Chapter
The following day, Shirou, Yuno and Rin headed up to Ryuudou temple.
"What's that?" Rin eyed the cooler Yuno was lugging around as they headed for the bus stop.
"It's a picnic lunch. We want to fit in, right? This will make us inconspicuous"
Rin snorted, "Yeah right. Not if you're the one lugging it" she took the hamper from Yuno and gave it to Shirou.
Shirou nodded, 'Yeah, it would look suspicious if a slim girl like her was able to carry a heavy cooler so easily."
"No, idiot. The guy carries the food. That's all."
Even Yuno smirked at that.
The trip to the Temple passed quickly, with Rin and Shirou chatting about school. Rin was a keen observer of her classmates' foibles, and this was the first chance she had had to air her exasperation with them. But she was careful to keep her comments light and humorous, and they were soon joking back and forth. Yuno sat quietly, looking uncharacteristically pensive. 'What the hell am I doing? I leaped into the space between universes in order to have a second chance to be with Yuki. But I can't find Yuki. So now what?' She hugged herself.
When they got off the bus, Rin looked up at Ryuudou temple. "Isn't there an elevator?"
"It's only some stairs. And Issei does this every day"
"Yes, but Issei is crazy."
"Hey, he's a good guy, even if he talks a little formally."
"Then why does he cower and speak in tongues whenever I walk past him? That boy is touched in the head." Rin scowled as she started climbing the (extremely long) stair.
Shirou hefted the cooler and followed, "I don't know - maybe he saw your real personality?"
Yuno brought up the rear, "Actually, Rin's not so bad. I'm glad that we ended up allied with her."
Shirou kept walking, waiting for Yuno to say a punch-line. When she didn't, he mentioned, "I am glad that you two are getting along better" 'If a little surprised. Maybe Yuno is rediscovering her humanity'
Rin continued walking up the stairs, not certain how to reply. As the trio approached the top, she waved for the other two to stop. "Let me check for any Bounded Fields" They stepped off the stair onto a grassy area outside the main gate. Several tourists walked by, giving them incurious glances. Yuno and Shirou chatted quietly, trying to look normal while Rin worked.
After ten minutes, Rin shook her head. "There is a very complex bounded field here. I am not exactly certain how it works, but it is for detection only, and I _think_ it will detect a Heroic Spirit, even Assassin. I had to be very gentle with it, for fear of setting it off myself."
"We still need to go up there and scout out the temple. There are loads of people in there, so we aren't going to get attacked. But maybe it would be best if Yuno waited for us at home" Shirou looked at the two girls, to see if they would go along with his plan.
"Ok. just stay in the populated areas" Yuno smiled and then leaned over to whisper to Rin, "You could make this a date: you two would make a cute couple." She started back down the stairs, "have a good time" she waved.
Rin stood, dumbfounded, before turning awkwardly to Shirou, "erg, come on, baka. Lets go inside."
Once on the temple grounds, they wandered about, first stopping off at the shrine to pay their respects. Then Rin dragged Shirou out to one of the scenic overlooks, where they had a view of all of Fuyuki City.
"You know, from up here, it all looks so neat and orderly. It's hard to image magic existing in such a world" Shirou mused as he leaned on the railing.
Rin scootched over to him "that's the way we like it. Magi spend most of their time doing research, and they don't like being disturbed by chaos."
"What about Magi who want to engage with the world? You know, to make it a better place."
Rin smiled, "you're so naive" 'Or maybe idealistic', "Magi don't do that sort of thing. Actually, you can get into big trouble if you let common people know about magic."
"And you want to be like that?"
Rin shrugged, "I like magic, working spells, trying out new things. And I'm not really good with people"
"But you're the School Idol!"
"Yeah, that makes it easier. Nobody wants to have a real conversation with me, they just want to hang out with me as a status thing." Rin shrugged.
"But why not? you're..." Shirou paused as he searched for the right word
"Nice?" Rin supplied, with a smile.
"No"
"Hey!" She glared at Shirou
"No, but you are a lot of fun." Shirou bulled ahead, over Rin's teasing.
"Thanks" They stood quietly for a moment, Rin watching Shirou out of the corner of her eye. "Let's go eat." She pulled him over to the picnic area off to the side of the temple.
As they munched on their lunch Shirou pointed out, "I haven't seen anything suspicious yet"
"Other than that bounded field - that was very intricate. I'm thinking that the Servant up here is Caster class."
"Well, I could ask Issei, if he's in." Shirou led the way to the living quarters of the Temple. He had never visited Issei at home - he got the impression that the formal boy felt a little awkward about having friends running around in a religious space. Or maybe he was embarrassed by his father's piousness. It was hard to tell.
"Oh, hi, Emya! It is nice to see... you..." Issei's voice trailed of as he noticed Rin standing in the background, "what's the witch doing here?" he whispered.
"I ran into her at the lookout spot."Shirou didn't argue the the 'witch' part. It was accurate enough, "You guys have a great view. But we got to talking, and we weren't certain what else is open to the public here, so we were hoping you could show us around a little."
Issei's eyes lit up, "Ok. Let me grab some shoes and I will take you around." The next hour was spent with Issei explaining the history of the temple, and the significance of the various items in it. It was mildly interesting, but the the tour was spoiled by Issei being too pedantic, and by Rin, who kept making faces and rolling her eyes whenever Issei's back was turned.
"So, do you have a lot of guests staying here?" Shirou asked, as they passed the guest quarters.
"Not currently. We just Kuzuki-sensei and his fiancee. Which is stretching the rules a little, since technically, woman aren't allowed to stay at the temple" Issei frowned slightly at why they had agreed to bend the rules. Then he shrugged it off.
"Oh, I didn't know that sensei was engaged. Have they been together a long time?" Rin asked.
"I... don't know. He's a private person. His fiance just arrived a couple of weeks ago." Issei continued the tour.
Afterwards, Rin and Shirou walked down the stair. "I'm pretty confident that Caster is Kuzuki-sensei's fiancee. So chances are, he's a Master."
"Does that mean he's a magus?" asked Shirou.
"I don't think so - I think I would have picked up on it if he was. It's rare, but a non-magus can become a master. In the last Grail war, one of the Masters wasn't a magus. His servant preyed on children to get enough prana." Rin shuddered, remembering her close call 'I was so stupid back then'.
"In that case, Caster is probably responsible for all those 'gas leak' incidents. It's lucky she hasn't killed anybody yet. Or maybe, she not so bad"
"Idiot. killing people would attract attention, either from the Police or from me, as the local representative of the Magus association."
"So you don't think we could talk her out of going for the grail? " Shirou asked as they waited for the bus
"Talk her out of.." Rin's eyes almost popped out of her head, "Are you joking?"
"Actually, yes" Shirou replied, 'well, I guess I am', "We'll have to find some way to lure her out of Ryuudou."
"Yeah. I imagine it's loaded with traps that she can activate if we confront her there"
"And the monks could get caught in the crossfire" Shirou added, pointedly.
"Yeah, that too." Rin agreed, chagrined. Shirou looked skeptical. "Hey, I'm not some psycho like your Yuno - I don't want anybody to get hurt anymore than you do!" she snapped out, sounding defensive.
"Yuno is just a product of her times." 'whatever those are', "She has been mellowing as she gets more used to the modern world."
"Yeah. She needs to get used to the modern world" 'though she seems to know how to use the internet better than I do.' Rin replied, pacifyingly.
FSD*FSD
"Again, but faster" Saber leaped in to attack Shirou, bokens flying. Shirou had reinforced himself, so that he was able to move faster than humanly possible, so he got hit only three times out of every four. Sabers idea of training Shirou was brutal - they would spar with bokens for hours each evening. Then, after they were done, he would spend fifteen minutes showing Shirou assorted weapons from his collection.
"Ok, that wasn't too bad" Saber nodded, "you almost didn't suck."
"Call it a night, guys" Rin came into the dojo, "We need to sit down and discuss what we are going to do about Caster.
Shirou grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat of his face, "I hate to say it, but maybe we should ambush Kuzuki-san. You said that you had a way of taking the command seals off of him without hurting him"
"I can do it without killing him, but I will have to cut off his arm." Rin replied.
"Oh, In that case that may not be such a good idea. How about we use him as bait for Caster?"
'My, how having a different servant changed him. I guess all that bleed over in his sleep has given him some of Yuno's practicality' Saber smiled, happy that he had made the right choice to train Shirou.
There was a loud crash from the main building.
"What was that?" asked Rin
"Yuno's in there!" Shirou traced a pair of falchions and ran to the rescue.
"Or, maybe not." sighed Saber, following.
Inside the main house, it was a mess. A woman in a hooded cloak had just hit Yuno with some sort of spell. As the pink haired girl staggered, the hooded woman drifted in and stabbed her in the chest with a glowing dagger.
"No!" roared Shirou, charging in, only to slam into a bounded field. As Rin ran up, she started an Aria. But in the few moments it took her to drop the field, the woman scooped up Yuno and flew off on multi-hued butterfly wings.
"Who was that?" Shirou staggered into the wrecked room
"At a guess, that was Caster." Rin sighed, "I'm sorry Shirou - she must have somehow detected us when we visited Ryudou this morning and followed us home. I should have done a better job of screening us."
Shirou just shook his head, "What does she want with Yuno?"
"She's obviously a magus from the age of legends. She has spells that are beyond anything a modern magus has available. She may try to drain the prana from Yuno for her own use" Rin guessed.
"Or she could try to bind her to her service" Saber pointed to Shirou's arm. When he glanced down, he saw the command seals had faded away.
"How?" Shirou thought back to the dagger he had glimpsed, "Rule Breaker. She severed the binding between me and Yuno and took it for herself.
Saber nodded.
"Well, in that case we'll just have to go and rescue Yuno."
"Are you certain Yuno will want to be rescued?" asked Rin. "You weren't exactly her type, as a master I mean. She may be happier with a more aggressive master."
Shirou paced through the wreckage. "I don't know. Maybe you're right. But we can't leave her. Yuno... If Caster pushes Yuno to be more aggressive, she could end hurting, maybe even killing a lot of people, but I think that at her core, she's still a decent person. If we can get her away from Caster, we can prevent all that."
"And if can't rescue her for whatever reason?" asked Saber.
"Then... Then we'll have to kill her. She's not safe out on her own like that." Shirou replied quietly. "We should go now."
"Are you certain we shouldn't wait until tomorrow, when you will be better rested?"
Saber shook his head, "I agree with Shirou - we can't give Caster time to do whatever she's planning. Come here - I'll carry the both of you"
"Uhm" Shirou looked skeptically at the older version of himself.
"What, you want to bicycle down to Ryuudou? Or maybe take the bus? Time is of the essence."
"Ok"
Saber's leaps weren't quite as fast as Caster's butterfly wings, but they nevertheless reached the base of the temple hill in less than a half hour.
"From here, we walk"
They were halfway up the the stair when Saber held out his hand. "Do you hear that?" He asked.
Shirou reinforced his ears. "It sounds like some sort of machinery"
Saber nodded, "the sound is coming from over there" He pointed off into the forest. "Lets check it out"
Rin nodded, "I don't like leaving something unknown behind me"
The trio made their way through the trees and underbrush to an opening in the hillside. Rin scanned for any magical traps, while Shirou sniffed like a blood hound. "This places smells acrid, like diesel fumes"
"I don't smell anything Rin frowned, "And there aren't any active spells" After a moment, she added, "You must be smelling the spill over from some powerful ritual that's running inside there."
"Maybe Caster's base isn't actually in the temple."
"Let's go."
The three would-be heroes walked carefully into the cave. The cave snaked along before opening into a huge cavern, which was filled with a reproduction of a Greek city.
"What is this? asked Shirou.
"No clue. Watch your step" Rin replied.
As they made their way down to the bottom of the cave, Saber pointed to a copy of the Parthenon that jutted from a wall part way up the side of the cave, "The noise is coming from there"
Before the trio could do anything, though, there was a creaking and snapping sound, and dozens of bone warriors stepped out from alleyway and from behind buildings.
Saber leaped forward, smashing the creatures with his twin falchions.
A moment later, Shirou projects his own pair and followed, more slowly, while Rin uses Gander and Jewel shot to pick off any skeletons that they missed,
'I feel useless here' she groused, as she cast another explosive Jewel shot at a skeleton, 'they could hack their way through unaided' She watched the two men fight, 'Shirou is a quick study. He fights just like Saber.'
'Oh, I suck!' Shirou ducked under a skeletons sword just in time. 'Saber makes this so easy, but if I try to keep up, I'm going to get killed!'
"We're almost there!" yelled Saber. He leaped forward and used a massive two handed sword to smash open the Parthenon's door, opening into another cave, one that was more natural in appearance, with stalactites, "Watch out!" He yelled, throwing himself backwards as a blast of raw magic struck where had just stood, warping colors into a psychedelic afterimage.
Caster flew out, like a crazed attack butterfly. As she did, Shirou saw motion out of the corner of his eye and dodged just in time to avoid Yuno, knife in hand.
Yuno's usually frilly sweater and skirt had been transformed into an ominous black evening dress. Or perhaps it was Yuno that looked ominous, with a maniacal smile on her face.
"Get back!" Yelled Rin as she spat Gander spheres at Yuno.
Shirou whirled and blocked a punch from Kuzuki, who had attempted to blind side Rin. "You take Yuno, I'll handle this guy!"
Shirou expected the fight to be short, and it almost was: Caster had reinforced the sensei somehow, and the man knew how to fight. It was all Shirou could do to stay alive. Each of Kuzuki's punches could shatter rock. Each time Shirou blocked an attack, he had to trace a new copy of his falchion.
Meanwhile, Caster soared high above Saber, laughing, "There is no way you can win. You may be the most powerful Servant, but your power is for naught if you can not reach me!" two blasts of light lashed out from her hands, forcing Saber to retreat even further from his companions.
'Her attack is slow' Saber risked a glance at where Shirou and Caster's master fought, 'but if I take him out, she will still have time for one last shot, at my back' Saber jumped behind a house as another of Caster's blasts lashed out, raining debris on him.
"Stand still, damn you" snarled Rin as she sent blast after blast at the rogue Assassin.
"Can't stand the competition?" smirked Yuno, "then stay out of the kitchen!" She mangled the idiom badly, but that didn't seem to bother her, as she darted towards Rin.
"Yeaah!" Rin released a huge fusillade of Gander shot, in an attempt to slow her attacker.
'I need to finish him fast! Rin needs me!' Shirou poured more prana into reinforcing his limbs. With blinding speed, he ducked under one of Kuzuki's devastating punches and rammed a sword into his gut, 'sorry, Sensei. My friends come first.'
Saber leaped behind a column as another blast seared the ground with color.
"You can't run forever, little man" Caster crowed as she flew around the column. Her eyes grew wide as she saw Saber raise a bow and fire an arrow at her. She just had time to cast a protective spell. The arrow hit the glowing field. But the arrow was Rule Breaker, and Caster's spells shattered into an explosion of light.
With a scream, she plunged to the ground.
Rin screamed as Yuno burst through her barrage, taking several Gander shots, but still moving fast enough to strike Rin's head with her knife.
Shirou ran over to Rin, stopping short when confronted with Yuno standing over her body. They stared at each other for a moment, gauging each other as the readied for the other to attack.
As Caster staggered up, a rain of blades flew down, one after another, piercing her body before she could recover. She collapsed, pinned to the ground by numerous swords.
Yuno staggered, stepping back from Rin, "Shirou.." she appeared dazed, "I want to help. Take me back as your servant. Caster compelled me to fight you, but I was trying to find some way to get out from under her compulsion."
"What? After you killed Rin?" Shirou asked, incredulous at the girl's gall.
"She's not dead. I can't kill her. You used a command seal on me and ordered me not to kill her, remember?"
"I'm not certain command seals work like that" Saber staggered up, looking completely wrung out, "But I can testify that my little master is still very much alive."
"Please, I'm going to fade away" Yuno looked desperate. "I want to... I need to find Yuki."
Shirou nodded "ok, Fine." He traced Rule Breaker. "Will you, Yuno Gasai, be my Servant?" he asked.
"Yes she nodded, "and will you, Shirou Emya, be my Master?"
"Yes," Shirou stabbed her with the stolen Noble Phantasm. The remaining command seal snapped from Caster's slowly dissolving body back onto Shirou arm. Yuno smiled gleefully and even gave Shirou a quick hug as Saber scooped up Rin. The magus stirred groggily
"What did you mean that Command seals don't work that way?" asked Shirou as they turned to walk out of the cave. Rin waved feeble, insisting that she be put down. Saber ignored her.
Unseen, Kuzuki levered himself up. His life was over. Whether he lived or died was irrelevant, now that she was no more. He raised his arm and concentrated, his command seals glowing.
"I mean that your commands to Yuno only last while you are her Master. When she switched Masters, your command disappeared."
Before Shirou could say anything to that, a blast of red light flashed out from where Kuzuki lay and struck Rin on the back of her head. Yuno leaped across the distance and slashed with her knife, ending the former school teacher.
"Is she ok?" asked Shirou. Rin had slumped back into Saber's arms, unconscious.
"I don't know, but we need to get her home." Saber replied anxiously and started to run.