Chapter 165: Bad Luck; SHINJI

The pin-drop silence wasn't broken until Shiro himself spoke.

"Er... Is it really that surprising?"

Unexpectedly, the first one who responded is Rin.

"IT IS! I mean, how could you have a Heroic Spirit as your wife?!"

"Well..." His expression became strange as he looked at her and Shirou. "It is what it is. And correction, she is a living god, not a Heroic Spirit, jou-chan."

"How..?" Rider blankly muttered, but Shiro heard of it.

"It's quite easy to understand. Remember the disturbances back then?"

"Disturbances..? You mean, the anomalies that happened in the Throne of Heroes?"

The Throne of Heroes are usually detached in the space-time, containing the one true self of a Heroic Spirit as they become Servants in countless parallel worlds. There, they reside in a place where they couldn't interact with others (the gods outside) most of the time. Albeit, some abilities can be used to do so.

As for Rider... rather, Medusa, she had been too remorseful of her own self to connect with her sisters while inside it. Due to their bad separation, she couldn't bring herself to face her sisters once more.

On the other hand, the disturbance that they've talked about is the fluctuation that every Heroic Spirits had sensed in the throne. It is the first time since they've experienced it, hence the event made a huge impression to them.

Shiro took out the palm-sized trigram and activated it to the highest level before continuing the conversation.

"Those disturbances, in fact, is 'them' returning."

"Them..?" She replied with another question.

"...Anyways. What matters is that... she partly blamed herself for that. If I'm a human during our first meeting... heh. Point is that, she loathed humans in her early years."

Medusa listened silently to every word that he spoke. She's vigilant towards him, with no way of knowing if that was the truth, but the fact that she sensed her sister's traces in him proves that he has some connection with her.

"I-"

"Shit..!" Shiro interrupted her as he recited the syntaxes in his mind for ten seconds. "[Enhance Armament]..!"

At that moment, he coughed out blood just as the golden blade turned into countless osmanthus flowers. Then, they all headed towards the rooftop of Homuhara Academy.

BOOM-!

The attack turned the rooftop into a rubble before reverting back into a blade form.

"It's supposed to be concealed, but you're too sharp."

From the dust cloud, someone came jumping down. A flash of blood-red light headed towards Shiro, and with no time left, he blocked it with his golden sword.

Bam-!

Even with [Old World Suit], the attack sent him flying in the school grounds. Another red flash came towards him, but this time, a small stature blocked it.

Clang-!

Sayaka was pushed back for a few meters before she stably stood up. In her hand is [Durandal], the newly added A-ranked Noble Phantasm.

"[Durandal]!"

With a shout, mana erupted from the blade and came crashing down to the attacker. The latter got caught off guard, but he quickly detached from her and leaped sideward. He did a handstand before going back to his previous spear stance.

Not giving him time to adapt, she projected more swords coupled with her regular Magical Girl swords that's cheaper to project.

Bam-! Bam-!

Bam-! Bam-!

Sounds of explosions enveloped the place as if it was a war battlefield.

"...Are kids these strong nowadays?" The attacker, Lancer, asked rhetorically.

Hearing this, Sayaka replied, "I have a good mentor."

"I can say the same."

Two figures, one small and one huge, emitted dense killing intent towards each other. While Lancer wondered why a child such as her has dense killing intent, Sayaka dashed quickly towards him.

Ding-!

Sparks flew out as she pushed her blade against his spear. Then, dozens of swords are summoned in his back and aimed at his vital points.

"Not bad."

Lancer casually commented as he parried and avoided each and every one of them. Strangely though, he's now standing at the same spot as he was from the beginning.

"A skill..?"

"How did you train..?" He mumbled as he looked at the young girl in front of him.

Swooosh-!

Clang-!

He blocked Rider's sudden attack casually and asked, "Why?"

"He has to live."

While the fight between the three are ongoing, Mami went and checked Shiro's current condition.

"Sensei?! Sensei?!"

"Cough... I'm alright, Mami-chan. No worri-"

Shiro coughed up blood once more, staining his black t-shirt. Due to the sudden attack just now, his physical and soul injuries increased by more than 1% each. Furthermore, a buzzing sound is in his ear, disrupting his usual focus.

"Sensei! How do I help you?" She asked hurriedly.

"No... There's nothing that could help with this injury. It'll be better on its own."

"But..."

Shiro gently smiled to soothe over her worries, not knowing that if he had [Smile More!] active, his disciple would ascend her current level instantly... and become an even more fanatic of his.

"Anyways, what happened with Saber? Why isn't she with you two?"

"Sensei... She's facing off against two Servants right now."

*****

"You... why are you here..?"

Saber couldn't hide the astonishment in her voice as she looked at the blonde man with a black jacket. His arrogance seeped out of his every being, something that he doesn't bother to hide.

For him, it is his pride—a king's pride.

In the first place, this is the reason why he acted like that to Saber, which ended in her slamming Excalibur straight at his face.

Instead of responding properly, Gilgamesh smugly smiled as he saw a familiar face.

"So, do you accept my proposal?"

"...." Saber went silent. "NO!"

"Stubborn, is it... I want to attain you even more."

"This..!"

Saber readied her sword while being vigilant towards the other Servant present.

"Berserker, let's retreat. Leyslitt and Sera needs our help." The white-haired girl under Berserker's shoulder said.

Bam-! Bam-!

Clang-! Clang-!

Berserker's deep breathing resounded as he blocked the incoming weapons just now.

"You're not going anywhere."

Seeing the familiar face that she'd seen ten years ago, she let go of her puzzlement and decided.

"Berserker's master!" Saber shouted. "A temporary alliance?"

"While I hate to admit it... he's strong! Let's do it, Saber!"

Suddenly, Gilgamesh's eyes widened for a second.

"That mongrel... Who killed him?"

*****

Moments ago.

To avoid some accidental attacks, the two dragged Shinji off farther to the sports field.

"I am the bone of my sword."

"Archer?"

Just as Rin was about to ask him, she saw Archer projecting a jagged dagger that she's very familiar with. The command seals on the back of her hand felt hot, making her step away from him.

Stab-!

The next moment, Rin felt her contract with Archer... disappear.

"I was left with no choice."

"Archer?"

Archer projected a dozen swords and trapped her in a sword cage, leaving the confused and bewildered girl in a daze.

Silently, he walked towards Shirou who instinctively projected Kanshou and Bakuya, blocking his sudden attack. The latter was pushed back by a couple steps, and it continued to be like this until Shirou collapsed on the ground.

"Archer? Why are you doing this..?" Rin asked.

Surprisingly, he answered her.

"My sole wish when I became a Heroic Spirit... is to kill Emiya Shirou."

The two were surprised at that revelation.

"ARGH!!!"

A piercing cry disrupted their conversation as they saw Shinji... being impaled by an ice-blue spear from behind. The assailant then pulled out the spear and kicked Shinji from behind.

"You trash... You're long due."

They saw a young boy with blue hair and a pair of blue eyes. His attitude towards Shinji is evident—disdain and disgust.

"ARHGG!! SAVE ME!!!"

Going into a piercing stance once more, he rushed at the running Shinji, this time he'd done it right as the spear had pierced through his heart.

"Argh..."

The boy didn't seem to care about his death as he kicked Shinji's corpse away under the eyes of the trio.

"Wait a moment..."

Rin seems to have realized something. Her eyes darted at the boy who also stared at her silently.

"No way..."

"Tohsaka?"

"He... Doesn't he look like Shinji?"

Archer confirmed her guess and said, "He's... Shinji."

The boy, Shinji, spoke.

"Greetings. I am Shinji Matou. Now, can you tell me where Shiro-aniki is?"

*****

A/N: A little fun fact. Nasu, in fact, is forced to write those 'horrible' lemons in the original visual novel. Since they make big bucks, they made him do it. As a result... you can judge for yourself when you see a part of it. Mine is purely subjective, but I didn't enjoy it. :v

Also, I modified Fate/Zero's events a little to fit in Saber's character in Stay night since she's definitely better in the latter than the former (when she's a 'chivalrous' knight). I mean, it doesn't make sense for a ruler with 100 years under her belt to make some senseless choices. While there may be canon reasons regarding those, I felt that it's much better to keep her character in stay night consistent throughout the whole fic instead.

(Saber choosing not to kill Diarmuid immediately to rid of her injuries from Gae Bolg, disdaining Kiritsugu for circumventing his geis with Archibald; eliminating a potential enemy instead, and her not being angry when Iskandar and Gilgamesh belittled all of her hard work, her entire life even, and acted speechless instead.)