Fate/Blockbuster

Lights, Camera, Whoa!

Days in the past (but not many)

Another day, another 24 hours spent doing the same old thing. Not like Ashley cared, since the normal monotony of life was really nice. The fact that he was currently reviewing a film on his camera while chilling in his room certainly added to the experience. It was better than hanging with his magical family, especially his older sister.

"Cmon, Ash! Let's have a spar again! I wanna see you bow down to me and my superior Circuits! Maybe even dominate you for the umpteenth time! Hahahahaha!"

Yeah, his sister was intense. It was better that he was out here, having the normal life instead of being the heir of his family. Being the heir, or heiress in this case, was her job. His sister always had something to pick on whenever he was around anyway, whether it was about his imagination or choice of study.

"Engineering? Hahaha, you want to be a construction worker or something? What for?" Jaime laughed in the afternoon sunlight, teasing but not insulting. That's how it was with her. "Life is so much better than machinery!"

Now as he was engaging in college life, he definitely had to agree....for other reasons. There were so many things to do: study for courses, concepts to draw out, materials to organize, daydream, and hey, he even made some friends!

"Hey, hey! Yoohoo, Earth to Ash!"

Aww crap that was Lisa. She was a fellow part-time mage, an arts student, and full-time friend. Her headphones blared loud music as they dangled on her neck, some J-Rock single. Ashley could tell because it was a song he'd heard many times during their editing sessions.

"Huh? How did you get in here?"

"Silly, remember you gave me a spare key last week?" His music-loving friend grinned and held up her hand. "You'll never believe what I heard and saw. We're having a Grail War, right here in the campus!"

THAT got Ashley fully awake. "Are you serious? There are mages here too? I thought there wouldn't be that many around here, much less a freakin' Holy Grail popping up."

Lisa shrugged. "I don't know how this stuff works. You know, small-time mage family upbringing and whatnot. But I just saw a girl who was in my class hanging around a shady area, and it happened to be near a leyline, then boom!" She threw her hands up in the air for emphasis. "Her summon chanting and magic circle made this guy appear! He asked if she was his Master and everything!"

"Did he now..." Mentally, Ashley groaned hard. So much for the 'normal mage living a mundane life' plan. A War meant collateral damage and probably some attention from the Association. "Did you get his name?"

"No, but he totally looked like B*n*d*ct C*mb*rb*tch. Which means, he could be THE Sherlock Holmes!" Lisa was excited now, her feet tapping the ground to the rhythm of the song. "This could be our chance to have something extraordinary happen!"

Ashley raised an eyebrow. "You're not thinking of participating, are you?"

"No, you egghead! I checked myself, I don't have command seals. But have you looked at yourself?" Lisa peered at his face, squinting. "Because I'm pretty sure you have a mark...right....here." She poked his forehead.

"Uh..."

Awkward silence.

"No...?"

"Anyways!" Lisa sprang back into standing position. "This is the perfect opportunity to base our film pilot on!"

Oh right. That thing. Ashley pursed his lips, dreading the memory of how it was just his luck she signed up for a competition- "Animate a pitch/pilot for a realistic modern sci-fi/fantasy show!". It's like the community just knew there was magic around and wanted to catch him in the act! But the prize (enough money to cover a year of college) was super tempting. But she needed a partner from another field of study, and Ashley got roped into the scheme.

"Ok Lisa, say we do catch the Masters and Servants on film as they fight, and they somehow don't see us. How do we keep this whole thing under wraps?"

"Um, I didn't think that far." She gave Ashley a silly smile. "But we're just bystander mages, I doubt anyone is going to give us attention unless we compete. And besides, it makes for an amazing concept, right? Summoning ancient, powerful heroes of old in a battle royale for the chance to attain anything you ever wanted..." She said it all in a dreamy tone. "This is the Ultimate Battle of Ultimate Destiny! It's a scenario just begging to become a story! Or even a series! Heck, even a movie trilogy-"

"Bah. I'll be dead if any other mage figures out what the project's concept was. It'll blow our cover!"

"I have an idea. I'll record you doing a summon, and then we'll see if it looks too cheesy or suspicious to make a project out of. Magic summoning rituals are pretty generic, you know." Lisa pulled out her phone from the bag, ready to record. "This is our proof of concept!"

Ashley sighed. "Somehow, I get the feeling you just want to see me summon a Servant for real and participate." But there wasn't a strong leyline here, so it would be harmless, right?

He took a piece of chalk on his desk to carve symbols into the floor, culminating in a circle of arcane scripture. "Hmm," he mumbled to himself. "I don't exactly need a catalyst, but..."

"Good to see that you're getting into it!"

The young mage turned to look at Lisa, who was already recording him with her phone. He sighed and pulled out a tiny spare reel of film. It was one of those obsolete Kodak ones that he somehow had an endless supply of in his pockets. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he sighed dejectedly. "This is stupid."

"Nonsense! A mage like you should be taking this seriously!" Lisa looked at the circle and back at Ash. "Wait, you do know the ritual chant, right?"

"Yep. My family's been meaning to pull off stunts like these since centuries. It comes with being an Ainsworth." Ashley took a deep breath, and began the incantation to (hopefully not) summon a Heroic Spirit.

"Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation. Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall. Let the four cardinal gates close. Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate."

The magic circle actually began to glow. "Oh shit," gasped Lisa quietly. "It's actually working." She pressed a button on her headphones to stop the music.

"Let it be declared now; your flesh shall serve under me, and my fate shall be with your sword. Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail. Answer, if you would submit to this will and this truth."

It was funny then, how Ashley's tone got more and more into the chant, as if the words coaxed the indifference out of him.

"An oath shall be sworn here. I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven; I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell. From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power, come forth from the ring of restraint, protector of the holy balance!"

Ah, if he was an ordinary person, he'd say these words sounded like pure flowery BS.

But this was real life. This was no fantasy.

And of course something happened. The light exploded as the magic circle seared to life, knocking Ashley flat on his ass and Lisa covering her face with her free hand. Thank the stars his roommate was on vacation, or else Ashley would have to explain the scorch marks on the floor.

The light dimmed quickly, revealing a humanoid figure...with bunny ears.

"Argh...that hurt." Ashley rubbed his eye, only for them to focus on what had to be the most ridiculous creature he'd expect to come from the summon. In his defense, he was expecting some mystical sorcerer or an actual rabbit at the least.

He was not expecting a pink haired playboy bunny with the most smiley looking smile he had ever seen in the history of plastered smiles, much less one that sounded like she came from France.

"Hello! I'm Rider, but you can call me the White Rabbit of Inaba!" She tilted her head to look at the two bumbling mages. "So then, which one of you is my Master?"

Awkward silence. Ashley slowly raised his hand in an accusatory manner. "You're not a rabbit familiar-"

And then, not as slowly,

Ashley fainted.