Illusion Breaker

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Surprisingly enough, a moderately sized black object resembling a shield would suddenly appear, protecting the leader from the bullets. This was the work of the young man's power, Dark Matter. Not to be confused with the real life dark matter, or rather, material that has yet to be captured by humans, the young man's power referred to material that did not exist until he willed it. He was almost like a god of creation in a way, as this power let the leader materialize "Dark Matter" into any shape he pleases, and is said to be able to defy the Laws of Physics.

"Y'know... this is why I suggested actual, trained and experienced soldiers, like perhaps that God's Right Seat organization. Not you damn Freshmen recruits. Can't even take care of a single guy..." He muttered grouchily, unfazed that the fact that he was almost shot at and murdered, "But I mean... I suppose I can see where Fiamma of the Right is coming from with the Freshmen being more easy and convenient in comparison. You shoulda seen how you guys pissed your pants after I beat the shit outta that Kuroyoru kid..." He laughed, placing a familiar-looking object in the pocket of his jacket, before pocketing his hands and beginning to walk towards Frank's position.

"Hey, old man. You seem pretty well trained. I was always told mages don't team up with your kind of people," he spoke, stopping a few feet away, intending to let his soldiers, apparently called the Freshmen, "But y'know, I'm at least curious. Who are you? I was gonna ask if you knew who I was, but then again, this isn't my world. How annoying... The name's Teitoku Kakine. The second strongest esper in all of Academy City. Why don't ya give up and I'll make this a peaceful, quick death?"

Physically, as mentioned before, the so-called Teitoku Kakine couldn't be much older than Rin, assuming he was even older at all. 16 at the youngest, 22 at the oldest, probably. He was somewhat scrawny and unimpressive looking, but his demeanor suggested that he knew exactly what kind of situation he was in.

From the other sides, the Freshmen soldiers began to attempt to flank Frank, slowly becoming more organized as they got used to his presence, believing they had him pinned down.

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Frank didn't answer, or reveal himself. He was in no mood to talk. Seeing the men draw nearer almost drew a grin from Frank. He moved to better cover and waited for one to get close before knocking his arm away and his head up... at which point, the old man dug his teeth into his assailant's neck, causing blood to drench his face. Never underestimate intimidation.

The former vigilante knew he was in trouble, though, so he made a hasty exit through a window. Before long, he was behind his van. A door slammed. A few moments later, a rocket soared at the first soldier Frank saw peek. The van was pretty much the same as his battle van. It was more or less bullet proof and had a squadron's worth of guns.​
 
As the rocket would collide into the building, instantly killing whoever dared to peek, Kakine would whistle in a mixture of impression and moderate surprise. "That's gotta hurt. And it's gotta cost a lot too. Then again, I'm sure the dumb broad who lives here can probably just buy another mansion.." He muttered, drawing the item that he had taken from the chest. An imperfect copy of the legendary artifact, the Jeweled Sword of Zelretch, which is able to leap through dimensions through the Multi-Dimensional Refraction Phenomenon.

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Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, according to Rin, at least, is one of the most esteemed and famous mages in the history of the Association, also going by one of the five Magicians in the world, as his discovered ability to leap through dimensions has come to be known as "The Second Magic," one of five "True Magic" spells that differed greatly from normal magecraft. Said to be thousands of years old and preserved by vampire blood, he is the teacher of Rin's ancestor, Nagato Tohsaka. Impressed by Nagato's potential and natural talent, he had given the blueprint of his Jeweled Sword to the Tohsaka family, giving them a sort of long-term homework that he expected to be cracked sometime in the next several generations.

Rin would somewhat succeed at this, as demonstrated when she created it several months ago under the supervision of Kirei Kotomine. This copy that she created came to be the very device that transported her and Kotomine to the Coalition Headquarters, and as the months went by, it has improved quite a bit in its use, almost coming close in terms of efficiency as the original, but still not quite.

Little did anyone know the one fatal flaw it had.

"Hmph. I wonder what Fiamma of the Right would want with this. Whatever... Y'know, why are we even still here? We got this thing now, and from there, that guy couldn't hope to get it back..." Kakine said to himself, whistling again, before shockingly enough, an attack helicopter would materialize practically out of nowhere, likely a product of Kakine's Dark Matter manipulation. Navigating itself towards the window of Rin's room, the pilot would attempt to apply pressure by shooting machine gun fire on the van while Kakine and the surviving Freshmen would board.

Before long, once they had all finished boarding, the helicopter would suddenly stop and abruptly begin to take off, fleeing the scene. At the same time, Kakine, tinkering around with the Jeweled Sword of Zelretch like a curious child, would accidentally discharge light from it, or rather, magical energy. Unknown to him, the form of this light was discharged as heat. Heat strong enough to be seeked out by a rocket to be specific.

"Aha! So this magecraft stuff is real. Fiamma of the Right wasn't pulling my leg after all," he said, chuckling to himself as the Jeweled Sword began to leave a trail of heated energy, the young man oblivious of it, "It's a shame though. That old man was interesting. But he's not our concern. I'll let someone else deal with him later, probably. We've already caused enough commotion within the city. Dammit, this was supposed to be a secret operation. But we're gonna end up on the news for sure!"

Truly, it seemed like they were inexperienced. Powerful, but inexperienced.​
 
Frank was pinned, but the helicopter actually left him at the advantage. Thing was, he didn't need the heat-seeking aspect to nail the vehicle as it fled. The old man aimed, listening to the beep as the launcher tracked the heat. The rocket sailed out. Frank dropped down and started to reload.​
 
The helicopter's radar would beep, detecting the rocket shortly after it was unleashed. Unaware that Kakine fiddling around with it was the source of it, one of the surviving Freshmen approached him hurriedly, as he was the only one on the plane with any superhuman power, unlike everyone else, who was a moderately trained soldier that lacked experience. "Sir, we're detecting a missile headed straight for us! Do something!"

"Huh? Please, that's just silly. Why would a mage from this world ever--" He began to say carelessly, but before he could even finish his sentence, the rocket hit its target, the explosion killing the majority of the hostile forces inside, and the rest dying once the helicopter gunship crashed into the ground in the middle of the normally so peaceful Fuyuki City. Luckily, no civilians were harmed, as at this time of day, everyone was already where they were supposed to be, whether it be at school or work. However, it wouldn't be long at all until the authorities would be alerted to the crash and the news would be all over it. Since there were no witnesses, and the helicopter swerved all over the place before hitting the pavement, it would be difficult for anyone to track the direction in which the rocket was shot, fortunately for Frank.

Regardless, it was time to make himself scarce. Once alerted fully to the situation, schools would probably be evacuated, which meant Rin would be home a little earlier than expected.​
 
Frank knew this would be bad for Rin. So he did his part, cleaning up the blood and disposing of the bodies. He left her a note detailing the events before heading to the crash. Frank hoped to find someone still alive, and to recover what was stolen. He was prepared to hijack emergency vehicles, too, if need be.

Though it was a little cliche, Frank brought a ski mask. He also put on his Death's Head Kevlar vest under his trench coat. Of course he traveled on foot.

So far, he'd gone pretty far out of his way to establish his cover with the police. As far as they were concerned, Francis Castiglione was just a sweet old man. He had participated in community service, volunteered with the fire department, and helped rebuild some. It was a cover he'd used before. Hopefully, it would last.​
 
As Frank would make his way to the scene of the fiery crash, a few concerned and curious residents crowding around the place already, he would be able notice a few things about the situation. One, for all the deceased bodies of the armed Freshmen, the body of Teitoku Kakine was gone, mysteriously enough. At least, the majority of it anyway. An arm and a leg remained, as well as a large patch of blood, and they could be identified as his limbs because of the remaining clothing. On top of that, the object that he had come to Rin's mansion for, the copy of the Jeweled Sword of Zelretch, was also missing. Secondly, on one of the Freshmen corpses, Frank would be able to notice something odd about it compared to the others. If he were to further examine it, he would notice that this particular Freshman was murdered via gunshot to the head, as inferred by the crack in his helmet, right between the eyes, as if the crash didn't kill him.

It could only mean one thing. Someone else had gotten to the site before anyone else did, and disappeared without a trace.

Before long, police sirens would be able to be heard in the distance, meaning that the authorities had been alerted and that an official investigation was about to start. The people around Frank continued to murmur among themselves, the crowd growing rapidly by the minute, traffic stopping completely. It was a wonder that the news channel would likely reach this after the authorities.​
 
He held back a frustrated growl before more or less vanishing into the ever growing crowd. Now would come the hard part... dealing with Rin. Frank hadn't been gone terribly long, afraid the attackers had reinforfements, but he knew that, if she was home, she would not be happy.

There wasn't much else to do but for him to ever so cautiously creep through the hole in the wall.​
 
As soon as Frank would come back into the mansion, specifically Rin's bedroom, through the hole in the wall, he would come face to face with an irritated Rin, still in her school uniform, as if she were waiting for him there. It was almost comical, a cartoony vein showing up in her forehead as she glared at him.

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"Why... is there a hole in the wall? Is this somehow related to the crash that interrupted my day? I demand answers and I demand them now! Next thing I know, you're gonna tell me that some weird men broke into the house and tried to rob the place!" She exclaimed, apparently having missed the note that Frank had written before he left. Letting out a soft sigh as she gradually calmed down, Rin's eyes would soften up a bit. "Well... at least you're okay, I suppose. Though you do look suspiciously dirty..."​
 
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A sheepish, almost ashamed look crosses his face. Frank had tried very hard to stay out of unnecessary trouble for her, and seeing her disappointed with him genuinely made the old man sad, even if her anger was completely unwarranted. After all, it wasn't like he had been responsible for what happened. "That is what happened, Rin. Don't know who they were. Didn't get a good look at what they took. I shot their helicopter down, but someone got whatever it was before I could get there." His eyes didn't completely meet hers.

Hearing that she was happy he was okay made him perk up, though.

"Whatever they took was from your room." Frank led her past bullet holes, and the very rare missed patch of blood, to her room. He honestly had no idea what was stole.​
 
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"H-Huh? Wait, nononononono... they couldn't have..." Rin said in a small panic upon hearing what Frank had said, her eyes laying upon the destroyed chest in the corner as her face had gone completely pale. Kneeling down, she began to dig through the remains, only to find nothing, unfortunately. Getting up, she would walk over to the hole in the wall, looking out into the city through it, biting her lip anxiously.

"If they stole what I think was stolen... we might be in serious trouble," the teenager mumbled in a distressed tone, "That was my very own copied Jeweled Sword of Zelretch. The item that let me travel in between worlds and let me meet you in the old Coalition Headquarters. If it's in another's hands, there's no telling what they might do with it... But who would do such a thing?" She asked, before rushing off out of the room, getting the phone and punching in the number that connected her to Kotomine's church.

In the background, her exchanges with the priest could be heard. At first, it sounded like they were arguing, and then like she was getting berated, and lastly, they seemed to have reached a common ground. Before long, Rin would return with a tense sigh, sitting down on her bed. "Jeez... if it was already gone by the time you got to that crash, then we'll have to try to identify the bodies before it's too late. Though normal people aren't aware of the existence of mages, Kirei and the Association could probably pull some strings, or so he says. Kirei tells me he hopes to ascertain the culprits within a few days. The Association and the Church have many enemies, y'know..." She explained, taking a breath, before talking again, "In the meantime, he says that I should focus on summoning my Servant. The Holy Grail War can't be delayed for any longer apparently, and I have to focus on that. I didn't prepare ten years to be sidetracked by this. Their reasoning is that since I don't know firsthand the true workings of the Second Magic, the copy isn't that valuable anyway to the ones who secured it, but it's still a high risk thing. But I suppose there's little we can do about that right now..."​
 
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"Don't see why you need a Servant when you have me." Frank muttered. He was confident no mage could dodge a bullet that came from a mile away. "How does the summoning shit work anyways? Besides, what if you get stuck with a Servant stronger than you?"​
 
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"I need a Servant because that's my official token into the Holy Grail War. That, and the Command Spell that I receive upon the summoning," Rin explained, gradually calming down as the minutes went by, "I'll spare you all the mumbo jumbo that would fly over your head, but the mechanics of summoning is complicated depending on which Servant you want. It all depends on the incantations I recite, the positioning of the objects of the room I'm in, the time of day, and the catalyst, in case I'm sure of which particular Heroic Spirit I have in mind," She would continue, brushing aside some hair, "For example, if I wanted to summon a Heroic Spirit like Poseidon, I'd have to acquire some water from the ancient seas over which he supposedly ruled so that my chances of summoning him can skyrocket."

Upon hearing the last question from Frank, Rin would almost give a patronizing smile. "Silly, that would just be all the better for me if the Servant was far stronger than me. A Servant who is weaker than me would be practically useless in this war because that would mean he wouldn't be able to compete against other Servants. Kirei at his strongest could probably barely be able to hold his own against a low-level Servant, and even if my magecraft proficiency is higher than his, there's no way I could ever hope to be as physically strong or fast as him," She spoke, swaying her legs back and forth briefly as the girl continued to sit on the bed, "I appreciate the concern, but I'll be fine. If worst comes to worst, I'll have to waste a Command Spell on a command so banal like "Don't attack me." Like I said, they go through that thing where they examine me and silently judge me, before deciding if I'm worth respecting or not. I didn't lose you anywhere, did I?"​
 
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Scowling upon hearing her tone, he muttered something about her not taking this seriously enough before crossing his arms and cleaning one of his guns. The way this was going, Frank was increasingly sure he would have to kill everyone for Rin. In fact, he wanted to. He didn't want to see Rin become like him or Kotomine. "Anything I can do to help...?"​
 
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"Well, since you don't have any notable knowledge on my world's magecraft, let alone even have any Magic Circuits to speak of, I don't think so. Though with those fancy mana weapons you got or something, I suppose you could provide backup and cover fire if you were talking about what to do in the war," she spoke, stretching her arms, "For now, I'd suggest that you just keep a watch out, just in case those creeps try to come back. The time to summon my Servant is coming close, so I need to prepare. Could you do that for me?"​
 
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His tone softened a bit at her request. "Yeah... Okay. I'll keep an eye out." Frank sent outside reluctantly, running a hand through his hair. What had he gotten himself in to? Was this any better than the world be left behind?

Then he remembered the Skrull invasion of Earth. He remembered butchering the green aliens. Blood went everywhere. There was screaming and death all over the place, much of it caused by him.

So the happy memories kept him quite occupied.​
 
The rest of the day would pass by somewhat uneventfully, as the so-called "Freshmen" who attacked earlier had not come back. Thus, Rin spent her day making preparations to summon the Servant. Night would fall, and midnight would come. 12:30 AM. That was what all the grandfather clocks said, anyway. The time that Rin desired summoning the Servant in question. Though she didn't provide many details, she had mentioned that she desired summoning a Saber in the past, as they were generally the strongest class. Thus, she had to be careful if she wanted a certain class; the timing, the catalyst, the surroundings, everything.

In her attic, Rin had restructured the surroundings quite a bit, moving around the cabinets and creating a magical seal that resembled an alchemic transmutation circle. Gathering her jewels in hand, Rin began reciting magical incantations and the seal on the floor began to glow an eerie red shine. It was time to summon her key.

...

From throughout the entire house, a large boom, followed by a crash, would be heard. The sound seemed to originate from the living room, and if Frank was nearby, he'd be able to hear a loud yell from Rin from behind the door once she made her way into the living room.​
 
Frank had been outside, but the crash got him busting through the door pretty quickly. His Colt was drawn, and he had bloodlust in his eyes. He had promised to change, but that didn't neat make the craziness magically disappear. He happily leapt at any and all opportunities for murder. "What happened? What's wrong?"​
 
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As Frank would burst into the door, he would be greeted with the sight of the destroyed living room, along with an unfamiliar man sitting in the midst of the place rather casually. There was a hole in the ceiling, almost as if to suggest he shot into the house from the sky. Rin was standing over at the other corner, in front of the door that led to the attic. Judging from the irritated expression on her face, the yell was more out of annoyance rather than fear or anything else, it seemed.

"What's wrong is that I seemed to have been summoned by some lower-class mage who expected a different Heroic Spirit," the man answered without even introducing himself, "Yes, the little miss here seems to have used a potato peeler on a carrot, and the result is a Servant like me who is unable to recall his past life's memories clearly, let alone his identity. What a pain. If I'm stuck with such an incompetent mage, the Holy Grail War may as well be lost for us..."

"Uuuu, shut up, you! First off, I am the head of the Tohsaka bloodline and you'll do well to respect me! Secondly, so what if the timing was off?! It's not my fault! Oh, father, why?! I knew something was off when I showed up to school and no one was around! Why, father?! Why did you set the clocks so that they were an hour ahead on this day?!" Rin exclaimed in frustration without stop, placing her hands on her head in an exaggeratedly panicked expression, before eventually calming down and laying eyes upon the white-haired man, seeming to not acknowledge Frank's existence, "Ugh... whatever. So, now that I'm stuck with you, what class are you, at least?"

"Quite the assertive one, at least. Tohsaka, hmm? Yes, that name does ring a bell. The Throne of Heroes recognizes it as a family that's been there since the First Holy Grail War, it seems. Let's hope your lineage hasn't weakened over time," he replied with a smirk, not moving from his position, "To answer your question, I am an Archer-class Servant, so you may refer to me as Archer. Who might you and the gentleman be?" He asked, turning his head towards Frank, his eyes unwavering and uncaring despite the weapon in his hand.​
 
Frank looked around at the apparent carnage, and did something most unexpected.

He smiled.

"Frank. Frank Castle." He stepped forward and examined the
Servant. For all his bluster, Frank knew the person's job would be to protect Rin. So seeing the kind of damage be may or may not have done, the vigilante wasn't sure, was almost reassuring.

Besides, he had no reason to be jealous, yet. He came here on the premise that maybe he and Rin could get close, and she knew it. She wouldn't betray him, right?​
 
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