I don't own Naruto or Type-Moon.
"What?! What do you mean Zabuza's still alive?" Sakura shrieked, fear evident on her face. Her two teammates also seemed worried, though Naruto displayed his emotions more openly than Sasuke. As soon as Kakashi had his epiphany, he immediately called his students back in and informed them of this grim development; Shirou and Tazuna were close behind them.
"It just occurred to me that the hunter-nin that we saw before left the scene with Zabuza's body," Kakashi explained, having pulled himself into a seated position. "But that leaves a chance that the body could have been intercepted, especially considering how much bigger and heavier Zabuza was compared to the hunter; that had to have slowed him down. No, what he should have done was dispose of the body right there. So why didn't he? My best guess is that that hunter-nin was not Zabuza's pursuer, but rather his partner. Furthermore, those senbon needles that he used are incredibly precise weapons; being off by a few millimeters can be the difference between a flesh wound and a killing blow. Anyone skilled enough to use senbon in combat would have no trouble hitting Zabuza in a pressure point that would make him seem dead, but is actually in a near-death state. My guess is that those two have been working together for a while to perfect this scheme," he continued.
"Missing-nin are essentially freelance mercenaries, correct?" Shirou inquired, rubbing his chin in thought. At Kakashi's affirmative nod, the redhead continued, "I've dealt with mercenaries before, and most of them will complete their contract no matter what, if only to not gain a reputation for being unreliable, which means that sooner or later he'll be going after Tazuna again. The question is, how much time to we have?"
"Yes, that thought occurred to me as well," Kakashi said with a nod. "Fortunately, I know that any attack that can bring Zabuza to a near-death state will still mess him up pretty badly. I estimate it'll take about a week for him to fully recover."
"And how long will it take for you to recover?" Sakura asked, wringing her hands in worry.
"…About a week," Kakashi reluctantly admitted.
Shirou grimaced and rubbed his forehead to calm himself. "I can provide some extra protection for Tazuna at the bridge, but that's still cutting it pretty close," his groaned.
"Yes, well, fortunately, I'm not so weak that I can't train my students in the meantime, so that shouldn't be a problem," Kakashi replied with an eye-smile. Before Shirou or anyone else could formulate a response, a young voice interrupted them.
"Who do you think you are?" the voice demanded angrily. They turned to see a young boy in overalls and a white cap standing in the doorway, tears welling up in his eyes. "You think just because you're ninjas, you're some big shots or something? It doesn't matter who you are, Gatō will kill you just like he kills everyone else, so just go back where you came from!" he shouted before running off.
"Inari!" Tazuna called out to the child before turning to Kakashi and bowed. "I apologize for that," he said contritely, "my grandson has had an exceptionally difficult time of things recently."
"Nah, it's okay," Kakashi brushed the incident away. "If you don't mind, I'd like to get started on training my students. Do you happen to have a pair of crutches I could borrow?"
The next morning, Tazuna and Shirou made their way to the bridge immediately after breakfast. As they walked, Shirou thought back to what Kakashi had shown his students the afternoon before. By channeling prana to the bottom of his feet, the enfeebled ninja was able to scale a tree and suspend himself upside down from one of the branches in complete defiance of gravity. He warned the children that this technique required precise control over their prana: channel too much, and they would be forcibly thrown off the side of the tree; channel too little, and they would simply fall off to predictable effect. Shirou considered the tactical options that such an ability could provide and made a mental note to try to perform it himself when he had the time. The two boys were having trouble maintaining the proper focus necessary to perform the task, Naruto moreso than Sasuke. Sakura however seemed to have a knack for it, having scaled the tree without incident on the first try. Because of her success, the pink-haired girl was designated Tazuna's ninja escort while Kakashi supervised the two boys' progress.
"Okay, first order of business," Tazuna grunted once they arrived at the bridge. "We need to move those beams over to the edge where the construction's going on," he continued, pointing to a pile of steel girders. "That should take the rest of the morning to do. After lunch, we'll weld them in place and pour the concrete. Think you can handle that, New Guy?"
"Seems simple enough," Shirou acknowledged.
"All right, let's get to work," Tazuna said as he grabbed one of the metal beams. Despite his age, the bridge builder still had a fair amount of strength, which he easily displayed by hoisting the beam onto his shoulder without much difficulty. Shirou, thanks to a bit of subtle Reinforcement, was able to easily haul a beam over each shoulder despite a rather thin build. As Shirou was bringing the last few girders, he noticed Tazuna talking with another one of the workers. The conversation began to get heated and even though Shirou was a fair distance away, he could pick up a few bits of the argument. Apparently the other worker had decided to wash his hands of the bridge and was trying to convince Tazuna to do the same. Tazuna had not appreciated the gesture, and had essentially fired the man on the spot.
"New Guy, lunch!" the bridge builder shouted snappily before stomping off. Throughout their break, Tazuna stewed about his former worker's abandonment, which both Shirou and Sakura were tactful enough not to bring up.
After work ended that evening, the trio went into town to buy supplies for dinner. "Meager" did not begin to describe the state of the store; the only items filling the shelves were barely enough vegetables to fill a single bag and a couple of fish that smelled like they were past their prime. While they were shopping, someone tried to pick Sakura's pocket, which she misconstrued as trying to cop a feel, and punished the offender appropriately. The three left the would-be thief bloodied and twitching on the ground, Sakura angrily grumbling about perverts. Shirou thought that the pickpocket had gotten off rather lightly, considering how Sakura's spitfire personality reminded him of Rin's at times. He recalled one incident when she had followed him on one of his humanitarian missions. They were shopping at a market in a remote village in Syria when someone had accidentally groped Rin while trying to pick her pocket. Between the retaliatory beating he had received and the various curses that Rin had applied to him, the poor thief was still in the hospital for broken bones and a whole slew of minor but debilitating diseases when the couple had left two months later.
While Tsunami prepared dinner, Shirou brought Kakashi, who was watching the three genin running up the trees, a cup of tea. Naruto and Sasuke still had yet to reach the top, though they were making progress, as shown by the mass of fresh scars up the length of the trunk. Kakashi told Sakura that though she had excellent control over her chakra, her reserves were rather lacking, so had sent her on laps up and down the tree to build them up, something that had caught Shirou's interest. Back home, one's ability to channel prana was limited by the number and quality of magic circuits, and could only be improved by implanting additional circuits, a risky proposition at best if the donor and recipient were not related by blood. But here, it seemed that one's magic potential acted much like a muscle, improving when worked and presumably atrophying when left idle. As someone who had spent the majority of his life with sub-par magic circuits himself, this difference between the two worlds caught Shirou's interest, and he made a mental note to bring this up with Rin when she found him, but he tabled the matter for now in favor of a more pressing one.
"With all due respect, Kakashi, while this exercise has a lot of potential applications, do you really think that these kids will be able to stand up to Zabuza by climbing trees?" Shirou asked the masked ninja softly enough that the children could not hear him.
The silver-haired jōnin gave a weary sigh before answering. "Honestly? No, I don't. They did better than I could have hoped for against him the first time, but the fact is they got lucky. If Zabuza were to set his sights on those kids, he'd slaughter them in a heartbeat. I can't teach them to beat a monster like him, not in a week. At least if I teach them this, it'll keep their minds off of that fact."
"If Zabuza's such a threat, why don't you call for backup?" Shirou asked with his brow furrowed in confusion. "I can't imagine you don't have some way of contacting your superiors in case of emergency."
Kakashi gave a wry chuckle. "Normally you'd be right," he conceded as he reached into one of the pockets of his vest. "Unfortunately, it isn't exactly fit for performance at the moment," he continued as he withdrew a mobile phone, a simple one that looked like it was from the 1990s. The crushed state it was in showed that indeed, it was in no state to operate. "I have dogs that I could use, but even my fastest one would take a few days to get back to the village. As far as I know, all the other ninja that I know are capable of potentially beating Zabuza are on missions of their own right now, so it'll take time to recall them. By the time they manage to get here, it would be too late, so I'm just going to have to take care of it by myself."
"I see," Shirou replied, sipping his tea. "And can you? Take care of him yourself, I mean."
"I think so," Kakashi said as he stretched his stiff, aching muscles. "Zabuza will probably have figured out a way to counter my Sharingan, but I have a few other tricks up my sleeve."
"Hmm," Shirou hummed in acknowledgement. "And what about Gatō? What are you going to do about him?" he asked. Kakashi gave a weary sigh.
"Unfortunately, not much," the silver-haired jōnin admitted. "If he makes a move directly against Tazuna, then we can dispatch him under the pretense of protecting our client, but if he doesn't do anything, or waits until after we leave, then there's nothing I can do." Shirou's expression, which up until now had been pleasantly neutral, quickly hardened into a stony façade, betraying no emotion.
"I see," he said flatly before excusing himself. On his way out, the redhead encountered Tazuna's daughter Tsunami.
"Oh, Shirou!" she gasped, startled at the man's sudden appearance. "Dinner is just about ready, would you care to join us?" she offered.
"Thank you, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline," Shirou answered with a polite smile. "I just remembered that I had some errands that I needed to run in town, and I'll likely be back late."
"Okay…" she said, clearly reluctant to let him go. "Just be careful, Gatō's thugs are probably prowling around at this hour and who knows what they could do to you if they knew you were working for my father." Shirou gave her a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry about me," he said gently, "I'll be just fine."
Alteration, like the name implies, is a branch of thaumaturgy that involves altering some quality of a given object, generally its shape. What few people know is that if carefully applied to the body it would allow someone to change their appearance. However, like Reinforcement, if the caster were to Alter too much or the wrong thing, it could have potentially fatal results for what would be only temporary rewards. Thus, nearly all magi who knew of the ability to Alter the human form dismissed it as suicidal foolishness. However, for Shirou Emiya, it was proving to be an excellent infiltration tool. While he had a rather distinctive appearance normally, by using Alteration he could cover up his more striking features. Silver-streaked auburn hair darkened to a uniform black while amber eyes changed to a dull brown. Bronzed skin paled to a more typical olive complexion while facial features were obscured by a full, scraggly beard. Where once stood Shirou Emiya was now a random destitute villager off to drown his sorrows at the nearest bar.
After finding such an establishment, Shirou purchased a jug of the cheapest sake available and nestled himself in a quiet corner of the bar. Periodically raising the jug and sucking on the carefully corked top to give the appearance of drinking, Shirou slowly scanned the room. Judging by their gruff appearances and various weapons strapped to their hips, a good two-thirds of the bar's patrons looked like the sort of men an unscrupulous businessman might hire for less-than-legal operations. While they laughed and caroused amongst themselves Shirou silently monitored them, watching like a hunter eyeing his prey.
It would be nearly an hour before one of the ruffians broke away from his comrades, drunkenly staggering away. Leaving a few ryō as recompense for the wasted wine, Shirou stalked after him. The man stumbled and staggered through the streets, the locals giving the inebriated man a wide berth. Shirou carefully followed his mark, making sure not stay too close or make too much noise so as to not attract his attention, though the man's mind was so hazed in drink that Shirou could likely stomp right behind him in parade march before getting his attention. After they had traveled nearly a mile, far enough away that the drunkard's friends could not assist him, Shirou ran up to him and quickly hauled him into a nearby alleyway. Placing a hand over the drunk's mouth to keep him quiet, Shirou quickly traced a knife and held it to his target's neck.
"Make any noise, and you won't live to regret it," he said, lowering his voice to a raspy growl. The man's eyes were wide with fear, his hazy mind quickly sobered by the feel of cold steel pressed against his throat. "I'm going to ask you a few questions, and if I'm satisfied with your answers, I'll let you go, okay?" At the thug's shaky nod, Shirou slowly removed his hand from his victim's mouth. "Where can I find Gatō?" he demanded.
"He lives in a compound about three miles east of here," the thug quickly said, any loyalty he may have had for his boss overwhelmed by his fear for his own life. He quickly rattled off directions to the compound in question, which Shirou committed to memory.
"What sort of security measures does he have there?" Shirou asked.
"H-he's got about a dozen guys patrolling the place, maybe alarms on the door. I didn't really pay attention. P-please don't kill me…" the man blubbered.
"I'm not going to kill you," Shirou assured him as he lowered the knife. There was no sense terrorizing the man further, it was doubtful that he knew anything else. "Here's what you're going to do. You are not going to breathe a word of this to Gatō or anyone that works for him. What you're going to do is leave this village quietly and never step foot in it again, understand?"
"Y-yes sir, I'll leave!" the thug stammered with a shaky nod. "I swear on my mama's grave that you'll never see me here again." Satisfied, Shirou waved him off and the man took off with a whimper, his assailant's words the only thing keeping him from screaming in terror all the way out of the village. Shirou allowed the knife to dissolve back into prana and his features to shift back to their normal appearance. It was time for him to pay Gatō a visit.
Daisuke Yorumuchi, discount mercenary/"security guard" gave a heavy, bored sigh as he patrolled the upper level of Gatō's residence. The grounds were lit enough for him to see all the way to the woods, and he had a crossbow that he could use to snipe at any intruders with before sounding the alarm. This was one of the best paying gigs that Daisuke had ever had; that did not change the fact that his current assignment was boring as hell.
"See anything?" a voice asked, knocking him out of his reverie. He looked up to see Ishi Samuharu, his fellow "security guard" approaching.
"Nah," Daisuke replied. "I might've seen a squirrel earlier, but other than that? Not a thing."
"Well, that's more than I got," Ishi sighed as they both overlooked the woods. After a few seconds of silence, he asked, "What do you think about Gatō, anyway?" Daisuke gave a neutral shrug.
"Eh, he's a bastard, but he's a rich bastard, that's all I care about," he grunted.
"True," Ishi conceded with a shrug. "Still, I can't help but wonder about this bridge business. I mean, Gatō already controls all the waterways and is filthy rich to boot, why does he care so much about one stinking bridge?" he continued.
"Hey, I ain't paid to think about stuff like that, and neither are you," Daisuke admonished his colleague. "If Gatō hears that you've been asking question like that he'll get pissed, and I don't think you'll like his severance package." Something seemed to stir within the trees, prompting Daisuke to squint his eyes so that he could see better. "Hey, do you see somethi—" he began before something struck him right in the forehead, knocking him out cold. Ishi leapt back, startled.
"Son of a bi—" he blurted before he too was struck in the head and fell to the floor, unconscious.
Five hundred meters away, in the woods beyond the reach of the lights, Shirou Emiya lowered his arms. In his left hand he held an ebon yumi longbow constructed from carbon polymers that had recently been invented in his home dimension. A gift from the Church along with his armor, the original version was at his home, but this Traced version still worked quite well. The arrows that he used were not traditional barbed arrows but rather specialized ones with large rubber heads that, while not lethal unless it impacted the eyes or throat, still imparted enough pain and force to render someone unconscious with a headshot. After dispelling the bow Shirou swiftly dashed toward the compound. Reinforcing his legs, he leapt up to the second story and climbed over the railing. He searched the two guards that he had just incapacitated for keys before he found a door and entered the compound.
Shirou carefully crept through the hallways, keeping a wary eye out for guards, traps, and surveillance cameras. He encountered two patrolling guards; one he allowed to pass him by, while the other he locked in a chokehold until he passed out so that he could move on. He figured that Gatō, being a man of wealth, would likely reside at the top of the compound, so he began making his way upward. His hunch proved correct when the top floor proved to be much more ostentatious than the rest of the building, with lush carpeting and statuary decorating the rooms and hallways. He peered around the corner of one hall to see two bored-looking guards standing vigil next to a pair of double doors; that was where his target most likely was. Tracing two hard rubber balls roughly the size of a tennis ball, Shirou rounded the corner and threw them, striking both guards in the forehead and dropping them like puppets with their strings cut. With no one else to stop him, Shirou marched forward and threw the doors open, eliciting a startled shriek from the sole occupant within. Sitting at a desk in the center of the opulent office was a short, dumpy man wearing an expensive suit and small round sunglasses, a shock of wild brown hair behind a receding hairline. One of his hands was bandaged like it had been recently broken.
"Who the hell are you?!" he demanded angrily. "Do you know who I am?!"
"Gatō I presume," Shirou said as he closed the doors behind him and discreetly barred them with a Traced steel bar between the handles.
"Damn right I am, and do you know what I do to cocky little asswipes like you?" the corrupt tycoon snarled as he reached for his telephone, probably to contact his security team. With a thought, a gladius suddenly fell from the sky and skewered the device, causing Gatō to pull his hand back with a shriek.
"You have caused a lot of hurt for the people of this country, Gatō," Shirou said calmly as he slowly stalked towards the businessman, forcing him to back up in fright, "and I'll make sure that you pay for your crimes. But first, I have a couple of questions that I need you to answer for me."
"Get back!" Gatō shouted as he wildly swung his cane to try and ward his assailant away. Shirou casually dodged the strikes and swooped around Gatō, knocking his cane away and pushing him down onto his desk with his good arm pulled behind him. "What do you want, money? I'll give you all the money you want!" he shouted desperately.
"I'm not interested in money, I want information," Shirou said as he held his target down. "First off, I want to know where Zabuza Momochi is."
"Z-Zabuza Momochi? I don't know who you're talking about!" Gatō gasped.
"I know you hired him to assassinate Tazuna," Shirou countered as he began to apply pressure on Gatō's wrist. "Now where is he?"
"All right, all right! He's got a place in the woods!" the pudgy criminal cried out. As Shirou's prompting, he gave detailed instructions on how to find Zabuza's hideout.
"Good, now the second question, how much were you going to pay him?" Shirou asked.
"Pay him?" Gatō repeated incredulously. "After he screwed up against that ninja and his brats, I wasn't going to pay that bastard a single mon!"
After a moment to contemplate that, Shirou said, "Okay, allow me to rephrase that. How much were you supposed to pay him?"
"Why do you want to—augh!" he cried out as Shirou painfully squeezed on his wrist. "Three hundred! Three hundred thousand ryō! Gahh!" he screamed. "Who are you? One of those ninja freaks with a grudge or something?" he groaned.
"No," Shirou said flatly as he released Gatō's arm. "Just an ally of justice." Gripping Gatō's hair, he slammed the tycoon's face into his desk, knocking him out. After using his tie and belt as makeshift bindings, Shirou began to ransack the room to find a safe where Gatō could have hidden his cash. He soon found it hidden under a bookshelf, a large safe with a combination lock. Placing his hand on the safe door, Shirou muttered, "Trace On." Shirou found out that if he used Structural Grasp on combination locks to analyze their internal structure, he could visualize the locking plates and so figure out the combination. It was useful in high school for helping students deal with stubborn padlocks on their lockers, and was now proving equally useful for burglary. Placing his other hand on the dial, he began to turn.
It was past daybreak by the time Shirou finally made it back to Tazuna's house, arriving just in time to find the master of the house leaving.
"There you are!" the old man shouted when he saw Shirou approaching. "You were out all night! Where the hell have you been?" he demanded.
"Had some things I needed to take care of," Shirou replied while stifling a yawn.
"Well don't think I'm going to go easy on you today just because you were out all last night," Tazuna grumbled as they made their way to the bridge. "You had my daughter worried sick! I have half a mind to fire you right now!"
"You don't pay me, remember?" Shirou quipped back.
"Quiet from you!" Tazuna continued to stew the rest of the journey, though his anger quickly turned to confusion when he saw an enormous crowd congregating at the bridge. Spotting someone he knew, he called out, "Tatsu! What's going on here?" The man, Tatsu, turned to Tazuna with a face so happy it bordered on rapturous.
"Tazuna, it's amazing! You have to see this!" Grabbing his hand, Tatsu dragged his friend through the crowd to show him what had captivated them so.
"It can't be…" the old man gasped, unable to believe what he saw.
Gatō was hanging from one of the cranes like a piñata, swaying in the breeze and bound from toe to shoulder in thick heavy ropes with a gag tied around his face. Tazuna turned to see Shirou wading his way through the crowd. The redhead gave his boss a slight, barely perceptible nod.
"Shirou, go home and send my family here, they need to see this," he ordered. As Shirou turned to complete his mission Tazuna added, "And Shirou? Thank you. Take the day off." Nodding in acknowledgement, Shirou nudged his way through the crowd and made his way back to Tazuna's house.
"Shirou!" Tsunami cried out when he walked through the door. "You're all right! Did something happen?"
"Your father wants you and your son down at the bridge right away," Shirou responded.
"Why, is something wrong?" she asked, suddenly worried.
"No, no, nothing's wrong," Shirou quickly assured her. "Some guy was found there all trussed up. I heard some people say that it was Gatō," he continued.
"That's impossible!" Inari shouted from the stairs. "Nobody can beat Gatō, nobody!" The young boy's eyes seemed to glitter with unshed tears.
"Well, your grandfather wants you two down there, so you can go and see for yourself," Shirou replied with a shrug. Tsunami quickly got herself ready and practically dashed out the door, her son not far behind. As he watched the two run towards the bridge, Shirou heard the rhythmic thumping of a man walking with crutches approaching from behind.
"So, some mysterious hero has brought Gatō to justice," Kakashi said casually as he hobbled his way to Shirou's side. "Would his do-gooder happen to have been wearing red by any chance?" he asked coyly.
"Maybe," Shirou replied neutrally.
"And Zabuza?" Kakashi continued. "Will we have to worry about him and his accomplice?"
"Don't worry about Zabuza," Shirou assured him. "I made certain that he won't bother us again."
Dawn had just barely begun to rise by the time Shirou found Zabuza's hideout. It was a large house in a conical spiral, suspended between – and apparently built around – several trees. Finding the doorway, Shirou was about to knock when the door opened, revealing a young woman about 15 years of age in a pink kimono with a black choker and a straw basket hanging on her arm. Judging by her surprised expression, she was clearly not expecting any visitors.
"Hello," Shirou greeted cheerfully. "I'm here to speak with Zabuza Momochi." The girl's expression instantly changed, hardening into a determined scowl. So this young woman was his partner. "Relax, I'm not armed," he tried to placate her, raising both his hands; one of them grasping a silver briefcase. The girl raised an unimpressed eyebrow; she knew just how little that statement meant for him. "I'm not here to fight, I just want to talk," Shirou continued as he slowly reached to open the briefcase, revealing it to be full of money. A calculating gaze flickered between him and the briefcase of cash before the girl stepped aside.
"Walk in front of me," she demanded. Closing the case, Shirou walked forward with the girl behind him, directing him where to go. Once they reached a door, the girl stepped around him and opened the door, leading him into a room that was sparsely furnished other than the bed in the center of the room.
"What is it, Haku?" the bed's occupant groaned before he turned his head. Upon seeing his visitor, Zabuza's unmasked face curled into a grin, revealing sharp, shark-like teeth. "So you managed to find me, eh? I'm impressed," Zabuza said. "So, you here to kill me?" he asked.
"He has something for us," the girl, Haku, corrected him. "May I?" she asked Shirou, a hand held out for the briefcase. He handed the case to her and, after opening it and shuffling the stacks of money around to check for pressurized traps, presented the offering to Zabuza. Slowly pulling himself into a seated position, the crippled ninja took the money and stared at it.
"What is this?" he asked.
"Three hundred thousand ryō," Shirou answered. "What Gatō said he owed you."
"You've spoken to Gatō, have you?" Zabuza asked with a chuckle. "All right, you've got my attention. What do you want?"
"I want you out," Shirou answered shortly. "Gatō's out of the picture and with that money, your contract is complete. I want you out of Wave as soon as you're able."
After a moment, Zabuza closed the briefcase and set it aside. "Well, I'm certainly glad to be out from under Gatō's thumb," he said with a wry chuckle, "that man was an ass. One question though. You clearly took out Gatō, and you managed to find this place, which means that you could have taken out me and Haku as well. So why didn't you?" he asked.
Shirou did not answer right away, crossing his arms over his chest as he took a moment to consider his answer. "I don't particularly care for you as a person," he eventually admitted, which elicited another laugh from Zabuza. "But I know about the bloodline purges in Kiri. I know that you tried to lead a coup against the Mizukage, a coup that ultimately failed. I also know that you're trying to raise enough money to bankroll a second attempt." Taking a deep breath, he continued, "My personal misgivings of you aside, I sympathize with your cause; I want you to succeed. But I don't want that at the expense of someone that I swore to protect. I figured that this was the best way of getting everyone what they want. You get your money and Tazuna gets his life, everyone's happy." After considering his answer, Zabuza nodded in satisfaction.
"Haku says that I'll be recovered in three or four days, so once I'm back up to snuff we'll leave," he said. After a moment he added, "One other thing. From one swordsman to another, were you holding out on me during our fight on the lake?" he asked.
"Maybe," Shirou answered with a vague shrug.
"I thought so," Zabuza chuckled in response. "Well, let me tell you one thing. After this whole coup business is dealt with, I'm going to hunt you down and get a rematch, so don't you die before then," he demanded. Despite himself, Shirou gave a smile in response.
"I look forward to it," he said honestly. "Good luck with everything Zabuza, Miss Haku," he continued with a bow to each.
"Thank you," Haku said with a gracious smile. "Allow me to lead you out." The girl escorted Shirou to the exit and, just as he was about to leave, she added, "Oh and by the way, I'm a boy."
I hope you liked that. It went on for quite a bit longer than I expected, but it'll help balance out the word average with the unusually short first chapter.
For those of you who may not know what a mon is, I'll save you the trip to Wikipedia. The mon and ryō are both real-life currencies used in the system before the yen, with 4,000 mon equaling 1 ryō. In both real life and in the context of this fic, the mon is basically the penny to the ryō's dollar (although as the highest unit in the currency system in RL, the ryō would probably be closer to $100 in equivalence).
Don't forget to leave a review.
