"Moh." Rin grumbled as she and Sakura walked next to one another during the night once more to clean up any potential undead that may have lingered from the incident five months ago. "This is getting annoying! Why are they still here? I thought we got the last of them a month ago but nooooo there's still somehow a couple left that managed to avoid all those stupid bounded fields we set up!" Rin's frustration was understandable to a degree. Making sure that the undead in the area had been completely wiped out had taken a considerable amount of time and effort and kept getting in the way of her studies and her experiments. In fact that night she had planned to conduct a rather large one regarding the potency of the jewels that she and Shirou had made in comparison to the ones that she already had.
Instead, She and Sakura were busy walking down the various streets of Fuyuki looking for what they hoped was the last remnant of Louvre and his children's prey. Rin was dressed in her trademark red coat over her summer clothes despite the warm night and Sakura was in a light pink dress. Even though it was night time, the air was still mildly humid and warm due to the fact that Fuyuki was a coastal city. As such there were many people of all ages out enjoying the night life in the city in various ways and forms.
"Please calm down sempai." Sakura smiled nervously. "I was just as surprised as you were when I heard about the assault last night in the news. We couldn't have known that we missed one. Besides, we have been doing a pretty good job of managing things by ourselves even though we're inexperienced to a degree."
"Yeah yeah." The elder muttered under her breath with an irritated tone. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."
The two girls continued to do their rounds in the dark streets of the city, inspecting all the places that they had set up their special anti undead bounded fields and looked for other decent spots where they could set them up. They had casted a spell earlier that made them almost completely unnoticeable unless they did something obviously out of the ordinary to normal humans. Thus, no one would bother the high schooler and middle schooler pair walking around without any supervision.
"Hey Sakura." Rin asked as she looked down another alleyway with a bored glance. "Can I ask you something?
"Yes sempai?" The younger replied as she looked down another one. "What is it?"
"It has to do with Emiya-kun." The elder continued with a casual tone, but if anyone saw her face they could tell that there was a hint of uncertainty to it.
Sakura swallowed nervously. It had been only a few days after the park incident when her grandfather had told her that Shirou had been enlisted to help with some of her more private reoccurring issues. Given the circumstances she of course broke down to a degree, believing then and still now that it was her fault for dragging the one person she valued most into her cursed life, and more importantly ashamed and terrified that he had been told about her lewd and defiled body. She was absolutely certain at the time that he would abandon her like the rest of her original family those many years ago should he ever find out about it...
But to her surprise, when he saw her in that fake room where she supposedly slept, he didn't gaze upon her body in disgust or lust, but of genuine concern, an expression she had never experienced when it came to her condition. At that moment all her bottled up emotions had finally broken through the wall she had set up within herself and she collapsed crying with her crush embracing her carefully. They did not have sex that night, they merely embraced one another's presence without even saying anything. By the following morning Sakura had fallen more in love with the boy than she had ever been.
However...
This did not mean that Shirou shared similar feelings, or at the very least he did not recognize those feelings just yet. Granted she still had yet to truly inform him of her true feelings, but most males should have gotten a hint or two by this point. Yes the teen did genuinely care for her, however Sakura noticed that he put an effort to try and keep their relationship as it had been before the vampire incident. Sometimes it was if he was unaware of how to interpret his own feelings at times, and at others it was more like he was distancing himself when he really didn't want to.
They did eventually have sex, and while the Emiya did have far more stamina than Shinji did, he was not as experienced as her brother either for obvious yet unfortunate reasons. This led to their first few sessions being a bit awkward at times, but Shirou quickly gained experience with Sakura's guidance and made their little private moments more pleasurable for the both of them. On occasion he was surprisingly rough as well much to her secret pleasure and surprise given how much of gentle nature he has, however such moments were very short lived...
In a way it made her ecstatic. While she may not have truly captured her Sempai's heart just yet, she had obtained a significant lead over Rin in their competition to get the redhead's affection. It was one of the few secret sins that she held that she could truly be happy about having.
No one outside of her, Shirou, and Zouken knew of this setup they had and she was fairly certain that Shirou was not the kind of person that would ever tell anyone about his sex life or about her own condition.
"Wh-what about Sempai?" The purple haired girl asked warily. "Did something happen on his trip to England already?"
Rin shook her head in denial. "No, it's..." She hesitated. "Look, due to some things I found out about Emiya-kun a while ago I've been spending some time re-thinking about our little secret war for his attention." Her expression darkened and she glared sideways as a thought entered her mind. "... Though to be honest I doubt anything short of saying that we have feelings for him or having sex would get through his thick skull."
No, not even sex gets the point across. The secretively spiteful girl mentally grumbled. "Re-thinking?" Sakura asked curiously while deep inside her heart a spiteful growl rose in defiance. "What do you mean?"
The elder licked her lips warily as she looked around for the undead. "You know that Emiya-kun has a reality marble right? How the requirements to have one involve the user having a fundamentally different mindset than that of normal humans?"
"I did look up the subject a bit after the incident, yes." The younger admitted as she also scanned the area. The Matou family had a small collection of tomes on Reality Marbles in their library due to the existence of the occasional Servant in previous Heaven's Feel rituals possessing one. "What does that have to do with us?"
Rin sighed. "After Bazett-san took him back to his place from the Church and went over the details of what happened, I overheard him talking to Bazett about his distortion and that night." She looked at Sakura sadly. "Emiya-kun doesn't have a sense of self when it comes to comparing it to other people. He was fully ready to cut his head off when we were being held hostage and to be honest even if we were complete strangers at the time he probably would have done the same thing. If we left him alone he probably would have killed himself over some random group of strangers who would have eventually stabbed him in the back soon afterwards... and the odds were likely would have let them do it too."
She let her words sink into her sister's head for a few seconds before she continued. "I kept on listening and learned that for a while he was looking for someone to help keep him in check and well..." She put on a grim smile. "I think he came to the conclusion that both of us can do it."
Sakura blinked in confusion before realizing what Rin was saying. "B-both? You mean he wants both of us to be his..."
"Sheath." Rin chuckled almost sarcastically, enjoying Sakura's reaction. "Emiya-kun's a sword and he needs someone to serve as his sheath so that he doesn't rust." She laughed some more. "You should have heard who else he considered to serve as that position for a while. The idiot didn't even realize what he was saying the entire time. At one point he had actually considered that crazy old man to be his sheath for a while. Heheh..."
Sakura laughed nervously alongside Rin, but for completely different reasons. "It is funny, but I still don't see what the problem is..."
The Tohsaka's smile faded and she scratched the back of her head reluctantly. "Well... the thing is in the conversation Shirou said some things that made it clear that us being sheathes to him do more than just make sure he doesn't self destruct. Somehow our very existence affects his reality marble."
The Matou froze. "What? How can we possibly do that?"
Rin crossed her arms and frowned. "Like I said before, reality marbles are created and affected by the user's mental state. As of right now, not one but both of us hold enough of an influence over Emiya-kun that we can inadvertently affect the way he thinks for better or for worse... and there is the problem." She rubbed the bridge of her nose in a weary fashion. "If we try to push and pull him between ourselves, I'm concerned that we might accidentally alter his mind in some way. Considering the fact that it's not only technically his greatest weapon but also a reflection of his mental state, doing that would be a bad idea in the long run."
Sakura swallowed heavily as she fearfully thought of her actions doing anything that could possibly mentally scar her crush... and very deep down she secretly reveled a small amount at the knowledge that she held such a power. "What do you suggest we do then?"
The elder looked to the side evasively, not wanting to make any eye contact with her sister. "Well... to be honest the only thing I can think of at the moment is simply to share him... kind of."
Sakura blinked surprised as she ran Rin's proposition in her mind but still didn't process it. "What... what did you say?"
"I said we should share him." Rin repeated herself a bit more forcefully. "Technically it doesn't mean much right now since he's still an oblivious idiot, but I think that it also has to do with his distortion. He prioritizes other's needs so much higher than his own that I think he doesn't even recognize his own feeling sometimes. We could be sharing him and flirting with him for the next year, even together at once, and he'd probably either think that we either want something from him, that we were sick, or..." She sunk down in depression. "Or that I want to experiment on him again..."
"Sempai has told me about some of the things you've done to him over the years." Sakura commented in a disapproving tone.
"I swear I didn't know half of the things that happened to him with those experiments COULD happen!" Rin threw her hands up into the air in frustration. "And I fixed all of the changes I made to him eventually! I even managed to fix that weird reptile scaled skin issue before he had to go back to school that one time!"
"That doesn't change the fact that you did them in the first place." The younger of the two skeptically muttered before once again thinking about the topic at hand. "But... I don't disagree with what you're saying. Now that I think about it, I do think that Sempai is selfless to the point of being rather clueless at times..."
Why should he be shared? He is already mine.Her dark thoughts hissed back at her disapprovingly while she made no indication of such thoughts on the outside.
"That's the real problem isn't it?" Rin sighed as she put on a thoughtful pose. "Shirou's condition is part of the reason why we are attracted to him. But unfortunately it's also the reason why it's dangerous to try to pull him away from the other and nearly impossible to get him to notice our attempts in the first place." She closed her eyes tiredly. "Honestly, it's like for every reason we get to like him, we get an equal reason to want to throttle or bash him upside the head for the same thing. Equivalent exchange is such a pain in the ass sometimes."
If only I was fortunate enough to get something that fair... Sakura mentally growled in the back of her head. "I know what you mean." She said instead.
"So now you see our problem. Either we share him and get used to seeing the other again or fight over him and risk breaking the prize in the process." Rin closed her eyes and crossed her arms. "Normally I'm always up for a good competition, but this time there's simply too much to risk." She opened an eye. "Well? What do you think?"
Sakura looked at her sister skeptically before turning around so that her face couldn't be seen. She couldn't make a solid decision. If Rin had in fact found out about her and Shirou's current situation, then this could all be just a ploy to try and sneak her way in... but if she was telling the truth then attempting to push her away could do some real damage to Shirou which was the last thing she wanted. "I..." She hesitantly began to speak before picking her words carefully. "I won't do anything to force you and Sempai away from one another... but that doesn't mean that I'll support your efforts either."
Rin blinked for a moment in surprise before donning a confident smirk. "Oh? Is that the way you want to play it?" She snickered as if she found the entire thing amusing. "Fine then. The neutral route it is. We will neither help nor tamper with the other's wooing of Emiya-kun unless the situation is important." She flipped her hair over her shoulder as she did whenever she felt like giving off an eloquent flair. "However the only other condition to this is that should the other be brought up in conversation with him, we have to admit that we would not mind if she was also involved. That seems fair, don't you think?"
Sakura frowned for a moment before turning again to look down an alleyway. "I don't approve of what we are doing, but if it is for Sempai's sake then I guess I can ignore it just this one time. However I expect you to stick to those rules too Tohsaka-sempai."
Rin flinched briefly before she sighed disappointedly and began to look around as well. "I guess that's it then. We're neither allies nor enemies right now..." She blinked as she saw some movement in the distance and focused prana to her eyes. "Hold on... I think we found him!" She took off leaving the bewildered Sakura behind completely confused as to the sudden change in focus.
The younger of the two stood still for a moment before her brain finally caught up to the situation and she followed her angry elder as quickly as she could. "Tohsaka-sempai! Wait for me! That might not be the only one that we missed!"
o. o. o.
On the other side of the planet at the same time:
Shirou grumbled irritably as he walked through the last section of London Heathrow Airport with his luggage. He wasn't in the greatest of moods at the moment as his flight had been delayed multiple times before it finally left, his chair in the flight was broken, he had been sitting next to a rather portly British old man who had forgotten to shower or brush the week before getting on the flight, and most importantly, he was trying to forget the fact that the last time he was in this building he had structurally analyzed so many damned things that he literally put himself into a minor coma.
It was taking all his will power to not call up the random bits of useless information he had obtained half a year ago like the fact that there was roughly twenty seven thousand five hundred and thirty eight tiles...
He shook his head furiously in order to stop himself from going down that dark path. He was supposed to go straight to the Clocktower after arriving and it wouldn't look good if he accidentally caused himself to pass out for some mundane reason before he even got there. God did he want a kitchen to cook and clean in right now.
Deciding that he would have to rely on a different method to relax his nerves, the teen began to run through all that had happened since the vampire incident, as he and the rest in Fuyuki had taken to calling it.
The first thing that came to mind was obviously the deal with Zouken and more importantly, his secret life with Sakura. If there was a point in time that Shirou had wanted to kill someone more than the first night he had spent with the crying girl in her room, he had long since forgotten it. Holding that broken girl in his arms made him for the first time in his life wished horrifically painful things to be done to someone else out of spite. The only reason why he did not go to try and kill the old man now was because he knew he would either get killed instead or cause Sakura to get killed in the process, and neither route was appealing to him. Zouken would die, but now was not the time...
He needed rather specific and temperamental help in order to make sure the job was done properly.
That being said, he now understood why so many people made such a big deal about sex. It felt... well, amazing. Of course he would never see women as tools for the act or loose himself just to experience it again, but he at least had a better understanding of why people go through such lengths sometimes to get it. Sometimes he would just lose himself in the act and delve deeper into the act, stronger, faster, so much so that he would see red and...
Want to bite Sakura's neck...
He frowned. He didn't know the exact reason yet, but whenever he got too far into the moment he would occasionally get minor vampiric impulses. He never acted on them and always managed to reign himself in, but it had happened frequently enough that he was somewhat scared for Sakura's safety every time they had another session. Thankfully he never had this sort of issue at any other time since Merem's revelation of his condition, however it did not change the fact that such impulses did make themselves known and threatened the safety of those close to him.
It made him very conflicted. On the one hand, he was helping Sakura get through her rather embarrassing but traumatizing condition. He was putting Zouken into a false state of security and thus would be in a better position to kill him when the time comes. And... well... he got to have sex.
Granted the last fact would always be at the end of the list of pro's if it was brought up at all given the way Shirou prioritizes things, but it was still a plus regardless.
On the other hand, every time they did the deed, he felt guilty for in a way forcing himself onto the girl when no doubt there was someone else she would most likely prefer to be with later on in life. He felt ashamed that he had to do such an act to someone so close to him in order to catch Zouken off guard, let alone follow the man's advice or guidance for any period of time. Finally, he felt afraid for Sakura's safety in the case that one day he did truly lose control over his impulses and drink her blood.
Then there was the fact that he was hiding this from Rin. If that girl ever found out about his current situation...
A shiver ran up his spine. There was no point in worrying about it now. He was on the other side of the planet from the two females that he cared about the most. He could dwell on such matters later.
He glanced at his medium sized bag and smiled bitterly. While he may have disliked the situation, he had to admit that what Zouken had given him in return for his services ALMOST made his mental anguish worthwhile. Having complete access to the Matou Thaumaturgical Library for two years would definitely help with his studies into some of the more rare and restricted subjects on magic that he may need to go over to turn things to his favor...
Fairy magic and artifacts would be one particular example...
In addition to his magical research and training, Shriou also managed to continue his physical exercises as well. He practiced his stances almost every night with and without his reinforcement...
However when it came to improving his sword technique, he had to give all credit to his new secret sparring partner... in addition to all the bruises on his body that still littered his body...
His thoughts were interrupted when he looked up and saw that he was nearly outside the terminal and at the location where the cars came to pick up those that just arrived. Sighing to himself, the teen began to empty his mind of irrational thoughts and went over the hundreds of lessons that Rin had hammered into him in the past few months in order to prepare for his time at the Clocktower. Protocol, decorum, how to greet a Lord versus the Vice Director, how properly thank a teacher for a lesson, etc, etc.
In her words, if he did something stupid or looked bad while he was there, it would make her look worse when she finally got her sponsorship regardless of how much more talented she was than him. Asians were not warmly welcomed in the Clocktower so if he made it any harder for her to get in with a scholarship she might not be able to get in at all..
Stepping to the main waiting area the teen looked around to see if there was someone there to pick him up. He was supposed to be driven straight to the compound where he would be shown his board for the three weeks or so he would be staying in, get cleaned up and have a quick bite to eat before he would have to meet the Vice Director in her office.
So far though he didn't see anyone he remembered, anyone with magical ability, or anyone with his name on a cheap piece of cardboard in English or any of the three written languages that the Japanese use. To be honest though he was somewhat thankful that the latter wasn't the case in English. Even though the odds were unlikely, the chance that someone would recognize the Emiya name in England was still not completely zero.
Quickly checking his cell phone in the unlikely chance that his contact was in touch with technology and had his number and noting that he had no messages, the teen decided to walk outside to see if his ride was out there. His first few steps from the inside the air conditioned building to the outside British summer heat was not unbearable, however it was rather unsavory due to the fairly high humidity and the bright sunlight that conflicted with his slightly altered body. All around him he spied locals and visitors looking for their supposed cars and family members that they did not see in who knows how long. It always impressed him as to how diverse London's general population was. Caucasians, Asians, Middle Easterners, Africans, it really put his hometown of Fuyuki, which was considered a fairly integrated and diversified populace compared to most Japanese cities, to shame.
Shirou looked around again and much to his disappointment he saw nothing that indicated to be his possible ride to the Clocktower. It wasn't that he was irritated that the cabby was late, it was merely that he had expected one of the world's oldest and most powerful organizations to be prompt when dealing with someone that had been invited by one of their most prominent members. To have such a thing happen was a bit strange in his personal opinion.
Bored and tired, the prematurely graying teen looked around to see if he missed anything or if the tv hanging from the ceiling had something interesting on to kill time with when he noticed several people standing near a rather nice looking car with the hood up exposing the engine.
Without even trying he quickly analyzed the vehicle and saw that the main electrical connection to the sparkplugs had gotten loose due to a faulty instillation and as such the motor wouldn't start until it was corrected. It also had three rivets that could do with tightening, a low amount of oil, half a tank of gas, the back tires needed a few more pounds of pressurized air pumped into them, one of the brakes would need to be replaced in a few months, and a few other minor issues were detected. Still, the issue they were having right now was the loose connection.
It was a fairly simple issue to fix even with your bare hands but the real issue with most mechanical and electronically problems like this as most engineers could attest to was trying to figure out what the hell went wrong with the device in the first place. It was part of the reason why Shirou's services were in such high demand among the motorcycle driving Yakuza back home. He could find out what went wrong with their rides in less than a fraction of the time an experienced mechanic could and he would never miss any details either.
From what he knew about the mechanical and vehicle repair industry, if the car wasn't fixed it would cost at least a few hundred pounds to tow the car, get it checked, ten minutes wasted looking for the issue, and a final quick thirty second fix in an industry that has a habit of overcharging for such miniscule tasks...
So being the good natured person with spare time that he was, the teen instantly moved closer to the area where a man in a tuxedo was hesitantly looking at the engine as if he was doing brain surgery for the first time. "Excuse me." He asked in perfect English. "Do you need help?"
The man turned around hesitantly and looked at Shirou warily. He was in his mid to late fifties with grey hair and a mustache and glasses and wore a rather expensive looking uniform. "Perhaps. The motor won't run by itself after I turn the key." He replied cautiously. "What do you know about car engines boy?"
"Well I frequently fix my neighbor's motorcycle whenever he busts it in addition to those that belong to his friends." Shirou shrugged, wisely avoiding the fact that his neighbor was a Yakuza. To be honest it wasn't much of an explanation of his abilities as a mechanic, but it delivered the point that he knew more about motor vehicles than the man he was talking to.
Grunting in reluctance, the man walked to the side to allow Shirou full access to the motor and giving him full reign to what was inside.
Wasting little time, the teen walked forward at an even pace and propped up his luggage next to him so they wouldn't get taken while he was working. "Did you check the oil?" Shirou asked casually as he unscrewed the small cap that led to the oil tank to do just that. It would look suspicious and downright abnormal if he found out what the problem was right off the bat. It would look even worse if he managed to fix the problem while he was dealing with one of the newer model cars which had more compact engine systems, but thankfully this was not the case.
"I am unaware how to conduct maintenance to vehicles." The man replied politely albeit a bit stiffly as he watched Shirou take off the cap to the oil which also had a thin metal rod connected to the underside, wipe the rod clean, stick the cap back on and then take it out again to show that the bottom portion of the rod covered in oil only.
"Hm." The boy mused casually as he noted where the marks on the piece of metal were before putting the cap back on. "Well it isn't the oil but you might want to get some more soon regardless." He began to inspect some of the seemingly random wires and tubes that traveled the device from one side to the other. "Everything seems to be well connected. No crossed or frayed cables. No leaks... maybe..." He reached down into the motor cavity itself and fiddled with the spark plugs momentarily before getting to the root of the problem. "Hm? What's this?" He asked in fake curiosity.
"Did you discover something young man?" The elder gentleman asked with some interest.
"Yeah. I think I found it. The main wire for the sparkplugs got loose. Without a strong connection the gas wouldn't ignite or in a worst case scenario it would set off at the wrong time and cause the engine to damage itself." Shirou explained as he began to move the wire to its proper place and manually twist the screw that kept it in place back into position. Since he was used to working with such objects, he managed to get it tight enough that the car would probably not have this kind of issue again for at least another year or two so long as the driver wasn't reckless. "You might want to get someone to screw this a bit tighter in the next few months or so, but other than that the car should work normally now." Shirou took himself out of the engine and smiled, not at all caring that his arms up to his elbows were somewhat smudged with the standard grime that came with working with car parts.
"Is that so?" The butler looking man mused skeptically before turning to the driver's side of the vehicle and opening it to test the boy's claims. Two seconds later the low growling of the engine laid all skepticisms to rest. "Well now. I am impressed. You have saved myself and my mistresses much time and anguish. You have our thanks."
The Emiya smiled genuinely. "It's no trouble at all. I'm just glad I was able to help. Besides it killed some time while I waited for my ride."
The elder man nodded in agreement to the boy's logic before someone behind him said something that Shirou couldn't hear. "It seems my elder mistress would like to reward you for your aid. If your stop is nearby, we would be more than welcome to drive you along the way."
Shirou shook his head. "No. Once again I am happy that I was able to aid you. That in itself was all the reward I would request. Besides it would be rude to simply blow off my ride when they made the effort to come pick me up in the first place."
"Yes it would." The man nodded in consensus before once again being distracted by the larger occupant in the vehicle and being handed something. "Ah... well it seems the mistress is quite amused by your nobility, however she still wishes to repay your service in some way." He handed Shirou a small cloth of fairly fine material that looked suspiciously like a handkerchief. "To clean yourself with. It would be unbecoming of you to enter someone else's vehicle with grime on your person, would it not?"
Shirou blinked in surprise for a moment before laughing sheepishly and taking the fabric. "Ah. I guess it wouldn't. You and your mistress have my thanks."
The butler bowed politely before getting into the driver's seat. "I hope we cross paths soon young man." His eyes narrowed slightly. "No doubt the odds of it happening are fairly high at the Clocktower."
Shirou's demeanor didn't change. He had determined that the man and the two females inside the vehicle were magi the moment he had done structural grasping on the car. "Who knows? I'm only going to be staying for a few weeks. Regardless I'd be honored to have a conversation with her should time permit during my stay. I myself am unsure of my schedule during my stay... erm..." He blinked momentarily before grimacing. "My mistake, I have completely forgotten to ask what your names are."
The man nodded his head. "It is quite all right. You may call me Sebastian and I am a butler for the Edelfelt family. Should you ever desire to converse with the lady, simply look for our family's grand name."
Shirou nodded. "I'm Shirou E..." He paused as he remembered something. "Erm... I was requested by several important figures not to tell anyone my family's name as of yet. It would gain me too much unwanted attention if it was spread out too early. If it is ok, just call me Shirou. It shouldn't be too hard to find me in the association. All you would have to do is ask for the Japanese boy with the red going gray hair. Magi from the east are not common there so it shouldn't be that hard to find me."
"No it should not..." The man nodded in agreement. "Well then young Shirou, both Mistresses and I wish you luck in your endeavors whatever they may be. Farewell."
The Emiya watched calmly as the vehicle drove away quietly, glad that he could do another good deed without much issue...
"Trying to make more connections in the tower already Shirou?" Bazett asked with an amused grin from a short distance away. "I'm surprised. Normally it takes much longer to get you to even consider doing something like that."
The Faker rolled his eyes and grabbed his bags, not surprised by the woman's presence in the slightest. "I was just helping them out Bazett-nee. You know that I don't like to get others involved in my troubles..."
"Yeah yeah." The purple haired woman sighed as she guided the boy back to the car she had rented from the association. "Just remember that regardless of what you want, sooner or later you will have to get someone to help you out in order to deal with some of your problems. It's more efficient and better for everyone to distribute the burden sometimes."
"When I think I will need help I'll ask for it." The teen snorted as he followed his sister figure to the car. "So how has the old man been doing since he came back?"
o. o. o.
Two hours later at the Association:
"Lad! Yer finally here!" Sirius McGinty laughed happily as he crushed Shirou in a hug so strong that he would have possibly done some damage to the boy's ribs had the latter not wisely managed to reinforce them in time.
"Sirius-jiji..." The boy gasped, momentarily slipping back into Japanese from the stress of being crushed. "Can't... Breathe..."
"Eh? Oh. Sorry lad." The old man chuckled nervously before dropping the teen to the ground. "Mah bad."
"Told you he was fine." Bazett smirked from the doorway of the office, enjoying Shirou's temporary moment of distress.
"It's ok." Shirou coughed as he straightened himself out and smiled weakly. "I was really worried when I heard of the designation old man. When I was first told about it, I thought that they were going to skin you alive and everything."
Sirius smirked. "Ah tey were gonna, but ah beat tem to it! When ah first found out what ah did ta meself, ah knew ah would probably get meself caught sooner or later so ah managed ta skin meself part by part till ah had a full body suit of me skin made..." He paused. "Come ta tink of it, ah tink that was around ta time when ah got circumcised..."
"Damn it old man!" Bazett roared with a beet red face. "What have we told you about too much information?"
"We really didn't need to know about that last bit." Shirou sighed as he attempted to burn out that piece of information from his mind.
"Bah! Yer both weak minded brats." The old man grumbled, not at all ashamed of what he had just done before glancing at Shirou and momentarily frowning. "Regardless, ta bastards in ta research department have been too busy studyin me old skin samples ta do anytin wit mah body yet so ah have had notin ta complain about." He walked to the desk that was in the room they were currently in and sat down in the chair behind it. Much to Shirou's surprise it resembled the old man's previous office to a T.
"Tey've been keepin me busy too. Ah'm a high rankin memba of ta Department of Spiritual Invocation but ah also do a bit o work fer ta Department of Mineralogy on ta side. Plus ah teach advanced material transmutation just ta show up ta bastards here tat tey don't know shit about ta subject." He smirked. "Ta be honest ah got more funds an access ta stuff for me research now than ah did before ta whole Louvre ting started. Ah should have let meself get sealed years ago if ah knew tis would happen! Ahahahahaha!"
Bazett rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Only you old man. Only you." She shook her head. "Anyways, Shirou is going to be staying in your quarters during his time here at the association. We would have given him to Waver, but given his connection to the Archibalds and what Kiritsugu did to the original Lord El-Melloi and their crest, that wouldn't have ended well." She looked at the clock on a nearby wall. "Shirou has to meet with Lady Barthomelloi in three hours, so I suggest you get food and cleaned up before then. I don't think I have to remind you, but being short of perfect in any way in front of her when she expects something from you will result in nothing short of misery, so please don't screw this up."
Shirou raised his hands in self defense. "Don't worry Nee-san. Rin's been pounding proper mannerisms and behavior when in a lord's presence since you and Waver-nii left. I should be all good for this meeting and whatever she wants of me. I'm not here to fight anyone so everything should be all good."
"Let's hope you're right about that." The woman frowned before sagging her shoulders in exhaustion. "I'm gonna go tell Waver that you're here. You two catch up but please pay attention to the time. I'll be back in a bit."
Shirou and Sirius said their goodbyes before waiting for her to get out of hearing distance before they turned to one another again, but this time with more serious expressions on their faces. "Yer playin a damn dangerous game lad." Sirius growled deeply. "Ta change in yer body is barely anytin, but if ta Queen finds out about it yer as good as dead. Ah doubt tat even a servant would be able ta save yer skin from tat lass if she was truly out ta get ya."
"Which is why I haven't told anyone about it." Shirou replied calmly. "The only ones who know about my condition to the fullest are you, me, and Solomon-san."
"Solomon eh?" Sirius snorted. "Ah haven't seen tat tiny little bastard in years. Ah thought he stopped workin fer ta Church years ago." He shook his head. "Bah. Mah age must be getting ta me head. Let me guess, yer condition is what he wanted ta talk about in private afta ya killed Louvre right?"
Shirou hesitated. "Kinda. He actually wanted me to..." He swallowed heavily. "Replace Louvre... as the tenth."
Sirius blinked in surprise, for once too shocked to actually say anything witty or crude. "Lad... if tis is a joke..." He whispered out, not trusting his voice at the moment.
"I turned it down." The teen rushed out quickly. "I don't drink blood or anything like that. The worst I get is a sort of dry mouth and I get affected by the lunar cycle. He just picked me cause I technically qualify as a successor with what happened."
"Bloody fuckin hell lad." Sirius swore under his breath and looked away. "As if ya didn't have enough on yer plate as it is." He glanced at Shirou again. "At least whatever yer wearin ta keep yer turned side at bay is workin like it should. Who else knows of tis?"
Shirou didn't blink. "Same as before. Only you, me, and Solomon-san. I didn't want to worry anyone else by this information and cause any possible issues. My excuse for constantly wearing the shroud is simply that I grew attached to it and that I think it's useful."
He leaned back in his chair and pressed his hands against his face, covering his eyes, and breathed out deeply. "Well... we can't change anytin regardless of what we want at ta moment. Just put it in yer secret box along wit yer reality marble an tings should be fine. No one here's even halfway as decent as we are when it comes ta structural graspin and anyone who can sense yer new condition will probably jus tink tat yer cursed or sometin. Ah've met Solomon a couple o times an from what ah can tell he's a decent bastard unlike a lot of ta rest of his kind so ya got notin ta worry about tere."
Shirou nodded warily. "Other than the fact that Solomon-san keeps sending me offerings to take the position every few months, there hasn't been any real issue with my condition."
Sirius chuckled darkly. "Sounds like ya got yerself another admirer brat."
The teen raised an eyebrow in honest confusion. "Admirer? Another? What do you mean by that?"
The room was silent for several seconds before the old man slapped one of his massive hands over his face. "Ah should have seen tat comin... ah really should have..." He muttered to himself in a depressed and ashamed tone which only confused Shirou even more.
Shaking his head the old man bent down to the small fridge he had under his desk and took out a can of beer before getting up again. "Never mind about tat bad joke lad. Get up an follow me. Ah have some tings ah wanna show, give, and tell ya before ya meet up wit tat brat Lorelei."
Shirou blinked in disbelief as he followed the old man down a hallway outside of his office. From what he's been told, the old man was in possession of a fair amount of space so he could conduct his research adequately and so he could produce more codes for those that made requests from him. Along the way Shirou spied exact copies of rooms that he had done experiments in with the old man, and to be honest he wouldn't be surprised if they were the rooms he used in reality. "Um... wouldn't talking about the Vice Director like that normally get you killed here?"
The old man smirked as he drank his alcohol. "Yeah, but ah have two tings in mah favor. First is tat ahm a sealing designate. Ahm too valuable ta blow up. Ta second is tat ahm actually ta lucky bastard tat's made most of ta Barthomelloi mystic codes fer over a hundred years now. Tey loose me, tey loose ta best source for their codes. Besides, it's not like ah badmouth the Barthomelloi bunch every chance ah get. Ahm old an blunt, but ahm not stupid."
Sirius stopped in front of a seemingly blank wall and muttered a quick spell to instantly reveal a hidden doorway. Grinning darkly, he glanced at the curious teen. "Ya've been though hell fer me lad and I know fer a fact tat it's gonna get worse fer ya in the future." He grabbed the door handle and opened the secret passageway. "Ah was originally gonna do tis about six months before ta war started, but considerin ta circumstances ah tink tat now is as good a time as any ta get ya truly prepared fer ta crap tat's gonna come flyin yer way..."
Shirou's eyes widened as the old man grinned darkly. "Welcome ta me workshop lad."
o. o. o.
One hour later in the food court:
Luviagelita Edelfelt was bored.
Sitting at her table with a halfway finished meal tray in front of her, the sixteen year old girl once more found herself scanning her surroundings for possibly the only person that had caught her interest since arriving in London, however not once did she see the Japanese boy with red going white hair. It gave him a rather exotic look if she allowed herself to be perfectly honest, though she doubted she would allow herself to be such while in the presence of all these other Lords and Ladies.
Yet the target of her interest was nowhere in sight. All she saw around her were students of the clocktower in their noble garb and gossiping about teachers, vampires, or the supposed mysterious son of the Magus Killer whose sudden existence had been going around the magus community as of late.
That last rumor warranted some attention from the Edelfelt family as a whole seeing as they were a mercenary styled aristocratic family that was often described as "the most elegant hyenas above ground." Kiritsugu had on more than one occasion either stolen a very good job away from them or had wound up working on the opposite side of an affair and taken out their charge from under their noses. Every. Single. Time. So much so that unlike other noble families who considered the man a heretic, the Edelfelts begrudgingly admitted that Kiritsugu was one of the few Asian born Magi that was worthy of their notice and respect.
It had gotten to the point that, when he was still supposedly still alive, several members of the family had on occasion gone out to look for the man in an attempt to either learn from him to see how the hell he could pull off the things he did without getting caught, or put him in his place in a duel so that he would stop stealing work from them. Obviously, neither one of those things had ever come to pass before his sudden death was made public.
For a period of time, the Edelfelts were somewhat depressed that they no longer had such a worthy opponent to compare and test themselves against on the mercenary's battlefield. They recognized his skill and while it was abhorrent in the eyes of Magi, it was masterful to those who knew what the true world was like. However like most things, the moment of silence dedicated to him was soon put behind them and life went on. Kiritsugu's name was rarely spoken about since then... until his son's existence had been revealed half a year ago...
While she maintained her air of grace that could put most of the other nobles there to shame, Luvia none the less felt out of place. Just by looking around, she could tell that she was one of the youngest people there. As of right now she was situated in a large room with multiple tables to seat those who wished to dine on the five star quality food that the association provided them. The normal age for people to begin their education in the organization was eighteen after all, and the only reason why she was here in the first place was because she was the soon to be head of the Edelfelt family and was required to begin making more contacts and connections soon as part of her responsibilities to her family.
The Clocktower, for all intents and purposes served as a sort of elite college for the magus community. Much like a normal college, the building served not only as a place of higher education and resources for those who wished to study the subject of miracle making, but it also served as one of the most efficient places to conduct advanced research as well. With the large stores of tomes, materials, artifacts, individuals, and sources of mana from one of the largest leylines in Europe, the Clocktower was one of the most ideal locations to conduct research on the planet.
Other than a few exceptions, most of the people that went here for education were at the youngest eighteen as to ensure that said individuals received proper education to be able to maintain a visually acceptable life in the eyes of the non magic related community. It was realized very early on that immersing the young completely into the world of magi without exposing them to the majority population often resulted in events that would more often than not require a vast number of people getting killed or their memories erased in order to hide their existence.
"Excuse me." A young man's tenor voice distracted her from her musings, causing her to turn to see a fairly handsome student with clean cut black hair and an expensive uniform on. All in all, he was pretty much like everyone else here. "I couldn't help but notice that you were sitting here by yourself. I was startled that someone as elegant and beautiful as someone like yourself could stand being in such a situation. Would you like some company?"
Luvia resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the sickeningly over the top attempt to try to woo her. It was not the first time that this had happened and it would not be the last, but it was annoying none the less. "I am sorry to disappoint you." She replied in a polite tone as she reached for her tea. "However I am merely waiting for my traveling companions to arrive with their meals. We have much to discuss. My most sincere apologies."
"Ah a shame." The elder teen shook his head in disappointment. "May I at least have the name of the beautiful young woman before me?"
The Edelfelt mentally sighed as she put down her tea. "But of course. I am Luviagelita Edelfelt, soon to be head of the family."
The teen raised an eyebrow. "Edelfelt? No wonder you are so majestic. Such strong nobility is befitting of someone of your stature." He bowed. "My name is..."
"Oi lad! Tere are some good tables over here! Hurry up!" A loud voice drowned the man's voice and shocking both of them out of the conversation. They quickly saw that nearby there was a massive old man with red hair and rather cheap clothing (as opposed to the ensembles there that on average cost roughly a thousand pounds), placing his tray packed full of food down and waving to someone out of their line of sight.
"Ugh..." The male grunted in clear distaste. "McGinty."
"Who?" Luvia asked rather curiously. It was not often that someone looking like THAT could just waltz around the Clocktower without a care in the world. The only ones she could think of that could get away with that behavior off the top of her head were the Second and Fifth Magicians.
"A barbarian who happens to be gifted in creating mystic codes but his mannerisms are childish at best. If he wasn't such a capable person I have little doubt that he would have been kicked out of here long ago." The teen lifted his nose into the air in disgust. "I can only pity whoever has his attention now...
The two teens paused as they saw Sirius' companion walk into sight and blinked in curiosity. He was somewhat short to average of height and dressed in a high quality white shirt, dark tie and pants, hybrid shoes that could pass as formal and casual, a large black trench coat also made of high quality thick fabrics, but most peculiar of all was the crimson scarf that he wrapped around the entirety of his head and face as if he was shielding his head from the world. The only visible part of his face was his amber eyes, the shape of which indicated that his lineage was from Asia. (A/N: Just picture Shirou in Kiritsugu's clothing with some minor color alterations and the shroud over his head so that no one can see his hair or face.)
"Can you please be a bit quieter old man?" The young man sighed, the shroud muffling his voice enough that they couldn't tell where his accent was from. "I don't want to attract any bad attention before the meeting. I have enough things to worry about already." Luvia could have sworn she heard his voice before.
The bigger of the two snorted. "And yer doin tat by wearin tat ting on yer head?"
"It was the best thing I could think of to make sure no one tell what I looked like." The teen shrugged before glancing to where Luvia and her unwanted guest were sitting and staring at him. "Can I help you?"
"Eh?" Sirius blinked as he turned to where Shirou was looking. "Hey is tat little Benjamin? Oi lad! I gave ya tat extra week ta do yer homework tat ya bailed out on, not so ya could try ta pick up another random lass of ta week!"
"Just a barbarian huh?" Luvia raised an eyebrow that the embarrassed teen. "You forgot to mention that he seems to be a professor here as well." She waved her hand dismissively. "You best be off to keep your due. It is after all unbecoming to simply ignore obligations made to your betters." She didn't even bother to watch him click his teeth in irritation and scamper off in embarrassment as she watched the two new individuals nearby with interest.
She had of course heard of the Mystic Code Crafter Sirius McGinty before. Anyone in the mercenary business who needs a solid weapon or magical amplification accessory has heard of the man and the quality of his work, and for a small period of time the Edelfelt family had been fairly content customers of his...
However the person he had come with was a mystery. He was dressed such that it was difficult to determine who he was affiliated with, and the shroud around his head only added to his unique flair. He did not however give off any sort of threatening aura despite his appearance. Quite the opposite in fact.
For a while she just observed the two males as they went through their meal. From what she could tell the younger of the two was fairly hungry and tired from the way he carried himself and ate through his meal despite his efforts to be fairly polite. The old man on the other hand did most of the talking and laughing as he plowed through his larger stack of food, showing the mannerisms of an individual that even the standard commoner today would be wary of...
"You have that smile on your face again old man." The younger of the two grumbled as he readjusted his cowl so that he could eat without it in the way. "What was so funny?"
The old man snorted as he began to cut his food. "Yer gonna love tis lad. Ya know tat homework ah was talkin ta tat rich little fuck about?"
Luvia's eyebrow twitched. It was beyond her understanding as to how a person with such supposed standing as the old man could be so crude and blunt with his words.
"Yeah? What about it?" The mystery teen asked skeptically as he finished the seasoned chicken and rice he had chosen for his meal.
Sirius began having trouble holding back his laughter. "It was ta list ta eight steps fer advanced projectin and write an in depth report describin an analyzin ta significance of three of tem."
Luvia blinked in utter confusion as to what was so amusing about such a task. To her knowledge projection was just a mundane, incomplete and inefficient study of thaumaturgy, but apparently there was more to it between the two as the younger one gaped.
"You're kidding me. You're actually teaching people tracing?" The younger of the two asked disbelievingly.
"Ah know right?" Sirius laughed as he held himself up with the table. "Mind ya ahm only teachin ta basic versions of it so tat students can perform structural graspin ta a higher level fer research, but ya'd be surprised as ta how useful yer approach ta this field is lad. Ah wasn't kiddin when ah said tat thanks ta you ta field's progressed more than it has in ta past thousand years. Ya really are ta best projectionist in recorded history."
The female's eyes flashed with curiosity. Such claims were normally empty boasts, but they were also normally done by nobles who were talking about themselves. Instead this rather loud old man was talking about his companion who didn't really seem to think much of the claim or even want it. In addition to that, the old man made it sound like what the boy did with his projections seemed to be far more innovative and revolutionary than she originally assumed.
"Considering how projection was normally done that doesn't really seem like much of an accomplishment." The younger of the two sighed before continuing with his meal. "I'd rather not talk about my magic here. Can we change the subject? How has Waver-nii been doing since he got back with you?"
Luvia frowned with slight frustration as the conversation turned away from subjects that would inform her more about this mystery individual, however she took it in stride none the less. She lost track of time as she enjoyed spying on the pair and listening in on their fairly entertaining stories. There was none of that mundane drabble that came from the other nobles here that she had heard all of her life, only ones that mixed commoner activities and chores with some small (or horrendously crude when it came to Sirius' case) twists that made things far more interesting in her personal opinion.
"Professor McGinty! Professor McGinty!" A student shouted frantically from a small distance away. "Something's happening in the DSI (Department of Spiritual Invocation)! It sounds like a someone got hold of a cursed artifact and they're going crazy!"
Sirius groaned. "Another one? Tat's the third time this month! Who ta bloody hell is in charge of locking those things away! Ah made ta locks to ta storehouse! They can't get fucking picked an they don't break!" He sagged in exhaustion before turning to Shirou. "Sorry lad. Ah have ta deal wit tis. It shouldn't take more tan half an hour an ya still have nearly triple tat before yer meetin. Ah'll be back soon." He grunted as he stood up and began stomping towards the direction of the supposed chaos. "When ah get my hands on ta blasted idiot tat's responsible for tis ah'm gonna steal his bloody lunch money fer ta next fortnight!"
"Good Luck." Shirou sighed tiredly as he turned his attention back to his lunch, somewhat glad that Sirius had left. He loved the man like a grandfather, but he enjoyed quiet serenity and peace of mind as well. Plus he was still completely exhausted from his travelling.
"Well now that was certainly interesting wouldn't you say?" A shapely girl around his age with long curly blonde hair and an elegant air approached him from a nearby table. Shirou had sworn that he was being watched earlier, and it appeared that his instincts were spot on.
He got his hopes up way too soon apparently. "Somewhat." He shrugged casually. "The more time you spend with him the more used to these things you get." He looked at her almost lazily while carefully observing taking her appearance into consideration. Her ornate blue dress and clothes were made of expensive fabric that could channel prana fairly well, but the interesting thing he noted was that her sleeves were designed to be torn off. It meant that she was at least comfortable in close ranged combat. "And you are?"
"Luviagelita Edelfelt." She smiled confidently, pretending to not notice the twitch his mouth made signifying that he recognized her name. "Who may you be oh mysterious magus? Normally coming into such an established place as this dressed as you are would warrant either concern or scorn from the general body, however you seem to have no issue with that."
Shirou hesitated momentarily before letting out a deep breath and turning to his meal. "Please refer to me by my family name, Emiya." He knew he wasn't going to be able to conceal his identity for long, but the boy Shirou was an unknown here, a potential leverage and useful fall back in this place. The son of Emiya, however, was marked, a semi-known figure. For now, he would ask to be called by his father's family name to hide his full identity from the general body.
Luvia's demeanor instantly froze as she recognized the infamous name. "E-Emiya?" She stammered in surprise and realized why the person she was talking to didn't want his face to be seen. "The rumors were true? He did have a son?"
Shirou finished the food he was chewing and swallowed. "You don't have to worry about me killing anyone while I'm here. I am not here for any job. I was merely asked to come here by some important people. To be honest I do not like violence." He continued with his meal. "If you would be so kind as to not tell anyone who I am I would appreciate it. I am not a fan of being the center of attention."
Luvia blinked a few times before smirking. "Well now isn't this a surprise. Several of my older relatives have told me stories about your father. I'm almost disappointed that you are so different from him." She looked at one of the other chairs at the table and sat down at it much to Shriou's surprise. "You'd think that someone as cold, violent and careless as him would be completely unable to properly raise a child. Many have claimed that he was a monster and a heretic just short of the apostles." She eyed him carefully, wondering how her new acquaintance would react and respond.
"You're talking about the Magus Killer." Shirou corrected Luvia, not at all surprised or bothered at what the girl had said about his father. She probably would have said far worse things if she knew the full scope of what he did. "Kiritsugu Emiya was a completely different person than the man you have heard about. Just the opposite actually." His eyes donned a depressed expression. "If there was anyone who deserved to be considered a hero for the sacrifices he made in this day and age, it was him."
The Edelfelt there stared at the boy, completely bewildered by his statement. "A hero? You actually consider that man a hero?" She looked at him skeptically. "You are aware of what he was known for correct?"
Shirou glared at her sternly, causing her to shift slightly. "More than anyone else on the planet will ever know, and that is why I can say that without a doubt he was one. He didn't care about the recognition of others or what became of him. All he cared about was the result of his actions and the lives he saved because of them. If you have a look at whatever recorded killings the association says he's done in the Middle East and Africa, you'll see that because of him several civil wars were stopped or had collapsed prematurely. If you looked carefully you'd see that every job he took resulted in more lives being saved than the ones he ended up being responsible for ending." He drank some water before continuing. "Destroy a life to save ten. Ten to save a hundred, and a hundred for a thousand. That was the simple cursed logic that was behind my father's sickening methods... and he despised every second of it."
Luvia didn't say anything as she absorbed these supposed facts as fast as she could. Everything this boy said seemed to contradict what everyone supposedly knew of the man. If what the boy in front of her said was true... she would have to do some research to make sure. "That... certainly is something different from what I have heard." She managed to get out after a small amount of time. "Why would he not ask for the Association's help if his goal was so noble?"
Shirou almost rolled his eyes. "The Association is only focused on the advancement of Thaumaturgy, not to try and quell the strife and conflict that pervades the planet's population. If they found out that there was a way to drastically increase a person's potential by sacrificing a dozen babies for each magi, they would approve it without a moment's hesitation. They don't care about making the world a better place. If dad joined them he would be forced to do jobs that only the Association approved of and likewise ignore any of the actions they did in the process. To do what he did the way he did it, he had to value all lives evenly. Science, purpose, sex, age, ideals, religion, wealth, nobility, health, history, family, power, potential. None of that mattered to him when he worked. That was what made the machine known as the Magus Killer so efficient."
"I see." Luvia frowned. "You seem quite knowledgeable about your father's exploits and that he seemed to be taking everything into consideration whenever he killed." She crossed her arms. "If that is so, then please give me an example. Explain to me the reasoning behind his shooting down an airplane in America roughly twenty years ago. It is noted to be one of his more infamous exploits."
Shirou stared at his drink. He shouldn't be surprised that he was asked about that particular mission, but he grimaced at the thought of retelling it regardless before readjusting his cowl to cover his mouth again since he had obviously lost his appetite. "Ah. That incident. Yeah I know of it. That job was among the worst in dad's life." He looked at Luvia's curious face. "You know the general story right? That there was a dead apostle on the plane that he was tasked to killing?"
Luvia nodded. "Of course. He was hired to abolish the monster, and to do so he shot down the plane. It's what makes his name stick out more than any other mercenary in recent history."
Shirou shook his head. "It depresses me, but I'm really not surprised that's the version of what people think happened. Dad really didn't like to talk about his missions to anyone, even if he was innocent or did things with good intentions... and that job in particular was one of the worst..."
The Edelfelt raised an eyebrow curiously. "Oh? Are you saying that what actually happened was different? Your father wasn't the one who shot down the plane?"
The son sighed. "No, that part was true, but there are more than a few details missing from the story that very few were aware of." He leaned back and closed his eyes. "At the time dad was working with another mercenary. A woman who was pretty much his mother in all but blood. She clothed him, took care of him, and taught him everything he knew shortly after he lost both his original parents. She and dad were both working on the job and knew the apostle was taking that flight, but dad went on ahead to cut him off just in case. She, Natalia, on the other hand went on the plane with the apostle to make sure he didn't pull something unexpected on the plane..."
Luvia frowned. "That man killed his own mother figure after all she did for him just to kill a target? I find your efforts to redeem your father's name quite questionable." If he was trying to show his father in a positive light, he was certainly taking a unique round-about method to do so.
"You misunderstand." Shirou stared at her sternly. "When he shot down the plane, it's population did not consist of a magus, a dead apostle, and two hundred normal humans. It consisted of a magus and two hundred undead." He paused as the meaning of his words registered with the blonde haired teen. "That's right. The apostle had already been killed by Natalia, but in the process the monster had turned each and every other person on the plane into mindless drones that would attack anyone in sight."
"Two hundred... undead?" Luvia swallowed heavily, slowly feeling the weight of such a situation falling on her being. Letting loose such an enormous number of monsters at once in a city such as New York would have impossibly high consequences. "How on earth did a single apostle turn that many people at once with a mercenary on board that was capable of killing him?"
Shirou closed his eyes. "Dad said that the apostle was originally some magus that focused on insect based thaumaturgy, bees or mosquitoes or something along those lines. Somehow his research gave him the ability to infect people via those insects at an incredible rate. He had been killed mid flight, but by then it had already been too late to save the normal passengers there."
He leaned back in his chair. "Natalia was attempting to land the plane after she had locked herself in the cockpit and was talking to dad on the radio. She told him the situation and what she was trying to do, planning on taking out as many undead as she and dad could when she got out... but given the conversation I think that both of them knew that it was a stupid thing to do. Without really saying anything or hinting at it, they knew what was really going to happen and after a little bit when she was coming over the Hudson River to land... you know the rest."
There was a small period of silence before Shirou became uncomfortable and thought something was wrong, opening his eyes to make sure that everything was ok. Much to his surprise, he was greeted with the vision of his new acquaintance trying her hardest not to cry as if she had just heard a depressing love story. "Erm... is something wrong?"
"I... I..." Luvia stuttered with big watery eyes. "I had no idea that your father was such a selfless nobleman." She gushed in adoration finally. She may be a noble with a mercenary background, but she also happened to be somewhat of a lover of dramatic stories.
"...What?"
"To have go through such a conversation and do what he did... and then continue through with his goals and life. Such dedication to his principles is the utmost of nobility!" She continued emotionally. Her voice rose as she spoke praise to the old family rival, and soon to be paragon.
Shirou was uncertain if she was talking to him or just talking for exposition's sake at the moment. He had heard that nobles in the association occasionally do it but he had never seen it happen until now. Kiritsugu Emiya was known as a lot of things, but nobleman was certainly not one of the terms used frequently... or at all as far as Shirou knew. Still it would be rude to interrupt her so he just kept quiet and let her get it out of her system.
Thankfully he had experience with Rin doing something similar to this. His friend back home would often go on long elaborate rants whenever he did something irrational or stupid from her point of view.
The two females, both Rin and Luvia, seemed to share the same confident and commanding aura of nobility and knowledge. So much so that he was fairly certain that if the two ever met one another, they would either get along perfectly, or try to maim one another on sight. Either way the mere thought of those two in the same room sent massive chills down his spine. Regardless he was nearly certain that the two would interact perfectly with one another... like fire and dynamite.
"After what you have told me I am virtually obligated to inform my family members back home of the true depths that Sir Emiya possessed. No doubt when they hear of my revelations his name will be recorded among the greatest individuals that our family members could possibly hope to compare ourselves with on the battlefield." Luvia continued with conviction, not at all noticing that Shirou had somewhat of a glazed and disinterested look in his eyes. She turned to him with a passionate gaze. "No doubt as his son you yourself have done significant deeds worthy of his name."
Shirou blinked in surprise as Luvia suddenly turned to him with an expression that clearly showed her desire to know of his own exploits. He hesitated, not knowing how to explain to the girl that he did not go around the world and kill various people and groups that threatened the greater good and that the only person he did kill happened to be the tenth dead apostle ancestor. "Um..."
"Ah." Luvia gasped as she seemed to realize something that Shirou did not. "Of course. How rude of me. No doubt you would want to keep your exploits secret so to better protect yourself." She nodded her head in apologies. "I am sorry that I had inquired into such private and sensitive information. It was very unbecoming of me to do so."
Shirou waved his hands in front of him in protest while quietly thankful that she managed to come up with an excuse for him not to talk before he could. "No. No. That's quite all right. You were just curious and let the moment get to you. You don't have to apologize for that."
"I agree with the foreigner." A third voice chipped in, causing the two teens to see the student from before walking up to them. "There is no need to ever apologize with barbaric rabble such as him, especially ones that are dressed in such mundane attire." He turned to Luvia. "Please excuse me for my horrid display earlier. Most of the fault obviously lays with McGinty, however I too am to blame for not doing his crude tasks." He shook his head and laughed poshly. "I am still baffled as to how anyone could find projection of all studies to be useful."
Luvia glanced at Shirou who by all means looked as if he couldn't care less what the man was saying as he leaned back, looked at his elder and remained quiet. "Hm. Yes. While I do believe that projection is a rather mundane art, I don't believe it is useless." She replied. "Obviously if it is as you said, no one would have documented the field in the first place. There are pros and cons to all forms of miracle making." She reached into one of her pockets and took out a gem. "For example, my family's jewel magic is rather potent, however it is fiscally risky to all but the most financially able. Unless one was capable of creating gems that had spiritual influences, pursuing this path would be near unthinkable."
If anyone could have seen past Shirou's shroud right now, they would have clearly noticed that he was trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.
The elder scoffed. "You truly are a generous person lady Edelfelt. To compare something as wasteful as projection to your noble art of gem magic speaks volumes of your kindness."
"If you look down so much on the field, then why do you study it then?" Luvia countered with a hint of annoyance.
Benjamin raised his head proudly. "I am merely taking it to enhance my ability to analyze work so that I can better fill my father's high level position in the Department of Mineralogy. While structural grasping is a mundane ability with few actual uses, I can see the benefit to having a higher skill in its use. With little effort I am able to see how potent the magic in objects are in addition to their age and their making."
Shirou rolled his eyes. He had managed to do that when he was nine. Bragging about such an accomplishment seemed childish to him.
Luvia didn't miss this action of Shirou's which told her all she needed about how "grand" this boast was. "I see." She mused in a tone that made it difficult to tell if she was contemplating his declaration seriously or just irritated of his talking. She held out the red jewel that she had displayed earlier. "If that's the case, can you please tell me what you know about this?"
The teen smirked before looking at the stone. "But of course." He stilled his breathing. "My sight is flawless." He muttered a rather obnoxious aria before looking at the gem for at least ten seconds. "I see that this ruby is several thousand years old and... it possesses... roughly eighty units of prana..." He smiled proudly. "It is rather tedious, but I see the uses in this ability."
"And you my friend?" Luvia ignored the teen for a surprised Shirou. "What can you tell me about it?"
Shirou was about to ask why she was asking him to do the exact same thing when he saw the glint in her eyes that reminded him of Rin whenever she was about to embarrass someone. Sighing to himself he decided to humor her since going against her wishes would probably just make things worse for him in the long run. Glancing at the jewel for a moment without saying anything, he had found everything he needed.
"It was created over a period of roughly forty thousand two hundred and eight years in an extremely dry and hot climate, most likely somewhere in the middle east. The spirit that tainted it was obviously one of a fire nature and spent approximately seven hundred years in the presence of the stone. After it was mined it was reshaped two times, seventy four cuts the initial time and forty two the latter. The second set of cuts after it had been chipped slightly in its initial redesigned form. Current weight is thirty four grams and possesses two minor structural imperfections several millimeters below its current center. It has been in the possession of at least three main owners after its second crafting, the first of which was murdered by the second, and the third being your family Lady Edelfelt. As for the amount of prana it currently possesses, it has eighty four and a quarter units, however it has been used to restore a user's reserves of energy or fuel a long lasting spell four times in its existence as a mystic code."
Shirou stopped reciting what he knew of the stone and looked up to see both of the other Magi looking at him dumbstruck. "Did I say something odd?" He tilted his head to the side confused. Had the shroud not been around his mouth he would have sounded innocent, however since it was his muffled voice inadvertently took on a more condescending tone.
"That... is most impressive." Luvia blinked owlishly. "I can certainly see why advanced structural grasping would be so useful. Even I did not know that it had been used that many times for previous research. You didn't even need to use an aria to perform the analysis either."
"Really?" Shirou blinked. Normally Waver would have berated him for not delving even deeper into the stone and forcing himself to know what spells it had been used for and the genders of those who had owned it. At first he wasn't able to perform such in depth readings on anything but sword and shield like objects, but after a long amount of time he had managed to cover that gap to the point that the only difference between scanning anything (physical) related to his reality marble and not was the fact that the former's information was instantly stuck in his mind's world permanently while data that wasn't in that category was merely forgotten eventually like everything else. "It seemed like a fairly average reading."
"Humph." The eldest one there snorted. "I am not impressed. Granted how skilled you are with this boorish spell, I assume that you are less than practiced in other more practical fields of thaumaturgy. I would even hazard to guess that this is one of the few spells you can perform correctly."
"Yeah. He's right." Shirou yawned. He was really tired right now from the trip, time change, and jet lag. Sitting around doing nothing didn't help much either. He would have tried to get the people in the cafeteria to let him in so he could help out with the dishes so he could wake up a bit, but that would risk him ruining his clothes right before meeting with the queen. "I'm at best average in most fields of thaumaturgy."
The male noble glared at Shirou brushing off the seemingly insulting fact as if he couldn't care less. "You are starting to irritate me foreigner. I do not appreciate being in the presence of those who do not know their place here, especially immature and uncultured individuals who do not even acknowledge the presence of their betters."
Shirou blinked dully at the male before turning to Luvia curiously. "Have I done something wrong? All I have done so far is agree with him and do as you requested of me." He went back over Rin's lessons in his head and tried to find out how he might have insulted the man but was drawing a blank.
The blonde girl laughed politely and resumed sitting with perfect posture. "No. No you have not my friend. I am guessing that our acquaintance here is merely frustrated that you greatly outperformed him in utilizing a seemingly basic spell and the fact that you are not disturbed by others recognizing your apparent limitations."
"Why are you so willing to be near this immature excuse for a magus?" The student asked Luvia bewildered. "He has admitted himself that he is at best moderate in ability, and his pedigree and resources are obviously of substandard quality if he chose to dress in such mundane attire here."
"He interests me." Luvia smiled politely before drinking some of the tea she had brought from her own table earlier. "Well... at least he does more than you do."
Shirou swore in his head as he saw the look Luvia had on her face. He knew that look. Bad things happened whenever someone had that look. It was the look that Rin had whenever she felt that she was in absolute control of everything and everyone around her... right before everything and everyone around her get screwed over by her plans or blown up by an experiment.
He raised his hands in surrender. "Um, can we not fight please? I'm certain that if we simply talk things out we can get through this without violence... or distorting the laws of physics... or playing with one another's minds."
The nobles stared at him skeptically for several seconds in silence, giving Shirou the faint hope that his request had calmed them down. "Who are you to tell us what to do you slanted eyed coward?" Benjamin growled, smashing said hopes into the ground. "Just because you are unable to perform anything substantial and we pity you doesn't mean' we'll grant you your meager requests whenever you ask for them."
Luvia on the other hand stared at Shirou for a moment. "A question my new friend... other than your relationship with your sire, is there a sufficient reason why you inherited his moniker?"
Shirou's eyes widened momentarily as he realized what she was asking him. Looking away with some irritation, he sighed dejected. "I would have preferred it if I had remained unknown."
"I see." Luvia nodded, understanding completely what Shirou had just said before turning to the Clocktower student and pointed her right hand at him like a gun much to both of the male's surprise. "It would be best if you left us now." She said coldly. "While I have little doubt that my friend here would be more than enough to reprimand you for your behavior, I am more than irritated enough to take that responsibility for myself." A large hazy black orb formed on her extended pointer finger less than a meter from the second male's head. "Please leave."
"Hey..." Shirou weakly tried to diffuse the situation even though he was being ignored. He recognized Luvia's spell as Gandr, a curse that Rin often chose as her primary offensive spell. Normally he tried to stay out of heated arguments, but normally heated arguments didn't involve people pointing balls of concentrated misfortune at one another. "We can talk this out..."
"You dare point a curse at me?" The student growled, more affronted that Luvia was threatening him than scared that she was a hair trigger away from cursing him in the face. "I guess the rumors about your family being hyenas weren't mere talk. You are just as bad as the outsider." He straightened himself and reached for the handle of a sword on his hip. "Do you want a duel that badly dog? I will not go easy on you simply because you are younger than me."
"Stop. Please." Shirou raised his voice a bit more louder and sterner, but was still ignored. He noticed that people nearby eating lunch had become aware of the rising tension at the table and were paying attention to what was happening. "People are watching."
Luvia smirked as she allowed her opponent to draw what appeared to be a rapier as it would be unbecoming to harm an unarmed opponent. "You sound like you can put up a fight against me. I wonder if you've ever seen risked your life in a bout before."
"You do not have to fight." The Emiya spoke in a dark and firm tone.
The elder noble ignored Shirou as he began to channel prana into his weapon, making it glow a faint green. "Shows what you know girl. I've been on seven dead apostle hunts." He took a step back and put himself in a fencing position. "Though I doubt you'll be as much of a challenge..."
Luvia's previous elegant smirk was slowly growing into something more hungry and ecstatic. Those who knew of the Edelfelt family were aware that those with their blood were truly at home on the battlefield. "You probably were stuck cleaning up the undead. You don't have any experience in your body at all you uncultured novice..."
Shink. Shink. Shink. Shink. Shink.
"I said no fighting." Shirou growled from his seat as everyone stared at the five massive greatswords that were impaled into the ground between the two surprised nobles. "If you want to kill one another so badly, then do so in one of the dueling grounds, not here where there are innocents that could be caught in the crossfire. I had assumed that since both of you are nobles you would have better self control than this, however it seems I was wrong."
Swords? Luvia blinked in confusion as she turned Shirou warily. It seems as if the rumors about his capabilities may not be all hot air after all. His eyes aren't showing confidence like most fighters. They are merely showing that he is paying attention to us and some minor irritation. He's experienced...
"You are quite right." The female laughed lightly and politely before calming down and returning to her controlled and relaxed posture. "It was unseemly to let my temper get the better of me. You have my thanks."
Shirou didn't change his demeanor as he glared at Luvia and Benjamin, causing the former to momentarily flinch. "Since Luvia had politely defended me and requested to be left alone despite your advances, I will fight on her behalf as thanks if she should allow me to. However the time of which we would fight would have to be determined later. My schedule during my stay here has yet to be made."
"A likely excuse." The student snorted before putting his weapon away, not even bothering to pay attention to the swords that were embedded into the ground right in front of him. "Even if she had allowed you to fight, I doubt you would come up with some reason to cower away from me. Who is the unfortunate lord that requested your meager presence here anyway? It was most likely that barbarian McGinty."
"You think too highly of yourself Stanwell." A cold female voice stated calmly from a small distance away from a direction that only Shirou would have seen without issue who at the moment, was frozen in place like a deer staring at the headlights of an oncoming car. Walking calmly towards the group, Lorelei Barthomelloi approached with an air around her that was practically saturated with nobility. "I did not think that your family had achieved a position high enough to have the luxury to pity mine."
Shirou felt sorry for his fellow teens as their faces turned ash white when they recognized who she was. "V-Vice Director..." The identified Stanwell stammered, clearly not expecting someone as prominent as Lorelei to step into their small argument. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you are talking about."
Lorelei's eyes glinted with minor irritation before looking at Shirou. "I see you still have yet to part with that shroud Emiya. I do hope that you do not intend to wear it in such an uncouth manner during our meetings."
Shirou didn't blink as he maintained eye contact with her and quickly regained his own air of calm. After talking to her once before and practicing with Rin, he could now carry himself like a moderately trained professional so long as he was focused. The fact that his face was covered actually helped as it prevented his facial expressions from being seen.
"It has its uses my lady, and you are aware of how my normal appearance would obtain me. Given my family history, it is not difficult to determine why I wish to keep myself anonymous here in the Association. For those I trust I have no issue removing it, but otherwise I would request that I keep it as is while in public." He bowed his head and closed his eyes apologetically. "I express my regret for not containing this incident before it got to this point. I had hoped that I could have spent my stay here at the Clocktower without incident."
"Your manners have improved since last I saw you if nothing else." Lorelei looked at him analytically before turning her attention to the swords still embedded into the ground. "After our encounter I sent some of my followers to research your field of study. So far you remain unparalleled despite our library's extensive history." She touched the closest weapon and in an instant it was dispelled much to everyone else's surprise. "Had I not known what this was, even I would have assumed that your products were originals. Be honored."
Shirou nodded his head politely while silently dispelling the remaining swords he had produced at once. Normally he would have brushed off his skills as something not all that impressive, but Rin had spent a good month and a half beating the idea into his skull that if a noble on Lorelei's level complimented him he should accept it and then shut up about the subject. "That and more Lady Barthomelloi."
Luvia remained quiet as the two conversed. She was absolutely stunned speechless. Not once would she have guessed that the Magus Killer's son was acquaintances with the Vice Director of the Clocktower. There were rumors that he traveled around the world killing bounties for a living, there were rumors that he was a practitioner of every forbidden magic ever known, there was even a rumor that he single handedly killed a Dead Apostle Ancestor, but none hinted at something like this.
"Edelfelt. Stanwell. The both of you have shamed your house names with your behavior." Lorelei sternly chided the other two as she turned her attention back to them. "Regardless of whose fault it was, attempting to conduct a duel in a non combat area is extremely frowned upon here. At first I was going to force you two to duel in the grounds as you wished until I deemed otherwise, however since Emiya here has politely claimed Edelfelt's position it will be between you two instead."
All three teens blinked in confusion before the eldest suddenly realized that he had been given an opportunity to show off in front of the Barthomelloi head. "It would be an honor my lady." He brazenly stated, not at all concerned that Shirou might be able to pose a threat and not recognizing the Emiya name in the slightest.
Shirou raised his hands in mock defense. "I only offered to fight if Miss Edelfelt wanted me to. I would prefer not to get into a conflict, however I am not opposed to it either so long as things do not get out of hand."
Luvia smiled confidently. "While I am certain that I can handle myself against this person, I am curious as to how you would fare and how you handle your magic."
"Why am I not surprised?" The Emiya grumbled under his breath before he turned to Lorelei. "So when do you wish for this to happen?"
The Queen's mouth twitched as if she was about to smile but thought better of it. "Now."
"Come again?" Shirou blinked, voicing what the other two teens were thinking.
"I was going to meet with you in an hour and a half, but this rather convenient duel can be used to accelerate my schedule a small bit. We will speak of your obligations during your stay here after said bout." The brown haired woman stated before turning around and walked to one of the nearby hallways. "I suggest you come and not try my patience."
"Humph." The Stanwell smirked, obviously confident in the outcome of the fight. "I will not blame you if you run away fool. It is after all almost impossible to regain status after losing face in front of the Queen. Go back home to your rice picking kind and no one will think the less of you."
Shirou blinked tiredly as he watched the other male go ahead of him with a strut in his step, no doubt already preparing his victory speech when after he won the supposedly easy fight. The redhead sighed as he stood up and quickly took his food trays to the cafeteria, stopped to longingly look inside the washroom and kitchen for a few seconds, and ran back so that he wouldn't get lost.
Luvia eyed Shirou as he oddly put in the effort to clean after himself before going to fight. The supposed killing expert's behavior was simply odd at times. Didn't he know that the workers of the building cleaned up after them? Why would he put in the effort to do such a mundane and useless thing? Did he not care that his performance was being witnessed by the Queen? Why was he even fighting for her in the first place? It couldn't have simply been because she somewhat stood up for him...
She shook her head and followed Shirou outside of the room. She would find out the answers to most of her questions soon enough anyways. While it may be a bit rude to leave her travelling companions uninformed, she determined that the oncoming duel would be quite interesting to watch...
o. o. o.
Half an Hour Later:
The dull fight that just occurred couldn't be called a duel. It was too fast and uneventful to be called that. For the few that had managed to watch the spar all they would have seen was an eighteen year old man fire off some moderately strong wind based mysteries from his rapier, which was quickly determined by everyone to be some sort of wind amplification based mystic code, at a young man in a coat and red cowl who ran at enhanced human speeds even by magus standards, miss every time, and then get beaten bare handedly by said physically enhanced young man until he couldn't stand anymore.
Heck, when the elder fighter attempted to stab the younger with his weapon, the poor tool had snapped as soon as the pressure of the attack came into contact with Emiya's coat. Luvia couldn't tell if the coat was naturally strong or if it was just reinforced to a high degree, but none the less it was disappointing all the same.
Looking around, Luvia once again inspected the round underground room slash cave that was designed for duels. There were several hundred bounded fields surrounding it to prevent shockwaves, curses, and other such things from damaging the spectator's areas embedded into the walls of the cavern or revealing its existence to the normal world. All in all she estimated the fighting grounds were about fifty meters in diameter and there were enough seats for roughly a few thousand people even though there were at most a few dozen present. The observing population however had been slowly increasing as word had no doubt been spreading about a duel worthy of the Vice Director's attention reached more and more ears.
"You have gotten better." Lorelei stated from her elevated seat to Shirou as several men took away the downed Noble to get treated for some bruises and a minor concussion. "You didn't even need any weapons to defeat him." Her eyes flashed knowingly. "What was interesting was that you seemed to act as if you knew what his skill set was before the fight even began. You were not concerned in the slightest when he attacked you with his code."
Shirou looked back at Lorelei. While he normally practiced using swords in his close combat training with Bazett, he did on rare occasions learn some very basic unarmed moves from her as well. In addition to that, when he and Rin had originally began to hang out with one another, she would sometimes give him some small martial arts tips and facts in her attempts to make herself seem more competent than he was.
Another minor boost in his favor was the coat that Sirius gave him. It was supposedly modeled after the one his father used back when he "worked", but it was slightly modified to be a perfect instrument of defense when reinforcement magic was applied to it. The materials used in its making, in addition to its slightly thicker design and its outer magic resistant layer, made it ideal for Shirou's abilities. When he boosted its capabilities, it performed as if he had at least half a dozen magic resistant kevlar vests on him at once, only much more fashionable and comfortable to wear.
But for the most part the reason why Shirou managed to take out his opponent bare handed so easily was because the poor fool was just really slow and couldn't take a hit, even if he had used some reinforcement to fortify his body. The only reason why the Faker had given the noble a concussion was because nobles had a tendency of being stubborn idiots and sore losers. Even if you broke their arms and legs, if they could still speak, there was a chance that they could cast some sort of last resort and potentially suicidal spell when your back was tuned.
"To be honest Lady Barthomelloi, he wasn't that experienced. His magic may have been rather potent, but it was all rather simple to dodge." He turned towards the exit. "Now since this issue has been taken care of, I assume that we will go to your office to speak about my stay here?"
"Not quite Emiya." The Queen stated, causing everyone to suddenly get chills run down their spine. "As I said before, having you here now would make things go much faster for my schedule."
Shirou's eyes narrowed. He was getting the feeling he normally had whenever Rin was about to tell him that she needed his help for another experiment. And considering who was doing the requesting now there was no hope of simply walking away from it. "Against my better judgment, I'm going to ask why that's the case."
He was answered by the sound of a large door opening behind him, revealing a fairly disheveled and dirty Caucasian man with long, ratty, curly black hair streaming from his head over most of his face and more than a comfortable amount from the rest of his body, dressed in rags and breathing haggardly. None of that mattered to Shirou however...
... Because he was a Dead Apostle.
"This former Lord had recently turned himself into a blood drinking abomination in an attempt to stave off time to perform more research. Even worse he foolishly believed that he could get away with such deeds inside the Clocktower. He was apprehended soon after his transformation, but not before killing seven enforcers here." Lorelei stated calmly despite the shocked looks she was receiving from most of the lords and ladies there, Luvia included. "Normally such fools are either killed on sight or dissected and experimented on for such heresy, however he has proven rather resilient, his test results are mundane at best, and his mind has deteriorated to the lesser of his kind."
She looked directly at Shirou. "Show me that your victory over the tenth was no fluke."
Luvia's eyes widened in shock as she looked at her new associate as if he had just performed the fifth magic. "Impossible..." She whispered. "The rumors were true?"
Shirou's blood ran cold as the undead man looked up at him with deranged red eyes. There was no rationality in them, only rage and hunger. There was little doubt that Lorelei must have prevented the unfortunate demon from feeding on even a drop of blood since he had been captured, and the endless thirst had eventually rendered him insane to the point that he was little more than a human shaped beast. One that was currently eyeing him as his first meal in months.
There was no chance of saving him.
"Trace on!" Shirou commanded as he rapidly produced several dozen blades in mid air and impaled them into the ground between himself and his new opponent. "Tohsaka would kill me if she found out this happened the day I got here." He muttered tiredly as a bow materialized in one hand and a dark red spiraled long sword appeared in the other. Notching the sword in the bow, he took a starting position and looked around warily, all the while feeding a fair amount of prana into the projectile.
A sudden inhuman shriek of rage from the other side of the field of blades snapped him out of his musings as opponent jumped over the entire area. The man's very pale face was now visible for Shirou to see with his hair flying behind him, complete with elongated fangs, cracking skin, and... six more eyes on his forehead.
"Consume, blade of immolation." Shirou frowned as he in seemingly one movement drew, aimed and released his arrow at his airborne target. The moment the sword took flight, it had transformed into a massive stream of intense red flames lead by the white hot tip of the blade itself. In an instant the vampire had been pierced through by the tip of the attack and in the next the rest of the flames had engulfed him and blasted him away back in the direction he had come from, slamming his frame into the bounded fields surrounding the fighting area before falling to the earth again.
Shirou blinked in surprise as he realized how powerful the attack was before dispelling the swords that he had made previously. While he had used fire element swords as arrows before, the one he had used was among the higher quality ones that Sirius had shown him inside his workshop barely an hour ago. In fact while the number of weapons he could make had skyrocketed after exiting the room, most of the new weapons he got were best used as enhanced arrows or good for spamming over a wide area.
Still, he doubted that things would be that easy.
"Impressive." Lorelei commented. "However if the former Lord Morokov had been so simple to put down, then he would not have been able to kill seven of the enforcers..."
Shirou didn't say anything as his opponent's still burning frame slowly pulled itself up, hissing and making odd noises with increasing volume like he wasn't even supposed to look human. With a large pulse of energy, the undead man had extinguished the flames on his person and charged at Shirou once more with non human speed, his skin slowly repairing itself as he did so.
He's recovering like Louvre did, by reversing time on his body... The teen frowned as he analyzed his opponent's being. I thought that only higher leveled Apostles could do that... how could this guy do it so soon after turning himself?
He was snapped out of his thoughts when the man slashed out one of his arms and in the process produced dozens of thin white strings from his skin and crossing the distance between the two rapidly.
The teen clicked his teeth in irritation as he instantly jumped up and away to avoid the attack and quickly analyzed the string. Silk... and it can conduct prana extremely well too... He quickly determined as he tried to ignore the slash marks in the ground the attack had made behind him. ... It has enough prana focused in them at a high enough frequency to alter how they impact, cut into objects, and how they move. Combined with those extra eyes, I'm guessing that the guy focused most of his research on spiders... it's too dangerous to try to fight him up close...
Dozens of average looking blades appeared out of thin air around Shirou and flew at the Dead Apostle each with the speed of a professional baseball pitcher's fastball. For most humans and magi this attack would be impossible to avoid without some sort of major physical enhancement and as such would need to be blocked, however the former lord thought otherwise as he jumped and slashed his impromptu whips wildly to avoid and deflect the attacks, which gave Shirou time to put some more distance between the two.
Skidding to a stop, Shirou remade his bow and this time a blue spiraled sword that was already notched. Now how will you deal with an attack that you can't deflect or dodge? He narrowed his eyes as he attempted to force out any major defensive spells out of his opponent in order to make sure that he wasn't caught off guard when he went in for the kill. Despite the tense situation, he waited so that his opponent saw what he was doing and realized what was going to happen.
It was pretty easy to tell when that happened as the archer's eyes saw all eight of his opponent's dilate at once at the sight of the bow.
"Shatter. Helix Blade."
Dozens of blue lights shot from Shirou's bow at once, all flying in irregular patterns and all converging upon the vampire rapidly from all angles. No amount of dodging or slashing would prevent the target from avoiding this attack as they converged on the wild man from all sides and slammed into the area with enough force to kick up a massive cloud of dust.
"Ta bloody hell is goin on?" A familiar deep voice panted from behind Luvia, causing her to see Sirius standing between her and the exit with a woman and a man in their early twenties right behind him. "Ah thought ta lad was just beatin ta crap out of some snot?"
"Apparently not." The younger male commented darkly. With his red coat and golden scarf hanging over his shoulders, Luvia wouldn't have been surprised if he was a Lord of some sort. He looked down at the fight to see dust clearing to reveal a dome of silk covered with the shattered remains of the blue swords that impaled it. "Some kind of organic material..." He observed.
"It's silk lad." Sirius corrected with a frown. "Ah tink tat ta lad is fightin Morokov. He's ta only bloke ah know of tat could do sometin like tat."
"Morokov?" The lord blinked in surprise. "But I thought that he was killed months ago."
"No." Bazett scowled. "He was just put away. I was part of the group that put him down. His recovering ability was extremely potent despite being just turned at the time, and that wasn't including his other spells." She put on a careful expression. "If Sh... I mean Emiya uses his ace he shouldn't have much of a problem though..."
"Tat's probably not gonna happen." Sirius corrected. "Yah know as well as ah do tat tat weapon is a last resort, especially in here of all places." He sighed and walked to a nearby chair just as the dome began to shift its form. "Besides, ah don't tink ta lad needs it fer tis fight anyways. Ta lad's been learnin ta fight like Kiritsugu, an ah can tell ya tat ta bastard never used his code unless he thought tat he had no other option."
The Magus Killer had a mystic code? Luvia blinked in surprise as she listened in on the conversation before the fight drew her attention again. Does that mean that his son has it now?
"Trace. On. Cartridge. Set. Safety. Off. Target. Lock." Shirou muttered his spell rapidly as he felt his circuits buzzing with energy. While it was within his ability, shooting off multiple copies of any mystic code at once always took more energy than he was comfortable with.
"Set." At least thirty copies of Maiya appeared above and around him, their blades pointed at the lump of silk that was no doubt going to turn into some form of offensive machination within the next few seconds. "Fire."
In less than two seconds all thirty blades had impaled the silk at various angles despite the significant defense it had provided earlier, prompting the man inside to let out another immensely loud shriek of pain and rage. The dome then began to move and shift wildly, but unlike before where each thread seemed to move in perfect harmony with the others, now the materials seemed to be confused and entangled with one another.
"Clever." Bazett mused as he watched. "Very clever. Since silk is a biological material, Maiya's effectiveness is increased."
"Indeed." Waver nodded. "Instead of trying to overpower the defense or try to get around it, he instead made it work for him. Morokov won't be able to move or attack properly as he is."
"Told ya." Sirius snorted. "Ta lad takes afta his old man an..." He paused as he apparently saw something happen in the arena and immediately stood up. "SHIT! LAD! BE CAREFUL! TAT DOME ISN'T A SHIELD! IT'S A COCOON!"
Shirou's eyes widened momentarily in shock as he scanned the supposed silk prison and saw that whatever was inside was mutating at an accelerated rate... and it was getting bigger by the second. By the looks of things he didn't have the luxury of time if he wanted to make sure that the remainder of the fight was at his tempo. "Cartridge shift! Accelerate manufacturing process! Trace! Accel!"
Dozens of copies of the sister blade of Maiya bolted through the air at the shifting dome and penetrated it on contact. The dome which Shirou determined could withstand immense pressure and attacks from both magical and physical sources, was unable to resist the phenomena known as severing while enforced by the curse of Angra Mainyu and enhanced by the altered speeds granted from the butchered Emiya clan crest. Each and every blade sunk deep into the contents of the heap of strings, severing and splitting apart everything it came into contact with.
Shirou on the other hand had collapsed onto one knee and gripped his chest in pain. He had to rush that last spell a bit in order to get it off in time and now he was suffering the consequences. His mind was slightly disoriented, his eyesight occasionally blurred, and his heartbeat was beating somewhat erratically, compounding with the pain of his crest burning just above it. He didn't know if he would experience any feedbacks from his most recent spell or when, but in order to prevent the transformation from happening he had to take that risk. Still he did not look away just yet. His opponent could reverse time and if he didn't finish things soon he would be in deep trouble later.
Muttering a much slower incantation, he stood up with two modified copies of Maiya in hand, designed to bind its targets to the current timeline and rushed forward to his opponent who was still recovering from being chopped into many pieces. Even though he was slightly exhausted and disoriented, he had still made it to his opponent within three seconds. Without even slowing down he shallowly leapt over the disoriented pile of silk and slashed at the largest lumps there, making sure he drew blood in the process, and landed on the other side of the pile before running away again. While it may have been a bit overly cautious, Shirou still didn't want to risk getting caught in the strong material by accident or in case it was a trap.
What he didn't expect however were dozens of small spiders to suddenly appear from the silk lump and chase after him as soon as he landed.
The Faker almost moaned in frustration at the appearance of the familiars before dispelling his swords again and producing a normal copy of the flaming red sword he had shot as an arrow earlier and held it in two hands. Without hesitation he swung the blade and produced a sloppy but fairly strong wave of fire that incinerated the small creatures.
He normally tried to avoid using his elemental based weapons like this since it was extremely wasteful in terms of prana on his part, but he had no choice. He had no other way to deal with swarm like enemies. Blades were effective against armors, large opponents, and other swords, but they were near useless against countless tiny opponents that could hit you at all angles at once. It was one of the main reasons why he didn't dare to try to kill Zouken... for now at least.
"Well at least one problem's been dealt with." Waver sighed as he watched Shirou take out the minor annoyances without much issue, knowing that the boy just stopped the vampire from being able to restore his body ever again.
Bazett nodded. "True, but he must be getting tired at this point. He's made a fair number of weapons and shot off two fully charged elemental swords."
"Ta lad's got a fairly large high quality circuit a moderately large od capacity." Sirius commented. "Duelin grounds have a bunch of mana furnaces around tem so tat all ta combatants can fight to their fullest without havin ta worry about restraint." He looked down at the fight again. "Ah've trained ta lad ta be as efficient as possible wit his od ta mana balance usage since ta beginning so ah think tat he can last a bit longer..." He paused before looking around. "Ahm more worried about what happens afta ta fight."
Waver and Bazett looked around and saw what Sirius meant. Over the course of the death match, more and more members of the Clocktower had arrived to see what was so important that had the Queen's attention. While most duels normally attracted the attention of around a hundred nobles at a time at the most, there was closer to three hundred individuals watching now and more coming in.
They had attempted to hide Shirou's existence from the rest of the Association for years, however it seems as if their efforts had been rendered useless as of now. Shirou was now known to everyone and it wouldn't take long for others to attempt to drag him into their own petty plans.
"What now?" Bazett asked worriedly. "We can't protect him anymore."
"We can't." Waver frowned before looking at Lorelei who didn't seem to notice their existence. "But she can."
"Um, Lad? Tat may be just a wee tad bit of a stretch yer suggestin." Sirius laughed nervously. After learning of Shirou's condition, he felt that the less time the boy spent with the Queen of the Clocktower, the higher chance he would have of living long enough to perform in the grail war.
"What choice do we have left?" Waver grit his teeth as he watched a spider the size of a small truck leap out of the pile of silk and spit more strands like bullets at Shirou who in turn managed to run away in time to avoid getting impaled. It didn't take much to guess that the new spider was a magically mutated Morokov. "I have nowhere near enough pull in the Association to keep him out of things, and the Archibald family, who gave me my rank mind you, despises the Emiya family name with a burning passion after Kiritsugu destroyed their crest. If anything I'm a liability at this point."
He didn't pay much attention as the spider somehow made a massive magic circle in front of itself with its silk and began to focus an absurd amount of energy into it.
"Bazett is just an enforcer, granted a strong one, but she still has no real position of political power other than the fact that she's a Fraga. As for you Sirius? You're a sealing designate. You are literally owned by the Association now and its only because you have some connections and make the best codes in the past century that you aren't being dissected right now."
"Well tere's tat an because ah skinned mahself ahead of time..." The old man added casually as Shirou produced Rho Aias to defend himself against the massive surge of prana that was shot at him. Given the fact that the shield was something special to look at, the old man was fairly certain that the kid just earned some more interest in the eyes of the more shallow nobles here. "Huh. Ya know ah tink ah'm gonna go down tere after tis fight is done an see if ah can take some of tat silk fer meself. It looks like it can channel prana better even better tan ether clumps an its toughness ain't sometin ta scoff at either..."
"Sirius. Focus." Waver frowned as Shirou dispelled his shield and once more notched his bow, this time with a green and silver colored twisted blade. He barely had time to register the sword's appearance before it disappeared in an instant, having plowed through the giant spider's head and body before anyone had even realized that it had been fired in the first place. Half a second later the sonic boom created by the arrow reached everyone's ears and literally tore the spider's body apart from the inside out starting from the hole the arrow made.
Combining a wind element sword arrow with acceleration properties always did have a rather violent aftershock effect. Especially when the sound barrier was broken.
Following at the arrow's trajectory, Waver saw that it had impacted the bounded fields surrounding the field with enough speed and power to overwhelm at least several dozen or more of them. Granted there were at least two hundred fields on average layered around the dueling grounds but to break that many with sheer penetrative force was still impressive, which in turn would of course gain Shirou even more unwanted attention down the line.
"Unless you have a better option, leaving him under lady Barthomelloi's influence is the safest bet we have for now. Hopefully as time goes on he can gain a bit more pull here politically as the sixth head of the Emiya family, plus with his abilities I wouldn't doubt that he could eventually gain a fairly high seat in a few of the departments here, but until then he's a sitting duck." The Lord sighed before taking out a cigar and lighting it wearily. "We don't have a lot of options at this point. Luckily the way things are going we won't have to do much in order to make that happen."
Sirius snorted as he watched Shirou collapse to one knee and pant heavily. Waver probably knew it already but the odds were likely that the Vice Director meant for this to happen. By taking Shirou away to the dueling grounds in front of the cafeteria while he was gone, she effectively pulled everyone's attention in her direction and in turn Shirou's and put him on full display for all the lords here to see. Had this been a private incident there was a chance that the boy could have remained independent long enough for his teachers to erect some sort of political wall themselves around the boy, but now there was no time.
In a sense, Shirou was a cut of prime beef, and right now he was in the middle of a den of wolves. In order to prevent him from being torn apart between all the other wolves, they had no choice but to ensure that he remained in the hands of the head wolf... who just so happened to be the meanest bitch in the den that pointed out that he was there in the first place.
Clever girl.
Sirius sighed depressed as he watched several enforcers walk onto the field to make sure that the Apostle was dead and that Shirou was all right. This was going to be a long two years.
"There you are Luviagelita!" A young female voice stated irritably, causing the addressed person to turn around surprised. "We were looking for you! Where have you been?"
"The young mistress and I were most distraught when we heard what happened." Sebastian walked forward with his companion and looked down at the arena. "I am ashamed that I was unable to perform my duties to the family and left you unattended for so long."
Luvia sighed. "Do not worry yourself over something so minor Sebastian. Had you not done so who knows what little Marjatta would have done. Besides because of your absence I managed to meet a very interesting person and lean some even more interesting things." She watched as Shirou was helped up by one of the enforcers there and walked to the exit. "I do believe that my stay for the next month will be very informative indeed."
The younger female frowned and crossed her arms, causing many people to notice her. She was fairly young at around fourteen years old with moderately long blonde hair tied into a high ponytail. While still in puberty it was fairly apparent that she would grow to become a beauty in her later years. Her ornate dress was littered with black and golden frills with some minor blue fabrics woven into it, unlike her elder counterparts which had the opposite scheme. She also wore a fair amount of jewelry on her neck, ears and hands. "I care not about your superfluous habits sister. You wasted my time by looking for you and I expect you to compensate me for this."
Luvia sighed tiredly at her younger sibling's demanding and spoiled claim. She would play along with it for now, but should she continue with this behavior later on it would only cause the family name to be marred. "Fine my dear sister. I will do just that when time permits. For now you will have to wait as we have several meetings to attend. It would be unbecoming of us to skip them just to sate some meager personal desires." She glanced at Waver, Sirius and Bazett momentarily before turning to walk away.
"Unless of course those desires would happen to benefit the family significantly..."
o. o. o.
A/N:
Once again, betad by Maximorph1
Ore. Mother. Fucking. Scales.
Yes. Major twist number two to the war has just been made and it will make things all the more sweeter. If you don't know that I'm talking about, look it up on the type moon wiki. This ENTIRE chapter's purpose was to lead up to the exposure to the OC Marjatta Edelfelt, younger sister of Luviagetta Edelfelt, and to just get it over with, otherwise I would have split it up into two parts since it's so long. How the sisters get caught up in the scheme of things is still going to be hidden until I say so, but be rest assured, this will lead to some horrible things happening when things finally start picking up in Fuyuki.
Other than that, Shirou's new look, yeah, personally I like the use of the coat's use with reinforcement and the shroud to cover his head, but otherwise I don't like the suit bit. It doesn't match his personality. What he's dressed in now will probably just only be used while he's in the Clocktower.
What I DO like is the fact that since his face is covered, half the things he says and thinks will be interpreted by the vast majority of the Clocktower as either mysterious, have hidden meanings, or threatening when in reality he's just trying to be honest and straightforward. It's my way of screwing with a mysterious society by throwing in an obliviously straightforward guy and make it so that they don't KNOW he's actually being straight forward and not hiding anything, and I find it hilarious.
For anyone who thinks that I might have overdone it with giving Shirou Sirius' current collection, please keep in mind that most of the objects there wouldn't even scratch a servant unless it was fired from his bow while accelerated. Most of the tools he saw in there are just much more powerful versions of weapons he's already seen before and some other ones that are useful in unique circumstances. All in all its not that much of an upgrade in the long run.
For anyone that thinks that Shirou's too op now cause of this fight, that is not the case. He is just very well equipped compared to most other mages. There are many stronger mages than him in the association, it just so happens though that Shirou has the capability to be the most diversified combat wise and handle the widest amount of situations.
I also slipped in a few hints of things that will affect the war in as well. Some are obvious, others are a bit more subtle.
Still waiting for fan art though I have been told that some people are working on some interesting bits as we speak. The next chapter won't be this long thankfully, I just wanted to get this bit over with.
So FFD broke the 1k cherry with gusto and went a full hundred past it. Damn that's good. Thank you everyone for reviewing and let's see if we can break the 2k mark just as hard.
That's all for now folks! Review! Worship the log! Fate Zero season 2 is coming out next month! And Review again!
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From Fake Dreams
FanfictionEmiya Kiritsugu was happy living the rest of his short days. He had put his past behind him... until he began to dream of futures that had yet to be. Let it be known that the Magus Killer was not dangerous simply because he was dying and had no plan...
