Fate/stay night: Champions Route
By: Farmer Kyle
A/N: Well, this came out sooner than I expected. It probably helps that I've been playing my recently gotten Fate/EXTRA and Fate/stay night a lot. So anyway, yeah, I've been riding the Fate train for the past few days and this is what came out of it. Thanks also goes to Corvus for trading ideas with. I've finally managed to cobble together Masters for the Champions, you may even recognize a few. Besides, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to write for Psynergy and I have no idea why. Also, expect The Left Hand of the Death God to be updated next. It should happen in the next couple of days.
Also forgot to put this up last chapter:
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the ideas that spawned this.
Chapter 1: A Scabbard, A Jeweler, A Lance, Two Swords, and a Savvy Pirate
or A Match Made in Heaven or Hell, We're Not Really Sure
CLANG
I couldn't believe it at first, that the lance thrust to pierce my heart had been repelled. But with a strike that resembled the moonlight, a beautiful knight came from out of no where and saved my life. The bestial man with the crimson spear leaps away, back outside, and my savior turns to face me.
She is breathtaking, and in her solemness had a beautiful and dignified presence. Her blonde hair was pulled back in some kind of braided bun, save for a cowlick that hung like an antenna, held together by a blue ribbon, the tails of which dangling near the nape of her neck. The rest of her hair frames her face, the fringe just above her eyes and locks on either side of her face that falls a little farther than her chin. Her face was soft, but held a hard look that was augmented by her emerald eyes, eyes that gave man the inspiration to name the jewel. Her clothes were perfect for a grand ball in a royal court and then leading the charge to battle. A beautiful blue dress over a white lacy one starts the ensemble, the blue dress edged and threaded with gold from the ends of the different flaps to the puffed up shoulders and the turtleneck collar. Over the sides of billowing skirt was thin sheets of metal the color of silver matched by the boots and gauntlets she wore. The silver armor over her chest was segmented to allow for easy movement and was decorated with blue symbols that I couldn't even guess the meaning of.
There was something about her that made me know instinctively that she was on a whole other level than me, or anyone. That she in all her silent glory, while beautiful, was not entirely human. Once she might have been the girl her form suggests she is, but she had ascended to something beyond that.
"I ask of you. Are you my Master?" she asks in a voice that lights up the darkness.
"Huh... Ma... ster...?" What in the world is she talking about? Who could possibly be higher than this being? Who could possibly claim to be the master of one such as her?
She says nothing, instead staring at me silently upon me, through me, judging my worth, before she spoke again.
"I, Servant Saber, have come forth in response to your summons. Please give me an order, Master."
As soon as I hear the words Master and Servant pain shoots through my left hand, as if a hot iron rod was being pressed on it. I cradle it to my chest and look at my hand to see a red tattoo glowing on the back of my palm.
I don't have time examine it before the girl makes a sound of acknowledgment. Looking up I see her nod her lovely face.
"From this time forth, my sword shall be with you and your fate shall be with me." she says in her enchanting voice. "Now our contract is complete."
"Contract? What are you talking about...?" Even if I am a third rate failure of a magus, I have some knowledge of magic and know what a contract means. But before I can think about it the girl looks away.
She's facing the door of the shed now, where the man with the spear can be seen outside. Before I can think she leaps out to him without the slightest bit of hesitation.
There's no way she can fight him! I have to stop her! Ignoring the pain I'm in I move to get up and follow, but something stops me. A voice.
"Haha, well look at her go! The lass has got some fight in her!" It was a man's voice. Rough but light, it was the voice of someone who wasn't a stranger to hard work but would and could party harder.
I froze. Who is that? Is this man who had escaped attention from me and that girl a danger? Was he an ally of that other man?
"Well then, time for business." the man spoke again, and now I hear movement behind me. Turning around, I saw that he had his back to me. All I can tell of the man was that he was taller than me and had dreadlocks. He wore a brown coat of some kind and an odd looking hat. Preparing to jump the man in hopes of a sneak attack-.
"Now, now boy. You don't want to do that."
Before I can think, the muzzle of what could only be a pistol is all I can see.
"Wouldn't want you to lose your head, now would we?" the man says, a touch of humor in his voice as the click of the pistol's hammer sounds off.
I do all that I can to not move, as he could pull the trigger any moment at the slightest provocation.
"Good, would have hated to have to do that to ya. Once met a guy with a removable head, his body always had trouble finding it. Besides, my Master-to-be seems to like you."
And even though the gun is moved away, disappearing into the man's coat, I'm still frozen. Did he just say-
The man turns back to what he was facing before, and this time I can see what, or rather who, it is. Short, light brown hair that reached her neck in the back and light brown eyes; a yellow, long sleeved shirt with horizontal green lines covered by a green dress. I feel shock and terror seeing who was there. How could I have missed her?
"So lassy, your Champion Rider asks. Are you my Master?"
For there on the floor with a gash and bruise on her forehead, tears and blood making their way down her face, and eyes wide with fear and confusion, was Taiga Fujimura.
I had wanted to surprise Shirou, maybe set up up another prank like I did the other morning. Switching out the soy sauce with octopus sauce was brilliant and worth all the time I put planning it. But mostly I wanted to make it up to him, which is why I was in the shed cleaning up his messes. Honestly, you'd think that such a neat freak and handyman would take better care of his work room.
So here I am, cleaning up the stove that Shirou must have been working on. Hmm... It looks familiar.
Anyway, the reason I was here at Shirou's instead of my own home was my grandfather, Raiga Fujimura. Well, not him exactly, more like a rival of his. He had learned that there may be an attack on the Fujimura compound. But I'm used to such things, have to be when you are the granddaughter of an oyabun to a prominent yakuza family. I don't bother to call it a ninkyō dantai, a chivalrous organization, because while I love my grandfather, I don't agree with what he does. Grandfather respects this but keeps a guard posted on me to keep me safe regardless.
I take a look around before I see something interesting on the floor. What's this? It seems to take up most of the floor. It's faded, but I can make out that it's a circle with line and odd symbols inside it. Oh no! Could Shirou be getting into occult things? Is he trying to summon demons to do his bidding and take over the world? He spends a lot of time in here... and he's slept out here enough times to lose count. As an educator I must put a stop to this self-destructive cycle that my poor Shirou-chan has fallen in!
But any thoughts I have about the stove, my grandfather, or helping Shirou vanish when Shirou himself bursts from the shed door and crashes into me. The last thing I see is a large piece of the stove that I hadn't moved.
Pain. Ooww, my head hurts. What happened? There's something wet on my face. Sitting up against the wall my back is to, I touch the wetness with my hand before looking at it. Blood. My blood? Why am I bleeding? Did I hit something? It was then I heard voices. I look up to see Shirou and two people I've never seen before.
The first is a pretty girl that is standing in front of Shirou. She had blonde hair and green eyes. She was also wearing the oddest outfit, a blue dress and some armor. She looked very serious as she was talking to Shirou. What does she mean by contracts, servants, and masters?
The other was a man behind Shirou out of the moonlight, but I could still see him clearly. A handsome man. What he wore reminded me of the pirates in a short story I had the class read once. He looked tall from my view of him from the floor, and was tan. He wore long, brown, leather boots and long, faded pants made of clothe that may have been brown. A knotted striped-red sash was tied around his waist as well as two belts with large and decorative square buckles, where a pistol was tucked in. A faded blue waistcoat and a torn white, long-sleeved undershirt were worn under a long brown coat, both the coat and shirt a little baggy. The left cuff of the undershirt was ripped, the man's left hand slipped through the hole and what may be lace wrapped around the wrist while a shredded wristband was on his right. Also, barely visible under the coat, was the hilt of a sword. Worn on both his hands were a number of rings, perhaps six in total. A red bandanna was wrapped around his head, atop which was an odd triangular hat. The man's face had some dirt on it, but that didn't distract from the honest smile on his lips or the confidant look in his brown eyes. His hair was filthy, from his dreadlocked, dark brown hair to his goatee beard. His hair was also host to many an object; a few beads on the two braids of his beard; small bones, a coin, two more beads, and a human tooth; what could only be a thin bone came out from under the hat he wore; various threads tied around his dreadlocks; all this and others I couldn't make out were in that rat's nest he called hair.
I focus my attention back to Shirou when I see the girl leap outside. It's then that the pirate man speaks.
"Haha, well look at her go! The lass has got some fight in her!" he says, enjoying himself. But what fight? Is that what happened? "Well then, time for business." The man steps up to be in front of me. As he looks down at me I hear him mumbling, "Hmm... Yeah, you'll do just fine." Fine for what exactly?
Shirou jumped a little at the sound of the man's voice. He turns around and his eyes widen at the tanned man, but I don't think he sees me. Shirou begins to sneak over. Does he plan to jump the man before me?
The would-be-victim gave a small and quiet sigh before he speaks, "Now, now boy. You don't want to do that." How did he know what Shirou was doing?
Before I can blink the man has turned just enough to keep both me and Shirou in sight and has the pistol I saw pointed at his face!
"Wouldn't want you to lose your head, now would we?" the man says, a touch of humor in his voice as the click of the pistol's hammer sounds off.
NO! Not Shirou! Please, please Kami-sama not Shirou! I feel a new wetness that I know are my tears. Please! I'll do anything, anything at all to save Shirou! I close my eyes hoping that this will all just go away and things would be normal again with me teasing Shirou and trying to get him to take a hint and go out with Sakura and them making me food and making them feel at home and and and please I'll do anything!
"Anything?"
What?
I open my eyes and all I see is black and the man. I don't hesitate, I leap up and charge at him. When I reach him I punch, slap, claw; anything to hurt this man for even thinking he could hurt the boy that's been my little brother for as long as I could remember. I know I'm yelling at the man, but for some reason I don't know what I'm saying, like I'm almost disconnected from what I'm doing. All I know is that I'm screaming, yelling, hitting, and crying.
"Hey, ow, girl sto- OW! Would you- OW You bit me! OW! Stop hitting me already!"
Eventually he grabs my arms, and I just loose my strength and collapse against him. I'm still crying, pleading that he not kill Shirou.
The man wraps his arms around me, but I don't care. I think he's trying to comfort me. I don't know when, but I stop crying. The man is humming a tune now, one I couldn't recognize. I just listen with my head on his chest. He smells like the ocean and alcohol. He notices that I've calmed down and stops humming. Looking down he asks, "Better now?". I nod, "Think you can put those legs back under the rest of ya?" I smile at the small joke. It's then I notice that we're on a floor I can't see. We stand up before the man separates us. He brushes off his coat before speaking again.
"I'm going to guess that I somehow deserved that." the way he says it makes me think that this isn't the first time this has happened to him. Whether comforting a woman or being hit by one, I wasn't sure. "That red-head this Shirou you kept going on about?" I nod. "Well then I apologize for the duress I caused you, my lady." He then gives a deep, exaggerated bow with his arms and hands spread out. I couldn't help but laugh at how silly it looked.
"There we go! Right as rain!" the man seems happy now that he got me to laugh. "Unfortunately, this is where things get serious." I'm shocked to see him go from fun-loving to deadly serious. "You said you'd do anything to help that boy? Keep him safe?" I nod again. "Would you fight? Because that boy just became part of something that could very well kill him." My heart clenches. "This war that's brewing, it'll be hard. It's kill or be killed." "Why?" I finally say something, though I'm surprised that he heard it given how quiet the question was. "Why is any war waged or battle fought? For the prize. A single wish to get whatever you want. Treasure, power, anything your heart desires."
I stay quiet. I don't know what to say.
"But you can't fight this war on your own. You need a partner. Me actually. So what do you say? Will you sail with me until the end? Through the tides of battle and the strange?"
I blink and everything was as it was, back in the shed. I'm sitting against the wall on the floor and the man is still holding Shirou at gun-point.
"Good, would have hated to have to do that to ya. Once met a guy with a removable head, his body always had trouble finding it. Besides, my Master-to-be seems to like you."
The man stows his pistol into his sash before turning to face me again. Shirou is still frozen, shocked at something. He then looks at me and seems terrified. Before I can think as to why, the man speaks.
"So lassy, your Champion Rider asks. Are you my Master?"
Again, I don't hesitate. "Yes."
A new pain makes itself known on my right forearm. Pulling the sleeve of my shirt back I see a glowing red tattoo. It's of a bird flying over the sea, a setting sun behind it.
"Good, the contract's complete. Until World's End, we shall sail the waters of fate and weather the storm of battle." The man said with seriousness. But then he lightens up, still serious, but now there was a bit of laughter in his eyes. "Now then, I believe I should go help the lass fight off the beastie out there." And so pulling out a sword from his coat he rushes out of the shed, only now could I hear the clashing of weapons.
After a moment I look to Shirou, who still seems to shocked and afraid.
"Come help me up Shirou."
Outside the shed a battle for the ages was waged. On one side was the girl, Servant Saber. Evading and deflecting her enemy's attacks with what seemed to be nothing.
On the other side was a beast in the form of a man. He had short, slicked back blue hair, strands of hair falling in front of his eyes and a long ponytail held by a tube at the nape of his neck. His crimson eyes had a bestial intensity to them, an intensity focused on killing his opponent only matched by his savage grin. He wore what looked like a blue wetsuit with gunmetal gray pauldrons and a matching series of bands of metal across the man's arms, legs, and all but his chest, abs, and back. With every move he made, be it a dodge, block, or strike, the man's dangling earrings hit his cheeks. The spear in his hands was a masterpiece of death. Crimson like freshly spilled blood, the spear was at taller than the man himself at around 8 feet. The spearhead was simple in design, the typical double-edged blade with two extra "teeth" where it met with the shaft on either side. There were smooth portions of the weapon, where the spearhead met the shaft and at the end of the spear, where there was a small point. The rest of the weapon is where its true grisly beauty shines, for on the rest of the shaft between the two smoothed parts were what could have been the veins of a heart.
Steel rings and sparks fly as the blonde girl parries and redirects the lancer's blows, the strikes almost too fast to see. Slowly but surely, the girl is over powering the man in blue, driving him back further and further into the courtyard.
"Damn...!" the man growls. He retreats a bit, to better use his lance with more distance between them, but the girl will give him no such advantage and closes in. She strikes out at the man's ribs just as he moves his lance to guard them. The blow lands with all the power of an explosion, wind and dust flying away from the two warriors.
"Guh...!" The man struggles to block it. And for that prolonged moment of contact, even after the sparks fly away, the shaft of the lance over his glows. The blue-haired man knows what this means. The girl's blows have such an outrageous amount of magical energy behind them that it's visible and penetrates the lance just by touching it.
The moment ends and the courtyard once again becomes host to a whirlwind of steel, sparks, and magic. But now the man is making more of an effort to avoid the smaller girl's blows, only blocking the "nothing" she swings when absolutely necessary.
"You coward! Quit hiding your weapon!" the man complains, still avoiding the girl's strikes.
The blonde says nothing, her only reactions being to narrow her emerald eyes and to attack even more with whatever weapon she wielded.
The man only growls in annoyance before retreating again, this time only hoping to create distance between them. It was only logical really. The girl's weapon was invisible, meaning you couldn't see the shape of it or how long it is. It didn't even show up when sparks flew from it.
The girl then let out a battle cry, striking faster and stronger than before. She finishes her ceaseless attack by rearing back her weapon for a mighty blow!
"Don't underestimate me, fool!" But the small break in the attacks were enough, as the man leaps back, taking to the air. The girl's strike cuts through only air and destroys the ground as it kicks up dust.
As soon as the man touches down he leaps again, this time straight for the girl! The blonde in question hasn't changed her position though, her weapon still in the ground.
With a battle cry of his own the blue-haired lancer comes down with a thrust, the crimson lance poised to impale her heart...
The girl moves. She twirls her body, keeping her sword in the ground, and then swings with all the force of her body! The man realizes his mistake just before her attack and redirects his lance.
CLANG
The man is blown away but unharmed, the girl also unharmed. The distance between them has opened again, but neither move to close it. Each has assumed their own ready stance, prepared for when hostilities begin again. The girl has adopted a tail guard, holding her unseen weapon by her side pointed to the ground and behind her. The man has taken a stance meant to strengthen his stabs and guard his body, one hand on the lower grip of his lance while the other holds the shaft closer to the upper grip. The lance is pointed to toward the ground, but with how he is holding the weapon the man could easily change that.
They stare at the other, the only sound being the midnight air blowing between them. The girl is the first to speak.
"What is wrong Lancer? You do the Lancer class discredit just standing there. But that is fine, for if you will not come to me, I will come to you." she says, confident that this would be her victory.
The man, Lancer, answers with a bark of a laugh. "Ha! You're going to come and die? Be my guest, but let me ask you this first." The man no longer seemed to be a beast.
"Your Noble Phantasm, is it a sword?" he asks with a glare, his annoyance with the invisible weapon clear.
The girl give a small grin and her eyes seem to twinkle. "Who knows? It might be an axe or it might be a spear. It might even be a bow, Lancer." The amusement she felt at his frustration was evident.
The man narrows his eyes. "Heh, keep talking Saber." He lowers his lance.
The girl, Saber, looks confused at Lancer's actions.
"I'll ask this just in case, since this is our first meeting. Do you want to call this a draw?"
Saber says nothing, but the hardening of her eyes seemed answer enough.
But Lancer continues, "It's not a bad deal, right? Your Master is useless and mine is a coward. I think it's in both our best interests to hold off on this match until better prepared."
The blonde Saber stays silent for a moment before answering resolutely. "I refuse. You will fall here, Lancer." She tightens the grip on her apparent sword.
"I see. Geez, all I wanted to do was check things out, you know? I wasn't looking for a fight with a Servant." The air seemed to distort around him.
Lancer lowers his stance. A chill runs through the air as magical energy pools into the lance.
Saber's eyes widen just a margin. "Noble Phantasm...!" She says, shock in her voice at such blatant use. She glares at the man and readies her weapon. She knows just how dangerous a Noble Phantasm can be. But to use one so openly?
Lancer's eyes widen in an intense glare, the beast that he was coming to the fore. "See ya. I'll be taking that heart of yours!"
The beast jumps. Lancer is suddenly in front of Saber and...
Thrusts his lance at her feet.
Saber jumps over the lance and moves to slash Lancer.
"Gae..."
But at that moment, reality shifts...
And with words charged with magical energy...
"Bolg!"
The lance thrust at the girl's feet rushes towards her heart.
Time for Saber slows down as the lance comes closer and closer to her heart. Somehow she knew that in 3 seconds, her heart would be pierced.
3 seconds... The girl began to move.
2 seconds... Not enough time to avoid it completely.
1 second... Brace for impact, this was going to hurt.
"Oh no you don't!" shouted a voice she didn't recognize.
And then instead of feeling being stabbed through the heart, she felt herself being knocked down by someone.
CLANG
P-TAFF
"Phew... Almost didn't make it there. You alright lass?"
Saber had rolled with the push and was now in a crouch. Looking up she saw her rescuer.
She was to the side of Lancer and the other man but in front of the shed where her Master was. Lancer had jumped back a ways from the other man, holding a now bleeding shoulder. She couldn't really see anything too telling about the unknown man, but two things stood out to her. The first was the thing he was pointing at Lancer. Given the sound she had heard and Lancer's wound, it had to be one of those "guns" that Kiritsugu, her previous Master, was so fond of using. Most likely an old one, but all she could really tell from it was that it was red. The second was one she was familiar with, if only in passing. In the man's other hand was a sword slightly longer than Saber recalled, but the slight curve of the blade and the curved down handguard were the same. It was a cutlass, a blade she had heard was favored by sailors beyond her kingdom.
"Oui, Lass! Are you alright or not?" the sailor asked impatiently.
The blonde shook her head, these thoughts could wait. There was an enemy to deal with. Saber stands and moves towards the new player. "Yes, I am fine. Thank you for the help, but you did not need to interfere." While she was grateful, she did have her pride.
"Really now? Could've sworn you were about to be made a shish kebab there. But that's just me, I'm sure you'd have been fine on your own." The man in dreadlocks says it without a hint of sarcasm in his voice, but that just made the comment even more biting.
Saber growls at the man, but stops when she's not the only one. Looking at the Lancer, the man in blue looks enraged but curious.
"You dodged it. Without even a scratch you dodged my fatal Gae Bolg."
The name triggers a memory in Saber, but just as she's about to speak...
"Now I wouldn't say 'dodged', more like redirect." the sailor cuts her off.
"How?" Lancer asks, further cutting Saber off. This only increases her ire, but she was curious as well.
"Well, throughout my life I've done mad and dangerous things. This just makes another." The man explained without explaining anything.
"Che... Fine, I'm outta here." Lancer turns to leave.
"Wait!" Saber shouts. Lancer turns his face to look at her. "Your weapon is Gae Bolg? Are you Ireland's man of light?"
Lancer frowns before sighing. "Damn. Can the night get any worse? I guess being too famous has its disadvantages." He lowers the crimson spear.
"It is a rule of Servants to fight to the death if your true identity is discovered... but unfortunately, my Master is a coward. He's telling me to retreat since you evaded my lance." He turns away and moves to the edge of the property.
"You are running away, Lancer?" asks Saber.
"Well I say let him." says the sailor.
Lancer turns around and grins. "Yeah. But I don't mind if you come after me, Saber. Just be prepared to die when you do." And with that Lancer clears the property wall in a single bound, disappearing.
"Wait, Lancer...!"
The girl starts to run after the wounded man.
The bearded man sighs, looking to the sky as if to ask 'Why me?'. He then looks toward the shed where Shirou and Taiga were, just outside the door. "Well? Let's go get her before she kills herself." He then runs after Saber.
We had been there since Rider rescued Saber, and ran off after them once they left.
"Shirou?" asks Taiga.
"Uh, yeah Fuji-nee?" I was still trying to come to terms with the fact that Taiga now knew about magic.
"Do you have any idea what's going on?"
"No Fuji-nee."
Shirou and Taiga catch up to Saber and Rider. Both were just outside the gate of the property, Rider's weapons put away while Saber still held whatever that "nothing" was.
"Seems that Lancer is quick, I can't even sense him anymore." says Rider.
"That may be..." starts Saber, "But there is still the question of who you are!" The blonde girl then points her invisible blade at the man's neck.
Rider immediately puts up his hands in the classic surrender position. "Parley?"
"Saber, stop!" I shout at her.
"Yeah! Leave Rider alone!" Taiga just barely restrains herself from tackling the girl.
"Master, this man and that woman are enemies. We should kill them now before they have the chance to kill us." Saber's reply was in that same soft and elegant tone as before, in the shed, as she told me to kill Fuji-nee. It froze me for a moment.
"I would never do anything to harm Shirou!" yells Taiga, angry at the insinuation.
Rider follows Fuji-nee's example. "Yeah! What she said!"
Saber regards them both. "You could just be saying that so that I might lower my guard."
"No! Fuji-nee is okay!" I say desperately, hoping to convince the blonde. "I don't even know what's going on! All this fighting and Servants and Masters! It doesn't make any since at all!"
Saber stares at me longer be closing her eyes and sighing. Her sword arm is lowered and the rest of us all sigh in relief. Rider then runs over to Fuji-nee, probably to put distance between him and Saber.
She turns to to face them and bows. "I am sorry for my rashness. Rider helped me and you, his Master, were with mine." She comes up from the bow. "I just wish to ensure the safety of my Master."
Rider is quick to forgive. "Eh, no hard feelin's."
Fuji-nee though is known to hold grudges. "I don't know..."
Before anything else can be said though, pain courses through my left hand. I also notice Fugi-nee grab her right arm as I look at my hand. The red tattoo from before. For some reason, I think it looks like a sheathed sword.
"Master." I look up to see Saber, her eyes are hard. "Two enemies are approaching. I will deal with them." She then runs off.
"I'll watch her back." Rider is gone before I can look at him.
Before I can think I start running, Fuji-nee right behind me.
I don't have to go that far. I round the corner at a dead run. Saber has just slashed at the man in red I saw at the school, and he disappears just before Rider's gun can give his body a new hole, the wall behind where his head had been gaining one instead.
Saber is now facing the figure that had been behind the man in red. The figure unleashes an incredible amount of magic in the form of a wind spell in an attempt to stave off the blonde, but Saber cuts through the spell and swings her blade. The person miraculously avoids the blade by falling to the ground. Saber has her sword at the person's throat.
"SABER, STOP!" I scream as loud as I can.
Saber stops, the point of her sword no doubt at her neck.
"Don't. Please don't do it, Saber." I glare at her as I say this.
She merely turns her head to address me, her sword not moving.
"Why do you stop me, Master? She is Archer's Master. We must kill her here. I can understand earlier why you stopped me, but this is a complete stranger."
"I gotta agree with the lass, boy. This ain't a game, it's kill or be killed." Rider wasn't making any kind of move help to either of us.
"And I'm telling you to wait! You still haven't explained what all this means!"
Saber continues to stare at me, not saying a word. It stays like that, none of us saying a word. I have to wonder where Fuji-nee is. Wasn't she right behind me?
"...So, when will Saber-san lower her sword?" The person on the ground suddenly speaks
Saber immediately returned her attention on her sword. "Give up. I have no sword to lower in front of an enemy."
The person's reply was quick and condescending. "Even if your Master says to lower it? Wow, so even the Saber would betray her own Master, huh?"
"She wouldn't have to. My Master has given me no such order." Rider says lazily, aiming his pistol at the downed person.
"I said stop!" I plead.
Saber grits her teeth while Rider gives a thoughtful "Hmm..."
But both lower their weapons and relax. Rider tucks his pistol into his sash while Saber seems to simply let go of the sword she was holding.
"I see. Then I can stand up, right?"
The person gets up. I can now tell she's a girl as she shamelessly brushing herself off. I still can't see her to well, but I can make out her face. Wait a moment, isn't that...?
"T-Tohsaka!" I simply can't believe it... The school idol is a...
"Good evening, Emiya-kun." She greets me with a big smile, as if she hadn't just had her life threatened.
"S-so you're a...?"
"Yes, I'm a magus. We're the same, so it's not something I need to hide."
I'm so shocked at the frank answer I can't even speak.
"Let's talk inside, at your place. You don't know anything, right Emiya-kun?" She then goes to the entrance of the ally.
"Wait, there's someone else!"
She gives me a confused look. "Who?"
And in that moment we both hear 'who'. It's quiet at first, but steadily becomes louder.
"...sshiiiiIIIIRROOOOOOOOOU!"
And from out of nowhere, Fuji-nee appears and does the inevitable, she trips, tackling Rin Tohsaka, my school's idol and perfect student, to the ground.