Remaining Days: 2

"Hey, Saber?"

I get her attention without any issue. This is a highly important matter that I need to discuss before we leave for school. If not for the fact that Saber already had been asleep last night, I would've brought it up right away. To be honest, I even considered waking her up just to lot have to leave this wait until today.

"Did you know… Rather, do you think Shinji's Servant is a guy? Or a girl?"

Maybe the book is wrong, or simply not as accurate. It speaks of tales, of legends; not necessarily fact. It's better to put it as a more open question rather than a fact.

"The airhead? What does it matter?"

"Uhh… never mind, then."

Yeah. Saber isn't the type to really care about these things, huh? I should've expected that, in hindsight.

"Is your hand fine, Master?"

It should be, according to Sakura's estimate. I take off the bandage and really, my hand looks fine. Like nothing ever happened to begin with; no pain, no itching, no marks. It's amazing how well the healing works here… though maybe it's a bit less impressive when something like this happens in a virtual space.

"Yeah. We can get the second Trigger today," I tell her.

I keep opening and closing my hand, carefully moving my fingers. It's just a bit too hard to believe how quickly I've fully recovered, making sure like this is just something that I happen to find myself doing instinctively.

"Let's head out."

Saber disappears, following me invisibly to school, just like any other day so far. Leaving the dormitory building, I run into a familiar face, whose name I didn't catch the last time we met.

"Ah, it's you again," she notices me. "Good morning."

Her almost emotionlessly neutral tone and expression somewhat remind me of Saber, though in a way they still feel different at the core. Whereas Saber seems like someone who's grown this cold, this girl seems like someone who never really was very emotional in the first place.

That's just my impression, though. It would probably be offensive if I said any of that out loud.

"Good morning," I respond in kind. "We didn't introduce ourselves the last time, so—"

"There's no need to tell me your name, Kamiyoshi. I already know it," she interrupts me.

Yeah, of course. What did I even expect? Everyone here besides me can probably figure out something simple as another Master's name. Might as well be something that pops up over one's head.

I feel like an idiot, though. Being excluded from such information like that.

"…and what's your name?"

"Rani VIII."

"All right. Nice to meet you, Rani," I say and she nods.

There's… not much we can talk about, I think. I don't know the first thing about her, except her name — which I only learned a moment ago — and the fact that she's a Master. She isn't exactly the most conversational type herself, it seems.

Even with Rin it's at least a little easier to hold a conversation.

At the school building, we split up on the second floor. Turns out, Rani was assigned to class 2-B, the same as Rin.

"Do you know how the class assignment was decided?"

Maybe Rani knows something, or at least has an idea.

"It appears they have been determined in a way as to facilitate relations between Masters. They do take age into account, but not as accurately as real Japanese schools were known to do."

"I see… That's interesting."

Rani gives me a last nod and walks into her classroom, and I make my way to my seat. Shinji's is still empty, though he might still show up later.

Similar age is one point that makes sense, but I suppose the range must be a bit more broad. It's impossible every single Master is a high school student in age. Am I even…? I don't know. I don't know how old I am, I can't even give a rough estimate. That makes me feel quite awkward. What if I'm an adult wearing a school uniform, essentially cosplaying as a high school student?

Then again, if that were the case, it would apply to the other Masters as well. So it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Yet another new teacher introduces himself — by the name of Dan Blackmore. He doesn't look like a teacher at all, though he's not the first teacher that applies to. He explains that he himself is a Master as well, though due to the visible age of his appearance, he was assigned a teacher role rather than that of a student.

Up until now I thought every Master would have to live a student's life, but that turns out to be wrong. Is that all right, though? I don't suppose a Master would be willing to teach other Masters too valuable things, they'd just create a harsher experience for themselves if they did.

"Sir Blackmore as a teacher? Now that's quite amusing," Leo comments.

"Do you know him, Leo?"

"I do. He is quite the famous soldier, back on earth. Or at least he was, he retired a while ago."

"Someone like that is here…?"

A soldier? Really? I know this is called the Holy Grail War, but an actual, experienced (although retired) soldier is here? That feels a bit much.

"Obviously. The Holy Grail can grant wishes, naturally all kinds of people would try to obtain it."

"Yeah, that makes sense…"

Sure. If I was the leader of some country, I'm pretty sure I'd send my strongest soldier off to get me the Holy Grail as well. It was foolish of me to not even consider that.

"I'm sure one must be fairly unlucky to draw Sir Blackmore as opponent," Leo says. "Though the same goes for Miss Tohsaka."

Rin? Why? Sure, her words feel like they could rival Saber's sword in how deep they cut, but she's just a girl, right?

"Huh? Why?"

Dan shoots us a glare, apparently we got too noisy in our conversation, disrupting his class. Though he can't exactly blame us… or anyone, for that matter. I'm sure he's very passionate about this, and it seems that teachers don't get any (or many) regulations as to what their classes have to be about, but flowers and general gardening matters…?

I can't imagine in what scenario that would be valuable information here.

"You should ask Miss Tohsaka yourself, if you're that curious," Leo whispers to end our talk properly.

Ask Rin why she's compared to a retired, famous soldier in terms of how unlucky one has to be to be pitted against her…? No, I think I like to live for now. Maybe if the opportunity arises. Only maybe.

After an otherwise uneventful day of classes, I make my way to the Arena. The books I have in my room still have a lot of pages left, so I'm neither in need of new ones, nor do I have to return them, so I'll happily ignore the library with the inconvenient business hours.

On the first floor, I run into Shinji and his Servant, Rider, coming from the Cafeteria. At least he's having somewhat regular meals, I figure.

"Oh, heya Hakuno!" Rider greets me, enthusiastically as always. All I get from Shinji is just a scoff.

"Shinji…"

I still can't help but worry. His arrogant "I'm better than all of you combined"-attitude is gone, replaced by a serious, concerned look. The bags under his eyes tell a story of overworking himself. That can't just be because of what Rin told him, right?

"Are you all right?" I ask him openly.

"Obviously," he brushes me off, though I can tell he's lying. "I'm not in such a bad spot that I'd need an extra like you to get all worried, Kamiyoshi. In two days, you'll be done for anyway."

He leaves the school building, giving me a lot less of mockery than the last time we talked.

"I'm sorry, Master is probably just tired." Rider apologizes on Shinji's behalf.

"It's fine," I reassure Shinji's Servant. After all, I've heard worse from Shinji and even that didn't turn me away from him. "Shouldn't you go with him, though?"

"Nah, it's fine! Not like he'd get attacked on school grounds. Our opponent's you anyway, and you're here with me, so he's safe," Rider explains.

But can't another Master or Servant decide to attack Shinji, even if I wouldn't…? They may not be his current opponents, but if they decide they'd rather face me than him if it comes down to it, then taking out Shinji and guaranteeing me to move on would seem like a sound choice.

I'm disgusted that I'm even following that line of thought. I should just push those ideas away and focus on something else.

"Oh, yeah," I remember something I still need to ask Rider. "I've read a bit of that book you gave me."

"Ooooh, that's awesome! Which part did you like best? No, don't tell me—"

"Actually," I interrupt his excited rambling. "I have something to ask you about it."

"Hm? What is it?"

"… are you actually a guy?"

"Yeah, obviously?" Rider tilts his head at my question. "Can't you tell?"

I'm pretty sure nobody can tell that! No, in fact I'd bet everything I own now and ever will own on the fact that hardly anyone would've even considered Rider to be anything but a girl! I can't believe he's so misleading, and not even on purpose? Just what is this Servant!?

"… I see."

I'm speechless besides that. I can hear Saber chuckle behind me. So she can give a reaction, huh? Good to know.

God, I feel like an idiot.

"Rider?" Shinji calls from the school's entrance.

Apparently he left, expecting Rider to follow him, but returned when he didn't.

"Ah, sorry! Coming!"

Rider waves at me and runs off towards Shinji, leaving the school building with him. Maybe it just feels this way to me, but they seem to get along better than before. I'm happy for Rider, and for Shinji.

Though instead of concerning myself too much with the matters of another Master-Servant pair, I'll make up for my own shortcomings. The next Trigger is waiting, so Saber and I get into the Arena — which had a new floor unlocked yesterday, in which the Trigger was generated, it seems.

"The Enemy Programs here seem a bit stronger," Saber notes. "You're ready?"

That's not really a question, but rather an observation.

"Yeah. Let's try to find the Trigger first," I decide, and Saber agrees.

We make our way through this floor just like the last, the terminal's navigation feature drawing a map as we go, being more helpful on this floor than on the last, as the layout seems a bit more complex. If this development keeps going, then I don't even want to think about what an Arena floor in the fifth round or so would look like.

There's a few new Enemy Programs, and the ones we already know from the previous floor really seem more tenacious than before. Not just tenacious, though.

"They're more aggressive," I notice.

"Well observed, Master."

Saber's praise is so rare, that I can't help but feel extra happy whenever she does point out something I'm doing okay enough. Unlike Rin's, Saber's compliments aren't backhanded either.

"Is it because they're stronger?"

They appear to be a bit stronger than their counterparts. Maybe that gives them more confidence, thus they're more willing to take the initiative in battle.

"Mhmm," Saber affirms. "But I think it's also a matter of being a deeper floor."

Makes sense. Starting out more simple and inhibited as to not overwhelm Masters and Servants not having gotten used to working together at all, then gradually increasing the difficulty of battles. In a way, it's like a video game.

After a few battles — though none of them seemed to exhaust Saber too much — I notice that she's been injured at some point.

"Saber, you're bleeding," I point out, making her stop in her tracks.

"Oh?"

She raises her left arm which I'm looking at, noticing not only the fabric of her dress has been ripped, but there's a small wound below the damaged fabric as well.

"This is nothing, Master. A small scratch. It doesn't even hurt."

I'm not sure if she's lying, or if she's so used to worse injuries that she really doesn't feel more than a slight itch at worst. But it's still bleeding, even if not so much that it's worrisome. As a Master, I can't ignore that.

"Wait," I tell her, reaching out my hand towards her wound.

"You want to test that Code Cast?" Saber raises an eyebrow. "You realize that if something goes wrong, that nurse will not help us?"

I swallow.

Right. Since we're in the Arena, if this goes wrong and one of us gets hurt, we're on our own. But that's not the main point Saber is getting at, I'm sure. The big question here is — do I trust Rin Tohsaka enough that I'm willing to run the Code Cast she fixed for me, even if should she have sabotaged me I'd very much forfeit my life?

But I analyzed the Code Cast and her changes. There's no way she put anything malicious in. Though Rin is skilled, right? Even Leo deemed her on the same level as a soldier. So it wouldn't be too outrageous to assume she could hide something in seemingly innocent changes that would kill me.

What basis do I have to trust in Rin? Or my own assessment of her, or anyone for that matter?

Then again… What choice do I have? Should I stand by idly out of paranoia and rely on Saber to take care of everything by herself, simply because I can't make a Code Cast by myself and can't trust in anyone else? If that were the case, shouldn't I doubt Saber just as much?

Most importantly — Rin didn't just come up to me and offer her help out of nowhere. That certainly would have been suspicious, and I doubt I would've put my faith in her to not have any ulterior motive in that case. No, it was I who decided to ask Rin for help. If I'd distrust her that much, what was even the point in that?

"I trust Rin," I say with a determination that I hope convinces myself, because I already know Saber won't be convinced that easily anyway.

I run the Code Cast, though the memory of the last time along with the failure still fresh, my outstretched hand trembles a little.

heal(16);

There's no bang, no pain either. Instead, my hand glows slightly and envelopes Saber's wound into the same slightly green light, the wound closes and the shine evaporates.

"Seems it worked," I comment, a bit too surprised. Didn't I decide to trust her? Or at least force myself to.

"Hm."

Saber doesn't comment much on it. She's not too happy about me trusting Rin, I take it? But she's pretty hard to read, so I'm not entirely sure.

We move on through the Arena. Saber doesn't start conversations much on her own in general, and I don't really feel like I should reach out either.

I give her commands in battle and more often than not, I make the right call by now. Though I'm way too slow at concluding the right course of action, and then voicing it. The very moment I bring an order over my lips, Saber already committed to it. It's not like we're so in sync that she knows what I'm going to say, not at all.

Rather, she's acting on her own and what I'd tell her to do just so happens to align with what she chose. I should be frustrated at her insubordination, or at myself for being too slow. But instead I'm relieved. I'm making progress, and I'm getting better. That's all I'm asking for, I know I can't bridge the gap between me and other Masters within mere days that easily.

"There's the Trigger, Master."

"Yeah, finally."

I pull out my terminal and hold it close to the box of light, transferring the second Trigger onto it, much like the first one. I wonder if Shinji already got the second one as well? Yeah, he probably did.

Most likely he went into the Arena yesterday when Saber and I couldn't and grabbed it without any trouble, much like we did today.

"Should we train some more?" I ask Saber. "It's starting to get late, but tomorrow is a free day, so we can sleep longer."

I'm not all that tired, with all the rest I got yesterday thanks to my blunder. Saber seems in good shape still as well, so I don't see any reason for calling it a day just yet. Obviously that's in part to me feeling that we — or rather I — still have to make up for missing out on training yesterday.

"In that case I want you to practice using that Code Cast in battle."

"Eh? You mean while you're engaging an Enemy Program?"

"Exactly. In a battle against another Servant, we won't have the time to stand by idly just to recover for a few seconds. Any Servant worth their name would behead us on the spot."

Urgh. I bring my hand to my neck involuntarily at the imagination of a Servant, like Rider or Saber, cutting my head clean off at the smallest opportunity presenting itself. I don't want to learn what that would feel like.

"Yeah, you're right."

We'll encounter Enemy Programs and I'll try to run the Code Cast on Saber again and again until I run out of the energy required to do so. I expected it to be tricky, but it feels near impossible to keep up the amount of concentration required to run a Code Cast at a specific spot, much more so when that specific spot doesn't stay in one place.

There's going to be a lot more training required to have the Code Cast not only usable in general, but battle-ready.