Type-Moon, But I Summon Tom

"Is this panel cursed or something?" Minamoto, still unwilling to give up, clicked on the now grayed-out summon button. Unfortunately, there was no response. "So, I really did summon air, huh?"

Minamoto felt completely numb. He could only sit back down by the coffee table and pick up his bento again.

Simplicity is the truth. Minamoto decided to channel his frustration into his appetite, grabbing his chopsticks and digging into his meal. At this moment, he felt like he could eat three big bowls in one go.

In a corner unnoticed by Minamoto and Tom, a mouse hole had appeared at some point. This mouse hole was unusually peculiar. Its entrance wasn't the usual jagged, gnawed hole typical of rodents but a near-perfect semicircle, almost as if someone had specially designed it.

Inside the mouse hole, things were even more bizarre. It was like a miniature version of a normal human bedroom, complete with all the furnishings—bed, cabinet, table, recliner, rocking chair, wardrobe—essentially a fully functional room, albeit in miniature.

In fact, this miniature room was far better than the house Minamoto was living in, which had been abandoned for over 20 years and was even haunted. There was simply no comparison.

On the bed inside this tiny room lay a mouse wearing a sleeping cap. The name "Jerry" was written on the headboard. It was peacefully asleep, completely unaware of where it had ended up. Though, even if it knew, it probably wouldn't care.

At this moment, a visible, smoke-like gas slowly drifted over from the bento box, precisely entering Jerry's room. As if with purpose, it floated directly toward the bed where Jerry was sleeping. The front end of the gas seemed to transform into a hand, gently brushing over Jerry's nose.

"Mia~ mia~..." Smelling the aroma, Jerry began to drool slightly.

The fragrant gas, now shaped like an arm, brushed over Jerry's face, then pinched its nose with its index finger and thumb, slowly lifting it. Jerry's body floated up along with it.

Once it reached a certain height, the gas pulled Jerry toward the entrance of the mouse hole. Jerry floated in that direction, but it seemed it had been lifted too high earlier, causing it to bump its head against the doorframe as it reached the entrance.

"Thud!"

"Ow!" The moment it hit the doorframe, Jerry was jolted awake. The invisible hand released Jerry, causing it to fall to the ground with a thud, eliciting a yelp of pain.

Opening its eyes, Jerry saw a fragrant, smoke-like arm floating in front of it.

The gas hadn't dissipated yet and was now pointing in a certain direction. After completing this gesture, it finally vanished from Jerry's sight.

Jerry followed the direction the gas arm had pointed and saw a large bag of food, its eyes immediately lighting up.

However, in the next moment, Jerry noticed that the house seemed a bit off. It didn't feel like the house it lived in, causing a slight panic. But then, Jerry saw a cat eating next to the food and immediately felt reassured.

Jerry didn't even need to look closely. Just by the familiar color of the fur, it knew it had to be Tom. As long as Tom was around, there was no need to panic.

Jerry then turned its attention back to the bag of food.

The room was quite dim, with only a not-so-bright flashlight providing light for the entire living room.

Jerry nodded, quickly formulating a plan of action. In this dim environment, its small size would allow it to sneak over and easily grab the food.

Looking at the plastic bag in the distance, Jerry smirked. This plan was solid!

Without further ado, it was time to get to work!

Jerry tiptoed out of its mouse hole and, with its body leaning back and arms stretched forward, sprinted toward a nearby cabinet. Its speed was impressive, and its posture was anything but ordinary for a mouse.

Confirming that neither the human nor the cat at the coffee table had noticed it, Jerry repeated its tactic, using several cover points to quickly approach the area behind Tom. The bag of food was placed to Tom's left!

Once it was close enough, Jerry tiptoed into the blind spot of both Minamoto and Tom, reaching the plastic bag. Just as it was about to steal a box and make a quick escape, it noticed that Tom's tail was resting on top of the bag.

No choice but to lift Tom's tail with great effort and toss it aside.

As everyone knows, a cat and its tail are two entirely separate entities. For Tom, its tail was almost like another creature. As long as no serious harm was done to it, simply dragging it around wouldn't alert Tom.

"Crunch~" However, as Jerry tossed the tail, the tip of Tom's tail accidentally brushed against the handle of the plastic bag, making a faint sound.

Though the sound wasn't loud, it was enough to attract attention in the quiet room. Hearing the noise it had caused, Jerry froze. Both Minamoto and Tom turned their heads toward the bag, just in time to see a mouse standing there, awkwardly smiling with its hands behind its back.

Realizing it had been spotted, Jerry immediately jumped off the bag and made a run for it.

Minamoto was stunned, and so was Tom.

Tom was stunned because it hadn't expected to run into Jerry here.

About a second later, Minamoto snapped out of it and quickly urged Tom to act. "There's a mouse, Tom!"

Hearing this, Tom put down its bento box and, with a displeased expression, dropped to all fours and chased after Jerry, determined to quickly deal with the pest that had interrupted its meal.

"How could there be a mouse in this house?" Minamoto pondered as he watched Tom chase after the mouse. The house had been abandoned for at least 20 years, and according to Tom, the only previous resident was a ghost. There was no food here for a mouse to survive on.

Unless... the mouse had arrived recently. Otherwise, it would be impossible for a mouse to survive here. If the mouse had been here all along, it just didn't make sense, given the complete lack of food.

Thinking this, Minamoto suddenly realized that the mouse looked somewhat familiar.

Meanwhile, Tom's pursuit of the mouse had reached a fever pitch. The mouse was sprinting toward a mouse hole, but it was clearly slower than Tom, who reached the hole much faster.

Standing by the mouse hole, Tom smirked as it saw Jerry approaching. With a flick of its finger, Tom shifted the mouse hole several dozen centimeters to the side.

Unaware of this, Jerry continued charging toward what it thought was its home, only to slam headfirst into a smooth wall. The impact was so strong that Jerry was thrown back several centimeters.

Dazed, Jerry swayed left and right before plopping down on the ground, golden stars swirling above its head, indicating it was stunned.

"Aha!" Tom reached out and grabbed Jerry.

Laughing, Tom stuck out its tongue like a dog and, holding Jerry in one hand, ran toward the door, intending to throw Jerry out of the house.

At this moment, Minamoto finally realized what was going on. Clearly, this mouse had appeared after he arrived. Recalling how the mouse had stood upright and awkwardly smiled earlier, Minamoto suspected it might be Jerry.

Moreover, the mouse had appeared right after he performed the Servant summoning. Connecting the dots, Minamoto began to suspect that perhaps... the summoning hadn't been a dud after all. Maybe the target was just too small for him to notice.

Realizing this, Minamoto quickly called out to Tom, "Wait, Tom!"

However... it was a bit too late. Tom had already run to the front door with Jerry in hand, flung open the door, and tossed Jerry into the air.

Then, with perfect aim, Tom kicked Jerry mid-air. "Thud!"

After kicking Jerry, Tom placed a hand above its eyes to watch Jerry's trajectory. Jerry flew in a perfect arc, landing squarely in the trash can outside the house. The precision was so impeccable that even the national soccer team would shout, "Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Satisfied, Tom clapped its hands and returned inside, closing the door behind it.

At this moment, Tom vaguely remembered that Minamoto had called out to it earlier. It quickly returned to Minamoto.

"Uh..." Seeing that Tom had already disposed of the mouse, Minamoto slapped his forehead. He had been too careless.

Looking at Tom, who was proudly seeking praise, Minamoto could only pat its head and offer some half-hearted encouragement. "Ah, well done, well done."

He couldn't exactly blame Tom for being too efficient at catching mice. If he did, Tom's favorability might drop, and Minamoto would feel like he had lost out big time.

For now, he could only wait for the mouse, likely Jerry, to return and attempt another heist.

Outside, Jerry finally managed to climb out of the trash can and onto its edge. Leaning on its left elbow, its right hand tapped rhythmically on the trash can as it glared at the house with a pout.

The first expedition for food outside the walls had ended in failure!

In a villa in Fuyuki City, the sound of an intense "battle" could be heard.

"Boom! Smack!!! Hadouken!!!"

"KO!!!"

"Hahahahaha, as expected of this king, my gaming skills are so fearsome even I am afraid." Seeing that he had once again defeated his opponent without taking any damage, the golden-haired man placed a hand on his forehead and laughed loudly. "You're still far from reaching this king's level of gaming prowess, Sakura. Hahahaha!"

"Ah, I died." A black-haired girl expressionlessly put down her controller, watching as the character she controlled was defeated in one combo. She then turned to look at the smug golden-haired man beside her.

Human emotions are not the same. She only found him noisy.

"This is the difference in skill."

It had been a year since this golden-haired man claimed to have been summoned by her.

In this short year, Sakura had watched this man transform from an arrogant "king" to an arrogant "idiot," and finally, regrettably, into an arrogant "otaku." This transformation happened quickly. In Sakura's memory, his phase as an arrogant king didn't even last a month.

At this point, she was increasingly skeptical of his claim to be a king. Did such an otaku king really exist? She was genuinely concerned about his mental state.

If she had initially felt admiration or even awe toward him, now her usual emotion was a sense of regret, like "Ugh~."

At first, he had talked about something called the Holy Grail War, and then... a year passed, with no sign of the Holy Grail War. Instead, he had spent the entire year as a shut-in, playing games almost every day and rarely going out.

To the point where she had almost forgotten about the Holy Grail War.

Just as the golden-haired man was celebrating his victory over a child, the sky outside the window suddenly turned crimson, with occasional red lightning flickering in the distance.

Seeing the reddened sky, the golden-haired man immediately knew that the Holy Grail War had begun. "Interesting... The first battle of the Holy Grail War has finally commenced, hasn't it?"

"Holy Grail War? Ah, the thing you mentioned before?" Sakura thought for a while before remembering that this was what the golden-haired man had occasionally mentioned in the first half-year after he claimed to have been summoned by her. He said he had been summoned to participate in the Holy Grail War.

So, Sakura continued to ask, "So, are you going to fight now? In real life."

"Foolish!" However, to Sakura's surprise, the golden-haired man suddenly stood up, arrogantly raising his head and crossing his arms in front of his chest. "It's only the first day of the Holy Grail War. For this king to join the battle so early would be beneath my dignity."

The golden-haired man closed his eyes, recalling the role-playing games he had played over the past year. "A king should be like the final boss in a game, waiting for the hero to arrive. So..."

Hearing this, Sakura tilted her head and curiously asked, "...So?"

"The king shall wait to be defeated!!!"

Irisviel and Merlin had just stepped out of the arcade, and by now, the sky had turned pitch black.

Looking up at the dark sky, Irisviel realized that they had gotten too absorbed in playing racing games and lost track of time. By the time they left, it was already late at night.

Standing at the entrance of the arcade, Irisviel paced back and forth. "It's over, it's already dark. The Holy Grail War must have started."

After flying from Germany to Fuyuki City in Japan, she hadn't even made it to the Einzbern family's castle in the forest, which was supposed to be their base for this Holy Grail War. She had been too busy playing games. The thought of Kiritsugu being disappointed in her made Irisviel's heart race.

She shouldn't have listened to this scoundrel's persuasion, saying there was plenty of time and that they should explore a bit more. Against her better judgment, they had ended up in the arcade. Now, the Holy Grail War had already begun, and she hadn't made any preparations.

Thinking this, Irisviel looked at Merlin, her expression saying everything without words.

"Ah... my bad, I didn't realize it had gotten so late." Merlin scratched his head, feigning innocence, though he felt no remorse whatsoever. In fact, he was quite enjoying himself.

Seeing that the atmosphere had turned a bit awkward after Irisviel's reaction, Merlin quickly changed the subject.

"By the way, Kiritsugu arrived in Fuyuki a few hours ago."

"Eh? Kiritsugu is already here?"

Merlin pointed to his eyes. "Yep, I saw it with my Clairvoyance."

"Where is Kiritsugu now?"

Hearing this, Merlin recalled the scene he had seen through his Clairvoyance. He wasn't sure how to gently explain to Irisviel that Kiritsugu and Maiya were currently kissing. But since she asked, he had to say something.

Merlin spread his arms and, in a slow, yoga-like motion, raised them above his head before bringing them together in front of his chest.

"Peace and joy."

"Peace... and joy?" Irisviel frowned, trying to make sense of Merlin's words. "What does that mean?"

"Nothing. You'll understand when the time comes." As he spoke, Merlin glanced at Irisviel's head, where a faint green light seemed to hover.

Hearing this, Irisviel's confusion only deepened. But before she could ponder further, a news report playing on a screen inside a nearby electronics store caught her attention.

"According to the latest news, a gas leak occurred in the pipes under the road near Homurahara Academy in Fuyuki City half an hour ago, resulting in a significant explosion. The road in front of the school was severely damaged, but fortunately, no one was injured. The fire has now been brought under control..."

"Has a Servant already started fighting?"

"Yep, about an hour ago. You were so engrossed in the racing game that I didn't want to disturb you. Hahaha."

"..."

Meanwhile, Jerry was still searching for a way back into the house.

Ever since Tom had thrown it out, Jerry had been looking for a way back in. But... all the windows were tightly shut, and the only accessible entry point was the gap under the front door.

Unfortunately, entering through the door was too risky. It was too easy to get spotted by Tom and thrown out again.

But it seemed there was no better option. If it didn't go through the door, it would have to spend the night outside. Finally, Jerry made up its mind and decided to force its way in through the door.

Jerry quietly approached the door and peeked through the gap to check if Tom was in the entrance hall. Confirming that Tom was nowhere in sight, Jerry squeezed its head through the gap, followed by its entire body.

However... Jerry failed to notice that on the shoe cabinet nearby, a blue-gray cat had already spread its arms, grinning with its mouth wide open as it watched Jerry's sneaky movements.