Shinji watched from behind a school wall as the battle unfolded, a mix of disappointment and annoyance washing over him. His Servant had been bested by a non-Captain level Shinigami, and Rin's desperate attempt to rescue Rider made his Servant seem even more useless.
But when the Shinigami managed to capture Rin. A flash of emotions surged through Shinji. He had a certain affection for the Tousaka Magus, though it was mainly lust then any genuine compassion. So, seeing her die while unfortunate. Would be a necessary sacrifice if it meant winning the Grail and that is assuming he wouldn't have to face and defeat her anyway once the Shinigami were dealt with... unless she chose to submit to him first.
But then, a more effective and sinister idea crossed his mind.
In the present, Archer, Shirou, Saber, and Hitsugaya arrived at the scene to find Rin and Rangiku were bleeding badly on the ground. "Rin!" Shirou shouted, and Tōusaka gave him a weak smile.
"Don't... worry..." Rin said, then pulled out a gem and uttered a spell, made her wounds heal quickly. "Lucky... that backstabbing servant only impaled me through the stomach, so it wasn't quite life-threatening"
Shirou smiled weakly. "You really are something, aren't you Rin?" The Magus smirked back weakly, then looked over at the Shinigami, who were using his own healing magic to stabilize Vice Captain Matsumoto. Archer then looked over at Rin.
"You aren't thinking of healing her, are you Rin?" he said blandly.
Tōusaka sighed. "I am aware that she had me as a hostage... but I could tell from her tone it was a bluff." She then narrowed her eyes at Toshiro. "Wasn't it, Captain?"
Toshiro remained silent for a moment before responding. "As Shinigami, we must protect human souls, not kill them... but I suppose when it comes to Magi, I should have expected they would go so far as to kill one of their own if it meant getting what they wanted."
Rin then looked down in slight shame. "Yes... and as a Magus myself, I of all people should know better too" She then walked up to the Shinigami and Toshiro narrowed his eyes in anticipation of an attack... only for Rin to reveal a glowing green stone and the captain winced his eyes. "You would heal my Vice-Captain... even though we are still enemies?" Toshiro asked.
"Don't think this changes anything," Rin said sternly. "It is technically my fault for allying with that other Magus to begin with, and this is just me making amends. But be sure, after this, we will fight each other as enemies when we meet again"
Rangiku looked up as Rin healed her wounds with a spell and smirked. "Well... she said playfully. "I just hope you don't let your guard down so easily next time"
Rin gave an annoyed look. "Could say the same for you."
"How sentimental..." The echoing smudge voice of Shinji called out while Rider stood on top of the school building. "It almost makes me want to gag..."
"SHINJI!" Shirou shouted out angrily. "How could you betray Rin like this after you just came in to offer us help!?"
Shinji however laughed. "Help, oh you are as just as naïve as always, helping you was merely a means to an end, and when I saw an opportunity to take down both your servants and the Shinigami, Rin's life, while painful for me to do so, was a necessary sacrifice for me to win this war!"
Toshiro then narrowed his eyes in anger yet kept his cool, while drawing his sword. "And what honestly makes you believe that your Servant can take us all down at once?"
Rider then smiled. "It is no coincidence that Shinji allied with the school at the same time you sense my presence, Captain..." she explained while Archer, Histuya, Rangiku, Shirou, and Rin looked on in concern. "At first, I and my master hoped that our alliance would enable us to take out at least one Captain or servant and eventually others before both of us betrayed the others..." her smile then slightly wound into a grin. "But of course, as my master said the moment Rin was captured..." Everyone then sensed a shift in mana. "It presented too much of an opportunity to waste..."
Then before all the group's eyes, the sky turned blood red, while a massive slit-eyed gaze appeared up in the sky above the school, and immediately they felt their mana, their spiritual and life force being drained. To the point that it made Shirou and Rin to collapse to the ground.
"Like it?" Shinji boasted. "My Servant's Noble Phantasm, Blood Fort Andromeda, enables her to absorb the life force of anyone caught in her field aside from me and her of course!" he bragged as Archer and Toshiro gritted their teeth in frustration while Shirou, Rin, and Rangiku struggled to maintain consciousness from the field's effects. "And now that she has managed to trap all of you inside it. All your fates are essentially sealed!' he let out a madding laugh.
'Take them all down Rider!" Shinji ordered and his Servant immediately rushed at the group with such speed and force, that Saber, Shirou, and Archer were just barely able to evade her strikes.
"She's gotten much more powerful than before!" Rangiku thought to herself as her eyes widened, while Archer, Toshiro, and Saber could barely keep up with her speed as she circled them like a swirling cyclone yet far faster than any bullet as she weaves in and out with her strikes and parried their blows with her chain daggers. Then upon seeing an opening Rider threw two of her daggers at Saber who tried to block them with her sword, but at the last minute, the daggers changed direction and proceeded to entangle Saber. Restricting her arms before slamming her through the wall of the school building and into the hallway. Rider then by several purple magic circles summons dozens of more chains, to further restrain Saber, binding the Servant in place.
"Damn it..." Toshiro said while raising his zanpakuto in defense. "She is practically picking us off one by one!" he declared but Rider gave the captain an amusing grin.
"I am afraid you are mistaken, Captain..." Rider said while undoing her blindfold. "She was the only one that needed to be picked off" The Servant then revealed her light violet eyes to Toshiro and the rest of the group, which to the captain gave off an unnatural beauty beyond what any human or soul could possess, and yet their appearance was unmistakenly unnatural, as the eyeballs were solid and unblinking, her corneas lacked the reflection of light and the pupils, were shaped like that of a square.
But the most unsettling part was when the effects of those eyes started setting in.
To the captain's shock, he found out he could barely move his body, but then that feeling gave way to horror when the Shinigami realized that he wasn't just paralyzed, but rather his entire body was slowly turning to stone, and as his heartbeat with panic and his eyes dilated with terror. When his gaze darted around, he also saw to his dread the others were experiencing the same effects... even when some like Rangiku and Archer tried to avert their eyes.
"It is over for all of you" Rider spoke in a deadly calm voice as she knew that none of them had the resistance to counter her mystical eyes, aside from Saber who was now bound, and in the next few seconds all of them would be completely petrified.
"Until she heard one word from the captain.
"Ban...Kai!"
Then before Rider knew it a massive surge of power flowed out of the Captain which was potent enough to shake the earth and make the air heavy and deathly cold. Forced her to block her unblinking eyes with her arms and she looked upon the captain again, she saw to her shock, he now had two massive curved wings of ice and a long matching tail that flowed out of his back, his right arm that wielded his zanpakuto was covered in ice like a gauntlet shaped by like a dragon's head that curved over the right side of his body. His feet and other arm were covered in ice-like extensions that resembled that of claws and floating behind the Captain were three diamond-shaped ice flowers. That each held an unknown but important purpose.
"Daiguren Hyōrinmaru!" the Captain announced in a calm yet striking voice, while everyone nearby nearly gasped in awe.
When Shirou looked up at the Captain's Bankai he stared wide-eyed at the sheer scale of power the captain now released.
"It is as I and Archer thought..." Shirou lamented.
"The Shinigami do indeed have a second form of their zanpakuto and its power...It increased at least ten times fold!" he analyzed while looking over the majestic form of Daiguren Hyōrinmaru. 'It's also why I couldn't analyze it until now because Bankai and Shikai are two different weapons, similar yes, but no more than similar then a sprout and full-grown tree' he then looked over to Rin whose eyes widened in disbelief. 'I just hope that captain doesn't take us all out alongside Rider.'
Rider herself was also shocked by the power which then turned into concern when she noticed that the Captain's spiritual pressure had now increased to the point that he was now too powerful to simply be petrified... but even so, he should still have his other states lowered considerably by her mystical eyes and thus still has an advantage over him.
However, before the Servant's eyes, Hitsugaya pointed his sword at her, and from its form a gigantic version of his ice dragon, which now had fully developed arms, legs, and wings. That lunged at Rider with surprising speed. Forcing her to jump high into the air to avoid the frosted beast.
Then while in the air, she launched two of her chain daggers at The Captain, but the latter easily blocked his ice wings before freezing and shattering them with a single flap.
Toshiro then used his wings to fly to Rider and unleashed another technique. "Hyōryū Senbi!" He shouted and a huge wave of ice in the shape of a crescent moon flowed out from the edge of his blade. However, Rider evades the rushing ice by twisting her body away from it, before landing on the ground.
"He is too powerful to take be take down by conventional means..." she judged while Hitsugaya then landed in front of her and prepared to make another attack. "Meaning that I have no choice but to use my other Noble Phantasm..." However just when Rider was about to do so she suddenly sensed another presence threatening her master and immediately rushed in to save him.
However, upon finding him, Shinji was on the ground nearly collapsed and barely breathing, and Hitsugaya hovered outside of the window and narrowed his eyes with guilt.
'So…it would seem that master isn't capable of withstanding my spiritual pressure while I am in Bankai' He confirmed grimly while furrowing his brow at the down teenager. While Rider then shifted her gaze and narrowed her eyes on him.
'Are you going to take advantage of my master's distress?' Rider asked in anticipation waiting for an attack, but Hitsugaya shook his head.
'As I said before we Shinigami are not here to kill human souls…' he held a look of disgust. 'Especially despicable ones like him. ' he looked back at Rider 'So...consider this, you undo that boundary field of yours, and will let you and your master go and we can settle this next time'
Rider then narrowed her eyes and then picked up Shinji. 'Are you sure you won't regret this?'
Toshiro then closed his eyes in reluctance and let out a sigh. 'I might…but it is better than having a teenager's death on my conscience'
And with that Rider nodded her head placed her bandage over her eyes and broke disabled the boundary field before picking up and leaving with her master.
Half an hour later the Shinigami, Servants, and Masters meet each other.
'We have a truce for at least a day so that both of us can recover our strength and then if we meet each other again our battle will resume' Toshiro offered and Saber nodded.
'That is a fair agreement' The Servant complimented with a tone filled with respect. 'And I hope that one day we may cross our blades once more without holding back'
'Toshiro then looked at Saber and smiled. 'Perhaps…but until then be ready' and with that, the captain and his lieutenant disappeared in from sight with a flash step.
'Well…' Rin spoke out. 'That was one roller coaster of a nigh cataclysmic disaster' she mumbled and Archer then sighed.
'That is putting it mildly…' Archer responded rather cynically. 'We were lucky that this shingmai' are honorable enough to spare Rin and the rest of the humans here but still…we now know exactly how powerful these Shinigami are'
'Indeed…' Saber agreed. 'This Bankai… it like a reformed and superior version of a noble phantasm...or rather a manifestation of their blade's true form and power' She then remembered facing the ice dragons from Toshiro's First release, which were like battling small snakes in comparison to the massive Draconic ice titan Histguya summon in his final release. "In compassion to that Captain's Shikai, it is as different as night and day"
Shirou then looked at Archer and Saber. 'Due you think any of you could beat that Captain's Bankai though?
Archer then shrugged and then smirked. 'I have maybe a few weapons that could counter that oversized dragon of his…' His expression then turned serious 'But I wouldn't say it is a guarantee'
Saber then stepped forward. 'I would force you to unveil my noble phantasm just to match that power' Saber replied. 'Either way, we should use this chance the Shinigami gave us to recover and devise another strategy and be even more careful of what allies we make'
Shirou nodded. 'Yeah' He then looked up to the blue sky and determined to train himself even harder, for the future battles to come.
Meanwhile, in a massive mountain temple in Fukui city a woman dressed in an elegant purple robe with a hood covering her face. Watched over a mystical orb that showed the conclusion of the Shinigami's and Rider's battle.
The woman then gave an expression of acknowledgment and understanding as her lips plucked in intrigue. Before then switching over to another challenger in the war a small smile appeared on her face.
For it turns out to be Ichigo Kurosaki in his human form.
Alright now that ten chapters have been published, I might as well list out the captains' rankings in terms of the fate franchise parameters.
Keep in that is just my personal opinion not fact.
Ichigo Kurosaki
Strength: A+
Agility: B+
Endurance: A
Spiritual power: A++
Luck: B
Shikai: A+
Bankai: A++
Zaraki Kenpachi
Strength: A+
Endurance: A
Agility: B
Luck: C
Spiritual Power: A++
Zanpakuto: A
Toshiro Histguya
Strength: B
Agility: B
Endurance: C
Spiritual Power: A
Luck: C
Zanpakuto: B
Shikai: B+
Bankai: A+
Any see you next time!