Author Notes

Hi guys. Thanks for all the reviews! Your questions would be answered soon enough, hohoho.

I've posted chapter 3 along with this chapter, because I seriously felt bad that this one is really short. It's basically a filler.

Sorry for the weird formatting, though. Initially, chapter 1-3 was supposed to be one chapter of around 7k words, but I decided to cut it into 3.

Please take note that I've made some edits on the first chapter, as a guest had kindly pointed out that Avalon shouldn't have been extracted from Shirou's body in HF route. Lucky I saw it, or else the next few chapters would turn rubbish. Thank you for that! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR and Fate series.


Tsuna had a nightmare.

He had been trudging through a heavy downpour when he saw blood on the ground. Then, he stumbled upon a Franken-thingy corpse near the corner of the street, with a chihuahua guarding the body. He swore the monster (a.k.a. The Chihuahua) was staring at him as if contemplating how Tsuna-steak should be served on a silver platter. Then it started to chase him, prompting him to drag the Franken corpse along for whatever reason and run straight into his house. Turned out the Franken corpse was actually a super-powered zombie who beat him into the wall and threatened him with giant butcher knife, to see if Tsuna-sashimi would serve as a mouth-watering meal.

Then Tsuna woke up and the nightmare turned out to be real. (Well, a part of it at least.)

There, sitting at the foot of his bed, was the z-z-zombie.

"Um… hi. You're finally awake. Sorry about my reaction earlier, didn't really expect anyone to be around when I woke up." The red-haired… person (yes, person. Human. No mangled living corpse with mismatched arms) looked sheepish as he rubbed the back of his head. "I'm Emiya Shirou, and I am really really sorry for the conc-... I mean, for my previous rude action. Your mother just said that dinner would be Salisbury steak, and…"

As the teenager continued babbling, Tsuna couldn't help but re-assess his observations of the older boy. The boy- Emiya-san, Emiya-senpai?- really had red hair (not blood, thankfully), and golden eyes. He looked like those bigger kids in high schools, but he was well-mannered enough that Tsuna started to relax. Except, he realised that the wounds he had seen on the boy (which were really horrible by the way, there were tons of bruises and gashes and scrapes and blood yesterday) were now non-existent. How was that even possible? Tsuna's own scraped knee hadn't fully healed, and he had got it two days ago.

Did… Did Emiya-senpai have super powers!? The amount of blood he had lost wasn't healthy, and Tsuna swore his arms were previously mismatched yet here he was, alive and kicking. Was it a form of healing magic? Oh, wait. Tsuna remembered being… kicked by the elder boy as he was replacing the wet towels (last night the older boy caught a fever, but he seemed to have recovered from that as well) and was threatened with a giant butcher knife…

Or maybe that was just his nightmare talking. Right, there was no way the seemingly kind senior could have threatened him with a sword. If not, he should have it now, right? It wasn't like he could produce pointy things out of thin air.

"So… what was your name again? I only know 'Tsu-kun' is a nickname used by your mother, but I doubt that's your full name."

Startled out of his analysis Tsuna took a few moments to re-arrange his thoughts. Luckily Emiya-senpai seemed to be a patient person as he waited for Tsuna.

"A-ahh… M-m-my name is S-sawada Tsunayoshi…" Tsuna squeaked. He was so nervous, all of sudden the teenager had included him in the conversation, and this was the first time Tsuna had talked to a senior face-to-face!

Instead of mocking him for his stammered answer or laughing at him (like how the rest of his peers responded at school. Dame Tsuna, they called him), Emiya-senpai only smiled warmly.

"That's a good name to have, a name once proudly owned by one of the legendary shoguns during the Tokugawa dynasty. I bet you'll grow up to be as awesome as he was."

...That was the first time someone, apart from his mom, had complimented him (his name at least). It was also the first time someone had claimed to have such a sincere belief in him, Dame Tsuna; believing that one day, he could be awesome - not even his mom had such conviction, sadly. A surge of happiness filled his heart, and Tsuna couldn't help but smiled widely.

"Y-you can call me Tsuna!"


Shirou had a sudden urge to… to… to buy Tsuna ponies and castles. And a much greater urge to pat his head.

He wasn't really a person who could easily be swayed by the so-called "cuteness-overload", but damn the kid was just so adorable, albeit a bit shy. With his doe eyes wide and sparkling, Tsuna babbled on and on about his dream to become a giant robot, and it was just too much.

Well, Ilya, his adopted sister, also had similar qualities, but with Berseker behind her, adorable wasn't really the first word that came to mind.

Ilya… His good mood vanished with the reminder of his precious people who had been left behind. He didn't expect to see them again after the War, as both his mind and body should've been broken into pieces. Archer's arm should have slowly but surely killed him from the inside while providing Shirou with the enormous amounts of prana needed to trace the Nine Lives Blade Works and Excalibur. He hadn't expected to come out of that blasted cave alive. Ilya, Rin, Sakura…

Sakura…

"Dinner's ready!" a feminine voice echoed from downstairs.

Jolted from his stupor, Shirou followed Tsuna out of the bedroom. The younger boy tripped as he was running down the stairs but was fortunately caught by the red-haired magus before he could kiss the floor. It seemed the kid was pretty clumsy too.

As they arrived at the modest dining room, Tsuna excitedly introduced the older boy to his mother (as Shirou had previously expressed his concern of not having introduced himself to the Sawada matriarch). Shirou caught a glimpse of a small, yet quite well-equipped kitchen before his attention was drawn to the delicious-looking steak. But before he could say anything, the lone female in the house beat him to it.

"So, Emiya-kun, where do you live? Tsu-kun here found you in an alley, and we didn't find any identification cards on your person. Do you live around here?"

"Ah, I'm not sure where 'around here' is, but I live in Fuyuki city." Tsuna had found him in an alley?

The Sawada matriarch tilted her head, adopting a typical thinking pose with her index finger pressing her pouting lips. "Fuyuki city? Never heard of it. Which prefecture?"

...Never heard of it? The Fuyuki Great Fire incident a decade ago was prominent enough to warrant a feature on national news channels. Maybe Sawada-san rarely watched TV? "It's in the Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyushu."

"Oh, I've lived here since I was young, but I've never heard of Fuyuki." As the owner of the house proceeded to serve generous amounts of salisbury steak on Tsuna's plate, she failed to notice Shirou's rapidly paling face.

"...W-what about the Fuyuki Great Fire? Have you heard of it? Wait, where is this place again?"

"It's Namimori city of the Kumamoto Prefecture! Kyushu!" Tsuna, oblivious to his senior's dilemma, enthusiastically answered his question based on what he had learnt from school. After chewing and swallowing the meat and loudly exclaiming his appreciation of the flavour, he realised that the older boy had yet to touch the food.

"What's wrong?"

Shirou felt as if his blood had turned into ice. That made no sense, he would know of the existence of Namimori city if it was located in the same prefecture. Maybe Namimori was a really small and quiet town and so it was rarely heard of? Maybe Sawada-san forgot that Fuyuki was actually somewhere around here?

Deep down, the red-haired magus's mind formed a possible, if not a bit far-fetched hypothesis, yet he refused to believe it.

"C-can I make a call? See if I can inform my… relatives of my current situation?"

As Sawada-san kindly gave him a wireless telephone, Shirou felt adrenaline rush into his bloodstream. His fingers were shaking as he keyed in his home's telephone number.

"Yamamoto residence, Tsuyoshi speaking! Who-?"

He quickly hung up. He tried his guardian Fuji-nee's home phone number, but again, someone with another different family name answered.

The two Sawadas looked at him, concerned, as the phone fell from his hand, clattering loudly on the floor.

"I… I'm sorry, Sawada-san. The steak looks good, but I think I… I should probably leave now."

Without waiting for a response, Shirou bolted out of the house.


Next chapter!