The Beginning of Caster

[CorenKeitaro]

Howling winds roared throughout the area, nipping at the skin of the one who was present.
She stood there in loose-fitting clothes, her dress dancing in the winds as her silver hair flowed.
This woman went by more than one name, but did not know her true one.
The church knew her as Rias Gremory, the girl from London who would be supervising the War.
There were those who feared her as Blood-Shot Koneko, the Executer with over 300 confirmed kills.
However, as she recited the final line to her chant, she decided a new persona would be necessary.
"Thou, who art like your summoner, come forth from the circle of great constraint," she said calmly, her voice level.
As the light of the summoning filled the park, a thought went through her mind.
"Hikari... Not a bad name, is it...?"

---

Three Days Prior

Rias sat at the table, reading over her note again and again. She wasn't reading the whole thing, of course, only select words.
Words like "supervisor of the Holy Grail War" being the main ones.
She had been doing this every day since that note arrived, telling her of the War, a mere two weeks ago.
Of course, it had been three weeks ago that they had appeared.
Upon her right shoulder-blade rested an emblem, one of two wings angelic, flanking the sides of the toothed maw that laid in the center.
Command Seals, they were called. She knew she should have informed the Church some time ago, told them of it so they might give it to another magus.
But the Grail chose her not because of her looks.
She wanted it. It could give her the answers that she seeks; she could become she who she wanted, not merely content to be that which she is.
And so, she had kept silent, not giving to them the knowledge she held to herself. It was not that much of a lie, was it? They never asked, after all.
She sipped once more at the cup of tea in front of her, a smile moving across her face.
She might not be the one she wishes, but she was the one who could become so. Her self, designed to give her the strength of heart required to face this world, had been manifested in her magecraft, and it walked at her side.
After all, it was her, and she was it.
"More tea?"
Rias smiled, looking to the girl beside her.
"Ah... I hadn't noticed. Thank you."
With a wave of her hand, the kettle slid closer to her. Rias filled again her cup, smiling softly.
"What would I do without you?"
"Run out of tea, I suppose," the girl responded glibly.
Rias laughed lightly.
"I suppose you're right."
She closed her eyes for a moment.
Raising her cup to her lips, she cooled the tea with a simple spell and took a sip.
"How do you think you'll handle this?" the girl with the silver-hair asked.
"As smoothly as I can." Rias opened her eyes, staring into the distance. "My wish... It is too important to me for me to do anything but."
"Of course."
They sat in silence for several more moments, the sound of the blowing winds being all that held back the silence.
A single sakura petal flew into the room, landing perfectly in Rias's cup.
She looked down at the small pink petal before turning to the window.
"Odd... The cherry blossom trees are not yet in bloom," she remarked, turning to the girl.
But she was gone.
"...Who goes there?" she asked calmly, lowering her cup. "You can not enter this domain completely undetected. Reveal yourself."
A soft chuckling rung out.
"You're pretty good, Grem."
"Gremory," she corrected. "What are you doing here, Sancraid Phahn? I believe I asked for privacy."
Sancraid pushed open the door, walking in with that ever-present smirk.
"I was just wondering what my favorite Supervisor was doing talking to herself."
"Well, I was in engaging in the closest thing to intelligent conversation I can find," she responded, her tone tinged with a hint of animosity.
"Oh, I know," Phahn said, as if he hadn't just been insulted. "It's so hard to find good conversation when surrounded by these Asians," he said, his voice brimming with disgust at the final word. "At least we have each other, eh?"
"I would prefer not to have even that, Phahn. Now what are you here for?" she asked, taking a sip of tea. "We both know that you, if you'll forgive my language, don't give two shits about my psychological welfare."
Phahn frowned.
"I can't just want-"
"No." Rias leveled a hard glare on the man. "I'm in no mood for beating around the bush, Phahn. Cut to the chase."
Phahn locked eyes with her for a moment before sighing.
"Fine, fine. I felt like telling you something rather important, and it has to do with that whole thing you're supervising."
Rias's glare bored into him like a drill.
"You see, I got these last night."
He raised his hand, pulling away his sleeve.
That which was on his arm made her breathing hitch for a moment.
Command Seals.
"As a fellow Templar, I thought you deserved to know, if you know what I mean."
Phahn's smirk returned, making Rias's frown deepen even further.
"If you expect me to assist you in the War, then you are delusional. The point of the supervisor is to be a neutral pillar; the one whom supports the Church's will. I have been instructed to remain impartial, and I would break those orders if I assisted you. And that's in the case that I even wanted too."
Phahn simply laughed.
"I do love it when you play hard-to-get, Rias. Trust me, you'll see that I'm the one to help soon enough."
"Is that a threat?"
Phahn's grin didn't fade in the slightest as he walked out the door, closing it behind him.
"My apologies."
The silver-haired girl returned.
"There is no need for apologies, nor for forgiveness. You did your job well."
Rias sighed.
"I do my best to push away Phahn, but no matter what I do, he comes back that much stronger. How annoying."
"If I may, I don't think he's that much of a threat in that way any more," the girl responded, a slight smile on her face. "Kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes; as another Master, he is our opponent in this War, and it is only a matter of time until we face off with him and win."
Rias' smile returned, though it had a tired feeling to it.
"You're fairly optimistic, aren't you?"
The girl smiled.
"But of course; I represent your truest emotions." She placed a hand upon her breast. "You do not truly believe you can lose. I can tell; after all," she began, a predatory smile appearing on her face.
"I am your Shadow; your true self."
As red eyes met slitted yellow, Rias' smile only strengthened.
"Thank you..." she said softly.
The Shadow merely returned the smile.
All would be well in the end.
And if all was not well, then it was not yet the end.

---

Just Before the Ritual

Rias let out a little more blood, dripping it onto the blade that laid on its face on the Earth.
"Is it enough?" her Shadow asked.
She was given a nod in return. Words were superfluous now; the ritual was what was important.
"Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill. Repeat five times and destroy when filled."
"Foundation of silver and earth and the Lord of Contracts, and the ancestral moon above."
Rias's will seemed to waver and break, but the words flew still.
"The true name that rules all."
"By that which binds all things."
"From the Throne, come forth and follow our path to the future."
"I hereby propose that my will shall become the body."
"And to thy strength shall my fate be bound."
"Abiding by the summons of the Holy Grail, if thou dost accede to this will and reason, answer my calls!"
The wind kicked up to an even higher speed and chill, nipping at Rias.
As her dress danced and her hair blew about, a light began to shine all throughout the area.
Her hands tightened as another drop of blood began to fall.
"Thou, who art like your summoner, come forth from the circle of great constraint," she said calmly, her voice unbetraying of her emotion,
As the light of the summoning filled the park, the silver-haired Shadow had a thought.
"Hikari... Not a bad name, is it...?"
And then, the light exploded.

---

"Are you my Master?"
Rias groaned softly, grabbing her head.
Her hearing was shot and her eyesight was even worse; the light still shined brightly in her eyes, even though it'd already faded.
"...Or should I say, Masters?"
Rias froze.
Now that she'd heard.
She rubbed her eyes softly and regained eyesight, seeing an outstretched hand.
She took her Servant's hand and pulled herself up as her eyes returned to normal.
She looked to her Servant, standing around eight feet away, clothed in what appeared to be...
...Well, let's see.
He wore a pale-blue tunic trimmed and decorated with an almost saphiric color over a pair of loose-fitting pair of black pants, bound together at the waist by a belt the color of obsidian. His pants tucked into neatly-laced brown boots, and his hands had on a pair of fingerless gloves.
A remnant of the wind from the spell blew through, showing Rias his bluish-white shroud that was pulled to his back for now, just below his silver and black hair, colored in a salt-and-pepper way.
His eyes were a deep azure and told of truest history.
Looking into his eyes, she could almost see eternity staring back at her from within those orbs, and that sent a chill down her spine.
A second chill went down her spine when she noticed it.
Her Servant was eight feet away and wearing gloves.
The hand that she had used to help herself had not.
She leaped to the side, moving a hand to the dagger hidden in the folds of her clothing as she turned to the one that didn't belong.
"Whoa, calm down there girl," a familiar voice said.
But that was impossible.
Her voice was supposed to be in her head.
She shouldn't be here.
But she was.
Red eyes met slitted yellow ones, and despite the impossibility of it all, she knew it to be true.
"So... I've been thinking," her Shadow said, "that not having a name while a part of your imagination was one thing, but I think I might need one now that I'm out here, in the open. I'm pretty partial to 'Hikari'; what do you think?"
Rias's mouth was agape.
"...Okay, I'm pretty confused," the Servant said. "I think you two have a lot of explaining to do."
"Trust me, guy," Hikari said with a smirk. "You don't know the half of it."

---

The man who stood before the two girls, now identified as Caster, nodded his head.
"-and that's who I am," Hikari finished.
"So," Caster began, "You're saying that you're a construct of Ms. Gremory's, and that you're both designed as a way of pushing away the crushing loneliness of her existence, as well as a failsafe in the case of a mental-breakdown? And that you've developed your own sentience and mind and all you lacked was a body, which this ritual, in some way or another, managed to give you?"
Hikari nodded.
"This is a perfect example of why magic and all magecraft is a load of horseshit." Caster sighed. "I'm not too surprised, to be honest; you don't live to be over three centuries old without learning to roll with the punches, after all. Let's move to our next subject; you two appear to be joint Masters. I definitely feel a connection with both of you, though Ms. Hikari's appears to be far stronger than yours, Ms. Gremory."
Rias nodded.
"That... Makes sense, I suppose. Hikari, are you supplying him with mana?"
Hikari nodded.
"And you're supplying it to me. It's sort of like I'm your Servant, and Caster here is mine... Other than the fact that I would totally get throttled in a second by a Servant, anyway."
Rias nodded.
"And you said you have Command Seals on you?" she asked, only for Hikari to nod again. "So that means that, technically, your Caster's Master... And my Command Seals apply to you," she said, though hesitantly.
"That's my guess," Hikari said with a shrug.
Caster nodded.
"I have to agree with her; according to my magic- err, magecraft I mean, you two are linked in the same way that Hikari and I are." He tilted his head to the side a bit.
"Still... The Master of my Master is my Master, I suppose." He gave a short bow to the girls. "It is a pleasure to meet the both of you; my name is Anonymous, and my stomach is bitching up a storm right now."
Hikari and Rias exchanged a look.
"...This War is gonna be a pain in the ass, isn't it?"
"You need to ask?"
And thus started Caster and Co's beautiful friendship.
Well, that and the delicious meal they had later that evening, when everything was properly sorted out.
That was nice too.