Gunboat Diplomacy

Emiya Shirou looked at Matou Shinji skeptically. The other boy had nonchalantly walked up to him and Tohsaka Rin as they were returning from the Church. His head was still spinning with all the new information that was being thrown at him. Ever since Caster had emerged from his adopted father's summoning circle things had been one weird thing after another. It wasn't every night that a strange woman appeared out of nowhere, and Caster was very much a woman. Her scanty outfit made few attempts at modesty, and completely failed to conceal her outrageous swooping curves. As if it wasn't clear enough from her outfit that magic was involved, her long curtain of silky purple hair seemed as if she'd just come from a professional stylist. But the strangest thing had been the blindfold that she wore across her face. It made looking at her disconcerting, despite not seeming to hinder her at all.

He had been so mixed up in trying to get Caster to stop calling him 'Master' and to figure out what to do with her that he'd forgotten that Rin was scheduled to come over for a study session until she was already at his door. Typically, he hadn't been able to fool her at all. She'd taken one look at Caster, clad in an oversized trench coat like some kind of risque detective, and she'd given him a flat stare before lecturing him on Magus etiquette.

Long story short, he'd stumbled into some kind of magical war and his pride as a man wouldn't let him back out now. Caster was counting on him, and he couldn't just walk away and let Rin take on something this dangerous on her own either. Caster had warned him that Rin's servant was also present in her astral form, but so far she had not introduced herself.

Then Shinji had casually stepped out from behind a bush while they took a shortcut through the park and started making some absurd proposal. "Oh, come on Emiya. I know you're soft-headed when it comes to helping people but this is Tohsaka we're talking about. She's more viper than girl. She may be playing at being friendly now, but its only to get you to lower your guard. We've been friends for how long now? You know you can trust me."

"Oh please." Rin sneers next to you, at complete odds with her usual school idol persona. "Its not like you're anything like a real Magus to begin with Matou. I'm surprised that you're even brave enough to show your face, let alone without your servant present." Next to her, a tiny blonde-haired girl in full blue-and-silver armor appears. As if Shirou didn't have enough to distract him, her pure features under the moonlight cause him to double-take before grimly returning to the matter at hand. At your side, Caster seems to be uncomfortable with the situation. Thought it doesn't show on her strangely-blindfolded features, Shirou could tell that she was tense.

"You wound me, Tohsaka." Shinji replies, placing a hand dramatically over his heart while not seeming distressed in the least. "But I wasn't talking to you. You already had your chance and you threw it away. I was speaking with my good friend.." "Shinji." Shirou interrupts, his expression serious. "Shouldn't you be looking after Sakura? If this is as dangerous as the Priest made it sound, you should be looking after your little sister instead of blindly pursuing your own interests."

Shinji's features twisted into something more unpleasant. "My family is my own business, Emiya. You should stop poking your nose into it. You know what? Never mind. I think I'll just take what I want. You're too annoying to pretend anymore anyway." The Matou holds his hand up and snaps his fingers. Beside Shirou, Caster gasps while Rin and Rider likewise prepare defenses of their own. For a moment, it seems as if nothing happens. But only for a moment. All around the four unlikely allies the ground suddenly begins to crawl as perverse-looking worms with way too many teeth begin to tear out of the ground. Rider begins to move toward Shinji with a drawn sword and grim determination, but suddenly falls back and desperately parries.. something. There is a sudden wind, and dust and leaves are torn from the surrounding area in a vortex by the passage of an impossibly-powerful arrow. Rider is only barely able to parry it, and there are four more behind it.