Type-Moon, But I Summon Tom

"With this, the last spirit in this area has been dealt with. Seriously, what kind of world have I been dragged into? The number of ghosts is just ridiculous... Huh?" Just as the girl was about to wrap things up, she suddenly noticed a light blue cat hanging above the doorway.

"What's this? Just a cat? But how is there still a cat alive here?"

Although the cat seemed a bit strange, the girl didn't pay much attention to it. She sheathed her knife, opened the window, and left the house.

After watching the entire scene from the ceiling, Tom, now sure that the ghost had disappeared, quickly jumped down to the floor, opened the door, and then pounced onto Minamoto, continuing to shiver in fear.

Seeing Tom rush out the door, Minamoto immediately started asking what had happened inside. "What was that scream about?"

Tom had just entered the house when he suddenly let out a scream, startling Minamoto, who was keeping watch outside. Just as Minamoto was about to crouch down and peek through the door crack to see what was going on, Tom jumped out.

Hearing Minamoto's question, Tom jumped off him, pulled the corners of his mouth to reveal his sharp teeth, and then waved his claws in front of him.

Next, Tom grabbed his frying pan, swung it at the air in front of him, and then tossed the pan aside. He then returned to where he had swung the pan and started pretending to be a ghost again, clutching his chest and falling forward.

With that, Tom's one-cat, two-role mime performance came to an end.

"So, you're saying there was a ghost inside... and you took it out with a frying pan?" Minamoto struggled to understand Tom's performance.

Tom was about to shake his head, but then it occurred to him that if his new master thought he had handled the situation, he might get more cake in the future. So he immediately nodded, proudly raising his head and puffing out his chest, placing his left hand on his hip and giving himself a thumbs-up with his right hand.

Seeing Tom nod, Minamoto's eyes lit up, and he immediately gave a thumbs-up and started cheering. "Oh? Tom, well done!"

Although Minamoto had always been confident in Tom's combat abilities, apart from beating up Ryōnosuke, he hadn't actually seen Tom in any real fights.

And judging from the cartoons, Tom's combat abilities were extremely unstable. He always seemed to have the upper hand, but in the end, Jerry would win.

There were plenty of such cases—in fact, they were quite common.

Now that he knew Tom could defeat ghosts, it was undoubtedly great news for Minamoto.

Entering the house, Minamoto was immediately hit by a pungent, musty smell. The entire house felt damp, and there was even a hole about the size of a bowl in the wooden floor at the entrance.

Considering this was an old house that hadn't been lived in for at least twenty years, the condition was actually pretty good.

Minamoto wasn't picky about the house. If you asked why, it was because the state of this house was far better than the dormitory he had lived in during high school.

That dormitory, which would make even a dog cry was where Minamoto had lived for three full years.

To this day, Minamoto still remembered the horror of discovering that someone had left a "gift" in the hallway on his first day in the dorm.

Compared to that, this old house, which was in much better condition than his high school dorm, was nothing to complain about.

After tidying up the living room a bit and clearing a spot to sit, Minamoto sat down on the floor and pulled out a flashlight, a local map, and a comic book from the plastic bag he had been carrying.

Tonight, Minamoto didn't plan to sleep early. Instead, he wanted to study the map and roughly determine the locations of the other Masters. With his memories from the anime, he could make some educated guesses about where they might be on the map.

As for the comic book, it was for Tom to pass the time. If any more ghosts showed up, Tom would be the only one who could handle them, so it was crucial that Tom didn't fall asleep.

Moreover, the Holy Grail War also took place at night, so it was best to let Tom sleep during the day. If Tom got sleepy at night, it would be a disaster. Minamoto knew very well that Tom's sleepiness was impossible to suppress. Rather than letting Tom get bored and drowsy, it was better to give him something to do.

Early the next morning, Minamoto planned to go out and scout key locations, such as the Matou and Tohsaka residences, as well as Emiya's house.

As everyone knew, a Holy Grail War, excluding exceptions like the Great Holy Grail War in Romania, the Fifth Holy Grail War, and the Holy Grail War in America, usually consisted of seven Masters and seven Servants.

Since Minamoto was likely occupying one Master slot, he would need to observe how many Masters were participating in this Holy Grail War.

It was possible that this Fourth Holy Grail War had also become an irregular one, with Minamoto being an extra Master. In fact, Minamoto felt that this possibility was more likely.

After all, his Servant, Tom, didn't belong to any of the seven standard classes. Instead, his class was simply listed as "Tom," and all his stats were question marks.

So it was likely that there would be eight Masters this time, with Minamoto being the extra one. But there was no need to think too much about it now. The number of Masters would become clear eventually. What was more important now was the investigation during the day.

Fuyuki City was a small city, so finding these locations in a day wouldn't be too difficult, especially with a map. It was as easy as walking.

At the same time, Minamoto needed to use tonight to plan his next steps and study the panel in more detail.

While Minamoto was staying up late studying the map, a young man named Waver, after confirming that the two elderly people in his house were asleep, quietly sneaked out of his home.

From the Command Seals on the back of his right hand, it was clear that he was also a chosen participant in this Fourth Holy Grail War. Once he summoned his Servant, these Seals would transform into Command Spells.

Unlike Kiritsugu and Tokiomi, who were wealthy, Waver didn't use mercury to draw his summoning circle. Instead, he used chicken blood from a few chickens he had bought.

Compared to the others, Waver's summoning circle was a bit... shabby.

But shabby or not, for Waver, who had even borrowed money from his classmates to come to Japan, being able to participate was already a miracle. Who could ask for more?

After placing the Holy Relic he had stolen from his teacher opposite the summoning circle, Waver nervously extended his right hand and began the summoning ritual.

...

"Let thy body rest under my command, thy fate tied to my sword."

"Answer the call of the Holy Grail. If thou wouldst heed this will and this reason, then answer me."

"Here I swear."

"I shall accomplish all deeds of righteousness, I shall destroy all evils of this world."

"Thou who art clad in the great Trinity, come forth from the circle of restraint, guardian of the scales!"

As the final line of the chant ended, the summoning circle erupted in a brief but dazzling light. When the light faded, two figures appeared in the circle.

"Huh?" Waver, seeing the Servant he had summoned, lost his balance and sat down on the floor, staring blankly at the two figures in the summoning circle. "Two... Servants?"

This wasn't what he had read in the books. If he remembered correctly, a Master should only have one Servant, right?

In the summoning circle stood two men, one tall and one short. The shorter one was dressed in crimson, with a matching cape. The only odd thing was that he was quite short, only about 1.5 meters tall, with the face of a young boy.

Well, to be fair, Waver himself was only 157 cm tall.

As for the other one... he was a bit more outrageous. He was dressed in a modern-style suit, even holding a cigar in his right hand. Waver really wanted to ask if this guy was even a Servant, but the atmosphere didn't seem right for such a question.

"I am Alexander, son of Zeus, or Alexander III. You must be my Master, right?" The crimson-clad youth spread his arms and spoke boldly to Waver.

"I guess... so," Waver replied, still confused about summoning two Servants, but he nodded anyway. "My name is Waver Velvet."

Then Waver turned to the tall man in the suit. "And you? Are you also a Servant?"

From the moment he was summoned, the tall man in the suit had been staring at Waver with an incredulous look. Now, hearing Waver's question, he adjusted his expression and said, "Ahem, my apologies."

"Yes, I am indeed a Servant. My name is Zhuge Liang."

"Zhuge... Liang?" Waver patted the dust off his pants, then leaned forward, his disbelief practically written on his face. If there had been a question mark above his head, it would have been perfect.

"Are you sure?"

After saying this, Waver scrutinized the man who claimed to be Zhuge Liang again. But no matter how he looked at him, this guy was clearly a full-blooded Englishman. Aside from his slightly long hair, everything about him screamed "England."

Even the way he spoke had a strong London accent. If he was going to lie, at least he could have spoken Chinese!

Not bothering to even fake an accent and claiming to be Zhuge Liang from the Far East—was he treating Waver like an idiot?

And for some reason, Waver felt that the tall man in the suit was very familiar, as if he had known him for a long time. But Waver couldn't remember where he had met such a person, so he chalked it up to a classic case of mistaken identity—a phenomenon where the brain, too lazy to process new information, assumes that what it's seeing is something it already knows.

If he wasn't mistaken, Zhuge Liang was a figure from the Far East who lived 1,800 years ago. But the man in front of him was wearing a suit, which only came into existence in modern times. How could this have anything to do with the Far East 1,800 years ago?

Unless, of course, suits had already been invented during the Three Kingdoms period 1,800 years ago. Or perhaps Zhuge Liang wasn't from 1,800 years ago, but from the year 1800.

"I understand your confusion, but there's no need to worry. Just know that I am Zhuge Liang," the man said, taking a puff from the cigar in his right hand. "In any case, during this Holy Grail War, I am your Servant. That's all you need to know, right?"

"But..."

"That's all you need to know, right!" Seeing that Waver still wanted to ask more questions, Zhuge Liang spoke again with a stern expression.

After hesitating for a while, Waver finally nodded.

"Okay... okay."

The next morning.

As Minamoto walked down the street, he kept attracting the attention of passersby. After all... having a cat wrapped around your neck at all times was bound to draw some looks.

Originally, Minamoto had wanted Tom to walk beside him, but unfortunately, Tom wasn't used to walking on all fours. After a while, he would stand up and walk side by side with Minamoto. To be honest, for ordinary people, this was pretty creepy.

Then Minamoto tried carrying Tom, but that turned out even worse. As they walked, Minamoto noticed that Tom was being stretched longer and longer by gravity.

By the time Minamoto realized what was happening, Tom's lower body had turned into a 20-meter-long rope, coiled up like a roll of cat. It was hard not to laugh, but fortunately, there was no one around at the time, or things would have gotten awkward.

Since none of the methods worked, and Minamoto couldn't leave Tom behind (as he would feel too unsafe without him), Minamoto ultimately decided to wrap Tom around his neck like a scarf. It was actually quite warm, aside from Tom constantly moving and making Minamoto's neck itch.

Minamoto had originally planned to wake up earlier, but his biological clock seemed to be set in stone. Just like before he transmigrated, he slept until 11 AM.

And it wasn't even him waking up on his own. Tom's sleeping posture wasn't great, and he had kicked Minamoto in the head while dreaming. It actually hurt quite a bit, even though it was just a cat's kick.

But then again, considering how Tom had taken down Ryōnosuke with just a flick of his wrist, it made sense.

If it hadn't been for that kick, Minamoto probably would have slept until 1 PM again.

Although, in a way, it was thanks to Tom that Minamoto woke up early, the experience of being kicked awake in the morning wasn't exactly pleasant. Even now, Minamoto's head was still buzzing.

But none of that mattered. What mattered was that Minamoto had discovered something: this world... wasn't quite what he had imagined.

First of all, he was absolutely certain that the Fifth Holy Grail War took place in 2004, and the Fourth Holy Grail War was ten years before that, in 1994.

But... why did everyone on the street have smartphones? Why were there huge screens everywhere? And why were there maids from maid cafes promoting their businesses on certain streets?

It wasn't that he hadn't seen these things before—he definitely had. But the key was where he had seen them.

In a modern city, these things were perfectly normal—so normal that their absence would feel strange. But in 1994, phones were still brick-sized "big brothers." There were no large-screen smartphones, let alone maid cafes. The only thing Minamoto could think now was how absurd this all was.

All of Minamoto's doubts were finally answered when he mustered the courage to ask a passerby, "What year is it?"—even though it made him look like an idiot.

But the answer only confused him even more. It was 2012, a full 18 years after the normal timeline's Fourth Holy Grail War. Not only had the Fourth Holy Grail War ended long ago, but even the Fifth Holy Grail War should have been over by now. In two more years, the Holy Grail would be dismantled.

Eighteen years later was one thing, but a new question arose: if it was 18 years later, why did the Ryōnosuke he had encountered still look like he was in his twenties?

"Tom, do you think we've been scammed?" Recalling the panel that clearly stated "Fourth Holy Grail War," Minamoto couldn't help but feel a wave of sadness and reached out to stroke Tom, who was wrapped around his neck.

Tom just shrugged and spread his hands, as if to say, "How should I, a cat, know?"

Seeing this, Minamoto had no choice but to continue his investigation in Fuyuki City. No matter what he planned to do next, information was crucial, especially now that he knew the timeline was completely off.

Earlier, he had confirmed the locations of the Matou and Tohsaka residences. After all, the mansions of these two mage families were quite eye-catching. He didn't even need to search for them—just asking a passerby while pretending to be a tourist was enough to find out where they were.

The only problem was the Emiya residence. That one was truly hard to find. The houses in that area all looked similar, and finding the right one would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Meanwhile, as Minamoto was scouting various locations in Fuyuki City, a plane from Germany landed smoothly on the runway at Fuyuki Airport.

A woman with white hair and red eyes stepped out of the plane. Looking at the scenery in the distance, she sighed, her face slightly flushed. "We're finally here, Kiritsugu's hometown."

This woman was the one who had been standing next to Kiritsugu when he summoned his Servant. She was also his wife, Irisviel.

This trip could be considered her first time traveling far from home—no, it was even her first time leaving the castle in the snowfields. For the past eight years, she had spent her entire life in that castle, so she was quite excited.

"Why not tweet about it to commemorate the occasion? How about I take a photo for you?" Before Irisviel could finish her sigh, a white-haired man holding a lollipop followed her out of the plane. He was the Servant Kiritsugu had summoned—Merlin.

However, unlike the pink robe he had been wearing when he was summoned, Merlin was now dressed in casual clothes, looking like a tourist on vacation in Japan. He had even brought a digital camera, which he had requested from Kiritsugu before their departure.

After speaking to Irisviel, Merlin took out a camera from his bag and prepared to take a few photos of her.

"No, thank you," Irisviel said, her good mood instantly vanishing at Merlin's words. "We're here to participate in the Holy Grail War. We can't cause trouble for Kiritsugu."

With that, Irisviel quickly descended the stairs.

Throughout the entire journey, her impression of Merlin had gone from "mysterious mage" (based on the legends of King Arthur she had read before the summoning) to surprise after he was summoned, and finally to "this guy is just scum." Merlin had managed to completely shatter her expectations in just 12 hours on the plane. Perhaps Merlin was a genius in this regard.

On the plane, for some reason, Merlin had been extremely talkative.

If he had just been chatty, it wouldn't have been a big deal. Irisviel herself enjoyed talking to people.