(Shirou's pov)

After avoiding the unknown danger in the bathroom, I went to the kitchen for a small snack. As I was enjoying a toast I had prepared, I noticed a small tremor happening outside of the house.

Then the realization hit me. Today Illya is supposed to meet Rin and get Ruby.

Having nothing else to do and wanting to try spying at least once. I went outside, and after making sure that no one was around or even watching me, I jumped on the roof by using reinforcement on my legs.

I landed on top of the house without making any noise, and I put a rune on my shoes, cancelling most of the noises it made, but I must still be careful about not making any noises by other methods. The rune only works on my shoes, after all.

Now having a front seat, I could observe a small confrontation between two girls, but as soon as I landed my eyes on Rin, I got a headache like nothing before. Before I closed my eyes in pain, I saw a see-through outline of someone covering Rin. It looked like a college-aged woman.

As I closed my eyes, trying not to let out any noises, I heard someone's voice inside my head. It was distorted, but I could tell it was a woman's voice.

*Please stop! I'm begging you! If you continue doing what you do, it will only lead to more suffering.*

The voice was full of sorrow, and it was easy to tell how much she tried to stop whoever she was talking to.

*You know why I can't stop. Every moment I'm not saving others, someone could die, and I can't let that happen. Even if it hurts me, even if it kills me, I'll continue doing that if it means one more person will be saved.*

I heard a second voice answering the first. It was distorted as well, but it was clearly the voice of a young man.

The last thing I heard was a weak sobbing, and then the pain stopped.

...I was sweating but more importantly, what was that? Memories? If yes, then whose memories were that? Mine, or Archer's. I don't recognize it at all, but why now of all time? Does Rin resemble that woman? Was it her outline that I saw? Too many questions, too few answers.

It's strange that it has never happened before. I assume that there is a trigger to unlocking these memories, and I would think it's by seeing or doing connected to the memories.

That raises the question of why Rin caused this. The outline I saw wasn't similar to Rin's. It was taller and had a different hairstyle. I couldn't see any details of it, though, so I can't say about the face.

I felt something similar in the past but not to that extent. During my training when I try to copy Archer's fighting style. It was like I was being guided, but I assigned it to weapons history.

I'll need to look into it.

I checked if Rin and Illya were still where they were before, and they started going inside. It looks like it's time for me to go inside as well.

(3rd's pov)

The next day during the night Rin and Illya gathered in the schoolyard. Illya was already transformed into her magical girl attire.

"Honestly, I'm rather concerned... considering I must now rely on you, but we don't have any other choice. Are you ready?" Rin asked with a serious face.

"Y-yes!!!"

"I've already told you where the card is, and it's in the middle of the schoolyard. We will observe the center of distortion." Rin explained.

"The center? I can't see anything there." Illya was confused, but Rin continued her explanation.

"Not here. The card is not in this world. Ruby."

"Yeah, yeah."

The magical kaleidostick was ready to open the path to the other world where the card resides but was stopped by someone.

"Don't be so hasty."

The girls turned to the source of the voice. They saw a young man built fairly well leaning against the school building while his arms were crossed. He was wearing black body armour, a red coat, and strangely enough, a creepy white mask consisting of two openings for the eyes that were tinted black, not allowing anyone to see his eyes, a red line indicating his mouth, and a blue lighting going over his right eyes. His hair was red and slicked backwards.

Illya was confused by the newcomer, which was starting to be her default emotion, and Rin was on guard. She didn't notice the man before he spoke.

Rin got her hand into the back pocket to have some gems at hand while she started talking with the mysterious man.

"Who are you?"

"Shouldn't you introduce yourself before asking for my name?"

"Tohsaka Rin."

"See, it wasn't that hard." His sarcastic remark made Rin annoyed. "You can call me Archer."

Hearing the name, Rin remembered what her teacher had said before she departed together with Luvia.

"Archer?"

"Yep. You know, the guy with the bow that shoots arrows." He made a gesture of using pulling the string of a bow.

Rin could feel that he was mocking her, but the truth was that he did that just to see her reactions. It was amusing seeing her trying to be calm.

"I didn't mean that that way! Are you the man sent by Marshal Zelretch?"

The man raised his eyebrow... not that anyone would notice it.

"Zelretch? He mentioned me?"

"Yes. He didn't say much, just that you will call yourself Archer or Faker and that you'll help gather the cards."

Hearing that, Archer started thinking, not expecting Zelretch to know about him, but it was still believable.

Illya raised her hand shyly.

"Excuse me, but who is Zelretch?"

Rin took out her glasses to start yet another explanation, but Archer was faster.

"He is just an old troll and maker of kaleidosticks. You don't need to know about him right now."

Rin didn't want to argue about his description of her teacher... because it was mostly true.

Archer turned to Illya.

"Can I know your name as well? We'll be working from now on, after all."

Illya was deeply in her thoughts before Archer spoke to her and his voice woke her up. He gave a very different feeling to her from her brother, but for some reason, he reminded her of him. Maybe it was his hair that was the same color as her sibling's.

"Illyasviel von Einzbern, nice to meet you Archer."

They shook hands.

"I'll call you Illya then. Now that we are done with introductions, we should start collecting the cards."

"Wait! Who said that you are going with us!?" Rin exploded.

"Now, now, calm down. As long as you can deal with the situation, I won't do anything. Think of me as insurance." He projected a bow. "And the best part, it's free. Now let's go collect this card."

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END 

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