Hello! I have been tossing around an idea for a few months now that won't get out of my head.
Summary: Ten years after UBW good end, Shirou hesitates to act decisively when Sakura is being used by Zouken to protect the Greater Grail. Failing to save either her or the surrounding citizens, he then falls into one of her black void spaces and finds himself being offered a bargain he can't refuse after landing in Creation, from Exalted. (Cue Kyte vomiting) Eventually, Rin and Saber manage to follow him there.
Here's the reunion scene after they finally catch up to him there.
[***]
Rin crested the hill and climbed the nearest tree to get the best viewing angle of the battlefield she could manage. According to Shirou's directions, the ruins he was holed up in would be . . . there. A few miles off, across a stretch of near featureless cracked and dry plains.
It would have been completely featureless if not for the horde of beastlike warriors on it converging on said ruins from all directions. Rin sighed and dropped down to the ground, landing on two feet instead of four.
Twelve months. Twelve months since that disastrous battle in Fuyuki that had seemed to cost her everything. Twelve months since Rin faced down her sister Sakura with Shirou and Saber at her side with the intention of stopping her. Twelve months since the black void underneath her opened up, swallowing Shirou and herself.
Six months since Rin and Saber made their way to this terrifying new world to find him. Six months of not giving up hope, of tracing every lead, and eventually making contact with Shirou and planning this rendezvous.
A lot of things had happened in the meantime. Things that had changed her and Saber forever, if her research after the fact was correct. The Age of Gods had never ceased in this place, and like Earth's myths of old they were as capricious and quick to judge as they had ever been in the books of her childhood.
Even if the judgement was positive, it came with side effects. Side effects like suddenly finding oneselves as some of the legendary anathematic enemies of the whole world's single reigning power. Rin had half a mind to actually get to the bottom of that one, but later.
Right now, Shirou was more important.
Off in the far, far distance, a golden column of light pierced the noon sky. That would be Saber getting started. I can't let her leave me behind! Rin stepped forward, then gradually built up to a full sprint as she began to call on her god-given power. As she easily caught up to the attacking force, she considered her tactics.
Her arms and legs began to glow a soft silver as she channeled her most basic 'new' combat enhancement into them. At first she had merely been able to sharpen her fingernails (or teeth) with it, but with a bit of practice had eventually forced the spell (she would not call them Charms, because that was a stupid name) to wrap her limbs completely so as to enhance her already respectable soft-fist martial arts. Her gentle-looking strikes were now quite literally capable of pulping vital organs, instead of merely damaging them.
Still, she was a Magus before anything else, and just because she was preparing for melee combat didn't mean she was ignoring her roots. From nowhere a spread of eight gemstones slipped between her fingers and she muttered the incantation to activate them. Before the first barbarian turned around she had blasted him and the two men in front of him a new ventilation duct . . . clear through their torsos. As their nearby comrades started to slow their charge and turn around to look, she jumped up onto the shoulders of her first victim before he had a chance to fall, and somersaulted forward so as to be in the middle of as many of the beastmen as possible.
Memories of terrible films she had watched with Shirou and Saber filled with men in cheap rubber costumes came back to her as she unleashed the remaining seven charged gems, slaughtering dozens more of them with surprisingly little blood, if Hollywood had anything to say about it. Six months ago I would have cried if someone had told me in the future I would waste eight charged gems on mere mundane meatheaded grunts!
She had finally gotten their full attention as at least fifty blades or bludgeons turned to bear on her. Grinning, she charged around the edge of their formation, pummeling the greater crowd with Gandr shots from her Crest. Saber was right; there's nothing like a clear line of fire on massed enemies with no chance for friendly fire to increase morale!
She tried not to think too hard on the bloodthirstiness of that though as she knocked down enemies like prizes on the shelf of a summer festival stand. Terrified screams and various curses in whatever backward tongue the hairy half-men employed were obvious. What was less obvious was the coordination of a counterattack. Suddenly she was spending as much effort dodging a rain of arrows as she was aiming and firing at the mass of fighters, and while not a single one grazed her, her accuracy in turn had gone to hell. She bit down a small wave of panic. Calm down, Tohsaka Rin! You are a top class magus and a beautiful kung fu movie protagonist! Remember: act like you're on camera! Elegance in all things!
She smiled and ceased her dance-like dodging, pulling out a red gem and pointing it at the next oncoming wave of arrows. A wall of flame blinked into existence above her head, consuming the incoming projectiles utterly. Her satisfaction only lasted until the melee ranks facing her broke to reveal a handful of warriors with what looked to be stone throwing axes. Ah, crap. Before she could react, a flare of green light reached the sky from the ruins in the near distance. She did a quick double take. Was that- no. It couldn't be. I'm seeing things.
When every axe-wielding thug drawing a bead on her found themselves impaled from above and behind by arrow-like swords, she reconsidered her dismissal. When those swords and their victims burst into green flames and disintegrated, she smiled. I'm not sure about the new color scheme, but whatever. If he's providing support, I can afford to have a little more fun!
With that, she dashed directly at the enemy line, limbs aglow, ready to pulverize anyone and everyone who stood between herself and Shirou.
[***]
One furious fight later, Rin was hopping and skipping from one clean spot to another on the barren field, avoiding blood and other viscera as she could on her way to the ever-closer ruins. The combat was over on her front- it had become a race between herself and the not-so-mysterious archer to rack up kills. Golden flashes of light still sporadically lit up the east, so Saber wasn't quite done yet. That was fine; she wanted to see him alone for a bit first anyway.
She took off running and clambered up a half crumbled wall, darting from brick to brick as she made her way to the obvious sniper's nest in the lone standing tower. The green light had died down, and her nose was actually the first thing to pick up on him; the familiar smell of the forge and molten steel filled her mind more with each breath. Wait. He didn't smell like that; that was only inside . . . oh, no. Frowning, she picked up her pace, diving into a porthole on the tower and marching up the stone stairs around and around. The green light was visible now at the top, fading over time. So, he got noticed too, then. It figures, him and Saber both.
She heard his breathing before she got to the top of the stairs. She heard his heartbeat a bit after that. It was a little fast; faster than it ever got during actual battle, if her memories of being cradled to Archer's chest while he calmly rattled off this or that tactical factoid to distract her. Ah, I have to stop doing that. He'll stop feeding me for a week if I compare him to Archer to his f-
Her train of thought crashed spectacularly as she rounded the final loop of the stairs and faced the man perched on the rampart. A faint green halo surrounded him. Then she blinked. White hair and bronzed skin, a frame of wide shoulders that would willingly lift the burdens of the World . . .
"Ar- Sh, Shirou!" She caught herself. Barely. They both knew what she almost said.
He turned to face her, a sad smile gracing an otherwise familiarly-shaped face. A softly green glowing brand of two crossed swords graced his brow, an obvious parallel to hers and Saber's. His hair was still in its normal style, so at least he wasn't purposely imitating him- she hoped. His gaze went to her neck, then up, then down to her feet- and then back up to the top of her head again, where it stayed, riveted.
The smile became a frown. The smell of smoke intensified for a moment and the crossed swords twinkled a bit brighter as he stared. -Did he just use Structural Grasp on me?-
"Rin." It was Archer's voice. -Oh gods he has Archer's voice, he called me 'Rin' in Archer's voice- "Why do you have cat ears?"
What? What is he . . . oh. Oh no.
Flustered, Rin tried to regain her composure.
"Ah, Emiya-kun, shouldn't we focus on more pertinent topics for the moment? You know, like how we haven't seen-" or touched "-each other for an entire year?"
He gaze did not waver. His head shook ever so slightly.
"No, Rin. This is important. It is quite possibly the most important thing."
Her mouth dropped open, and with great effort she summoned more words, which she forced out with increasing speed and decreasing decorum.
"What does it matter! We missed you! Your messages were infuriatingly sparse! We wanted more details! Tell me why you were so hesitant to meet these last few months after we established communications!"
His head tilted slightly.
"But how do I know whether or not I am speaking to Kaleido-"
"I'll kill you. I made that heart of yours from nothing- I wonder if I could unmake it too?"
"Identity check complete." His expression was totally neutral as he said the formal words.
Rin's face froze. Shirou's face relaxed back into its normal guileless expression.
"It's good to see you too, Tohsaka."
She felt the blood flowing to her face but she couldn't stop it. He toyed with me. He toyed with me like Archer did. Reflexively. Consternation and affectionate nostalgia warred in her heart as she sputtered a bit, and before she could spit out a retort a buring mote of golden light shot up from the eastern horizon and began to grow.
He slid off the rampart to his feet, and turned to look.
"Ah, it's Saber."
Rin stared at the back of his neck for a bit before she realized that she was staring at the back of his neck. As opposed to the middle of his back. I really did get taller. Which means Saber did too. I guess I didn't notice because we were still the same relative height . . .
She grinned as an idea occurred to her. She reached into her 'pocket' and pulled out something familiar. Something he had refused to wear that fateful day because he had insisted it was going to be a 'dirty job.' His signature red overcoat, with which he would now be a spitting image of Archer.
"Shirou, before she lands, put this on!"
He glanced back at her over one shoulder and his expression turned wistful.
"I appreciate the idea, Tohsaka, but I don't think I have time to make the modifications so it will fit before she lands."
Rin blinked.
"Modifications? You've literally grown into the thing! Say what you will about his personality but Archer made this thing look good! Now take that shabby punk rock spiked armor off and-"
She looked at his back again, closely. She hadn't paid it much heed initially, because she herself was wearing something more functional than stylish, but Shirou's current armored jacket seemed a bit too snug. Not that it didn't look wonderful on him, in a very uncharacteristically bad-boy kind of way, but she had figured the spiky motif had had some kind of practicality; after all, Shirou never dressed for fashion unless it was at sword-(or Gandr-)point. The frayed edges of the buff jacket around the spikes showed some obvious wear and tear- wait.
Frayed.
Around the spikes. The spikes that looked suspiciously like swords. Or multiple swords all growing towards a single point and warping to resemble spikes or horns.
The spikes that were emerging directly from his flesh, in symmetrical pairs on his shoulders, back, elbows, forearms, knees, and shins.
"Shirou . . ." what have you done to yourself?
The question went unasked because the golden-white light in the sky began to grow unignorable, and seconds later a very illuminating Saber landed lightly on the parapet, a solid golden disc on her forehead to contrast with Shirou's crossed swords and Rin's presently invisible current-moon-phase equivalent.
Shirou spoke first.
"Saber. You got taller."
Saber loomed down on them, but it was more a function of her standing on a higher surface. When she hopped down to the same level, the light from her aura engulfed them all, slowly whitening some of the stones inside the tower that never normally got direct sunlight. Her expression was its normal neutral. Neutral nothing, she's probably choking at his appearance as much as I was.
"Shirou. You seem to have grown as well."
Hey. I didn't get a height comment. Hey! Shirou was looking directly forward at Saber, instead of down at her like he used to. She had fully grown into an adult Caucasian frame within the six months they had been in this 'Creation.' One of the side benefits of Exaltation. Not that I have too much to be jealous about, myself. I didn't exactly get a raw deal in the body department either. A memory of a rolling, laughing silver-clad woman flashed in her mind. Well, except the damned cat ears. Why did he have to notice those? No one else ever noticed those! I even kept my power use low!
Saber and Shirou were still staring at each other. Damn them. Time to break this up!
"Yes yes, I know you're fascinated by the fact that Saber has breasts now Shirou, and you'll probably get a chance to structurally grasp them all you like later, but for now we have important matters to discuss. Like how the hell we're going to get home?"
Shirou didn't look away from the now blushing Saber as he deadpan replied.
"Actually I was more terrified by the possibility that her appetite has grown as much as her body."
No one was shocked by Saber's narrowed gaze, or by Excalibur coming up to Shirou's neck, or by Saber's next words:
"Shirou. It seems you have been lax in your training. As your swordmaster I insist that you immediately allow me to gauge your current reserves of stamina. And pain tolerance."
Shirou didn't even flinch.
"That will be fine, Saber, but only after I confer with you on a tactical matter." All trace of humor was gone from his voice. Saber's eyes widened in curiousity and she lowered the sword.
"Of course, Shirou. What do you wish to know?"
He tilted his head in Rin's direction once, and lowered his voice to a clearly audible stage whisper.
"Does she purr?"
Shirou then immediately learned that in Creation, precious gemstones were only a dime a dozen.
