Heaven Smiles

PROLOGUE

I remember a long time ago.

Someone was standing before me, talking to me. This someone was a person I knew very well. I admired that person. There were a lot of things I had to say back then, but I was probably too wrapped up in other things to know what to say, or what to really have said. It doesn't matter anymore. That someone won't come back. It was a greeting that had a hidden goodbye in it to begin with. This is a precious memory of mine, a memory that stands out in my mind. A memory that wouldn't fade even after I die. The words that he spoke to me, I remembered the anxiety, the fear and the awe that I felt when I heard them.

"…Yo. You must be that whom called for me. Am I right, kid?"

-1/31-

She grumbled and tossed in bed, fighting the urge to get up and throw the ringing alarm clock out the window.

"Guuuuu…that thing has to stop already…" the girl's sleepy voice mumbled under the sheets. The noise wasn't going to stop, she knew that. Or some part of her brain did. Trying to acknowledge the logic of using the sleep button's function, Tohsaka Rin's arm dangling over the edge of the bed stretched no further than three inches to stop the ringing herself. Her hand hovered over the thing for a moment, then fell down on it, as if it was Rin's last duty to herself to shut off the alarm clock before she died. Indeed, her body refused to move after that small action. Five minutes passed before she was fully awake and energetic enough to sit up in bed. And was met with the cold draft hanging in the air. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering in her yellow kitten pajamas. Murmuring about winter, Rin searched under her bed for her bedroom slippers, then shuffled out of her room and towards the downstairs living room.

She knelt at the heater, turning it to its highest setting before going to the bathroom to wash her face. This girl lived all alone in the mansion she had been calling home for nearly seventeen years, without a single maid or the one butler to keep her company. Rin didn't mind it. It was inconvenient at the most, but independence soon became her survival instinct. The capacity to handle everything by herself was part of her training. It was essential for her to oblige and fulfill every bit of these small menial tasks like cooking, cleaning, laundry and all the other basic household chores. Life had been this way for her for the past ten years.

Those years she spent, training as a magus.

Tohsaka Rin the magus. Not a mouthful per se, but if used properly in the terms of when and where, it carried a lot of value. Afterall, she was a direct descendant of a powerful bloodline of magi under the surname of Tohsaka, going back as far as a century's worth of magic research. That knowledge and the fruits of their labor, passed down from generation to generation, and was now all handled by the latest successor, Rin herself.

Sworn to secrecy like every magus in the world, she'd been laboring on creating the image of her school's model student in order to steer away attention on her, as well as to not involve in particular social-outings with certain students trying to socialize with her. Secrecy over a social life, that was a small price to pay. What Rin wanted to think, at least. Maybe it really was her vanity to want this lonely life. Speaking of magi, she was also a participant of a small war that was soon to commence near the end of the year. The Holy Grail War. It consisted of seven magi summoning seven powerful familiars to engage one another in a tense battle royale, all to attain the greatest and holiest of relics, the Holy Grail.

The words themselves are as ludicrous as the act of obtaining the religious wonder so pursued in legend and in history since the time of Christ by those immersed in the Devil's practice. However, there would be no room for question once chosen to participate; only the objective to win would set the fate of each magus in motion. From the beginning, Rin anticipated being selected as a participant. Her expectations had been met; the sign of what she called "Destiny" appeared on the back of her right arm. Three straight lines running across a quarter of her arm's length, this was the Command Seal to be used on the familiar she was to summon for the war. A completely obedient familiar could not be obtained without this mark.

As for the familiars...they would be nothing short of extraordinary. If the concept of summoning the spiritual body of the Holy Grail into the physical world with human hands was unheard of, it was the familiars themselves that would bring the taboo of this war in full circle. As spiritual beings raised to the level of Divine Spirits for deeds spoken and written of, these were once-human souls that have been revered by humanity itself as saviors, and granted with the title of "Heroic" after their deaths. Whether they thrived in legends written down or in history, born normal or with god-like properties, there were no exemptions from that title as famous figures that their people admired and worshipped in their time. Thus they were isolated in a realm outside the cycle of souls called the Throne of Heroes. There they spent eternity, awaiting their time to be called upon to relive their days of glory as the heroes of legend.

It is actually impossible for even a capable magus such as Rin to be able to summon so powerful a spirit; there were too many rules to bypass and the success rate of properly succeeding in the summoning ritual was next to impossible. But the omnipotent chalice that is the Holy Grail could make that impossibility a valid cause once it was ready. Moreso, since it followed a system of seven classes to sort through. These classes were Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker. The heroic spirit summoned by Rin had to fit at least one of the available classes in order to join the war. So far, Berserker, Caster, Rider, Assassin, and Archer had already been called in preparation of the Holy Grail War. The only available classes left were Lancer and Saber. The latter class was the card Rin wanted the most. Saber, afterall, was an "Outstanding Class" that no other could match, and guaranteed victory for the lucky magus who would obtain them. Rin wanted to be that lucky one.

There was just one problem, though.

Rin, fully dressed in her school uniform and red coat, marched out the door, sealing her house with a Bounded Field that none could trespass before she left for school. Toting her school bag in one hand, Rin proceeded down the hill leading to the intersection. Truth be told, she was still a little drowsy, but she still had enough energy to walk to school and think about her situation all at the same time. There were a few things she needed to go over before performing the summoning ritual tonight.

One was the timing of her magic energy usage, which would most certainly be at two A.M. in the morning when her magic would be at its peak. Another was the usage of the pendant she received from her father, deciphering his will last night. It was a treasured heirloom of the Tohsaka family, this large ruby pendant, and it contained ten years' worth of her magic energy harnessed. It was a gift from her father, and Rin wanted to make absolutely sure that every amount stored wouldn't be a waste. Especially should the ritual fail; something she wasn't sure of yet. Which brought her thoughts to the next topic: the catalyst for her familiar's success rate at being called upon.

To her knowledge, Rin knew that heroic spirits couldn't usually be called upon without the aid of artifacts. All heroes were drawn to objects related to them, like a piece of cloth, a fragment of their weapon, or even an accessory of theirs. These heroes labeled as Servants in the Holy Grail War were drawn to such objects. For her to have an artifact that would allow her to summon Saber would have been a sweet deal, if only...

Rin sighed tiredly, fingering the other thing she received from her father's will in her coat pocket. Two things he had really given her was the pendant for one-fully charged with magic energy-, and the other thing was, according to him, an artifact confirmed to be a catalyst for summoning a Servant. That made Rin happy on both accounts, except, she quickly realized that she didn't know what sort of Servant the artifact would summon. She had been up since four in the morning searching for the answer, only to come up with nothing. Her father never wrote the details, so she had to assume that even he didn't know which heroic spirit owned the artifact.

"But that's just strange..." Rin muttered to herself, walking still. "It's as if Father picked it up at the last minute before he left. I would have thought he'd used it in the last war...or maybe it was just something he had lying around and nearly forgot about...?"

The artifact in question was a thick, steel ring with a wavy pattern inscribed on the outer surface. Rin thought it wasn't something worth selling to the pawnshop upon inspection, and that time, she nearly kicked herself remembering that this was a hero's precious possession, and quite possibly, the catalyst for summoning Saber! But, now that Rin had a grip on reality, her uncertainty rose to the surface, making her ask the big question of: Exactly which heroic spirit did the ring correspond to?

Tonight, she would find out.