Internal monologue
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PLEASE READ AUTHOR NOTE: Well for those who have read my previous stories and have come to read this one well thank you. To all the new comers that aren't familiar with me, well thanks for giving my story a shot and I hope you like it. For those who are interested in my other stories well you're in luck because they are both going to be continued soon. My abrupt resurface is all thanks to GabrielBlessing and his amazing story In Flight; if you haven't read it you should give it a shot. In fact this story is also a spinoff of his because he wrote such a spectacular and detailed story that I honestly think he should write a book. Anyway this is my version of his story and for those familiar with his work there will be a lot of similarities in the beginning and throughout the story. However there will also be a lot of things that are fundamentally different although there was a lot of copy and pasting for this chapter from in flights first chapter, but the following chapters will all be original. This is also a SERIOUS STORY it will be detailed and there will be no stupid pure crack shit in here, there's enough of those shit stories out there already. In fact that's one of the reasons I stopped writing I was just so bummed out by all the horribly written stories that I just lost my resolve to write. Though the people who do create lack luster stories, well I'm not trying to be mean because just to take the time out and write something is impressive in itself so don't take my words to harshly. The fact that I've gotten older and can spot plot holes and just the pure stupidity and ridiculousness of a story could also be a reason for why I said or technically wrote what I did earlier. I'm not trying to say my stories are awesome and just superior to all others either. I know my stories are good but far from the best, well any way I'm back and will be sticking around for a while depending on how much interest my stories garner so even if you want to leave a simple "good work" as a review that's fine and it lets me know your reading my story, but I do encourage detailed reviews and I take it as a priority to respond to all reviews within two to three days.
I have also done quite a bit of research into the fate series using type moon wiki, so most of the technical stuff about magi and a lot of other things I describe in this story aren't just things I'm pulling out of thin air. Of course this is also my story and I will change things around a lot to make things how I want it. Also Shirou will be stronger in my story but it will be done well and his abilities will be explained. Honestly though, I'm only changing like two or three things as far as his power go so nothing to worry about. I think he deserves to be a little tougher if you ask me.
Chapter one
A New Beginning
Story Start (Most of this chapter is from in flight by gabreilblessing, the end is where you see the change. other chapters will be original.)
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In what appeared to be a fairly large apartment with an old European decor there were, or at least it sounded like three people bickering back and forth in a hushed whisper. With the lights off it was too hard to make out the occupants features. The only source of light was coming from a dimly glowing candle off to the far right corner of the room, along with the light from the full moon that crept in through a window a few feet to the left of the candle. The small amount of light was just enough to cast three shadows of what a person could guess were two girls and a male.
"What do you mean they know Rin! Growled out the panicked voice of what sounded like a young man.
"I'm just as surprised as you are Shirou but there's no time to talk, you have to leave NOW!"
"What about you and Saber?"
The newly named saber was looking between both arguing parties, but decided to just listen for now.
"They still think she's my familiar so that at least tells us they don't know everything. So they have no reason to come after me."
With a thankful sigh the male sounded a little less rattled and flopped down in a chair beside him.
With her own annoyed sigh the girl named Rin picked up the conversation.
"Look Shirou, this is no time to be sitting around we have to get you out of here tonight, I'll send Saber to you in about a month once things have cooled down."
Knowing he would protest she put her right hand up to stop him and put her left hand on her hip before beginning to chastise him on why she was right like she usually would do.
"Before you say anything we all know that it's easier for you to leave by yourself," Rin said with a knowing stare.
Shirou could only look to the side with a frown since he knew she was right…like usual. He then felt a hand take a firm grasp of his shoulder and when he looked up he saw Saber, and in a warm comforting voice she said "Don't worry Shirou, you are my master after all and we will only be separated for a short time." Shirou gave her a smirk and grabbed her hand thankfully.
Rin rolled her eyes at them and said "will you two sop making googoo eyes already," she then turned on her heal showing them her back before continuing "seriously your going to make me vomit." Resuming her earlier position she spoke loudly and with no room to argue "Shirou pack whatever you need and be sure to take all your research with you. The last thing we need is for Clock Tower to learn about your mysteries for obvious reasons. Oh and here," she said before taking out a long rectangular piece of paper from her pocket. "That's a ticket to Tokyo, the flight leaves at 6 am so you have about nine hours." Shirou just stared at the ticket with a curious look before meeting Rin's annoyed gaze.
"Well come on! Don't just sit starring like an idiot, get packing already! " with a lecherous smirk she said one last thing "and don't worry too much, you and Saber will be screwing each other again before you know it."
Hearing that the two started sputtering nonsense and if there was a little more light in the room you would be able to see the two's furious blushing visage.
After regaining his composure a few hours ago, Shirou was finally packed and able to leave in the cover of night. He made it half way to London's international air port before running into what looked like a group of five magi. They looked at each other, blinked at each other owlishly, and then the one that Shirou guessed to be the leader spoke.
"You wouldn't happen too be um… Shirou Emiya would you?" the tall brown haired man asked hesitantly.
"Um…yeah that's me," Shirou responded with the same amount of hesitation.
"Ah, yes… well excellent," responded the same man before shouting "GET HIM!"
"And I was so close too…damn." Shirou then let go of his luggage and entered battle mode. Starring at his opponents with a calculative look "there not enforcers," he narrowed his eyes and smirked "good… Trace on."
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With a sudden jolt Shirou awoke from his not so peace full slumber. Quickly looking around in almost blind panic he saw a bunch of people sitting in their seats on the air plane. Calming down a little he put his head in the palm of his right hand while trying to shake his head clear of the thoughts of his previous dream…maybe nightmare.
"Easy there, son," the passenger next to Shirou cautioned after he saw Shirou glance around in a panic in hopes of calming him down quickly. "It's just the plane landing," he assured him. He'd been in the chair next to him for nearly sixteen hours by this point, having boarded the plane at the same time he did back in Belfast International. When their plane had a brief layover in Bangladesh for refueling and passenger on loading and offloading he had been one of the other flyers that hadn't left. So far he had spent at least twelve of those sixteen hours trying to talk to him. Shirou wasn't sure if he had spent the last four of them trying as well, seeing as he had been asleep for them, but it seemed a definite possibility. "First time flying?" he asked with an easy grin, speaking in English.
"Second," Shirou admitted in the same language, giving him the best smile back he could in his situation. His fellow passenger was a well dressed gentleman with a very professional looking briefcase tucked beneath his chair and a tendency to ramble on about anything. During the first twelve hours of the flight he had covered everything from his kids to his job, and managed to somehow touch on spiritualism, obscure cultural practices of the indigenous tribes of New Zealand, and the current state of the economy now that Mid Bio Informatics was releasing its newest string of mind bogglingly complex and groundbreaking inventions. Shirou had heard stories in the past about having neighbors like that during flights, and only two things kept him from being annoyed by how distracting it was. The first was the fact that it was naturally against his nature to let things like that get to him so easily. If he could endure Shinji's self absorbed antics during high school, than he could certainly endure a man who was simply trying to hold a conversation.
"Now landing in Tokyo international air port, today is august 10 2012. The temperature is a beautiful 80 degrees with clear skies. Now please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened until the plane has come to a full stop. Thank you for flying with us today and we hope that you enjoyed traveling with us."
After hearing the announcement Shirou relaxed and fell back in his seat and let out a content sigh."I made it." finally relaxing, Shirou took a moment to look himself over. He had on his preferred clothes consisting of a long sleeve shirt with blue sleeves leaving the rest of the shirt white, blue linen pants that looked like jeans but were more comfortable and easier to move in, and finally he had on plain white and gray sneakers. After running his right hand through his brown hair that stopped at the base of his neck, he stood up and started to vacate the plane with the rest of the passengers. Before disappearing into the crowd he gave the man next to him one last smile.
Making his way off the plane he couldn't help but think of what he was going to do now. Not being in England anymore was definitely reassuring and being in Japan was icing on the cake. Sure Clock Tower had nearly unlimited resources and its own army of magi, but here in Japan they had little to no influence. Considering Clock Tower looked down on Japanese magi as back water and illiterate nuisances unworthy of learning the ancient art of magecraft, they never saw any reason to establish much influence in Japan. Still, even with that knowledge the facts were that Clock Tower was still after him, but as long as he remained a hermit and not a philosopher he would be the last thing on Clock Towers extremely long to do list. In other words he was safe as long as he kept a low profile. Hermits that kept magic a secret and stayed low weren't worth clock towers effort, but philosophers or people who were a danger to revealing the secret world of magi were put down, and put down hard by Clock Towers enforcers. Now that was a group Shirou didn't want the attention of. Clearing his head he brought himself back to the present.
"Great now all I have to deal with is immigration" taking a look around he hung his head low in defeat "I guess there wouldn't be any enforcers here that I can kill and then make a quick getaway from. That would have been a good reason to not have to deal with all this security, I mean seriously if they were any more thorough we'd all be getting cavity searches."
As he watched the people in front make their way to the end he noticed the new machine he heard people complaining about on the plain. It was suppose to be some new way to identify people and combat terrorism, or at least that was what M.B.I, the huge technological conglomerate said it was for. That was the excuse they used to push their new way to impose on person privacy through. As he watched he noticed that every once in a while it would beep with red flashing lights. Most of the people who garnered such reactions were just waved through by the clerk and some were taken away to what Shirou could guess was a private room.
"Your next sir."
Being rattled out of his thoughts he looked at the attendant and gave a questioning look at the device in front of him that had M.B.I printed on the side.
"What the hell am I suppose to do with this?"
As if reading his mind the attendant answered his internal question.
"This was just installed a month ago and it's meant to identify people with red flags next to their names so if you would please blow into the device sir," the man asked patiently.
With a nod Shirou did as instructed and then he almost jumped from surprise as the technological monstrosity in front of him started beeping and flashing red. Why did it always happen to him. With an exaggerated sigh, something Shirou noticed that he's been doing a lot over the last thirty plus hours, he couldn't help but think that some where there were a group of old men who made it their duty in life to think of new ways to violate people's privacy in an air port under the guise of protecting against terrorism. God help them if he ever found them because he would make sure to sick Saber on them and have her stick Excalibur so far up there…
"I'm terribly sorry sir but could you please follow me," Said a new attendant who looked to be upper management and flanked by a security guard. With a practiced bow that looked as if he had been doing it a lot lately he lead the way with Shirou following close behind. As they walked through the terminal they came across a corridor with twelve unmarked rooms. The man brought him to one of the small rooms before excusing himself and asking him to get comfortable.
Looking around Shirou noticed that he was brought to a small private room with a table and a couple of chairs. In the middle of the table there were some chips, pretzels, and doughnuts. There was even a mini fridge in the left corner of the room. Inside were some soda, bottled water, and tea. Taking a bottle of Oolong tea Shirou took a seat at the table and waited.
About ten minutes later a different man in a suit arrived and he had what Shirou could guess was a hand held version of the earlier contraption. "Hello sir, my name is Akemi Keiko, and on behalf of Narita International Airport I would like to give you our sincerest apologies, and I am more than willing to compensate for the trouble we've caused you today." It sounded like he gave that speech a lot today and from the almost rehearsed way he said it, and by compensation Shirou could guess that he meant Narita airport was willing to give out a fair amount of money if he agreed to keep his mouth shut. "With how new the technology is we've been trying to get all the bugs out, but we still have gotten there quite yet," he said before he held the device up towards Shirou and asked "would you mind?"
With a weary nod Shirou complied and blew into the device only for the same chirping sounds to be heard again. The same thing happened again and then again. On the third time the man narrowed his eyes and gave Shirou a not so friendly look. Shirou suddenly felt very uncomfortable and let his mind wander. Thoughts like, could Clock tower have somehow contacted M.B.I and made them put his name on some kind of watch list? As unlikely as it was considering how not so tech savvy they were there was always the unlikely possibility. With his hand under the table he was preparing to grasp sword that wasn't their in-case things went south.
With an unprofessional frustrated grunt the man spoke. "I'm terribly sorry, but this has never happened before." He said as he quickly scratched his head in frustration before punching a few buttons on the damned device. "I'm going to have to call someone from M.B.I down here to clear this matter up. This may take a while so again I'm terribly sorry." With a quick bow the manager quickly left the room to do whatever it was he had to do.
Frowning Shirou could only nod as he relaxed in his chair and brought his hand out from under the table. He always could trace some swords and fight his way out if he wanted to, but then again that probably wasn't a good idea. Leaning back in his chair he decided to think out loud since he was alone. "Why is it always me," with a frown he closed his eyes and resumed speaking to himself. "I can already imagine what Rin would say, it would probably be on the lines of," clearing his throat he began speaking in an exaggerated higher pitched voice trying to resemble Rin's condescending, chastising, and all around superior I'm better then you voice, "do you know how much problems you cause me Shirou, why am I the one that always has to fix your mess!" returning to his normal voice, " Or maybe she would say, why did I ever choose such an idiot as an apprentice, cant you do anything or go anywhere without attracting trouble, your just so infuriating, sometimes you make me want to gandr your ass!" with a blank look he paused and laid the right side of his face down on the cold metal table. "The scary thing is that she probably would say something like. She really is an annoying and spunky little ponytailed magus. Her tsundere thing doesn't help much either," mumbled Shirou as he rubbed his chest as if trying to rub away some phantom pain of a gandr.
Fortunately the attendants were kind enough to retrieve his luggage for him and bring him a few in house dinner menus. After a cheap steak dinner he found himself with nothing to do but flip through old magazines off to the side of the table.
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It was a good two hours, maybe three hours later until Shirou heard footsteps outside. As Shirou rummaged through some Shonen Jump magazines he suddenly stiffened and his posture became erect. His eyes narrowed as his own personal way of sensing magic went off. He could smell it, an overwhelmingly sweet honey like smell it wasn't particularly unpleasant but it was just ridiculously overpowering. Shirou had to suppress gagging after getting the scent, but that's not what put him on edge. What worried him was the second smell, a scent he was all too familiar with…blood, and a lot of it, it was almost as if it were dipped in blood and then dipped in honey in hopes of covering it up. Whatever the creature coming for him was he didn't know, but Shirou did know that it was powerful, and judging from how strong its scent was he knew it was on whole other level in terms of strength. As the creature came closer its scent gradually increased and he couldn't figure out whom or what his enemy was, and that worried him.
Rin had always been amazed by his sensitivity when it came to magic. She had never forgotten the ease with which he had hunted down the sigils that Rider had placed over there school when she had been seeking to activate her phantasm. When he had been officially apprenticed to her she had made it one of the points she had evaluated him on. All mages had a certain sensitivity to other magic being cast nearby, though the sensitivity was made known in different ways. Some magi might experience it as a sound, or a taste, or even a physical sensation. For Shirou it was always scent, and after some experimentation Rin had finally had to shake her head in disbelief and announce in that teasing tone of hers that he was probably half bloodhound. The range and accuracy with which he could pick up on nearby magic was bordering on the unreal according to his tiny magi friend.
As the creature came closer Shirou began getting used to the scent to the point it was bearable. Slowly he narrowed his eyes and quietly uttered "What the hell are you?"
The only creatures Shirou had ever smelled that possessed such a strong scent were servants during the grail war, elementals, and dead apostles. Could this be some other phantasmal creature? Phantasmal creatures are non human magical creatures. Essentially elementals, servants, and dead apostles would also be classified under phantasmal creatures,technically though servants would fall under divine Spirits. As far as phantasmal creatures go there are three classes consisting of monstrous beasts, phantasmal beasts, and divine beasts. Essentially magical creatures grow stronger with age and only those who are a thousand years old or older are called phantasmal and divine beasts. These creatures hold such immense power that they are utterly beyond being killed let alone harmed or sealed through any form of magecraft. These creatures' very existence and abilities are true magic in every sense of the word and they are on par with the five modern magic's. Fortunately though they no longer exist on earth and all have migrated to the land of the fairies where they can live forever in peace without worrying about humans interfering with them. The last divine beast was documented to have left five hundred years ago. However there are a few magical creatures that are the exception to the rule being dead apostles, a hand full of elementals, and whatever Demon Lords and members of the true race also known as Shinso still exist on earth.
Quickly Shirou shook his head free of his thoughts and sat in a position best suited to quickly attacking if need be.
When the door to his little room opened, Shirou was somehow not surprised when the creature was revealed to be female.
She was tall, for a Japanese woman at least. He was still taller than her by a good two inches, which would make her about 5ft 10in. Her hair, while long and pulled into a ponytail, wasn't the typical shade that would be found in Japan though. It was light, but not shaded. It looked more like she was going prematurely gray. If he didn't know she wasn't human he would have suspected it of being dyed. She was wearing what looked like an extremely abbreviated kimono, reaching only to her upper thighs and bordering on indecently high. She had on long black socks that closed nearly to the hem of the rest of her outfit but leaving a rather appealing absolute zone in there as well. On her shoulders rested a long grey coat, though she hadn't apparently bothered to put her arms through the sleeves and instead chose to wear it like a cape of some type.
The most defining feature of hers though, at least in Shirou's eyes, was the fact that she was carrying a long sword, nearly five feet of long steel, sheathed at her side, and she was smiling while she did so. It wasn't a particularly threatening smile. Instead, it seemed benevolent, almost cheerful. The smile crinkled her eyes till they were merely slits, and she beamed at him when she entered the room.
With the scent of blood hanging in the air so thick, he was surprised the walls hadn't started bleeding. His eyes tracked her as she moved to the corner to perch herself idly.
Whatever the hell she was, she wasn't human. And for all her smiles, she was definitely not friendly either. Shirou's mind began racing as he tried to figure the best way to defend himself against her if she chose to attack, as well as the best way to kill her while doing so.
He almost didn't notice the second figure that was following the inhuman thing into his small room. They were also female, and whoever they were they were at least human. A bit shorter than the first female to enter, this woman had a lab coat that was being worn properly on, not like the coat of whatever it was standing in the corner. Beneath it were black pants, button up shirt, and tie combo that could be found on any office worker in the city. She looked like any other middle aged career woman that could be found in any office in Tokyo. The most noticeable things about her was the fact that around her neck was a lanyard holding an MBI identification card, and the fact that her hair was snow white.
Just like the thing that had entered before her, if the situation were any different Shirou would have suspected the hair to be dyed, but instead it just seemed natural on her. He couldn't make out any change in color towards the roots, and he doubted that anyone as professionally dressed as the woman glancing casually down at the clipboard in her hand would just go out and dye their hair for fun.
Strangely enough, it was the MBI identification that caused Shirou to let out the breath that he hadn't been aware he was holding. Shirou was almost positive that the Clock Tower didn't have any fingers in MBI, not yet anyway. For the most part Clock Tower was old money, and rather stuck on their aristocratic image. It didn't seem likely that they would have the foresight to try and get in on what they would consider an upstart organization like MBI. Old money always looked down on new money. It would probably take a generation or two before the wannabe aristocrats would deign to even talk to an organization which was developed in only a two decade time period regardless of how profitable the organization was.
"Are you the ones here to diagnose the mechanical error?"Shirou spoke up, keeping his voice polite as he did so and trying very hard not to sweat. Regardless of whether or not they were associated with the Clock Tower, whatever it was that was standing in the corner was definitely not human and most certainly not benign, not with his magical sensitivity reeking of blood anyway. The only other creature he had ever come across that had smelt so strongly of the life fluid had been the Fifth Grail War's Rider, and she hadn't exactly been a shining example of benevolence and compassion.
"Cut the crap," the white haired woman said, snorting as she did so. "Who are you and what were you trying to pull with this little stunt?" She pulled the chair opposite me away from the table and plunked herself down without hesitation and began pinking away at the machine without giving me a second glance.
"What?" Shirou countered obviously not expecting that response. Really he would have expected her to be a little more apologetic since it was her companies malfunctioning equipment.
"I said, 'Cut the crap'," the white haired woman repeated, her tone dry and disdainful. "I want to know who you are, who you're working for, and just what the hell you thought this little stunt would have gotten you. Now," she looked up to give me a glare that would have been frightening if Rin and Saber hadn't both been much better at it then her, "are you going to cooperate or not?"
He looked at her for a moment, trying to figure out just what the hell she was talking about, before cocking his head to the side. Alright, if that's the way she wants it to go. She sounded more annoyed by having to waste her time coming out her than anything else. Well, if she wanted annoyed for having her time wasted, she wasn't the one who had spent bordering on four hours stuck in an airport due to a mechanical error.
"My name is Shirou Emiya," he told her in a flat tone. "Right now I'm unemployed. And so far the only thing this stunt has gotten me is a headache, a second rate steak, and massive inconvenience due to the fact that your little machine is a piece of junk. What I want now is for you to hurry up and figure out what the hell is wrong with it so I can get on with the rest of my day before it's completely wasted."
The thing in the corner snorted, and looked genuinely amused by his response if the smile was anything to judge by. The white haired woman also snorted, though her humor seemed laced with a great deal more cynicism. "Right," she drawled, still typing away at the computer, before she paused and her eyes narrowed at whatever it was she had managed to uncover. The look she sent him a second later lacked her earlier almost sardonic tone. "I don't know who you are, or how you managed to find this flaw, but I'm going to enjoy having Karasuba get those answers out of you," she growled at him. The thing in the corner, whose name Shirou now assumed to be Karasuba, widened her smile and put her hands on the hilt of the blade she was carrying.
"And I'm sure I'll enjoy getting them, Assistant Director Takami," the gray haired female said, her voice jovial and pleasant to hear. Well, it would have been pleasant if it hadn't been accented by the soft whisper of drawn steel. Shirou had only a moment to focus his attention on her before she moved. With a motion that would have made Saber raise an eyebrow at its speed the sword in her hand flashed and a portion of a second later he felt the kiss of steel on my throat.
For a moment Shirou sat still, his eyes flickering to the thing in black as she casually sauntered behind him, keeping the blade steady as she did so. When the thing, Karasuba, finally left his field of vision he focused his attention back on the white haired lady in front of him and sighed. The movement caused the flesh at his throat to move against the blade being held there, and he suddenly understood why so many people throughout the world preferred straight razors. That portion of his skin had probably just received the smoothest shave it ever would. He leaned backwards in his chair and folded his arms with another sigh.
"Did you just pull a sword on me in a public place because your stupid machine is malfunctioning?" Shirou asked, though the question was mostly rhetorical. The blade at his throat followed his movement as the thing behind him kept it against his neck despite his movement. The white haired woman in front of him raised an eyebrow, her expression still angry but apparently taking in his nonchalance at the situation as well.
"If you're still trying to convince me that you're some kind of innocent bystander and not an attempted infiltration plot by a foreign country or one of our competitors than ignoring death threats isn't the smartest way to go about it," she informed me with a scowl.
"It's not the first time I've had a blade pulled on me," he informed her, "I've even got a few scars from some of them. Legacy of a misspent youth I guess." Despite the flippancy that Shirou was displaying it was taking everything he had to keep from sweating. Given the position of the female behind him it was unlikely that she'd have the torque or the angle to give him a beheading blow, and if she tried to cut his throat, well, she'd be surprised at just how hard that could be. Even back before he had started getting serious training from Rin on how to develop his magecraft he had been far tougher than he had any right to be. Even if the blade managed to open a vein he had ways to get around that. The problem was exactly just what the thing behind him was. Shirou knew it wasn't human and that it was probably stronger than a normal woman her size, but the question was just how much stronger? "Hurry up and start your interrogation so I can prove myself innocent and collect a nice fat check of hush money from you afterwards."
The thing behind me snorted in amusement. "Well well," she drawled. "It looks like someone's rather sure of themselves." Judging from the tone of her words it sounded like she was actually enjoying seeing someone she was holding a sword against back talking. Given how strong the scent of blood from her was he had the impression that she was more used to people begging or screaming.
The white haired woman didn't seem anywhere near as amused by his confidence. "Name?" she snapped, pulling a compact little laptop from somewhere beneath her lab coat. It was a thin looking piece of electronics, one of the newer ones that had started to become more and more available as technology advanced. It seemed to consist of nothing more than a touch screen. Judging by the speed of the white haired woman's fingers as they moved across it the woman was well versed in its usage.
"Shirou Emiya," he answered without elaboration.
"Reasons for coming here."
"Just felt like stopping in Tokyo before going home to Fuyuki city," Shirou didn't miss the involuntary flinch she made when he said that.
"Reasons for prior departure?"
"I left to attended school in London."
"Why the need to suddenly leave."
"There were," taking a brief pause Shirou chose his words carefully. "Complications that the school couldn't ignore making it so leaving on my own was the best idea."
"It says here you were adopted making Emiya an assumed name?"
"Yes."
"When and why where you adopted," Takami asked while still looking down at the screen.
Shirou couldn't help but frown; seriously this wasn't any of her business. "Well there was a fire," she twitched again "in Fuyuki city and all I remember was wandering the burning streets as I saw hundreds of bodies on fire." Hearing that Takami averted her gaze to the side and had a solemn look o her face, well what do you know apparently she does have a heart.
"Ah, poor thing," the thing behind him cut in, her voice still sounding more amused than her words would indicate. Both Shirou and his white haired interrogator ignored her.
"Name of parents," Shirou couldn't help but raise a questioning eyebrow at the line of questioning she decided to take. Asking about his parents wasn't exactly a good way to figure out he was a spy…unless she somehow new Kiritsugu was an assassin then maybe she was on the right track.
"Biological or adopted."
"Adopted."
"Kiritsugu Emiya."
"Biological Family name."
At this Shirou could only shrug "sorry but I don't remember."
For the first time since the interrogation started she seemed at a loss for words.
"You expect us to believe you don't remember your own name?" the thing behind him asked, sounding like she found the idea that they would believe him to be even more incredulous then his response itself was.
For the first time since she put a blade to his throat he turned to face her. Shirou could feel his flesh drag against the edge of her sword lightly as he glared at the laughing face behind him. "I was five years old when they died in the fire. I was in the hospital for my own injuries for weeks after wards, and I was lucky enough to be adopted immediately afterwards. I don't remember anything about the time before that, something the therapists at the hospital assured me was quite normal after that level of trauma. Is it that hard to believe that I would forget?"
Shirou had meant the words to be a chastisement, but instead the grinning face remained unchanged. "Hmmm," she drawled. "I suppose if you put it that way," she allowed as though she were a queen deigning me with a pardon for some minor misdemeanor that would have otherwise resulted in his beheading. From the way she was holding the sword against his neck the comparison might not have been that far off. Shirou scowled at her before sitting back in his seat to face the white haired woman again.
The scowl that the woman had been wearing since she had first read his reading on the stupid machine that had gotten him into this mess was still there, but now it was much smaller. Rather than glare at him she seemed to be studying him intensely.
"Where was the location of the fire again?" she asked, speaking much slower then she had been earlier as she focused on my face.
"Fuyuki City," he told her, settling in for more invasive questioning.
"What was your address during the incident?" she dug deeper, her fingers darting over the board in front of her even faster now, though her eyes only barely flickered down to it as though she could only just bring herself to stop studying my face.
"I don't remember," he admitted honestly. "I know it was only a block from ground zero where the fire started." Her eyes darted down to the screen and she typed furiously for a few moments. Finally she seemed to find exactly what it was she was looking for, and her face unexpectedly began to pale as she froze in her seat.
Shirou waited for her next question, and waited, and waited. Finally the thing holding a sword to his throat spoke up. "Takami?" she asked, sounding curious instead of just amused.
The white haired woman, Takami he supposed, seemed to wake up and glanced over at the thing, Karasuba, in response to her question. Takami's eyes seemed to widen as they locked on to the blade still resting at my throat. "Enough, Karasuba," she said suddenly, and he felt the blade saw against him as the thing behind him shifted in what he assumed was a surprise at the tone of her superior.
"Oh? So I won't be killing him after all?" Karasuba asked, sounding disappointed at the thought of not being able to open my throat.
"Looks that way," Shirou told her, his voice entirely too smug. "Since it seems that this whole little screw up has finally been revealed as not my fault, when they start talking about the hush money to keep me from mentioning how a corporation threatened to kill an innocent man because of their own equipment's failure, part of the compensation I'm gonna demand is that you apologize and beg for forgiveness while sitting seiza position." A bit vindictive of him, he was sure, but you don't make it through living two years with Rin Touhsaka without picking up a little of that.
The sword next to his throat stilled for a moment, and then the thing behind him began to laugh as the blade was finally taken from his neck. "Well," Karasuba murmured as she walked into his line of sight, rubbing her chin thoughtfully as she smiled at him. "Aren't you a brave one?"
"So I've been told," Shirou returned. Actually, the phrase 'suicidal' is more usually thrown around when describing his willingness to confront danger, but he didn't think that would be an appropriate thing to mention in such company. "So have you figured out what the problem with the machine is yet? I would like to be able to get a hotel and some sleep, preferably before its tomorrow morning." All this drama aside, he still had to figure out just what he was going to do in order to stay one step ahead of Clock Tower. The fact that they didn't know exactly what his reality marble was or anything about his mysteries made him an even more desirable specimen.
"Would you please breathe into the apparatus one more time for confirmation?" Takami said instead, still staring at me with a pale expression on her face. With a sigh he leaned in and did so. Once more, just like before he was greeted with the chirping noise the machine emitted. The white haired woman let out another shaky breath as it did so.
"Can I go now?" he asked, tired from this whole escapade and eager to get on with my life.
"Not…" the woman started, and then paused, swallowing as she continued to stare at him, her face now nearly as pale as her hair."Not precisely. Shirou was it?" she said sounding a bit hesitant.
Shirou frowned at the informal way she addressed him. If she was about to start apologizing and trying to bribe him he would expect her to be a little more polite. "Yes, that's my name," he answered her, studying her carefully in response.
"Well, Shirou," she began, licking her lips as though her mouth was dry. "We've never encountered an error like this before, which was part of the reason that I was called down here. You see, this machine analyzes microscopic traces of dead cells or exhaled saliva in order to analyze the DNA of the tester and compare it to a set database," she began, speaking slowly and carefully as she did so.
"So I've been told. So precisely why was it going off for me? Was it just a false read?" he asked. He didn't really care for the specifics of it, but if they thought he was some kind of international criminal then he supposed it would make sense that the lady in front of him would have brought some muscle like the thing that had once more resumed her post in the corner. Though that made Shirou wonder just how a company like MBI had managed to get something inhuman like that Karasuba to work for them.
"Not precisely," Takami hemmed, sounding nervous. "You see, when you were tested you ended up reading as a partial match for two different people on the database."
"Partial match?" he asked, now feeling confused. Shirou supposed that something like that would be odd enough for the airline to warrant them calling in tech support.
"Yes," Takami admitted, glancing at the result screen on the machine that was rapidly becoming the bane of my existence. "It seems that you read close enough to two individuals that it couldn't rightly determine if you were either one."
"My DNA was close enough to…." he got out, before than long distant memories of biology class in high school suddenly sprang to mind. He nearly jumped out of his seat, both his hands slamming onto the table with a loud noise. Takami flinched at the sudden noise and Karasuba's hand drifted towards the hilt of her sword once more as she eyed him speculatively. "Wait," he managed to get out in a strangled tone. "Wait. Partial matches? You mean….?"
"Yes," Takami admitted, sounding a little sheepish. "It seems as though the machine just inadvertently performed a paternity/maternity test."
Shirou gaped at her. No way. That was impossible. His parents, his biological parents and his adopted father as well, were dead. They died in a fire years ago, during the horrible last moments of the Fourth Grail War, and a few years after that from injuries received in the same war his adopted Father passed on as well. He didn't remember his biological family. Honestly, He didn't care to remember them for that matter. He was an Emiya, the only parent he needs is Kiritsugu, the man who taught him more about how to live his life then he honestly could believe anyone else in the world could, regardless of whether or not they were partial donators of his genetic code.
Hold on a second. The database he was being compared to…
He groaned, sinking back into my seat. "So what, both my biological parents were international criminals?" he managed to get out, rubbing my forehead as he did so. That's great. That's just great. Karasuba seemed to think that the situation was every bit as amusing as he found it ridiculous. She had one hand up to cover her mouth as her body shook slightly with repressed laughter.
"That's," Takami began, and swallowed hard, still staring at him, "that's not entirely accurate." He glanced up at her, studying her carefully. She sounded hesitant, as though she knew something else and was too nervous to come out and say it. He said nothing and simply braced himself for whatever shock he was about to get. "You see," the white haired woman continued, "since this was unofficially nothing more than a testing ground for the viability of the machine as a future safety device, the database for international criminals wasn't the only one in its memory. The machine was originally developed at MBI, and many of the scientists there were used as test subjects while it was being developed. Since the machine is still in the experimental phase during this trial period, it still had the MBI scientist database loaded in it."
For a long second he was simply unable to process precisely what that little tidbit of information truly meant. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks and if he hadn't already been sitting he would have been after-wards as he felt the strength flow out of his legs in shock.
"What?" was the only thing he could manage to get out, gaping at Takami and feeling the blood drain out of his face. He must have been as pale as she was at this point.
"Your parents are alive," the white haired woman said carefully. "And they're working for MBI."
Despite the clarity of the words, he still couldn't bring himself to completely understand them. his biological parents, the man and the woman responsible for conceiving and birthing him, the long forgotten entities of his past that were in some way responsible for him being alive were also alive.
"Who are they?" he heard himself asking as he struggled to keep the world around him from spinning. This, this was unreal. Who ever heard of something as crazy as this happening? Learning that something he had accepted his entire life as fact was in truth not? That thanks to a computer error in an airport and an improbable, no incredible, series of coincidences he was suddenly confronted by the fact that he wasn't really an orphan? That was like one of those insane rumors someone might read about in a newspaper about a child that was put up for adoption finding their real parents in line at a coffee shop, or two babies that were accidentally switched in their cradles at a hospital ended up being next door neighbors.
Takami took a deep breath, opened her mouth, and then closed it with an audible swallow. She tried again, and still couldn't manage to get anything out. Finally she simply took out her cell phone, pressed a button on it, glanced at the screen, and then held it out to him.
It took him a moment to comprehend what he was looking at. The woman in the picture was probably Takami, though apparently at a much younger age. In the picture her hair was still mostly black but liberally streaked with white. It looked like she had some kind of condition that resulted in early graying or something. There were two children being snuggled in the younger Takami's arms. One was an infant, presumably a girl from the pink blanket covered in cute little princess print. The other was a very young boy, perhaps four or five years old, with light auburn hair. He was smiling up at the camera, snuggled against Takami, probably her son…wait a minute!
"You don't mean…" he gaped at the pale woman who suddenly looked a lot less intimidating and genuinely scared.
"You had the chicken pox," the woman said, her voice soft and on the edge of breaking into tears by the sound of it. "I was worried that Yukari was too young to catch them, so you were going to stay with your grandmother for a week or two while you got over them while I kept an eye on Yukari. Then," she broke off, her voice hitching and she paused, apparently mastering herself, " then I got word from the city officials about the fire. I had every hospital in a two hundred mile radius checking for your name among them, but there was nothing. And my mother's house was so close to the center of the fire that I, I thought…" She trailed off; taking a gulp and closing her eyes as painful memories that she had probably long thought were done and gone were no doubt once more made fresh in her mind.
"But," he managed to get out, "but if you were looking for me why didn't you find me? I gave my name, shouldn't they have found me?"
In the corner Karasaba was alternating between looking back and forth between him and the white haired woman, his mother he thought to himself in disbelief, and looked like she was one step away from bursting out into laughter. She had both her arms wrapped around her stomach and was shaking as she tried to keep herself from bursting out into guffaws. He was suddenly inexplicably angry with the thing in the corner. Here he was, having one of the greatest foundations of his life ripped out from underneath him and she was treating it like a joke. Takami didn't seem to notice, and shook her head, her eyes still closed.
"Shirou isn't your name," she told him, and he gaped again.
"What?"
"That was back when my hair was first beginning to go white," she held a lock of her hair out as though in explanation and he glanced once more at the picture where she still had mostly black hair. "I use to spend hours in the mirror trying to find if there were any new white hairs, and you use to think it was a game. You would help and whenever you found a new hair you would start yelling, 'White! White!' You had so much fun with it that I started calling you 'Shiro-chan'."
"But I don't spell my name with the character for 'white'," he pointed out, though it was a useless attempt to defend his apparently false name. "I use the characters for 'professional' and 'department'."
Takami shook her head in response. "You were five back then. You were still learning hiragana and katakana, much less kanji. When you were found they probably asked your name, and you told them your nickname instead." She closed her eyes again and started to take deep breaths, no doubt running through her mind at the insanity of the situation. How many years must his death have haunted her? And now to find out that he was alive, and that the only reason why she hadn't found him was because of a nickname?
In the corner it looked like this latest revelation was driving Karasuba even further into the depths of hilarity and that overwhelming surge of anger towards her grew hotter because of it. Nearby were the remains of the steak dinner he had been served, and without realizing what he was doing he found the steak knife in his hand. With a trace of magic he used Alteration on it, the step between Gradation Air and Reinforcement on the scale of transformation magecraft. Using Alteration allowed the magi to add a property or effect to an item that would normally not have to it. With the small spell the otherwise unremarkable cutlery in his hand obtained a new degree of keenness that it would probably never have been able to obtain through any amount of sharpening.
And then he threw it.
Takami didn't notice his action, her eyes still shut as she no doubt recalled what it was like when she had thought he had died, and Karasuba was apparently so wrapped up in finding humor in the scene before that she nearly missed it, but the female thing in the corner caught his movement half way through. She tensed, her eyes widening in sudden concentration, but didn't move as the knife he had thrown at the wall next to her head struck the bricks there. If it had been a normal knife it would have probably have bounced off, but with its unnatural keenness his impromptu projectile sank up to its hilt instead.
It certainly stopped her laughing. Instead, she now turned to study him her normally half lidded eyes completely open and her hand resting on her sword's hilt. This entire meeting she had been regarding him as nothing more than an interesting specimen, one that she might have to kill, but was no real threat to her at all despite the apparent flippancy with which he treated her and her sword even when it had been at his throat. Now it appeared as though she realized that maybe his confidence had been more than simple arrogance.
It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but at least it shut her up so that he could focus on the fact that apparently his whole life had been altered by the fact that he had had the chicken pox in the wrong place and had told a paramedic his childhood nickname rather than his real one.
As Karasuba lifted one hand away from her blade to slowly pull the knife he had thrown at her out of the concrete he realized something.
"So what was my real name?" he asked, staring at the woman who was apparently his mother as she opened her eyes to look at him again.
"Minato Sahashi," she told him. Shirou's eyes narrowed. Minato Sahashi. It didn't ring any bells, but it wasn't a completely strange set of syllables. Instead it seemed to hum familiarly in his head, like a secret he had long ago forgotten, which wasn't far from the truth considering it was a secret that he had long ago forgotten.
"This," he finally managed to get out after a long moment of silence. "This is unreal." Across from him Takami could do nothing more than nod her head in agreement as the two of them stared at each other awkwardly. As the silence grew longer and more awkward I had to keep himself from fidgeting. What on earth are you supposed to do after discovering that everything you thought you knew about yourself was in fact wrong and you were suddenly confronted with a mother that you had always thought long dead? Takami seemed to be facing a similar dilemma.
Finally, he broke the silence. "So," he began awkwardly. "I have a sister?"
"Yes," the white haired woman nodded her head, apparently glad that he had taken the initiative. "Yukari. She's eighteen now. And you're about twenty, right?"
"Yeah," he nodded, scratching his head awkwardly. "I'm nineteen by the way."
Relaxing slightly as she grew more comfortable with the thought that the person sitting in front of her was really her long lost son, her expression grew suspicions the way that it had when she had first seen the results of her machine's test and thought he had been some kind of saboteur. "What was that you mentioned about having been kicked out of school?" she asked as her eyes narrowed.
As the two lost mother and son began to get reunited Karasuba just kept starring at Shirou with wide eyes as she looked back down at the knife and then back to him. Her eyes then took a predatory look and she allowed an equally predatory smirk to appear on her face before she disappeared.
Shirou still completely out of it suddenly found himself and the chair he was sitting on fall backwards and when he regained his bearings he found himself with both arms pinned above his head by one hand and another hand around his collar pulling him up a few inches. His eyes narrowed as his vision refocused and he saw that he was being straddled and pinned into place by the creature named Karasuba.
"Karasuba what the hell are you doing!" shouted out Takami in a panic as she abruptly stood up. After all she didn't want to see her long lost son die after just meeting him.
Ignoring Takami completely, Karasuba looked down at Shirou with an insane smile and fully opened eyes and spoke loud enough for both occupants to hear her, "I don't know how you did it and I don't really care," she then leaned in close enough for her nose to touch his "but somehow I sensed it, for a split second it was there. Even if it was weak," now fully grinning like a homicidal maniac she whispered "you have the same energy as a sekirei."
Fortunately for Shirou Takami completely missed what Karasuba whispered because of her panicked state, thinking your long lost son was about to die would do that to you after all.
Shirou for his part was panicking as well, not once had some one ever manhandled him so easily or caught him completely of guard before…well maybe that wasn't entirely true, although that was probably due to the news that he was starring at his supposedly dead mother. Still though this thing shouldn't have been able to overpower him so easily and pin him down. True he wasn't reinforcing himself yet, but even without reinforcement he was a lot stronger then a normal man. Then as she leaned in he just grew more nervous and at the mention of "same energy" he began to sweat. Wait, did she just say she was a sekirei?
"You're an interesting little monkey, I just met you and it seems I'm already reacting to you. Well if I really do need something as weak as an Ashikabi then is suppose I might as well have one that can prove to be amusing," and with that Karasuba began to slowly close the distance between the two.
Finally registering what Karasuba was about to do Takami's eyes snapped wide open and she shouted "WAIT KARASUBA DON'T DO IIIIIIIIIT," but it was too late.
When the creature called Karasuba roughly smashed her lips against Shirou's and then forced her tongue in his mouth he couldn't help but look at the blushing face of his would be killer as she closed her eyes and forced herself on him, and in front of his mother no less! However that's not what had his full attention, Shirou's eyes narrowed as he saw a pair of pitch black translucent bird like wings suddenly sprout out of the back of the female that was savagely kissing him. What had him even more worried and also a tad curious was the fact that she somehow absorbed a small portion of his prana.
When she finally released Shirou's lips her eyes were closed and she had the same playful smirk on her face that she was sporting when she first came in.
"Forever and ever, let's watch this world burn together my new Ashikabi."
All Takami could do was fall in her chair, close her eyes, take a deep breath, and then exhale before saying one word "fuck."
END CHAPTER
Review and tell me what you think, and I'm also open to suggestions on what sekirei Shirou should have.