(A/N) Noice, chapter 8.

How big a part of this version of Emiya is Archer? How much is Shirou? How much is something else entirely? He doesn't know, but maybe we'll get a better idea by the end of this one. Or not. Prepare yourselves for Shirou's horribly biased and not-yet-explained opinions of Aozaki Touko.

X

As I thought, the building was set up as a temporary exhibition. Though the interior was large, it could barely account for the sheer quantity of admirers that came to see her work.

Strangely enough, there were just as many magi as there were regular people, by the looks of it. Even without my sense of "smell", I could tell; dwellers of the moonlit world had a certain flair to them that couldn't be matched by those who were anchored to the mundane.

From the corner I stood in –the damn woman quite literally dragged me in, gave me a pat on the back, and took off– I saw my unwilling and unwanted target exchanging pleasantries with a pair of obnoxiously dressed men. From the looks of it, they were an unfortunate pair of Clocktower magi unaware of the amount of money the she-devil was about to squeeze out of them.

If they thought they could leave with happy wallets, they were wrong.

Good riddance. The more time she spent advertising her product, the more time I had to gather my wits.

I had to talk to her properly eventually, I knew that, but it was never going to be easy. If her insufferable personality wasn't bad enough, simply being near her had always lead to situations that snowballed into shitshows.

It said a lot about those situations that I've run into her more times as a Counter Guardian than over the course of my entire lived life.

…Short as it was.

Hm? She took out a briefcase.

…No, she was given the briefcase. I'd be hard-pressed to believe it was a simple purchase payment; there was an enchantment on the container that prevented me from seeing what was inside with a simple structural analysis.

Suddenly, I had much less time to figure out how to broach my issues with her.

"Excuse me, Miss," I called, catching her attention and momentarily distracting her from the exchange. I could tell immediately that the pair wasn't happy with the delay. They seemed like they didn't want to be here any more than I did.

"Did you make these puppets yourself?" I asked, buying time as I tried to spot anything strange about the individuals.

Interrupting high-profile dealings was undoubtedly rude, and should never be done if one wanted to maintain some level of respect or dignity. Unfortunately for them, I'm a child. If they didn't want "rude", then Aozaki shouldn't have dragged me in here, to begin with.

The woman didn't seem to mind too much, despite her clients' contrasting reactions. She nodded with a smile. "Why, yes I did. Did one in particular catch your eye?"

Ah. So that's who these two were. I should've recognized them sooner.

I switched to a more aggressive approach. I had the high ground for now.

"Hn," I nodded, though I pointed at the briefcase. "But I think that jewel is even nicer."

Archis and Galliasta froze.

Aozaki put a hand on her hip, eyes blinking away a momentary flash of surprise, but not much else. "Oh?"

It wasn't too much of a stretch to figure out what was hidden in the container. While structural analysis failed to show me what the briefcase was hiding, it did tell me a little about the briefcase itself. It was a custom-made Gehrer brand container made to look like a regular attaché, designed specifically with the security of high-profile jewelry in mind.

If nothing else, my ramblings worked well to catch them off guard enough so that they wouldn't leave just yet. I still had questions for –

"This took a strange turn, I must say. How about we all reconvene in the backroom? We'll have a little more privacy there."

Aozaki's suggestion brought my schemes to a halt. She has a backroom? How does she have a backroom in a glorified cubicle!? I only approached them because I doubted they'd try anything with a kid in public. But in private? All bets were off with this woman.

"A splendid suggestion," commented Galliasta, a young man with tanned skin and short-cropped blond hair.

Archis, an unassuming though otherwise well dressed middle-aged man, had nothing to offer in terms of conversation, but he did eye me wearily. He was probably thinking of how to best dispose of me so that nothing could be revealed to the wrong people.

Not that I was worried about these two in any capacity.

I may be physically wanting, but my magecraft was particularly suited to defending myself from these types. It was a shame I wasn't practiced in using it in such a way.

I'd have to up my training.

I made one last ditch attempt to keep under daylight. "Uhm, Miss, is it really okay to leave your store on its own like this?"

She chuckled with a dismissive wave of her hand. "No need to worry. I have my able-bodied team keeping an eye out.

When she gestured to the men and women dressed in security uniforms near the walls, I knew instantly that they were puppets.

A lost cause, then.

I followed the three through a door hidden behind an awkwardly large pedestal. I could only lament how unfortunate it was that I missed such an obvious thing. I'd have to place more effort in following Kiritsugu's work habits, if for nothing other than to avoid repeating such a shameful display.

The room wasn't furnished in any capacity. It was nothing more than a grey box with suitcases and a few crates piled against the wall.

"Now," Aozaki started, removing her glasses as she faced us, "I'd like to be filled in on the details, personally. I thought this sale was supposed to be on-the-low?"

That settled any doubts of my conclusions having been too assumptive. This lady really was the buyer.

Figures.

"It is… or it was," muttered Archis.

Her stare, now lacking any of her previous joviality, made me feel much more uncomfortable. "Then what part do you have to play in all this, I wonder?"

It was clear that any advantage my apparent youth might have given me had been thrown out the window. A real shame, too, considering I might've been able to break up the deal without issue if they couldn't call me out away from the public eye.

I'd have to dig myself out of my own hole. I could practically hear Kiritsugu giving me crap already.

"I'm here for them," I answered honestly, pointing at the runaways. "They stole something important from the Clocktower's department of mineralogy. The Lord wants it back."

Nothing was said between the three. They were probably trying to figure out if the "child" calling them out was being serious, or if he was making a bad joke.

That's probably what I would think, were I in their shoes.

Breaking the silence, Galliasta laughed. "Come, now. There's nothing much that you can do here, now is there? Listen, boy, I don't know where you heard such a contrived tale, but you'd be better off–"

CRACK

Archis shot a simple but deadly lightning spell in my direction, interrupting his partner, almost catching me off guard.

"Almost" being the keyword.

I could see. I could react. A strangely proportioned sword was traced to defend me before the bolt made contact. It was too wide and too heavy to wield properly, but it served excellently as a shield while being traced with the same ease and speed as any other bladed weapon from my reality marble.

A tense silence swallowed us whole following the attack and subsequent reaction on my part.

I heard Archis speak. "If what you say is true, then you cannot be allowed to live. Meluastea must not find us."

Surprisingly –surprising me, at the very least– Aozaki stepped forward to lower the older man's hand. "Edor, I was willing to follow through with this purchase in good faith because you're an old friend. You told me not to ask questions, not to look into it, and that didn't even bother me all that much at the time despite my suspicions. Now, though, I'll need the full story."

…There was something more to this "request" than the Lord had bothered to tell us. What was a nagging thought moments before was now a certainty. From the sounds of things, the "buyer" wasn't exactly clued in on the details.

Edor Archis scrunched his face and lowered his head in resignation. "After I learned what Meluastea was planning, I couldn't leave Kischur's Jewel in his possession. I had to run; get rid of it. When you said it had caught your eye, Touko, I jumped on the opportunity. Please forgive me."

Her eyes widened. "I thought this was just an exceptional magical jewel! For it to be Kischur's Jewel of all things…"

It was a name I'd heard before. Though the time and place escaped me, I could vaguely recall how some version of Rin described it. The prized possession of the mineralogy department: a jewel passed on by Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg himself, cultivated by every standing Lord of Kischur until the present day.

That was… a lot of magical energy.

"Wait. This woman bought it without knowing what it was?"

Ah. I must have said that out loud.

Aozaki pouted. "What can I say? It spoke to me."

"…"

"…"

"…"

Hold on.

"You mentioned Meluastea was planning something," I brought the conversation back on track.

I didn't get an answer. Galliasta looked like he was about to give me one, but a quick look from his partner cut him off.

Luckily for me, Aozaki wasn't having it. "Edor."

He didn't answer her right away. He asked me something first. "Lad, how much do you know about the Lord of Kischur?"

I didn't know why he was asking, nor why he thought he could believe anything that would come out of my mouth, but I humoured him. "Not much. He's new, so he doesn't want anyone finding out that he let a faculty treasure get swiped from under his nose. He wants all evidence of this mishap gone."

As expected, Galliasta didn't look convinced. "What are you, seven? Eight? A Lord who hires a child to clean up his mistakes is a desperate Lord indeed."

Despite knowing that I was under Meluastea's employ and the sword I conjured right in front of them, they were still underestimating me because of my age.

Good.

A shiver ran down my spine, I traced the feeling to find Aozaki's piercing glare at its source.

How lamentable. The dangerous one was still cautious.

She looked me in the eye.

I looked right back.

Without breaking eye contact, the lone woman urged her "old friend" to continue.

"Edor."

He sighed. "If that's really all he knows, then it can't be helped, though I say we dispose of him either way before I reveal anything… sensitive."

"Try it," I urged, barely able to keep the amusement out of my voice as my circuits hummed to life. Did I find Aozaki terrifying? A little. Did I think that anyone in this room posed a serious threat to me despite my handicap? Not at all. I'd find it difficult to kill her, to fight her even, but she would find that went both ways.

"Don't."

Again, it was Aozaki that put a stop to the feud before it could begin. The woman wasn't always a creature set on providing me with my own special batch of misery, it would seem.

"Are you sure?" the middle-aged man asked her reticently, and I couldn't help but mirror the thought. From their perspective, I was nothing but a mistake waiting to bite them in the ass if they didn't get rid of me.

"You two might find it a little more difficult to off the kid than you think."

I didn't know where Aozaki found these conclusions she was jumping to, but I didn't like that she did.

Her gaze hadn't once lost mine.

"From the beginning, Edor."

From the sound of it, she wasn't going to ask again.

It was Galliasta that took hold of the conversation. "You know how the faculty heads of mineralogy and archeology are brothers? Well as it would turn out, they don't get along all that well. The Lord of Astaire, who just so happened to be overseeing the project I was working on at the time, said that a few… favours could be owed were I to dig something up to incriminate the Lord of Kischur."

Judging by the twitch in Aozaki's brow, she didn't look too impressed with them. "So you stole Kischur's Jewel?"

Archis shook his head. "It's not quite that simple."

Galliasta continued. "Naturally, the first place I looked for was his workshop. Thanks to their familial connection, I was given access to certain unmentionable resources that allowed me entry."

"A Lord's workshop. You broke into a Lord's workshop for a favour."

As aloof as I knew this woman to be, she still had enough brain cells pinched together to know how ludicrous of a statement that was. As a spectator, I was inclined to agree.

Archis cut in. "That's where he found me."

Aozaki's cigarette was nearing its end, though she didn't make a move to reach for a new one. She was caught flatfooted, it would seem. "You? In the workshop?"

"He'd taken me captive shortly after his appointment, along with many other magi from other departments. Loathe as I am to admit it, I was likely a target due to my lack of connections within the institution that would notice my disappearance. The Lord of Kischur has been experimenting with using jewelcraft to further apostle research."

…I couldn't say that I expected this turn of events. Apostle research? Seriously? The man had been trying to perfect was basically amounted to zombie vampires –one of the few things the Mage's Association didn't let people do– and he still managed to land one of the elite roles within the institution?

Aozaki looked like she didn't know what to say, for once. "Edor…"

The older man's grip on the magical container tightened. "We were chained like animals. Knowing we were all going to die one way or another, he was free to subject us to his musings. He was on the verge of a breakthrough; all he needed was a container with enough power to supply his next attempt."

"Kischur's Jewel," inferred his old friend.

"It wouldn't surprise me if that was his actual goal when he vied for the open position in mineralogy: access to one of the most powerful yet protected resources known to jewelcraft."

The woman groaned. It was the closest thing to agitation I've ever heard from her. "Why go on the run, then? Why not just bring this up with Policies?"

"What would they do?" Galliasta scoffed. "We had no tangible proof, and we would be long dead by the time an investigation could be conducted within a Lord's workshop– assuming they'd bother."

True. The politics of the Clock Tower were strict, as fickle as they were. A workshop –a mage's most personal sanctum– could not often be forced into through legal streams under even the most dire of circumstances. The workshop of someone with the political sway of a Lord? Never.

I couldn't help myself. "Why apostles? And with jewelcraft? What could he possibly gain from this?"

"You're a mage, aren't you boy?" Archis asked me condescendingly. "What else? To find a path to the root; the knowledge of all things. It is accepted that the closer one gets to immortality the better their chances of achieving that goal, and sacrificing one's humanity is the most obvious way to do so. Why he needs so much power all at once, as offered by the jewel? I could only guess."

Hah. I took back whatever positive thoughts I had for Aozaki as they were clearly misplaced. Another encounter, another mess.

Shit. I had to go tell Kiritsugu now, didn't I? We were about to give this thing back to an individual so incommodious as to kidnap other magi for forbidden experimentation.

But first…

"Aozaki. How long do you plan on staying here?"

She was a nomad in every sense of the word. If she took off on me right now, then my arguments and efforts up until now were moot.

She sighed. "Truthfully? I thought I was gone the moment these two handed over my new piece of jewelry. I can't say I fully believe that to be an option anymore, though."

Good.

"If I can't bring the jewel back with me, then there are some loose ends that need tying up. I'll be back here tomorrow morning."

As I stepped back towards the closed door, I could see both Galliasta and Archis making a move to stop me. It was Aozaki that forced them to hold their ground.

"No, let him go. He'll be back."

"And how can you be so sure?" demanded the senior member of the Rocks Road college.

"He'll be back," she repeated.

I didn't like the way she was looking at me.

X

"I'm sorry, care to run that by me one more time?"

As I thought, Kiritsugu wasn't too happy with the news. Tch. As if it's my fault we were hired by an idiot. If you asked me, the old man should've done a better job of choosing our travel service provider.

Not much we could do about that now.

I repeated, "Lord Meluastea wants Kischur's Jewel for himself. He plans on using all of its power for one big apostle-birthing mess."

As it would turn out, despite the weight of current circumstances, I was petty and vindictive enough to relish the fact that the man didn't look like he had everything figured out for once.

"And the Red told you this, of all people."

I pushed past the discomfort I felt when he spoke of that moniker in order to correct him. "No, it was the two we were chasing, Alcmene Galliasta and Edor Archis. Aozaki was just the buyer; she didn't know the details either."

He rubbed his brow. "Didn't I tell you to stay out of trouble?"

I waved my arms. "And I didn't get in trouble, did I?"

What he actually told me to do was to come to him if anything happened. I didn't correct him due to a fifty-fifty split in logic that I both had to act before the opportunity escaped me and I couldn't be bothered to go all the way back to the hotel.

He… almost laughed. It was more of a snort. "They just let you go because you told them you'd be back tomorrow?"

I shook my head. "No, Aozaki did. They just went with it. From what I could gather, Archis and Aozaki were colleagues at some point in time."

"Then we know how they got in touch with her," he gathered.

All in all, he took all of that pretty well. Now we just had to pack our bags, wake Sakura, and–

"What time are we meeting them?"

"…What? We're actually going?"

I wasn't the same idiot I used to be, and this whole situation was more effort than it was worth. Dead apostles? Aozaki? There was already very little motive for me to go along with this whole thing, to begin with. Now? Forget it. I was absolutely serious about not knowing why that woman thought that she could trust me to come back because I hadn't ever planned on it to begin with.

Were people –innocent people– going to die as a result of my inaction? I would assume so, but I wouldn't allow myself to care about that. I had other priorities.

So why… why did she look at me like that? What did she know that I didn't?

To my dismay, my adoptive father read me like a book. "We can't just back out now. This isn't even about life, death, or morals anymore. If the Clock Tower finds out that Lord Meluastea has been conducting apostle research and we kept quiet about it, we'll be labeled as accomplices. Enforcers will be on our case faster than you can blink."

I wanted to ask how he figured the Clock Tower would find out, but the words sounded empty even to me. I didn't know the extent of Meluastea's abilities and influence, but I couldn't imagine they would stack up to those of a Grand Color who reached her rank by the age of twenty. She would lay him flat if she had to, and all his little secrets would be cracked open for the world to see.

Being wanted by the Clocktower was counterproductive no matter how you split it.

I sighed. "Fair. We can take our time, though. I can't imagine that slovenly woman operating a business through the waking hours of a day."

"I didn't know you had such strong feelings about the Red," he noted.

Laughing dryly, I shot back, "I feel a strong something, for sure."

He didn't know the half of it.

X

Kiritsugu and I made it to the pop-up gallery around nine-thirty the next day after making sure that Sakura had everything she needed back at the hotel. We let ourselves in, ignoring the giant "CLOSED" sign that hung on the door.

The interior was different from what I remembered. All the displays were pushed to the far corners, while a set of chairs that I knew she didn't have yesterday were grouped in a circle near the center of the room.

Noticing our arrival, Aozaki stared me down smugly while the pair of runaways looked at the person accompanying me with faces as white as sheets.

"Magus Killer…" mumbled Archis disbelievingly. Only Galliasta, who shared his sentiments, paid him any mind.

"You came," remarked Aozaki needlessly.

I looked away. "I said I would, didn't I?

Infuriatingly, her smile grew wider. "Alright then!"

It was once everyone had taken a seat in front of her that the woman stood up and lit a cigarette. Due to my young and inexperienced body, I had to make a conscious effort to stop myself from pinching my nose.

It was truly a god-awful smell.

"Be thankful Edor, I'll clean up your mess for you, though I'll also keep Kischur's Jewel as payment."

Galliasta made a move to speak, but Archis got his words out first. "That's fine. We're already fugitives, so it's not like we have any right to speak on the Clock Tower's behalf."

She planned on stepping in herself? That made things easier for us, but then why bother having me come back in the first place? Was she messing with me? I'd never put it past her.

I got my answer shortly as she finished, "I would hate to have those miserly academics breathing down my neck any more than they already are, however. I'm afraid that any further efforts required of me would have to be outsourced lest I take too much unwanted credit."

No time was lost figuring out who the lucky hired hands would be.

"And what would we gain from helping you?" I tried, though I didn't doubt for a moment that she knew just as well as we did how the Clock Tower's reports could paint our image if we denied her request. I wouldn't let her force a charity service out of us if I could help it.

She twirled locks of her hair between her fingers as she hummed. "Edor, how much was I going to pay you again?"

"Seven million swiss francs."

I balked at the number. She just had that much lying around? And she was going to blow it all on some random jewel?

"Mm... Then a portion of that, maybe? Let's say, five grand for your services."

My eyebrow twitched, though I tried to keep a straight face. This stingy woman!

"No deal," Kiritsugu denied before I could.

"Oh? No good?" she tilted her head at us, eyes widened innocently behind her glasses. "Then how about a favour?"

The old man looked like he was about to pass on that too, so I jumped on it before he could.

"Deal."