5 Make For Fuyuki

London, England,

Clocktower,

Waver POV,

In the dead starless night, a thinly built young man hurriedly walked through the strangely empty streets of London, hugging a small case against his chest, his hands wrapped tightly around it as he looked back from time to time.

At the same time, just behind him, some two or three men in heavy trench coats and hats followed with hurried footsteps.

It was more than apparent that he was being chased by these individuals.

Waver Velvet, came from a fairly new and weak magus line, in a bid to prove himself to the other magi, he sought to participate in the Holy Grail War and possibly win it, the prestige that would come with such a thing would surely carry him to a well respected position.

For that purpose, he'd stolen the case meant for Lord Kayneth, his own teacher, holding a torn piece of Iskandar's cloth... except, he'd made a miscalculation due to running into the eldest son of the Trambelio family just moments before and as a result, was now being chased down.

Well, the damp and cold atmosphere did help somewhat, he wasn't exactly built for running.

Busy in his own musings, the young man failed to notice someone coming up from the front and ended up crashing into said person instead, "Ugh.... Sorry." Waver apologised, rubbing his head in an attempt to mitigate the pain he felt....

"No problem." The voice that responded was one Waver recognised instantly, how could anyone forget such an annoying person.

"What the hell are you doing here, Roman?!" Waver grabbed his classmate's collars, a despairing expression on his face. He wanted to keep the consequences of this incident to himself but now this guy was going to get caught up in it too! He already had a shit reputation, this was going to ruin it further.

Roman only smiled in response, his one eye closing as a pleased expression formed on his face, "Damn, I knew you were gonna pull something dumb." He ignored the hands on his collars and instead looked at the two men that had stopped some distance behind, "I just got curious is all."

"But, you headed to Fuyuki? Let's go together. The trip was going to be boring as all hell anyway." Roman didn't quite seem bothered by the strange occurrence, behaving casually, talking animatedly in a jovial mood.

"...." Waver looked at him in silence, understanding that his 'friend' was going to be participating in the Holy Grail War too, the case in his hand probably held a catalyst for some servant. Sighing, Waver discreetly gestured behind him, trying to convey that his pursuers weren't with him.

"Yo laddies!" Roman walked past Waver and held out one hand to the men behind, "On this cold, dreary night, go home and have some tea. Now shoo." He made a shoo gesture with one hand, the other on his cane.

"This doesn't concern you, leave." The tone of the replying magus was stern and harsh, he did recognise the cripple, who wouldn't? He also knew he couldn't attack the young man no matter what lest he end up dead in some ditch with his organs missing.

"Mein Gott! Chasing down a man? At least go after a girl. It's understandable to be too 'motivated' but still, have some bloody dignity." The Trambelio laughed to himself, not the slightest bit intimidated or interested in backing off.

Waver groaned, Roman had the ability to make a scene out of anything and everything,... Well, he was still grateful though, it was clear that Roman was only doing this to defend him. The question was, why?

"Retreat or you get hurt, cripple."

"You can do better, come on." Roman urged the two magus with an annoying smile on his face, reaching into his coat with his free hand, "Well, it's getting a bit too repetitive too. Bugger off or something, the other option is something you can guess."

Silence followed his words.

Before,

The two magus laughed at his words, how the hell would he be beating them? Abysmal talent at magecraft, no attribute, no foundation and unrevealed affinities.

Waver sighed, placing a hand on Roman's shoulder, "Roman... even I can do better.."

Roman chuckled at his words, "Trust me on this one."

He then turned his eye to the men who were just finishing with their laughs, "Just cause I don't do it doesn't mean I can't, you retarded idiots." With a bright smile, he snapped his fingers and for a moment nothing happened.

But then, the temperature dropped by at least ten degrees making Waver shudder, his eyes widening at the sudden change. As he watched, Roman pointed a finger at the two confused magus before pointing up, "Bye now."

"What in th-...A!"

Not even a scream was heard, massive spikes of ice emerged from thin air impaling the two through numerous points on their bodies. Hearts were crushed, bones shattered, organs pierced and blood frozen.

With another snap, the ice exploded in countless shards, decimating the already corpses.

Then, as Waver watched 'frozen' in his spot, Roman once more snapped his fingers and the remains caught fire, burning to ashes within seconds, all the while the black haired magus smiled casually, no, he wasn't getting off this or something. The smile was almost always there.

"Woah, this shit is scary." Roman chuckled, turning around, that was the first time he'd used it in actual combat and the results were really really pleasing. Reminded him that he hadn't lost some of his bodily functions for nothing.

"...." Waver was stuck in his spot, as if glued to the Earth, his mouth agape and his eyes wide in complete shock.

Roman fixed his Waver's beige coat and just stood there, waiting for the teenager to recollect himself as he fixed his own clothes. Not to brag or anything but Roman was proud of his fashion sense, a grey knee-length coat, a white shirt, black pants and shoes, with a vest worn over the shirt. Yeah, he looked pretty nice.

"Greetings, Master. I've arranged for the flight." Thea appeared out of thin air, her head lowered respectfully and her hands held over her stomach, she wore the same Victorian Style maid dress as ever. No, she hadn't teleported there, she just used a bit of magecraft to make herself invisible to the naked eye.

"Good job." Roman nodded in approval, waving a hand in front of the frozen Waver to bring him out of his shocked stupor.

"W-What the hell was that?!" Waver pretty much shouted at him, but could he really be blamed?

"Hmm..." Roman looked around thoughtfully before pointing at Thea with his thumb, "She did it."

"....?" The homunculus in question tilted her head with confused eyes, what was it that she did?

".....You expect me to buy that?" Waver deadpanned at his friend's antics, true he hadn't noticed the slightest bit of magic energy emanate from Roman, nor did he see any magic circuits... Actually, the homunculus doing it sounded plausible. Roman hadn't even switched his magic circuits on after all.

"It's the truth though, she can disappear." Roman shrugged with an 'innocent' smile on his face.

Waver nodded slowly, not quite accepting the explanation he was given, he would make his own conclusions after thinking about it more comprehensively, something he didn't have time for at the moment. What he did know however, was that Roman was a friend, or an ally at least.

"Let's go then." Roman jovially pumped his fist and started walking away, albeit slower as compared to someone who could walk normally... Waver looked at him in silence for a few moments before sighing and following, he pitied the Trambelio sometimes... However, he did need to inquire about his reasons.

-x-X-x-

Waver looked at the bright and upright Roman with dead eyes.

They sat across from one another, on two comfortable seats, with a polished wooden board between them, well, he called it a board because he had no other way of describing it. A bottle of red wine lay to the side and Roman himself was neatly and gracefully eating a steak, with a fork and a knife...

Question was, what the hell were they doing on a private jet?

"You look confused, Waver." Roman slightly smiled, raising his glass as Thea poured him wine. What? Was he expected to not make use of his own wealth cause his family ignored his existence? Yeah no, he was going to use whatever he wanted to.

"How can you even....?"

"The Trambelio are old, we rich, you peasants.... Joking, anyway, money isn't really a problem for magi." Roman smiled slightly, his eye carrying a hint of amusement.

Waver averted his gaze, slightly ashamed, it wasn't really a great thing but his family wasn't that rich... As compared to others that was.

"Ah, come on. Just enjoy my hospitality.... Before you say that's when you're at someone's home, this jet may as well be my home. Nomad life." He gave Waver a thumbs up, the Trambelio was a certainly peculiar one.

"....." Waver was rather overwhelmed by Roman's eccentricity, "Why for me?"

".... We've known each other for years. It hurts me that you wouldn't even consider me a friend after that." Roman sighed, looking out at the night sky with an expressionless face, well not that he didn't have a hidden agenda for leaving so abruptly.

"No no, that's not what I meant. I mean, do you really have no other reason for this?"

"Well I kinda do, my bloody fiance was gonna be tagging along otherwise and she's a child right now." Roman admitted that he didn't have much of a stance on most stuff but even he had his limits, and a 10 year old or something set to marry him, someone he was older than by at least 6 years was definitely a little too far. Magus were bloody weird with their arranged marriages, old families at least.

"You had a fiance?" This was the first time he was hearing something like this.

"The Edelfelt brat, what's her name? Luviagelita." Roman positively grumbled at her name, she'd run away with his cane once and he had to walk around with the help of Thea till she returned it. The girl did dislike him a lot after all, for a cripple not being 'worthy'.

"....." Waver was speechless again, old families were really something else, "But wait, what about Yvett-"

"Shush.." Roman quickly silenced him, his eyes open in alarm as he looked around warily, "You tryna get me hated by my fiance even more?"

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