Chapter Seven

The phone rang only three times before it was picked up. A snide voice answered the call, and Shirou could almost picture Shinji's sneering face. "Emiya." He said, voice thick with derision.

"Shinji." Shirou said. Rin was beside him, listening in as best as she could. "You know why I'm – "

"Hey, Emiya. How about we make a deal?" Shinji asked. He cut off Shirou easily, not even seeming the slightest bit interested in what he'd been saying. "I'll give you this worthless whore, if in return you give me Tohsaka."

One glance at Rin was all it took for Shirou to realize how revolting that idea was to her. It was worse for him. Even the thought of his previous Rin falling into someone else's hands, let alone the hands that hurt Sakura like that, made his stomach churn and his vision start to go red. He would be dead before that ever happened. "Not a chance in hell."

"Come on, Emiya. Don't you think it's only fair she gets the chance to feel a real man inside of her?"

Shirou felt everything suddenly become very still. It was like he was so angry that all he could do was focus on completing his mission. "Meet us at the border to the forest. You know the spot. We'll settle this there."

He hung up, before he could stop himself.

Rin looked sick, as sick as he felt inside. "That disgusting worm..." She said, under her breath.

"Yeah. We'll deal with him, together." Shirou said. Perhaps spending another day resting would be better for him, but he couldn't

A look of fierce determination entered his servant's eyes. "Right, Master."

X X X

Perhaps trying to settle things again on the same day was a tactical mistake, but Shirou and Rin both couldn't stand the thought of leaving Sakura in Shinji's clutches for another night. Not considering the things he had said he wanted to do with Rin. Shirou didn't want to think that even Shinji would... not with his own sister, surely? But it made him want to throw up just to think about it, and he couldn't stand the thought of going to sleep tonight safe and secure while knowing that she was at risk of... that.

So, they had to settle this now. It was dark by the time they arrived at the forest outskirts, but that was good in it's own way. Nobody else would be around to bother them, or get hurt because of their clash.

"Here, Master." Rin said. She was dressed in her very revealing battle clothes, which stirred within him feelings that this was not the time to deal with. In her hands was a long red sword, that she was passing to him.

"Hrunting." Shirou said, feeling it stir in his hands. The Noble Phantasm was a powerful weapon, perfect for a novice like him with it's ability to always strike true. He and Rin had settled upon it as the best choice for him after some discussion. His heart still longed for those twin blades of hers... but that was just sentimentality that might get Sakura killed. "Thank you, Rin. How are you feeling."

"Ready, Master." She said. As soon as she had handed over the sword to him, the two blades Shirou had just been thinking about appeared in her hands. Beautiful weapons, built not for combat but purely for the joy of making them. Shirou knew it was silly, but he couldn't help but feel jealous. If only he could make weapons like that. "Just keep the plan in mind. I'll hold Sakura off for as long as I can. It shouldn't be hard at all to defeat Shinji with that."

Shirou nodded. Their plan was simple. With Rin holding Sakura back, he could corner Shinji and force the man to use a command seal to reverse whatever he had done to Sakura. If that failed, Rin had Rule Breaker in her back pocket.

And if both of those non-violent methods failed...

Shirou didn't want to think about that. Not just yet.

Try as he might, Shirou couldn't hear any other cars approaching. All they could do now was wait, growing more tense with every passing moment. Truthfully they had no way of knowing that Shinji would be coming, but Shirou thought he would. He knew Shinji. Or he thought he had, anyways. But he was certain of one thing. Shinji was just as upset about the possibility of Shirou holding onto Rin for another night as Shirou was concerned about him holding onto Sakura.

He coughed, trying to clear his head of such thoughts. Rin was pacing beside him, just as tense as he but better at concealing it. "Do you think – "

He didn't get to finish his question.

A dagger on a chain flew for his head at impossible speeds, given away only by the soft clink of the chains as they tightened. Rin and he both reacted at once, but she was the only one fast enough to do anything about it, jumping in front of him with her matching blades and striking the dagger out of the air before he could even begin trying to dodge.

"What!?" He called out.

"Master, get back!" Rin cried. The dagger disappeared back into the darkness, only to flash out again just as quickly. It was fast, so fast that even Rin struggled to react in time.

Out from the shadows of the trees, walked Sakura. She came not from the direction of the city, but from the Forest itself. Shinji and her had circled around them.

Rin and Sakura clashed, but Shirou couldn't spare them even the slightest bit of attention. The smart thing for a Master to do in a clash like this would be to stay away, but Shinji couldn't do that for a very different reason than Shirou. He wanted Rin, which meant he had to be at least close by.

Shirou imagined a sound like the hammer of a gun going off, and his body began to fill with magical energy. His lessons with Rin had only just begun, and he often stumbled through what she was teaching him, but here and now everything came together smoothly and perfectly. Like he'd practised it a thousand times. He poured magical energy into his vision, enhancing it until he could count the tiles of a bridge from the other side of a city.

He scanned the gaps between the trees, desperate, hoping – there.

Shinji was there. Watching from behind one of the large trees about five hundred meters away.

"Rin, I'm going!" Shirou called out. He sprinted off into the trees, trusting his Servant with his back. When Sakura took a swing at him Rin was there, and he didn't stop even to watch. Pouring magical energy into his legs, he ran as fast as he could.

X X X

Sakura's twin daggers lashed out with deadly speed, forcing Rin into a constant retreat. They were evenly matched in terms of weapon numbers, but Sakura's reach far outdid her own. With a twist of her wrist she could send each of her blades going at impossible speeds, and pull them back with the chains just as quickly.

Rin spun in mid air, slashing away the blade that had been aimed to strike down her head.

"You. Hurt. Senpai!" Sakura screamed. She dashed forwards, aiming a kick at Rin's midsection. Rin blocked it with the flat of her blade, which shattered at the sheer force of the impact. She jumped backwards, dodging under a followup sweep of Sakura's long chain, and then recreating the weapon she had lost.

There was no sign of recognition in Sakura at all. This was different than the way she looked at Rin or treated her when they passed one another in the hallway, unable to stop and chat because of their father's wishes. There was no pretending here. Sakura really, truly, had no idea who it was that she was fighting. Whatever she was seeing in her mind's eye, it wasn't reality.

"Hold still!" Rin shouted. She hurled a blade at Sakura's arm, which the other woman easily dodged. Seeing an opening that wasn't really there, Sakura threw a dagger at Rin's now exposed side.

Rin caught the dagger in mid-air. She could have pulled on it, forced Sakura into a lethally exposed position, but that wasn't her goal here. Instead she summoned a nameless blade, long and thin enough to go through the holes of the chain. She slammed it through a random link, and then modified it to grow heavier and wider at each end. The weight wouldn't make the chain useless, but it would throw off Sakura's balance, making each swing just a little off.

A cheap trick, but that seemed to be all that Rin was made of.

"Senpai! I'll save you!" Sakura called out. Who she was shouting to, Rin couldn't say. She hadn't known the depths of her sister's devotion to her Master before, but she supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. He was the type to make people want to be loyal.

The sound of their blades clashing together was loud enough to ring in Rin's ears. Her arms ached from the effort, and she wasn't sure how long she could keep this up.

Not because Sakura was an impossible opponent. Her sister fought with the skill of a servant with a Master, but not the strength of one. Each one of her blows brought enough force behind it to shatter even her bones, but Rin was able to match her exactly. Rin, the Archer, was every bit as strong as Sakura the Rider. Whatever she was getting from Shinji, it must have been a pittance.

No, what made the fight so hard was that she had no way of striking back. Not without risking Sakura's life. She seen a hundred different openings already, times when she would have been able to disable or kill Sakura with a well timed blow. But she couldn't. She wouldn't.

And so they were stuck in a deadlock. Sakura forced to attack endlessly, Rin forced to defend endlessly. She wondered which of them would be able to hold on the longest.

Master. I'm counting on you...

X X X

Shirou ran, kicking and stumbling over the roots of the forest floor. He couldn't look down to see where he was going, not without moving his eyes away from his prey. It would be easy to disappear, just by vanishing behind the trees. And who knew where Shinji might get to, in this dark and all too creepy forest?

His lungs were burning by the time he got there. Shinji hadn't moved, for better or worse, and he looked infuriatingly calm and put together. "Emiya..." He said in a mocking tone, staring at the sword in Shirou's hands. "A human can't use a noble phantasm. Don't you even know that!? You complete idiot!"

Shirou punched him in the face.

His former friend screamed as he fell to the ground, already trying to crawl away. Shirou didn't relent, stepping over him and pressing the sword to Shinji's throat. Shinji froze, staring in horror at the blade before tracing his eyes upwards.

Shirou found that his voice had grown hard and clipped. He was so calm. Why was he so calm? "Release Sakura. Whatever you did to her, undo it."

Bizarrely, Shinji smiled. "Heh. You're not going to kill me."

Shirou's arm twitched, and a think cut appeared on Shinji's cheek. Shinji winced, swearing at him. Shirou hadn't even meant to move. "Shinji." He said. He could do it. Right now, he could do it. "Don't you know the first rule of magic? It's okay to kill other magi."

He pressed down with his wrist, Hrunting beginning to dig into the skin of Shinji's neck.

Shinji made a noise like a frightened cat. His eyes went white, finally understanding the danger he was in. "Wait, wait! I'll do it!" His arm raised, his command seals glowing. "Sakura! By the power of my command seal I order you!"

And then his lips flashed into a grin.

"To me!"

There was a flash. A glow of light.

And Shirou dug his sword into Shinji's neck.

"Idiot!" Shirou screamed. How did he think he could get away with that?

He didn't have time to watch his old friend die. Not just because he didn't want to think about what he had done, but because his instincts were already screaming at him to dodge.

He threw himself to one side just before Sakura's foot lashed out at him. If he'd been standing still, her kick would have broken his spine. If he was lucky. As he fell, he lost his grip on the sword Rin had given him, despite how desperately he tried to cling to it.

"Sakura, wait!" He called out.

"Master!" Rin called. The distance of five hundred meters had been a lot to him, but to a servant it took no time at all. She would be there in seconds. Not soon enough to save him from Sakura, if she chose to attack.

But she didn't Sakura had gone completely still, standing there in her revealing servant's outfit while staring down at Shinji's dead body. Shirou felt guilt stabbing at his heart. He'd killed Shinji. He was supposed to save people, not kill them.

It had just happened so fast. Shinji's betrayal was something he felt like he should have expected, but who could have foreseen someone taking such a risk with a literal blade to their neck? Had he really been so sure Shirou wouldn't hurt him.

"Master. Sakura." Rin said. She approached him warily, moving to stand over him while he pulled himself to his feet. She still had her blades drawn, staring at Sakura. "Sakura. Can you hear me now?"

"Senpai?" Sakura asked.

"I'm here, Sakura." Shirou said. The air had been knocked out of his lungs in the fall, but he made himself speak anyways.

Sakura didn't respond.

"Sakura?" Rin asked. "You need to come with us."

"I have to wait for orders. To save Senpai." Sakura said.

"I'm alright." Shirou said. Not strictly true, but she should be worrying about herself over him. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I didn't want to."

That was no excuse, and he knew it. A hero was supposed to save everyone.

She didn't even blink, or look at him.

Rin took a cautious step forward, and tugged on Sakura's arm. The other Servant didn't move, but she did repeat herself. "I have to wait for orders. To save Senpai."

"Damn it!" Rin yelled. Shirou cursed himself. This was why their second goal had been to use Rule Breaker. If only he'd waited! Rin turned to him. "Master, I don't think she's going to stop saying that, no matter what we tell her. Whatever Shinji did to her, I think it's already warped her mind."

Shirou clenched his teeth so hard that he felt like he could break his own jaw. "So, what do we do?"

There was a troubled look in Rin's eyes. Whatever she was about to say, she didn't want to. "If it took a Master to break her..."

"...Maybe a Master can fix her."

Something deep inside of Shirou clicked into place. His instincts as a hopeful hero were telling him this was wrong, but his instincts as a junior Master were screaming at him that this was right and proper. In isolation there was no way of telling which side of him would have won. But his concern for Sakura tipped the scales so far and so quickly that his head spun with the realization.

He wasn't going to hesitate. Not here.

Sakura was going to be his.

"How do I do this?" He asked Rin. She looked deep into his eyes, and whatever she saw there clearly nullified her concern.

"I'll guide you through it. But it's not going to work if she doesn't comply, Master."

"She will." Shirou said. He wasn't sure where his confidence came from. But he felt like this was meant to be.

Rin stepped around Sakura, trying to guide the other Servant into a better position. But Sakura wouldn't budge. "Sakura, if you want orders I'll give them to you. Do what I say and you'll be reunited with your Senpai. Understand?"

There was a long pause. And then Sakura nodded.

Rin held out a hand. Suddenly the air around them grew thick with magical energy, exactly as it had that fateful day when he had become Rin's Master. Rin's hair flowed in a non-existent breeze, and soon Sakura began to glow with magical energy. A sharp pain spread on Shirou's other hand, the one not already marked by his contract with Rin.

"I ask of you. Are you her Master?" Rin called out.

"Yes!" Shirou cried. He was. He was. Sakura was his.

"Your will shall empower her body, and her sword shall create your destiny! She who heeds the Grail's call shall abide by your will and reason. Let her answer you!"

Shirou held his hand aloft. "Sakura!"

Something in her eyes broke, just a little. "Senpai?" She asked. Everything snapped into place, Rin's spell pulsing through the air as the two of them were joined forevermore.

"By my command spell, I order you! Be healed!"

A burning sensation covered his hand as the command seal flashed away. Sakura twitched, and then spasmed, falling to the ground. He tried to catch her, but Rin was quicker, lowering her fellow servant to the ground as gently as she could.

"Senpai?" Sakura asked. Although she was confused, tired, and unsteady, a light had come back into her eyes. She was looking around herself and actually seeing reality again. "What's going on? You were in danger... Nii-san..."

She looked up. Towards the still bleeding corpse of her brother.

And then she collapsed.

And so Shinji dies. One of the few great joys in life is killing him off. Some of you might have been expecting Rule Breaker to play a bigger part here, considering how I ended last chapter with them discussing it, but I really just wanted to set that up for later...