Shirou Emiya raised his head to look at his blue-clad assailant. All told, Shirou wasn't exactly having the best day of his life. He had a weird bruise on his hand, he got stuck cleaning the archery dojo until late at night, and when he finished to see two strange men fighting at superhuman speeds on school grounds, one of them chased him down and killed him.
Someone had healed Shirou, only for him to end up at the mercy of this strange man's spear once more.
"Not bad, kid," the spearman said. "That last move was pretty interesting." Using a magically enhanced poster as a shield was unorthodox. "You're quick on your feet but your magic could use work. Maybe you were meant to be the seventh. Well, either way, you're dead."
"No way," he said. "Someone healed me. I'm not going to die like this. I won't be killed by someone like you, who kills like it's nothing!"
A glow emanated from some abandoned corner of the storage shed the two had ended up in.
"The seventh Servant!?" the blue man exclaimed, just as a sword slammed into his hasty guard and sent him flying out of the shed.
A new man stood in the shed now. He had silver hair and wore a long white, armored coat a nodachi with a glowing red stone set in the hilt rested gently in his hands. His stance was relaxed, the sword held loosely at his side as he turned to regard Shirou.
"Are you my Master?" the silver-haired man asked in a quiet monotone. Shirou noted that his face was covered by a horned mask.
"Huh?" was Shirou's elegant response.
"Sit still. I'll handle this."
The swordsman strode out into the yard and stared impassively at the spearman.
"Nice of you to show up, Saber," the spearman said, grinning. "Not a bad entrance."
"I'm not here to talk," the now-identified Saber replied. "Let's finish this, Lancer."
Saber rushed forward in a blur Shirou could barely follow slashing upward at Lancer. Lancer managed to block the blow, but was launched into the air. Saber followed him, then slammed him down to earth with another strike. The blue man slammer into the ground, making a decent-sized crater.
Saber fell down, stabbing at Lancer, who leapt out of the crater and backward to avoid getting skewered.
Lancer charged. Shirou scowled. With Saber still recovering from that landing, Lancer had a good opening. Yet his spear thrust was easily deflected by Saber's sword. Saber followed up with another strike that sent Lancer sailing across the yard.
The spearman managed to land on his feet grinning.
"Let me ask you something before we continue, Saber," Lancer said. "Since this is our first meeting, would you like to call a draw?"
"No thanks," Saber replied. "I'll finish you here."
"Is that so?" Lancer asked, his sword starting to glow a bright red, overflowing with power.
A sense of dread overcame Shirou just from the spear's presence. The next blow would be fatal.
"Gae—"
Saber was behind Lancer, stabbing right at the man's heart. Lancer barely managed to twist his body so the blow missed anything vital. Saber withdrew his sword and frowned as Lancer collapsed to the ground, blood pooling around him.
"I see Lancer isn't called the most agile class for nothing," he said.
"What the hell was that!?" Lancer exclaimed. The man growled like a dog. "My Master's a coward, so he's ordering me to retreat. See ya around, Saber."
With that, Lancer leapt over the manor walls and out of sight.
Shirou, jaw agape, walked up to Saber. The silver-haired man turned to look at Shirou. The two engaged in an awkward staring contest for a moment, before Shirou collected himself and managed to speak.
"Thank you for saving me, but could you explain what just happened?" Shirou asked.
"I'm not entirely sure myself," Saber replied. "I remember dying, then I was here with all sorts of new knowledge in my mind. I do know that I'm your Servant, Saber, and I'm supposed to win some war for you. You're supposed to be supplying me with power as well, but that doesn't appear to be happening. I'll have to use my true strength sparingly."
"I see…"
"I'd rather not call you Master," Saber said. "Would you tell me your name."
"Um, Shirou Emiya."
"I see. You can call me Saber."
Saber turned his head toward the walls.
"More enemies are approaching," he said. "Stay here, Shirou. I'll deal with them."
His piece said, Saber leapt up over the walls around the Emiya household.
Shirou ran out the door after him to see Saber cutting down a man in a red coat-like garment. The other man had avoided the worst of the blow, but it was still a nasty wound.
"Archer!" a familiar female voice shouted.
"Wait, Saber!" Shirou shouted, his hand glowing briefly.
Saber stopped his attack and looked back at Shirou.
"What is it?" he asked. "I could have eliminated this enemy."
"I don't know what's going on!" Shirou shouted. "You keep talking about enemies and Servants but that doesn't mean anything to me! At least fill me in before you start slashing at people!"
"Is this really the time to discuss this?"
"I see," said the female voice again, drawing Shirou's attention to the girl standing behind the Archer. "So that's how it is, you novice Master?" the girl stepped forward, smiling and allowing Shirou to see her fully. Rin Tohsaka, a well-known schoolmate, stepped into the light. "Good evening, Emiya-kun."