So, I learned something new about this website. Apparently if you post another chapter within a few hours of the last one, it doesn't move the update date of the story up. Good to know. We'll see if this one does it or not, I think it's been about 24 hours since the last one so this is a good tester.

Chapter Three

"Rin, you should stay over at my place." Shirou said. They were just outside of the church, walking back the way that they had came. It was late at night by now, and the streets were empty aside from the two of them.

Rin nodded. "Yes, I was going to suggest the same thing."

Shirou had expected a little more of a fight on that topic. After all, wouldn't it be normal for a young woman to resist having to stay in the house of a young man? For proprieties sake. But he supposed that Rin like him was committed to this new relationship of theirs. It wouldn't do for Master and Servant to be separated. Especially in a time like this.

Seven servants. Rin was Archer. They had no idea what class the woman who had attacked her was. But either way, there were still five other Demi-Servants out there. With or without Masters of their own. He wondered how they would defeat them all. For the sake of his Servant he had to, but it was something that they would need to discuss.

As they crossed through the Fuyuki graveyard, Shirou let himself question something that had been bugging him for some kind. "So, those clothes that you wear..."

Her entire face lit up scarlet red. "Hey – don't act like that was some sort of deliberate choice! That's – that's just the clothing that appears automatically when I shift into a battle stance! Since normal clothing wouldn't survive me using my powers, I have no choice but to bear it!"

That made more sense than what he had been thinking. "I see, I see. That Servant you merged with must be a real pervert."

"You're telling me." Rin said, with a sigh.

"But what about the clothing you're wearing right now?" Shirou asked. He'd expected her to be wearing a school uniform, since the fight had happened at school and then she had taken him right back. But instead she had on a comfortable and warm looking red dress.

"These? These are projections!" Rin said, looking rather proud of herself. "You see, when you became my Master I realized I could make more than just swords. Since my uniform was pretty much destroyed in the first few blows of my fight with that other Servant, I –"

She pushed a hand against his chest, forcing him to take a step backward. "Rin!?"

"Stay back, Master!" Rin shouted. Her body shimmered with energy, and the clothing they had just been discussing was replaced by her combat outfit. In her hands, a pair of twin short swords appeared. She was staring off into the distance, but Shirou could not pierce through the fog well enough to see what was her target. "There's an enemy approaching!"

"Oh? Onii-chan, how naughty. I told that woman there was no point in putting her trust into someone like you. To think you've gone off to bond a different Servant already. Is this what they call NTR?"

A small and young figure with pure white hair stepped out of the mist. She was riding on the back of a massive polar bear as though it were a horse, and was dressed like some kind of winter fairy. If he had to use one word to describe her aura, it would be murderous.

i . im gur (dotcom) / ukv AKPB . p n g (delete spaces)

"Who... are you?" Shirou called out.

"For now, you can call me Berserker." The child said. Even as he felt hateful and powerful magic spread from her, she was smiling like an innocent child. "Onii-chan, it's time to play."

He tried to step forwards, but Rin put a hand on his chest and forced him to stay back. "Don't think that I'll let you get close to my Master that easily!"

Berserker giggled. "Please. Try to stop me."

Without any warning, the bear dashed forward quicker than the fastest cheetah. It's roar was loud enough to form a shockwave that tore at his eardrums. But the true danger was just how fast it was. Even at his quickest speed Shirou simply couldn't –

Rin shoved him aside, with some much force that she nearly broke one of his bones again. But it saved his life. A second after he had been moved, a great lance made of ice had passed through that now empty space. Without that last minute rescue, he would have been dead.

But throwing him away meant that Rin had to take the full force of the bear's charge on herself. She didn't even try to block. Instead at the last second, she leaped into the air to avoid the massive bulk of the charging creature. If Berseker had been focused on her, that would have meant her death. But because Berserker had been so focused on taking Shirou's head, she was able to get over both of their heads.

Before she could land, Berserker had spun about on top of the bear and pulled a large silver bow from thin-air. Again, she ignored the vulnerable Rin to loose a quick shot his way.

This time, he saved himself by throwing himself to the ground. A thick ice arrow passed through where his head had been only a moment ago.

"Don't ignore me!" Rin shouted. The twin sabers she was holding flashed with light as she threw them with all her might towards her shorter opponent. The young girl's bear pivoted on a dime, allowing Berserker to swipe the still spinning blades away with one slash. And then she was charging at them again.

"Rin!" Shirou called out.

"Don't worry, Master!" Rin shouted back. Despite everything, her smile was confident. "Thanks to you, I finally know how these swords work!"

Another pair of swords appeared in her hands, identical to the ones who had been there before.

Archer and Berserker abandoned their ranged weapons, charging at one another with their teeth bared.

And the blades that Rin had thrown only a moment ago, began to spin backwards. The weapons Berserker had dismissed out of hand were heading right back to Rin's hands, and because Rin was charging at Berserker that path would bring them right into Berserker's back.

They were... beautiful. Shirou couldn't help but notice it. Those twin blades... it felt like their memory was being imprinted into his very soul.

Berserker and Rin collided. Berserker's lance against Rin's four blades. It was obvious who the winner would be.

And then everything exploded with ice-crystals. Shirou felt the thick sheets of ice coat his arms and legs, sealing him to the ground. The same thing happened to Rin, and Berserker, and the bear she was riding upon. Her own attack was blocked, but the sheets of ice that had spread around her provided a sort of armour. All four blades bounced off it, shattering the ice but not digging deep enough to do any damage to the pale girl.

Rin managed to break one arm free. A long sword formed in her hand, jagged and pure red. "Hrun –"

The bear swatted it out of her hands, and Rin was lucky the ice covering her prevented the beast from killing her with another quick swipe. As soon as it had stopped the attack, the bear retreated carrying the girl on it's back to the safety of distance.

The sword rolled closer to Shirou. The ice around him was getting thinner by the second, and he strained his muscles against it to make it crack.

The sword rolled even closer. Shirou's hand wrapped around it. Somehow, he understood the blade. Was it because of his connection to Rin? It was beyond anything he ever could have created on his own, but –

He could throw it.

"Hrunting!" He shouted.

The sword, which always made a perfect stroke, flew towards it's target with a precise arc. Towards one of the four holes in Berserker's ice-armour.

"Enough." Berserker declared.

Ice sprouted again, enough to cover most of the street. Hrunting sank four feet deep into a wall of it that had spread in front of Berserker, and was stuck.

Berserker shook free of the ice surrounding her. "Hmmph. I suppose you two managed to be a little interesting after all. Well, as much as I want to kill you, I promised that woman I would leave you alone. But I'm sure once I tell her about this infidelity she'll want you dead too, so I'll be back when she's withdrawn that promise."

Babbling on about nonsense, Berserker disappeared back into the fog.

"Master!" Rin was by Shirou's side in an instant. A long metal poker appeared in her hand, which she used to chip away the ice around him. If he'd been left to break himself free, he would have surely gotten frostbite by the time he'd gotten fully loose. "Are you injured?"

He shook his head, despite the pain the incredibly cold ice was causing to his body. It was nothing that he couldn't handle. "Is she – gone?"

"I can't feel her presence." Rin said. "And she's no Assassin, so I would be able to feel her if she was still around. Come on. Let's get out of here, before she changes her mind."

Together, the two of them fled the scene of the crime. The only evidence of the fight was the thick sheets of ice that would melt long before anyone stumbled upon them.

X X X

Rin tested her elbow. Last night when that polar bear had swiped that sword out of her hand, it had broken the bone. She'd managed to hide all signs of the injury from her Master, but she'd been worried it might last long enough to be a hindrance. Fortunately, it seemed to have been healed overnight.

Speaking of her Master, it looked like he was finally ready to talk to her. She heard him wander over to the guest room she was staying in, and then knock on her door. "Come in." She called out.

He entered to find her sitting at a desk, fiddling with a long sword that she had projected. She was beginning to experiment with the different things that she could make, in a way that never would have been possible without their bond. "Fuji-nee is gone." He said, referring to Fujimura Taiga. Rin had been hiding from their teacher all morning. "She accepted me staying home from school without any fight, like you said. And I told her that Shinji offered to let me see Sakura in a few days, so hopefully she can take my place if I'm... indisposed."

Rin tried not to react when he brought up Sakura's name. Her Master had no idea of the connection between the two of them, and she intended for it to stay that way. The Matou's had nobody capable of entering this Holy Grail War, so if she had to guess she would assume they were merely keeping Sakura home to keep her safe from the other Servants who might assume she was involved. Nothing to worry about.

"Right. Then do you want something to eat, Rin?" He asked her. "I made sure to make plenty of leftovers."

"I'll take you up on that, thank you." Rin replied. She was his guest, and he was her Master, so she felt no guilt about consuming his food. "While I'm eating, why don't you get the dojo ready?"

"The dojo?" He asked, with a puzzled look.

"We need to talk strategy, and to practice." Rin said. She held up one finger, like a lecturer. "Right now, our biggest weakness is that neither of us knows each others abilities. We should spend some time discussing our strengths, and working out a battle plan for when we encounter either of those two Servants again."

Her Master nodded. "Yeah. That makes sense. I'll get the dojo ready. Dinner is sitting on the table, so feel free to dig in. You can take anything you want from the fridge too. Just make sure you don't eat any of the leftover rice I packed up for lunch. Oh, and please wear a naked apron to our training session."

She nodded. "Right, right, sounds reasonable."

Then within her own mind, she heard a sound like a glass shattering.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?"

He flinched, like she was the crazy one in this situation. "Hmm? Well, you can have some of the rice if you want, but please let me know so that I can have more time to prepare lunch –"

"That's clearly not what I'm talking about!" Rin shouted. She wanted to slap him, but settled for waving her hand around in his face. A huge blush had spread up around her cheeks. "I'm talking about the naked apron! What kind of pervert are you to give an order like that?"

Emiya – no her Master, tilted his head. He was pouting. "I think it's a pretty common desire though. What kind of man wouldn't want to see you in such an outfit?"

"That doesn't forgive sexual harassment!" She shouted again.

"Rin, I promised to take my position as your Master seriously." He said, with an annoyingly stable expression. "Someone told me once, a proper Master is someone who is kind, but firm. Quick to punish and quicker to reward. Someone who requires that their Servant fulfill their needs, but fulfills the needs of that Servant in return."

"Who the hell told you something so ridiculous!?" Rin shouted. Whoever it was, she was going to throttle the life out of them!

"Sorry, Rin. This is my selfish desire. In order to be an ideal Master, I need to become someone who is comfortable making his Servants fulfill such requests. You wouldn't want a half-assed Master that would only hold you back, right?"

Damn that stubborn expression of his! It was like he was really distorted. Someone had gone around and messed with his head so that he thought up was down and ordering a Servant to wear a naked apron during training was a reasonable thing to do!

Rin's pride wavered. She had accepted him as her Master, but was she really going to... obey him like this?

Her chest got all hot just thinking about it.

She couldn't! She absolutely couldn't!

X X X

In the end, she put on the apron. She'd worked hard to build up the courage, and she'd gone through with it. Since she'd been the one to make the pact, her pride as a Tohsaka wouldn't let her do otherwise. Of course the apron she was wearing right now was projected, made custom to cover as much of her skill as possible. But she wasn't cheating. Her entire backside really was bare.

It was absurd!

It was a ridiculous distraction, that's what it was. He was going to spend the entire session staring at her! If he did, she would beat him senseless for wasting her time.

And there was one other even worse possibility.

If he made her go this far and then didn't even look at all, she was really going to kill him!

Before her courage could waver again, Rin slid the door of the dojo open and went to face her Master.

I liked ending this chapter in Rin's POV, because it allowed me to show Shirou's warped sense of normality and right and wrong that he has in this story.

For anyone who can't get the image link to work, just google Sitonai's FGO ascensions.