"So, what do you need, Archer?" Rin asked as she helped the two Servants get Sakura through the doorway to her home. "Anything from your house? Gemstones, Mystic Codes, rare Phantasmal parts?"
"Awfully generous of you Rin," Shirou remarked.
"I-It's for reestablishing our contract with the Matou!" Rin blurted, her face red as she turned away. "Anything I spend here, I can get paid back later after Sakura is restored to health. And it will provide an edge in negotiations too."
"Yup, as I thought. You are a good person, Rin," Shirou said with a pleased expression.
"Idiot!" Rin said, blushing up a storm. "It's all for the sake of negotiations, for negotiations!"
"Saying it twice doesn't make true, you know," Shirou shot back.
"Archeerrrr," Rin growled, holding up one hand with two Command Seals on it.
Shirou threw up the hand that was less necessary to hold Sakura steady in surrender.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop, just don't waste a Command Seal before Gilgamesh can give you a new one," Shirou capitulated.
Rin's command seals stopped glowing.
"You should have behaved in the first place," She grumbled as she put her hand down. "Making me waste it like that."
Ding-dong.
Rin paused and looked down the hallway to the front door which led to the gate outside.
"I'll go see who it is," Rin declared before squeezing past Shirou and Lancer in the hallway.
Shirou had to keep himself from shivering as Rin brushed by him, the scent of her hair rising up to his nose as he felt the brush of her arm and shoulders across his.
Lancer Lily tapped the floor loudly with her foot.
"Sorry," Archer Lily apologized for holding her up to deal with his hormones.
Rin just was attractive to him, and having her in such close proximity was distracting.
The pair carried Sakura into a greeting room that was out of view from the entryway. Carefully, the two Servants set down the statue of Sakura, whose hands were frozen in place, clutching at her heart.
Shirou regarded the girl who had been close to him as a sister sometimes. Or sometimes she had been closer.
He didn't remember. His Reality Marble was specialized in gathering, storing, and replicating swords but one of the easiest functions to master was reading them and their history. Archer Lily had millions of billions of swords, ranging from the humble butter knife fresh from the factory to Noble Phantasms who had thousands of years of experience.
And Archer remembered them all. The contradicting ones from alternative timelines. Battles against Medusa, battles alongside Medusa, battles in any of the Grail Wars, battles outside of Grail Wars, battles where Medusa had ended up as Shirou's Servant or battles where Shirou Emiya killed Medusa.
All versions of those weapons were there. Contradicting history or not, Archer remembered each.
Unfortunately, with so many memories that he could never forget as his Reality Marble would not let him, Archer couldn't remember what his life had been. Oh, he had some memories of it. He knew that Saber had been his Servant. He knew that certain Servants were particularly dangerous, that Saber was beautiful, and that Sakura's Shadow was practically a prelude to him getting called in as a Counter-Guardian—
Wait, that wasn't his mortal life's memory. Shoot. He was mixing them up again.
"All right, so what do we need for this plan to heal Sakura to work?" Rin said as she walked in, Gilgamesh trailing behind her.
Gilgamesh waved hello and said. "I've covered up the Incident at the Matou Manor. They now think that it was just a very old basement wall collapsing that cascaded into an explosion and then into a sinkhole."
"While true," Shirou commented. "That was awfully fast work."
Gilgamesh grinned, his eyes closed. "Eyewitness testimony from a charismatic and brave boy who rushed onto the scene at the first sound of trouble might have contributed to the quick wrap-up."
"While making our cover story straight is worthwhile, we have more important concerns," Rin dismissed impatiently. "Now, what do we need to get Zouken out of Sakura?"
Everyone turned to look at Emiya, except Sakura who was still stone.
"Well, I need a clean spot to work with. Preferably somewhere with an elevated table large enough to put Sakura on," Shirou answered. "Oh, and some plastic gloves would be good. Also, I'm going to need a lot of magical energy for a sustained amount of time. If the place is sanitary and sealed from outside elements such as germs, it would reduce the energy expenditure, but if not then I can do without."
"Sounds like we'll need to use my workshop," Rin mused out loud. Then she agreed with a sharp nod. "Fine, you can use it. I don't have plastic gloves in your hand size though, so you'll have to go out and buy some."
"I'll buy," Medusa spoke up before holding out her hand, palm up.
"What, do you think that I am going to—" Rin broke off as she looked around.
Archer shrugged, he had been summoned without a wallet, cash or card.
Gilgamesh smiled brightly, indicating that he is a young, cute boy, and you wouldn't make such a fair youth spend his well-earned allowance, would you?
Sakura was still a stone statue whose purse was either buried in the ruins of the Matou Manor or stone in her pocket.
Medusa, Sakura's Servant, was in the same boat as her.
And then there was Rin. The only person here with a financial status that would pay.
Rin groaned as she brought out her purse from her skirt pocket and grudgingly handed over yen bills one at a time. "This better be paid back in full." She grumbled.
Medusa accepted the money and vanished as she went out to get the supplies.
"So, let's get Sakura down to the Workshop," Rin said as she turned to Shirou with a bit of a grumpy frown. "I'll stay home today so you'll have your supply of energy."
The red-headed Servant nodded and carefully moved to pick up Sakura.
"I hope this works," Rin muttered to herself as she hovered over Shirou, making sure that he wouldn't even chip her sister on a door or something.
* * *
Of course, it wasn't that simple. They had to clean up Rin's workshop, put the books and gemstones away in different parts, and make sure that everything was organized.
Gilgamesh was as much help as you could expect. Namely, he made great progress on his Gameboy game while sitting on a safe and kicking his feet, but not so much progress on moving stuff around. Yet, if you asked, he could tell you exactly where they had left the book that Rin was trying to find.
Archer did a great deal of moving stuff around. The heavier the better in Rin's obvious opinion.
Medusa did come back and she did help carry stuff around, but that was mostly scrolls and books and the like as compared to Archer's statues, metal objects, and occasional blocks of stone.
"Biased much?" Archer asked as carried a heavy and fragile case of gems into another room while Medusa got to take a scroll.
"I'm not into using child labor," Rin said dismissively. "The lawsuit claims would tie up more resources than I would like."
"Yet her strength is higher than mine," Shirou said as he left the room.
"Who was it who tried to get me to stop working on Kotomine last night saying that it wasn't ladylike?" Rin yelled towards the door.
"Forget ladylike, it wasn't humane at all!" he shouted back.
"Ignore him, dear," Rin said in a falsely sweet voice pitched to carry as she gave Lancer another scroll case to carry. "Leave the strenuous work to the lazy men folk."
Gilgamesh gave a friendly wave at the indirect dig and shouted out. "You'll want to move that three centimeters to the left, Archer! The ball you'll set there in 15 minutes will roll away unless you do."
When Archer came back in for the next load, it was to meet a smug smile from Lancer who was clearly enjoying being doted on, even if Rin was doing it for the sake of playfully arguing with her Servant.
He just sighed and pretended to be put upon.
And took the bundle of scrolls from Lancer when Rin's back was turned.
But finally, hours later, a room in the workshop was cleared and clean and a table large enough to put a girl on had been dragged out to the center of the room.
Gilgamesh turned off his game and dropped it into the Gate of Babylon, face getting serious now that the serious work was about to begin.
Rin watched carefully as the other two Servants carefully lifted and raised Sakura, who was still mostly stone but some hints of color had returned to her hair as the petrification slowly regressed.
"So how long until the operation will start?" Rin asked fretfully as she looked over the still stone statue. "Stone statues tend to be better suited for chipping than surgery so how long will Sakura be like this?"
"I can start it at any moment," Shirou said as he pulled the box of gloves to him and put two on. "The Noble Phantasm that will turn this room into the optimal environment for an operation will cure her petrification automatically. A partially completed petrification would be treated like a toxin and cured automatically."
Rin blinked. "Then why wouldn't it remove the worms from Sakura right away?"
"Because it negates all hostility and toxins while inducing recovery effects," Shirou responded as he closed his eyes in concentration. "The worms also count as lifeforms so it would heal them while healing Sakura too. But while the Noble Phantasm is active, the worms cannot harm Sakura at all. The only way around the enforced ceasefire is to be focused on saving someone to the point that you believe that your harmful actions are for their benefit and health.
"That said," Shirou hesitated. "You probably want to step out, Rin. This is still surgery and it will not be pretty."
Rin looked like she wanted to insist on staying but thought better of it.
"Alright," she agreed as she turned to the door. "Just know that if she dies, you better die trying to prevent it."
Medusa crossed her arms, conveying her intent to stay and be with her Master through it all.
"Don't worry," Shirou Lily said, his eyes still closed as he bent his will towards reproducing the Noble Phantasm.
"In that case, I'll take this out," Gilgamesh said as he pulled out a Noble Phantasm blanket. "As long as she is on top of this, she'll stay asleep."
"Oh, oops," Shirou said, opening his eyes again. "Yeah, keeping her asleep during the surgery is a good idea."
A minute later, blanket underneath Sakura, Shirou Lily closed his eyes.
He had to get into the right mentality to use this sword. The sword was just a symbol, not even a real thing, just an image.
But, the image took the shape of a sword and it attacks all toxicity and aggression in its range.
And that was enough for Archer to copy it.
But without the proper mentality, it was useless as its strength came from the mentality of a woman who devoted her entire life to healing the sick.
But Shirou could read her attitude and spirit from the various knives she had used as a battlefield medic. Every knife she had used in surgery, every blade she had used to cut a tourniquet, every saw that she had wielded in an amputation, all of her efforts to save just one more life.
"Trace On. Judging the concept of creation. Hypothesizing the basic structure. Substituting the composition material. Imitating the skill of its owner. Sympathizing with the experience of its growth. Reproducing the accumulated years. Synchronizing the mentality of the wielder. Excelling all processes."
Shirou's eyes opened, his golden-brown eyes now with a tint of red in them.
And behind him, a giant glowing sword appeared with a far fainter white gowned figure behind it. The image was too faint for anyone to determine who it was, whether male or female and the light of the sword drowned it out.
"I will purge all that is toxic, all that is harmful!" Shirou declared as the sword hung behind him in the air. "For as long as I have this power, I shall lead everyone to happiness!"
Gilgamesh lifted an eyebrow up at the Noble Phantasm.
"Nightingale Pledge!" Shirou declared boldly.
And the sword struck down into the ground, purifying the room and making it sterile.
Sterile enough for Shirou to operate in.
"I will save you, even if I have to kill you!" Shirou declared as a pair of surgery knives appeared in his hand. "Commencing medical treatment!"
With that, Shirou stepped forward and brought the knife down on Sakura.
* * *
Rin paused as she passed a room and heard an odd trembling and sound.
She cocked her head, listening before opening the door.
The room was empty. Except for a closet which was rattling on its short stubby legs.
Rin carefully walked up. She didn't know what was inside it. But it probably wasn't a robber as she had only let the 3 Servants and Sakura's statue in.
But that didn't mean it couldn't be another magus, although such a magus would be extremely skilled to slip through her defenses without her knowing.
Or it could be Assassin.
But, what kind of Assassin would fail so utterly at hiding that someone could find them?
However, Rin reminded herself, Heroic Spirits got onto the Throne for being famous and inspiring humans. Assassins were supposed to be unknown.
An Assassin that got onto the Throne was probably an incompetent Assassin for being too well known at their job.
So Rin carefully opened the wooden closet, ready to leap back if her instincts thought she was in danger for even a second.
But it wasn't an incompetent Assassin.
Instead, it was a small purple haired girl wrapped up in black and violently shivering while the golden-haired boy next to her was rocking back and forth as his teeth chattered on his thumbnail.
"Not the shots, not the shots, not the shots," Gilgamesh muttered to himself, not even noticing Rin.
"No needles, no needles, no needles," Lancer shivered incessantly, her eyes looking blank as she gazed into a distant beyond.
"What could have possibly traumatized a pair of Servants this badly?" Rin wondered as she put one hand on her hip and another on her chin.
* * *