Chapter 2: The Dreamchaser
Narita Express (Narita Airport Terminal 2), Tokyo
"Excuse me, I'm in a hurry."
With a plastic folder in her hand, Rin made her way toward the reserved carriage. Using only one hand for support, the occasional bumps and turns in the Tokyo subway sent her swaying into the crowd.
Her traveling companion from the Clock Tower, Lord El-Melloi II, followed along a few steps behind. He had entered the Fourth War as Waver Velvet, but the later years had seen him rapidly rising through the ranks as a member of House Archibald. The passage of the war had transformed the once weak-willed child into a prominent instructor at the Clock Tower.
"That Emiya-kun… I hope he wouldn't do anything stupid before we get there," Rin mumbled as soon as they took a seat and closed the door. "I don't think he can actually outgrow his stupidity but still…"
"Bah! What's the worst thing he can do? Not like he can blow up himself up while preparing to summon," Lord El-Melloi II said, giving Rin a skeptical look.
"Oh, with him? You have no idea. Leave it to him to make a headlong dive into the most dangerous situation conceivable. A worm that lacked a sense of danger would make a prime target for those early birds, don't you think?"
"If there's a worm stupid enough to approach those early birds Servants on its own, it deserves to be eaten."
"That is exactly why I'm worried." Rin shook her head and sighed. "I already gave him the best protection any magus can have, so it would be interesting to see how he's going to get himself killed this time."
"Already sent her there, didn't you? Hell, I have no idea why you are so concerned about him. He's a surviving master for fuck's sake." Lord El-Melloi II casually brushed off her concern, unaware of the hazard that Shirou posed to himself.
"I'm looking forward to seeing your surprise after getting to know him."
"Bah, enough of that. Give me the document."
"Want to take a gander just now? That won't do, professor. Who was it that warned his students against procrastination, cause 'there will be no mercy'? Hmm, Professor Waver Velvet? "
"That's El-Melloi II for you. Just give me the bloody report." Grumbling, Lord El-Melloi II swiped the folders from her.
The forty-odd pages were filled to the brim with sensitive information. The staffs at the Clock Tower were surprisingly lenient to let them off with a copy. Then again, any ordinary man who happened to see it would regard the paper as no more than a premise for a bad fiction.
Lord El-Melloi II developed a full-face scowl after reading a full page or two. "Well shit, how did the thing come up with it this time? Who the hell gave it a seven year olds' fantasy about a good and evil showdown?"
Rin shrugged. "The actual system aside, it's actually about time. Just in time for this mission, I would say. That corruption in the grail had been causing more than its share of trouble."
The way that the Grail seemed to think on its own still remained a mystery to most of the magi world. Even extensive researches delivered little findings on the subject.
"Oi, you're sure this is correct? You're sure that Hallelujah bunch didn't get it wrong?"
"I believe so, but call Caren if you need someone with the authority to verify. I'm just the intermediary, remember?"
Rin did not entertain the possibility. Caren might've been a twisted person, but she cut no slack when it came to details in reporting, especially with the delicate matter of the Holy Grail War.
"Fourteen? As if seven wasn't enough to cook up troubles," Lord El-Melloi II snorted. "Shit, this is going to be one bloody hell of messed up ride…"
Rin leaned into the backrest of her seat and closed her eyes. Her companion for the trip wasn't a pleasant man to converse with, but true to his word, they were only a few hour train ride away from boarding this 'one hell of a messed up ride.'
Still, Tohsaka Rin was calm. The young Master of the last war had outgrown her anxiety and occasional inattentiveness. The mistake of missing her optimal summoning in the last war had been a pricking thorn in her side for long time.
At least I got it right this time.
The thought gave Rin a victorious grin, even if she had to rely on three alarm clocks and a buzzer that shrieked an ungodly noise to wake her up in the dead of the night.
Emiya Residence
Shirou waded through an unending darkness. A cloud of questions lingered heavily in his mind, but only one stood out from the rest.
"Am…I dead?"
"…Far from it." A foreign voice gave a reply to his rhetorical question. Shirou's vision suddenly returned to normal.
He stood in a meadow, parched and dry unlike the lush Avalon. A single oak tree stood amidst the bleak landscape. Its ugly branches stretched above him, unable to provide shade. Beneath the tree was an old man with the look of a Middle-Age magus, wizened and bearded, with a pointed hat.
At a glance, the old magus seemed to have lodged himself in the hollowed-out trunk, but a closer look showed that his torso had merged with the tree itself, a strange of symbiosis between man and plant. His limbs protruded from the trunk at weird angles, growing from it as if they were branches.
"Who are…?"
The magus raised one hand to silence his question.
"Before we talk would you like to plug that leak?"
Shirou groped around his neck. A fist-size hole was still gaping and pulsated with each breath. Panic surged until he realized that the wound didn't hurt.
Not in the slightest bit.
"What in the world…?"
"A good dream kills no one." The magus clearly seemed to be enjoying his reactions. "How are you feeling now?"
"As good as I can be with a hole in my neck, I suppose."
While there was no pain, his body still involuntarily shivered upon contact. Having a finger inside his neck cavity gave an uncomfortable intruding sensation.
"Ah, yes, let's fix that up, shall we?" The magus broke off a branch and extended it in Shirou's direction. A look of displeasure came over his face when the branch came up a few inches short. "Blasted tree! Come a little closer, won't you? Can't you see that I am trapped?"
Shirou reluctantly stepped forward. He would rather maintain a safe distance, but seeing that he had already stumbled into the magus' domain, that 'safe distance' probably didn't exist.
"There we go…"
Shirou yelped in surprise as the tip of the branch sent in a strange sensation, as if an army of ants was crawling over his wound. His hands shot up to for his neck, but the magus whacked both away with the same branch.
"Let it heal."
"Fine…" Shirou hesitantly lowered his hands. The urge to scratch was overwhelming. Truth be told, he didn't have high hopes for the magus' theatrical way of casting spells. "But, like I was asking…Where are we?"
"We are nowhere, for this is not a place. The correct answer to the question that you didn't ask is that we are in a dream; your dream to be precise."
"That makes it sound easy. So what, now I'll just have to whack myself in the head and I'll wake-up?"
"Correct. After all, what are dreams but a temporary respite? The question is, will you?" The magus' tone took a sudden grim turn. "…Your strength is hardly a match of your foe's. Even so, would you want to go back and face him, or would you rather sleep through this ordeal and wake when it passes?"
"It's obvious. I'm going back now," Shirou replied.
"Not the choice I was expecting. Furthermore, not even a moment to hesitate?" The magus seemed amused by his response.
"I'm pretty much used to fighting above my league. That's how it's going to be, if I want to be a hero. I'm not going to run away this time either."
"Amusing decisions, and an even more amusing rationale," the old magus remarked, "but I have known too much of your dreaming kind: naïve, dull, and lackluster. They are scarcely the material for a hero."
"Well, I won't give up though. It won't be only a dream when I make it come true…I know I can." Shirou replied dryly. He didn't need anyone else to remind him of his inadequacy.
"You spoke true. It is wiser not to make hasty judgment. Among all the roadside pebbles, there can also be one that shines when polished." The magus tried reach for his beard, but his arm on the other side of the trunk wouldn't reach. After a while, he gave up on indulging in his old habit.
"Putting the things about me aside, I'm positive that you're a Servant, so why would you help me? Don't tell me you want my help breaking out of that tree?" Shirou asked.
"Quite unfortunately I only have my own stupidity to blame for this curse. It is blight on my old bones but hardly the kind that can be aided by someone else." The old magus observed Shirou's wariness almost patronizingly, a gesture that struck Shirou as peculiar. "For my reason…The simplest way to say it would be that I am indebted to one that you hold dear, who would grieve bitterly for your death."
"But you're not going to say who, are you?"
"Work your brain for a guess. It goes against the spirit of the war for me to be giving out names. I'll save my story for when we'll meet again."
"As an enemy or as a friend…?" Shirou asked, at that point had given on gleaning the man's identity. The bizarre encounter had left him with even more questions than he'd started with.
"When the opportunity is right, I may stand beside you or against you," the magus replied, apparently not taking offense to the question. "There are too many possibilities for this old mage to account for entirely. I had tried my hand at prophecies and soothsaying once. Only failure and disappointment seems to be the result."
"I see…"
"However, if you would like, I can start with a more trivial matter. Ah, yes, perhaps we shall start with matters of the heart. Something to captivate those in their youth…" The magus tried to stroke his beard, but once again to no avail. "Hmm, hmm, my poor boy, I am sad to announce that your fortune in the matter of the heart is as bad as it can be."
Shirou smiled wryly. Becoming a Heroic Spirit was a trial that no other lovers would have to pass just to see one another again. "At any rate, let's stop sidetracking. Let me say this while we're still not enemies…Thank you for saving my life."
"Do not think much of it. This old magus had been fairly entertained by a meaningless talk with you. Alas I'm afraid he will have to let you return. Now go back quickly. Your enemy awaits." The magus raised his staff with a bony right arm. Once then twice, he knocked the trunk of his tree.
Darkness flooded Shirou's eyes upon the third knock. The ground disappeared, and he tumbled down the height.
Then the dream ended.
Shirou's eyelids fluttered open, the sound of the hollowed tree trunk still ringing in his ears. A dimly lit hallway came into view. Shirou ran two fingers across his neck. Only the supple sensation of warm flesh pushed against his fingers. Murky red liquid coated them, but the pain was gone.
"Trace on."
The spell gave him the familiar sensation of prana enveloping his torso. His flesh became a sheet of steel, molten and tempered by the blaze inside.
He heard a deep growl further down the corridor, followed by rapidly approaching footsteps. His enemy's perception was acute. The wolf had become alerted just from his small movements, but Shirou was calm as he rose to his feet. Not too keen on having his throat torn out a second time, Shirou reflexively covered his neck with one arm.
But the wolf was already figuring out a way through his defense, shifting its attack path downward. It aimed to utilize same maneuver, knocking Shirou down with a charge and tearing his wind pipe at its leisure.
Ducking its head low, the wolf rushed for the final spurt of speed before diving in. Instead, the wolf was rendered dazed by the impact. It had struck not the man but a pillar of stone.
"Too bad," Shirou gritted his teeth, enduring the brunt of the charge. "This isn't going to be like the last time."
As the wolf doddered back from the impact, Shirou rushed forth and drove his right fist down towards the base of its neck. His sword was lost somewhere in the blackness, and the dashing wolf left him no time to make a new weapon. Bare-handed melee was the only way to go.
The move was reckless, but it wasn't quite as foolish as it looked. The effects of repeated strengthening accumulated over the years made his fists an effective contingency weapon to create an opening before delivering the death blow.
"Gah…!"
Shirou had been forced to take down a grail beast with bare hands before, but the wolf was much faster. Its bushy tail flicked up and slapped his face with a loud thwack. The attack was a mere distraction, but it gave the wolf the opportunity to retreat a few steps, realizing that its foe did not warrant the same carelessness as before.
Now with a simple blade in hand, Shirou prepared short defensive swings, to cut short any attempt to advance into biting range. But the wolf had also turned defensive. Instead of the headlong charge, it now maintained distance, swiping and snapping every time Shirou attempted to close in.
Man and beast traded small attacks. After seeing their reckless charges being rendered ineffective, neither were rushing to end the fight. Instead, they were stalling until one would make a mistake in their movement; a mistake that could be exploited to a lethal end.
It was the wolf who first saw one such opportunity, after Shirou had advanced for a vertical slash.
The wolf simply didn't dodge as the gleaming steel approached. There was no need to. Whether by miscalculation or carelessness, the arc Shirou had drawn with his blade came up too short.
A critical mistake to make in the heat of a battle.
The wolf lowered its hind leg, ready to pounce on Shirou once his blade passed. It was determined to tear his corpse into pieces; no more miraculous revival of the magus that it had once thought to be an easy prey.
But Shirou only showed a confident grin.
"I got you now! Trace on!"
It was supposed to be a rush of wind that would pass by; instead the wolf felt the sharpness of steel cutting through its flesh. Muscles and bones were cleaved cleanly through with a single sword stroke.
Closely following the pain was confusion. Through its experience, the wolf knew it couldn't have misread the distance. Yet, the damage was real.
Using whatever strength was left in three legs, the wolf disengaged and retreated. The loss of front leg reduced its howl to a whimper. In the place of blood, luminescent smoke drifted from the open wound and left the damaged appendage deflated.
Shirou let out a breath of relief. He had made a dangerous gamble, knowing that the time limit on strengthening would make him lose a battle of attrition. His sword was intentionally made slightly shorter than the standard, so that a few extra centimeters of undecorated steel could be forged and added to the tip in the middle of the swing.
Part of the attention diverted to forge the blade did cause his attack to be slightly off the mark. He had aimed to cleave the wolf's skull in two, but the damage inflicted was still enough to seal the outcome of this fight.
Having lost the use of a front leg, the wolf staggered and desperately balanced itself up like a new-born pup. The wolf's real advantage over the strengthened Shirou was speed. With that taken off the table, its chance at victory had become practically non-existent.
The same train of thought must have occurred to wolf as both hind legs propelled it across the corridor, zigzagging through the clutter of items. Without slowing down, it crashed through the glass door into the garden and in one swift maneuver used the stone lantern as a base to leap over the wall.
"Stay put, Emiya-kun. What did I tell you about rushing ahead toward suicide?" Rin's warning crossed Shirou mind for a second and was swatted away just as quick.
Shirou's hunter instinct kicked in. The more wary part of his brain ordered him to stand down, but the more idealistic part egged him on. He had to hunt the beast down to the bitter end, before it could hurt someone else.
Nothing had changed after three years. It was still the ideal that won his internal struggle.
Emiya Shirou, a Heroic Spirit in the making, wouldn't just stand down and lick his wounds while his enemy escaped.
Trace on!
Before he himself knew it, Shirou had already vaulted over the wall and was in hot pursuit. With prana channeled into his entire lower body, a single leap generated enough lift for him to cross over the wall of the Emiya Residence. The wolf was gone by the time that he emerged into the adjacent street, but the drifting luminous smoke still left a clue as to its path of escape. Shirou had to strengthen his vision to locate the dispersing trail of smoke which was becoming too faint to be seen by naked eyes.
He had to hurry while the path was still fresh. The wolf's physical structure meant that it was made to be much faster than him on all fours. With only three functioning, Shirou expected the hunt to end quickly.
Yet, he came to the sudden realization that the wolf was no stranger to being pursued. It had chosen a route that he would have difficulty crossing, from balancing on a narrow ledge on the side of the building to ducking through a small hole under the wall of a construction site.
Damn sneaky bastard…
With his limited arsenal of magic, Shirou had to make do with improvisation. He climbed over the obstacles he could, took detours when he couldn't, and even had to ram down the rickety wall of an old house that the wolf had crawled under.
Without a canine's natural agility, tracking the wolf through the terrain tired Shirou out much faster than his game. The wolf was more persistent than he had given it credit for. Even with a bone-deep injury, there wasn't even one cluster of smoke to reveal that it had fallen over.
Shirou's throat grew parched, and his leg muscles started to feel the strain from running. Despite the cold, beads of sweat dripped from his forehead and gathered into sheets across his back.
The wolf's path led westward from Fuyuki to an even more sparsely populated that led to the Ryuudoji temple. As the number of buildings and structures thinned down, Shirou seized the opportunity, when there were fewer obstacles to spur his legs, no longer caring about hiding from the public.
If he wanted to have any hope of catching the wolf, he had to do so upon this stretch of flat ground. If the wolf happened to reach the forest, he realized he wouldn't be able to muster the strength to run through another obstacle course of trees and logs.
The smoke grew slightly thicker, enough to be seen with normal vision. The outskirts of the forest came into his view, but so did the wolf's glowing form.
The wolf was making a sudden turn into the house nearest to the forest. As Shirou remembered, it had been long abandoned after the strings of mysterious incidents had broken out in Fuyuki, the perfect place for a hideout.
The thought of bringing his hunt to completion refilled Shirou's vigor. He just needed to beat it across this final stretch of distance. Shirou made the same turn into the barren plot of land, but came to a sudden stop.
The reason why the wolf had run dawned upon him.
It wasn't simply retreating, and the obstacle course wasn't meant to shake him off as much as it was to laden him with fatigue.
The wolf was luring him into a trap.
"Damn it…Why is it that you're always right in the end, Tohsaka?" Shirou cursed, after having trudged halfway across the field of overgrown grass.
Too caught up with the thought of finishing off his injured game to be more wary of danger, he had forgotten a simple fact:
Wolves are pack animals.
Like executioners, two of its pack mates stared him down from the second-story balcony of a desertedhouse. They were of broader chest and were more robustly built than the one he had just fought, clearly a more powerful specimen. Manes of grey extended from behind their scalps up to half the length of their sleek torsos.
Shirou tried to conceal his heavy breathing, but was less than successful. With his earlier self-assurance eroded, the first object that Shirou had chosen to materialize was not a blade but a metal kite shield.
The wolves grew smug by Shirou's switch to the defensive. They could sense his weakened state.
Shirou kept his eyes trained on their on their movements as he contemplated retreat, but felt a pang of sharp pain shoot from his left thigh after a single step backward.
"Agh!"
A backward glance showed a wolf sinking its fangs into him from behind, having concealed itself in an overgrown bush. Though the strengthening spell prevented his leg from being torn off outright, the strength of its jaws still caused Shirou to collapse backwards, exposing all the weak spots in his human anatomy to the reach of their jaws.
Expecting the current development, the two remaining wolves pounced on his fallen form in perfect synchronization.
"I won't let you!"
Shirou positioned the shield across his upper body and delivered a kick to a wolf that aimed for his groin. The shield's rim evenly matched another wolf's fangs. The wolf felt unnaturally light, almost weightless, but the strength behind its jaw was real as it stepped over his chest and pinned him down.
Their respective strengths closely matched, but gravity and fatigue put him at a disadvantage. His arms were the pillars that supported the shield, but they were crumbling as the wolf kept pushing him back.
With no other options, Shirou eased the strength in his arms and focused on concentrating his prana. It was as good an opportunity as any to being relying on his trump card.
Trace on-!
But his spell-casting was interrupted by a war cry from another direction, and the single stroke of a sword broke the deadlock between him and one of the alpha wolves.
"Hah!"
He couldn't see the path of the approaching blade, but the wolf that stood over him burst into a tuft of smoke. All that remained of it was the scent of ashes and incense.
A woman in a fluttering blue dress dashed forth as if riding on the wind, not satisfied with just killing one. Her agility was more than a match for the beast. Each stroke of her sword sent them scampering away, and the ones that weren't fast enough were returned to dust.
Her elegant swordplay in moonlight dispersed the entire flock.
Shirou had forgotten to return to his feet through the spectacle and only uttered a single word as she landed before him.
"Saber…"
Shirou rose to his feet and trudged heavily. He reached forward to ensure that the woman before him wasn't crafted out of his own imagination, but both his useless arms weighted down like lead. Severely strained, they wouldn't budge upon his simple command.
Now that the effects of adrenaline and strengthening had receded, a crippling exhaustion took over. Saber was still a few steps away when Shirou became completely burnt out, unable to even take another step.
Still, his other senses told him that she was real.
Those piercing emerald eyes…
The braided hair that smelled of the meadow…
Though seven years had passed, Shirou was confident that he would be able to recognize this elegant knight without fail.
It was her.
The love of his life.
Though he only felt ecstasy, Shirou lost the strength to show it. His knees buckled, but two hands came to his support before he collapsed onto the ground.
Saber had approached and gathered him in her arms. Her gauntleted hands gently propped up his body. She gave him an approving stare and whispered. "Rest easy, magus…You've done well."
Shirou tried to squeeze out words to commemorate their reunion, but only managed incoherent mumbles. Word flowed in his head, but he lacked the strength to say them aloud.
I'm here…
It's good to see you again...
Stay with me…
Emiya Shirou succumbed to the crippling wave of weariness, falling peacefully asleep. He had imagined their reunion to be more sentimental, more loving, but for the time being just falling asleep in her embrace was good enough.
Saber…Please…Stay…
He was content with just this one single moment.
A moment that allowed him to relive the happy days he left in the past.
Fuyuki Church
Fatigue made Shirou sleep like a rock through the whole day. The night and the morning passed like a moment spent in darkness. There was no dream he could remember, just her voice echoing repeatedly until the time of his awakening.
"Saber!"
The shadow of a person above him caused to Shirou to spring up with hope, but disappointment followed as his bleary eyes made out locks of white hair.
"Good afternoon Emiya Shirou, who I had mistakenly thought to be a homeless man. Is anything broken?" Caren asked after observing his ragged appearance.
"Don't think so…But I'm sore all over," Shirou croaked. He collapsed back onto the pew, just realizing how dry his throat had been.
Shirou's vision had grown wavy after leaping up from hard wood pew. His head thumped wildly inside, worse than any of the rare hangovers he'd had after stopping by at the 'Copenhagen' Bar during one of the drinking nights.
"How…Why am I here?"
"That is a very good question and I'm hoping that you can provide me the answer." Caren quietly occupied the pew behind him.
"Before that…was there anyone else when you found me?" Shirou asked hesitantly. Part of him was dying for an answer. Another was scared to know.
Caren cocked her head to the side and pondered. "Was there supposed to be one? If you were dropped off by someone, then he had already left by the time that I found you."
"Well, it's supposed to be a she."
"Then I saw neither a 'he' nor a 'she,' unless this person you're talking about is supposed to be invisible." Caren leaned over the backrest and propped her chin on one hand. "Still, I think that a more important topic would be what happened after you returned last night."
"That might take a while to explain…" Shirou let out a sigh as he thought back to the tumult of last night's event.
"Then will you take some hot tea, while you're explaining?" Caren offered.
"Yeah…thanks."
"Good, the kettle is already on the stove. Go on; start explaining your stupidity and how it almost killed you after repeated warnings."
"Ugh…"
Although Caren wasn't quite as aggressive as Rin, with her neutral tone of voice, her words were still intended to hurt. Shirou realized that she wouldn't let him off the hook without a good enough explanation.
Caren maintained a blank expression throughout Shirou's story, only to show a shake of her head as he finished. "…And just right after I warned you."
"Well, yeah, not like I would know that other Masters had already summoned their Servants."
"Not actually summoned per se…" Caren shook her head, her brows knitted together in displeasure. "As I was trying to explain the situation-"
The kettle made a whistling sound that broke the flow of their conversation.
"Excuse me for a moment."
"Please."
Caren made a pitter patter sound with her slippers to rush into the living quarters behind the altar, giving Shirou time to ponder the last night's incidents. Only a single thought occupied his brain. The last night scene replayed over and over to temper the disappointment.
Saber.
She had saved him once again.
It seemed unreal, even impossible, but he knew that it wasn't just a dream. The feel of her embrace still remained vivid.
"Saber…Why didn't you stay…?"
Shirou clutched his head, churning out possibilities. He gave free rein to his imagination, but there weren't too many scenarios that he found credible, aside from irrational fears and worries.
She couldn't have forgotten about him during the interval that they had parted. Two short years would only be the blink of an eye for Heroic Spirits.
What would she think at a time like this…?
It seemed more plausible to assume Saber would have deemed it safer for him not to get involved in the war at all. They did fight together against Gilgamesh and in Ryuudoji, side by side, but the situation was desperate then.
Shirou dreaded the notion that she would consider him the same defenseless boy, but she was right. Seven years was long enough for him to accumulate confidence but was far from sufficient to train a man to fight all the phantasmal beings on equal ground.
After being saved twice, last night had dealt a hard blow to his optimism.
Damn it…Am I still that weak in the end?
Of course, I am, who am I trying to fool? Shirou snorted in reply to himself. He would have frozen if she didn't have the mercy to be dropping him off at church. His casual attire of a jean and T-shirt offered little protection against the weather.
It wasn't until Caren returned with two steaming mugs that Shirou realized how much time had passed while occupied with his frustration.
"My apology, I was answering a phone call."
"That's alright and thanks."Shirou gratefully received one of the mugs and took a small sip. It had been hours since he had last drank something. He wasn't familiar with the different variants of English tea, but Caren seemed to have chosen a good one. The amber colored liquid had a unique calming fragrance.
"You always seem to enjoy putting yourself in danger," Caren began. "As Tohsaka Rin said, it's not easy to be looking after you."
"I'm already a grown man, you know? I can handle myself, but a man can't just become a hero without some risk along the way." Shirou's frown deepened as he protested. He didn't just spend all those days training his combat skills and hunting down the grail beasts just to give up the chance to realize his dream. "This is a dream I'm not going to give up…no matter what."
Caren nodded as she heard his reasoning. Choosing not to directly confront Shirou about his beliefs, she instead looked up to the altar and recited. " 'When I was a child, I talked like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.' Have you heard this saying before…? "
"I'm not really the type to go to church..."
"That's a passage in Saint Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. It is well suited to your situation, I believe. A man is someone who puts the ways and the dreams of childhood behind him."
"Does he have to? Even a man need a dream to live," Shirou countered, starting to feel a general dislike about the direction their conversation was heading. His dreams were far-fetched, but far-fetched wouldn't always denote impossible.
"I'm not saying that you must, but it's just something to consider." Caren took a small sip from her mug. Her empty gaze trailed up the altar and the hollowed distance between them to the ceiling. "A dream is dream nothing more. One day, as we grow up, we'll have to find our own peace by coming to compromise with the real world."
"More Bible verses?"
"No, just a lesson I had from my own life. It's good to have a dream but there are limits. Humans are not meant to fight Heroic Spirits. That's just not the way that nature is supposed to work," Caren concluded as she took the empty mug from Shirou.
"At any rate, thanks for the tea," Shirou's distaste for Caren's quips and chiding continued to grow gradually. "I should be heading back before Tohsaka…"
"Actually," Caren interrupted, her eyes glued to the large clock that hung over the entrance. "It is in your best interest to just wait here, unless you truly have a death wish."
"Sorry?"
It was then that Shirou's eyes caught something strange. Traveling along the aisle was a gleaming puddle that pulsated, and was making its way toward him ever so slowly. Shirou squinted. His eyes didn't seem to be making a mistake.
The puddle seemed…sentient?
"Shit!"
The puddle struck with a sudden swiftness, impossible for a viscous body of liquid to possess. It extended into tendrils that stuck with a glue-like viscosity. Shirou's lower half was covered in an instant.
"Trace on!"
Not giving up so easily, Shirou drove a spear ubto the ground like a vaulting pole. The takeoff was successful, but the rest of the maneuver was not. The liquid turned into a solid-like resilience just as his feet left the ground, becoming like a pair of steel cuffs that left him hanging upside down.
"Target captured," came a mechanical voice from the viscous puddle. For a moment, Shirou thought he saw it molding into the shape of a woman.
A golem, he realized as it forcibly dragged him toward a pair of magi who had just entered the church. The man was scowling and the woman simply watched him with a deadpan expression.
"Good work and you…" The man turned his gaze downward, apparently displeased. "What in the bloody hell are you doing around here? Must all of you Japanese magi loiter about everything?"
"I beg to differ. I thought I already told you that this guy doesn't have the slightest instinct of self-preservation. It'll be good if you don't generalize," the woman beside him protested.
"Oh, good afternoon." Caren soon recognized the identity of the two newcomers, while Shirou was still busy fighting off the golem. "You're earlier than scheduled, Tohsaka Rin and Lord El-Melloi."
"It's the second…El-Melloi the second," the long-hair man grumbled, not too keen on being mistakenly addressed as his long deceased and much hated master.
"Yeah, we sure arrived early…in no small thanks to this guy here," The woman stepped into the church and marched toward Shirou, shaking her head in frustration.
Shirou let out a breath of relief as soon as he recognized her face. "Tohsaka, would you mind explaining this? Why are you of all people hanging me upside down?"
"Actually, I'd rather that you do the explaining, Emiya-kun." Rin walked up to him, smiling sweetly. "What happened to my advice to stay put? I'm quite certain that you already answered affirmatively. Oh, and it would be nice to answer your phone once in a while."
"It's a…well," Shirou reached for the familiar bulge in his jeans.
Fourteen missed calls.
"...Tohsaka-san, I believe that you have a very good reason to be angry…"
"Reasons," Rin corrected. "I was thinking that your dead body had already been dumped in a ditch somewhere, after walking in and seeing your house empty. At least until I called Caren a while ago and she told me of last night's…escapade. Apparently, you are keen on dying before we even get here."
"Well, alright, you've got your reasons to be angry…But I can explain all this." The hairs on the back of Shirou's neck stood up with sudden chills. "You'll understand when I explain."
"Really? What makes you think I'll give you that chance in the first place?"
"…Sorry, ma'am, I'll take that back. Please show mercy. I'll be infinitely grateful if you would only allow me to clarify..."
"Is that so?" Rin advanced a step. "Just don't say things like 'I can't let it kill any innocent people or 'I'm just trying to save everyone.' I think we both already know this routine, don't we?"
Spot on, once again.
Shirou's desperate smile grew a little more strained. If his legs could move, he would probably dash backward to take his stand at the other end of the church.
"Guess I'm right again…" Rin shook her head, her temper quickly deflating like a balloon. Patience was one of the virtues she'd learned in the past years, but his antics were testing her limits. "Just forget it…We don't have a lot of time, and I'm too exasperated to even be angry…Professor, if you would be so kind."
The golem relaxed its grip on Shirou, who proceeded to fall to the ground with a dull thud, and then condensed into a single block of lustrous solid.
"Tch, gotta give it to you and your guess. This bloody codswallop sure knows how get into danger." Lord El-Melloi II grumbled in a begrudging admittance.
"Told you it's a miracle beyond miracles that he's surviving this long," Rin said.
"Hey, hey, don't badmouth people like they aren't even there."
"Oh, feel free to protest if we are wrong, but I'm pretty sure that isn't the case."
"Fine…" Shirou reluctantly admitted. He had to shift the conversation away from this sore topic. "Who's he, by the way?"
"Oh, where are my manners. Here, I present you Lord El-Melloi II, the current head of the house of Archibald and a survivor from the 4th Holy Grail War. If that's too much of a mouthful, I suppose you can call him Waver-"
"Not if you don't want to piss me off and you…" Lord El-Melloi II turned his bloodthirsty gaze toward Shirou. "Be grateful. Because of you, I didn't even have the time to visit Akihabara and Nihonbashi. This harpy was dragging me to the train station right after we landed…All because you hadn't answered your phone."
"Akihabara? Nihonbashi?" Shirou blinked twice and studied the man's expression. He just didn't expect to hear those names from the scowling magus. Seeing a man of his manner and post saying the names of the centers of otaku sub-culture was surprising to say the least.
"Professor, let me take the opportunity to remind you that throwing a tantrum and revealing yourself addicted to Japanese video games doesn't do any good to your reputable image." Rin gave the man a condescending smile that only aggravated him further.
"Bah, just drag that bloody idiot out of the church and start the meeting. We'll be wrapping the mission up quick, and I'll be taking my vacation in Japan afterward. This is not up for debate," Lord El-Melloi II finished, huffing out of the church.
"He's got quite a lovely personality, hasn't he?" Snickering at the man's antics, Rin offered Shirou a hand. "Can you stand up, Emiya-kun?"
Just realizing that he had been sitting on the church floor throughout their entire exchange, Shirou took her hand in a hurry.
"That guy is…quite similar to Shinji," Shirou said, after waiting for Lord El-Melloi II to be out of earshot.
"You think so?" Rin commented after thinking back to their recent interactions. "I guess there are resemblances, albeit with him being only about half of a snob and half of a jerk…"
"I pity you Tohsaka. So this is the guy that looks after you at the Clock Tower?"
"He's not all that bad, not when you really start getting to know him."
"A hidden nice side? That's unexpected," Shirou chuckled. The gruff looking man just didn't seem the type.
"Of course not, just that it can be fun to drag him around by the nose when you realize that him being tough guy is just an act," Rin said, followed by evil giggles. "That helpless look on his face is always priceless."
"Yeah, yeah, I've known you long enough to know that you're one evil woman, Tohsaka. I'm not gonna be surprised."
"Glad you can still remember, but, unless you would prefer us to hold a serious meeting on church pews, let us move on, shall we? My house is close by. Let's head there." Rin turned on her heel and walked out of the church at a brisk pace, not in a hurry to catch up to her Clock Tower companion. "Caren, thanks for helping out this idiot."
"You're welcome. If you don't mind, I have to prepare for the evening service." Caren gave them a small bow and headed back inside.
"What the hell are you loitering for?!" a rude interruption came from outside the church.
"Looks like we better be on our way as well." Rin offered a courteous wave goodbye and dragged Shirou away in tow.
"One sec, just one more thing I have to say now…" Shirou said. "I think I saw Saber last night."
"Is that so…"
An indifferent silence followed the pause in Tohsaka Rin's reply. The knowledge that she chose not to reveal to Shirou darkened her expression.
For him, silence would be more merciful, and she needed Shirou to concentrate on the issue at hand.
"We'll talk more about this later," Rin concluded, when Shirou started protesting. A short addendum was left out of her promise.
When you are ready to know…