Chapter 396: The Tohsaka Residence and Shirou
After talking with Gudako, Rin finally understood what was going on.
Gudako being teleported to this world and appearing by her side was certainly not a coincidence. As Chaldea, they were responsible for observing the Human Order and repairing it whenever problems arose. Without a doubt, Gudako's presence here meant that this world, where history had shifted, was in urgent need of investigation.
Since Rin's rebirth, she had been living a much more stable life than in her previous one, mostly because the people who were supposed to die had either passed away or vanished—though, naturally, the people important to her were also gone.
The only common ground between her and Gudako was, unsurprisingly, the Holy Grail War of Fuyuki City. The most likely culprit was the fake priest, Kirei Kotomine—a man who should have disappeared, yet was capable of sending Cu Chulainn to attack her.
"I've gone to the Church to confirm more than once over the years. The new priest sent by the Holy Church is definitely not Kotomine. In '94, the Holy Grail was indeed destroyed, and that King of Gold—that Archer—left this world."
If the oldest King, who treated Fuyuki City—no, the entire world—as his own property, had remained, he would never have hidden himself away. He would have been strutting through the streets, spending money lavishly. Furthermore, she had laid out surveillance barriers throughout every commercial district in Fuyuki, and she had seen no traces of any Servants.
Rin rubbed her furrowed brow, then turned to the girl beside her. "Alright, Gudako, I'll take you to a room where you can rest."
"What about you, Rin-senpai?" Gudako asked in confusion.
"I'm going out to investigate for a bit, then I'll come back to rest. You go to sleep first," Rin said.
"It might be dangerous outside. You should use the FGO system!" Gudako suggested.
"The FGO system? You mean this mobile phone you gave me? Is this some incredible Mystic Code developed by Chaldea?" Rin asked suspiciously.
"I don't really understand it myself, but Da Vinci gave it to me, so it must be useful," Gudako said with conviction.
"Well... to be honest, I'm not very good at using this kind of tech. I can drive a car, but nobody who has sat in a car driven by me is ever willing to do it a second time. And things like video recorders or computers with so many buttons? I don't get them at all; they work only when they feel like it," Rin said, pulling the smartphone from her pocket with a pained expression.
"If you don't learn how to use these, Rin-senpai, life will be very inconvenient in the future. Let me teach you," Gudako said, stepping forward.
"Oh, I'm counting on you," Rin said, admitting her incompetence in this area with uncharacteristic humility.
"First, let's try a summon!" Gudako opened the FGO system for her.
"Summon?" Rin pressed the button.
On the shield made of light, a dozen or so orbs of light emerged, swirling rapidly in a ring. Accompanied by lightning, a white flash erupted, and a golden card appeared.
"It happened! Damn it! It's a gold card!" Gudako shouted, unsure if she should be surprised or angry.
When the card revealed its true face, it was a girl with black twin-tails, holding a strange golden mechanical object—she looked exactly like the person holding the phone right now.
"Eh? Eh? Why?!" Rin cried out in shock.
"That's Ishtar-chan! If you perform a pseudo-servant summon, you'll be the true Ishtar-Rin~!" Gudako laughed.
"Eh? How do I do that?" Rin asked, confused.
"Just press here like this, I think~!" Gudako said.
"Press here?"
As the girl's finger touched the card, the living room of the Emiya—now Tohsaka—residence was suddenly engulfed in a blinding golden light. Gudako hurriedly covered her eyes.
When the pillar of light faded, the goddess had descended upon Fuyuki. Rin felt the state of her body; this physical vessel was a perfect match, achieving a 100% synchronization rate.
"Hmm?" Rin read the memories surfacing in her mind. This body had always belonged to her, but the existence driving it now held a greater proportion of the Guardian Goddess of Uruk, forming a brand-new Heroic Spirit. Now, through the pseudo-summoning, she had regained the initiative. Because both sides were essentially her, there were no obstacles to using this body for combat or movement; it felt remarkably natural.
"So, the 'me' from another world went through something like this... Should I be happy or should I sigh? Well, complaining won't help... It seems once you get entangled with the Holy Grail, even if you dismantle the Greater Grail, you still can't escape it," she said, covering her face in resignation.
"But having gained the memories of the Heroic Spirit, I finally understand what Chaldea's 'saving the Human Order' is all about. You've really done well to still be alive," Rin said with a helpless smile. She looked at the slightly ditzy girl again, reached out, and patted her head. "Gudako, thank you for your hard work. Saving the Human Order... really, thank you."
"Hehe, it wasn't that great~!" Gudako squinted her eyes, enjoying the soft, warm hand on her head.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground trembled slightly. Even though there was no wind, the fragments of dead leaves on the path rippled in waves. It sounded as if some behemoth was moving nearby; the noise grew louder, approaching their location.
Rin hurriedly retreated to the wall, hiding carefully. A Berserker walked past on the other side of the path. Every time he stepped, the ground seemed to...
"ROOOOOOOAAAAAAR!!!!"
A giant standing 2.5 meters tall roared as he walked by, like a pitch-black mountain. His entire body was covered in hard, bulging muscles like stone, and his eyes flashed with the red light of a dangerous predator in the darkness. He seemed to be patrolling his territory.
This was no shadow Servant without a Noble Phantasm; this was a terrifying monster. The dense black aura swirling around him was the embodiment of twisted magical energy—like black mud—providing the Servant with a massive source of power and driving him into a state of extreme frenzy.
The black-haired girl finally let out a long breath, complaining: "Tch... of course, a great Greek hero has appeared, and he's in a state without a Master, exuding weird black aura. Just how much of a monster do you have to be? This feels super bad."
She dared not stay here long and turned to return to the mansion. Relying solely on the power of the pseudo-Servant, not to mention whether she could defeat a Berserker with God Hand, if they just clashed, she would certainly end up in a mutually destructive situation even if she fought with all her might. In these suspicious circumstances, she could not take such risks.
The next morning, Rin told the now-awakened Gudako about the encounter.
"What should we do?" Gudako asked.
"There's no other way. Servants wrapped in black aura all possess astonishing magical energy; they are monsters that cannot be faced one-on-one independently. Pseudo-summoning is still a bit weak, and the monsters we have to face aren't just one. If I get seriously injured, everything is over. I have to find a way to increase our combat power. My Command Spells aren't bound, so it seems I should be able to summon again."
"Rin-senpai, you want to summon a Heroic Spirit, right? Why are you hesitating?" Gudako wondered.
"I didn't say I wasn't doing it! I get it, I'll summon! I'll just summon, okay?!" Rin gritted her teeth, her face flushing red.
"Please, summon a Saber this time!" The black-haired girl pressed her hands together and prayed.
"Saber? Rin-senpai, do you have a target you want to summon?" Gudako asked. In Chaldea's summoning system, as long as energy was provided, one could summon indefinitely. However, the success rate could never be guaranteed. If they were talking about Saber, usually it would just be that "Red" one. That was the fallen, obese version—not in her prime—and while her name was famous, she wasn't particularly strong. Her strongest trait was probably her ability to incite people, or how fast she could roll on the snow; she didn't lose to most Riders.
"Yes! A Saber! Not the red one! Definitely not some red-clad Archer who likes playing melee!" Rin repeated for emphasis.
"A red Archer? I think I know a guy like that, too," Gudako blinked.
"To increase the probability of the Heroic Spirit summoned, I need a catalyst. What should I use! It's a pity—with Kiritsugu Emiya dead, the scabbard doesn't exist anymore." Rin held her chin, pacing back and forth in deep thought. "A rice bowl? A wooden sword? Or me?" The black-haired girl grabbed her hair in frustration and shouted, "Damn it! Why is there no way to avoid that guy?!"
"..." For some reason, Gudako watched Rin pacing back and forth and could somehow smell a "shura-ba" (carnage of relationships) atmosphere. She felt like things were becoming interesting...
"Aaaaah! The more I think, the more my head hurts! That's enough! If I summon that guy, I'll just kick him first!"
Having made up her mind, she led Gudako to the warehouse, took out the prepared animal blood and items for spirit conjuring, took two steps back, and began to chant the incantation.
Above the universe, in the solar system, there were three blue-green planets. Each was real, yet they appeared like transparent light shadows; the three overlapped and merged, forming a spherical aggregate. The bodies were incredibly close, like triplets born in the same womb, but because of an invisible world partition, they occupied different spaces and could not perceive each other's existence.
One of these Earths was the world where Shirou lived in this lifetime.
On the Earth next to it, the black-haired girl had laid out a summoning circle and was performing the Heroic Spirit summon. At this very moment, Shirou had just arrived in this world. Following the system created by Alaya and Gaia, he locked onto the coordinates. The connection in this alienated world was unstable; he had just stepped into the channel passing through parallel worlds and was summoned there.
Thump.
Shirou was dumped directly onto a pile of junk in the warehouse.
"Seriously, the Counter Forces are really unreliable," Shirou said with a sigh, propping himself up with one hand and standing up.
Amidst the dense fog formed by magical energy, he looked at his surroundings. He felt like they were very familiar.
"Where is this?"
As soon as Shirou stood up, he felt a gust of wind pressure. A figure rushed toward him, raising a leg and delivering a flying kick straight at him.
"It really is you, you bastard! Take this kick first!" the black-haired girl roared in anger.
"Eh? Eh? Why are you fighting with the Servant you just went to such trouble to summon?" Gudako asked in confusion.
No sooner said than done!
Shirou hurriedly shifted his center of gravity, leaned his waist back, and reached out to grab the incoming leg. The leg was wrapped in black stockings, smooth and supple. Because of regular training, the calf didn't have much soft flesh; he could grip most of it with one hand, feeling the solid, vibrant elasticity in his palm.
"Wait, calm down, Rin." Shirou looked from the long leg up to the black-haired girl at the other end and chuckled. "However, I really owe it to you for being able to find me."
Rin flicked her twin-tails, folded her arms, looked away with a look of annoyance, and said, "Hmph! Who went out of their way to find you! You're someone who never listens to advice; I should have just left you to fend for yourself!"
The Rin here hadn't met Shirou yet. She existed on a different timeline than the one he had met before. In fact, this was Gudako's first time meeting Shirou, too.
"Um... hello?" Gudako tilted her head.
"I'm Shirou. Let's say, even though our timelines are different and things are a bit chaotic, just know that I'm an ally. Mash also came to the world I was in," Shirou said.
"Ah! I see! Is Mash okay?" Gudako's eyes lit up.
"Mm, she's doing well. She's attending high school and helped us a lot. Since I've come here, I'm sure it won't be long before you're reunited with her," Shirou said.
"I know! Please take care of me, Shirou-senpai!" Gudako smiled brilliantly.
"Mm, please take care of me," Shirou agreed.
"Hey! Shirou! Are you okay in that state? There's no Saber this time, though we're also missing a dead weight," Rin said, watching Shirou laughing and chatting with the girl. She felt annoyed
and clenched her fists, making them crackle. "How about we spar a little? I'll be careful to only beat you until you're tattered."
"Oh, so you've grown up, have you?" Shirou chuckled. For some reason, whenever he faced this girl, he always had a little more competitive spirit and didn't want to admit defeat.
Rin laughed in anger, waved her hand, and said, "Come to the dojo! I'll show you the world-famous Chinese martial arts!"
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