Midnight,
Fuyuki City
There was an eerie silence in the city.
The buzz of traffic, commuting people, and sirens was still there.
A nervousness because of the sudden disappearance of many people in the last 48 hours was also present.
Yet, neither of these things could truly deny the presence of silence.
Over twenty-four hours had passed since the heaven-shaking boom that had rocked the City last evening.
However, other than the Servants who had reached there to witness the coming of the 10th Servant, no Mage or Civilian had found anything there later.
Ever since then, everything had quietened.
No Master revealed himself or herself.
Their Servants were the same.
Even The Shadow, the vilest existence in the city, had made no moves.
But Dark Sakura hadn't truly bestowed the world with her evil presence since Assassin's Noble Phantasm had injured her, and Saber Alter through her.
Only the Overlord had shown himself to the Servants before vanishing without leaving any hint of the hideous mechanisms he was planning.
Something was brewing under the pretentious cover of this calm, everyone felt.
A storm was coming…
…
In the Tohsaka Mansion, things had gone quieter than usual, too.
Assassin had returned last night, informing of what happened at the Einzbern Castle.
Caster trapping him into a trap of layered Bounded Fields, faking the link between him and Rin to not alert her, had come as an alarming surprise to all.
But Assassin had then questioned the purpose of it all?
Why not go after Assassin by themselves, instead of letting some weak summons get the job done?
Not finding any answer to those questions, everyone focused on the second point that had made Assassin's escape possible.
Someone had attacked the Einzbern Castle, destroying it, disregarding the Bounded Fields.
Assassin hadn't seen who the attacker was, but, based purely on instincts, he could tell that his attack power was nowhere less than the Blackened Saber, who had pounded even Berserker to defeat in a duel.
Of course, Rin, Saber, and Shirou were more concerned about Sakura within the Einzbern Castle.
Fortunately, Assassin hadn't returned from the place before confirming that Sakura was uninjured. Not to mention, with Rider by her side, it was hard to go after Sakura in a short amount of time, anyway.
So, with nothing else to go on, Shirou asked Saber to resume his training with her, despite being badly injured because of Archer's attack.
And that's how most of their day went — seeing Shirou utterly discard his pain to learn swordsmanship as if he were possessed.
The real surprise arrived this evening, though.
It was a letter.
From Black Von Einzbern…
… asking Shirou and Rin for a truce.
…
"It's a trap!" Rin hissed, biting her nail.
In front of her, in the well-lit hall, Shirou and Saber exchanged the last moves, both panting.
The Heroic Spirit was looking at Shirou in a shocked stupor, disbelieving that he could keep up with her.
Shirou looked like a skeleton, sweating a bucket.
But his face held a smile, despite the obvious tiredness.
"It doesn't… matter," he said, facing Rin. "We will go… and demand an answer…"
Rin looked up and frowned at Shirou, trying not to blush at the sight of his naked upper body. "I still don't think it's Caster behind all those disappearances."
Assassin, standing at the threshold of the hall, looked up through the hood.
"Assassin found signs of necromancy there, didn't he?" Shirou asked. "He even fought those undead familiars…"
Why would he tell him?! Rin wondered within, frowning at Assassin. Did something happen between these two?!
First, Archer attacked Shirou, creating this huge drama.
Now, Assassin was discussing crucial information with Shirou behind her back, too?!
Sure, they were in an alliance. But it didn't mean that Assassin could go report to another Master without asking her permission for it.
Rin couldn't help but shake her head, sighing.
"… Undead familiars can be faked," she said, getting up. "The same goes for necromancy. Tell me one reason for Caster's involvement in all this…"
Saber stepped up, then. "Didn't the Overseer… Kirei Kotomine… tell us that Caster's Master also holds Berserker's Command Spells? Perhaps, he cannot supply enough Mana to both of them."
Rin's eyes narrowed. "So, Caster is sucking people's life essence for Mana?" she worded Saber's suggestion, making the Heroic Spirit nod. "OK, let's say it is Caster behind the disappearances. Then, why didn't she do it from the beginning? Why now? Why at this moment, when something like this can easily tip the balance, creating chaos?"
No matter how Rin analyzed the situation, she couldn't find a reason for Caster to do it.
"I know why…"
Archer suddenly materialized in the hall.
Shirou and his gaze matched as Saber put herself between them, a sword materializing in her hands.
"Archer…" Rin approached them. "I told you to keep watch…"
Archer ignored them and looked at Assassin. "Caster's experiment escaped because someone attacked Einzbern Castle, right?" he said.
Rin, Shirou, and even Assassin's lips twitched as Archer addressed his fellow Servant as an experiment.
"Perhaps, Berserker's Master is desperate," Archer suggested. "It's a good enough reason for him to approach us for a truce, given his enemy is vastly more powerful than Berserker and Caster combined. But Berserker's Master might not be counting on our help, for good reason. In that case, letting Caster hoard as much Mana as she can make sense…"
Shirou walked past Saber and Rin and met Archer's gaze. "You sound like you admire him."
"Because I do admire him," Archer said, grinning. "If I didn't abhor this way of fueling myself, I would have recommended the same to Rin."
"You!"
"Anyway," Archer said, sidestepping Shirou, bumping shoulders with him, "we do need to find out who's behind the disappearances, Rin. We can't afford someone silently gaining an upper hand over us… The sooner we learn more of this, the better."
"So, you too want to go ahead with this?!" Rin asked, shocked.
Archer nodded. "Worse comes to worst, we will just have to fight it out with Berserker and Caster… We can easily run away instead of…"
"No."
They all looked at Shirou, who turned around, looking at his palms.
"There will be no more running away from anyone anymore…" Shirou said, clenching his fingers, feeling… good. "Today — we fight."
*****************
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