Shirou yawned as school finally let out for the day. He was a bit tired from the previous night and all he could hope for was a day or two to figure out what to do next. As it was, he really didn't want to stick around the school at that moment. It wasn't like being at school after dark was scary, but there was something that was seriously setting his nerves on edge.
Besides, if he stayed too long, Saber might get upset and it really wasn't fair to make her wait, was it?
(---)
As she watched him leave, Archerko smirked, how easy it would be to take him down and do so much to him. Oh the fun she could have with him, some rope and... Her thoughts trailed off as Shirou started to move away from the crowd. "Drat." Oh well, she'd deal with him another day. "For now though..."
Oh, she couldn't pull off something like Blood Fort Andromeda, but that didn't mean she couldn't make things interesting in the days to come. "Fufufufufufufu..."
(---)
"Master," Caster popped her head out of her workshop, "are you out..." She trailed off as she saw a blue haired teenager with glasses, "oh, you." Sighing, Caster stood up and stepped outside before closing the door behind her. "What do you want?"
"We're going to have dinner soon, I thought I'd be nice and tell you."
"You don't like me, huh?" Caster chuckled softly at the monk in training. "That's fine, I don't like you much either, just put up with me for a little while longer and we won't need to see each other ever again." She gave him an annoyed smile and he twitched heavily.
"Now see here!" He raised his voice at her. "Just because we're monks doesn't mean we won't throw out trouble makers like..."
"Excuse me," the argument stopped as the temperature in the room suddenly dropped by twelve degrees. "Issei, are you bothering my girlfriend again?" Issei turned with dread and gulped as he saw Caster's master giving him a blank stare. "And you," he looked at Caster, "are you trying to get a rise out of him?"
Caster giggled softly. "I'm sorry, master, but I couldn't help it." She stopped giggling and gulped when his eyes narrowed at her. "Please, I'm sorry, I was just teasing him because I was annoyed you weren't out here."
He sighed and shook his head. "Story of my life," both Caster and Issei sighed as they felt the temperature of the room return to normal, "you said it was time to eat?" He looked at Issei, who nodded, "you better hurry up, or the Samurai will eat everything."
"Gah!" Issei's eyes widened and he spun to run out of the room.
"Um, I'm sorry," Caster looked down at her feet nervously, "can you forgive me?" She almost flinched when he put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm not mad at you, I just don't want a fight to start in a place that was kind enough to take me in and treat me for all my injuries." She looked up at him and smiled. "Medea," he whispered her true name and she blushed heavily as she heard it from his lips, "I said I'd help you fight in this war, didn't I?"
Still blushing, the blue haired woman wrapped her arms around her master and pressed her head against his chest. "Some day, you'll need to tell me how you got so injured." She blinked when he shivered. "Master?" She leaned back to look up at him. "What is it?"
"Let's just say that woman is seriously scary and leave it at that."
Caster blinked, wondering who that woman was and what she did to her master.
(---)
"Ma, ah, Yuuno," Rider nodded to Yuuno as the two walked down the street. They had put the clothes she had bought back in their apartment a few hours ago and were just walking around the city, trying to familiarize themselves with it. "A Servant is heading this way."
Before Yuuno could say anything, Rider was in front of him. "It's that Caster..." She whispered softly as she looked down the street, her vision almost zooming through the crowd to see the Servant heading their way. "What should we..?"
"Relax," Yuuno put a hand on Rider's shoulder. The Servant tried not to show it, but she did tense up under his touch, "I doubt she'll start something here. And if she does, well, we'll cross that bridge when it comes to it." Yuuno didn't relish the thought of facing Reinforce in combat, not without Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Signum and Vita standing between him and Reinforce at least. Even if Rider was super strong and fast, he didn't think she could fly at all. "Rider, I have to know, just why were you called up as Rider?"
"Ah," Rider was about to begin when Caster suddenly stopped less than twenty feet from the two of them. "I'll tell you later."
"You are Rider and you..." She trailed off, her pupils shrinking as she looked at Yuuno. "...You look so... So familiar to me... Why?"
"If I told you that it took two chains, several spikes, a giant hammer, pink beams, energy swords, an arrow, stone, ice and a massive teleportation spell to deal with..."
"You were that boy that helped stop me," Caster gasped, staring at Yuuno as she trembled, "I... I never wanted to meet you like this."
"I think we could stand to talk, don't you?" Yuuno smiled at her.
Caster just nodded.
(---)
"A Karaoke booth?" Rider looked around the small room dubiously. "Why here? It won't keep anyone from scrying us magically..."
"True, but it's sound proofed, and I've already set up fields to keep anyone from listening in." Yuuno looked at Caster and smiled. "It's been eight years."
"Yes," Caster nodded and looked at Rider before sighing, "how has my family been doing?"
"Well, actually, Zafira's still with Hayate, protecting her, Vita works with Nanoha now as a trainer, Signum is basically an independent investigator and Hayate is well on her way to becoming a colonel now."
"Master," Rider spoke up as she looked at Caster, "are you sure we can..."
"I mean you no harm today. I was merely..." Caster gave a soft smile, "shopping for Enerlope batteries for my master." She giggled at Rider's look, "even with your mask on, I can tell, you're confused. My master was playing a video game when the batteries started to run low. She has backups, but she needs some replacements by tomorrow."
"...Why would a Magus play video games?" Rider asked no one in particular.
Caster shrugged at her. "They're a way to burn time and not think about the world around you. What about you?" She looked at Yuuno again, "how have you been doing?"
"Actually, I'm on a month-long vacation. I came back to Earth to visit everyone, and, ah..." He rubbed the back of his head nervously, "I messed up on the coordinates slightly and ended up near here instead." He nodded to Rider, "and I summoned her by accident after my arm started to bleed."
"I see." Caster nodded and sighed. "I should be going, but, Yuuno..." She stood up and before Rider could react, she grabbed Yuuno and gave him a tight hug, "tell Hayate hello for me, okay?" Her eyes watered up as he nodded. "Thank you." Letting him go, she turned to look at Rider and nodded to her. "Please, take care of him. He's a kind person and someone I know you can trust."
"We are enemies." Rider pointed out to Caster, who shrugged at her. "Do you not find it..."
"No, I don't. My previous life was filled with nothing but enemies. Your master is not one of them, so, even if we're on different sides of this war, we're not enemies to each other."
Rider watched as a black triangle formed under Caster and she disappeared. 'Not enemies?' She thought to herself, wondering about that.
She never had a life of no enemies, after all.
(---)
"I'm back!" Shirou called out and blinked as Saber walked out from around a corner in a blue dress, white shirt and socks. "Hey, Saber, you okay?"
"Ah," she nodded to him, "I just woke up from a nap." She tilted her head as she looked at him, "there was no problems then?"
Shirou shook his head. "Nah. Didn't look like Tohsaka wanted to try anything and I couldn't feel any other Magus or Servant at the school." Granted, he didn't have much in terms of sensing anything, but no one tried anything, so, that counted for something, right?
Saber nodded as he slipped his shoes off. "Shirou, we should plan on how to deal with the other Servants." She almost sighed as he tilted his head in confusion. "Please do not tell me that you were just going to coast through this war and let the enemies come to you."
"No," Shirou shook his head, "I'm just trying to figure out who those last two Servants were."
Saber's eyes widened slightly before easing up and she smiled at him. "I admit, I am... Surprised you'd say that. I thought you would tell me not to worry and then you would go out and fight Servants on your own and not summon me at all."
Shirou sweat-dropped heavily. Did he really look that unreliable? "Ah, well... Anyway, Saber, we saw all the Servants, right? So, we just have to..." He trailed off as Saber shook her head. "What's wrong?"
"I have this feeling that I'm missing something, Shirou," she cupped her chin in thought, "but neither of those last two Servants looked like an Assassin Servant. In fact, the one that had white hair looked closer to an Archer-class Servant than an Assassin. Then again, she may be Assassin and just happens to look similar to Rin's Archer."
"Wait, are you saying Rin has two Archers?" Saber shook her head and Shirou let out a sigh of relief. "That's good, I know you'd be able to beat them, but if one of them kept you busy while another one attacked me..." He blushed at Saber's look of surprise. "Hey, I know how good I am, and I saw all the Servants fighting last night, if Lancer really wanted to, he could have killed me again easily."
"Wait, what do you mean again?" Saber narrowed her eyes and Shirou winced at the look in them. "Shirou! Did you actually try to fight a Servant on your own?!"
"Not on purpose!" Shirou waved his hands back and forth. "Hey, Saber, it was..." He trailed off as he heard a loud growling sound. Saber blushed as she realized it was her stomach that was letting out that noise. "How about I cook some dinner first, then you can yell at me for being attacked by Lancer at school and trying to defend myself at home when you weren't around."
Saber had the decency to blush at hearing that. "Ah, yes, my mistake then. But, Shirou, please tell me that you would never do something so stupid." She blushed when her stomach growled again. "Ah, perhaps you should make dinner then?"
Shirou nodded and tried not to laugh. Even if she was being stern, Saber sure was cute. Besides, he had to think of other things...
Like what to make for dinner.
(---)
"Alright, Archer," Rin sighed as she sat down and took a sip of the tea he had prepared for her. At least he was good for that. "I couldn't keep up with most of the action last night, we need to go over the other Servants."
Archer nodded at that, while he knew who most of the Servants were, having to talk out loud about them might help him collect his thoughts. "Fine. Mind if I start with the simple ones first?" Rin gestured for him to go ahead. "Lancer, while we don't know who his master is, we've figured out his identity from that fight."
"He said Gae Bolg when fighting Berserker, so..." Rin narrowed her eyes in thought. "I can't quite..."
"Cu Chulainn, the Hound of Ireland," Archer supplied for her. "Master of both the spear and of Runic magic." He sighed when Rin rolled her eyes at that. "Rin, while Runic magic has fallen out of favor, he's still a master at it."
She blushed softly, "I know that. It's just..."
"Compared to what you're familiar with, it doesn't seem like much." Archer nodded to her. "While that's true, he could do things with it that you wouldn't see very often from most magus out there. Despite knowing who he is, unless we've got dog meat..." He trailed off when Rin shook her head and sighed. "Well, for now, we'll just play a waiting game with him. He'll pop up sooner or later."
"Alright, next?"
"Berserker, or, as Ilyasviel called him, Herakles." Rin nodded and leaned back into her chair. "Then again, we should probably call him Hercules, since he's more known by that name." Archer waved his hand to dismiss any objection Rin may or may not have had. "Anyway, the problem is, that man had no real weaknesses, other than his temper, so figuring out how to deal with him..."
"I get it," Rin sighed heavily. "We should probably team up with one of the other masters to deal with Berserker. What about Saber?"
"Well, despite the fact that her weapon can't be seen..." Archer gave Rin a smirk, "I did figure a few things out about it and her." Rin blinked in surprise. "Well, for one thing," Archer materialized his twin broadswords, "she only uses one sword, not two like I do. In addition, her sword seems to be sharp on both sides," he sighed when Rin blinked in confusion, "which means, Rin, that she likely has a European broadsword. Oriental swords, whether Chinese or Japanese, tended to have only one cutting side compared to European versions. Also, since it's a Broadsword, I can safely say that she was probably from the Middle Ages."
"Why do you say that?" Rin found this interesting, but she wondered just how he knew all this.
"Well, ancient European swords were shorter, used in conjecture with a spear and shield." Archer smiled as a look of understanding came over her face. "Now then, the only problem is, even with all of that, we have no idea who she is, but, we can probably limit it to Northern and Central Europe."
"Her hair and eyes, huh?" Rin nodded as she thought about it. "...I'm drawing a blank, Archer, why is that?"
Archer sighed and shook his head. "You need to study more history." He smirked as Rin's eyes narrowed in anger. "Anyway, people with blonde hair and blue or green eyes tend to come from Northern and Central Europe. Scandinavian Vikings, Aryan descendants and others have this, it's more prominent in places like modern day German, Norway, Sweden, Britain and Northern France."
"So, by that, we can probably figure out that..." Rin trailed off, narrowing her eyes in thought. Archer watched her for several minutes before her eyes widened in shock. "...Joan of Arc?"
Archer almost fell over at that. "E..Excuse me?"
"She might be Joan of Arc." Rin shivered at that. She may not have been to keen on the history of Europe, but she did remember that Joan of Arc was known for having blonde hair and blue or green eyes. "Great, just what we need, someone who can see the future."
"Well, that is," Archer sweat-dropped, how could he explain who Saber was without letting her know who HE was?
Rin shook her head. "I need to think. What about the others? That Caster and those other two?"
"I'm not sure about that purple-haired Servant, but the other one is an Archer as well." Rin looked at him in shock and he shrugged. "I heard her opponent call her 'Archer' as well. So, it's safe to say that there's two in this war." Rin bit her lower lip. "As for that Caster..." He smirked at her. "Despite the fact that she's more dangerous than normal, I'd say that this Caster is a combat Magus, not a traditional one. Which means..."
"She's less likely to use traps and bounded fields than a traditional Magus would." Rin let out a sigh of relief. Sure, Combat Magus were almost impossible to fight one on one, but they tended to ignore some of the more potent set-up spells that a Magus like her would use. "Alright then... Archer, we're going to go out scouting tonight. If we come across a Master or Servant that's not close to Berserker, we'll see about teaming up with them, at least until after Berserker's been dealt with."
"Sounds like a plan, but, Rin..." Archer smirked at her. "I didn't think you'd want to team up with anyone. After all, you have the best Servant in this war."
"E... Even so," Rin blushed lightly, "we're dealing with Hercules, we need at least one ally for this. And if our ally's Servant dies while fighting him, then at least that's one less problem in our way."
Archer nodded and wondered if he could keep Rin from teaming up with Shirou Emiya. "How about we just do scouting for now? If an opportunity comes up, we jump on the chance to take Berserker out and only fight enemies that come to us?"
"Sounds good." Rin nodded, glad that she could take time to gather her thoughts on the matter.