryoga nodded. "And the wish?"

"Ryoga," Ranma said seriously, "the last time I came near anything related to wishes, I was almost hitched ta Kuno. I'm fairly sure you're barkin' up the wrong tree here, but... I am sorta interested in what's goin' on, and since I've got no idea how I'd get outta it anyhow, I may as well go along."

"Not the worst reasoning I've ever heard," Ryoga admitted as Ranma pulled the stew off of the fire, starting to pour it into bowls. "Then I guess we start hunting for the other servants today."

HR.

("There's nothing around here,") Ranma almost jumped as the words echoed in his mind. He really hadn't gotten used to that, or the idea that there was an amorphous blob of energy floating around on the roof behind him that was supposed to be Ryoga.

"Well, we've combed a lot of the city, only stayed away from the really obvious stuff," He responded, having not quite gotten the hang of communicating mentally with his new servant. "After that temple nearly fried us... you figure that's where one of 'em is?"

("Probably Caster,") Ryoga responded. ("Constructing a fortress and inviting assault is usually how they work.")

"You sure know a lot about this," Ranma observed, hopping down off of the roof and walking down the dimly lit street, street lights having only flickered on about half an hour ago.

("All servants have natural knowledge of the war,") Ryoga explained. ("Given to us by the grail.")

"'Cuz it wouldn't make any sense to give the masters that, too," Ranma grumbled. "Then again, maybe that's a good thing, given how different you seem."

("Different?") Ryoga asked.

"Yeah, you're a lot more..." Ranma trailed off, not sure how to put it. "Let's just say it's strange you explaining all this stuff to me and bein' so calm about it."

("I think that had less to do with the grail and more to do with-") Ryoga immediately stopped speaking, and then coalesced next to Ranma. "There's a servant nearby."

"Where?" Ranma asked, looking around.

"It's a block or two away, across there," Ryoga gestured to a lightly forested area that separated the long, winding roads of the older part of the city they were in.

"So does he know you're here, too?" Ranma asked, tensing up.

Ryoga grimaced. "Assassin classes have presence concealment, but my skill at it isn't very high. He might know I'm around, but I doubt he knows where I am." Rolling his shoulders, he looked at the shorter martial artist. "So, should we check it out, or get out of here?

"Might as well get a look," Ranma nodded, the two leaping into the trees. A couple of minutes later, they made it to the other side, crouching in the shadow of several large branches. On the road beneath them were a strange pair of a young, white haired girl bundled up against the cold winter air in a purple jacket and scarf and a hulking, bare-chested man who was almost double her height, a massive weapon of some sort held over his shoulder. The man was looking around warily, his nostrils periodically flaring as if he were scenting the air.

"That guy looks like he could bench the Dojo Destroyer," Ranma whispered, mildly nervous.

Ryoga nodded. "From the looks of him and the amount of mana he's throwing off, I'd guess he's Berserker. That might actually be a good thing." Ranma looked at him dubiously, so he explained. "Berserkers are a class that sacrifices a lot of their sanity for a power boost. Usually they're used to make a weaker servant capable of competing with stronger ones, but since they can't reason that well, they're easy to out-think and not too fast. If I strike quickly, I might be able to take him out."

"Not exactly your style, is it?" Ranma asked, but then shrugged. They were supposed to be fighting in this war, and if Ryoga thought he had a chance, it was probably a good idea to find out. "Let's go," He nodded, leaping out of the branches.

"Ranma, wait!" Ryoga yelled, following his master as the pigtailed martial artist hit the ground.

"Hey, big and ugly!" Ranma yelled, gathering a ball of golden energy in one hand. The large man grunted, turning slowly until he caught a glimpse of the ball of energy his opponent was throwing. Then, he snapped into movement so fast it was almost hard to follow, bringing the huge weapon off of his back and smashing through the confidence fueled chi as it flew at him.

The attempted distraction for Ryoga's follow-up attack did work, though. The weapon, revealed to be some huge, irregularly shaped stone axe, was now completely out of position to stop the lost boy's umbrella strike, until the berserker managed to reverse the weapon's momentum with almost no effort and catch the umbrella on it, shoving forward and sending Ryoga flying. The martial artist easily landed several feet away, but didn't look too pleased.

"Attacking before the official start?" The girl asked, not even seeming bothered by the sudden burst of violence in front of her. "It doesn't matter. Berserker?" Her servant immediately followed her command, charging forward at Ryoga, who brought up his umbrella to block. This proved a spectacularly bad idea, the stone blade smashing the reinforced bamboo aside and snapping several of the tines that surrounded it, Ryoga only avoiding being torn in half by the strength of his arms. He was, however, tossed backwards into the forest beyond the street, the sound of splintering and cracking wood marking his passage.

Ranma only barely had the time to take this in before the huge servant was on him, his speed pushed to its absolute limits to get clear of the huge stone blade. 'not as fast?' he thought, rolling under one massive horizontal strike that should have left his opponent over-extended but somehow didn't. In addition, he was using the weapon with far more skill than someone called a 'Berserker" probably should, more than Ryoga had ever demonstrated when you got him really pissed, at least.

All the while, as her servant smashed concrete to powder all around her, the little white haired girl just stood, smiling behind him. Wait, Ranma had needed to move around quite a bit to avoid the attacks, so how was the girl still... His train of thought was interrupted when a yellow blur streaked in from the side, slamming into him as a thunderous crash was heard nearby.

The berserker bellowed, and Ranma felt several chunks of stone smash into his side as he rolled to a stop, a battered and bruised Ryoga crouching next to him. "Should probably run," Ranma gasped, getting only a mute nod from his servant. The two immediately launched forward towards the side of the demolished road, entering the tree cover.

There was silence behind them for a few seconds, before the sound of snapping tree limbs came, mixed with another, unusual sound. That of a young girl's laughter.

END.

Taiga Dojo 01.

"Well, everyone, how was it? Did you enjoy the chapter? Think it sucked? Please, tell us how you felt about it, Praise me more!"

"Um... how would they be praising you? ...You aren't actually secretly writing this and planning to turn it into the Fuji-Nee route, are you?"

"Of... of course not! I mean praise me when I show up for how wonderful I'll be, of course! You don't have to do that now, just review."

"Hey! Put me down!"

"You wouldn't want to disappoint Metafictional Moeblob number 1, would you? Look into those sparkling eyes."

"...Using me like this is both unethical and humiliating."

"Ahahahaha... right. Well, um, see you... I'd like to say soon, but I've seen this guy's update schedule, so See you sometime! Until then, have this poorly balanced F/GO card!"

Fate/Grand Order.

Ryoga Hibiki.
2-Star Assassin.
Max ATK 6500.
Max HP 11000.
Cards, AQQBB.
Active Skills.
Eye of the Mind True, C.
Perfect Defense, C.
Battle Continuation, C+.
Passive Skills.
The Lost One C+. Acts like presence concealment of a similar letter grade, plus 5% dodge on all attacks.
Innocent Monster E. Demerit, attacks from caster class servants do 10% extra damage, and debuff resistance is decreased by 10%
Mad Enhancement E.
Noble Phantasm, (Quick.) Breaking Point, discernment of absolute vulnerability.
Anti-Army.
Rank B.
Hits all enemies for medium damage, (250%-450%) and decreases attack and defense. Increases with NP charge.