Rin groaned as the sunlight streamed in through the window, the girl placing a pillow over her head in an attempt to block the sun's awful rays. All she had to do was wait until the sun rose a little higher, and she could fall back to a blissful sleep. This bed somehow felt much softer and warmer than the one back home, even if it was a lot more plain. She couldn't imagine why, but right now, that didn't matter.

"Rin," Archer's deep voice called out, causing the girl to groan even louder.

"Go away," She muttered.

"Rin, you have a long day ahead of you. If you don't get up now, you won't be able to walk across town and back in time to...," Archer paused and sighed internally, looking for a way to say 'Help Emiya Shirou' without dying both inside and out. "keep your prior promises that you're holding onto," The only answer he got was a pillow thrown at him, which weakly slapped him on the chest and slid off to the floor. "Just one tip, that's all it'd take," He thought to himself before restraining himself. Now wasn't the time to be that much of an asshole, he wanted her to listen to him today. So he stood there, staring at her, the force of a thousand disappointed mothers emanating from his stare.

With a tired groan, Rin rolled out of bed. "Fine, damn you, I'm up," She muttered, rubbing her eyes. Archer nodded and backed away, leaning against the wall as Rin started looking for her clothes. It didn't take her long to find them, the girl holding them to her chest as she stared at Archer with a vicious glare. It took him a reason to figure out why she looked so angry before it clicked, Archer turning his back to face the wall to let Rin change out of her pajamas.

It was quiet in the room outside of the sounds of the birds outside and the rustling of clothes, although Archer wasn't sure if this was an awkward silence or not. Honestly, he didn't even really care.

"So, Archer…," Rin spoke up after a few minutes. "What do you think about all this?"

"'All this'? You'll need to be a little more specific, Master," Archer commented. "A lot has happened, after all,"

"Well, you know, we have to investigate Fujimaru, and I just want your thoughts about everything that happened since he showed up," She explained. Archer closed his eyes, thinking to himself. What should he tell her? What should he hide? His mind drifted back to the vision. Should he even believe that flight of fancy? Finally, he decided on a compromise.

"I do believe that there is more to him than meets the eye. However," he paused as his mind drifted to the image of a tired and frightened boy clinging to a kitchen knife even as the building around him was devoured by ice. "... I don't believe he has any malicious intent," He watched Rin nodding before adding. "That said, remember that the road to hell is often paved with good intentions,"

Rin didn't respond to that. How could she? The way her Servant spoke… well, it seemed as if he had some personal experience with that. She finished getting dressed, Archer fading away as she walked into the living room. As she walked down the hall, she could smell soup filling the air. Soup? For breakfast?

It didn't take long for her to walk into the living room, where she saw Shinji and Bazett sitting at the table, the smell of soup coming from the bowls in front of them. Ritsuka was watching Jack wash the dishes they used to make the soup, using his good hand to put the dishes up to dry.

"Ah, morning Tohsaka," Ritsuka greeted with a wave of his good hand before he reached for one of the bowls of soup that was set to the side. "I made breakfast," Rin walked over slowly, looking at the soup, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah, it's soup because I don't know how long Bazett was out for, so we need to get her something easy on her stomach," Ritsuka answered her unspoken question. After listening to that explanation, Rin quietly sat at the table, letting Ritsuka slide the bowl in front of her.

Ritsuka sat down, smiling as he began to dig into the soup. Rin watched as his face morphed to one of slight disappointment. It looked like he was still holding himself up to some ridiculously high standard. She supposed it wasn't wise to throw stones from inside a glass house, but that glass house did let her see it, and it annoyed her.

"You know," Shinji spoke up, catching the table's attention. "I was a little distracted last night with you 'coming clean' and all last night, I never got to ask what exactly happened with Caster. Must have been pretty bad if your arm was broken, especially with all that bravado you had going in," Ritsuka stared blankly at Shinji, taking a deep breath. It was fine, this was just like dealing with Gordes back when he first joined, except not as loveable.

"Yes, well, it went very wrong. I thought I could talk her down, but Medea is… desperate not to lose. Honestly, I've never seen her throw herself at a problem with such gusto… almost makes me feel like she doesn't like me as much as she claimed," He partially joked, but he had no idea if all the mana she stockpiled was what let her reinforce her Master so much, or if she was just holding out on him.

"You can summon Servants, can't you?" Shinji asked as his eyebrows wiggled in a taunting way, determined to be a thorn in Ritsuka's side. "So why didn't you just do that before you went to lose to Caster?" Ritsuka just gave him a blank look before inhaling deeply.

"She isn't going to date you, bro," He said calmly, causing Shinji to sputter. "Anyways, to answer that question, I don't know where exactly I can summon. I could either waste time looking for a leyline, which could take a few days and let a lot of people get hurt, or have what I thought would be a conversation or a doable fight in a few hours. So yeah, I picked the second one. And I'll probably put the safety of others first again in the future, so get used to it now," Shinji only gritted his teeth before he looked down at his soup.

"Does this mean you'll be looking for leylines now?" Bazett asked as she went to chug the soup, but Medusa and Jack held down her arms, forcing her to eat it slowly.

"Yeah, but I'll have to figure out where a leyline is. The only idea I have is at the places that everyone else summoned their Servants, but there's a small issue with that idea,"

"And what might that be, Fujimaru?" Rin asked before sipping on the soup.

"Alright, so there are four places I know I can summon for sure," Ritsuka explained. "One is Mount Enzou, and well, it's pretty obvious why that's off the table," He paused to slurp up some soup before he continued. "Second place is at the place where Bazett summoned Lancer. The problem with that is that the bug mage had sent insects there before, probably to abduct Bazett. Not only that, but we met another Servant on the way there," Rin sat up straight at this.

"Another Servant? What do you mean?" Rin asked.

"When we went to Bazett's place, a Servant I've never seen before was waiting for us. They stole Bazett's weapon, and we weren't able to get it back," Ritsuka explained. "From what Rider told me, the Servant in question could fly, so I'm guessing that probably makes it one of the Calvary classes, probably Caster or Rider. And if that's right, that's a little more proof to my two Grails theory," Ritsuka thought to himself. "Then again, it might have just been a rogue Servant summoned by the World, but I'd have to make contact with it again to find out. Still don't know what kind of threat this timeline could have to have rogue Servants summoned though," he shook his head. "Anyways, it's too risky to head back to Bazett's place for now,"

"So then… all that leaves is the places we summoned at," Shinji finished.

"I suppose Illya's place too," Ritsuka added. "But here's the problem with that. One is your place Shinji. The place where your grandfather, who wants me dead, lives. I think you can see the issues there. I also don't want to risk the wrath of Heracles if I can help it, so Illya is right out. That leaves only Rin. However, there's one… very important problem with that,"

"And what might that be?" Rin asked, her voice tired as she processed everything Ritsuka was telling her. Was this some sort of tactic of his? Overwhelm her with facts so she didn't have time to figure out what his deal was?

"I dunno where you live," Ritsuka answered simply. "So, while we're on the subject-,"

"Are you planning on heading out then?" Medusa asked, suddenly appearing behind Ritsuka. "That would mean Bazett wouldn't need to stay here and rest, seeing as you're just fine walking around despite your injuries," Ritsuka groaned. It was barely a day and this Medusa had him wrapped around her little finger almost as badly as the Chaldean one.

"Fine, fine, I'll stay home and rest, I hear ya, I hear ya," He muttered. "But still, knowing where Rin lives doesn't mean that I'm just gonna head out now. I'll just be more ready for when I'm ready to go there," Rin looked at him, her mind running a few scenarios. He seemed so sure that she'd still want to help him after she looked into him, which she genuinely couldn't tell if it was because he was innocent, or if he thought he covered his tracks so well, she wouldn't find anything.

"I'll decide if I tell you when I get back from my investigation," Rin finally decided, to which Ritsuka gave a thumbs up.

"Fair enough," Ritsuka conceded. Really, he couldn't push her here, since that just wouldn't end well for any of them. He could wait a few hours.

"Oh, do you need help in your investigations, dear Tohsaka?" Shinji asked as perked up.

"No," Rin shot back coldly, causing Shinji to slump a little. Ritsuka was beginning to believe the boy was a masochist.

"One day, she'll see how great I am," the seaweed haired wonder spoke through gritted teeth before he took another sip of soup.

"You know, if you keep gritting your teeth, they're gonna crack…," Ritsuka said before he froze, images of Nightingale telling him the very same thing as she held a bonesaw in her hand, ready to perform surgery on his jaw. "No… please… my teeth aren't cracked yet…," The three humans stared at Ritsuka as he began to mutter to himself. "No, Liz hasn't blown out my ears yet, put the chainsaw down!" Before he could go any further, Jack sat on his lap, shocking Ritsuka out of his checkup flashbacks.

"Mommy, mommy!" Jack called out to him, the boy looking down at her healed face. "Aaaaaaaah," She opened her mouth wide, to which Ritsuka soon stuffed her face with a spoonful of soup. Rin watched them, wondering who really depended on who emotionally. Rin absentmindedly ate her soup, not really enjoying it until she realized she placed an empty spoon in her mouth.

"Well… that was good Fujimaru," Rin said as she stood up, leaving her bowl at the table. "Let Shirou know I'm heading out for a bit. We'll continue his lessons when I get back," Ritsuka nodded, before blinking.

"Actually, come to think of it, where is Shirou?" Ritsuka asked. "I haven't seen him all morning," his face morphed to one of worry as everyone had confused looks on their faces. He went to stand up, but Medusa placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I assure you, he is still on the property," She said. "I kept an eye out all night, and nothing unusual happened in that time," Ritsuka nodded as he realized she was forcing him to stay sitting down.

"Alright, alright, I get it," Ritsuka muttered. Just how desperate was she not to go back to Shinji? Rin took this time to walk out the front door, Shinji watching her… or rather, her ass, leave. Ritsuka couldn't even blame him if he was being honest, he caught himself staring at Ishtar and Ereshkigal's asses from time to time after all.

The room was quiet as Bazett finally finished her soup, the woman standing up to take Rin's bowl along with hers to the sink. Shinji shifted in his seat, obviously uncomfortable with the silence that fell over the room. Ritsuka himself just took the moment to appreciate it. After all, it wasn't often he had quiet moments back with Chaldea.

With a grunt, Shinji finally got up, grabbing his bag as he headed out the door without saying goodbye. Right now, he was really frustrated, and he didn't feel like dealing with the headaches of the Emiya household right now. He didn't even make an effort to hide his frustration, throwing the gate wide open and not bothering to close it, storming off towards school.

The air was cool, and the wind blew lightly, but Shinji barely noticed any of this, taking no joy in it. Instead, his mind began to race. He needed to figure out how to get Ritsuka alone, without any of his Servants. If he could do that, he knew he could take the boy by surprise.

"Yo Shinji!" A voice broke the seaweed haired boy out of his stupor. Looking up, he saw Hane running up to him. "Thought I was gonna have to catch up with ya in school!" He skidded to a stop next to the boy, going to laugh and raise his hand for a high five, but suddenly let out a hiss, gripping the side of chest, right above his ribs.

"... Are you okay?" Shinji asked. Hane gave a weak chuckle, nodding.

"Y-yeah. I just accidently rammed my side into a table on my way out, nothin' to worry about," Hane explained, to which Shinji narrowed his eyes. The way Hane spoke, the way he was acting… it felt far too familiar to him.

It sounded exactly like Sakura covering up Shinji's abuse.

The idea made him sick to his stomach, the boy gritting his teeth. In Sakura's case, she was, in his opinion, getting what was coming to her, but his friend… He paused, as the gears in his mind began to whirl. Would this be how Shirou would feel if he found out what Shinji had done to Sakura? He didn't know, he couldn't figure out what that man saw in Sakura. Why would he care so much about that bitch, that thief, over his best friend?

"Hey, hey Shinji," Hane lightly tapped Shinji's side, once again bringing him back into reality. "Um… your sister is…," Hane didn't get to finish as Shinji looked up, seeing Sakura walking up to him, slowly and lifelessly. God, why would she never stop being so creepy?

"Niisama…," she droned in her creepy, lifeless tone. "Grandfather… wants you. Now," Shinji's blood turned into ice as she said that.

His time was up.

"Shinji?" Hane called out, but this time, his friend didn't respond. The seaweed haired boy's face instead was drained of all color as he stared into Sakura's lifeless eyes. It had only been two days. Was this all the time allotted to him? He just needed to have another chance!

"B-but… we have to… go to school," Shinji tried to reason weakly, trying anything to extend the time he had.

"Now…," Sakura said. "Or else…," Shinji gulped. He didn't want to think what could happen to him if his grandfather was actually angry at him. He coughed into his fist, standing up straight, doing his best to hide his fear in front of his friend.

"Then… then I guess we should get going," Shinji said before turning around and heading to his home. Sakura followed behind him, leaving one confused red head standing on the sidewalk confused as the two disappeared over a hill.

The walk there was quiet, neither sibling wanting to speak to the other. In fact, whenever Sakura would get closer, Shinji would shuffle ahead. He was beginning to think she knew what she was doing and was just trying to get him to move faster. Then again, that would imply something was going on inside that head of hers.

They soon came to their home, the sounds of bugs filling the air. Shinji felt sick to his stomach. He had a feeling that the moment they spoke about bugs that his grandfather might have been involved. In fact, it made far too much sense. Still, betraying his grandfather? That was unthinkable, especially if he was to become the heir of their Magecraft once more.

The door opened painfully slowly, the loud creak echoing inside of Shinji's ears, his own pounding heart being unable to drown out the noise. At the door stood his grandfather, looking as old and terrifying as he usually did.

"Ah, so you are still alive, Shinji," The old man said mockingly. "Here I thought Fujimaru Ritsuka might have had the good sense to end you. It is good to see he is as stupid as I believed," Shinji only nodded in response. "Now, come along, it is time to put you to good use for once in your life,"

"Wh-what, but Grandfather, I can get back the book and deliver Fujimaru like I promised!" Shinji cried out. "Just give me some more time!" Zouken stared his grandson dead in the eyes.

"I never expected much out of you, but instead of listening to my common sense, I went ahead and gave you a test, to see if my grandson was worth anything. It was a mercy wasted on you, it seems," Zouken spoke down to Shinji. To Shinji, this conversation felt like a bolt to his chest. "But… worry not Shinji… you're not a complete failure… yet. Come with me," Zouken walked deeper into the house. Shinji followed his grandfather, a pit forming in his stomach. Something wasn't right, he could feel it.

It was a slow descent, Sakura leaving to go to her own room as Shinji and Zouken descended deeper into the house. The two walked in complete silence, the sounds of bugs barely reaching Shinji's ears. All the boy could hear was his beating heart.

The two headed into the basement, a place Shinji rarely went to. The smell here was unbearable, that fact alone was enough to drive the boy away, but now he had no choice. He followed his only blood relative down the stone stairs, doing his best to not pay attention to the sudden shift of atmosphere, even though he couldn't ignore how the greenish darkness set him on edge.

He did his best not to look into the holes that utterly dominated the walls of their basement. He didn't want to think about the only logical thing that could be in tomb-like structures, and most of all, he didn't want to even think about what he'd do if the tombs were filled with nothing but women. They reached the bottom of the stairs, the two keeping their distance from the center of the room, instead hugging the wall and walking to the far corner.

At the corner of the room was the last thing Shinji expected to see. There was a table set up, covered in books and flasks filled with liquids he couldn't even begin to hope to identify. The last thing Shinji expected to find was something he'd see in his high school chemistry class.

Behind the table stood a man. Shinji could barely make out any details about him due to the darkness, but he could tell the man was very thin and tall, and wearing some sort of coat. Maybe a lab coat? It'd make sense.

"As I promised, he has returned home," Zouken said to the man. "Tell me, have you finished our project?" The man nodded, lifting up a large, thick jar. Shinji couldn't see what was in there, but he could hear something in it, and he could hear whatever was inside it scraping against the glass.

"It is finished," The man spoke. "Know you only have one shot at this. If you fail to make your plan work, then it will take far too long to make another,"

"Excellent," Zouken's face spread out into a grin that seemed just a little too large for his own face. "Then I leave you to your experiments, old friend," With that, Shinji stiffened. Was he about to become a guinea pig to some crazy mage? He took a step back out of fear, but the man managed to get around his table and cross the small distance between them, the man reaching out and grabbing Shinji's wrist. Shinji blinked as he felt the man's grip. Despite it being firm, the grip was… gentle.

"You're not going anywhere," The man said, his harsh tone being contradicted by his gentle grip. Zouken only let out a cackle as he left. The mage watched the old man leave, waiting for him to ascend the stairs and leaving the basement before letting go of Shinji's wrist. "You look a lot like Zolgen when he was young," The mage mused in a much kinder tone before walking back to the table. Shinji stared at the man, confusion on his face.

"What do you want from me?" the Matou asked. The mage paused, thinking to himself.

"Well, your grandfather thinks very lowly of you, a boy that worked as hard as he could to learn magecraft, and I don't like that," The mage carefully worded. "Don't you want to prove to your grandfather that you can exceed his expectations of you?" Shinji paused, the silence deafening as he tried to process what was going on. What did this man want?

"Your grandfather believes that you can not do magecraft, and you are worthless for it. I believe he hasn't nourished your potential, giving up at the first sign of resistance," The man said. "So, Matou Shinji, would you like to properly join this Holy Grail War?" Shinji's eyes narrowed at this, so the man continued as he reached out to the table, avoiding the jar with the creature inside it, picking up a vial filled with some sort of purple liquid. "I have here a formula that will allow you to make a contract with a Servant. Not that fake contract you had with Rider either, a genuine connection with a Servant,"

"... But almost every Servant has already been summoned to the War," Shinji pointed out. He wasn't going to let himself be tricked so easily. The man smiled, nodding his head.

"It is good you're using your head, very good indeed," The man began to walk back to Shinji. "It's true the Fuyuki Grail has only Saber remaining, however… that is not the only grail on this land," He stopped in front of Shinji, looking at the poor boy. "On this second grail, you can summon a new Servant, and prove your worth. All it takes is one drink," The man offered the vial to Shinji, who stared at it.

"A chance to really prove myself, huh?" Shinji muttered. With something like this, he could take down Fujimaru, he could beat Shirou, he could prove to Tohsaka that he was an absolute genius that deserved only the best, her! He reached out to take it, but the mage suddenly pulled the vial away.

"I need you to understand something important. If what we're about to do works, you will be able to do magecraft, and make a genuine connection with a Servant. However, if I am wrong, and it does not, you will die," the man explained. "Knowing this, will you still take it?" He asked as he offered the vial once again.

"... To be a magus is to walk with death, right?" Shinji asked as he put on a fake confident smirk, grabbing the vial away from the man before he could take it away.

"... That's not what the saying means," The man said before Shinji downed the entire vial. At first, nothing seemed to happen to the boy, who looked at the bottle, confused.

"I don't… feel any diff…," Before Shinji could finish his sentence, he could feel something in his stomach. It was at first slightly uncomfortable, but the feeling became more and more pronounced, and it began to spread across his entire body. His fingers lost their grip on the vial, the glass falling to the ground and shattering as Shinji dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, some of the glass cutting him and sticking to his skin. This went unnoticed by the boy, whose convulsions took far more of his attention. It felt as if every inch of his body was being pierced by fiery rods, yet also as if he was being stabbed by icicles. There was only one thing the boy could do under this immense pain.

He screamed.

The screams echoed throughout the house, but thanks to the Bounded Field surrounding the house, no noise would make it out of its walls. No one would be able to help the boy, no one would be able to comfort him. He would have to suffer, burning away in a basement.

Zouken stood by the door to the basement, only offering sickening chuckles at the sound of his grandson suffering. He didn't have too long to enjoy this moment however, as his familiars informed him that the Tohsaka heir was headed to their house. It was time to get someone far more capable on the case of that boy from Chaldea.

He shut the door to the basement, waiting for the Tohsaka brat to come to his front door, the knocking on the door echoing through the house. With a smile, Zouken made his way to the door, waiting for Tohsaka to knock a second time before opening the door.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting you today, Tohsaka?" the miserable pile of secrets disguised as a man asked as he looked at the young woman in front of him. Rin looked at the man, finishing her mental preparations before she began, making sure to show no signs of weakness as she attempted to take control of the conversation.

"What do you know about a boy named Fujimaru Ritsuka?" She asked, causing Zouken to raise a nonexistent eyebrow.

"I'm afraid I don't know who you're talking about," Zouken said with the tone of a gentle old man. Rin folded her arms, staring at him with frustrated exhaustion.

"Shinji told me you sent him to take care of Fujimaru, so you can stop pretending like you don't know he exists," Rin had to hold herself back from smirking, but Zouken didn't give the reaction she expected. Instead of fear or anger, he only gave what seemed like… a sad sigh?

"Ah, so you know. I was hoping to take care of this without involving the other participants, but I suppose I was too optimistic," He said as he shook his head. "Well, I suppose it's time I tell you the truth,"

"The… truth?" Rin asked, confusion laced in her face. She wasn't expecting this turn of events at all.

"Yes. That boy is an agent of a Lord of the Mage Association," Zouken explained, causing Rin to freeze up. That… that wasn't how high she thought this was going to go. "Surely, he has mentioned Chaldea," Rin nodded in response. "Yes, Chaldea is a pet project of one of the Lords, Marisbury Animusphere. He wishes to use the Holy Grail to help this foolish dream of his along,"

"So Fujimaru is a Master candidate the Animusphere sent as their representative?" Rin asked, causing Zouken to shake his head.

"No, no, that would leave things to chance, and Marisbury doesn't leave anything to chance," Zouken explained. "No, he is planning to use his little representative to sow chaos into the War, and while everyone is distracted, that little rat will steal the Holy Grail and take it to his Lord, who will then set up a rigged war in another country, far from our reach, in order to make a wish to make this 'Chaldea' of his a reality,"

Rin's eyebrows furrowed as she took in this information. "But Fujimaru mentioned summoning Servants, he even has one already…,"

"The Holy Grail is not the only way to bring a Servant to the world," Zouken explained. "It does not surprise me that someone as shrewd and powerful as Marisbury found another way. It is likely that any Servant they summon will be loyal to their cause as well, so you can not let him summon any more," Rin raised an eyebrow at this.

"Oh? It's almost like you're expecting me to take care of this," Rin commented.

"You are the Second Owner, are you not?" Zouken countered. "Now that you know, it would be best to attack him from two different fronts. Fujimaru Ritsuka isn't one to be underestimated. While he may seem weak and ordinary, it's his uncanny ability to summon and support multiple Servants that makes him so deadly. If he gains too many allies, then we will not be able to stop him. Unless you believe you can take several Servants head on?"

Rin had to admit even with Archer on her side, there was no way that she could take on several on her own. She didn't let her face betray this fact though. She instead mulled over this new information she had gained.

"Thank you for your time," She finally said, bowing respectfully to Zouken before walking away. Zouken had to do his best not to break out into mad cackling as he closed the door, vanishing back into the accursed house.

Rin decided for now, the best place to go to think about all of this was her own house, especially since Fujimaru wouldn't be able to follow her home without Archer noticing. The magus's walk there was quiet and uneventful, her mind doing her best to process everything she had learned. Soon, she finally made it to that beautiful house of hers, the girl walking inside, Archer materializing beside her.

It was so quiet in her home, a stark contrast to the Emiya house. She didn't realize it, but it stood out to her just how… empty and cold her home felt. Maybe she didn't like living alone as much as she thought she did.

"Master," Archer called out to her, snapping her out of her stupor. "I assume you came here to organize your thoughts in peace?" Rin nodded, headed to the kitchen.

"I need some tea first," She muttered.

"I can do that for you. Sit down and rest for now," Archer offered. Frankly, he'd make a thousand cups of tea if that meant Rin would finally pick a side. This tense alliance wasn't sitting well with him. Rin nodded absentmindedly.

"Thank you," She muttered as she sat down, staring at the ceiling, thinking to herself. What did this all mean, and what should she do about it? Did she make a mistake not taking Fujimaru to Kirei the first time they met? What did all these extra Servants in the war mean? And what about that bug mage that was kidnapping people?

Archer soon came back with a cup of tea, which Rin took, taking a sip of it. She didn't know how, but it was somehow the best cup of tea she ever had.

"So, have you come to a conclusion?" Archer asked. Rin shook her head.

"I know Zouken told us what seems like important information, but… some things don't add up to me," She mentioned. "Like, I can believe someone like him is under the employ of a person as powerful as a Lord. After all, it would explain his… eccentricities," She mentioned. "However, it's hard to imagine someone that risked his life for who he believed was an innocent under attack from someone trying to kill him as someone trying to show chaos in this war,"

"It is possible that he is simply that good natured, but will do his job when needed to," Archer pointed out. Rin nodded before taking another sip of her tea.

"That's true, but then why would he protect Emiya again, and then ask me to train him?" Rin asked. Archer simply folded his arms, before narrowing his eyes and offering a counterpoint.

"Well, you are Second Owner, he would know that much. So accidentally revealing himself to you would be detrimental to his mission. However… what if he took advantage of your good nature to distract you?" Archer offered. Rin's grip tightened as she heard that. She wanted to get mad, to yell that she wasn't being distracted, but she took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

"What you say has merit," Rin admitted. "But that doesn't explain the extra Servants," she pointed out.

"We don't know if this mystical 'extra weapon stealing Servant' exists. He could be lying to us," Archer pointed out.

"So could Zouken," Rin shot back, causing Archer to smirk a little. "As for that 'Shielder' Class Servant… well, you saw the reaction Fujimaru had. He was just as surprised as us, if not more so," Archer was tempted to poke her with the idea that Fujimaru was acting, but he stopped himself. He knew very well the way the boy acted in that moment… there was no way he could fake that.

"So, what will you do, Master?" Archer asked. Rin stood up as she began to pace around the table. She tried to ignore the fact she seemed to have picked up Kirei's habits as she circled the table. Finally, she stopped, coming to her own conclusion.

"If gems have taught me anything, it's that something's true nature will come out when put under pressure," Rin explained. "So I'm going to put that pressure on Fujimaru," She headed to her workshop, picking up several gems. She didn't like the idea of having to use them, but she needed answers.

She could always force Fujimaru to pay her back anyways.

Archer smirked to himself as he watched her prepare. Now things were going in a way he could work with. He vanished into his Spirit Form, floating by Rin as she collected her jewels. When she finished stocking up, she headed out of her house with new determination. Now was the time she'd finally get her answers.