The Turnabout Terror

Even a part of herself knew she probably being a tad much. May could already tell she was probably going a tad over his head with all the rattling off of terminology he may or may not even know the meaning of. Was he even paying attention? May could be subtly quite sharp about this sort of thing, but this guy was apparently a hot shot lawyer, so even for her that was no sure bet. If what she heard about law school was any indication, Caster was probably on a whole other level. Well, probably why it’s all the better to go over rather than under, right?

Luckily, it seemed to work! Oh shit, this really must be something. “Oh man, thanks so much Caster, uh, Mister Boss? Sir? I won’t let you down!” Nervous energy mixed with all the other kind as she bounced up, anticipation building as she internally prepares herself for the coming trial, ready t-

…or that could happen.

“Oh.” Usually, far more would be coming out of her mouth. What the heck was this?! Some kind of test? A prank? Some kind of weird company (firm, she supposed) in-joke? Hazing of some sort? But no, she had to stay cool. No matter what, she couldn’t let her buddy down. Eyeing it with importance, she solemnly takes the brush…as a fire blazing from the passionate depths of her soul illuminates her eyes!

“YOU’RE GOING DOWN, TOILET…DIRT!!” 

She attacks the incriminating lavatory with the precision and dedication of the most soaring etudes, not stopping until every bit of grime is wiped clean from this physical plane or at least scrubbed away, first depending, for she had not just the expectations of her friend and potential-employer behind her, but the burning desire to make sure she didn’t pass up an opportunity to provide for herself/save expenses, her existing millions be damned.

Ah, Phoenix could feel it. That burning spirit of youth, willing to protect the good name of everything good and clean in the world. This is exactly the sort of attitude that society needs nowadays, so that it can be purified from the corruption running deep inside it, like a severe infection draining its forces away!!!

"May!" All of a sudden, he grabs her shoulder from behind, his stance rigid and tense. It might seem like he was about to berate her for something, but... "Congratulations. The job is yours."

“Well that’s, uh, not super reassuring,” May was nothing if not forthright as a general rule. “But hey, I’m sure there’s something we can do, right? I mean, we came here for a reason, so there’s something we can accomplish here!” Though this arguably seemed as much a reassurance to both of them, she might not be wrong. After all, there at the very least seemed to be purpose to their administrator’s actions; it wasn’t like just anyone was a Master or Servant!…yet…

She sits and thinks for a minute. Nick wasn’t wrong, his skills could be quite useful, potent even in the right circumstances, but not exactly lending themselves to crushing foes before them with impunity. Not that May was fight-happy at all, especially with the grim spectacle before them, but it’d be handy if they were capable of more than just defending themselves…hmm…skills…wait…

“Hang on, Caster, I got it!” A flash of seeming inspiration shone in her already-usually-pretty-bright eyes. “You’re a lawyer, so you must have picked up some stuff about crimes and investigations and mysteries or whatever. Maybe instead of just trying to beat them up, how ‘bout we try a lil recon? Sure, you’re no Assassin, and this isn’t really a ‘crime scene’ per se, but maybe we could learn something about this whole shebang!”

Phoenix listened to May'a sudden verbose speech, a look of incredulity on his face. He's by no means unfamiliar with bizarre situations, be them inside or outside the Courtroom, however...

"...Are you serious, May?" A dubious eyebrow is raised on his face. "I-I mean, us? Figuring out the whydunnit for this dispute? While te war is happening around us?! That's simply insane!!"

At that outburst, the attorney gets so worked up that he stands up while shouting, making his position easily visible to anyone else around the area... including a light armor knight. A light armor knight that doesn't hesitate in lunging their big, shiny and sharp sword towards the duo.

Oops.

They were getting smarter, which was a real pain. Ceshmera was only really dangerous in close range. she did have ranged attacks, but their effect was limited. This was what one got for specializing in on thing and one thing only. Oh well. It wasn’t like she was a real fighter.

Th arrows had bothered Cesh enough that she wandered off. One was still stuck in her back, but she didn’t seem to notice. The hardening of her clothing to match armor had kept it from going through, but it was still stuck in the bow of her dress. She had been stomping off in a huff when she was addressed by another Servant.

“I’ve seen a lot of people,” she expressed, her sour mood never effecting her voice. “However, I don’t remember their faces. Give me a better idea of what she was wearing and I’ll see if I can search her down by that.”

Not likely. She only really tracked her mistresses clothes. But, hey. She wasn’t going to tell him that. It was would be a fun surprise where she led him down the wrong path. Cesh was not a very kind person.

"Eeeeerm..." (Poop, I've always sucked at describing fashion.) Phoenix scratches his cheek, trying to think of the best way to put it. "Last time I saw her, she was wearing a white shirt, a black jacket and black jeans pants. Oh, and she's likely carrying a guitar. May is always carrying one of those."

This wasn’t a particularly ideal scenario for the guitarist at all. Sure, she had a couple new magic tricks up her sleeve, and she got a chance to put her self-defense skills to the test a month or two back with that virus outbreak, but that had been ultimately non-lethal self defense against unarmed opponents. In a warzone, with enemies at Servant level capabilities? Not a chance, buster.

Hence why she was quite content to take the opportunity to hide behind this nice big rock, thank you very much. She was, as usual, relatively optimistic about the Utopian’s chances, having seen some of her potential compatriots. They seemed pretty kickass!…not them though. no offence Phoenix.

“Dang, that’s a pretty good question, Caster,” She ponders as she scratches her hair, reverting back to Nick’s class designation. Sure, her heart wasn’t really in this whole secrecy deal back in the city, but out in a nasty situation like this, she was starting to get the point. “Don’t suppose you know anymore about this stuff than I do? I mean, aren’t lawyers supposed to be sorta well-read and stuff? Even for uh…law history things?”

Even through her rather reaching inquiry, her quick words were obviously following some thought of her own, judging by her finger-tapping-chin tic. It wasn’t like they were given particularly much to go on either; this was a bit of a conundrum given their skillsets. “Don’t suppose you have a kickass skill or…Noble Phantasm was it? That I don’t know about yet and will help us out here?”

None taken. Phoenix is the first person to point out his own lack of badassery (although he’ll appreciate if others don’t point out that fact right on his face). He will take the opportunity to stretch and relax his muscles before they become sour, before replying to May.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but my brain has already been cruelly filled with law info throughout my life. There’s just not enough space left to add details about what tricks to use when a bunch of medieval knights come after you.”

He’d like to say that his experiences in Labyrinthia had given him an edge for this sort of predicament, but that’d be a lie. As much of a buffoon that many members of the Order of Knights there were, at least they were still sentient enough that you could reason with, unlike the killing machines looking for them.

“A bomb!?” Johnny could feel the sweat running down his spine from such a predicament. Instinctively he dashed forth to get the man away from it before it would explode. 

Grabbing the suit by the collar, Johnny pulled the two of them back, but with a single glance seeing the countdown hitting 00:00:00, the light blue explosion expanded quickly from the package.

The force of the explosion caused the two men to tumble a short bit against the hard concrete pavement, relatively unharmed getting away just in time from the dangerous part of the blast.

Lying on top of the business man, Johnny adjusted his tilted shades and hat. “Ya alright, mister? Made any enemies for this kind of special delivery?” 

Phoenix barely had time to process what happened, as Johnny took him to the floor right before the explosion. Is this how Juniper felt when Apollo shielded her at that explosion back home? ...He has to say, he could live without this level of empathy experiencing.

“A high schooler detective?” Phoenix whistled at that. He’s seen lots of that type on TV and comics, but it’s the first time he’s seen one in real life. Although from Goro’s tone, he’s not exactly eager to seek a new case right now, which Phoenix can understand. If you don’t depend of a job to survive, a break from it is always welcome.

Phoenix’d sure be glad if the other tipped on something he can take, though.

“Also, it’s just Caster, no P involved. Unless you already know so many Casters you gotta catalogue them in alphabetical order, I’d rather you remembered that.”

“It’s not too impressive, after you realize who else got dragged into this world.” It’s a bit hard to trump the awe and amazement inspired by kings and heroes in ancient times, and this place already has them in bulk.

“Huh…”

Lame, she didn’t even used the invisibility magic to hope that seeing them would ward off any unwanted visitors and let her conserve on mana. Though it makes sense for those of from this period of time to not know what those are. Oh well, just gotta replace it. Which, in order to save mana by not wasting it on the teleporting magic, was more of a manual process. Jumping off the rock and going to the place where the mine exploded and use the  item construction skill to recreate it.

A smirk couldn’t help but spread on her lips when she spotted the corpse of the solider that was the previous mine’s victim. Then, she noticed another person nearby, this time not a dead solider, and gave a more awkward smile toward them.

However, once Phoenix finished saying that, he noticed the peculiar mana signature emitting from her. A Servant, perhaps? It’s certainly deceiving how so many Servants look like teenagers, especially among women. He wonders if there’s a reason for the GRAIL to summon them like this.

Banri cursed, this wasn’t a sentence that was unusual in anyway- since it was something he was known for doing a lot unless he was in his ‘persona’. Unfortunately for today his fellow ‘partner’ from home decided to wander off on his own and took his SR Card with him. Though there was one very prominent problem with him doing that, which was him turning to how he looked ‘before’. 

It didn’t help that the wig he managed to procure didn’t match the light-toned red hair he was so used to have at all. Muttering about how much of an ass the Tower Arcana monster was, he didn’t notice the oncoming bike til it was too late and they both collided. 

Which seems to be the case for Banri, for his wig to come off like that. Not knowing the guy, Phoenix has no idea of how troublesome this is to the other, so he chooses to leave questions of why he was wearing a wig to another moment. There’re more pressing issues at the moment.