Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, and Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.
Chapter 6: Trial Run II
As the lunch bell rang, signaling the end of their break, the argument between Sajyou and Shinji settled down.
"I'll see you later, Emiya-kun." Sajyou sweetly told Shirou. With one last snort at Shinji, she turned and headed to her desk to perform her class representative duties.
"Yeah, you better run!" With that parting shot, Shinji turned to take his own seat one row down from Shirou. "Emiya! I defended you, so you better freaking lend me your notes when you're done." With that, he slumped onto his desk and began to stare boredly towards the front of the class.
Shirou distractedly grunted, already hard at work. The fresh breeze at his window seat kept him cool even under pressure.
"Everyone! Stand, bow, sit!"
Shirou was furiously scribbling in his note book, trying to copy the notes that he had been lent in between intense glances up at the front of the classroom. Their teacher was casually walking amongst the first row of tables, making the students pay attention as he moved amidst their number. Resting on the teacher's table at the front of the room was a strange looking device.
Twin makeshift coils rose from the table. Each consisted of copper wiring twisted tightly around the individual towers that connected to thicker copper coils that buzzed with electromagnetic energy. At the end of each coil hung a loose wire that held a dull glow from the voltage of the two towers, transmitting electrons through the air between the towers.
"Nikola Tesla is famous for having developed the modern alternating current electrical supply system." Professor Ono gestured at the device that he had brought in with him today. "To wrap up this week, I wanted to spice things up by showing you a working model of one of Tesla's works."
Shirou's pencil froze in mid scratch.
"These may not look like much." Ono said bemusedly at the expressions of most of his students. He walked over towards the front of the room, holding up a light bulb. "But Tesla was a man ahead of his time."
He brought the light bulb closer to one of the towers.
To the surprise of the formerly passive looking students, the light bulb began to glow when he brought it near the coils. Shinji, who had been exchanging glances with a girl on the end of his table, joined Shirou in staring at the light.
"The man was a proponent of 'wireless energy transfer'." Their teacher triumphantly finished, smiling at having caught the kids' attention before school ended for the week. Before the teacher could continue, he was interrupted by the loud sound of wood scraping as Shirou leapt to his feet. The teacher and other students stared at the boy in stunned silence.
"Eureka!" He boomed with a grin, holding a finger in the air.
The class broke out into laughter.
Shinji, who had been a split second too slow to beat Shirou, settled back on his seat with a grumble.
"Yes, I suppose Tesla probably shouted that too." Ono couldn't help but chuckle at Shirou's enthusiasm. His eyes twinkled a little as the class representative quickly rose and began to chide at the rest of the class back into order.
Shirou was moving towards their teacher even as the electronic chime for the end of class faded. Both Sajyou and Shinji gave him looks of confusion, but the latter only had to look at the instrument set up in the front of the class to understand.
"Professor Ono!" Shirou exclaimed, making the teacher look over at the boy as he disassembled the Tesla Coil.
"What is it, Emiya-san?"
"I want to find out more about Tesla Coils!" The redhead exclaimed, moving around to the right as Ono went towards the left side of the table.
Appreciative that he wasn't having his heels nipped at while he disassembled the coils, the teacher gestured for Shirou to continue. "Like what, exactly?" He wondered, noticing that the boy was mimicking his actions to pack away the second coil.
"Uhm..." Shirou blinked in surprise. "Like..." The boy came up with a blank now that he had gotten a positive answer. His hands twitched in place as he struggled to think up a good question before their next teacher showed up.
Ono chuckled.
"Well, how about this- You can come to the teacher's lounge after class?" The teacher began as he stored away one of the coils. On the other side of the table, Shirou finished putting the other one away. He took both boxes before he continued. "You only have a bit of time before your next class. I don't want to bother Professor Mobu by taking too long."
Shirou nodded in agreement.
"Great, I'll be there as soon as classes end, then!"
Ono smiled at the enthusiastic answer. After taking the second box from Shirou, he paused at the exit of the classroom. "Just try not to miss so much class next time, alright Emiya-san?" He wryly smiled, causing a momentary look of ire to form on Sajyou's face as she looked up at Shirou.
"Y-yes." He stammered.
Ono nodded and left.
"Emiya-kun, I need to talk to you!" demanded Sajyou. Shirou's stomach dropped as the class representative walked up to him. A glance over at Shinji showed the boy gaily laughing as he spoke with a girl sitting at his table.
He had been betrayed.
Shirou wondered if he'd live long enough to brand Shinji with a Scarlet Letter before the pouty girl was up in his face. She jabbed towards him with her index finger, making the boy flinch and take a few steps back. Finding himself quickly pushed towards a corner of the room, he risked a glance away from Sajyou.
Still two minutes before the teacher came back. Damn.
"Matou-san," Here she glanced back over at Shirou's friend dismissively. "And you were gone for a while." She placed her hands at her hips, lips distending a bit as her temper flared as Shirou tried to defend himself. "I don't want to hear it." She cut him off with a snort.
Shirou clamped his mouth shut. At least it saved him some effort.
"I want you to be here." Sajyou gestured authoritatively at the ground. Shirou, for reasons he couldn't even begin to understand, glanced at the ground before looking back at the blue eyed girl. She approvingly nodded at him. Her expression softened from the sharp one she had been wielding during her entire lecture. "Good, you're too much of a soft touch, Shirou. Matou would just roll over you and keep going if you didn't keep up with him."
"But..."
The door slid open at that moment, and the girl spun, leaving him staring at her back as she walked back to her desk. Shirou jolted and made his way back to his desk when he noticed that everyone was looking at him from their own desks in confusion.
Back at her own seat, Sajyou let out a shaky sigh of relief after Shirou took his seat with an appropriately pacified expression. With the arrival of the teacher, she felt her frayed nerves still as she went back on relying on her old habits.
"Stand! Bow! Sit!"
"Is this where Master is spending his days?" wondered Berserker. Her nose crinkled in slight disappointment as she looked over the three story building in front of her.
Unnoticed by her, a guard in his early twenties jolted out of a light nap he was taking at his seat. He glanced around his station in mild alarm, but calmed down when he saw no one. The man shrugged and tried to settle back down.
The large generator strapped to Berserker's back puttered.
Having heard the extra noise, the guard nearly fell off his chair. His eyes were wide as he looked around the clearing, but the puttering wouldn't stop. The guard quickly rushed over towards Berserker and the generator, tracking the noise down to where they stood.
Both the heroic spirit and her friend ignored the man, even as he wildly swiped at them with his hand.
"Oooh, so you think he's here to get built?" The long haired girl thoughtfully responded, bringing up a finger to her lips. The guard's fist flew through her head, but she didn't care to dissuade him as she tapped the tip of her tongue against her fingers. "No, I don't think people need to go to an assembly line."
"Demons!" The guard threw himself away from Berserker, expression pale as he rushed back to his station. Grasping at a desk drawer, he threw it open and grasped a set of prayer beads inside. Sufficiently armed, the man rose to his feet and walked out towards the direction of the voices he was hearing.
The generator shifted on her back.
"Um...no. I'm a good girl!" Berserker frowned over at the guard. "My friend things you're being rude and so am I!"
With his eyes clenched shut, the guard wildly flailed the beads at them.
The generator puttered.
"Yeah! It's best to just go ahead inside!" Berserker pumped her fist. She looked over at the guard in dismissive annoyance, but realized what he was doing. "Excuse me, I'll be heading in now~" She swallowed her annoyance as she politely bowed before racing towards the gate.
"Aaah!" The guard let out a panicked yelp, reaching up to grasp at his rimmed blue cap. Too slow to stop it from slipping, it revealed a recently shaved head that glinted palely in the sun. His dress uniform fluttered, and he let out a squeak as he instinctively held his shirt down from flipping up like a skirt would. The man went tumbling onto his rear, and resumed wildly glancing around.
His determination rewarded him as he briefly saw a flicker of a shape race past the gate's bars, outlined by a spark of electricity. Stunned stupid, the man could only focus as a tiny trail of dust was kicked up as whatever had rushed past him raced along the dirt ground towards the school's main entrance.
"...not my problem." Akira Ryuudou muttered, repeatedly rubbing his beads in a calming motion, and repeating the words over and over again until he believed them. It was his job to stop people from leaving or entering. Not pulling anyone else back if they got inside the building.
"Not my problem."
Or so he forced himself to believe.
The third and final class period of the day was a pleasant surprise to Shirou and Shinji as Sajyou walked up to the head of the class. With quick, efficient strokes she wrote out two words that filled the two boys with relief.
Free Study.
"Alright everyone!" The class representative's voice rose over the murmurs of happiness from the students. "You all know the deal by now, since our history teacher broke her leg in that major blackout, we all have to study until the school gets us a replacement."
Shirou winced, remembering the night Berserker had appeared.
"Hey!" Shinji held out his hand, eagerly waving it at Sajyou with a smirk on his face. "So we can go home?" His words caused a scowl to form on the class representative's face and considering looks on the others. "It's the last period, right?" His smirk turned into a full out evil grin. "Right?"
"No!" Sajyou shook her head. "You're all supposed to stay here!" She leaned forwards to the desk in the front of the room and drew out a leather bound book. "See? I've got the roster here. So don't try anything funny, Matou!"
Half hearted complaints rose from the crowd. A few of the students looked outright annoyed at Sajyou. The girl responded to those looks by waving her ledger at them in frustration.
"H-hey! I don't make the rules!"
"But you don't have to suck up to them so much!"
With Shinji at the head, the crowd was starting to turn ugly. Seeing this, Shirou loudly cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the group onto him. Since he had earned their good will earlier, Shirou decided to throw himself under the bus.
"We're not actually being forced to do anything new." Shirou reasonably explained. "There's no reason to get annoyed about having to stay here, right?" He finished his question with a sharp look over at Shinji.
"We can do anything we want, right?" One girl sharply asked Sajyou.
She eagerly nodded, glad to not be at the center of attention.
Shinji, realizing that his rebellion was falling around him, threw up his arms in surrender.
"Gimme your notes so I can copy them then, Emiya!" He demanded, to the immediate capulation from the red head. With a casual toss, the notebook flew over towards Shinji, who caught it and sank back at his table with a grumble.
The rest of the class began to fall into place after seeing their leader surrender.
Sajyou flashed Shirou a grateful look as she drew closer.
"Thank you so much! I thought they were going to rip me apart!" She exclaimed, and quickly threw her arms around him for a hug before stepping back and lightly slapping him with the ledger. "But don't think this gets you off the hook! See my sister after class, okay?"
Shirou awkwardly laughed in response.
He would've felt even more tiny if he had been aware of the girl pressing her face up against the window in the back of the class; her angry, fast breathing and the smoke rising from a generator on her back fogging the glass up. If he had, Shirou would have been quicker to stop what was going to happen next.
Anger; red hot and boiling beneath the girl's placid expression, surged throughout her frame. Her smile was wooden as she pressed her body up against the window. The stone that her hands were pressing up against cracked as she applied further pressure.
Berserker, stop.
Her surprise at the noise was the only reason she was able to hear the voice coming from her back.
Don't do anything you will regret, child.
Master was hers! She had been good! She had done everything right according to this world's rules! She hadn't scared him off like- like!
We must retreat. You can't endanger your Master. If you let yourself run wild, he'll get hurt.
Where was that other woman getting off, anyway?
Focus!
The fire within her surged, burning her lungs as she let out a cry of misery. Her eyes teared up as she spun and fled away from the window. It was only because of the presence of her friend's intentions that they remained unseen.
This wasn't fair! She had done everything her other self in the television had told her! She needed...! She needed him!
...if you really need him that badly, then I'll help you. Please, just follow my instructions.
Her friend's voice sounded a bit hesistant, but the sobbing girl was desperate at this point. Her silent agreement was met by a fair weaker sensation of her Master in another building. The fleeing girl raced in that direction.
"So what are you going to do tomorrow?" asked Sanada, a rather rail thin boy with shaggy brown hair. The person he spoke to was Lucy - his best friend. Best girl friend. Who wasn't his girlfriend at all. "I'm going to have to go on a hike with my family by the old forest; it's such a lame idea." He snorted.
She briefly considered. "I'm not sure." The frizzy haired girl casually admitted.
"Girl, that's lame. I wanted to live vicariously through you, but you're probably going to spend all day tomorrow listening to those stupid metal CDs of yours!"
"Metal is not stupid!" She barked, wishing she could free her hands of the printouts their teacher had sent them out to get so she could smack him. "Don't blame me because your parents took Father Kotomine's bullshit advice about family values seriously!"
Both teenagers' expressions grew red and their eyes locked as they began to warm themselves for yet another round of arguing, but a sharp popping noise interrupted them. They looked behind them - to see the lights on the ceiling begin to flicker randomly on and off.
"Eh, lights busted again." Sanada glanced away, losing interest. "Let's get these print outs to the history teacher. My arms are practically going to fall off here."
Lucy was paying attention to the lights long enough to see one of them flash before going out with a loud pop. Both teenagers practically leapt out of their skin as another one next to it flashed before going out.
"Let's get out of here!" Lucy shouted as the two of them began to run away. Neither cared they were rapidly losing print outs in their mad dash. The sounds of the lightbulbs exploding above them was a greater concern than losing the print outs they had.
"This..."
Yes.
Berserker held up her item in wonder. Behind her, a crumpled iron door barely hung onto its hinges thanks to a prayer.
"This is..."
Please don't make a scene.
"Master's clothing!" Berserker squealed, a scandalized smile on her face as she twisted to look at the generator she had set down on the ground. "You're so naughty, Gen-san!" A wide, toothy smile lit up her face as she pushed her long locks of hair away to openly look through Shirou's locker. "Ooh..and this is his...? Eee!"
Ha...
The generator rumbled as Berserker fell to the ground, rolling around in their Master's clothing. In the background, next to the remains of the locker door Berserker had torn out, was a sparkling outlet that the Heroic Spirit was drawing energy from at that very moment.
"Banzai!" Berserker cheered, throwing her Master's clothing in the air and letting them land on her. "Stupid girl can't come in here, now can she? Only Berserker can come in here!"
Forgive me, Master. The generator sincerely muttered.
"Ohoho!"
"What's that smell?" asked Yomiko, one of the most recent teachers' assistants added to the school, looking up from grading a terribly written english report in front of her.
How the heck was a weapon supposed to have a bane anyway?
"If you smelt it..."
"Ha-ha, really funny. You could match wits with the best of the students at this school." Yomiko sneered at the other woman. "But seriously, can't you smell it? It's like something's burning?"
Chiasa, ter senior assistant, blinked and glanced around, finally catching the smell. Her nose wrinkled in distaste as she stood from the huddle of desks the teacher assistants were given in the main room of the teacher's lounge. She looked around for a few moments before her eyes widened when she looked at the direction of the coffee maker.
Both women could see faint smoke rising from the device.
"Our coffee!" Chiasa immediately ran to try and save the machine by unplugging it. "Don't die! No! We still need you!"
Yomiko briefly considered looking at the woman like she was mad, but a glance at the pile of paperwork she still had left made her realize what the stakes were. She went pale at the thought of having to go through another middle schooler's analysis of classic literature without another cup of good coffee.
"Live, damn you! Live!" Chiasa shrieked in the background, smacking the coffee maker. "Midterms are nearly upon us!"
Yomiko hang her head in misery. Glancing at the paper she had been grading, she decided to give it a point of extra credit.
It truly was a life of loss without gain for a teacher's assistant.
Throughout the school, more and more electronics began to fail as a power surge ripped through the building. Cries of dismay began to rise throughout the school's computer lab as student's computers crashed. A few even began to spit out smoke as they were struck down as all the lights in the room went off for a split second.
Hey, little boy. Would you like some candy?
Jiro Yamada's computer though...
"Uh, teacher?" Jiro awkwardly called out, eyes focused on his computer. The screen in front of him began to fill with small windows, text programs loading up with different messages on them. "I think there's something wrong with my computer?"
His teacher, currently furiously batting at a computer to keep it from catching on fire as a student reached to unplug it, didn't even look at him.
"Is your computer on fire?"
"No..."
"Then I'll be with you in a moment, Yamada-san!"
You know what they say about snitches, right?
An internet explorer window popped up, showing a heavily bruised looking man being rolled away on a stretcher.
"...nevermind!" Jiro yelped in terror. He quickly stood up and ran to another part of the room. The images and programs closed themselves on the computer, returning it back to normal.
On the other side of the room.
Um...should I lick it? A boy awkwardly typed into the chat program.
Yeah, baby. He got an answer back. I feel so good. Good enough that I almost want to vomit.
A blushing middle schooler looked away from the chat program he was on, trying to find who he was lewdly cybering with in the classroom. None of his classmates were looking around, most of them either chatting with each other or quite a few of them intensely staring at their computers with varying looks of emotions.
His flushed face and heavy breathing only increased when he saw his crush intensely typing away at her computer.
Hey, don't ignore me. His computer chimed a few moments later. We were just getting to the good part, Master.
"Gah..." The boy trembled. Unable to contain himself, he stood up and ran out of the classroom. The message he left behind before escaping to the rest room was a quickly typed out apology to the person he was chatting with.
Oh...how disappointing. The chat program replied a few moments later. I thought he'd be more manly. Especially after I looked up all the pornography he sees in the history. Sigh.
A smiley emote appeared.
I'll go check on the others, then~!
With that final message, the program shut down.
A flood of children were being released from the school. Their shouts of fear were only kept at bay by the stern chastisements of the adults. The flickering lights throughout the building didn't lend very much strength to their demands for the children to keep from panicking.
A set of janitors, observing the procession, grimaced as they turned to face the gym. If the chaotic flickers of light in the main school were bad, then the ones in the gym were even worse.
"D-do I have to go?" Gai Watanabe asked in a trembling voice. He looked at the older janitor in the face. "T-this isn't in our job description, isn't it? Why don't we get the gate guard to do it? He was a monk at Ryuudou before!"
The balding man received an unmerciful stare from the taller and somewhat chubbier man.
"We're maintenance." He scoffed. "This isn't an exorcism. Just a blown fuse. You'll fix the gym and I'll take care of the school."
"Oi! Oi! Oi!" A dark haired boy's shouts were loud enough to briefly distract the two men back towards the children. "Why are you shoving me out, Sajyou? Emiya is still in there!"
The stern girl with him merely kept shoving him towards the gate.
"The teachers needed him to fix a coffee maker of theirs! That means you have to go home now!"
"And what about you, huh? Why aren't you going?"
The girl blushed.
"T-that isn't any of your business! I have to stick around to walk home with my sister, alright?"
"That's a damn lie!"
The two men phased out the rest of the children's conversation.
"Well, at least you know you won't be working alone." Gai's superior smirked, looking a bit embarassed despite his words. "Emiya-kun volunteered to help us out again." His expression faded. "Just go in there and we'll reset the breakers, alright?"
Despite the question, Gai knew that he wouldn't get to deny his superior.
"Yes, sir."
"Fwah~" Berserker breathed in and out heavily as she rubbed her face into her Master's shirt. The girl had thrown caution to the wind as she released her invisibility, rolling around the cold ground.
You're getting yourself dirty, Berserker.
Pieces of paper from a torn up magazine were tangling in Berserker's long hair. A large piece of it, sticking to the grill of the generator, proudly announced the magazine the Heroic Spirit had found had once been property of Shinji Matou.
"So?" Berserker questioned, her voice singing the word as she looked over at the generator with a dopey smile. "It's just paper from Shin's stupid, stupid book." She angrily glared at the glossy piece of paper in front of her.
A piece of a swimsuit model's smile mocked her.
Well, yes. I don't believe you should have torn it, though. The humans are going to have to clean it up.
"Hmph." Berserker sniffed after that curt response. She glanced away from the generator, lip trembling as she dropped her Master's clothes on top of her body. "Why should I care?"
This is Master's school...
Berserker curled around the clothing.
"L-let those treacherous h-humans clean up their own m-messes!" Her voice wavered as she buried her face inside the pile. "T-them and their big toes! I-I could've had big toes too, you know? But the professor said that my legs were superior to anything a loving God could have given me!"
Her metallic legs rapidly began to kick at the ground, making loud crashing noises.
Berserker, don't...
"I was given the finest bust in all of Europe! My rear end sat upon a throne, you know?" Berserker began to cry. "Why'd I get rejected for some pole bean japanese girl?"
...start this again.
"Is it because she's alive and I'm not? That's discriminatory! Dead girls deserve love too!"
Oh merciful Buddha.
"Master!" Berserker began to squirm as she cried, slamming her hands into the ground as well. "Don't leave me!" She wailed out the last words.
The generator rumbled as it observed Berserker's prana expenditure shoot up as it began to descend into a mild version of Mad Enhancement. In turn, Galvanism began to draw more power from the school to keep her levels from dipping into something that would hurt her Master.
...having a temper tantrum at your age? The generator rumbled in disbelief.
Gai nervously clung at the walls as he slowly crept into the gymnasium. Flickers of raw electricity buzzed high above, lighting up the room enough to show the pieces of glass strewn around the basketball field dominating the top floor of the building.
He stumbled as he suddenly felt a trembling beneath his feet.
"Eee...aaah!" The janitor's squeak of fear turned into a cry of pain as he scrapped his hand against the wall, knuckles coming back with a long scratch along the knuckles. He hissed and shook his hand to calm the throbbing as he observed the area.
Gai nervously licked his lips as he saw the shattered remains of the door heading to the locker rooms in the back of the gym. The man hopefully glanced in the direction of the exit, but the prospect of facing his boss' wrath made the janitor clutch at the broom he had brought with him for self defense.
"...I'm going to need a bigger stick."
The man forcibly looked away from the shattered door in the back of the gym as he affected an air of casual boredom. He woodenly marched himself to a beige door beneath and to the side of the bleachers on the eastern wall of the gym.
The smell of recently spilled paint greeted him as he opened the supply closet. Yellow and black paint covered large portions of the ground from tipped over cans on the top of the closet. The man briefly got over his fear of the ghosts haunting the school, angrily glancing in the direction of the shattered doors.
Gai carefully began to step past the piles of paint as he made his way for the kill switch on the side of the fuse box for the building. The man was so focused on the switch that he didn't pay attention to the floor buffer that was lying in on corner of the room. A spark of electricity raced from where it was still plugged into the wall outlet in the closet.
The janitor put on a pair of rubber gloves from his back pocket before opening the fuse box.
The switch on the floor buffer slowly descended just as the man reached for the kill switch.
A whirl of engines and a shout of surprise came within the supply closet. Moments later, a paint splattered janitor came screaming out of the closet, holding down his pants as a floor buffer chased after him, the brushes trying to grip at the bottom of his pants legs. The chase continued for a quarter of the gym, but the cord that was quickly unwinding from the back of the floor buffer was running out. With a twang and loud crack, the floor buffer bounced backwards as it ran out of slack in its cord.
It continued trying to rush after the screaming janitor, but it failed several times, bouncing back from its charges as its cord conspired against it. The device angrily buzzed as it rushed along the perimeter of its range, flashing the lights in the front of it randomly. On one of those attempts, a shadow which should have never been there was projected on the gym floor.
The sound of a generator puttering away filled the gym.
"Oh? Hello, what's this?" A girl's voice called out. "I guess you were right, Gen-san!"
The floor buffer buzzed, flashing its lights at the strange shadow.
"I'm sorry. I accidentally brought you to life." The shadow paused. "You can stick with me, though."
The living device twisted in the grips of its cord.
"Don't worry about such things." A thin bolt of electricity came lashing out from within the shadow to impact the floor buffer. "You're me and I'm you. No matter where we go, three is better than two!"
With a mighty heave, the floor buffer tore the cord free from its back, sparkling electricity everywhere as it charged towards the shadow. It's adjustable handle lowered as it eagerly buzzed at her.
"You want to give me a lift?" The shadow giggled before moving on top of the offered handle. "Why thank you kindly."
The floor buffer flashed its lights.
"Can you take me to Shirou Emiya please? I'll tell you how to get there."
With that mild request, the floor buffer charged off towards the exit of the gym.
"Come in, Emiya-san!" Chiasa told Shiro, and gestured for him to approach the door she was standing next to. "I'm glad you decided to stay behind." The teacher flashed the middle schooler a grateful smile as the boy waved at her as he approached the teacher's lounge.
"Don't worry about it." Shirou calmly dismissed the teacher's assistant's praise. He looked around the dim hallway. "So the lights burnt out here too? At least the light bulbs didn't break."
The hallway was dim, but the sunlight pouring into the building from the large windows in the teacher's lounge kept it from being pitch black.
"We have the maintenance staff working on fixing things." The older woman nodded, leading Shirou inside. "But well, between that and the others going out to keep the rowdier kids from coming back in..."
Shirou glanced at the woman's miserable expression before turning his head to look at what she was focusing on.
"A coffee machine?"
"Yes!" The teacher's assistant clapped her hands together. "Can't you please help us fix it, Emiya-san?"
Shirou leaned away as the woman moved closer to him. Her gaze was as sharp as a sword as it tried to pierce him through.
Strangely enough, he was feeling even more motivated than usual to answer.
"Uh, yeah, I can try to fix it, sure!"
"Great! Sajyou-san stopped by here already." Chiasa quickly rushed off behind some desks to their right. Picking up a wooden box filled with tools, she rushed back fast enough to make her heels click against the linoleum floor. "I already got some things here for you!"
The teacher's assistant thrust the box into the bemused boy's hands.
"Please help us, Emiya-san!" The woman declared with a smile. "Or we'll make the rest of the year miserable!"
Shirou awkwardly laughed as he took the box.
"Good one."
The teacher's assistant didn't join him in laughter, choosing to stare at him.
"I'll...go to work right away."
"Good boy."
Taiga guiltily wore down on her bottom lip with her teeth as she looked at the front door of the Emiya home. A glance down at her wrist watch revealed she still had plenty of time before school ended for the day, but she couldn't bring herself to open the door in front of her.
Why was she even here? She had already missed plenty of classes, but she went and ignored her afternoon classes today. The last thing she needed was to fail out when the teachers were looking into offering internships.
"Damn. I'm already out anyway. Too late to worry about that spot in Homuraba."
Taiga threw off the last shreds of her hesistation as she let herself into Shirou's house.
"Berserker! I'm home!" She called out to the entrance hall. She had seen Berserker practically claw her way to Shirou from the shed before at the sound of his voice. "Do you want anything to eat?" She paused as she considered her level of cooking expertise. "I can peel a banana for you?"
Having heard no response, Taiga shrugged and exchanged her shoes for house slippers.
"I'm going to clean up Shirou's room!" She called out, rubbing her neck as a queasy sensation of guilt filled her. "Call me if you need anything."
Having said her piece, Taiga began to move towards her destination.
What she was going to do was a gross violation of trust, but...
Taiga shivered as she remembered what had happened...
Taiga clutched at Shirou. Spittle and foam was flying from his mouth as he twisted out of her grasp as electricity raged in the background. She had grabbed a chunk of rubber from the ground when she saw how he was gnashing his teeth, holding the piece steady to keep him from choking on it as she kept him from biting his own tongue off.
"-oh, shit!" Shinji Matou's voice sounded panicked. "Get Emiya out of the way!"
Taiga instantly did as demanded. Grasping Shirou with her free hand, the woman hauled the limp boy out of the way. Moments later, a bolt of electricity slammed down on the ground where they had been resting. The large glowing pattern that Shinji was somehow using to control this nonsensical display glowed brightly as the energy was sucked down into it like water in a toilet.
A fearful glance at the centerpiece of the pattern showed Berserker wreathed in electricity as she hung above them. Streams of energy were falling off her towards the pattern on the shed's ground, more were racing away from her body down the set of grounding cables Shirou and Shinji had tied around her body before this ceremony, but it was the cloak of electricity that was most ominous.
Sensing what was going to happen, Taiga foregoed gentleness as she began to drag Shirou towards the edges of the circle. More streams of electricity lashed out, but they weren't able to travel far enough to endanger her and Shirou.
She was sick of it.
She was getting him out before he died.
"Master!" Berserker seemingly caught onto her intention, since she was trying to break free from her chains, but a shout from Shinji made her freeze in place.
"Don't! You'll flash fry us all!"
Guilt assaulted Taiga as she saw the wide panicked stare Berserker was giving her. Having observed how far the electricity really was traveling, Taiga took a gamble and stopped dragging Shirou away when they got to the edge of that 'magic circle' that was controlling the flow of energy around Berserker.
Shirou moaned in pain beneath her, making Taiga's heart feel like it was being constricted. Feeling absolutely helpless in the face of everything happening around her, she could only take up his hands as his struggles decreased. She began to fear for the boy's life as her hands pressed against his wrists, feeling the weak pulse in his hands.
"...done!"
The dangerous ritual ended with Shinji's triumphant shout as he shut off the generator. The magic circle on the shed's ground lost its intense light, plunging Taiga into darkness for a moment as she grew adjusted to the new dimness.
But most importantly, Shirou regained a flush of color to his cheek.
Her boy was going to be okay.
Taiga didn't even care when she was pushed aside by Berserker, allowing her and Shinji to celebrate with her boy. The woman's eyes began to grow wet as she clutched at her chest, feeling like she had lost a few years as she tried to keep herself from clinging to Shirou like Berserker. She smiled to herself as she saw a few discarded boxes for the models she had been bringing him sporadically throughout the years amongst the clutter. That small piece of normality was all that she needed.
With a smile, she turned to cheerfully lambast Shirou for being a helpful idiot...
"I had to make sure you survived, no matter what."
"That wouldn't have mattered!" Berserker squeezed Shirou. When he blinked up at her in confusion, she continued. "I could never have been happy if we couldn't talk again!"
Taiga's smile died when Shirou blankly stared at Berserker.
There was no emotional comprehension in those eyes at that moment.
Those weren't the eyes of her boy...
Taiga stared at the empty room in front of her. Walking into the room, she attempted to dispel the illusion that she was seeing in front of her. Looking from one side to another, she once again confirmed that the only things she saw in the room were the models she had given Shirou when he was younger.
The futon, rolled up in the closet, was the only thing she found when she tried one of the closet doors. The other door revealed several pressed school uniforms. She rushed over to the dresser in one side of the room and threw open the drawers.
Her heart began to rapidly beat as she saw Shirou's normal t-shirts there.
"Why...?" Taiga shakily muttered, desperately pulling out clothing to try and find something. "Why doesn't he-!"
Candy!
Bubblegum!
A deck of cards!
A pornography magazine!
She would accept any sign of normalcy!
Nothing. There wasn't anything here that a normal boy should have. There wasn't anything here.
It was only the things that she had given him that kept the room from being desolate.
Taiga's attempts at searching through the drawers grew more frantic. She was practically throwing Shirou's clothing behind her as she began to pull out drawers and dump their contents on the ground. The inexplicable feeling she had been nursing since a few nights ago was building, feeding on itself like the snake from that old story she had once read for an english class.
English...
Taiga felt like she had been socked in the gut. Feeling the strength in her legs give out, she knelt in the center of the devastation she had created in Shirou's room.
"Mister Emiya..."
Those weren't the eyes of her boy...
They had been the eyes of his father.
"No, Kiritsugu-!" She roared, glaring up at the ceiling through blurry eyes. "Tell me what happened to Shirou?"
Taiga was too tired to care when she saw that Berserker was no longer in the shed. The listless search she had performed throughout the house had only confirmed what she had thought before. Why had she missed so many signs?
Even when she had tried to engage him, he had only done enough to throw her off, wasn't it?
She tried to remember her past conversations with Shirou.
The only thing that stood out in her mind had been a talk she had with him shortly after Kiritsugu's funeral. Like all the other ones she had with him back then, didn't they all resolve around the same topic.
"Save the girl."
Taiga was startled as the television she had been leaning against began to play sounds again.
"If you love her, you should go up to her and do everything you can to save her."
A ringing came from her jean. Taiga ignored the program that was airing on the television as she answered the phone her grandfather had forced on her recently.
"Hello?" She answered.
"Hello, this is Central East Middle School. Would Shirou Emiya's guardian be in?"
"Uh, yes." Taiga immediately answered, glad her grandfather had given her number along with his for these purposes. "How can I help you?"
"Yes. There's been an...incident. We need you to come pick up Emiya-san right away."
"She's gone off to save the boy, you treacherous cow." The television announced. "And there's nothing you an do to stop their love."
Taiga ignored the television, switching it off as she rushed out of the shed.
"What's going on?" She demanded, slamming the door and quickly locking it as she left the Emiya home behind.
"...well, he's locked himself in the school. We need you to talk him out, please."