Fate: Hammer Time

Chapter 33: Striking the Deal

It was the day after Shirou's impromptu Astromancy lesson at the Fargo-estate, and it should surprise absolutely no one that the redhead was already awake and busy when the clock struck six in the morning.

He'd slept his customary three hours, but since he'd gone to bed at two in the night, that meant he had woken at five, which was already an hour or so ago, meaning he still had to wait at least two hours before he could meet up with Mary and Claire.

Before they'd all gone to bed after Shirou had Hypnotised the three men, they had arranged to meet at eight in the morning again, to further discuss what had happened and what the girls would have to do going forward.

There hadn't really been any opportunity to discuss those things back then. The girls had been too shocked and tired to really think straight.

After his round of Hypnotising, Shirou had returned to the observatory, where Claire and Mary had been waiting for him. Once there, he had informed them that he'd had a good talk with the men, who wouldn't bother them ever again.

He hadn't gone into specifics, but he did make sure to tell them that lord Fargo, Alec Fargo, and Fernando Li were all in good health. They had a different... 'perspective on life', now, but they were physically completely fine.

After a few seconds of disbelief, the girls' relief had been palpable, and while Claire didn't seem like she would have minded it if Shirou had killed her abusers, Mary had been very grateful he had found a bloodless solution.

Mary had embraced him in gratefulness, and while Claire had experienced a spark of jealousy again at the sight, that spark was extinguished immediately when Mary turned back to her and took her into a searing kiss.

At that point, Shirou had politely turned his eyes away.

The exuberant delight hadn't lasted much longer than a few minutes though. Whether it was because they'd had a long day, hadn't slept well in some time, or because they finally had a massive weight lifted from their shoulders, Mary and Claire had been struck with the proverbial hammer of exhaustion, prompting the trio to head to their respective beds for the night.

The girls had first shown him to his room, which he was free to Ward and secure himself, before they headed off to their own room, holding each other up.

The rest, as they say, was history.

That was how Shirou now found himself in the guest room, sitting around doing nothing, with more than ninety minutes left to kill and no idea how to do that.

He wasn't in the mood for reading, nor did he feel that staring at his plans to rescue Illya again would have any use, and it wasn't like he could start doing experiments with Magecraft in someone else's house.

Shirou had almost gotten to the point of taking out Mjolnir just to have someone, or something, to talk to, when he remembered another detail of the happenings of last night.

Fernando Li, and his connection to the Meluastea-family.

From the context of the conversation between Li and Alec Fargo, Shirou had been able to deduce that the Meluastea were apparently big players in the Clocktower's underworld. Big enough that Li had been desperate to curry favour with them, to the point he planned to steal the research of a close ally.

Shirou himself didn't know much about the Meluastea. All he knew was what Grey had shared with him.

They were the heads of the Archaeology Department, and had sold Kayneth El-Melloi the artefacts he had used during the Grail War. Furthermore, they had been the first to carve themselves a piece of the Archibald after Kayneth had died and the Archibald-Crest had been lost. They'd taken not just the Department of Mineralogy, which had formerly belonged to Kayneth, but also most of the Archibald's money and soft power, leaving them a fallen family in every way.