Clusterfuck Recuperation

Ken peered over, tapping his fingertips together in seemingly careless configurations. He leaned towards Shorty and nodded. "It's the real deal."

Shorty handed over the bag, but stopped short. The black marks on the back of his hand... He could recognize magic...

The courier looked over their shoulder and whispered: "Hachi."

The servant materialized around the corner of the building, keeping her presence concealed, but within Mari's sight. 
"Great!" Aaron commented, holding his other hand out for the product.

Shorty looked him over, then in Japanese: "How much is this product worth to you? I wouldn't expect a Master to party so hard with a War on."

" Okay, the only words I know are 'yes', 'no', 'please', 'thank you' and 'bathroom'." he stated, with an honestly lost look.

"You're Master in the War. Servant's not here?"

He sighed, "Okay this is a weird ass war. I don't know who knows what anymore, so I don't know if you're a master too? Either way, no, my servant isn't here, but honestly he hasn't been performing to my liking anyway. I just want drugs, onegaishimasu," 

Their eyebrows raised. "You don't like?" They swung the bag loosely in their hand, considering. "You don't like friends, either? Maybe you give information for supply?"

He laughed, "Oh I do not consider those idiots my friends! Sure! I'll make that trade." He put his money back into his jacket. "What do you wanna know?"

"How many? Names? Where staying? Which servants?"

"Oh let's see...we're all staying in the same place. Now that I say that, I'm going to make a different offer. How about I pay for the drugs, but give you information for temporary immunity?"

Shorty looked skeptical, but tentatively agreed. "Talk, talk. Oh, and what kind of magic they can do."

"Sure, works for me. Do you wanna do this somewhere more comfortable? Also, they're waiting for me to come back with food. How about we meet up in an hour or so?"

An easy smile spread on their face. "Sure. Come back here. Don't come, I'll kill you. I can't come, Operator calls." They tossed the bag and Ken took the money. He was finally free to go.

"Okay sounds good! See you then!" he grinned amicably as he handed over the cash and waved goodbye over his shoulder.

Not long after he was pushing hisway into the theater carrying a lot of delicious takeout and a small bag of drugs clamped in his teeth, Oh my God you guys. This smells awesome..." he set the food down and spread it out for everyone.

He seemed to come in in the middle of a conversation. Or rather, Ozymandias was talking loudly and forcing everyone to listen. Aaron's entrance cut him off, though.

"Ooh, it does!" Manaka said happily, scampering over to the food.

White-hair recognized what was in the bag in his teeth and chuckled softly to himself. Caster had completed his magic circle and was now sitting down in front of it, chanting softly under his breath as the magic circle glowed with a soft red light.

"Welcome back," A-san greeted him. "And thanks for the food. Rider just had an idea--"

"Sou desu!" Ozymandias loudly took charge. "All our enemies are gathered at the mansion, are they not? In that case, our strategy is simple. My Noble Phantasm can destroy the mansion with one attack! We can end the war in an instant!"

" That's super true! " Aaron agreed. "However, there are rules about calling attention to the war, no?"

"Yes, but! The Mediator from the Church is on their side, it seems. They're already twisting the rules to their benefit. Besides, with fourteen Servants, keeping the War secret will be an almost impossible task as it is! As we so demonstrated with that massive brawl in broad daylight."

"That's a good point. Sure, go ahead with that if you want. I'm gonna go get laid though. Good luck." he winked and headed back out to meet Mari.

"Excellent! Then we should head out right away!"

"Wait a moment," Saber stopped him, moving closer to talk to him as Aaron headed for the door.

As he was on his way out, the magic circle in front of Caster flashed red, and mana swirled up inside until a form appeared in the center of it.



Some kind of strange wolf with wings and a serpentine tail. Caster opened his eyes and smiled, patting the wolf as it came closer to him.

He was soon back where he had met Mari the earlier, munching on his own share of takeout. As he waited he went back over the notes about the people he'd found that he'd sent to Julian. It was always a little easier to have a point of reference.

Mari leaned over the top of a cargo crate and leaned over to Hachi, murmuring. "He's alone, right?" After getting confirmation, she jumped down onto the ground, knees bending low. She sprang up with her hands out to each side, then raised them as if finishing a dismount. She was still wearing the hat and mask, her voice pitched low, but Ken had gone to run other errands and get shitfaced by now.

"Hey, Mister America!" She gave him a casual salute.

"Hey Japan-san!" he said with a wink. He offered a bite of ramen, "want some?"

"I'm good." Shorty flicked open their phone and turned on a Recorder application. "So, tell me about your team."

"Sure! Okay first of all, there's this guy who calls himself Ruler. He seems to be the kind of unofficial creator of this get together." he looked down at his notes and gave the other masters' names and servants, and any powers he knew of. He also mentioned that he was Berserker's master and where they were all hiding. "I can't promise that they'll all stay where they are forever. They're not completely stupid...I think...but that's what I know so far. Please take out Ozymandias first. He's so damn annoying."

"Anything else you wanna say?"