Shinji wasn't sure if this little girl could tell, but simply being in her presence was extremely unnerving. Perhaps it was the knowledge he had of the Einzbern's and their undiluted magical prowess. He eyed the girl as she sat, calmly sipping a cup of tea that one of her handmaids had provided. He looked down at the cup that was provided to him. The girl had said it was some blend of obscure plants Shinji had never heard of nor cared to know. Whatever the case, he wasn't planning on drinking it. Or rather, he wouldn't have if he hadn't heard a frightening, deep grumble come from behind him. The girl's Servant eyed him threateningly, his glare undiminished by his lack of a face with which to glare. Not wanting to offend his host and have her servant sicced on him, Shinji downed the cup in one gulp.

"Do you like it?" The girl asked. Shinji thought it tasted like burnt leaves and alkali metals.

"Y-yeah… it's good…" he lied.

"I am quite glad you agree,"The girl said with a nod. After taking a few more sips of her tea, she set her cup down. "Mr. Matou, I shall make this brief. As I mentioned before, I have business with Shirou Emiya."

"Yeah. But I have to ask, what did he ever do? I mean, he may be an annoying prick, but I don't think he'd have anything to do with the Einzberns."

"I do not take issue with Shirou, per se, but he is the only link to Kiritsugu Emiya."

"'Kiritsugu'? I take it that's his father?" Shinji noticed Illyasviel wince at that remark.

"Of sorts. If you were unaware, Kiritsugu's actions ended the Fourth Grail War, and is the reason the Grail manifested so quickly."

Shinji knew that name sounded somewhat familiar. If he recalled correctly, Kiritsugu summoned the spirit of King Arthur as Saber. His uncle Kariya was part of the Fourth War too, summoning Berserker. Zouken once mentioned some commotion between Saber and Berserker that Kariya ended up losing, but he couldn't remember all the details. He was beginning to regret not studying more of the War's history. "Shirou's dad was a magus?" He asked.

"By some capacity. Though by his reputation, he was oft referred to with the epithet 'Magus Killer'."

"So that means Shirou could be a magus too…"

"There is that possibility. If Kiritsugu taught him well enough, then Shirou is not a force to be taken lightly."

"Certainly fooled me. He's like a naive kid who doesn't know how the world works. I bet he doesn't have any magical talent to speak of! Hell, if he had any prowess with magic, there's no doubt he would be using it to help those other idiots with… their dumb, menial tasks… " Having come close to an epiphany, Shinji brought a hand to his chin in thought. "Wait a second…" Shinji just remembered how Shirou was able to fix nearly anything that was malfunctioning, seemingly identifying the issue solely by touch. And he around asking people if he could fix things for them "...Could he be using magic for that?" It suddenly clicked in Shinji's mind: A bleeding heart like Shirou would totally do some dumb shit like that.

"Do you consider Shirou as a threat?" Illya asked, interrupting his pondering.

"...Not really. I could beat that kid up if I wanted." While this was certainly true in Shinji's mind, the notion that Shirou could be a magus had made him put up his guard. He thought that, if it came down to it, this girl could fight Shirou. And hopefully kill him. And if he turned out to actually be a threat, at least he'd know what he's getting into.

"Regardless, I am not interested in Shirou as a magus. Information about Kiritsugu is scarce, and I need Shirou to tell me everything he knows about that man." Shinji eyed the girl. He knew that wasn't the entire story. But he wasn't sure if pressing that particular topic was prudent, as any wrong move here could end up with his head in a long distance relationship with the rest of his body.

"So… you want me to assist you... because Shirou has a connection with this Kiritsugu guy, I just happen to know Shirou."

"Precisely," the girl smiled. "Our meeting was quite serendipitous, I must say." Shinji was sure that if this coincidence hadn't occurred, he be dead in a ditch somewhere. While Shinji might not have a particular fondness for Shirou, he did silently thank him for potentially saving his life. And, if she was asking for something like this, then she was probably having difficulty finding anything else about this 'Kiritsugu'. Since that seemed to be the case, as he was certain no Einzbern would ever ask for outside help, against his better judgement, Shinji tried to push her a little bit.

"That's nice and everything, but this doesn't seem like it benefits me at all. The way I see it, you're basically forcing me into this."

"I implore you not to think of it that way."

"So what's your endgame here? You clearly think he passed some anti-magus techniques to Shirou and plan on using them. What do you want the Grail for? What is your wish?"

The girl dropped her smile. "Were you not listening to me? I reiterate, I have no intention to talk to Shirou on matters of magic." She let out a sigh. "To be perfectly honest, I have no desire to own the Grail, either. If you somehow manage to survive until the end, I shall allow you the Grail without argument."

Shinji's eyes widened in shock. "Really?" The girl nodded. Shinji narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, like I'm supposed to believe that."

"I assure you, Mr. Matou," her eyes met Shinji's with a piercing gaze. "I do not want that thing which inhabits the Grail." Shinji looked pensive; he wasn't sure what she meant by that. Regardless, there was no way he believed that 's no way the Einzberns would just hand over the grail like that, especially not to a long time rival. However, as he was still in the lair of the Einzbern's scion, he felt it would behoove him to agree. He could come up with a plan when her Servant wasn't an arm's length from him, blade in hand.

"Well… if you truly mean that, I suppose I could help…"

"You have my thanks" she said with a smile. "Please bring Shirou to the park at 9:00 tomorrow night. I shall be there."

"Tomorrow is a bit sudden… but think I can do that no problem," Shinji said with a nod.

Illya grinned. "Then I look forward to our collaboration." At a wave of her hand, one of Illya's handmaids escorted Shinji out of the premises. "...The iniquity of the father shall be laid upon the son," Illya said once Shinji had left. The grin she bore contorted into a malicious sneer. The Berserker couldn't help but worry about his Master. The pursuit of vengeance clouds judgement and oft leads to ruination. But, he pledged to follow and protect his Master, no matter her aims, or the pawns she used in her schemes. Artorias' link to Illya had miraculously pulled him from the clutches of the Abyss, a feat no scholar of his era had been able to accomplish. Furthermore, his Master's abilities have also managed to restore shards of his fractured ego; since he had been summoned to Illya's side, bit by bit his memories have returned. Though he had showed no progress with his physical form, evidenced by his lack of a definitive body and puzzlingly broken arm, this development was one for which he was eternally grateful.

However, even with their connection, the Abysswalker could only garner a general idea of what his Master was feeling, not the entirety of her inner machinations. Had he the ability, Artorias would heave a sigh. He knew that Illya was in pain, but he was not equipped to deal with matters of the heart. He was trained to kill. Outside of that area, his skills were quite lacking. He thought back to his old team, memories that had since returned. Contrary to his gruff, towering figure, the giant Gough possessed a talent for comforting others. The Abysswalker longed to see the Hawkeye once more. Both him and the Lord's Blade Ciaran. Though he could never set right what went wrong, he longed to at least apologize for his failures. Yet, though it was unlikely for him to encounter them, by some twist of fate he had come across the Dragonslayer Ornstein. He didn't know what came over him the first time they saw each other, but he wished to meet his old ally and friend. Perhaps he would plead to his Master once her business was concluded. He only hoped that, whatever the resolution, it would give her the catharsis she desired.

As the homunculus escorted him out of the forest, he was sure that it was leading him around in circles since it took what felt like hours for him to see any signs of normal society. Once the homunculus parted ways with him, Shinji couldn't help but sigh. His first battle in the war was a failure, his Servant didn't think he could handle the pressure, and now he's getting wrapped up with the Einzberns. And the worst part is he knew Zouken had somehow heard of this by now, and he was not looking forward to whatever he wanted to say. Zouken's lectures were both torturous and uncomfortably dull. If he didn't perish by whatever physical torment Zouken thought fit to inflict, he would surely die of boredom. Shinji needed to think. There had to be a way he could twist this to his advantage, but at present he was starved for ideas. As well as food, now that he thought of it. The Einzbern girl provided him a beverage, but nothing to eat.

"Do homunculi even need to eat?" He wondered aloud. But that was a question to which he cared not to know the answer. As such, he decided to stop by a restaurant instead of going home. Plans never came on an empty stomach.

It wasn't until the late evening that Shirou was able to go home, having been given a crash course on the history of magic and the Grail War by Rin, who he realized was definitely not fit to teach in any capacity. He only gained some knowledge because Archer helped Rin explain, and was taking notes. He knew that his tracing trick was a type of magic, but he didn't know there was so much history and theory behind magecraft. When he explained how he traced things he remembered her calling it a form of 'projection' or something. It was all a bit too much, and he didn't remember Kiritsugu explaining that much about magic to him. He resolved to mull it tomorrow after a good night's rest. "I'm home!" He called.

"Welcome home, Master," the girl known as Saber called as he entered.

"Oh, you're still here," he said.

"Of course," she responded.

"Don't you have a place of your own?"

"Irrelevant. My purpose is to serve you in your quest for the Grail."

"I guess I get that, but-"

"Shirou!" Before he could ask any more questions, a foot met squarely with his face, sending him crashing into the wall. "Shirou," his assailant said again. "Who's this cute girl in our house? Did you kidnap someone else to add to your harem!? What would poor Sakura think if she saw this?"

"Kidnap?" Shirou asked.

"And why'd you make her wear all that armor? It looks super uncomfortable!"

"Fuji-nee, I didn't kidnap anyone!"

"A likely story! That's what they all say!"

"I seriously doubt that…"

"You need to apologize!"

"For what?"

"You can start by making us dinner!"

"...That's what this whole thing was about, wasn't it?" Taiga simply grinned in response. Shirou sighed. Resigned to his fate, he set about preparing a meal for the three of them.

"So, what's your name?" Taiga said, taking a seat across from their new guest.

"I currently go by 'Saber'."

"Ooh, Saber! That must be one of those European names, like Charlotte or Arabella. What brings you here to Japan?"

"I am here to aid my Master in-"

"She's someone from Dad's past!" Shirou interjected.

"From Kiritsugu's past? Oh, so then you're here to pay respects to him." Saber glanced at Shirou, who was silently pleading her to agree with his lie.

"...Yes," she finally said.

"Yeah, he helped her family a lot before he lived with us," Shirou said, trying to craft a believable story. "Also she doesn't like to talk about it, so try not to upset her."

"Yeah, I get where you're coming from," Taiga said. "Stuff like that isn't okay to talk about sometimes." Shirou breathed in relief, glad that she bought that lie so easily. "Don't worry! You can stay with us as long as you need! Oh, speaking of which, you must be into cosplay or something with that outfit."

"Cos...play?"

"Yeah, like, dressing up as people from anime or games."

"I… cannot say I know what you mean."

"They probably don't have words for stuff like that where she comes from."

"Oh… do you have any other clothes? What you're wearing can't be comfortable."

"It is more comfortable than most armors. Furthermore, it offers a considerable amount of protection."

"Her luggage was lost on her way over here," Shirou said, deflecting from whatever Saber was going on about. Taiga shook her head with a smile.

"Now I get it. You just can't go without helping people, huh Shirou? Saber, tomorrow, you and I are gonna get you an entirely new wardrobe!"

"Yeah… that's probably for the best," Shirou said.

"...If that is what you desire, then I shall acquiesce."

"Great! We're gonna have so much fun! By the by, how old are you? You look to be about Shirou's age."

"Age no longer means anything to me. I have spent countless cycles in a hellish limbo, retaining the form I currently have. If I had an age, I no longer remember it, nor does it bear any consequence to me." Shirou glared at Saber. If she kept talking like that, Taiga was definitely going to get suspicious if she wasn't already, and the last thing he wanted was for her to be endangered because of this Grail thing. But, to his surprise, she laughed.

"You're definitely still young! Let's see if you're saying things like that once you're old enough to drink!"

"You do not understand. Age has no bearing on-"

"Alright, food's ready!" Shirou yelled, hastily setting the table for the three of them. He definitely needed Saber to stop talking. She was so close to tipping of Taiga that she was not a normal girl. At best, she'd probably just think Saber was taking a joke too far, at worst she'd probably think they were both crazy. Even a person with little common sense would start to question Saber's sanity if they listened for long enough.

"Looks delicious!" Taiga said.

"It's just soba," Shirou said. "Nothing major."

"And it tastes great! Try it, Saber!" The Servant looked to Shirou, who agreed with Taiga. Taking this as an order from her Master, she sampled the dish in front of her.

"What do you think?" Shirou asked. He assumed that she wouldn't say anything if she wasn't asked.

"It tastes… fine."

"You're palate just isn't attuned to Japanese cuisine," Taiga said. "Give it a few days and you'll love everything Shirou cooks!"

"You shouldn't inflate my abilities like that. I'm not that good. And besides, not everyone is gourmand like you."

"Hey, I take offense to that!" Dinner continued as Taiga and Shirou talked about their day, and Taiga listing off all the places she would visit with Saber the next day.

"Whew, what a meal," Taiga said as everyone finished eating. "Good job, Shirou."

"There's no dessert if that's what you're after."

"I don't need any dessert anyway. Unfortunately, I have to prepare for my classes tomorrow."

"A teacher really shouldn't say that's unfortunate."

"Yeah yeah," Taiga said as she stood to leave. "I prepared Saber a room before you got home, so don't get any ideas about her!"

"Don't you have work to do?"

Taiga giggled. "Take care of the dishes, okay?" With a wave she left, causing Shirou to sigh.

"Man, that was rough,"

"Are you okay, Master?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. And could you quit calling me 'Master'? It feels so… weird."

"I call you my Master because that is what you are."

"I guess that's true in a sense… but it just has… suggestive connotations. I'd just really feel a lot more comfortable if you called me 'Shirou'."

"As you wish… Shirou."

"Thank you," he said. He eyed the girl across from him. Her face was completely serious, betraying no hint of emotion. Her eyes focused solely on him. He wasn't sure if she was looking at him to say something, or if she was analyzing him like a researcher to a lab rat. If he was being honest, her gaze was making him really uncomfortable. "But... you know my name and I don't even know yours. Surely you'd like to be called something other than 'Saber'?"

"That appellation will suffice."

"You sure?" Saber nodded. "I mean… if that's what you want, I won't argue." Shirou rose and collected the dishes.

"However, I am afraid I must confess something."

"What?" Shirou asked as he put the dishes in the sink.

"While I said your meal was 'fine', I must admit that I no longer have a sense of taste. As such, I cannot truly give your creation the praise it deserves."

"That's it? That's nothing to apologize for," Shirou chuckled, beginning to wash. "I mean, it's a shame you can't taste anything, but I wouldn't be offended if you didn't eat or like anything I made. I thought that was going in a totally different direction," he chuckled. "You scared me for a second."

"Forgive me, for that was not my intention."

"It's okay, really. I just thought you were gonna say something like 'I have to eat babies in order to survive'."

"Truthfully, I require no physical sustenance."

"I kinda figured that was the case. Nevertheless, the only thing we need to worry about right now is making sure Fuji-nee doesn't catch on to this Grail stuff. But if she's taking you shopping tomorrow… she's definitely gonna ask a whole bunch of questions. I guess… for now, if she asks where you're from, just say... Britain. She'll buy anything you say about your past if we chalk it up to cultural differences, I think."

"If that is what you desire, Shirou."

"This is turning out to be really complicated… Tohsaka-san had to lecture me all about magic today. It mostly went over my head, though. I don't even know how I summoned you in the first place. I'm kind of worried how this will all turn out."

"Shirou."

"Hmm?" He turned to look at his Servant, only to find her kneeling right in front of him.

"If you require my assistance in any fashion, please do not hesitate to ask me. You have summoned me into this land with the purpose of serving you, and I shall listen to your every command."

"I mean… I can't really think of anything right now, but… wait, 'every command'?"

"If you have need of anything, I will scour the land until I find it for you. My being is, henceforth, devoted to you and your cause."

"Um, that's a little extreme."

"Please," she said, looking into his eyes. "Allow me to do this for you."

"...If you're this insistent... I guess there's no harm with me saying okay to… whatever you mean. Ah, but I don't mean that in a weird way!"

"Then our covenant has been established," she said, rising to her feet.

"Covenant?"

"From this moment on, your enemies are my enemies, your goals ate my goals. I shall devote my existence to vanquishing all that oppose you and your order.*

"My… order?"

"I shall obey your every command. Without question; without hesitation. If I falter, may I be smited down for committing such a grievous sin."

"...Right. Wait there for a second."

"As you wish." As Shirou left Saber in his kitchenette, one thought permeated his mind.

"This chick is nuts!" He stifled his yell into as much a whisper as he could manage. He was seriously regretting this whole Grail War thing. He only agreed to it because he thought he could help a lot of people with the Grail's power, but having to deal with this Servant was not a task he was prepared to undertake. He didn't even know why she was summoned in the first place! He was tempted to just leave until the whole thing blew over, but if his hunch was right, Saber would wait there until he told her to move. And he couldn't just leave the poor girl like that in good conscience. He shook his head."I can't quit right now, without anything even happening. I'll never be a hero like that." Without further deliberation, he returned to the girl, a large book in his hands. "Here," he said, handing it to Saber. "Read this."

"...Is this, perchance, a tale of the gods of this world?"

"Uh, not really. It's a history book."

"I… I see."

It might just be him, but she sounded disappointed. "If we're going to have a believable story for Fuji-nee, you should at least have knowledge of the country you're pretending to be from."

"I will not squander this knowledge, Shirou. I will guard it for eternity."

"You don't have to go that far…" Shirou said. He couldn't help but bring a hand to his face, trying to will away a coming headache.

"Are you okay, Shirou? Is there any way I may aid you?"

"No, I'm fine! You don't have to do anything!" It was very slight, but Shirou swore he saw Saber twitch at the tone of his voice. "Look… I'm going to bed now. Just… take it easy for right now, okay? Please don't do anything crazy."

"You needn't worry about me, Shirou. Your desires and well-being are what I wish to protect and serve. Even in your absence, I shall be the epitome of dignity and grace, a Servant worthy of you."

Lacking the charm and skill to respond to Saber's heartfelt pledge, Shirou gaped at his Servant in stunned silence. After what felt like an eternity of the two staring at each other, Shirou retreated to his room without another word, falling asleep as soon as he lay down. Truly he wanted to go over all the magic notes he took from his lesson earlier but dealing with Saber's shenanigans had mentally drained him. He was never one to think 'why do today what you can put off until tomorrow', but doing anything else right now would have sent him over the edge into madness.

And, for some reason, he had a dream that Saber set him on fire.

There are some people who think Red Saber is the best Saber. There are also people who think Saber Alter is the best Saber. And there are even more people who think Classic Saber is the best Saber.

They are all wrong.

The best Saber is clearly Saber/Prototype.