Ayako was usually a very level headed person. She knew what she wanted to do, and she did it. Every once in a while there was something she wasn't certain about, but at least she knew WHY she was confused.

Today was the exception. She was in her English class, and she had no clue what the teacher was talking about. 'Shirou Emiya almost spent the night.' She wasn't certain why she was so flummoxed by that. 'Sakura likes him. He's Sakura's friend. I am Sakura's friend, and that is the extent of our relationship.' Except...

She had gone through this same series of thoughts a dozen times already today, and each one had ended with an 'except.'

It was almost lunch time, and she was still dwelling on it. She hadn't even spent as much time worrying about the attack, or the fantastical claims Shirou had made. All her brain kept snagging on was the fact that Shirou had offered to spend the night at her apartment yesterday, while both her parents had both been out.

And she wasn't certain if she had made the right decision by saying 'no'.

'I'm a lousy friend.'

When the bell finally rang, She grabbed her books, 'Maybe I should talk to Rin. She's level headed, and she's an unbiased third party to this whole thing.'

Ayako sent a quick text to her friend, in the forlorn hope that the girl would actually check her phone (for once), before heading downstairs to Rin's homeroom in the hope of catching her before she left for the day.

On the way down, she almost crossed paths with Shirou. Thankfully, he didn't see her - he was looking around distractedly as he turned to go upstairs to the roof, and she had quickly ducked off into a nearby classroom, much to the surprise of a couple of first years. 'What's he doing, going up there at this time of day?' Well, not her problem.

She forced herself to continue on in her search for Rin.

Rin wasn't in her homeroom. It was almost empty except for a pair of girls standing by the lockers outside, selecting the textbooks that they would need for tonight's homework. "Hey, did either of you see where Rin went?" Ayako asked.

"I think she was heading that way, towards the gym."

Ayako grimaced as she ran a hand through her hair. There was no way that she could randomly find the Tohsaka - it was a big school - but she really needed to talk to her privately. 'I'll just make one circuit of the building.' Rin had been really bad at answering her phone recently.

She had just given up and was heading towards the stairs to the roof to confront Shirou. (Not that she knew what she was planning to say to him even if he was there, but she was an extrovert, and she had to talk to SOMEBODY about this or she wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else for the rest of the day) when she almost literally bumped into Rin coming out of the AV room.

"Hey, what are you looking for in there?" Ayako asked in surprise.

"Anchors," was the startled response. "Ayako! You're going to give me heart attack if you keep sneaking up on me like that!" Rin went on the offensive, to cover up her surprise. A magus should never be taken by surprise!

"I, what.. Never mind. You're just the person I was looking for. I need to talk you. You wouldn't believe the strange day - no two days - that I've had. It is so unbelievable!"

A fleeting frown flowed across Rin's face before being replaced with a smirk, "What, you got a boyfriend? That would explain why you styled your hair." Ayako had her hair in an (abortive) pony tail. With her short hair it looked silly, but it was the first time Rin had ever seen the other girl even try to do anything with her hair other than to have it cut short enough to stay out of her eyes.

"What? No? Of course not!" Ayako waved her hands in front of her in rejection, causing Rin's smirk to widen. Rin hated being interrupted, but she knew that she had to make time for friends. If she alienated Ayako, she would regret it later. 'I can give her five minutes.' And it was pretty obvious that Ayako had a secret crush. Which she absolutely must learn about. 'Turn about is fair play.' Ayako had been pestering her all week, trying to learn the identity of her own crush. Rin grinned evilly.

Ayako was in a panic - if she mentioned Shirou now, Rin would just assume that... Ayako blanched. That was NOT the direction that she wanted the conversation to go! Especially since Rin was still in her 'School Idol' persona, and was going to be acerbic. (You had to be thick skinned to be friends with the Tohsaka).

"I was wondering if you had heard the rumors that the muggings .. One of the guys in my class was saying that it's a vampire, and that the reason people are being found unconscious is because its draining their blood." Her mouth started on autopilot while she tried to think of some way to bring up last night and Shirou without letting Rin jump to (un)warranted assumptions.

"Who said that?" Rin interrupted a little too sharply.

"Uhm.." 'Shirou said I wasn't supposed to talk about this!' "Just some guys." She waived it away as unimportant (everybody knew that she didn't pay much attention to the boys in her class), "but I was wondering if it could be true. Do you think vampires exist?"

"Of course not!" Rin was too distracted to wonder why Ayako felt a pressing need to ask such a strange (at least for her) question. Hiding the existence of the Moonlight world (and keeping her friend safe) took precedence over any investigation into the origins of some rumors. Not that she had time for something like that right now anyways. She could already feel the draining field around the school starting to siphon off her mana. "But there is some strange stuff going on. I think you should heed the school's advice and head straight home." Of course she thought it was a good idea - she was the one who had hypnotized the principle into canceling all clubs and after-school activities. 'Maybe I should do the same for Ayako.' But mind controlling her friend (even on such a superficial level) left a bad taste in her mouth.

"Yeah, that seems..." Ayako began when they were interrupted by a yell from downstairs.

"That was from outside!" The two girls glanced at each other before running for the stairs. They spilled out onto the back of the school grounds to find a first year girl collapsed on the walkway.

"What happened? Are you ok?" Ayako knelt down next to her. Rin leaned over as well, passing a hand over her face. "She's still breathing." Before she could say anything more, a dagger flew out from the woods at the back, straight at Rin's head.

Rin just had time to jerk back in shock as the weapon was deflected by a boken.

"It came from over there!" Shirou raced past the girls

Ayako glanced up to see what was going on. "When did Shirou get here?"

Rin blinked, processing the fact that she had almost died. With a rattling breath, she pushed herself to her feet. "Stay here and look after the girl! I'll go make sure Emiya doesn't do anything stupid." '-er. Stupider.'

Shirou slowed down as he reached the trees. He had been trying to figure out what to do about the sigil on the roof – it was clearly some sort of inimical ritual (though his knowledge of such things ended there) – when he heard the pained yell. He had raced downstairs to arrive just in time to see the same woman that had attacked Ayako yesterday throw a knife at Rin, of all people!

So he did what anybody else would have – he blocked it with his boken and gave chase. He lost her among the trees, though - the woman was extremely fast, and he didn't want to stumble into a trap. His hands shifted nervously on the hilt of his boken.

And where did that come from? It should have been in his locker, with his book bag. But he had needed it to save Rin, and it had been there, in his hand.

As soon as he stepped into the shadow of the trees, a chain shot out at him. He deflected it, squinting to see where it had come from, but before he could orient himself, another chain came from the other side and wrapped around his wrist, yanking it backwards.

Instinctively, Shirou rolled with the yank, letting the chain slip loose around his wrist, before coming to his feet, just in time to have his sword entangled with another chain. He pulled it free, scanning the area

There - the woman was crouching on a low branch!

He shifted his guard and prepared to reinforce his legs to leap forward. But before he could do anything, a series of small black spheres shot from behind him to strike the tree where the woman had been moments ago.

Shirou's head whipped around, to see Rin holding her hand like a finger gun, scanning the area. When he looked back, the branch was empty.

The two of them slowly pivoted, trying to find their attacker. Finally Rin announce. "I think she fled." She relaxed infinitesimally before whirling onto Shirou, "What on earth did you think you were doing, running towards danger? Are you an idiot? Didn't you see that… woman was armed and extremely dangerous?

"She tried to kill you. I had to do something." Shirou replied mildly, causing Rin to blush.

"Baka! She's a Servant! A measly human will be toast if they try to take on a Servant one on one!" There was a short pause as Rin's brain caught up to her mouth, "UGH And now I'm going to have to wipe your memories. I hate hypnotizing people!" She ranted.

"Uhh.." Shirou tried to keep up, but he really had no idea what Rin was talking about. So he ignored it. "We need to call an ambulance for that girl"

Rin threw up her hands. She would deal with Shirou later, "Your an idiot!" And ran back towards where Ayako was sitting with the other girl. Archer had arrived and could keep over-watch from the school roof.

"I called emergency services. They should be here in a couple of minutes." Ayako told Rin before turning to Shirou as he joined them, "Do you have any idea why she keeps attacking me?"

"Attacking you?" Rin froze, "Wait, 'keeps'?" She turned to glare at Ayako before asking sweetly "So what did you want to tell me earlier. Start at the beginning, and don't leave anything out."

Ayako blanched at the expression on Rin's face. By the time the ambulance had arrived, she had (with Shirou's assistance) recounted what had happened the previous night, only leaving out the conversation at her apartment. Or the mention of them both going to her apartment at all. As they talked, Rin stood silently, rubbing at her temples.

"Are you ok, Rin? Do you need an Advil?" Ayako asked.

"No, I do not need ... ARG!" Rin growled. "I want you to forget about all this.! You're getting mixed up in something dangerous." Rin didn't have time to deal with this idiot… either idiot! Yes, Ayako was her best friend, but right now Rin was not in the mood to differentiate between sins of commission (ie Shirou's) and sins of omission (Ayako).

She really should just hypnotize the both of them and be done with it, but she didn't want to have to mess with Ayako's memories. Or Shirou's (though she wouldn't even begin to admit to herself, much less anybody else, why that was). She would just have to trust to their common sense. Besides, she was the 'Second Owner' of the magical community in Fuyuki, and it was her choice to make. "For the next week, stay home at night, or you're liable to get hurt!" She stormed off in the chaos as the paramedics arrived, without hypnotizing either classmate.

She figured that sensible people would soon dismiss anything that was patently impossible, even if they saw it with their own two eyes.

She really didn't know Shirou very well.

No Hero

After explaining what had happened (as much as she understood, at least) to the paramedics, Ayako leaned against the building and slumped down, feeling exhausted. By the time she recovered her composure, Rin was gone. She pulled out her phone and texted her acerbic friend.

Who did not reply.

'Typical. She demanded answers from us, but when it was her turn to talk, she walked off without answering anything. And there is no way to reach her by phone.' Ayako sighed in frustration. The only message on her phone was from her mother, reminding her that she would be working the overnight shift at the hospital. Again.

"You ok?" Shirou was hoping the answer was yes. He wanted to go out into the city and see if you could pick up the trail of that .. whatever it was.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ayako pulled herself together. "Though I don't understand what Rin's problem is. She's not usually wound that tight."

"Tohsaka's a magus." Shirou replied quietly, "She's probably upset that we are interfering with the magical world." His dad had warned him not to get involved with magi, but here he was. But in his defense, it wasn't his fault. What was he supposed to do? Ignore danger?

And he couldn't lie to Ayako. She was… And he couldn't lie to Ayako.

"Wait, Rin? A magus?" Ayako froze. There was no way. She had know Rin since first year. She was a typical elite student, the type that her parents always pushed her to be. "Where did you get that idea?"

"When we fought that thing in the woods, she was casting some sort of spell at it. From her fingers." Shirou made a finger gun and made a shooting motion. "I can't think of any other explanation." He paused before reminding Ayako, "remember, you can't tell your parents or anybody about this." He paused again and took a closer look at his typically energetic co-captain. This wasn't that Ayako. She sat stock still, her eyes not looking at anything as she tried to process everything. "You don't look ok."

Shirou glanced around - there were still a pair of cops taking notes down at the far end of the walkway, and another was chatting with the school staff. "Do you want to come over to my place? We can talk in private there."

Ayako nodded dumbly – she was lost in this new world. She needed a map. Or at least a guide. She let Shirou help her up and followed him off the school grounds. Walking helped, but it was only when they were approaching the gate to a large but slightly worn looking traditional Japanese house that she came back to herself. "You live here? This is pretty fancy!"

"Uh, yeah," Shirou shrugged self consciously, "My dad was pretty successful before he retired. You can sit down in here while I make some tea."

Ayako kneeled down in the (very) traditional dining room. Despite the age, everything was clean, and all the wood was polished. As Shirou returned bearing the tea service and a platter of cookies, she asked, "Who keeps this place clean and stuff?" Her parents had a maid come in twice a week, but Shirou had said that his family was poor. And... who was his guardian?

"I do. I live here by myself, mostly, though Taiga Fujimura lives just down the street and she comes over to check up on me most days. And stays for dinner." Shirou replied as he went back into the kitchen.

"I guess being a magus must pay really well. What did your father do?"

"I don't really know. He never wanted to talk about magic or his life as a magus."

Ayako sighed, "that's the exact opposite of my parents. All they do is complain about their work, and then they push me to follow in their footsteps, career wise." Even talking about it depressed her. Growing up seemed like a real PITA. She poured herself some tea. In the past 24 hours, the whole world had just gone from normal to full on insane, and she wasn't certain how to handle it. "So Rin's a magus. She never told me." That hurt. Rin was one of her best friends. She even talked to her about dating, which she never admitted to being interested in with anybody else.

Shirou put a platter of leftovers on the table next to the cookies and sat down opposite Ayako, "Yeah, I am surprised as well – she appears so.. normal. I didn't suspect it at all." Shirou shrugged. Whatever. If you wanted to be a Hero of Justice, you had to learn to roll with whatever life threw at you and kept going. "But that's how they are – magi, I mean - they are very competitive, so they keep all their knowledge secret." Actually, Shirou was making that up out of his father's half remembered statements, held together with a glue of wild guesses.

All shaped to fit what he knew of Rin Tohsaka, the only other magus that he knew of.

"Well, Rin certainly is competitive. Do you mind if I take some?" She pointed to the leftovers. She didn't usually snack between meals (because that was a good way to get fat), but today was not a normal day. At Shirou's 'be my guest' gesture, she loaded up. "So. Why do I think you're not going to take Rin's advice?" At Shirou's puzzled expression, she elucidated, "I mean to stay home at night."

Shirou shrugged awkwardly. "Well, I have to walk you home anyway, so I might as well take a look around to make sure that nobody else is being attacked."

Ayako frowned, "You don't have to walk me home again!" This would make it three times in a row! What would Sakura think? Though a small voice in the back of her head pointed out that Sakura would never find out if she didn't tell her. "And you certainly shouldn't go looking for that whatever-it-was afterwards! You're going to get in over your head. I know you that you're really good with a bow." And with a boken, apparently. "But you aren't a superhero! That thing was dangerous, and you got lucky that it ran away both times." Ayako took a bite of the leftovers, not noticing Shirou flush in embarrassment at her statement.

Shirou shrugged awkwardly, "So what are you going to do about Tohsaka?" He changed the subject.

Now it was Ayako's turn to look uncomfortable. "I guess I'll talk to her about all of this. Once I am done being pissed at her." Which could take some time. She knew it was irrational, but this felt like a major betrayal. "This is really good, incidentally. Where did you get it?"

Shirou looked puzzled. He replied, "I made it," as if to imply 'where else would one get food?'

Ayako froze and looked over at the half dozen containers of food. "All of it?" At Shirou's nod she added, "This is really good. You know how you were looking for a way to help people? You should be a chef." She took another bite. "You know, this may be the best kept secret in Fuyuki, and not Rin's little 'magic habit'." Her tone was only a little bitter. 'How do I even begin to talk to Rin about this? And will she flip out that I have figured out her secret.' Rin had a violent streak. Despite that, Ayako would never have thought to be scared of her friend, but now..

"Well, Fujimura-sensai knows - she stays over for dinner when she comes to check up on me."

Ayako smirked, "Or maybe she comes over to mooch dinner and claims she's coming to check up on you." Taiga was one of her favorite teachers, but she never struck her as particularly responsible or mature (which was part of her charm). "Though if the girls in our school knew that you cooked like this, you would have to fend them off with a stick." Ayako joked.

"I doubt it. After all, Sakura knows – she comes over sometimes as well, though she hasn't been by these last few days."

A lump of lead dropped into the pit of Ayako's stomach. She wasn't supposed to be here, having a good time with Shirou. But before she could say anything, Shirou continued with a shrug, "anyway, do you want to work on homework for a bit?" That way he would be done early enough to patrol, and not have to deal with Taiga on his case for letting his school work slip.

Ayako wet her lips nervously before replying, "Sure, might as well." 'Sorry, Sakura.'

No Hero

The following day, Shirou was in the library after school when Rin walked in. "Ok, Baka. We need to talk." She perched on the edge of one of the tables and put her foot up on the chair. "What you did yesterday was incredibly stupid. Do you understand why, or should I enumerate the reasons?" She had intended to let yesterday fade into the fog of time and never mention it again, but for whatever reason she kept crossing paths with Shirou today, despite not sharing a single class with him. And each time, she felt an overwhelming urge to keep him safe. She needed to drill this into his head.

Shirou sighed, "I already got this lecture from Mitsuzuri."

"Good. Good for her," Rin added, "And why were you still at school anyways? The Principle had instructed all students to go home immediately after classes let out!"

"Because.." Shirou paused, considering. His father had warned him to avoid magi, but there was no way he could solve this problem without Rin's help.. "Because there's something wrong with the school. I can.. I can smell something whenever I enter the school, and there's also a sense of fatigue. I was looking for the source of it, so I could fix it."

"You.. smelled something? Like what, natural gas?" The draining spells around Fuyuki were being blamed on gas leaks, so the symptoms must be the same.

"No, it's more like rotting meat. And it's coming from these symbols, like the one drawn on the school roof. But I have no idea what it is."

Rin sighed, 'He must have a vestigial magical sensitivity.' Some people did. It was very dangerous, as they tended to stray into the 'Moonlit world' without any way of protecting themselves from what they found there. "Show me this symbol."

"There's a small one right here," Shirou pulled books off of the shelf next to him and pointed.

"Damn," Rin swore. He was a sensitive. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to see the sigil. This made her life so much more complicated. She recited an aria to neutralize the sigil and scraped across it with the edge of a stapler to flake off the paint.. "Ok, Baka. That was a magic sigil. Whoever placed those around the school is using them to drain energy from the students." In for a penny, in for a pound. A magus was supposed to use whatever resources she had at hand, and in her view Shirou had just volunteered to be used. Rin waited for the inevitable flood of questions (not that she had ever explained the Moonlit world to anybody before, but by common sense there should be questions. A lot of questions).

Shirou just nodded. "Ok. Let's go take care of the rest."

Rin face palmed. "Did you not understand what I said?"

"Sure. You said you know how to fix the problem. But there are a bunch more that I found. And the one on the roof is huge, much bigger than this one."

Rin sighed. "Fine, walk with me." She stood up and walked towards the door before realizing that she didn't know where the next sigil was. She paused and turned back to Shirou. "Well? Lead the way." She waited for Shirou as if that had been the plan all along. "Just so you understand, that entity that you rushed off to attack was a Heroic Spirit. Most likely Rider. I'm not going to explain what that means, or why it's here, but just understand that it has the fighting abilities of a hero from antiquity. No normal human can match it, especially not one from today's peaceful world. You got lucky that it saw you as nothing more than an annoying bug. But if you try to confront it again, it WILL kill you." Rin's stomach clenched up at the thought. She had to keep this idiot safe!

"So what was I supposed to do, just let it keep attacking Mitsuzuri?"

"Baka, it's not after Ayako, it's after me! And I can take care of myself!"

"It attacked Mitsuzuri a couple of nights ago." Shirou replied mulishly.

"And that is why I am telling the both of you to stay inside at night for the next two weeks," Rin sighed in exasperation. And this is why she hated people. They never listened to common sense. "Normally, I would just use hypnosis on you to make you forget all about what you saw, but you're the type to just keep nosing around anyways." She had seen him about, wandering the warehouse district last night when she and Archer were out on patrol. At that time, she hadn't the foggiest idea what he was doing, but it was now coming into focus: Shirou was an idiot who thought he was some kind of superhero.

Shirou shrugged, "You should talk to Mitsuzuri. She was really hurt that you never told her that you were a magus." There was no point in arguing, so he switched to a more fruitful topic.

"Wait, what? How do you know what a magus is?" Rin stopped, her foot on the first step and her eyes glittering darkly as little spheres of blackness formed on her fingertips.

As she leaned in towards Shirou menacingly, he turned to the side and sniffed, "Do you smell something burning, like iron?" A moment later a pulse of something swept through the stairwell.

The Gandr disappear from Rin's fingers, "You felt that?"

"Yeah. It's been happening all day, but it's getting stronger. A lot stronger. I think I got the scent of it now, though. Its coming from here." He raced past Rin and into a classroom, flipping over a table to reveal a blood red sigil on the underside. As soon as Rin neutralized it, Shirou raced back to the stairs and the roof sigil. "Come on!"

"You're a magus," Rin accused as they ran. That was the only explanation – he knew too much to be a bystander who happened to stumble into her world. Why had she not heard about this? "All the local magi are supposed to report to the Second Owner," she added sourly.

"I'm not really a magus - I just know a little magic. But let's deal with this first - I don' t like the way this smell is building."

"It must be getting close to full activation." Rin sighed, "For the record, I still don't approve of you rushing into danger on your own, but if you stick close with me you can help without getting yourself murdered by something you can't even comprehend." Rin didn't mention that she hadn't been able to detect any of the sigils up to now. If he could sniff them out like bloodhound, that would give her an edge against whatever plot the other Master had concocted.

"Here," Shirou led the way onto the roof and out behind the water tower. Underneath that was another sigil, but much larger than the others.

"This must be the keystone. Step back and let me dismantle it." She muttered a quick Aria and gestured at the seal, which faded from a bright, fluorescent red to a more matte color, like dried blood. "Ok, now you can scrap it off." When Shirou didn't respond, she added, "I don't have a sponge or anything, but if we just leave it then whoever placed this here can just reactivate it. You take the left side, I'll take the right." She brandished her stapler.

Shirou nodded and a boken appeared in his hand. 'I hope Taiga never sees me doing this' Shirou abused the boken, using it as a scrapper until it was badly worn.

No Hero

"That's good enough" Rin appraised the work. "You said you now where there are more of these? Then lead on."

As Shirou headed down to the cafeteria, letting the boken dissolve into nothing "The.. 'smell' (for want of a better word) of this spell is pretty rank. Does that mean its dangerous?"

"That depends on how heartless the caster is. They could drain just a little of the energy from the students, leaving them groggy but otherwise intact or they could take all of it, draining them until they are liquefied into goo." Rin looked down at the spot in front of which Shirou had stopped. As she looked a seal slowly faded into view. "If it was made by the Servant, it may not be too bad, as most of them have a residual moral compass. But if it was cast by a magus, then you can assume it will liquefy all the students."

Shirou turned to look at Rin, "But you're a magus, and you're not evil."

"It's not a matter of evil, it's a matter of being practical," Rin replied, "and you don't know me."

"I know Mitsuzuri, and she wouldn't be friends with somebody who would do something like this."

Rin flushed, "Let me concentrate on taking down the sigils - we need to get rid of at least half of of them so I can peel the spell off of the school."

The two of them spent the next couple of hours tracking down the sigils and disarming them.

"So what are you going to do about Mitsuzuri. Like I said, she's pretty upset that you're keeping secrets from her," Shirou circled back to the topic from earlier as they made their way down to the basement.

"Yeah, there's not much I can do about that. That's part of being a Magus." Rin wasn't thrilled about it - Ayako was her closest friend - but it's just the way it was.

"So what, you're going to let this destroy your friendship?"

Rin sighed in frustration. "You know, you're as much of a pain in the ass as Archer." Why was Shirou so focused on Ayako? 'I should tell him that Ayako isn't planning on dating until she get to University.'

"Who?"

"Never mind. I think we're done for the day - I don't think the draining field will activate, not without a lot of repairs." And Rin had other business to take care of, such as checking out Ryuudou temple. And avoiding a lecture from Shirou. Yes, she knew that she was a shit person. Exhibit A: her relationship with Sakura. And now, exhibit B: Ayako. But that was the price of being a magus.

As Shirou turned to head downstairs, Rin called after him grudgingly, "Thank you for your help. I would never have been able to get all this done so fast by myself."

Shirou smiled and waved as he headed out towards the Archery dojo - he needed to check the arrows for tomorrow - one of the first year girls had mentioned that the fletchings on hers were coming off. She had actually asked him to check them during the club session that morning, but he couldn't take that long just to work with her.

As soon as he walked into the dojo, he smelled it - the same acrid reek as the sigils. He dropped his backpack and headed inside, sniffing.

On the back wall was the largest sigil yet, and under it was Shinji, putting the finishing touches on it.

"Shinji? What are you doing?"

As the other teen startled upwards, Shirou added, "are you the one making the draining field?"

Shinji looked panicky for a moment before getting control of himself. "So you can see the seal, huh. I always knew you had something special, Emiya." Shinji sighed, glancing at Shirou's arms to verify that they were bare of any control seals. "Yeah, the draining field is mine. I am a Master in the Holy Grail war. How about you help me?"

"Are you a magus?" Shirou asked cautiously, not answering Shinji's question as he watched him. Something didn't make sense.

"No. My family used to have magic, but not any more. I don't know how much magic you can do, but it can't be much, or Grandfather would have known about it. And us weaklings have to work together if we're going to win against that monster Tohsaka and the other full magi that are coming to Fuyuki to participate in the War." Shinji didn't bother asking Shirou if he knew about the Grail war or if he wanted to help. He had found that if he pressed on, people would often just fall in with him through shear momentum. People hated saying no. After a pause, he added, "My servant is powerful, but she's kind of stupid."

"Why? Whats in it for you?" Shirou ignored the second part of the statement. Shinji's animosity towards Rin puzzled him. Shirou knew Shinji. Or he thought he did. So why was he doing this? And more importantly, was he going to hurt people doing it? 'I guess this is how Mitsuzuri felt when she learned about Rin.'

"Whoever wins can get any wish they want granted. If you join with me, we can share." Actually, Shinji was fairly certain that Grandfather was going to get the wish, but at least if he won Grandfather wouldn't feed him to the worms, like he did with uncle Kariya.

"If I join with you, will you take down the draining field?"

"I.. Sure. I'll take it down tomorrow," Shinji gave Shirou a winning smile.

"Ok. Then I'll work with you. Tomorrow. Right now, let's take that sigil down."

Shinji shook his head. "I'm not a magus, and without the proper aria taking down a sigil that large will cause it to explode."

Shirou stared at his former friend, trying to read what he was thinking, before nodding, "Ok. Tomorrow then." Maybe Shinji was on the side of right. What did he know about Rin after all?

As Shirou headed home, he thought about what Shinji had said. In the couple of times that he had interacted with her, Rin was nothing like her school idol persona. So which was the real her? Who knew what her actual plans were. Shirou would be the first to admit that he was a piss-poor judge of character

On the other hand, Shinji used to be a friend, before he started spending all his time trying to impress girls.

But on the third hand, Rin wasn't setting up a draining field around the school. Or anywhere else, as far as he knew. Maybe he should ask her. Something crystallized in his mind. 'I should tell her about the sigil in the dojo.' If Shinji needed help, he would consider helping, but those sigils were wrong, and needed to go. Except he hadn't gotten Rin's phone number. 'I know!'

He pulled out his phone. "Hey, Mitsuzuri, do you have Rin's phone number? I have to ask her something. It's for a project we're working on."

No Hero

Epilogue.

Rin was making her way up the interminable stairs up to Ryuudou shrine, "Why are shrines always on the biggest hill that the local can find? This is such a pain!" She projected to Archer

"You're just out of shape."

"No, the stair climbing part is fine. It's just a colossal waste of time. I have homework to do after this as well!"

Archer was about to reply when they heard the sound of yelling from the top of the stairs. Archer immediately materialized. "Stay here."

Archer almost flew up the stairs until he was near the top, where he skidded to a stop and slid into cover behind the entrance arch. He was just in time to see a shadow-draped figure pull a dirk out of a woman dressed in a ornate purple robe. As she collapsed a man in a business suit burst from one of the dormitories and attacked the dark clad man.

Archer watched the combat. The dark man skittered and moved with an insect-like motion. Despite clearly being a Servant, he was struggling to hold off the human. "Servant Assassin is fighting a Master. I think he just killed Caster." Archer sent to Rin as he projected a Hruntig sword arrow.

"Take him out."

"That's my girl." Archer smiled as he released his arrow.

At the last moment, Assassin disappeared, letting the arrow strike the suited man.

"Do you get him?"

"No. And I can't sense him anymore. I think he retreated."

"Or he's waiting in ambush. Let's go home – staying here will just play to his strengths."

They could deal with Assassin when they had him in a clean fight. Or better yet, when they ambushed him.