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FICTION

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Chapter 10: The Bitter Pill

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Kuro was slowly coming to accept that her current summoning was one of the most unlucky times she got as a Servant.

Between being summoned by a bitch, get poached by a smartass that was sending her on sucidial missions, and this damp cave that gave her the same creeps she had through Illya when she faced Kid Gil- yeah, this was a mess of a situation and more. Kuro hated it, there was no denying that at this point, but she was aware, due to her connection to EMIYA, that this was dirty job she couldn't skip at all.

The cave system that connected to Ryuudou Temple was where the Holy Grail was- or once was as she couldn't find it. She felt traces of its energy around, but there was nothing but dried up tainted mud in the area. The entire Greater Grail, a tool that was extremely delicate and could easily break if mishandled during a moving, had been suddenly vanished from sight.

That was bad news and she didn't need to hear Merlin's voice through the radio to know shit had hit the fan somehow.

Kuro didn't even waste anytime in trying to leave, but her exfiltration was met with a quandary of the odd kind. Specifically a quandary shaped as a young girl with short white hair. Now, normally that wouldn't be a problem for her to deal with- if not for the fact her body could tell on the spot this was not a mere Servant.

"Come on, I just want to play with you, Illya~. We're sisters after all!"

"Nope!" Kuro delivered a Caladbolg straight into the little monster's skull, the detonation barely pushing the thing back as she tried to outpace it.

Yes, despite being given the means to move fast as an Archer, the sheer intensity of the chase was giving her the shivers. And the fact she couldn't shake off the crazy brat off her ass was messing with her quite a lot. Luckily for her, however, the chase died down once Kuro got back to the streets of Fuyuki. She wasn't sure why that stopped there, or why the chase even happened, but she felt relieved that she was out of that nightmare and back to get yelled at by Merlin.

To Kuro, this was slowly becoming one of those rare occasions where she felt genuinely drawn to just kill herself and go back to the Throne of Heroes. There was nothing stopping her from doing that beyond the EMIYA code making her brain lust for justice. So, she just rushed back to base and prepare for the next mission. Hopefully Merlin had something cooked up for when she turned back there because she wanted this mess done quick.

Kuro may be a sucker for idiocy, but this was definitely going the opposite of comedic and amusing as she tended to like these situations to really be all about.

It was morning and Ria was dreading the return to school.

Ana was already off by the time she was getting done with her bathroom time, while Setanta had left at the unholy hour of Four in the morning to go and... fish. There was no doubt in the blonde's mind, the Master of Lancer was deeply attracted to fishing or something or... she just needed more caffeine.

These nights have been particularly 'intense' as a few more strange dreams entertained her. And many of which made her realize that she may not be completely straight- or that 'her' of the dream wasn't. Ria was not someone that was really into that aspect of a relationship, but didn't find the sight of sex as disgusting as many girls her age would.

It was natural when, once in love and intimate with someone, that sort of perversion was not only expected but warranted. And it was the love in it that really messed her sleep up. The mere idea that someone could do it with both a man and a woman was... just odd. It was not impossible in her mind, just odd and rare.

And that was the first thoughts of her morning much to her grand chagrin.

The walk to school was painfully awkward as her Servant didn't have much to tell her- Ria definitely had a lot to tell him and to ask from him. But she didn't. Her mind could handle so much debauchery before it became impossible for her to think of anything important such as being a good student at school without making it awkward for herself and the others. She just didn't have the brain cells to multitask this sort of business.

The day at school went through as smoothly as one would expect. There was an English Test she passed without breaking a sweat, she got to check on Ana a few times and she kind of ended up discovering her crush, the one she had been hoping to end up in a potential relationship with in the distant future may be trying to kill her.

Of course, that last bit was from her Servant and... Ria couldn't exactly believe it on the spot.

"Shirou is not a Master."

They were currently sitting by a storage room because her Servant wanted to have that conversation with her after noticing the curious wounds Shirou had gotten recently. None of which were from a mere 'chore gone wrong' as he had justified to anyone asking. And, as an excuse, it made sense since Shirou was someone that liked to do a lot of direct handling to fix things left and right- yet she couldn't exactly ignore it had to have been a big chore for him to end up that hurt.

"He is," Joseph whined back. "I swear, I can tell you are crushing hard on him but-"

"He is too nice," The blonde remarked and Saber huffed.

"And I am too, but you know I can swing my sword in a rather mean fashion. Being kind doesn't make you innocent."

"But it doesn't make one guilty. What if you are wrong?"

"Then I will bear full responsibility."

That wasn't enough in Ria's book as she just let the conversation die at this. She wasn't denying that there was something off about Shirou, but she wasn't in any position to treat him as a Master. What if it wasn't him? What if it was his sister the one with the Servant?

Out of the two step-siblings, Shirou was the one that would have less reasons to what the Grail, while Rin was an ambitious and competitive girl. One that would go out of her way to gain an advantage to her peers- hell, given the chance she could be one of those traditional Magus trying to reach the Root as Setanta had told her about.

The origin of all mysteries, the thing that made Magic... well, Magic.

"Not precisely," Joseph had remarked calmly. "The Root is more of a Mystery within the Mystery. It's the index, but not the beginning of the magic- only what managed to survive the longest. Or I forgot as this is one of those lessons I don't exactly keep in mind all the time."

That wasn't exactly a good way to 'know' things that are quite relevant in the world, but Ria was also aware that some details can be easily forgotten if they werent relevant all the time. Sure, this 'Root' felt like a very big piece of Magecraft, but it also felt like the sort of thing you learn about just once and then you ignore it unless you have the means to interact with.

Still, that wasn't the thing that mattered at the moment. Rather, it was the way she discovered Shirou may have some relevance in the Holy Grail War. It all started with Ria waiting outside Homurahara to pick Ana so they could walk to her house together. She didn't arrive right at the time they had planned and... Saber won the argument of going to find her back in school.

As much as Ria didn't want to be too paranoid, the chances of someone else at school being a Master were pretty high. And when Saber made it to the areas where Ana used to spend most of her time at school... she found those to be mostly empty. People were still there but most had already left- but there was no sign of Ana.

What started as just a precautional step turned into something more worrisome. Minutes passed, but Artoria couldn't find her kohai anywhere. She tried the various storage rooms around- nothing. Then she went to the rooftop, nothing there too. But it was right as she was making the long route to get back to the entrance, hoping to find her there waiting, that Ria noticed a strange sign on the floor.

Wet Floor.

And she had passed this precise hall before leaving and she knew it wasn't there back then. Plus, the floor was clearly not wet. Which means-

"We may have a problem," Saber materialized beside her. "There's a boundary fields above our heads. Small-scale, nicely tuned to not be visible unless strictly close to it. Whoever made this is a bit of a dangerous magic genius."

The blonde gulped nervously. "Let's go."

No hesitation, with Saber taking the lead as she followed him closely throguh the upper floor. The boundary fields didn't stop them as they both were soon through it and, right within it, the previous silence was disrupted by the clear noises of an intense clash. And there was clearly one happening right in the library in that floor. Some of the windows were broken, shelves were tilted and forced to the ground- it was a mess.

But neither Ria or her Servant stopped at the sight and rushed to see what was going on.

"S-Senpai!" Ana was there, a few visible scratches on her face and knees, with Rider looking worse to wear as she was struggling to face off...

"Rin?"

The girl snapped to look at Ria, but rather than speak the scantily-clad girl just unleashed what looked to be gems turned in energy beams. Saber moved fast and blocked all the projectiles with ease through his sword and... Ria's shock intensified at the sight of Shirou being there and his hand bearing Command Seals.

He was a Master, but there was no comic 'Told you so!' from Saber. He was serious as the situation was meant to be as something felt odd about Rin. Her eyes were now blood red and a strange unpleasant feeling settled on her chest at the sight, confirming that this was the worst thing she could have expected.

She was now facing her own crush, unaware harsh truths waited for her in this very unpleasant skirmish...

AN

Rin vs Joseph, Ria vs Shirou.