(A/N) Funny how this one came about, actually. At first, I was thinking, "Man, this chapter's gonna be like, 2k words max!". This was not the case. The reason that I thought it would be that short was twofold.

1. I didn't want to cut off the next part.

2. I wanted to give people the time to digest the mess that's going on in this chapter by dropping this stuff in doses.

As it turns out, the shortened chapter is still a pretty normal length compared to the rest of this story's chapters. Yikes lol.

Have fun! As always, check out the illustrations on Questionable Question and Spacebattles, and feel free to stop by my p a treon and grab the discord link (public post). Super easy to talk with y'all there (unlike ffn private messaging which doesn't work half the time lol).

Big thank you to noschittsherlock for beta-reading this bad boy!

X

They stared at each other from across the room. His Sekirei, still seated at the Izumo Inn dinner table, froze the moment that he walked in the door.

Musubi-san and Tsukiumi-san, who had come back from the hospital with him, smiled over his shoulder.

"We're back!" remarked Musubi cheerfully.

The words barely left her mouth before Kazehana-san and Kuu-chan nearly tackled him to the ground. He could hear a commotion upstairs; Matsu was rushing down the stairs to welcome him home too.

Minato smiled and laughed joyously.

He missed them. It had been too long since he had been able to see them all like this. Almost more than a week since he's seen Matsu since she really couldn't leave the property.

Hm?

Something wasn't right. They felt way too tense in his arms. Maybe it was because he was their Ashikabi or something, but he could almost instinctively tell that something was up.

"You're all right," whispered Kazehana-san quietly. "You're home safe now."

Oh. So that's it.

Minato gently pushed them all away so that he could look at them properly.

"Hey, don't worry!" he said. "It wasn't that serious. I'm fine now, aren't I?"

Matsu-san shook her head.

"No, it's not that. While you were away–"

"Did something happen?" asked Tsukiumi immediately without letting the other woman finish her thought.

She sensed panic, so now she was panicking herself. Musubi didn't offer any input, but she shuffled closer to him.

"Number Zero-Four and her Ashikabi paid us an unexpected visit."

Minato was caught flat-footed by Miya-san's voice as she came out of the kitchen. It took him a second to process what it was that she said.

His eyes slowly widened.

"That's– hmf!"

Before he could get a word in, his face was slammed into Kazehana-san's chest. While her breasts were very soft, her ribcage impacted his nose quite harshly.

"It's okay. We'll protect you. I won't let them hurt you anymore," she cooed into his ear.

Tsukiumi was not so soft-spoken.

"Just a minute! Why were they here in the first place? Were they after my husband?"

"No."

It was said with such finality that it was hard to believe that it was Matsu who spoke. This was probably the most sombre that Minato had ever seen her.

"They were here for me."

Miya's brows scrunched worriedly.

"You don't have to blame–"

"This isn't about blaming myself," Matsu snapped. "There's no point in sugar-coating things."

"Matsu–"

She cupped his hands in her own and he stopped talking right away. Her stare was really intense.

"Minato," she addressed him without honorific, "It's not possible for me to properly express how dangerous those people are– at least not in a way that you can truly understand. I need you to take my word for it, and I need you to promise me this: do not get involved with them again under any circumstance. If they antagonize you, get away from them. I don't care how you do it."

She "didn't care how he did it"? He didn't like the way that sounded, for some reason…

Musubi-san stepped forward and put a hand on the shoulder of the panicking Sekirei.

"Matsu-san. That's not possible, you know. We'll have to fight Karasuba-san eventually."

Matsu looked like she was just about ready to shout in her face before Tsukiumi-san added her two cents.

"I agree with this woman, for once. Number Zero Four caught us by surprise, but it won't happen again. Minato–" she spun on her heel and faced her Ashikabi head on "–I will defeat Karasuba honourably the next we meet. Don't underestimate m– your Sekirei," she hastily corrected with a cough.

Kazehana-san clicked her tongue.

"Don't be foolish, girl."

An uncomfortable silence overtook them. Minato was starting to feel uneasy about where this conversation was heading.

Kazehana-san took a deep breath and was the first person to speak again.

"There is no reason to take such risks here. We have the advantage in numbers. We need to crush them."

Miya-san's shoulders dropped in a resigned fashion. Knowing that things would escalate from here, she grabbed Kuu-chan by the hand and took her into another room.

Minato could hear the sound of his own heartbeat.

What are you saying, Kazehana-san?

Matsu-san grimaced.

"Even then, the risks are–"

"When I was younger, I made a promise to Karasuba-san!" announced Musubi. "That I would fight her when we're both at the top! Even if we're a little hurt, that doesn't mean that we have the right to be so mean!"

"Mean? No. It's necessary."

At that moment, when he saw Kazehana-san's eyes. Minato was a little frightened.

"Even if I have to kill her Ashikabi with my own two hands, nothing will stop me from protecting mine."

No.

"You-!"

"Kazehana-san!"

"…"

No words came out. Minato felt totally useless as a warm welcome had devolved into this.

No!

"No!" he finally managed to say. "Those two… they're not bad people! There's no reason to resort to… to that!"

Matsu-san was perplexed.

"Mina-chan–"

"Neither of them have ever tried to kill me."

For a second, he felt like he had managed to get through to them. They stared at him like deers would at headlights.

"It's hard to explain," he mumbled, his hands balled tightly at his side. "On that bridge, every time they had me right where they wanted me, they let me get away. Karasuba-san saved me."

"You don't know what goes through that one's head," Kazehana-san denied right away.

He wouldn't back down.

"And when you were defeated, her Ashikabi could have killed me right there. All it would have taken was for him to have pulled the trigger, but he didn't."

None of his Sekirei had anything to say to that.

There was no other way to spin it. If he was still alive right now, it was because that man wanted him alive.

"They're not bad people," he repeated for good measure. "Karasuba had been warning me from the first time we met. I even ran into her Ashikabi at the store before! I don't think he was on duty at the time, and he helped me with the groceries! Do they sound like a pair that wants to hurt us to you?"

Matsu-san was the first to understand what he was getting at.

"Mina-chan, are you saying that they're acting against their will?"

"Yes," he answered with conviction.

"And what difference does that make?" Kazehana-san shot back coolly. "Karasuba has been the same for as long as I've known her. If she doesn't want you dead for whatever reason, that won't be enough to hold her back for long. The Sekirei Plan is a free-for-all, Minato, remember that."

…At times like these, Kazehana-san was really good at making evident the fact that there was still a large gap between them. He couldn't help but feel like a kid compared to her.

But even so…!

He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. He tried to make himself look a little larger... if only to try to convince himself.

"They're strong, right? Then let's ask for their help."

Musubi-san peered over his shoulder and blinked owlishly.

"Help? Help with what?"

Minato closed his eyes.

Ah… I'm really saying it!

"I want to stop the Sekirei plan!"

No one was saying anything, so he pushed on.

"This isn't fair! All this fighting, all this hate… why does this have to happen just because MBI says so? Why can't Ashikabi and Sekirei just be happy together? If Karasuba-san and her Ashikabi helped us– no. If all the Ashikabi and Sekirei participating in this plan teamed up, there's nothing that MBI could do, right?"

Cautiously, his eyelids peeled back.

Tsukiumi-san was silent and contemplative. Musubi-san looked confused. Matsu-san… Kazehana-san… he couldn't tell what they were thinking at all.

Matsu-san sighed.

"That's a pretty naïve way to think about this, Ashikabi-kun."

"…"

He didn't blink.

She sighed and turned to the stairs. As she took the first step, she spoke over her shoulder.

"We can all talk about this again tomorrow. I'll… look into it."

Kazehana-san clicked her tongue and ambled back to the kitchen. Most of her anger seemed to have been drained from her system.

"No use, huh? I need a drink."

As the entranceway began to clear out, Musubi-san and Tsukiumi-san quickly took off their shoes and walked briskly towards the table. They were probably trying to get early dibs on the day's seating arrangements.

Minato stood in place for a moment longer, however. His eyes practically sparked.

That didn't sound like a "no" to me!

X

When the door to the apartment opened, Karasuba wasn't too quick to meet her Ashikabi at the entrance.

It was funny, actually. When he had left that morning, it didn't take longer than five minutes for her to feel like she was dying of boredom. If he had arrived an hour earlier, she was positive that she would have been up from the couch and hounding him in an instant.

However, as it stood, she was unwilling to move from her resting place. After having spent enough time lying on cushions, staring at her partner's left-behind digital tablet, she had found a position that she found particularly comfortable. Truly, she had to commend her Ashikabi for his excellent choice of furniture.

"We have to go. Where are you?"

It wasn't more than a few words, but they carried an amount of restlessness that she wasn't used to hearing from him. Though unwillingly, she forced herself into an upright position so that she could peer at him over the back of the sofa.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"I–" he blinked. "You're here?"

Karasuba lifted a brow.

"Yes? Why wouldn't I be? You asked me to stay put, didn't you?"

Her Ashikabi coughed into his fist.

"Never mind that. The trial went as expected."

"Everything is fine, then," she surmised. Would they be leaving so soon? What a shame. She had been looking up day-trip-worthy attractions for the past while under the assumption that they would have had a few days to spare before they needed to return to the Sekirei Plan. That "Stonehenge" place was funny to read about; lots of conspiracy theories and the like.

He shook his head. "No, not fine. I said that it went 'as expected'. Nothing went wrong, but nothing went particularly well either. This is just a wave that we have to ride out."

Now that she got a better look at him… he did look a little pale. Karasuba originally had zero interest in the trial's proceedings as she was under the impression that uninteresting legal jargon would account for the great majority of what would be discussed, but maybe more had happened than she had anticipated.

She let slip a short chuckle.

"Either way, you look like you hated every minute of it. What happened? There shouldn't have been any issues, right? You said it yourself."

He didn't answer her immediately. The man stared off to the side and sighed. How uncharacteristically melodramatic.

"Just because you can expect to run into certain people doesn't mean that you can really prepare for the encounter. That's all."

Hm. If he said so.

"So how soon are we leaving?" she asked, making her way to the bathroom door. "I'd like to take a bath if I have the time."

Despite the conditional statement, nothing about her body language suggested that she had any intention of not taking a bath, regardless of his reply.

"Right now," he said.

Her yukata was already off one arm, and her hand wasn't removed from the doorknob. Not a sound came from her lips, but the annoyed sneer that she shot him over her shoulder was telling enough.

"I refuse to believe that you managed to book a flight departing so soon after the trial. If you just want to get there early, then–"

"We're not going back to Japan just yet. As a condition for my release, they're making me accept a request from the Karillon Observatory. You have to come with me."

Karasuba scratched her cheek.

"Eh? I was supposed to stay out of the way, right? That's why I wasn't allowed to come, right? And why I had to stay here all day, right?"

If all of that was for nothing, then she would have been a little upset. Just a little.

He made a pained expression.

"There's no way that they wouldn't know that you're here, unfortunately. They have too many eyes in too many places. What we accomplished by limiting your exposure to the city was, at the very least, ensuring that they don't start suspecting what you are. As far as they know, you're under my employ as of a recent job."

"Is this what you told them?"

"Yes, so I'd appreciate it if you could act the part once we get to the Observatory."

At this point, Karasuba had abandoned her hopes of soaking in a bath for the next few hours. She stepped away from the door, tossed her yukata back over her shoulders, and tapped her chin.

"So… what is this place anyway? You're making it out to be a big deal."

Her Ashikabi stared at her blankly for a moment before walking to the couch and collapsing onto it. He must have been feeling really drained, huh?

"The Karillon Observatory is probably the oldest room in the Clocktower. There's a lot that they do there, but the crux of the matter is that they're in charge of deciding whether certain people live or die. The fate of anything that the Clock Tower deems to be "out of the ordinary" is passed through them and into the hands of whoever is chosen to be responsible of carrying out the order. Usually, that would be a choice group of individuals under their employ, but my "punishment" for killing a Second Owner is to take one such order without pay."

"And what do I have to do with this?"

"That's the strange part," he mumbled. "It almost feels like a tacked-on punishment to begin with. They know that I take contracts from the Observatory every now and then regardless, so I'd call it a waste of time. More than that, though… their wording was "Emiya Shirou will be pardoned under the condition that he and his affiliates complete a task presented by the Karillon Observatory'. They weren't really being discreet about it; they want you involved specifically."

She blinked owlishly then guffawed.

"What, did you push the blame onto me or something? That's not very nice, you know."

"I never mentioned you. You must have done something to catch their eye before the trial… somehow."

Karasuba stopped laughing.

"That can't be right now, can it? Besides, it's hardly fair to offload a task on someone's shoulders without consulting them first."

The way that he averted his gaze was a little suspicious.

"What it means to be someone's 'employee' is understood a little differently around here."

"…"

She stared at him in a fashion that even she found a little creepy.

Hilarious. He was hilarious, wasn't he? Everything about him was a riot. Deciphering the way he thought out what he was going to say was just the funniest thing to her– to the point that asking him to explain himself ruined half the fun.

He was so cute when he thought that he was being clever.

Karasuba pulled off her top and carried it into the bedroom, where she'd put on something more appropriate for the outdoors. She took a moment to relish the fact that he refused to look at her as she did so.

"I'll be out in a minute."

X

"Carry me."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Carry me… please?"

It was at the fifth set of stairs that Shirou had finally lost his patience. He stopped with one foot elevated higher than the other and shot her a dirty look.

"I'm not carrying you," he said for the umpteenth time in the past twenty minutes.

She didn't look winded in the least. This woman was just trying to bother him for the sake of it! It wasn't like she was pretending otherwise either. Her lips were pressed together tightly as if she were trying her damnedest not to laugh.

"It's not fun anymore though," the alien complained. "Everything's been looking the same since the second or third staircase. At least the trinkets at the entrance were pleasing to look at."

That was a barefaced lie and they both knew it. At no point did she stop to so much as glance at any of the Clock Tower's ornamentation. If anything, the artifacts that were openly kept as they made their way deeper into the facility were much more visually stimulating. They had just passed by a mummified Scandinavian troll in a glass display! A perfectly preserved, two-thousand-year-old cuirass! Those were way cooler than some pots and vases, right!?

…Or maybe he was just thinking about it the wrong way. He really couldn't tell what she did or didn't find interesting, at the end of the day.

He felt the need to change the subject in order to keep his cool.

"You remember what we talked about, right? Try not to be too conspicuous, and if anyone asks, you're not from any well-established family and you've been working for me for a few weeks now."

Karasuba kept pace with him once he decided to keep moving.

"Gosh, Ashikabi-kun–"

"Don't call me that while we're here."

"–You're pretty worried about this whole thing, aren't you? Do you really think that I'll be found out that easily?"

He paused.

"I don't know."

She made a face as if preparing for another quip, but shut her mouth as the unexpected answer came.

She allowed him the time to elaborate, which he did.

"There is no definitive way to analyse and classify things of a supernatural nature because there really isn't a universal 'sixth sense' for magi or anything." Shirou slowed his pace. The Karillon observatory was close, and he wanted to get this point across before they reached a point of no return. "For example, my own sense can be most closely compared to a 'scent'. You don't trigger that sense at all, and the most that I can say that you gave me when we first met is an uneasy feeling."

She scrunched her nose.

"Hah? You said I don't smell, right? It shouldn't matter if the same information is presented differently if there's nothing there."

"I didn't say that there's 'nothing there'. Just that I couldn't notice anything out of place."

The woman clicked her tongue.

"I'll just have to take your word for it," she acquiesced. He noticed her pause when the Karillon Observatory's giant entrance came into view. "I'll follow your lead, Master."

Shirou made a funny face.

"Please don't call me that. It's creepy in more ways than one."

Again, she laughed.

The doors slowly opened on their own once they weren't more than a few paces away.

Shirou swiftly put a finger to his lips in an effort to hush her. Karasuba rolled her eyes but thankfully straightened herself out.

She allowed him to lead the way as they crossed the gates of the Observatory. Without being too obvious, Shirou tried to take in his surroundings.

The Karillon Observatory was not so much an "office" for specific individuals as it was a "board room" for meetings of certain topics. Even knowing in a general sense that they would be sending him out on a job of a fairly specific nature, he had learned over the years that certain individuals were present for the issuing of the orders when different variables were involved.

For instance, if the job was for the hunt or retrieval of a sealing designee, then at least one of the current twenty-eight Clock Tower Enforcers would be in attendance. For "Peacekeeping and Preservation of Magic", as they called it, it often happened that a representative from the Holy Church would be involved in some capacity– an Executor, usually.

Dead Apostle hunts on a larger scale were rarely passed through the Karillon Observatory since the Vice-Director had a task force dedicated to that sort of thing, but smaller missions were given under the supervision of a representative from the Department of–

Shirou's blood ran cold.

Along with the usual operatives, a certain individual was seated at an elevated observation booth at the back of the room. It was in such an unintrusive location that it almost made it possible to miss the one person that would always stand out like a sore thumb no matter where she was.

As beautifully crafted as the chair under her was, it still didn't befit someone of her stature. Nonetheless, she made full use of the armrest in order to prop her cheek against her fist.

She looked uninterested, but that was to be expected. Someone like her shouldn't have been supervising such a matter in the first place.

Karasuba obviously caught onto his uneasiness, but she seemed to have taken "do not speak unless spoken to" to heart.

"Emiya."

A gravelly voice called out to them from the podium at the helm of the small room. A remarkably-old man in white robes stood behind it with a parchment scroll in hand.

Shirou bowed respectfully. From the corner of his eye he could see that Karasuba was imitating him. He might have asked her to do so, but he was pleasantly surprised by her cooperativeness on the matter. She had been more agreeable than not today, all things considered.

"Wizard Marshal Cadwgan," Shirou replied as respectfully as possible.

The old magus took a moment to stare at the pair impassively before nodding to himself.

"Raise your heads."

He waited for them to do so before addressing the woman at his side.

"You are Emiya's apprentice, I take it."

Her squinted eyes gave nothing away.

"That's right."

As soon as she said as much, the scroll was unfurled onto the surface in front of him.

"This will be the accused's –Emiya Shirou's– assignment in exchange for the conditional pardon."

Other men and women – all dressed in draping robes a shade darker than the speaker's – began their own tasks. Spellcasters and transcribers were present to ensure that the status quo was respected.

"Villagers in small towns to the north of the country are disappearing in large numbers due to presumably supernatural causes," the speaker recited. "Thus far, our camp has been able to divert public attention, but cases are beginning to emerge in more populated locations, and so this dilemma threatens to become a thorn in the Association's side. We request that you investigate and handle the issue as quickly as possible. Details such as locations and individual cases will be provided to you. Do you have any questions, Emiya?"

"Any restrictions on our methods?" he asked immediately.

"No."

"…That is all, Wizard Marshal."

A nod.

"Very well. Et tu, Apprentice?"

Both Shirou and Karasuba were caught off guard by him addressing her directly, though for two entirely different reasons.

Shirou was truly taken aback by the Wizard Marshal's actions. Very rarely –if ever– was an apprentice asked to speak in the Karillon Observatory.

He had a really bad feeling in his gut.

"Yes."

Wha–

His head whipped to the side and he glared at her as subtly as possible.

What was she doing!?

Karasuba's eyes were cracked open. She stared directly at the Wizard Marshal as if searching for something on his face.

If the elderly man was put off by her brazen behaviour, then he did not voice his opinion.

After a few more seconds, her eyes closed once more.

"…I change my answer," she told him. "No."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Very well. Dismissed."

Wizard Marshal Cadwgan left the podium. A pair of robed men followed him into a back room.

Shirou took a deep breath.

"Let's go," he whispered.

X

The instant they were off college grounds, Shirou spun on his heels and frowned deeply at his partner.

"What was that!?"

"What was what?" she shot back instantly.

He didn't have the energy for this.

"You looked like you were just about ready to start a fight with that Wizard Marshal!"

"I don't know what that is."

"That's beside the point! I asked you to not cause a scene. You caused a scene."

She pouted.

Pouted.

"It's not my fault. I wasn't really paying attention while he was talking, so I didn't really hear what he asked me. I figured that replying with a 'yes' or a 'no' would have been better than asking him to repeat himself."

"…"

Shirou's face was totally blank.

"I tried 'yes' first, but everyone was giving me strange looks so I switched my answer to 'no'. Everything worked out in the end, didn't it?"

Oh.

There were no deeper machinations going on there at all, were there? Could it be that she was just an idiot?

"And why–" he paused to take a deep breath. He exhaled. "–weren't you paying attention for the two seconds that he was talking to us?"

"Well, I was busy."

"Busy?"

"I was having a staring contest with that lady in the fancy chair. She started it, so I couldn't really look away."

His stomach dropped.

X

A woman sipped a cup of tea as she leaned back to stare at a pile of documents on her desk. The floorboards didn't so much as creak as her leather chair glided back and forth.

The sound of footsteps grew louder in the hallway.

The woman paused, then gently placed her cup in its saucer. She stared at the door until it inevitably–

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Come in," she spoke coolly.

A smiling figure greeted her. She offered them nothing more than the icy stare that she seemed to carry at all times.

In return, the newcomer bowed dutifully.

"Vice director Barthomeloi. You called me."

The woman maintained eye contact for a moment longer before allowing her gaze to fall to the papers strewn in front of her.

"You arrived sooner than I had anticipated," Barthomeloi remarked. "Surely a Clock Tower lord isn't so free of commitments to be able to answer a summons so quickly."

The lord in question sighed under their breath. A bad habit to be sure, but not one that she had the time nor willingness to correct.

"I was already passing through the building when I got word."

She nodded.

"You know why I called you here, I presume."

"Of course. You saw her at the Karillon Observatory, right? Emiya Shirou's 'apprentice'."

Barthomeloi hummed.

"I did. I have a right to fear the worst. If nothing else, she's nothing so benign as a student or co-worker. His reasons for bringing her with him to the Clock Tower are still a mystery."

"Then–"

"But nothing beyond that for now. I would like to ask a favour of you."

"…"

How bothersome. She didn't summon this person to her office just for them to refuse to speak their mind.

The vice director was ready to offer an ultimatum. This was a serious matter, so she was willing to resort to such unpleasantries. Thankfully, the lord ended their momentary bout of silence before she did.

"I understand."

"Good."

Slowly, Lorelei Barthomeloi rose from her chair and turned to stare out the window overlooking the nearby park from above.

Don't think that I won't find out what you're up to, Magus Killer.