Chapter 7: Greet the neighbours...again

"You're moving?"

"Yeah…" Kobayashi scratches the back of her head and awkwardly chuckles "Turns out my apartment really can't fit three people in it very well."

"Do you need help moving?" I ask her and she just shakes her head "No, we've already found a place pretty close to here and I've hired a moving company. We'll leave for the new apartment later today."

I nod to her "Well I suppose it makes sense, I'll bake you a casserole to celebrate your moving in day an-" I pause and stare at her "Kobayashi-san are you...drooling?"

Her eyes widen and a hand quickly shoots up and wipes her mouth "Huh! No!" she lets out a nervous laugh before continuing "I just came to tell you the new address and give you my house number for future reference." she hands me off a note and I quickly pocket it before turning back to her "I'll be sure to visit you all every now and again to check up on Tohru's...maid work."

'It's been weeks and I still can't get over the idea of a dragon working as a house servant'

"Of course Shirou-san." She smiles slightly before putting her hands on her hips and making a light hearted sigh "If my new neighbours are anything like you then I think we'll be alright."

"Hopefully, remember Kobayashi-san I'm al-"

"Always happy to help" she cuts me off with a wave of her hand before looking at me "I know Shirou-san but you really should something for yourself every now and again."

I shrug at her and a resigned smile forms on my lips "I just like helping people."

She sighs at me in response "I know you do...I'm never going to convince you to live a little more selfishly am I?"

I laugh slightly at her "I've been told I'm stubborn like that." she shakes her head at me before turning away "Well, you were a good neighbour Shirou-san. I'll miss your cookin-" her eyes widen as she realises her slip of the tongue "You! I'll miss you!"

"Yes, yes Kobayashi-san. I'll be sure to visit you later."

She leaves and I close the door.

'Hmph' I think to myself as I walk back through the apartment 'I suppose this marks a slight breather for dragon high jinks. But I suppose I will miss living next door to them.'

It had been a several days since Kobayashi and her Dragon roommates moved out, no one had occupied her old flat yet so I was pretty much the only person living on the top floor of the building. I had visited Kobayashi's new apartment and it was certainly more spacious than her last one. Unfortunately this meant that I couldn't teach Tohru the ins and outs of house cleaning yet as the apartment had already been freshly cleaned out before their arrival.

While I still saw the two dragons my interactions with them were quite limited to when I would visit for Tohru's cooking lessons, she had gotten better but still had a nasty habit of putting her tail meat in the food which I hadn't managed to break her out of.

Root knows I tried. I really tried.

The smaller dragon, Kanna I found looked forward to my brief visits. Or rather she looked forward to my cooking, it seems that even though Tohru had gotten better Kanna seemed to prefer my cooking over hers as did Kobayashi. A fact which angered Tohru to no end and made her try even harder to beat me in terms of culinary skills.

She had no chance, I may have no pride as a magus or a swordsman but I make damn sure that my cooking is always up to my standards. A dragon who still thought that slicing up their body parts and mixing into curries was an acceptable habit had no chance of beating me.

Apart from those brief visits it seemed my days of Dragon based shenanigans had hit a brief lull in occurrence.

That was what I thought until today when I got back from shopping only to see the state of my apartment.

"So...Landlord-san...What happened?" I ask him, although I already had a sneaking suspicion of what had occurred here.

"On the insurance? We're putting it down on a gas leak." He said to me, and I face palmed 'It's always a gas leak with these things isn't it' I thought bitterly to myself as he continued "In actuality? We don't know. It's like your entire room was just Vaporised!" he exclaimed while pointing at the damage.

Indeed, my entire apartment looked like Saber had set off Excalibur in it, the only evidence that there had even been a room there to begin with was the large, burnt out section where my room should have gone.

I wasn't mad about the apartment being destroyed though, I didn't really own anything of value that wasn't irreplaceable. What I was mildly frustrated about was that I knew whatever did this had been magical in nature.

"I'm so sorry Emiya-san." The landlord tried to placate me and I just waved him off with a bitter smile "It's not your fault Landlord-san. I'll try to think of something…" I say and he turns away from me.

I remain there already running through the possibilities, obviously this was no gas leak and was the result of a magic based attack.

'But why? Was it a targeted attack by another Magus, did I step on some ones toes here by mistake? Who could possibly-'

"So...Your apartment got destroyed Emiya-san?" I hear a familiar voice call out behind me "That's quite a shame isn't it…"

'No…'

"I guess this means your going to have to move." The voice continues and I'm already moving my hand to my face "However! Luckily, I know the perfect place!"

'She didn't…'

"The building that Miss Kobayashi moved us into has spare apartments available!" I slowly turn around to face the speaker, I'm already familiar the dragon girl in front of me whose sporting the face of a person who hadn't just obliterated a small portion of a building "And one of those just happens to be next to our apartment! We get to be neighbours again!"

Tohru's smile and joy at the news would be infectious if it wasn't being delivered in the immediate aftermath of her vaporising my temporary home. I stare at that smile for a few seconds before I let out a rather resigned sigh "Tohru…" I jerk my thumb behind be at the damage and she flinches slightly, her eyes going between me and the missing room "Did you...do this?"

She lets out a nervous laugh and scratches the back of her head, because of course she did "I'll take that as a yes." I shake my head at her "I just have one question...Why?"

She maintains her little smile for a few more seconds before the façade falls away and reveals exasperation and she starts ranting at me "The neighbours are terrible! Miss Kobayashi can't sleep because they're always making noise and she keeps saying how she missed having you as a neighbour under her breath!"

"And this relates to your destruction of my apartment how?"

"Well...I figured that if I were to get you to move next door to us again then Miss Kobayashi would be happier…" she trails of and starts nervously pressing her fingers together as she avoids my rather heated glare at her.

"Great…" I sigh and shake my head "Well you haven't really left me with any choice have you." Its a statement rather than a question and Tohru is now firmly looking at the ground "Alright...where is this new apartment complex?" I've got nowhere else to go.

Tohru looks up and smiles brightly at me fist bumps the air, she's got nothing to be proud of with this little stunt, and speaks out with a cheerful tone of voice "Follow me then Emiya-san!" she turns away and gestures for me to follow, she starts mumbling something under her breath and I reinforce my hearing to try and make out what she's saying "-nce I show Miss Kobayashi that Emiya-san is our neighbour again she'll be so happy with me and then maybe she'll let me touc-" I turn off my reinforcement before I hear something which can disturb me.

'The second the dragons move away suddenly I'm moving with them...E-rank luck indeed…'

"So… I guess we're neighbours again Kobayashi-san" I awkwardly say while a rather surprised looking Kobayashi stands in her doorway, I had very little in the way of possessions thus moving in wasn't too much of a concern. I had been able to move in roughly an hour after I went to the landlord.

Funnily enough my apartment was once again right next to Kobayashi's, evidently fate or whatever wanted me to remain as close to the madness of phantasmal beats for as long as I was in this world.

"What happened you your old apartment Shirou-san?" my new/old neighbour questioned with a raised eyebrow. I looked her right in the eye "Gas leak." and left it at that, although my eyes briefly flicked over to the grinning Tohru in the doorway just behind her. Kobayashi cast a quick glance back at her before returning her gaze to me, if the loud sigh she let out and the rather exaggerated facepalm she gave were any indication, it was clear to me that she understood what had actually happened.

"Sorry Shirou-san…"

"It's no trouble" I wave her off "I didn't actually own anything of value in the apartment anyway."

"I was going to invite you to our house-warming party...but it seems you'll be having one at the same time won't you?"

"Oh no" I shake my head at her "I don't really have an interest in such things but I'll attend if you invite me."

"Thank goodness!" She sighs in relief and I'm wondering why she would be so glad with my presence ther- "Because Tohru's inviting her friends as well."

'She's invited what now?'

AN: Well...I had to move him somehow didn't I? But more importantly we'll be introducing most the of the other cast won't we?