Fate: Hammer Time

Chapter 26: A Short Interlude

Just as Sakura had predicted, Taiga became absolutely furious once Shirou told her what had transpired at the harbour, and how Raiga had betrayed his trust and used him to kill Galen. She barely stuck around long enough for Shirou to finish the story before she stormed out of the house again, her eyes spitting fury as she left.

Shirou almost felt sorry for the Yakuza-boss. Almost, but not quite. He might have been a forgiving person by nature, but just like the girls had said, he wasn't about to let the man get away with so blatantly betraying him.

About a month later, at breakfast, Taiga was happily telling them about the latest punishments she'd doled out to her grandfather.

"I had him check the entire inventory of all the family's possessions, thrice, just to begin with." She told him in a voice filled with vindictive pleasure, her plate yet untouched, showing how seriously she took the matter. "And I'll make sure he'll be looking back on that task with nostalgic desire as I increase his work-load until he's broken and begging for mercy."

"Thank you, Fuji-nee." Shirou smiled, glad that the man had gotten at least some form of come-uppance. "I really appreciate it."

"No problem, no problem." She waved it off with a laugh, before frowning again. "Not that it seems to have helped much. He is still completely remorseless over the whole matter. Keeps saying that 'Galen had to die'."

"Well, he isn't wrong about that." Shirou admitted, drawing a surprised look from Taiga. "It did save him a whole lot of trouble down the line. I don't agree of course, and I don't like how he went behind my back with it, but I can see why he did it."

"Well, he does seem to be remorseful about betraying you." Taiga rubbed the back of her head in thought, before her expression hardened. "Not that that's going to save him from his punishment of course. I'll show him what happens to backstabbers."

"You get him, Fujimura-Sensei!" Sakura encouraged her in a darkly joyous voice, raising a fist in the air, her smile positively evil. "Make him regret what he did to Senpai!"

Sakura's merciless proclamation appealed to Taiga far more than Shirou's measured response, and before long, the two were happily conversing about possible methods of punishing the Yakuza leader for his terrible actions.

Meanwhile, Shirou looked on with a complicated expression on his face.

On one hand, he agreed that Raiga shouldn't get away with what he had done. That trick he played on Shirou had really been underhanded, and Shirou felt genuinely hurt about it.

On the other hand, it had been almost a month since it happened, and Taiga had been grilling and punishing the man for almost as long. At some point, enough was enough.

Especially since Raiga too had only done what he did because he believed it to be the best course of action. Shirou couldn't agree with his methods, but he could see that Raiga truly had the good of the city and indeed Shirou himself at heart.

So even if he had been underhanded, it wasn't entirely unforgivable.

The most rational thing for Shirou to do would be to face Raiga himself and talk things out, so Taiga could stop her creative and unusual punishments.

But unfortunately for the man, Shirou wasn't always rational, so he decided to put that conversation off until he came back from London. Letting the man sweat for a few months was honestly the best punishment Shirou could come up with right now. The rest he would leave to Taiga.

That said, he should probably curb the worst ideas that his big sister and girlfriend were coming up with right now.

He truly appreciated what they were doing for him, but there was no need to force Raiga to clean the entire harbour with nothing but a toothbrush.