Shopping for Kirtsugu Emiya was hard to say the least. He was a mysterious man with a mysterious past who worked very little and spent most of his days lying around the house doing little of anything. Trying to pick out something he may enjoy was like trying to find a needle in a haystack at night while snarling wolves nipped at your heels. This day, such an impossible task had been trust upon Taiga Fujimoura and Shirou Emiya, who were now en route to newer part of Fuyuki City in hopes of finding some small gift for the old man's upcoming birthday.

"So what should we get your dad, Shirou?" Tagia directed towards her young companion.

"Dunno." Shirou returned, being as unhelpful as would be expected of a boy his age.

"That's not very helpful." She rolled her eyes. "Maybe lets start with what he likes to do."

"He just sits around all day and sometimes he goes away for a reallllllllly long time."

As much as she wanted to correct Shirou, nothing he had said was wrong. Kiritsugu was something of a lay about and was prone to taking extended "business" trips to god know's where every one in awhile. But despite all that, he was a good father to Shirou and friend to the Fujimoura family -not to mention he paid Taiga herself quite well when she babysat little Shirou- the least they could do was find him something nice for his birthday.

"Fine, let's just go to the shop around for a while and pick something out, ok?" Taiga sighed, as the task at hand was proving far more difficult than she had originally imaged

"Ok, Fuji-nee!" Shirou sounded off in an upbeat way as the bus the rode came to a screeching halt, having finally reached its destination.

For several hours, a short eternity when gift shopping, Taiga and Shirou dashed from store to store looking for the perfect gift. But to no avail was their epic quest for a high quality gift. It wasn't that there was nothing of interest within Fuyuki's many shops and boutiques but rather none suited the simple life style lived by one Kiritsugu Emiya. It was also frustrating to say the least.

"Well this sucks, we've been to every shop from here to the next town over and still haven't found your dad a gift." Taiga sat defeated on a park bench with Shirou at her side. Hanging her head in resignation at the fact that her day thus far had, as she so aptly commented, totally sucked. Shirou patted his big sister figure on the head to quell her roiling depression. "Thanks." Taiga muttered before moving on. Let's try this one more time, Shirou. Is there anything, anything at all, about your dad that could help us now?" Her voice resonated of the frustration one felt after wading through the seemingly endless sea of identical shops differentiated only by the name hanging on the front door.

"He told me he wanted to be a "champion of justice" when he was younger. But he never was one..." Shirou responded with a sad look.

Now that was odd, Taiga thought to herself. She knew next to nothing of Kiritsugu in his younger days, so any clue was more than welcome. But still, that didn't help their little search one bit. Wracking her brain in silence she went over everything that could be of use to finding a gift. The question at hand being "what was important to him?" There was the "Champion of justice" thing, but that wasn't helpful at the moment, rather she wanted to know what was most important to Kiritsugu Emiya. Looking around for a moment the answer she sought soon became clear.

"Lets go home, Shirou. I have an idea!" Taiga, her fit of depression vanishing like so many flower petals in a brisk spring wind, took her young charge by the hand and dashed back to where the day's journey had begun.

The fated birthday arrived without warning or ceremony, coming as every day did with the sun rising and Kiritsugu Emiya doing little different then he typically did. That was true at least until midday was Taiga finally came by, bearing in her arms a rather large box and balanced on top of an equally large cake.

"Happy Birthday!" She said with a smile as she very carefully balanced the rather precarious stack of items hoping with all her heart they wouldn't tumble to the ground below.

"Well this sure is a surprise." Kiritsugu chuckled. He had known very well Taiga had been planning something, but it would have been rather rude of him not to at least act a bit surprised. "I'll go get Shirou so we can get everything started." Tagia nodded and promptly took to the Emiya manor's dining room to unload her gift.

Soon joining her were Kiritsugu and his son, both looking rather sleepy-eyed despite the time being nearly two in the afternoon. There was much singing of songs, eating of cake, and telling of embarrassing stories of the silly things Shirou had done when his most trusted babysitter wasn't around. After much merrymaking the time finally came to open the present Taiga had put some much thought into.

"I hope you like it, Kiritsugu-san. It took me and Shirou forever to pick it out." Taiga and Shirou smiled in unison, knowing very well all the time and effort they had put into what lay in the brightly colored box now in Kiritsugu's care. The older man shook the box several times trying to divine its contents.

"What is it?"

"You'll see."

Opening the box revealed a photo framed in a black plastic frame. The picture itself bore the image of Shirou and Taiga sitting in a rather serene way in front of the very house in which they sat. Inscribed in pen in one corner were the words "Happy birthday Dad, love Shirou and Taiga."

Kiritsugu patted his son on the head in a gentle and warm manner. "Thanks, I love it." He said to the both of them.