The moon is shining bright above Fuyuki City, yet the rhythmic sound of steel striking steel echoed across the starry night, disturbing the peaceful night.
Fortunately, there wasn't any soul around to draw from the curious crescendo.
Up above the school building, Archer once more parries an incessant blade and tries to escape the trap he was caught in. That same blade then redirected itself from its impromptu flight before reorienting itself in mid-air. It then struck like an arrow aimed at him.
Oh the irony.
Whatever Noble Phantasm Saber or Arthur is using, it was probably the worst match against him. Her Noble Phantasm was akin to the Golden asshole, summoning Noble Phantasms. But unlike said Asshole, Arthur's Noble Phantasm was far more unique than the Gate of Babylon.
For one, each and every single weapon she had summoned are working independently. That means she has no need to actually control said Noble Phantasms in order to maximize its potential, its phantom wielders will all do the work for her.
This meant Archer is literally fighting more than one servant but the entire goddamn Round Table!
"Hnnng!" He grunted in both annoyance and pain as the married black and white blades broke in hands, clashing against the morbid version of Clarent which is a Scimitar-like and coated with sickly curse. He immediately launched himself away, backing off as he traced a hail of swords to intercept the weapon itself.
Only for the other Round Table Weapons deflect.
Archer clicked his tongue.
Then there's the independence of said weapons. Whereas he needed to trace his weapons to fight back, Saber's independent weapons are far faster and would act without input to her, matching his tracing process.
Except for deploying his trump card, he is definitely trapped in a checkmate.
"You're really not letting me, aren't you?!" Archer called out to Saber, who decided to stay back and let her Phantom Knights do their job.
"Aren't you even afraid that my Master would end up killing yours?" He continued, hoping to plant a single seed of doubt. Just a minor distraction but it would give him a small opening.
Hopefully.
But that hope was dashed by her answer.
"I trust Shirou. He wouldn't die so easily and you already know that, don't you?" He can't help but click his tongue. Of course he knew. If there's something that Shirou is too stubborn with, it's dying.
Too many times he himself got caught in the brink of death yet he's still alive.
Till that dated day that is.
"Still, you're endangering both of them by letting them try to kill each other." He barked back.
"An unfortunate development but I must be done. It's the only way the two of them can move forward from here." Saber insisted.
"Funny. I don't see it." Just as he said that, the side of the school building Shirou and Rin exploded.
"Damn it, Rin."
Archer cursed.
Rin's losing herself in her bloodlust.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shirou clutched his aching chest, lungs burning to catch breath after the near death experience.
Rin just hurled a gem that acted like a freaking grenade, a powerful one to boot. He was only lucky that he had enough sense to kick it away, letting it explode in an empty classroom.
That classroom or said floor, was wiped out.
Currently, the young male magus is hiding, crouched underneath a window of another classroom after losing Rin from the ensuing explosion.
"Shirou, show yourself." Said girl eerily called out in a sing-sang tone.
Probably like a Yandere, based on Shinji's descriptions.
Shirou's situation is bad. He doesn't know what to do. He can't simply hurt the girl. She is clearly emotionally compromised and not thinking clearly.
She snapped. Clearly not taking the information of her father's death very well.
He can't understand what she is going through right now. Unlike him, her time with her father was far longer and precious in her memory while he's lost with Kiritsugu was akin to saying goodbye to the old man. He already knew the man was dying since he was adopted by the broken man and had already accepted his imminent departure. He didn't shed a single tear at his father's funeral.
Compared to him, Rin's emotional reaction is much more pronounced.
"There you are." His eyes only had enough time to widen in shock before the wall besides his head exploded as arm went through it. Said arm, proceeded to grab him by the shoulders and quite literally pull him through the wall.
He landed on the broken ruins of the wall, coughing at the dust and debris, before his eyes landed at the shapely legs standing over his head.
One of which is about to stomp his head like a tomato.
Yelping, he rolled out the way just in time. Where his head was a deep imprint of Rin's shoe as it sunk deep at the floor. The girl herself clicked her tongue before pulling her leg out with an annoyed grunt.
"Rin, calm down. Let's talk about this." He raised a placating arm, wincing as his other broken arm flared up in pain.
"What's there to talk about, Emiya?" She snorted at his pitiful attempt.
"We're enemies." She said before raising her arm, a Gandr already forming at her fingertip.
Shirou cursed silently before ripping off his highschool uniform. Reinforcing the piece of clothing, he threw it at her. It was partially effective as it covered the girl's line of sight as the cloth draped over her even as she fired wildly at it. Bad news is that it only made her more pissed as he ran away.
"Come back here, Emiya!"
Mentally going through his options, Shirou would say he is quite screwed. One of his arms is broken, courtesy of Rin, Saber's busy with Archer, taking out Rin's support thankfully enough, and he can't use his bow with just one limb. He could fight close range but Rin already showed that he is outclassed in that department with said broken limb.
Retreat is the only option.
Running across the stairs, he finally found an escape route. All he needs is to land at the ground floor and find the exit. Saber would be alerted and free to disengage with Archer, allowing him a safety retreat.
A sound plan.
Except Rin wasn't gonna allow it.
"Got you!" Before he knew it, a sharp blow landed at the back of his head, sending him careening off the stairs and skipping its entirety to land at the hard ground floor.
"Ugghh…" A weak groan escaped Shirou's lips from where he was lying down. A look to the left yielded him the exit door.
So close, yet so far away.
"You're really good at running away but I think this is where it ends." A kick to the side rolled him to his back before Rin straddled him. Gripping his collar, she pulled him close to her face.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you immediately. I'm gonna savor this." She then released him.
And so it began.
Shirou's face was struck by a sharp blow, before another one struck him at the opposite side. Blow after blow, Rin rained down reinforced punches on him. Not strong enough to crush his skull but enough to make it hurt through his own reinforcements.
Yet through the entire ordeal, Shirou saw it.
Rin is crying.
So he just let her. He reinforced his skin and bones, ignoring the searing pain burning through his entire being, and simply took it.
He let her use him.
He let her vent everything.
Frustration
Anger
Hatred
Regret
Sadness
And Disappointment.
He allowed it. He didn't fight back.
Until his face was reduced to a bloody mess where her punches had become nothing more than weak taps as her eyes blurred with unwanted tears.
Tears of what? He doesn't know but right now, the girl needs someone.
"Are…you done?" He rasped, his jaw struggling to form the words due to soreness and injuries it sustained.
In response, the girl pointed a full powered curse at his face. Its power alone could blow his head off at such close range, reinforcement or not. Yet he wasn't afraid.
Because the girl is hesitating.
Her breathing became heavy, shuddering and racked with sobs in between as she stared at him with tearful eyes.
"Why?" She hicupped.
"Why won't you fight back!? Fight damn, it! Give me an excuse to kill you! It would be easy!" She screamed, her aimed finger shaking.
"It would be easier like that. I wouldn't feel guilty! I wouldn't feel like this! If YOU JUST FIGHT BACK!!!" She lowered her hand.
"DAMN IT! EMIYA!!!" She screamed again, pounding his chest with weak blows as she cried and sobbed.
"DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU! WHY CAN'T I KILL YOU!?"
Suddenly a pair of arms pulled her in a hug.
"Cause you're… not a…bad person." Shirou managed to rasp weakly.
He understands now.
Deep down, despite being a Magus, Rin's a good person. Magi might be morally corrupt who would kill another person out of convenience, the girl is not like that.
She's… good. Different but good.
From afar, Saber smiled.
Her intuition was right after all. Bloody the results might be but it yielded the best outcome.
She avoided the death of the girl.
As Shirou cradled the crying girl in his arms, his nose smelled something. It came out of nowhere, the smell of blood and rot. At the edge of sight, something appeared and the moonlight reflected something flying in the air at extreme speeds.
Aimed at Rin's back.
With no time to react, he threw the girl off him to the side, earning a yelp from the girl but he ignored that.
Not with the nasty looking massive nail currently embedded at his heart.
"Shi-Shirou!" Rin gasped as she stared at the weapon currently impaled at the boy. Shirou coughed blood as he tried to reach and pull the Nail out.
Until it was violently pulled out by the chain attached to it, the nail landed at the owner's hand not far away.
"SHIROU!" Saber watched as the boy collapsed on his back, caught by the girl who just beat him bloody now in shock at the boy's sudden demise.
"Damn it." Archer cursed, firing off an arrow at Rider.
He failed to sense the Rider Servant. She must have snuck in while he was busy with Saber's independent Noble Phantasm, using their presence to mask her own. Even Saber was apparently fooled if she didn't see her even with her somewhat sketchy clairvoyance.
Upon being fired upon, Rider retreated. In her connection with her fake master, she can hear him cackling with glee and joy at the news of the other Master's death. A blow that deep in the heart is impossible to come back from, except for a powerful healing spell, which she didn't relay to said cackling master.
It's better not to ruin his fun.
But…
She failed deep down.
She was aiming for the girl. She was supposed to kill the girl, not the boy.
Not the boy her true master told her not to touch nor harm.
If the boy truly dies, her master…
She will snap.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Goddamn it! Don't die, Shirou!" Rin yelled at the barely breathing boy. Using her best gems, she's trying to heal the damage and stabilize his condition.
She is failing.
"This is the SECOND goddamn time you got your heart gutted, you bastard! Is your luck that bad!?" She snorted, trying to keep the boy conscious. If he goes out, he will probably die. Worst of all, she has no gems with enough power to heal this amount of damage, her best one already used to save Shirou that first night.
"Shirou!"
"Rin!"
"Archer! Do you have any healing skills or something!" Rin desperately called to her servant, making him pause in her steps. Saber on the other hand didn't.
"How is he?!" She crouched to them, worry and regret in her tone.
"Bad. I can't heal him." Saber closed her eyes.
"Then let me." Summoning the Grail, ignoring the gaping looks given to her, Saber made her wish, a tiny miniscule miracle to the Otherworldly Grail.
Heal her Master.
Immediately, its warm glow encompassed around the wounded area, healing and closing as if it never happened. Shirou's breathing slowly became stable and before long, the boy fell into blissful sleep.
Not even a scar was left.
"Well that's convenient." Archer said blandly, rather put off that he can't trace the powerful healing Noble Phantasm.
"It has its uses." Saber gave him a wry smile.
"That was the- Ah!" Rin yelped in pain, letting go of Shirou. Looking at her palms, they are badly burned.
"Rin, move away!" Archer pulled her back as he stared at the anomaly.
Shirou's body was burning hot as countless magic circuits began to form underneath his skin, its glow illuminating through his tattered clothes.
Then his eyes and ear began to bleed, he coughed out blood and his breathing began to go erratic.
"What's happening?!" Saber gasped, not understanding as to why and how this reaction came to be with the Holy Grail.
It was supposed to heal him, not kill him!
Using Structural Grasping, Rin peered whatever she could without touching Shirou's body.
What she saw was far more horrifying.
Shirou's body is rapidly forming magic circuits all over his body and at the same time, those same circuits are dying, causing damage all across his body.
His magic circuits are killing him!
"We need to bring him to the church." Rin suggested immediately. The only person she knew who had the expertise to stop or treat this is Kotomine. Hate to admit it but the man is far more formidable in spirit arts, something that can stop this.
"Out of the Question!" Saber denied.
"Wha-? Your master's dying?! Can't you see his suffering, he needs an expert." Rin rounded at the woman.
Heroic Spirit or not, she can't let the boy die. Not before…
"Still out of the question. I cannot let Shirou step close to that Church or that Priest until I'm certain of safety!" She can't allow Shirou to meet that man again.
Not yet but soon.
"Then what are we supposed to do? Watch him bleed out as his body kills itself from the inside out?!" Rin screamed in frustration.
Instead of answering her, Saber turned towards Archer.
"Archer. Who is the Caster of this war?" Saber ordered the man.
"...Medea of Colchis, the Witch of Betrayal." Archer can't help but sweatdrop.
Did she just use her Charisma skill on him?!
And it worked?!
"Lead me to her immediately." Saber ordered once more, now carrying her master's unconscious body. She winced at the burning sensation as his scalding hot skin pressed against her. It's only her natural resistance and divinity that is keeping the worst of the burns but she can still feel it.
"Hey, wait just a minute. That's my-"
"Not enough time, Rin." Archer cut off Rin's words as he carried the girl in a princess carry.
"Wait, Archer! Damn it! Listen to me!"
Rin screamed in frustration as her own servant was hijacked from her by some charisma skill. She shut her trap later as she looked at Shirou.
His condition is worsening.
They need to find help.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile…
"You're finally awake, boy."
Shirou opened his eyes, feeling his surroundings. Darkness, that's all he can see throughout his eyesight.
Until a woman stood just above his head.
He immediately blushed, his face turning red before waking up fully and scrambling away.
"Wh-Why are you not wearing any bra!?" He pointed at the woman who he accidentally peaked at her bare bottoms and chest through her minimal clothing.
She is beautiful. Short blue hair framing around her round face. Sharp observant eyes and a shape nose paired with thin kissable lips. A lithe yet mature figure, wrapped around a small top that exposes her underboobs and sideboobs (which exposes the fact she isn't wearing a bra) and pair of booty shorts to hide her shapely hips.
"I find such clothes suffocating, especially in combat." She shrugged.
He gaped at the woman until he finally realized why it was dark.
It's not actually dark because it's nighttime.
No.
What he was seeing was the vast expanse and deep infinite void of space.
Looking down, he realized where he was.
He's on the moon.
"Enough gawking, boy." The woman snapped back his attention to her.
"We have been trying to call you in your dreams but this is the first time we actually made contact with you. A great success I might say but the means in doing it was unacceptable. Still, I won't reject a pleasant development." She said, musing to herself.
"Contact me? Us?" Shirou is definitely confused.
Who is this woman? Why is he on the moon all of the sudden? And what happened?
Is Rin alright?
Wack!
"Stop daydreaming. We have plenty to discuss." Shirou winced at his throbbing head, having met with a clipboard that suddenly appeared on her hands.
"What do you mean by we? And who are you?!" He finally snapped, rounding at the woman.
She looked up at him, realizing he was a bit taller than her.
"Well, it looks like my manners escaped me after so many years of isolation I suppose." She coughed.
"My name is Epimetheus." She introduced herself.
"I am one of the creators of the Kamihime and Researcher in Ragnarok."
"I'm also your Saber's doctor once upon a time."
Shirou's eyes widened in surprise. That was something he wasn't expecting.
"And by us, I meant all of us."
Then he saw them.
Phantoms. Hundreds of them. Vague silhouettes of women, wandering aimlessly.
Broken
Defeated
Discarded tools
"I was lucky my Ego is rather strong enough to regain much of my personality by my own. I don't know how you did it, but you somehow created a perfect copy of the past Kamihime through synchronizing witht Arthur's Holy Grail. I suspect it's the work of the artifact embedded deep inside your core but I would need to test it out and…" Shirou tuned out the rambling woman as he stared at the broken silhouettes.
They're…
Like him.
Once upon a time, he was just like them.
"How do I help them?" Epimetheus' ramblings was cut by the sudden question.
"Already? You want to help them?" She tilted her head.
Curious.
"Yes. What do I need to do?"
"Well then…"
.
.
.
"Let's get to work, oh Inheritor."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Conversion rate: 100%
RAGNAROK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welp time to leave Shirou and go with adventures of the girls.
Not before going to another fallout chapter