Chapter 63
Shinji barely gave her a glance as she breezed past him, when before he would have immediately tried to strike up her conversation if she so much as looked at him from the opposite end of a corridor. Right now though, he was just keeping an eye on her. Attracting her attention would just make his job that much more difficult.
She walked past him without a second glance, not even registering who she had just passed. Well, he hadn't bothered for a week, so it was natural that she'd forget about him, since she only treated him as a pest anyways in the first place. He continued walking until he reached the stairs at the opposite end of the corridor and stopped at the stairwell.
"Rider? It seems like Archer and Tohsaka are heading to check the dojo."
He had to speak out loud, since even though he had the Book of False Attendant, he didn't possess the mental link that allowed a true Master to mentally communicate with their Servant.
Rider didn't acknowledge his words, but he knew she had heard him. If she left her spirit form and materialized, Rin and any other mages worth their salt within 5 miles of the school would know there was a Servant there.
With his task done, he left to continue doing the exercises Rider had taught (forced) him to do.
"She went to the student council room and talked with Ryuudou-san and Emiya-san, and now she's heading to the dojo where you're at now."
She frowned lightly as she knelt on the polished wooden floor of the dojo, watching her clubmates go through each step of kyudo.
"Is there something wrong, Matou-san?"
"Ah, nothing's wrong, Mitsuzuri-senpai."
She reversed her frown into a slight smile after she was questioned by Ayako, who noticed her sudden change in expression. It looked like she'd have to be more careful in the future, since the captain of the archery club could be quite perceptive at times.
Ayako stared at her for a moment longer, before she nodded and turned back to observing the form of the club members currently shooting on the range.
Internally, Sakura writhed in discomfort at the thought of her sister confronting her beloved senpai.
"Is she suspecting him? Does she know he's a mage? Is she going to attack him if she finds out he's a Master?"
All these questions cropped up in her head, her heart rate speeding up as her imagination grew wilder and wilder over what her sister would do to her senpai.
"Mitsuzuri-san?"
The wooden doors were already open when Rin arrived, so she just called out to the archery club captain.
"Tohsaka? You've finally decided to come to watch us practice?"
"Un, well I had some free time, so I decided to take you up on your all, it's not every day that I get to see the famed award-winning archery club practicing."
Rin smiled as she offhandedly praised the archery club.
"Hoh? It's rare of you to suddenly act on a whim like that. Maa, I guess it doesn't matter what your reasons are though. You're welcome to watch as much as you want."
She turned to look at the club members currently on the range.
"Though it's not really an award winning club any more. That was only back when Emiya-kun was here." Her eyes wandered off as she thought of the past, when the red-haired boy would strike the center of the target each time with unerring accuracy, his breath and muscles flowing naturally with no interruptions. That perfect form was something that all of the club members who had seen him in action strived to emulate, but were still unable to reach to this day. The one time his aim was off, he had told her that even before he released the arrow, he knew it was going to miss.
Rin watched her far-off expression from the side, then smirked.
"Could it be...your target is Emiya-kun?"
She covered a smirk with her hand, but Ayako refused to fall to the bait, simply closing her eyes and wearing a small smile on her lips.
"I don't think he's a bad person to date, but he's really more of someone that I admire and try to surpass. In a sense, I suppose you could call him a rival of sorts."
Rin looked at her face, before deciding she was serious, and sighed.
"So that's how it is. Still, you'll have to work hard before you beat me in our competition, you know?"
At that, Ayako reddened slightly.
"It's not like you're any closer to the finishing line either."
"True, but between us, it's obvious who would get there faster."
Rin taunted Ayako as the two of them argued while the club members ignored their banter, with Sakura going through the motions of practicing as well.
By the time practice was over, the sun was starting to touch the horizon, the ray of light turning to a mild orange hue that softly illuminated the surroundings.
"It was fun watching the kyudo club practicing. Maybe I'll come back another time to spectate again."
"Sure, we're open to whoever wants to watch us practice. See later then, Tohsaka."
Ayako left the dojo and went out the school gates, along with the rest of the club members and the other teachers and students that were leaving at the same time as well. Not long after, the bell rang, and the school gates were shut.
Going around to the back, Rin made sure there was no one else looking, asking Archer to keep watch as she activated the jewel she had planted near the dojo before entering it. She had waited the entire time for a full analysis, as the spell she had used was quite thorough and hard to detect, but in exchange it worked very slowly.
"Verraten."
The oval sapphire glimmered in the darkness, before cracks appeared in its body, and then it shattered, releasing a fine mist of sparkling dust. Rin lowered her hands, and went into the dojo to take a look at the results of the analysis. The way it worked was that the jewel would fill the entire building with Rin's magical energy, which would then react with foreign magical signatures and produce identifiable readings. It was close to Reinforcing, but used along the lines of Structural Analysis, and the amount of energy poured into the building was minuscule, to make it harder to detect. There was just enough to produce a reaction.
The wooden doors creaked open, revealing several dark spots on the ground that glowed a dull purple, mixed with a void black that seemed to swallow the light. Walking closer to them, Rin noticed that a peculiar smell seemed to be floating off these dark patches. Bending closer, she took a sniff.
"Kah, what is this?"
She almost retched, but managed to catch herself. The stench was horrendous, a mix of excrement, damp soil and insect entrails, along with an unidentifiable smell that seemed to be mud, mud mixed with some of the most poisonous plants in the world to produce a sickly sweet smell that cloyed and clumped in her nose.
"Who could produce such a signature…"
In truth, she didn't want to recognize it, but there was only one person who could fit this smell. Just to be sure, she held a hand over the patches and stimulated them with her mana.
The mana flowed into the patches without any resistance, and she felt a slight tug like the foreign mana was trying to suck out her magical energy. She stopped as soon as she felt the tug, the glow in her hands dying down.
"It can't be, she's the Master?"
*BOOOM*
Before she could even register what was going on, Archer grabbed her and dashed into the open air archery range as a bullet cracked through the air and passed through where her head was a moment ago, breaking a hole in the opposite wall and continuing through. Putting down his Master, Archer traced his two swords and prepared for combat.
*Clak, clak*
Through the wooden doors, a woman wearing a maid outfit came walking through, her left hand carrying a scoped Desert Eagle handgun, her right hand clutching a red handled mop.
"Who are you?"
Rin asked the Servant who had just attacked them. Two yellow eyes glinted in the darkness, her pale skin reflecting the last rays of sunlight as it dipped below the horizon to plunge the city into night.
"My identity should be obvious. I am a maid."
Archer's grip on his blades tightened as she stepped into the moonlight, her face readily recognizable to him. Why in the name of Alaya had he never seen her wearing a maid uniform until now. Also, why was she a maid. These questions ran through his mind as he silently screamed with joy, searing the sight deeply into his memory. With difficulty, he managed to stifle his emotions in order to focus on the imminent threat she posed to Rin.
"Master, stand back, this will be a tough battle."
Seeing Archer speak with such a serious tone, she retreated at once, hopping out of the range with reinforced legs as Rider approached Archer.