Kasumi and Alexis



The group had made its way inside the building who was a neighbor to the one Senga burned down. The amnesiac girl was surprised to find that the room was identical to the one from before, but Kasumi cleared her mind.
"All of the buildings in this area are exactly the same." She explained. "When I said any other would do, I meant it"
Senga and Moonchild both sat beside each other on the large sofa, while Kasumi took the small one. Saber, as always, decided to remain standing right behind Kasumi, like a bodyguard or something.
After that, there was a moment of silence, only broken when Kasumi decided to finally speak.
"Well, I guess I can't delay this anymore" she let out a heavy sigh.
"Sorry, I try to give you some privacy," Senga explained herself "But at this point, it's starting to cause some real problems"
"No, no, you are absolutely right! It's just... I am just being dumb." Her face cringed, then relaxed, and the girl took a deep breath "Well, let me start with a little bit of who I am..."
"Firstly, I told you before I am a Magus, that's not super correct. By most Magi accounts I would only be what they call a 'Magic-user', someone who is neither affiliated with the Mage's Association nor has any interest in the root. There is not any meaningful difference, I just thought you should know. Not that I care anyway.
I was born in a small hidden village, somewhere in the Japanese province of Nagano. My family... They weren't normal people. I was told we used to be part of a powerful clan but lost everything during the Meiji period. While the majority of the clan accepted this fact, my family ran and hid to continue practicing our traditions. Because of that, I was raised away from everything. Furthermore, my family didn't treat me normally. I... I won't go into detail if that is alright with you, but the important thing is that I couldn't take it anymore, so I ran away.
I made it to the modern world, the big city of Tokyo. I managed to find a part-time job, enroll in high-school, and make plans for the future. Everything was alright, I even made a friend! A foreign who was studying abroad in Japan, Alexis Novalight. He was my first real friend, and I trusted him with all my secrets. In exchange, he told me about him, his family, the magus world.
It was during the summer, just before mine and Alexis planned to travel to London, where he would try and find a place for me in the Clock Tower. I went to sleep and... Well, I woke up here. I was alone at first, but Alexis found me just some hours later. Together, we explored this place and tried to find a way out. We had a close call with the Master of Rider, a scarily powerful old man with an equally scary servant, but we managed to survive and run away. It was right after that when I met with Saber.
After that, things became easier for a while. As Saber explained the nature of this Holy Grail War, we had a direction to follow and the clear objective of finding Alexis Servant. However, Alexis himself started to act weird. One day, he suddenly demanded that Saber tell his true name, and when Saber denied, Alexis attacked my Servant! Of course, Saber defended himself easily, but this caused a rift between me and my friend.
Alexis left us and went to find his Servant on his own. One or two days later (Again, it's hard to gauge time in this place) he returned with Caster and that bitch made a very grandiose discourse about how we betrayed her Master and would suffer because of that. There was a fight, they ran away, and we have been dealing with Caster's Familiars harassing us from that point onwards.
Oh, yeah! And we found you a little after, Senga. I guess you know what happens from then on. So, that's everything, any doubts?"
"Well, I have one," Senga screeches the back of her head, feeling awkward about asking the obvious question. "You see, you kept using male pronouns for Alexis, but the person with Caster looked, well, like a girl."
"Yeah, Alexis is a crossdresser," Kasumi says, in a natural way "It's necessary or something, a family tradition, he never elaborated much."
"Oh, okay" Senga felt a bit embarrassed, as it was her first time (that she could remember) dealing with such matters, but she decided not to make any further comments "Thanks Kasumi, your story clarified a lot of things."
Kasumi smiled shyly and blushed a little.
"For sure," Moonchild, who had only been listening until now, made her comment "Now we have a clearer idea of who our enemy is."
"Wait, what?" Kasumi interjected, "That's not why I told this story, Alexis is not an enemy."
"I can't see how that is the case," Moonchild seemed confused "He looks to have clear antagonistic intentions against you and your Servant."
"It's Caster!" Kasumi looked irritated by Moonchild, it was the first time Senga saw her ally express such an aggressive emotion "Caster is making his head, filling it with lies!"
"I don't, Master" Saber decided to join the discussion "Our break with Alexis happened before he met Caster."
"Look, you guys don't know Alexis as I do." For a second, the girl made a very sad expression "He is a sweet guy, there must be a way to solve things without a fight having to happen!"
㊊㊊㊊㊊


Multicolored specs of life flickered through the air as Caster and her Master manifested into the room.
"Yuck!" Caster said with revolt "I loathe having to come back here. Master, with your permission, I could"
"Denied." Alexis answer was firm "It would be a waste of time using your Territory Creation in a place we never stay anyway"
"Yes, of course, what was I thinking?" Caster smiled, but it was very forced.
Suddenly, the door of the room opened and a figure stumbled in, falling to the ground in front of the duo.

"As if this place wasn't already full of trash" commented Caster.
"Help me already, bitch!" Assassin exclaimed. He looked worse for wear, exhausted, and had clearly just come out of a hard fight.
"Why would I do that?" Caster smirked, "What is stopping me from eliminating you now right here and now?"
"Because that would break the pact between your Master and mine?"
"Heal him," Alexis ordered.
Caster rolled her eyes. In her hand, she manifested a flask that looked made out of Crystal and threw it to Assassin, who immediately started drinking it.
"How did it went?" Alexis asked, in a flat tone.
"I got my ass kicked, that's how it went" The Servant was not very happy in his current situation "Weakened or not, a Berserker is still a Berserker. I managed to delay her, but I doubt it will work for long."
"You are useless" Caster snickered.
"You would have done just as good, princess" Assassin snickered back.
"Well, there isn't anything to be done. What do you think, Master?"
"It doesn't really matter for us," Alexis remarked calmly "but it seems my old friend has a big problem heading her way."
Chapter 1 End