It's pretty difficult not to recognize the big-ass suit of knightly armor a man's wearing. If you've got the foreknowledge of what Riders are (which Jackson presumably has, being a Heroic Spirit), recognizing one that fits into the stereotype would be pretty easy.
Wes almost breathed a sigh of relief. Crisis: averted. He smiled. His Servant was weird. Well-meaning, but weird. I mean it's not like he minded, what with her almost literally bending over backwards to please him, but he had a feeling life with Tamamo would be interesting.
Was he ready for it? Maybe. His father hadn't really been the "commitment" type, but the influence he'd had on Wes' life was less than the commercial for a box of Cheerios.
Of course the question "what if I lose and one of us dies" hung over his head like a heart-shaped sword of Damocles, but Wes wasn't worried about that. At least, not like "really worried", he thought somewhat nervously. He'd planned far enough ahead to know that he had a winning strategy, and new ideas were popping into his head every second now that he knew what Tamamo was capable of. He was confident in his ability to win, with whatever methods or measures were necessary.
"Alright, change of plans," he said, standing up and rolling up his sleeping bag. "We're renting a boat. We have to get as far off the mainland as possible. Tamamo, grab that rat!"
Wes pointed to a particularly large rodent trying to squeak past unnoticed in the corner of the shed. Once she had done so, he looked the wriggling rat in the eyes and
With the rat incapacitated, Wes gingerly took it from Tamamo and placed it in an Amazon box with bubblewrap to cushion it. There was work to be done to make this a proper familiar, and this was not the place.
Peeking his head outside, he had Tamamo dematerialize.
Alright, I might need you to do some translating for me, so if we run into anyone speaking Japanese, be ready.
He then approached the warehouse supervisor he'd met with earlier, an American expat by the name of Bob. He'd been working in Fuyuki on a contract for his company for a few years after the divorce. This was to be his last season in Japan.
"Hey, Bob," Wes said.
"<Hurry it up! What the hell are you loligagging around for?!>" he shouted in heavily accented Japanese before turning to face Wes. "Oh, it's you again, kid. What, was the shed not up to your standards or something? I told you it was a shithole."
"No, the shed is actually quite fine," Wes said, putting on a smile.
"Well... good. Because you ain't getting the deposit back," Bob said, ready to get back to work. "Is there... something else you wanted?"
"Actually there is," Wes said. "That yacht over there, parked down the docks a ways away. I'd like to charter it for a few days. Do you know who I'd talk to if I wanted to make that happen?"
Five minutes and some light hypnosis later, Wes had convinced the owner to hand over the yacht in exchange for a rather generous deposit that had put him back more than $30k, leaving him with less than ten of the original fifty thousand he'd brought with him as emergency funds. Any more significant expenses and he might have to start skimming off the top of the accounts of the local crimelord, Raiga Fujimura. Thankfully, it seemed like for now he had everything they needed.
"God bless you, Amazon Japan," Wes said to himself, loading the last of his boxes and climbing aboard the boat. "You ready, Caster?"
Wes was shocked. The desperation in her smiling face was palpable. So it was true. She really had tried to love the emperor. Love, not seduce or poison, but was discovered by Seimei, and chased out of the palace. Rejected. Her intentions had never once been impure, yet she'd failed to find what she was looking for.
Wes gulped. How should he handle this situation? I mean, this was so sudden! They'd only met like ten minutes ago! Not to mention she was literally clinging to him because he was the first one to accept her. Was this even right? But if he said no, he'd trash his relationship with her forever, which could be disastrous for his chances of winning the Holy Grail War.
Wes felt like dopeslapping himself after he thought that. You idiot! This isn't about the Grail War, it's about her! She's a person too, that's way more important! But... what do I do? What do I say? You can't just say "I love you" and mean it after you've just met a person! At least I can't. But... I mean... I'm not averse to the idea, and if I said no anyway I'd be breaking her heart...
Throwing all of himself into an all or nothing gamble, he reached over and embraced Tamamo, though his head only reached up to her chest. Holding her tight, he said "No. You're not wrong. In fact you're right. I summoned you because we're compatible. The Grail wanted us together. So if this is really what you want, I have no complaints whatsoever. We'll give it our best shot. Whatever you want me to be I can be for you, Tamamo. And I promise, I'll earn your love for real some day. So uh," he added somewhat desperately, "please don't cry, okay?"
Tamamo broke away from watching the drone bob about to consider his earlier questions. "My Noble Phantasm and spells? Well with everything we have between us we shouldn't need to release my reflector, but let's just say that once I invoke it I won't have any restraints or cost on my magic. Things are going to go up like Tanabata!"
Wes was stunned. A Caster with no mana restrictions? Score!
"That's amazing, Tamamo!" he said excitedly.
"I rely on Witchcraft, you can use your Appraisal to learn more, but I mainly use it make these little beauties. I throw them at someone, and suddenly they are no longer an obstacle to our love. With my Spirit Break charm I can restore my prana when I strike a Servant with the reflector, or can create a barrier with the Aphotic Cave. There's more, but we don't want to spend all day talking about such dreary things. "
"Are you sure?" Wes said. "Because I can already think of a lot of things we can do with this. Could you like, make a whole wad of those tags? Then I could carry it with the drone and-"
Reaching out she grabbed his hand and gently rested it between her vulpine ears with a content sigh.
"After all, being with you is all I want from the Grail. So just being summoned has made me the happiest fox in the world."
Wes blushed. Suddenly the off-hand mentions to love and wifehood were becoming very hard to ignore or rationalize as airheaded jokes.
"W-wait. You're serious? Like seriously serious? Me?" he asked, pointing to himself. "You're saying you love me? Why?"
"Feh. You are right in that there is something I desire from this war. Something that supersedes my wishes."
The Amazonian queen turned to face him, towering over him from above.
"Fine. I will be your blade. But know that you are my Master in name only. I call the shots. If you want me to do anything I don't want to do, you're going to have to use one of those," she said, pointing at his command seals. "But you only get three. And we'll see how well-disposed I still am towards you when that number becomes zero."
She turned her back on him once again, sticking her arms out at her sides.
"Come. I will take you up on that offer of drinks."
Fish of Oblivion
