Regardless, it was enough for her to regain her good mood, and what Rin said next eased it further. "Thank you for breakfast, by the way. It was exquisite." The smile she made wasn't the one she donned for classmates who weren't currently around, and it definitely wasn't one of the sneers she'd throw at Kirei Kotomine. "But, Sakura, you know I'm perfectly capable of cooking for myself. You didn't have to do that."
"I know," was all Sakura said while smiling back. Times like this, Rin struggled with an old urge to wrap her arms around her sweet little sister and hug her until her face matched her eyes. Unfortunately, they were in public, and neither was of single-digit years anymore. And she couldn't afford to show vulnerability in a time like this. Ah, to be young again… Aaand with that thought, I age twenty years.
Besides, Sakura was giving her the "I am your sister, not your plushie" look she'd cultivated shortly after her ninth birthday. Is that when she learned how to read my mind?Rin snarked to herself as her sister asked, "By the way, Mitsuzuri-senpai mentioned you showed up here an hour early because your alarm clock made a mistake. Is that true?"
"…Sort of." Rin pinched her brows together, briefly wondering if she should take even such a small risk, but one glimpse into Sakura's eyes told her she wouldn't be budged. And it was a small risk. "It wasn't just my alarm, but every single clock in the house. They all just jumped to one hour ahead overnight."
"All of them?" Sakura crossed her arms with a frown, unwittingly emulating her sister, as she mulled this over. "Mother keeps them running on time like a Swiss accountant. And they were fine when we left last night… For every last one to speed up on their own…" She glanced about just in case before lowering her voice. "Could there be… something else in play?"
Rin nodded, switching to a whisper herself. "Right after you left with Mother, I finished deciphering Father's will and found this." She pulled the red pendant partially out of her pocket, just long enough to show Sakura, before stowing it away. It could've remained in her coat inside her locker, but Rin wanted to keep an eye on it. Plus, it was better than carrying around that rotting snakeskin… "It's definitely potent, and there could've been something in his will that triggered a little dilation effect when I unlocked it." She frowned to herself in thought. "I'm not sure, but… I think Father might've been testing me."
Something flickered in Sakura's gaze, there one instant and gone the next, so Rin couldn't have been sure what it was or if it had even been there. As she spoke, though, her tone only conveyed worry. "Test or not, this whole situation seems to be getting more complicated with every passing day, and it hasn't even officially started, right?" Sakura fidgeted slightly. "Are you really sure about this, Big Sister?"
"Sure or not, it's too late for me to back down now." Rin stared down at her right hand balled into a fist. The back of it was still bare, but she had been feeling an odd sort of prickling there for the last couple days. "I'm the only one of us who can qualify as a Master. That makes it my responsibility to fight for our family." She raised her gaze again to find her little sister standing quite tense and not making eye contact. Rin gripped and squeezed her right shoulder. "Look, this really is for the best. I can take care of myself, so don't-"
"Don't worry?" Sakura preempted her with a sad little smile. "Remember what Mother said when you told her that?"
Rin winced at the memory of Aoi Tohsaka frowning at her with crossed arms and unshed tears in her eyes. "…Touché." The sisters' mother had reminded them both last night that she'd already been forced to experience this situation once, and it had not included a perfectly happy ending. Father promised the same and didn't come back… And so much for her promise-
Rin Tohsaka closed her eyes and forced her breathing to steady. She opened them again, though a second too late to see her sister had been doing the same exercise. "I have to do this, Sakura. And I know I'm asking a lot of you, but please… stay with Mother, and stay safe. I…" She hesitated but pressed on. "I need to know both of you are safe. So I can keep a clear head." Did I have to add that? Gah, I'm so selfish…
Sakura, luckily, chose not to dwell on the last sentence. She'd had enough experience with Rin-speak to understand what she was really saying. "Leave Mother to me," she assured her. "We'll take care of each other. Just… be careful, alright, Rin?" Her sister shifted at hearing her name; Sakura had her full attention. "Promise me that you'll watch yourself… that you won't take stupid o-or unnecessary risks."
That prompted a smile from the soon-to-be Master. "I promise." She patted Sakura's shoulder and released it, the sisters exchanging goodbyes before walking to their next classes. Lunch break was just about over, and they both needed to keep up their school images. It was also kind of relaxing, too, this… normality.
But a great many things still weighed on both Tohsaka's minds.
The school day drew to a close, and Homurahara's front gate quickly became cluttered with students. Some like Sakura and the Mitsuzuri siblings stayed behind for their respective clubs' sessions, others like Issei had additional duties. A few like Shirou didn't have an official reason to remain on school grounds but did so for the sake of their own business. The majority, though, eagerly seized the opportunity for freedom.
Well, not so much freedom in Rin's case, but she quickly donned her coat and made her way back to the Tohsaka estate just the same. She deftly stepped through her family's Bounded Field and unlocked the door to find everything just the way she had left it. Good; her home's defenses were in pristine shape, of course.
After taking off her shoes and setting aside her school case (she'd already finished what homework she'd been assigned), the heir to the Tohsaka family passed by the answering machine, one of the few pieces of technology she tolerated in this world, only to notice its button for voicemail was blinking. Her eyes narrowed even as she pressed the button. "You Have One Message," an automated voice reported. "Recorded January 31, 3:21 pm." Then came the usual ping, followed by a deep voice. "Rin, it's me."
Just hearing that man speak soured whatever good mood Rin might've developed today. It was even worse than listening to Shinji Matou's squealing; she'd been enduring Kirei Kotomine's presence in her life and Sakura's for ten excruciatingly long years, and her seven-year-old opinion of him hadn't improved. If not for Mother being a mighty counterbalance against their "guardian," who knows what Rin might've done to him.
"I surely needn't remind you that tomorrow is the last day for proper entry." That priest's smug voice droned on, but Rin forced herself to pay attention. He tended to disperse nuggets of important information among his prattling. "It would be best now you decide quickly and decisively. Only two standard slots remain, Archer and Saber class of our world. They require Masters as soon as possible."
Lancer's already taken, huh…? Rin thought before she could stop herself.
She gripped her head with a snarl, as if she could squeeze out these annoying thoughts that kept persisting, even while Kirei's message continued. "…little time left for you to summon your Servant and claim your Command Seals. Of course, none of this is relevant should you choose not to participate in the Holy Grail War. There's no shame in valuing your life, and given the unusual-" Her finger snapped out to terminate the rest of the message.
"I don't need you telling me what I have to do," Rin muttered darkly before storming away from the phone. Two Servants left, one of which was the strongest class of the seven. And the time for the soon-to-be Master's best circumstances was rapidly approaching. Perfect. She allowed herself to smirk in anticipation. The Saber-class Servant will be mine, and with it, victory will be in the bag for the Tohsaka family.
Day quickly gave way to night in wintertime, and it was already dark as Shirou walked home after another couple hours of after-school maintenance. The streetlights made it easy to see the road, and he'd walked this route so many times he could find his way back to the house in his sleep. I wonder if Aunt Maiya made it to her destination okay, he mused before adjusting his scarf as a particularly cold wind rippled past him.
That's when he noticed someone standing on the road just ahead. "Huh?" He walked closer, but the person didn't move a single step, so when he had almost reached the next streetlamp, the light made it easy to see her: a little girl, maybe eleven if that, in a dark purple overcoat that reached her ankles and purple boots. She also wore a purple hat atop her long, slightly shaggy hair as white as the scarf around her neck. The hair color was odd enough, and given her pale skin tone, Shirou couldn't have been sure of which nationality she might've been. A tourist, maybe…? And the eyes made it even harder; red as blood and staring at him with something he couldn't be sure of. Her little smile seemed cute, but somehow, it didn't make him feel any less uneasy.
Then she finally started walking herself, and they began to pass one another. Shirou drew his jacket around himself even more. It was as if something was prickling down his spine.
"You better hurry up and summon yours, Big Brother, or you'll die."
Shirou stopped in his tracks at the light voice and spun around, but the street was empty, much to his increasing confusion and slight worry. What the… He looked about, but no creepy girl in sight. He loosened his scarf and set back on his route. Must've been my imagination or something…
Meanwhile, a certain girl in purple was somehow two streets away and calm as ever. As she walked along the streets, a voice echoed inside her mind. 'So, that's Shirou Emiya?' She frowned ever so slightly at the name. 'He doesn't strike me as particularly dangerous, Servants or no Servants.'
The girl's crimson eyes were fixed straight ahead. "It could be a trick. Grandfather warned us to expect the unexpected as soon as we arrived in this city."
'Your grandfather isn't the one fighting in this War.' The words carried a sort of bluntness which rattled inadvertently against her, but she shrugged it off. She'd grown used to it after two months. 'He's still your priority target, then?'
"Of course, he is," she snapped at seemingly no one. "He's going to tell me everything, and then he's going to pay. Father mightn't be around anymore, but I will-" Her breath hitched, and her head hung forward, but the girl quickly collected herself with a deep breath before straightening. She wouldn't shed tears here. "…Either way, I'm here to win this. And between you and Berserker, there's no one who can stand in my way."
The voice didn't answer, but the girl still felt a silent skepticism leveled at her. Her smile returned; she had such a serious buzzkill for a familiar, even when he was so powerful. Teasing him for this quality had quickly become a fun way to pass the time.
Illyasviel von Einzbern set off for home with a spring in her step. "Come on, Big Bro Saber."
And Master and Servant headed confidently for the outskirt woods of Fuyuki, a shadow silently watching them from the rooftops and telephone poles.
In the Zenjou house, Sakura stood by the stove carefully monitoring the two pots in front of her. She liked cooking and did it often for her family. Some of the happiest memories she had in the last ten years were of her and Rin working together in the kitchen, trying all kinds of recipes while their mother watched carefully. It's been a while since things were like that, Sakura noted a little sadly.
Aoi Tohsaka set the table in the dining room, the slight cluttering the only sign of her inner thoughts. Her mother had passed away of old age seven years ago, and her father had followed only a few months later. Both had been peaceful ends, but it seemed like Father had simply little interest in living without his wife anymore. Perhaps the final testament of how happy their marriage had been. That's a luxury I couldn't afford, Aoi reminded herself so as to not dwell on this.
She relaxed as a fresh aroma wafted into the room, followed quickly by her youngest daughter and their dinner. "For goodness' sake, I don't know where you and Rin got your culinary talents from," Aoi laughed. "Omelets are about the height of my skill, and well, let's just say it wasn't your father who'd surprise me with breakfast in bed."
"Hard work and a little enthusiasm can go a long way." Sakura smiled back at her, managing to suppress any reaction to Father being mentioned. She'd had even more practice with that than with cooking. Shame I can't cook for Atto, either… It was a secret wish of hers to surprise him in their little garden with a meal all made by her, but for all her efforts, she hadn't yet been able to conjure up a fully functional stove or a spice collection. And it's not like I can bring a picnic box with me. She'd tried.
She set down the bowls while watching Mother settle into her chair with the slightest hint of weariness. She had grown a little thinner over the years. The lines in her face were slowly pronouncing themselves more, and she used makeup to hide the rings around the eyes. Even the smile she wore looked so tired. "The Magus Association has been badgering you again?"
Aoi started at Sakura's question. "No, they're showing a little more restraint for the moment. Well," she clicked her tongue, "aside from that letter wishing our family all the best with the upcoming War and assurances that they had complete confidence in your sister, of course." Sakura echoed those last two words with a subtle eyeroll only her mother could've picked up. "Did you… speak with Rin today?"
Sakura seated herself to her left and squeezed her hand reassuringly in hopes of dispelling the guilty tone in Mother's words. "She understands your worries, Mother. But…" She couldn't help but sigh. "Big Sister is dead set on doing this. I didn't have a chance of talking her out of it."
"You shouldn't have had to try," Aoi lamented. "It's my duty in the first place, and no matter what I might've said…" She didn't need to continue. Tokiomi Tohsaka's ghost continued to linger over the three women even ten years after his passing. His widow shook her head, then told Sakura, "Well, the only thing we can do now is place our faith in Rin and… wait for her to return." She nearly said, "see what happens," but tried to insert a little optimism into her words. Both for Sakura's sake and her own.
Her daughter put on her own smile. "Well, if anyone can beat the odds, it's Big Sister, right?" She nodded towards the food. "Let's keep our chins up." Mother smiled back at her in gratitude and a little relief, the sight making Sakura feel a little guilty. It must've been so hard for Mother these years, especially when she didn't have any magecraft and thereby could only do so much for them. Now the second Grail War in her lifetime had arrived, and she had to watch Rin strut proudly off to battle. She must feel so powerless…Sakura chewed on her rice while watching Mother eat with stilted movements. I guess her only consolation is that she thinks I'm as powerless as her. The thought stabbed at her stomach despite the good meal.
On days like this, Sakura Tohsaka couldn't wait to go to sleep.
Around the same time at the Emiya home…
"I keep telling you to head home early, Shirou!" Taiga scolded her surrogate brother while he laid out their dinner. "Didn't I say loud and clear in homeroom that town's gotten a lot un-safer these days?"
After setting down bowls for Urushi, Shiba and Bull, Shirou sat at the table while avoiding eye contact with her. "Well… something came up at school." Even he knew that was a feeble excuse.
The canine trio all shot him disbelieving stink-eyes while tucking into their meals, and Taiga simply sighed. "I bet you got that from Kiritsugu…" Shirou hung his head a little at the mention of his adoptive father, and he thought he could hear Shiba whimpering a little. "Making your big sister worry about you when you're always trying to help others." She tugged the closest hound, Urushi, to her side and began playing with his head's fur. "But that's the Shirou we've always known, isn't it? He can't just ignore a person in need, can he? Can he, Urushi?" She got an affirmative bark in answer before wiggling back out for his food.
Traitor, Shirou pretended to glare at him while she prattled on between her bites. It seemed Taiga really was trying to win over the pack while Maiya was away. Good luck with that. He'd only summoned Urushi as practice, she must've left the other two behind for his protection. Geeze, I'm not a little boy anymore…
"…He even once wrote in an essay for school, 'When I grow up, I want to be a Hero of Justice'." A deep chuckle rumbled up from Bull, a sound that increased when a giggling Taiga rubbed his head.
Shirou suppressed a groan, glad they didn't host guests here often. She just loved trotting out that detail whenever she could. "What can I say, I had you around, didn't I, Big Sis Fuji? Immature adults tend to put weird thoughts in kids' heads." He picked up some meat but not without a smirk and a parting shot. "You're free to cook your own meals if you don't approve."
Taiga flinched away like he'd actually struck her, then she put on the same fake tears act as this morning. "How could you be so cruel to your loving big sister…?"
"Like you're any nicer to Aunt Maiya." That earned him a chorus of barked chortles and a vindictive grumble from his "loving big sister." He couldn't help but smile a little at the evening's atmosphere.
Then dinner was over, Taiga said her goodbyes, Urushi Poofed away while Bull and Shiba sprang out for their patrols, and Shirou headed back inside. He took a breath out of habit, then brought up his index and middle fingers into a t-formation while concentrating his od. An exact duplicate emerged beside him in a puff of smoke. "Mind handling the dishes?" He asked his double. A redundant question, but it felt right to ask.
The Shadow Clone nodded, his expression the same as the original. "I've got it covered." He then walked into the kitchen while Shirou stepped out into the yard. It had taken him nearly a whole year to get the hang of this spell, but with encouragement from Kiritsugu and Maiya, his persistence had long since paid off. He was still nowhere as skilled as his aunt who could call up a dozen doppelgangers without breaking a sweat; four clones max was Shirou's current limit. All the same, it really was a handy trick for taking care of chores, homework and other things simultaneously. This spell alone gave him a chance to do so much more.
But creating Shadow Clones wasn't the only spell he needed to learn, not if he really wanted to save others. Hence his marching towards the shed to continue his training, sparing a fond glance at the dojo as he passed it. Solid walls and closed-off spaces were according to his teachers the best conditions for implementing one's magecraft. Shirou didn't really get the explanation behind it, but the dark storeroom was a good, quiet place to work undisturbed with a clear mind.
After shutting the doors behind himself (one of the dogs would probably check on him if he stayed inside too long again), Shirou sat down, retrieved a metal pipe and uttered two key words. "Trace… on."
In his mind, he envisioned a splash of white in the dark with the personal incantation. Tracing the basic structure. He could feel the od coursing through his fingertips as his hands hovered over the metal. Envisioning component materials. Each step appeared in his mind, a steady process to help him achieve the result he hoped for. His hands touched the metal, and he let the magic within flow into it. Altering basic structure. Such was the concept behind the spell Reinforcement: channeling one's magic into an object and enhancing its basic abilities. In this case, Shirou was trying to make the pipe sturdier.
"Enhancing component materials." Sweat trickled down the boy's brow as he felt the metal trying to mingle with the power charged through it. He imagined the many lines running through it like the Magic Circuits in his body, and for a moment, it felt like they would snap in one spot. Then he remembered his lessons with the Walking-On-Water exercise and steadied himself. Soon, the "circuitry" smoothed itself out, and the Reinforcement held.
…For about five seconds, then he ran out of energy. Shirou breathed heavily from the exertion; it was like he'd jogged around all of Fuyuki in one setting. "Well, I've gotten a little better at this, even with half my od," he muttered picking up the pipe and turning it over in his hand. "Still kinda sad that it takes me this much effort to do something so basic." He swung the pipe a few times experimentally before setting it down. "And with Aunt Maiya not teaching me more spells, I'll probably never be more than a novice." Not that he didn't appreciate his guardian's lessons, but they weren't so much about learning how to cast spells.
The adopted son of Kiritsugu Emiya let himself fall back against the cool stone floor. "I wonder if this is enough to become a Hero for Justice…" He rolled over on his side to ruminate a little more tonight. "…Am I being true to your Will of Fire, dad?"
With one last grunt, Rin shoved away the heavy stone table in her workshop, revealing the magic circle beneath it. There we go, and not a line out of place. Excellent.
She dusted her hands and smoothed out the wrinkles in her red blouse; one of Kirei's "gifts" as the white cross beneath the collar indicated. She'd changed from her school uniform to the blouse and a black skirt, retaining her tights, precisely so she could clear away the books, artifacts, and assorted equipment inside this dark room for the moment that would change her life. "Preparations complete," she declared upon inspecting the circle again, then she checked the clock inside the workshop. "Perfect timing." Carefully securing all of the workshop's contents had eaten up a good many hours, but Rin had accounted for that in her plan. She gripped her wrist and concentrated, mana pulsing along her skin. "Wavelength optimal."
Servants. Heroic Spirits called forth from fabled legends to battle under the will of their Master. The best way to summon a specific Servant was with a catalyst, an artifact connected to their legend. The more directly, the better. But catalysts weren't the only way to summon a Servant. Performing the ritual without one tended to net a fellow who was close in "character" to the summoner, though it also increased the uncertainty level.
Still, Rin knew what she was doing. She had calculated every step of this plan. "2:00 in the morning brings my mana to top level; at peak condition, I can get the Servant best suited for me." She gathered a collection of gems and inspected them, sensing the mana bubbling inside each one. It had taken Rin painstaking time and blood to cultivate these little beauties, but a good magus could do a lot of things with them.
And Rin Tohsaka was a prodigy.
She checked inside her pocket to confirm Father's pendant was there as well. Good, may come in handy. Thus, she stepped into the circle and rallied herself, casting off any final doubts. "Just watch me."
"For the elements silver and iron. The foundation of stone and the archduke of pacts, and for my great master Schweinorg." Her fingers curled around the jewels while she uttered the invocation she'd memorized, the rocks slowly becoming a liquid the same color as mana. They trickled through her fingers and splashed onto the magic circle's crimson lines. "Raise a wall against the wind and close the gate of four directions. Come forth from the crown and follow the forked road leading to the kingdom." Soon, the entire drawing began to glow blue-green, illuminating the dark chamber. "Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill." Still Rin kept her eyes closed and her attention on the spell. "Repeat five times, but when each is filled, destroy it." One slip-up could compromise everything. "Set."
Then the magical color shifted to a warm orange, like the dawn of a new day. "Heed my words. My will creates thine body, and thine sword creates my destiny." A flutter of excitement rippled through the girl at uttering "sword," she could practically picture the swordsman soon to come. "If ye heed the grail's call, and accede to my will and reason, then answer my summoning!"
The yellow in the orange slowly began giving way to red. Rin's favorite color. "I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world. That I shall defeat all evil in the world!" She could feel the power beneath her, swelling up and rippling around her. She heard papers fluttering about, so powerful were the energies she controlled. Pain shot through her right hand.
"Seventh Heaven clad in the great words of power." Bolts of energy zapped across the room, turning silver for a split second and then shifting to other colors as Rin reached the final step. She took in a deep breath and released it with the words, "Come forth from the circle of binding, Guardian of the Heavenly Scales!"
The winds burst out around the circle, scattering paper and other things loose enough across the workshop. Rin fell to her knees as the circle returned to its original color, fighting for every breath. But she couldn't help but smile despite her exhaustion. "Perfect… That was perfect!" She flipped around her right hand, and there it was: a red incomplete circle surrounding a slightly smaller one, a straight line pointing to them. Her Command Seals. "I did it! I just plucked the most powerful card in the deck!" She almost squealed for joy before reminding herself a Tohsaka doesn't squeal, and then her brain registered one odd little detail:
There was no Servant. She was all alone in the workshop.
But not in the house, apparently, as suddenly a heavy crash sounded out above her. "What the…?!" Rin bounded up the stairs, her head still spinning a little from the ritual and its apparent failure, but she had enough sense to pinpoint where the commotion likely originated. Her feet practically squealed to a halt as she reached the door to the living room. The door which turned out to be stuck. "Come on…!" Rin struggled with the handle. "Move it, you stupid-!" Finally, she simply knocked it out of the frame.
The room was a mess. It was like a tornado had suddenly sprung up in the middle of the room and blasted the furniture to every corner. Books, broken pieces of wood, cotton and specks of metal were strewn across the battered carpet. And slouching casually atop the epicenter of this chaos was a man.
A tall, lean man, Rin surmised by the length of his legs and his muscular chest covered in black armor. He wore over the armor a striking red coat that covered his arms but stopped over the armpits, silver tassels hanging there and linked to one another. Silver metal circles were sown over the wrists by his sleeves. His black pants ended in thick black boots strapped down with leather bands and steel buckles. A wide red band had been affixed around his waist and hung around him like a skirt; only the front was exposed.
His skin was a deep tan, and his face had sharp features. His hair was swept back and a clear silver, but Rin doubted the color was due to age; the man looked like an adult in his prime. Of course, physical age meant nothing where Servants were concerned. His eyes had been closed the entire time she studied him, only to slowly peek open. They widened upon seeing the girl, a surprise that was rapidly overshadowed by a confident, calculating gleam. One eye, sharp and silver, remained open and aimed at her while his mouth shifted into a smirk.
Seeing that expression was enough to rouse Rin from her stupor. Namely, it triggered her irritation at this entire situation. The man was clearly a Servant, a smug one at that, but he should've been standing in the magic circle once she'd completed the ritual. So, why the hell is he up here demolishing our living room-?! Her eyes drifted to the mangled grandfather clock standing crookedly behind the newcomer.
The clocks… They were all running an hour early this morning when I woke up… Rin realized to her rising frustration that she'd gotten so excited about setting up for the ritual, she'd forgotten to set her clocks back to the right time. It's not 2 am, it's 1 am! "Oh, not again!" She tugged on her tails frustrated at yet another slip-up to add to her resume. The sheer weight of this made the new Master turn away and fall to her knees, grumbling, "And there's no chance of a do-over… Ah, Father, why'd you have to burden me with this?"
She allowed herself another couple seconds of stewing in her frustration, then sighed it all away. No use in crying over spilt milk. Besides, her little tantrum had an audience, Rin reminded herself as she quickly turned on her knees and took on a dignified appearance for the seated Servant. "Fine, then. Who are you?"
The man shifted slightly in his "seat." "Really? That's the first thing you have to say to me?" His words rumbled with amusement. "Well, it looks like I've been paired up with some Master." Rin frowned; that didn't sound like a compliment. "No, on second thought, I've gotten the short end of the stick."
Oh, yeah. He was mocking her. Rin stood up visibly unamused. "Just so we're clear, you're my Servant, whoever you are?"
"And I guess you're supposed to be my Master?" He scoffed. "I didn't see you anywhere during my summoning."
"Oh, I'm sorry," an edge slipped into Rin's voice, "was I supposed to greet you with a parade and a banquet? Please, you're a big boy." She sighed, trying to gain some control over the situation. "Alright, let's get something clear: You really are my Servant? Mine alone, answering to no one else, right? Master/Servant connections are clearly established from the start." Or at least, they're supposed to be…
The Servant inclined his head a little, not quite enough to convey respect. "Sure, that much is correct. But how can I know for sure that you're my-"
His last word was cut off as something rippled inside the room. A great surge of mana erupted between the two like a pillar of light, the sudden brightness forcing Rin to close her eyes. Her Magic Circuits flared up as well, and for some reason, her left hand seared with pain. Even the man in red held up a hand for a moment before the lightshow ended.
But when it did, there was a third person in the living room.
Rin blinked away the white spots in front of her eyes to see a red figure right in front of her. Her vision cleared enough a second later for her to realize the person was standing with her back towards the magus and wearing a long red cloak, the hood pulled over their head. They stood about a few centimeters taller than Rin, and there was a strange sensation emanating from her, a feeling of energy, of action. Rin inclined her head just a little to look past the newcomer and to the Servant; yes, it was a little less pronounced due to the distance between them, but he, too, exuded the same presence. Another Servant in my library?The man was also staring perplexed at their visitor, to Rin's slight relief.
He, however, recognized two things the sole human in the room hadn't:
One, the new Servant wasn't actually as tall as they -no, she, he corrected himself upon taking a closer look at her body's shape underneath that cloak- appeared.
Two, the reason for her additional height was because she was standing on top of a thick tome.
Unfortunately, the Servant herself only realized the latter detail in that very moment.
Rin's eyes widened as the red-wearing figure started tilting to their left, then their right. "Whoa…" A high-pitched voice sounded out, and two arms reached out to spin around like pinwheels. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa…!"
Something red hurtled towards her, and she tumbled back from the sudden blow to her forehead.
The freshly established Master for the Tohsaka family was now on her rear, cradling her throbbing head and biting back a repertoire of curses that would've utterly shattered her Homurahara image. She could dimly feel a presence over her, hands hovering like they didn't know whether they should touch her. A prudent hesitation. "Ohmigosh, I'm sorry, are you okay?" Rin blinked away the spots in her eyes (Tch, deja vu…) to peer up into a pair of shining silver ones. She briefly wondered if that jerk who demolished her shelf was helping her, but how had his voice jumped up so many octaves?
Another blink helped her recognize that the one kneeling in front of her was the newer newcomer. She was a young girl, probably around Rin's height and age (if that), with pale skin in contrast to the other Servant's tan. That wasn't the only difference between them: Her red cloak was fastened around her neck by a hand-sized silver buckle in the shape of a rose, and underneath that was a dark-red corset over a white high-neck blouse, leather wristbands, a black skirt with red rose-like tulle and a black belt slung over it. Ammunition and small packs were strapped onto the belt, and she wore red thigh-high stockings with rose patterns on her legs that ended in large black boots with four straps and buckles each.
The cloak's hood had been pulled down, revealing neck-long, black unruly hair with red tips. And while the girl's eyes were silver like the man's, hers seemed brighter. Full of life and, at the moment, concern.
Her mind still reeling from all this, Rin couldn't help but say the first thing that came to it. "…What the hell do you keep under that hood?!"
"My head…?" Her nervous chuckle quickly died down from the venomous glare Rin shot her. "Okay, got it, not the right time for jokes… Look, I'm really sorry about that, I didn't know you were standing right behind me and I was a little rattled when I got here so I didn't notice the book and I really really really didn't mean to hit you so maybe we can try and start this over?" Well, if her head wasn't spinning before…
The man hadn't moved from his spot, seemingly content to sit back and watch this play out with a contemplative frown. Then again, his shoulders had straightened, and his hands seemed ready to ball into fists. Now he spoke. "Alright, one: when do you breathe? And two: what are you doing here?"
The girl turned around to return his stare. "I… got summoned? You know, voice calling out to me, big flash of magic- sorry, mana, that's gonna take some getting used to…" she mumbled briefly to herself before snapping her hands up. "And Poof! Here I am! Wasn't it the same for you?" She turned back to Rin. "You are our Master, right? The voice I heard was yours?"
The other Servant's frown deepened a little. Obvious surprise aside, he was particularly irked by how open this girl was. Another Servant within her vicinity, both clearly here to participate in the Holy Grail War, and yet she disclosed information and acted so casual around him? His eyes narrowed. No… She was kneeling loosely before Rin as if to shield her, her legs looked ready to jump at an instant, her left hand had been positioned the entire time to behind her hip like she could draw something hidden in her cloak, and she was making sure to keep him within view. This girl is a fighter. She's had her guard up since she arrived.
This conclusion did little to ease the man's confusion, though. Or his displeasure. "Our Master?"
The girl returned his frown. "Uh, yeah? She's the only one around here with Command Seals, last I checked, and you're obviously a Servant like me. So, if we got summoned here to the same place with only one Master around," her silver eyes narrowed while she leaned forward, "or if you're really an enemy who snuck in here, trashed the room and is just playing dumb to take a cheap shot at her-"
"Wait, wait…" Still massaging her forehead with her left hand, Rin raised her right in front of the girl. "Stop talking for one minute and let me sort this out. I summoned… both of you?" That earned her a nod. "How? I only meant to acquire one Servant for myself, not two!" Rin shifted her glare from one Servant to the other, clearly seeing their respective parameters hovering around them as Father's instructions had described. Was this another side effect of her blunder with the time? Then her eyes fixed onto the male Servant. "Come to think of it, she has a point. Maybe she's the Servant I was supposed to summon, and you're an imposter."
"Oh sure." The Servant rolled his eyes scoffing at the accusation. "I'm an enemy Servant sent to eliminate a Master-wannabe, and my assassination technique consists of loudly tearing up a living room, sitting on top of the wreckage and waiting for my target to just run up to me while another Servant pops up right in front of my face." Rin took just a little solace at watching his smugness give way to indignation, but his words offered little comfort. "If I wanted you dead, girl, our plucky little friend here would've arrived to find me gone and your corpse bleeding out all over the carpet." He stood up and crossed his arms, glaring down at the both of them. "So, I ask again, Red Riding Hood, what did you mean when you said, 'our Master'?"
The girl rose to her full height, too (thirty centimeters shorter than the man), though she seemed marginally less suspicious now. She was more irked at being called little than the moniker he gave her, too. "You mean you didn't get the memo from the Grail? About this War's special circumstances?"
"What special circum-" The man's eyes shot wide open as though a bolt had just struck him, then they flattened again. "Ah. Those special circumstances."
Rin's eyes darted between them anew, her irritation increasing with each passing second. "What are you two talking about now? What special circumstances?!" Maybe she had actually blacked out from the strain of the ritual, and this was all just some fever dream…
"Apparently, the Masters of this Holy Grail War don't just have one, but two of each of the standard seven Servant classes assigned to them," the man explained in a heavy, slightly surprised tone.
"And the extra Servants all have an X at the end of their class names," the girl continued audibly more enthusiastic about the subject, "like me," she thumbed proudly at herself, "because we come from the stories of otheruniverses, not this one!" She was bouncing on her heels now. "That's right, I'm from a completely different world!" She paused while eyeing their damaged surroundings. "Well, not totally different…"
"Yippee for you…" Her counterpart grumbled while massaging his temples.
That fever dream-theory was looking more plausible with every second. "I… have the two of you," Rin flicked a finger between them incredulously, "as my Servants." One nodded brightly, the other just sighed. "No, that… that can't be right. I only have one set of Command Seals for oneServant." She waved her right hand's back to them to emphasize her point.
"Yeah, on that hand." The girl gestured to her left side. "What about your other hand?" Recalling the flash of pain when this one had appeared before her, Rin tentatively lifted her left hand. Sure enough, there was a crimson rose emblazoned there exactly the same as the girl's cloak accessory. Which the latter confirmed by tapping her finger loudly on it. "See? I'm your X-tra Servant." The girl tried to giggle before wincing. "Ugh, I sound like Yang…"
Rin traced a finger along the lines of the rose. The Seals were definitely genuine, and crazy though this whole scenario was, she was actually starting to believe it. Still, fourteen Servants instead of seven? Half of which came from alternate universes. This was sounding like the stories Father told her about the Kaleidoscope. And why didn't Kirei mention any of this? Tch, of course, he'd omit these crucial little details… "Hold on, what about the cost of maintaining you two? As the Master, I'm responsible for providing mana so my Servant," she huffed, "or Servants, in this case, can remain in this reality."
The man/normal Servant answered this time. "Apparently, that detail has also been covered by the Holy Grail. Mana expenditure has in general been cut in half for each Servant. You only need to provide fifty percent of the usual Magic Energy that you would for either of us, though certain abilities and attacks of ours will naturally require a little more. But getting back to our original point of discussion," he stared at the lone human, "even if those other Seals make you her Master, where's your proof that you're mine?"
"Are you blind or just an idiot?" Rin showed him her right hand again. "I have all the proof right here."
But the sight of those markings only made him sigh pityingly. "Oh, you poor girl, do you really think that's enough? You think you can assert authority over me with such a meaningless token? Those might be enough for our little hooded tourist here, but what I want to know is if you have the right to be my Master."
"Excuse me?!"/"Who're you calling a tourist?!"
The two girls' outbursts stumbled over each other before Rin snapped a finger at her. "You, shush." Then that finger pointed at the jerk. "So, you don't think I'm good enough to be your Master?"
"Pretty much." He sauntered closer to tower over her with a smug expression. "But even though I couldn't be any more disappointed, I'll accept you as my Master. However, this comes with the condition that I can refuse any orders you give me in the coming War at my leisure. I decide how I fight, it's only fair, no?"
He turned his back on the both of them while Rin fumed at his disrespect. "I see…" She bit out as her gaze dropped to the carpet. "You'll acknowledge me as your Master on paper, but you'll refuse any input about strategy or orders from me? Even though you're supposed to be my Servant?"
The man's smirk had returned. "Like you said, your status as my Master is on paper. So, I have no real obligation to listen to you. I don't need anyone to lecture me about strategy, either, especially someone with no practical experience. So, I suggest you hunker down in some basement while I go and win the Holy Grail War for you. Maybe you should have my 'partner' here keep watch over you, that way, I'm positive even a rookie like you will survive." He peered over his shoulder to find the spirit girl glaring at him and the human girl trembling. "Oh, did I upset you? Well, don't worry about my loyalties. After all, I came to this place for the sake of my Master's victory. My victories are your victories, so you automatically reap the fruits of my labor. Sounds fair to me, which means you delicate young ladies can keep yourselves safe and leave the heavy lifting to me. I don't expect anything from either of you."
"Hey, first of all, I'm not 'delicate,' tough guy, and second, you're being awfully unfair to our Master right now, especially seeing as we all just met!" The girl had closed their distance to glare up at him. "I mean, sure, she's a little crabby, and for some reason, her voice reminds me of this crazy little old lady I got in trouble with at the end of my life, but it's not like we've been making a good first impression…"
Rin's ire had been raised so much the only things she heard were, "crabby, crazy little," and that proved to be the final damn straw. "THAT'S IT!" Both Servants ceased their bickering to watch as the shaking girl glared with all her might at them. "You two think you can mock me and get away with it?! I'll teach you who's the Master around here!"
They inadvertently took a step back from her, further inciting the Master's fiery decision. "Vertrag…! Ein neuer Nagel," she practically snarled as the Seals on her hand glowed red.
The man's eyes widened. He chanced a step forward. "What…? No, stop!"
"Like hell I will!" Rin stomped her foot. "Ungrateful scum…! Ein neues Gesetz! Ein neues Verbrechen!"
The girl raised her hands placatingly. "Okay, this is getting really heated, so maybe we should all take a moment to chill out and…"
"Shut up!" The Tohsaka prodigy snapped through her pleas. "And pay attention: You're both my Servants. I expect totalobedience from you! That means you do everything I say!" Crimson light pulsed out toward the Servants, the man instinctively crossing his arms in front of himself. As the light washed over them, their bodies glowed, and they both dropped down to one knee in front of Rin. For just a second, the sight of these familiars bowing down to her felt so damn good, and she allowed herself to drink it in.
But then the man glared up at her, running the moment. "You idiot! Do you seriously just waste a Command Seal for that?" He made to say more but could only grunt from the sudden smack to his shoulder. The blow nearly sent him sprawling on the floor, but it wasn't as surprising as who had dealt it.
"Look who's talking!" Any further protests he or Rin shriveled up as the female Servant stood up, puffed out her chest and lowered her voice mockingly. "Oh, I'm so muscular and macho, I don't need a Master or a partner to beat all the other teams!" She glared down at him, and he actually flinched a little from the steel in her silver eyes. "How did you expect her to react when you go mouthing off like that? You're lucky you ended up with me, anyone else of my team would've launched you right out of this house for all that chauvinistic garbage." The man simply stared wide-eyed at her. "Yeah, I know big words, what a shock!"
Privately, she thanked her old partner for the extra lessons. You were right, Weiss, they come in handy.
Rin almost smirked at the scolding before finding herself the target of that disappointed look. "And did you really have to fall for his hazing? He was totally riling you up, I've seen it all the time back home! It's classic schoolyard swagger!" The Servant groaned up at the ceiling. "And everybody calls me immature…"
Her rebuke was like a splash of cold water on the tension, and a red-faced Rin's aggression was quickly giving way to embarrassment. And to think she looked so cute and gentle, she grumbled internally while inspecting her right hand. The upper ring had faded away, a sign she had indeed expended one of her Seals merely because of textbook hazing. "L-let's continue this discussion somewhere else." She turned towards the door-less exit. "Follow me."
The girl acquiesced with a shrug and the man stood up, stepping aside for his partner. "For the record," the latter stated, "I'm not a chauvinist." Two skeptical eyebrows were cocked his way, prompting a conceding snort from him. "Fair enough, I crossed a line."
"You jumped way over the line," the girl huffed, her humor returning. "The line was just a dot to you." He inclined his head to her, an indirect apology which she seemed to accept. Rin, though, wasn't going to let either of them off quite so quickly. She needed to make sure they understood the pecking order.
Therefore, she led the two of them through the house and up into what was once Father's study and was now hers. Well, officially hers, but Mother had been using it more. It was much the same as he had left it; Mother possessed no magecraft and knew better than to go fiddling around with his artifacts. The documents had all been cleared off the desks and properly stowed away. Not that Rin expected either of these to understand or care about dealings with the Magus Association, but tidiness was a virtue in more than one aspect.
She walked over and sat down on a couch while the man inspected a device on one of the lower bookcases and the girl sat atop a chair's arm, kicking her feet idly. All three of them seemed to be weighing what they should say next. Then the male Servant took the initiative, his tone much more approachable. "First of all, you both have my sincere apologies for my ham-fisted approach, but I wanted to get a good read of my partner and our Master. But just to be clear, you do understand how valuable those Seals are, right?"
"Talking down to me like me…" Rin grumbled to herself, hugging her legs atop the couch. "So much for total obedience." Both Servants were watching her, so she straightened slightly and raised her voice. "Of course, I understand. The Command Seals allow a Master to completely exert their will over their Servants."
"Listen," he sighed, "Command Seals force a Servant to perform specific commands. For example, I can't teleport from this spot to anywhere under my own power, but if you were to order me somewhere with a Seal, it would channel both of our mana to make it possible." He nodded to her hand. "What you carry is the crystallization of High-Thaumaturgy, power which surpasses the limits of flesh and blood. And now you're down to two Seals."
"I know all that," Rin defended herself even as she turned away so they couldn't see her flushing cheeks. "What's your point? I put the first one to good use. Besides, I still have two Seals I can use on you, and all three for your partner."
"Um, about that," the girl raised a finger, "I think you used up one of my Seals, too." Rin prepared to deny this, as if she would waste something so potent or other such mistakes, when her eyes noticed that the upper left portion of the rose symbol on her hand had, in fact, dissipated. She blushed even further while the cloaked Servant kept talking. "For the record, I really don't have that big a problem with following orders," she thumbed at her partner who was side-eyeing her, "he was the only one complaining here-"
"I wasn't complaining, I was just airing my doubts about how she expected this to go."
"…Yyyeah, that sounds like complaining."
"Hm, agree to disagree." She giggled slightly at that, and Rin sensed there wouldn't be any bad blood between these two anymore. But before she could decide if that was a good or bad thing, the man continued. "Anyway, I miscalculated a little. Command Seals diminish in effectiveness the more vaguely a command is given. That's why your command just now didn't work as you intended. You could use a hundred Seals for an order like that, and it still wouldn't get complete obedience in word and deed from a Servant."
Rin listened grudgingly to this. "Are you telling me that my command was pointless?"
"I don't think so," the girl chimed in, her legs no longer swinging. "Like I said, I can take orders in general, but ever since you gave us this order, I feel… I dunno, like I have to listen to you now. Maybe I can still disobey you, but it wouldn't do me many favors." She glanced over to the man. "Same for you?"
The other Servant frowned but nodded. "Irritatingly so. That's what I meant when I said I miscalculated. It seems you're an extremely gifted magus."
That made Rin frown back at him. "If you think flattery will make up for your taunts back there…"
"I'm not, I meant it when I apologized to you and my partner." He stepped up to the table so both girls could see him fully. "And I take it all back: You might be young, Master, but you are very talented and powerful despite that." He turned from a flustered Rin to the other Servant. "And calling you 'delicate' was a big mistake on my part. I thought you might be naïve, but you asserted your strength and stood up to me when I was in the wrong." He placed his hand over his heart and bowed to them like a hero of old. "I hope you will both give me a second chance."
"Oh, uh, that's okay," The girl hurriedly got up and apparently couldn't decide whether to bow or curtsy, leading to an awkward combination of the two with a lot of flailing. Rin instinctively shielded her forehead until she righted herself again. "I think we all got off on the wrong foot before," she chuckled slightly before whispering, "at least I didn't explode this time…"
"…What?" Both asked in unison.
But instead of explaining her utterance, she walked over to her Master and stuck out her hand smiling. "Let's try this again: I'm Ruby Rose, aspiring Huntress and Leader of Team RWBY. …And yeah, that does confuse people often. Nice to meet you both."
Rin's eyes drifted down to the hand, then up to her face. The other girl's sincerity rapidly brought forth her own smile, and she stood up to her full height accepted the handshake. She's definitely the nice one. …And the cute one. "Rin Tohsaka, heiress and Master of the Tohsaka family. Thank you for answering my call."
The man watched their exchange with an odd sort of look on his face: not exactly a smile, but too gentle to be the same smirk he'd shot them in the living room. It quickly faded as they both turned to him with expecting looks. After glancing between them, he sighed. "I do look forward to working with you, but I'm afraid I can't tell you my True Name right now." He closed his eyes for a moment. "Because I have no idea who I am."
"Huh?" They asked in unison before exchanging confused looks. Then Rose stepped closer to him. "What do you mean? Do you have amnesia or something?"
"Or has all this been just another one of your games?" Rin narrowed her turquoise eyes at this perpetual aggravation on two legs. "Were you setting us up with all of the apologies and compliments?"
"Not at all," he raised his hands placatingly, "and I'm not trying to pick a fight with you anymore, Master, but it's because of that faulty summoning of yours. I wouldn't call it amnesia like Rose suggested, but… my memories are all jumbled up inside my head, and I can't determine my own identity." One of his listeners nodded in sympathy while the other remained doubtful. "Fortunately, I retain enough so it's not a big issue."
Rin frowned at him. "Not a big issue? How am I supposed to adapt my plans for you when I don't even know who powerful you are?" Knowing a Servant's True Name was of great importance. After all, the more widespread the name and the legends associated with said name, the better chance one had of gauging what the Servant was capable of. That was why Masters worked so hard to discover enemy Servants' identities, but it was equally important that they know their own Servants'.
"Hey, no need to get too worked up about it." Rose stepped between them, her smile back. "I think what my partner is saying is that he still knows how to fight, right?" She turned to him and got a nod, then faced Rin again. "And that's a good first step as any. We just have to cross-reference his style and weapons," she bounced a little in anticipation at the word, "then help him sort out his memories. You would've had to adjust your plans anyway now that I'm here, and you don't know anything about me either." She planted her hands confidently on her hips. "I've taken on worse odds than this, and if we help each other, we can definitely pull this off."
Her words were all sincere and so sickeningly optimistic, Rin and the other Servant groused, and worst of all, they were actually working a bit. "How can you be so confident about this? You don't know him or me."
Rose grinned a little cheekily. "Why shouldn't I be confident about you? Aren't you the super-magic girl who summoned us here?"
Rin's cheeks flushed anew, particularly when Archer hummed in agreement. "She makes a fair point, Master. We're the Servants you summoned, so we ought to be the most powerful team of all."
"Oh, stop it, you!" Thank goodness Ruby had gotten bashful herself, her swatting her partner's bicep helped Rin cool down again. Then the smaller Servant locked eyes with the bigger one. "But I'll do everything I can to help you figure out who you are. I mean it, partner."
He flashed her that odd not-quite-smile again. "Partner, huh… I seem to have lucked out in that department, too." He offered her hand, which she happily accepted. "I look forward to working with you, Rose."
"You can call me Ruby, too, you know."
"Hmm, maybe… Ruby does fit you." He eyed her attire before smirking. "As much as Rose, of course."
Rin tuned out their back-and-forth to process this new information. Not the most ideal circumstances, but Ruby had a point: Seven of the Servants in this Holy Grail War, her included, didn't have to worry about their True Names because there were no legends about them in this world. The Master would have to surmise their capabilities from their performances. The same for him, then, and he'd already given an inadvertent clue in addressing Ruby by her last name without "Miss" or other honorifics. That was a Japanese custom, narrowing it down a bit, and add that with his class…
She stopped her train of thought upon realizing a key detail she'd missed while learning about these Servants. "I don't suppose either of you are Saber class?" Both Servants turned to her at the question.
The man shrugged. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't carry a sword."
"Which makes you Archer," Rin muttered disappointed before looking to the other Servant in hope.
But Ruby scratched her head a little sheepishly. "And I'm officially Lancer X, sorry."
Rin's posture tightened for a single moment, then she forced herself to relax again. Still a knight class, she may prove useful. Though given her physical age… Even so, her spirits dropped. "All those gems and hard work, and I didn't even get a foreign Saber. Well, it's my own fault for botching the ritual. Guess I'll just have to make do…" Rin turned to consider the possibilities…
"Excuse me?"
She turned around to find both Servants quite affronted. "Make do?" Lancer X stomped her foot before pouting. "You don't even know what we can do, and you're already writing us off as failures?"
Archer had crossed his arms, too, and closed his eyes, one of which now glared petulantly at her. "You will eat those words, but no matter how many I'm sorry's you throw at us, I won't forgive you. That I promise you." The Servant traded a look, nodded and synchronously turned their backs on Rin with a "Hmph!"
On one hand, Rin wondered if one of the two had some kind of "Contagious Childishness" Skill. It would certainly explain Ruby Rose's erratic behavior. Or maybe Archer was just humoring his partner…
To be fair, she had been a tad insensitive. Both Servants had acknowledged her as their Master, and she had gone and complained right in front of them that they weren't of the class she wanted. The decent thing to do would be to apologize for her insensitivity.
Rin smirked and sauntered to in front of them despite them turning their heads. Then again, that wasn't her style, and she had something more fun in mind. "Okay, go and prove to me just how capable you are, Archer, Lancer X. If you impress me, I'll gladly take back my words."
As expected, the pride of Heroic Spirits was tickled by her challenge, and they both faced her again with strong grins. "We'll hold you to that, Master," Archer warned her, Lancer X nodding fiercely beside him.
"Happy to hear it." Rin was walking back out of the study and beckoned them to follow. "In the meantime, I already have your first assignment lined up." She flicked the lights on in the hallway.
Lancer X perked up at her words and skipped after her. "Oh, we're already heading for the battlefield? Awesome!" She pumped her left fist high. "Go Team Red!"
It was in that moment that Rin recognized that both her and her Servants' predominant color scheme was indeed red. Leave it to Lancer X to come up with such a childish name.She giggled to herself while the Servants trailed after her, half-lost in thought. Then again, "Team Red" does have a catchy ring to it…
"Putting us immediately to work…" Archer by contrast was displaying a more sardonic amusement. They quickly walked down the stairs. "We've got quite a merciless Master. So, who is our enemy?"
Something brown flew out at him, and he barely managed to catch the broom before it could've collided with his noggin. Two steps below him, Lancer X yelped while juggling the brush and dustpan she'd just acquired. They stared at the cleaning utensils in their hands, then the shorter one asked, "…You want us to fight dust bunnies?"
"Among other things." Rin smirked up at them from the bottom floor. "Clean up the living room. You tore it to pieces, so it's your jobs to put it all back in order."
"Hey!" Lancer X protested. "That was all Archer, I had nothing to do with that!" He shot her a cold leer.
"No, but you did crack my skull with your dramatic entrance. Start sweeping."
Archer stepped past his sputtering partner. "Now wait a minute, what exactly do you think Servants are?"
Rin's smirk widened slightly. "You're familiars, aren't you? The only difference is that you're both a lot noisier and stubborner than the usual kind." With that, she turned her back to them so she could turn in. It had been a long, eventful night, and she needed all the sleep she could get. It's time, Father. Ten years I've been readying myself for this battle, and it's right around the corner. This time, the Holy Grail is mine.
"Fine," the Servant of the Bow grumbled while she left. "We'll do as you say, Master, and you can go to Hell."
An elbow nudged him. "Oh, lighten up, partner." Ruby was flashing him that smile again, and what a deadly weapon it was. "At least neither of us have to clean up the room all by ourselves. We'll have it tidied up in no time together!" Thus, she began heading for the living room with a maddeningly contagious enthusiasm.
He stared after her for a moment, then sighed. "You're a glass-half-full kind of Servant, aren't you?"
She spun around to him while going backwards and shrugged. "That's me, I keep moving forward." Rose petals suddenly fluttered about Archer's vision, then Lancer X was gone. No, he heard her further away…
This… will probably be harder than I thought, the Counter Guardian groused before brandishing the broom.