Fate Coiling Sword

Chapter 19: Surprise!

Beta read by Shigiya and Darklord331
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-Fuyuki, Emiya Residence-

How and why it happened, Shirou had little to no clue. The happenings of last night barely made sense to him, from the summoning to the presence of the blindfolded woman who appeared before him—completely throwing off any and all knowledge he had of the war into disorder.

'The fifth war should have been decades away… how is it possible for a Servant to get summoned now?'

Beings of great power are feared and revered from their heroic tales and tragedies recorded within human history. Holding power unattainable by any Magi from the common era, where facing a Servant equaled a death sentence by all practicality. The thought of someone like that alone had goosebumps spread all over his skin. The uncertainty and lack of knowledge that accompanied doing nothing to help.

Stopping by a corner of the street with no one around and making sure that the coast was clear, Shirou took the first step and spoke quietly, "R-Rider?" He called out to her, not certain whether she truly was following him or not.

"..." Just like before, the tall woman appeared before him with the same blindfold and tight-fitting clothes, which made it hard for Shirou to look at her without blushing, with that choker on her neck. She did not speak, merely making her presence known and waiting patiently for his orders.

'Why did I call her again?' Having no idea where to start, having countless questions roaming inside his head and waiting to be answered. But just trying to speak in front of her felt weird, a subtle pressure bearing down on his shoulders, so faint but noticeable. "R-Right… you're really a Servant?"

Never had Emiya Shirou desired to punch himself in the face by uttering such a stupid question where he already knew the answer.

Tired, ever since this morning, his eyes barely stayed open along with his sunken eyes. At first, he wanted to blame the stress getting to him but soon found that even his body felt weak — almost drained.

"..." She nodded, not saying a word.

'I can barely get a read on her.' The blindfold just made it harder to harvest any kind of facial signs or cues to guess what she was thinking. This woman gave him the sensation of being judged the entire time despite having not done anything at all. In the end, Shirou sighed and decided to come clean.

"Couldn't you have just stayed back home? I'm just going to school, so there is no need to accompany me there as it's safe." He seriously doubted any Magus was crazy enough or full-on psycho to attack the school in broad daylight and risked regular people getting involved. "Nobody even knows that I'm a Magus there."

"... It's still dangerous." She said, making him sigh with the whole ordeal.

"Hah, listen, I don't want you to take this the wrong way… but I'm not sure how to deal with you." He said honestly, not willing to lie for a matter that he was at fault. "I… I don't know how or why the summoning circle activated, it hasn't even been that long since the last Grail War, so I was not exactly planning to go out for a full-on death battle against several Magi and Servants."

His recent track records were bad enough, but still good enough for him to only encounter some monsters and a scary lady whose first still left some phantom pain all around his body that still hurts just to think about to this day.

"...I see,"

"But," he spoke further. "I still plan on taking this matter seriously, this includes your summoning. I may not know the details, but if you are here then that means other Servants could have been or will be summoned in the near future." And that meant the possibility for the Grail War to commence far earlier than he would have preferred. The haunting memory of the fire and screams of those who called out for help as they burned alive, the acrid smell filling his lungs, and the black moon that hung over them… Just the slight chance of having a similar tragedy occur once more sickened him to no end. Whether or not he overthought the whole ordeal or not mattered little, for he vowed to himself never to let such a tragedy repeat again. "Can you tell if another Servant has been summoned or not?"