"Kurusu-kun… you are bringing another girl into our home again…" Tsubasa chuckles sheepishly, seeing at the table, her cousin is sitting with Jeanne, Rin Tohsaka from her class and an unknown pale skin woman beside her, eating some meal.

"You really are popular with girls…"

"No," Akira quickly responds to her, not hesitate even few seconds there.

He would love if nobody tries to pull in his Valentine's nightmare back into his brain.

Jeanne stands up, now bowing before her, "Forgive me for entering your home without your knowledge."

"N-no… it's fine!" Oribe quickly replies to her, "Kurusu-kun already invited you in here, right? This isn't really our home anyway. We are just renting here."

"I see," she mutters, "Thank you very much for your consideration."

The long-haired girl then mutters looking at him, "Still, I didn't know you know of Rin-san from my class."

Akira nonchalantly responds to her, "She was jealous that I was hanging out with Sakura Matou."

"E-eh?"

Rin stands up, screaming at him with her face looks suspiciously red, "Would you please stop that already!?"

But then she heard someone chuckles, with her eyes slowly move toward Tsubasa.

She sweats heavily. Her skin turns red.

Akira wonders if something damages from inside her. She looks like has that look where she is going to burst into embarrassment.

Oribe simply mutters, seeing her attention, "I'm sorry. It's just… I've never seen Rin-san acting as natural as tonight."

"What do you mean by-"

Before Tohsaka even able to finish her question, somebody appears entering the room.

"Oi, Tsubasa, why would you leave all the groceries to us? I know we are both men, but none of us are bodybuilders to carry out all these stuffs, you know?"

Touma enters the place, with Astolfo joining him from behind, "Come on, Master! You know I can do that all by myself! Just leave it to me!"

"Did you know how dangerous it is for me to just leave these to someone like you? People are going to talk behind our back. My career as a hero is going to be over real fast."

The two finally notice of Akira's guest, particularly toward a certain twin-tailed girl and the white-haired girl besides her.

"AH!"

Both Servants now pointing their fingers toward each other.

Rin stands up, pulling out some gems as she screams out, "Enemy Servant!?"

"You guys seem to have managed to track us down, it seems!" Touma motions his person into a fighting stance, "So be it! I may not be as good as my Servant, but I know I can take you down that easily!"

Jeanne now stands up, furiously as she shouts at them both, "ENOUGH!"

The flag pole appears inside her hand, as her armor also appears into existence. She then smashes the lower end of the pole onto the floor.

Both pairs of Masters and Servants now stop, startled by her action.

She continues shouting at them all, "This is not a place to fight! This home is a neutral territory and there is a civilian as of right now! I will not allow any of you to continue with your fight any further!"

Akira is calmly munches onto his food as he mutters, "Just listen to her. She's the Ruler-class Servant of this war. You don't want to mess with her."

Both pairs are taken aback by her stares, finally settling down as Touma now questions him, "Why would you bring them into your house?"

Rin speaks up, "I have a lot of questions to ask him. He is a Servant with an irregular Class and he exhibits strange magecraft I've never seen before. I would like to know why Master and Servant of Red are here."

"We live here, at least for the duration of this war," Astolfo quickly blurts out.

Tohsaka mumbles, "I see. That's good to know."

Kurusu glares at her, knowing what is exactly inside her mind right now, "If you try to ambush us, you'll see that I've yet to pull out my strongest Persona."

"Persona? What is that?"

Archer mutters curiously, "I bet it's those people you summoned during our battle. What are those anyway? It feels like familiar, but not quite like them."

Owh, boy… It seems another group is asking for a long, winding, explanation.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Father, why can't I join all of you in Trifas!?"

Altria is now facing her father, standing before him within a corridor as she speaks out to him, "You told me that I am going to be the heiress of the Pendragon. Why am I being left out here?"

The blonde man before her holds her shoulders tight, muttering to her, "I can't let you do that."

"Why!? Whatever happens in Trifas, surely you need all help you can get, right? That is why Lady Fiore gathered us all together, isn't it? Why else would the esteemed leader of all Yggdmillennia family to do so?"

"Altria, you are still too young to understand this-"

"Lady Fiore isn't that much older than I am! I am two years younger than her!"

"She is the elder of Yggdmillennia. Age means nothing to her."

"I am the heiress of the Pendragon branch of the family, how am I any different!?"

Her father screams out at her, "Because you are still a child, Altria! Fiore is a talented magus, even surpassing those older than her within the whole family. Your magecraft is nothing that could be compared to her! If you want to be part of her aide in Trifas, you should first show yourself worthy of her beforehand!"

He quickly walks away from there, leaving her there, who simply stares at him.

It seems his words has shocked her, who seems to have her eyes widen and shivering uncontrollably.

Another blonde female appears into the scenery, noticing her as she calls out to her, "Yo, Altria! Whatcha doing there?"

Altria quickly turns her head to the side, startled by her voice as she responds, "N-nothing…"

"Uncle Gawain sounds pretty rough just now," the girl sighs, "I can hear his voice all the way from my room."

The heiress mumbles, "Must be nice being you, Mordred."

"What was that?"

"I said," she turns toward the woman, "Must be nice being you. You get to join the whole for Trifas. I can't even do that! I am not worthy, he said!"

Mordred relaxes her head with her arms on the back, muttering, "You are an heiress still in training to be as good as King Arthur himself. I am just a tool with the name of his incest son. You can see where the value lies."

"Nonsense!" she screams out at her, "You are my cousin; my sister! I don't have any other sister beside you!"

"Try and say that to your father."

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Altria opens up her eyes.

She pushes herself, standing up as she looks around her surroundings.

It's the same kingdom again.

This is not a dream? But what is this place? And who is that person before her?

"Ah, have you woken up?" the female before her, looking like her but wearing a silver and blue armor instead, stands before her, speaking to her with quite a condescending tone.

"Who- who are you, really?"

For some reason, she feels herself getting weak, as she just stares at this person before.

Altria remembers that the first time she saw this strange being, she quickly pulls out her sword, ready for a fight. But this person before her pulls out a stronger weapon and easily defeating her.

She also felt somewhat drained during their match.

What is this place? Why this place is seems to be hurting her the more she stays here?

"Me?" the doppelganger replies to her, "I am the king of this place! I am here to defeat all of which opposing me and my position! Those who think I am nobody, but still putting me on a high pedestal, should see themselves as a slave for me to command!"

"What are you-?"

"Even if they are my father, and that high and might queen, Fiore! I will show them how worthy I am to hold the name Pendragon! I am, after all, the descendant of the Great King himself!"

Her words… they are like poison to her.

"Stop…" she mutters out to this person.

"How should I go and prove I am worthy? Perhaps I should kill them all? The Pendragon, the Yggdmillennia, everyone! As the one who bears the name of King Arthur, I should have all the right to fight them all!"

"Stop…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Persona? Shadow? How come I've never heard any of these?" Rin sounds really baffled by the explanation given by Akira.

Tsubasa quickly responds to her, "Waver-san told us that he really doesn't want anybody to know about us, and has agreed to hide our existence no matter what so that none of us gets the… um…"

"Sealing designation?" Archerko suggests as she quickly responds, "Yeah, that one!"

Tohsaka mutters to herself, "That seems plausible enough. It's too cruel to just put sealing designation on you guys when none of you are- wait, you guys aren't magi!?"

Did she just realize that one? Does all of those times Akira wasted on giving explanation away for her means nothing until now? Or is she too preoccupied with other terms?

Rin now screams in wonder toward him, "But- but, what about those magecraft you guys did? Does none of those required prana?"

Akira mutters, "My magic, or magecraft, do not technically come from myself. All of those I used just now are all based on my Persona's abilities. If they can shoot lightning I can also shoot lightning."

"But it still acts like prana, right? There's no way you could just use them repeatedly like that unless you have huge amount of something like magic circuit. Overusing them are going to busted your body bad, right?"

"Not really. The amount of Persona magic we can use do depend on how much our body can handle, but overusing it will only lead to depletion of magic. There are of course, some of the attacks that use our health as a payment, but it's nothing much compare to the attacks itself."

"N-nothing much!?" the girl in red could not believe what she just heard.

She looks like she just discovered an uncharted territory underneath her home or something, and that she has no idea the existence of this territory.

Akira continues, "Yeah, we can simply heal ourselves or regain our magic by using certain items."

"You have a Mystic Code for that?"

"There's more than one. We can just make tons of it. A lot of items can do a lot of crazy stuff, even teleporting us shortly toward somewhere safe."

Rin now seems like she is doing some sort of thinking, with a pair of glasses magically appears on her head as she is heard mumbling out loud, "The ability to summon a familiar capable of fighting on par as the Servants, using Second magic-like ability to traverse into different dimensions with ease, even having numerous Mystic Codes. Not to mention these abilities owned not by veteran magus, but non-magi youngsters… I can see why Lord El-Melloi II would not want to tell the moonlit world of this discovery."

It seems she still rambling, even with others around her just stare at her, speechless.

"Not only will the magi dissect these people in order to research more on the subject of Persona and Shadow, but the fact that Gaia and Alaya's influences doesn't seems to have taken effect on them means that everything we've learned about them before could have been interpreted as a lie, thus creating chaos among the magi. Magi way of life will be threatened and a war might happen."

Kurusu mutters, "War will be the least of our concern."

All eyes are now onto him.

Jeanne questions him first, "What do you mean by that?"

"When I was given the ability to summon a Persona, I was immediately given a role as a trickster against these Shadows, and I used these abilities of stealing their hearts to save those around me from any more threat coming from these people, and for them to tell the truth of their misdeed. But it is all a ruse made by a greater evil that wishes for people to plunge their own world into the state of perpetual ignorance, unwilling to change for the better or care for those around them."

"I believe other Persona users, even the Mirage Masters were given their abilities for something similar. We may have been forced to encounter something that threatens this world, happens from a dimension of their own, free from the influence of Gaia and Alaya."

Wow, he made that last part on the go.

But, now that he thinks about it, even with Alaya acting as humanity's defensive mechanism, and Gaia as the shield of the world itself, they could not possibly be able to interrupt anything that happens within the Metaverse, right? The dimension is a world far from being logical, and since it is also not made by human, but instead by mysterious entities dwelling inside the Velvet Room, there is no Alaya and Gaia could just send their Counter Force and Ultimate Ones to combat the threat that once appear in the real world, may have been too late, right?

Akira continues, "If the magi community decides to dissect us, or create more problems for us to handle, instead of a war that involve them and normal people, these threats may have become worsen."

Tsubasa joins in as well, "We told Waver-san about us as well, that a dragon from other world we fought that wanted to drain everyone from their Performa."

Seeing Rin looking confused, Touma quickly speaks up to her, "People who have been drained of their Performa will become filled with despair."

Tohsaka mutters once more, "A Phantasmal Beast is one thing, but one that comes from another world, and could harm someone's psyche is a bad idea in itself. Lord El-Melloi II is def- wait, did you just called him Waver-san?"

Archer is now glaring at her, muttering, "Now you realized she has been doing that?"

Oribe chuckles, "Sorry, I forgot he is a powerful figure among magi. He told us all not to call him by his title since we may have incites some suspicion if his title is used on public. He also really doesn't want us to keep forgetting the number 2 at the back of the name."

"That… sounds like him…"

Rin somehow keeps the glasses on, looking blank before turning toward Akira, calling out to him, "Let me join you!"

"Wh-what?"

"I would like to do a research on these Persona and Palace you have mentioned off."

That doesn't sounds so good. Isn't the whole point of them being a secret is not to be researched on?

Rin speaks up some more, "That seaweed… Shinji Matou. You changed his heart, right?"

Kurusu mutters, wondering where this is going, "Yeah?"

"If you left him alone, will he ever become worse than today?"

The Fool replies, "Maybe not. His arrogance seems to be grounded with what he could only have. But his action does able to hurt and potentially bring up the worse out of others. Sakura may have gone rogue instead. If she is powerful enough to be given a Command Seal by the grail, it is reasonable to think that she is capable of harming others as well."

Rin now wonders of this, "Yeah… she is a capable magus if she was nurtured by my father instead of me… She may have been better than me."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Somewhere, in a different, unrelated world, a white haired girl with purple ribbon on the side suddenly felt some sort of warmth inside her.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The twin tailed girl keeps on speaking, "My family is the Second Owner of this place. I am responsible for anything supernatural in this place. I could never walk away, knowing that bad things may have come under my own nose!"

She seems to be really determined of this.

Astolfo quickly speaks up, "That's unwise. Will you really want to work with us? We are your enemy, remember?"

"This and that are different things entirely. I will still fight you for the grail, but if there is something else could harm this place, I cannot overlook that."

Touma smiles at her, standing up as he offers her his hand, "I like your guts, lady! When facing a more pressing matters, heroes should definitely teaming up. Then, we can have a truce for things like this, right?"

Tohsaka nods, shaking his hand with a firm grip.

Both Archer and Rider look astonished, clapping their hands in amusement. Jeanne simply smiles as she is seen finishing off their meal.

Yes, they are having this conversation, all while eating and Jeanne is the only one who is still eating.

Kurusu notices of her action this whole time, "You look like you're really hungry."

"Y-yeah… I am…"

"Were you summoned into a body too, instead of having a form like other Servants?"

Ruler nods, but then she responds, "I cannot disclose that information when everyone is around. I can, however, tell you about this next time. We have similar cases, after all."

He nods.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It is now midnight.

Slowly, Shirou walks out of his room, moving straight to the living room.

The TV channel on the midnight…

He feels a huge need to check this one out. Is it true then? Was he not hallucinated before?

"Shirou, what are you doing?"

The voice startles him, nearly pushing him off onto the floor, "S-Saber? What are you doing here? Why aren't you sleeping?"

Before him, Saber of Blue stares at him, glaring, "We, Servants do not need to sleep."

"I-I see…"

"What about you, Shirou? Why aren't you sleeping?"

"I… I just…"

His brain scrambles through all the ideas, trying to figure out a good lie for this question. There is no way he could just tell her that he is going to watch the TV for any suspicious channel without being looked as one himself.

Of course, he never considers his own strange luck.

The TV turns on by itself, showing the Saber look-alike once again.

"Come, all of thee, to my castle! Come, all of thee, to this festive, historic moment as I dismiss all of my challengers! It is I, the one and only, Arthur Pendragon, the king of all knights!"

The TV turns off by itself.

Shirou has finally confirms it. It is not a dream. The channel on the midnight is real.

But then, Caster and her Master… what were they doing back then? Do they enter the TV… to join this… this channel?

He turns toward Saber, quickly noticing her silent, "S-Saber?"

She looks pissed, "What is this… mockery? Never have I seem so pathetic in my entire life… That is NOT how a king should act!"

The rest of the night, other than sleeping, Shirou spends some of those times calming her down so that she won't just outburst into anger.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hours earlier, Rin and Archer has finally returns home, back to their mansion as they now enters the home.

Both of them look wet, probably because of the rain outside

They would've stayed at Oribe's home, but she still care about her maid being all alone.

"We're home~!" Archer screams out happily, seems to be hoping for someone to come greet them.

Someone did do so.

The family's maid, Kohaku, arrives toward the front door, bowing politely toward her master, "You've finally home, Rin-sama? Would you like to have a supper?"

Rin seems to be startled by her appearance, quickly responds to her, "N-no. I'm still full as of now."

"Then, would you like for me to prepare the water for a bath?"

"Y-Yes, please."

As the maid quietly disappears from their sight, Archer turns to her Master, "Were you thinking about them just now?"

Her Master nods, "I still couldn't believe there are such thing like Persona, or the fact that people without magic circuit still able to use magecraft with ease."

Archer simply stretches her arms upward, "I'm not surprised. Magecraft is already a mystery of its own. There are variations of magecraft throughout this world. Some can shoot things with jewel. Others create duplicates of weapons. Who's to say that people summoning gods by their side is not another of those possibilities?"

"Yeah… you're right. We have been led to think that we cannot summon gods because all this time, the only known fact of when Heaven's Feel is being used is during Holy Grail War, and these wars dictate that divine spirits and gods cannot be summoned due to the need for numerous amount of mana. It is because of that perception that we thought something outside of norm is impossible."

As she mutters those words, she realized that while she wishes for her family to stray away from the old tradition of magus that separate her sister away from her, she ended up becoming the old school magus herself, locked away in an impression that everything is what she knows of.

Rin turns toward her Servant, wishing to say something, but quickly losing her intention to do so when she sees the white-haired girl is looking around, seemingly under alert as she asks her, "What is wrong with you?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe it's just my imagination."

Rin sighs, mumbling, "I should be getting ready for the bath. Would you like to join me for today?"

Now, Archer has changed her look, glaring at her with a grin on her face, "Ooh, is that an invitation? So, is Akira Kurusu correct all along?"

"W-What are you talking about!?"

She clearly knows what she is talking about, as evident by how she storms off from there, "Fine, I just take a bath all by myself! You stay outside!"

Archerko chuckles, looking at her walking away before glaring all over the place once more, "This feeling. There's definitely a Servant here. But where? Outside? Inside?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Rin has finished taking a bath, and now she moves straight to her bedroom, already in her pajama as she rubs her head off from the water.

She seemingly moves past a room, hearing a loud noise coming from it.

The no-longer-twin-tailed girl just stares at the door, looking toward the outside of the room.

This is Kohaku's room.

Surprisingly, while she was raised as a maid for a family related to a moonlit world, she is surprisingly has some form of understanding for technology, such as television, video games and so on.

As such, those payments they paid her are all being used to buy those kinds of stuffs.

Her family doesn't hate her for doing so, but it is understandable if they are putting themselves away from her room because of that.

Still, that doesn't curb her curiosity on a lot of things. She kind of wanted to know why is her younger cousin has a fascination on things like computers.

She also seems to have so much playing these… video games…

Slowly opening the door, peeking through the crack, she sees Kohaku intently playing something, holding onto a controller and button mashing.

But her legs slip, and she falls onto the ground, opening up herself into the room.

Her maid is shock to see her, quickly asking her, "R-Rin-sama, are you okay? Do you need anything?"

"N-no…" Master of Archer pushes herself up, rubbing her face, "I just… I just wish to-"

"Come, all of thee, to my castle!"

?

Tohsaka quickly brings herself up, running into the room and takes a look at the TV.

She is now looking at Saber of Blue, except she wears a completely different costume, more of a suit of knight than her battle dress and looking mug as she screams out, "Come, all of thee, to this festive, historic moment as I dismiss all of my challengers! It is I, the one and only, Arthur Pendragon, the king of all knights!"

The screen that cuts into a gameplay session, as she asks her maid, "Was that… part of the game?"

The red-haired maid shakes her head, "Not at all. This happened before, Rin-sama. Yesterday the TV plays by itself when I clearly turn the TV off. Just now, I didn't even change the channel."

Hmm… she heard of it, from Akira and others.

Midnight Channel? Is that what they called?

"R-Rin-sama?" she stares at her, looking at how happy she looks.

Apparently, Rin Tohsaka has found a new project she would love to involve herself into.

Chapter end.

This chapter is supposed to be about Shirou entering the TV world, but I ended up underestimating my ability to write stuff. The chapter is too long already.

But, next: Rin joins the team of Akira, Touma and Astolfo as they saw Shirou suspiciously joining Yu and Caster into the TV. Ah, it seems Akira found a Phantom Thief who would like to kill off the Great Hero.