[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/CuqIep0.png[/img][/center]
[h3]Fancy Tea Shop, Shinto City [/h3]
[@Red Alice]
[hr]

The Prime Grail War had begun. 

It started earlier, much earlier in fact. One could argue that the Prime Grail War had begun once the Third Grail War ended the way it did. Someone actually gifted in seeing the future might have easily seen such a result. Unfortunately, none of the families present in that war were proficient in such a thing. In fact, it seems none of them still learned that lesson. If they did, they would have been smart enough to not even bother retrying such an idiotic war.

Well, in a way, Kiyomi did thank them. She needed this war after all. Once more, the stupidity of others fueled her interests. 

This local tea shop Taiga had recommended for her was nice. She had spent the day prior with her friend, though it was mostly filled with shopping and kendo. Taiga was a simple person at her core, but it made her happy, so Kiyomi had no issues with it. While Kiyomi didn’t buy any of the clothing, she did model her current attire on it. It was a simple yellow T-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and a white sweater wrapped around her waist. According to the advertisement, this was supposedly all the rage in Gifu? Something about the attire seemed a little out of date though...

The aroma of her Hōjicha brought comfort. This little moment in this tea shop would be the last moment of true calm before Kiyomi properly entered the war. She may have already arrived in Fuyuki and summoned her Servant, but she was not mentally present in the war. She was still here to visit her good friend Taiga. The actual reality of the war had not truly entered her mind, as she simply sought to enjoy the last moments of peace she may ever have.

With the last sips of tea entering her lips and washing out her throat, so too did this facade of peace wash away. 

Kiyomi Mayama was a demon. It was time to act as such.

With a new look of conviction in her eyes, Kiyomi pulled out a folder she had. It was filled with her notes about the war.

To begin with, the Holy Grail War was always a scam. If you were not one of the Einzbern, Matou, or Tohsaka, then victory was never going to happen. 

This is the unspoken rule of the Original Holy Grail War. 

The Einzbern, Matou, and Tohsaka are the only ones who can truly seize victory. The rest simply exist as fodder. This is by design, of course. Who wouldn’t make a ritual where all the cards were in your hands? As an outsider, Kiyomi obviously hated it, but it isn’t like she could blame the founders. She would have done the exact same thing. Well, maybe she would have been a little less snake-y about it. 

The Mayama stay honest to their alliances, at the very least.

Even among the founding families, there was clearly a pecking order. While any of the three were allowed to win, one family was clearly a [i]Bishop[/i] to the other’s [i]Queen[/i].

The Matou were the creators of the entire system and ritual. If information is the most important thing in war, then the Matou were clearly more dangerous than any other. The old worm was a super genius for creating such a ritual, but to think the other families simply let this happen was hard for Kiyomi to process at first. Of course, she quickly understood that despite the Matou’s absurd advantage, even it was nothing to the Einzbern's.

The Einzbern were the ones who held the key. It was as simple as that. One family was in control of actually starting the grail. What a completely absurd advantage. Who would actually agree to this? Such an unfair advantage should have been stomped out in the first ritual, but it wasn’t. Maybe there truly was no other way, but as it stood, the Einzbern were the family with the greatest control over the war.

The Tohsaka.

Tohsaka…

They uh…

Hm.

They were the [i]Bishops[/i] among the [i]Queens[/i]. They could win the ritual, but they were clearly lesser than the other two. In fact, they were probably just advanced fodder for the Einzbern and Matou. They could never hope to have leverage or power while alongside them. Holding the land was a nice boost, but it was not even close to what the other two held up their sleeves. As it stood, the Tohsaka were like the little brother invited because mom told the bigger brothers to bring them along.

What a rigged game. 

Of course, this meant that everyone else, including Kiyomi, were [i]Pawns[/i]. There was no genuine path to victory for them. They were fodder meant to fill up the cup until the real game masters could claim victory. At base, this was unavoidable. 

A [i]Pawn[/i] can not win The Holy Grail

This too, is an unwritten rule. 

That means that the goal of any [i]Pawn[/i] is to become a [i]Queen[/i] and turn the board inside out.

And so, this would be Kiyomi’s initial plan. She needed to elevate her status from [i]Pawn[/i] if she ever wanted to win the Prime Grail War. It would not be easy, especially considering the information she had on hand.

The founding families were working together prior to this war. While they have formally declared war on each other, could such a thing really be the case? What if it was all smoke and mirrors? What if they sought to work together once more so they could abuse their advantages as the controllers of this game? Such an outcome was completely possible, and it was clearly the worst outcome for all of the players. In that scenario, the path to leaving the status of [i]Pawn[/i] was nearly completely closed off.

The Matou representative was a monster. This was not a term Kiyomi used lightly, but there was no other way to describe him. In fact, Kiyomi had no problem declaring him the most dangerous thing in this war. Sure, she had no idea about the other [i]Pawns[/i], but they were not going to compare to him. If the situation between them was slightly different, Kiyomi surely would have skipped this war.

The Einzbern were relying on a mercenary. As much as she wanted to mock the family for falling to such a state, she could not blame them. The amount of effort spent to build the essentials for the war was absurd, so instead of relying on them in combat where it could backfire, a mercenary was the right call. Now, that also means they have no real way to ensure loyalty, but it was better off to not speculate with things like that. The Einzbern likely had a way to ensure some level of loyalty. The mercenary they were using was a powerful one though. He was famous in the West for his work or something? Kiyomi made a mental note to be especially on guard with him. 

The Tohsaka completely bound themselves to those apes in the West, so they’ve become much more brutish. Barbarians were barbarians in the end though, so she actually gave little thought to the situation of their current head. Still, having them involved with the Einzbern and Matou would surely be an unprecedented disaster for this war. They controlled the land and had a barrier over Miyama, two things Kiyomi could not take for granted.

Fortunately, the situation was still likely within a manageable position. The path to victory was clear to Kiyomi, so all she needed to do was work to enact it.

[color=05EF00]“Rider, I believe I’m done here. How was the tea? Taiga suggested the place, so I hope it was to your liking."[/color]

Kiyomi was more than pleased with the Servant she had summoned. Considering her catalyst was a well preserved autumn leaf, there was a big chance of failure in the summoning. Thankfully, the compatibility portion of the summoning mechanism was working perfectly well. Truly, there was no better fitting for Kiyomi. What was better than one Oni Queen? Two Oni Queens. It was simple Oni math.

Of course, they had a myriad of other similarities, but that was left best concealed for now.

Regardless, she liked her Servant. They were a bit off, but it was not like Kiyomi was in a position to judge. A clingy Servant was better than one who you would never get along with. In regards to goals and war outlook, they were completely aligned. Her power also solidly placed her amongst the greatest Servants this war could provide. In other words, Kiyomi had drawn the winning card.

While her Servant was responding about the tea, Kiyomi began to weave five familiars from the tattoos present on her body. It was a simple task, one that would only take a moment. Everything needed to forge them was already done, all that was required was molding them into the right shape. Once that was done, Kiyomi’s five little shadow yokai familiars would be complete.

[color=05EF00]“Mind giving them a little blessing, Rider? The world can be harsh to little things like these.”[/color]

The five little shadows glided across the table over to the Servant, awaiting the Servant’s blessing. Once they received their blessings, they would mold into the shadow of nearby birds as cover, and depart. This would allow them to hide their presence even further, which was the main goal with a familiar scouting network. Their targets were the Outskirts of the Einzbern abode, the Foreign District, Southern Moor, Mount Enzo, and Miyama. 

[color=05EF00]“Our next stop is to visit the Mayor. It has been a while, but unfortunately for him, I’m sure he remembers my face.”[/color]

With her familiars ready and her Servant behind her, Kiyomi began the walk to visit an old….friend. Sure, we can go with that. 
[hr]
[h3] Moving into Fuyuki Civic Center, Shinto Town[/h3]