A few months after I turned seven, I woke up to a faint, pulsing heat on the back of my right hand, and when I looked down, my heart instantly dropped into my stomach at the sight of three distinct, crimson strokes burned vividly into my pale skin.
Command Spells.
Recognizing exactly what they were, I immediately closed my eyes and dove into my mental landscape to find Lady Ava.
She had been teaching me for years and knew everything about magecraft so my first thought if i get into trouble is her.
I found her in her usual sea of flowers and asked her what was going on and how to safely remove them, but she just gave me that teasing smile and told me she would only explain if I called her "Onee-chan."
Annoyed by her antics, I decided I would rather just figure this out myself, leading to a miserable week of desperately throwing every single method I could think of at my right hand.
Standard magecraft didn't even work at all, so I eventually resorted to activating my Mystic Eyes with the hope that I could just trace the lines and "kill" the connection.
However for some reason my eyes couldn't see a single line of death on the marks, whether that was because they were constructs of pure prana or because the anchor to the Greater Grail is simply too vast to comprehend i don't know.
"How... I don't want to join this stupid Holy Grail War..." I groaned into my pillow, knowing there is still about a year before the war actually started but desperately wanting to completely remove this connection as soon as possible.
The next day arrived without any progress making matters even more complicated since today was the day I was supposed to play with Manaka.
"I can't really go with this stupid symbol on my right hand," I muttered while staring at my faintly glowing skin, "but I also already told her we're gonna play tomorrow, too."
At first I honestly considered just going to meet her anyway and asking her about my problem since two heads are usually better than one, but I quickly stopped myself.
Lady Ava had drilled the absolute most basic rule of magecraft into my head from the very beginning, ensuring I knew that normal people shouldn't know about magecraft, meaning dragging a normal girl into my dangerous magus problems was completely out of the question.
In the end I decided to just cancel my playing with her so I pulled my sleeve down tightly and went over to the park where we usually met just long enough to tell her I couldn't play today, and immediately hurried straight back home to move our playdate to tomorrow.
And now I'm stuck in my room alone while all the other kids are downstairs playing, having used a mild suggestion magecraft on them with the excuse that I wasn't feeling well so they would leave me in peace for a moment.
Sitting on my bed I looked down at the stubborn symbol on my hand and let out a long, exhausted sigh.
"Still nothing..." I murmured.
In the end, I decide to just give up and ask Lady Ava again.
As I arrive back in Garden Avalon, I can see Lady Ava sitting at the usual spot where we have tasteless tea and talk. So I walk over, making sure she knows that I'm here.
"Welcome back, Rikka. Did you manage to solve your problem?" she greets me with a smug look on her face, already knowing I failed.
"Hmph, whose fault do you think that is, huh? You didn't even help me at all," I pout at her as I sit down on the chair in front of her.
"I can help, but all you need to do is say to me, 'Onee-chan, please help me, you're the best onee-chan in the world!' See? It's easy~" she says while making a cute, cringy pose that I probably need to copy while saying it.
Yeah, hell no. If she just wants me to say it, I'm fine with that, but doing that pose is an absolute no.
"Hahhh... whatever. Please don't bother me for today," I sigh, just resting my head on the tea table in front of me.
I spend a while like that, basically thinking about how shit my fate is. Because if I still have my Command Spells, I'm really going to get forced to summon a Servant, or I'll die.
You could say my fate is zero now.
"Why don't you want the Command Spells? Are you afraid of the fighting between Servants and Masters?" Lady Ava suddenly asks me.
But this time, I don't hear her usual teasing tone as she sounds completely serious.
Raising my head, I stare back at her as she looks at me with narrowed eyes.
"Well, because getting involved in the Grail War is a terrible idea. I wasn't born a magus. I can't do what they casually do, killing people just to win the Grail. Plus there is one Master in this war that I'm genuinely afraid of."
"Who?"
"Kiritsugu Emiya. He's a really dangerous person who will do absolutely anything for his goal, even if he needs to kill a child like me, so it's terrifying. And the other one is Gilgamesh, the Archer-class Servant. There is no way any Servant in this war can win against him."
"Kiritsugu Emiya and Gilgamesh..." Lady Ava murmurs to herself, thinking about the two names.
She seems to know about Gilgamesh, but regarding Kiritsugu Emiya, she looks to the side, her eyes glowing faintly as they reflect the light of the garden.
I'm pretty sure that only happens when she uses her Clairvoyance, so she is probably looking into Kiritsugu right now.
"I see... the Magus Killer. I understand why you are afraid of him, but Rikka," she says, turning back to me after finishing her observation.
"What is it?"
"You're stronger than him, you know?" Lady Ava says as she places both of her hands on the table and rests her chin on them.
"Huh? You mean I'm stronger than his Origin Bullets and Time Alter?"
"Not purely in raw firepower, but yes, you have all the tools to counter him. As a magus, your potential far eclipses his. The only real advantages he holds over you are his battlefield experience and his absolute willingness to kill."
Well that's obvious. I've never killed anyone and I never went to a battlefield before, even in my previous life.
"But I understand," she continues softly.
"The will to kill is not something you can easily develop, especially for someone raised in a peaceful era."
But then, her expression suddenly changes again, flipping right back to her usual teasing smile from before.
"If that's what you are so afraid of, why don't you just summon me as your Servant~?"
"Huh?"
---
---
---
And so, a few days pass since Lady Ava told me to summon her.
She uses the excuse that she can protect me better if she is physically with me as my Servant, and that she can use her territory as a Caster to protect the orphanage much better.
She says a lot of things to convince me, and in the end, everything she says actually makes sense, so now I'm preparing to summon her.
Sitting on the floor of my bedroom, I carefully draw the intricate lines of the summoning circle on the ground while a translucent projection of Lady Ava floats nearby, projecting herself into the real world directly from Avalon to watch over me.
"Did you make sure the entire room is protected by the bounded fields we created?" she asks, floating a bit closer.
"Summoning a Servant is going to be intense since it will rapidly absorb the mana in the air. That goes double since you're summoning me without the help of the Grail, as the Grail isn't even ready yet."
I still don't completely understand how I'm even supposed to pull this off.
Normally a magus needs the Holy Grail to provide the massive amount of magical energy required to summon a Heroic Spirit.
But when I asked her about it Lady Ava just bragged that since she isn't technically dead and is just sitting in Avalon, I don't actually need the Grail's power.
She claims I'm just using the Command Spells to open a doorway, and she will do the rest of the heavy lifting to cross over.
Since I don't have any other explanation, and she's always doing stuff like this things anyway, I just accept it as another one of her tricks.
I finish the final strokes of the circle and nod, double-checking my work to make sure it is perfect.
"Good," Lady Ava says, her translucent form giving me an approving smile. "Now, put the catalyst in the middle of the circle."
I turn toward the corner of my room where Lady Ava's staff is currently leaning against the wall.
It is the exact same staff she gave me herself during a previous dream, and when I woke up the next morning i was miraculously already holding it in my hands in the real world.
I carefully pick up the staff from the corner of my room and place it directly in the center of the summoning circle.
"Good work," the translucent projection of Lady Ava says, giving me one last encouraging wink. "Now, I'll be waiting for you on the other side~"
With that she fades away entirely, leaving the room in complete silence.
Taking a deep breath I raise my right hand so the Command Spells face the circle, pushing my Od through my magic circuits and letting it flow into the intricate lines on the floor.
The circle immediately flares to life glowing with a soft pulsing light as the air in the bedroom grows heavy.
I close my eyes and begin the chant she taught me.
"Let the petals scatter across the boundary. Let the stagnant air give way to the spring breeze."
The wind suddenly picks up inside my closed bedroom, swirling around the center of the circle.
The bounded field I set up earlier shudders slightly under the sheer pressure of the rapidly gathering prana.
"From the furthest end of the earth, let the closed tower open its doors. Let the illusion of utopia manifest upon this world."
The light from the circle shifts from a standard bright blue to a luminescent, glowing pink.
"Heed my voice watcher of the furthest tower. The anchor is set the dream is made reality. Cross the Inner Sea of the Planet and weave your illusions into truth."
The overwhelming scent of spring flowers completely fills the room, the concentration of magical energy becoming so dense it feels hard to breathe.
"By the Command Spells etched upon my flesh, open the gates of the garden and step into the waking world, Magus of Flowers!"
A blinding flash of pink light erupts from the center of the room, forcing me to shield my eyes.
A massive cascade of soft pink petals flutters down from the ceiling, glowing with otherworldly mana before slowly settling onto my bedroom floor.
As the light fades, a familiar figure stands right in the middle of the circle, holding the staff I just placed there.
"Ta-da~!" a cheerful melodic voice chimes. "Servant, Caster! The universally beloved, endlessly beautiful big sister, Lady Avalon, has arrived!"
I slowly lower my arm, just staring at the immortal half-succubus who is currently striking a dramatic, completely unearned pose in the middle of my bedroom.
"Oh my, what a grumpy little face!" she gasps, leaning forward with that absolutely insufferable, teasing smile.
"Are you trying to hide your tears of joy because your favorite teacher is finally here to save the day?"
I immediately feel a headache forming right behind my eyes, already regretting my decision to pull her out of my dreams and into the real world.
[Servant Parameters: Caster - Lady Avalon]
Strength: E ➔ D (Even with infinite mana, she's still a magus but her physical body become magically reinforced and heavy.)
Endurance: E ➔ C (She becomes significantly harder to "kill" because her body is constantly being reconstructed by Rikka mana.)
Agility: C ➔ B
Mana: A ➔ EX (Her magical output is no longer a number it's a constant, overwhelming pressure.)
Luck: A ➔ A++ (She is favored by the source of all existence, added to the compatibility between her and her master.)
Noble Phantasm: A++ ➔ EX (Her NP no longer just "emulates" Avalon it might actually pull a piece of the true, un-falsified Utopia into the world.)
---
---
---
---
---
Time passes since I summoned Lady Ava as my Caster.
She immediately gets along with everyone here by pretending to be one of the caretakers of the orphanage, using hypnosis magecraft to make them completely believe she has always been working here for years just like Aunty Ria and Aunty Nana.
I don't mind her doing that, but the problem about that is.
"Ava-neechan, let's play~!"
"Noo, I'm hungry! I want to eat first,
Ava-neechan!"
"But it's better if we play first so we can eat a lot more later, right, Ava-neechan?"
In her hypnosis she specifically added a rule that all my friends here always been calling her with "Onee-chan."
Now she keeps making this blissfully satisfied expression every single time they call her that.
Aside from playing caretaker Lady Ava also spends most of her time at the orphanage using her Territory Creation skill, which she says has also increased to EX rank.
I don't exactly know what that means, but it sounds pretty good especially since she makes sure her territory will never get detected by anyone or any other Servant.
With that the orphanage gets a guaranteed stamp of safety from her.
More time passes and soon enough the time to rescue Sakura is finally here.
After turning eight it mean it's been a few months since I summoned her.
So far my body doesn't feel uncomfortable at all, even though Lady Ava has been using my Od as her prana for months.
Working alongside Lady Ava or Caster which is what she told me to call her when we're acting in a Master-Servant relationship makes things incredibly easy.
We easily infiltrate the Matou territory.
Caster even manages to claim it as her own on the spot and then completely hijacks the entire system of Zouken Matou's crest worms.
She forces all the worms Zouken ever created down into the basement.
Once they are all gathered there, she purifies everything in a single sweep, making all of them disappear entirely—including Zouken's soul.
While Caster deals with the worms, I meet with Sakura in her bedroom inside the Matou mansion. Thankfully we aren't latebas she just arrived here this afternoon.
I spend my time trying to earn her trust and become her friend, staying by her side until late at night when she finally falls asleep in my lap.
Caster returns not long after announcing that she is finished.
She decides this place isn't bad for a secondary base, so she sets up an illusion bounded field over the property.
If anyone ever tries to approach the mansion now, they will simply get hit by the illusion and leave.
Afterward we bring Sakura back to the orphanage, since it's easily the safest place in this city during the war.
But the next day at night i get dragged right back out by her because she senses a Servant intentionally leaking their prana into the air, basically inviting everyone to come to their location.
So here I am standing on top of a shipping container in the middle of the night at the docks.
"Why did you wake me up for this? I'm really sleepy..." I complain as I scratch my eye.
"Look, look! Most of the Servants are going to show up here. Aren't you interested to see them?!" Caster says enthusiastically, pointing down below us where Lancer is standing alone waiting for the others.
"No..." I sigh, mostly because I already know exactly who they all are from the anime.
In my original plan I wrote that I wanted to see Gilgamesh at least once but that was back before I became a Master.
Now that I actually am one I'm starving to think that's a bad idea.
If I get spotted by Gilgamesh or any other Servant, they will probably attack me immediately.
"Ohh look, a car arrived," Lady Ava suddenly says, pointing downward as two people step out of the vehicle.
Seeing the car i immediately know who the two people that are getting out of the car.
"So that's the King Arthur of this world?" Lady Ava murmurs, looking at Saber with genuine interest. "She's exactly what I imagined Arthur as a woman would be like."
From there everything happens exactly like in the anime.
Saber and Lancer fightnand eventually Saber gets tricked into removing her invisible armor.
Because of that Lancer manage to slices her left wrist with his yellow spear, cursing her with a wound that cannot be healed by normal means.
Saber quickly restores her armor but it's already too late.
With her left arm injured, she is at a severe disadvantage.
But suddenly lightning strikes from the sky, and Rider appears along with his Master on his massive chariot.
Lady Ava watches them with clear amusement acting as if she's just enjoying a late-night movie.
"Are there others watching us?!" Rider suddenly said his voice echoing across the docks. "For those who hide in the shadows, do not think you can escape the King of Conquerors' eyes! If you are a true hero, do not cower in the dark! Come forth and witness this duel, or face my chariot yourself!"
Instead of answering Lady Ava simply watches as golden particles begin to gather on top of a nearby streetlamp.
My eyes widening the moment Gilgamesh fully materializes.
Golden armor, crimson eyes, and that arrogance... but she is a woman.
My brain completely short-circuits for a moment after seeing that Gilgamesh is a woman here?!
She immediately starts insulting Rider and Saber, arrogantly declaring that she is the one true king of the world and that all treasures belong to her.
Watching her from our hiding spot, Lady Ava's expression shifts.
Her usual playful smile is still there but there is a strange, unreadable glint in her eyes as she listens to the golden queen talk about kingship.
"Well then," Lady Ava suddenly says, turning to me with a graceful spin.
She taps her staff lightly on the container "Since there are so many 'Kings' gathering down there, it would be rude if we didn't go down and say hello, right? Let's go, Master."
"Hah?"
---
---
---
The moment Gilgamesh appeared, the atmosphere at the docks changed drastically.
The sheer weight of her arrogance, combined with her striking, undeniable beauty silenced the entire battlefield.
"So, there are two lowly creatures here who dare to call themselves kings in my presence," she said, her crimson eyes looking down on Saber, Lancer, and Rider from atop the streetlamp.
"But it's true! I, Iskandar, am the legendary King of Conquerors," Rider replied, scratching his cheek as he looked up at the golden Archer.
"Nonsense. The only one worthy of being called a king is right here. Not you two mongrels."
The two of them began to argue, throwing insults back and forth, until Rider finally hit a nerve.
"If you're really a king, then why don't you tell us your name?" Rider challenged. "A true king shouldn't be afraid to reveal who they are."
That single sentence completely shattered her composure.
The streetlamp she stood on cracked under the sudden, immense pressure, its light instantly shattering and going dark.
"You dare to question me, you mongrels?!"
Her expression twisted into pure fury, her crimson eyes practically glowing in the dark.
In the next second, the space behind her rippled, and multiple Gates of Babylon opened at once.
The golden light spilling from the portals illuminated the entire dock, revealing a terrifying array of noble phantasms.
The glowing weapons slowly emerged from the gates, all of them aiming directly at Rider, waiting for a single command to fire.
Seeing the countless glowing portals open up behind the golden King made everyone at the docks widen their eyes in absolute shock.
The sheer amount of magical energy pouring out of the gates was completely suffocating.
"Impossible! Are all of those weapons Noble Phantasms?!" Waver screamed in pure terror while tightly grabbing his own hair.
The situation was incredibly tense.
Saber tightly gripped the invisible hilt of Excalibur with her right hand.
Her left arm still hung uselessly at her side from Lancer's cursed spear, but she prepared herself to dodge or deflect any stray weapons that might fly her way.
Just as the tension reached its absolute peak, something completely out of place caught Saber's attention.
A single beautiful pink flower suddenly pushed its way through the cold concrete of the docks right next to her armored boots.
"What is that?" Saber muttered as she looked down at the blooming petals.
Before anyone could answer her the entire atmosphere shifted.
The heavy and oppressive prana coming from the golden portals was suddenly washed away by a gentle and warm breeze.
Everyone watched in stunned silence as the barren ground of the shipping yard was rapidly enveloped by a massive sea of colorful blooming flowers.
Saber immediately froze and her green eyes widened in absolute disbelief.
This specific type of Magecraft and the sweet scent of these flowers gave her an incredibly strong sense of déjà vu.
She grew up dealing with this exact kind of illusion magic, and the person who cast it constantly trolled her for years back in Camelot.
'I know this feeling.' Saber thought while her grip on her sword shifted nervously. 'This smells exactly like his magic. There is no way that annoying Magus of Flowers is actually here right now.'
Lancer instantly took a defensive stance and pointed his two spears toward the ground, completely unsure if the plants were dangerous.
Rider just stroked his thick beard and let out a booming laugh, looking completely amused rather than afraid of the sudden change in scenery.
High up on the streetlamp Gilgamesh narrowed her crimson eyes in deep annoyance.
Gilgamesh clearly did not appreciate someone else using such flashy Magecraft to steal her audience's attention right when she was about to execute someone.
A sudden and gentle wind swept through the docks, picking up a flurry of pink and white petals from the blooming ground.
They danced gracefully in the air and swirled around the highly confused Heroic Spirits.
"What is this? Is this a Territory Creation skill?" Lancer asked while tightening his grip on his dual spears. "Has Caster decided to show themselves too?"
Everyone's eyes naturally followed the swirling trail of petals as the wind carried them straight up toward the terrifying golden portals floating behind Gilgamesh.
Before she could even react, the gentle petals effortlessly bypassed the sharp blades of her legendary weapons.
The moment a petal touched the cold metal of a sword or spear, the weapon suddenly glowed with a brilliant white light.
In the blink of an eye the deadly treasures appearing from the Gate of Babylon completely transformed into massive and colorful blooming flowers.
Gilgamesh stared at her ruined display of power in absolute disbelief.
Her crimson eyes widened in pure shock before her expression quickly morphed into explosive and uncontrollable fury.
"You dare defile my priceless treasures with this cheap parlor trick?!" Gilgamesh roared loudly, her voice trembling with absolute rage.
Down below on his chariot Rider burst into a booming fit of laughter.
He clearly found the sight of the arrogant golden King surrounded by giant pretty flowers absolutely hilarious.
Saber however, did not find it funny at all.
A cold sweat ran down her back as her terrible sense of déjà vu completely took over.
'I know this annoying magic.' Saber thought while gritting her teeth in dread. 'Please do not tell me he is actually here.'
Right at that moment a cheerful and incredibly melodic voice echoed across the tense battlefield, completely ignoring the murderous aura radiating from the streetlamp above.
"Oh my, all three legendary Kings are gathered here together." The sweet voice called out playfully. "It would be an absolute tragedy if the ultimate Kingmaker missed a grand party like this right~"
The sudden wind abruptly changed direction, pulling away from the furious Gilgamesh and diving straight back down to the ground.
The massive swarm of floating petals followed the current perfectly.
They gathered together in a single spot on the docks, swirling rapidly in a tight circle to create a thick, blinding tornado made entirely out of colorful flowers.
Everyone watched the swirling vortex with intense caution.
But instead of an attack, the wind suddenly died down.
The flower tornado completely dispersed into the air, showering the concrete with a gentle, slow-motion rain of petals.
Standing right in the center of the fading storm were two figures.
One was Rikka, who looked completely terrified and desperately wanted to shrink into the background.
The other was a breathtakingly beautiful woman with long, flowing hair, holding a staff and wearing an incredibly mischievous smile.
Saber stared at the beautiful woman in absolute disbelief, a cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.
The mysterious woman stepped forward, completely ignoring the heavy, murderous tension in the air.
She gently pinched the sides of her elegant dress and lifted the fabric slightly.
Placing one leg behind the other, she gracefully bowed her head to the gathered Servants in a flawless, elegant noble curtsy.
But instead of staying formal, she suddenly popped her head back up with a bright, idol-like smile.
She brought one hand up to playfully frame her face, gave a dramatic, exaggerated wink, and even blew a teasing kiss right up toward the furious golden Archer.
"Ta-da! The one and only Kingmaker has finally arrived." She announced cheerfully, striking a cute pose with her staff.
"My name is Lady Avalon, the Caster class Servant for this Holy Grail War, and it is an pleasure to meet all of you~"
---
---
---
A/N: Just a quick reminder in case you forgot or did not realize, This "what if" scenario happens because Rikka chose not to go to Manaka at the park and went back to Lady Ava instead.
Rather than Rikka destroying her Command Spells, Lady Ava managed to smooth-talk Rikka into actually summoning her.