Ch3: Rin, The True Janitor

Behind every bounded field is a mage, though some mages are better than others. Bounded fields are a field of study in itself with various kinds and different uses. The most common ones employed conceal things from prying eyes. The one set up at school right now isn't one of the common variety, it's of the life force sucking variety. It wasn't subtle. The perpetrator was either really confident in challenging me or a complete amateur. I wait for night to descend.

Two hours have passed since the school has closed, so I'm the only one here…...plus Archer. An Archer, not a Saber. An Archer with amnesia no less! Those stupid clocks. One hour fast. How was that even possible? The image of dad's puzzle comes back into view. Dad really wanted to play a trick on me from beyond the grave at the most critical moment…

"Sloppy."

On the rooftop, I stand over the ominous 7 stroke mark, or what was left of one, since it looked like someone set off a bomb on top of it. It seems that someone was a step ahead of me. Just like the perpetrator, this second person, this do-gooder didn't think at all. That or everyone just wants to spite me. As the Second Owner appointed by the Mage's Association after my father's death, it's my responsibility to keep those of the sunlit world ignorant of existences like ours. It's supposed be be a prestigious position, but sometimes I feel like a glorified janitor. Would it kill that fake priest, my "legal guardian" to be a little more helpful?

It was then I heard a familiar explosion from below. It's him.

I hear it, the singing of metal and explosions. I turn my gaze down below and two figures come into view. A whirlwind of sparks and sounds. A mesmerizing dance of death. An ever-changing canvas of red, black and white sparks. Red is intercepted by the two opposites, so that more red does not spill.

Down below, a battle was taking place on school grounds. A spectacle that few get to see in a lifetime. A battle between two heroes…...one hero of old and….

"Emiya," is the name I blurt out.

Mages can sense other mages and the red headed boy, the fake janitor who attended the same school as me was clearly one. I honestly tried to apprehend him years ago, yet he would always manage to elude my familiars with those exploding swords of his. Those swords of his, I like to think are at least as expensive as my Amethyst statues, but he throws them around with so little regard as if he had an unlimited supply. Mages may operate under different rules than "normal" people, but in the end, as a practitioner of jewelcraft, I cannot deny that in this world, money was just as important as mana.

Metal continues to sing.

It's been a good solid minute since the fight began. Against a Servant, a minute might as well be an eternity. The red headed boy is perpetually on the defensive and is given no chance to counter attack. The sparks continue to fly. Those twin swords he was wielding against Lancer must be of excellent quality to tank the hits from a noble phantasm. Regardless of Emiya's skill, his defeat is inevitable. Even though he was clearly my superior in terms of combat, a mere human cannot match a legend of old. It's over for Emiya.

The sound of shattering metal resounds.

The swords shatter and it should have been the end, but are quickly replaced with swords of the same quality. I bite my lips. I can understand if the exploding swords he usually uses are supposed to be disposable, but…..looking closely, the swords he uses to parry blows from a crystallized myth were the same ones!

The spearman aims for an opening, but it is intercepted in the final moment.

With weapons of shorter length, the boy was at a disadvantage from the start. The spearman closes in, but the boy moves in even closer past the point of the spear. In any other fight, it would have been the correct decision, but right now, the boy was fighting a legend. I can't read the movements. All I see are a twirl of sparks, of red, black and white.

Time seemed to stop. I hold my breath.

A kick I couldn't read. The red headed boy is knocked away, air rushes out of his lungs and he uselessly throws his swords at his enemy only to miss. It's over. Lancer rushes in to skewer his defenseless opponent, but it was all a ruse. Red clashes against black and white.

The same swords?

In his hands were another pair of swords. The swords that should have missed swerve and spin, attracted like magnets to the new pair. Swords from all sides converge on Lancer's neck, but the spearman was no mere man. A hero would not be beaten by such tricks. With his godly speed, in one smooth continuous swing, Lancer shatters the swords behind him and the swords in front of him, quickly transitioning to an attack of his own. This raises quite the dilemma.

"Protection from arrows…...Projectile weapons are useless…..is there any way an Archer can beat a Lancer like that?"

"If an Archer had an unlimited number of Noble Phantasms, firing them without stopping, then a Lancer of that calibre could be beaten in a matter of days," is what my Archer Servant says.

"So it's impossible," is my response to Archer's little joke.

The spearman is clearly having a good time. To be able to hold out this long against a hero of legend, even against one that was clearly playing around like a cat is no small feat. The pace quickens and Emiya gets scratched here and there. Emiya gets disarmed, over and over again. It was then, the spearman in blue takes pause and changes his stance.

"Man, you're pretty good….….killing you here would be a waste….you seem like you would have been a fun Master," with his smile souring. I can sense the killing intent. The red headed boy will die now. I should have been happy. Emiya had always been a thorn on my side for years, yet….

Sakura's face surfaces in my mind. It's hard to avoid when they're together all the time. They were together on the archery range earlier today.

"Shoot him!"

What were my intentions. I did not know, but it mattered little. My intentions no longer mattered as Archer had already fired his arrow. An unusual spiral shaped "arrow" tears through space and it strikes the ground between the two combatants. In an instant, the battlefield is enveloped. That's bright. My eyes sting and are temporarily blinded.

When I regain my vision, a huge crater comes into view. Earth, stone and dust is scattered everywhere. Lancer must have bolted before the arrow struck the ground. What about? I scan the crater as the dust settles and I see him. Near the edge of that crater was Emiya still standing. The petal shaped barrier of light, what must have been a most potent conceptual weapon that he used to shield himself from the worst of it crumbles away and dissolves as he is left gasping for breath as his butt is planted into the ground. What was that?

Of the ten great gems I had stockpiled for this very war, I would need to consume one to achieve the same effect. Logically, Emiya must have spent something of equal value, something worth at least a decade of preparation just to hold off that one attack. In that case, I won't have to worry about him for the rest of this Holy Grail War, though my gut was telling me otherwise.

I jump down from the roof and Archer catches me before I hit the ground. I walk towards the boy cautiously. The little "spar" earlier could have been nothing more than a trap. He could very well be the Master of Lancer. The Fake Janitor, really? I approach slowly, but he doesn't react. As I get closer, I see the extent of his injuries. He's bruised in several places and he is cut in a few places but most importantly…..No command seals. He's not a Master. Good. That's one less thing to worry about.

"That's some stupid stunt you pulled, Emiya," I holler.

He turns his gaze, but his gaze is not on me. He's staring intensely a few feet to the side. Can he sense Archer? He tenses up and is on guard and Archer is the same. Emiya may be stronger than me in straight combat, but I had a heroic spirit by my side. In this situation, I was his superior.

"Time to get another hobby. Things will only get more dangerous from here, so stop playing hero," I tell him.

I played around the idea of reporting him to the Mage's Association years ago, but that runs the risk of being accused of incompetence by hackneyed bureaucrats. For the sake of the Tohsaka family, I couldn't lose my position for such a stupid reason, so I had tolerated him. To be fair, his little hobby does actually benefit me, only by virtue of scaring other potentially more troublesome mages away from the city.

As I get a closer look into his eyes, I notice the familiar bags forming under them. When does he even sleep? Even as I get closer, he doesn't bother getting up and continues to lie on the ground.

"Hero? No. I can never call myself such a thing."

Emiya stands up. He's bleeding here and there. He almost died fighting a living legend, yet he just casually walks everything off.

"Then what are you?" I ask him.

"Just someone's doting older brother," he says with straight face.

"Huh?"

It's true he has a little sister. It's true she skipped grades and is in Sakura's year, but in the end, she was just a little sister. A mage family can only have one magic crest and thus one heir. That is the general rule and I only know of one exception. The Emiya in front of me with the ridiculous power he had at his disposal was clearly the heir. Without the burden of magical studies, what that little girl did wasn't that special for anyone from a notable bloodline. Still, the issue of siblings should be a touchy subject for any mage.

"Can you explain it more clearly?" I say to reaffirm what I had heard.

"My little sister goes to this school. You saved me back there, so you have my thanks. It's good to know that you're not my enemy," he continues.

My face contorts. I don't know what expression I'm making right now, but I know this to be true. How can he say that with a straight face?

This was the longest conversation I had ever had with this boy and my buttons were already pushed. He was purposely steering the conversation. Little sister? You saved me? Not my enemy? I naturally draw my finger preparing a Gandr curse. I cannot help but make the comparison with Kirei. There was something similar about them I couldn't put into words. I cannot see Emiya as just some helpful do-gooder. The bout with Lancer earlier confirms that he is a threat I can no longer ignore. Of the 7 Servants of the Holy Grail War, only Saber has yet to be summoned. If he becomes a Master…..

"With power like that, you're actually chalking everything up to a sister complex?"

Emiya looks to the side and gathers his thoughts.

"Maybe it's a lot of things….the serial killings…..the fire….10 years ago in this very city." he suddenly says. I remember, all too well in fact and that's the problem.

Emiya stares into the distance and gathers his breath as if to remember something. Something he can never forget. His face is undoubtedly serious. It's quite scary actually.

"Families….. were toyed with….broken apart….stolen from…..used….. normal families just living their lives…..if there's even a small chance it will happen again….. that's not something I can overlook...…"

I don't buy it. I don't buy it at all. Someone who thinks like that can't possibly be a magus. The pursuit of knowledge is the goal of every proper mage. For the sake of reaching the Root, a magus is willing to put everything on the line including family. Like my father. Like me….

"You're lying," were the words that slipped out of my mouth.

Emiya faces forward as if his way of living was questioned. His face is…..

"I just want my family to live their lives without having to worry about anything. Are you saying that's wrong, Tohsaka?"

My breath stops for a moment. Old memories surface, of a family of four sitting still in front of a painter. I brush those memories away with black paint. My hands shake. I try to center myself, but the tension is broken by the buzzing of a cell phone. Cell phone? Emiya takes it out and it seemed like something in him had just chipped. He simply runs away. Making craters with each step. Craters with each leap. He runs away, paying no heed to his injuries. He runs away, paying no attention to me at all. It takes me a whole second before I realize that's what happened. I had hesitated.

"Wait a minute…..come back here!" I yell.

I was about to give chase, but as I look behind me, the sight of school comes into my vision. Filled with various craters from the previous battle. As the Second Owner, it is my duty to clean it all up, lest the activity of mages be known to sunlit world. That fake janitor!