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Lilly - Hercules was summoned as Saber instead of Berserker.
And I will try to tone down the swearing, but sometimes it is the fastest way to show a character's reaction. especially with Rin, who does not tolerate fools gladly. The 'dere' is only for the people she likes. Everybody else gets the 'Tsun'
START
Shirou and Rin went their separate ways after walking to school together under a flag of truce. 'Tohsaka is actually pretty decent. She just hides behind an aloof facade,' Shirou mused on how she had gone out of her way to help him yesterday, bringing him up to speed on the Grail war. The fact that Rin had threatened to kill him the next time she saw him didn't make a strong impression. But as Shirou walked further on to the school grounds, he was pulled out of his internal world: He began to notice an odd, sickly smell, like rotting meat or blood.
As the day progressed, the rotting meat smell became stronger and stronger until finally at lunch it got so strong that Shirou could not stomach eating his food. He turned to his lunchtime companion, "Issei - do you smell anything?"
Issei Ryuudou, the Student Council president, was a close friend, and the two often ate lunch together in the student council room. In part because Issei often worked on council business during lunch.
Today, the paperwork had stayed in it's folder. Issei looked up from his bland meal, "I can't say that I do, Emya-kun." He gave an experimental sniff. "There is something odd, though, some niggling sensation just below the surface of my conscious awareness."
Shirou put down his bento. "Here, come with me." Shirou took a sniff, and pulled open the door. His nose led them down the hall and into an empty classroom.
"sniff"
"sniff"
Issei watched in bemusement as Shirou poked, prodded and sniffed his way through racks of A/V equipment, until finally: "Aha! It's coming from here!" Shirou pointed to an empty shelf.
Issei quirked an eyebrow before taking a closer look. He drew back, startled. He then reached out and tentatively ran his hand over the shelf. He jerked it back abruptly, as if burnt. "There is something wrong here." He glanced over at his friend and stood back up, rubbing his chin with one hand while supporting the elbow of that arm with the other hand. "I know this will sound odd. You know my father is the head monk at the Ryuudou temple. Well, one of the things he taught me is how to sense malign spiritual energy. I don't know how better to describe it. Father says that it's caused by evil spirits or curses. I don't know if I believe that, but this shelf is radiating that sort of wrongness."
Issei rubbed his forehead as he tried to assimilate the idea that his religious education might not be a complete waste of time, and that his father might be good for something other than soothing querulous old women.
"Is there anything you can do?" Shirou asked, 'I wonder if Ryuudou-san is a magus. No, he would have taught Issei in that case. He must just have some sort of rudimentary sensitivity.'
Issei nodded, "I can write an Ofuda to purify the evil spirit." He pulled out his calligraphy kit and carefully wrote out a buddhist verse in beautiful kanji. "Fruits of my misspent youth," he quipped as he finished. He then taped the Ofuda underneath the shelf. "This way some well meaning tech-voc student won't throw it away before it has a chance to do it's work."
"I think there are more of these scattered all over the school," Shirou's head swiveled like a bloodhound.
"What are they? Is our school possessed?" Issei frowned. While he didn't plan to follow his father into the priesthood, his religious education was pretty thorough. These patches of spiritual corruption were bad news. "After classes are done, we should go find the rest of these patches and purify the school."
Shirou nodded. 'I wonder if these have anything to do with the Holy Grail war?' He concentrated and reached out mentally to Caster, giving her the details on what he had discovered.
'Most likely yes.' Caster replied, 'From your description, these sound like the anchor points for a draining spell, to siphon off life energy from the students to use to power a Servant. There must be another Master that attends your school.'
Shirou thought about that, and then tentatively sent, 'You don't think Tohsaka would do something like this?'
'No. She's is tough and a little short tempered, but she has a heart of gold. She wouldn't do something truly foul like this.' Caster sent, 'I think you should get to know her - she would be a good ally.'
Shirou let out a sigh of relief, 'That was my assessment as well.' He turned to Issei as they walked back to the club room. "Yeah, I have time after school. Let's clean this mess up then."
-FAR-FAR-
As soon as Shirou cleaned up his lunch things, he excused himself, saying he had to study for a quiz. He quickly made his way to an empty classroom and pulled out his cell phone. 'Come on, pick up. Pick up.' Class would start in another few minutes, so his window of opportunity was very small.
Finally, "Hello?" came the voice on the other end.
"Hi, Sakura? There's something weird going on at school. I can't really explain what it is, but you should go home right after classes are out, ok?" Shirou knew that the Principal had announced yesterday that all after school activities would be cancelled and that all students should go straight home after class. But Rin's questions on the way to school that morning had brought Sakura to the forefront of his mind. Which for Shirou meant that he felt responsible. She was his Kohai, after all, and she always came by to help him out.
"Ok, Sempai. You do the same too, ok? I want you to take care of yourself." Sakura knew that Shirou had different standards for himself than for other people.
"I will be careful." Shirou agreed quickly, "I gotta go - class is starting soon and I need to get my books."
"I will see you after school."
-FAR-FAR-
Later that day, Shirou met up with Issei to start cleaning up the anchor points. They were just leaving a classroom after finishing up with the third spot of corruption when Issei jerked back into the room. He then peered around the corner and pointed down the hall, "Hey, what's Tohsaka doing still in here?" It was an hour after classes were over for the day, and Rin was notorious for disappearing as soon as school let out - In large part, that was what helped maintain her mysterious school idol image.
As Shirou stepped out into the hallway to take a look, Rin turned and spotted him in turn. "Emya" she said in a disappointed voice, "I told you that the next time I saw you I would have to kill you."
Shirou smiled, assuming she was joking. The smile slipped of his face as she pointed her finger at him like a kid making a gun from his finger, and then shot a ball of pitch black at him
"What the hell, Tohsaka?" he dodged back into the classroom, slamming the door shut behind him.
"She really IS a witch!" Issei's eyes were wide with fear.
"I KNOW!" Shirou muttered "Trace on!" and reinforced the door, before pulling Issei to the back of the classroom. As the the door began to buck and twist under Rin's continued magical assault, he tipped over a table and reinforced that as well. 'A heart of gold, Caster? Does that seem like a heart of gold to you?' Shirou sent, 'get here quick!' He turned to his companion, "Get a weapon. She's serious!"
Issei grabbed a chalkboard pointer.
Just as the door appeared about to fall off of it's hinges, there was a girlish scream from outside. "Tohsaka? Is that you?" Shirou called out.
"No." after a momentary pause, she continued, "It's the draining field. It's activated. Let's call a truce until we can deal with that, or it will end up killing everybody still in the school."
"Is that those spots of corruption that are scattered all over the school? Issei and I have been taking them down." Shirou opened the door.
"Are you crazy? She just tried to kill us!"
Rin face-palmed, "Shirou… Why did you involve this moron?" she asked in a menacing tone.
"He's been helping me disable the draining spell thingees."
"Him? A magus?"
Issei continued to stand close to the doorway, so that if Rin switched back to crazy psycho witch, he could hide behind the door. "I am not a wizard, but I AM trained as a priest. Mostly."
"We can debate this later. We need to go now!" Shirou raced down the hallway, followed by the other two. He threw open classroom doors as he went, but he couldn't see anybody.
"Let's try the gym" Issei ran ahead to the stairs. Down on the first floor, they found a girl collapsed in the hallway. Rin crouched down next to her as Shirou and Issei looked on. "She's had some of her life force drained. We need to get her out of the building promptly!"
Issei had just picked her up when a dagger came flying down the hallway at Tohsaka. Shirou instinctively blocked it with his arm. "That came from over there!" He ripped the dagger out of his arm and took off at a run in the direction of the attack.
"Baka! It's probably a Servant!' yelled Rin. As Shirou raced out of the building, Issei began muttering a protective mantra as he staggered in the opposite direction with the unconscious girl.
-FAR-FAR-
Shirou dodged as another dagger on a chain lashed out at him, 'I'm not prepared for this.' He rolled on the ground as a chain shot between his legs, tripping him.
"You're pretty fast for a human, boy, but you're not fast enough." a cold female voice called from amongst the trees. Shirou whirled, trying to pinpoint the origin. At the last moment, he saw motion out of the corner of his eye and he threw himself face first into the ground, barely avoiding the dagger chain. He rolled back to his feet with a stick in his hands. As he raised it to his shoulder to ready himself, a chain wrapped around his neck.
-FAR-FAR-
"Go, I'll help Emya" Rin yelled to a confused Issei.
"No, you're not going anywhere!" cackled Shinji as he stepped out from a classroom. Before Rin could cast a spell, he reached down to a book in his hands and flung a spray of black at her. Rin barely dodged in time
Issei looked conflicted about who to help.
"Run, you fool!" Rin yelled, shooting a gander shot at Shinji, who blocked it with the book, before slapping his hand on it, sending out a wave of concussive force that knocked Rin off of her feet.
-FAR-FAR-
Shirou struggled to loosen the chain that was looped around his neck as it pulled him up off of his feet. If it hadn't caught his hand in the loop as well, it would have already suffocated him. 'I need help.' Shirou gathered up his thoughts to call to Caster when a voice called out "No! Stop! Let him go!"
The Servant jerked to a halt like a puppet. Her hands slackened, letting her chains slip loose. As Shirou dropped to the ground, Sakura ran up to his side, catching him as best she could.
Shirou pulled the chain off of his throat "Caster, help me!" Another command seal faded away as there was a ripple in the air. The attacking servant fled, to be chased by Caster who had materialized from thin air.
"You said you would meet me to walk home from school." Sakura admonished Shiro, who frowned, as he had no memory of any such arrangement.
"That was very dangerous," Shirou looked down at the purple haired girl supporting him, "but thank you for saving me."
Sakura's frown turned into a radiant smile, "Always, Sempai."
-FAR-FAR-
"Not so high and mighty anymore are, you, Tohsaka-chan?" Shinji crowed as his spell blasted Rin's feet from under her, sending her face first to the ground. As she struggled to get back up, he prepared another spell, "Now, let's see how you like it when I have the power and treat YOU like scum!" He reached to fling another spell from his Book of the False Attendant when it burst into flame, as the command seal that powered it evaporated.
Shinji dropped the book, and it was completely consumed in a ball of fire before his horrified eyes.
"Scum, am I?" Rin ground out as she staggered back up to her feet, leaning on the wall as one of her legs wasn't supporting her.
Shinji glanced at the brunette. Rin was still a little wobbly, but the sheer fury radiating off of her was an almost palpable force. Shinji looked around for a weapon, for anything to protect him from the oncoming storm. Not seeing anything, he turned to run. Which was when when a woman in a black hooded cloak stepped out from nowhere and jammed a dagger up into his heart. As Shinji collapsed at her feet, the hooded woman smiled up at Rin and faded away into a swirl of smoke.
-FAR-FAR-
Caster chased after the fleeing Servant. The purple haired woman leaped from building to building quicker than the eye could follow. When she reached the first skyscraper, she ran up it so fast that she appeared to be flying. Caster followed at her best speed. Her flight was slower than that of her prey, but more direct.
As Caster crested the top of the skyscraper, there was a flash of light, and the Servant, now revealed as Rider, came flashing down towards her, mounted on a blazing white pegasus. Caster raised her hand and a glasslike sheet of force appeared directly in front of Rider. The edges of the glass danced with pale blue flames.
As Rider and her mount slammed into the sheet, they collapsed, not physically, but like they were diving into a tunnel, or an extrusion that was collapsed back into a two dimensional image. Rider looked out from the glass, horrified, as Caster raised her upturned hand and curled her fingers into a fist. The glass sheet shattered into hundreds of shards, and along with it, Rider.
-FAR-FAR-
Shirou took a sniff as he slowly made his way back towards the school building. 'The draining spell - it's gone.'
"I called an ambulance, but will it be safe for them to come here?" Shirou turned to see Issei crouching behind a bush, the girl he had carried out of the school lying next to him. He had taken out his calligraphy set.
"Put that away. The spell is gone." replied Rin as she limped over to the boys. Her frown deepened when she saw Sakura supporting Shirou.
"We should talk about what happened here." Her comment was directed to Shirou.
"Yes we should. " Sakura interrupted, looking stubbornly at Rin.
Rin sighed. "Fine, Fine. We can meet at Emya's."
"I'll make dinner," the boy volunteered.
-FAR-FAR-
Much of dinner was cooked by Sakura, over Shirou's protests that he was all better.
The crowd gathered in Shirou's dining room was large. In addition to the host and Sakura, there was Rin, Issei and Caster. The dinner was spent bringing Issei up to speed on magecraft and the Holy Grail war. Sakura sat quietly after admitting, in a quiet, almost ashamed tone, that she was familiar with both.
"So what next, sempai?" Sakura asked once the explanations had finally wound down, "Are you still going to be Shirou's enemy?" the quiet and retiring girl sat close to the boy in question and looked at the Tohsaka heir with unusual intensity.
Rin frowned down at her hands, "No, I owe him my life. And besides, we have bigger fish to fry than some third rate Magus." that last part was a reminder directed at Archer, who was watching the proceedings without materializing.
"What do you mean, by that, Tohsaka-san? You seem to be implying that once the greater threat is dealt with, you will come after Shirou again." Issei glowered at the school idol.
"That is exactly what I mean. But right now, we have Saber, who is an incredibly powerful class, and one that is filled by a demigod from legend. He will not be easy to defeat. And there is also the other servant, most likely Assassin, that killed Shinji."
"Ryuudou," Caster turned to the young monk, "Has there been any unusual activity up at the temple? I have a premonition that one of the Servants might be operating from there."
"Not that I am aware of. But you are welcome to come take a look, as long as you avoid breaking anything" The second part of the statement was accompanied by a glance at Rin.
Rin rolled her eyes, "Ryuudou temple would make a logical choice for a base of operations, given that it sits on a natural well of power. We should go check it out." She smiled evilly at Issei, "We'll go poke around tomorrow, maybe prod a few things."
"But for now, you should head home and try to act normal," Caster added,"We'll come see you tomorrow, and you'll let us in, telling your father that we are friends from school."
"Are you certain that's a good idea?" Shirou asked, "If there is a servant up there, Issei could be at risk."
"All the more reason for him to go home and act normal - the Servant won't want to make trouble at their home base. It could attract attention." Rin countered. "And with him as our guide, we won't appear suspicious."
"We know that the servant up there is not Caster, so we don't have to worry about him being mind controlled or something," finished Caster.
"And when are you going home?" Issei asked Rin.
"Don't worry about me, Ryuduou-kun. I am a big girl., I can take care of myself."
"That's not what I meant. I am worried about Shirou…"
"I will protect his virtue, if that is your concern," Caster smirked.
Rin added, "Go on home - we're just going to be discussing some magecraft."
Issei sighed in defeat and collected his things. Once he had left, Shirou turned to Tohsaka, "So what do you want to discuss?"
"Nothing. I just needed Ryuudou to leave, and he's paranoid about me for some reason. I didn't think he would react very well if I told him that I was planning to spend the night."
"What?" Sakura squeaked. She had been so quiet that the others had again forgotten that she was there.
"I don't mean that way! But I don't want to split up our forces at this point. The whole idea of an alliance is that we will make up for each other's deficiencies. Especially those of Caster's master's." A pointed scowl at Shirou
"Hey.."
Sakura giggled, "Oh that's ok. Just this once, let somebody else protect you."
-FAR-FAR-
"We need to talk about out tactics" Caster cornered Shirou as he sat down in his shed to practice his spellcraft. "If your going to insist on fighting against Servants as you are, you are going to get killed."
"I'm not going to stand back and let other people protect me" Shirou replied stubbornly. "Besides, as a Caster, you're not much use if the enemy Servant gets in close on you."
"I can handle myself in a fight," Caster retorted hotly. "Be that as it may, though, I actually meant is that I can places a series of spells on you that will increase your speed and strength, so that you will have a chance, at least against the slower servants. Take off your clothes"
"What?" Shirou asked, surprised.
"Don't worry, I don't have any impure intentions towards you, " Caster smirked, "I just need to paint several runes on your body. They act as anchor points for the spell."
Shirou did as he was asked, stripping down to his underwear while Caster painted his arms and legs with glowing runes 'I hope nobody comes in while she's doing this. I'll die from embarrassment.'
After fifteen minutes, Caster stood up. "Done. now get your pants back on before Tohsaka walks in and get the wrong idea." Caster looked the other way while Shirou hastily pulled his clothes back on. After an awkward pause, she added, "Speaking of Tohsaka, you should ask her to help you with your magecraft. That is another area you could improve in quickly with a little guidance."
"Why can't you help me?" Asked Shirou as he buttoned up his shirt.
"My style is not compatible with modern magecraft," Caster with a sweeping gesture, as if to brush away the inferior modern magic away.
"You look pretty modern," Shirou looked at the business suit that Caster was wearing.
"This?" Caster straightened her skirt, "You don't expect me to wear a Kimono or something? I dress to fit the times."
"You fit them very well. I can't even imagine you in a kimono" Shirou sniped back.
Caster blushed, "Erh, well, maybe not a kimono, but you know what I mean."
"Actually, I don't."
Caster sighed, "Go get Tohsaka, and ask her for help. Remember to be polite - you won't get anywhere with her if you are all bossy and rude."
-FAR-FAR-
"Tohsaka?" Shirou knocked on the door to the room where Rin was staying, "Can you help me with my magecraft. I really don't know what I'm doing.
The door slid open, "Yeah, that's pretty obvious. Let me grab my sweater."
As Rin turned away, the neighboring door slid open, "Sempai? I will help as well."
"Oh, hello." Shirou glanced at the clock. 'I hadn't realized she was planning to stay the night as well.' Then Shirou froze as something finally penetrated, "Wait - you're a magus as well?"
"I thought you realized that this afternoon, sempai." Sakura replied in a small voice as she looked down at the floor. "Is that a problem?"
"No, not at all, it's just that I'm surprised." Shirou was having a hard time keeping up as the world around him changed (or maybe he was just able to see it more clearly). Rin was a Magus. Sakura was one too. And Servants and the Grail War. But one thing he could rely on was Sakura.
"Where's your workroom?" Rin asked. She eyed the other two teens. She still wasn't certain about Shirou, but it was pretty obvious that Sakura was in love with him. "I'll let Sakura teach, while I supervise. It will be a good experience for both of you." Rin gave in to her altruistic side. Sakura was her imouto, after all.
-FAR-FAR-
"Doesn't that hurt, sempai?" Sakura asked.
"A little, but I am used to it." Shirou replied with a shrug and a smile
"No, no, NO!" Rin interrupted. "Turning your nerves into Mage circuits is not something you just brush off with a 'doesn't that hurt?' That is the stupidest thing I have EVER seen anybody do! You already have perfectly good Mage circuits. Use them!"
"Do not yell at Sempai," Sakura quietly interposed herself between Shirou and Rin, "If you can help him use his circuits correctly, do so, but don't blame him for not knowing something he was never taught."
Rin sighed, and forced a smile, "You're right of course. I am just furious at his teacher for letting Shirou do something so dangerous. He could fry his nerves!" She turned to the object of the conversation, "Here, sit. I'm going to link my magic with yours. Then I want you to try to activate a magic circuit WITHOUT converting any nerves, and I will guide you."
Rin sat down opposite Shirou and then leaned forwards until her forehead was resting against his. "Ok, go."
As Shirou struggled to find his mage circuits, Sakura watched the tableau in front of her - her estranged sister sitting intimately with Shirou. She wished it could be her in Tohsaka position, but with her magic tainted by the worms, her method of accessing her circuits was not normal. There was nothing she could do to help. Again.
It took a half hour, but finally Rin leaned back. "See, that wasn't so hard!"
"I… that was so weird. It just worked. I didn't have to fight my magic to get it to activate."
"Baka. Magic isn't supposed to a fight. It's as natural as breathing." Rin shook her head in amazement, 'Does he do EVERYTHING the hard way?'
"Come, you should rest." Sakura took Shirou's hand and pulled him up, "we have a busy day tomorrow."