White Ink

26

Rin Tohsaka sat in the train and stared out of the window watching the countryside go by. On her side hung a rucksack that contained, amongst other things, a piece of wood wrapped in cloth. Despite the age of the piece it wasn't that hard to obtain, nor that expensive. It hardly required any of her wealth or her connections to obtain, yet it was invaluable if she was to win the Holy Grail War.

She had even bit back her pride and went to ask the only known survivor of the fourth war for any workable tactics. Lord El-Melloi had only looked at her before he had told her to give up. He had then claimed that no amount of genius would ever prepare somebody to fight in the war and he had no further time for a dead student. She had left his room wishing that the dismissal had made her furious. Instead it had resurfaced a deep fear that had been festering in her heart for a few years.

When two expert executors arrived at her house informing her that the Einzberns were wiped out and the killer was traced here she was shocked. She took a day off school just sitting behind her bounded field waiting for news of the killer Kiritsugu Emiya's death. Well she received news a day later. That priest later confirmed that Kiritsugu Emiya was killed by a member of the church; however the two executors that were sent to Fuyuki had disappeared without a trace. After those events she found it almost impossible to sleep for weeks after that. The thought that it could have been her to simply disappear like that kept flashing through her head.
Eventually she had taken that dread and used it as fuel to drive her to master her magecraft. She had excelled and after many more sleepless nights she had been declared adequate at magecraft and graduated as a mature magus. From then she had immediately turned her eyes towards the clocktower and after a few false starts she had been granted an apprenticeship by the Wizard Marshall Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg himself. It had been the best moment of her life so far. All of her hard work had been acknowledged and she had been given an opportunity to not only prove her ability as a magus but also advance her family lineage.

This had disappeared shortly when the rumours of previous apprentices of Zelretch reached her ears. Stories of young magi being driven to insanity during his teachings were rife and those combined with the memories of her mother's blank eyed stare as she spoke to an absent Sakura and her dead husband almost made her turn down the honour. However in the end she was very glad she didn't.
Zelretch was not the most professional of teachers. He consistently displayed a lack of concern for any mishaps that Rin had while practicing her magecraft, which only in the most private recesses of her mind would she admit that there were more than a few. He also had the tendency of giving Rin the most impossible tasks to do in order to practice her magecraft like store fifty units of prana in a thirty capped gem. Rin still felt phantom pains in her left arm when she thought about it.
Still he was an excellent mentor, consistently showing her new tricks and new ways to refine her magecraft. He also gave her perspective. Despite all her genius and lineage he flat out stated that she was far worse at magecraft than he was at her age. He also stated that while she could qualify for the rank of Pride in the tower if she was tested, that there were also Magi her age who could qualify for Grand.

Rin shuddered at the thought. People who achieved the rank of Grand were incredibly powerful like the queen of clocktower. To think that people her age were on that level humbled her slightly and she found herself slightly dejected for a bit before she shrugged it off and got back to practicing her jewelcraft.
The train lurched to a stop and Rin left the vehicle and the station automatically, her legs carrying her on the way to her house without the input of her higher brain functions. She didn't actually want to take part in this war. The last time the war took place she lost her mother, her father and her sister as well as almost died herself. Despite the massive pride that she had in her legacy as a Tohsaka the Grail War had over time become something she actively despised.
This lead to the current direction of her thoughts. She would win the Grail War, obtain the grail and smash it until it was completely destroyed. She had even considered doing it before the war would take place and ending it prematurely. Unfortunately the Tohsaka's had very little information on the mechanics of the grail compared to the Einzbern's or even the Matou.
Her thoughts went in a very painful direction. Sakura, her beloved former sister, was who she would have to talk with to get any assistance in that objective. However she had no idea how to approach her about this. Last year when Sakura became the head of the Matou family on "that day" she had hoped that they could reconcile without pressure from those from either of their families keeping them apart.
But unfortunately it wasn't to be. Any overtures that were made to Sakura by Rin were either ignored or rebuffed. She couldn't even go through any of her friends to talk to as Sakura kept a polite distance from everybody the only exception being Shirou Inke.
Rin tried to avoid talking to that madman as much as possible. His annoying magic tricks aside he constantly gave the expression that life was a game to him, one that he happened to play with more knowledge than others. This was not helped by the fact that his school results were genuinely great. Rin just couldn't deal with him for any long periods of time.
Taking her mind off unpleasant things she continued her walk to the Tohsaka residene that served as her home. After a short incantation and the use of the key to her house she was inside and away from the prying eyes of the general public. Relaxing slightly she sat down and went about preparing lunch as one does before partaking in a massive ritual and winning the war.