"Huh? Your dad might've come back to Fuyuki?"
It was lunchtime at Homurahara Academy. Rin and Sakura sat in a quiet corner of the cafeteria, eating together.
Since yesterday, they'd been patrolling various parts of Miyama Town, trying to track the movements of other Masters and Servants—but neither Shinji nor any others had shown up with their Servants.
Having come home late the previous night, neither of them had the energy to prepare lunch this morning, so they'd opted to eat at the cafeteria instead.
"Gray originally tried to say Dad went to the Spiritual Tomb of Albion, but I pressed her a little... she couldn't keep the secret," Sakura said with a helpless smile. "She's too honest—just can't lie."
"That Gray… she's the gravekeeper girl you mentioned before, right?" Rin was clearly curious about her sister's time in London.
According to their plans, once she graduated high school, Rin would also head to the Clock Tower for a year or two of study. After that, she planned to travel the world in search of her own path in magecraft.
Still, right now, her interest was mostly rooted in concern for her sister.
"I thought you'd be more interested in the Spiritual Tomb of Albion."
"Normal Magi don't even get the chance to enter that place, right?" Rin replied. "And with the whole Grand Roll going on... if you hadn't left London, that person probably would've brought you along."
"Yeah… that was kind of the plan," Sakura admitted with a sheepish smile. "But right now, I'm really wondering why Dad came back to Fuyuki."
"Maybe he's got his eye on the Holy Grail too. He did participate in the last war, and he was the first to discover the Greater Grail's problems, wasn't he?" Rin offered a convincing explanation.
It made sense—any Magus with that kind of insight into the Grail wouldn't be likely to walk away from it.
"Even so…" Sakura didn't quite agree with her sister. "If I can, I'd like to find Dad as soon as possible. He might be able to help us deal with what's coming."
Rin gave her a sly grin. "Oh? Planning to let the other camps knock each other out so you can beat me easily and claim the Grail?"
"Sis…" Sakura sighed.
She felt overwhelmed by the uncertainty hanging over the Holy Grail War. One unknown factor after another kept stacking up.
There had to be a reason their father had returned to Fuyuki and chosen to get involved personally.
"Alright, alright, let's drop it," Rin said, backing off. She glanced at Sakura's plate. "You've got quite the appetite, huh? And you haven't gained a pound. You work out?"
Sakura puffed out her chest with pride. "Obviously. All the fat's gone exactly where it should."
"…Tch…" Rin made a disgruntled noise.
She'd already noticed during bath time that Sakura's figure had outclassed hers.
If anything, Sakura took after Aoi Zenjou in that department.
Stung by the remark, Rin bitterly piled more food onto her tray, ditching her usual meticulous portion control.
"By the way, why do you think the Matou Master tried to form an alliance with you?" Sakura asked. "I was nearby yesterday, and he seemed to have... other intentions."
"Oh, it's nothing. Matou approached me once a while ago, and I brushed him off," Rin said casually. "He didn't bother me after that, but I guess he sees this war as the perfect excuse to cozy up again."
Rin wasn't buying the idea that Shinji approached her just because of their shared lineage as two of the three great families.
"I asked around this morning—Shinji Matou didn't show up to school," Sakura added.
"You chased him off with magecraft yesterday. No way he'd strut back in today," Rin said thoughtfully. "And if he does, he'll probably lay some trap to try and catch us off guard or something—"
As if on cue, just as they were walking through the hallway along the courtyard, the air around them suddenly turned thick and sticky. The solid cement beneath their feet went soft—if only for a moment.
Then, the bright daytime school grounds were suddenly plunged into shadow, clouds rolling in overhead. The cold remained unchanged, but everything else had shifted.
The chatter and clamor of the campus vanished, replaced by a suffocating silence.
"Looks like you were right, Sis."
Sakura swiftly turned, standing back-to-back with Rin as they scanned their surroundings.
"Archer, can you hear me? Archer?" Rin immediately tried to contact her Servant through thought transmission.
But there was no response.
"I remember hearing that in the Age of Myths, even after Perseus killed Medusa, her head could still petrify people," Sakura said, channeling her mana to shift them into Imaginary Space. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't access the imaginary side. "That's why Perseus, guided by the Graeae sisters, received a special bag from the war goddess Athena—to contain the monster."
Realizing she couldn't rely on her magecraft to escape, Sakura began thinking through alternative plans, analyzing the abnormal situation that had caught her and her sister off guard.
Then, a smug round of applause echoed from above.
"Well, well. Quite the scholar. I thought you were just some amateur Magus, but you even figured out Rider's true name."
The arrogant, mocking voice unmistakably belonged to Shinji Matou. He kept going:
"Actually, 'Kibisis' isn't just for storing monsters. It can also be used to set up a bounded field like this—and trap clueless idiots inside, hehehehe!"
"Bragging about a Servant's power as if it were your own," Rin snapped, even as they fell into the trap. "This Noble Phantasm isn't even that impressive—it's just a glorified prison."
Even as she spoke, the scenery of the schoolyard around them was already starting to blur.
Before long, everything would be swallowed in darkness.
In other words, from the very first moment, Rin and Sakura had already fallen into the bag—captured by Shinji.
"You really don't get the situation, do you, Tohsaka?" Shinji sneered. "This bag suppresses mana. Even Magi are powerless once they're inside."
"And what good will that do you?" Rin countered. "Archer and Saber will have noticed by now. Your Servant can't take on both of them at once."
"That's where you're wrong." Shinji was still grinning. "I've prepared the perfect opponents for them. Hahaha!"
He burst into laughter, like a villain delighted to unveil his masterstroke.
Darkness engulfed everything, even distorting their sense of time.
And when light finally returned, they found themselves standing before a grand, ancient castle deep within the forest.
"Einzbern Castle…" Rin's eyes widened in shock.
A roar crashed down from the heavens. The towering form of a Berserker loomed over them, casting a massive shadow across the ground.
"By my Command Spell, come forth—!"
Faced with imminent danger, neither Rin nor Sakura hesitated.
"Archer!"
"Saber!"
The Knight of Rebellion and the red-clad warrior appeared, summoned by the power of their Command Spells.