Chapter 52 A Coquettish Rin
After Sakura and Illya pieced things together over post-dinner tea, Shirou finally understood what had happened. On their end, it seemed a Dead Apostle had provoked Sakura and Illya by nearly killing someone, leading to a battle between the two sides.
If Shirou had been there, he would have done something similar, but the act of Illya taking on a dangerous individual alone was fraught with peril, so Shirou could only give her a brief scolding.
"It's fine. It was our overwhelming victory."
Sakura smiled comfortably. "If only we hadn't been interrupted."
Though she was smiling, there were no highlights in her eyes. Hearing this, Illya also looked away. Even though they were sharing words of victory, she looked as if she had been wounded by them.
An overwhelming victory—she was responsible for being overwhelmed, and Sakura was responsible for the victory.
"Got it, got it. I know there's a very nasty Dead Apostle out there. I'll keep a sharp eye out from now on."
Though he didn't know exactly how nasty.
But according to Illya, he seemed to be a subordinate's subordinate of Van-Fem... wouldn't that make him a vassal of a vassal? No wonder Illya felt it was humiliating to lose. Explained from that angle, Shirou didn't feel much of a sense of gravity either.
Sending the last bit of satiating food into his mouth, Shirou took the initiative to suggest, "I'll do the dishes."
Sakura shook her head resolutely, as if her life's purpose was being snatched away. "Senpai has already completed his tasks for today. Please, let me be responsible!"
It was a truly familiar sight.
Shirou silently turned on the hot water switch to the side, intending to fish in troubled waters and seize the right to wash the dishes as usual. However, he saw Rin stand up as well, leisurely pushing her chair back under the table.
"?"
"Well, Sakura, can I leave the dishes to you this time? I'll be responsible for stopping this guy."
Rin looked at Sakura with a smile.
Sakura's eyes showed a bit of confusion. "...I'll leave it to you then?"
And so, Rin took Shirou's hand without a hint of shyness.
She gently led Shirou toward the inner room, but her movements were unusually firm. Her state was different from usual; Shirou, not understanding what was happening, followed almost half a step behind her to the door.
She looked back and winked meaningfully. "Saber, I'm borrowing Shirou, okay? It won't be long, just a quick chat."
Before Saber could intervene, the door shut with a thud.
"W-Wait, what's wrong?"
From this moment on, the room belonged only to the two of them. The girl's fragrance made his consciousness go blank. Their fingertips remained intertwined.
Rin's eyes and lips were a bit closer than before.
—Damn, this is bad!
His mind reacted belatedly, but his back was against the door with nowhere to run. His body, which wouldn't falter even in the heat of battle, froze in place simply because of the red-clad woman's movements. Rin's eyes flickered slightly, her lips still drawing closer...
After a second that felt like it would turn into eternity.
Her soft hands merely wrapped around Shirou's shoulders with a force so light it was almost imperceptible. The relaxed weight of the red-clad woman pressed against Shirou, and a voice right next to him whispered in his ear, "Honestly, do you have any idea how worried people were?"
She rested her head against Shirou's chest.
Indeed, with the closing of the door as the boundary, Rin no longer needed to maintain that public persona. As long as she cast aside her pride, it was permissible to be a bit more intimate, just as things should be.
His nearly blank mind gradually regained consciousness; Shirou realized he was being held by Rin. And she still hadn't let go. Shirou stood there, feeling the softness of Rin's arms.
After a moment of stiffness, Shirou slowly reached his hand toward the back of the girl who had suddenly acted this way, comforting her in return.
"I made you worry. I'm sorry."
"Do you even know what I was worried about before you apologize?"
She looked up, wearing a somewhat exasperated expression. It looked like dissatisfaction, but to Shirou, it felt like an emotion that was similar yet different. Her breath was still right there.
Smooth black strands traced the curve of his chest along his body, and Rin's warmth transferred through the points of contact.
"You were shot?"
The moment Shirou's breathing switched from automatic to manual, it became visibly unnatural.
Why was he exposed?
"Where did you hide your clothes? Don't think I don't know they're probably in tatters. The clothes you had when you went out were gone when you came home; my eyes are fine, Shirou."
"No, it's a misunderstanding. Although they did get torn, it wasn't from a gunshot with killing intent, and I wasn't hurt!" Shirou corrected quickly.
"Oh?"
Rin's azure eyes looked up slightly, misted with ambiguous emotions, waiting for Shirou to continue as she blinked.
"So, after the shooting incident, what wonderful new stories has our Emiya-kun come up with that resulted in the coat he usually wears getting ruined?"
As she said this, the intensity in Rin's gaze increased. Though subtle, besides the softness in her eyes, there was a hint of resentment.
"It was just negotiating with various complicated people, and it ended up like that... anyway, I wasn't hurt, and the other party isn't an enemy now."
Rin pondered for a moment, confused.
A moment later, as if guessing the thread of events, her gaze grew wistful.
"Again... sigh, forget it. I should have known long ago that Shirou is this kind of person."
She let out a sigh that was different from resignation. Her head was tilted against his, so Shirou could only see her hair.
"I'm not going to blame you."
Rin smiled. "After all, I've known Emiya-kun's behavioral patterns since nearly ten years ago."
The mysterious atmosphere—no, the honeyed atmosphere—felt like being soaked in a sugar jar, making Shirou feel that it would be better if she just started scolding him directly. His guilt began to rise exponentially, skyrocketing.
Shirou's cheek twitched as he felt his soul bound to the ground by gravity.
Even Shirou had things he wasn't good at. For example, he wasn't good at dealing with this kind of concern. This version of Rin made his heart pound much more than the one who would point a finger and scold him.
"But if possible, I really wish Shirou could be more proactive and positive about staying in touch."
Shirou hadn't managed it this time. After he started dealing with the Richard incident, he had forgotten about the cryptic message Rin had sent.
"Even knowing how capable Shirou is, I can't stop worrying. When I saw that 'I'm fine' message, I understood the gist of it, but I was still worried about interfering and didn't dare send messages recklessly. This kind of psychology is pretty funny, right?"
Rin revealed the truth of that moment.
The soft hands encircling Shirou's shoulders also loosened. As if lamenting that the world was beautiful to begin with, Rin regained her firm tone and laughed:
"Anyway, it was all just trivial worries. No need to mind it, no need to mind it."
Tohsaka Rin was that kind of girl.
Kind-hearted, resilient, blooming like a fresh flower, but also having a delicate side. She would feel ashamed of that delicate side, but as a relationship deepened, she would gradually become bolder.
His chest swelled, and a warm sensation flowed through his limbs. Her words made his heart race with a strange restlessness. Shirou almost sank completely into this tender trap... it took a few seconds for him to suddenly snap out of it, several question marks appearing in his mind.
"Wait a minute, I haven't quite wrapped my head around this. Why did Rin know I was attacked? Analyzing what you just said, did someone else tell you about this incident?"
This was very strange.
Rin didn't know any specific details, yet she knew specifically that Shirou had been involved in a battle. In other words, Rin hadn't observed the battle but had obtained the minimum information about it. In that case, following the trail of logic, it was most reasonable to assume that Rin was also involved in some incident where she came across this information.
Rin remained silent, shyly pointing her finger toward the large bed nearby.
With a bit of gentle coaxing, Shirou took a seat at the head of the bed. Then Rin also got onto the bed and casually flopped down, lying prone beside Shirou's lap.
Shirou knew what she meant.
Like a cat.
"...Shouldn't I change my clothes first?"
Rin shook her head. "No need, this is fine."
After a while, Rin rolled over and whispered:
"There's the smell of blood and gunpowder."
"That's why I said... if you can smell that, wouldn't it be better to get off me?" Shirou asked.
"No."
Her black hair scattered across the bed along his pressed legs. Rin's own legs were swaying back and forth. Her back was toward Shirou, and the speed of her refusal was beyond imagination. Seeing her like that, even Shirou's heart gave an imperceptible throb.
But she seemed to have forgotten the main point.
"Miss Rin,"
Shirou reached out his hand, stroking the cat-like lady's silky long hair. "Can you tell me now, please?"
She stiffened for a moment but soon relaxed. Because her back was turned, Shirou couldn't see the expression on her face. The curtains by the window weren't drawn yet; the reflected light from the stars seeped into the room, falling across the floor through the window frame, blurring into a hazy trace.
Rin finally rolled back over and said, "That's a long story."
Her sapphire-like eyes cast aside their hesitation and met Shirou's gaze from below.
"Let's start with Gilgamesh and Alcides getting into a fight."
"Huh?"
Wasn't that a bit too big of a leap!
You're saying those two peak Servants fought? When?
Shirou was so shocked he started coughing. "Ack! Is Alcides okay!?"
Alcides definitely had to "die." But he absolutely couldn't be killed by someone else.
To be precise, that guy couldn't be allowed to flow back into the Holy Grail. If a monster Heroic Spirit flowed into the Grail, the situation would be precarious.
Though there was no clear solution yet, Shirou had to do his best to prevent such an occurrence.
Rin wordlessly pressed her finger against Shirou's waist and started rubbing vigorously. "Think about it, Shirou. Since I can still be this leisurely for the time being, then he's obviously fine."
"Neither of those two Heroic Spirits could beat the other... Oh right, by the way, I'm sorry for looking down on Shirou's efforts last night."
"Looking down? That didn't happen, right?"
Shirou had no impression of Rin ever looking down on him. On the contrary, Shirou remembered that after he successfully broke away, Rin's expression was the definition of overjoyed.
"Because defeating Gilgamesh went so smoothly last time, I forgot the freakish extent of a Servant like him when he gives his all. This time could be considered a long-overdue reminder of eight years ago."
The beautiful girl spoke with a chuckle, her charming warmth turning into a poison that attacked Shirou's soft spots.
"Anyway, I used a familiar to observe that battle."
The struggle between the monster Heroic Spirit and the King of Heroes—a mutual roar without a victor.
"I see. And then?"
The movement of Shirou's hand didn't stop. Rin wore a relaxed smile, shifting and nudging against his knee.
"For some reason, this Holy Grail War's Rider, Hippolyta, showed up~ I don't know why, but I feel quite a kinship with that girl~"
Not "the Rider of this Holy Grail War."
She was "one of the Riders." Because in this Holy Grail War, every class except Saber had two members. The other Rider might be a Heroic Spirit of death.
"Then this happened and that happened... finally, just as a chaotic melee was about to start, Caster released a field-wide illusion. Because the factions had reached a delicate balance, all the Servants withdrew."
"But after that..."
The vision of Rin's familiar suffered a strange intrusion. The valley disappeared, and the familiar could only see mist as if standing in the clouds, like a cloud had swallowed the familiar up.
Then, a voice with a young girl's skin suddenly said: "Jewel Magecraft... I see, it's Tohsaka Rin. Am I right?"
Rin was astonished at the time, but the voice continued: "You must be very confused as to how we know you. But actually, the data on those of you who finished the Fifth War is quite important to us. It's a must-watch level! Emiya Shirou's battle at the Kuruoka residence this morning was a bit loud, so you guys aren't completely secret anymore."
"Who are you?" Rin questioned the other's identity, but another voice with a young boy's skin—the Caster who had stopped the great battle in the valley—replied:
"We are the masterminds.
As a gesture of sincerity, I can give you one piece of information: Emiya Shirou is currently in the middle of a superb assassination attempt—of course, except for one bullet, none of it was done by our pair."
Rin's hand controlling the familiar froze.
The action of biting her lip surely went unnoticed. But the boy still let out a laugh.
He added:
"You can send him a message now? Though, he probably won't reply."
From the conclusion, Rin had been severely played.
Shirou seriously listened to her complain about this for ten minutes. Like a flash of lightning, a name mentioned by Sigma surfaced in Shirou's mind.
"Francesca."
"Eh?"
"Caster's Master is named Francesca. And their pair should be the True Caster... though I might not be able to tell the difference between true and false."
He accidentally let slip words that weren't very confident, but Rin remained in a dazed and defenseless state. It was a good exchange of stunned silence, allowing both to get a full view of each other's unguarded expressions.
Shirou let out a sigh, facing Rin who suddenly made a loud noise, propped her hands on Shirou's knees, and sat up to listen like a cat that had suddenly discovered silvervine.
"Confess everything."
"Okay, okay, take it easy, you're pressing down so hard it hurts!"
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