Chapter six- A Master Appears

"I never said that,-" Hakuryuu stopped as a scream rang out from below them.

"What was that?" Judar wondered, walking to the edge of the rooftop.

"Why would anyone be around here so long after school ended?" Hakuryuu followed, and his eyes widened when he saw the source of the cry. Alibaba. "Lancer, let's go!" Without another thought, Hakuryuu jumped off of the roof, forcing Lancer to follow after so he didn't get himself killed.

"Hakuryuu?!" Judar called over the edge of the roof in shock. Luckily, Lancer caught the teen before he reached the ground, the pair landing safely. Judar turned to Jekyll, "Can you do that?"

"I don't believe so... We're going to have to take the stairs."

~

Once he landed on the ground -with Lancer's help- Hakuryuu scanned the area for the source of the scream. The sound of clashing weapons echoed in the air, and Hakuryuu instantly followed it.

"Master, what's the plan?" Lancer asked as they ran. He didn't bother asking why Hakuryuu was going to help the other master, he already knew the answer.

"We need to see what's going on first," Hakuryuu breathed. "We have no idea what we're fighting."

As they neared the school's tennis court, two servants came into view. One wore simple cloth armor and wielded a sword, while the other wore armor similar to that of the Greeks, equipped with a club made of brass. The tennis net was well beyond destroyed. While the two servants were fighting each other, Alibaba stood on the sidelines, one hand holding his stomach, blood seeping through his fingers.

"Alibaba!" Hakuryuu called to him, running straight to his side. The servant clad in Greek armor faltered for a moment, most likely worried for his master. "What happened?!" Hakuryuu looked Alibaba over. He seemed fine, besides his bleeding stomach.

"I don't know. I was just leaving to walk home from school when a random servant appeared in front of me. I could barely call Saber in time..." Alibaba explained, his voice pained.

"What servant is he?" Hakuryuu asked. He placed his hands over the other teen's stomach, using magic to quickly heal him.

"I don't know..." Alibaba paused and watched Hakuryuu in amazement, "You know healing magic?"

"Life manipulation, yes," Hakuryuu nodded. He quickly scanned the area for any signs of Judar or Berserker, but found none. The new servant's master was nowhere to be seen either.

"Master, this servant's master could be that strange man from this morning," Lancer spoke, also looking around.

"Most likely."

"What strange man?" Alibaba asked.

"A new substitute teacher I met today. I could feel mana coming from him, but he didn't seem like he could be a master," Hakuryuu informed. "He thought my Command Seals were temporary tattoos, but apparently it was a lie..."

Suddenly, the fight between Saber and the mystery servant shifted, the foreign spirit taking the upper hand. Saber was having a hard time fending him off.

"Lancer, help Saber," Hakuryuu ordered. Lancer nodded and ran at incredible speeds to intervene the new servant's next attack. Hakuryuu turned to Alibaba, "Come on, we should go find Ukiyo." He began walking away from the tennis court, Alibaba following behind.

"Hey, Hakuryuu..." Alibaba started.

"Don't bother. We can talk later," Hakuryuu silenced him.

They made their way around the school's large perimeter, keeping an eye out for anything out of place. They remained quiet, Alibaba torn between worry, anger, and guilt. He couldn't make sense of why Hakuryuu would refuse his help so much. They had been friends since Alibaba had moved to Japan. Although very competitive with each other, they got along well, with very few arguments.

Meanwhile, Hakuryuu focused on finding the fake substitute teacher, not letting his emotions affect him at all. Alibaba was too hung up on Hakuryuu saving him, and wasn't paying attention to the problem they were faced with. With this attack, the Holy Grail War had officially begun. They had no time to worry about trivial things when their lives were at stake.

"Stop." Hakuryuu held up his arm, Alibaba walking right into it.

"What is it?" Alibaba asked, confused expression on his face.

"Well, hello again," A new voice spoke, and the pink haired man from before strolled up stand several yards away from them. They were in a part of the school parking lot that connected the front parking lot to the back. With the school bordering them on one side, and thick trees on the other, there wasn't much room to fight in the alley-like space. "I'll admit, I'm surprised two kids like you ended up masters."

"Is that stray servant yours?" Hakuryuu asked, lowering his arm.

"Yep, I'm Rider's master," The man nodded. "Muu Alexius is my real name, by the way."

"Alexius?" Alibaba echoed. "Their one of the Founding Families too, aren't they?"

"Yeah, they are," Hakuryuu answered, not removing his eyes from Muu.

"Look, I'm sorry about my servant. I didn't realize I was intruding on an alliance. I was just having Rider patrol the area, I told him to eliminate any threats he found," Muu spoke, raising his arms some and walking towards them. "We don't have to fight."

"We're not an alli-"

"We don't want to fight either," Alibaba cut Hakuryuu off, stepping forward. "Take your servant and leave this area immediately, and we won't come after you." His tone was completely serious, and it surprised Hakuryuu.

Muu nodded, "I will. As soon as you retract yours."

"You're the one who intruded on us. There's no reason for us to order our servants to do anything," Alibaba continued. "Go on, call Rider back to you."

Muu was hesitant. It was a waste of a Command Seal. They weren't close enough to the battle to just call out for his servant. But he had to, or the teens before him would start a fight. He sighed, raising his right hand, "Fine. Rider, by order of my Command Seals; Stop fighting and return to me this instant!"

A few seconds later, Rider appeared beside Muu. He had dark skin and hair, and his armor was simple leather. He looked rather ill-prepared to fight anyone, yet somehow was able to overtake Saber. He glared at the pair of teens, not lowering his sword. "Master, why would you waste a Command Seal like that?"

"I had no choice. We aren't prepared to fight two masters right now," As Muu spoke, Lancer and Saber appeared beside their masters.

"We're done fighting already? It was just getting good!" Saber complained, resting his club on his shoulder. Hakuryuu noted how strange it was a Saber class servant wasn't wielding a sword.

"Don't worry about it, Saber. You'll get a chance to fight another time," Alibaba assured him.

"Hey, Hakuryuu!! Are you over here?!" Judar's voice echoed off the walls of the school building as he and Berserker approached.

"Over here, Judar!" Hakuryuu called back over his shoulder.

"Ah, there you guys are!" Judar ran the last of the way over. "I had to run through the entire school to get here!" He stopped beside Hakuryuu, resting his hands on his knees and panting.

Muu and Rider stiffened. Were all three of them in an alliance? They couldn't be...

"So are we fighting anyone?" Judar stood straight and asked excitedly.

"Sadly, no," Saber sighed, shifting his weight in boredom.

"That's if they ever leave," Hakuryuu added, returning his attention to Muu and Rider.

"We're leaving, we're leaving," Muu assured, raising his hands in defence. "Come on, Rider. Let's go." He began walking away, Rider sighing and fading into his spirit form.

Once the pair were gone, Hakuryuu sighed and turned to the others, "We shouldn't have to worry about him for a while now..."

"Yeah," Alibaba agreed, breathing deeply. "It would have been bad if we had to fight him. Something's weird about his servant..."

"You felt that too, huh?" Hakuryuu cast a glance in the direction they'd left in, just in case.

"What do you mean?" Judar spoke, furrowing his brow.

"You couldn't tell? What kind of master are you?" Saber huffed. He lowered his club, and it vanished. Lancer did the same with his weapon.

"Nevermind that," Berserker spoke in his usual proper tone, "Is there somewhere private and safe we can continue to talk? It's rather dangerous to be out in the open like this."

"Ryuu, couldn't we go to your place?" Judar asked, crossing his arms.

"No, we can't run the risk of my cousins or sister being there," Hakuryuu shook his head. "Alibaba, is your home available?" All eyes turned to the blond.

Alibaba thought for a moment, troubled look on his face. Did Hakuryuu actually want to form an alliance now? He'd only said it before to Muu Alexius because it was safer than fighting, he didn't really mean it. And now, with a third master present -whom he didn't know at all- Hakuryuu wanted to go to his house? It was risky. "Ah... Sure... My brothers probably aren't home anyway."

"Good, let's head there then," Berserker said, nodding.

~