I found Rin standing exactly where she said she'd be, at the intersection between the two sections Miyama Town was divided into. It was a short walk for her. She lived in the foreigner's district, dominated by western high-society manses, both antiquated and recent. Shirou's residence was on the other side, where the rich folks native to the country lived, having built their homes in their own traditions, large compounds and hip-and-gable roofs with gently curved eaves.
The Sun had set, and though the winter wind was chilly, I doubted that was the sole cause of just how ominously empty the streets and roads were this early into the night. A precaution against the string of murders and disappearances in the city, perhaps?
Posted under a streetlight with her arms crossed tightly, Rin barely noticed me walk up until I was right by her and stepping into the light.
"You almost startled me." She said, breathing out a plume of hot air. "Never mind that, we weren't supposed to meet till fifteen minutes later."
I shrugged, "It's basic manners to be there before time."
"What about being fashionably late?" Rin asked without much thought. A smile tugged at the corners of her lips, "You seem like the type to do that. Oh-" She raised a hand to cover her amused smirk, "Did you think it was some kind of date?"
I deadpanned. "Yes, I definitely thought of teaming up to fight a legendary witch with our lives on the line as some kind of date."
"How boorish," Rin closed her eyes and gave a disappointed shake of her head.
Wait a second.
I raised a hand, "You were here before me. And you brought that up so..."
She stared at me quietly for a while, then breathed out a sigh, smiling again, "You have me there."
"I'm not interested."
If anything, I would prefer a lonely older big sister type of lady who would coddle me all day and keep me away from all the dangers of the world.
"Wha-..." She held a hand over her chest, "I'm not-"
"I don't think we should be wasting time over this."
I shot her down and pushed her away all in one. Rin raised her head in protest, but seemed to realise the logic of my words, quieting down with a grumble. With a deep breath, Rin Tohsaka regarded me once again. This time there was no mischief in her eyes. She raised a hand.
"Archer."
She had decided to trust me, at least a bit.
The air trembled and out from thin air walked out a man nearly as tall as I. His skin was deeply tanned, and his swept-back hair had long lost its colour from the trials and tribulations of his troublesome eyes. There was a certain... curiosity in his narrowed dark eyes.
Archer. Just Archer, for now. The muscled man with the red cloth draped from his waist was undoubtedly one of the strongest servants present in this Holy Grail War.
He inclined his head towards me in acknowledgement.
Shuwen stepped out without my saying, and looked up at Archer with his hands behind his back. I'd only recently realised that Shuwen's disappearance was unlike that of other servant's. In a way, he was always there in his physical form, but the world itself seemed to glaze over his existence that deceived all manners of perception.
"Summoning local servants should have been-"
"I am not of this nation, child. I would like it if you did not make that mistake again." There was a near-imperceptible hostility in Shuwen's words.
Rin picked up on it immediately, "Oh... I'm sorry."
Shuwen gave a polite nod, then turned to Archer again. "You've slain many, haven't you?"
"And you haven't?"
At that, the older man gave a light chuckle, "That is fair."
Rin's gaze lingered on the two servants for a while longer. After, she shook her head and beckoned for me to follow. We walked only a few steps, just enough that one would assume we were out of earshot for the two heroic spirits. Superhuman as they were, I doubted they'd actually miss anything we said though.
I kept that to myself.
"So, I have Archer."
Oh.
"Assassin, though it'd be better to call him some kind of Berserker."
Shuwen's method of assassination was exploding your heart without anyone even noticing what happened. If that didn't work, he'd just beat you to death anyway.
"He's a frontline combatant. Caster knows this too." I craned my neck, "Actually, I think he could have killed her last time if he really meant to."
Rin considered my words briefly, then placed a hand on her hips.
"Unfortunately, I haven't seen Archer fight yet, and he isn't too keen on sharing what he can do-"
She was in for a massive surprise.
"-I'd assume he's good at long range though. Since the Archer-class really is made up of archers."
I jerked, reacting involuntarily to one of fate's legendary pieces of dialogue. Truly, the genius in her words was so immense that people would ponder upon them until the Sun exploded and the stars died screaming.
It drew out a chuckle I failed to contain.
"Really? I expected it to be spearmen, maybe swordsmen."
"I..." I saw the heat rush to her cheeks, "I only boiled it down so even an idiot would be able to understand."
"For yourself then? I get it. I have an easier time understanding things if they're spoken out too. Hard things."
"..."
Where was my confidence here even coming from? Rin Tohsaka was a better magus than myself in every aspect even when we both presently had the same advantages. Though, spells needed history and conceptual weight to affect 'heavier' beings and spells. In that case, there was little to be found that surpassed the weight of a mystery passed down from the ancient Age of the Gods.
I still had to test this theory though, preferably in a safer environment.
"A...lright, how are we going to go about this?"
Respecting her decision to move on, I pointed a finger at the sky.
"Hm?"
"We're going to sit in the sky. I don't think there's any other way to avoid being detected by Medea."
Rin tilted her head. "How are we going to achieve that exactly?"
I gave her no words. Instead, I brought my hands together to cast the image of a great-winged bird. The Zen'in Crest took shape upon my flesh
. Glossy black ink spewed into the world, shifting and turning in the shadows, until the new shadow was taller than both of us combined. Then, the darkness peeled away to reveal a fantastically monstrous predatory bird.
Nue.
The teeth of its human skull clattered together twice. I raised my hand, and Nue lowered its head to rub the back against my palm. Rin's lips had parted in some mix of surprise and awe. She stared at Nue, then back at me.
"A familiar? No, this feels more like a phantasmal beast. How can something like this exist in the world without preparation?"
"Why are you surprised? I thought you knew I was a Zen'in."
"R-Right. I knew there were much older families but still, seeing and knowing are two different things."
Understanding my intention, Nue lowered itself down so I could jump on. Rin watched on quietly. Her awe made me feel good. She kept watching until I offered her a hand. A certain degree of awe remained even as I helped her atop. After that, came the curiosity natural to a person of her particular proclivities.
She raised no questions however, as asking a magus to explain his personal 'research' was akin to a grave insult and a greater taboo that could cause mortal conflict. Archer was standing behind us without ever being asked. Shuwen took his usual spot atop Nue's head.
He never lost his footing, even as Nue unfurled its massive wings and took the dark night with a powerful beat. Rin did though and plummeted right into... my ready palms. Of course I'd seen something like this coming.
This was an isekai classic.
While Fate was definitely more of a Re: Zero kind of isekai, I had decided to make it one of those classic slops you could just turn your brain off and pass the time.
That was what I wanted.
My grand goal in this life.
"T-Thanks."
She looked up from my chest. I must have made a strange face at the nature of the situation as she hurriedly used her hands to push away with tinted cheeks.
Nue shot upwards, halting only a slight distance before breathing would become difficult. Once it levelled itself, Rin crouched down and crawled into one of the corners, clutching its fur as she went. Then, she murmured some strange words, pressing together the tips of her forefinger and thumb.
I didn't need to be a genius to figure it was some kind of magnification spell. Instead of following her example, I simply reinforced my sight, not even bothering to crouch down.
"There."
Rin pointed her other hand at a rather expensive looking home built in the traditional and classic Japanese architectural-style. The 'mansion' was enclosed in thick stone walls, with a massive backyard. A lonely, aged storehouse was tucked away in a corner, away from the much larger main home.
I whistled. "Why is someone this rich working part-time jobs?"
"He just likes helping people, I think."
A true main character, indeed, but before that, a way to ensure my survival.
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