Chapter 46
The next morning came soon, sunlight filtering through the glass to light up her room. Lazily opening one eye, she grumbled and twisted in the covers, one hand stretching out from the comforting embrace of the sheets to silence the incessant ringing from her alarm clock. After spending five more minutes lying motionlessly on the bed, she grudgingly shuffled out of it, sticking one leg out, then using her arms to drag the other one out. The moment her bare feet touched the cool floor, she hissed slightly, immediately seeking out her warm fuzzy slippers.
Slipping her feet deep inside once she found them, she shuffled to the bathroom in a daze, going through her usual routine. Along the way while walking through the house, she noticed that the house seemed to be, brighter, for a lack of a better word. It seemed like everything was well taken care of, like everything had been recently cleaned and reordered. Despite the enchantments she normally used for the upkeep of the house, it had never felt like this before.
After a while, she reached the living room and saw Archer standing on the pristine floor, everything back in place in its original spot. For a moment, she stood there in a daze, taking in the spotless living room.
"Is this to your satisfaction Master?"
Archers allowed a slight measure of smugness to enter his voice as he smirked at her, letting her take her time in admiring the fully cleaned living room. The tables and glass panes sparkled under the sunlight that came from the clear skies outside, without a single speck of dust remaining. The furniture was all back in place, the tears, cracks and missing pieces all gone, as if it was never there in the first place. Even the complex mechanisms of the grandfather clock were back in place, the hands ticking like usual, and the ceiling was immaculate.
"Are you sure you're part of the Archer class?"
After gazing at the living room dumbly for a full five minutes, Rin finally managed to muster a response, wondering how did he pull this off. Even if he had used magic, it still didn't seem possible to restore it to such a degree.
"As an Archer, I had to take care of my own equipment on the field. The skills acquired back then allow me to fix many things and clean properly."
Rin stared at him in disbelief for another moment, before heading to the sofa to take a seat.
Without missing a beat, the moment she sat down, he poured a cup of tea from the white porcelain teapot for her, the warm amber liquid streaming from the delicate ceramic to flow into the dainty cup without spilling a single drop outside. Steam rose in a small cloud, the surface of the liquid twinkling under the light.
Reaching for the cup, Rin held the cup and took a small sip from the hot tea.
"It's good."
Surprised once more, she stared at the cup in wonder. Normally, she only used tea bags to make her tea, dumping them straight into hot water and then waiting for them to suffuse the liquid with flavour.
But this, this tasted like something someone would make after carefully picking the best leaves at the perfect moment and then wringing every drop of flavor from them. It was sublime when compared to her usual fare.
Standing besides her, Archer's insufferably arrogant face grew more and more smug from his Master's reactions.
"Knock it off."
She was slightly put off by it. His smirk receded slightly.
The rest of breakfast was also prepared by him, a traditional Japanese breakfast that was different from her usual Western-style meal. A bowl of steaming rice with fermented vegetables, hot miso soup and steamed tofu. Despite her reluctance at eating something so far from her usual breakfast, she dug in, and after a few bites she eagerly scarfed down everything. The ingredients seemed to harmonize with each other, enticing her taste buds while making everything easy to swallow. She felt good after eating it, ready to start her day at a moment's notice.
"Archer, I'm going back to school now. Go into spiritual form and stay outside of the school to keep watch. If anything happens in school, I'll tell you to come."
"Understood."
Rin left the house wearing her signature red coat over her school uniform, with Archer following close behind her.
They were walking down the street when a boy wearing their school's uniform ran past, brushing past her in the process.
"Ah, sorry!"
Without looking back, he yelled his apologies and continued running to school.
What was he running for? It wasn't even remotely close to the school's homeroom time yet. Then Rin felt something in her coat pocket. Reaching in one hand while being cautious of any sudden threats, she Reinforced her hand and felt inside her pocket.
It turned out to be a piece of paper folded neatly into a small square. Looking around, she saw no one else who'd recognize her, and then went into a small alley on the side. Slowly unfolding it, she read the contents of the note.
"Meet us behind the storage shed after school closes for a possible alliance. -Master of Assassin"
After reading it thrice, and then giving it to Archer for him to double check she wasn't missing anything, she pulled a small amount of od and lit a small flame on her index finger, lighting up the note and burning it to ashes, scattering it to the wind.
"Archer, we're going to be staying late after school today."
Archer looked at her.
"Even if it's a trap, we still have to go. An alliance with another Master would serve us well, even if it falls apart later on in the war."
He regarded her for another moment, then nodded, returning to spiritual form.
They went to school as usual, Rin going through the motions like nothing was out of the ordinary. Although some other students were acting strangely. Issei was still incredibly upbeat and energetic, while Sakura seemed to be deep in thought and distracted a lot. When she was carrying papers for the teacher in the hallway, she ran into a door and dropped them all, forcing Tohsaka to help her out of concern.
"Are you alright Sakura-san?"
"Ah, I'm fine Senpai."
She quickly picked up the papers with Rin and took her leave, but it left Rin with a nagging suspicion in her heart.
What was even more strange was that Shinji seemed to have undergone a remarkable change overnight. He was still outgoing and talkative, but somehow he had lost some of his arrogant confidence that followed him like the stench of a skunk. Instead, he almost seemed humble at times, and seemed very satisfied for some reason. Ayako had confided in her that he was now attending the club regularly, actually providing useful tips to his kouhais in the archery club, and that he was noticeably more engaged in archery as well.
Well, he wasn't someone she really needed to be concerning herself about, so she pushed him to the back of her mind.
It wasn't long before the sun started setting in the sky, the students in clubs staying late until they absolutely had to leave before the school gates closed. There hadn't been many incidents in the past few days, besides the meteor shower at Ryuudou-jii that was really just a freak accident, at least to the public. The warehouse battle had been covered up by El-Melloi as well, completely hiding it from society.
Rin checked around the school while the students were filtering out of the school gate, looking for traces of a Master in the school. It didn't hurt to be careful after all. Even if the Master hid their mana signature, there were still other traces and hints that could be found. But besides Sakura's usual signature, she couldn't find anything else. She certainly had felt something strange in the school at various points, but she couldn't pinpoint it to anyone. It was actually due to Kuzuki and Shinji's weak abilities as maguses, to the point of being nonexistent on Rin's mental radar despite their contracts with Servants. Sakura was only in charge of supplying magical energy, and technically didn't have a contract with one, so Rin didn't sense anything out of normal from her either. The book of False Attendant was constructed to throw off most maguses, especially the Tohsaka's and Einzberns, since Matou Zouken knew they were participating and was familiar with their magecraft. As such, even though Shinji brought it to school, Rin still couldn't find it even after casting gem magecraft on the rooftop.
Day turned into night, and the meeting time came. Tohsaka was forced to wait behind the gym for them to come, with no actual specified time for them to appear.
They didn't have to wait long. With the sun dipping below the horizon, a blur came hurtling over the concrete and metal walls of the school, landing on the dirt with a mere whisper.
A blue jersey wearing girl set down the cloaked grey haired girl, the two of them so alike they were almost twins. At the sight of the two, Rin narrowed her eyes. She had heard of the Edelfelt crest possessing a sorcery trait of Ore Scales, allowing the summoning of two aspects of the same Servant with a single Master slot. If they looked so alike, it was possible these were sisters. She was fairly sure however, that the jersey wearing one was a Servant, despite her modern attire. Then, was the gray haired one perhaps a descendant?
Behind her in spiritual form, Archer's eyes widened at the sight of them, before he regained his composure. He had seen descendants of Artoria before during his deployments by Alaya, so it wasn't that big of a shock to him. He was also aware of the existence of different Artorias in the Throne of Heroes.
Schoolgirl Artoria was a surprise for him though, and not exactly an unwelcome one either.
"My name is Tohsaka Rin, the Second Owner of the land, Master of Archer in the Fifth Holy Grail War."
Rin stood in front of them with her arms crossed, addressing them with a firm tone while Archer materialized behind her, standing at attention.
"Gray Pendragon from the Clock Tower, Master of Assassin."
The young girl inclined her head towards the other Master, bowing slightly. Tohsaka accepted the gesture with a nod, then got down to business while wearing her best poker face.
"Are you asking for an alliance with me?'
Gray nodded, then took a breath to explain everything.
"We have reason to suspect that the Hol-"
*BOOM*
Assassin carried Gray and jumped out of the way as Archer gripped Tohsaka around the waist and did the same, a crater appearing where the two of them had been standing. Archer landed on top of a nearby school building, while Assassin reached the other side of the road just outside of the school walls.
Scanning the area, both of them spotted the knight riding a pale horse standing in the crater, a red lance whirring and spinning. Dark armor covered the knights entire body, even their face, and a sinister miasma coated their weapon.
"Assassin, is this your-"
"NO! We were ambushed as well!"
El-Melloi realized that this could become a grave misunderstanding and quickly instructed Gray to inform them that this newcomer wasn't their ally. Thankfully, they had gone over possible scenarios, and being ambushed by a third-party was one of them.
"Let's fight together to take him down!"
After a moment of deliberation, Tohsaka replied.
"All right, Archer fight with Assassin!"
It would certainly be easier to fight with 2 on 1 instead of being ganged up on by the newcomer and Assassin. She could also gauge their willingness to commit to the alliance as well, and she knew Archer would still be watching his back for any potential betrayals.
El-Melloi sighed in relief. Hopefully they could take advantage of this fight to cement the alliance between them and the Tohsaka's, and if they could take out a Servant here as well, then all the better. It would be much easier to study the Grail and identify any potential defects with the expertise of the Three Families.
Readying her sword, Assassin's ahoge twitched as she prepared to face the dark knight, feeling a familiar presence in her opponent. Archer traced Kanshou and Bakuya as well, pushing aside the question of Assassin's identity for later. That lance though...wasn't that hers as well? His confusion mounted as he wondered what kind of Holy Grail War exactly had he been summoned for. Shaking his head, he gripped his blades and focused on the battle ahead, clearing his mind to fight at his best for his Master. The dark knight readied her lance, her horse pawing at the ground eagerly for the imminent confrontation.
A lone red-haired boy stood at the windows, his attention caught by the explosion earlier.