Fuyuki, Repurposed Edelfelt Residence, Tohsaka Manor.
Insanity is 'doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results'.
The Counter Guardian couldn't remember who exactly first said that quote. Maybe a wise scientist or perhaps some crazy pirate perhaps… It didn't really matter who said it. Only that they were correct. To keep trying with the same method over and over, knowing one would fail but hoping to succeed regardless, was indeed insane.
But he dared hope. The fact he would fail didn't mean he would stop trying to do the right thing. He needed to 'fix' everything, he had to… If not for his sake… for—
'Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone.
The ancestor, my great master Schweinorg.
The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.'
The silver-haired mercenary sighed as he felt the familiar sensation of the call. Looking up from the wasteland around him, he saw a nostalgic light bathing his purgatory with almost divine radiance.
'Shut (fill).
Shut (fill).
Shut (fill).
Shut (fill).
Shut (fill).
Repeat every five times.
Simply, shatter once filled.
――――I announce.'
She was calling upon him once more. It was all too familiar for it to not be her. Fighting a futile war she had no chance of winning… And yet, once again, he answered without hesitation. He always did. And always will.
'Your self is under me, my fate(doom) is in your sword.
In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.'
Another round, another war. Was he going to try once again? Was this another chance to bash his head against a wall, to bet a losing hand against fate?
'Bring it on.' Straining like tempered steel against the heavy burden of heroism, he reached out and grasped the call of the Grail, latching on to the summons of his predestined Master.
'Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.
You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance ―――!'
'I accept your oath under the name of Archer.' Even if he knew his chances, it didn't determine the outcome. He held onto that belief as he strode into the blinding light. 'On my honour, I shall accept you as my Master… Rin…'
He knew she wouldn't hear him, but he accepted the contract and bound himself to her through the Grail.
Once more, the curtains to the Fifth Holy Grail War rose.
'Let's see… which one he would end up summoning this time around. Save me the trouble of unexpected situations and pick that glutton, please…'
Half-joking aside, the bowman hoped this one would be one of the less tragic and difficult routes. Alaya knew he was done with the horrifying ends of the story. Cut all of them some slack and let them have it easy. For at least once in his many lifetimes.
A Counter Guardian knew better than to expect Fate of all things to show mercy or kindness, so he prepared for the usual. And it started as usual.
With him crashing into the living room with an almost thunderous explosion.
Same house, same spot, same manner of unfortunately being tossed just a few meters off from her intended target. Looking at the grandfather clock that survived his untimely arrival, it was indeed ticking an hour too early. The man sighed, knowing full well her miscalculation cost her a living room and fully expected to be the one reprimanded for it. It was fortunate the only thing that broke during the landing was the furniture. But…
'Dammit… was it always this dusty?' He coughed a bit, feeling a little miffed that girl couldn't keep her house entirely spotless despite being a talented magus. Then again, she mostly defaulted on him to take care of that back in his day so it wasn't unexpected…
What was unexpected was the amount of dust in the place. Regardless, he made himself comfortable in a throne of broken fixtures as footsteps of multiple people and shouting rushed towards the room he was… Wait. Multiple—?!
"Rin! What was that?!" the female voice he never heard shouted from the other room. This one wasn't the young and fiery voice of ambitious magi. It was older, softer even.
'Strange. I didn't remember her having any guests.' Did Fate actually throw him a curveball and presented a timeline wherein she had allies before the war started? Maybe his luck wouldn't be so bad this time around—
"Everything is fine, mother! I swear! Me and Luvia were just trying a new method of magecraft!"
The voice he would recognize said quickly, obviously already prepared to tell this lie. However, despite hearing the same old Rin, the silver-haired man could only freeze once he heard two particular words that shouldn't have come from her. Especially during this set of circumstances.
''Mother?' 'Luvia?' What in the damned Root is going on?!'
Unnerving panic took hold of the nameless hero who by this point was already feeling out of place as a horrific realization crossed his face.
Something wrong went on in this timeline. Something way, way wrong and unexpected.
He knew it wasn't right. The room and everything in it felt familiar, but not. Too much dust, like this place hadn't been lived in for years. But the fact that she had a 'mother' of all things wound his nerves even tighter. It was so outside the realm of possibility for someone supposed to be dead to be alive! And for Rin to be working with Luvia in magecraft of all people…
A shiver crawled down the man's spine. One that had him unable to analyze his predicament and caught flatfooted when the door was suddenly kicked open and in stepped one of the causes for his myriad of concerns.
Busty, blonde, ringlets with the face of an ambitious she-fox.
"I found our good-for-nothing assistant, Rin! He ruined the furniture!" The always loud and proud heir of the Edelfelt household spoke Rin's name with such familiarity that he almost did a double take as she looked him over. She let out a low whistle, pleasantly surprised, and seemingly pleased, by what she saw. "Well, at least the one you summoned looks decent for being the Servant of some lowly—OOF!"
"Out of the way, pinhead!" She was tossed aside by a shoulder shove. Replacing Luvia in observing his dumbstruck expression was the familiar scowl of his Master's aqua eyes. "And you! Why in the world did you fall through the floor!"
Well… He was glad to see something familiar. At least her temper didn't change. That was something that calmed his mind and gave him a moment to breathe in. Good old prickly Rin. A handful, but a warm sight for sore eyes.
Still didn't settle down his sour summoning sickness though.
"My current state is only thanks to my summoner and clear proof of their inexperience with how the ritual works." He put his leg over his right one, giving off an aura of cockiness that masked his uncertainty. "I take it that you are the one called for me, right?"
"That's right! I'm your Master and—wait, and what the hell do you mean by inexperience!?" Rin who looked proud for a moment quickly shot him a nasty glare. It was easy to throw suspicion away from him when she was this easy to distract, but he knew he had to do better. He couldn't let her wise up to his real intentions, even if he still planned to help her win. Thankfully, or unexpectedly, someone else was around to push Rin's buttons enough to keep her distracted from his growing anxiety.
"He means that you are a bad Master. Nothing too unexpected, as we all knew it." Luvia taunted as she walked back up to stand next to her frenemy, ever the one with snappy comebacks. "Even your summoned Servant can clearly see that you are a mediocre magus, Rin. Perhaps I would be a more suitable Master—AGH!"
"And yet I'm the one who has the Command Seals on her hand, not you, you drill-haired gorilla," Rin smirked as she shoved her palm glowing with the familiar red marks on the blonde's face.
"We can always fight over these seals, and see who is better suited for the role of Master," Luvia spoke, smiling without any hint of humour. "That is, unless you feel you're too inferior to stand your ground, then I'd graciously let you lick my boots when you surrender it to me—NGH!
Rin didn't draw back or hesitate, no. She planted her forehead against Luvia's with such gusto, their lone observer suspected someone had bitten their tongue. As neither of them stopped gritting their teeth, he assumed both of them did but their pride demanded they endure it.
"If your aristocratic ass wants to get beaten then I'm always down to humble you."
"Like you humbled yourself during our last spar? I'd gladly help you kiss the floor again. Though with how short you are, I doubt you need help with that!"
"You're the one who's going to get drilled into the concrete, ringlet witch!"
The cheeky rivalry with Luvia Edelfelt was alive and well in this timeline, It seems.
He knew from his old life that these two couldn't have tea without pouring the pot over the other's head, but this… this contention went above and beyond that.
'They hadn't been this close to start wrestling in front of some 'stranger' before.' This was getting out of hand. He always liked to tease and annoy his old Master, but as her 'new' Servant, this was just unbecoming if not downright outlandish to deal with this after his unusual summoning.
Not to mention, Luvia wasn't the only difference he had to deal with in the house.
"Master, I care not to comment on your relationship between you and your friend, but I'm sure whatever kind of foreplay you two are doing can wait for later. We wouldn't want to alert the other person unaware of my presence, no?"
He spoke with a cadence of polite respect while stating something strange enough to have them both blushing. As expected, it did have the desired effect of snapping them out of it, though seeing Rin blush hard enough to be distracted, slip backwards and let Luvia fall on her wasn't part of the plan.
Rin looked outright fuming but kept her embarrassment down, even as she struggled with Luvia's weight on her. Specifically, the well-toned blonde's chest smothering the smaller brunette's face.
"Worry not, Mister Familiar. Mrs. Tohsaka shouldn't be able to hear us here. I'd already put up a barrier that nullifies any noise coming out of this room." Luvia on the other hand didn't let his remark faze her as she calmly stated with a haughty smirk demanding praise. "I know better than to worry my dear caretaker. Sadly, the same cannot be said for her deplorable daughter—Ouch!"
Rin, pinching Luvia's side, managed to slip out from under her unamused. "Well excuse me! I did it for the room where he was supposed to be summoned in."
"And yet you fail to consider contingencies as always. It's not my fault you neglect even the simplest of protocols that I have to step in for you!"
"So you admit to having one something. What could've gone wrong other than you messing around with my calculations again—?"
"Ladies, please." He didn't intend to raise his tone, but he needed them to stop.
"Mother is already used to something going wrong half of the time we experiment with our magecraft." Rin dusted herself off, schooling her features and retaking control of the situation. "As long as we don't cause something as big as another fire, she won't bat an eye. Usually… So just as long as she doesn't catch you in your physical form, we can smooth this over as just another little 'accident' of mine and Luvia's… tomfoolery. Understood?" She hated to admit it but to her solemnity, he gave a nod. "Good. By the way—"
Now that she had a moment, Rin took a couple of seconds to look at him from top to bottom. While he didn't much appreciate Luvia's predatory gaze, he knew well enough what Rin's analytical stare was for.
"Where is your sword? No, shut up, Luvia. Don't even try." Rin shut her blonde companion down with a snap before she could say something inappropriate. Eyes on him, Rin's brow furrowed nervously. "You… You are Saber, right? I won't settle for anything but the strongest class, you know."
'Nice to know that this part of her didn't change either.' He smirked slightly as he crossed his arms. "Then you will be happy to know that I'm never one to run out of swords, Master. However, what you see before you is not a master of any single blade. As an Archer who uses multitudes of swords as arrows, would it not make me better than any Saber?"
Despite the fact that this timeline wasn't anything he experienced before from the mere presence of people who shouldn't be here, Archer couldn't but feel nostalgic and comfortable with seeing Rin get progressively irked by this revelation to the point of hiding her face in her palms.
He did feel a little nervous when a certain someone dared poke said Rin with a metaphorical stick.
"Ha! I knew you would fail this ritual one way or another, but you outperformed yourself, Rin! First, your Servant fell through the floor and now he claims to be of a different class." Luvia took much joy pinching the brunette who was hiding her embarrassment on the cheek. "Still, he doesn't look weak or give such an aura. Not to mention, if what he said is true, hmm. Perhaps we won't need a Saber with a versatile Archer."
"Arghh! Whatever! I try and fail at the last second, but I'm not gonna give up so easily!" Rin, slapping Luvia's hand away, marched up to Archer and poked his chest. Fuming as she might be, it didn't change the admirable glint in her eyes. "If you are as strong as you claim then prove it, Archer! I will hold you to your oath in bringing us victory in the Holy Grail War! Defeat our enemies. And above everything else, don't let anyone kill me or my mother."
"And me as well, obviously."
Luvia added dryly but Rin ignored her if only to glare into his silver-grey eyes.
"Huh, you are actually green behind your ears, aren't you, Master? Demanding your freshly summoned Servant to do something like this without using a Command Seal? You don't know if I can or will live up to your demand."
"Then, if that's what you want, Archer, I'll—"
"However," He didn't let her finish. In fact, he brushed away the hand marked with the Seals before she could do something stupid. Considering the circumstances, he'd need her to have all of them just to be safe. "If it means I can show you just how strong I am and make you regret ever doubting me, then perhaps I can exert some effort to do just that. And maybe a little more on top."
Despite Archer's attempt to play off the situation in an easy-going manner, he was serious. The fact Rin would've used the Seal alone cemented the fact that she cared for her mother very much. Almost desperately so.
It wasn't the first time she had asked him something like this with such a tone. But the last time, it was for the sake of someone else. Someone she still considered family despite not sharing a name. She didn't need to do much to get him to obey this command.
Hate himself as much as he wants, he was a hero after all. And even if he knew that he could not guarantee the safety of anyone, as Archer, as the hero EMIYA, he would do his best to attempt and avoid another tragedy.
The nameless and otherwise unassuming Heroic Spirit Archer didn't know the full extent of changes this timeline had or why they happened in the first place. However, it wouldn't deter him.
There was a girl he needed to save from her grandfather and the grail.
There was another he needed to rescue from her lonely castle.
The one in front of him, he needed to save from herself.
And there was the idiot that started it all he needed to prevent getting out of this with dreams of grandeur.
Whether it was to kill monsters and slay demons, or off the few to save the many, it didn't change the fact that he was a hero.
He who'd seen and lived through every route possible experienced the many ways things fate could play out, was not gonna be deterred by this curveball of a timeline. He just needed to do his old job and accomplish his goal.
Save those he can. Kill those he needs to. Simple as that.