Chapter 49

Emiya's lifeless body slumped to the ground, his hand splashing into the puddles on the roof as his head lolled to the side, blank eyes staring into the void. Streaks of blood flowed down his uniform and tainted the water to red, a hole in the wall behind him where he had been pinned by the lance.

*Splsh*

Archer landed on the roof, setting down Rin as Assassin followed them over with her own Master in tow.

"Hmph, seems like she eliminated a witness to our battle."

Archer merely disregarded the corpse, waving it off as a necessary evil for preserving the secrecy of the War.

Gray simply stared at the boy for a moment, before asking.

"Should we move the body? The wound also seems quite suspicious, perhaps we should deal with it as well."

Back in London, she had seen her share of corpses and wasn't fazed in the slightest. If anything, she was more concerned about what her mentor had drilled into her, the concealing of mystics.

Rin finally got a good look at his face and promptly gasped.

"Hm, is something wrong Tohsaka-san?"

"I know him."

Rin recognized that red hair and slightly dopey face, the valiant efforts of a boy struggling to jump over a bar in the field coming to her mind.

That day after school, she had simply been going home, walking out of school as the sun set in the west, the light slowly turning yellow, then orange as it closed in on the horizon. It was just a whim of hers, as she reached the railings near the road, but she looked back at Homurahara Gakuen, her gaze wandering across the school grounds.

The school was almost deserted at that hour, with most of the students having left after club activities, and a precious few teachers remaining at the school to finish up with their work.

Yet, in the middle of the field that should have been completely empty, there was a boy.

His red hair reflected the orange sunlight until his head looked like it was in flames, the sweat completely soaking his hair further enhancing the effect. Sweat sprayed from his body with each step he took for the running start, his arms and legs pumping furiously as dust was kicked up from the ground, his strides powerful and uniform. Rin could almost hear the steady thumping of his feet on the ground as he neared the high jump bar.

The moment his right foot reached the spot directly next to the large blue mattress, he twisted his body and converted all his prior momentum into energy driving him upwards, his right foot pushing off the ground with all his might. His head shot up into the air, seemingly pulling the rest of his body upwards as his back faced the bar, forming a beautiful arch to clear the bar.

Yet his head didn't even make it over the bar, the bar almost getting knocked off the instant his head crossed the boundary. Landing on the mattress on his back, he let out a deep breath, then rolled off the mattress, picked up the bar, reset it, and then repeated the whole process over again.

Far away, Rin watched the boy's progress, or lack thereof. Why was he doing something so obviously impossible?

Even so, despite the distance between them, she could see in his eyes that he truly believed he could do it, and was giving it his all to accomplish. He wasn't just going through the motions or doing it out of pure frustration. Instead, each jump was his utmost best, like he was competing in an official competition against his closest rival.

Something in the young Rin's chest tightened, an emotion that was hard for her to describe, something she didn't recognize or understand.

This memory flashed through Rin's mind in the space of a second, but it was enough for her to make her decision.

"Archer, step aside."

Archer complied with her order, the ruby pendant weighing heavily in his pocket.

Crouching down until she was eye-level with Shirou, she knelt on the bloody puddles, ignoring the water seeping into her black tights. Slipping her hand into her coat pocket, she pulled out a splendid ruby pendant in the shape of a triangle with curved edges, the jewel glimmering under the light of the moon. A clam like clasp attached the red stone to a silver chain that wrapped around Rin's hand, the delicate metal links swaying as she lifted the stone to the hole in Shirou's chest.

Behind her, Grey looked at her quizzically. Why was she sacrificing such an important item to save the boy? She could feel the magical energy the pendant contained, significantly dwarfing anything she could muster, with the sole exception of Rhongomyniad's fully released form.

The pendant was Tokiomi's final memento to his daughter, a century old family heirloom that had the equivalent of ten years of Rin's energy stored in it. Rin was forgiven for believing that almost anything could be possible with the amount of magical energy stored in it, the jewel halfway close to functioning as a mini pseudo-Grail in it's own right.

She could see the lungs and heart completely shredded, the spine, rib cage and flesh all gone. As of now, she had neither the skill nor ability to heal him, so she could only rely on the magical power stored in the stone to directly restore his body, a brute force method so to speak.

But it was one of the best artifacts of its class, a trump card that her father had left for her to win the war, something that she had planned only to use as a last resort.

Her moment of hesitation faded when she remembered the purple haired girl walking by his side to school, the slight smile she had shown when talking with her senpai. In all the time she had observed her, she had never seen her happier than these last two years.

Steeling her heart, she closed her eyes and focused, channeling the energy from the jewel.

It was surprisingly quick and simple, the flesh, bone and organs reappearing and then solidifying as the pendant glowed, the entire process lasting for a few seconds before everything was restored.

Dropping the pendant in the red puddle, she stood up and turned to face Gray.

"Gray-san, was it? Let's go elsewhere to continue our discussion."

Assassin quickly mentally messaged Gray.

"Master, I think the boy might have-"

"No, let's go. The boy seems to be important to Tohsaka-san, and we don't want to jeopardize our possible alliance with them. Let's just go along with them for now."

Gray was sure that the boy was of some value to the girl for her to sacrifice such a powerful artifact, and probing the boy for the item Assassin had mentioned she had felt in him wasn't wise if they wanted to build up a working relationship with them.

"We shall follow your lead, Tohsaka-san."

Giving a brief nod, Rin jumped into Archer"s waiting arms as they jumped off the roof and headed out of the school grounds, Assassin and Gray following them closely.

Back on the rooftop, Emiya stirred, his body sluggish as he cracked open his eyes, his chest feeling like it was on fire.

"Guuuuh…"

Pushing himself up on his knees, he realized the water was red, and looked at his own hands, stained with blood and water. The iron-like scent finally hit him, and he experienced a wave of nausea as he looked down at his chest, the hole in his uniform clearly exposing his chest. His toned muscles were there, the pale skin reflecting the moonlight slightly. Reaching one shaking hand to touch his chest, he hissed when the skin pricked at the slight touch, quickly withdrawing his fingers.

He stood up, pushing himself back with some effort, and looked behind him.

There on the wall, was a hole the size of a tennis ball where the lance had pierced through, blood surrounding the hole along with bits of pink and red flesh around it. Actually, now he also noticed flecks of pink and red smeared across the ground, the remaining pieces of his former lungs, heart and trachea. He could even see the white shards of bone scattered across the puddles, stained red.

However, his mind was still shaky and unfocused, unable to piece together what happened to him even with all the evidence right in front of him. The trauma of being killed was no small matter.

"What happened?"

That small voice laden with confusion escaped his lips, his body swaying as he tried to make sense of the chaos in front of him. Suddenly, a glitter on the ground caught his eyes, and with effort he turned his eye to look at the source.

It was a pendant, now half-covered in blood, water and several pieces of flesh on the ground.

Without a second thought, he knelt down and grabbed it, almost falling in the process, and then stumbled to the door, leaning his whole body on it to push it open and then keeping one hand on the railing as he slowly descended the stairs, his eyes dazed all the while. Even so, he kept a firm grip on the pendant, never letting go of it until he reached his home.