The inn was in rough shape. The rotten wooden floor creaked underneath the worn out sole of Shirou's shoes. The stone walls were not exactly clean and the chairs were relatively old, making Shirou consider whether or not it would be safe to sit on them. The entire room itself was cast in a dim yellow light from the few chandeliers that hung from the ceiling.
All things considered, if a health inspector from the modern world came to visit, the place would be shut down immediately. Not that Shirou would say anything. After all, it was an act of kindness on their part letting him stay here, regardless of the condition the place was in. And this could be the standard for all he knew.
After making it part way into the inn, he was stopped by a man wearing a white apron and a chef hat.
"Ah, I don't believe I've introduced the two of you!" The woman said, running over to the man's side before extending her arms to him in a presentful manner. "This is my husband, Jack."
Shirou shook the man's hand. "Emiya Shirou."
"Ah, I almost forgot!" She exclaimed, her hand making a fan shape as she held it over her chest. "I'm Anna!"
Shirou nodded. He stood in the middle of the room for a while, waiting for the couple to make the next move or start conversation. Then, almost as if sensing the situation, Anna grabbed Shirou's arm and dragged him over to a table near the ordering counter, while Jack had gone back to the kitchen. Not even two minutes later, Jack had returned from the kitchen with a plate of food which he placed on the table in front of Shirou.
"That was fast." Shirou spoke.
Jack and Anna both laughed. "He's a wizard, he uses his magic to speed up his cooking."
Shirou was debating on whether or not he could use his magecraft openly now. Since everyone he met seemed to be some sort of 'wizard', could he not just tell people he was one too? 'Probably not. At least not until I do some more research.' He thought as he picked of the fork at his side.
Shirou looked down at his plate. On top of the chipped porcelain plate lie a large turkey leg with mashed potatoes and vegetables on the side.
He truly was in the West now.
Stabbing the fork into some of the vegetables, Shirou moved it over to his mouth. Closing his lips around the end of the fork, he pulled it away and chewed on the food. He then moved on to the next food, repeating the process until he tried every dish on the plate.
Despite being cooked by a wizard, the food was rather bland. Shirou didn't want to be rude, but the turkey wasn't seasoned enough and it was somehow more dry than a normal turkey should be. The mashed potatoes were just mashed potatoes. No salt or anything. And lastly, the broccoli and carrots, the only food on the plate that was actually good. Normally a weird side dish, yet it was perfectly fine. Shirou had no problems with it.
After downing the last of his food, Shirou stood up from his seat. The chair slid and scraped against the wooden floor, causing it to make a screeching noise which catching the attention of Anna who was sweeping.
"How was the food?" She asked.
"It was fine." Shirou replied. It wasn't really a lie, but the food was just that, 'fine'. Maybe he could help them with their cooking some time.
Shirou looked around, he was the only 'customer' in the room. The chairs and tables all around left empty with no sign of anyone having used them in quite a while. "Are all of the other customers upstairs?" He asked with a hopeful tone.
Anna smiled as she looked up from the floor once again. "We don't get much business here." And with that, she looked back down to the rotting floors and began sweeping again.
Something felt off to Shirou. No business? The inn was close enough to the edge of town. Even if their food wasn't the best and the building was in rough shape, he'd expect to see at least one or two people here. Especially if they were going on jobs like Erza where they can't afford to stay in the better inns deeper inside the town. Shirou shook his head. This was a new world. He didn't even know how large the population was or how things worked here.
Shirou pushed his chair back into the table and moved his plate onto the counter for Jack to take into the kitchen. He then took a spare broom from the corner of the room and began sweeping to assist Anna.
"Oh no, you don't have to do that." The middle aged woman pleaded, a hint of guilt in her voice.
Shirou looked up to the woman and smiled. "I insist. After all, you did let me stay here for free."
The woman set her broom aside and rushed over to Shirou. "That's because you saved my life. Now you must be exhausted, you should get some rest." The woman pretty much shoved
Shirou over to the steps.
"Well then... I guess I'll be in my room." Shirou spoke.
The steps of the stairs creaked underneath his feet and one of the boards looked like they would have given away if Shirou weighed more than he did. Upon reaching the top of the steps, he couldn't help but feel strange. He could hear the two whispering to each other from upstairs.
'Was I being rude?' He thought to himself. This was another world after all, but things couldn't be that different, could they? Social norms seemed to be more or less the same, but he couldn't help but wonder if he had done something that was considered strange.
The door didn't even creak as Shirou pushed it open. The inside of his room was actually quite nice, considering the state of the actual inn itself.
A made bed with a single pillow and blanket off to the left of the room. The closet at the right along with a wardrobe and a shelf which had no books in it. There was a chest at the end of his bed for storage which was a nice feature, but what really caught Shirou's attention was the moonlight falling through the large window that lay on the wall straight ahead.
Shirou walked over to the window. At the side, he noticed a medium sized padded chair. It was the perfect room for him to stay in right now. Leaning against the wall, Shirou gazed at the moon. He soon noticed how beautiful the night sky was in this world. The world here was not as polluted as his own, which caused the sky to retain it's original colors. There were no bright city lights that dimmed the stars. And the moon was full and bright.
'Kiritsugu would have loved to see this...'
Shirou smiled as he remembered the times when he and Kiritsugu would spend their nights watching the night sky. They would drink tea and talk with one another. Sometimes they would even talk for so long that it would be day time before they even knew it. But then, after a while Kiritsugu would fall asleep every now and then during their conversations. One day, the day Shirou swore to uphold his ideals, to become a hero of justice, Kiritsugu had smiled and went to sleep one last time.
Shirou himself was feeling rather sleepy. He got up from his chair and-
Shirou stirred in his half-awake sleep. Moving around, he felt the padded surface of a mattress beneath him. He couldn't recall last night or how he had gotten into his bed, but he could have sworn that he fell asleep on the floor.
He sat up and attempted to move his arms to the side of the bed. To his surprise, his wrist was chained to the headrest. He was even feeling weak and sluggish. Tugging the chain with his arms, he attempted to gauge how strong they were. Either he was even more weaker than he thought, or the headrest was the only piece of wood in the inn that wasn't rotten. Either way, there would be some explaining.
Almost on cue, muffled footsteps and creaking floorboards could be heard from outside Shirou's room. Once they were close enough, the door slid open. Anna's face peaked in through the room, a crooked smile on her face. "You're awake."
"What's going on?" Shirou asked with a commanding tone. Though he already knew the answer.
"That should be obvious, Emiya." Anna laughed. "Our intentions were obviously not just. After all, there's no way we would be in business with such a run down place. Soon, We're going to sell you. You'll be working as a labor slave from now on."
Shirou's hardened gaze remained unchanged. He had suspected something was off about the two. It should have been obvious when he tasted the food. It wasn't something he noticed earlier, but the food wasn't lacking of a taste, it was one taste overpowering another. They had drugged him and planned to sell him off as some sort of slave. This had angered Shirou. He was glad that it happened to him instead of someone else, but he was mad because they were experienced in this field, which meant they had been selling off others.
Once the woman stopped laughing, her expression turned neutral as she looked Shirou in the eyes. "Though I will admit, I didn't expect you to have such strong resistance to the drug. You were supposed to fall asleep sooner." The woman then looked away as it was rather unnerving for her to stare into such steel piercing eyes.
"You even woke up before the drug could leave your system."
Shirou's circuits were still burning, but they had recovered enough to be used. Right now, he didn't feel comfortable using something as taxing as projection, but he wouldn't need it, not for these two.
Shirou ran Od through two of his circuits, causing them to switch on.
Anna's eyes widened as she saw Shirou break the chain holding his right arm.
Shirou then touched one of the chain links on the chain holding his left wrist. One of the dangers of reinforcing the body was that if you flooded part of your body with too much mana, it would overflow and explode. This was why Magi refrained from bodily reinforcement, instead settling for strengthening runes. Everything had a limit to how much mana it could take. It was almost like filling a cup with far too much water and causing it to spill. Using this rule to his advantage, Shirou forced more mana into the single chain link than it could handle.
Anna began to back up slowly when she saw part of the chain shatter into pieces. Fear flooded through her body, causing her limbs to slow down. She backed up in attempt to get away. Then, her steps were halted when she hit the wall.
Lifting his legs over the edge of the mattress, Shirou sat up. Then, slowly, he tried to stand. The drugs were still in his system, causing his legs to shake under his weight. He reinforced his body slightly, having to activate several of his other circuits to maintain it. He grabbed the blanket from his bed and walked over to Anna.
Reaching out, he grabbed her arm. The woman began shaking violently, attempting to remove his grip, but to no avail. Despite the resistance from her and the weakness in his muscles, Shirou managed to yank her down to the ground. Then, he easily dragged her over to the bedside and tied her to the leg with the blanket.
The woman struggled and almost managed to loosen the knot until Shirou touched the blanket. Flooding mana into the blanket, performing alteration. The blanket hardened and remained unmovable in its position.
The woman then began having second thoughts on her actions. Neither she, nor her partner could have ever guessed that the man they took in was capable of these feats. She was about to shout out to her husband to warn him, but was quickly shut down when Shirou tied a pillowcase was quickly tied around her mouth, effectively gagging her.
"Stay here until the authorities arrive." Shirou's voice was seemingly void of emotion, settling on a more serious and battle-ready tone.
Deciding that the situation here was under control, he walked through the opened door and stepped into the hall. Turning around, he glanced at the door before closing it behind him. With any luck, Jack didn't hear any of what just went down.
Shirou knew the floorboards creaked. It was most likely an intentional part of the inn which they used as a makeshift alarm, as a way to know if their victims were attempting to escape. To avoid the creaking, Shirou stepped on the corners where the nails were in order to minimize creaking and overall noise.
Once he reached the beginning of the stairs, he could hear voices. One was Jack's, but the other was female... It was familiar. He heard the voice recently, but it was too quiet to determine who it belonged to. He descended lower down the steps of the stairs, walking on the edge of the stairs away from the wall as he moved, another technique he used to stay quiet.
Leaning over the rails of the stairs, he saw Jack coming from the kitchen with a plate in hand. Reinforcing his eyes, he could see the plate closer. ' A cheesecake?'
Shirou traced Jack's path as he walked. The middle aged man stopped at a table which housed a familiar redhead. Once he place the cheesecake onto the table, she immediately stabbed a portion of it with her fork and brought it to her mouth. Seeing this was enough to get Shirou moving.
Increasing the reinforcement in his body to the maximum, he bolted off the side of the stairs, shattering most of it in the process. "Don't eat that!" Closing the gap from the stairs to Erza in a second, Shirou knocked the fork out of her hand as he flew over the table. Falling over the edge, he landed ungracefully on the floor next to the female knight.
Erza looked down at Shirou. "Emiya... What are you doing here?" She recalled meeting him yesterday, the fact that he was in the same city wasn't what surprised her. It was odd seeing him in the condition he was in. He looked even more exhausted than he did yesterday. Shirou stood up from the ground, panting. He looked almost sickly. He was pale, his eyes had dark bags underneath them and he was sweating like a pig. What really caught Erza's attention were the chains on his wrist. The sight of Shirou's condition was enough to put her guard up.
"The owners of this inn are holding people captive!" He shouted, holding a defensive stance as he glared at the chef.
Erza shot up from her seat like a bullet. "Is this true?" She asked, the authority held within her voice reminded Shirou of Saber.
Jack raised him arms in the air. "N-no! He's lying!" For most, his voice would have been a dead give away to his lie, but Erza preferred to act on hard evidence and facts.
Erza's Brown eyes locked onto Shirou. As if she were silently saying 'Your turn'.
Shirou looked down for a moment before looking at the table. "They drug their victim's food..." Shirou spoke, his words causing the man next to him to take up a fidgety stance. "They probably drugged that cake you were about to eat. If you want evidence, just have Jack eat the cake."
"Very well." Erza's gaze shifted back to Jack. "If you will."
"I..." Jack began. "I'm allergic to the ingredients!" He shouted. He wasn't fooling anyone though. Erza's eyes narrowed when she heard his excuse. Jack backed up slowly, maintaining eye contact with the female knight. Slowly, he lowered his hands and reached for something. Quickly, he pulled a magic shotgun out from under the counter.
He did not however, get the chance to point the gun at either Shirou or Erza. In a flash, Erza stepped forward and pushed the barrel of the gun down with her left hand before delivering a powerful blow to his head with the other, knocking him unconscious.
Something told Shirou that pointing a gun at Erza was a huge mistake, one with dire consequences.
Erza looked back at Shirou, her serious expression unchanged. "Are you alright?" She asked.
"I'm fine." Shirou replied. "His wife was in on this, she's up stairs. I don't know if there are more people being held here, I didn't have time to check." Shirou began walking, aiming for the stairs behind Erza. His weak and exhausted form was apparent as he stumbled.
"Wait. I'll go check..." She spoke, grabbing Shirou's arm before he could pass her. "You should get the authorities. And then get to a doc-"
"Look out!" Shirou interrupted. He embraced Erza and spun her around. He activated the rest of his circuits and reinforced his skin, bones and muscles as far as he could in his current condition. A loud bang could be heard as Shirou let out a brief pained groan through his closed teeth.
Erza saw the source of the loud noise. Up on the steps stood the other owner of the inn, the end of her magic shotgun steaming, she was about to shoot again.
A light appeared in Erza's hand and formed into the shape of a sword in the blink of an eye. She threw it at Anna, but rather than hitting the middle aged woman, it flew by her head and landed in the wall beside her. The momentary shock from having the sword fly so close to her face gave Erza enough time to close the distance between the two. Jumping into the air, Erza delivered a powerful kick to the woman's head. The force of the kick knocked her head into the hard steel handle of the sword that was embedded in the wall, putting the woman into a sleep much like the one that her partner in crime was under.
She then turned around to face Shirou. He was still on the ground due to the fight happening within seconds. "Are you injured?!" She asked as she ran to his side. He was just shot with a magic shotgun from such a close range, so she was shocked to see him push off the ground and stand up.
"I'll be fine." Shirou said before walking over to the stairs. The hole in the back of his shirt showing a bruise left by the shotgun. "Thanks to you." He spoke. His words clearly drawing confusion from Erza.
'Wasn't he shot? Why am I to be thanked?' She thought silently.
"I don't think I would have been able to take that second shot." He grabbed the Erza's sword by the handle. Carefully, he began pulling, causing the sword to slide out from its burrow in the wall. He almost made the action of pulling out a metal sword that was stuck halfway into a stone wall look easy. Once he took it out, he flipped it over and grabbed onto the blade end before walking back to Erza. "Here." The weight of the sword left his grasp as it was accepted by Erza.
"We should go and check those other rooms now." He said.
"Y-yeah." Moving in front of Shirou, Erza took the lead. He was still injured after all.
After confirming that there was nobody else in the inn, Erza took Shirou with her to notify the authorities. Apparently, the two were a wanted husband-wife criminal duo who were previously charged with kidnapping crimes.
Shirou had asked Erza what she was doing in the inn once the event was cleared. After finishing her job, she had decided to wait until morning to travel back to a town called Magnolia and booked a stay at the inn Shirou was staying at. But when the couple had offered her food, she denied it and went straight to bed.
Shirou had also told the authorities about the thieves from yesterday and how they could have been in on the operation. They had let Shirou go after questioning him upon which Erza had immediately rushed him to the hospital.
The doctors had given Shirou some sort of potion to clear the drug from his system, though it had apparently been mostly cleared out by the time he got to the hospital. The shotgun wound, the one Erza was worried the most about, somehow became slightly smaller. According to the doctor, a magic shotgun should have done more than just bruise him. Even so, they said that he should be mostly healed in two or more days from how fast it was healing. His already existing wounds were bandaged again, and he was pretty much free to go as long as he promised to rest and drink lots of water.
Still though, the rate at which his wounds were healing and the fact that normal people would be wounded from being shot at aroused suspicion in Erza. She already suspected that he was a wizard, but the kind of magic he used was strange. She was so lost in thought that upon exiting the hospital, she had to retrace her steps in order to remember the act of leaving the building.
The sunset's fire like light shined brightly over the town. A beautiful light that Erza would normally appreciate, but when she had turned to speak to Shirou, she couldn't help but notice the troubled look on his face. "Is something wrong?" She asked.
Shirou stared at the setting sun for a few moments. "Those people were selling their victims." He began. "They'll be punished for sure... But... What about the people they were selling to? Or the people that were previously sold?"
Erza's eyes widened for a split second before falling back down just as fast. "The authorities are on that. They will interrogate those two and find out all of the information they need." She was taken aback by Shirou's caring attitude.
"I guess so." Shirou muttered.
Erza began walking forward, further away from the hospital building. "Have some faith in the police, Emiya."
"Although..." Shirou spoke, his voice almost too quiet for Erza to hear. "I hope the victims are alright. They were selling them as labor slaves."
Erza instantly stopped moving. Despite the rest of her being as still as a statue, her head fell down. Her eyes seemed to be looking through the ground at something that Shirou couldn't see. When Shirou placed a hand on her shoulder, he could feel her jumping. The action itself was so slight that he would have missed it if not for inheriting Archer's experienced focus.
"Are you alright, Erza?"
Erza nodded her head. "Mm." Shirou's hand fell off her shoulder as she began moving forward again. "Let's go, Emiya."
Shirou almost nodded and went along with Erza without question. She reminded him of Saber so much that he unconsciously began following her when she told him to. "Wait... what do you mean?" Shirou asked as he stopped.
Erza looked back, the hint of a smile could be found on her lips. "I didn't realize it before. When you came to me, you had told me that you were lost. I had assumed that you were from the East and had merely lost your way, but... now, it would appear that your situation is more complicated." Erza turned around completely, her hair flew momentarily at a breeze passed by, it appeared to be on fire as the setting sun dyed the edges of her hair a golden color. "When I saw you at the inn, I realized that you had nowhere to go. You probably still don't have anywhere to go. So, come with me. I'll help you out. At least until you find a way back to your home."
Shirou had to make a conscious effort not to drop his jaw. Erza was not only intelligent, but kind. She was willing to help someone who had done absolutely nothing to gain her kindness. "But... I wouldn't want to bother yo-"
Erza cut him off, closing her eyes and shaking her head in disagreement. "You're no bother, Emiya. I'm in your debt after all." Erza was about to leave the conversation alone, but when she noticed the auburn-haired boy open his mouth to speak again, she interrupted him once more. "You saved my life twice in that inn, at least let me repay that debt."
Shirou felt guilty. He wasn't used to such hospitality from people other than Saber or Sakura. Deep down, he felt as if he would definitely be a burden at some point. He wanted to say, 'no' in order to spare Erza, but the hopeful look in her eye reminded him of something, something that he couldn't turn down. "Alright." Shirou spoke before walking beside Erza. "Thank you, Erza." He smiled.
Erza looked to Shirou and smiled back. She would be making her way deeper into the town. To the good inn. One that wasn't run by criminals. Perhaps then Shirou's bad experience with inns would be forgotten.
And with that, two Redheads walked off into the sunset.
Yeah, I know. My writing didn't improve. There are a lot of paragraphing mistakes, but you can thank Fanfiction's extremely confusing Doc editor for that.
Firstly, I want to apologize for using OCs. Though they weren't really OCs, they were more like lame NPC bad guys that show up and then disappear later on. I will be getting into the cannon story later, but I'll be doing it differently, Shirou will have a different reason for being there and his perspective of the few cannon events will be different so that I'm not just rewriting Fairy Tail's story and turning it into Fairy Tail, but with an extra character.
On another note: I received some amazing advice from InfamouslyHandsome in the reviews, who literally showed me up by rewriting one of my scenes and showing me how it's done like a boss. Though I wrote this chapter in a tired rush, so I wasn't able to follow his advice. (Next chapter... I hope).
I also received some kind words of encouragement from Zombie Overlord. Thank you both for helping me.
I know this chapter is short, but it really seemed kind of long when writing it, so the pacing might also be really bad. So, I'll have to ask some of you how long my chapters should be from now on. If I get a solid response, most of my chapters will be near that word count if I can pull it off. Maybe I'll come back and rewrite these chapters to make them longer.
And lastly, I thank you all for reading my nonsense. Have a wonderful day.
-Dal