Chapter 16: Boy meets girl

I woke.

"What the hell was that?"

A strange dream. Something like the ones I've been getting when she was around, but different. This one is like seeing a memory. Still, it doesn't really make sense, and maybe it's just a by-product of watching too many of those robot animes. Dang, my head hurts and it's only 7...

I roll to my left, and suddenly my face came into contact with long, black hair.

"What the?" I'm confused. Why did someone dump hair on my bed? On closer examination it can be seen that it is not just hair, but someone's head. Finding a head in your bed is just as strange as finding hair, but if there is a head that means there must be a body as well. Oh wait, there is a body, in the blankets. A girl's body judging by the shape, wearing a red shirt, black skirt and black stockings-wait, wait wait wait wait wait, why is there a girl in my bed, and isn't this-

"WHAT THE HELL!" I jump backwards in shock and almost fall off the bed, fully awake now. Somehow Tohsaka is in my bed. Was she here the whole night? What did she do when I was sleeping? Why the hell is this happening to me?

Then I saw a note on the bedside table. I pick it up.

"Sorry for your inconvenience, but the Magic Association refused to take her in due to lack of evidence and their general mistrust of our organisation. We are terribly apologetic to inform you that you are now responsible for her welfare until further notice."

What the hell! The Magic Association refused to take her in! And why did they just dump her in my bed like that without even telling me!

"Ugh..." Oh no! Tohsaka is stirring, she's waking up!

"Ugh, good morning, Shir-" she sees me and is halfway through her greeting when she became aware of the situation as well.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME YOU PERVERT!" Tohsaka screams as though she has just been raped, "WHY AM I HERE IN YOUR BED? WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME LAST NIGHT?"

"Toh-Tohsaka stop it! I didn't do anything!" I try to defend myself but already she is frantically trying to attack me by throwing random objects at me. I deflect the flying pillows and bolsters with my arms but have to dodge the hard objects like my shinai and the Gekiganger III DVD box. Damn, how am I going to get out of this!

Tohsaka runs out of objects to launch at me. She jumps off the bed and runs across the room for more ammunition.

"Tohsaka no! Stop!"

Too late. She discovers the black duffle bag and is visibly surprised by its contents, but in her fury she did not think too much. She grabbed the assault rifle and pointed it at me. I must say that the way of holding the gun is hilarious, with both her hands on the pistol grip, causing the front to be unbalanced and shaking wildly, but the gun is loaded so one wrong move and I will have a few extra holes in my body. Tohsaka looks like she is intent on putting those bullets in my face, so I must tread carefully.

"Tohsaka," I spoke slowly, "put the gun down."

"NO YOU BAKA! EXPLAIN THIS ENTIRE FIASCO TO ME NOW!"

Her hands are trembling, I must do something.

"Tohsaka, I told you last night. It is all true!"

"BULLSHIT! WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM? A BAKA LIKE YOURSELF?" Tohsaka must be beyond angry because of two things. One, she is not putting on her nice face and two, she is using language inappropriate for a model student.

There is about 2 meters between us. If I jump on her, I can wrestle away the gun. Although I don't condone fighting girls, a girl pointing a gun at me with such a powerful killing intent is an exception.

I ready myself.

I stop my breathing.

I leap.

Maybe I'm less than fully awake, and that my muscles are not fully in control yet. My trajectory has been calculated to land just beside her to grab the gun, but now I'm flying straight into her. She instinctively points the gun at me.

All I heard was the click of the trigger-

-Which is good since that must mean the safety is on. Yamada told me the importance to keep the safety switch of the gun on at all times lest it goes off accidentally. But that is only part of the problem-

BAM! I collide with her, face first, and we both fell to the ground. The room was still, neither of us moved. We stayed like this for about half a minute, which is the amount of time I took to realise that my face is on her chest.

"Wah!" I push myself off her. Surprisingly, Tohsaka grabs me and pulls me into her again. My head is pulled over her shoulders as she started crying loudly.

"Shirou(sob)...you BAKA!(sob)...First you come here without me knowing... (sob)...then you make up some ridiculous story (sob)...and now you made me try to kill you!(sob)...You're bad! Badbadbadbadbadbadbadbadbadb adbad!"

I have nothing to say. She cried on my shoulder for a long time, and I felt her heart beating fast, then slower and slower and finally back to a normal pace. We pull apart and she wipes her face.

"Shirou," she asks," why are you so bad to me?"

"I'm not!" I desperately try to defend myself. "Everything I said is true!"

"But I KNOW you! You won't do something as selfish as that! And besides, she's dead! Why can't you accept that and move on!"

Then I realised.

It's not that Tohsaka doesn't believe me. She doesn't want to believe me. She doesn't want to believe that I still love her and that my love is so strong to use such a great power for such as selfish thing.

She wants me to move on. She wants me to love someone else. Someone, like her.

"I'm sorry Tohsaka," I apologise sincerely, "I know I'm breaking your heart, but I can't stop loving her."

It just came out like that. Plain and simple. It seems like time itself froze as Tohsaka painfully took in those words.

The raging Tohsaka is completely gone now, replaced by silent Tohsaka, which is not necessarily a good thing.

Tohsaka suddenly stands up, and start walking towards the window. She opens it, and sits on the windowsill. Then, she brings her legs out so she is sitting facing the outside. If she wants some fresh air, this is certainly a dangerous way to get it, unless she doesn't want fresh air but instead-

"Tohsaka NO!" I scream, but it is too late. She leaned her weight on the upper-body and fell forward.

My hearts stops, my mind doesn't. There must be something to break her fall, there must be. Tools, no, I got nothing. Magic, maybe. Which magic? Which one? Which-

My mind suddenly clicked. I remember back then, when he used it. The impregnable shield. I don't know if I can project the whole thing, but just a little bit to break her fall would do. I focus my magic circuit and-

"RHO AIUS!"

A blinding flash of light. I rush to the window to see if it has worked.

Tohsaka was lying on the pavement below, about 30 meters down. There appears to be no blood around her, so it must mean that she is unharmed.

"Phew," I let out a sigh of relief. The projection barely worked. I guess even Archer would have been proud of me. Now I just need to go downstairs to get her.

Tohsaka is in shock from the fall, but otherwise perfectly fine. Some unfortunate pedestrians had seen the girl fall, then a bright flash of light, followed by the girl landing at a much reduced speed. I had to lie that we are testing a new kind of anti-gravity technology for the military, and apparently they completely believed it because it came from a Japanese guy. Somehow all foreigners associate Japan with high-tech stuff.

With much effort I carried Tohsaka upstairs. She regained consciousness soon enough.

"Shirou," she asked, "why did you save me?"

My answer was obvious.

"Because I had to."

"You BAKA!" She hugged me tightly and cried. Maybe I would just love her a little. Yeah, only a little, just to keep her from pulling crazy stunts like that again.

"Now who's the baka here?"

I still have a few hours before Yamada comes. Tohsaka feels so warm and comfortable so maybe we can just remain like this until then...