Together

"Hey, Kiritsugu.  It might not be the hottest day of the summer, but I brought some drinks to keep us cool anyway," the young woman said softly as she pulled out a cold thermos of barley tea and two small cups from her bag, filling them both and placing one on the gravestone before her.  "Shirou also made too many hamburgers for lunch today, and I thought...well, maybe it could be like old times..."  She laid out a food container beside the cup of tea and lit new incense sticks in their respective holders.  "He misses you a lot too, even if he hasn't come here himself yet; he's just...more a man of action than words, it seems.  Not unlike you, in that way!" She laughed brightly for a moment before sipping her own tea, reflecting.  "I guess the three of us will never be able to spend time together again, even like this..."

The dipping sun in the mid-July sky bathed the Ryuudou Temple Cemetery in a rich golden glow, the rows of solemn headstones casting long shadows as day sank into evening.  The young schoolteacher liked to visit at least once a week, as she was able.  As scatter-brained as she acted most of the time, she cared deeply for those around her; Kiritsugu had made an especially lasting impact on her, and most importantly had given her the younger brother she never had.  For that alone, she would never be able to thank Kiritsugu enough, even if she was the biggest headache for that little brother of hers.  "Fuji-nee" is who she became to only Shirou.  She finished her cup of tea, then sat back to lose her thoughts again in the vibrant sky.

The crunch of footsteps up the path alerted her to the presence of the tall stranger behind her.  His tan complexion seemed almost radiant in the dying light, a sharp contrast to his pure-white hair.  His hands rested in the pockets of his dark jeans, the sleeves of his black button-up shirt rolled to his elbows.   His pensive expression scanned the headstones, breaking into surprise only when his stormy eyes were met by the schoolteacher's inquisitive, honey-tinted gaze.   His eyes flicked from hers to the gravestone in front of her, then down to his feet.

"Um, excuse me," her voice rang out to the newcomer, "I don't think I've seen you around here before.  Were you perhaps an acquaintance of Kiritsugu's?"

The man closed his eyes and sighed; he ran a hand through his hair, disheveling its spikes.  "I'm a...distant relative," he managed to reply as he approached slowly.  The young woman moved over and patted the ground beside her, inviting him to sit.  He knelt Japanese-style, stiffly, and pressed his hands together to pay his respects to the deceased.  He cracked one eye open to see the woman rummaging frantically through her bag before producing a third cup.

"Well, any member of Kiritsugu's family is a friend of ours!"  The young woman smiled broadly as she poured the third cup full of barley tea and handed it to him.  "My family, the Fujimura Group, manages Kiritsugu's estate now, since his passing.  It's been nearly five years to the day, you know?  But sometimes it feels like just yesterday...Say, do you have any interesting stories about him?  We knew so little about where he went or what he did when he traveled for work.  You must be from abroad too, right?"

The man accepted the drink graciously, and he couldn't help but smile to himself at the woman's effervescent energy.  While his life and afterlife were filled with nothing but hardship and regret, these simpler days...This, is what he had missed most.  "That guy was just as much a mystery to me as to everyone else, I suppose," he answered, relaxing a bit.  "Leaving with the tide, it seemed, always going on about his ideals of justice."

"I know, right?!" the schoolteacher chimed in excitedly.  "And Kiritsugu's son was so enamored by those ideals, he wrote a whole essay in elementary school about becoming a 'Hero of Justice!'  To this day, Shirou always does whatever he can to help other people, even if it means giving something up himself.   He's such a wonderful and thoughtful boy, I'm sure he'll become a great man..."  She paused for a moment, studying the reserved man beside her.  "If you have some spare time, you should stop by the Emiya estate to meet Shirou yourself.  I can't quite put my finger on why, but I have a feeling the two of you might have a lot in common."  Quickly rising to her feet, she struck a victorious pose.  "Call it a tiger's intuition!"

The man chuckled, both at the woman's outburst and the irony of any similarities shared with that person.  Maybe if circumstances were different, maybe if that person would listen to a lesson about the faults of his ideals...

"OH SNAP!!!" the woman interrupted his thoughts, crying out as she checked her wristwatch, panicked.  "I'm so late for dinner!  Shirou's gonna throw away my share!"  She scrambled to repack her bag and sling it over her shoulder.   "If you're not quite done here, would you mind getting the water pail for me? Thank you so much!"  She started towards the path back from the cemetery.

"No problem, Fuji-nee," the man replied quietly as he smiled, eyes closed in a moment of happiness as his head tilted to one side.  The woman turned around at his voice, straining to make out his words, recognition slowly spreading across her face.  Another glance at her watch, however, had her sprinting down the mountain, shouting the whole way.

The first of the summer stars were shining as the Heroic Spirit called Emiya ladled out purified  water over the gravestone.  With one last silent prayer, he picked up the pail and made his way down the mountain path to the temple below.

"See you later, old man.  I'm heading off now."