white sonata

Fate/stay night Ep10

After the previous night's inconclusive matchup, Shiro's busy cleaning the dojo off the side of his house (inherited from his adoptive father). He opens the bathroom door and finds a very drowsy Rin Tohsaka (another master in the Grail War who probably has a crush on him and has recently started rooming in one of Shiro's extra rooms to try and teach him magic), who despite her upper-class posture and honors student disposition, is apparently quite the bedhead.



He ends up taking the day off from school, much to his usual breakfast crowd's surpise. Those persons being "Fuji-nee" (Taiga Fujimuri, his teacher and legal guardian, nicknamed "Tiger" for a short temper and a propensity for striped clothing), Sakura Matou (wistful underclassman admirer who enjoys cooking), and Rin Tohsaka (the aforementioned student/mage and heir to the Tohsaka line).

So, why is he skipping school? Combat training. While there's no way he could even hope to defeat a superpowered Servant in battle, Saber thinks it's important for him to at least get some experience in what he'll be facing. His goal is to simply hit her once with his shinai. After a short break, they pick the pace back up. Shiro gets disarmed and trounced continuously, but he sticks at it. Saber sees the two hours' work as a success...Shiro was so in the zone that it ever-so-slightly flustered her.




During the break, Shiro thinks back on the "rules" of the War, remembering that Servants retain their memories and wills, and merely go along with their Masters because they too seek the Grail. He asks what her wish would be, and promptly tries to apologize for being blunt. She explains that she wants the Holy Grail's power to fulfill one last duty she couldn't complete when she was alive. Shiro jokes about Rin probably wanting something along the lines of "world domination", but Saber, ever serious, thinks Tohsaka would be fairly level-minded.



Shiro goes shopping to town to buy lunch ingredients, when he gets the *tug tug* attacked by a certain German Lolita, miss Illyasviel von Einzbern, the Master of Berserker, who had previously giggled while trying to kill him. He flips out, she introduces herself (preferring just "Illya"), and then promptly can't pronounce Shiro's full name, she she goes with "Shiro". Berserker's at home, and she wants to play. Shiro, despite being a Nice Guy™, is a bit hesitant. She breaks out the "you hate me, don't you?" ploy, and the two go to a local playground to talk.



Illya goes into "Onii-chan snuggle mode", and explain a bit of her past...she hates cold weather, but loves snow. She doesn't get out much, but she snuck by her two (rather creepy maids) Leysritt and Sella to give himself the day off. As it turns out, she wasn't really trained in sorcery either. He shares a taiyaki, and just about that time, Berserker wakes up, and it's time for the loli to trot on home.



Meanwhilst, Shinji Matou (Sakura's older bro), smarmy Master and all-around smug person-without-redeeming qualities corners Rin for a talk at school. Shiro apologizes for being late to a hungry Saber, and Rin reveals that Shinji asked to team up. She refused, he wouldn't listen, and so Rin sucker punched him the face, and explained she was already with Shiro. Burned!



After dinner, Shiro accidentally walks in on Saber as she prepares to shower. He runs out and begins hyperventilating. Saber walks out and says a perfectly logic-based Saber Response™, and isn't quite sure why he's embarassed, responding that she's "a Servant before I am a woman. You need not worry about such things." Unfortunately, she's still in the form of a woman, and that's enough to freak her Master out.



Rin brings out the object for today's magic practice...a small oil lamp. Shiro tries to magically reinforce it and it breaks. Rin promptly stuffs a gem down his throat. She explains that it's probably because Shiro's trying to remake his magic circuit from scratch each time, and the gem is meant to jumpstart his switch to the "on" position.



Later that night, Archer, Rin's servant, shows up to greet Shiro, and in a classic moment of Archersnark, says that Rin doesn't realize she's wasting her time by teaching a dropout. Archer also mentions that he has no chance of winning against a Servant. He changes back into spirit form, and episode ten ends with credits and the promise of more explosions and oil lamps in the next episode.



Episode 10 was a nice diversion from the battle sequence fest of 9, and gives insight both on characters and the world in the slightly quirky way that makes F/sn fun to watch. ^_^ And I still don't trust the creepy lil' white-haired lolicon.

posted by Daviot @ 2:20 AM