Rise Above Fate

Ch. 11 - Blood

"... And that's basically it!" Saber pointed her finger upwards to God-knows-where, emphasizing her explanation.

"Got it..." He earnestly stroke his pen across a small notebook he had.

After some time of taking notes and thinking, Izuku switched his stare from his notes to Saber, and with a small smile and open eyebrows, he said:

"So, what do we do now?" Izuku tilted his head,

"Since I use Magic myself, I can test it through the ingestion of blood," Saber relaxed her expression. "Are you okay with that? I mean, me ingesting your blood?" she tilted her head slightly,

"It's fine," there was no way he'd refuse it, moreover after that sunny smile that removed the seeds of worry in his heart.

Her mouth arched a barely noticeable smile, happy at his answer. She was also curious to see if in that time and age, Izuku would be able to use Magic, or if he only had barely enough magical energy to sustain her, not having any more for battling.

"Umu. Then, wait here for a bit," she interrupted her thoughts while walking back to the house, that wasn't really far from the forest they were training at. A mere five minutes of walking would've sufficed.

Izuku nodded and began to think.

If he was capable to use Magic, he'd be able to follow his dream unwaveringly. Of course, he had no certainty that he'd be apt to use Magic - usually, since not many people have a lot of magical energy, namely Od, they can only sustain a Servant. Of course, having enough to sustain a Servant is even rarer in that almost-magicless society, hence the small approximate of 5% of the population having a Servant.

Needless to say, from that 5%, way less than 1% has one of the fairy-tale, mythical and old legends, such as Saber being *king* Arthur. The other Servants are people that changed the course of a lot of lives, not necessarily being required to change the world. Izuku read that in the book he received from officer Tsukauchi.

He also read that there's apparently a ranking system for Servants, issued in a little over than sixty years. They are ranked in the old-fashioned, A-E alphabetical order:

A is the top ranking, ranging from the mythical legends, to hugely powerful heroes/people. This is the rarest ranking.

B is below A, ranging from a variety of powerful Servants, and so on.

In that frenzy tango of thoughts, Izuku's eyes glistened with information. Occasionally walking around the small clearing, his steps pleasantly crunched the crispy grass below him. His eyes wandered from left to right, up and down, imagining and drawing, counting and thinking. He loved that feeling of being able to connect the almost infinite array of dots in the spider-web that is the human mind.

After some time, steps against the earth resounded in his ears. Saber had arrived with a needle and handkerchief in hands. He was somewhat curious about how she was going to do it since it was hard to drink blood from others without touching them. He had read some stories and legends of vampires, and they always drunk their blood directly. But there was no way that Saber would do the same, hence his curiosity.

"I'm back," she walked closer to Izuku, eventually standing right next to him. "Are you ready?"

"I am," Izuku reassured his decision.

"Umu. Could you please show me your index finger?" Saber held the needle in one hand, and the handkerchief in the other.

Izuku didn't waste any more time and pointed at Saber, allowing her to extract the blood from it. He was somewhat alarmed at having his blood taken out of him, but it wasn't anything much.