6th Day – part 3 – Acquisition (2)

Matou Shinji was really tired, but more than that, he was supremely satisfied. It really felt good to torment Tohsaka like that. All in all, he felt like he had just won the lottery.

Even if what Archer had said about the Magus-killer bullet, Shinji would still consider the day a huge plus. After all, not only did he have enormous success in tormenting Tohsaka, but Assassin also surprisingly held his ground against her vaunted Saber. It's nice to know that criticizing her father is a berserk button. Well it might hurt all the more because she knew it to be true, but did not wish to admit it.

He and Assassin were walking in Miyama, after successfully escaping the collapsing the hotel. Up until then, they were silent. Assassin let out a rare smile. "It's good that you are satisfied, Shinji." As he had not been asked to go into spirit form, he decided to accompany his Master on foot.

"Shinji, huh. Since when do you use my first name?" It actually didn't feel all that bad and, for the first time in a while, Shinji felt like he had a friend.

"What? I figured that since we have already enjoyed a fair amount of success together, then we'd have some sort of camaraderie bond." He stopped and bowed. "I'm sorry if it doesn't please you, Master."

Shinji felt awkward, for perhaps the first time in his life, Shinji felt uncomfortable because of respect someone showed him. "No, quite on the contrary! I think I'd rather be called like this from now on." Yes, that would be better. He felt quite in debt with his Servant, who now had a more of a comrade meaning to him now.

Assassin nodded. "It's good that we can share a bond aside from the Command Spell."

As they broke the initial ice, both reported to the other with more details on what happened. It looked quite obvious to the both of them that they had just enjoyed a major success.

"Oh, so you made Tohsaka use one of her Command Spells to make Saber fight unarmored, that's quite sly of you." Once again, he felt glad that Assassin was his Servant.

"Well, to be honest, I think that discovering the buttons that you have to push to make that girl unstable might be more valuable in the future." Assassin countered with a compliment of his own.

Shinji quickly replayed it all in his head once more. "Yeah, I think that if I play it right, I can easily make the both of them dance in the palms of my hand." It was hard to suppress a chuckle at that thought.

Assassin agreed, but his tone changed to a more serious one. "Still, it's not good to get too drunk on our successes, we still need to be on guard. Not a single Master or Servant has been eliminated yet. While we might be readying for a deathblow to two pairs, it doesn't hurt for us to remain guarded against others." He said not to dismiss their recent success, but to make sure that it wasn't their last.

Shinji understood. "You're right. Well, for now I guess we should rest at home." He looked in the direction of his house, but something felt wrong. It was as if something was missing from it, Shinji wasn't too sure. "Assassin, there's something wrong going on." The Servant said nothing but separated from Shinji and started to walk with more caution, as if he expected some kind of attack.

Nothing happened during the rest of the way, which actually suited Shinji. He'd rather not fight too much in one night, no matter how many victories it meant. As he approached his own home, he noticed that whatever had happened to his house, it was definitely not a Matou victory.

Some of the windows were smashed and the door was missing, however the worst of the damage could not be seen. Every single one of the Boundary Fields which had protected the house for so long were gone, even those that did little more than prevent the Magical Energy from leaking to the outside could not be felt anymore. Who could have done such a thing?

Shinji and Assassin entered the house cautiously, despite the fact that the latter reported not feeling a presence of a Servant from inside. "Actually, I feel a Servant walking away. It must have finished whatever it is that it wanted here." Kill Matou Zouken? That was Shinji's first guess. But it just couldn't be: Zouken was the kind of existence that wouldn't really die even if he got killed (snicker). Well, it'd all be clear when he found the crappy old man. Or his corpse.

Shinji hoped it would be his corpse.

But he would have no such luck. Instead, Shinji found his grandfather mumbling in feverish tones about something or other having been stolen. He considered slapping Zouken for a moment and even raised his hand. In the end he reconsidered this.

"Assassin, if you would be so kind as to break my grandfather from his grief. No gentleness needed." Assassin backhanded Zouken with such force that he slid for almost a meter.

Quickly Zouken's eyes focused on Shinji, but he didn't seem to have felt Assassin's blow, since what he started shouting about was unrelated to it. "What are you doing? You useless trash! Go after him! He's taken almost everything, everything! If you hurry you might catch him. Do it, Do it you bastard!" It was… Surprising to say the least, the old man was even more angered than when Shinji had lured Emiya. He kept on shouting, but Shinji pretty much tuned it off.

He really wasn't in the mood to listen to abuse by that old man. When Zouken gave him the smallest chance to retort… "Speak human, you old fart. Who did what? If you're not clear I don't know how important this thing that happened is." He tried to put as much contempt as he could into his words.

This sobered Zouken enough that he stopped shouting and babbling. "You moron, a Servant was here, Caster, I think, he went through the Boundary Fields like nothing and used some kind of strange magic to record everything that was in almost every book in this house. Said he was looking for more source material or something. He's probably going the Tohsaka household right not." He returned Shinji's tone.

"Hoh, that sounds interesting." He didn't care as much as his grandfather did about the family's secrets. Sure, before this he would have been as disturbed as his grandfather, but now he found a different way to be special than being a member of the Matou family of Magi.

All tiredness seemed to fade from his body. Already many good things had happened to him that day, some bad but he just ignored them, yet it seemed like luck was not finished favoring him.

A few hours ago…

Caster found himself in front of a big house. It was one of his targets, along with the Tohsaka's house. A frown appeared on his face, he did not like it, but he had no choice. He had hit a snag on how to stabilize Magical Energy when he ran the new 'system', so he needed some new research material, as he had run out of new information in Frederick's library.

He sighed and cursed the Command Spell, he normally wouldn't do something so low as to steal from somebody else's research, but then again, he doubted that any other Magi would willing cooperate and hand over their research without a hefty compensation, in that they quite resembled scientists. So realistically, Caster had no other option.

He wouldn't cooperate ever again with someone that put a leash on him in any way; he was fed up with opportunists. It was why the first thing that he told his Master was this: "I will not willingly assist unless you use up every single one of your Command Spells." He'd expected some kind of revolt, but he couldn't expect that this was his Master's plan all along. Nikola Tesla was bound by three quite specific orders, one of which he found to be rather disagreeable, but he had no choice but to follow it.

Thus he found himself standing there, in front of the Matous' house. They were supposed to have died off as Magi, so it was quite surprising that the oldest boy was a Master. Well, later when he asked Frederick, he was the one that implanted the boy with artificial Magic Circuits. "Just leave him be, sooner or later he is going to die from the stress anyway, he's as harmless as a Master can be."

"Well, not so long as he lives." That was the opinion that Caster kept to himself and now uttered in front of the very same boy's home. He briefly thought of going to the Tohsaka household, but remembered that the young girl from that family was also a Master. "What problematic people these Magi are…" Still, it would be much safer to invade the house of a Master whose Servant couldn't completely conceal its presence.

"Hmm." Caster considered for a moment. "Well, I'm going to have to do this eventually, might as well go through with it." He double-checked his Magical Energy source. "Good, Frederick is connected to the system, I won't have any problems." The amount that Caster could hold at a time was small indeed, but it was all he needed, since any fields or barriers that he cast on himself would automatically feed from the 'system'.

He first fed energy to the Crest in his hand. Frederick had told him it was usually the painstaking work of generations and generations, but Caster could not understand how as he believed it to be a matter of efficiently encoding information. Fortunately Frederick's family was quite open-minded as far as Magi go, so Caster found a book on binary language among so many that were about spell casting. Caster quickly learned it and put it to good use.

His Crest was all 1's and 0's, but he knew which strings he wanted to activate. He did it all silently. Frederick seemed slightly angered at that, he said that a spell should have an activation chant or some other rubbish. Caster disagreed, good creations had no need for extra dressing. If what he ended up making was no less than… Awesome and full of fireworks, well then, it was as such on its own merits, not because he put something unnecessary in it.

One of the fields he had just cast on himself allowed him to see flow of Magic Energy. The entire house seemed to be made of light. "Well, after all they WERE Magi at some point." For almost anyone it would be hard, almost impossible to distinguish what was an individual Boundary Field among all the light, but not Caster, who had worked with and manipulated something that he could neither see nor feel his entire life.

"Now, what is the most efficient way of getting rid from these?" He analyzed the web of magic in front of him mildly puzzled. He didn't have enough capacity to brute-force it, nor could he easily work with an established flow. "Oh, I know." Caster smiled as he came up with an answer.

He circled around the house, taking a good look at every Boundary Field's structure. He eventually found a fatal error in their structure. Well, not necessarily an error, but there was a place where the magic suppressing field was so close that it almost activated against another. It should have posed no problem, but…

Caster walked to the electric post next to the house and connected it to the 'system'. He flowed some Magical Energy through the cabless and took care that it went where he wanted, the Matou house. As it approached the house, he diverted it all to a small gap, it was a distance small enough through the air that not much was lost to realization of its potential, though it produced plenty of sparks.

The entire structure of field snapped, quickly breaking down at various points. For a moment the house was dark. Then Caster could see the Magical Energy of what was inside. One bunch in particular drew Caster's attention. "What is this? Insects? No wonder Frederick thinks they are creepy. Well, I'm just here for the books." After he confirmed that there was only one person inside, the Master boy must be looking for opponents, he decided to test something.

Opening his Crest once again, Caster created a strange shiny surface next to him, from it a laser shot out that blasted away the house's door. Caster nodded satisfied. "It seems to be quite easy to create a military-use grade laser using magic." He entered the house.

Frederick had told him not to worry and that the old man that inhabited the house was not killable, but still, Caster would rather not test that. He deactivated the magic-visualization field.

He didn't need to search much, the man came at him and they met in the living room. "You destroyed the Boundary Fields? That's inconceivable! I feel almost no magic…" It was no wonder that he sounded frantic, for someone to destroy all of house's protection should be something unheard of. Magi were quite jealous of their space, or so Frederick told Caster.

Caster interrupted him with a gracious bow. "Good evening, I am the Servant Caster; I have come here for your knowledge of magic. Worry not as I do not intend to truly steal anything, merely copy." He stated his intentions clearly and honestly, perhaps hoping for diminished resistance.

The old man got even more surprised. "You what? Caster, and, that's inconceivable!" A scowl appeared in the old man's face and seemed to be preparing some sort of attack.

Caster clicked his tongue, he'd have to use something to suppress the old man. Once again using his Crest, he cast another spell using the 'system'. Electricity rushed inside the house from the electric cables around the house, destroying every window in the process, and created a sort of cage around the old man. He was effectively sealed.

"I will net let you touch the knowledge which was the result of so much sacrifice!" The old man cast something but it fizzled harmlessly in the cage of energy. Caster smiled at the result. As expected, of course electricity properly channeled can interfere with magic. The old man obviously didn't like the grin. "What? Just like that and I'm neutralized? Inconceivable…" He obviously was not accustomed to defeat.

Caster let out a chuckle. "Inconceivable, inconceivable… You keep saying that word. I don't think it means what you think it means." With that he left the old man, after all he had some books to find and copy with another of his spells.

At the time that Shinji was still walking to his home, Shirou, Rin, Saber and Rider had arrived at the Emiya household. Overtaken by exhaustion, Shirou simply threw himself on the ground in the living room. "Ah, I'm tired. Wow, that was really stressful." He looked at the ceiling, wondering: What other course of action should he have taken? There had to be something that he could have done that would have made things better.

Rider blocked his view of the celling. "I don't know what you're thinking, Shirou, but that worried face betrays some of it. Whatever happened, it wasn't your fault. It was my fault for underestimating Archer. I shouldn't have let him demolish the building." Ah yes, the building. Shirou realized what she meant, probably quite a few people died in the implosion, and it wasn't even that which was nagging at his heart.

Not only had he failed Rin, he didn't protect her from Shinji, he had also failed the people in the hotel. "And even before…" He rolled to his side while grumbling. As he did, he saw Rin pouring some tea in the kitchen, she appeared to be completely calm. Despite all of the guilt wracking him, he felt some laughter trying to escape him. He felt like he failed to protect Rin, hah, that was a joke. If he told her that, she would probably be angry, saying something about how she was able to protect herself fine.

But she wasn't, the way she acted in the hotel was proof. Behind that strong façade, she might actually be quite the frail person. He would just have to secretly add her to his ever growing list of things to be protected, to hell with what she might think.

"Huh, just when I thought you were smiling, your face gets so stiff." Rider blocked his view again, this time by lying in front of him. She was close, too close.

Shirou practically jumped back. "What you're doing? Are you making fun of me?" He would rather not have blushed.

Rider looked slightly surprised by his reaction. "You just seemed to be brooding too much, that's not good, you know?"

"What? You want me to smile in this situation?" He said it without thinking, just letting his frustration act.

Rider was unfazed. "It's exactly because we are in this situation that you can't feel too depressed about things that happened. You can grieve after there's nothing left to be done." She said clearly and calmly, as if this was something that she lived by, something that she had to say out loud so she didn't forget it herself.

Shirou wanted to answer, but before he could, Rin put the tray with tea on the table. "I hate to interrupt, but we have to discuss the recent events." She was probably talking about what happened in the hotel.

It didn't bring much progress, as they were unable to link any of the new information on Archer and Assassin to a possible Heroic Spirit. "There are two things that I can think of in addition to the regular possibilities:" Rin talked in her usual explanatory manner. "Either they're Heroic Spirits from the future, or they're fictional heroes." After all, Heroic Spirits were little understood existences that were outside the flow of time. It would not be so strange for such a thing to be. "Or we just can't identify them." She finished with a shrug.

Rider said that none of Archer's weapons looked like a Noble Phantasm, so it means that he hasn't used it yet? Shirou tried to continue his train of thought as he went to check on Sakura. She was likely safe, but he just wanted to be sure. It's not like… His thoughts froze as took a good look at Sakura's room. She was nowhere to be seen. Ona name popped in Shirou's mind.

"Ma-tou, Shin-ji!" He uttered the name between grinding teeth.

Shinji took a deep breath, he'd need a lot of courage for that. After he realized what had happened, he first wanted to make use of his house as a barrier against Emiya's wrath while he convinced Emiya of his innocence, but now all protection was gone, so he had to be a bit daring. He stood alone in front of his home.

As he predicted, the sound of hoofs approached, it was Emiya and Tohsaka, riding behind their Servants. Emiya practically flew off the horse and grabbed Shinji by the shirt, pinning him against the wall. As he ordered, Assassin did nothing. "Where's Sakura?" But Shinji didn't listen to the shout; he was too busy looking into the eyes of the other Master, Tohsaka.

Those were eyes that he had never seen on Tohsaka, such coldness, such hatred. It was to be expected, of course she would hate him, but there was something else to it, something that pleased Shinji infinitely, something that just now he realized that he had always wanted, always craved.

She saw him as something considerable, a menace, something not to be overlooked, just from that he thought that all that had happened and anything that might happen in the future became worth it. I'm not just a bug anymore! He might have laughed. That is, if he wasn't pinned on the wall.

"I asked you a question, Shinji!" Emiya shook him and he hit his head on the wall.

He bore the pain and answered with some difficulty. "Yes, I know where she is, no it's not my fault you dimwit. If you let me down, then we can talk rationally." Perhaps Emiya was reaching his limit.

Emiya shook him again. "Talk rationally? You think I can easily trust you after all that you've done?"

Shinji suppressed the ridiculously strong urge to roll his eyes. If you're not going to trust me, then why the fuck are you asking me? Moron. Despite his words, Emiya let him down. Well, Shinji hadn't lied to him once until now, Emiya probably realized that.

"Rest assured." The cold voice was from Tohsaka. It sent a chill up Shinji's spine, it was like her eyes. The chill wasn't from fear. "If we find your answer to be unsatisfactory, we will wring a satisfactory one from you." She was serious.

It took Shinji a lot of effort not to smile. It would not do to irritate them further. "Look, she's under the rubble of that hotel, but don't worry, I don't think she's dead yet, she shouldn't be, considering what she is." The looks of disbelief in Tohsaka's and Emiya's faces were priceless.

"Look, I don't know the details, but according to Archer's Master, that ominous presence was Sakura. Apparently Zouken made her so, but she wasn't supposed to be acting like that yet. The probable cause, according to Archer's Master, would be a bigger attachment to Emiya than normal." Oh boy, was he enjoying it.

"I guess that indirectly makes me responsible, eh? Getting over the whole Worm-Room-Incident must have made her love for Emiya even stronger." He was going to say something he would regret, but he would regret not saying it even more.

"Still, I think that the bigger culprit is one certain father, don't you agree, Tohsaka?" Him saying that finally made them snap out of their disbelief.

Emiya threw to the ground. "You think we're going to believe this fairy-tale? You bastard." Tohsaka dismounted and Shinji felt magic from her, things were getting dangerous.

"I guess we're going to need some motivation for a better answer." Tohsaka looked like she might really kill him, he really regretted saying it.

Still, not all was lost. "You sure about that? You can do whatever you want to me, but every lost moment might bring a certain girl closer to death under all of that rubble you know, on the off chance that I am speaking the truth." He wasn't nearly as calm as he sounded, but he was proud of faking it.

Both of them froze. It worked. Emiya let out a growl, probably of frustration. "You're right. Let's go." He turned around and started walking to the Servants, who were probably still on guard for Assassin.

"Wait, Emiya-kun." Tohsaka grabbed Emiya's shoulder. "If what he says is true…" Shinji liked the way she said 'he', it dripped with acid. "Then we can't just save her carelessly." Oh, that is going to be fun.

Emiya seemed on auto-pilot. "We will think about that after we save her." He growled it.

Tohsaka, meanwhile, had entered perfect-Magus mode. "You felt it, didn't you, as caretaker of this land I can't simply let something like that freely roam about." She answered resolutely.

The outrage surpassed the auto-pilot for Emiya. "What are you saying? She's your sister! How can you say that?" By then, the Servants were already looking at each other in confusion, they obviously did not expect discord among their Masters.

Tohsaka closed her eyes and shook her head as if denying the world. "It doesn't matter, not if she's… not herself anymore." For people who claimed to distrust him, they seemed to put quite the stock in his words, Shinji thought. He decided to pour some gasoline on the fire.

"You know, I don't want to interrupt, but I'd like to say something." Both glared at him, he didn't shrink. "First of all, I'd rather you discussed this away from my home, second I've got some more information, though it is unrelated to the topic at hand." He let it hang.

"We're listening." The two said irritated.

"Okay, as you can see, my house was attacked. It was Caster. Tohsaka, tell your Servant that if she's feeling a Servant going away right now, then it's probably Caster who's after new research sources." Oh, how he wished he had a sort of camera in his eyes to record Tohsaka's face.

"You don't mean?" She seemed to even have forgotten that it was Shinji that she was talking with.

"Yes, he's already stolen the Matou's knowledge, now he's after the Tohsaka's. Time for a choice, the Tohsaka's knowledge or the Tohsaka's lost daughter, now possibly turned monster? What do you want to protect." The ensuing the debate would likely be quite interesting.

Rider didn't like the way things were going. She understood Shirou's desire to protect, but things were going a bit too far. Even though she felt some uneasiness from the moment that they started to cooperate with Rin, Saber's Master, Rider didn't oppose it. After all they were both respectable people, she was sure that they wouldn't betray her and Shirou.

Now that Shirou had declared that they would be on different sides regarding Sakura if she really was the presence that they felt, Rider couldn't help but feel nervous. She didn't fight against Saber, but she realized from fighting alongside her that without using her trump card she would never be able to defeat Saber.

"Shirou, maybe you should reconsider your position." She didn't need to mention what.

"Rider, don't make me repeat myself, if she does not wish to protect Sakura, then there's nothing to talk." The conversation went pretty much like this. Rin attached the condition of a possible salvation as the minimum, Shirou would have none of it, he would never give up.

Thus they found themselves in such a situation. On Shirou's orders Rider unsummoned the horse that she had lent Saber. He and Rider were making their way to the hotel's ruins while Rin and Saber were presumably going to the Tohsaka household to protect the Tohsakas' library.

Shirou's mood was only getting worse, which was to be expected, in the short while that she lived with him she realized what kind of person he was. He worked diligently for the benefit of others; nothing hurt him more than failing at something that's for the sake of another. Not that different from her, but there should be limits.

Not for Shirou, he didn't seem to believe in limits unless you meant of them as something to be broken. It was impressive in its own way. Although in a different manner, she was reminded of her father, he was also a person who would not bend when it came to some values.

They finally arrived at it, the hotel's ruins. Surprisingly, it was completely deserted. There wasn't even sign of a rescue party trying to look for possible survivors. Shirou quickly jumped off the horse and started to move pieces of concrete.

"What are you doing? Help me!" He seemed to have been possessed by something, moving the pieces here and there with an eerie calm.

Rider sighed. There was no way around it. "Okay, Shirou."

They did this for a few minutes, but no progress seemed to have been made, they didn't hear anyone calling nor see anyone in all the rubble. "Damn it, if only we could have more hands. That stupid Tohsaka…"

Rider considered it for a moment and before she thought it through. "Well, I could do something about it, but it would too much magic that we don't have the luxury of using." She regretted saying that much.

"Do it." Shirou said it with a blank stare.

Rider was dumbfounded. She blurted. "What? Are you insane? Hat if someone sees it, that's not the kind of…"

"I told you to do it!" Shirou cut her using a tone that she didn't remember hearing from him. "If you don't…" He raised his hand containing the Command Spell. The threat was apparent.

Rider couldn't believe it, but he was most likely serious. "You would step on me, force me, for this? Even though it is clearly not a good idea?"

Shirou stared her in the eyes, he did not waver. "Do it, or I will make you do it, that's your last chance." He was dead serious.

Rider gritted her teeth; losing one of the Command Spells on top of everything would just make things worse. "Fine, this time I'll do it for free, but the next time you want to force me to do something like that, you will have to use that Command Spell." That was not good, she didn't want to have attrition with her Master, but he left her no choice. "Rise! Pride of the steppes, guard of the Khan!" With that, she used one of her Noble Phantasms

Four riders appeared, two to each of her side, they were all armored for battle. One of them addressed Rider. "Oh, Princess, how rare, so you are representing us. Does that mean that you have a chance of having your wish fulfilled?" Rider silenced him with a gesture.

Rider's voice betrayed the need for coercion. "I'm sorry, Subutai, but the reason I called for you has nothing to do with war." She gestured to the rubble around them. "Help me and my Master look for a survivor among this." None of the soldiers said anything, nor did their looks betray their thoughts. They merely set to the task.

It was humiliating to have her identity exposed in such a manner. But she had to bear with it, she just had to bear with the frustration, it was something she was used to after all. She fervently prayed that no other Servant or Master was watching them.

The work picked up the pace with four more pairs of hand. Will we even find anyone? Was the unasked question, but even if anyone asked, Shirou probably wouldn't change his mind.

"Hey, I think I hear some breathing!" Everyone was surprised.

"What are you waiting for? Help her!" Shirou barked the order, but the soldier merely looked at Rider.

"No reason not to." She said simply. So the soldier and the others started working in that area.

"Seems hard for you, that Master." It was Subutai who talked.

Rider bit her lip. "Don't mention it, it doesn't matter, I will triumph." Yes, after all she still had her trump card. "I won't shame these powers lent by my father."

Subutai smiled. "We wouldn't expect any less. Just make sure that next time you summon us our weapons are of use." She nodded.

"What the…? Ugh!" Their attention was drawn by the soldier's groan as he was attacked by… Some sort of tentacle? Rider wasn't sure. It seemed like he was being absorbed somehow.

Four arrows broke the tentacle-like thing. "What the hell is going on?" Once again Rider could feel that ominous aura. It was coming from the person emerging from the rubble, Matou Sakura. Well it did look like Matou Sakura, but in very twisted way. It seemed to be wounded already. No wonder, since a building collapsed on it. Wait, how was it even walking? Maybe it regenerated by absorbing people, that made sense if you consider that it had all of the trapped people as 'food'.

All of these thoughts came in a second. Almost unconsciously Rider was drawing and nocking her arrow. It is finished. She was about to release it.

"Don't do it! Don't do anything to Sakura!" Shirou's hand glowed, Rider cursed.

For a moment she considered resisting the Command Spell, but she didn't have the luxury of concentrating on that as she had to dodge the tentacle-like things shooting from Matou Sakura. "Damn it…"

"Sakura, what are you doing?" Rider's idiotic Master was running at the thing, and she had no way to protect him from it. She had already unconsciously unsummoned her soldiers since she knew she wouldn't be fast enough to stop them. Please, let whatever it is that he is trying work.

It did. "Senpai?" It said so sleepily before fainting and falling on Shirou's arms. Rider thanked every deity that she could think of.

Saber really felt like she wanted to speak with whoever said that "Caster is a weak opponent for Saber." She felt that it was a gross misconception. While she did have quite the high resistance against magic, it mean nothing if the magic wasn't being used directly on her, like in this case.

"How can you dodge so fast? Certainly you do not have the dexterity for it, Caster." She looked once again at the man who she had just scared away from the Tohsaka household.

Caster stroked his mustache while looking thoughtful. "Well, I guess there is no harm in telling you, I merely make use of any metal I find to create magnetic polarities which allow me to move away from you as fast as possible." He bowed at the end of the explanation, as if he had just explained a magic trick.

Saber charged after him. "So, you fear my blade." He ran away equally fast.

"Yes, quite so, seeing as how all of the delicate spells I have woven on myself might be affected if you're too close, or not, but I'm not in the mood for experimenting with this right now." He jumped on a house's roof.

Saber prepared to jump after, but held back by instinct. It was the right choice as an electric net was made between the electric cables. Saber glared at Caster. "Petty trickery, is it your sole intention to run?" She knew he would not be provoked, but it was worth a shot.

At least he turned to speak to her. "Trickery? That would have been enough to kill a regular human, though it would not kill you, it would at least be enough to render you harmless for enough time that I would be able to capture you." He stated his objective without a care.

"And how would that serve you?" At the very least, it was easy to get information out of him.

Caster raised his head as if he was thinking deeply. Perhaps he was. "Well, that I can think of right now, I would be served by: First, having a wonderful test subject on how exactly does magic resistance work and would I be able to break it with the least amount of Energy, magical or otherwise. Second, I can always use more batteries for my 'system'. Third, I could pillage unhindered the knowledge of your Master's family." He made a surprised expression at that. "Oh right, that's why you're after me."

It was why she wouldn't let him leave, aside from how dangerous he was. "You're not escaping." She made another effort to reach him.

His arm started to glow, he was preparing something. "Well, too bad, time's up. The 'system' is getting unstable, so I will excuse myself." He bowed and disappeared from in front of Saber. It wasn't that he went into spirit form. Was it some kind of teleportation? She didn't think so, as she could feel him leaving ridiculously fast. The simple fact was that he escaped, and that he refrained from doing it too soon as to try to capture her. He was definitely dangerous, perhaps more so than even Assassin.

Even as they arrived home, Shirou was dissatisfied. Not only that, he kept glaring at Rider. She tried her best to ignore that, as she felt that she should be the one feeling injured by the whole situation. "Regardless of possible recovery, she is a menace in the short-term. Can't you understand it, Shirou?" She knew he wouldn't listen, but tried anyway.

He just shook his head as he went to pot Sakura in her room. He talked once he came back. "It is not up for discussion." He said it flatly.

Well, that's evident, considering your usage of the Command Spell. But she decided to let it go for now. "Well, for it is better if we rest, but I do hope you have some idea as to what are we doing tomorrow." She did her best to sound friendly.

Shirou's defiant mood softened. "Well, I do have an idea, I don't really like it, but it is the only thing I can think of. Kotomine Church."

Lancer smiled satisfied. While he was not fond of doing reconnaissance work himself, he didn't have much choice in that situation. He knew he'd be able to obtain some good information if he kept watching that rubble. Good information could be the bringer of victory. He would definitely be the victor of this War, his pride would allow no less, especially considering the circumstances of his death. All because of a piece of information.

6th Day end.

Stats for Rider

General)

Master: Emiya Shirou

True Name: ? (Daughter of Genghis Khan

Alignment: True Neutral

Strength: C

Endurance: B

Agility: A

Magical Energy: C

Luck: C

Noble Phantasm: A+

Class abilities)

Riding A+: Able to ride anything but dragons

Magic Resistance B: Nullifies most magic that isn't very strong.

Details)

How or why she was summoned instead of her father is not known, but it seems that she borrows many powers from him, so she still has quite the formidable arsenal at her disposal.

Skills)

Mounted Combat A: Able to fight using her own skills, such as the bow while mounted.

Noble Phantasm)

Pride of the Steppes,

Guard of the Khan

Rider summon a group of some of the most skillful warriors of ancient Mongolia, led by one of her father's most successful generals, Subutai.

While the others are not quite at that level, Subutai himself is at the level of a Heroic Spirit.

Rank: A

Type: Summon

Range: -

Maximum target: -

Yes, her second (and more powerful) Noble Phantasm is yet to be revealed.