Now that Saber was in front of Rin’s estate, she presses the doorbell, hoping that she wasn’t out somewhere. Surprisingly, she can hear Rin shout, presumably to herself “Oh, now what??” She opens the door and yells “Who?? …oh, Saber! What brings you here today?”
Saber saw Rin’s face quickly shift from anger and frustration to relief, so she says “Hello, Rin. Are you well?”
Rin frowns and sighs, before saying “Things have been awful, Saber! Come on in, and I’ll explain over some snacks.”
Saber’s eyes light up in anticipation as Rin leads her inside before Rin sets her down on her living room couch while she grabbed some cookies. Once Rin gets back, she plops down next to Saber and rubs her socked feet against each other while Saber removes her boots, wanting to feel a bit more comfortable too. Rin gives Saber a cookie and starts to explain her situation, saying “It all started this morning!”
Shirou, who was also curious, made sure to listen as well, so he’d be in the loop once Saber showed him to Rin. Rin said “I woke up and made myself some breakfast, and then I went into the study to make up some plans based on what I know about the other masters and servants. And then I call Archer over, to get his input, but he doesn’t appear!”
Saber gasped, and said “What? What happened to Archer?”
Rin continued, saying “At first I just thought that he was being a pain, and ignoring me to get a rise out of me, but then I eventually saw an incredibly tiny figure that looked just like him on the table, except it was waving at me. Archer shrunk somehow, and now I’m effectively stuck without a servant now, in the middle of the Holy Grail War!”
Saber frowned, and said “That’s awful Rin! So where is Archer?”
And Rin just sighs and says “He’s not very happy about his new size either, so he’s probably off sulking somewhere.”
Saber nods, but then her eyes light up again, and she says, “Oh yes, that reminds me; I need to show you something, Rin.” Saber then reaches into her pocket, and pulls Shirou out and places him on her palm, before presenting him in front of Rin.
Rin leans in close to the tiny Shirou, and the features of her face were magnified many times over for him. Her piercing aqua colored eyes seemed like they could gaze right into his diminished soul, and things only got more intense as she continued to slowly edge her face closer to him. Her long black hair, which was currently down, seemed like it could surround him like a vast forest. And she only stopped once her chin was nearly touching Saber’s hand, which meant that Shirou could reach her massive red lips if he only stretched his arms a bit, and he didn’t enjoy how close she was to him, or how Saber didn’t tell her yet about his condition.
Her lips slowly shifted into a grin, before Rin excitedly yelled “Is that a Shirou miniature?? Did you make this Saber…? You knew just how to cheer me up!” Saber silently gasped while Rin roughly snatched Shirou from her palm, gripping him tightly. Shirou was overwhelmed as her slightly warm but clammy fingers wrapped around him.
Then she opened her palm and started to poke and prod at Shirou with her right index finger, preventing him from making a sound. Then she said, while diligently playing with her Shirou ‘doll’, “It seems so life-like. It feels like I’m actually poking a tiny Shirou!” She began to laugh while Saber uncomfortably waited for a proper moment to interrupt her.
She kept on poking at Shirou while laughing, but then she slowed down and said “Wait, Saber? Why is it moving about?” Then she stopped messing with him, as she figured that something was wrong, and she allowed Saber to explain.
Following this, Saber says “Actually Rin, that’s the real Shirou. I found him like this in the morning, and we hoped that you could help.” Rin looked back down at Shirou, who laughed while still feeling dazed, and her face slowly but surely reddened in embarrassment.
She tossed him away towards Saber while yelling “You idiot, Shirou! Why didn’t you tell me sooner??”
After things calmed down a bit, and Saber and Shirou explained the whole story to Rin, she thought to herself as she processed everything. Eventually, Rin says “Well, I have a few ideas, but I’m not in the best condition to help out someone right now, especially with my servant effectively out of commission.”
She sighs while Shirou says, in a pleading tone “Please, Rin! I really need your help right now. I’d do anything in return!”
And Rin quickly makes a sly grin, and says “Oh really, little Shirou? You’d accept my help, under any condition?”
Shirou bluntly replied, “Yeah sure, just nothing weird I guess...”
Rin was silent for a second, before she glared down at the tiny boy, yelling “What’s that supposed to mean, you little jerk??”
Shirou jumped back a bit, and said “I’m sorry, Rin! I wasn’t trying to be rude…”
And while Rin continued to glare down at him, Saber added: “Shirou, let’s try to get along...”
But Rin quickly regained her composure, and she said “I do have a good idea on what you could offer me Shirou. And if you accept my terms, then I’ll do whatever I can to fix your problem, and take care of you until you’re back to normal.”
Shirou nods and says “That’s fine, Rin. Just let me know what you want first...”
So Rin explains, saying “As I’m sure you’re aware now that I’m down a servant. I cannot worry about you while I need to focus on my own survival, but I think we can help each other. You transfer Saber over to my command, and I’ll help you.”
Shirou gasped, and said, “But wouldn’t that be bad for me as well??”
Rin just chuckled and said “Perhaps, but it’s also true that you won’t be able to provide enough mana to Saber while you’re reduced in size, at least in the long run. It might be manageable if you avoid fighting, but you can’t win the war without doing that. And even though it’d normally be pretty challenging for any master to have more than one servant at a time, Archer doesn’t require nearly as much mana right now. So I’ll give Saber back to you once I fix Archer. Is it a deal?”
Shirou thinks for a moment, but quickly says “I’ll need to think on this if you don’t mind, Rin.” Then he turns to Saber and says “Are you alright with this? I don’t want to make this decision for you.”
Saber smiles and says “But Shirou, you’re my master. It doesn’t matter what I think of it.”
Shirou shakes his head and yells, “Of course it does Saber! You have feelings too, and you’re my friend!”
Saber’s eyes well-up slightly after that comment, and after she composes herself, she says “Okay. Thanks, Shirou! I’ll be happy with whatever you decide...”
Hearing this, Rin smirks and says “Sounds like it’s all up to you, Shirou... What’s it gonna be?”
Shirou looks down and genuinely considers his options since this would hugely impact how the grail war would go for him. And as he glances downward, he notices that Rin was absentmindedly wiggling her toes, allowing him to briefly see through her long black socks. Even from this angle and distance, Rin’s toes looked both long and imposing, and he could even see that her toenails were painted dark red. As this happens, he also wonders if working with Rin would ever give him a chance to experience her feet, now that he realized what awakened in him from dealing with Saber earlier.
Rin notices his stares, so she decides to stretch her legs in an exaggerated manner, lifting them up in the process. She continues to watch the tiny Shirou as his eyes closely follow the movement of her feet, before she squeezes her toes, watching his eyes widen from the act. After this, she brings her legs back down and rubs her feet into her rug, finding Shirou’s sudden fascination with her feet amusing. If he did decide to accept her offer, she’d have loads of fun toying with him, especially with how much he seemed to desire to experience her feet. She’d give him everything he desired, and possibly a bit too much, just to see how far she could push him before he broke.
In another room, the now shrunken Archer was sitting down feeling incredibly annoyed. As he sits there, he grumbles and says “Why did that bastard have to survive after shrinking. This would have been a perfect chance for him to just get himself killed... Maybe I’ll get lucky and something will happen to Shirou that will finally end all of this...”
But Shirou continued to think his decision through thoroughly until he finally decides on if he wants to accept Rin’s help or not...
Following this chapter will be a route split. There will be one path for if Shirou decides to just manage with Saber and one if he decides to work with Rin instead. Saber’s route will probably be shorter than Rin’s will be, since the last 5 chapters gave Saber the focus. So Rin’s would probably be longer. I’ll probably do one route until it is finished and then go to the other one. I also have an idea or two for bonus chapters, which could be cool whenever I get to those.
Let me know which character you’d like me to focus on next, and I’ll take it into consideration!