Swords in the Dark

(Earlier in Day 3. Before Crane Flaps Wings's events)

"So, what did you manage to scout out?" Rin asked once back in the privacy of her home's Bounded Fields.

"Yeah, so it's like you guessed - as far as I can tell," Kuro replied easily, returning to her Master's last instructions. "It seems like focal points for a larger ritual. However, either the final product is very complex, or some of those points are redundant."

"Which means... they're preparing the school as a battlefield."

"Or were, since you didn't detect it earlier. It's likely they were intended to be concealed, but they were unable to maintain that feature. Though there might be even more foci that you haven't noticed either." Kuro shrugged. "I'm not a magus, but I would say this is probably not the doing of one."

"I have a suspicion."

"Huh?"

"Based on the events we know, two nights ago Rider and -a- Master were killed, right? And then suddenly 'Saber' shows up with Shirou."

"You mentioned it."

"Suppose that the Grail did indeed give Shirou Command Seals. He wouldn't be able to summon a Servant, he doesn't have the ability or the knowledge. But..." Rin thought over the events of that night. "He could have found her Masterless if in fact her Master, not Rider's was the dead one. There's still a problem though, which is accounting for all the energy."

Kuro picked up on her line of thought. "So on one side, Shirou. And you say the leylines haven't been touched noticeably."

"Yes, but on the other side, she had to have healed through Gae Bolg somehow, and there's also the Bounded Field around the Emiya estate which is very unusual. You've gone through it a few times, what do you think?"

"On first thought, it feels like the air is sweeter in there, I'd guess the field functions to collect prana. But it's too complicated for just that." The Archer recalled her various trips in and out of Shirou's home. "It's more like a mist, not well-defined. I'm not sure what it is, but probably not a standard ritual circle or runes."

"Alright," Rin summed up the evidence they had. "Sasaku should need a lot more energy than Emiya can supply. There's an unusual Bounded Field at his house that seems to collect prana, and there's also something massive being done at the school."

"Wait, I see what you're getting at... but if she's actually a Caster class, how could she have fought off Lancer? And why not attempt to draw on leylines if it was so critical to gather prana?"

"She lied." Rin said simply. "If she was able to convince or trick Emiya into becoming her Master, it was nevertheless the case that we immediately showed up. So she couldn't do anything overt."

"If she's linked to whatever's going on at the school, it isn't very covert either..."

Rin felt as though everything was sliding into place, like a neat puzzle. "That's the clincher, and you revealed it earlier. She couldn't maintain it while out of action for a few days."

"Ah, so she made an excuse to be able to show up in the school in a physical form, is what you are thinking."

"Think about it, besides her own Master, there's me. And if I was out of the way, then it might be safe to start draining the leylines."

Kuro frowned while thinking about the possibilities. "If that's the case then she'll have to backstab us, since a Caster would be at a disadvantage against any Servant with Magic Resistance. If you're right, then the earlier the better for her."

"That would also go for us... if she's a magus then we can deal with her early without losing her strength," Rin mused. "I should have everything needed for this. Ideally we should wrap it up tonight."

"You won't be going to school until Monday though, is it really that urgent?" Kuro followed her into the storeroom where various reagents were kept.

"What are you thinking? They expect us over in a few hours. If they suspect we suspect, they'll stab first. And being in another magus' Bounded Field is dangerous enough, a Caster's Territory is amazingly dangerous." Rin checked a mental list, first was of course a suitable piece of vellum as a base.

"You mean - oh I see. She could be aiming to control instead of killing you, this means actually Shirou-nii's home would be a better place than the school." Kuro's offhand addition made Rin shudder at the thought.

"Do you think she's controlling him?" It was one thing for a magus to attempt on another. But a barely-magus like Shirou would have nearly no resistance. In fact, herself against a Caster wouldn't be guaranteed to fare any better.

"If she had I think you'd have noticed. It's more likely she saved on energy and risk and is manipulating him. He'd be a sucker for some small girl he picked up wounded."

"I'll deal with him. You'll need to go all-out at the very start before she can try anything on me. I can use my jewels as added insurance, but it won't do much if she really tries on her second attempt on me."

"Try not to be too rough. If your plan works, it will be better if he cooperated." Kuro glanced at the scroll Rin was working on. "Geas on her or not, he still has Command Spells."

l

(Late Night, still Day 3. Tohsaka house)

(Rin)

*SMACK*

To say it hurt her more than her Servant would be a serious understatement. In fact, it probably did exactly nothing to Kuro, while to her, it felt like she'd slammed her hand into a wall.

"Are you alright, Master?" Kuro asked with only a little less cockyness than usual, while watching Rin hold her painfully throbbing hand.

"This is your fault," she said after a moment, still fuming. "That stunt was uncalled for."

If the small girl had been remorseful earlier, it certainly wasn't toward Rin. "I think we crossed the line of being called for a long time before that."

"Did you... seriously think... a Caster is like a mana battery or something?"

"Casters normally run though magical energy like maniacs compared to other Servants. Though it seems that she hasn't been able to get her hands on any..."

"Are you sure about that though, the house had quite a lot just floating about. You yourself said it was rather dense."

"I said, oh I didn't say, but it's only relatively dense. The usual ambient density being what it is, even double or triple that won't amount to much in terms of storage. Well, for a human it might feel suffocating though?"

"It didn't." Rin said immediately. "Otherwise I would have noticed before you mentioned it."

"Talking about noticing things, you didn't tell Emiya about the ritual being prepared at the school."

Frowning at the unsubtle poke, Rin simply replied with, "Thanks to you."

Kuro shrugged impassively. "You can use a phone right? Just call him."

"You honestly think he'll listen?"

"I actually meant Sasaku, but either one might pick up the phone. I guess he's the most likely to though."

(A minute later. Emiya house)

(Shirou)

*ring* *ring*

Shirou looked over at the ringing phone with a frown before picking it up. "Emiya household."

"Emiya-kun, something dangerous is happening at the school. Magecraft ritual, a fairly major one. Ask Sasaku if she noticed anything at school today," came the crisp words. Probably rushing before he might hang up.

"Sasaku, can you come to the phone for a second?"

"A moment," he told her simply. "This better be good though."

"What is it?" Sasaku's voice came softly towards him as she walked up. "Is that Tohsaka?" she added after thinking.

"Go ahead and tell me what this dangerous thing is," Shirou simply said in reply. "Sasaku can hear you easily like this."

"Right. Thanks for hearing me out. Sasaku, did you notice anything while at school today?" Rin went for the direct approach.

Sasaku leaned in to the phone. "There were some points of particular mana concentration. I take it those weren't yours, since you're asking."

"It can't be anything good, we need to deal with it. We should let the Overseer know - if someone is willing to go that far, it could compromise the Moonlit World."

"I suppose," Sasaku dubiously said after a moment. "That you intend for us to do this for you."

"No, I'm intending for us to work together. This is too suspicious, it's at best preparations for later, at worst a trap," Shirou nodded, as far as almost anyone should know, Rin was the only Master in the school, so it would be aimed at her.

"Hmm? Well anyway, when it comes to magecraft of course your Caster is the ideal class. Kuro will come along in spirit form, and when the enemy tries to act we'll get them two-on-one and pay them back in full. With interest. Double." Rin was clearly slipping into her gloating-victory-speech mode.

"Yeah, yeah, I get the jist of it," Shirou groaned. "We'll go early tomorrow and do what we can, and at night when it's clear we can finish it off. That about right?"

(Tohsaka House)

(Rin)

"We'll meet up tomorrow morning, for Shirou to 'show Sasaku around'. By her description, she can't easily identify or most likely deal with the focal points unless she gets close." Rin walked over to her store room while thinking.

"If it's a trap, wouldn't we be risking springing it while people are in the school?" Kuro said after a moment. "You mentioned the Overseer, isn't something like this his problem?"

"I don't have proof, and I hate that jerk," Rin grumbled to her Servant while picking up a selection of gems. "It's worth a shot I guess."

(Kirei)

*Sound of a ringing phone*

"Fuyuki church, Kotomine here."

"Kirei. Someone's preparing a major ritual in the school, have you heard about it?"

"Oh?" Kirei simply let the moment hang as he considered the information. In the previous, his, War, Caster had done some outrageous things, resulting in a large number of children running about with wild tales. Of course, it was swamp gas, or something. He forgot what exactly it was all put down to.

"It will take a while to examine this claim, Rin." He said finally as an interesting idea came to him. "I will make some calls - the first to bring proof of this will be rewarded."

"What, you're going to turn my school into a free-for-all zone?" Rin spluttered incredulously.

"If you had dealt with it and then given me the proof, it would have been yours. But it's too late now, a decision has been made and it would be unfair of me to change it."

"Give me a few days then."

"No."

"Damn you." Kirei smiled to himself as Rin ended the conversation.

"Are you needling people again?" Gilgamesh asked upon emerging from the church's basement. "Given you don't know who most of the Masters are, that's a rather pointless decision you've made."

"I suppose," the priest said carelessly. "Lancer, are you there? Curses, I already sent him out."

"What a priest," the Archer Servant muttered on his way out. "Stealing things, provoking people and now cursing. Respect for the gods and religion sure have fallen far."

(Rin)

Frustrated, Rin hung up the phone with a bit more force than necessary.

"Does this change your plans?" Kuro asked into the following silence.

"No. Going tonight is a bad idea, everyone might rush here - probably what Kirei wants. Tomorrow morning should be safe, and we can probably disrupt the ritual enough that leaving it be when night arrives is safe. Comparing a magus' work with a Caster, it's possible we'll have it totally dismantled much earlier than that."

"And if that was part of their plan?"

"Ok, let's play this out," Rin said after a moment. "You pretend to be the enemy, preparing for me to arrive."

Kuro nodded. "Well, I have prepared the ground with magecraft, and I'm expecting that will give me the edge in a Servant battle, or perhaps allow me to take you out, is that right?"

"So presumably my Servant, Sasaku starts taking down the focal points, instead of me. Thus, rapidly."

"If it's a Caster then pretty much any Servant should be able to take them on, right?"

"Right. But we've trapped them now, since they won't expect you. If they were planning on a serious fight, their magecraft will be weakened or disabled and it's still two-on-one. But if they think to get an easy kill by luring Sasaku out, then well it's the same situation."