Spirit of Steel (Fate/Stay Night x Kantai Collection)

[LoweGear]

So, posting my first actual story post for this forum:

* Spirit of Steel *​

Heroic Spirits, mystic personas from myth and legend summoned by the almighty power of the Holy Grail to fight alongside their human masters desiring whatever their hearts may hold, in the secret conflict known as the Holy Grail War. Called from across time and space, they embody incredible powers and abilities surpassing all that is human in order to accomplish their purpose as Servants, those who swear to serve their masters regardless of their own personal desires and agenda.

What few would-be Masters know about the process however is that Heroic Spirits are not limited to just people who existed in real life; sometimes, a sufficiently strong legend is enough for the Grail's power to latch on to and materialize into the world, even if the character in question existed only in the form of a writer's pen. It may not even need to be a person at all; even abstractions can be given form, semblance, and meaning to embody that which existed only as a vague and fleeting concept.

The young magus inside the glowing summoning circle for her attempt at calling forth her desired Servant was about to find out what the meant, liquid reagent dripping drop by drop from her hands down into the circle that filled the dark basement with a crimson light.

"...If you heed the Grail's call and obey my will and reason, then answer me."

Currents of invisible charged energy flowed through the room, an electrifying presence that suspended particles of wood and dust into the air, accompanied by the rising pinpoints of red light swirling around the magus. She pronounced each word with clarity borne through sheer conviction at the task before her.

"...I hereby swear that I shall defeat all evil in the world."

She clutched her right hand to her chest, feeling the warm magical energies around her wash over her from her toes to her head.

"You seven heavens, clad in the three great words of power, come forth from the Circle of Binding..."

And with a great flourish, raised her arm and brought it down in front of her in a single motion.

"Guardian of the Scales!"

The energy so collected within the circle burst outward, crackling with visibly red electric sparks that arced throughout the attack, followed by a slight breeze that ruffled papers and other objects light enough to be carried by it while it expanded out, kicking up a thick cloud of dust in the process that left the young Magus with a coughing fit.

She didn't mind though when she felt the warm prick on the top her left hand that cooled as fast as it had appeared, and saw that it had been marked with maroon symbols, a thin circle crowned by a crescent above and a thin, sharp shard below. The sight of it brought a beaming smile to her face.

"That was perfect! I know I just drew the most powerful card!"

I, Tohsaka Rin, am the greatest!

The young magus was just about to further congratulate herself and her ego for a job well done when she realized that she was still all alone in the basement. Nothing had appeared within the now faded summoning circle, nor did she feel the presence of anyone else with her in that room. Confusion replaced her elation.

What is the meaning of this? Where is my-

The loudest CRASH she ever heard in her life blew away all thoughts. The basement door was opened, stone and wooden stairs traversed, and through the red velvet she ran towards where she discerned the commotion had occurred by the sound of the smashed wood: the second floor study.

"Why won't this door open?!"

The once stubborn door, unresponsive to the girl's attempt on its knob, relented once she deigned to kick it down instead, tearing it off its hinges and down to the ground. She had expected to find the source of the commotion, but found only a massive hole in the wooden floor where ornate tables and sofas once were. Peering down the hole, she saw only a thick cloud of dust obscuring her view of the culprit.

"The kitchen!"

A quick flight down the stairs and a turn to the left later found her in the kitchen where she hoped to see just what had caused such destruction. Uttering a short chant, she dispelled the dust cloud with a burst of wind, revealing what was within. Or who.

Sitting demurely on the ground with a pained expression on her admittedly beautiful face, surrounded by broken furniture, was a woman with long, dark violet hair reaching all the way down to her knees tied in a ponytail by sakura flower pins. She wore a white and red outfit sleeveless sailor uniform with a roped suzu bell hanging by her chest, her arms covered by long white gloves from the top of her elbow to just short of her wrist. A red pleated skirt that was uncomfortably too short to look at - wait, was that an anchor on her hips? - covered her hips, and her black leggings of mismatched length - the right above the knee with the word "Hirihoukenten" written on it, while the left barely reached it - offended Rin's own sense of style, though she had to admit the combination worked on the woman for some reason.

The most interesting aspect of the woman was the seemingly metallic gorget with a golden chrysanthemum emblem emblazoned on it. Topping it all off was the large orange parasol the woman carried on her right hand.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Rin asked, extending a hand to the woman, who took it gracefully before helping herself up.

"My gracious thanks to you," the woman gratefully replied as she carefully stowed away her parasol, her voice modest yet clear, and now looking expectantly with purple eyes at the young magus. Now standing upright with her hands clasped in front of her hips, the woman was quite tall the young magus realized, and comporting herself with the manners of a noblewoman. That, along with the fact that said woman just crashed through the second floor and down here without so much as a scratch filled Rin with much relief.

At the very least, her summons had worked. The woman's regal bearing was already churning a few ideas in Rin's head as to her identity. With such an obviously yamato nadeshiko style of womanly behavior, a few candidates came to mind. Tomoe Gozen maybe?

Shoving such thoughts for later, Rin cleared her throat with a cough to her had, and looked squarely into her Servant's eyes.

"So you are my Servant then?"

The woman nodded. "Indeed, I am your humble servant. I presume you are my Admiral then?" the woman asked in return.

"Admiral?" Rin blinked.

The woman raised a hand to her mouth in surprised confusion. "My apologies, I meant to ask if you are my Master."

For some reason Rin felt a tinge of sleepiness hearing her voice, it was just... relaxing, though she blinked it off instantly.

"I, Tohsaka Rin, am indeed your master." Rin couldn't help the pride in her voice. Her Servant was undoubtedly beautiful to the point where she felt a tinge of envy just looking at her, and while the woman may not have a sword she radiated much power from her already. So much power in fact that Rin had felt a drain on her own mana reserves earlier, and she had pride in the amount of mana she could provide to her potential Servant, who relied on them for their own sustenance. This war was as good as won!

"So you are Saber then?" Rin smiled.

"I am not Admiral." Why was she calling her that again? "I am of the Archer class."

Wait, what?

"A-Archer?! It can't be!" All of Rin's good mood evaporated, replaced by much confusion and a thousand questions. Her eyes wandered as she raked her mind for answers, until her sight fell on a clock by the kitchen wall.

The current time was 1:03 in the morning.

Shi-

Rin allowed her mind to curse.

"Why is it only 1 in the morning? It should be-" she paused as a fragment of information from a memory surfaced to the top of her thoughts.

All the clocks in the house went crazy...

The realization brought despair to the young magus, clutching her head in frustration. Her plan had been to perform the ritual at 2:00 am, when her magic was at its strongest, in order to have a surefire chance of summoning a Saber-class Servant.

"I forgot about the aftereffects of the magic earlier, which meant all of the clocks in the house were one hour faster!" Opening her father's chest to retrieve the necessary reagents earlier had unleashed a strange magic spell that set the clocks in the house one hour later than normal. The only reason the clock in the kitchen showed the correct time was because she had just replaced its battery earlier, and thus she had its time reset to the proper one. "Of all the things to forget..."

"Lady Rin? Has something untoward happened?"

Lady? Rin mused under her rant at what the woman decided to call her, turning towards her Servant who was looking at her with concern. Seeing that made the young magus sigh in resignation, and she shook her head in reply.

"I just made a mistake, what's done is done now," she replied dejectedly.

She didn't expect the own woman's expression to copy her own though.

"My apologies if I am not what Admiral desired. If Lady Rin desires it, perhaps I may be relieved of my station to facilitate Admiral summoning another Servant more worthy of you."

Seeing her Servant's head bow with the visage of a kicked puppy was too much for Rin's now guilt-ridden psyche.

"W-what nonsense are you talking about!" Rin chided indignantly. "Certainly I didn't get what I asked for, but that was because of my own mistake. I own up to my mistakes, so don't you feel bad about being here. You're my Servant now, and I'll have you see me through to the end whether you like it or not, understand?"

The gloom on the woman's fact lifted. "I understand Admiral," the woman's smile returned, putting Rin's mind at ease. Well, she may not have gotten herself a Saber, but seeing her Servant as pretty and obviously powerful as this, it wasn't all bad. She'd just have to work harder that's all.

Only one thing left to discover for the night though, as Rin's curiosity finally asserted itself, and she could use the change of topic to clear away her Servant's doubts. "So tell me, which legendary hero are you supposed to be?" she asked, putting a hand to her chin.

The woman straightened herself for her introduction, and proceeded with a beaming smile.

"Name ship of the Yamato class, my name is Yamato. Please take care of me Admiral."

"... eh, what?"

"I was made with utmost secrecy in the Kure Naval Shipyard with top of the line technology as the Navy's trump card."

"So you're... " Rin nearly hesitated at completing her words, "... a ship?"

"Battleship, if I may say so Admiral."

Kneading her forehead with her fingers, Rin wondered just how crazy the Grail could be. Academically speaking anything could be a Heroic Spirit as long as their legend was great enough, a fact Rin knew by heart. Knowing it was one thing though, actually seeing it happen was quite another. Giving her Servant a once-over - to the aformentioned's barely visible embarrassment and discomfort -, Rin decided the Grail had the personality of a perverse otaku, and left the thought at that. Going from one of the largest and most famous battleships in history made of steel to a prim and gorgeous lady in a sailor uniform was not a process she imagined would happen without some very active imagination. Though now she knew where all that power she felt radiating off her Servant came from, after all she was still one of the most powerful warships to have ever existed.

"I've had enough for the night." Rin stated drowsily, finally feeling the late night's effects seep in. She grabbed a nearby broom and dust pan, and handed it over to her Servant. "Archer, since you made this mess I expect you to clean it up. I'm going to bed."

The Servant called Yamato bowed respectfully. "Goodnight Admiral."

"Same to you."


**********
​
"This is beyond late."

A groggy Rin sat by her bed, staring at the alarm clock showing her the time was 9:00. Even with the haze still present in her mind still trying to wake up, she knew that at that point on this weekday, going to school would be pointless.

"I'll just skip school," she decided dismissively.

Then the most heavenly of smells wafted through her nose, and her mind suddenly became clear as crystal. Rin had to heavily suppress her body's instinct to drool at such a delectable aroma. One would imagine that living in an opulent mansion such as this would make one immune to good food, but given that Rin lived alone she didn't have many opportunities to whip out a truly good dinner, with all the work on her plate both in school and her magic.

Her nose led her feet to the source of the smell, the rather large dining room, where she saw a woman preparing the table.

"A Good Morning to you Admiral," the woman smiled like the morning sunshine.

"Good Morning Archer." Rin greeted back, remembering the events of last night that led to her getting her Servant. Surveying the table as she took her seat Rin saw the full course breakfast that had been laid out for her. "This is... quite extravagant."

Yamato looked quite pleased with herself at Rin's statement. "For the first course, please have some Yamato's special consommé soup." With a dainty hand, Yamato lifted the lid off the serving pot, and poured some of the wonderfully clear and golden ambrosia into a small soup bowl.

The aroma Rin caught from her own bedroom had nearly dragged her body down here on autopilot. To see the source of it before her...

I will not eat like a rabid dog wolfing down scraps!

It was good for Rin that she had trained her self-control a lot over the years, because finishing the hot consommé in a single gulp would've been barbaric and unrefined. There was still etiquette to consider even when she was alone.

"Then, I will partake of this meal. Thanks for the food."

The less said about next few minutes of Rin's breakfast, the better she would feel about it. Not because she had nothing to say about it, but rather that she couldn't find the words to do so. Not without sounding like a sappy poet singing cheesy songs about love. If not for the fact that Yamato was her servant, and that Tohsaka Rin, heir of the Tohsaka clan, had truly great personal control, the young magus could've sworn she would've proposed marriage to the woman right then and there just for the great culinary delights she had bestowed upon the world.

"I hope breakfast was to your liking Admiral." Yamato looked quite expectant.

"It was the most excellent breakfast I've had," understatement of the millenium, "Thank you Archer."

"It was my pleasure."

With a dab of her lips, Rin signalled for Yamato to sit down to her right, to which Yamato complied.

"So..." Rin began, taking a quick scan of her Servant. "I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that you are, in fact, a battleship." Rin stated inquisitively. "As your Master, I need to know exactly what you're capable of in that form."

Rin was no aficionado of warships in general, and the only reason she even knew what Yamato was supposed to be was due to their history lessons regarding the war and the ship; being studious and attentive in class was one trait Rin was proud of. She did suppose though it was that fame with even people who didn't know one bit about ships that had earned Yamato her legendary status, apparently enough for her to be transformed into a Heroic Spirit.

Unfortunately, that told her nothing about just what she should expect from a Servant as unique as the battleship girl in front of her. If Yamato was any other Archer Rin could surmise her Servant's abilities as being based off bows of sort, or other archaic weapon. Being based off a massive warship though, Rin couldn't imagine just how Yamato would manifest the skills based on her legend in a human guise.

Yamato nodded. "As a ship girl, I innately possess all of the abilities that my original form possessed."

She cupped a hand to her ear. "For example, I can detect enemies and other threats using my anti-aircraft radar." Then she laid a hand between her admittedly ample breasts. "I can also summon what is known as an 'outfit', which contains all of my armaments."

"This 'outfit' of yours," Rin asked, clearly intrigued, "can you show me?"

The battleship spirit seemed sheepish at the request. "I do not believe doing so here would be wise. My outfit is... large and bulky."

Yamato's rather hesitant reply along with the slight blush on her face told Rin that there was more that aspect of her Servant than she was letting on. Still, she needed to know her Servant's capabilities if ever she wanted to be able to command her better in a fight.

"Then, we shall go outside." Rin stated, which to her surprise made her Servant perk up excitedly with much anticipation in her eyes. "I also need you to familiarize yourself with the city to find the best spots to fight in, so we'll be touring the city as well." And that made her Servant absolutely livid, like an elementary student on a school trip for the first time. Coming from someone with Yamato's appearance, it looked absolutely adorable.

"Yes Admiral!" Yamato's voice didn't try to hide the fact that she was rather looking forward to this outing, despite maintaining her usual proper decorum , further adding to the intrigue that was the battleship girl. Seeing her Servant clearly so happy was infectious though, which along with breakfast, made Rin say a silent thanks for starting the day off well.

"We'll leave in 20 minutes. Finish cleaning up here by then."

Yamato was already moving before the last word left Rin's lips.


**********
​
"And this is the Shinto district."

For her part, Rin was acting the part of the tour guide quite convincingly if she said so herself, showing her Servant Yamato the ins and outs of Fuyuki City through the morning and earlier in the afternoon. Currently they were walking through the streets of the Shino District, in all of its modernity with its blocky white buildings and blue glass. A rather sterile and artificial looking place for one like Rin who grew up with more ornate and organic Victorian architecture, though certainly not bad in any way. Only the crowds of people and the ambient din of voices that resulted from them kept the city from looking lifeless.

Of course, this was all new to the battleship girl beside her, taking in the sights with much gusto. It was fortunate that Servants have the power to dematerialize themselves in the physical plane, giving the effect of invisibility, and so only Rin could see the wide-eyed amazement that her Servant had. Besides, it wouldn't do to have Yamato's beauty draw some less than savory eyes.

Men.

It wasn't as though Yamato was a fish completely out of water in this time - or would that be ship out of water? - being a relatively modern spirit. Even for those born in ancient times, the Grail would provide them with information relevant for the Servant to adapt to the era they were summoned in, preventing severe cases of culture shock from setting in. Even then however, there were things that time-displaced entities can only understand and appreciate using their own eyes, and so far Yamato appeared to appreciate everything she saw.

"Enjoying yourself Archer?" Rin asked, barely a whisper as they walked aimlessly through the city.

"Very much so Admiral." Yamato's cheery voice echoed in Rin's head, the telepathic communication necessary to prevent an instance of a disembodied voice speaking out of nowhere. Better that Rin be thought of as talking to herself than for Yamato to be discovered.

"Is it really so fascinating to you, this era?"

Yamato looked up as though what she needed was somewhere over and beyond the roof of some buildings. "Indeed so." A tinge of reminiscence hung in Yamato's echo. "70 years have passed since my time, and it fills me with joy knowing how much Japan has grown and changed since the war."

A bus went past the pair, Yamato staring at the ad for a Hollywood movie displayed on its side intently for a few seconds, before raising a hand to her mouth and letting out a short giggle. "It does feel stranger to think that the Americans would be the ones to help our nation prosper to this level."

There was no hint of bitterness or enmity in Yamato's voice at her mention of the foreign country. "I would've thought you'd feel more strongly about your sworn enemies in the war, Archer," Rin inquired.

Yamato shook her head, showing a wan smile. "The crews who served within me were more concerned about wanting to serve and fight rather than with what or whom we were fighting against." Another reminiscent look glazed over Yamato's eyes. "They might have fought against the Chinese one moment, or the Russians the next. As long as their chance to make a difference came, they would fight against anyone."

It wasn't as if Rin didn't understand where the sentiment came from. Afterall, even if she had been ordered by her dear Father to participate in the Holy Grail War, the only reason she had even agreed in the first place was because she herself had wanted to fight, to show her chops to so speak. Still, something in Yamato's delivery rubbed against Rin the wrong way.

"That sounds rather warmongering to me."

A shade of crimson spread through Yamato's face. "I-I did not intend to come across with such battle lust!" Putting it that way was extreme and overstating what the ship girl had said, but that didn't stop Yamato from apologizing in such a profuse manner, waving her hands in front of her. "Certainly, the crews wanted nothing more than for the war to end, wishing fervently that they never had to see the horrors of war." Sadness crept into the girl's face, before a resolute expression quickly took over. "But seeing everyone else in the open seas risking their lives for Japan, how could they not feel that they also needed to fight alongside their brothers?"

Rin got the impression that Yamato was talking about someone other than the crews, but passed off the thought. Her Servant would tell her whenever she wanted.

"I do hope you're not telling me you're not fighting just because you don't have comrades to serve with." Rin stated half-teasingly, to which Yamato could visibly be seen suppressing her expression to blanch.

"O-of course not!" Her Servant answered indignantly, "Yamato would never abandon her duties! As long as Admiral commands it, I will obey to the best of my abilities!"

The ship girl's suddenly clasped her hands together, twirling her fingers with each other as she looked down sheepishly. "More than anything Admiral, I do want to fight."

That got the Servant out of her descent into funk at least. Rin gave Yamato an authoritative glare. "If you want to fight, then you must show me what you're capable of first."

Yamato's expression lightened considerably at Rin's words. "If I may presume to suggest Admiral, a place with lots of water would be ideal for a demonstration of my abilities."

"The docks then." Rin intuited. Of course Yamato was a ship, so where else could they show off other than a place made for ships? She signaled Yamato to follow. "Let's head there now then."

"Yes Admiral!"


**********​

The orange sky served as a backdrop for the steel scaffolds, cranes and other large machinery in the distance, themselves the background for the dark blue waters of Osaka Bay. Here, by a concrete pier surrounded on both sides by slowly crashing waves of water below, Rin put the finishing touches to the magic circle on the ground she'd been working on for the past several minutes. An infusion of mana made it glow a bright green for a moment before it dimmed, leaving only the circle's black outline.

"We should be safe from observation with this." Even this far away from the city center, Rin didn't want to take the chance of an enemy Master, Servant or both observing her Servant's demonstration of power. The concealment barrier would make anyone from the outside trying to look see something innocuous like children playing or such, as well as suppress any sounds from within.

"Now then," Rin turned to look at her Servant, "impress me Archer."

With a swift motion Yamato saluted, a gesture that surprised Rin. Though the action and her stern expression made Yamato look like a professional military officer on attention, her sparkling eyes made clear that she was all too happy to abide. "Name ship of the Yamato class, Yamato. On sortie!"

Rin felt a significant supply of mana leave her making her inhale sharply for a moment, as though a chunk of her vitality had left her, though not to a worrying extent. In front of her eyes, sparkling particles of mana weaved and coalesced around Yamato's side, forming into shaped masses of steel and iron. Only when the last of the particles had disappeared into the construct did Rin begin to try making sense of what she was looking at.

Yamato was wearing a massive gunmetal gray and red steel bracing of sorts, large curved steel plates seemingly floating about a foot to each side. On closer examination, said plates were attached to a backpack resembling a ship's smokestack. The steel to her side each mounted a large turret with three guns each, every one seemingly larger and thicker than Yamato's arms. Turrets half as large with appropriately sized guns complemented the massive turrets, and several smaller guns lined the sides of each bracing. Yamato's hair now grey metal frames sticking out of it, and her large orange traditional parasol had been replaced with a much smaller parasol with a frame made out of steel.

The entire bracing assembly was half wider than Yamato was tall, cutting a very imposing and intimidating image. All that steel looked like they would weight a ton, but even then Yamato showed no signs of being inconvenienced by the weight or bulk of the whole assembly despite her seemingly lithe and feminine build. An Archer with a strength expected of a Berserker was definitely not what anyone would call an average Servant.

"That is rather impressive, as expected of my Servant!" Rin praised with open pride, making said Servant blush furiously.

"T-Thank you so much Admiral!"

"Don't thank me yet Archer," Rin chided, though she couldn't keep the pride off her voice,"You have yet to show me what you've got. " Walking slowly around her now armed Servant, Rin inspected every aspect of the new equipment, touching some parts to see how tough they were, making Yamato fidget for some reason. Seeing Yamato's back revealed yet another one of the massive turrets on the rear. Rin returned in front of her servant, hand on her chin. "Give me a run down. What am I looking at exactly?"

"Yes Admiral." Yamato gestured to her equipment. "This is Yamato's 'outfit' as I referred to this morning. My main armaments are these three Type-94 46 centimeter triple gun turrets, with which I can fire Type 91 armor-piercing shells, Type-0 explosives, or Type-3 anti-aircraft shells."

"That sounds powerful, " Rin stated to Yamato's delight. Ignoring the military-sounding designations of what the guns fired and how their stated sizes did not match what she actually saw, the tactician's mind in Rin realized how versatile her Servant's armaments were: limited not by the physical shape of the weapon but by what they fired, her Servant could provide fire support for all sorts of different occasions she may encounter in this war.

"My secondary armament," Yamato continued in a level tone, "consists of two 15.5 centimeter gun turrets," she pointed to the smaller of the turrets on her mount, "and six 12.7 centimeter gun turrets," she waved over the smallest turrets that surrounding the bracing.

"My anti-aircraft armament consists of one hundred sixty two 25 millimeter guns," Yamato spread her arms around her, though where those 162 turrets where Rin could not see anywhere on her mounting, "and finally my complement of two E13A Reconnaisance Seaplanes and two Type-0 Observation Seaplanes are available for auxiliary missions."

"Seaplanes?" Rin asked very much befuddled at what her Servant meant by those.

"Yes Admiral. Yamato comes equipped with two aircraft launch booms for deployment of Seaplanes in combat," her Servant explained, completely missing the question. It was just one aspect of her Servant's abilities she'll have to observe later though. A concern that had been nagging at her head was finally let through to the surface of Rin's thoughts - considering Yamato's nature, and just how specific many of the ship's abilities had been transferred into humanoid form, Rin had been wondering whether any ship-specific weaknesses had manifested as well, like the most obvious one...

"Archer, I hate to ask, but I would like to know if your combat abilities are limited when you're on the water."

"They are not Admiral," Yamato replied, shaking her head once. "I admit to performing with greater effectiveness while on the water, but my combat outfit can be used to fight anywhere, even on land."

"That's... good. Very good." Rin exhaled. "I would not know what I'd do if I had to drag all my fights out here to the sea."

Yamato's expression dropped for a moment. "I can assure you Admiral that I, Yamato, am capable of fighting anywhere that you desire me to," she replied with such conviction that it startled Rin, who had been getting used to Yamato acting a more reserved fashion.

"I get it, I get it," Rin waved in acknowledgement, "I did not intend to doubt your fighting prowess. Though you still need to show me how you fight."

Hands clutching inside her pocket, the young magus took out an assorted handful of her magic gems, each one differing in shape and color. "I will be producing targets for you to engage. Once they expand I want you to hit them from as far away as you can, understand?"

Yamato saluted once again. "Battleship Yamato shall now demonstrate the abilities of the combat outfit!"

The ship girl walks over the edge of the pier, easily lugging the equipment with her, jumps off the concrete pier and hits the water with a splash.

"Wha-"

'Splash' was the wrong word. It was more a deafening eruption of water so tall that reached a hundred feet into the air, sending cold saltwater splashing all over her clothes. Rin hurried over to the edge of the pier.

"Archer!"

The misty geyser of water began to disperse, and to Rin's relief her Servant could be seen on the water amidst some energetic ripples, looking none the worse for wear, and not even severely wet. Seeing a smiling Yamato standing so regally on top of the deep, blue water while churning it under her feet with some unseen force was a strange sight in itself, though Rin had stopped expecting Heroic Spirits to do anything less than the impossible.

"Shall I begin combat maneuvers Admiral?" Yamato asks as though asking permission to take a walk in the park. Her eagerness makes Rin grin.

"Alright Archer, go as far as you can within the concealment barrier, then hit the targets as they appear. Get going!"

"Setting forth!" Yamato replied, and the with a slight tug forward and an exhaust of smoke from the rear smokestack she began to skate upright at speed across the water, like someone with roller skates. For one like Yamato, the action looked so gracefully effortless despite lugging tons of metal on her back. A few seconds later and Yamato was now almost to the edge of the barrier, near an orange buoy over a hundred meters way.

Rin waved to her Servant in the distance. "Get ready!" she yelled, before putting all of her strength to throwing a purple gem as far as she can into the water towards the sunset. With a flash of purple light it instantly grew into a large, translucent crystalline boulder- that exploded with an ear-shattering boom as soon as it formed.

TOO LOUD!

She didn't remember when she had covered her ears with her hands, but Rin removed her hands just the same, turning to look at her Servant in the distance. Even from the pier, she could make out the thick smoke rising out of Yamato's guns, and she could imagine her Servant undoubtedly looking smug and pleased with herself. Not that she could blame her, it was some very good marksmanship for a supposed battleship.

Rin took a deep breath, then held up the next stone. "Next!"

They repeated the exercise a dozen more times, varying the kinds of targets that appeared - scattered stones, super hard crystals, fast moving wisps, and other stuff to shoot at. Yamato would vary the weapons she would use, including using her fast-firing anti-aircraft guns, which had sent a seriously scary amount of bright yellow bullets downrange, as if blanketing the skies with lead. If there had been any doubts about her Servant's effectiveness, the battleship had dispelled them all, hitting every target almost as soon as they formed even if it had to take an entire barrage to do so. Rin herself would've balked at the waste of ammunition, being someone who preferred to kill her targets with a single hit using her Gandr shots to conserve them, but she couldn't deny the effectiveness of her familiar's firing tactics. Defensive tactics were also tested, with Rin asking Yamato to defend herself from some Gandr shots. The battleship hadn't even bothered: the shots simply bounced off her Servant with nary a scratch on her.

Supremely powerful offense coupled with superior defenses. Her Servant truly was great as befitting her legacy, and Rin almost lost herself to a happy place thinking about her inevitable victory. Shame she didn't see what the Seaplane business was about.

If there was one worrisome thing about the exercise though, as Rin sat down by the edge fiddling with her ears to get her hearing back, it was that she found herself winded, and not from yelling her lungs out to her Servant. A significantly large amount of mana had been withdrawn from Rin, feeling as though she had run an olympic race... and she hadn't moved an inch from where she had been standing! Rin was quite proud of her formidable magic reserves, along with the variety of ways with which she can conserve mana through some energy management techniques, along with increasing her base mana capacity through various exercises over the years, and she could confidently say that she could probably match the capacity of even mages like the Einzberns. Yet to feel this tired from an exercise that hadn't taken more than a few minutes was a troublesome thought.

Rin watched her Servant skate back to the pier, thinking about the implications of her newfound fatigue. It appeared that Yamato's combat form took up more mana than she could even imagine. Her Servant was extremely powerful, of that she had no doubt, but consequently the drain on her mana was proportionately as large. If the Tohsaka heir hoped to win the Holy Grail War, she would need to take that into account.

She met her Servant by the shores of the beach nearby as soon as she caught her breath, her Servant looking as regal as she did before the demonstration. "Good work out there." Rin greeted with a congratulatory tone. "I'll be counting on you in the days ahead Archer."

Somehow, hearing those words made her Servant light up like the sun. "It was my pleasure Admiral!" Yamato replied with the happiest voice Rin heard from anyone in her entire life. Mana issues aside, she couldn't think of anyone better to serve as her Servant she realized.

And then a deep rumbling like a ship keeling over filled the air.

"What was that?!" Rin asked with alarm, on alert and with a gem on her hand ready to shoot the source of the disturbance. She turned to command her Servant when she saw the latter's face as crimson as the setting sun.

"I-I hate to say this Admiral..." Yamato began hesitantly, looking very interested in how many grains of sand were on the beach. "I'm... hungry."

All tension left Rin as she pocketed the gem in her hand. "Now that you mention it, I'm feeling hungry myself. Let's go get some dinner."

Treating her Servant to a little dinner once in a while wouldn't hurt now would it?

* Spirit of Steel *

[LoweGear]

* Spirit Of Steel *

​

"Archer, care to explain to me what just happened?"

The dejected expression Yamato wore at that moment was absolute torture for Rin to behold, her conscience repeatedly telling her that putting such an expression on the ship girl was tantamount to being the most evil person in the world. But she decided after the events of today, no she would not give in to her Servant's doe-eyed woe-is-me look a second time!

With Yamato having proven herself to be an extremely powerful Servant, and the fact that the ship girl had been an adorably obedient Servant who cooked the best food in the universe, Rin had been in an extremely good mood come dinnertime, and so she and Yamato - who had physically materialized into visibility - had gone to one of the nearby restaurants, the Hinode Diner, to celebrate. Because contrary to expectations, Rin wasn't as much of a prima donna as some would presume her to be, and she was content with eating at an admittedly low-class place. Such was her gaiety that Rin had allowed Yamato to order anything she wanted.

That was her biggest mistake.

At first it had only been a single order of Hinode's extra thick tonkatsu bowl.

Then it had turned into a followup of two extra thick tonkatsu bowls.

Then a large gyudon bowl. A teriyaki bowl. A couple of unagi bowls, the Hinode extra special king bento set...

Unfortunately Rin had been in such a good mood that she only when the Hinode's young bratty chef started falling in love with "sister Yamato" due to being such a big eater did Rin notice the massive tower of bowls on her table reaching a foot high.

That was the first time Tohsaka Rin ever felt true terror.

"Where did my good mood go?" Rin lamented as she gazed into the abyssal black hole that was now her wallet. "This week's allowance..."

It wasn't that Rin was a peasant lacking for funds, oh no. A yearly stipend of 30,000,000 yen from magical patent royalties to the family name complimented by various other sources of funding and the fact she lived alone ensured that Rin lived a financially comfortable life growing up... if only the implements of magic she used weren't so expensive as is! A single one of the high-quality gems she uses for high-speed casting cost upwards of 500,000 yen, and even the "trash" gems she spent for the earlier combat exercise with Yamato would make a salaryman wail in despair. She's always tried to be relatively frugal in her own living because of that, dedicating all of her spending to purchasing the expensive gems, reagents and other magical items needed for the Holy Grail War, and enforcing some strict accounting measures to ensure she didn't go overboard in spending.

And her gluttonous Servant just had to go and wreck her carefully planned spending plans! Though it was Rin's fault that she overlooked such a detail earlier, Yamato ordering that Extra Large Parfait bowl during lunchtime should've run alarm bells.

The glare she sent towards her Servant caused the ship girl to blanch.

"M-m-m-m-m-my apologies!" Yamato bowed in haste over and over again, which didn't help Rin's foul mood any. A scowl formed on the young magus' face, which finally caused Yamato to straighten up, though she continued fiddling with her fingers and finding the concrete pavement highly interesting.

"I-In order to maintain full combat readiness, Yamato requires a consistently extensive amount of supplies to ensure operation of the combat outfit." Yamato explained, trying to keep her tone level despite her visible nervousness.

Rin sighed long, fingers on her forehead. "In other words, using your equipment consumes a lot of mana, and makes you eat a lot of food. Isn't that right Archer?"

"Yes." Yamato's reply was barely above a whisper.

"Wait. Is eating really essential for you, or is it just a quirk of yours?"

The blushing ship girl averted Rin's gaze. "W-while I am indeed capable of attaining sustenance through mana alone, I can alleviate the drain by eating physical food."

So she can either let Yamato consume a lot of mana to fuel her combat outfit, draining Rin dry of mana quickly, or split the costs between mana expenditure and food and have both her mana and wallet suffer.

Rin palmed her face. "Why me..."

A Servant with combat firepower rivalling a Caster, with the toughness of a Berserker... with a more critical mind Rin now realized it was simply too good to be true. Sure, Yamato would be able to give aforementioned classes a run for their money in full combat outfit, but doing so would burn through both her mana supplies - and her allowance - extremely quickly. She could probably try to bolster her mana via leyline taps and such, but limiting themselves to fighting only in certain favorable geographic areas was a bad idea no matter how anyone looked at it, their enemies likely not giving them the opportunity. At best, the ship girl would probably defeat her enemy but leave both herself and Rin helpless against the next enemy that might come along. And if Yamato, even with all her overwhelming power, were to fail against their enemy...

"P-Permission to speak Admiral?" Yamato interrupted Rin's musing, which in the short time Rin knew the ship was unusual enough: the ship girl would normally wait for Rin to say anything.

"What it is Archer?" the edge in Rin's voice was gone, only exasperation. She saw Yamato steel her expression.

"While I am most powerful when I can bring my guns to bear through my combat outfit, I am still capable of fighting in this form." Yamato touched the bell hanging on her chest. "My firepower is substantially limited, but I consume correspondingly less mana."

Rin adopted a thinking pose. "So there was that option huh..." Her Servant wasn't useless in her normal form, which was some consolation. "And what are you capable of without your outfit?"

Yamato fixed her grip on her parasol. "I am trained in Naginatado, and I can deploy and command my Seaplanes."

"N-Naginatado?" Rin couldn't believe what she just heard. Her own mistake getting her an Archer instead of a Saber was bad enough, though she could now overlook that fault due to Yamato an overly powerful Archer. But being reduced to skill with polearms without her combat outfit? "Dear Father, why did I get a Lancer when I wanted a Sabe-"

Catching a glimpse of her Servant's crestfallen expression shut up any further words along that line of thought. "I'm sorry Archer, that was quite mean," Rin apologized with a sigh, before donning a stance of authority again with a hand on her hip. "How confident are you in fighting without your outfit?"

The battleship perked up with a stern and determined expression. "Yamato is highly confident in her fighting prowess Admiral."

Delivered without hesitation, it was all Rin needed to hear to be reassured of her Servant's abilities. "I'll believe you then Archer. Show me how good you are when the time comes."

"Yes Admiral." Not quite as energetic as she was earlier in the day, but the conviction in the battleship's voice was better than her wallowing in low self-esteem at least.

From the roof of the 50-storey building where the preceding argument had taken place, Rin took in the panoramic view of the mass of colorful lights spread out below her known as Fuyuki City.

"How pretty."

Rin ignored Yamato's awed sigh, scanning the streets and sidewalks below using her magic-enhanced sight, not that she was looking for anything in particular, just giving her vision practice.

A sight of some familiar red hair by a pedestrian overpass caught Rin's attention. She would've just passed it off as a curious sighting if her enhanced vision didn't catch the fact that somehow, the owner of said red hair appeared to be looking back at her.

"Wha-"

No, that was impossible. Said person was not a magus, and couldn't possess the enhanced sight needed for such a thing. Rin shook her head in disbelief at letting her mind think up strange theories.

"Is something wrong Admiral?" Yamato asked curiously.

Rin shook her head. "Nothing's wrong, just saw an acquaintance of mine."

It was now Rin's turn to look at a Yamato now lost in thought with the latter's hand on her chin. "Admiral, if I may presume to offer a suggestion?"

Rin had thought her Servant lacking in initiative, apart from the earlier breakfast. Looks like her Servant had more pride in her usefulness than she thought. "Alright. What do you have in mind?"

Yamato daintily raised a finger into the air. "This location is ideal for launching an air reconnaissance mission."

Now that Rin thought about it, Yamato had been mentioning having abilities to that effect earlier. "Your seaplanes you mean?"

The ship girl nodded. "I should be able to map a much better overview of the city with information from the air, and hopefully identify enemy positions in the meantime."

Rin's eyes widened at the options available to her. The young magus did have the ability to create familiars in the form of inorganic owls, but her own skill at such was admittedly not up to being practical for use. Being able to proactively scout out her enemies with little risk to herself was a huge boon to her efforts. Besides, she had been curious about those seaplanes for a while now.

"Launch them." Rin commanded.

Mana particles danced and weaved around Yamato's left arm as she lifted it straight forward, materializing into a solid steel boom that extended from her shoulder to her wrist... with a miniature green and white airplane on it, at which Rin blinked. It looked so much like a remote-controlled toy that she had to stop herself from stating that thought out loud, lest she offend her Servant or something. Well, it looked like a very well-built solid-steel toy instead of a die-cast model, but still...

"Good luck on your mission, Mr. Fairy." Yamato aimed the boom out into the open sky, the air now filled with the roar of cycling piston engines and the whirl of the plane's propellers. Rin swore she saw a figure inside the plane give a salute, before it shot out of the boom and out into the night sky. Yamato then pulled out another one of the aircraft out of nowhere with her other hand, then affixed it to the rear of the boom by her shoulder. The launching process was repeated, and thus another seaplane sped off into the night.

"I'll be receiving their reconnaissance reports in real time. They should be back within three hours." Yamato reported as the boom dissipated in a mist of particles.

Three hours would be more than enough time to comb the city and identify any potential hotspots. Depending on what the planes found, Rin thought they could perhaps bring the fight to their enemies much sooner than she thought.

"Good work Archer." Rin made sure her gratefulness was conveyed to her Servant, and thankfully Yamato's bashful smile told her that it did. "We'll be discussing how to best utilize your abilities later, but to start deploy your outfit only under my orders, got it?"

Yamato nodded in understanding. "Yes Admiral."

There would be other ways to compensate for Yamato's reduced firepower Rin mused. She just hoped that Yamato's martial skill was as good as the battleship said it was.

* Spirit Of Steel *

​

A/N: I believe the best cameos are the ones people don't initially recognize. I wonder who can identify the cameo I just put here...

[HasuMasu]

I love Yamato! The concept is very interesting, and your writing is clean enough.

Your story is very good.

[LoweGear]

* Spirit Of Steel *

"Sector F34 E30, nothing to report, moving to F35 E30..."

Yamato's soft monotone reported, the lone voice in the otherwise silent street that the ship girl and Rin were walking on, leading back to the manor. The battleship was monitoring the progress of the miniature aircraft she had launched earlier. At first Rin didn't mind the added distraction: the walks home whenever she was caught late were deathly quiet at this hour, and there was only so much that one's own thoughts could do to keep the silence out.

"Sector Q20 Y63, nothing to report, moving to Q..."

Repetition lead to boredom however, and having her now invisible Servant report sector after sector of nothingness was not how Rin wanted to spend her evening.

"Archer, there's no need to tell me everything that's not happening." Rin chided. "Just tell me if you find anything unusual."

"... Yes, understood."

The only sound that reached Rin's ears were the sound of her own and Yamato's footsteps, and her own internal thoughts, memories, information and data churning inside her head, trying to form a coherent picture of the various solutions the young magus needed to the problems she faced. Arranging her budget to accommodate Yamato's abnormal appetite; finding cheaper alternatives to the gem stones she used without sacrificing quality; combat tactics and doctrines for how best to utilize her Servant when in her combat outfit and without, and a lot of other thoughts. The Holy Grail War had just begun for her, and she would not be caught unprepared.

One set of footsteps suddenly disappeared, breaking Rin out of her musings. Rin turned to see Yamato dead in her tracks, her left hand to her ear.

"What's wrong Archer?"

Yamato's expression was unreadable, though her eyes seemed to focus on something beyond Rin. "Yamato is... uncertain," the Servant stated, reflecting the tone in her voice. "Radar is picking up unidentified contact within 200 meters."

"What do you mean?"

200 meters close to a mystery was not something Rin had been expecting for a walk back home. She tinkled some of the gems on her jacket pocket, though she hoped not to use them. Damn expensive gems...

"My Radar detects the signature of a Servant, but is unable to detect the magical output associated with one." Yamato's head dropped slightly. "My apologies, but my systems are confused in regards to this contact."

A Servant... Rin sidestepped herself closer to the trees, kneeling by a concrete wall in the darkness. On the one hand, Rin should've expected such, given that she was now a participant of the Holy Grail War. The presence of a Servant here might indicate a possible ambush, or possibly a head on confrontation. On the other hand, a Servant without a hint of magical output... could such a thing even exist?

An important question had to be asked first before making any hasty decisions though. She looked to Yamato who was now crouching beside her.

"Archer, I need to know if it's moving."

Yamato's face took on a look of focus. "Contact is moving slowly at walking pace towards us."

Either their 'contact' was an extremely weak Servant with no idea of what he was walking into, or he was confident enough in its abilities to be moving so lackadaisically. After the revelation of Yamato's energy drain problems and feeling her own mana not up to task at the moment Rin's confidence in a confrontation was unfortunately rather low. Perhaps her Servant might be more powerful in her basic form than she expected, but that wasn't a risk Rin was willing to test out just now, better to be safe than sorry.

A short magic chant enhanced Rin's night vision, allowing her to better pick the shapes in the dark hidden by the contrasts of white street lamps, because the objects least visible in total darkness are those hidden just near the corona of the brightest light.

Scanning the rising streets ahead, Rin squinted out a dark human shape walking towards their direction.

"Is that shape the one you were talking about?"

"It appears so Admiral."

With confirmation of what Yamato just picked up, Rin followed the man with her eyes. It appeared that he wasn't moving directly at them. Instead, as he made himself visible underneath a street lamp, a blonde foreigner wearing a black jacket, he seemed to be walking towards a young girl in a brown vest uniform, with purple hair-

Identification set in immediately.

"Sakura?"

"Someone you know Admiral?" Yamato asked innocently.

"She's an junior from school. I skipped school today, so I'd rather not run into anyone from there today." Rin decided Yamato didn't need to hear any more than that about the girl in her sights. That still left the question of the man though, who walked up to Sakura. The latter stood straight still with no visible signs of distress, with which Rin deduced they were talking about something. Nonetheless, Rin's shaky grasp on her gems felt damp.

"Sakura, what are you doing..."

The unheard conversation between the Sakura and the unknown man seemed to last forever, and the more Sakura spent before the man, the stronger the urge to just shoot the guy with a Gandr grew within Rin. He was someone her Servant could not identify, and Rin hated dealing with mysteries that might turn out to be hostile. And so close to Sakura too!

If he so much as lays a hand on her-

Fortunately the man finally left Sakura behind before Rin could finish the thought, resuming his walk at a comfortable pace, turning left towards another dark alley- or so it seemed, until he paused and her eyes met his.

No, he's just looking in our direction! Rin justified, shaking her overreaction away. She and Yamato were hidden in a dark place, and even with night vision they'd be too far away to be picked up with them just peeking over as is. No, more likely that person was just staring aimlessly. So why was she gripping her gems so hard?

The man turned away, and stepped out into the darkness to resume his course away from them. Far, far away Rin wished, releasing the breath she didn't even know she held. Her hands felt clammy inside her pocket.

"That person sets me ill at ease Admiral," Yamato stated with barely hidden discomfort, to which Rin nodded in assent.

"Make that the both of us."

There was no confrontation this night, but Rin had a feeling that wouldn't be the last they would see of that person. She just hoped she was wrong about that as Rin finally stood up from her hiding place, brushing away some leaves from her legs. With the immediate situation over and done with, a question surfaced in Rin's mind.

"Archer, this Radar of yours... how far can it detect enemies like Servants?"

Yamato perked up. "With clear line of sight in this form the tactical radar can detect large contacts up to 500 meters within where I am facing, and the combat outfit's general purpose radar has a 20 kilometer range. I must stress however that Yamato's radar range is affected by factors like obstacles and other sources of interference. " The battleship gave the environment around her a quick scan with her eyes. "In a city of this make, the sea planes would be a more prudent source of reconnaissance."

And then Yamato smiled as if finishing a sales pitch. "In the event that a Servant becomes airborne however, my Air Search Radar should be able to detect them at significant ranges from a proper vantage point." The Servant finished with a note of pride.

Rin didn't really care much about the technical sounding terms of the exposition, and as much as she hated to admit it technology was never her strong point. Nonetheless, at least she knew her Servant wouldn't allow her to be caught red-handed, and she could include Yamato's newly revealed capabilities into their plans.

"I'll keep that in mind Archer. Now, let's go home before we run into more unnecessary encounters."

**********

"Archer isn't it..."

The man pitied the mongrel's attempts to hide from him, stupidly thinking their flimsy cover of concrete and the veil of darkness would be sufficient against his eyes.

The Master in his view, a girl under the care of the fake priest, wasn't worth much of his attention. All of his attention was focused on the Servant beside her, a very find specimen of a woman of inexplicable beauty. Even from this distance he could sense the immense flow of mana within her, even if she could never hope to achieve his own level of power.

Her eyes held much steel in them, a hardened look reserved only for heroes who have fought wars that would shake the earth asunder along the mountains of the dead. Yet she had none of the haunted stare of a veteran plagued by their memories of death, nor did she have the gleam of command that spoke of leadership commanding armies of men, entire kingdoms at their mercy. Focused only on her goal, a devotion to her duty so strong that she would sweep aside all weakness to do so.

Where the Saber that captivated him with her stubbornness and defiance was a noble ruler, this one was a warrior, whose only place was to be bathed in death and blood. Yet both commanded an aura of respect that compelled those to see them as superior.

As if anything could be superior to himself.

Superficially similar this Archer was to his Saber, and yet so drastically different, lacking the defiance that the latter had with conviction. Archer would obey, simply because it was her duty. From that standpoint, Archer had nothing for him, because one without pride to break was not worth the breath he exhaled.

And yet she compelled him in a vague manner beyond his conscious understanding. If Saber was to be his wife, this woman... he felt the need to make her his, and claim her as his rightful possession within his vault.

His treasure.

No Servant had given him that compulsion before, the desire and need to procure them so greedily. And so he studied the specimen for a while longer, before letting them go with a scoff.

There was no need to rush, because he had all the time in the world to collect on his prize. Because the undisputed truth was and ever shall be, the King of Heroes has dominion over all.

**********

"Good Morning Admiral. Your breakfast is ready to be served."

"Mmmorning." Rin replied with a stiffled yawn. Despite having gone to bed early last night, the events of yesterday had tired Rin out more than she had imagined, inbetween Yamato's mana drain, the stress relating to said problem with Yamato, and encountering that strange man. Never a morning person, Rin always did find herself at less than optimal after waking up, even if she had always relied on her self-discipline to counter it, and she found today struggling to clear the daze in her head even more difficult than usual.

That was until her nose once again received that heavenly smell.

"I'm so going to get used to this," Rin sighed happily as she sat down on the chair pulled out by her Servant.

"For the first course, please have some of Yamato's special Miso."

A small human opened the serving bowl for the meal, and once again Rin lost herself to the amazing aroma of-

Hold on.

Rin's now wide awake eyes tracked the small, pudgy person no larger than her palm carrying the ceramic dish cover over to the end of the table, before bowing and disappearing under the sheets.

The young magus rubbed her eyes once, clearing her eyes and making sure she wasn't hallucinating.

"Archer, did you see that?" Rin blankly pointed at where the being she just saw disappeared to.

"See what Admiral?" Yamato answered calmly.

"That... thing that carried that cover. It was right there!"

"That would be Tsubasa, I enlisted her assistance with the breakfast," Yamato explained without hesitation or surprise, as if it answered everything that Rin needed to know.

"Archer."

Rin closed her eyes, turned to her funny Servant... and smiled.

"Explain."

As it turned out, not even battleships were immune to a Tohsaka's... friendly smile, if Yamato's deathly pale face was any indication.

"Y-Y-Yes Admiral, m-my apologies for not introducing them."

Recomposing herself from Rin's mental attack, Yamato daintily picked up a golden bell, and gently rang it four times. A flurry of taps urgently marched through the ground, and shuffling up the table.

Four of the small people lined up behind the food in front of Rin, and saluted before crisply standing to attention. All of them were wearing appropriately sized green pilot suits, goggles on their heads, and scarves of varying colors. They would've looked more professional and intimidating if not for the fact that they had the figure of bobbleheads with large heads on otherwise normal looking bodies.

"Yamato shall introduce them now Admiral," Yamato cordially gestured towards the figures. "These four are the Fairies who serve under me."

Fairies... the connection clicked with Rin then, recalling the events of last night. "So they're the ones flying the airplanes." It did make some sense Rin realized, having caught a glimpse of the pilots back when they were launching for their air reconnaissance mission.

Yamato nodded. "From the left are the sisters, Sora," at that, the blue-scarved one with long white hair saluted, "and Tsubasa, the one who made herself known to you," saluted the one with the orange scarf and short brown hair.

"Beside them are the brothers, Neppu," a blonde fairy with the green scarf performed a half salute, "and Shippu," the last one with fiery red hair and a purple scarf crossed his arms and nodded. "Both of them were the ones on duty last night."

"Is that so." This time, Rin's smile was warm and grateful as she turned her gaze to the Fairies. "Good work everyone," she praised, much to the visible delight of the fairies on parade. Rin turned her gaze towards her Servant. "Archer, next time inform me about these things, I don't want any surprises you hear?"

"Yes Admiral."

Rin wondered whether Yamato's oppressed puppy look had also been an Imperial secret psychological weapon given life by the Holy Grail. "A-Anyway, Archer I'd like to eat your excellent food now, if you please."

Yamato's smile returned to her. "Of course Admiral," she answered while pouring some of that great smelling soup into a bowl whilst the fairies scampered to prepare the other meals on the table.

Rin had never needed constant house help before, but as she savored this morning's enlightening meal she reaffirmed her observation that yes, she could get used to this.

**********

"I'll stop by if I'm in the mood, so I'll see you then."

"Rin, wait-"

The man's voice was cut off by the telephone being returned to its cradle. Rin had already informed the man of her official participation in the Holy Grail War as per yesterday's summoning of Archer, and she didn't really feel the need to keep chatting for longer. The man, Kotomine Kirei, was not the most pleasant person to be chatting with anyway.

"Archer, we're leaving."

"Yes Admiral." Yamato replied as her visible body disappeared into the ether. Rin could still perceive her Servant as a presence of mass formed out of mana, but to everyone else in the world without magic Yamato would be invisible. Scooping up some gemstones, she counted them on her hand, checking them for flaws or other irregularities, then returning them to her pocket after she was satisfied with her assessments. Today Rin took a lot more gems than she normally would on an outing like this: now that she was officially a part of the War, the threats she would face only increase in the next few days, and while she had recovered some of her mana with a good night's rest, she could feel her mana was still not back to the level it was before yesterday's exercise. If she was to quantify it, she perhaps had 40% of her total mana compared to yesterday morning.

After completing her traditional morning security checks, Rin locked the black wrought iron gate that was the entrance to her house, and started her journey towards school.

Her usual routine in getting to school involved simply walking there, since it wasn't particularly far from her place, and she normally woke up early in the mornings. That usually involves silence apart from the occasional passing car though, giving Rin much time to collate her thoughts on her plans for the Grail War.

"Archer," Rin began, her tone all business. "Did last night's reconnaissance find anything?"

From somewhere on her person Yamato took out a folder, perusing it for a moment before closing it and returning it to wherever she had gotten it from.

"The only anomaly reported by the mission was a barrier within the vicinity of the Ryuudou Temple. Nothing else of note was reported within the city limits."

This caught Rin's full attention quickly. "A barrier?"

Yamato nodded. "Recon Flight 1 attempted a flyover, but was repelled by an invisible force surrounding the immediate vicinity of the Temple. Further attempts at infiltration was discouraged in the event that the first attempt had compromised Flight 1's presence. A quick perimeter recon 100 meters from the perceived barrier limits was performed before leaving the area."

Rin nodded in approval. "That was some quick thinking you did there Archer, well done." Though Yamato tried to maintain her professional veneer it was obvious that she liked the assessment. "Have one of your planes keep an eye on the temple tonight, see what else they can find."

"Yes Admiral."

The Ryuudou temple was one of the oldest religious shrines in Fuyuki City, and also the center of the city's leyline network. While the Temple had always been the sight of strong magical emanations, nothing as coherent as a Bounded Field had ever been sighted there. The work of a Servant perhaps? It seemed like the most likely conclusion.

Rin was just beginning to wonder about the implications when Yamato started humming a song whose identity Rin couldn't place, though felt she had heard somewhere before. Not that Rin minded though.

"Quite happy today are we Archer?" It did appear that Yamato took much pleasure in being praised for her abilities.

The cheerful humming paused. "Yes. Yamato has always wanted to go to school."

"Really?" Rin asked with mild surprise at the revelation, and the fact that it didn't have anything to do with their previous discussion. "Why would a battleship like you want to go to school? "

Yamato's eyes took on a gentle gaze along with a wan smile. "To clarify Admiral, it is not that I desire attendance at school for education. At times, my crew would talk about their experiences in their childhood, of the fun days they had with the people whom they met at their schools. I just wanted to see firsthand the establishment that gave them such fond memories."

Rin did not miss the hint of sadness that hat crept into the woman's voice, a sure sign that battleship was starting to reminisce.

"Archer, it is a great morning." Rin softly scolded. "I don't know much about what kind of schools your crew talked about, but I doubt Homurahara is the same as those they went to, so don't get your hopes up."

"I understand," Yamato replied with a bit more life, "though it is still my desire to see the establishment my Admiral attends."

"Suit yourself."

Nothing was spoken for the next few minutes, Rin formulating more of her contingency plans. Yamato resumed her humming at some point, though barely audible to the point that Rin could ignore it among the usual morning ambience.

Until she heard the words being sung.

"Ano ko ga futteita, makka na sukarfu... dare no tame da to, omotte iru ka..."

A voice as soft and fluffy as the clouds, singing a ballad about a red scarf. Looking at her Servant to confirm that she was in fact the source of that voice, Rin realized that Yamato just added words to the melody the ship girl was humming earlier.

Her Servant had a really pretty singing voice though.

"Trying to show off Archer?" Rin teased, getting an apologetic pause from Yamato. "Just kidding, you sing very well."

"M-my talent is not so great Admiral," Yamato bashfully replied.

Curiosity finally got the better of Rin. "What is that song? I swear I've heard it before."

This got her a surprised look from Yamato. "Yesterday at the cafe during lunchtime, the song played over the radio."

"That so..." Rin mused, she did vaguely remember hearing a tune like that yesterday, though it hadn't really caught her attention at all. "Why that one though? I think we heard catchier songs yesterday."

Yamato's wan smile returned. "The lyrics remind me of a memory," Yamato said, then left it at that as she resumed her song. Rin thought about having her Servant explain more, but quickly decided against it, letting the rest of their walk to school be filled by Yamato's song.

**********

"This is Homurahara, as you can see."

"Wow..."

While the gates of Homurahara Academy were nothing special to Rin, Yamato was quite taken by the sight, her excitement matching that of when they had toured the city. Even with the battleship's earlier explanation, Rin still couldn't fathom what about school interested the Heroic Spirit.

She took one more step into the school grounds, and suddenly all sense of time stopped. The air around her, so clean and clear, oppressed her with an unseen feeling of malice that permeated every pore on her body. Breathing became torture, and she suppressed the instinct to gag at the invisible poison that polluted the air around her. Her body felt unclean, defiled, feeling lightheaded.

A sudden bump on her shoulder released Rin from her sensations. The first thing she saw was the unknown boy who had collided with her walk on his way as though nothing had happened.

Jerks.

The first thing she did was run towards the main school building, and find an isolated spot underneath the rear stairwell to catch her breath from what just happened, leaning by the stairwell wall.

"This suffocating sensation... somebody put a magic barrier here?!"

Rin was no stranger to magic barriers, having been inside a few made by herself and mages that she knew. This was the first time she had felt a barrier that felt so... disgusting. Looking at her invisible Servant's pallid face, it appeared she felt the same way.

"The foul barrier appears to be incomplete Admiral, but still formidable." Yamato seemed to want to squint off the residual 'odor' of the magic field off her, waving a hand to her face as if ridding some smoke. "Only a person of considerable power could set up a barrier of this magnitude."

"Or a total novice with no idea what they're doing," Rin posited with an alternative. "A true master would not create a Bounded Field that would be so easy to detect."

"Should Yamato go on alert Admiral?" Yamato offered, taking on a stern appearance.

"Not yet," Rin shook her head, "we don't want to attract too much attention now. But we will find whoever lowlife dare put something as vulgar as this on my watch!"

Yamato nodded in agreement as Rin continued. "Listen Archer, we'll examine this barrier after school ends, find out whether we need to deal with it once we determine what it does-"

The rustling of papers interrupt Rin's speech, and she turns around to see Sakura by the foot of the stairs, frozen before a stack of fallen papers, before crouching down to pick them up.

Guess we can worry about that damned field later.

"I'll see you later Archer." Rin waved offhand, not bothering to look at Archer as she briskly walked over to the fallen papers, quickly replacing her fighting face with her caring student expression. "Let me help you with that Sakura."

**********

From the door's glass window, Yamato with a smile as she watched her Admiral help the young girl - who she recognized as the "Sakura" girl from yesterday night - pick up the fallen stack of papers from the floor.

She could keep watch over her Admiral to keep anything from happening to her, but seeing Sakura and all of the other students in the school reminded her that there were more people at stake here than her Admiral. Her eyes tracked the crowd of students moving to and fro to wherever they were needed. She heard the lighthearted banter of a trio of males against each other, and she watched over a young girl in glasses diligently reading a book by her lonesome. The sight of a vigorous baseball game in action captivated her, and she watched bowmen and women practice their archery with grace and focus. A circle of students she found were focused on a construction project of sorts, and a young man and woman she found behind the school were engaged in... aggressive refuelling operations.

Watching over the classrooms as she passed them by, she saw all sorts of people within each room under the watchful stewardship of their teachers. Some listened with rapture to the lessons, others had faces of boredom waiting for the class to end, and some hid their own repertoire of activities under the cover of books and desks hoping to avoid their teacher's sight.

It was exactly as she had heard school was like... her Admiral had cautioned her against hoping for much, but then Yamato hadn't hoped for much in the first place. All she knew as she watched the lessons taking place behind those glass windows, was that the essence of a modern school didn't seem so different from what she had heard, even separated by 70 years of time.

Someone had set up a foul-smelling magical barrier in this establishment, where the hopes and dreams of youth were cultivated to raise the future of Japan. A barrier that could crush those hopes and dreams if given the chance.

Yamato would not allow such a thing to pass, not while she was on patrol.

She had thought of searching for any anomalies within the school that might point to the origins of the offending barrier, but realized it wouldn't be so easy: Yamato herself had no innate magical sense or detection capability apart from her combat radars, which were specifically tuned to detect enemy Servants.

But then, from the bits of knowledge that she possessed from her reincarnation, a magic barrier like this would have been created through the imprinting of physical runes or circles using a writing medium. Even if she couldn't detect them magically, she would still be able to find them with her optical senses.

Yamato was quite confident in her endurance, and she had all day.

**********

"This is the seventh one, and it appears to have been the trigger point for the barrier."

The flow of mana ceased from Rin's arms, and she watched with some satisfaction at seeing the magic circle by her feet fade, losing its previous velvet luster to become a dulled rusty imprint barely visible in the darkening light of the early evening. It would reduce the magical potency of the barrier itself, and whoever made it would have to redo the imprints to get the barrier up again.

After class, Yamato had certainly surprised with her initiative when the battleship told Rin of the locations of some suspicious looking magical circles within the school. Knowing that her Servant had little magical sense in detecting passive magic, she began to appreciate the kind of measures her Servant had gone through to find some of the better hidden circles, such as those behind a shed of tools in the janitor's room, or one under some books in a library bookshelf.

Given how pleased Yamato was with herself, Rin decided she can admonish the battleship later about having created some gossip of daylight poltergeists.

This was no time to be rejoicing however. Diluting the circles had given Rin some insight into the nature of the barrier, and what her knowledge of magic barriers told her had made her sick to her stomach. She looked at the bloody, twisting runes on the magic circles again.

"I've never seen or heard of a circle with this style of writing before... what have I gotten myself into..."

Rin felt Yamato crouch down, studying the magic circle by herself but obviously failing to understand it. "Admiral, what is this barrier?"

As a battleship born in the age of modern technology, Yamato had only an incredibly basic sense of the nature of magic as provided by the power of the Grail, no more than what a novice mage might have. The battleship knew what magic was and did have means to detect emissions like what Servants released, but the more advanced and esoteric aspects of magic was beyond what Yamato could understand or comprehend, and she viewed some of the abilities she performed using magic, like summoning her battle outfit, as abilities innate to herself rather than being magical abilities. Having learned of this in a prior discussion with her Servant, Rin knew that she would be unable to count on Yamato in providing insight into magic such as these.

Fortunately Rin was in fact a highly accomplished and very knowledgeable mage, and proudly so.

"Once activated, this Barrier will literally dissolve every human being within it, and suck out their souls to be harvested for mana. This is a soul-eating field."

Rin herself wondered how she could give out that explanation of such brutal and vile magic with a straight face. On the other hand, Yamato's terrified expression looked like she could throw up any minute now, if battleships were capable of such a thing.

"Who could think up such a horrible machine..."

Rin stood up beside the now faded circle. "A Servant, or a Master ordering their Servant. They plan on harvesting massive amounts of mana in this manner to give themselves more power."

Certainly, Rin realized the appeal of such a method from a tactical standpoint. A Servant's abilities in battle relied on mana to use, and the more mana available the more powerful the Servant's powers become. Considering her very own mana-guzzling example of a Servant, having a quick and easy method of acquiring large amounts of mana as fuel was a highly tempting option. With such a method, Yamato would be able to easily overpower everyone with her combat outfit.

That she could even objectively think that such methods were sound made Rin sick of herself. No matter its effectiveness, it was still an act that would brutally sacrifice innocent lives without mercy, something Rin found utterly disgusting.

"Admiral, please destroy this barrier!"

Rin smiled at Yamato's eagerness. "I was just about to Archer. I may not be able to dissolve it completely, but I should be-"

Yamato suddenly stood ramrod straight, eyes scanning their surroundings with a hand to her ear.

"Enemy contact, 100 meters and closing fast!"

Mana circuits crackled to life as Rin's mana flowed through her body, her own eyes on alert at the impending confrontation.

"Where?"

"Right here little girl."

* Spirit Of Steel *

[LoweGear]

*Spirit Of Steel*

"Right here little girl."

Here on top of the main school building's open rooftop, a young man in a tight-fitting blue suit with white runes etched on its surface and gleaming silver pauldrons on his shoulders, stood atop the building's main water tank. He crouched down, heaving the long red spear he wielded on his back by his shoulders. Slick short hair tied into a short tail, and sporting a cocky grin, he appeared all too eager for a fight despite his seemingly relaxed stance.

It was patently obvious to Rin just what she was looking at, Yamato's detection having confirmed it earlier.

"A Lancer-class servant." More of her circuits sparked to life, her body tensing like a spring, ready to release into action at any moment.

"Feisty girl you are, not bad," Lancer quipped seemingly in jest, then whistled. "But I prefer the gorgeous lady beside you."

Es ist grost

Of course a Servant would be able to see another one. Though a Servant arriving just as she was preparing to erase the magic sigil... Rin didn't believe it to be coincidence. "You're the one responsible for this?" she challenged angrily, gesturing to the rusty circle by her feet.

Es ist klein

"That'd be a no." Lancer said flatly. To Rin's surprise he sounded sincere enough, though he may just be a capable actor. "We Servants just fight when we're told, it's our Masters that do nasty stuff like this." He then grinned, reminding her of a feral wolf. "Since you're a Master yourself, perhaps I should put an end to you so can't do anything bothersome?"

"Vox gott es Atlas!"

Her spell complete, power sprung Rin's legs into action before Lancer even finished, boosting her airborne high over the roof's iron fence. The cool night air breezed past her, feeling weightless as she suspended in mid air for but for a moment over the wide open grounds of Homurahara... then gravity reasserted itself, and she soon fell straight down. Blood ran from her fingers leaving them cold as the ground closed in, but no fear formed within her.

"Archer, handle the landing!"

Rin tucked her arms and legs in, and closed her eyes as she hit the ground... or would have, if not for invisible arms cushioning her landing.

"Are you hurt Admiral?"

"I'm fine," Rin nodded while she was gently laid down to the ground, as she opened her eyes to check her surroundings.

"Got you!"

A man's scream snapped Rin's attention above her, the tip of a gleaming red point growing larger in her eyes.

"ARCHER!"

The red spear struck with the clang of metal against steel, crackling with energy against an umbrella-shaped prismatic distortion in the air above Rin. His momentum insufficient against the invisible shield, Lancer jumped off, lightly landing several meters by the center of the open school grounds, spear held threateningly towards them.

"My, should a man act so brutishly against a lady?"

With that teasing declaration Yamato revealed herself out of a rising column of ether, now visible to the world. Walking with a noble stride the Servant imposed herself between Rin and their enemy in front of them, smiling as she daintily held her parasol with both hands. For Rin it was sometimes easy to forget that the woman in front of her who could so easily be flustered by mistakes or praise really was a Heroic Spirit, and with the regal way she projected herself it was so easy to believe that fact now.

Lancer whistled with audible appreciation. "What an honor to be greeted by a woman whose beauty seems graced by the gods." His stance relaxed, standing straight and planting his spear on the ground. "I would to like know your name, Archer."

"You flatter me Lancer," Yamato softly laughed, "though surely it is rude for a gentleman to insist a lady introduce herself before him."

"Unfortunately I'm no gentleman," Lancer smirked, "more a wild beast in the form of a man. Spend a night with me and I'll show you how wild I can be."

The amount of sleaze released in his words made Rin blanch. To her credit though, Yamato didn't even bat an eyelash, though whether because the ship girl was blasé to such things, or it had flown over her head Rin couldn't tell.

"I have seen how animalistic you can be this night Lancer," Yamato giggled, before her eyes narrowed and her lips frowned, "when you dared to strike down my Admiral!"

"Tsk," Lancer shook his head. "And I thought modern women loved aggressive men."

Yamato shifted her poise, showing more of her side towards Lancer, gripping her parasol harder. "Unfortunately, I am no modern woman."

Lancer let loose a hearty laugh at that. "That's a good one Archer! Then how about this," he offered, "if I defeat you, you give me the chance to show how exciting the hound can make your nights."

"You shall not have the chance I am afraid." Yamato's voice no longer held a joking mood. Her parasol closed as she held it on one hand, and struck it on the ground to mimic Lancer. "For I shall not lose."

A disapproving frown formed on Lancer's face. "Hey, I'm supposed to be the Lancer here, Archer."

Yamato, in an expression Rin didn't think she'd see on her Servant's face, smirked slightly.

"The better to give you a fighting chance, dear."

The wolf-like grin returned to Lancer's face. "Getting cocky are we woman? I like that!"

Rin had been so dumbfounded by the preceding banter that she nearly missed the sideways glance her Servant was giving her. Then she saw Yamato's pleading eyes, her hand tightening around the shaft of her parasol, and understood. It seems Yamato truly wanted to fight... but not in the manner Rin realized was appropriate given their situation.

"Archer," Rin started with her sternest voice, "you told me you were practiced in martial skills, and that you could fight without that," she emphasized the last word. "Prove to me that you were telling the truth."

Yamato closed her eyes, her expression unreadable. Then she smiled thinly, "Understood Admiral," and answered flatly. Turning to face Lancer once again, Yamato grasped the parasol with both hands, and brought its spearhead to the ground. "Shall we begin Lancer?"

Likewise, Lancer adopted a similar stance, but squatting low to the ground. He smirked.

"Ladies first."

Yamato smiled, and with a kick of her legs charged.

*Spirit Of Steel*

[LoweGear]

*Spirit Of Steel*

Rin was no stranger to magical battles, a fact that she thanked herself for in allowing her to keep calm in a situation such as this, when her very life was in peril. There were few experiences that were scarier than having to face a Master and the wicked constructs that served him by herself when she was only seven and surviving.

Never before had she witnessed a fight between two superhumans that transcended the laws of physical reality however, and thus as her Servant dashed with her ad hoc spear towards Lancer, her eyes were glued into every action, waiting with bated breath at the first strike.

As Yamato lashes out with a thrust of her parasol, Lancer brings his spear up to block its path. With a crack like thunder steel strikes steel, echoing loudly like a gong that sends goosebumps throughout Rin's body.

And then Lancer vanished.

"Wha-"

Rin flinched as the school building far across them burst deafeningly into an explosion of grey dust and powder, its force sending a shockwave that blows a breeze past Rin and her Servant, who stood still with arm and weapon stretched out towards ground zero.

Even through the thick smoke that billowed out, a human silhouette was visible, holding his spear for support like a cane, before slashing hard into the air, clearing the obscuring smoke.

"Hey, what was that..." Lancer's gaze had lost all playfulness within them, only narrowed eyes of wariness as he crushed pieces of concrete while he walked. His suit was scuffed, and there were signs of a limp in his gait, but if Lancer felt any pain his face did not show it. "You aiming to be a Berserker too?"

Too strong... Rin had thought Yamato to be a fighter of finesse and technique to compensate for her lithe feminine build. Then she remembered that this was the same woman who could carry a multi-ton steel rigging without effort. There was much physical strength hidden within Yamato's frame it seemed, and it gave them the first blow.

Lancer was still up however, bowed and poised in his ready stance, spear aimed straight at Yamato who adopted a similar stance. Where Yamato the beauty stood tall though, Lancer the beast hunched low.

"It looks like I'll have to take you seriously woman."

Legs propelled Lancer across the field, in a blink his spear smashing against Yamato's own in a mirror of their earlier exchange. Yamato didn't even flinch however, swiping right to catch Lancer only for him nimbly step back, parasol cutting the air only an inch away from his belly. The red spear pulled back and with a jab found Yamato's side in a grinding shower of sparks and shredded cloth, stumbling her back with a flash of pain on her face.

That wasn't the effect Lancer expected - skewering her straight through was the rule, not the exception.

"Tough girl are you now?"

Lancer didn't wait for a reply as he pressed the advantage, another red thrust flying swift only to be parried by a quick downward slash by the parasol. Quick to adapt Lancer spun the spear back from the parry's momentum, sidestepped the parasol and slashed at Yamato's face, who barely dodged by throwing her head back. Lancer jumped back as the parasol swung high trying to catch him, and he leapt back into the fray the instant his feet touched the ground.

One thrust, two thrusts, three thrusts, and more rushed incessantly with lightning speed, Yamato responding to each strike by blocking with the parasol's shaft. One block, two blocks, three blocks, barely keeping up under the rapid fire pace slowly pushing her back, and soon nicks and cuts sparked on her hands and arms, a split second too slow to block against Lancer's spear.

Then a second too late, and to Rin's horror the spear pushed past Yamato's block straight for the woman's neck.

"ARCHER!"

Yamato's head swung back, her gorget deflecting the spearhead upwards, barely avoiding her nose. The act stumbled her far back however, giving Lancer the space to draw his weapon back for another strike.

"Got you!"

Another fast lunge sent the spear against its enemy, only for orange to fill Lancer's view, and spear point hit canvas like steel, sending him recoiling back. Yet he recovered quickly, and launching himself into a flying spin smashed the side of the now open parasol to expose Yamato behind it. Just as quickly Yamato drew back the parasol and imposed it against Lancer just in time to block his follow up stab.

Rin watched as Lancer wailed against Yamato's umbrella defense, slashing and hacking, searching for weaknesses and matching her Servant's draws. Though unfamiliar with polearm arts, Rin knew that Yamato was not lacking in skill, only that Lancer was the superior spearman as befitting of his class. Yamato may be inhumanly strong, but Lancer was fast enough to avoid her attacks, sluggish in comparison to his blazing fast attacks. She could not see Yamato behind the shield of the umbrella, yet Rin knew she was having much difficulty in this fight. No matter how powerful her defense was, Yamato would eventually yield to Lancer's attacks, and then...

"There you are!"

With a heave Lancer smashed the parasol high into the air, and with a swift grip reverse swung the spear to slash down upon the now unarmed woman.

"This is the end for- wha-"

His spear blurred into motion, spinning like a rotor as sparks cracked against the fast whirling mass of red steel. No sooner did his spear stop did he sidestep, hundreds of projectiles wheezing past where he'd been, and he stared in curious surprise at the source of the gunfire.

"So this is why you're an Archer huh..."

A steel boom was now equipped on Yamato's arm, and on it was one of her seaplanes, smoke rising from its miniature guns.

"My apologies for underestimating you Lancer, that was disrespectful of me," Yamato spoke for the first time in the duel with a pained yet apologetic tone. "That ends now. Emergency launch!"

Piston engines roared into life, guns firing to keep Lancer occupied, and Seaplane Number 1 launched into the fight.

*Spirit Of Steel*

[LoweGear]

Not entirely pleased with this chapter, but here goes...

*Spirit Of Steel*

"All done. Let's set this aside then..."

The sight of the newly-polished floor visibly gleaming even in the dimness of the late afternoon light gave the young man some much deserved feeling of satisfaction at a job properly done. Sure it was rather inconvenient that he'd have to go home so late, even if it wasn't the first time he had done so, and sure it wasn't a job he had really expected to do today having been given to him by his friend Shinji... but just knowing that the dojo now sparked to be able to greet the members of the Archery club with dignity was a just reward in and of itself.

For Emiya Shirou, that was all he needed to end the day on a good note, as he stowed away the now-empty pail and the used rags.

Then the school shook under his feet as a thunderclap tore through his ears and seized his body from head to toe. All thought were eradicated for an instant, the high-pitched tone ringing in his head for what seemed like eternity... and then vanished as cognition reasserted itself.

"What was that?!"

The day hadn't ended yet it seemed.

He pushed open the Dojo's sliding door and paced himself briskly, trying to find the explosive sound's origin. The classrooms? The assembly hall? The courtyard?

The sounds of infrequently scraping steel reached his ears and his curiosity, sounds too random to be machines, too loud to be mere tools. He followed each clang, each toll, until they lead him to the school's open courtyard, surrounded on all sounds by the main school buildings. There his eyes fell upon the gigantic hole blasted out of one of the school walls, then the undisputed source of the metallic clashes, and though the evening darkness hid much, what he managed to see shook a speechless Shirou's soul to its very core:

A man in blue with a long, red spear, engaged in a heated duel against a woman wielding an oriental umbrella like a staff. Both wore strange outfits not out of place in an anime, especially the woman's heavily stylized red and white sailor uniform, and their weapons looked as strange as they were ornate - in the first place, who seriously fights with an umbrella?

Regardless of his opinions on their flashy outfits, their actions were anything but comedic. Shirou watched enraptured as both warriors traded blows, and even to his eyes only minimally trained in battle he could spot the differences in their style - the blue spearman was agile, using his flexibility to great use in dodging blows and landing hits, spinning, crouching, and jumping low to the ground like a wild dog; in comparison, the woman was slower, more prone to openings. Yet she moved with such flowing grace that she appeared to be dancing rather than fighting, a fact unperturbed even when her enemy's strikes connected painfully against her much to the young student's horror. Instead of being skewered to a gruesome death however, the woman kept fighting.

"A reinforcement spell?"

At that moment he knew this was no ordinary fight between two warriors - this was a fight between the practitioners of the esoteric art that only a select few, including himself, knew: A fight between mages, those who practice magic.

Why are they fighting here?!

He did not doubt that the spearman was the better fighter, constantly outmanoeuvring his opponent, landing hit after hit on the woman struggling to even catch up to him, a predator playing with its prey.

So why did the man look more frustrated than his opponent, as though he was losing?

In between the furious sounds of colliding steel he heard the unmistakeable sound of a piston engine growing louder, though its volume wasn't overwhelming even as he could tell it was getting closer, as if coming from an unusually small engine. The engine roared above him from the dark shape that zoomed past from the roof, the unmistakeable silhouette of a propeller biplane heading towards the fight.

"A toy?!"

No sooner did he start to think what a remote-controlled toy plane was doing here did the object in question suddenly burst with bright flashes of light, visible yellow gunshots heading towards the blue spearman, who immediately dodged the attempted attack, an opportunity the woman took to take a swing at the man like a batter. Unfortunately her attack was swiftly blocked by the man's incredible reflexes... or so Shirou thought, until he saw the man thrown by the strike across the entire courtyard and smash into a school building with a second terrifying bang, as intense as the explosion that had lead him here.

It was only when the blue spearman rose out of the smoke of his impact with a determined grin on his face, spear now glowing with a bright red flame poised in a ready stance did an important fact sink in for Shirou:

I have to get out of here.

There was no reason for him to be here, watching all of this. Whoever these two mages think they were, whatever they wanted with each other, it was far too dangerous to stay around.

His feet turned to move, to run away from all this...

"Hey you!"

... only to be stopped by a young girl's voice, and she sounded awfully familiar.

**********

Admiral, there is a student in the campus grounds!

More than anything else that was happening that night, those telepathic words from Yamato released overwhelming dread upon Rin, even as they kept watch on the thick, opaque cloud where Lancer had been sent flying to a second time.

"Are you sure of this?" Rin whispered, as if asking would magically whisk the student away from here.

Sora was making another pass when she saw him by the Archery club building, he's still there watching!

Still watching?! Who is this idiot?! Rin cursed inwardly. She saw the smoke whirl and part betraying the motion of its sole occupant.

I'll keep Lancer busy Admiral!

Rin gave a small smile at her Servant's initiative. "Take care of it!"

With haste Rin ran towards the direction Yamato had indicated. Magic was an art that was supposed to be hidden from the public at large, the reasons why too many to list, and though they weren't always successful in hiding their activities mages made every effort to keep magic from being seen whenever possible. Unfortunately one of the rules that the majority in the magic world would most zealously adhere to in order to maintain such a facade was the rule Rin hated the most:

Kill all witnesses.

Rin understood the rationale behind the rule: while there were other ways to ensure complete silence from people who have seen magic, they were either too tedious - like the use of memory erasure spells - or too unreliable - swearing an oath of silence - to be truly effective. Simply killing them was both expedient and permanent, the least effort for the greatest gain.

Just because she understood didn't mean she had to like it.

The student in peril was gawking at the fight, seemingly bedazzled. His stance appeared like he was getting to run, but the fact that he didn't definitely didn't score points with her.

"Hey you!" she called out, not hiding her irritation in the least.

The student finally turned around, and realized she knew who this idiot in front of her was as she slowed to a stop, his unruly red hair and the characteristic dumb look on his face.

"Emiya, what are you doing here?"

Truth to be told, Rin personally didn't know this student known to her as Emiya Shirou. She'd heard of his reputation as "Homurahara's brownie", the student who fixes up everyone's broken things when asked, and he was also the only male that the normally shy Sakura was not only friendly with, but also appeared to respect. It was only the latter fact that barely kept Rin's annoyance from boiling over.

"I could ask you the same Tohsaka! It's dangerous here!"

Rin didn't know what she liked less, that Emiya was here in the first place, or that he had the gall to sound irritated at her presence here.

"That's supposed to be my line," she snapped back forcefully, "are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"Me?" Emiya asked incredulously, as though he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "How about you? You shouldn't even be here!"

Rin didn't think herself the most patient of people, but even she could spare some for people who may take some time to learn certain concepts into their heads. But this person... was he deliberately being so stubborn?! Was he truly as idiotic as he looked?!

She grabbed his wrist, her hands tightening like a vice grip that caused him to wince in pain. "Why are you making my life so difficult?! Just run already!"

Emiya tried to protest, but Rin dragged him into her running pace before he could let a word out.

**********

"Tsk, got a really mean swing there woman."

Yamato watched Lancer sport his usual cocky grin, as though being thrown a second time against a solid steel and concrete wall wasn't enough to hurt him, which she was beginning to suspect was the case. Though that impression was dispelled by seeing the damage his outfit had taken along with visible injuries on him, the fact that he was still standing and seemingly no less capable of fighting was genuinely worrisome.

It was clear to Yamato that her own polearm skills would not be enough to defeat Lancer, and that only her natural armor had prevented her from suffering a crushing defeat from the multitude of hits she had received. She hated to admit it, but her skill in melee was lacking owing to her original nature as a battleship, making her by nature inexperienced in that regard. And she had been fighting a mythical warrior who made his legend through his spear, able to hold off both her own attacks and even fire support from her recon seaplane. Her grip tightened around her parasol, holding it parallel to the ground, and regained her stature.

"Tired already Lancer? I recall your promise of showing me a wild night."

Even if she had doubts about her own ability, and that she was pushing herself against her current limits, she need not show it to her enemies of all people. She moved with slow, deliberate took steps to her left, keeping her eyes on Lancer - it would focus his attention on her and away from her Admiral, who had gone to assist the errant witness.

"You're a tough one to crack woman," Lancer grinned, a boyish confidence in his voice that Yamato found all too easy to believe. "If your body won't yield to me..."

Left side towards her, spear held high with both hands pointed towards the ground, Lancer took on his ready stance. His spear suddenly burst into a crimson blaze, consuming the spearhead with a bright red glow. Even a magically insensitive Servant like Yamato could feel the amount of mana gathering within the spear, a fact that filled her with much trepidation. Lancer was about to perform an extremely powerful attack, and Yamato knew that no matter what she did, it was going to hurt.

Lancer's eyes widened, and he bared his fangs at her, "...then I shall have your heart!"

A burst of gunfire strafed Lancer only to hit the ground he stood on, and Yamato sprung into a leap to catch him with a wide swing, only for him to somersault to her rear. Knowing the attack about to be unleashed, Yamato opened her parasol and shielded herself.

"All hands, brace for impact!"

Lancer landed, and with a mighty heave and an angry cry called for his greatest weapon:

"GAE BOLG!"

*Spirit Of Steel*