Ashes

Netorare

Chapter 10

Netorare

The next day, Archer's connection to Rin was severed. When it was cut, it wasn't just a feeling of her mana line getting cut off or the somber feeling of departure but rather the crippling sensation of a hammer hammering the connection. It bent and twisted, contorting to the pressure willed upon it by an external force before collapsing in a painful rubber reaction.

In short, the prideful Tohsaka was brought low with fever, mana deprivation, and numbness.

She had tried to resist, of course, and thus she had ended up in this state. Her pained body lay helplessly on the bed as Shirou and Sakura watched over her. The ever-diligent maid of Illyasviel, Sella, also came in and out to ascertain if her condition was worsening or getting better.

"Do you want an apple... Rin?" Sakura asked as she extended a fork equipped with an apple slice at the end. The slice was off the courtesy of Shirou who was cutting the apples he had brought from his home.

"Thanks," Rin replied as she opened her mouth and allowed her estranged sister to feed her. Despite it being a new low for her, she knew better than to push her body for such menial tasks. Especially since the day of reckoning could come at any moment. "Did the little gremlin push you today?" she asked as she took a glance outside.

There, she saw the little Einzbern prancing around a strange mana storage device.

"It is not too much," Sakura replied as she looked at the fork in her hands. "I am glad I could be of use instead of harm..."

Shirou sighed as he stared at the ceiling as he finished cutting the apples. "While I feel useless..." he muttered in defeat. "All I can do is try fruitlessly to get stronger. Despite only training with him for a single day, I felt I had gotten a hundred times stronger. Now though, despite me hitting all the bullseyes, all the bamboo cutting, and all my testing I just feel like I can no longer jump."

"Senpai..."

"Have you ever considered doing poetry?" Rin asked as she looked him dead in the eye.

The red-haired teen gave his twin-tailed classmate the flattest stare he could muster. "Thanks, I guess I'll add that to the career consideration lists," he said flatly.

"No, I am serious," the Tohsaka affirmed as she kept steady her stare. "When writing, your creativity is at its highest as you think of things to fill in, entertain, or fantasize about. Poetry is a more focused form of writing and the best poetry is self-reflective where the irony, the meaning, and the procedure is meditated upon. Think about something that motivates you and think of a rhyme to form into poetry."

"So you want me to go a self-discovery pa-... Oh..." Shirou's mouth was left ajar as his mind realized her words' connotation. "Magus training?" he asked.

"Magus training," Rin nodded. "My old man took it too far though and based his personality on poems, so try not to live your life by them."

Shirou stood up and promptly excused himself from the room, his feet scurrying to find his room.

"Rin... Did father truly base his personality on poems?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

"No, I just don't want the dolt getting so carried away in writing that he doesn't exercise his circuits," Rin replied as she opened her mouth. "Apple."