Chapter 818: Visiting Kirei — Rin’s Choice!
Rin Tohsaka stood in front of the grounds, where the church was supposed to be.
Now, she stared at the ruins of one, instead, disbelieving the sight, the burned grounds, and the debris.
Just what happened?! She asked herself.
Just what happened in the last few days for things to turn out so ... shattered everywhere?!
Not only Matou Family — but someone had the gall to go against the Holy Church itself?!!
"Rin..." Assassin’s voice suddenly rang in her mind. "It’s an illusion. A Bounded Field set up by an expert."
Rin’s eyes widened even more as she heard that.
Not only hers, even Archer, who was invisible, let out a shocked gasp.
Rin Tohsaka herself was an excellent Mage. It was hard for her not to notice Bounded Fields. She couldn’t just break one, but detecting one wasn’t hard for her.
For even Archer, a Heroic Spirit, to not detect the Bounded Field, it only meant one thing — it was placed by another Servant.
"Wait..." Rin suddenly asked, narrowing her eyes, "... how did you sense the Bounded Field, then, Assassin?"
For a moment, silence lingered between the three.
Then, slowly, Assassin said, as if he was figuring it out as well. "It’s related to my Class, I guess," he told them. "If you want, I can... infiltrate the space without breaking the boundary."
"You can do that?!" Rin asked, shocked beyond measure.
If Assassin could really enter the space protected by a Bounded Field, without breaking one, then it made him the wildest trump card because such a feat was almost impossible.
"Do you..." Assassin pressed.
Just as Rin wanted to say yes, already feeling low because of not knowing what was happening, another voice entered her mind. It didn’t belong to her Servants.
"Rin."
"Kirei?!" Rin narrowed her eyes.
"Come inside. Please, be warned... there’s another Master under my protection here."
That rang bells in Rin’s mind instantly. "He doesn’t know..." She told Archer and Assassin mentally. "About me summoning two Servants..."
Rin knew how special the Overseer of the Holy Grail War was. She had never truly liked Kirei, but she didn’t doubt his strength.
Kirei must know about the Assassin’s Summoning, Rin believed. Which meant he couldn’t tell how many Servants a particular Master possessed.
"We can use this to our advantage," Archer advised. "As much as I find most of Assassin’s words foolish, I agree to keep his presence in the dark. Good thing you put on those gloves..."
Rin looked down and stared at the white gloves on her hands.
As she couldn’t hide the Command Spells, she had decided to hide them with these simple means.
"Let’s go with you, Archer," Rin told him. "I will not mention Assassin to anybody, then."
So, taking a deep breath, Rin entered the broken iron gate, vanishing instantly.
...
The insides of the Bounded Field weren’t much different than what could be seen from outside.
In fact, they were a touch worse — with a massive crater in place of where the church once stood.
Now, there was a small church to the very right of the previous one, its doors wide open.
"Yes, I sense the Servant," Archer told her. "... Powerful."
Nodding to herself, Rin walked to the church and entered the dimly lit hall, a small crucifix resting straight ahead.
The moment she entered, her eyes fell on the small open room on the left of the cruciform.
Kirei was walking out of the room, and behind him, there was a woman.
Rin couldn’t see much, other than her blue-armored dress, her blond hair, and blue eyes, as the woman looked over her shoulder.
Then, just as Rin was finding the woman fascinating, her eyes landed briefly on a red-haired boy. He was looking in the opposite direction, holding his face.
Even then, Rin recognized him.
No... She gasped. Why him?!
"What is it, Rin?" Archer asked, sensing her inner turmoil.
"... Nothing," Rin replied, burying the feelings and walking to Kirei.
"So, you finally decided to join the Holy Grail War, Rin," Kirei Kotomine said, his hands locked behind his back.
"Enough with your nonsense!" Rin snapped. For him not to mention anything to her by himself...
Kirei had been her father’s student once. She’d thought he would keep that in mind, instead of hiding such grave matters, until she approached him.
"Calm down, Rin," Kirei said. "Things had happened too fast... Also, you weren’t a Master last night. Even if I’d let you know, what could you have possibly done?"
"... What..." Rin asked, barely able to put her question into words. "What happened to Sa... Matou family?"
Then, slowly, Kirei told her everything — everything he wanted
her to know.From Black Von Einzbern’s plan to end Zouken Matou to him being a Master. From Shinji’s death to Sakura becoming the host of All Evil. From the Counter Force summoning the Ruler-Class Servant to Sakura dividing into two, the latter becoming an evil entity — The Shadow.
Kirei also told her about the strange presence of two more Mages.
One of them, a Lich, perhaps, had taken away the Dark Sakura and her corrupted Servant with him. And Black had instead taken away the real Sakura, who had also regained her Servant.
By the time Kirei stopped telling the story, Rin’s face had lost all color.
She remembered the white-haired transfer student... but she hadn’t had any impression of him.
"... Why..." Rin asked, trying not to think about the Dark Sakura and other things, yet. "Why did he do that? Why?!"
Sighing, Kirei told her about the Crest Worms and what Sakura’s fate had always been.
Rin’s entire face crumpled, a nauseating feeling taking over her entire existence. She had no idea...
Rin then looked toward the small room, finally realizing why the boy looked lost. "Did he..."
Kirei nodded. "He was there. Wait..." he said as he saw Rin walking toward the room. "As the Overseer of the War, I cannot allow you to go to him. If you want to meet him, wait till tomorrow."
Rin clenched her fists and nodded, turning around.
After everything that happened, she still had a War to fight — to win.
It was just... despite learning the truth about Sakura’s past, she was glad that — her sister was still alive.
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