Friendly Match I

General POV

"Sakura? You're close to her?" Realizing her blunder, Rin scolded herself in her heart. "Ahem... I mean to say Matou Sakura but that would take a word too long to say and addressing her by 'Matou' can also mean her brother, Matou Shinji," Rin made a lousy excuse in which Shirou intelligently caught, he'd be sure to find out more about their relationship.'

But, in the meanwhile, the Matou family is a magi household? Sakura has never told Shirou about any of it but he could understand, Sakura might not have known of his being a mage and magi rules place secrecy above anything and thus everything about magecraft and the supernatural existence must not be blurted out to the knowledgeless public.

But if then, Sakura should've known of the existence of servants! And yet, she did not seem to show any suspicious expressions upon the sudden intrusion of Saber in Shirou's sphere. He doesn't know who to trust at this point, except his servants at least and the two 'bodyguards', if they weren't up to something themselves.

"Anyway, I'll investigate more on the matter, I'm sure Matou Sakura isn't a master though, we'll see," although her exterior may be cold at the moment but deep in, Rin is terribly worried. 'Oh Sakura, you shouldn't be a master, should you?' Of course, the reason of this worry isn't known until much, much later or maybe soon enough.

"Well anyway, that's all I have as to the possible masters in this war, we are obviously missing a few but we'll catch their identities sooner or later as the war progresses," Ariane shrugged as Rin closed her eyes thinking. "Actually, why don't we have a friendly competition, a harmless duel between us," Rin suddenly gave an idea amidst the silence.

"A duel? You mean between our bodyguards?" Shirou stated, bodyguard might not be the best term to label them but he doesn't know what else could be used to describe them as. "Yup! Mine, Zahid and Ezra against yours, Crynn and Ariane, what do you think?" The last assuring question was targeted not only towards Shirou but also everyone else.

"A duel you say? I'm up for it," Crynn agrees, fully understanding the objectives of Rin's sudden request. Her side wants to gauge Shirou's side's strength and Crynn is ready to take advantage to do the same thing. Of course, everyone's awaiting the master himself to decide whether or not to accept.

"You should accept master. This way we can measure the capabilities of our 'ally'. Furthermore, you might learn more from a fight between professionals even if they won't reveal their true abilities to a maximum in a friendly match," Mordred told Shirou through their master-servant mental link. "We agree Tohsaka," finally, Shirou decisively accepted.

"Good, follow me to the backyard."

***

"I have to say Tohsaka, your whole manor compound is really large," Shirou couldn't help but compliment as he arrived and looked at the backyard. It's a large open field with some beautiful flowers on the side and decoration as well as precisely placed man made stones to further beautify the scenery.

"Don't flatter too much Emiya, your compound's yard is as well nearly as big as mine," Rin chuckled as she knew how humble Shirou is in any regards after all, similar to Rin, he's also privileged to the bone. "How do we want to do this?" Crynn asked the opposite team as Shirou and Rin sat down on a nearby viewing position, their servants standing behind them.

"How about I take you and Zahid can take your teammate. Then, let them have the first go, after that's finished, we can dance," Ezra gave the terms amiably with an innocent smile, but an 'old' fox like Crynn can detect the sly beneath the older woman's lips. "Sure, Aria, take this," Crynn acknowledged and pulled out a golden bow out of the suitcase.

"With pleasure," Aria took the bow to her hands, lightly pulling the tight string a few times. The two first contestants strolled to a minimal distance up front, placing themselves meters away from each other, keeping safety length in between. As they stared at each other, Aria's grip became dense as a long sword appeared thrusted into the ground by Zahid's side.

Without further ado, Aria made the first move, a golden arrow appeared on her string as she launched it far into the fray. Psh! Zahid swiftly swung his sword up, cutting and dissipating the magical arrow. "Fancy," he intimidated as three more arrows flew, Zahid slicing each of them with skill and precision.

With every arrow Aria fired, every interception Zahid made, he stepped closer and closer towards her. "Looks like your teammate is losing," Ezra chatted as she and Crynn watched from the sidelines. "You haven't see everything," Crynn confidently said as he knew that Aria has both magic and musical infusion up her sleeves and although only two spells for the former, they are disarming and protection charms, if Zahid isn't careful, he'll lose his sword.

"Oh, we'll see," Zahid too has a few hidden skills outside his weapons and Ezra has enough trust to bet on him. Back to the dueling field, the flames of combat is raging down on the ground. With Aria's shots getting faster and Zahid shortening the distance, it seems that their professionalisms has reached new levels.

'This? How am I supposed to contend with this?' The words thought inside Shirou's mind will often be likened with hopelessness but that's not the point in Shirou, instead of losing confidence, his determination spiked beyond limits, 'I won't be a useless man!' Well he won't be in time, after all everyone and anyone starts from zero.

"She's good, but not as good as Tristan," Mordred whispered next to her 'father'. "You just made an unfair judgement spanning across a thousand and a half years, all the more reason of your unworthiness as a king," Saber coldly said, taking the opportunity in trying to dissuade any of Mordred's wishes to rise to the throne.

"Hmph, one day you'll see father," at this moment, the duel is closing and only a meter separates Ariane and Zahid! "No more archery!"