ROUND 1—Awakening/binary heaven 4

Remaining Days: 3

After my morning classes end, I leave the classroom alone. Saber generally doesn't attend these classes with me as they start very early and she seems to prefer to sleep in. Since she is the one doing the more exhausting work, as she does the fighting, that's quite understandable. Yet, it feels lonely and somewhat scary to walk through a school full of people who are after my life all by myself.

Though, not everyone here wants to kill me. There are some NPCs here after all. But they are… different. It's hard to describe the difference between them and the actual Masters, except for the fact that they are wearing a black uniform, but it appears they have no soul. They don't initiate conversations and unless one asks or says something they are programmed to answer to, one will get no reaction.

They only exist to answer a Master's questions about this war or support them. Just like Sakura in the nurse's office who treats wounds, other NPCs serve as a kind of guide to give you the easier kind of advice on what to do—like checking the library for information or collecting both Cipher Keys .

In the school's hallway, I met a familiar person—a boy, smaller than me with blond, straight hair, wearing an orange uniform. I remember him from before joining the Grail War, his name is Leo Harway. He was an exchange student, or rather, that's what he said he was back then.

Behind him stands a man clad in armour, taller than Leo and taller than me with light blond hair. Despite his very calm appearance he has a somewhat dangerous aura, marking him clearly as a Servant .

The moment Leo notices my presence, he turns to face me. "Oh, it's you," he remarks with barely any change of expression except for showing a faint happiness. "I believe I had said we would meet again. I am glad you qualified for this tournament."

His voice shows no hostility and yet I can't help but feel slightly on edge, it might be due to the fact that his Servant is right next to him while Saber isn't by my side at this moment. 

"Yes, you really said so…" I'm sure my nervousness showed in my voice and I couldn't help but eyeing his Servant.

"Ah, how rude of me," Leo remarks, aware of my gaze, "Gawain? Introduce yourself, please." The blond in armour came forward. 

"As you wish, Master." The tall man bows down before me. "I am Leonardo Bistario Harway's Servant, Gawain. Pleased to meet you and I hope and expect you to be a worthy opponent eventually."

Gawain accompanies his introduction with a polite smile, fitting for his general behaviour. At this point I am sure, he must be a knight, which would make him a Saber class. 

"I'm Ritsuka. Ritsuka Fujimaru. Nice to meet you, too, Gawain," I return his courtesy.

This team might be one of the few, maybe the only one, who treat me like another human being instead of an obstacle. However, I'm not sure if that should put me on edge even more or relax me around them.

"No need to be afraid, Ritsuka," Leo says, "I do not plan to end your life before our battle comes." He speaks with certainty.

"You mean, should we end up facing each other," I corrected him. The blond smiles knowingly, his Servant staying a silent enigma. 

"No, indeed I am sure we will meet on the battle site."

With those words, he raises his hand in farewell and leaves, walking down the stairs, Gawain following him. "Please fight courageous with honour, until we meet," are his last words before he vanishes from my vision, his Servant nodding approvingly.

As soon as he left, Rin is standing next to me, grumbling. I did not even hear her coming. "I knew one of the Harways would be here. But sending their heir, of all people!? Seems like the plutocrats see a threat in the Holy Grail's power." The twintailed girl stops her monologue to grin and look at me.

"But my power as a magus is superior to him. Anything that was borrowed on Earth will be repaid in Heaven." I'm not sure what she is talking about but apparently, she knows what kind of person Leo is, unlike me. 

"Sorry…?" Rin sighs. "Just stay away from him, Ritsuka. He might seem like a nice person, but he really isn't." Then, she storms off. 

"To risk him… They are going to regret it," she murmurs to herself while walking away. I am confused as to what she was talking about. I decided to check the library later for information about Gawain but I don't think I would find anything about the "Harway family" there.

The school bell interrupts my thoughts however and signs to go back into my class room for my afternoon classes. Thankfully the afternoon classes are mostly about programming—though they currently cover the basics, the theory. Not how to actually write a code. And yet, this is the class I pay most attention to as it's the one teaching me how to be a good partner for Saber.

After the final classes for this day end, I leave the classroom and immediately bump into the black-haired girl who left me confused right before—Rin Tohsaka. She rubs her forehead, just like me, groaning, "Ugh… Can't you watch where you're—"

As she realises it's me who bumped into her, she switches from frustration to minor annoyance and understanding, holding her hand towards me. 

"You're helpless, really. Come on, get up," Rin says before I grab her hand, having her help me back on my feet. 

"T-Thanks, Rin. And… sorry," I apologise sincerely.

She simply shrugs it off. "It's okay, I'm fine. And, you seem to be fine, too. Well, about this crash, that is." I try to smile at her to which she responds with a look of worry and understanding. "So, your memory still isn't back, huh?" She hit the nail on the head, I'm too easy to read for her.

"No, I still remember nothing but the things any NPC would also know about the world and the Masters here. But I remember everything since I came here, at least." Rin nods. It appears that she is pondering.

"Uhm, Rin…?" I try to get her attention a bit away from her thoughts and back to our conversation. 

"Yeah, sorry. But in any way," her voice turns more serious than before, "Remember that information is crucial . You can't go through this whole tournament with blind luck."

"I know…" The reality is harsh. Hearing it so bluntly is even worse. Rin puts her hand on my shoulder, as to comfort me. "Check the library as often as you can. It's like a treasure trove of information." 

I am grateful for her advice and help once more, but, more importantly…

"Why are you doing this? Helping me so much, I mean." 

The black-haired girl in front of me is visibly taken aback by my question, as she blushes slightly while taking her hand off my shoulder, "W-Well, it's just that I have a feeling, that you might come out victorious here. Also, Matou is skilled but a real idiot." 

I smile at her bashfulness. "So, in other words, you prefer to have me around and not Shinji?"

Rin averts her gaze. "Don't read into it too much, okay!? Just… don't let yourself get killed." And with those words, she takes her leave one more. I'm genuinely happy that I can be sure now to consider Rin as something like a friend, in a way. At least until we might have to face each other.

***

Exhausted from the educational part of the day, I enter my private room to find Saber, still asleep. Usually she joins me before the afternoon classes at least but it appears she was really tired. I am unsure what to do now but I know I should wake her. So, I go to sit down next to her on her desk-bed and put my hand on her arm softly. 

"Hey, Saber," I almost whisper at her.

I don't know why such a small voice should wake her but if I happened to be too loud or forceful at it she might just hit me out of a reflex… or out of morning grumpiness. After all, waking up in the evening, she wouldn't be able to tell it's not exactly the correct time for morning grumpiness.

As my first attempt gets no reaction, I get closer, whispering to her, my lips just millimetres away from her ear, "Saber, it's late already. Time to get up?" 

To which she reacts with a deep red blush and figuratively jumping up. "W-What? Master! What was that for!?"

I couldn't help but chuckle slightly at my tomboyish Servant's subtly embarrassed reaction, covering her ear. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't wake you up and didn't know what else to do." 

She seems to realize that it was mostly due to her sleeping in so she can barely complain anymore. "I-I see."

"Besides," I add, "You still have some drool on your face." Saber starts frantically rubbing her mouth with her arm which makes me chuckle again. "I was kidding, geez." The blonde seems mildly annoyed but at the same time caught of her gullibility towards me. 

"Don't make fun of me like that, Master," she tells me seriously and I feel a small threat of violence from her.

"G-Got it. Sorry, Saber." She nods, approving of my apology. 

"So, Master, any interesting new information yet?" 

I collect my thoughts a bit to then report them to her, starting with what Rin had told me and how she showed her support towards me, until Saber interrupts me, "It's good to have a somewhat ally here. But don't trust her too much, you may end up facing her." 

I nod at her. "Yes, I'm… well aware of that." Am I really?

Next up, I tell her about meeting Leo. "His Servant's true name is Gawain . It shouldn't be too hard collecting information about him. I think he's a Saber." At hearing the name of Leo's Servant, Saber tenses up. 

"Gawain," she murmurs. I am confused. "Is something wrong?" My Servant shakes her head, seeming to bite back something she wants to say.

"I was thinking of checking his information in the library later, as well," I told her. 

"No need," the blonde says, "Give me your terminal." I reach into my jacket's pocket and hand her the device, she starts typing into it and then returns it to me. "Good enough for now?" I don't understand why she is in such a bad mood now.

I read the typed information in the Matrix. "Saber class, his prowess rivals King Arthur's and his holy sword is on par with Excalibur…? How do you know that?"

Saber averts her gaze. "I don't want to talk about that." 

She seems quite pained, somehow, about this matter. As her Master and also as her friend, this worries me. "Just who are you, Saber?"

To which she replies with seconds of silence, that felt like minutes or maybe hours. "I'm sorry, Master. I'd… rather keep that to myself still. Please understand." 

I want to make her feel better and less nervous, so I gently hug her. "It's okay, Saber. I still trust you."

As we both step out of our private room, Saber almost back to her usual overly confident self, we make our way to the library. Going in, we spot a blue-haired, male student. To have to run into Shinji at this moment is really bad luck. Even worse, it appears he had waited for me in the library. 

"Yo, Ritsuka," he greets me.

"Shinji…" I say under my breath but Saber voices my thoughts, "What are you doing here?" Her demeanour spelling I'd love to cut your throat, right here, right now . I'm so thankful that she didn't do as she pleased as it would get us in trouble and it doesn't feel right to act in such an aggressive way. Even if it is towards Shinji.

"Oh, I was just checking out some information about your Servant," he says, chuckles and continues, "Who am I kidding!? It's a miracle you qualified in the first place! As if I would need to seriously prepare just to beat two little girls." 

I vaguely remember the one time I made the mistake of calling Saber a female.

This won't end too well for Shinji.

"So, you wanna die, huh?!" I hug my Servant tightly from behind, as it's the only way I, as a physically much weaker human, could even just hope to keep her from doing anything we might regret. 

"Let go, Master!" She yells at me in anger but I just hold onto her tighter. Still, she moves towards Shinji centimetre for centimetre as I'm clearly not enough to stop a Servant, just being a human.

"W-what the hell?! Stop your berserker, use a Command Seal already," Shinji shouts at me, cowardly. I almost forgot about the three Command Seals I can use to give three absolute orders that Saber has to abide by. I guess, in this moment, I don't really have another choice but—

"Stop this at once, both of you," a familiar, soft voice calls out. In the blink of an eye, Gawain is standing between Saber and Shinji, apparently ordered so by Leo, who is appearing next to him from behind of me. "The SERAPH is watching. Whichever dispute the two of you might have, I doubt it is worth to face the punishment for a fight like this."

Leo seems to be the voice of reason here and Saber manages to hold back right away, seeing Gawain in front of her. He is raising an eyebrow at her behaviour.

"Excuse me, have we perhaps met before?" Gawain asks Saber a question like this openly. 

"Tch. Highly doubt that," is all Saber responds to him before she directs her next words to me, "Master… you can really let go of me now."

I almost forgot I'm still having her in an awkward hug. 

"Ah… Sorry." I let go of her instantly, and I feel my cheeks heating up a bit from this small embarrassment. Saber folds her arms, facing away. As the danger for him is gone, Shinji can go to his usual, even more annoying self, right away.

"Hahahaha! You can't even control your Servant properly. As a Master, you failed! Maybe she listened to you if you were smart enough to offer her a share of the prize money!" 

Even Leo glares at him. "It might be better should you take your leave now, Matou."

Shinji seems to respect Leo or he prevents a fight for another reason. 

"Fine. The failure Master here can waste as much time with these books as she wants," he says, pointing at me while going towards the door of the library, "I hid the book with hints about my Servant in the Arena anyway. And even if she found it, she'd have no chance!"

As soon as he left, Leo speaks up to me, "You should perhaps try to find the book containing information crucial enough to have Matou worry about you finding it." 

In my stead, Saber responds to him, "We know that. Now goodbye." After that, she drags me out of the library.

It's very rude of her, even though I know I shouldn't trust Leo. He is another Master and even Rin told me to be wary. 

"Lancelot should have killed him twice in the Battle of Camlann," Saber mutters under her breath. I pretend I haven't heard it, but this makes it clear—Saber knows Gawain personally.

As we make our way towards the Arena for our daily training, my homeroom teacher, Taiga Fujimura, almost jumps at me upon noticing us. "Ritsuka-chaaaan. " I'm sure she just has a favour to ask me. "You really like your teacher, don't you?" She is behaving almost like a child who wants something and hopes their parents to say 'yes'.

"Uhm, sure. So, what is i—" She cuts me off. 

"You know, on the Arena's second floor there should be a tangerine." I can't believe she wants a fruit of all things. 

"A… tangerine? Okay…?" From the corner of my eye I can see Saber facepalming.

"Yes! If you could get it for me before the end of the first round, that would be fabulous ! Also," she explains, almost ecstatic, "If you manage to do this for me, I'll get you a real bed for your private room!"

Saber's eyes sparkle, although she tries to hide that, at the thought of sleeping in a real bed instead of on a table. "We'll do it!" She's very enthusiastic about this, apparently. I can just follow suit. 

"Yes, we will. Thanks, Fujimura-sensei," I bow to her, showing my gratitude in the proper polite way and, now having yet another reason, we continue our way towards the Arena.

Though, we are stopped by a priest in black clothes—Father Kotomine. 

"You succeeded in collecting the first Cipher Key, I see," he says nonchalantly, "Do not forget to look for the remaining one on the second floor." 

Even I, as bad of a magus and Master I might be, don't need a 'tutorial' of this level anymore. Yet, I am thankful for his reminder. Who knows if there might be a time when his help might actually be required.

"Also, have you gone to the chapel yet? If not, you should do so," he says. 

"What's the chapel for?" Even Saber seems a bit curious, as far as I can read her. And she barely shows what she thinks or feels. 

"They do Alterations of the Soul there. In simple words, strengthen your Servant." This seems too good to be real.

I give my thanks to the priest and head to the chapel right away, Saber doesn't object in any way. Of course, after all, getting stronger is a very important objective of both of us. Stepping into the chapel, it looks exactly like one would imagine a general church; except for the small couch and the two girls, one sitting at each side of the couch, both on their own chairs.

"Hey there, welcome. You want to do an Alteration of the Soul?" The red-haired is the first to speak up. 

"Uhm," is all I can mutter before the blue-haired joins the conversation. 

"Ah, you're that… What was it? Hm. Odd, that I forget something. Not that details matter. Either way, you're here for an Alteration of the Soul, right?"

Both of them confuse me, really. "Well… What exactly is an 'Alteration of the Soul'?"

Both at the same time lash out in disbelief, "You don't know what's an AS and you still came here?!" The red-haired added a sighed "Amateur."

Thankfully, the blue-haired girl is kind enough to explain it to me, "Let's see. Me, Touko, and my sister, Aoko, do the AS here. That's short for Alteration of the Soul, by the way. For it, we hack into each of your souls, Master's and Servant's, and force a connection. This is allowing a much better mana flow between the both which, ultimately, leads to the Servant being able to fight with more of their original strength."

This sounds too good to be true. 

"Are there… any side effects? Or risks?" I must ask this, just to be sure it's as good as it sounds.

"Barely," Aoko says, but Touko corrects her sister, "Unless that monkey is there doing it. She might screw up and break both of your souls in the process." This… sounds not too good.

"But not to worry—I never let her do the AS by herself since that one incident. But I should warn you—linking your souls means also partially linking your memories. So, if you have something big to hide from your partner, you should rather not do this." I have nothing to hide, I don't remember anything after all. But what about Saber?

My blonde partner seems to be in thoughts for a while, but then she sighs. 

"We can't help it, can we? I'm fine," she says. I'm glad that she is willing to do an Alteration of the Soul with me despite it meaning I will see fragments of her memories. And maybe I will learn more about her from this.

"Now, both of you, lay down on the couch, next to each other," Touko orders us and we do as she says. She puts her right hand over my eyes and from the corner of my eye I can see Aoko doing the same to Saber, before Touko's hand fully blocks my vision. 

"Close your eyes," Aoko tells us.

They start hacking into our souls right after I closed my eyes, meaning Saber did so as well. Discomfort spreads through my whole body, starting from my head. It feels almost like the day when I met Saber, but less life-threatening. I can't help but feel slightly nauseous.

Suddenly, my vision is filled with an image. I'm not seeing it with my eyes, my mind is showing that to me. That means, it is a memory of my Servant. It's a battlefield, for sure. The whole air feels so tense and the air appears reddish, colouring the whole field, as far as one can see, slightly red. This only adds to the cruelty of the whole picture.

There are a lot of dead knights, no matter where I'm looking. I cannot be sure of their death but considering the blood puddles around most of them and the fact that they are not moving, I can be sure they are not alive anymore. My mind shifts a bit forward in time and I feel a sharp pain through my whole stomach.

Looking down, I've been impaled by a spear. I've been impaled, I am sure to die, but all I can feel is anger and also sadness. Those feelings are stronger than the pain and they almost make my body numb. I feel a tear running down my cheek and the helmet I'm wearing breaks. The girl in front of me is still holding the spear, not facing me and crying.

Her words are but a soft murmur at this point, I can hardly make them out. "I never despised you." I raise my sword and charge but that's where the memory cuts off. Touko's hand is long gone from my eyes, I sit up, sweating, as soon as my mind can focus on my actual vision again.

I look at Saber but she avoids my gaze. She went to the memories of hers I have seen as well. I'm sure it was her death that I saw. To be reminded of this exact memory must be harsh. Going through the same pain another time, emotionally, is something I cannot imagine feeling. I reach out to her, but she gets up immediately. "It worked, so let's go into the Arena finally." Aoko gives me a slightly apologetic look while Touko doesn't seem to bother.

I give my thanks to both of them and proceed to leave the chapel, following my Servant. Before we step out, Saber turns to me, "I'm sorry you had to see that." So, she was more worried about my reaction to her memories than she was in pain for reliving it. 

"It's okay," I tell her, "Are you… fine, though?"

Of course, I worry about her, too. But Saber just shrugs. "I guess. It's not like I could change what happened." That much is true. But, something is bothering me.

"The one who… killed you… She looked a lot like you. Who… who was it?" It's really hard to talk about this. I don't want to mention such dark memories of my partner and friend more than needed.

"I really don't want to talk about it," Saber says as she clenches her fist, "Maybe someday." I'm fine with it, I don't know her reason for hiding so much about herself but I'm in no place to judge her for that.

"Sure," I smile at her, "And now let's test our new strength, shall we?" That seems to get Saber in a better mood immediately.

Finally leaving the chapel, it looks like Shinji got into a fight with an elderly man who looked similar to a knight. 

"A chapel is for quiet reflection. I do not know who you call your god, but still, you should understand that much," the man says in a calm but serious tone. But, of course, Shinji would simply not understand that.

"Oh, so, so sorry! I'm an atheist, so fuck your god!" The blue-haired boy could not have said anything worse in this situation. The elderly man simply harrumphs. 

"I had thought the Japanese were very polite. It appears I was misled." He steps up the few stairs of the chapel and continues, without looking at Shinji, "It appears that in your haste to learn how to fight you forgot the more important matters—dignity, pride and considerateness."

He nods at me as to greet me and approves of my maturity to not step into this matter and vanishes into the chapel. 

"Tch. I hate such old geezers, thinking their high age makes them so much better and smarter than me," Shinji grunts, "No matter if he dies in battle or not, it's not like he has long left anyways." And with that, he walks off, laughing to himself.

Shinji is really the worst .

Just as I want to walk to the Arena, my terminal rings. I take it out to read the message.

: : The Second Cipher Key has been generated on the Second Floor. 

Now that we have more than enough reasons to go into the Arena, we can finally do so without any more hindrances. As soon as we, so to say, spawn in the First Chimeric Lunar Sea's Second Floor, Saber tenses up. "I sense an unpleasant aura. That peasant and his Servant must be here."

"That is to be expected, isn't it? Though, what would you suggest to do?" I'm not sure how to handle this. We could simply turn back and leave again but that would be too cowardly and it wouldn't really help in the end—should we decide to run instead of facing him would simply keep us from collecting the last Trigger and thus he would win and we would die without a fight.

"We should try to face them. Being attacked from behind would have us mostly off-guard and surprised," Saber advices me seriously. It makes sense so despite my worries we go forward, my Servant slashing quite a few Enemy Programs on the way. It's much faster now so apparently the Alteration of the Soul at least really worked.

In the middle of a path, my Servant suddenly comes to a halt which makes me stop as well. "What's the matter, Saber?" She sighs in minor annoyance. 

"There is a hidden passageway," she points at the apparent wall, "Can't you sense that?" 

I shake my head. "Since I'm too bad of a magus, I suppose I can't." Saber puts her hand on my shoulder. 

"It doesn't matter much. But, that place would just be perfectly fitting as a hiding spot for the book that rat hid. So, let's go," she says but waits for me to make the first step into the wall—I am the Master after all. I close my eyes and step forward, expecting to crash right into a hard wall with my face but I feel nothing. My feet land on a passageway that's just the same as the normal one, the wall I passed was really merely visual.

"Told you so. You should trust me more, Master…" Saber sounds disappointed as she follows me through the path but I can't really blame her. My doubt in this hidden path she told me about was just too obvious. 

"Yes. I'm sorry." She shrugs in reply.

I feel like I really broke the small base of trust we built until now with my silly doubt just now.

In front of us is an orange cube, made of a similar light than the walls all around that.

"I suggest you open it," Saber says nonchalantly. I nod. Her coldness hurts me somehow so I'm not in the mood for long talks with her. I put my right hand in front of myself, almost touching the cube, supporting my right hand with my left one.

Open(BOX); 

The box shines brightly and disappears, leaving a floating book around that falls as soon as the light disappears and I catch it.

"Looks like… a journal?" Saber gets closer to take a look into the journal as well. It's really old and hard to decipher.

.zzzz

Today…. ..island.

T..e crew….….. tired a… d.…..

… ship…. Golden Hind,…..

… gold…..… treasure….…..

—F… c…. Dr… e

Even the least damaged page was barely useful. The only information we could get was the name of a ship—The Golden Hind. The mentions of gold, treasure and a count of islands meant, this must be the journal of a pirate. The captain of a pirate's ship, to be exact.

"Too bad her True Name isn't legible," I sigh. But still, this information isn't completely useless at all.

"Damn, Ritsuka, didn't expect you to find it so fast." Behind me, blocking the only way out, the hidden passageway we used to come here, is Shinji. 

"You damn weasel planned to lead us into this dead end." Saber doesn't even try to hide her anger. 

"Of course! Now that you can't run, I wonder how long you'll manage against us."

His Servant steps forward from behind him. "Shall we?" She ignores me and directs her battle invitation to my Servant.

"Gladly." 

As Saber steps in front of me, I grab her shoulder and stop her to whisper to her, "Block her attacks at all costs, please. As soon as there's an opening, strike and aim for her guns. Then we'll run for it." 

My Servant nods. "Not bad for a first plan."

As soon as our Servants got closer to each other, they charged. The pink-haired woman shoots bullet after bullet, but Saber manages to reflect every single one with her blade, Clarent. 

"What a coward you are! Not trying to attack?!" I'm afraid the provocation of Shinji's Servant will get to Saber but she is still very controlled.

Shinji's Servant grind her teeth in frustration as she couldn't harm Saber and couldn't provoke her to give her a chance for a successful shot either. At that moment, Saber charges and swings her swords at full strength. "Hyaaahh!" As soon as steel hits steel, the guns break apart, the gun-user watching in shock.

"Not as cowardly as you thought, now am I?" Saber grins while I run towards her, grabbing her hand so we could run away together. Pushing Shinji out of the way was no issue for my Servant. Behind us we can hear an angry yelp. 

"Damnit, Rider! You just let them escape like this?!"

"And with this we can be sure, our opponent's class is Rider," Saber says to confirm my thought. 

"Yes," I confirm, panting, "We got… quite far today." 

The blonde stops her run to take me on her back. "I know your condition is bad, Master, so… Just to get out faster."

I cling to her tightly as she runs again, to not fall off. "Thank you, Saber. I'm glad you are my Servant." She harrumphs as a response.

As soon as we leave the Arena, my mind recalls something. "Ugh… We forgot the Trigger. And Fujimura-sensei's tangerine, too…" Saber shifts around a bit. 

"Well," she reaches towards her back and holds an orange fruit to me, "Actually, I found this earlier. I was mad, so I didn't tell you." 

My eyes light up as I take the tangerine from her. "Saber…!"

I am so overjoyed, I hug her. 

"H-hey, Master, cut it out," my Servant pouts. 

"Yes, yes~" I can't help but tease her as I let go. "Let's give this to Fujimura-sensei as soon as we see her," I say, holding the fruit in my right hand.

Store(TANGERINE); 

The orange fruit disappears, shining slightly. 

"You learned another Code Cast?" Saber asked me, surprised. I shake my head.

"Not really. I took computer classes mostly in the afternoon courses and, well, I tried writing my own Code Casts. I started with 'Open' and 'Store', since they seemed to be easy to make," I explain as I take out my terminal, showing Saber the file that contains all the Code Casts I can use.

"Here, I can use those two as well as a Heal cast. But I have to rework that code for more efficiency, I guess… Not sure how to do that well yet." Actually, at this point what I can program is almost nothing, especially compared to other magi here.

It appears as if I have absolutely no talent whatsoever as a magus but at least I can learn to write Code Casts. Saber pats my shoulder. 

"Good job, Master! I didn't expect you to ever get the grasp of it, to be honest. So, I'm pleasantly surprised you already wrote two of your own CC's." I blush slightly at her praise. After all, it's rare for the blonde to have such nice words for me.

We finally reach our private room and step into it, laying down on our table-beds. "Do you think Shinji is going to be… such a pain tomorrow again?" I'm not sure I even want to know the answer. 

"Of course, that's all such a peasant is good for," Saber grunts. I give her a weak laugh in response. 

"I guess so… Well, good night, Saber," I say, before turning away from her. 

"Good night, Master. Rest well," she replies and no words are spoken anymore this night.

The Elimination Battle is getting closer and closer.

We have to win.

I don't want to die.

And more importantly, I don't want to be separated from my new-found friend so soon.