Aloha, Magi!

"It's about Caster. I asked him what his wish for the Grail was. At first, he said he had none; that he was just a Servant to be used at his Master's discretion. After a while, I was able to worm it out of him. He said if he had one wish, it would be.... to be human."

"Not meaning to become incarnated, or whatever it is that happened to Archer. But to just become a regular human. Not a Servant, not a Heroic Spirit, just an average person like you or I. Well, not like you any longer I suppose," he laughed.

"I wondered if there's anything you can do to make that happen. Not something immediate, of course; we still want to help take on those rogue Servants. But if there's anything you can make for him to use at a later point, we would both appreciate it."

"Absolutely! I'll add it to my list! I relish any opportunity for discovery of new information it techniques! I'd be more than happy to help him out. Especially since I'd like to turn attention to the rights of servants. They should get the opportunity to at least live out a fulfilling life after that raw deal with the trail war."

He nodded and smiled. "I'm glad you understand! I hope they all get a chance to follow their dreams. I particularly hope we don't lose anyone taking down Ozymandias or Lancer. It would be terrible to survive the Grail War only to fall to one of them."

"True, but I think most of them would at least consider it an honorable death. Silver linings."

He shrugged. "True enough. Oh, and if possible, please don't tell the others about this. Caster wants to keep his wish on the low-down."

Lazarus nodded in assurance and headed back inside to help Yui.

They weren't working for very long when Assassin rushed into the main room, slightly out of breath and an anxious look on her face.

"Guys... I think we have a problem. Just now... it felt like Ayaka was trying to use a Command Spell. Whatever the order was, though, she never finished it."

A catalyst... Mari had been given one - a chunk of stone - but she had no idea what it was. Money was nice, but it seemed like this Animusphere guy needed to pinch as many coins as he could. She could be generous. Sometimes.

She kicked off of the sofa and landed on her feet as soon as Assassin finished speaking. "Wait, what? What happened?"

[So yeah, long story short, when the Himeno family investigates it looks like Ayaka just straight up vanished into thin air. No traces left behind and no signs of forced entry. They can't figure out anyway to find her. So that's that!

Avalon and Mari still gotta have their date but up to you if you want to summarize that and shit.]

[They had a date and it's fuckin' cute the end.]

After spending a good amount of time investigating a way to find Ayaka, the group decided it would have to wait. They all gathered up to head to Egypt. As they were boarding the plane, Aaron turned to Mr. Animusphere, "So, Julian is wondering if we could use any assistance? He says he can clear his schedule up to meet us in Egypt."

"We're really going, then..." Mari sipped from Avalon's root beer, then grimaced, poking out her tongue.

Phillipus looked over the maps pinned to the wall once again, then nodded. "Ramesses II made his goal clear. He wants to take his lands back, by any means necessary. Ordinary civilians will have no way of stopping him." He stroked his chin.

"Perhaps we should see about contacting magi in the area? We don't know if he's going to follow the path of his earlier campaigns or improvise, but even Cairo would be a decent place to start. We should also keep an ear out for news, to see if anything could point us to Lancer's machinations."

"Me and father will be watching the news," Yui answered. "We'll keep an eye on anything out of the ordinary. On the way over, I'll make sure to look up info on Ozy's old territories." She pursed her lips. "Though I imagine to him, his territory is 'everything.' But at least we'll figure out his base of operations."

Marisbury nodded to Phillipus. "I know some people in Egypt. Mage Association contacts. At the very least, I can have them help with damage control." To Aaron he added, "Sure. I suppose if he's going to help fund my experiment, it'd be nice to meet face to face."

"Great!" Aaron replied and texted happily before putting his phone away.

Avalon laughed at Mari and sipped her root beer while getting up and grabbing her something more to her liking.

He looked again at the map, sighing through his nose. The entirety of Egypt and part of Syria had already been circled. "Mr. Animusphere... did you learn anything about Lancer during your time together? Overhear anything, Noble Phantasm?" He shifted back onto his heels, hands behind his back. To have so many unknowns was usually exciting; on the precipice of battle it was... nervewracking.

"Unfortunately, no. He talked little, never said anything about himself or his abilities. I didn't see him display any unique abilities or Noble Phantasms in battle." He thought harder. "The only thing I remember is his catalyst. A long, bloodstained piece of wood. I wish I had stolen it when I had the chance."

Lazarus thought for a moment, "Well...he's a lancer. When I think of people who might have died or used wood to kill, I think of perhaps Jesus or one of his apostles...however that doesn't seem likely that any of them would even become a servant really. That would be rather counterintuitive to their beliefs. Then I thought about witches that were burnt? Perhaps a male incarnation of Joan of arc?
but also what about Vlad the Impaler? Long bloodstained wood would definitely make sense for him."

"I suppose any of those are possible." He tapped his fingers. "When you mention Jesus, I think of perhaps Longinus, the spearman that stabbed him. He didn't strike me as Roman-looking..."

"Vlad the Impaler sounds plausible. The wood resembled a stake you would impale someone on." He paused and frowned. "That Master of his seemed like the vampire type."

"Well, looks don't necessarily mean anything, but let's go ahead and keep an eye on Rome and Romania I suppose!" they all headed onto the plane.

Outlines were duly added to the map before Phillipus popped a tidy bolus of herbs into his mouth. Even as a Servant, air travel could be disorienting.