Prologue — Day 2: Rin — First Battle
By the second day after summoning her Servants, Rin was getting used to bearing the burden of supplying them with prana, and felt strong enough to go back to school.
Though she had both of her Servants accompanying her in spiritual form for safety, Rin didn't expect to be in any real danger at school. There was far too many ordinary humans around during the school day; no respectable magus would expose themself before so many witnesses. Thus, Rin could keep her life as a highschool student and her life as a magus separate — for the most part.
There was one thing related to the War that she had to do.
The summoning ritual to manifest the Holy Grail had been designed by three great families of magi: the Einzberns, the Tohsakas, and the Makiris. Because of this, when choosing the seven Masters, the Grail always picked one member of each family to compete. In the Fourth War, the chosen Tohsaka had been her father; in this war, it was Rin. An Einzbern Master had likewise doubtless also been selected by the Grail. With the Makiris, however, there were special circumstances.
To put it simply, the old Makiri family line — which had since changed its name to Matou — was dying out. The family's magic had been steadily declining over the past 250 years. During the previous War, the only magus available to be chosen by the Grail had been distinctly third-rate. Now that he was dead, the situation was even more dire. The current heir to the Matou family, Shinji, had no magic circuits at all. In other words, he was not a magus, but an ordinary human like any other, and not eligible to be chosen by the Grail. The only remaining magus in the Matou family was Shinji's grandfather, Zouken. But Zouken was in no condition to participate in the War — word had it that his health was fading, and he was known to be bedridden for months at a time. It was possible that for the first time since the inception of the Grail War, the family would be passed over entirely.
However, there was also another possibility. Shortly before the Fourth War, Zouken had decided to try refreshing the fading bloodline by adopting a child from another magus family. That girl, Sakura Matou, was not a blood descendant of the old Makiri line; but as she was now effectively the chosen successor to the Matou magecraft, there was a possibility that the Holy Grail might choose her to represent the Matou family. Rin needed to investigate that possibility as soon as possible.
Determining whether or not Sakura was a Master was easy enough. Each Master chosen by the Holy Grail received three Command Spells, which appeared as red marks on their body: usually on the back of one of their hands, though sometimes in a different location. Masters from the three great families were always chosen fairly quickly; thus, since Rin had received her Command Spells by now, it was likely that Sakura had, too. Conversely, if Sakura still hadn't gotten any Command Spells this close to the start of the War, it probably meant that the Grail wasn't going to choose her. Rin just had to see if any Command Spells had appeared or not.
Rin's interactions with Sakura were always somewhat awkward, due to their past history. Though Sakura always acted shy and demure, sometimes she looked at Rin with something that may have been accusation in her eyes. It wasn't as if Rin had any regrets; as someone who lived her life in accordance with the code followed by the magi, everything that had happened in the past was right and proper. And yet, for some reason, Rin had difficulty looking Sakura in the eye when speaking to her. Why could that be? Rin had known she was have to throw away all of her foolish sentimentalism in order to pursue to path of a magus... so why did seeing the look in Sakura's eyes still pain her?
Fortunately, it didn't take long for Rin to confirm that Sakura didn't have any Command Spels; the Grail hadn't chosen her as a Master. That was a big a relief. However, Rin didn't have time to savor that good news, as another problem immediately reared its head.
"Rin." Red Archer said. "There's a Servant in the immediate vicinity."
"Here, at the school?" Rin asked. "What's it doing?"
"It is currently in spiritual form." Red Archer said. "It seems to be scouting the area. This should go without saying, but just to make sure you understand the situation: detecting the presence of Servants isn't one of my strong points. Therefore, if it's close enough for me to sense it, then it's almost certainly also sensed me. It may even have identified you as my Master."
"But it hasn't shown itself." Rin said. "That means it's following the rules of the Grail War. It won't attack here at school, not when I'm surrounded by witnesses."
"However, you will only be safe until the school day ends." Black Archer pointed out. "At that time, the other students will all go home, and it will be free to strike."
"And if I try to go home, it'll just follow me." Rin said. "Not only will I still have to fight it, but it'll learn where I live as well."
"What will you do, then?" Black Archer asked.
"What else?" Rin asked. "We fight. I'll wait in the courtyard after school. Once everyone else has left, the Servant should show itself, and we can settle things."
"Pretty bold of you." Red Archer commented.
"It shouldn't be a problem." Rin said. "With the two of you working together, you should be able to win without difficulty even if the Servant is a Saber."
"With respect, my Master, I would refrain from making such assumptions." Black Archer said. "You yourself have somehow managed to contract with two Servants — so what makes you assume that other Masters haven't also done the same?"
Damn. Rin actually hadn't thought about that. She'd just been assuming that receiving two Archers was a result of the mistake she made when performing the summoning. But thinking about it logically, summoning two Servants seemed like something that would be impossible even for a highly accomplished magus who was actively trying — let alone something a young magus like her could do by mistake. It was actually more likely this anomaly was not an isolated event of Rin's making, but a fundamental change in the nature of the War. It was possible, for instance, after 250 years of Wars without a victor, the Grail was growing impatient to fulfill its function. Giving each Master two Servants to command instead of one might be its way of trying to force a resolution. This hypothesis would also explain why the Grail had appeared after only ten years this time instead of the usual sixty.
It wasn't much more than a wild guess; but the important thing was, the possibility that other Masters had also received multiple Servants couldn't be denied.
"Can you sense any other Servants in the area?" Rin asked.
"No." Black Archer said. "But as my counterpart pointed out, we aren't very well suited for detecting Servants in spiritual form. Another Servant would only have to hang back a short distance to escape our senses."
"If you commit both of us to battle against the one Servant we have identified, then you would be left defenseless against a surprise attack from another." Red Archer agreed. "You should hold one of us back for protection."
"Alright." Rin said. "When the Servant shows itself, Black Archer will manifest and confront it. Red Archer will remain by my side in spiritual form to protect me. ...Do you think you can manage to fight alone, Homura?"
"That depends on the strength of the enemy Servant, of course." Black Archer said. "But I have no objection to this course of action. If I do appear to be overmatched, then retreat is always an option; it is not uncommon for Servants to skirmish in an attempt to evaluate each others' skills and identify their Noble Phantasms before committing to a decisive battle. And if you wished me to die fighting the enemy Servant in order to provide cover for your own escape, that would also be acceptable; that is part of what it means to be a Servant."
"Though winning would be preferable, I think." Red Archer commented.
"True." Black Archer said, giving a thin smile. "It's not much fun to pick a fight you know you'll lose."
"Well, I trust in your abilities." Rin said. "Your manners may be poor, but I get the sense that you take fighting seriously. So try not to let me down, okay."
Their plan decided, Rin swallowed her anxiety and put on a stern face. It wouldn't do to show fear or hesitation — either to the enemy or to her own Servants. As a Master in the Holy Grail War, she had to conduct herself with the dignity appropriate to a magus. So for the rest of the day, she threw herself into her schoolwork with the utmost concentration, deliberately ignoring the lingering presence of the nearby Servant. And when the final bell rang, she calmly stood up and walked directly out to the courtyard, where she stood beneath a tree and waited as the milling crowd of students slowly dispersed.
When the last of the students and teachers had finally departed, the enemy Servant finally made his appearance. His physical body materialized in the center of the courtyard, facing Rin but at a respectful enough distance to indicate that he didn't intend to launch an immediate surprise attack of the type favored by Servant Assassin. He was a male with short-cropped blue hair who wore a tight blue bodysuit. He held a long, gleaming red spear loosely in one hand.
"Yo." the Servant said, giving a cheerful grin and a slight wave.
Based on his weapon, the Servant appeared to be of the Lancer class. But, Luvia's Servant had been a Lancer. So there really were two Lancers in this War, just as there were two Archers? And was Luvia also this Servant's Master? No, that didn't track — Luvia had been surprised to see that Rin had two Servants. Luvia had also said that her Lancer hadn't had a Master when they first met... perhaps a Master had summoned two Lancers and then been eliminated, leaving both Servants to make contracts with different Masters. Or maybe the Master who had summoned both Lancers had done as Red Archer had suggested she do: only keep a contract with one in order to conserve prana.
Rin shook her head in frustration. There were simply too many possibilities to consider, and too few facts to make a reasoned deduction.
The enemy Servant, oblivious to Rin's brainstorming, continued chatting in a cheery manner.
"I have to say, I'm pleased that you didn't try to run." Lancer continued. "Then I'd have been stuck tailing you and reporting information back to my Master. Well, strategy like that has its place, but a straight-up fight is much more my style. So, now that I've presented myself, why don't you show me who I'll be fighting?"
"I will be your opponent." Black Archer said.
She manifested herself across the courtyard from Lancer, to take advantage of her class's superior range. She held an unusually shaped black bow at the ready, but had no arrow notched an didn't appear to be wearing a quiver.
"Archer, right?" Lancer asked, grinning. "Excellent. Be sure to come at me with everything you've got, okay? I'd take it as an insult if you held back at all."
He swung his spear around in an fancy pattern and then moved it to a guard position.
"Quite the enthusiastic opponent, I see." Black Archer said cooly. "But if a no-holds-barred battle was what you wanted, you should have sought out Berserker. We Archers tend to be a bit more tactical in our thinking. So try not to take offence if I fight intelligently instead of showboating."
"Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm going to try and win this War on behalf of my Master." Lancer said. "But as for me, the opportunity to meet other heroic spirits in battle is the fulfillment of my greatest desire. I don't need the Holy Grail; just by being given the opportunity to fight for it, my wish has already been granted. So as long as I'm here, I'm going to have as much fun as possible!"
"You too!?" Rin shouted from the sidelines. "Is there any Servant in this War who actually does want the Grail, or is answering us magi nothing but charity work to the lot of you?"
Lancer flashed her a grin.
"Well, if I do win the Grail, I'm sure I'll think of something." he said. "But I didn't come here to chat. Show me what you've got, Archer!"
"As you wish, then." Black Archer said.
She drew back the string on her black bow. As she did, prana began to gather. The magical energy coalesced to form a shining purple arrow. When she released the string, there was a sharp sound and the arrow shot towards Lancer with such speed that it seemed to turn into a beam of light.
But although the arrow was too fast for Rin's eyes to follow, an attack of that caliber was nothing to Lancer. The moment Homura had fired her bow, his body was already in motion, swinging his red lance around in a graceful arc. The tip of the crimson spear swatted the arrow out of the air, scattering it into harmless flecks of light.
Homura began to pull and release her bow again and again, with a speed that no merely human archer could ever attain. Because she didn't need to take time to reload, she was able to launch arrows one after another without the slightest pause. Furthermore, as attacks composed purely of magical energy, her prana arrows weren't confined to the same limited arcs that material arrows were forced to follow. Their paths through the air bent and curved like guided missiles, weaving erratically across the courtyard and striking from all different directions.
And Lancer intercepted every single one of them.
He swung the weapon around himself with such fluidity that he almost seemed to be dancing. One would expect such a lengthy weapon as his lance to be heavy and encumbering; instead, it acted like an extension of his body. It cut through the air without resistance and changed direction with an ease that suggested it was as light as a feather, and it was somehow always in exactly the right place to intercept Homura's arrows. No matter how quickly she fired them, Lancer unerringly cut them down with the tip of his weapon. Not once did he dodge, and not once did he miss. Rin could not help but be in awe of his skill. This warrior truly was the epic spirit of the lance.
Homura finally ceased her barrage. Despite having expended more magical energy in the. past few moments of combat than Rin had been able to store up in her jewels over the past ten years, she did not appear even slightly tired. In fact, Rin got the sense that she hadn't even begun fighting seriously yet. This opening salvo had been nothing more than a test to gauge the extent of Lancer's skill.
"I see." Homura said calmly. "Protection From Arrows. How inconvenient."
Rin winced at those words. Each class of Servant had a set of special abilities, called class skills. The only Lancer class skill was Magic Resistance. That hadn't worried Rin at all; while it meant her magic probably wouldn't have any effect on Lancer, she'd given up on directly fighting any Servant when she'd decided to swallow her best jewels instead of saving them for use in battle. Furthermore, her Servants were both Archers, a class which generally didn't use much magic; therefore, she'd thought this was a favorable match. However, Servants also had a set of special abilities related to the heroic deeds they'd performed in life, called personal skills. Protection From Arrows was one such skill; and, as the name implied, it was one of the worst possible abilities that an Archer could face. It denoted the exceptional skill of being able to block any ranged attack by predicting the projectile's path. Such an ability probably wouldn't work against a Noble Phantasm, but any ordinary attack would be avoided or intercepted without fail.
"And that's why I warned you not to hold back." Lancer said. "But you have been, right? You're of the Archer class, and yet that bow you're using feels distinctly third-rate. I don't think it's your primary weapon; it's just a stand-in you're using to hide your true Noble Phantasm. Am I right?"
"Please don't insult my bow; it has sentimental value." Homura said. "But your speculation is correct. While your Noble Phantasm is obviously that lance you've been showing off for everyone to see, you still don't have the slightest clue what mine is. In fact, I might not even be an Archer at all. Maybe I'm concealing a Saber's sword or a Caster's staff. Really, or all you know, my Noble Phantasm could even be a golf club."
"A gold club?" Lancer chuckled. "Well, I've heard that there are some forbidden Servant classes beyond the usual seven that are used in the War — weird things like Saver, Monster, Avenger, and Temptress — but somehow, I just can't picture a Servant Golfer."
"Feel free to believe whatever you wish." Homura said.
"I believe it's about time to be going on the offensive." Lancer said, swinging his lance into an aggressive position. "I let you have the first shot out of respect for your Master's bravery in facing me, but now it's my turn to attack. And since I'll be using my Noble Phantasm, I suggest you get serious as well."
"As you wish." Homura said. "But don't complain when I win."
She raised her left arm and materialized the small, circular shield from which she'd been able to withdraw and later return a handgun the previous day. For a moment, Rin had an absurd mental image of Homura countering Lancer's fancy technique with his spear by simply pulling out the gun and shooting him in the head, like something straight out of Indiana Jones. But a moment's logical thought quickly disabused her of that fanciful notion; a conventional weapon like a gun simply couldn't do any damage to a spiritual being like a Servant. More likely, she simply intended to use it as a shield against Lancer's attacks. The shield looked pitifully small, as though it could be cracked in half by a single blow of Lancer's spear... but as it had already shown some magic power in creating what appeared to be a pocket dimension for Homura to store stolen guns in, there was no telling what other magic might be strengthening it and increasing its defensive capabilities. And if it was more than a mere piece of magically enhanced equipment — if it was, in fact, a true Noble Phantasm — then it might indeed be capable of blocking attacks made by a Servant wielding a Noble Phantasm.
"Here I come, Archer!" Lancer said with a feral grin.
"Then here you die, Lancer!" Black Archer said
Both Servants began pulling in massive amounts of prana. Rin almost staggered as she felt her body's magical circuits strain to provide Black Archer with the necessary amount of energy. There was no doubt in her mind: this battle would be settled by a class between Noble Phantasms. The Servant with the superior Phantasm would survive; the Servant with the inferior Phantasm would surely be destroyed.
The Servants faced each other. Lancer, pointing his blood-red lance towards Homura's heart. Homura, shield-arm extended, her free hand gripping the edge of the shield. So much prana overflowed from the two Servants that the air around them seemed to crystallize. Homura couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything but watching the building storm with wide eyes. Two Noble Phantasms — Divine Mysteries made manifest, Conceptual Weapons embodying the heroic legends of the epic spirits who wielded them — were about to clash. The waves of pleasure and killing intent radiating from Lancer; the cold determination emanating from Homura; the thick mass of solidified prana between them... At this point, nothing could possibly interrupt the pending strike. Nothing except, perhaps, the sudden appearance of someone who they'd all somehow overlooked.
"Stop!" someone yelled from nearby.
Rin, Homura, and Lancer all immediately turned their heads towards the source of the voice.
The school should have been empty by now, but a male student was now running into the courtyard. Rather than trying to run as far away as possible as fast as he possibly could like one would expect an ordinary, sane highschool student witnessing Servants fighting to do, the student was actually running towards the Servants, almost as though he intended to get between them.
With equal parts fear, anger, and contempt, Rin realized that she recognized this boy. Shirou Emiya. He was a student at the school; and while he and Rin didn't have any classes together, she was well aware of him by reputation. He was known as a meddlesome do-gooder who felt the need to involve himself in everyone's personal problems out of a misguided desire to help. But even as big an idiot as him, if he happened to see two Servants about to unleash lethal blows on one another, should have at least enough common sense to not jump between them..
"Stop this right now!" Shirou yelled.
And yet, that appeared to be exactly what Shirou was doing.