Caught Red-Handed (Fight)
(Matou house, Sakura's room)
(Shirou)
"Um," he said after a moment. "To avoid a really embarrassing misunderstanding, this isn't about some really complicated magecraft procedure?"
"I hardly know any magecraft," she said apologetically, toying with her purple hair. Shirou noticed distractedly that she was still wearing that ribbon of hers. "You don't either, right?"
He simply nodded, occupied with his own thoughts, as she sat next to him.
"Tell me," she spoke up again, with a edge to her voice. "Are you talking with Sasaku-chan right now?"
"No." The reply was immediate and totally honest, as he had closed off their link earlier, more of out embarrassed instinct than anything. "This has nothing to do with her." Yes, but also no. Sakura seemed satisfied by the answer though.
Sakura took a deep breath, which did interesting things to her generously proportioned chest. "Is this because you were working with Rin?"
He snorted, feeling his blood rise slightly, though in anger rather than arousal. Mostly, anyway. "Don't remind me about her. She tried to screw me over, you know." She nodded, simply adding "Your Caster... mentioned it."
The pair fell silent. Shirou realized that Sasaku probably had no idea what Sakura had in mind. Yes, they might not have gone into the details, but that meant it was 100% the latter's idea. But that would mean...
"Senpai," she spoke up suddenly. "Does my body disgust you?"
His head shot up and he turned to face her before saying, to her or himself, he didn't know, "Definitely not. You're very cute, so much so... I don't know where to look."
"Hnnn." She made a cute sound and paired that with a modest blush. "Look anywhere you want."
*click*
"People who want to be owned by you... They're probably more dangerous, if only due to being less predictable."
That's why this feels odd. I thought I understood how she'd act, but I don't really know her as well as I imagined, huh...
(Sakura)
The boy, no man, just a little distance from her was deep in thought. It made her a little happy that it was probably about her, but his distracted frown hurt her heart. This is, yes, more important than just some prana.
"Tell me what's bothering you," she said, deciding to have it straight out due to a lack of any better ideas.
"It feels backwards," Shirou said slowly as though it took a great deal of effort to push out each word. "Since we haven't even, you know, dated or kissed or anything like that."
"Isn't that sort of like an arranged marriage?" Laughing to herself, she moved closer to him and brought their lips together briefly. "Take me on a date later?"
(Shirou)
When Sakura suddenly kissed him by surprise, he...
It was like an instinct, no it was something from before... never mind that. When rational thought returned, he found himself looking down on Sakura. Because he had abruptly pushed her over like it was the most natural opener. What really struck him though, was that she looked positively thrilled by the development.
"If you're fine with me-" he cut off as she raised a slim finger to his mouth. "Senpai, that's the girl's line."
"Can you at least call me by my name," he grumbled, holding still as her hands worked on his pants. "Whatever you want... Shirou."
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(About the same time, Tohsaka house)
(Kuro)
It was a weird state of affairs all around. Though she had presumably been brought as a hostage or mana pick-me-up, Sasaku was definitely a prisoner, as was Rin. After Shirou-nii and that sword-bearing Servant went in with Shinji, the Caster came out by herself and headed straight for Rin's house.
Did she think Rider did me in? No, any examination would show that Rin still had active Command Spells, so she probably thinks I'm just in bad shape.
Kuro grinned in what Rin would call a cocky manner. Not because she hadn't been in bad shape, but rather... after desperately following Rider back, she remembered that Rin had a habit of storing her 'excess' mana in jewels, as part of her magecraft. Of course she had taken precautions to keep them out of her Servant's hands, but this was an emergency so Kuro simply did a sweep of the house and found some of the jewels.
There had been some traps, presumably for dealing with burglars - they were totally ineffective against Kuro's Magic Resistance. It had taken a while, but at least she managed to drain the energy without damaging the jewels, or so Kuro thought anyway. It wasn't a large enough supply to keep her going for long, but with Independent Action bought a couple more days.
Sasaku carefully moved though the various Bounded Fields and other magical defenses that Rin had painstakingly put up. Though even talented Rin would have taken a while due to the sheer number, strength, and variety, the Caster worked her way inwards steadily without any serious issues.
Kuro considered various approaches. The best, in her ranking, was to close in. To do otherwise was risking a mass of spears to the face. She had a shield, but it would burn through all her mana, which she had less of than a Caster using what was probably a mana-efficient attack.
Narrowing her focus, she guessed that Sasaku was near the summoning, workshop and storage area. All of which had quite well-warded walls. Though not something of direct interest, it might help block her ability to sense Kuro approaching, especially in spirit form.
As Kuro poked her head around the doorpost to the relatively uncluttered empty summoning room, she found Sasaku standing near one of the tables, looking at the various implements Rin had used to create the summoning circle occupying the center of the room. Perfect.
As her body took physical form, twin swords flashed into place in her hands.
Sasaku looked up, probably detecting the use of magical energy.
Too late! Kuro started throwing swords while carefully gouging the distance. She was quite familiar with the dimensions of the room, and had already pegged Sasaku's location before the Caster snapped her fingers.
Green shimmers started shooting towards her, but slow, so much slower than before. Rather than dodge to the side or drop to the ground, Kuro gripped the last pair of swords as Sasaku darted forward.
The Archer triggered her skill, adjusting her aim point. Accounting for Sasaku's motion this should put her in the perfect position. But as she swung her weapons with every intent to kill, right after changing her position by teleporting...
She's a little to the side?
Sasaku's weapon whipped around, as she turned the angular momentum from her sidestep-into-spin into the attack. Kuro quickly moved to block with her left-hand sword and attack with the other, but as the attack slammed into the block, Kuro was sent flying backwards a few steps as her own attack missed due to being now out of range.
That shouldn't be possible. Kuro blinked in surprise as Sasaku advanced to close the distance, her long sword having gone around her back and moving right to left as it swung in front of her. She can't have a higher strength than me.
The Caster's sword ducked around behind her again, in time with her next step, and Kuro realized that it wasn't, as she had thought, the same weapon that she had seen before. That one was on the small side for a European style longsword, while this was on the large and heavy end of the scale. Being as small as Sasaku was, the former was awkwardly long, while her current choice was only usable in a two-handed stance.
"Hmph."
Stepping forward, Kuro stepped while turning in order to use her left sword to block near the end of Sasaku's weapon while her right quickly thrust forward in the same tempo to-
Sasaku bent her knees slightly, allowing the point of her sword to slide forward in a thrust as her swing bought it in line with Kuro's defending hand. Rather than blocking as before, Kuro flicked her wrist, sending a cut into Sasaku's thrust, causing the latter's point to instead pierce the air just a little above Kuro's hand.
The defensive parry sent Kuro's own attack off, but as it was aimed at center-mass, it cut cleanly to Sasaku's left side. However, the large sword was still swinging, so continuing her turning motion, Kuro simply stepped -into- Sasaku, slamming her right shoulder into the other's gut.
Rather than going flying as expected, there was something like a cracking sound. and Sasaku staggered backwards, awkwardly trying to maintain control of her sword with only her right hand, as her left arm was flung away when the two Servants had rammed into one another.
Ah! That clued Kuro in on Sasaku's trick. So she was using magecraft to fix herself to the ground and simply used physics - momentum to throw me back. Then...!
Crouching before lunging forward, Kuro shot upwards slightly with left sword extended to parry and the right held in reserve for the riposte. Sasaku instinctively went for an overhead downward strike rather than a sideways swing. The weapons clashed.
Kuro's trajectory abruptly changed from upward to downward, but even as she felt the magecraft-Reinforced floor pressing against her feet without giving, she simply continued moving forward. All the momentum of Sasaku's attack was directed downward into the floor, while not stopping Kuro's charge.
As she was now low to the ground and in any case somewhat shorter than Sasaku, it was easy to swipe at the other's right leg, though it was more of a stetch as she was already pulling it back sharply. Before she started to lose her balance, Sasaku kicked Kuro's extended weapon with her good leg. The sword wrenched itself free and fell to the ground, while Sasaku went flying away. Kuro simply Projected a replacement, pouncing quickly as Sasaku's back hit the ground.
Kuro's black sword pushed a surprise dagger thrust to the side, while her white sword descended on Sasaku's prone form. Her target twisted, causing the blade to cut into her upper arm as their bodies collided, slamming Sasaku into the floor again.
As she pulled her right arm back, Kuro deftly used the turning of her upper body to bash the pommel in her left hand against the side of Sasaku's head. A moment later, the white sword's point curved downwards, piercing though Sasaku's shoulder.
I shouldn't go overboard and kill her, Kuro thought while yanking her sword free. I still need the ma- huh?
Her hand went up, but refused to come back down. She glanced to the side and saw that bloody steel had sprouted from her right forearm. Time seemed to freeze.
"Damnit," Sasaku groaned. "What took you so long, Saber?"
"I came as soon as you called," he replied impassively, sliding his weapon back out the way it came and taking a guard stance. "Don't blame me for your weakness."
Sasaku awkwardly rolled Kuro off her with one hand and sat up, apparently ignoring the wounds she had sustained in their brief battle. Kuro on the other hand, was untouched, except for the surprise attack. In any case, it wasn't as though they were about to have a left-handed duel.
"I was hoping to be able to talk with her, you should've come faster when it was obvious Kuro simply attacked," Sasaku frowned at her timely savior, who simply snorted.
Kuro opened her mouth to say something, but Sasaku abruptly jumped to her feet and ran out, shouting for the swordsman to "Keep an eye on her!"
(Saber)
He looked down expressionlessly at the small Archer on the ground in front of him. Well, she definitely topped the Caster who had just raced out.
"I would be interested in a proper duel in the future," he stated as though arranging a lunch together. "And my Master would prefer I didn't kill you," he added as an afterthought. "Though if you try to run, I will slice you up."
'You used that like a spear though," Kuro replied sarcastically, holding her right arm where the blade had pierced though. A clean wound though, it would not be hard to heal, all things considered.
"What," she said when he didn't reply. "So did your Master send you to help Shirou-nii, or just to find herself a new ally?" He continued to keep silent.
"This must be the crappiest free-for-all ever," she grumbled to herself more than her silent audience of one.
After a moment Sasaku returned with a fading blush and Rider's blindfold in hand. "For the record, I'm totally not into that scene," Kuro said with a put-on lightness as Sasaku approached her.
"Tsk. Just cooperate, take a nap for a while and I'll let you see a nice dream while I get some work done."
Saber raised an eyebrow. "Did you not think to get a hold of that beforehand? Aren't magi supposed to be meticulous?"
"Well Sakura ran out when I was looking over Shinji and I forgot. Apparently she really wanted that *cough* magical energy," Sasaku retorted while settling the blindfold on Kuro. "Let's see here..."
And then the next thing Kuro knew...
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Notes:
Apparently you can do some interesting thrusts with curved swords. They don't go straight, and can potentially get around a relatively narrow defensive move.