Rin Tohsaka: My Saber!

Emiya Residence.

Rin Tohsaka looked at Lin Xiao seriously. "Mr. Lin Xiao, although I'm very grateful that you saved Sakura, now that you've been summoned by the Greater Holy Grail under the Class of 'Adventurer,' it means you've joined this Holy Grail War."

"Rin is right."

Red Archer, who had been in the courtyard, walked in as well. "Your existence may be a bug, but once the Holy Grail War's mechanism has started, the other Masters and Heroic Spirits will inevitably see us as thorns in their side. Especially since Lancer already witnessed your arrival today."

Hearing this, Shirou nervously set down his chopsticks. "Then what's our strategy from here on? Mr. Lin Xiao, is there anything I need to prepare?"

"Strategy?"

Lin Xiao glanced at the three of them, all braced for battle, and suddenly smiled.

"You seem to have misunderstood something. Strategy is something you consider only when the sides are evenly matched, or when the weak are trying to defeat the strong."

"And I represent overwhelming force."

Lin Xiao's domineering declaration echoed through the living room for a long while.

Shirou's eyes were filled with admiration.

However, Lin Xiao suddenly stroked his chin, his brows furrowing as though he were pondering an extremely serious problem.

"Um... Mr. Lin Xiao?" Shirou asked cautiously. "Is the food not to your liking? Or did you discover the whereabouts of an enemy Master?"

"No, it's not that. The food is delicious."

Lin Xiao put down his chopsticks and sighed, sweeping his gaze around the living room. "I just suddenly feel like... looking at our lineup, something seems to be missing."

"Something's missing?" Rin Tohsaka raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"It lacks soul."

Lin Xiao tapped the table solemnly, speaking with heartfelt anguish. "This is Fuyuki City's Holy Grail War! Without that King of Knights with a strand of spiky hair on her head holding the fort, this war has no soul at all!"

"Sp-Spiky-Hair King?"

"Let's give it a try!"

Lin Xiao slapped his thigh and stood up. "The Greater Holy Grail's system was just bugged out by me anyway, so why don't we try summoning her?"

The moment he said that.

The room fell silent for two seconds.

Then Rin Tohsaka's beautiful eyes abruptly lit up with a brilliance comparable to searchlights!

As the eldest daughter of the Tohsaka Household, who had always harbored an extremely fanatical obsession with the Saber Class, the greatest regret of her life was that her gacha pull had gone wrong and she had summoned an Archer.

Now that she heard she could exploit a bug to summon again, Rin instantly became so excited that she sprang right up from the tatami!

"Me, me, me, me!!!"

Like an elementary school student eagerly trying to answer a question in class, Rin Tohsaka frantically raised her hand. She even shot Red Archer by the doorframe an intensely disdainful look.

"Mr. Lin Xiao! Great God! Since you can exploit the Holy Grail's bugs, is there any way to return this guy in the red coat?! I want Saber too!!"

Red Archer, who had been maintaining his cool persona, instantly froze.

"????"

"Hey... Rin, I'm still standing right here as your Servant. Discussing returning me in front of me—doesn't your conscience hurt at all?!"

"Shut up! If you were a Saber, would I have to be this pathetic?!" Rin snapped back righteously.

"Stop arguing. You've got no chance, Miss Tohsaka."

Lin Xiao waved his hand with a smile, shattering Rin's fantasy before pointing at Emiya Shirou.

"The catalyst for summoning her has always been inside Shirou's body. Let's give it a slight try and see. That poster girl will definitely crawl over through the network cable."

"Avalon inside my body?" Shirou pointed at his own nose.

Lin Xiao directly dragged Shirou into the damaged shed in the backyard.

"Shirou, when you summoned me earlier, you used the light I gave you."

Lin Xiao pointed at the magic circle. "Now, close your eyes and feel for that sheath inside your body that has always protected you!"

"Th-this can really work?"

Shirou swallowed, but out of absolute trust in Lin Xiao, he obediently stood before the magic circle and closed his eyes.

Bzzzz!!!

As Shirou poured in his mana, the dormant Holy Relic within him finally released a dazzling resonance!

In an instant, an incomparably powerful storm of blue mana swept through the shed!

A petite girl clad in silver armor, with dazzling golden hair and an exquisitely beautiful face, slowly appeared within the light.

Her eyes were closed, her expression solemn. The iconic strand of spiky hair atop her head swayed slightly in the wind.

When the light faded, the girl slowly opened her clear emerald eyes and spoke that famous line.

"Tell me, are you my Master?"

Before the Spiky-Hair King could preserve the solemn, epic feeling of the moment.

"Holy shit..."

A male voice filled with extreme shock and disbelief suddenly came from beside her.

Saber turned her head.

The casually dressed young man was pointing at Emiya Shirou's hand, as though he had seen something that utterly violated game balance.

On Emiya Shirou's right hand, beside the three red Command Spells that had formed when he summoned Lin Ye... three brand-new red Command Spells had somehow been forcibly squeezed out as well!!

One person, six Command Spells! Two Servants!!

"No way..."

Lin Xiao looked at the utterly bewildered Emiya Shirou, the corner of his mouth twitching wildly. "Did you cheat on this account?!"

"Why do you have two Servants??!!!"

Rin Tohsaka completely broke down.

She rushed forward and seized Emiya Shirou by the collar, shaking him violently back and forth. Her eyes were so red with envy that they seemed ready to bleed.

"Why?! As a noble magus of the Tohsaka Household, I spent my entire fortune just to summon some unknown Archer! Yet you, a half-baked amateur, not only summoned a god who can tear apart magical systems like paper, but you even got the highest-ranked Saber for free?!! Give Saber to me, you bastard!!"

"Cough, cough... Miss Tohsaka, stop shaking me. I'm going to throw up..."

Shaken into an afterimage, Emiya Shirou looked like he was about to cry. "I don't know either?! Mr. Lin Xiao told me to do it!"

"Um..."

Saber, who had just made her cool entrance, stared at the chaotic scene before her, as lively as a wet market fight over discounted eggs, and froze on the spot.

What was more, her instincts as a top-class Heroic Spirit sharply detected the casually dressed young man beside her, who was shouting about cheating.

From him, Saber sensed a terrifying pressure countless times more dreadful than Britain's Red Dragon!

"Master..."

Saber tightened her grip on the invisible sword in her hand and swallowed. Her voice carried a rare trace of confusion and disarray.

"May I ask... is this truly the Holy Grail War? Why does... your other Servant feel like some star-devourer wandering the universe?"

Looking at the blank-faced Spiky-Hair King, Shirou being wildly shaken by Rin, and Lin Xiao standing nearby enjoying the spectacle and fanning the flames.

Red Archer, standing at the shed entrance, covered his face in despair.

To hell with it. Let this damned Holy Grail War be destroyed.