Nearly a month has past sense that horrible experience took place. The only thing that reminds me that it wasn't just a terrible nightmare was the holy shroud that I was keeping inside of my closet. I don't know if Merem meant for me to take it or not, but I didn't want to know what he would do if I let it get damaged in any way. So, I've been checking on it every day before and after I wake up and any time I left the house and came back. At this point I've been debating with myself whether or not to just carry it on my person. But that is tempting fate for something to happen to it, or worse, someone or something recognizes it and asks why I have it.
On top of the stress of keeping the shroud safe and waiting for Merem to show up, my first year of highschool is going to start up tomorrow and I was nowhere near as prepared as I should be. I mentally sigh as I go over the list of materials that I'll be needing to acquire later today. This normally would have been done earlier in the break but Taiga has been historical about what I did and when. All because of how she lost me in Ireland. Making it near impossible to leave the house when I need to. I'm only getting the opportunity to do it know because she is at the school along with the rest of the teachers preparing for the first week of classes.
On habit I went to my room to check on the shroud, then went out of the house to the shopping district of town. It took around an hour to get to the district and shop around for the necessary items for class, while trying to use as little money as possible. For the past several years after my father died, the Fujimura's have been paying for my expenses. While I said that I would be willing to get a job to pay for my finances, they wouldn't allow it. They claimed that I was too young to get a job and that I should enjoy my childhood after everything that has happened to me. I personally disagree with them and try my best to not use too much of their money. Though now that I'm sixteen I'm allowed to get a part time job, so I've been looking around while I shopped too see if I found any help wanted signs.
With no success finding a job after two hours, I decides to go home. Making a quick turn to leave the district, I walk straight into someone. I end up stumbling back a pace or two watching in horror as a girl fell on her butt.
"I am terribly sorry about that!" I hastily said, walking towards her to help her up. As I help her up I notice that she looks around my age, sporting black hair tied up in twintails using a black ribbon. She was wearing a red sweater with a large white cross in the middle of it, along with a short black skirt, and very long black socks with brown flats.
Currently she looked pissed that I knocked her down. Once she finally got up I put some distance between us she practically froze me in place with a glare.
"That was quite rude of you." She stated in a casual voice. Which did not match her intense glare.
"I'm very sorry, is there anything that I can do to make it up to you?" I asked, I felt that was the least I could do. Though I feel like I just made a huge mistake, because right after I asked that she dropped her glare entirely and for a split second had a small smirk. Which was instantly replaced with a soft smile.
"Hmm, if you don't mind could you help carry my stuff while I shop for school supplies?" She asked with the most innocent smile I've ever seen. Yet, despite that I felt like was being led into a trap.
"Sure, I'd be happy to help you with that. I don't think I have introduced myself yet, my name is Shirou Emiya." I finished with a bow.
"Oh of course, My name is Rin Tohsaka. Nice to meet you Emiya-kun." The girl now known as Rin responded. "Now, I'm off this way for some supplies and maybe a coat or two for the coming winter."
Rin started to walk away from me, making me have to jog a bit to catch up. She didn't talk to me very much, only to tell me what to do, or to hand me something to carry. Though this was useful to me as I was trying to figure something out, there was a smell coming off of her that was making me uneasy. At first all I could smell from Rin was her perfume, but as the day went on I started to notice something else coming off of her. It smelt of power, I didn't know how else to describe it. It wasn't even coming from her though. It was, from what I could tell, coming from something on her. So without know what it was or if it was dangerous, I simply did as she asked without compliant.
Slowly but surely she managed to find all of the items that she wanted, which somehow all ended up with me to carry. It was approaching dusk as we finally approached her home.
"Thank you very much for the help Emiya-kun." She called back to me politely to me. She walked up to her steps to unlock her door. As I was about to respond to her something stopped me. There was a new smell coming from her house. It was similar but at the same time different from the door that led to Merem's room. Still having no clue what was causing the smell besides that it was some sort of barrier to keep people away. Yet this one felt almost colder, where the one with Merem was more threatening. Rin turned to me when she noticed that I stopped before I crossed the boundary of whatever was creating the smell.
"Is there something the matter?" She asked, noticing my reluctance to enter her home. Snapped out of my trance, I forced myself into her house.
"Sorry, I just, um, I just took a moment to look at your house. It is very different from my own." Quickly making an excuse that was more realistic than saying ' your house smells uninviting', feeling as that would be a little insulting.
"Yes, I'm sure it does. It's a more western styled house." Rin didn't seem to like my answer to much. Taking off her shoes near the door. Once I followed her in the smell got accompanied by a feeling of unease, making it very hard for me to want to stay for long. Along with that feeling, another dangerous smell coming from a different room with its door shut. This smell felt similar to what was coming from Rin, yet it a much larger concentration. I didn't move from my spot as I waited for her to tell me where to set down her supplies.
"Hmm, I suppose you can leave those by the door then, would you like some tea? You did help me quite a lot today." She instructed me.
"No, I've been away from my house for to long, my guardian is liable to stave if I'm away for much longer. I appreciate the offer though." I rejected her offer. Though the real reason for that was I hated the feeling of this house and all of the smell coming from various things. All of that combine, I feel it's in my best interest to leave while I can.
"I suppose that I have kept you out quite a long time, I'm sorry Emiya-kun" Rin bowed to me. Odd didn't think she would feel that bad about it.
"It's alright, I wanted to help after all. Have a goodnight Tohsaka-san" I bowed slightly and left, shutting the door behind me. I let out a sigh of relief. Something is wrong with that house and for some reason I have no doubt that Tohsaka if fully aware of it, making me think that she is a magus. Hopefully she doesn't know I'm also magus, or spellcaster as I rather be called. If my father taught me anything besides the basic spells, it's that all maguses are dangerous.
I slowly start my walk to my house, with it turning dark outside I look to the night sky idley. With the distance between my and Tohsaka's houses it will be about midnight as I return. I let out a huff just thinking about what Taiga is going to do to me when she saw me. Accepting my death with dignity I opened the door fully prepared to get slaughtered by the dreaded Tora-Shinai. Instead something far worse was happened. I made it into my home with no real problems, though that should have tipped me off to begin with. As I took off my jacket and walked to the living room, I heard people talking. Not thinking to much of it I went into the room unprepared. Taiga and Merem were sitting at the dining table munching on snacks and drinking tea.
"Shirou! How dare you leave the house when you were expecting a guest!" The tiger roared at me, yet remaining in her seat with her snacks. Merem on the other hand simply waved a hand and took a sip of his tea trying to hide a small smirk that was tugging at the corner of his mouth showing his great amusement in the situation.
"I-I-I, I'm sorry! It-t must've slipped my mind." I managed to spit out, still shocked and terrified of what I was seeing.
"Miss Fujimura, I think it's about time for you to go home. Thank you for keeping me company until Shirou's return." Merem said in a polite but commanding tone. Taiga turned to him to reply but her words died on her tongue upon making eye contact. Slowly she got up wordlessly and walk out of the house. I could only stare in shock of what just happened. Then just turned to stare at Merem but unable to form words.
"Nice to see you again Shirou. As I said, I have return to make use of your skill." He calmly said pulling a large black briefcase of sorts out. I, slowly but cautiously, approached him and sat on the other side of the table. He turned the case to me and undid the hatches to open the case. Inside the case were three items; a small dagger, a very old looking piece of wood, and finally a shard of metal.
"Now would you be so kind to grasp these for me. While I know what one of these are," he gestures to the dagger. "The other two I can not tell as they have degraded to a point of unrecognizably. The only reason I even keep these small portions is because of the prana still being release from them, even in such a state." He finished, gesturing to the other two objects.
I glance back down to the items in the case. Slowly I pick up the dagger first as it's the most complete and likely to be the easiest of the three to grasp as it was the most well kept. The blade currently dull and cracked, but you could easily tell it was made from quality silver. The hilt that it was barely still attached to had a thin gold guard with carvings that have been smoothed out to the point you couldn't tell what they use to be. The hilt was the same silver that made the blade, but was wrapped with a worn leather that was falling apart.
Closing my eyes to focus I mutter my aira, 'trace, on', and start the process to create a new magic circuit. Once finished, I start to grasp the dagger. This time being prepared as he told me these were items of power, I kept myself from dropping the dagger after finding out its name.
Carnwennan, a dagger once used by king Arthur himself. A blade which has the ability to shroud its user in darkness. Pushing myself harder than before as my life might just depend on it, I look farther into the blade. Its last true user was a nameless thief that stole it from the vaults it was kept in after Arthur's death. Then church member found the thief five years later and killed him to retrieve the dagger, It has been in the churches vaults ever sense. One of the most notable uses of the blade were when Arthur killed a witch with it. I tried to push to find out the name of the witch killed but I was losing focus and my circuit was starting to burn. I stopped grasping the blade and placed it back into the case panting and having to wipe the sweat from my forehead.
"You seem to be out of practice if grasping caused you to have such a reaction." Merem speculated out loud.
"No, quite the opposite. I've been practicing my structural grasp to make sure I met your expectations. I merely push farther into the past of the blade and for a longer period of time compared to Hrunting and the others." I denied, finally catching my breath.
"Then tell me what you have learned." He almost demanded, yet still holding a layer of politeness around him. I explained what I had learned from the blade. He seemed oddly interested in the fact that I found out it was stolen from the church before it was returned to their vaults, rather than the rest of the tale I learned.
"To think that you were able to learn that the church lost custody of the dagger for a period of time, and after all that hard work to clean up that mess." He let out a childish giggle as if it were some sort of prank.
Without another word he motioned for me to start on the next item. An extremely old piece of wood that was around four inches wide and maybe seven long and about half an inch think. I look at it and start to ponder what it use to be. Placing it on the table and setting my hands on top of it I began to grasp it. It was much harder to grasp than the dagger, almost like I just couldn't understand it as easily. I push onward though, I finally start to find information about the item. It was the remains of the bow used by Odysseus, It was never named though, only ever referred as Odysseus' rigid bow. Through the bow I found how it was enchanted by one of the gods to only be able to be strung and shot by Odysseus. Though it seems that the enchantment wore off after his death so that someone else of skill could use it. But that's as far as I could go for this piece, it felt far more draining than the last.
Finally setting down the remains of the bow and wiping myself down, though this time I was panting from how taxing the grasp was. I turn to Merem, He seem very excited to learn what it was he gave to me. After explaining to him what I have learn he seemed over the moon about what it was.
"Unbelievable, to think that I had his bow for such a long time without knowing it." At that statement I was confused. How could he not have know what he had, or rather how did he know to keep it if he didn't know what it was.
"You must have forgotten, I mentioned that I only kept them for the prana they continuously release. So, while I do know that they are objects of power, or at least used to be, I can not tell what they use to be." He explained as if reading my mind. Slowly I nodded. It also explained why he kept me alive. With how old these things were most if not all of them must have suffered some sort of deterioration that makes them impossible for a normal person to identify.
Without needing to be prompted this time, I went to grab the metal fragment. Like the others I set it on the table and started to grasp it. This time though I could barely get anything at all from the piece of metal. I tried my best but it was hard to find what I was looking for. Eventually I found its name, and what it was used for.
"This is one of the eleven copies of the real Ancile that were made to confuse thieves from taking the real one. So, while it is not the real Ancile, it still was an expertly crafted shield that lasted several battles before being tossed away." I spoke out to Merem in a raspy voice pushing to grasp these items was more taxing than I thought it would be. Even though I haven't use any magecraft sense yesterday I still felt horribly drained. For hopefully the last time, I picked up the shard and placed it in the case. After I placed it in its rightful spot I close the case and turned it back to Merem. He seemed to be in deep thought about what I had said.
"So I only had a counterfeit? Are you absolutely sure?" He asked in a disappointed manner.
"Well, kinda of. It was commissioned by Mars himself to be made as a than that, it was a nearly peerless shield, else it wouldn't have been able to even appear as a fake. So, yes its a fake. But it was made to be one." I finished, feeling like if he thought it were just a fake he might throw it out. Merem looked at my considering my words before slowly nodding as if he agreed.
"I see, I see. This was a very informative trip, I'm very happy to have let you live." He had a smile on his face. I let out a sigh of relief, happy I get to live to see another day.
"Well as we are done here I will take my leave." Standing up he starts to pick up the case.
"Wait!" I yelped out. He looked at me confused. "Stay here for a moment please." I told him and rushed to my room. Inside I made my way to the closest to retrieve the shroud. Walking back to Merem, he was now standing by the table. Though he did not look annoyed or irritated so I assumed I was in the clear. Presenting the shroud to him.
"I accidentally took this from your exhibit." I managed to blurt out.
"Hmmm, you might as well keep that one. It's very boring and not that useful. Merely a holy shroud that binds males. Though if you attack them, the shroud loses its effect. I only had it because the church gave it to me one day for being apart of the burial agency. I truly have no interest or need of it." Merem explained to me in an uninterested voice.
I pulled back the shroud in confusion but decided not to press the issue. Though it was in that moment that I noticed something weird, or at least something that wasn't there.
"I can barely smell you now?" I lightly muttered to myself. Merem apparently heard my and raised an eyebrow to my words. Panic started to settle in as I just said something that could easily be taken as an insult.
"What I meant was that when we first met you had five different smell coming off of you, and that they were all overbearing." I quickly explain not wishing for him to become angry.
"Ah, is this what you smelled?" He said and almost immediately the five scents all returned with a vengeance.
"Y-yes it is" I choked out. The return of the smells caught me off guard.
"What you smell is my and my imagined creatures' prana that we are releasing. The reason you smelled it so clearly last time was because I was not holding it back." He explained all the while the smell started to dissipate.
"Is it normal to smell prana?" I asked confused. Kiritsugu never mentioned something like this when he was teaching me.
"Yes, and no. It's normal for maguses to be able to sense the prana around then, but it differs from person to person. Most people have it from one of their five senses or develop a sort of six sense for it. For you it must be smell." He elaborated.
"Then what was in front of the door to your exhibit also prana?" Dangerous individual or not. He was explaining more things than my father ever did.
Signing he went back to the table and sat down. "Sit. It looks like in exchange for you grasping my collection, I'll be explaining what I can that your father did not." Instead of sitting down right away, I went to brew some more tea. After it was finished I handed a cup to Merem, to which he thanked me.
"To start with, what do you know, whether you can do it or not." he calmly asked.
"Currently I know how to grasp. I'm still working on reinforcement and projection. Other than that and some simple terms used in the moonlit world, practically nothing." He merely frowned at my admittance.
"How can you know so little? I understand that your father died, but even then he should have taught you more than that." Merem seemed down right shocked by the end of his short rant.
"Getting my father to teach me anything was like pulling teeth. It took me two years to even get him to start teaching me magecraft. Anything beyond those three he wouldn't do." I explained my situation.
"To only teach you such useless magecraft when he was renowned as the magus killer is shocking. Even if he couldn't give you his crest that had the inert time sorcery, he could have taught you his other skills." He sighed once again.
"Magus killer?" I asked, never once hearing that term being used.
"So he didn't even tell you that he used to be an assassin of sorts." He was now looking directly into my eyes as if looking for my deceit like this was all one huge joke.
"No, I have never heard of that, and from what I know of my father would never assume it to be true" I was worried. I have never heard of this and it seemed to be a big deal. I had no doubt Merem was tell the truth though, even if I wanted him to be lying.
"That will be left for another day. I'm going to explain what you smelled on the door at my exhibit and then leave. What you smelled was something called a bounded field. Its use was suppose to keep people out and alert me if someone were to sneak in. Which it did. Do you even know that you have a bounded field set up around your property? It's only use from what I can tell is to alert you of hostile intent." What he said surprised me.
"I know of bounded fields, it's just that yours and Tohsaka's field smell so different from mine that I thought they were completely different things." I explained my confusion.
"That's because of the function of the fields. My, and I'll assume the same for this 'Tohsaka', have more hostile fields to keep people away. Your field on the other hand does nothing of the sort." He elaborated. Feeling content with what he has taught me for the day just nodded to him.
"On another note, I would like you to keep this on you as well." He told me as he tossed me a black key. I fumble around trying to catch it without cutting myself. Once I had it safely in my hands, I look at his with a confused face.
"While you seem safe enough in the middle of nowhere, I would prefer you to have something to protect yourself with in case of an emergency. I would like you to stay alive for at least a few more years to help me evaluate my collection." He responded in a bored tone as he continued to sip on his tea. "I will likely return in a month time with more items for inspection. I would prefer you to have more control of your magecraft. At least enough to grasp more than three things for next time. So, until then, this is goodbye." He stood up grabbing onto his case and began to walk out to the door.
"Goodbye, Solomon-san." I called out to him as he opened the door. He looked back to me, bowed and left.
As he left I could only sigh in relief for what was likely the fifth time today. Slowly dropping to the floor, I realized that I was not prepared for anything that happened after I knocked Tohsaka down.
Standing up trade the black key for the shroud and hold it up to my eye level. Now if I remember what Merem said, this shroud binds males. How oddly specific, though if with the knowledge of what it does I do not know how to activate it. Staring at it for a little bit I decided to just flow my prana into it from my hands to see what happens. Nothing, nothing happened. "How do you get it to bind-" it didn't even wait for me to finish the statement before it wrapped itself around me. Starting from the shoulders all the way down to my knees it wrapped and finished within a second. With my legs now bound I lost my balance and fell down on my back. 'Well nice to know it works' I mentally snarked. Not know what to do, I start to wiggle to see if I could get it off. After about ten minutes of tossing around like a fish out of water I realize that I was still feeding prana into it. As soon as I cut the prana from the cloth it loosened.
Standing back up I almost literally gave myself a pat on the back for figuring out how to use the shroud, even if it's only at a rudimentary level. Looking at the shroud I decided that I should try to find a way to keep it on me so that I can use it if I need to. But, excluding the horrible idea of wearing it like a scarf, I couldn't think of a way that made it accessible and convenient.
Setting the shroud aside for the moment I look to the black key I now had. 'I wonder if Merem will keep giving me stuff everytime I see him?' I questioned. It was an oddly thin but long sword that was awkwardly balanced. Why he gave it to me when I had no clue how to use it was beyond me. I took a few practice swings I knew this wasn't something I was going to be able to use on the fly, I'd have to spend time out of my day slowly practicing and learning how to properly use it. Then there was the problem of also having this on my person without someone noticing. Sighing at the thought, I put the sword down on top of the shroud.
Looking at the time it was about three in the morning. Thinking about it, going to sleep now would be the best thing to do, I really shouldn't pull an all nighter on the first day of school. I went to my room, placing the shroud and black key into my closet and changed into sleepwear. Laying down I went to bed for the few short hours that I could.
"Shirou! I'm hungry! Quickly make me breakfast before I have to get to the school." The sound of a fearsome tiger woke me from my dreamless slumber. Slowly I sat up, trying to think about what was happening.
"Shirou! Come on, school starts soon and I need food." Right, this should have been the expected way to wake up. Not something normal like 'Shirou you have school soon. Time to wake up'. Nope I have to be woken up by screams of desire for my cooking. Sighing, I submit to her demands, I move myself to the kitchen still in my sleepwear. I cooked up a simple Japanese breakfast for her. After I finished she took it and left for school. After she left I made my own breakfast and ate it in silence. As soon as I finished eating I went back to the kitchen to cook my lunch for the day and packed it into a bento box.
Looking at the time, I had about an hour to be at the school. Quickly changing into my school uniform, which was just my white shirt with a tan jacket overtop of it along with tan pants, I grabbed my lunch I walked out of the house and started on my way to school. To my surprise, the walk to school wasn't very special. After everything that happened I thought something would happen before I got to school. When I safely entered to school gate I saw several other students. Though some of us came from the same middle school, I wasn't really friends with them. So I ended up standing to the side until the school opened for the students to go to their classes.
I stood there waiting to be let into the school building until I recognized a similar smell of power coming towards me. I turn around to see Rin Tohsaka wearing the female school uniform walking into the area, passing me to talk to a girl with short brown hair and the same uniform.
Still weary of her and the prana that I now know that she is releasing, I stay far away from her. I have enough to stress to deal with because of Merem. I don't need her to throw any surprises as well. So while she seemed like an okay girl, I going to stay out of her radar.
After the bell rand, signalling the students to enter the school building, I went to my classroom assigned to me. The day itself went along fairly normally, mostly just being teachers explaining their courses and the expectations for the students. Later on in the day the students were lead into the courtyard in order to have a club fair.
During the fair Taiga approached me and demanded that I take part in a club. I asked her way and she simply said should would not allow me to be a lazy bum while in high school. With this conversation in mind, I saw a few that looked appealing, such as archery, kendo and student council. Though I decided not to join student council because it was an election sort of process that I didn't really want to be apart of. So, that left either kendo or archery club. To be honest it was a close call, archery teaches the kyudo technique in the way of a meditation practice. Kendo on the other hand was appealing because I felt like it would be useful and possibly enjoyable to learn to fight with a sword. In the end I decided to go with archery because Taiga was one of the instructors, giving me someone to know and interact with.
With me signing up for the club, I was allowed to leave for the day. I started to make my way out to the front gate of the school to leave but was stopped by a student that was slightly taller than me.
"Hello, my name is Issei Ryuudou, I would like to introduce myself as I'll be in the elections for student council.l" He bowed politely to me.
"Hello, Ryuudou-san, my name is Shirou Emiya." I bowed back to him. Not sure what else to say I start back on my walk to leave the school.
"Ryuudou-san, so nice to see you going for student president again. Ah and nice to see you as well Emiya-kun" Rin approached us from the courtyard with a sickening sweet smile.
"Tohsaka-san, am I to expect you as our vice-president again?" Issei replied showing the bare minimum politeness he could get away Rin took it well as her smile never dropped, which caused Issei to frown.
"Not this year, I have other important duties to attend to for my family. I hope you won't let the school fall apart in my absence." I don't know what was going on between them but I knew that I should leave before this storm pulls me in as well. I was about to do just that but.
"Emiya-kun, aren't you going to say hello, after we had such a nice day out yesterday I thought we were on good terms." Damn my luck. I turn back to the two of them. Rin was sporting a sweet smile that was putting me on edge, while Issei was looking at me like I kicked a dog. This has to be a trap, I can see it in her eyes. I don't know how, but if I say the wrong thing something wrong is going to happen.
"Sorry, Tohsaka-san. I didn't want to impose on your conversation with Ryuudou-san." I calmly say with a bow at the end, not confirming or denying her statement.
"So you bewitched him as well." I barely her Issei mutter, though I doubt he wanted me to hear that. Apparently Rin also heard him as she almost dropped her smile.
"I'll have you know what I have never 'bewitched' anyone. Emiya-kun bumped into me yesterday and we ended up going shopping together." She exclaimed. Now I might not be the brightest, but I was pretty sure that was not how yesterday went. It was more I knocked her down and then she held my honor like a leash to do her bidding for the day. Issei looked over to me for confirmation. I looked back to Rin who, without Issei watching her, started to glare at me in order to keep me from denying her statement.
"She did not bewitch me to do anything, I merely felt bad for knocking her over." I elaborated trying to appease both sides. Issei calmed down a bit, while Rin seemed a little disappointed but didn't push it.
"I suppose you are alright." Issei releanted.
"Well it's time for me to go, Emiya would you be so kind as to walk me out?" It wasn't really a question. So I bowed to Issei and walked after her. The walk was quiet for the most part and I was going to assume that it would be for the entire walk, which I would have been completely fine with as I still didn't know how to feel about the prana I could smell on her person. Though that all went out the window when she glanced at me for a moment and a mischievous smile formed on her lips.
"So why weren't you trying to hide the fact that we went on a date from Ryuudou-san?" She asked in the most innocent voice she had. Such a statement caught me off guard completely, such to the point I tripped over my feet and landed on my face. I quickly stood back up to face her, though I still couldn't form any words. I had no idea what she was talking about, that couldn't have been a date.
"I-I, Th-that wasn't, I-I mean, I d-didn't think." I could only barely get out of my mouth. Scrambling to think of what to say or explain myself. Luckily I didn't have to as she burst out in laughter. Realising what she did I started to frown, though I doubted it had any real effect with how red my face was at the moment. If anything it only made her laugh harder.
"That wasn't funny." I complained.
"Maybe not to you, but to me it was priceless." Rin managed to get out once her giggles calmed down, though her grin never vanished. We went the rest of the walk silent until we made it to the road we would go separate ways.
"Thank you for walking me Emiya-kun, I hope you have a lovely day." Rin called out with a bow.
"You as well Tohsaka-san." I replied and bowed in a similar fashion. After that we went our separate ways, it only taking a few minutes to make it back to my home.
Finally home I decided to try to snoop around my father's room for a bit to see if he left anything that could tell me more about him. Looking around his room I started to smell something. It smelled like a weak bounded field. Following it to its source, was a small trap door that I never noticed before. A sense of foreboding came over me as I opened it to find a latter that lead to some sort of basement.
At the bottom of the stair was a small room no more than six by six feet with a desk, bunch of filing cabinets a trunk on the far side of the room. The desk was old and covered in dust and the cabinets and trunk were in no better position. The first thing I did was walk up to the desk and check to see if he left anything of importance on it. In one of the drawers I found what appear to be a book with a pure black cover. When I opened it to see what was inside, it was written in a language I could not understand. Sighing at a lost opportunity, I sat the book down. Then I went to the cabinets. Upon opening those of found a large amount of papers mostly in english. Though the few I did end finding that were in japanese were not encouraging. They were mission details and conditions. So I was right to assume that Merem was telling the truth. Reading through one of the missions I saw why my father took these jobs, to be a hero. This one, and I assume the others, where describing men who have killed or were going to kill a large amount of people.
After setting the reports down, moved onto the trunk. It has a large lock on it with no real way for me to open. So, instead of leaving it I did something very stupid. I created one of my circuits and started to reinforce the lock. After a few seconds of doing nothing but push prana into the lock to 'strengthen' it, it fell apart. It couldn't hold the amount of prana I put into it, and like an air balloon with to much air, it blew up, or rather fell apart in the locks case. With the lock gone I opened up the trunk to find something I wasn't expecting. A few guns and a large amount of rounds for them. Once I thought it through, it made sense he would have these but seeing them was something else. After gawking at them for a few moments I picked up one of them and tried to grasp it to look into its past. Unlike everything I have recently been grasping to learn of their past, the gun didn't show me anything. I could see how it is used, how to take it apart and put it back together, but I couldn't see into its past. After my failed attempt, I put the gun down into the trunk and shut it.
Being finished with my discoveries for the day I grabbed the book and went upstairs to change. As I got to my room I started to change into my sleepwear, I remembered that the black key and shroud were still here. I look at them considering how I should handle them. I can't very well keep them out in the open, but I don't think I should leave them here. I'd rather get in trouble for having them than allow something bad to happen because I didn't have them. Thinking of ideas for keeping them on me, I had a thought.
Starting with one end of the shroud, I slowly began to wrap the shroud around my left arm, trying my best to not make to to tight. When I got to my shoulder, I manage to use about two fifths of the shroud. Then with the other end of the shroud, I began the process for my other arm. By the time I finished I had both of my arms covered in the red shroud and fair portion of it hanging down my back. I started to do short stretches to make sure I still had full mobility. After it passed that little test I had a thought, 'how the hell am I going to use it when it's wrapped around my arms like this?'. Not willing to just drop this way of carrying the shroud, started to pour prana into it. Like last time it was unresponsive, but I knew what to say for it to bind someone. This time I need to find out if I can just move it without binding myself.
Closing my eyes I started to visualize what I wanted the cloth to do. 'Loosen' I started to mentally chant to myself. Slowly but surely the cloth started to obey what I wanted it to do, having the side that were wrapped around my arm start to loosen until the shroud was practically hanging off of them. Looking at my small success, I started to think the reverse, 'tighten'. Very slowly the shroud started to wrap itself around my arms to the position I had it before. 'Okay, the shroud works. Now what to do about that sword?' I mentally question myself.
Picking up the blade, I start to fiddle with it. 'Something tells me keeping it in my pocket would be a bad I idea.' I mentally chuckle at the thought. Looking at it for a little bit longer I just couldn't think of a way for it to be kept on my person with how long it was. Then I had an idea, what if I looked into the blades past to see how others manage to do it. I've never grasped something for such a specific purpose before, so I wasn't sure if it would even work. I thought about creating my circuit, only to stop right there. 'How did I manage my prana into the shroud without creating a circuit?' I asked myself looking down to the shroud still wrapped snugly around my arms. With this thought I tried to activate my grasping spell. To my surprise it worked, if I little more strained as I was still confused as to where exactly was channeling my prana. Searching to what I needed to know of the sword, I found that there is a way to change the size of the blade using my magical energy along with a way to disperse the blade completely.
With this discovery, I managed to shrink the blade down to a third of its original meter long state making it more to a small dagger than a sword. With the black key now small enough to not be obstructed I carefully thread it through the wraps of the holy shroud without it touching my skin. This way I had a far ability to grab for it in a tight situation. With the shroud and the black key in place I look in the mirror. 'Well now I look like a priest ready to kill someone.' I sigh at the depressing thought. I truly did look like someone about to kill another. But, it still was the only way for me to keep the items on hand without them being exposed and get me in trouble. 'The things I do to stay prepared.' I sighed again. Making small little adjustments to make it a bit more comfortable, I throw a long sleeve shirt on top of them. Going to a mirror, I check myself out. From what I could tell I would highly doubt anyone would be able to tell I have either of them. At best they might see the shroud and assume I have a red undershirt on. Satisfied with my results I finish changing to my night cloths. Upon finishing changing I hear the door slam open.
"Shirou! I'm hungry and tired! Make me something to eat!" That damn woman, can't there be any other reason to see me other than to demand food. No of course not, that would be ridiculous. God forbid the day I have to leave for any period of time and she has to fend for herself. Sighing the sigh I have officially reserved for her, I march into the kitchen to prepare her food. At least with Merem saying that he won't return for a month, I won't have anything to stressful to deal with until then.
Author's notes:
I am truly surprised with the response to this story so far. I wasn't expecting this at all. Also, extra thanks to Gashadokuro Amanojaku for pointing out some logical flaws in my previous chapter. Being new to this I'm still not thinking everything through the way I should and made mistakes. To which I did update that chapter so shirou had more consistent reactions and responses to Merem. Also, because of hat review I tried a bit harder on this chapter, though I sure I miss or forgot something.