* Spirit Of Steel *
"Archer, care to explain to me what just happened?"
The dejected expression Yamato wore at that moment was absolute torture for Rin to behold, her conscience repeatedly telling her that putting such an expression on the ship girl was tantamount to being the most evil person in the world. But she decided after the events of today, no she would not give in to her Servant's doe-eyed woe-is-me look a second time!
With Yamato having proven herself to be an extremely powerful Servant, and the fact that the ship girl had been an adorably obedient Servant who cooked the best food in the universe, Rin had been in an extremely good mood come dinnertime, and so she and Yamato - who had physically materialized into visibility - had gone to one of the nearby restaurants, the Hinode Diner, to celebrate. Because contrary to expectations, Rin wasn't as much of a prima donna as some would presume her to be, and she was content with eating at an admittedly low-class place. Such was her gaiety that Rin had allowed Yamato to order anything she wanted.
That was her biggest mistake.
At first it had only been a single order of Hinode's extra thick tonkatsu bowl.
Then it had turned into a followup of two extra thick tonkatsu bowls.
Then a large gyudon bowl. A teriyaki bowl. A couple of unagi bowls, the Hinode extra special king bento set...
Unfortunately Rin had been in such a good mood that she only when the Hinode's young bratty chef started falling in love with "sister Yamato" due to being such a big eater did Rin notice the massive tower of bowls on her table reaching a foot high.
That was the first time Tohsaka Rin ever felt true terror.
"Where did my good mood go?" Rin lamented as she gazed into the abyssal black hole that was now her wallet. "This week's allowance..."
It wasn't that Rin was a peasant lacking for funds, oh no. A yearly stipend of 30,000,000 yen from magical patent royalties to the family name complimented by various other sources of funding and the fact she lived alone ensured that Rin lived a financially comfortable life growing up... if only the implements of magic she used weren't so expensive as is! A single one of the high-quality gems she uses for high-speed casting cost upwards of 500,000 yen, and even the "trash" gems she spent for the earlier combat exercise with Yamato would make a salaryman wail in despair. She's always tried to be relatively frugal in her own living because of that, dedicating all of her spending to purchasing the expensive gems, reagents and other magical items needed for the Holy Grail War, and enforcing some strict accounting measures to ensure she didn't go overboard in spending.
And her gluttonous Servant just had to go and wreck her carefully planned spending plans! Though it was Rin's fault that she overlooked such a detail earlier, Yamato ordering that Extra Large Parfait bowl during lunchtime should've run alarm bells.
The glare she sent towards her Servant caused the ship girl to blanch.
"M-m-m-m-m-my apologies!" Yamato bowed in haste over and over again, which didn't help Rin's foul mood any. A scowl formed on the young magus' face, which finally caused Yamato to straighten up, though she continued fiddling with her fingers and finding the concrete pavement highly interesting.
"I-In order to maintain full combat readiness, Yamato requires a consistently extensive amount of supplies to ensure operation of the combat outfit." Yamato explained, trying to keep her tone level despite her visible nervousness.
Rin sighed long, fingers on her forehead. "In other words, using your equipment consumes a lot of mana, and makes you eat a lot of food. Isn't that right Archer?"
"Yes." Yamato's reply was barely above a whisper.
"Wait. Is eating really essential for you, or is it just a quirk of yours?"
The blushing ship girl averted Rin's gaze. "W-while I am indeed capable of attaining sustenance through mana alone, I can alleviate the drain by eating physical food."
So she can either let Yamato consume a lot of mana to fuel her combat outfit, draining Rin dry of mana quickly, or split the costs between mana expenditure and food and have both her mana and wallet suffer.
Rin palmed her face. "Why me..."
A Servant with combat firepower rivalling a Caster, with the toughness of a Berserker... with a more critical mind Rin now realized it was simply too good to be true. Sure, Yamato would be able to give aforementioned classes a run for their money in full combat outfit, but doing so would burn through both her mana supplies - and her allowance - extremely quickly. She could probably try to bolster her mana via leyline taps and such, but limiting themselves to fighting only in certain favorable geographic areas was a bad idea no matter how anyone looked at it, their enemies likely not giving them the opportunity. At best, the ship girl would probably defeat her enemy but leave both herself and Rin helpless against the next enemy that might come along. And if Yamato, even with all her overwhelming power, were to fail against their enemy...
"P-Permission to speak Admiral?" Yamato interrupted Rin's musing, which in the short time Rin knew the ship was unusual enough: the ship girl would normally wait for Rin to say anything.
"What it is Archer?" the edge in Rin's voice was gone, only exasperation. She saw Yamato steel her expression.
"While I am most powerful when I can bring my guns to bear through my combat outfit, I am still capable of fighting in this form." Yamato touched the bell hanging on her chest. "My firepower is substantially limited, but I consume correspondingly less mana."
Rin adopted a thinking pose. "So there was that option huh..." Her Servant wasn't useless in her normal form, which was some consolation. "And what are you capable of without your outfit?"
Yamato fixed her grip on her parasol. "I am trained in Naginatado, and I can deploy and command my Seaplanes."
"N-Naginatado?" Rin couldn't believe what she just heard. Her own mistake getting her an Archer instead of a Saber was bad enough, though she could now overlook that fault due to Yamato an overly powerful Archer. But being reduced to skill with polearms without her combat outfit? "Dear Father, why did I get a Lancer when I wanted a Sabe-"
Catching a glimpse of her Servant's crestfallen expression shut up any further words along that line of thought. "I'm sorry Archer, that was quite mean," Rin apologized with a sigh, before donning a stance of authority again with a hand on her hip. "How confident are you in fighting without your outfit?"
The battleship perked up with a stern and determined expression. "Yamato is highly confident in her fighting prowess Admiral."
Delivered without hesitation, it was all Rin needed to hear to be reassured of her Servant's abilities. "I'll believe you then Archer. Show me how good you are when the time comes."
"Yes Admiral." Not quite as energetic as she was earlier in the day, but the conviction in the battleship's voice was better than her wallowing in low self-esteem at least.
From the roof of the 50-storey building where the preceding argument had taken place, Rin took in the panoramic view of the mass of colorful lights spread out below her known as Fuyuki City.
"How pretty."
Rin ignored Yamato's awed sigh, scanning the streets and sidewalks below using her magic-enhanced sight, not that she was looking for anything in particular, just giving her vision practice.
A sight of some familiar red hair by a pedestrian overpass caught Rin's attention. She would've just passed it off as a curious sighting if her enhanced vision didn't catch the fact that somehow, the owner of said red hair appeared to be looking back at her.
"Wha-"
No, that was impossible. Said person was not a magus, and couldn't possess the enhanced sight needed for such a thing. Rin shook her head in disbelief at letting her mind think up strange theories.
"Is something wrong Admiral?" Yamato asked curiously.
Rin shook her head. "Nothing's wrong, just saw an acquaintance of mine."
It was now Rin's turn to look at a Yamato now lost in thought with the latter's hand on her chin. "Admiral, if I may presume to offer a suggestion?"
Rin had thought her Servant lacking in initiative, apart from the earlier breakfast. Looks like her Servant had more pride in her usefulness than she thought. "Alright. What do you have in mind?"
Yamato daintily raised a finger into the air. "This location is ideal for launching an air reconnaissance mission."
Now that Rin thought about it, Yamato had been mentioning having abilities to that effect earlier. "Your seaplanes you mean?"
The ship girl nodded. "I should be able to map a much better overview of the city with information from the air, and hopefully identify enemy positions in the meantime."
Rin's eyes widened at the options available to her. The young magus did have the ability to create familiars in the form of inorganic owls, but her own skill at such was admittedly not up to being practical for use. Being able to proactively scout out her enemies with little risk to herself was a huge boon to her efforts. Besides, she had been curious about those seaplanes for a while now.
"Launch them." Rin commanded.
Mana particles danced and weaved around Yamato's left arm as she lifted it straight forward, materializing into a solid steel boom that extended from her shoulder to her wrist... with a miniature green and white airplane on it, at which Rin blinked. It looked so much like a remote-controlled toy that she had to stop herself from stating that thought out loud, lest she offend her Servant or something. Well, it looked like a very well-built solid-steel toy instead of a die-cast model, but still...
"Good luck on your mission, Mr. Fairy." Yamato aimed the boom out into the open sky, the air now filled with the roar of cycling piston engines and the whirl of the plane's propellers. Rin swore she saw a figure inside the plane give a salute, before it shot out of the boom and out into the night sky. Yamato then pulled out another one of the aircraft out of nowhere with her other hand, then affixed it to the rear of the boom by her shoulder. The launching process was repeated, and thus another seaplane sped off into the night.
"I'll be receiving their reconnaissance reports in real time. They should be back within three hours." Yamato reported as the boom dissipated in a mist of particles.
Three hours would be more than enough time to comb the city and identify any potential hotspots. Depending on what the planes found, Rin thought they could perhaps bring the fight to their enemies much sooner than she thought.
"Good work Archer." Rin made sure her gratefulness was conveyed to her Servant, and thankfully Yamato's bashful smile told her that it did. "We'll be discussing how to best utilize your abilities later, but to start deploy your outfit only under my orders, got it?"
Yamato nodded in understanding. "Yes Admiral."
There would be other ways to compensate for Yamato's reduced firepower Rin mused. She just hoped that Yamato's martial skill was as good as the battleship said it was.
