Chapter 7

Saber was running through the darkness of the Fuyuki City. The time for the servants to come out has arrived.

This action was not approved by her master. Her master, Shirou, was currently sleeping, knowing nothing about what she was doing.

She disobeyed her Master… no. She did not disobey her Master. If things went the way it did, the only end for her Master would be death. He was too easy going. If her master was not willing to do the job for his and her sake.

The information was given by the master of Rider. The Caster would fall today by the hands of Saber. She jumped down from the roof she was running at towards the ground.

Her destination, Ryuudou Temple.

She knew it would be a hard battle against the Servant Caster and like Shirou said she would most likely sustain heavy injuries but… what kind of servant would she be then if she couldn't even do this? To escape from a battle was not something a knight like her would do.

As a heroic spirit supported with their superior abilities, defeat will not be acceptable. Her pride as a Knight and Servant will not allow the same mistakes to happen again. Pride is a scary thing and hers was not as stable as Gilgamesh's. She knew this was a foolish action but she still went with it.

As she was going through the shadows of the city someone called out to her.

"Ah Saber, what are you doing at this hour around here?"

Saber drew her Invisible Air towards the man who called out to her. Looking at the man clearly she realized who he was.

"You…" The person she saw was the mysterious person that's been around them. Following and watching them, especially her Master. Her Master seemed to be important to him. Still she was extremely cautious of him as he defeated another servant where she did not stand a chance against. No matter how friendly he seemed it could change any moment but for now this was not a fight she could win so she chose to ignore him.

"It doesn't concern you." She did not say anything more than that and continued on her path. Checking for a second she saw that the man disappeared.

Unknown to her Maxwell already understood she was going towards Ryuudou Temple as there were no other pathways up ahead. Was there something wrong? Considering what he learnt from Mr. Kuzuki, the temple was also a part of the Holy Grail War. He couldn't be sure so he went to check.

Teleporting a little far away from the entrance he saw a little girl sitting on one of the steps staying still. A girl with a black and purple dress that you would expect some noble family would wear to their little ones. Her long, pure white hair is divided into wavy pigtails that are tied off with a black and purple ribbon for each. A pair of red pinkish eyes with a face that gives no emotion. Her body looked extremely similar to a doll.

Such an odd appearance that you would not expect to see around here. He was now sure that it was likely a Servant or some magic golem. This does bring up the question of what she was doing standing there.

While he was staring at she turned her head towards him. Her eyes that lacked any emotion looked straight at his red coin like eyes. She did not say or do anything, just continued to look at him. Seeing that there was no reaction from her he slowly came closer to the entrance. With each of his steps the girls moved ever so slightly and when he was close enough she finally spoke out.

"Stop. What are you doing here?"

A question with no emotion behind it. A voice like that of a machine came from the girl. Maxwell, hearing what she said, stopped and answered her.

"I came to check on a friend of mine after hearing that there could be something wrong. Let me ask you the same question little lady, what are you doing here, standing there at this hour?" Not a single movement from the little girl. She just lifted her left arm and pointed to his back. Looking carefully it could be seen that there were some black substance on her that was moving.

"Turn back, last warning." He was not wanted here. To him this only showed that there was really something wrong so he teleported inside to check on her friend and his child.

Like he was not there in the first place Maxwell disappeared and left the little girl standing there. She failed to sense him at all and could only stand still as she was lacking strength to move excessively.

This little girl was Servant Caster, Nursery Rhyme. She got summoned by a master that died after she was summoned so as not to die right after she was summoned she went to an area with a high amount of mana. She met with someone named Souichirou Kuzuki and he allowed her to stay here after convincing the Temple Head that she was a relative's daughter of his. He did not become her Master as she had some sort of feeling that this was not a good Master for her. The same feeling also led to her taking this form of hers.

With not having a master and fighting against two servants already her body was not in the best shape. The fight against Rider and Assassin was not so much of a problem for her body but the black mud thing stuck to her that came with the Assassin was a big problem. She tried to destroy it but it was not something she could get rid of. Adding the fact that she was Masterless and the black mudlike thing constantly absorbing her mana resources and destroying her body while doing it prevented her. She could barely move now because of it.

The man that came before her arrived right in front of her without her being able to detect him so this meant that she was weakened so much that she failed to even detect him or he was a servant with high concealment but this also confused her a little. She knew that the man could not be Assassin as she fought with the Assassin before so this meant there was another Servant with high enough concealment that even though he appeared in front of her she wasn't able to detect him via magic. While this was concerning she just couldn't do anything. Thankfully the man left when she told him to do so.

*Thump* *Thump*

Sounds of metal were heard. It seems someone else is coming. With each second the sound was getting higher and higher and not long after she saw the newcomer. A golden wheat colored hair paired with green eyes. Feminine face with the body covered by some kind of armor mixed with a dress. Holding something she was rushing towards her. It didn't seem like she had any intention of stopping. Was this going to be how her story ends she wondered. Was her ending going to be a bad one? She never liked bad endings.

—-

Not much time passed after Maxwell entered the temple. He was checking the general places but with it being late they should be asleep he guessed. While he was searching inside he saw someone he was familiar with. Similar to the girl this man infront of him also had an emotionless face. With his face now that of his usual human face he went near him. The sound of his cane made Souichirou look towards him. Maxwell brought his other hand upwards in a way to say hello.

"Mr. Maxwell"

"Yes it's indeed me Mr. Kuzuki. How are you?"

"Thank you for asking, I'm fine. What about you Mr. Maxwell, what are you doing at this hour?" Souichirou was suspicious of Maxwell. He knew this old man recently came into this little city but upon learning of the existence of the Holy Grail War he suspected that he was a Master.

"Same as always. I wanted to check on Mr. Ryuudou but I encountered something that shocked me. There was a little girl standing in the entrance, I feared she was gonna catch a cold… I'm just going to ask you directly Mr. Kuzuki, are you a Master?" This confirmed Souichirou's guess.

"No. I'm not involved with the war nor do I want to." Short answer but it answered everything.

"Can I ask you who is her Master?"

"..." Souichirou did not answer him. It was not really important for Maxwell in the end. Maxwell knew that Souichirou probably guessed he was a Master but he felt no need to correct him.

"Well in the end if Mr. Ryuudou and little Issei is fine th-"

His talk ended shortly as a burst of light appeared behind him. A light so bright it looked like the sun had come up. Turning back he saw that the light pillar went upwards towards the sky and soon it disappeared. Souichirou just went back, not caring about it.

Without waiting he teleported to the entrance and saw the little girl laying on the ground missing parts of her body.

—-

There laid the little girl with parts of her missing. Even though she managed to mostly dodge the noble phantasm of the knight it did not change the fact that she was dying.

Her fight with the knight was.. a miserable sight. She could not do anything towards her. Every attack of her was countered and the only reason she was still here was because the knight was teleported possibly to her Master's side.

This was the end for her.

"Little girl" a familiar voice called out to her. Hardly managing to turn her head to the right she saw the man again this time with a face rather than the weird mask he was wearing. She wanted to ask him 'Are you here to finish me off?' like those in the stories but she couldn't. The mud-like thing was eating her body at a faster rate now and she could not get any more mana.

"Little girl, do you want to live?" Was he not here to finish her off? Why was he asking such questions? still she nodded her head to it. She never cared about the grail, she just wanted to live to see the world that was explained in the stories.

Seeing her answer Maxwell was thinking about how he could save her. Why would her master not save her? He did not think little Issei or his father was a master and seeing how even Mr. Kuzuki was not one either, what does that mean then? He especially waited a little wondering if someone would come but it did not happen. A wild idea entered his mind so he asked.

"Do you not have a master?" a nod. It seems his guess was right. She was indeed Masterless. Till now he learnt that Master is the one that provides the 'Mana' to their Servants so they could stay but then how did she not just disrepair or appear in the first place?

He did ask her if she wanted to live but he was not sure how he could even help her… Another absurd idea came to his head. Such an idea that would deem crazy but it wouldn't hurt to try right? After all, coming here and just living a normal life would be boring. He was just about to leave this place too but seeing that there are magic things going on he changed his mind. It would be fun to get on that train, no?

"Will you accept someone like me as a Master?" He did not know if he could use mana and cast spells but he did not feel that it was not possible. He knew a little about his powers and if magic exists in this world then the place he is connected to surely has some mana too.

She did not answer right away but nodded again towards him.

"I will put a condition taught. You after becoming my servant will be free to do whatever you want while following the rules. This can change from situation to situation but we can talk about it later. Second and last condition is that we will not fight for the grail. You will need to give up your right on the grail" While the first condition was acceptable the second one was absurd. The servant's whole reason was that they had a wish from the grail but this did not apply to Nursery Rhyme. If she can just see the world then it was fine with her. She nodded her head once again.

"Well then. Let's see, how do we do the contract again?" He never heard anything about it so he was clueless. He was just going to ask it in a more fancy way.

"Shall thee accept me as thy master with the conditions i setteth?" the voice that came out changed greatly. It did not sound humane nor did it sound out of place.

The place around them started to bend. It lost its colors and regained them in a cycle.

The Servant that was laying could not see clearly what was happening with her injuries but she felt something. She could not explain what this was. Some kind of light started to appear around her blocking the vision of her. The one that could only nod now answered back.

"Yes"

Her body now was fully covered with light while everything around them was spinning, bending. Constant images started to appear with ever changing colors moving around them. Slowly the place around them started to lose its color.

The images disappeared.

The ground was gone.

The sky was gone.

Nothing, there was nothing.

No color

No object

Nothing

There was only the light coming out from the girl and Maxwell.

With the light slowly losing its strength it revealed the girl once again.

She did not look the exact same since she was now just black and white. The mud around her also disappeared.

Standing upwards she looked towards her new master.

"Servant Caster, Nursery Rhyme, greets Master"

Trees appeared around them, the ground materializing between them with the same happening in the sky.

"Just call me Grandfather" Maxwell smiled and held his hand towards her.

She took his hand and shaked it.

Colors burst after their hand contact and everything was exactly the same as before.

Maybe her story did not have a bad ending after all.

She was now free.

She now could get her good ending.

"Let's go home for now"

—-

It happened too fast for Rin to comprehend.

One moment and they were sleeping and the next moment

They were running away

Shirou was on Rin's back, not responding with one of his arm not being where it should be. His other hand holding another arm that was supposed to be Archer's

Why?

WHy?

WHY?

Why did it happen like that? She was just screaming inside and running aimlessly.

Someone that was supposed to be Lancer by Archer's words appeared and started to attack them. He was unlike the Lancer she saw who was not wearing any real clothing. His torso was fully open and he had some tail on his back.

Archer could not handle him at all and was just trashed at.

Shirou called saber but right after that Assassin appeared and cut off Shirou's arm making him faint from the pain and the blood loss.

Saber managed to fend off the Assassin but Archer was already dying. She called him to his side but there was no use. He was long gone. Before he died he gave his arm so that at least Shirou could live.

Getting Shirou on her back she started to run.

She ran with all of her strength.

She ran without thinking.

She just kept running without stopping .

Then

Someone called out to her

"Oh what are you doing at this hour lady?"

She turned her head towards the sound. She saw two people, an old man and a little child… no it was a doll. Was this man the Master of that monster?

"YOU! Stay away, don't come closer!" She screamed towards him while moving backwards

"Lady, is something wrong? I can help if you want to" Rin looked carefully at the man and she failed to see a mark on his hand. Was he a normal Magus then? she calmed down a little but she was still terrified of that monster following after her.

Right when she was about to say something her legs gave up. Her prana was almost completely depleted. She used most of it to protect herself back there.

*hah..hah*

She breathed heavily. The man seeing this came closer towards her

"Hey lady-" When he came close enough his eye darted towards Shirou.

"..." He did not say anything for a while then turned his back to the little girl.

"Caster, can you help him?" Rin's eyes widened a little after learning this man was the Caster's master. The little girl turned her head towards the boy, rather where his arm was severed from and the arm on his other hand.

"Not to its previous self but it's possible to attach that arm. There is a high risk of it not being compatible which will lead to his death. I can lower the risk by using my noble phantasm" The man hearing this turned his head back to Rin as if asking for permission.

"Please" she agreed without thinking.

Getting the confirmation the girl stepped towards Shirou and took the arm on his head bringing it closer to the other arm.

"Not known to people there she waits on the Tower of the Hidden

Waiting for that one fateful day for her savior

Her hair long for it's the ladder to him

She waits patiently just for him

Is it a foolish dream to wait for him"

With the chant a woman appeared next to them.

Someone with really long golden and black hair and a dress. One of her eyes was pitch black while the other one was gold. Her dress mostly pink also had some brown and white mixed with it.

"Rapunzel, attach this arm to him" The woman called Rapunzel looked at the arm and grabbed it. She brought it closer to Shirou's side and pressed it towards his missing area. With them connecting her hair began to wrap itself around the arm and his body shining golden for a bit. With the light calming down the hair got loosened up and she disappeared.

There laid Shirou with an arm clearly not attached to him. Rin was almost on the verge of crying, holding the newly attached arm and bringing it closer to herself. An arm was placed on her shoulder from her back.

"Let's go for now Child. I will open my house to you two tonight. Hold on tight" and the next moment they were inside Maxwell's house.

*Meow*

A cat appeared at the door looking at Maxwell, slowly coming closer it cautiously smelled the newcomers.

"Sorry I'm late" was what left Maxwell's mouth.

—-

So.. I know this was not great.