Fate/Asterism Liner

Chapter 1: Contract

"So, young master, let's review the exact nature of the situation again, yes? Just as a reminder to why we so suddenly left England."

The sound of a book clapping shut accompanied the annoyed voice of the teenager as the middle-aged butler across from him in the seats of the private plan adjusted his posture. The teenager who'd shut the book couldn't have been any older than fifteen or sixteen in age, his pale features lending a distinctly Eastern European look, but still soft and boyish, one would rather say pretty as opposed to handsome, with a slender frame his clothes notably sagged on a bit, a basic ensemble of a white and black track jersey, t-shirt, and jeans. Messy strands of finger-combed white hair drifted down his head and stuck up and about, a notable bit sticking right up like a curved antenna, some of the strands drifting in front of bright, sky blue eyes seeming to bear this kind of cold, occult feeling, lent to by the sharpness in their look.

"You asked this a few hours ago, but, whatever. In short order I'm going to Fuyuki City to act as a supervisor to my unfortunately trigger-happy seniors, Rin Tohsaka and Lluviageleta Edelfelt, as they complete a task assigned by my mentor, Zelretch himself. Because of the fact those two rub each other the wrong way, Lord El Melloi II figured me going along would be a good addition, and Mentor agreed. About twelve hours later and here we are." The teenager said, opening his book and going back to flipping through the pages, "That good enough Albert?"

"Quite, Master Eil. I only asked because, well, as this was such a long flight and all, you do tend to space out when you're bored." The butler said, stroking his beard, the teenager only giving a hum as he clapped the book shut again and looked out at the dark twilight of evening, the vague skyline of a city just within view, Albert taking out a pocket watch, "Judging by the time we should arrive not minutes after Lady Tohsaka and Lady Edelfelt."

"Let's hope they don't mess up within a few minutes… but, let's not have hopes be too high now." Eil stated, setting the book and looking out of the window again, "But my prediction is that it won't quite go so smoothly considering why they even ended up here."

"Despite the case it is somewhat impressive two young magi like those two were able to do so much damage to… quite a considerable portion of the academy." Albert said, pulling out a ledger book, "I'll take the maids and get our residence here set up. An old yakuza friend of your father's is lending us a place, so no issues there."

"Right. Then I'll be sure to find the two of them, hopefully before they start making trouble… if they do. I'd rather have some confidence neither one tries to start something not even a day into things."

"Well I have been proven thoroughly wrong!" A hand came to Eil's forehead as a sigh escaped his lips, one eye opening to view the sight in front of him. Two young women, despite being a good margin shorter than the fifteen year old, who had the distinct impression of being a margin older than the boy. One with black twintails in red, and the other with blond drill-curls and in blue. Rin Tohsaka and Luviageleta Edelfelt, more commonly called Lluvia, respectively, his two seniors on this assignment… but definitely not his superiors.

"So, is the immediate spat necessary when we're on the people mover or is this just your thing?" Eil said, an unamused scowl on his face, the two older teenagers stopping their bickering to shoot around and look at him, "You do remember why Mentor sent us here right? Or, to be more precise, why I'm here with you two?"

"Of course we didn't forget. But being around her just makes me want to vomit!" Rin jabbed a finger at Lluvia, who only gave a huff.

"Honestly, he forced such a bothersome condition on us!" Lluvia said, Eil just sighing again.

"Yeah let's not forget why he did so." The young man's biting tone got an irked motion out of the two older girls, and he moved past them as he put his arms behind his head, "Considering the state you left the school in and all."

"Hey she's the one who started it!" Rin snapped, Eil looking back at her with a somewhat narrowed gaze.

"And you only made it worse. Then again not that Lluvia isn't at fault for doing so because of a misfire." Eil's statement quickly got Lluvia to go from smug to shocked.

"Well then perhaps she should have taken more care during class!" Lluvia said, Eil just sighing again as they stepped off the mover.

"Doesn't change the fact you decided the best reaction would be to fire a Gandr at Tohsaka's face." Eil said, Rin snickering in a smug manner as Lluvia bit her thumbnail. "But let's not waste time bickering and get looking yeah? We're here on an assignment, we have two weeks, so let's just get it done so we can head back to England."

"I agree with that sentiment." Rin said.

"Goddamn those two!" Eil's shout went around through the darkening streets of the city, a glower on his face as he looked around, "Ditching me when I went to use the bathroom, what the hell?! What were those idiots even thinking?!"

The young man skid to a stop when a flash in the air caught his eyes though, looking up to see that, what an untrained eye would probably have thought to be fireworks, but at this time of year? He knew better, clambering up a nearby building to reach the roof

"Aquila." Eil murmured, a blue glow coming to his eyes as a flash moved across the area near them, like lit up circuits. His vision then focused, becoming clearer as he focused on the flashing lights, and it became more apparent they weren't flashes, but streams of colored energy lashing out from two different sources, a grumble coming from Eil as his eyes lost the glow, "Idiots, using the sticks in the open! Doesn't matter if you're above the city of not you're still making a ruckus! AGH! Why did I agree to this again?!"

Eil sighed as he hopped down from his perch and started moving again, eventually finding himself at the bridge connecting the two parts of the city from this area, his approach to the riverbank also came with the clear sounds of screaming, Eil sliding down the bank to the flat area below, folding his arms as he stopped just at the waters edge as the two screaming people came crashing down into the water.

A few moments later, the gurgling forms of Rin and Lluvia rose out from the depts and near where Eil was, the young man giving a flat look as he stared for a moment, sighing and nabbing the two girls by their shirts, yanking both from the water and onto the shore, spluttering being what followed next as Rin and Lluvia flopped onto the grass.

"I left for two damn minutes." Eil remarked, his expression best placed as disappointed, "Not to mention because of your need to wail on each other, Ruby and Sapphire have apparently buzzed off to do their own thing! Seriously it cannot be that hard for you two to work together!"

"It's not like we knew they'd spontaneously decide to run off!" Rin snapped, Eil raising a brow.

"Old Man Zelretch made those two sisters and you somehow didn't expect them to be able to disobey you on a whim?" Eil remarked, Rin looking to the side and fiddling with one of her twin tails.

"Well when you put it that way…" Rin murmured, Lluvia shoving her aside. "Why you!"

"If it wasn't for your uncouth mannerisms we wouldn't be in this mess!" Lluvia said, Eil giving her an even flatter look.

"You started it didn't you?" Eil's biting monotone got Lluvia to cough into her hand, Eil sighing as he put a hand over his eyes, "This assignment isn't a competition, you know that right? And now the tools we need to actually get to those Card things have flown off to Akasha knows where!" he then threw his arms up and turned around before lowering them, "Honestly, working together can't be impossible. You're like a pair of cats who keep fighting over the feather toy! There's no point to it but you act like it's the most serious thing around! You better still have the two Cards we do have or…"

The thing that made him stop was the silence. He was expecting some kind of snapping response, not a dead silence, so he shot around… only to see his two seniors had completely vanished, the only thing left on the ground being a note, swiping it up and reading it, only to them immediately tear it to shreds as a twisted smile began spreading across his face.

"Ahehehehe-I'M GONNA KILL THEM BOTH!" Eil snapped, circuit like formations shining across his legs, the leap sending him into the air, his foot coming down not on the water, but on a platform in the air, a blue pulse from the air, Eil launching upwards from there and getting above the roofline of the town, looking around for any hints of Rin and Lluvia, "They couldn't have gone far, where'd they end up? Hmm… well, they probably ran off after Ruby and Sapphire, so if I can find those two, I should find them. As for the one who'd likely be looking for a new Master first… that would be Ruby! Then let's find her, and hopefully Tohsaka along with her!"

But before he moved again, another thought came to mind, causing him to pause for a moment.

"Now just where the hell did those sticks go?!" Eil's yelling was answered by a beam of light suddenly appearing in his vision, some distance away but nothing he couldn't cover quickly with his current method of movement, his expression blank before shifting into a smirk, "Well this makes it easy!"

With a push off from the mana platform, Eil shot off through the air, making another step as he descended, moving downwards as he proceeded near the pillar of light, stopping on the rooftop of the house just opposite where the light had come from, and a smirk came to the boys face when he saw Rin, still rather thoroughly soaked through from the dip in the river, creeping about at the back of the house below.

"There you are ya' runaway little cat!" Eil grumbled, looking over at the fading light, though the bushes in the way obscured the source of it, but he had something of a guess in mind, and thanks to the distance, it wouldn't be a problem for him to hear anything before he decided to actually drop in.

"You're not at all like that magical girl hag!" A particularly cheerful voice was the first to reach his ears, the boy sighing as he shook his head a bit, Rin stepping out from around the corner as she flinched at the remark.

"Ohhh? And who would this hag be?" Rin demanded, Eil moving his position to be neatly behind Rin but still above, and the change in spot brought into view exactly who Rin was glaring at.

The girl couldn't have been any older than Eil, if he had to take a guess anyway. As his vision moved from the top down, the first feature he noted was the nearly white-blonde hair the girl had that flowed down past her waist, some of the strands moving in front of red eyes standing out on pale skin, and couldn't be more than a bit taller than Rin, but with a figure Eil would refer to as… tastefully curvy yet still slender. Not at all helped by the primarily red, frilly outfit accented in white and gold she was in… and his eyes narrowed on the similarly colored wand in the girl's hand, topped by a circle with a five-pointed star in the middle and three "wings" on both ends of it.

"Well at least Ruby picked a hot one." Eil remarked.

"Oh, if it isn't Tohsaka-san! I see your still alive… and horribly soaked." The stick moved around as the cheerful voice from before came around, Eil shaking his head to the motions. Said stick was in fact alive, a Mystic Code device named Magical Ruby… and a perennial pain in Eil's behind to deal with.

"Yes, thanks so much for that." Rin bit, "It really is a wonder I'm still alive. And now I've got Eil chasing me too! I can only hope he went after Lluvia first!"

"Yes, how unfortunate that would be for you, considering his fiery temper. And how terrible that must have been!" Ruby replied, and the stick's motions got Eil to realize he'd been spotted by the Mystic Code, but that didn't bother him so much as it stood.

"You are utterly shameless…" Rin growled, Eil taking the moment as Rin stepped to the other girl to hop down from her perch and into the yard, starting to creep up on Rin from behind. "Whatever. Come to me, Ruby! I'll teach you who your Master is!"

"No, no, there's no need to teach me that!" Ruby said, shaking her tip as one would their head, which all things considered it was for the wand, "After all, this girl right here, Illya-san, is my new Master!"

"Huh?! Hey, you…"

"I-I'm not!" Illya yelped, shaking her other arm as her expression became a tad terrified, "It's a scam! She tricked me into it! Before I realized it I ended up this way!"

"Oh, well… I can imagine." Rin murmured, then she flinched once the malevolent presence finally registered to her, Illya also flinching as a shadowy figure rose up behind Rin.

"Tohh-saa-kaa!" Eil's voice was a threatening rumble as he spoke, Rin recoiling as she shot around, Eil cracking his knuckles as a smile one could call anything but happy showed on his face, his eyes similarly threatening, "I'm not an idiot y'know? I knew Ruby would probably be the first one to find a new Master, so guess who I went after first?"

"H-Hey don't get too mad here! I only ran off because Lluvia… no, wait, that only makes it worse." Rin remarked, flinching again as Eil got right in her face.

"Damn right it does! I wasn't exactly planning on spending our first night here running after you two, but look where we are now!" Eil snapped, making a point to jab a finger off at Illya.

"What else are we supposed to do huh? Point is I found Ruby, so I'm here to get her back! That fixes things yeah?" Rin said, Eil letting out a chuckle, pointedly moving a bit of his hair back with a hand as he did so.

"Tohsaka this is Ruby we're talking about. There isn't much going back with her." Eil stated, Ruby flitting over, dragging Illya with her as it happened.

"Yeah! Illya-san is my Master whether you like it or not! I've already overwritten your Master registration. Whether Illya-san wills it or not, unless I permit it, it is impossible to exchange Masters!" Ruby said, the yelping in fear when Eil suddenly grabbed her, his grip crushing down on the stick's top, "OWOWOWOW! Are you trying to crush me?!"

"Yes, I am! Don't think the fact I know you won't swap out so easily means you're off the hook you troublesome stick!" Eil snapped, squeezing down harder as Ruby continued to yelp, Rin glaring at the stick for good measure as she cracked her knuckles.

"That's just fine Ruby! Maybe I'll just treat you nicely until you decide to do so yourself then!" Rin snapped, Eil releasing Ruby from the death grip with a small huff.

"I see you're as passionate as ever. Do you really miss being a magical girl that much Tohsaka-san?" Ruby asked, Rin giving a huff in response.

"Why would I miss it?!" The twin-tailed girl snapped, "If anyone saw me like that, it might as well be suicide!"

"I saw you like that, for the record." Eil casually stated, gaining a flat look as Rin yelled in shock to his statement.

"So I'm in a situation that might as well be suicide huh?" Illya thought, her eyes glancing to Eil for a moment as he and Rin started sniping at each other, Illya generally somewhat tuning it out from a sense of disinterest and lack of understanding in what they were even on about at the moment anyway… and rather found herself stuck staring a bit…. And a moment later, her eyes shot wide, "A bishonen! I just noticed he's a bishonen! Total bishie, complete, undeniable, real life bishonen!"

Her eyes were stuck on his face, the soft, vaguely androgyne features that seemed delicate as a flower but strong all the same, the small, smirk like quirk of his thin lips and the sharpened slant of his eyes rather than a look of gentle roundness, the thin figure hidden under the baggy clothes…

"WAIT WHAT AM I THINKING RIGHT NOW?!"

"So… mind telling me why you're staring like I've got something on my face?" Eil asked, Illya noticing he and Rin had stopped arguing over whatever they'd been arguing over to look over at her.

"EH?! N-Nothing! It was nothing!" Illya yelped, Eil just sighing as he shrugged.

"It wasn't something on your face. It was your face!" Ruby said, Illya then promptly slapping the stick onto the nearby wall hard enough to leave both a Ruby shaped dent along with a small crater, leaving Eil and Rin to merely glance at one another.

"Well whatever. But, look kid, we need that stick back." Rin said, Eil nodding.

"Yeah we're uh… here on a sort of school assignment… thing… and she's sort of needed." Eil said, Rin looking at him, "What?! Not like I can just spill it outright!"

"Yeah but we may have to." Rin noted.

"True." Eil noted, looking back over to Illya and Ruby, "Actually, Ruby, how did you even get this girl to give you the blood you'd need for the identification?... you didn't ram into her face did you? Because you're the kind who'd do that."

"Well I mean I was probably going to do that, but Illya-san here has quick reflexes it turns out." Ruby said, ever cheerfully so, "As for how I did. I just showed her a little picture is all, it got one heckuva nosebleed out of her!"

"Picture?" Rin and Eil both repeated the word, Illya's face turning scarlet as Ruby nodded to them, producing the mentioned item.

"Ta-dah!"

"Lemme see that." Eil swiped the picture from Ruby, Rin leaning in to take a look at it, both teens faces growing a bit darker in expression, "Ruby, why the hell is this a weirdly altered picture of me?"

"Perverted stick…" Rin growled, Illya yelping.

"WHAT?!" Illya shouted, looking at Ruby, who only gave a chuckle despite the glowing death glares being shot at her now.

"So what should we do now huh?" Rin asked, raising a finger up, a small orb of black forming at her finger tip, Eil holding his hand up as Illya flinched back, Rin raising a brow.

"We don't need to get violent so put the Gandr away." Eil stated, Rin just huffing a bit as she did so, lowering her hand, "Besides not like a simple Gandr would work anyway."

"Don't forget that Kaleid Ruby has many magical powers." Ruby said, Illya however looking drastically more confused than she had before, "Which happens to include an A Rank magical barrier and physical protection. So a simple magus like you wouldn't be able to pierce it! Well, maybe Eil could if he-GAWGH!"

"Remind me to duct tape her to a wall next time she almost says too much!" Eil had grabbed Ruby again as she spouted off, Illya only giving a nervous chuckle as the stick flinched in agony, the girl finding the sheer contrast between Eil's fiery personality and looks more than just a bit jarring to witness.

"Uhh… I'm not sure if I should apologize for this or not." Illya said, Eil sighing as he released Ruby and pocketed his hands.

"It's just how Ruby is. My mentor, her creator, didn't exactly plan on this personality, but we're stuck with it." Eil stated, Ruby only giving a proud chuckle in response to what was an insult.

"So, we're seriously just letting the girl have Ruby huh?" Rin asked, Eil nodding.

"Not much else we can do with a contract made." Eil stated, turning to Illya and flashing an amused grin, which made the girl flinch and blush just a tad, "Sorry to drag ya' into this, we really don't want to get others involved in our business, but I'll give a preemptive "welcome aboard" anyway."

"Well to be perfectly straight, you don't have a right to refuse." Rin added matter-of-factly, "If you're going to hate someone, hate Ruby. You're going to have to become a magical girl, and collect the Class Cards!"

"Well that's certainly one way to put it." Eil noted, Rin huffing at the smirk he showed her, Eil then drawing a hand out and pointing a finger at Illya, "So, that makes you the new Master."

So much was going on at once Illya's mind was barely more than a torrent of confused emotions and information rushing her all at once from the other two teenagers, but, it was easy enough for her to understand one thing: That somehow, she'd become involved in something serious, something incredibly troublesome.

And yet her mind was stuck more on that whimsical, cocky smile.

A/N

Sooo… yeah. Consider Coltheart officially dead, cause this is gonna be usurping it's place. Not that I didn't like it, mind you, in fact it was one of my favorite works… once it actually got off the ground anyway. But I gave it some serious thought and then the result ended up being this. So, yeah, older versions of the previously younger ones. Not that this is a simple reboot doing that, ahahaha nooo… for you see, I've been researching the ever loving hell out of the Nasuverse! I'mma be packing this one with references to Stay Night rather than just running the gamut again.

Also see if you can catch the hints with Eil. I await your reviews, and will see you next chapter. See ya!