Prologue — Day 1: Rin — Red Archer / Black Archer
A girl stood in front of a magic circle, a look of intense concentration on her face.
She was a teenage high-school student. She wore a red shirt with a white cross on it along with a miniskirt and thigh-high black stockings. Her long, dark hair was pulled into twintails. The girl's name was Rin Tohsaka, and she was about to begin her participation the Heaven's Feel — a centuries-old ritual more commonly known as the Holy Grail War.
The Holy Grail War was a conflict between seven magi over the Holy Grail, an omnipotent wish-granting device that would rarely and intermittently manifest itself in the city of Fuyuki, Japan. Ten years ago, Rin's father had been killed in the Fourth Grail War. Ever since that day, she had been preparing to fight in the Fifth War. It was a duty she had expected to have to wait a long time to fulfill; the average time between appearances of the Grail was about sixty years. However, a mere ten years after the end of the previous war, the Grail was already preparing to show itself again. The proof was engraved on the back of her right hand, where three red marks had appeared. They were her Command Spells, a blessing that the Grail granted to the seven magi whom it deemed worthy to compete for it. The time had finally come for her to claim the Grail and redeem the Tohsaka family name.
The magi who competed in the Grail War did not combat each other directly; rather, each participant summoned an epic spirit to fight on their behalf. These legendary heroes took on the form of Servants, who were divided into seven different classes: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker. Each class had different strengths and weaknesses; but on the whole, Saber was considered the most powerful. If Rin could manage to summon a Servant of the Saber class, victory would certainly be hers. After three hundred years of conflict, after four Wars which ended with no victor and the Grail departing unclaimed, she would be the one to finally complete the ritual and acquire the miraculous object.
Though the Grail was said to be capable of granting any wish, Rin hadn't seriously thought about what she'd use it for. The mere act of winning and obtaining it would be enough to fulfill her every desire. Her father's failure would be redeemed. Her name would go down in magus history. Her acceptance to the London Clock Tower, headquarters of the Magic Association, would be guaranteed. She might even get some respect from the Sorcerer Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, who was one of the magi who originally created the ritual for summoning the Grail, way back when. One of Rin's ancestors, Nagato Tohsoka had been a student of his, so he took somewhat of an interest in each new magus of the Tohsaka family line. Unfortunately, it seemed Nagato had been only a mediocre magus and something of a goof-up; worse, Rin apparently reminded the old Sorcerer of Nagato. He probably didn't expect her to accomplish anything great in her lifetime; but she'd definitely prove herself in his eyes by taking the Grail.
Rin took a deep breath, then opened her magic circuit and began the chant to call forth her Servant.
"Hear me! I command thee to my side and entrust my fate in thine sword. If thou will concede to this will and reason, answer my call and take heed in the refuge of the Holy Grail. It is my oath to thee that I embody all that is good in the Eternal World, and oppose all that is evil and corrupt. I call upon you, the Seven Heavens, protector of the Great Spirit Trinity. Keeper of the balance, come forth!"
As she spoke the final words of the summoning spell, she poured her magic prana into the circle. The engraved lines seethed with red light as the spell took effect, and Rin prepared to gaze up the face of the Servant that was about to be called before her.
For several moments, nothing happened.
Nothing continued to happen for several more.
The red light of the summoning circle began to fade. There was still no indication of anything happening.
"What the hell!?" Rin demanded.
She had spent years preparing for this moment. She had practiced the ritual a thousand times to eliminate the possibility of making even the slightest error. She had used half of the supply of prana that she had been saving up inside of gems for years. She was even performing the ritual at 2 AM in the morning, the time when her magic was at its peak...
...though, come to think of it, hadn't she arrived to school an hour early in the morning? Since she wasn't much of a morning person, she had been far too fuzzy-headed to think much of it at the time, but could it be that her clock was an hour fast? In that case, the current time wasn't 2 AM as she had thought, but only 1 AM. Then, when performing the summoning, she hadn't actually been at her peak—
A sound like an explosion came from another part of the Tohsaka mansion — the living room, it sounded like. Tohsaka immediately ran to the room to see what had happened..
The ceiling had caved in, exposing the room to the night sky. A shaft of moonlight illuminated a man in a red coat reclining on her couch. He had tanned skin and white hair, and gave Rin a wry smile as he saw her enter the room.
"I take it you're my Master, then." the man said. "It seems I've been summoned by a strange little girl."
"You... you're my Servant?" Rin asked, a little nervously.
"That is correct." the Servant said. "I, Servant Archer, have answered your call to fight for the Holy Grail. Let us fight together and seize victory from the cold iron jaws of battle."
He stood and gave her a short bow. Rin got the feeling it was more out of mockery than respect. Rin couldn't help but scowl a little.
"Servant Archer?" she said haughtily. "Well, I was hoping for Saber, but I suppose second-best will have to do. It's probably better this way; after all, if would be boring if I defeated my opponents too easily."
"Well, I can't imagine how a Master of your obvious skill—" Archer casually indicated the damaged surroundings with a sweep of one arm "—failed to summoner Saber. But you needn't be concerned. I am an exceptionally powerful Servant. I should be able to defeat the competition handily... regardless of the quality of my Master."
Rin's hand twitched. He was definitely mocking her. She tried to keep her cool; even though they were called Servants, they were the spirits of epic heroes from legend. It was only natural that they would have powerful egos.
"If you're so confident of your power, you must be a very famous hero." Rin said. "What was your identity when you were alive?"
"Well, as to that." Archer sighed. "Unfortunately, there are some holes in my memory. While I retain all my practical knowledge about things such as combat, I can't precisely remember who I was or in what time period I lived. It's likely a result of a mistake in the summoning spell — are you sure you said every single word? You didn't cough or mumble, did you?"
Rin's face flushed with embarrassment.
"Well, judging by the state of the room, you clearly did something wrong." Archer said. "My memory might come back to me at some point... or it might not. There's really no way to know for sure."
Rin wasn't too upset about getting Archer instead of Saber. Saber, Archer, and Lancer were known as the three Knight classes because may of the great heroic knights of legend were proficient in fighting with swords, bows, and lancers. Though the Saber class was considered the most powerful of the three, it was not uncommon for extremely powerful legendary spirits to be summoned into Archer class. If this heroic spirit who had taken on the role of Archer was stronger than the heroic spirit who ended up taking the role of Saber, then Rin could still achieve victory. Archer being unable to remember his name, however, was a more significant problem.
Rin's was upset by Archer's amnesia not merely because it was clearly her own fault, indisputable proof that she had screwed up the most important magic ritual of her life. No, far more troubling was how it would affect his ability to battle. Each Servant usually possessed between one and three Noble Phantasms, conceptual weapons which embodied aspects of their heroic legend. For the Knight Classes, their Noble Phantasms were usually the legendary weapons they had wielded in life: their mythical sword or bow or lance. However, since Archer was unable to remember his identity, he wouldn't be able to summon the embodiment of his legend. His Noble Phantasm might be some truly incredible bow like Brahmastra or Nine Lives; but without knowing who he was, he couldn't know what embodied his legend, and therefore how to activate his Noble Phantasm.
"Are you upset at me?" Archer asked her.
"No." Rin said. "I'm upset at myself. It's my fault, after all."
Archer's expression seemed to soften.
"To tell the truth, I was being a little harder on you than I should." Archer said. "You made a mistake during the summoning; but that aside, your power as a Master is incredible. The amount of prana I'm getting from you definitely indicates that you're first-rate."
Rin blushed, then quickly turned her back on the Servant to hide her reaction.
"Well, naturally!" she said authoritatively "There's no need to state anything so obvious! I am a magus of the Tohsaka line; it is my proud duty to bear the weight of the Tohsaka family honor—"
At that moment, there was a second loud explosion within the house.
"On second thought, I may have to revise my opinion." Archer said.
"Oh, for—!" Rin said. "Archer! Stop snarking and come with me! This might not be something I did — it could be an enemy attack!
To his credit, the red-coated Servant followed her order immediately and without question. The two of them quickly ran to another room, where a large chunk of the ceiling had also caved in. A slender girl was pulling herself up out of the debris. She had black hair and purple eyes. She wore a white shirt with a purple collar, a purple skirt, and black stockings. A purple gemstone was embedded in the back of her right hand. Contrasting sharply with the dull tones of the rest of her outfit was a bright pink ribbon in her hair.
"Careful, Rin." Archer said. "She's a Servant."
The girl brushed hair from her eyes and glanced at Rin.
"That is correct." she said. "I have been summoned to participate in this Grail War as Servant Archer. Are you my Master?"
"Archer?" Rin asked. "That's impossible. I just summoned Archer..."
She waved vaguely at the Servant in the red coat.
"That does appear to be another Servant of the Archer class." the girl said, tilting her head. "However, I cannot imagine how it is possible for Archers to have been summoned within a single War."
"Unbelievable." the male Archer said. "There must have been a major problem with the summoning spell for something like this to happen."
"There were certainly some irregularities in my summoning." the girl said. "My arrival was a bit rough, and I don't have a proper connection with my summoner. I'm not receiving any prana, as though you aren't properly contracted to me as my Master."
Rin checked her back of her hand.
"And I only have the usual three Command Spells." she said. "Are you sure I'm the one who summoned you?"
"I arrived here, did I not?" the girl said. "And, judging from the other hole in the roof, I did so in the same manner as the other Archer-class Servant you summoned."
"So you performed a summoning so bad it actually broke the Grail?" the older, red-coated Archer asked Rin. "That's actually pretty impressive, in its own way. I feel like I should applaud."
"This cannot possibly be my fault!" Rin protested. "Although... as long as it's happening, I suppose I might as well take advantage of it."
"You intend to formally contract with me as well, then?" the female Archer asked.
"Of course I do!" Rin said. "Having two Archers will be my compensation for not getting Saber like I should have in the first place."
"I would advise against this course of action, Rin." the male Archer said sternly. "Your prana supply is limited. Splitting it between two Servants will make us both weak. It would be better for you to choose the Servant which best suits you, then use a Command Spell to force the other Servant to commit suicide."
From the tone in his voice, the male Archer clearly thought that he was the superior Servant and Black Archer the inferior. As a hero who had fought many battles, he was probably skilled in analyzing his opponents' combat abilities in a single glance — although, given his proposed solution to the situation, it would also be well in his interest to lie if he thought himself inferior. Rin didn't have the same ability to size up people's abilities at a glance; however, one of the powers given to Masters was the ability to perceive Servants' abilities and compare them against each other in terms of ranking. Based on what she could see this way, the male Archer did seem to be telling the truth. He was equal or superior to the female Archer in all parameters except for his Noble Phantasm. Since the male Archer had forgotten his identity, he didn't know what his Noble Phantasm was, and there was no telling whether it was stronger, equivalent to, or weaker than the female Archer's rank in that regard. But going by the information she could see, if she were to enter the War with only a single Servant, he would be the better one.
However...
"And just how low of an opinion do you have of your Master, Archer?" Rin demanded. "You think I wouldn't be able to bear the burden of two Servants? Just watch me!"
She opened her jewel box and withdrew a handful of gems. One of the specialized applications of the Tohsaka family magic was the ability to store prana inside of crystals. As part of her preparation for the War, she'd spent some time every day for the past ten years charging up gemstones for later use. She'd planned to use the gems offensively; with the amount of prana she'd imbued them with, each could be detonated with power equivalent to a Rank A magical attack — enough to potentially kill even a Servant, provided it didn't have the Magic Resistance class ability. Now, however, she saw a different application for that stored magic. Tipping her head back, Rin swallowed the handful of gems.
She immediately felt a fiery heat spread through her body as she began drawing on the stored prana of the gems. The amount of energy her body could handle at a single time was still limited by the capacity of her magic circuits, so each of the Archers would still be a bit weaker than if she was giving all her prana to a single Servant. However, with the additional supply of the gems filling her reserves, she wouldn't have to worry about running out.
Thus fortified, Rin extended her hand towards the second Archer and repeated the incantation.
"There." she said with satisfaction. "I am now your Master."
"And I your Servant." the girl said.
"Since that's been taken care of, what's your name?" Rin asked the girl. "Please don't tell me you can't remember it either."
"I can remember." the girl said. "You seem to have performed that part of my summoning correctly — it was our prana connection that you screwed up."
"Your name." Rin said through gritted teeth. "Tell it to me."
"There's really no point." the girl said.
"Oh, come on!" Rin said. "If I'm going to be commanding you in battle, I need to fully understand your capabilities and potential weaknesses. Therefore, I need to know your true identity. How can you possible say there's no point to that?"
"Allow me to explain further, then." the girl said. "The heroes who can summoned to participate in the Holy Grail War fall into two categories: Heroic Spirits and Counter-Guardians. Heroic Spirits are ancient heroes who have become famous for their deeds, causing their souls to be removed from the cycle of reincarnation and be raised to the Throne of Heroes. Counter-Guardians, by contrast, did not necessarily become famous within their own lifetimes. They were able to join the Throne of Heroes by making a contract: they received a miracle from the World in life, and in exchange they render their services to the World as a Counter-Guardian after death. I am not a legendary hero; merely an anonymous soul fulfilling the conditions of her contract through service in this War. Therefore, even if I were to speak my name, you wouldn't recognize it."
"If I wanted a boring lecture, I'd ask that shitty fake priest." Rin said. "Both of you have done nothing but give me grief since being summoned, and I'm sick of it. I think it's about time you recognized my proper authority as your Master. So, I'll ask for the last time: What. Is. Your. Name?"
The female Archer gazed at her levelly for a moment, then deliberately ignored her and turned to the male Archer.
"What a belligerent girl." she said, speaking as though Rin wasn't there.
"She's talented as a magus, but a bit immature." the male Archer agreed. "Our chances of winning the War will probably be better if we lock her in the basement and plan our strategy without her."
Rin's hands clenched into fists. Enough was enough. If she didn't take a stand, her Servants would walk all over her. It was time to establish who was in charge around here. She raised her right hand and focused her will.
"Vertrag...! Ein neuer Nagel Ein neues Gesetz Ein neues Verbrechen—!" she shouted.
Both Archers froze and turned towards her, comical expressions of surprise on their faces.
"Hey, wait a minute..." the male Archer said. "You aren't actually going to..."
"Oh yes I am!" Rin said. "I'm exercising my right as a Master — the power to compel absolute obedience from my Servants! Maybe next time you'll think twice before acting rudely!"
"This seems rather impulsive..." the female Archer began.
"Too late to apologize now!" Rin said. "By my Command Spell, I order you! Whenever I ask you a question, you will answer me quickly and honestly!"
One of the three Command Spells on the back of her hand flared brightly, then vanished.
"Say," Rin asked the male Archer, "did that order affect you as well? I'm not sure how having two Servants works, exactly."
"I didn't feel anything; it seems a single Command Spell can only affect a single Servant." the male Archer said. "But more importantly... you do realize what a worthless command that was, right?"
"I think it was justified by your entirely unacceptable behavior." Rin said. "I'm not going to sit back while my Servants give me the run-around."
"I'm not talking about that." the male Archer said. "I'm referring to how open-ended your command was. The longer period a Command Spell is intended to act over, the weaker its effect becomes. A simple, immediate order is best; telling the Servant to behave a certain way forever diminishes the Command Spell's effect to the point of making it completely useless."
"Oh." Rin's cheeks began to flush. "Um. Really?"
"That is indeed normally the case." the female Archer said. "However, it seems you are in fact an exceptional magus, as the Command Spell is having an effect on me. It is not an absolute compulsion — I could fight it if I had sufficient motivation — but given the nature of the order, resisting would be more trouble than it's worth. I will consider it a reminder mind my manners in the future."
The female Archer bowed her head to Rin.
"I apologize for my rudeness." the girl said. "My interpersonal skills are not very good, but I will endeavor to be more polite in the future."
"Thank you." Rin said. "Now, could you please let me know your true name?"
"Before becoming a Counter-Guardian, I was known by the name Homura Akemi." the Servant said.
"Homura Akemi." Rin said. "You're right that I don't know you from history, but it's still a good thing for me to know your name. I mean, the other Servant doesn't remember his real name, so I pretty much have to just call him Archer; so I needed something besides Archer to call you, or things would get pretty confusing."
"I don't mind you knowing my name." Homura said. "However, please don't call me by it in the presence of enemy Servants. Even if you do not recognize it, they might."
"What?" Rin said. "Even though you're an anonymous Counter-Guardian or whatever?"
"When a Servant is summoned by the Holy Grail, they receive knowledge of all other souls enshrined in the Throne of Heroes." Homura explained. "That way, we are capable of recognizing the identities of the other Servants; even ones who have a highly obscure identity, or ones who hadn't even been born yet during our own lifetime."
"Is that true?" Rin asked the male Archer.
"Pretty much." he said with a frown. "I don't recognize her name, but that could be more memory loss from the flawed summoning."
"Alright, fine!" Rin said. "If that's the way you want to play it, so be it!"
"You!" Rin pointed at the nameless male Archer in a red coat. "I'll call you Red Archer. And you —" Rin pointed at the black-haired girl who named herself Homura Akemi — "I'll call you Black Archer. There, problem solved."
"If that is what you wish, I will not object." Black Archer said.
"I suppose if I disagree, you'll waste another Command Spell on the issue." Red Archer said. "Well, whatever; it's not so bad a nickname."
"And I suppose I should introduce myself as well." Rin said. "I am your Master, Rin Tohsaka, a magus of..."
Rin trailed off and turned to Red Archer.
"Hey, wait a minute." she said. "You called me by my name earlier. How'd you know it?"
"You told it to me." Red Archer said casually. "Back when you were saying something ridiculous about upholding the Tohsaka family honor."
Rin frowned.
"I thought I only said my last name then, not my first..." she said, trying to recall her exact words.
"I think you might be a little confused." Red Archer said. "You look pretty tired."
Rin had been trying to hide it, but she was indeed exhausted. Not only had she stayed up until early in the morning to perform the summoning, but the burden of supplying prana to two Servants was wearing on her despite the support from her gems. She really needed some sleep. She could think about this more when her head had cleared.
"Yeah, you're right." Rin said. "I'm going to bed now. Archers, you caused this mess, so have it cleaned up by the time I wake up, okay?"
Red Archer and Black Archer looked around and the wreckage surrounding him.
"Hey." Red Archer said. "You aren't actually serious about that, right...?"
Ignoring him, Rin walked to her bedroom for some much-needed rest.