Shirou could do nothing but stare at the ceiling of his room as the revelations of what had happened tonight replayed in his head.
"While the circumstances were quite unknown as to how that exactly happened, even to my recollection, the Fourth Holy Grail was indeed, responsible for the event known as the Great Fuyuki Fire."
He was quite suspicious of how a "gas leak" managed to kill so many people and caused a great fire that destroyed so many buildings at once as well. He suspected that it might be magecraft related.
But he did not expect it to be the result of a damn ritual that has been going on for 200 years.
Weirdly enough though...it wasn't this fact that shook up this badly in the night.
No...it was something else...
"Wh-what?! Dispersing my Servant!? You're crazy if you think I will give up just because this Grail is "malfunctioning". Why should I care about something like that? Why not just battle everyone here and now before it breaks down?!"
"While I don't agree with us fighting right now… why should we give up our servants? While I am not as aware of the state of the Grail… it seems to be functioning normally with our command seals and the servants being present so unless the Grail's error exposes the moon-lit world, why do we need to give up our right in this war?"
"While I can agree to just end my contract here with my servant, I doubt my servant would agree to just die quietly without her chance of granting her wish so I would also like to ask not to let us get rid of our servants…"
It was the fact that everyone out there, his classmates and even his teacher were just...ok with killing each other, all for some stupid wish.
And if what that Ruler guy said was true and something might be wrong with the wishing thing, then it might have the potential to cause another great fire, one that could potentially be worse than the last one.
Shirou had to take deep breaths to calm himself. No point in thinking about those conversations now. He still has an opportunity to convince them to not partake in this war and just give up. If that doesn't work…
Then he would at least try to prevent the others from killing each other, only eliminating the servants…
If only it was that easy…
He could barely keep up the fight between Saber and Lancer, how on earth is he going to fight against them in the first place? Let Saber take care of them? As much as that screams "common sense" that he should leave it to Saber...he couldn't…
It just wouldn't feel right for him to leave it all to Saber to fight his battles...he needs to put in the effort as well!
Getting up from his futon since he couldn't sleep for tonight, he heads out of the room to go towards his shed for some nightly training. He needs to be more prepared than ever for the upcoming conflict in one month. Hopefully, he will be ready by then.
As soon as he reaches the living room, however…
"Saber…? What are you doing?"
Shirou was greeted by the sight of his Saber, rummaging through his cabinet in the kitchen. On the counter, he could see various amounts of ingredients that he was planning to use for tomorrow's breakfast.
"Oh, Master! I am sorry if I have disturbed your rest, but I am simply taking stock of our ingredients."
"And why is that Saber?"
"It's because I will be cooking for you tomorrow, Master. Also, I just want to check just in case you were running low on ingredients which I can easily buy later on."
Shirou couldn't help but frown at Saber. It was already bad enough that she was fighting for him on this...Grail War death tournament and now she wishes to cook for him?
"Saber. There is no need for that. I will be making breakfast tomorrow."
"Master." Saber was now frowning at Shirou. "As your dutiful servant, it is my responsibility to make sure that the master will be taken care of. That includes necessities like food and water. Do not worry master, I used to take care of a lot of knights back in my day so this should be a piece of cake!"
Shirou shook his head. "Saber, I appreciate this, I really do but I can't have you cook in my kitchen so please, rest up and leave breakfast to me."
Saber shook her head as well. "I'm sorry master but I can not abide by your order. It is the duty of a ma- I mean servant to take care of their master. So I insist that you let me cook food for tomorrow."
Shirou was already developing a migraine from this. He didn't want to overwork Saber any more than she needed to but she seems really stubborn in cooking food for tomorrow. There is only one way for this to be resolved peacefully.
"Ok Saber. I will let you cook, only for dinner though. I will be cooking breakfast every morning, ok?"
Saber pursed her lips as she thought about Shirou's compromise for this dilemma. She slowly nodded her head. "Ok master, I will leave cooking breakfast to you. But if you cannot cook breakfast at any point, I will make them understand?"
Shirou could understand her reasoning and accepted it with a simple nod. "Ok, I am glad we have reached an understanding master. Now then...what are you doing this late at night?" Saber questions Shirou.
He sighed. "I...couldn't sleep, Saber. I was planning to go to my shed and do some magecraft there."
"Ok master. I will accompany you then."
"Hah?!" Shirou was shocked by Saber's words and tried to dissuade her. "No need, Saber. I'm just practicing my magecraft there, you don't need to come with me."
Saber shook her head vehemently. "Master, as a servant, my job is to accompany you wherever you go. Whether it's for you to practice magecraft, walk with you to buy groceries, or simply stroll around, I must always accompany you. We will never know when an enemy will attack you. It is better for me to be close at all times."
Shirou wanted to argue against this. He does not need protection 24/7 from Saber, especially at his own home. Yes, he is aware of how powerful the servants are in this war. Yes, they might be able to sneak around his boundary field without detection. And yes, Saber may be useful when he needs help with certain things.
But...he also liked his privacy. It would...help him clear his mind when practicing magecraft and help him focus on it more and he may be distracted if Saber might be around…
"Saber...please I just like to practice alone. I need to clear some thoughts in my head right now." Shirou pleaded with her, hopefully, it would go through to her.
Saber's expression is just as uncomfortable as his. And now...maybe he is starting to regret this course of action as well. He was about to just let Saber accompany him when she replied. "I understand master. Just call out my name if you need anything ok?"
Shirou nodded and with that out of the way, he made his way towards his shed. He noticed that the shed has been repaired pretty well and even well furnished, judging by the new paint and fresh planks. Did Saber also repair his shed too? She is doing too much already for him.
'Ok, I'm gonna give her a good breakfast when I wake up!' That is what Shirou swore himself to before heading into the fixed shed.
Everything in the shed has been neatly arranged. All the objects that he had collected over the years have been organized according to size from the biggest objects at the back to the smallest in the front. Meanwhile, mechanical parts or useless items on their own like bolts, pipes have been arranged in plastic containers for him to see.
"Oh wow...she arranged everything here…" Shirou was amazed by the work ethic that Saber did all on her own. And now he owes her a really nice breakfast. He will just practice magecraft for an hour and go back to sleep so that he can make breakfast tomorrow.
He picked up a pipe from the plastic, sat down, and began the process.
Trace on!
Saber could only sigh after her master left for his shed. The shed that she dutifully repaired mind you. She continued to rummage through the cabinet and fridges to check the new ingredients that she may have to work with in the future.
While she is aware of many changes compared to Teyvat thanks to the Holy Grail for providing this information, it didn't seem to provide her with all of the information, necessary for her maid duties, such as what to use to clean it ingredients to cook with or which ingredients are comparable to this world.
Some of them are very familiar, thanks to the similarities of some of the ingredients such as sugar, salt, and pepper, others she does not recognize like soy sauce or vinegar.
She will probably have to test these ingredients one at a time and see how they would affect each dish.
She looked back at where her master's shed would be. It would be very easy to just simply go into spirit form and watch over him from there.
But...it would be rude as he wanted privacy, probably from learning something from that church.
She noticed the moment she met up with her master that his demeanor changed. His eyes were hollow as if witnessing a great tragedy that befallen him before.
When asked about what they talked about, her master just told him about the confirmation of the Holy Grail War, a servant that is neutral to the war, and the fact that the war is postponed for a month.
'He was hiding something from me.' Saber thought sadly but she was never good at understanding emotions as well as some of the others. Not because of the lack of trying, but because she was so blinded by her own goals and ideals that she didn't know how to respond if someone was distraught. The traveler always notices this and helps her point out the issue, but now she is not here to help her this time around.
The only thing she can do though is just serve her master to the fullest of her abilities and maybe he might become better. Which means no matter how she wants to be there at his side, she has to leave him alone for now, and hopefully, things work out themselves.
Now then...there are other spices which she has not recognized in this world. Perhaps books in the library in Fuyuki may hope to solve her dilemma. Although she is afraid of leaving her master defenseless, she can trust that her own master will call for her should he be in trouble.
With that out of the way, she makes her way out of her master's house and towards the library. Hopefully, those books could help her learn new recipes, new ingredients and maybe perhaps help her understand people and emotions.
'I want to die.' That was her only thought as she is one step away from falling towards her death. Surely this height would kill her instantly if not...well she would die anyway so no point in dwelling.
The wind is blowing today, her dark blue hair being ruffled as her lone blue eye stared far away into the beautiful lights of the city. This view is quite magnificent at night but she can't dwell on this view forever.
The pain of loneliness, the pain of loss, the bullying...it was too much for her. She couldn't bear it anymore.
Hopefully, her next life will be better than this one. She takes one step off the building and falls.
…
…
...but she realized something…
She didn't want to die yet!
Her realization made her panic as she was already falling from a tall building, with only 10 feet left before her imminent death, and yet…
'Please! Someone save me, I don't want to die yet!' She cried out for salvation as only a few feet now stood before her demise.
But as fate would have it, she was saved. A black blur managed to stop her fall.
Her head was quite dizzy from the sudden stop of force before her brain rebooted. She just realized that she is on the ground, and yet she hadn't died yet, and let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh come on master! If you wanted to die, you should have at least bought my services first. Then your afterlife could have been at least less painful than this...maybe I'm not quite sure though since I have never visited the afterlife of this place before." A mischievous voice spoke out, startling the poor girl as she looked over to the speaker.
The girl was around 19 years old with a fair complexion and a petite build. Her eyes are a bright scarlet with white, blossom-shaped pupils, faded red makeup painted at the corners. She has extensively long dark brown hair fading to crimson at the tips. Her hair is styled into two high twintails parted with a zig-zag pattern. Her bangs are side-swept to her left, the layers framing her face curled inwards and the layers behind curled outwards, two shoulder-length locks of hair in front of her ears left loose. She wears a black porkpie hat emblazoned with a wooden talisman, adorned with a red plum blossom branch in bloom, along with an indigo tassel tied in a looped knot.
She wears a traditional red shirt with a mandarin collar, a black coat with a darker collar and sleeve cuffs, and black shorts with gold accents. A strange red gem with a flame symbol is embedded at the back of her coat, along with long rectangular coattails, and golden brooches attached underneath her coat's collar and waist. She wears a pair of mid-calf-length white socks, red straps with plum blossoms wrapped around the cuffs, along with low-heeled black dress shoes. Her fingernails are painted black, and she wears multiple rings. Her left hand has rings on the index and middle, while her right has the middle, index, and thumb.
Overall, the girl looked as if she was prepared for a Halloween party. The butterfly eye girl gave her a grin before bowing to her.
"Hello, my dear master. Assassin Class, Hu Tao, the 77th director of the Wangsheng funeral parlor and now your faithful servant. May I know your name or should I call you suicide girl?"
The aforementioned suicide girl shook her head as she gave her own name. "It's...Tachie"
Hu Tao gave her a small smile as she took Tachie's hand. "It is nice to meet you Tachie. Hope we can be friends."
Tachie had no idea what was going on anymore. But at this point, she doesn't care. She was just glad to be alive. And she will not waste this second chance at life.
Now time for her to pass out for a bit.
Omake: A Recipe Of Disaster
"Let's see, I got the chicken, green beans, and radish. I just need...chocolate, some whipping cream, and milk." Shirou muttered as he made his way through the store.
He left quite early in the day as he needed ingredients for lunch and dessert. Especially dessert since Saber has a thing for sweet food, especially the delicacy known as chocolate.
Shirou hasn't practiced making any desserts yet but perhaps it's time for him to expand his cooking repertoire and try making chocolate ice cream as his first dessert ever.
As he was making his way to the aisle where they store the milk, he began to hear a commotion near the entrance.
Curious, Shirou decided to eavesdrop on the people who were pointing at something in the sky.
Which was black smoke, coming from...somewhere familiar.
His eyes widened as he dropped his groceries and immediately pushed away anyone who got on his way to see the direction of where the black smoke was coming from.
'It's...coming from my neighborhood!' Shirou began to rush back towards his neighborhood, hoping that no one was hurt and that everyone got out safely.
When he made the turn towards his house though… he could stare in shock as the black smoke was coming directly from his house rather than someone else's.
Two people stood outside the gate of his house. Both of them were female, with purple hair. While one of them was short, with flowing hair, the other one was tall, taller than him by an inch with braided hair behind her. The shorter one was wearing the Homurahara Academy uniform while the taller one was wearing a pink apron underneath a white shirt with black shorts and sandals.
Shirou could only walk to the duo with vacant eyes as he watched his home, the same home where he promised his father to become a hero of justice, the same home that he has been living in for the past 10 years...just simply burn away to ashes.
"Sakura, Saber, what happened." It was not even stated as a question as his voice was monotone, completely devoid of any emotion.
The taller girl flinched while the shorter girl bowed her head to Shirou. "I'm sorry senpai! Saber-san wanted to know how to heat her food so I told her how to use the microwave as I went to prepare the kitchen to cook our lunch. I'm sorry for not looking after Saber-san."
Shirou could only stare at the tall girl dubbed "Saber-san" with an emptiness that was similar to when he walked through that hell 10 years ago.
"Saber."
"I'm sorry Master! But I told you I can't cook at all!" Saber cried out in frustration and embarrassment.
"But it's just heating your food...how…?" Shirou couldn't comprehend the person in front of him and instead decided to just watch the embers of his house as the firefighters arrived with hoses which they used to extinguish the raging fires.
He could only start blankly at the charred remains of his home…
'I'm sorry old man. I don't think I can fulfill your dream anymore'
Date Posted: Jan 23, 2022
A/N: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Yeah I know it's late but the last months have been...rough.
Typhoon hit, fucked our Christmas and New Year. That killed my writing mood. Had to focus on recovery first before I could even begin to write again.
So yeah...a good start to a new year. Oh yeah, Covid still a thing is yeah that's fun…
Anyway next update is Beyond the Forest so stay tuned for that.
Follow, Favorite and Review...anyway Xian you guys later. Chow!