16. Chapter 16

-3 days later-

Shirou woke up at his usual hour, he went into the bathroom to clean himself and then went back into his room to dress up. There would have been nothing unusual if not for the fact that when he got out of the room Sakura was there waiting for him.

"Oh, good morning Sakura." Shirou said a bit surprised.

"Good morning Senpai." She said with a serious tone while she looked the ground.

"...What is it? Is there is something you want to tell me?"

"Yes, I remember everything now." Sakura said as she raised her look and watched him in the eyes.

"Oh, Good." Shirou simply said before he started to slowly walk towards the living-room and Sakura followed him. In the past days, Rider told him that she had started to remember, so he was that not surprised.

They reached the living-room in complete silence but before Shirou opened the door he stopped and said in a serious tone: "I do not know what are you thinking Sakura, but before you say anything you have to know that I do not regret a single action of what I did. I'm sorry that I could not save you earlier... I will never forgive myself for it and I have no idea of what to do to make you forgive me... but other than that I have nothing else to apologize for."

"Senpai... It is true? Did you... did you really kill Shinji?" Sakura asked after a moment as she took her hands to her heart.

"Yes, I did. I know that you will say that he became like that because of Zouken or something else, but you are just trying to convince yourself that he was a victim too. It doesn't matter how or what he was before... he was turning into a monster, and I killed him before he could turn into one." Shirou said with disgust and anger in his voice.

Shirou still could not believe that Shinji, his best friend, the one he had grown up with, was capable of doing such things... even to Sakura...while he was oblivious to everything all this time... if only he had been more careful... if only he...

"It is... because of me?" Sakura asked with a trembling voice as she clenched her hands to her chest.

"...What do you mean?" Shirou asked as he turned his head a bit.

"...Did you became like this because of me?" Sakura asked as she watched him with watery eyes.

Warmth and affection.

This is what Sakura always felt when she was near Shirou, her sweet and kind senpai. Shirou had been the only reason that she was still alive,he was the only thing that made that hell of her life being woth living, he was the only reason she had not took her life many years ago... and she always loved this sweet sensation... she could relax with him...

But where it was that sweet feeling right now? Why the only thing she was feeling was... coldness?

At the moment Sakura was scared more than ever.

Right now there was no trace of her beloved Senpai, in front of her there was not the gentle and caring boy that she had fallen in love with, in front of her there was a person that had stained his hands with blood without any trace of regret... and she feared with all of herself that it was her fault for this change.

After she said those words Shirou immediately turned around and as he did Sakura flinched and took a step back, but before she could do or say anything Shirou suddenly got closer to her and hugged her tightly.

"It has never been your fault Sakura, and it will never will! You were just a child when everything began, you could do nothing to stop the events that were about to happen..." Shirou said as he hugged her even more. "If I was a better mage I'm sure that I could have saved you earlier... maybe I could have saved Shinji too... but I was weak and blind... If there is someone to blame that person is me. Everything that happened until now it's because of me Sakura, not you!"

"Senpai... I never wanted anything like this to happen..." Sakura said as she was about to hug him too.

She never wanted to involve him, she never wanted him to kill for her... she just wanted to stay near him... and now that he discovered what had happened to her it ended up deeply changing him.

"...No one ever does Sakura, but now you have the chance of living a new life after I finish this stupid War." Shirou said as broke away from the embrace, put his hands on her shoulders, and watched her in the eyes.

"What do you mean?" She asked with her watery eyes.

"You may go everywhere you want and live happily with Rider without any memory of what really happened to you. Caster will be able to perform a memory manipulation and completely erase all of your bad memories so that you will be able to live a normal life."

After a very long moment she asked hesitantly:"...And what about you Senpai?"

"Let her erase off all of your memories about me as well, there would be no reason to remember me after I finish everything here." Shirou said with a little sad smile.

"W-W-Why are you smiling? W-Why are you saying this?" Sakura asked panicked with wide eyes. "Why do you think like this Senpai? You had been the only one to treat me gently! You had been the only one who truly cared for me! You were the only one that brought me happiness in my life! Why should I forget you?"

"You are saying this just because I was the only one that showed you kindness, I am more than sure that after the war you will find the right person that you deserve. Why should I deserve your love if I could not protect you when you needed my help?" Shirou asked as his sad smile dropped a bit.

"You saved me senpai! For me it's more than enough! No one ever did it before!" Sakura said as she got close to him. "Please... Do not leave me alone..." She then begged.

"I never will Sakura, I'll be there for you when you will need my help... but I cannot reciprocate your feelings for me... I'm sorry." Shirou said.

"..." Sakura said nothing and just hugged him before she bursted into tears.

Shirou hugged her as she cried... but he didn't want to comfort her, he didn't deserve it of doing it... but at the moment Sakura need it.

He had ignored and left her alone all of this time, and despite that... she loved him. He could not understand her feelings for him, but for now, he would not do anything to change her mind, he just hoped that with time Sakura's love for him would fade so that she could start a completely new chapter of her life...

And to make sure that she could live said life, he had to stop this cursed War as soon as he could!

"Aren't they cute?" Caster asked Rider. Now the two of them were in the living room and they had just listened to the conversation that happened.

"...They would be if Shirou reciprocated Sakura's feeling." Rider said. If the boy truly loved Sakura he would have put aside his feelings of guilt and tried to comfort the girl, unfortunately, he did not.

"Yea..." Caster concorded and then sighed. "It's really a waste, now I should find someone else to replace Sakura, but now I have no idea who could." Caster said before she sipped some tea. Now that Sakura could not keep in check Shirou she had to find someone else who could.

"What do you mean?" Rider asked.

"...Ah, it's for Shirou, nothing you should care of." Caster said as she kept thinking for someone who could take care of the boy after the war. "...Oh well, it seems that I'll have to start breakfast." Caster said after a moment as she heard Sakura starting to cry even more from outside the room.

In the past weeks she with her magic had made some modifications to Sakura's psyche, the girl would never suffer any kind of mental problem for the rest of her life, as if nothing bad ever happened to her. Right now the girl was just emotionally unstable, from the next week she should calm down and start to make peace with herself.

"Anyway, you should be happy that Sakura is still alive and safe, a loving disappointment is nothing to worry about." Caster said as she put on an apron. "...Well, yes, it's more than a simple loving disappointment, but at least she didn't meet the same fate as us, a real hero has come for her in the end." Caster then continued with a proud tone.

"A real hero?" Rider asked surprised as she raised an eyebrow.

Rider was more than surprised at Caster's words, she had discovered the witch's identity since the 2 of them had talked a bit about each other past as soon she had first arrived, but still, shouldn't she be the first one to hate heroes? Caster's life had been ruined by one, while her life had been ended by a so-called 'hero' who was non-other than a pawn of the gods.

"Indeed, Shirou is... very unique. His idea of heroism makes sense even for someone like me, and the way he acts does bring out the best of the people around him." Caster said with a little smile.

Rider simply nodded and said nothing. Right now in front of her,there was the Witch Of Betrayal, someone who was capable of doing unspeakable acts even to her children... and right now instead of plotting to cut someone's throat or stabbing her in the back was preparing her breakfast... yea, she could tell that the boy had changed her.

After 5 minutes Sakura calmed down and entered the living-room with Shirou, she sat at the table near Rider and Shirou helped Caster with making breakfast, after 10 minutes both Saber and Taiga entered the room and all of them had breakfast. After they had breakfast Shirou, Sakura, Rider, and Taiga went to school.

It was now afternoon.

Caster was now watching the TV, while Shirou and Saber were behind her watching her crystal ball. It had passed enough time from the other Master's arrival but he had yet to make a move, it seemed that he was still trying to free the castle from all the traps that Caster placed. For this reason Shirou had grown impatient and decided to start the plan for the assault for the end of the week. Also, since Caster had started to work on the barrier around the Greater Grail Shirou wanted her to be secure and concentrated, without the danger of any Servant attacking her.

"I'm sure that the Master now has placed all kinds of traps and familiars in the forest, we'll have to be careful." Shirou said.

"Yea, the traps will not be able to harm me, but you are another discussion... how do you want to proceed?" Saber asked.

"We may ask Caster to take care of them, but..."

"It would take too long and maybe it would alert the enemy, I know." Saber continued.

"Yes, and you? Any idea?" Shirou asked.

"Shirou, I am the Saber-class Servant, I directly charge the enemy and fight them, that's it. Now, the only thing that came to my mind other than Caster to teleport us there after she destroys all the barriers around the castle is to me to charge directly in all the traps to disarm them for you, and then attack Berserker and its Master."

"...And it would be a good idea if not for the fact that it involves you to be some kind of battering-ram." Shirou said. Even if he knew that Saber would not even be scratched by the traps he hated the idea of putting her in that position in the first place, and other than that the enemy would know that they were about to arrive and had the time to prepare themself.

"I know, other than that we still have to identify the Master, and Servant if possible."

"Yes, but other than those two maids going around the castle we have not seen anyone else..." He then turned to Caster. "Caster, cannot you let us see the internal parts of the castle?"

"No, the master has erected a powerful anti-divination barrier, I could easily destroy it from here but they would notice that someone is spying on them." Caster said as she ate some biscuits as she kept watching the TV.

Shirou nodded and then sighed. He at first wanted to reach the castle without getting discovered so that he could take Berserker and its Master by surprise, but there were many problems. One of them was the fact that if they wanted to go on foot it would take them at least half an hour to reach it if they run at max speed, then there were also the traps and the familiars all around the forest that had been placed during last weeks and the powerful bounded fields.

Even if they would have many disadvantages at fighting in that place at least no innocent would be involved in the fight, and for Shirou, that was a good enough reason to fight there.

But he had to be careful this time, he knew that Saber would have quickly taken care of Berserker if it wasn't another extremely powerful heroic spirit like her, but he had to take care of the Master... Even if he was someone able to fight a Servant he would never underestimate his adversary, especially someone like Berserker's Master. Berserkers in general were extremely difficult to both control and sustain, and this Berserker had been summoned almost 2 months ago, even before the Grail started to assign Command Seals and assist the Masters with the summoning cost.

It only meant that the one who summoned Berserker was a non-human, as Caster explained to him not too long ago. To be able to summon and sustain a Berserker without the aid of the Grail was an impossible feat for a human, so, now the question was: What was he about to fight? Caster told him that the two maids were homunculus, so there was a good chance that the Master was a homunculus itself.

This was not something that he could just throw blindly himself in, or he might even die, so now he needed more information as possible before he assaulted the place.

*3 hours later*

"Are you sure that the ritual will work? It seems too simple." Shirou said to the hooded Caster. He was now into her workshop, she had called him there and told him that she had finally found a way to pass him the rights over Fragarach.

"Shirou, Shirou, Shirou... Do I have to remind you that as a mage from the Age Of The Gods I'm more than capable of what modern mages call True Magic? Something like stealing a sorcery trait from a person blessed by a now weakened god that is on the other side of the world for me it's far easier than stealing candies from children."

"Ah, right..." Shirou said. Sometimes he forgot that the same Caster that had difficulties at cooking was also one of the best mages from the Age Of The Gods.

"Also, guess what? Next time I will start to teach you about Celtic mystic runes that the woman gently taught me about!" Caster said with a smile. Even if it was foreign magic she could easily understand and learn the Celtic runes since it was still magic coming directly from the Age Of The Gods, and luckily she could teach some of them to Shirou.

"Really? That is fantastic!" Shirou said happily. "But now... what should I do?" He then asked as he turned around and watched the woman he had fought not too many days ago.

Bazett was now sitting on the ground in front of a little table and was watching the many blue candles that surrounded a chalice, in what Shirou smelled there was her blood. Now that he observed her she was in good condition, she now had just some burn scars on the left cheek of her face, and other than that it seemed that nothing ever happened to her... but she seemed paler and incredibly tired... was she sick?

"Sit in front of the woman and consume the chalice when I tell you so, we'll handle the rest." Caster told him.

Shirou nodded and did as Caster told him. After that Caster started to chant a ritual in Celtic with the woman and after 15 minutes she gave him the signal and he drank the blood present in the chalice. After he did he started to feel strange, and when the two women started to chant once again his head started to spin and his body became incredibly hot, but it lasted only for some minutes or so.

After another 20 minutes they stopped and Caster said: "We are done here, now go in the living-room Shirou, I will reach soon, right now I... have to clean a bit here."

"Ok, see you soon." Shirou said as he got up and went toward the exit. "Oh, and thank you for everything." He said as he turned to watch Caster with a smile.

"If you want to thank me just make me a cup of tea." Caster said with a genuine and warm smile, before he got out of the room and closed the door.

After Shirou got out all of the lights in the room suddenly went out, except for the candles on the table where Bazett was still sitting.

"...Isn't he the sweetest?" Caster asked as she turned around to watch the woman called Bazett.

"..." Bazett didn't answer and just started to tremble. Every time the witch spoke about the boy she got angry and punished her for having attacked him. She didn't know how much time she had passed there, but she was sure that she had spent at least 3 weeks in that hell. She just wanted to be freed, she swore to herself that if she got out of this alive she would have gone back to her family and start a family herself.

"You have seen how gentle he was, and yet you tried to put him out of commission... that is what you said at first, right?" The witch asked as she got behind her. "But despite that, I also have to say that you have been a very good girl~" The witch purred as she put both of her hands on Bazett's shoulders. "...you did everything I asked, and I shall reward you today as well." The witch whispered in her right ear before she started to giggle.

Bazett gritted her teeth and closed shut her eyes before tears started to leak from them.

"Ooooh don't worry dear, we have only just begun." Caster continued with a wicked smile. "I'm still kind of mad for what you did to him."

*30 minutes later*

"So, does it works? Can you use it?" Caster asked as she entered the living room. She was now wearing normal clothes, she could not go around the house with her now blood-stained robes.

"Yes." Shirou said as he got out of the kitchen with 2 cups of tea.

Caster sat at the table and Shirou put on the table her cup of tea, he then sat in front of her.

"Let me see it." Caster said.

"..." Shirou remained silent before he closed his eyes and said: "Trace On."

He raised his fist and after a second a floating lead ball appeared on it. Shirou stared at it and an instant later a blade that pointed toward the celling grew from the ball.

"...Amazing." Caster said amazed as she watched the blade. The sweet Bazett had told her and showed her what kind of ritual and runes she had to use to make the Mystic code, she told her that she could make around 10 in a year since it took a whole month to create one, but right now Shirou had created a working copy one in less than a second, and since he had the rights over the weapon its quality was impressive.

Then Shirou projected other 2 lead balls and made them float toward Caster and made them stop in front of her. Caster silently watched the weapons and then watched Shirou with a raised eyebrow as to ask him what he was doing.

"What? Don't you want them? Shouldn't you be able to make some kind of weapon similar to it thanks to your item creation ability?" He continued.

"...Huh, you're right." Caster said. In the last days she was more concentrated to find a way to give Shirou the rights to use Fragarach and finish their weapon, she did not even think of trying to make something similar. She could create potions that could partially imitate immortality, so creating a powerful mystic code somehow similar to the one in front of her as possible, and since now she could have all the copy she wanted and needed to experiment upon she was sure that with time she could make something very useful in the far future.

"Since they are copies of a Mystic Code they may last for months, or even entire years, I'm not sure about it... anyway, if you want or need more of them just tell me." Shirou said before sipping some tea.

"I will take it into consideration." Caster said with a nod and a wave of her hand that made the weapons disappear. "So, did you and Saber came up with a plan on how to take care of Berserke and its Master?"

"No, other than the most obvious option of you teleporting us there we have no idea of what to do. We have taken into consideration the idea of use Excalibur to destroy the whole place from afar before they could even have a chance to react, but that would kill the maids that work for the Master and destroy a good part of the forest and its fauna." Shirou said before sighing.

Caster smiled before she too sipped some tea, she was happy to see that Shirou still took into consideration the life of those who were not directly involved in the war, even those who worked for the enemy and were simple maids. If it was her she would already have swept away the entire castle and the forest a pair of times just to be sure.

"Sooner or later the Master will have to start to scour the city, right? I'll sneak some other familiars into the forest to make sure that once they start to move we will know immediately."

"Perfect, this way we may fight them far away from the civilians." Shirou said with a nod.

After that, they remained in silence for a pair of minutes as they kept drinking their tea, for now, they had no other argument to talk about. Even if they had met just more than a month before they knew almost everything about each other, literally, since they could see each other memory and they had a mental connection.

"So, the war is almost over... have you thought of what you will do after all of this?" Shirou then asked as soon he finished his cup.

"Hmmm... no, not yet." Caster answered. Caster still had no idea of what to do after the end of the war, she just had the vague idea of starting a new life.

There were so many options for someone like her that she did not have any idea from where to start, she knew that her first objective would be to reincarnate and reclaim a real body, that would be easy for her since she knew how to do it even without the Grail, but after that? What should she do? Where should she go?

Did she want to start a new life back in Greece or in her old country? Or she wanted to stay away from those places as far as possible? Did she still want revenge for what happened in life? Could she now find the old and very weakened gods to kill them? Was her aunt Circe still alive? Did she want to go back and live with her?

After a pair of minutes of watching a thoughtful Caster that observed her cup of tea in complete silence, Shirou said: "Maybe it will take a lot of time to figure out what you really want, until then feel free of staying here as much as you want."

Caster looked up from her cup and watched Shirou in the eyes, then she snorted and said: "If you say so I may never leave, you know?"

"Do you think that I would have any problem with it?" Shirou asked as he rose an eyebrow.

"You flatter me Shirou." She said with a little smile. "Anyway, what about you? What will you do after the war?" Caster then asked, after she spoke she could see a glint in Shirou's eyes.

"After the war and the school I will start to wander the world, I will specifically go in the middle east, I think. This way I will be able to keep my promise to Kiritsugu... I will become a true hero and ally of justice!" Shirou said with a smile as he watched his cup. Now that he was becoming strong he truly had the possibility of being a real hero that saved people... maybe even without the need of shedding blood!

If Shirou wasn't watching his cup he would have seen Caster dropping her smile and watching him with a serious and cold look, all traces of the happiness that could be seen in her immediately vanished.

"Thank you for the tea, now I will return to my workshop. See you at dinner Shirou." Caster said with a calm tone as she suddenly got up and got out of the room.

"Ah, ok, see you later." Shirou said as he watched Caster quickly getting out of the room, probably she had something to do. Shirou got up and took their cups and washed them, he still had two hours to go before dinner, so now he will go to ask Saber to spar with him for an hour...

Caster in the meantime walked back to her workshop with a frow and in complete silence, she would usually hum a little since she was always of good humor, but not this time. She had almost forgotten that before she could think about her new life she had a debt to be paid off, even if the boy was capable of killing Servants she really disliked the idea of him going around the world to risk his life.

Shirou was kind, too kind, even if she could consider him as a strong person in all respects she simply did not desire him to wander all alone in some god-forgotten lands in search of someone in need of help, just to make peace with himself... just to find redemption for sins that he never committed, the boy deserved better than that. That same morning she had seen him turning away Sakura, he swore to her that she would have helped her whenever she needed it, but he said that he could not love her and even advised her to remove all her memories of him after the war... Once again he had demonstrated to be much more distorted even compared to someone like Sakura... did he become like this because of her?

Maybe she really will be forced to use magic on him, but just at the thought of doing it, a bitter taste came to her mouth. There had to be a way to help him without using magic on him, right?

It was now midnight and Tohsaka Rin was in front of her magic circle ready to summon her Servant.

She had to summon her Servant as soon as possible, she wanted to assure herself the Archer class Servant before the only other Master could. Under normal circumstances she would have waited a little longer, but right now she could not wait.

Rin looked out of the window and watched the moon for a moment before she started to chant the summoning ritual.

Caster was now in her workshop, and she was very tired. Since dinner she had spent the whole night thinking of a way to help Shirou with his problems, but with no concrete results. Even if she was a Heroic Spirit she was mentally exhausted, she really needed to sleep or rest in a way or the other.

But before going to rest she decided to set her familiars around the perimeter of the forest outskirt to make sure that if the enemy Master decided to get out and go around the city they would be immediately informed.

While positioning them she started to daze of a bit... poor Shirou, he really needed help and he himself didn't realize it. She had started to make some plans to make sure that Shirou would not leave Sakura, even if he didn't love her he did say that he would have taken care of her, and unfortunately, many of those plans included Sakura becoming gravely sick, but she was sure that if she did it Shirou would discover that it had been because of her... maybe an incident would have worked...

After a bit, she decided to watch through one of her familiar eyes to make sure that everything was all right near the forest outskirt, but after she did she could swear to herself that she saw a man, who was in a sitting position, falling from the sky and crashing into the roof of a house in a near abate center... it seemed that she was more tired than she first thought. She then cut off her visual connection with her familiar, yawned, told Rider to stay on guard that night, and went to sleep.

She felt that tomorrow would be a very active day.

Archer opened his eyes and started to look around.

He knew that he had been summoned to take part in the Holy Grail War, but to his great surprise when he opened his eyes he was not in a summoning circle, but up into the sky.

And after he fell and crashed into the roof of a house, once again, he was in that familiar living room...

After observing his surroundings he closed his eyes and started to think... this place and situation were familiar... very familiar... to the point he could say he experienced it hundreds of times before...

As the thought, he started to hear someone running up some stairs, and after some moments, said person busted down the door.

He opened his eyes and watched the girl that was observing him.

...Oh, now he remembered.

"Before you say anything you have to answer me! You are an Archer, right?" The girl suddenly asked him as she quickly got in front of him.

"...What?" Archer asked incredibly surprised. He was sure that things weren't supposed to go like that.

"Answer my question. You are an Archer, yes or no?"

"...Yes, I-" Archer started to say, but as soon he said yes the girl started to celebrate and completely ignored him...

'Huh, how unusual...' He thought as he watched the happy girl with an amused smile on his lips.

Shirou opened his eyes, and started to look around.

For some reason he suddenly woke up, feeling unrested.

He didn't know what, he didn't know why, but something that should never have happened... just happened.

He got up and got out of the room, since right now he could not sleep he went into the kitchen to drink a glass of water and to try to calm down.

After over 5 minutes that strange feeling did not go away, so he decided to go out a bit and breath some fresh air to clear his thoughts, but even after 10 minutes of standing in the cold backyard he still had to calm down... why?

What was going to happen? Why he had this feeling? Not even when Cù Chulainn attacked and wanted to kill him he felt something like this...

His thoughts then got interrupted when he smelled a sweet scent of blood.

"I see that you are disturbed..." Rider said as she materialized at his side with her nails ready in her hands. "Do you think that something is going to happen?" She then asked as started to look around.

For Rider, it was interesting to see the boy behaving like that.

From when they first met he never acted that way, even while fighting Lancer alone he remained somehow calm and rational, but now she could feel that he was preoccupied and confused... could it be that he had just a bad dream or he had remembered a bad memory?

No, even if they had met for just 2 weeks she knew that he was not the type of person to act that way just because of something simple like that, there had to be a good reason for his behavior.

"Rider, stay on guard and make sure that Sakura is safe. I don't know what will happen, but I have a strange feeling about tomorrow." Shirou said with a serious tone after a moment as he watched the Servant. He didn't know what to say to Rider since he himself didn't know why he felt that way, but he knew that tomorrow something will happen.

Rider simply nodded before she dematerialized.

Shirou started to massage his left temple as he thought. Just... what was he feeling?

As he thought he sensed Saber getting out of her room and coming toward him. After a bit, he heard the door of the veranda opening and Saber saying: "Anticipation and preparation... this is what you're feeling Shirou."

"..." Shirou said nothing and remained silent as he turned around to watch her.

"Even if until now we didn't have many chances to fight together you have to remember that I'm your Servant Shirou, I'm connected to you and I know very well what you're feeling. But since it's the first time that you have taken part in a war I'll tell you one of the many meanings that this strong sentiment may have: The war will end tomorrow."

"...Tomorrow? So the last Servant has been summoned?" Shirou asked before he closed his eyes and concentrated on his connection with Caster, he felt that she was sleeping. That would explain why she had not yet adverted him.

"Maybe yes, but it's strange, why do you have such feeling? How do you know that the war will end tomorrow? I also don't know why you are the only one to have this sensation... but I know that soon we will have our answers for it." Saber said before turning around. "Now it's time to rest Shirou, it's almost the time that we'll have to put an end to this corrupted and blasphemous Grail War." She continued before she started to back to her room. "Blasphemous war..." She muttered under her breath.

Shirou turned to watch the moon for a minute or so before he got back into his room to sleep.

Illyasviel von Einzbern was watching the moon from her bedroom.

That same day she had finally managed to remove all the traps that were in the castle, and after she had taken a bath she went into her bedroom, now trap-free, for her well-deserved rest.

As she watched the moon she was thinking. She as a minor Grail had the task of absorbing all the souls of the defeated Servants, and right now in her, it rested the soul of the demi-god of war: Cù Chulainn.

She could feel that it was a powerful Servant, so much in fact that she deep down had to admit that he would have been able to kill one time her Servant.

Who could kill someone as powerful as him, she wondered. If there was a heroic spirit who was even capable of even wounding her Heracles that spirit deserved all the respect that he needed to have.

And how could it be that he had been the first one to die? She had his souls in her, she could even feel some of his last emotions, and those were: Surprise, fear, rage, hopelessness, and pain.

She could have deduced what happened, probably Lancer's Master had been suddenly attacked, he feared for its Master's life, he became furius, but then he probably fought the enemy and had been gravely wounded, then something happened, and he felt only pain.

She knew the hero's legend, after being fatally wounded Cù Chulainn tied himself to a rock with his own intestine and kept fighting alone an entire army until the moment he died because of said wound. If someone like him felt great pain in his last moments of life, what kind of death did he suffered?

Oh well, it did not matter, no one could defeat her Berserker. He was there to protect her, and he would do it forever, and ever.

Tomorrow she would start to go around the city with him, it was time to destroy the competition... and find again that strange boy.

Caster woke up around 5:55, it was still a bit dark outside since the sun had yet to fully rise.

After some minutes she recovered her senses from the nap she made a copy of herself and sent it to the temple to see if the last servant had been summoned, and to her surprise, the Servant of Archer class had been summoned.

Oh well, with this she could say that the war was finally going to end. She started to go toward the living room where she would await Shirou to wake up to tell him about the news, and maybe she would make breakfast with him. As much as Shirou told her that she was improving at cooking she still felt a bit insecure about her skills.

As she walked through the corridor she felt a current of cold air, and noted the doors of the veranda were open. As she walked there she saw Shirou who was sitting there while he was watching the backyard.

"Oh, good morning Shirou." Caster said as she got closer to him.

"Good morning Caster." Shirou said in a tired tone.

"What is it? Didn't you sleep well tonight?" Caster asked as she sat near him and watched the backyard. After she did she closed her eyes as she started to feel on her skin the warm rays of the sun that had started to rise.

"The war will end today." Shirou suddenly said with a serious tone.

"Ah... how do you know that?" She asked curiously as she turned around to watch him. How did he know about Archer summoning? And why was he saying that the war was going to end today?

"Tonight I suddenly had a very strange feeling..." He said with a serious expression.

"...What? Did you developed some strange skill that warns you about dangerous events thanks to Saber's daily beatings?" Caster asked teasing him.

"Heh, you know, you're probably right." Shirou said with a smile before he started to shook his head and relaxed a little.

"Anyway, the Servant that has been summoned is Archer, so you better be careful at not getting sniped." She warned him.

"With Saber at my side, I do not think that it will be possible at all." Shirou said with confidence.

After that they remained in silence for a pair of minutes as they watched the sunrise, they were enjoying the so-called 'calm before the storm'.

"...Cup of tea?" Caster then asked at one point.

"Cup of tea." Shirou answered.

After that, they got up and went toward the kitchen as they spoke about what they would do for breakfast and what to do about the war.

Everyone was now present in the living room and they were having breakfast, but at one point as they ate Shirou suddenly said: "Sakura, today you will remain at home. Rider, you will remain here with her, you know what to do if something should breach our defenses."

Rider simply nodded, Shirou already told her that something was about to happen and from last night she never lowered her guard.

Sakura in the meantime stopped eating for a moment and asked: "Senpai, what will you do?"

"Maybe I'll go to school, that way I can personally go around and see if something strange is happening there." Shirou calmly said a half-truth. He would just go there to see if Tohsaka Rin had become a Master. She was the only other mage present in the town after all, but he would go there only if Caster could not confirm that she was a Master.

"Ok, but please, be careful." Sakura said with a low tone.

"I will, thank you Sakura." Shirou said with a smile.

After breakfast Rider and Sakura returned to their room and in the living room, there were only Shirou, Saber, and Caster.

"So? What we will do now?" Saber asked.

"I don't know, let's just wait to see what Caster has to say." Shirou said as he turned to Caster who now had her eyes close, she was now checking if Tohsaka Rin had become a Master, but if she had some problems he would personally go to her.

After a pair of minutes in complete silence Caster opened her eyes and said: "Good news Shirou, we have found the final Master."

"..." Shirou remained silent and just took a deep breath.

He did not know what kind of person Tohsaka Rin was, but he knew that she was the same girl that had abandoned Sakura to the Matou... so she could not be a good person, right? She had already proven how for her blood bounds was not a thing to be concerned for, so now he just needed to know if she simply didn't care about Sakura, or if she saw her as a possible obstacle.

"What is the course of actions that you recommend to us, Caster?" Saber asked.

"It seems that the girl has no intention of going to school or the church, probably she wants to show the city to her Servant." Caster said as she closed her eyes again to watch the girl.

"And right now we cannot attack them since it's still morning and there are many people around." Shirou muttered as he thought.

"Yes, but Caster may be able to quickly create some of her more complex bounded fields in some of the less populated areas, this way we can cut them down immediately without the need of caring about the collateral damages, and tonight we will eliminate Berserker and its Master." Saber proposed.

"I am able of doing what you said Saber, but I cannot create many of those kinds of bound fields at the same time. What I make are more complex than a simple bounded field, they are a separate space from reality... But why we do not try to make everything less dangerous for everyone?"

Saber and Shirou said nothing and turned to watch her, they were all ears about her ideas.

"Since the girl has left her house we can now fill the place with traps, that way once the girl returns home and will fall in one of those we will just have to take care of the Servant. And do not worry Shirou, I know that you want to interrogate her, so I'll put only the non-lethal kind of traps."

Shirou and Saber then looked at each other, after a moment they nodded and then turned to Caster and said at the same time: "Sure, go ahead."

"Heh, you two together are too cute." Caster said amused as she got up. "Anyway, I will start the preparations. Shirou, I advise you to stay home today so that if something should happen you'll be immediately ready to react." She then said with a serious tone.

Shirou simply nodded and turned to Saber that said: "Caster, if you could lend us your crystal ball we would be more than grateful."

Caster nodded and with a snap of her fingers on the table two little pillows, on which there was a crystal ball, appeared on each one. One started to show the Thosaka residence and the other showed Rin walking through the city.

"Have fun with your strategy session." Caster said before dematerializing.

*14 hours later*

It was now 22:00 o'clock, and Shirou and Saber were watching Tohsaka Rin and Archer on a roof of a palace as they talked, other than going around the city they did nothing strange.

They were now hearing the conversation that the two of them were having, and just like Archer, they remained extremely surprised when Rin said to her Servant that she had no wish for the Grail, and was taking part in the war just to win it.

As Shirou heard those words a very bitter taste came to his mouth. How could someone be willing to harm and kill just to win a competition? He understood if someone was willing to kill so that they could fulfill their impossible and selfish dream, reach their utopia... but the girl was about to fight a war just because she could, was she stupid? Could it be that she would have even fought and killed Sakura for a stupid reason like that?

The same thing happened to Saber. She was used to the idea of people willing to lose their lives in the name of their honor or their noble ideals, even a man like Kiritsugu was able to do it, but right now she was looking a girl who was taking part in the Holy Grail War just because she wanted to win the war.

Saber was also offended because of the girl intentions, until she discovered the corruption of the Grail she was willing to do almost anything to take it so that she could fulfill her wish and save her kingdom, and now, she was supposed to fight for the Grail against someone who just wanted it as a simple trophy? Did this girl had even the paler idea of what kind of war did she got into? Was this just a game for her? How selfish one person had to be to get in the way of someone else who desperately wanted to fulfill their wish?

If she didn't want to fight then she could have gone long ago to the church and give up her command seals and her Servant, but no, she was going to fight the war and risk her life without any valid reason.

They never spoke a word to each other, but both Shirou and Saber thought that the girl should have started to rethink her priorities, the road that she was taking was not too promising since it was taking her to a dead-end... at best.

"So, have you discovered the identity of Archer?" A hodded Caster asked as she suddenly materialized in the room.

"No, we only discovered that the foolish girl has no reason to fight the war and has no wish for the Grail." Saber said indignantly.

"What about you? Everything went fine?" Shirou asked as he turned around to watch Caster.

"Everything went perfectly fine, they will not even realize what will hit them once they will put a foot in their base... and I also made a little modification to the bounded field that will make Archer unable of leaving the place for a while, just to make things easier."

"Good. If Tohsaka thinks that this war is just some kind of simple competition soon she will realize how much wrong she is." Shirou said with a serious tone as he posed his gaze on Rin in the crystal ball.

He hoped with all of himself that Tohsaka, even if a mage, was a normal person... but it turned out that she was just a classic magus...

"...Fufufufufufu." Caster started to softly laugh. "I can say that the girl is a good and talented modern magus who has spent gods knows how many years to prepare herself for this war, and right now she doesn't even know that she is going to lose it not even a day after summoning her Servant." Caster said before she started to laugh once again a bit louder.

"Heh, you're right." Shirou said with an amused smile as he watched Caster. Seeing her smiling was making him of good humor.

Saber remained in silence, she disliked the idea of using traps to defeat her enemy... but this war was an exception and her adversary was just a stupid and naive girl that fought for nothing... there was no honor to be found in this war from the very start, also she will do nothing about it, since she was doing the girl a favor.

"Anyway, what about Berserker and its Master?" Shirou then asked.

"Oh, right, they have started to move from the castle, my familiars in the forest had started to... feel Berserker presence." Caster said a bit hesitant.

"Caster? Is there something wrong?" Shirou asked as he noted Caster's strange behavior.

"No, you don't need to worry Shirou... could you just make me some tea?" She then asked.

After she had filled the girl's home with traps she went near the forest to check in how much time the enemy would get out of the forest, and after she did she could swear that Berserker had a very familiar presence that she had already felt long ago... for some reason she deep down feared that she was about to fight one of the few people she respected.

"Sure." Shirou said as he got up and went into the kitchen.

Caster sat at the table, took off her hood, and sighed, she just hoped that the tea would calm her down a bit.

After that they remained at the table for around half an hour just watching the girl and her Servant, when Caster asked Saber what she thought about Archer Saber told her that he did not seem very much an Archer, she told her that he had the physique of a swordsman, just like Shirou. When she asked Shirou about his opinion on the Servant he said that he found the man very strange, she then noted that he wanted to say something else, but he did not.

At one point while Shirou and Saber were talking to each other Caster looked through the eyes of one of her familiars and almost gasped.

"Shirou... you're not going to like it." Caster suddenly said.

"What is it?" Shirou said as he stopped talking with Saber and turned to Caster, Saber did the same.

"Just look." Caster said while waving at one of her crystal balls.

The crystal ball that was showing the Tohsaka residence suddenly changed the image, and showed a little girl with crimson eyes and long white hair that was now calmly walking through some dark streets.

"...Illya?" Shirou said shocked.