"Shirou…!?"

When the boy left Sakura's arms, Rin finally saw Shirou's image clearly.

That's not Shirou, it's just another existence with Shirou's appearance, which is more like the dead than humans.

There were mysterious patterns on his body, covering the entire face directly upwards. A piece of blood-colored linen was simply wrapped around his waist, and several dark bandages were wrapped around his limbs and key parts, almost melting into one with the patterns on his body.

The familiar face was transformed unrecognizable by strange patterns, pale and thin cheeks, blank pupils, and the double blades held by the rider reflected the light of death.

This is not Shirou Emiya at all, but another monster that is not a human. The monster with patterns on his body is standing in front of Rin, which is like a sacrifice for someone.

"Who are you?"

The girl's petite body shivered under the cold caused by the other party.

"Kill, kill...the person who hurts the master."

The surging magic power burst out from the double blades. Rider snorted in pain, and his strong body was pushed away by a huge force. Just as the Shiro-like person continued to attack Rin, he pulled the chains wrapped in the red girl away from her back.

"Damn it—!"

The Red Knight quickly stepped forward, and the same double blades swung, instead of rider to block the attacker's subsequent attack.

After a moment of relaxation, the rider pulled Rin behind her and breathed a long sigh. As if she had completed a certain task, she finally relaxed. In Rin's sight behind her, two deep wounds were exposed on the purple knight's back that forced her to break through the Archer's defense. The blood slowly flowed down and slowly closed under the rider's self-healing ability.

"rider, what's going on? Who is that person?"

The rider was silent and betrayed the master's purple knight holding a chain, staring vigilantly at the unknown who was fighting the archer.

This battle is really strange.

A strange person with Shirou's appearance has a stranger way of fighting.

The red knight who failed to protect his master, the double-edged blades waved towards the enemy with the infinite anger of the holder. Before the power was exerted to the extreme, they were hit by the same double-edged blades in the same way. The blade and the blade burst into clear sounds during the collision, and sparks suddenly appeared.

Archer rotated with the power of the double-click, and the double blades gathered stronger power in the rotation, and then was collided with another pair of double blades that were accumulating force in the rotation with similar trajectory. The two figures were shaken back by the counterattack force, and then the next strike that had not yet been fully collided.

"What a... strange battle...?!"

Rin saw Archer's battle clearly, and couldn't help but scream in surprise.

The battle between heroes who have experienced many battles should be a joyful battle between you and me, fighting in the free wielding swords, chasing the only victory from the gap between death. However, the scene in front of Lin was really a bit misplaced and weird.

The attacker's sword swinging technique is skillfully and powerful, and his fast-moving figure skillfully tries to cut into the dead corner of Archer, with his focused eyes without any emotion other than fighting, such as fear, anger.

The fighting posture was too much like archer.

It was simply that Archer was dancing swords in front of the mirror. No matter how magical the technique was used, the other party also copied it.

The same beautiful swordsmanship and the same awesome fighting will.

If it weren't for that little bit of misalignment, a refreshing sword dance would have been staged in front of Rin.

However, the fact is that before every single strike of Archer could be repelled by the opponent, his fast movement only moved half a step, and then stopped under the opponent's counterattack, and even retreated helplessly.

In Rin's eyes, the archer was in an embarrassing situation where he could not complete the attack and could not move smoothly. The figure, which should have been as fast and smooth as before, turned into a slide show, was clearly displayed in front of Rin. The figure was full of inexplicable joy and despair of failure.

It was like a pair of gears that could have been perfectly coupled, but one of them was half a link slowing down and turned into a collision between the convex surface, making a painful and desperate sound in countless attempts to bite.

Specifically, when the archer waved his sword towards the mirror, he only welcomed the same sword that blocked the sword that the archer swung. At a too close distance, it turned into a painful experience that could only complete half of the attack.

The red girl heard Archer's respite for the first time, and the double blades finally shattered in repeated impacts. Unsurprisingly, the same weapon was projected in the hands of the two people who lost their weapons at the same time.

It is no longer a black and white double blade, but it is the same narrow long sword body, and the same treasure with the same name as the king of the sword.

When the other party held the same weapon and blocked the Archer's attack, Rin could clearly hear the archer's weak sigh.

Through the figures of the two fighting, Rin looked at her sister kneeling on the cold floor, and a simple pajama that had originally landed on the ground was picked up by her and covered her body, but forgot to put it on. At this time, the girl only remembered looking at the boy fighting for her intoxicatedly. The burning emotions in her eyes burned Rin's nerves.

——Sakura, what exactly happened to you? What exactly is this?

After cutting off the third weapon from each other, Archer finally retreated unwillingly, and the other party retreated like a reflection in the mirror and returned to Sakura.

"Despicable guy, who are you?"

"This is my senior, Rin, your archer won't be able to recognize it, right?"

Silently put on his pajamas, Sakura happily snuggled beside his guardian, and her response words were full of provocation.

"It's impossible... it's impossible for such a thing to happen!"

Archer said incredibly that the follower of the bow who could maintain confidence and reason no matter what adverse situation he was in, actually lost his mind in front of the enemy.

"Is it a repeated summoning? A war summons the same hero of different ranks, and such a thing will never happen-!"

If what Sakura said is correct, it will violate the most basic principles of the Holy Grail War, not to mention that the war has been going on until now, and there is no reason to summon new followers.

Rin even felt angry that she was shaken by Sakura's words for a moment.

"That's impossible—!"

"Don't you want to admit it? This is Shirou who was abandoned by you, my senior. This is the sin you committed against him-! Push the senior into this hell."

Ying lovingly hugged her senior, beside the ice-silent defender, the girl's burning feelings became even more intense.

"When will it be unforgivable to push my beloved senior into hell and fall into the same state as an unclean person like me?! It doesn't matter, from today on, I will be with you forever, and no one can take you away from me-!"

In the dark space, the girl and the guardian snuggled together, as beautiful and mysterious as a blooming ephemeral, and in an instant, like eternity.

"Sakura, calm down. This is not Shirou. You can't be too close to him."

The person who spoke was rider, her voice trembled slightly because of her overly excited and worried.

"rider—Miss rider."

Now that I remembered that there were other people around me, Sakura turned her head slightly and looked at rider with a sarcastic look.

"rider, you betrayed me just now, right?"

The purple knight's body shivered and tilted his head slightly.

"You haven't fought seriously since Rin appeared, and even went against my will in the end."

"Because you can't hurt Rin. If Rin is hurt, you will regret it."

The female servant firmly guarded Rin in front of Rin. The red girl noticed that the blue veins on the other party's hand holding the short sword were exposed. The figure that was longer than the average male was trembling slightly. Inexplicable feelings sprouted from the bottom of her heart. Rin noticed that she no longer had any hostility towards the rider.

“…”

Sakura laughed silently, and under her long loose purple hair, the girl's pale and beautiful face was stubbornly raised.

"I clearly agreed to protect me, but I betrayed me. My seniors used the order curse to ask you to protect me, but you went against my will-!"

If it were the usual Sakura, she would definitely cry. But at this time, Sakura only had a smile on her face, and she slowly stood up, reached out to fumble from the ground, picked up a simple dress and draped it on her body, and leaned gently against the man who was protecting her.

"It's okay, I still have seniors - rider, I still have seniors."

Rin, who was standing behind him, could hear rider's gritting teeth.

"Sakura, my task is to protect you, even if it goes against your will, not to mention that this is your sister."

"So you want me to let her take my senior?"

Sakura's eyes became alert.

"Sakura, you should understand that it is not Shirou Emiya, he is just a dead soul and should not exist here."

"Enough—! That's true again. You don't know how much pain Shiro has, just thinking about staying away from him and hurting him."

"You know what Shirou Emiya is like. He really exists in this world, not the phantom in front of him..."

"Sure enough, no matter how many times I explain it, you won't understand it. He is here, his little bits and pieces are in my heart, his pain and struggle are right in front of me, and even his body temperature is within reach. Why don't you understand that he appears for me and exists for me?"

Sakura's voice became painful, and the words she tried to make rider understand had become the last effort before giving up.

"Leave, betrayer, I don't need you-!"

The girl's cold eyes made an ultimatum to her servant, and her ruthless words hurt Rin's heart.

"You can't even tell whether you are right or wrong? Sakura Maki! He actually treats such a non-human thing as Shirou. He can't even accept the kind-hearted persuasion."

"You are not qualified to call Shirou's name, Tosaka Rin—!"

No matter what, the posture of the girl who cannot change the same blood flowing in each other's bodies, and the posture of the girl who is angry for the burning emotions in her heart is so similar.

It's also completely incompatible.

While rider was standing by my side, he solved the other party in one breath.

The red girl made up her mind and expressed her will without hesitation with her sprinting figure.

Although he could not defeat the monster that looked like him, judging from the information he had at present, the other party was simply imitating his attack, and the real strength of both sides was equal, so he could definitely restrain the other party from returning to his master.

Under Rin's command, the Red Knight desperately entangled his opponent.

The rider ran anxiously towards her master, but hesitantly fell behind.

There is no one.

Among all the people present, none of them truly understood her heart, the heart of a girl named Sakura.

Isn’t this a fact that has been clear for a long time?

Isn't that what I am, no one remembers, no one knows, no one cares about living?
To be continued...