Chapter 7 / Fear Only of the Regrets That You'll Leave Behind

All I could feel was the cold pavement underneath my body, despite the weather being sunny today. Even in the midst of that warmth, there were shadows that were left untouched by its brilliance. It felt better to be lying down here, forgetting about the rest of the world and to allow myself. There was no chance I could mess anything up if I shriveled up here until I was called.

"Kuro? H-Hey, Kuro!"

So much for tucking my head in a hole while this situation blows over.

I could feel the prodding of Kuko's pawpads nudging up against my arm, probably checking to see if his owner was okay, but my cat didn't have the ability to talk. Especially in a voice that was so familiar to me, calling me by a nickname that only one person would say. My vision steadily returned to me from my daze as I was stuck with a headache scratching against the thicket of my skull.

With a slow push upwards, trying to be careful not to suddenly collapse underneath my weight, I glanced over to the voice's owner with a wincing expression. Kuko seemed happy that I was getting up, but more importantly, he wasn't wary about the person before us.

"E-Eriko?"

"Taking naps in the middle of alleyways isn't exactly my idea of a past time. Jokes aside, what exactly are you doing there? I thought you were injured or something."

My surprise caused myself to stagger, but Eriko caught me before I could hit the ground again.

"Hey, don't be pushing yourself. You looked a bit messed up."

She helped up to my feet, but I could only feel like I could stand if I was leaning against a wall. It was difficult to let my legs support themselves and even with the crutch, I found myself sliding back down to sit against it instead. Regular breaths were too far inbetween the heavy ones, letting a few coughs claw its way out of my throat. Kuko came onto my lap, reading my distress on my expression and tried to make me feel better by cuddling up there.

If my cat could see it, then it was pretty obvious to Eriko. Her priorities were the same.

"How are you feeling?" She knelt down to check my body. "You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

As she lifted my hand, the memory of my palm being impaled by Saber's dagger flickered in my mind. The gruesome agony that I suffered in its aftermath and despair that wallowed within my heart surfaced for a split moment, only for me to realize that those emotions were simply from recollection.

When Eriko lifted up my hand, the wound hadn't been there.

Where there had been a hole where the dagger struck, there was my flesh and skin, as if nothing had happened to it. I consciously took my other hand and touched my cheek, knowing that I suffered a grazing cut against it. There was no blood on my fingers when I pulled my hand back to see it or any stabs that suggested it even existed in the first place.

On top of the Holy Grail War and the underworld existence of magecraft, this was becoming another mystery to add fuel to the fire. Was I healed by someone? Did someone come by before Eriko found me to remove all of my injuries? This certainly wasn't within the realm of any medical procedures, despite me not knowing much about that field, but I knew that this was a fantasyland sort of deal.

And if it was that, then it must have been the work of magecraft. Could such abilities have incredible properties like that? I hesitated to think what would have happened if things like this made it out to the reality over its boundary. I could say, at the very least, that magecraft must have been a powerful field and it's pretty understandable why this sort of knowledge is kept to a limited range of people.

And yet, who could it have been? Why would they come heal me like this? There was no way I couldn't wrap my head around the reasoning, even if I could easily accept that magecraft could exist.

"Kuro, you're making a pretty blank face right now. Is something on your mind?"

"A-Ah, no. It's nothing important…"

"Anyways," Eriko glanced back at my hand, "I don't see anything bad. Not even a bruise, unless it's all in your torso. Anything broken?"

"Not that I know of."

If my injuries healed up already, they should have left some type of scar. Judging from Eriko's reactions, there was nothing to indicate it as such. If there was some sort of new marking on my face, she would have already pointed it out to me.

"So you're telling me that you actually decided to take a nap in the middle of an alleyway?" She let go of my hand, sighing with a shaking head. "Are you kidding me?"

"I don't think it was my choice to do so, but…"

There was still something else stuck in my mind.

The whole reason why I came to this alleyway was because I saw that while we were heading down the city's streets. Eriko looked at me with a dumbfounded look as I mulled over my words, but if I hadn't seen her being chased down by a mysterious figure, I wouldn't have gone here in the first place. Even then, I didn't know if what I saw was the truth, so I just needed to confirm something.

"What are you even doing here, Eriko? This is the middle of an alleyway."

"O-Oh, me?" She sheepishly pulled back and rubbed the back of her neck. "I sometimes use these alleyways as a shortcut to get to places quicker. Just hear me out on that. It's much better, walking around the block when I could just head straight there, you know?"

"I guess you would know all of the roads around downtown. You live here, after all."

"I mean, not here, but yeah. My building's right down the street." She pointed down the alleyway with a backhanded thumb. "If you're feeling tired, I could bring you over there. Better to sleep at my mother's apartment than the cold ground."

"No, I don't want to disturb your mother with these sorts of things."

"She's not home right now, so it won't be a bother! It'll just get your energy back up, because it's pretty obvious you're acting sluggish right now!"

"Are you sure about that?"

I didn't have any real problems in coming to Eriko's home.

I've been there a few times already with Riku for some school projects and to hang out. I even know what her room looks like, from the frilly bed stacked with stuffed animals to the wall of pictures that she has of her friends. It was simply because in this particular instance, there was more to it than hanging out at a friend's house.

Albeit, I couldn't really tell her about the Holy Grail War and whatever magecraft might exist.

She knelt down and grabbed my hand firmly, causing me to notice that she was wearing a thin glove. It looked rather decorative and it certainly suited Eriko's fashionable tastes, but I don't recall her wearing any outside the winter time. Maybe it was something through current trends. I wouldn't know much about it.

When I looked back up, she had a frown stuck to her face.

"Is something wrong about heading to my house?"

"I, uhm… I don't really…"

"Ugh, fine. Then I'll figure something else out, but first..."

Her hand extended out once more, but this time, it was to get me off the ground. I merely stared at it with emptiness, as if I'd forgotten what type of gesture that was.

"Are you going to get off the ground or what?"

"R-Right."

Finally finding the strength in my arm, I reached out and allowed her to pull me up to my feet. Kuko was able to react quite easily by jumping up onto my shoulder before he could slide off my lap.

"Thanks, Eriko."

"You can thank me by telling me what happened here. If you were here for leisure, don't tell me about it, but you have Kuko here. That would mean no one was home to look after him, right? You went shopping or something along those lines with your sister and your mom. Tell me how close of a guess that was!"

As she was one of my close friends, she was pretty insightful in picking up a few little details like that. Riku would have been able to come to the same conclusion if he was before me right now. I've expressed my distaste for leaving Kuko alone in the house for several reasons, so having her predict that part of the situation had been completely expected.

"That's pretty close."

"But if that was the case, what are you doing here? Did something happen?"

How was I supposed to tell her that my sister got kidnapped by an opponent of the Holy Grail War and Archer, having such supernatural strengths, chose to follow their tracks to save her? All the while I spent my time passing out and being no use to any of them.

That glare that Archer gave to me of his disapproval and disappointment was burned to my memory. All that bravery was for nothing if I didn't have a plan that could benefit more than what she had in mind. It caused me to grimace, breaking away my eye contact with Eriko.

"..."

"You have a habit of dismissing a lot of things that you don't think are important, Kuro," Eriko sighed, putting her hands on her hips while leaning slightly forwards to me. "This isn't one of those cases, is it? You always try to act like it's no big deal whenever something comes up and you don't want to talk about it, but you're acting wildly different."

"Read me more, why don't you?" I grunted. "It's just that I…" My words trailed off, not even having the energy to respond to my friend in a snarky attitude."

What was it that I wanted to say? What was it that I wanted to know?

Biting down on my lips, Eriko stayed silent, letting the echoes of the alleyway carry out the subtle ambience of the streets outside of it. She gave me my time to collect myself, but all I could find was a frustrated fist, clenched up in defeat. My heart agonized in conflict, desiring for me to close my eyes and wake up from this wallowing despair.

"Kuro." Eriko called out to me. "I think you're losing your sense of self from whatever might have happened here. This isn't you."

"Maybe it really is me," I grumbled with a dying voice. "Maybe I was like this the entire time, but I was just blinded by my own delusions."

"What do you mean by delusions? I'm right here, telling you otherwise!"

"Aren't you saying that to make me feel better?" Strength left my fist, dangling its fingers down. "All I am in the end is a useless piece of crap who can't even keep his words straight."

"Oh. Wow, it's bad. Whatever happened here must have destroyed your confidence."

Before I could even remark, Eriko grabbed my hand firmly and yanked me over to follow her. My eyes widened, not knowing what was happening and I started stammering in confusion.

"W-Wait, where are we going? I don't really see a reason to head to your house because, well…" Reasons couldn't surface, but I didn't want to be of any bother to her. She wouldn't accept such an explanation if I said it out loud though. "Seriously, just let go of me. I'm… fine…"

"Do you sound fine, Kuro? And before you make up an answer, it's a resounding no. You don't sound fine. You sound like you want to curl up on a bed and lock yourself in your room! That's not the Kurogane Yoshida that I'm familiar with!"

"But I don't need…"

"Just be quiet and follow me for a bit."

She told me to follow her, but it felt more like she was dragging me along against my will. My feet struggled to keep up with Eriko's forceful pace and after heading down a few turns, we arrived outside of the alleyway where people were still going about their normal days. They were unaware of the incident that happened right between the spaces that they were familiar with.

Eriko let go of me at this point, considering how it might have been odd for a girl to be yanking a guy around the streets like this. Her eyes rolled over to me silently, as if she was trying to pull me along by those glares itself. Whatever she had been doing, it was working as I found myself begrudgingly and tiredly walking in her trail.

I didn't realize we weren't actually heading to her apartment until I noticed that we arrived at the train station instead. This was the path she would take to go to school, but it was also a way for her to visit Riku and I. There weren't many guesses as to what she was planning, but before we headed inside and paid for fares, my feet found themselves stopping.

"Are you bringing me home?" I found myself asking. "I… I can't…"

Without Archer or Shiro, there was no way that I could return home. My parents wouldn't be appreciative about losing Shiro to a kidnapping, to put it in the utmost lightest sense.

Eriko shook her head. "If I was bringing you home, I would have told you that ahead of time. We're heading somewhere else, so stop stalling yourself and come over here."

She pulled me along again, noticing there weren't as many people here as there were on the streets. She even paid for my fare and we sat ourselves on the somewhat empty train. The direction was still heading towards my house, but I decided to put some trust in Eriko. Underneath all that light-hearted expressions and smiles, she cared about her friends deeply.

If having me come back home was evidently making me uncomfortable, she wouldn't do it if it wouldn't do me any benefits. And yet, I couldn't figure out where we were heading the entire train ride. We even got off the stop that would have been where I got off to go back home if Shiro and Archer were still with me.

However, that path split off as we arrived where we were supposingly headed. I merely stood in silence and confusion as Eriko ran up ahead to the place, throwing herself onto a swing seat. We came to a certain park, devoid of people around this time. The slides were generally well kept and the sand underneath the play-structure had remnants of holes, dug up by children. Just looking at them brought back memories, but I caught myself smiling instinctively and broke away from that.

I looked back to my friend.

Eriko hadn't explained anything yet, starting to swing herself back and forth, but with minimal effort. I don't think she was trying to get any great movements, letting herself hang there as she looked at me. A hand raised up from her, beckoning me to come over to take the second empty swing seat beside her.

I wasn't someone that liked to go on swings and she knew that for a fact, but it seems evident that I didn't have to do anything crazy here. Taking my time, I walked over and sat myself next to her, letting my legs stay idle against the sandy soil. A cold summer breeze came by, messing up a bit of my hair. It sent a slight shiver down my spine and I had to zip up my jacket, but I ended up subconsciously fixing my hair up as well.

Eriko started chuckling.

"What's so funny?" I asked. "You drag me along to a park, just to laugh?"

"It's not that.. I just didn't take you for someone that cared about his appearance."

"It was just my hair. There was nothing too important about that."

"Then why'd you fix it in the first place? Your answer was what I expected, but you didn't comply with that."

Why did I do it? Without realizing it, it seemed like I've taken some type of subconscious perception to make myself look cleaner in my personal display. My thoughts told me to take some jeans along with me on our shopping trip, but it never sunk in that my preference were cargos. My mother stuffed jeans into my closet for the matter of choices I could have for my outfits.

This was probably one of the few times I actually wore these jeans.

Still, it was obvious why I tried to look my best. It was because of Archer's presence.

"Never mind that," Eriko teased as if she already knew I came to an answer. She peeked her head out, trying to grab my attention again. "Why don't you say what's on your mind? Between me and you here, I promise you whatever you say won't leave this park."

I didn't know where to start or what to even say. Silence seemed like the best thing to keep to my lips, knowing that I needed to keep this whole Holy Grail War a secret from outsiders. Nevertheless, my memories kept playing back to the alleyway. From the sheer power and ability that Saber and his master demonstrated and the control they kept through our confrontation, to Archer's expressions she gave before heading off by herself to save my little sister.

"I feel… useless."

Eriko was quiet as my words started coming out without a filtered thought.

"I just feel so damn useless. It's frustrating me, but that's all I could do. I can only frustrate myself and that's the limit to my capability." I leaned forwards with my fingers shaking, even as they were grasped together. "I feel like I can only mess things up further."

Reflecting back on the abrupt promise to Archer, it just didn't seem possible anymore. To grant Archer' wish by winning the entire war? Please, if I couldn't do anything to our first pair of opponents, what am I going to do towards the other possible encounters? Nothing, except to hide my head underneath the ground and hope everyone just deals with each other. Given Archer's attitude, a cowardly act like that wouldn't be appreciated by her.

Archer was taking this war seriously. She had a dream she wanted to make true, whatever it might have been. Although I wanted to be the same in taking it as seriously as she did, I wasn't in the position to do so. A weakling should not have aspirations of a strong person or else, they risk messing things up for themselves and others around them.

Why did I have to learn that lesson through practice?

Why did it have to sink in when it actually mattered?

I was scared. When Archer told me to run away, I thought I could be fearless, but I was anything but that. The truth hurts, it hurts so much. My hands kept trembling, but Kuko felt them while on my shoulder and jumped down to my lap. He kept purring, rubbing his head up to my body.

"Look, see? Kuko is trying to look out for you," Eriko smiled. Before I noticed, she was already off her swing and she placed her hand on my to help keep it still. "I am too, but honestly? It's not an unfamiliar territory that you're talking about."

"Not an unfamiliar territory? What are you talking about?"

"Are you really making a girl spell it out for you?" With a pout, she let go of me and playfully held a finger next to her lips. "I'm saying I've had my fair share of those sentiments too."

"... I'm not talking about the severity of being carried and covered for on a school project."

"I-I'm not talking about that either! And I said I was sorry about that one, alright!?"

She sighed and continued, all while I couldn't muster up energy to even react to my little jab.

"Look, you know how my father has his unusual hobbies, right? I know I don't talk much about it, mostly because I always keep on ignoring it whenever he tries to do something around it."

How could I not? She would always try and escape her father, who lived in a separate place than her mother, whenever he was going on whatever he was doing at the time. It's the reason why she pops up by the cafe so often, almost as if her third house was there. Or fourth. I'm not exactly sure how frequently Eriko stays over at Riku's house, mainly because I don't bother to ask.

Though, I do have to wonder why her parents are living underneath different roofs. From what I know, it's not as if they're divorced or anything like that. I remember that she said she was abroad with her mother while her father stayed in the Tokuwa District for most of that time, having the occasional visit every so few months. It was only when her mother finally settled down thanks to her workplace's alterations that she was finally able to move from being homeschooled to a proper middle school.

"What about it? Didn't you say you didn't mind it much because of what he does for a living?"

"Yeah, I guess. Sometimes, I kinda wished that wasn't the case."

I asked her, but I didn't actually know what jobs her parents worked. Though, it seemed like her father was constantly busy, but to blow his spare time on his hobbies instead of his family, that would have been a choice Eriko needed to become comfortable with.

"But in this particular circumstance, I really wished I ended up listening to my dad. I made some pretty bad assumptions and ended up messing everything up for him. At some point, I guess I started to wish he cared a bit more about his wife and his daughter than his hobby and I ended up sabotaging him on purpose."

"Sabotaging…?" I stared at Eriko as she slowly sat herself back on her swing. Although her smile was radiant, I could see the bitterness underneath as a close friend. "What the hell did you do?"

"Those details aren't really important, but it turned out that he was using his hobby to help him with his job. I didn't find out the first time because he thought it was an honest mistake and believed it could be salvaged, only to figure out the next time that I did that again, it was on purpose. He talked to me about it, causing me to realize I screwed up."

Eriko was always known to be someone with little flaws at school, so for her to be admitting her mistakes so clearly, it was unheard of to any of her classmates. Though, it wasn't the same for me. I sighed, giving Kuko some head rubs as she kept talking.

"But honestly, I kinda wished he would explain something like that more concisely!"

"Isn't it still your fault for not showing that you were willing to listen in the first place?"

"Okay, but he keeps going on tangents! And he's always so vague and misleading with the way he talks! I've never introduced you to my father because he's so embarrassing! I haven't even let Riku meet him yet!" She had a lot of pent-up emotions behind her opinions on her father, as she leaned her hands on her laps and pouted with some frustrated kicking to the air.

"Does that even mean anything?" I ended up asking without a second thought. "I'm sure your father loves you enough to forgive you for what you did. He even cleared up the misunderstanding, so that you know what you shouldn't do next time." It contrasted greatly with the atmosphere Archer had left me. "For me, I'm not sure I'll be getting a next time to prove myself."

"My dad might have forgiven me, but I certainly didn't. That's why I'm trying to help him out as much as possible, at least for any relation to the job he was working on. I'm still not exactly onboard with his hobby, but I'll swallow some of that pride to fix my mistakes."

How could I do the same thing? To fix the mistakes that I made? It was already done for, resulting in the situation I'm in right now. Anything that I could do to alleviate the situation's direness was requiring a strength on a typical Master's abilities. Since that was impossible, the only thing I could do was nothing.

No matter what, I couldn't do the same thing.

I couldn't forgive myself. I couldn't fix my mistakes.

"You're thinking something depressing right now, aren't you?" Eriko's voice snapped me back. "It's written all over your face. The way that you frown, it's not a natural look for you. You couldn't possibly think that you can't do anything about it, right? Whatever it might be?"

So apparently, it was really easy to read me? If that was the case, I've never really noticed it, but it would explain how Riku was able to pull me aside so easily with confidence in what he wanted to talk about. All I could do was shrug while I held Kuko a bit closer to me.

"Why are you scared of doing something about it?"

"I'm going to mess it up even more."

"Of course you will, especially that attitude."

"I thought you were supposed to cheer me up."

"Well, I'm not doing it with empty words." Eriko chuckled while I was silent, not knowing what was so funny. "I thought you were the type of person to put in some effort in what you do. Even if there was a chance of messing it up even more, wouldn't you still go ahead?"

"You're just saying that."

"It's true though. What did you do when I messaged you with that little prank of mine a week ago? Did you stay idle and wait for our safety to see if I was playing around with you or not?" Eriko shook her head before I could answer. "You didn't. Even when you thought it might have been dangerous, you still went ahead to look for us, just in case that something did end up happening."

"I don't see the relationship here. I was just doing what I thought was right."

"And do you really think that sitting around here, doing nothing, is the right thing for you to do here? What did you feel when you found out it was just a prank? Or when you found out that we were likely safe?"

"Relieved, I guess. Felt like I could at least move on."

"Is that the case here?"

Of course it isn't. Even if we can have the best case scenario in that Archer could get my sister back and somehow defeats Saber in the process, the end result is that our relationship is strained. There was no way I could ever look at Archer in the eyes again, knowing that I was the person that let her down. That feeling crushed my chest, making everything hard to swallow. My dignity, not just as a Master, but as a person, would sink down beneath the sands we stood upon.

"I know you got some spirit left in you." Eriko reached out and stretched her arm, patting me on the back pretty hard. "I actually came with a different thing in mind, but seeing you all broken like that, I couldn't leave it as it was."

"A different thing in mind?"

Eriko giggled before she got off the swing. It looked as if she had enough of staying there, so I got off as well. Kuko reacted appropriately by climbing back up to my shoulder as I watched Eriko walk over to the play-structure's perimeter. For a moment, it felt like she was a different person, holding an air of unknowing maturity that I was unacquainted with. Or maybe, it was because she always acted so freely that I never noticed when she was serious.

"Do you remember when we first met, Kuro?"

"When we… first met…?"

What was she going on about now? Though, it wasn't as if I needed any refreshers on that. Her arrival in middle school was one of the talking points of that year, as she immediately became rather popular in the school with her beauty and personality. At that point, I would never have guessed that I would be close friends with her in the near future.

"Riku and I were heading home from the arcade when rain started to start pouring. I remember trying to run back home as quickly as possible, but we stopped when we saw you, sitting in the rain at the… park…"

It completely slipped my mind that this was the same park where Riku and I first met Eriko.

While we were heading home, the sight of the popular transfer student caught our attention, but something about it was eerie. Not to mention that she was willing to be soaked by the rain while sitting at the swings, she was by herself and kept her eyes on the ground. It was a complete contrast to how we saw her at school. She didn't even notice us passing by and while it was tempting to ignore it and pass it off as her own business, Riku and I were still rather curious kids when we were young. If the dangers of the Mihoji Forest weren't enough to ward us off our search, then something like that wasn't any problem.

That's why we didn't hesitate much in approaching her, but we didn't realize we would have been making a life-long friend by helping her out that day. I remembered how she was awfully dismissive, but when push came to shove, we brought her over to the cafe and let her spend some of her time there.

Riku nor I had asked about her circumstances. We had simply brought her over to get herself dried up from the rain and to play around the upper floors a bit. However, it really felt like she was closing herself off on purpose. It became clearer, in retrospect, that she was wearing a mask at school, always keeping distance from everyone despite how popular she was.

"And yet, you kept trying to make a crack in that shell of mine. If it weren't for you two, I probably wouldn't have the fun life I have with people. No matter how many times you failed or no matter how many times I tried to push you away, you two never really cared about that."

"You're thanking us for that?" I groaned. "Riku and I only did what was second-nature to us. If we see someone hanging their heads down like that, there's no way we can just ignore them."

"That's why I know you're not acting the way you usually are. The Kuro that I know wouldn't be down about something like this. He would already be out there, trying to run it through again no matter what type of risk was there."

"You make it sound like I'm a dumbass."

She snickered, peeking her smile over her shoulder for me to see. "Maybe. Maybe not. You know, a dumbass would be a person that knows his regrets and still shoulders them out of fear, despite not having the opportunity to pass them yet."

"To fear my regrets?"

The moment she made me question that feeling, I suddenly didn't know what exactly I was scared of. Both decisions, in hiding and in helping, were both frightening in their own regards. It just felt easier to not do anything about it, letting myself be a victim to time itself.

"That's why you have to go for it while you still have the chance, right? That's why I'm helping out my dad, so you should do whatever you need to do to make sure you won't be looking back at this moment in fear. That's what you taught me before."

"Me, teaching you that? I don't recall doing that."

Eriko widened her eyes for some reason before wryly laughing it off.

"R-Right, right."

"Besides, I don't think I would be the reason why you seem so mature right now. You're making me look bad here."

"As bad as seeing you wake up in the middle of an alleyway?"

"Shut up."

"Yeah, now that sounds like the Kuro I know."

Even if she said that, she still didn't have any context. What was it that I could have done without any special abilities at my disposal? As I was pondering the possibilities, none of them looked to be favourable, but my phone rang with a notification.

I pulled it out, somewhat surprised it was still intact from the fight. I hadn't thought about checking my phone for damages, but small cracks on the screen, it could still display its contents with ease. It was my mother and while I was worried that she might have been checking up on us, all I saw in the message was some file attachments.

They were pictures of Archer while we were out in the mall. She looked just as beautiful inside the image as in real life, only losing to a look directed to her. All the different clothes she had tried out were sent over my way with my mother adding in a winking emoji at the end, saying that her future daughter-in-law looked great in them.

However, there were a few photos that I wasn't aware of. They were us walking together. Shiro was walking in between Archer and I as she was leading the both of us through the mall. It looked so peaceful and honestly, that was something I wanted to save. Shiro was smiling, Archer was smiling, and I was smiling. Moments before we went out to eat, we were all pretty happy.

That fear of regret slowly transformed into desire.

I wanted to save this moment. I wanted to make more of these memories.

There was no way that I could stand idle. No matter what may lead into this future, I wanted to make sure that I could carve out that image again for us. With a tighter grip of my phone, I instinctively held it to my chest, where my beating heart pounded for the answer I was looking for.

What type of brother am I if I were to let someone else save my little sister in my place?

What type of man would I be if I allowed the girl I loved to fight in my steed while I cowered behind her tracks?

There might have been such a limited amount of things I could do, but I couldn't stay here and wait for them. I'll figure it out as I go along, but I need to find my place at the starting line first and foremost. When I find the will to run, I'll let everything else fall into line.

"You've got your spirit back? All of it?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess. I have to head out right now, so I'll talk to you later. Can you watch over Kuko for me while I'm gone?"

"I can do that. But wait, before you go…"

From her purse, she pulled out a bracelet with a small gem embedded along the rim. I wasn't sure what she was doing with that, but she surprised me when she handed it to me.

"Here. Take it."

"I don't think this may be the best time to be giving gifts, Eriko."

"No, I'm saying that this might help you out."

"How would that help me out?"

"Just take it already. You ask too many questions."

"Uhm, alright?"

I didn't wear bracelets to begin with. Eriko should have known that, but whatever.

Something about this felt familiar though, but I ended up dismissing it.

As I confusingly grabbed Eriko's bracelet, I nudged Kuko over to walk along my arm and jump to Eriko's side. My cat knew her enough to be comfortable around her, so I wasn't too distressed about leaving him in her hands. When everything calms down, I'll figure out something to find Eriko and Kuko again. I just needed to do what I wanted to do this entire time, being of some use to Archer.

"Good luck, Kuro. I'll be rooting for you."

"T-Thanks."

I headed off from Eriko and ran down the streets as fast as I could. There was no way I could make a pitstop at my house to get my bike and either way, it would have been faster to head to where Saber told us to arrive. The Mihoji Forest wasn't too far away from here. A kid of my generation would have been able to make it to the forest and that park without any trouble, but it simply took some time.

The time that I wasted, lugging my thoughts around, was time that I didn't have anymore. I couldn't tell how long ago the encounter with Saber and his Master was, so I sprinted down faster and faster. Even out of breath, I still pushed myself to reach the Mihoji Forest.

It didn't take long for me to be panting before the same sights that began this little fantasy. The night that I was worried for my friends and came into the forest to find them, only to stumble across Archer's summoning and my entry to the Holy Grail War.

However, there was still a concern. If there was a summoning circle in the forest and Saber's Master had told us to come here, does this mean that their base of operations was situated here? If that was the case, then there wasn't any other way of seeing it. It was entirely possible that he was referring to the mysterious namesake manor of this forest.

And yet, that still opened up unanswered questions. Was this forest under the influence of magecraft as well? What exactly are they doing inside of that manor to begin with? And was Archer supposed to be summoned by Saber's Master to begin with if this was his domain?

None of that is going to be answered if I stood idle here.

"I'll show you, Archer. I won't be doing this only for you or my sister's sake."

This was for my sake.

I needed to stop fearing any lingering regrets that I might leave behind.

With steps taken towards the forest, I braced myself to do whatever it might take to move forwards.