9:33 AM, Forests of Patch
The combined forces of JNPR, Ruby and her Servant walk through the freezing land, on their way to Haven.
"No... the map is this way!" Nora flipped a map in her hands. "Or... maybe this way!" She flipped it back.
"Come on, Nora. Stop playing around with the map, might tear it apart." Jaune said to the bubbly girl.
"Sorry." She drops her head in regret.
Every now and then, Ruby's Servant stopped to look at something amidst the frozen wasteland. Eventually, Ruby caught on, asking him: "Hey, Assassin, what are you looking at?"
"Ah, nothing. Just that." He pointed at a frozen walnut on a tree.
"That's called a Walnut! They're really delicious, when they're not frozen, that is." Duh.
"Yes, I know. Let's keep moving." He turned around and started his march once more, Ruby following afterwards. They had slightly fallen back from JNPR, and as such the duo couldn't hear the team's talks and vice versa.
"Master, would you like to play a game?" He asked of her while they were walking.
"Sure." If a person as cold as him wanted to play a game, it probably is actually fun.
"I can't remember who I did it with, but I used to play this game with my old friend. Whoever found the most walnuts won." He scoffed. "I used to always win."
"There is a reason why I'm the master in this relationship, Assassin!"
"Because you summoned me?"
"No! It's because I could totally kick your butt in all competitions." She said with full confidence.
"I would like to test that. Fight me in this walnut game."
"I accept your challenge then! A true champion takes on all challenges." She puts her hands behind her head with a smug smile. The two walked at a decent pace side by side. Not fast enough to go past team JNPR, but not slow enough to get left behind in the snowy wasteland either.
Assassin's hand reaches out to one of the trees, pointing at it. "I found one." He points at a walnut. Ruby pouts.
"I found one too, then!" She points at one as well, all confident until hearing a few words from Assassin.
"Ah, but I've already found two." He points at another, but it looked unusual. It wasn't a walnut at all.
"That's... not a walnut, silly." She reached up to pat him on the head.
"It is a wingnut. It looks like a walnut as well, so it counts. 2 points for me." He could feel the anger radiating from Ruby.
"No fair! You've been cheating this whole time!" She yelled out. "Assassin, as your master, I order you to let me win!"
"I thought you said you could kick my butt in all competitions." He smirked. It wasn't all visible unfortunately though because of his bandages.
"Exactly! That's why you have to cheat!" She crosses her arms. Assassin sighed.
"You can't expect everyone to play fairly in real life. Many people will do anything to get to their goals."
"Are you part of that group?"
"Maybe." She raises a brow at his comment.
12:43 PM, Summer Rose's Grave
"We're here!" Pyrrha yelled out to alarm the two who had fallen behind by a bit.
"Where?" Assassin asked.
"My mom's grave." Team JNPR stopped in their tracks in front of a tombstone.
"Ruby." Jaune called out to her, nodding. Her Servant stood behind while she went to pay her respects.
"Summer Rose
Thus Kindly I Scatter"
Her Servant paid no attention to the gravestone. While she mumbled in front of the memorial, Assassin's ears perk up as he hears the sounds of something moving in the bushes. "Something's off. We should check it out."
"Hey, wait until--" Ren tried to reach towards the Servant, only for the Servant to speed himself up by an immeasurable amount and move out of his range.
An orange aura surrounds Assassin, much like the abilities of the late Kiritsugu Emiya.
Kiritsugu Emiya created afterimages even with the lowest form of his acceleration.
"You're...!" Pyrrha said in her shock, her eyes widening.
Before they could notice, the Servant had ran off into the wilderness. Screams of pain could be heard from beings that sounded like Grimm. Ruby immediately turned around upon hearing it. "Where'd Assassin go?" She questioned.
"He ran off to deal with Grimm on his own! He's reckless!" Nora yelled out. The roars of a beast could be heard. Team JNPR and Ruby rush to the location from which the roars came from, only to see a rampage of borderline unreactable attacks from Assassin towards a generic Grimm. It didn't take long for him to put it down after they had arrived. No other Grimm was in sight. The Grimm killed by Assassin turned into dust.
"These creatures are dangerous." Said the Servant.
"We can see that." Ren shakes his head. Assassin walks past the group and back to the gravestone. The group followed, with Ruby going back to Summer's gravestone.
"Sooo... your ability." Pyrrha asked him. "You seem familiar."
"I haven't met you before."
"Maybe you have." She squints her eyes, suspicion arising.
"Not now, Pyrrha." Jaune sighs. "We can talk about this later. I know what's in everyone's heads after we saw that." The Servant was confused obviously, but didn't mind it since they had decided to move on from the subject.
Ruby backed away from the grave, walking over to the group. "Alright, I'm ready to go." She nods with a small smile on her face. The group picks up the pace once more with Ruby and Assassin falling behind, though you could almost hear the gossips of team JNPR from back there after the Servant had revealed his ability.
"So, Assassin. You look like you have a lot of weapons. Why not let me make all of them into one?" Ruby offered to him.
"Upkeep. You're not gonna be my sole owner for all of time, I get passed around like nothing. The technology around here is a tad bit too advanced for me, if something ever happens to it then it would be a waste of good equipment."
"I guess..." Ruby rubs the back of her head nervously.
"We haven't been introduced properly, by the way." He pointed out.
"Oh, you're right! I thought you got summoned with all the information on me."
"I wish."
"My name is Ruby! Ruby Rose! Nice to meet you, even though we've been with each other for almost 24 hours..." She then turned to him. "What about you? Do you have a name other than Assassin?"
He closes his eyes, thinking. "EMIYA. Spelled with all capital letters." Ruby's eyes widen.
"Your... full name?"
"I can't remember, unfortunately."
Ruby thinks to herself. Kiritsugu died 2 days ago on one of the evacuation aircrafts. Perhaps this is a relative? Though, his physique is far too similar to her former teacher's, but his voice sounds younger. Assassin class... EMIYA... must be a family tradition. She denied the possibility of it being Kiritsugu for the time being.
"Crazy. I knew someone with that exact name." She let out.
"It's probably common around here."
"The opposite, actually."
"Weird. How about your team's names?"
"Oh, that's not my team actually. They are my friends, but not my official team. The blonde guy is Jaune Arc. He's the leader of the team. That ginger girl is Nora Valkyrie, the girl with the red hair is Pyrrha Nikos, she's one of the best fighters around, and that guy is Lie Ren. He's fine too, I guess."
"Interesting names, I must say. I've heard worse." EMIYA looked towards Ruby, as they continued to walk. "What is your ability, by the way?"
"Semblance?" She corrected.
"Erm, I guess."
"I can turn into roses to travel fast!"
"You're making me look like your biggest fan."
"Huh?"
"Fashion design, abilities, so on."
"I can't deny that we really look alike when I'm wearing my outfit." She looked down at the outfit she was wearing, before looking back at EMIYA's. "But I haven't exactly seen your ability."
"You can ask your friends about it later. They got a good look at it, but my ability does involve around speed too."
"Is it like a Semblance?"
"A... what?"
"I guess not." Ruby said. The guy is looking more like a perfect copy of Kiritsugu with every second passing.
While the group is unaware, one of Ruby's relatives follows them and watches over them from the shadows, protecting them.
To be continued with a large time skip (few months)