Quadruple Alliance
(Sometime earlier that night)
(Shirou)
What woke me up? I blink in the room's warm darkness Wait a second, the outside light easily enters Sakura's room as the sound of someone moving in the silk sheets Oh yeah, this is definitely Sasaku's room back wherever home is.
"Dear, are you awake? It's a little early for it..." A familiar voice muses just a little to the side, very close to my ear. "Hmm, I was sure you'd be out for the night."
I was in the middle of my own 'moment' why am I seeing this? Hold on a second, what did happen, I don't remember falling asleep...
"Cat? Are you playing hard to get?" He sounds amused, but doesn't make a move. "Maybe I'm just muttering stupidly to myself..."
Yes, please leave me alone. Oh wait, it's actually fading to black. Thank goodness.
I blink and look down at the massive road, many tens of stories below the balcony I am standing on. The light generously streaming upwards through the thoroughfare is only surpassed by the glittering scintillating coming off all the massive buildings lining it.
There is no sun overhead, not that the light of one would even be noticed. The shining pillars reaching up into the sky send even more upwards.
If this is what the outside is like, it must have been quite a piece of work to get their room pitch black.
"There you are," my awaited friend appears in the corridor behind me. "Early too."
"What? I'm not on the clock today, why shouldn't I be early?" I reply with a smile while turning to face her. "Husband says hi."
"Hmm," was all she said in response, turning around after reaching me. "Well let's get this part over with. I have to do the processing myself, you know."
"Security clearance?"
She nods briefly. "I hope she'll forgive me, if we ever meet."
I laugh while following her into a room with the scanning instruments already set up and in standby. "It's necessary, I'd never think otherwise."
"So you've said a few times. Well you'd know best, though most people wouldn't take kindly to having bits of them removed regardless of necessity. Ok, sit down here. It'll probably take a couple days to process, but approval from oversight will probably run longer than that. Even more if they demand a redo."
"Yeah, well..." I shrug. "I'd say sorry for all the work, but you've been grinning like it's the best challenge ever."
"Entirely true." She looks over several diagnostics, nodding to herself while going over a mental checklist. "Any last, well final words to your copy-to-be?"
I just laugh. "Why would you ask me what I would want to tell myself? It's already in my memory."
"It's for posterity," she countered.
"Fine, let me think of something 'for posterity' then. Here: Do your best, you only exist for this one thing, so don't worry too much, even if you die. And don't mind the missing stuff, you already know you don't need to know it. Good luck!"
"You're a jerk." The two of us share a laugh. "Anyway I'll put you under while the scan runs."
"Just remember this is random-access only. No permanent copies, wipe everything once it's transmitted."
"I wouldn't forget that. One second now."
I blink at the man, no magus, in front of me. He returns my confusion with some disappointment.
"Your name and class?" he asks after a moment.
"... Sasaku, Caster."
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(Sakura's room, early morning)
Shirou opened his eyes and sighed in relief to himself as they took in the sight of Sakura's rather bare room. I'm definitely going to have to ask Sasaku about all that.
The next thing he noticed was Sakura's nude form, with her back pressed against his chest as they shared the one blanket on the bed. I still can't remember what happened at the end of last night. That can't be good.
There was a soft knock on the door, and Shirou's connection to his Servant gave away the visitor's identity. Ah crap, what's she going to think if she sees us like this?! Faced with a total lack of options, he settled on simply pretending to be asleep. With any luck, Sakura would handle anything so that Sasaku would leave, none the wiser.
Actually, wouldn't she be able to tell I'm in here, if I could detect her presence?
Sasaku knocked again, waking up Sakura. While Shirou dutifully played possum, his partner got up, unapologetically stole the blanket, and draped herself in it before going to answer the door.
"Did you find it?" was all she asked, after opening the door a crack to confirm who had woken her.
"Yes, come over to Tohsaka's house when you can. Just go to where all the Servants are."
"I'll be there in a bit once Shirou's back up."
"Please don't delay," was all Sasaku said before leaving. Did she just get stabbed or something?
Sakura closed the door and walked back over to where Shirou was, and leaned over him. "Um Senpai, it's time to wake up." He looked up at her, realizing that she had unconsciously balled up the blanket under her bare chest.
"Yeah I'm awake."
Her gaze lingered on his uncovered self for a moment before, blushing, she quickly busied herself in getting fresh clothes from her small wardrobe. "You'll have to wear what you had on yesterday..."
"No problem." Shirou looked and found the garments on the floor a short distance from the bed, neatly folded. Neat as always I guess. "Say, Sakura?"
"What is it?" Hearing the seriousness in his voice, the now fully-clothed girl turned around to face him.
"For the rest of the War, how about joining m- us at our place?" Shirou paused for a bit to consider how bes to explain the offer. "Well, my Caster has issues whenever she's outside her Bounded Field there."
"That's a great idea," she said as the two of them left her room and headed downstairs. Shinji was no where to be seen, though some rather fresh looking blood was. Saber was also not in evidence. "I haven't been over for a while now."
Shirou simply nodded. Sasaku had warned him earlier that entering a magus' Bounded Field was generally rather dangerous even if you thought you knew their capabilities, but somehow Sakura's easy acceptance didn't surprise him at this point.
They made their way over to the Tohsaka house without incident, though Sakura insisted on latching onto his arm.
(Tohsaka house, sitting room)
Shinji's right arm ended in a clean, tightly-wrapped bandage that clearly showed the lack of an attached hand. Well, when he last saw the ex-Master, it was already gone though.
"Can you watch him for a bit?" Sakura asked shyly. "I'll be upstairs. Don't touch anything, I don't know if Sasaku-chan cleared out all the traps." It's pretty obvious you two are trying to keep me in the dark about something, which means you expect I'd disapprove of it.
It was clear, though, that Sasaku had probably gone over the whole house with a fine-toothed comb and looted everything of mystical value. I wonder if there's a limit to what she can cram in that Armory?
(A while later)
With the excuse of a conscious (and still rather upset) Shinji, but also because sharing his company at this point was not worth it, Shirou went upwards right to where he felt his Servant was. As he turned the corner and poked his head into the door, he saw...
A blindfolded Kuro and Rin being guarded by Saber, Sakura holding some sort of book, Sakura's chest as she's jumping at me?!
(A moment later)
Huh, Rin really hates that priest but apparently he's good friends with Sakura.
Shirou hadn't forgotten what she had failed to keep him from seeing though. His best guess was that they were intending to use something, all but certainly a geas scroll, to allow them to keep hold of both Rin and Kuro at one go.
That's quite a coup to pull off though, since we'll have four out of seven Servants, even assuming the other three are all working together. The tally was very good - Caster, Saber, Archer, Rider.
Wait a moment, doesn't this make the problem even worse than when it was just two of them? About the Grail's wish...
That was on his mind to ask, but then they got sidetracked by the question of who held Saber's contract. Well, it was true that the swordsman seemed less than enthusiastic about being a girl's Servant, even if she was also a Servant, but still...
They did, however get on the topic of the Grail somehow, and by some stroke of luck, Sasaku let something slip. Perhaps not slip, as much as simply revealing a bit of her thought process.
So the Grail might be more flexible than just six dead servants for one Master-Servant's pair wishes.
Her attempt to gather allies made more sense. She said the World might see her building things as a threat, I thought she meant that Realm Field, but actually... an alliance of four Servants, huh. Does she intend to crack the War wide open?
Rin might have some objections to that. Oh wait.
The group that left Rin's house just before sunrise would be a very interesting one to any curious onlooker. Rather than make things any worse for Rin, Shirou played the part of a surprised-to-see-you-glad-you-could-join-us friend, as though his Servant and new ally had not together just looted her house and used magical contracts on her.
Saber took Shinji and disappeared for a while to deliver him to Kotomine at the church, returning immediately afterwards. Before they left, an un-blindfolded and very much still energetic Kuro insisted on Sasaku giving her some mana as 'compensation,' for something she didn't specify, wouldn't take no for an answer, and insisted that then-and-there was just perfect for getting it. Which she did despite Sasaku's ineffectual protests.
Shirou noticed that Saber merely watched without any reaction whatsoever, which meant that Sasaku had presumably told him that Kuro's actions were not aggressive in nature. Or rather, they are, just not as a threat.
From her position at his side, Sakura frowned as though thinking about intervening, but did nothing. Rin, who was trying to look everywhere besides the two Servants locking lips, sent a glare Shirou's way. Or probably Sakura's now that he thought about it.
I was thinking, 'isn't she being kind of obvious about it?' but actually... Sakura's just showing off, right? It was surprising to think of the demure girl doing something like that, but there it was. Or maybe she was just clingy.
After that, they finally left. Watching as the Archer-Master pair walked side-by-side with Saber close behind them really brought to mind their meeting, now only about ten hours ago...
l
(Emita house, work shed out back)
(About ten hours ago, ie: Saturday evening, before Shinji and Rider showed up)
"What's this?" Shirou asked, hefting the long Japanese sword his Servant had brought out and asked him to hold. It was amazingly heavy and much longer than the shinai he had some experience with.
"Your version of a two-handed sword, I guess?" she replied, showing she knew less than he did. "Well I'm guessing you have some affinity with the Saber class, and Eastern swordsmen tend to have less of the energy-guzzling holy swords, so..."
The two of them looked around the shed. Sasaku had prepared, refurbished really, a summoning circle that now glowed in the center. However, after clearing all the clutter, she had proceeded to take out a very large number of Japanese and Chinese swords, dropping them all over the room to serve as a "catalyst".
"Does putting swords everywhere mean this is more likely to summon a Saber?"
"I have no idea, but since I know about the concept of catalysts, maybe they can help me use my Alchemy to perform the mystery of 'summoning a Servant using a suitable catalyst'."
"Does it really work that way?"
"Your Command Seals didn't have to do with me, hopefully that means a Servant slot was reserved for you. Any little problems, again, hopefully I have enough magical energy to use Alchemy to cover for it."
Taking out her first sword, Sasaku stood next to him. They clasped their free hands together.
"Ok, this should be the correct incantation. Repeat after me: ..."
The feel of magical energy being sucked towards the ritual circle and disappearing.
A flash of light, blinding but fading rapidly.
The swordsman who appeared cut a tall and stern figure, carrying a weapon much like the one Shirou was just able to hold on to with one hand. He looked at the two of them with some suspicion, realizing that the room now held two Servants, but only one Master. His composure never broke though.
"Saber-class Servant, Sasaki Kojirou." He turned to Sasaku before continuing. "I ask of you, are you my-"
"Oh!" Sasaku let her weapon dematerialize in a green shimmer before pushing Shirou forward. "Emiya Shirou is our Master for this War."
He frown indicated a grudging acceptance.
"We are going to be attacked soon," Shirou said to his new, second, Servant. "Will you lend us your strength, to protect our Realm?"
Kojirou smiled. "Only, show me a worthwhile enemy."
l
Notes:
Yes Shirou doesn't remember because he blacked out.
They use his Class instead of name because he is well-known enough that a name would give away his "abilities".
Sometimes Shirou's conclusions aren't the same as Sasaku's. In part because he knows very little about the Grail system (and magecraft in general), so it's like a black box for him, compared to everyone else who knows what it 'should' do.
Also yeah, he's playing "implausibly oblivious" to make things a bit easier on Rin. Whether stacking everyone together in one house is a good idea depends on the situation, I guess.