Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Fate: one half ❯ Chapter 3

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: kilich

Day 3

Caster lay quietly, feeling the Mana provided to her by that boy, or perhaps the most unusual Servant she ever met, slow coming to an end and remembered the events of that night, when in just a few hours she met with more kindness and caring than in days following her summoning.

She decided that prolonging her existence here was unneeded and she better leave before anything taints these wonderful memories.

She rose from her bed and carefully walked to, as others called him, Rider. Making sure that she won't wake him up, she lightly kissed him on a cheek and left to the other boy, which had an unusual talent as well.

“Wake up Shiro.” she asked quietly, almost instantly waking the boy up.

“Caster, what happened?”

She gathered what Mana she had left and summoned her Rule Breaker, a dagger with a jagged blade.

“Here, hold this. It's my reward to you and your friends for taking care of me. It's my Rule Breaker, use it to destroy spells. Even a contract between Master and Servant can be destroyed with it. And with your talent you can summon it whenever you want. “

Caster smiled and her body started to turn into a maelstrom of lights.

“Caster, wait!” almost yelled Shiro, but she was already gone.

He looked at her present and saw that it was fading from his hand as well.

“I can summon it with my talent? I wonder what she meant by that.”

This morning Ranma woke pretty late. Looking around he…

`That's unusually pleasant' he thought seeing that he indeed was male. He yawned and rose from his bed, noting that neither Caster, nor Sakura were here.

“Where the hell is she? She was too weak to even sit up yesterday.” he grumbled and walked outside, irritated that he felt that he needed to remember something important, but couldn't understand what exactly.

“Hello, Shiro.” he said, when he saw the boy walk from the training hall, looking rather tired.

“Good day, Rider… I mean Ranma.”

“So, I got an idea how to make you good enough to fight alongside Saber without getting almost killed again.”

Shiro turned to the other boy and a shadow of doom appeared in his eyes.

“I'll train you in martial arts. With me you'll be only half bad in a week.”

The redheaded boy turned away with all the slowness of condemned and started to limp towards the kitchen, asking himself what he did to deserve what was happening in his house for past few days. Finally, he answered.

“I'll do it as soon as bruises I got from Saber's training heal up. Also Rin has something important to say to you. “

“Rin?” asked Ranma, knocking on her door.

“Come in, Rider.”

Sighing when he heard Rider again, instead of his name, the boy entered the room.

“So, why did you call me? And where's Caster?”

Rin turned her eyes from the book she was reading, to the newcomer.

“Apparently your Mana wasn't enough to keep her here. She said she was thankful for treating her so well, gave Shiro a present and disappeared.”

“But that's not why I called you. I figured who can be a Master, and since Archer needs another day to recover, I wanted you to go with us, despite what Sakura might say, in case Saber won't be able to handle her Servant.”

“What about that Berserker guy?”

“We'll deal with him when Archer fully recovers. Heracles shouldn't be underestimated.”

“Whatever you say. I'll go with you tonight. And I doubt that Sakura will ask me to stay, after what happened to her when you came back.” said the boy as he remembered that Sakura stopped crying and blaming herself for Shiro's wounds only when he, following Rin's advice, carried her to their room and tapped a pressure point that put her to sleep.

When he walked out of the room, he, finally, understood what nagged him since he woke up today.

`She must've kissed me when she was leaving. Damn, why couldn't she stay?” he thought, touching his cheek and refreshing the feeling his body recorded even though Caster tried not to leave a trace.

`Man, my guy side seems worthless in this War. It's nowhere near the speed, strength or endurance of my girl side. ` he thought with a sour expression on his face.

`Not to mention that I'm sure Pops would've killed if it got him at least one of Rider's techniques.'

Deciding to end this unpleasant chain of thought he went to do what always cheered him a lot of well prepared food. But first he had to change unless he wanted to explain to Taiga who the hell was he, something he would rather not do if he had a choice.

“Shiro, I'll go see Kotomine. Maybe he'll give us some clues about other masters.” said Rin when the breakfast was finished.

“Wait, I'll go with you.” said Shiro walking out of the kitchen where he washed dishes, but before he could leave he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“What do you want, Rider?” he asked, without turning around, knowing that only she had this deceivingly soft grip.

His question was answered by Sakura, who walked out in the kitchen where she was helping him.

“Umm, sempai. I'm sorry, but I really want to cook something special for you today and we don't have enough products. And because I'll need to cook for everybody, I thought that I'd better start cooking early.” Her voice was usually shy and timid at the beginning but speeded up and gained color towards the end.

Shiro sighed and said with some measure of hope.

“I'll go, but can you tell Rider to carry me gentler this ti…me!”

Air was forced out of his lungs when purple haired Servant grabbed him across the body with one hand and leaped through the door, that was left open by Rin, outside and then up.

When they returned, Rider dropped off the bags with food along with Shiro at the kitchen and walked to fridge, thinking about a light snack before the main course when Sakura turned to her and said.

“Ah, Rider, can you…” the girl hesitated, willing to both be left alone with Shiro and don't hurt her Servant's feelings.

Rider, who was filling a dish with food, turned to her, puzzled, but hearing no answer she shrugged and said before she walked out.

“I'll better be training then cooking, Shiro is much better at this anyway.”

“Of course, Rider.” smiled her Master and started to unpack bags with food.

While she emptied the bags, taking much longer then needed, she glanced at Shiro, who already started to cook. She watched as his muscles moved under his shirt and his precise movements and a need to be as close to him as possible that gradually grew in her over the days she lived in his house, became impossible to resist.

`Sempai, you are always so kind and caring, I want to be with you forever. I'll do everything for you.'

She walked to the boy and as she leaned on him, she slightly rubbed herself again his back.

“Let me help you, Sempai.” she breathed in his ear and put her hands on his, slightly correcting his movements that, for some reason, became less accurate then before.

A half an hour later, when mid-day meal was usually prepared in Emiya household, Shiro walked to Ranma, who was training, in rather quick pace.

“I'm ready to train with you.” he said, glancing back worriedly as if he was followed.

“I thought you wanted to help Sakura in the kitchen?” said Rider, flicking her ponytail back over her shoulder as she stopped her kata.

The boy blushed when he remembered the plum haired girl hugging and even rubbing herself slightly against his back while trying to disguise it as helping him cook and coughed to hide his embarrassment.

“No, I think it's better for me to train more.”

Rider smiled and Shiro doubted for a second if he did the right thing when he noticed that her smile had a predatory feel to it.

`Damn' he thought after he misplaced a block and her poke threw him on the floor again.

“Heh. Got you.” she smirked and pulling him back to his feet, she stepped back to resume the training.

They paused only when door to the training hall opened and Sakura came in quietly.

“Dinner is ready sempai. I hope you'll like it.”

“Come on, Shiro. I'll give you a lesson on high speed maneuvering.” said Rider and took Shiro's hand before she turned into blur.

When the day was at its end, Shiro sat at one of windows and watching the sundown, remembered one of the many talks he had with the man he called his father, Kiritsugu Emiya.

“Back when I was a child, I used to admire superheroes.” said his father in his usual calm tone.

“What do you mean used to? You gave up?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, being a hero eventually loses its appeal and it's becomes harder to claim to be one when you've become an adult.”

After a short pause, he added.

“I wish I understood that earlier.”

Shiro thought about his words for a second and said.

“Then I'll become one for you. You can't become one anymore since you're an adult now. But I should be able to. I'll make your dream come true!”

“Yes. I believe you.”

His trip to his past was interrupted when he felt someone approach.

“Archer?” he asked “What happened?”

“I came to tell you, Emiya Shiro. It's impossible to save everyone. Your ideals are naÃ¯ve and foolish and the sooner they break the less suffering they'll bring you.”

“I will not betray myself.” answered Shiro in a rather irritated voice.

“As you wish, Emiya Shiro.” answered Archer, with a note of despise in his voice and walked away.

Shiro watched at his retreating back balefully, angry at him for laughing at his ideals but soon he cooled down and returned to his past.

“Coming Shiro?” said Rider, appearing outside of his window.

“Yes. Where's Sakura?” he asked, somewhat nervously. He couldn't help to prepare dinner or even eat it because of the girl's behavior.

“Don't worry. Rin left Archer with her.”

“This is the place?” asked Shiro when Saber put him down.

“Yes.” answered Rin when Rider landed a second later and put her down as well.

“Here lives Bazzet Fraga McRemitz, a mage who arrived a few days ago from Mages Association. She's skilled enough to fight a Servant, so be careful.”

They entered the house and seeing no one, walked in different directions.

“Ugh. I don't think she was skilled enough.” said Rider, pointing to an object on the floor.

Rin came closer and saw that a hand was lying there. Her lips turned into a thin line from worry.

“That means that her Servant either disappeared or has another Master.”

Saber suddenly looked towards the entrance and summoned her sword.

“I feel that a Servant is approaching.”

Rin turned around as well and said in an angry voice, even before a familiar figure appeared in a doorway.

“Archer, I told you to stay with Sakura!”

Archer stepped aside, revealing the said girl and answered.

“I found a place with several bodies. It looked like they where stripped of their energy by a Servant.”

“Stripped? You mean killed?” asked Rider with anger.

Rin facepalmed and said.

“Honestly, Rider. Don't you know anything? Servants live on Mana from their Masters but can also receive it by draining humans. Sometimes Masters even order their Servants to do so, because the more Mana a Servant has, the stronger he would be. “

Seeing two other Masters and Rider blanch in disgust, she sighed and continued.

“Anyway. I don't have any other leads on other Masters, so you can go back home. Shiro's too tired to be of any help, so I'll check what Archer found.”

Half an hour later when everybody went to sleep, Shiro woke up because something… somebody was undressing him.

“Who…” he started to ask, but was immediately silenced by a kiss.

“I won't hurt you sempai.” said Sakura brushing his cheek and leaning away so she could deal with the rest of the clothes.

“Ahhh.” Rider's eyes snapped open with a cry and she almost fell to the floor while trying to get out of bed, where her body tried to arch from the sheer intensity of the feeling she got through the link she had with Sakura, as fast as possible.

“What the hell was that?” she yelled, shocked.

When more started to come through the link and she felt what was happening to her body, she shivered with disgust and tried to suppress the urge to tear out this feeling out of her body along with the skin and blood if needed.

`Hot water.' appeared the saving thought and she dashed madly towards the kitchen.

“Man, I'll have to ask Sakura to never do that again if she wants me to stay in my girl form.” shivered male Ranma when he walked back into his room and fell on his bed ignoring that his clothes were wet.