Chapter 3
The mansion was oddly familiar, yet it was also oddly strange for Shiro. He had come to this house on rare occasions as a child due to his friendship with Shinji and Sakura, but he was never able to recall ever being in the house due to its weird unfamiliarity for him. Perhaps, it wasn't caused the house itself, but by the person that is currently sitting before him.
To be precise, the thing sitting before him.
The master of the house, the master and head of the family, also the Master of Assassin.
"Welcome, boy."
Matou Zouken's spectral eyes gleamed with glee, which Shiro found rather unsettling. However, he remained silent, and stared back at Zouken.
"Oh? You want to get down to business immediately, no?" Zouken asked.
"I'd rather get this over and done with, and then get back right away," Shiro replied, speaking through clenched teeth.
"Patience, boy." Zouken replied, leaning forward. "See now, I understand that you bear me animosity due to what has happened to my grandchildren, but I'd like for you to listen to what I need to tell you."
"I don't see why I should listen to you," Shiro replied. "I know you were the one who put Sakura and Shinji in their current state."
"Ah, but I hope you would understand me, however," Zouken said standing up. "See, it is the wish of my family since the very beginning to achieve this miracle. You must wonder, why a magus then carrying the Zolgen name would risk deportation - or worse - death, to cross a narrow expanse of sea to another land, and change his family name to Matou."
"Humor me, then." Shiro replied. "Tell me what your wish is."
"... I... I don't remember." Zouken's cold, hard expression gave way to an uncharacteristic look of forgetfulness, casting his spectral gaze to some far-off place beyond Shiro. "But, that isn't important right now," Zouken continued, quickly returning to his usual demeanour. "I have a proposition for you."
Shiro remained silent, staring back at Zouken. His fists were clenched and he was quivering.
"See, I feel compelled to believe that you wish to come to the rescue of my grandchildren. And my proposition would be for you to do whatever is possible for you to ensure that I am the last Master standing, so that I can claim that which I was striving for all this time," Zouken said, standing up from his chair. "I will return my grandchildren to you when you keep your end of the bargain."
"I don't see this as a proposition," Shiro said. "It's a threat, right?" Kansho and Bakuya appeared in Shiro's hands. Assassin stood rapt at attention, drawing his blade, but Zouken motioned for him to stop.
"Ah, but you must be mistaken, boy. What makes you believe that I would be threatening you?"
"Your Servant had me come here on the pretext that my friends and I would be killed if I refused to come and see you. Now that I have flatly refused your 'proposition', there was actually no point for me to even come here, am I right?" Shiro said. "Besides, I noticed from early on that I have been surrounded by your Servant ever since I was in this room."
"You're so perceptive, boy." Zouken remarked, a small grin forming on his dry lips. "Not even the threat of death fazes you. Perhaps, if I told you that the lives of my grandchildren is at stake, would you have cooperated?"
"Hmph, I was right about this being a threat instead of mere proposition," Shiro replied dryly. "Your threats still do not carry any weight. You need Sakura to be alive in order to achieve your goals."
"But do I need Shinji-kun to be alive, then?"
"Damn it," Shiro muttered under his breath, lunging forward at Zouken in a flash, aiming his weapon at Zouken's neck. His attack was quickly blocked by one of the Assassins, while the other Assassins in the room quickly moved in, targetting Shiro's exposed back.
The Assassins could not move in for the kill, however, as a barrage of golden arrows tore through the ceiling of the room and struck the Assassins from above and behind them, killing several of them at once.
"Kid! You alright?" Archer shouted from the hole in the roof.
"Thanks, you saved me," Shiro replied, pushing Assassin away. Zouken had escaped in the confusion, but that was not important for him right now. "Archer! We need to get to the hospital right away! Please take me there!"
"Got it!" Archer replied, jumping down.
"We are not going to allow you to do that!" Assassin replied, brandishing his blade.
"Try and stop us, then." Shiro taunted, throwing his blades at Assassin, who hastily retreated back by a step to parry the thrown blades. Archer took the opportunity to pick Shiro up and launch himself past Assassin and away from the house, bounding toward the hospital as fast as he could go, with Assassin in hot pursuit.
"Can you outrun him, Archer?" Shiro asked, struggling to hang on to Archer due to the great speed in which they were travelling.
"That guy doesn't look incredibly fast, but there is no guarantee!"
"Damn, you might really need to step it up!" Shiro exclaimed. Archer turned his head to see what Shiro meant and cursed under his breath at the sight.
There it was, the ability of Assassin, as told by Lord El-Melloi II - Zabaniya: Delusional Illusion.
"It looks like all of them!" Archer grunted. "One of them was killed by Saber the other night, and I just killed six of them in the earlier barrage."
"So there should be 73 remaining, no?" Shiro asked.
"I counted 50 of them pursuing us," Archer replied.
"I should take the whole lot of them out, then." Shiro said.
"Huh?"
"Archer, let me go when I ask you to, then head straight to the hospital and rescue Shinji."
"Who's that guy? How will I know it's him?"
"Ugh, I forgot.. never mind! I'll take them all out as fast as I can, then we head to the hospital then!"
"You should be quick about it then, we're almost there!"
"Shero is in trouble!" Luvia said, rushing down the stairs from her room. Rin and Saber was sitting at the living room, feeling tense. The announcement did no favour to their mood.
"What!?" Both exclaimed at the same time.
"Archer just told me that they are trying to rescue your friend and almost all the Assassins are pursuing them!"
"We must head out!" Saber said, rushing to Rin's side. She was about to put her arm around Rin when Luvia spoke up again.
"Wait, Archer is telling me that Shero is about to use something powerful enough to kill them all at once!"
"So it came down to that, huh?" Rin said, slumping down on the chair. Her face was flushed and she started to take long, deep breaths.
"Rin? What's wrong?" Saber asked.
"I have a contract with Shiro to supply extra prana if he needs to use that. I can already feel my prana draining rather quickly."
"Will you be alright? Do you need any assistance, Rin?" Saber asked worriedly.
"It will be fine. Just give it a while and I should be able to recover my prana levels later," Rin replied with a grin. "Let's trust that Shiro will get the job done."
I am the bone of my sword.
Steel is my body, and fire is my blood.
I have created over a thousand blades.
Unaware of loss, nor aware of gain.
Withstood pain to create weapons, waiting for someone's arrival.
I have no regrets, this is the only path...
Archer could feel the immense pressure of the prana generated by Shiro as he recited his incantation. He had never felt anything so intense coming from Shiro all this while, and was only impressed due to his survival after going up against Assassin and Berserker. This, however, is raising the bar of his expectations by a whole lot.
"Archer, I'm about to activate it. Prepare yourself."
"Huh?"
My whole life was Unlimited Blade Works!
Archer grimaced as he felt a gust of hot wind against his face, and was then taken aback when he saw the landscape around him changing from Fuyuki's familiar cityscape to a barren, sunburnt wasteland. The solid buildings he was standing on earlier too gave way to a dry, crusty soil littered with an assortment of bladed weaponry as far as his eyes could see.
"Is.. this.. a Reality Marble?"
Looking up at the scorching sky, he observed the sun shining ever so brighter than before, painting the clouds amber, making it seem as if the sky was on fire. At this point, Archer realised that the atmosphere around this Reality Marble was so hot and oppressive that he felt as if he was put into a pressure cooker.
Archer looked down again and saw that the Assassins who were in pursuit had also stopped to marvel at the sight before them and exhibit signs of fear.
Shiro walked forward towards the group of Assassins standing before him, his many swords rising up from the ground and levitating in the air.
"It's time for the lot of you to meet your death," Shiro said, his right hand extended upwards to the sky. "Too bad I can't finish all of you off at once, but at least five of you remaining compared to all of you remaining would make our life easier. The swords began to emit a buzzing sound as they vibrated in the air.
Shiro dropped his hand and the swords flew towards the group of Assassins, who at first were in a stunned state from the sudden change in their surroundings, then quickly drawing their blades and attempting to parry the swords. Several of the Assassins were felled from the first barrage while the rest were able to dodge or parry the swords as they rained down, whistling in the air as they approached. The Assassins were however pressed into action again as many more swords were raining down on them.
Shiro had directed the swords to barrage the sides of the group, forcing them to close ranks and form a large defensive circle. They were so overwhelmed by the sheer number of swords raining down on them that the group was reduced into a panicked, confused rabble as the barrage of swords picked the group apart one Assassin at a time.
Before long, all that was left was a pile of bodies pierced by a great number of swords, which eventually dissolved and faded away. Archer looked on with wonder at the sheer effectiveness of Shiro's work killing off the Servant.
"Kid, that reduced me to a speechless idiot."
Shiro turned around to face him, and the Reality Marble quickly disappeared as it collapsed. "Sorry, Archer. We don't have much time. We need to get to the hospital quickly." Shiro put his hands on his knees, his breathing slightly laboured. "I'm sorry, but I need to rely on you."
"After treating me to such a spectacular display, you earned this favour from me," Archer replied as he picked Shiro up and headed straight for the hospital.
"Archer just told me that Shero beat 50 Assassins at one go," Luvia piped up suddenly, informing the others who were waiting somewhat anxiously at the living room. Rin however, was the only one in the room who was not very worried.
"Oh, I see." Rin replied almost nonchalantly.
"Wait, don't you think that even for Shero, 50 copies of a single Servant would come across as surprising?"
"I doubted my husband's capabilities once upon a time, but he has been putting my worries to rest lately," Rin replied with a grin. "Besides, I knew it when my supply of prana to Shiro stopped normally."
"Eh, but Lord El-Melloi II -"
"Saber and I told Emiya that this particular Assassin was defeated when placed inside a Reality Marble with no chance of escape. He simply followed that instruction to the letter," Lord El-Melloi II replied before taking a sip of the Earl Grey tea. "Hm. This doesn't taste as good as the one Emiya brews."
"I told you so," Rin replied.
"How could you all be acting so calm about all this!?" Luvia asked exasperatedly.
"Like I said, just two nights ago, I doubted if Shiro could take on a Servant as he is," Rin said. "It's true that Shiro barely makes it through after each encounter, but now, given that he knows exactly how to deal with a Servant effectively, he would be able to beat that Servant, no matter how strong that Servant is."
Luvia seemed not to buy the argument. "Yeah, but still.. a human magus against a Servant..."
Rin's attention phased out from the discussion as she began to reflect on her husband's growth throughout the years. It all began with the sudden physical growth spurt Shiro experienced right after they left Homurahara Academy, when Shiro - only just slightly taller than she was then - added several more inches to his stature within a year. She secretly loved the way he looked when he was that tall, but he was still too thin for that height.
That all changed over the following year when Shiro's appetite grew and he began eating far more than his usual amount. That, and his constant habit of exercising and training, began to add to his mass and was soon sporting a lean and muscular body structure that became the envy of the male student populace in the Clock Tower, and the object of attention from the female students - if they were not busy giving their attention to Lord El-Melloi II or Bram Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri.
Physical abilities aside, despite his lacking in raw abilities, Shiro made advancements in his capabilities as a magus, but the most conspicuous change Rin observed in Shiro was his obsession with legendary weapons and their effective usage in combat situations. Shiro's unwavering devotion to the application of his learned crafts in the Clock Tower drove him to places far and wide, tracking down and discovering ancient weaponry which he did not see before to add to his repository of weapons gleaned from his brief exposure to Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon. With every new weapon he discovered, he too had absorbed its history, knowledge, and application of its powers into his ever-growing fighting capabilities.
Shiro continued to seek out knowledge of martial arts, combat tactics, and strategy especially after he declined the offer to join the Mage's Association, and he wasted no time in applying his knowledge into his "work" of being the Hero of Justice, gaining the experience he sorely needed to carry out his work with maximum efficiency.
In many ways, Shiro was resembling his alternate future self.
"Are you listening to me, Miss Gorilla?" Luvia asked, startling Rin for a brief moment.
"Eh, ah, sorry. I wasn't listening," Rin replied.
"Oh my God. Why is everyone so calm about this?"
Luvia's animated acts of exasperation was interrupted by Archer's sudden entry to the mansion, holding on to a bloodied and distraught Shiro, who seemed listless and inconsolable.
Everyone was taken aback momentarily. Lord El-Melloi II hastily placed his teacup on the table and strode over to the two. "What on earth just happened?"
"S-Shiro?" Rin asked, a look of worry forming on her face. "What happened?"
Shiro cringed upon hearing Rin's question, tears beginning to stream down his face.
Rin rushed over to Shiro and held on to him. Archer, equally affected by whatever happened out there, quickly walked away and slumped down at a corner.
"Archer?" Saber asked.
"W-what happened, Archer?" Luvia continued, running to Archer's side.
"Shiro! Get yourself together! Tell us what happened?" Saber said urgently.
"...d."
Rin leaned in closer to Shiro's lips, straining her ears to listen closely. "What did you say, Shiro?"
"Shinji.. Shinji's dead."